The Overbearing Bodyguard Sticks to Me

Huai Shi had never dreamed that before reaching the pinnacle of his life, he would one day receive the same treatment as the school beauty—a legendary personal bodyguard.

Unfortunately, aside from being a flamboyant male escort, this bodyguard had more flaws than a basket could hold...

Before Huai Shi could object, Ai Qing efficiently arranged everything and swiftly assigned him a twenty-four-hour personal bodyguard—the unlucky Liu Dongli.

While Ai Qing was around, Liu Dongli did not dare act up. The moment she left, though, he began swaggering around Stone Marrow Hall like he owned the place.

"This place is so shabby. What a waste; it actually has some taste... Where's my room?"

Huai Shi rolled his eyes. "There are plenty of empty rooms. There are beds in the storage room too. Take whichever one you like."

"What are we eating? I haven't had lunch yet."

"Want some Dried Noodles boiled in plain water?"

"Where's the washroom?" He pulled out a pile of bottles and jars, looking deeply troubled. "I need to moisturize. The ultraviolet rays have been too intense lately."

"Unless you enjoy backing four steps into a bathroom, it's around the corner. And by the way, there's no water heater. You'll have to boil it yourself. The firewood is in the backyard."

"Tsk."

Liu Dongli clicked his tongue unhappily, though it was impossible to tell whether he was upset about not being able to back up four steps or not being able to bathe freely. After he had toured the entire house while offering commentary, criticizing everything from Huai Shi's front yard, backyard, living room, balcony, and bathroom, he finally remembered something and pulled out his phone. "Hey, what's the Wi-Fi password?"

"There isn't one!"

After being handled by Ai Qing with both carrot and stick, Huai Shi was not in a great mood either. The sight of that male escort made him especially irritated. "Are you here to be a bodyguard, or are you here to be treated like a lord?"

"Obviously, I'm here to be treated like a lord."

Liu Dongli snorted, clasped his hands behind his back, and went outside. A while later, he returned carrying a huge black plastic bag shaped like a person. "Where's the shovel?"

Huai Shi looked at the human-shaped bag and felt his scalp tingle. "What are you doing?"

"Burying a corpse." Liu Dongli asked, "Or do you like having that thing sitting in the hallway?"

"...Where are you planning to bury it?"

Huai Shi immediately became wary.

Liu Dongli said nothing and looked out the window. Huai Shi instantly jumped up in alarm. "No! You're going to bury a corpse in my garden? How disgusting!"

"Then where?"

"Go up the mountain from the back door. There's empty ground everywhere. Bury it as far away as you can!"

"Tsk, what a hassle."

Liu Dongli might have been lazy, but he did not object again. Carrying the corpse and the shovel, he left.

Only after watching him go did Huai Shi finally breathe a sigh of relief.

"Ah, he's finally gone." Crow emerged from somewhere. "I had to hide for ages because of him."

The sight of this slacking ghost bird made Huai Shi even angrier. "Where were you just now?"

"Cleaning up after you. That girl's eyes are so sharp—if you scattered Tribulation Ash around, do you think nothing would happen?" Crow rolled its eyes.

The mention of it made Huai Shi furious. "What the hell was that stuff? How did it come out of my hands?"

He had thought that his near-death burst of power would awaken some miraculous ability. Instead, he had awakened magical chili powder. Who could endure that...

"Ah, how should I put it? By definition, it's a rare Source Matter material, a high-purity essence extracted from phenomena of mass death and destruction..."

After pondering for a moment, Crow answered, "If I had to explain how you managed to scatter that stuff, then it was probably because you read death records and, through your unique attributes, extracted the fear you felt when facing death. You added it to the Source Matter leaking from yourself and synthesized high-purity Tribulation Ash.

"But this is not your Soul Ability. It's merely a byproduct of your subconscious application of your own attributes. If I had to make an analogy, it would be like the noise from a washing machine, wastewater from an air conditioner's outdoor unit, or radiation from an induction cooker."

