She carried the still unconscious Youyou back to the bedroom.
Mo Qingwu took Youyou’s phone from her bag.
She wrote a text and sent it to Bai Youjun.
Unconcerned with how Bai Youjun might be feeling on the other end, Mo Qingwu sent the text, then switched off both of her own phones, along with Youyou’s.
In the dark, cool-toned bedroom, Mo Qingwu had only the wall lamp on. She sat on the edge of the bed, gazing intently at the softly beautiful girl lying there, the depths of her eyes as black as an abyss.
For the past several days, she had been dreaming of that desolate ghost city.
And the memories that were gradually surfacing also made it clear to Mo Qingwu that this girl was her lover from a past life—or what she supposed was a past life.
“My… wife, huh?”
Rolling the word on her tongue, she finally managed to say it. Mo Qingwu stroked the corner of her lips and suddenly smiled, a dangerous, demonic grin.
The sharp, cold lines of her face, which usually made even her smiles look forced, softened unnaturally. A hint of allure even surfaced, yet the emotions in her eyes were intensely repressed and bizarre.
“My dear wife, why didn’t you… keep… your… promise? You said you would stay with Wuyou, stay there forever and ever… didn’t you? But you just disappeared so completely, leaving Wuyou to search… and it was… so… hard…”
She spoke each word through gritted teeth.
In the system space, Xixi, who had been secretly on guard against the Great Demon King, was completely stunned upon hearing that familiar tone and form of address.
It stared at Mo Qingwu, its processors whirling.
The female ghost growing weak… Mo Qingwu calling her host ‘wife’ and referring to herself as Wuyou… The fusion of Mo Qingwu and the ring spirit in the original plot… The system’s sudden malfunction from before, which had stranded it and its host in that ghost city.
One scene after another flashed through its mind, and suddenly, the system Xixi understood.
No wonder this world didn’t have a derivative plot.
The Great Demon King had belonged to the host from the very beginning.
Deep in its core, it was suddenly overcome with excitement. Xixi wanted desperately to wake its host and tell her that the mission could now be completed, but in the next second, it was thrown into the little black room.
Xixi: ……
What was the Great Demon King going to do to its host?!
Leaning down, she pressed her lips to the girl’s. A fair, cool hand traced the line of the girl’s waist before sliding under her clothes.
The young woman had eaten quite a bit of spicy food tonight. Mo Qingwu had expected to find the taste unpleasant, but to her surprise, she found herself becoming utterly captivated by it.
Like a riverbed, long since dried, finally welcoming a clear, sweet spring, Mo Qingwu desperately drank the moisture from Youyou’s mouth, the force of her kiss growing ever stronger.
The unconscious girl instinctively resisted the foreign object in her mouth. Mo Qingwu’s body stiffened slightly. A tingling numbness mixed with an infinitely fiery passion flowed from her heart through her limbs, making it impossible for her to restrain herself any longer.
Pinning the girl who had tempted her beneath her, Mo Qingwu’s face was flushed red, and her perpetually ice-cold eyes rippled with a watery, seductive charm.
She lightly tapped Youyou’s pink lips, her voice a bit hoarse and hazy, like a siren in the dark of night, capable of stealing one’s soul in an instant.
“My… good… w-i-f-e… you were the one who tempted me first, you know.”
So, she couldn’t be blamed for this.
Amidst the ambiguous entanglement and intimate caresses, when Youyou woke in the middle of the night, she found herself lying on top of the Great Demon King.
Youyou: ……
“Uh.”
Her mind short-circuited for a few moments before quickly returning to normal. In the dim yellow light of the wall lamp, Youyou knew this pitch-black room wasn’t hers.
Frustrated, she scratched her hair. Youyou glared at the Great Demon King with a fierce pout and was about to get up, but just as she moved, the hand on her waist…
…tightened its grip.
Not daring to wake the terrifying Great Demon King, Youyou furrowed her brow timidly, lay there stiffly, and complained to Xixi in her mind with a whimper.
‘Waaaah, Xixi, Xixi, Xixi, the Great Demon King is so horrible, waaaah. She actually knocked me out. It hurt so much, boohoohoo.’
Other than that one time in her childhood when she deliberately hid and Bai Qu couldn’t find her anywhere, only to be spanked by a crying Bai Qu afterwards, Youyou had rarely ever been in pain.
Pouting aggrievedly, Youyou poked Mo Qingwu’s waist in retaliation. The poke was very light, definitely not enough to wake someone up.
