Motionless

Motionless:?

Wang Chuan: It's all your fault. After watching your video, I can't sleep!

Motionless: Thanks for the compliment.

Wang Chuan: ???

Wang Chuan: Was I complimenting you?

Motionless: If you can't sleep, you could exercise a little. Exercise helps with sleep.

Wang Chuan: Get lost!

Wang Chuan: Tell me where you live. I'm staying at your place tonight!

Motionless: ? Are you sure?

Qin Tiantian suddenly sobered up a little as she stared at Lu Ban's reply.

That was true. She was a young woman, and running to the home of a man she had only met once in the middle of the night to stay over probably wasn't appropriate, right?

But staying home alone was so scary!

Taking a taxi alone this late was scary too!

Besides, Lu Ban was so handsome. He probably had no reason to do anything strange, right?

As Qin Tiantian hesitated, her phone vibrated again.

Motionless: There's something under my bed, you know.

"???"

As question marks appeared in Qin Tiantian's mind, she remembered Lu Ban's first video.

That was right. Hadn't his earlier video shown that there were unclean things in his home? Wouldn't going over there be even more dangerous?

"No, those were just special effects, just like this time!"

Qin Tiantian shook her head.

Wang Chuan: Enough nonsense. Just tell me your address!

Seeing how determined Qin Tiantian was, Lu Ban stopped arguing.

Although there were two things in his home, as long as those joyful songs representing the people's advanced material and cultural needs were playing, those demons and monsters found it difficult to bother him.

So with one more person there, those things should behave themselves even more.

After all, according to the conventions of horror movies, ghosts and monsters always attacked people who were alone.

He gave her his address, then went back to studying horror-film editing methods and camera techniques.

A few minutes later, Lu Ban's doorbell rang.

He looked outside through the peephole.

A person dressed in white was standing there.

Under normal circumstances, a scene like this would have been rather terrifying.

But Lu Ban immediately opened the door.

"So slow!"

Qin Tiantian wore a slightly loose pink T-shirt with a cat print, short denim shorts, and slippers for going outside. She held her phone in her right hand, carried a transparent shoulder bag, and hugged a shark plushie in her left.

She was only about 1.5 meters tall. Standing before Lu Ban, who was 1.85 meters tall, she looked like a rabbit facing a brown bear.

Although she was a virtual streamer who never showed her face, that didn't mean Qin Tiantian was unattractive. In fact, with her looks and height, she belonged to the cute type—the kind who could put on a school uniform and pass for a middle school student.

Qin Tiantian walked in on her own and first looked around the room.

"It's pretty clean?"

"Why the question mark?"

Lu Ban closed the door. When he turned around, he happened to see Qin Tiantian standing by the window, looking down at the street, with the curtain beside her.

The curtain was moving despite the lack of wind, clearly forming the shape of a resentful human face!

"There's nothing interesting to see."

Lu Ban came up behind Qin Tiantian and pretended to draw the curtain, pressing the resentful face down.

He was an elegant, refined gentleman who enjoyed helping others. Although he had been scaring Qin Tiantian earlier, if he were really going to introduce his housemates to her, he couldn't do it so abruptly.

He should explain properly, then set out a table of food with four place settings and introduce them formally.

That would be better for her, and better for him too.

He was simply that kind of positive, wholesome person.

"I can't even see the lower floors from my place."

Qin Tiantian moved away from the window and glanced into Lu Ban's bedroom.

"Does your place not even have a sofa?"

"I live alone. Why would I need a sofa?"

"Because you can lie on the sofa and play with your phone. It's so comfortable! Can I go in?"

After receiving permission, Qin Tiantian's smooth feet carried her in slippers toward Lu Ban's room. Once inside, she first twitched her nose, as if smelling something.

"What are you smelling?"

Lu Ban really didn't understand how he was supposed to talk to women.

"There isn't any strange smell. Could it have been a lie?"

Qin Tiantian muttered to herself, then noticed the shadow beneath Lu Ban's bed.

"There shouldn't be anything else under your bed now, right?"

She still had lingering fears.

"No."

"Really?"

"Really. Ever since then, I've swept under the bed every day. There isn't even any dust."

"So there was something before?"

"...Don't believe me? Take a look now."

Lu Ban helplessly glanced beneath the bed. There was nothing there. He then spoke.

Qin Tiantian placed the shark plushie on Lu Ban's bed, came to its edge, and bent down while holding the frame.

Then she saw a pair of resentful eyes staring straight at her from beneath the spotless bed, where there wasn't even a speck of dust!

"Waaah!"