"Can't you use a different analogy?"

"Fine. Then let's put it this way: right now, you're probably a negative-energy generator."

"You don't need the 'probably'!"

Huai Shi flew into a rage and glared at it bitterly. "And what kind of bullshit skill is that? Can't you help me get a better one?"

"I'd like to, but..." Crow shrugged. "You know, a mud wall cannot be plastered, right?"

"..."

Huai Shi glared at it bitterly for a long time before suddenly realizing something. "If negative emotions can be extracted, then positive emotions should work too, right? That means I can make happy otaku ash whenever I want?"

"Oh, you mean Dust of the Liberator?" Crow nodded. "That's true, but the problem is... you need happy memories first, don't you?"

"Bullshit! Who says I don't have happy memories? I'm plenty happy!" Huai Shi slapped his chest angrily. "You have no idea how joyful my life is, okay? I'm happy from morning till night. After I wake up from sleep, I can keep being happy!"

"..."

Crow said nothing. It simply watched him until Huai Shi awkwardly turned his head away. "Let's change the subject..."

And so, under the cruel weight of reality, he accepted the fact that he had become a negative-energy generator.

"Now that someone has come to stay in the house, I'll probably need to hide for a while for safety's sake. What happens next will likely depend on you."

Hearing footsteps from the back door, Crow hurriedly said, "To avoid exposure, don't read the death records in the Book of Destiny when others are around. Try meditating on your own."

"Meditating?"

Huai Shi stared. "How do I meditate?"

"Didn't I give you the Wi-Fi password?"

Crow spread its wings with carefree grace and flew off into the distance, leaving behind only its final words.

"—Look it up yourself."

After spending the entire afternoon dealing with Liu Dongli's bizarre demands, Huai Shi finally managed to satisfy them all.

During that time, Huai Shi also secretly used his phone to look up what Peggy was—no, what meditation was...

After wasting three or four hours and digging through a hundred thousand ads and promotional materials for all kinds of bizarre religions, he finally found a relatively reliable explanation in an entry from a foreign encyclopedia.

Put simply, there were many kinds of meditation. The more advanced methods were complicated: first, find a quiet place, preferably with a gentle breeze and bright moon, perhaps in a bamboo grove or beside the water. Then bathe, change clothes, fast for three days, burn incense, and so on...

But the low-spec version was incredibly simple: find somewhere comfortable to lie down, close your eyes, empty your mind, and that was it.

It sounded a little absurd, but at least nothing could go wrong with it. At worst, he might accidentally fall asleep. If he blindly tried some strange method, hormonal imbalance would be the least of his worries; he would be sprinting straight toward schizophrenia.

On a website cited by the encyclopedia entry, Huai Shi found a British occult shut-in's blog. The blogger had summarized the essence of meditation: stripped of its mystical background, meditation was simply a way for ordinary people to rest their nerves and brains. By emptying oneself and entering a state of deep dormancy, one gave overloaded internal organs and the nervous system room to rest and repair themselves.

Therefore, it was not limited to sitting cross-legged, ascetic practice, chanting scriptures, or taking drugs. As long as one could relax and empty one's mind, it did not matter what one did.

The blogger had also recommended methods he had personally tried and listed their pros and cons. They included writing, whose downside was that getting stuck easily led to anxiety; if anyone discovered that you had written Goblin Is Not A Thing In The Pond with yourself as the protagonist, you would welcome social death amid its rapid spread. There was also playing piano, whose downside was that it was hard to learn and easy to disturb the neighbors. The blogger gave up after being beaten up by his neighbors when they came to his door for the third time.

In the end, the blogger reached a conclusion: drawing was still the best.

In his final blog post, he said that not only had he emptied himself through concentration while drawing and entered a meditative state, but he had also heard ancient souls returning from the seventh dimension whispering beside his ears and in his dreams, telling him the truth of all things and bringing him enlightenment and liberation.

At the end of the article, he had also posted his newest work after his artistic skills had improved by leaps and bounds.

