◎ His New Girlfriend ◎

What to do?

Shi Li paced back and forth in the apartment. Her “nonexistent” head was filled with mush.

A perfectly fine person, sleeping at home, suddenly waking up in a creepy park at four in the morning—this scene was more terrifying than any horror movie.

Could Chen Du figure out he was possessed? Or maybe he’d think he sleepwalked?

What if he got bitten by the dogs? They were really fierce.

The worst part…

He had a nosebleed. It was gushing out.

In this freezing weather, even the most diligent old man in Beilin probably wouldn’t be out exercising until seven. Lying unconscious in a creepy park for two or three hours… Could she have accidentally gotten Chen Du killed?

Shi Li stood at the apartment door, biting her finger, her heart full of anxiety.

If she had known, she wouldn’t have been so smug. Why did she have to show off in front of a few dogs?

It was all that damn underworld supervisor’s fault. Why hadn’t he told her that soul possession had this kind of side effect? She didn’t know whether it was because she got too cocky with the foot stomp or if she had possessed him for too long.

Chen Du had a nosebleed. A lot of blood.

Shi Li tried floating toward the door. When she was about half a meter away, a strong counterforce surged toward her, preventing her from getting any closer.

Soul projection had its limits.

There seemed to be an invisible barrier around the apartment, trapping her fragile soul.

She tried several more times. Getting through that barrier was harder than crossing a battlefield. It wasn’t something “ghostly strength” could manage.

Shi Li sat down on the ground in defeat, feeling a bit guilty.

Even though they had broken up years ago, even though their relationship back then was just average—

Chen Du was actually a good guy.

He was smart, but he never used his intelligence to do bad things.

He lived steadily, studied diligently. Aside from being a bit quiet and cold, he treated her pretty well.

Shi Li had never thought of “getting revenge” like this.

Shi Li sighed gloomily, but as a soul, there was truly nothing she could do at this moment.

She could only wait.

Shi Li had been the most impatient person when it came to waiting during her life.

Even more so after death.

She sat cross-legged with her chin in her hands, staring at the doorway, trying to distract herself.

There was a cabinet by the door. It was also one of the pieces of furniture Chen Du had dragged back from IKEA back then.

On top of the cabinet was a tray.

Shi Li had been pretty lazy and careless when she was alive. She often tossed her belongings everywhere when she got home, and always forgot her phone or keys when going out.

Later on, Chen Du placed a tray by the door and made it a habit to remind her to empty her pockets into it as soon as she got home, so she could just grab everything when she left.

That habit took a few months to build, but it was deeply ingrained. Even five years later, she hadn’t forgotten.

Just before leaving, she had instinctively grabbed the keys and put them in Chen Du’s pocket.

Good thing she did, otherwise even if Chen Du came home later, he wouldn’t be able to get in.

Speaking of which, the two of them had quite opposite personalities.

Chen Du was very organized and loved cleanliness, while Shi Li was more free-spirited and undisciplined in life.

After living together, Chen Du set some “rules” for her—

She had to get up early for breakfast every day; no matter how tired or sleepy, she had to brush her teeth and remove her makeup before sleeping; everything in the house had to be placed where it belonged; the used bowls had to be placed in the sink and left for him to wash…

He also liked to pull her along to do housework on weekends under the pretense of worrying she would ruin her health from constant studying without time for exercise.

Shi Li was extremely annoyed. After she kicked him out of the house, she enjoyed her freedom for quite a while, feeling both physically and mentally liberated, until she turned the place into a mess and began to remember some of Chen Du’s good points.

But it was too late.

Before she could swallow her pride and beg him to reconcile, she kicked the bucket.

…She digressed again.

Shi Li lifted her eyes to look at the cold and empty apartment.

After five years, the apartment felt so unfamiliar.

Clothes were piled messily on the living room sofa, cigarette butts were scattered in the ashtray, a grimy layer of grease coated the floor, and while the sink in the kitchen was clean, that was only because the fridge was even cleaner, with no food in it.

That cabinet by the door, he used to make her help wipe it down; she would talk back and lazily doodle on it with a cloth, then play dumb when he came to inspect…

Now a thick layer of dust had settled on it.

Tsk.

Chen Du, oh Chen Du, see? No one can stay that disciplined forever; being sloppy is the norm in life…

Shi Li waited for two or three hours.

After imagining countless horror scenarios, she finally heard the crisp click of the door lock.

Chen Du’s slightly pale face appeared in front of her.

Although he looked a bit tired, at least he wasn’t missing any limbs.

Shi Li sprang up from the floor and quickly floated to his side, shouting excitedly in his ear, “Chen Du! You’re back—”

Of course, no matter what she yelled, he couldn’t hear her, but Shi Li’s voice still abruptly stopped—

Behind Chen Du, there was a woman.

Because Chen Du was blocking the way, Shi Li could only see half of her face, but that was enough for her to judge.

A stunningly beautiful woman.

Not an exaggeration.

Chen Du walked in, placed the keys in the tray by the door, and walked forward with a cold expression.

Shi Li floated curiously to the doorway, watching as the woman closed the door behind her, bent down to change her shoes.

The woman was nearly 1.7 meters tall. Not only was her face beautiful, but her figure was excellent as well. She wore a tight high-neck cashmere sweater that outlined her graceful curves and carried a soft beige fox fur coat and matching scarf loosely in her arm.

Her age was hard to determine; she could be in her twenties or thirties. In the beauty of indistinct age, she carried an intelligent and gentle “older sister” aura.

Shi Li watched her calmly take off her little lambskin pointed flats, open the shoe cabinet, and effortlessly pull out a pair of slippers to change into before walking toward the living room.

So familiar…

Chen Du’s new girlfriend?

This guy’s pretty lucky.