Qin Tiantian leaned backward and fell onto the floor. Her slender legs flailed wildly until her back hit the cabinet and she finally came to a helpless stop.

"There, there are eyes!!"

She was completely incoherent.

Seeing this, Lu Ban frowned slightly and leaned over to look.

There was nothing.

"Take another look now?"

Still crouching, he turned to Qin Tiantian.

Covering her eyes, Qin Tiantian peered through the gaps between her fingers. Beneath the bed was completely empty, and the eyes from before had disappeared.

At that moment, Qin Tiantian felt some creature inside the cabinet behind her clawing at the door with sharp talons. The hoarse scratching pierced through the cabinet and reached her back, making her shudder as goosebumps covered her body.

"There, there's something!"

Qin Tiantian sprang up like a cat with its fur standing on end that had kicked over a plate of food. Her little feet crossed rapidly as she tiptoed in tiny steps and huddled in the corner of the room.

Lu Ban had heard the scratching too. He stood up and opened the cabinet.

There were only his clothes inside. No creature.

"It might just be a cockroach."

Lu Ban brushed it off.

"A-a cockroach?"

Qin Tiantian's brows knitted together. She bravely looked inside the cabinet too, then belatedly realized something.

"Your cockroaches are that huge?!"

"You grew up in the north, didn't you? Southern cockroaches are all that big."

Lu Ban added a sentence. He couldn't exactly introduce Qin Tiantian to the friend in his wardrobe. It was the middle of the night; he would scare the child.

He took a spare quilt and mattress out of the wardrobe.

"Wait a moment. I'll make your bed."

"?"

Qin Tiantian was puzzled.

"You're making the beautiful girl who came to your house for the first time sleep on the floor?"

"You count as a beautiful girl?"

Lu Ban raised a brow.

"You're not even explaining why I have to sleep on the floor?!"

Qin Tiantian looked as though she had suffered a devastating blow.

"As a guest who arrived unexpectedly, sleeping on the floor is perfectly reasonable, isn't it?"

Lu Ban suddenly felt that letting Qin Tiantian into his home had been a mistake. Sure enough, women only affected the speed at which he learned things.

"You definitely don't have a girlfriend, do you? Yielding to ladies is the spirit of a gentleman—the spirit of a gentleman!"

Qin Tiantian's mood changed rapidly. She sat down on the bed on her own and hugged the shark plushie to her chest.

"And don't worry. I'm a total night owl. I might still be awake even after you've already woken up from a full night's sleep!"

She pulled over the new quilt Lu Ban had placed on the bed, covered her lower body with it, and took out her phone, charger, and tablet. She looked entirely as if she were on vacation.

"Oh."

Lu Ban didn't dwell on it. He wasn't so petty.

He had lived alone for so many years. Having another person suddenly appear in his home was indeed something he wasn't used to, but that was all it was—something he wasn't used to.

Compared with a person, he felt Qin Tiantian was more like a cat—the kind that followed him home to eat and sleep after being teased a couple of times, then vanished the moment someone opened the door.

"By the way, if you sneak-attack me in the middle of the night, I'm calling the police. Don't think you can do whatever you want just because you're handsome!"

Qin Tiantian opened a mobile game on her tablet as she spoke.

"I'm not interested in middle school students."

Lu Ban glanced at Qin Tiantian's chest, which resembled the main deck of a battle-damaged Saratoga-class aircraft carrier.

"Get lost!"

Qin Tiantian raged helplessly.

More than an hour later, Lu Ban finished studying and prepared to sleep.

When he turned around, he saw that Qin Tiantian had long since fallen asleep in a completely unladylike position. Her clothes had slipped down, exposing her smooth shoulder. She had probably been tense from everything that had happened, so once she relaxed, fatigue had quickly overwhelmed her.

She occupied most of Lu Ban's bed like an utterly unrestrained cat queen.

"Forget it."

Lu Ban didn't dwell on the trouble. Showing kindness and providing shelter for a frightened girl was perfectly reasonable.

He lowered the angle of the chair, took a blanket, and prepared to spend the night lying in it.

Just as he closed his eyes, Lu Ban remembered that there was one more thing he hadn't done.

He opened the music player on his computer, selected the Spring Festival Gala playlist, and started playing it.

"Unforgettable Tonight, unforgettable tonight, no matter where in the world we may be..."

The moment the gentle singing of the people's artist came through, Qin Tiantian, who had been lying on the bed, suddenly sat bolt upright.

She stared blankly at Lu Ban, then at the computer's music player.

"...You listen to this to help you sleep in the middle of the night?"