◎ No side effects. ◎

After a long time, Shi Li finally came back to her senses. Looking at her transparent hands, she couldn’t help but frown.

What’s going on, did I want to be a pervert before leaving?

She tried hard to dispel this inexplicable urge in her body and began to focus on thinking about serious matters.

Since Chen Du had already burned money for her, that means her “obsession” has been completed.

She can go back now.

For some reason, although this should be a happy thing, Shi Li felt a bit empty, as if there was something left unfinished.

She glanced at Chen Du sitting at the head of the bed, cold sweat still beading on his temple, and pressed her lips.

No matter what, she had to leave.

Throughout the whole night that followed, Shi Li waited for her soul to be automatically taken back to the Underworld.

However, day after day, night after night, Shi Li was still stuck in this apartment.

It was the weekend these two days, could it be that the Underworld staff also have days off like the living world?

Shi Li floated listlessly on the ceiling, looking down at everything inside the apartment.

During these two days, Chen Du went out once every day, probably to visit his “bedridden” girlfriend at the hospital. Every time he came home, he held a bouquet of roses replaced from the ward.

Other than that, he stayed at home.

He surprisingly cleaned the apartment all over.

He washed the dirty clothes, tidied up the clutter on the coffee table and sofa one by one, wiped the dust off the cabinets spotless, and even took care of the rusty drain and spider webs on the ceiling.

— Too bad he still missed under the sofa; that medicine bottle was still lying there.

Shi Li felt anxious for him and wanted to send him a dream message at night, but since he hadn’t looked for it these days, it probably wasn’t important, so she didn’t say anything.

Besides this, Chen Du had stomach pain several times every day.

Probably because of her presence, the “dense ghost aura” around still affected him.

When the pain was unbearable, he curled up on the floor, quietly biting his teeth to endure it, his handsome face slightly twisted until the pain eased a bit.

Then, he would stand up again, expressionless, continuing to clean.

Shi Li was powerless and could only watch him suffer.

She couldn’t cross the invisible “barrier” around the apartment, and she wished she could flatten herself against the ceiling to keep as much distance from him as possible.

Every night during free time, Chen Du continued to sit in front of the computer, solemnly writing the unfinished “thesis” —

The Survival Guide for You.

Because she was far away, Shi Li couldn’t see exactly what he was writing, but she knew he kept writing, deleting, revising words carefully, often sitting for hours.

One complicated matter after another, but what made Shi Li feel strange was that Chen Du’s mood these two days was unusually calm.

Gone was the previous depression and discouragement. He got up on time, ate on time, and carefully tended to the flowers brought back from the hospital.

The curtains around the apartment no longer covered the windows tightly as before, blocking all light.

Shi Li even faintly felt that he was looking forward to something.

As if he was going to a new place, to meet someone.

Someone he wanted to see.

Shi Li couldn’t understand Chen Du’s thoughts and just hoped she could return to the Underworld quickly and stop affecting him badly.

Unfortunately, after two days, she was still trapped here.

On Monday morning, after Chen Du left as usual, Shi Li finally lost patience and shouted angrily into the void: “Underworld Supervisor! Didn’t you say once the obsession is completed, I can go back? I already finished it, so why am I still stuck here?”

“Are you slacking off at work?”

Silence around her, no one responded.

Shi Li crossed her arms and continued shouting: “Don’t pretend! I know you can hear me! If you don’t answer, watch out, I’ll report you when I go back to the Underworld! I’m rich now, no longer a nobody ignored by everyone, hmph!”

“Do you believe I’ll report you to your office? I remember you’re a district supervisor, and there are bigger bosses above you. I! Will! Report! To! The! Central!”

Shi Li ranted for several sentences, then suddenly, the apartment walls rippled lightly, as if time and space were twisting.

Immediately, a transparent figure appeared on the wall.

The underworld supervisor was an old man with graying hair, looking around sixty or seventy, but full of dense ghost aura. Maybe the sunlight at the window was a bit strong because he frowned and moved to a corner of the wall.

He wore a very old black suit and had a cold dead face. Expressionless, he stared at her: “Speak quickly.”

Shi Li was stunned and shivered.

… Damn, he really came.

Although she just shouted fiercely, when she actually saw him, she felt a little scared.

She cleared her throat a few times and smiled awkwardly, backing down: “Hehe, don’t take it badly, I was just too anxious.”

The underworld supervisor glanced at her and gestured for her to spit it out if she had anything.

Shi Li rubbed her hands and slowly floated beside him, speaking flatteringly: “You said before, the ending conditions for soul projection are two: either complete the regrets and obsessions from life and return to the underworld, or wait for a reincarnation slot to be assigned.”

“I already completed the first condition, right? So why haven’t I gone back?”

The old man’s cloudy eyes stared coldly at her, transparent hands neatly behind his back, emotionlessly saying: “You haven’t completed it.”

“… Impossible?” Shi Li was stunned. “Chen Du said he already burned money for me, didn’t it count?”

“It counted.”

Shi Li widened her eyes: “Then why not completed? That’s my obsession.”

The old man impatiently waved his hand: “That’s not your obsession.”

“Why not?” Shi Li asked anxiously, “Then what is my obsession?”

The underworld supervisor finally rolled his eyes, coldly saying: “Your own obsession. Don’t you know yourself? If you don’t know, how would I?”

Shi Li was speechless: “If you don’t know, how can you be sure it’s not that?”

The old man’s expression didn’t change, answering bluntly: “The system shows you haven’t completed your obsession.”