Of course, that was assuming Mo Qingwu was actually asleep.
[Ahem, ahem, let’s put that aside for now. Host, Host, Xixi has already figured out a way to complete this mission.]
Without experiencing deep love, it’s difficult to understand the despair and agony of losing a lover. And since the female ghost was already dark-minded to begin with, it’s only natural that she would become even more twisted and perverse due to our host’s sudden disappearance.
Deep in its core, Xixi apologized to its host. Waving its little wings, it silently watched everything unfolding in the room from within the system space.
‘Oh? What’s the plan?’
Her curiosity was easily piqued. Youyou did her best to ignore the Great Demon King’s oppressive aura, continuing to lie there and feign sleep while she chatted with the system.
‘Xixi, did you find someone who can defeat the Great Demon King?’
If that were the case, she would have been absolutely ecstatic.
[Ahem, Host, you should probably stop thinking so much about defeating the Great Demon King.]
Wiping the non-existent cold sweat from its brow, Xixi stretched its cat-like mouth into a grin and said: [Since the Great Demon King is so powerful, why don’t you just choose to befriend her, Host? As long as your relationship with her is close enough—closer even than the female lead, Shui Sisi’s—then the chances of completing the mission will be very high.]
Because it wasn’t certain whether the female ghost would let the host acquire her company, Xixi didn’t make any firm guarantees. Even so, this suggestion alone was enough to leave Youyou utterly astonished.
Her delicate brows knitted together tightly. Youyou whimpered softly, asking Xixi in a sticky-sweet voice, ‘Befriend the Great Demon King? Xixi, are you kidding me?’
[I’m not kidding, Host.]
Truly at a loss for how to explain it to its host, Xixi sighed in a very human-like way, its whole fluffy head drooping slightly. [In any case, Host, you shouldn’t be so hostile toward the Great Demon King. If you pay close attention and feel it with your heart, you’ll see that the Great Demon King really cares about you.]
“Cares… about… me?”
Gasping aloud in disbelief, Youyou quickly slapped a hand over her mouth. She glanced up stealthily at Mo Qingwu, and seeing that she hadn’t woken up, Youyou let out a genuine sigh of relief.
It wasn’t that she didn’t understand the meaning of “to care.”
It was precisely because she did understand.
That was why Youyou was so astonished.
[Ahem, yes, Host. But aren’t you sleepy? Xixi is getting tired.] Unwilling to discuss the matter of the female ghost any further with its naive, sweet amnesiac host, Xixi gave a lazy yawn, perfectly mimicking the sound of a weary human. [Goodnight, Host. Xixi is going to sleep now. See you tomorrow.]
Youyou: ……
‘See you tomorrow, Xixi.’
For a moment, everything became utterly silent. Youyou tentatively tried to move again, but it was still no use. Sullenly, she lay back down on Mo Qingwu’s body. The warmth of her breath and the feeling of her touch made Youyou feel incredibly awkward.
Perhaps it was because this person was an out-and-out Great Demon King, or perhaps it was because from the moment they met, this person’s domineering nature had placed immense pressure on her. In any case, Youyou now felt a strong aversion to Mo Qingwu.
She didn’t want to be friends with her one bit. Hmph.
As her thoughts tangled, she eventually drifted off into a hazy sleep. Sensing the breathing of the girl on top of her even out, Mo Qingwu slowly opened her eyes.
She caressed the girl’s slender waist. After a long moment, she spoke in a low, cold voice.
“Just as I thought. That thing is a living creature, isn’t it? One that can communicate with Youyou.”
She rolled over, shifting them so they were lying face-to-face. Mo Qingwu kissed Youyou’s brow, whispering a faint vow like a prayer.
“I will possess you completely.”
As for that unknown, mysterious thing…
She would make it pay the price it was due. …
The moon rose and the moon set.
By the time Youyou woke up the next day, the sky was already bright.
Not seeing the Great Demon King, Youyou scrambled out of bed with a patter of footsteps and ran for the door, only to be stopped midway by a hoarse, indifferent female voice.
“Where are you going?”
The flat, monotonous question made Youyou tremble with fear. She looked back timidly and saw Mo Qingwu standing in the bathroom doorway, wearing a white bathrobe. Water dripped from her short, jet-black hair, making her delicate features and piercing gaze seem all the more intense.
“G-Going home.”
Their conversation in the car last night was still vivid in her mind. The thought that Mo Qingwu might chop her to pieces too made Youyou’s legs go weak with cowardice.