"Eugh..."

Huai Shi leaned back as far as he could, trying to keep the "masterpiece" on the screen—which looked like dried sheep's blood, shattered internal organs, and giant eyeballs all mixed together—farther from himself. "Brother Number One, are you okay?"

Before closing his phone, he checked the date of that guy's final blog post. It had been two years ago.

The address he left on the blog was in a city Huai Shi had never heard of, called Manchester. It did not even show up on map apps. This blog was probably just a joke... right?

After putting down his phone, Huai Shi looked at his cello and had a bold idea.

As long as he emptied his mind, that was enough, right?

He could not write novels, could not draw, and while he could play a little piano, he was hardly good enough to perform. But the cello should be fine, right?

He was eager to try. First, he boiled water, bathed, changed into a more serious performance outfit, and then pretended to calm himself down for a while. Under Liu Dongli's amused gaze, he picked up his bow.

"Can you play Pomp and Circumstance?"

Liu Dongli, cracking sunflower seeds, wanted to request a song. "Peach Blossom Song or Gokuraku Jodo would be fine too."

"Get lost!"

Huai Shi rolled his eyes. When he heard Pomp and Circumstance, he had thought this guy finally had some taste. He had not expected them to be thinking of entirely different things.

"Just Bach. Listen if you want; get lost if you don't."

With that, Huai Shi ignored him, lowered his eyes, and drew the bow. Yet after producing just a single note, his movement abruptly stopped.

He froze in place.

The cello string's deep resonance still lingered in the air, slowly echoing and fading away... Yet it somehow sounded different from before. No, it felt completely different. It was not a matter of touch or rhythm, but some sense of depth entirely unlike what he had heard in the past.

It was as though he had suddenly become another person.

No, it would be more accurate to say he had switched to another cello.

Huai Shi had never imagined that such warm, soothing notes could emerge from beneath his hands, from this old cello of his. Even the thin sound seemed to have been granted a rich texture. He could feel them flowing.

When he drew the bow again, that rich yet airy, melodious tune—seemingly endowed with life—gushed from the strings like running water. It was like an extension of his will and body. His whole being transcended its tiny shell and underwent Sublimation, becoming heavy light and rain spreading outward, riding the melody and echoing through the empty hall.

The vague sensation his teacher had repeatedly explained, yet which he had struggled to comprehend, suddenly seemed so simple in that instant.

The surging emotions that had emerged from somewhere within his chest followed the movements of his fingers and strings, blending into the low melody. Like a river rushing into a turbulent sea, they shook his consciousness and swept him away to somewhere distant.

"Holy shit, did I level up?"

Before he even had time to marvel or get excited, Huai Shi had no chance to feel joy or exhilaration. He was already captivated by his own melody, involuntarily immersing himself in that sorrowful, low cello music.

It seemed that he had fallen asleep again.

But there were none of the deaths and fears that had always haunted him in this dream.

Within silent darkness, he felt as though he had sunk beneath the water, filled with peace and tranquility.

When he struggled to open his eyes, everything before him was blurry and indistinct. He could only vaguely glimpse distant light, carrying ripples like tides.

And when he tried to move his arms and legs, the darkness seemed to split apart. He returned once more to the empty hall.

Floating in midair.

When Huai Shi looked down, he saw himself, immersed in his performance.

It was as though he had split into two. One material self was lost in playing, while his spiritual self seemed to ride the melody, breaking free of the body's restraints and flying through the air.

He suddenly noticed that Liu Dongli had left the hall at some point.

Curiously wandering around, he discovered that he could pass through walls and move freely like a ghost, but he could not leave the area surrounding Stone Marrow Hall.

It was as though invisible walls had imprisoned him at the center.

"This is for your protection, Huai Shi. Don't misunderstand other people's good intentions."

The phantom Crow stood on a branch beyond the wall, watching him as if it could see straight through his thoughts. "Source Quality Separation is an extraordinarily dangerous act. Without Stone Marrow Hall's protection, you would probably already be like a candle in the dark, drawing the attention of some monstrous thing, wouldn't you?"

