Whose Kid Is This?

"Fang Xian."

"You've been staying out all night more and more lately."

"Don't tell me you really got a girlfriend?"

The curtains parted, letting in the sunlight.

Zhang Yuhang's voice left Fang Xian groggy in bed.

Fang Xian sat up and glanced at his phone. "The Ideological and Moral Cultivation Course is over?"

Chen Kang came back with lunch. "It's noon. Of course it's over. What time did you get back last night?"

Fang Xian squinted and lay back down. "A little after four, I think. Let me sleep a bit longer."

He had only just closed his eyes when he opened them again and gave Chen Kang a suspicious look. "You two did sign me in, right?"

"And where's Wang Dashan?"

"Relax."

Chen Kang sat down at his computer. "Yu Bo from the Student Affairs Office taught the Ideological and Political Course, but there were a hundred or two hundred people in that lecture. Who was going to single you out? He didn't take attendance today."

"But... we only just realized we take the Ideological and Moral Cultivation Course with the School of Literature. Song Yizhou must've missed the first class."

"We finally saw her today. She's gorgeous."

Before Chen Kang could finish, Zhang Yuhang smugly shoved a photo he had secretly taken on his phone beside Fang Xian's pillow.

Enough!

Fang Xian threw back the covers.

Then he raised the air conditioner by another two degrees.

Why show me a pretty girl?

Don't you know I'm impotent?

Can't you read the room?

He scrambled down from his bunk and got ready to eat lunch.

"Jiu-mi."

Fang Xian suddenly heard a sound.

He froze.

Then he scrambled back up.

Xiao Jiu was leaning against the inner side of his bed, her long hair draped around her and her eyes heavy with sleep.

She lay there like a little kitten.

Good thing no one else could see Xiao Jiu.

Otherwise, they would think he was a pedophile.

"Jiu, time to get up."

Fang Xian kept his voice low.

Chen Kang, wearing headphones, spoke up anyway. "Fang Xian, what are you talking about?"

What the hell?

Your hearing's that good?

Just play your damn extraction shooter.

Xiao Jiu slowly opened her eyes and looked around curiously.

She turned her little fair-skinned face this way and that.

First she saw the white walls, then the high bed.

Xiao Jiu looked a little worried.

Maybe the bed was too high. Without a railing, someone could easily fall off while sleeping.

Her little feet tapped against it.

The instant she spotted Fang Xian, she shot toward him.

She landed on his shoulder.

She weighed nothing. Fang Xian could not even touch her when he tried.

Something soft seemed to brush against Fang Xian's heart—but what had touched him?

Nothing had touched him at all.

Fang Xian's mouth twitched.

Is this little thing really a Ghost Story?

She isn't scary at all.

More importantly...

Get into the Urban Legend Compendium and come out when I need you.

You're draining my time the whole time you're out, kiddo.

It already pained Fang Xian that his account's previous owner had run it down to over 6,000 in the red.

It meant Fang Xian and Fang Xian could never hold their heads high!

Fang Xian looked at Xiao Jiu's innocent face as she snuggled against him.

Forget it. Why get mad at a child?

With Xiao Jiu perched on his shoulder, Fang Xian climbed down to eat.

She was much nicer to look at than Liu Changgui.

And so cute.

"Jiu-mi."

As if she had noticed Fang Xian looking at her, Xiao Jiu stopped watching Zhang Yuhang, the chubby guy beside them, and Chen Kang, the trendy guy playing games, and kept nuzzling Fang Xian instead.

Fang Xian ate while opening a search engine on his computer to gather information about [Ghost Story].

He had never looked too deeply into Ghost Story.

What exactly was Ghost Story?

Take the bald Liu Changgui, for instance. Fang Xian could use him as an Anomalous Human, but he could not summon him outright like Xiao Jiu.

Is it because Liu Changgui, as an Anomalous Human, is actually at the Law Enforcement Agency?

And then there's... Obsession, also known as Xiao Jiu. What exactly is she?

Is she a ghost?

Fang Xian grew a little more focused. Xiao Jiu watched too, but apparently understood none of it. She scurried all around him on her hands and feet.

"She has none of her former awareness."

Fang Xian wrote that down.

Li Wan should have been a gifted child.

But Xiao Jiu was not.

"Also, she can touch other people to some extent when she wants to."

Fang Xian's gaze sharpened.

Did that mean he had successfully gained control of a complete Ghost Story?

There had been no danger during the [Go Home] task, but that did not mean Xiao Jiu was incapable of hurting anyone.

On the search engine,

tales of Ghost Story and horror stories were everywhere.

But when Fang Xian clicked through, they were just made-up stories.

Some sounded real and were told with absolute conviction, but offered no evidence.

"Whew. Nothing useful."

After his last bite of chicken cutlet rice, Fang Xian let out a long breath.

The world was full of Ghost Story. That much was certain.

Fang Xian had known it for a long time.

"Wait..."

Fang Xian turned his head and froze.

He had not noticed before.

Xiao Jiu...

Could she not walk on two feet?

She spent the whole time crawling along the floor, and she was fast.

Knowing Chen Kang and Zhang Yuhang could not see her, she had started playing pranks.

Right now, Xiao Jiu was crouched beside Chen Kang's desk.

Chen Kang and Zhang Yuhang were in the middle of a fierce firefight.

She lowered her head and carefully reached out a little hand like a kitten.

Then she lightly pressed Chen Kang's mouse.

Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat!

"What the hell, Chen Kang? What are you doing?!"

"You gave away our position!"

Zhang Yuhang's anguished scream rang out.

Chen Kang was dumbfounded. "I... I think I fired by accident. My bad, my bad..."

For some reason, his right side felt chilly.

It had to be the air conditioner.

"Fang Xian, turn the air conditioner up two degrees. It's throwing me off."

Xiao Jiu curled into a ball, her body trembling—not from fear, but as though she was holding back laughter.

Normally, Fang Xian would have mocked Chen Kang for that, but this time he obediently raised the temperature.

When he turned around, he saw Xiao Jiu eyeing the Lollipop Wang Dashan had left on his desk.

Wang Dashan had apparently bought this Lollipop for Gao Lu and was waiting for the right moment to give it to her. He had been waiting for days, but whenever Fang Xian and the others asked, Wang Dashan brushed them off by saying the time was not right yet.

Don't touch other people's stuff!

Alarm bells rang in Fang Xian's head.

You're going to scare those two buddies of mine to death.

[Obsession: Xiao Jiu wants to eat a Lollipop.]

Fulfilling an Obsession was equivalent to paying the cost of using her once.

Huh?

Fang Xian's expression shifted like that of a doting father.

Seriously?

He picked up Wang Dashan's Lollipop, unwrapped it, and popped it into Xiao Jiu's little mouth under her expectant gaze.

"Mmm, mmm."

Xiao Jiu's blissful smile warmed Fang Xian's heart.

Fang Xian watched as the day of his life he had spent using Xiao Jiu was actually returned to him.

Now that's more like it!

This is my trump-card Ghost Story!

All it takes to satisfy her Obsession is one Lollipop?

I can give her as many as she wants!

"Xiao Jiu."

"I'll make sure you become the girl who eats the most Lollipops in the whole world!"

Fang Xian's eyes shone with absolute resolve.