She carefully swallowed, watching Mo Qingwu nervously.
She was terrified.
“Going… home?”
A playful smile touched Mo Qingwu’s lips. She crossed her arms and said with a wicked air, “I had no idea Miss Bai had such… proclivities. Daring to go out wearing only a slip nightgown. I must say, I admire your courage, Miss Bai.”
When it came to verbal sparring, Youyou had never been a match for anyone. She sullenly bit her lip, saying nothing. This soft, easily bullied appearance made Mo Qingwu’s pupils contract. Once she had calmed down, she let out a helpless sigh.
“It was a slip of the tongue. Please don’t mind it, Miss Bai. I’ve already prepared clothes and toiletries for you. Please, go take a shower and change.”
Receiving no answer from Youyou, Mo Qingwu raised a slight eyebrow. She walked toward Youyou as if on a leisurely stroll and reached out to pull the girl into her arms.
“Are you angry?”
Using two fingers to lift the girl’s chin, Mo Qingwu saw that her eyes were red-rimmed, as if she might burst into tears at any second. She found it both exasperating and amusing.
“Tsk, so delicate. Can’t even handle the slightest grievance?”
Acting on impulse, she kissed the corner of the girl’s lips. When Youyou’s body stiffened, Mo Qingwu then kissed the girl’s eyelids.
“There, there, don’t be afraid. The things I said yesterday were just to scare you. That stuff about gouging out your eyes and severing your tendons… I learned it all from TV.”
Soothingly, she stroked Youyou’s back. Mo Qingwu’s gaze was soft as she said with a slight smile, “After you said those things to me, I had to save a little face, didn’t I?”
“Save face?”
What was that?
“Yes, save face. Little Youyou, you should know that people like me care a lot about our dignity. Maybe you didn’t mean anything by what you said, but to me, it was a blatant provocation and a challenge.”
A complex look flashed in the depths of her eyes as Mo Qingwu coaxed her with a mix of truth and lies, “It’s just that… I fell in love with you at first sight, so I only scared you a little, that’s all. Now we’re even. So, Xiao* Youyou, can you stop being afraid of me? You see, I’m just a…” (kept the pinyin for a smoother reading experience)
She paused, then said with some difficulty.
“…paper tiger who just looks intimidating on the outside.”
Youyou: ……
Xixi: ……
In the system space, Xixi was rendered utterly speechless. It stared at the affection and blackening values that had reappeared and wanted to scream at the female ghost, If you’re really just a paper tiger, then what about the hundreds of thousands of souls in that ghost city?!
Fortunately, Youyou didn’t believe Mo Qingwu’s nonsense this time either. She let out a soft huff and scurried out of Mo Qingwu’s embrace, leaving the robed woman standing there alone. Mo Qingwu gazed at the closed bathroom door, clicking her tongue and shaking her head.
“Not as easy to fool as before, hmm?”
She remembered that in her dreams, the little girl had been incredibly trusting of the female ghost’s words.
After that, Mo Qingwu stopped deliberately teasing Youyou and making her angry. The girl was, after all, far too timid. It wouldn’t do to frighten her too badly.
She began to act polite, considerate, and gentle. After they finished breakfast, she drove Youyou to the Bai Corporation’s branch office and entered the elevator with her.
When the elevator reached the fifth floor, another beautiful woman stepped in.
It was none other than the female lead, Shui Sisi.
Youyou’s eyes lit up. She kept looking back and forth between Shui Sisi and Mo Qingwu, eager to see how the two of them would react to this encounter.
However, the expressions on both their faces seemed rather grim.
The female ghost, smelling a familiar scent, forcibly burst out of the ancient ring. Her form was much more solid than before, but she was still invisible to Youyou.
She also couldn’t touch any human aside from Shui Sisi.
Leaning down, the female ghost lightly sniffed the scent on the young woman’s neck and smiled faintly. The ghostly aura around her seemed to have been tamed as she gently and ethereally traced Youyou’s cheek, her hair, and her exposed, fair skin.
Standing to the side, Shui Sisi’s cold expression turned exceptionally dark in an instant. She saw the ring spirit treating Bai Youyou with such tenderness.
A sense of betrayal washed over her.
Clearly, she is my ring spirit, isn’t she?
Clearly, the one she should be treating gently is me, right?
“Have you had your fill of sniffing?”
Impatiently, Mo Qingwu yanked Youyou into her arms. She glared at the female ghost, feeling not a shred of goodwill toward this fragmented soul.
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