As it spoke, it flapped its wings and sent Huai Shi, who had climbed onto the wall, flying back with a single swipe. "A friendly reminder: before you complete the Mercury Tier, don't attempt this anywhere else."

Like someone drunk or dreaming, Huai Shi could not even clearly hear what she was saying. He drifted like a fallen leaf, wobbling as he flew through Stone Marrow Hall.

Soon, he found the sneaky Liu Dongli in the washroom on the third floor.

While Huai Shi had been distracted by playing the cello, Liu Dongli had secretly slipped into the third-floor toilet, locked the door, cautiously checked his surroundings, made sure no one was watching, and then reached into his small bag for a bottle.

Huai Shi's heart immediately tightened.

What was he planning to do?

Just as Huai Shi curiously poked half his head through the wall to spy on what nonsense the guy was up to, he saw Liu Dongli sigh and remove his long hair, streaked with strands of gold... from his head.

He removed it...

Huai Shi stared in stunned disbelief. What the hell?

He watched Liu Dongli turn on his phone's flashlight and illuminate his bald scalp in the mirror. His expression became grief-stricken. "Two more fell out... Every time I use my ability, they fall out... That woman is wicked..."

Holding two fine strands of fuzz, Liu Dongli nearly burst into tears. After bitterly condemning the heartless Ai Qing for a long time, he sighed deeply, scooped a little paste from the bottle, and spread it evenly over his scalp. Then, upon hearing Huai Shi's cello stop, he swiftly put his wig back on and hurried away.

As the music ended, the speechless Huai Shi was also pulled back into his body by an invisible force.

He opened his eyes and saw Liu Dongli applauding admiringly from his original spot, as though he had never gone anywhere.

"Not bad!"

Liu Dongli gave him serious advice. "But you still need to improve."

For some reason, he felt that Huai Shi's gaze had suddenly become sympathetic...

.

In short, nothing happened that night.

The next day, before dawn had even broken, Huai Shi was awakened by Liu Dongli's violent knocking.

After a long-awaited night of proper sleep, he sleepily yawned and opened the door, only to see two dark circles beneath Liu Dongli's eyes.

His eyes were filled with bloodshot veins.

"What happened to you?" Huai Shi stared in surprise. "Why do you look like you've seen a ghost?"

"What do you think?"

Liu Dongli looked at him resentfully. "What exactly is wrong with your house?"

"What do you mean, what's wrong? It's just a little rundown and old." Huai Shi leaned back in distaste. "Why are you city people so delicate?"

"Delicate my ass! If it were just rundown and old, I'd treat it like camping. But you never said your house was haunted."

Liu Dongli's expression grew even more aggrieved and furious. "Since midnight, there's been a constant dripping sound in the bathroom next door. Fine, whatever. But the floorboards in the hallway keep creaking, and there are footsteps! I heard them clearly!"

"Aren't old houses all like that?" Huai Shi casually picked up his toothbrush cup and headed downstairs, asking calmly, "Have you never seen aging facilities before?"

"Do your aging facilities sigh inside empty rooms too?"

Liu Dongli was so angry he stomped his foot. "Your house has to be haunted!"

"..."

Huai Shi fell silent for a moment. His gaze became even more sympathetic. After a long while, he gently patted Liu Dongli on the shoulder. "Old Liu, you must be tired, right? Don't be afraid. There are no ghosts in this world..."

Only after Huai Shi had been gone for quite some time did Liu Dongli, standing there dumbfounded, come back to his senses. He was so furious that he wanted to leap up on the spot and beat Huai Shi's entire family several times with a stick, then follow it up with a full combo:

"I can accept you not calling me Brother Number One, but what the hell is 'Old Liu'? I'm old enough to be your uncle!"

"Terrifying! He secretly did something like this in someone else's home."

I deliberately combined today's morning and evening chapters into one five-thousand-word chapter. Please vote and bookmark!