Shi Li got a little angry and urged: “Could your system be wrong?”

“Impossible,” the old man waved his hand, serious and firm, “Our system never makes mistakes.”

Shi Li and he stared at each other for half a minute, then she finally gave up.

She sighed helplessly and scratched her head.

From his attitude, the system really doesn’t make mistakes.

Since the system is not wrong, that means she made a mistake herself?

Could her obsession really not be the 120,000?

Then what is her obsession?

Shi Li bit her knuckles, trying hard to recall, desperately sorting through her short twenty-some years.

She went through every memory fragment she had: studies, family, career, future… but still could not remember what her obsession was.

Shi Li looked at the underworld supervisor again: “Are you mistaken? Maybe I don’t have any obsession at all? Because I don’t, that’s why I can’t complete it, right?”

The old man coldly glanced at her: “You have one.”

Damn, saying that again!

Shi Li rolled her eyes hard.

This is a dead loop.

If she can’t find her obsession, she can’t complete the first condition.

If she can’t complete it, she has to wait for reincarnation.

That means being stuck in this apartment for another eighty-two years.

Eighty-two whole years!

Even if she could endure such boring days to death, with Chen Du’s current affected state, he would have been “killed” by her long ago.

“No, anyway, you have to take me back.”

Shi Li stared angrily at the underworld supervisor: “You say soul possession has no side effects, but a good person is nearly tortured to death. If he really changes his fate and dies young because of this, how will you take responsibility?”

“Besides soul possession, dreams also have side effects. I even suspect that ghosts and humans living in the same space for a long time affect human health. Didn’t you consider these? This is simply treating lives like dirt! Is there no law at all?”

Shi Li spoke righteously and passionately, like a human rights fighter for the underworld.

However, no matter how harsh her words were, the Underworld supervisor remained indifferent, not even moving an eyebrow.

“Soul possession has no side effects. Ghosts and humans coexisting do not affect each other. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“…”

Shi Li was almost laughing in anger. Can he really deny that?

“Since I came, Chen Du has nosebleeds and fainted several times. This has happened many times, not to mention these two days he’s had severe stomach pain.”

Thinking of these, Shi Li’s anger flared, glaring fiercely: “In just a few days, a perfectly healthy person has lost a lot of weight. You dare say there are no side effects?”

Right after she finished, the underworld supervisor suddenly looked at her meaningfully.

After a long moment, he asked slowly and sinisterly: “Are you sure these symptoms only appeared after you arrived?”

Shi Li froze.

Could it be not?

When she first came, Chen Du was fine. That night when she possessed him, Chen Du started nosebleeding, fainting, and stomach pain…

Suddenly, Shi Li was uncertain.

What was Chen Du like before she came?

Shi Li didn’t know.

She lightly fluttered her eyelashes, looking at the underworld supervisor with a confused expression, mumbling to herself, “…If it wasn’t after I came, then why did he become like this?”

The underworld supervisor quietly stared at her without answering this question that wasn’t under his jurisdiction.

Sunlight poured through the glass, spilling into the bright and tidy apartment.

Outside the window was an immaculate sky; the deep autumn sky was high and clear, a blue mixed with a bit of smoke-gray.

Time quietly flowed, and many scenes suddenly flashed through Shi Li’s mind—

When she first entered Chen Du’s body, she clearly wore a sweater and a coat, yet still shivered from the autumn wind. At that time, she just thought he was colder than she remembered, secretly mocking how Chen Du always acted cool in front of her back then.

At four o’clock in the morning in the park, Chen Du had his first nosebleed, and she thought it was because she got too emotional after encountering a dog.

And that day after Chen Du came home.

He had another nosebleed. Shi Li was standing behind him, watching the fresh red blood in the ceramic basin, feeling guilty and uneasy.

But he himself seemed completely unbothered, calmly and numbingly turning on the faucet. The blood diluted with the rusty drain water turned a translucent pink.

In the cold mirror, his face was hollow and pale, as if he already knew all this, as if he had already resigned himself to fate.

Also, under the sofa, that white medicine bottle covered in thick dust, covered with English words…

Some vague and chaotic voices suddenly pierced through Shi Li’s mind.

“…If I keep helping you keep the secret, I will truly become a sinner.”

“…Xiao Chen, you are only twenty-eight, you are still so young…”

“…But if you keep delaying, it will really be too late…”

The next second, all the voices suddenly stopped, and the images in her mind froze—

It was that day after Chen Du finished washing up, bent over in front of the mirror, gently touching the pure white women’s toothbrush on the sink.

His eyes were wet from the steam, and he whispered to himself, “What should I do this time? What about you? Can you teach me, please?”

What… what should he do?

What happened to Chen Du?

Shi Li suddenly panicked. That sharp pain tearing at her chest came again. She instinctively raised her hand to press her chest, forcing a smile and asking, “No, you must be wrong. Another time when I possessed Chen Du’s body and wanted to leave but couldn’t, that must be a bug, right? Your system must have a loophole.”

The underworld supervisor smiled coldly without warmth, his eyes filled with a terrifying indifference.

“I’ll say it again, soul possession has no loopholes. If you temporarily cannot leave, there is only one possibility.”

“What… possibility?”

“That the carrier itself is extremely weak, on the verge of dissolving, and the connection with the original soul is no longer strong.”

“If he can’t wake up, you can’t leave.”

The old man coldly looked at Shi Li. His aged face showed no emotion.

“In other words, this person is about to die.”