Shi Li blinked. And honestly, based on looks, the two of them did resemble each other a bit.

Both had extremely refined and attractive facial features, especially those slightly upturned, narrow eyes and the high, slender nose bridge, which bore a resemblance.

Only, Chen Du always had a cold expression. No matter what he faced, his expression was indifferent, and his facial contours were mostly sharp, giving off a sense of coldness and distance; while this “sister” seemed much gentler, making people instinctively want to approach her.

Ghosts too.

Shi Li couldn’t help but follow behind the beautiful woman as she floated along.

“…Ah Du, why have you let the apartment turn into this again?”

The beautiful woman suddenly spoke at the entrance of the living room.

Upon hearing her form of address, Shi Li fluttered her eyelashes.

Oh ho, the two of them are pretty sweet, huh.

When they were dating, they always called each other by their full names. Things like “baby,” “darling,” or other affectionate nicknames made her cringe just thinking about them, let alone saying them out loud.

Chen Du hated that kind of thing even more. Even in bed, when his eyes were damp and staring straight at her, he would still call her by her full name—

Damn, thinking about that in front of the current girlfriend is kind of immoral, right?

Shi Li lightly spat at herself and stopped her increasingly shameless train of thought.

She was actually a little curious about how Chen Du would respond.

Unfortunately, Chen Du disappointed her.

In this regard, he didn’t seem to have changed.

No—he seemed even colder.

The woman spoke to him so gently, but he didn’t even give a single “hmm.”

The light in the living room was very dim. Chen Du sat on the sofa, casually turned on the TV, lazily lit a cigarette, and crossed his legs on the coffee table.

He took a deep drag, leaned back, tilted his head up, his sharp Adam’s apple bobbing as several warm smoke rings escaped from his lips. His chin, half hidden in shadow, was covered in a blueish stubble. A few buttons of his shirt were undone, revealing a fair and firm bit of chest.

Disheveled yet seductive.

But the beautiful woman clearly wasn’t charmed by his allure.

Not getting a response, her face darkened as well. She seemed annoyed by his smoking, aggressively pulled open the living room curtains, and opened the window for ventilation.

Blinding sunlight poured in at once, dispelling the chill in the room.

Shi Li squinted uncomfortably and shrank into the shadows. Ghosts in the real world didn’t die from sunlight like in movies, but it was still uncomfortable.

—But more terrifying than sunlight was the dreadful silence in this narrow space.

This was really too creepy.

The silent standoff between the two made even her, a ghost, feel her scalp tingle. It felt like the beautiful woman’s pretty slap was about to land on Chen Du’s face at any second.

But unfortunately, it didn’t.

Shi Li glanced at the disheveled and decadent male lead, then turned to the angry female lead, her jaw nearly hitting the ground.

The beautiful woman stared at Chen Du for a moment, then suddenly sighed deeply, all her anger dissolving into helplessness and—if Shi Li wasn’t mistaken—some heartache. Then, she quietly began tidying the messy living room.

The surreal scene made Shi Li rub her non-existent eyes.

Damn.

After all these years, when did Chen Du become such a jerk?

And such a smooth one at that?

Even until the beautiful woman finished cleaning the living room, Chen Du didn’t move or help.

Shi Li ground her teeth, even thinking that the nosebleed he had earlier was too little.

This guy wasn’t this bad before, and definitely not this—

Shi Li glared at him angrily, then suddenly froze.

The glaring light from outside shone directly on Chen Du’s pale face. It must be dazzling, yet he seemed not to notice.

He wasn’t smoking anymore. His pale fingers held the red-tipped cigarette, with medical tape still on the back of his hand from a recent IV. Smoke rings floated up and dispersed, the hot ashes silently falling onto the tiles. He leaned his head back and stared blankly at the ceiling, eyes unfocused.

—Despondent.

Shi Li suddenly thought of this word.

She hugged her arms, feeling a bit uneasy.

Chen Du had really changed a lot.

He used to never smoke.

He once said that instead of relying on such things to relieve stress and numb oneself, to indulge in debauchery, it was better to do more, write a few more lines of code. For someone from a humble background like him, the most important thing was to carve out the life he wanted with his own hands. There was no time to be down.

Shi Li once really agreed with those words.

But now, five years later, Shi Li felt she completely couldn’t understand him anymore.

Only now did she truly realize.

Chen Du was no longer the Chen Du of the past.

Chen Du was no longer the Chen Du she knew.

The TV in the background softly played the voice of a financial news anchor. The beautiful woman picked up her coat from the back of a chair, walked to the entrance, and changed back into her shoes.

Her smooth long hair slid off her shoulders, her slender fingers resting on the doorknob as she turned to look back.

“Ah Du, what’s going on with you lately? You made it through all those past years too, didn’t you? Isn’t the future… slowly getting better?”

Her gentle voice was full of worry and unease.

But Chen Du still didn’t speak. He stared blankly with his beautiful eyes, dazed as if no one else was present.

Time ticked by, and the girl at the door gradually dropped her shoulders, but still gently reminded him.

“I’ve got surgery this afternoon. The hospital is urging me. It’s flu season now. Try not to keep running to the hospital every day. I’m here, you know. If you get the chance, go get a checkup. If Doctor Zhong hadn’t said he saw you in the ER, I wouldn’t even know you were sick…”

Shi Li caught several pieces of information from her words.

—Chen Du’s new girlfriend was a doctor. Chen Du really cared about her and had been going to the hospital every day for her. But recently, for some reason, he was acting like this.

Shi Li was confused.

Did they have a fight?

Was that necessary? Did the guy’s heart get that small?

The doorknob turned and wind from outside blew into the apartment.

Chen Du seemed to finally react. He slightly turned his head, squinting through the smoke.

After a long while, he softly responded.

“Be careful on the road.”

He said expressionlessly.