The Seductive Ghost of Teacher Shen

Shen Ranxin's face instantly darkened when he heard what the punishment was.

He had originally been a firm materialist. Ever since childhood, he had never done anything shameful and had never been afraid of ghosts knocking at his door.

But after experiencing the whole transmigration-into-a-book thing, Shen Ranxin felt that some things were still worth believing in.

In a daze, a hand slipped between his fingers. A scorching, familiar warmth spread from their clasped palms.

Lu Zhi stood beside him, their fingers interlocked. He lowered his head to look at Shen Ranxin, his eyes glittering with scattered light, as though someone had shattered a handful of stars inside them.

Having grown used to all kinds of Lu Zhi's shameless antics, Shen Ranxin's heart could not help racing at the sight of him looking over with such serious, tender affection.

For a moment, he even forgot to pull free from Lu Zhi's hand.

"Are you very scared, Teacher Shen?" Lu Zhi's beautiful eyes curved. "It's okay. As long as you know it's all fake, you'll be fine."

Shen Ranxin pursed his lips and looked at the pitch-black manor standing not far away. Feeling a little intimidated, he took two steps back without shaking off Lu Zhi's hand and whispered, "Not necessarily. What if a real one sneaks in? Places like this are hard to say..."

Lu Zhi could tell that Shen Ranxin was genuinely afraid.

Before they had even gone inside, the palms pressed tightly together were already covered in cold sweat.

After giving it some thought, Lu Zhi spoke to Director Chen in an incredibly arrogant, flashy, cool, and domineering tone. "One million. Shen Ranxin and I can skip this punishment."

Director Chen fell silent for a moment.

Opportunities to suppress Shen Ranxin were few and far between. Now that he had finally caught one, he certainly could not give it up so easily.

But President Lu was offering far too much!

[Is this kind of money power really allowed to be used so openly?]

[How is this any different from cheating? From now on, whenever someone fails a task and has to accept punishment, should they just give the director one million to avoid it?]

[The person above has a point, but there's one problem: among everyone here, only President Lu can probably come up with one million in liquid funds, right?]

[Why would you say that? Why did you have to make me see the gap between rich and poor in this world? I hate you!]

[I was just laughing like an idiot, but now I can't laugh at all. We're both twenty-seven, yet some people can throw tens of millions at chasing their wife while others are still wondering whether to add an egg to their instant noodles, so hungry they don't even dare take a dump because they're afraid of wasting it.]

[Your words may be crude but make sense, brother, but that was way too crude.]

[Who cares whether you have money when you're already on a dating show? Is it really so hard to accept punishment normally? Can rich people just do whatever they want? Like I said, if you suck, practice more. If you can't afford to play, don't play! Everyone else accepts punishment when they fail a task, so why should Lu Zhi use money power just because Shen Ranxin is scared?]

Most viewers in the livestream were filled with righteous indignation. After all, that million was not going into their bank accounts, but watching Shen Ranxin get embarrassed was genuinely entertaining.

Modern netizens were just like that. What they loved watching most was not someone being showered with praise, but a fallen god.

Shen Ranxin had never been universally beloved to begin with, and he had stolen the spotlight on this dating show. Far more people wanted to see him suffer than wanted to see him doing well.

Just as Director Chen was hesitating, Shen Ranxin grabbed Lu Zhi's arm with his other hand. "Actually, if you give that million to me, I wouldn't be unable to go through this haunted house."

Lu Zhi lowered his gaze and glanced at him. "It's not entirely for your sake. I just think this activity is a little dangerous..."

Director Chen explained from the side, "Don't worry. The staff here have all received professional training and won't cause any physical harm to the guests."

"I'm not worried about the staff. What I'm worried about is..."

Before Lu Zhi could finish, Shen Ranxin took a deep breath and pulled him toward the little manor.

Though the manor had been built temporarily, the production team had so much investment money they could not spend it all, thanks to Lu Zhi, their god of wealth. Every prop was therefore exceptionally high quality.

For example, the eyeball wind chimes hanging from the manor's front porch, as well as the gusts of cold wind coming from nowhere. As the wind blew through those chimes, it felt as if hundreds of eyeballs had turned together to stare at the two people about to enter the manor.

Shen Ranxin's scalp tingled. He gripped Lu Zhi's hand tighter and tighter, his nails digging deeply into Lu Zhi's arm, completely unaware of it.

Lu Zhi narrowed his eyes and lowered his head. "Baby, you're gripping me so tight. Much tighter than you do in bed."

The sinister, terrifying atmosphere was instantly destroyed by Lu Zhi's flirtatious remark. Shen Ranxin gritted his teeth. "What, President Lu? You think I'm loose? When you were tearing my clothes off, you seemed pretty enthusiastic. Anyone who didn't know better would think I was some top-tier omega..."

After saying that, Shen Ranxin himself fell silent.

This inhuman production team had scared his brain into crashing. He had actually followed Lu Zhi's dirty talk and snapped back... and his comeback had been so very colorful.

Shen Ranxin pursed his lips. "What are you still standing outside for? Go in!"

[What did I just hear?]

[Did I hear that wrong?!!]

[No, you didn't hear wrong. None of us heard wrong. Lu Zhi and Shen Ranxin slept together!]

[Wait, can that be said?]

[I know you must all be excited right now, but please don't get excited yet. I don't want the livestream to get banned now. I finally have the chance to see Shen Ranxin get so scared that he hides in Lu Zhi's arms and cries!]

To keep the livestream from getting banned again and making them miss Shen Ranxin's spectacular performance in the haunted house, the viewers miraculously united. Not one person mentioned anything sexual again, and they all began flooding the comments with the same message—

[Study new ideas, strive to be new youth. Welcome to this episode of Youth Study. The nation has yet to prosper, so how can we speak of children's love? Blessed to live in a flourishing age, we must not fail this flourishing age! Young people of the new era bathe in the spring breeze of the new era. We must move steadfastly forward through hard work in the direction guided by the red flag and create the future through struggle!]

Outside the livestream, Director Chen wiped away a cold sweat and quietly set down the Quick-Acting Heart Rescue Pills beside him, as though setting down his dignity.

Holding Lu Zhi's hand, Shen Ranxin walked to the door and gathered his courage. "If I do anything inappropriate later, please don't misunderstand. I'll just be scared, okay?"

Lu Zhi looked at him. "Are you sure you want to go in?"

He understood Shen Ranxin even better than he understood himself.

Shen Ranxin had not been afraid of ghosts before. Lu Zhi had known that long ago. Was he afraid now because he did not want to see them?

During the five years when Shen Ranxin had been taken away by Cheng Cheng and disappeared, Lu Zhi had searched for him until he nearly went mad. He knew absolutely nothing about what Shen Ranxin had gone through during that time.

But no matter what had happened, he would not let Shen Ranxin go.

"Actually, I'm not that scared." Shen Ranxin barely steadied his voice and said, "Because I think I'm used to it now."

Lu Zhi raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"Mm." Shen Ranxin nodded solemnly. "Because I think you're harder to deal with than ghosts."

Lu Zhi: "..."

Lu Zhi lowered his head, the corner of his lips brushing against Shen Ranxin's ear as he murmured suggestively, "Then I hope that, to little Teacher Shen, I'm a seductive ghost. At least I'm pretty, right?"

Shen Ranxin: "..."

If it had been anyone else, this would count as sexual harassment. Shen Ranxin was so scared that both hands were gripping Lu Zhi's arms, but even so, he somehow freed one hand in the midst of it all and slapped Lu Zhi across the face.

"Pervert!"