Only after the puppet finished cleaning did Chu Qingjiu go to the bathroom, only to discover that his water and electricity had been cut off because he hadn't paid the bills in two years.
"..."
There was one enormous problem now: before killing himself, he had donated all his money, so he was completely penniless.
Back then, he'd simply felt that he'd lived for over twenty years without doing much good. He'd wanted to build up some karmic merit, so he'd donated everything.
Who knew he could come back after dying!
Standing in the pitch-black room, he felt for the first time that he shouldn't have donated his money for the sake of so-called karmic merit. After all, he couldn't even take a shower now, and the feeling of dust covering his entire body was deeply uncomfortable.
If someone offered him money right now, he might just leave with them.
"Hi! Big brother!"
Just as that thought crossed his mind, a voice that made his fists clench whenever he heard it suddenly came from behind him.
Chu Qingjiu turned around and saw a familiar figure climbing through the window he'd opened earlier.
"..."
What a unique way to make an entrance.
"Why aren't the lights on, big brother?"
Qi Wu climbed through the window into Chu Qingjiu's room. Chu Qingjiu lived on the second floor, so climbing through his window wasn't particularly difficult for him.
It was just a teensy bit undignified... that was all.
He looked around at the darkness, relying on the fairly bright moonlight to make out the white figure standing in it.
Chu Qingjiu wore white pajamas with Qi Wu's black coat draped over his shoulders. His long, ink-black hair hung loose, and he stood barefoot on the floor. The footprints he'd left were still visible.
The spilling moonlight stretched all the way to Chu Qingjiu's feet, and its reflected glow allowed Qi Wu to see the slender, fair feet resting on the floor.
There seemed to be a pink tinge between his toes, most likely from the cold.
"Why aren't you wearing shoes? The floor's cold."
Chu Qingjiu glanced at him and said flatly, "This is my home."
"I know. I'm just worried you'll catch a cold and get sick, big brother."
Qi Wu approached Chu Qingjiu as he spoke.
"How did you know I was here?"
Qi Wu didn't answer right away. He walked up to Chu Qingjiu and pulled a talisman out of the coat draped over his shoulders, smiling innocently. "Thanks to this talisman, I was able to find you, big brother."
This was the talisman that had made Chu Qingjiu feel he was being monitored in Ghost City. Qi Wu hadn't been willing to explain then, but now he apparently had no such reservations.
Chu Qingjiu understood. "You did it on purpose," he said coolly.
Qi Wu hadn't wanted to tell him the reason in Ghost City because he intended to use the talisman to find him in the real world. Perhaps he'd feared Chu Qingjiu wouldn't agree if he knew, so he'd acted first and asked permission later.
Still, he had to admit that Qi Wu's timing was excellent. He'd been worrying about where to stay tonight, and Qi Wu had appeared like rain after a drought.
Qi Wu's face fell. He looked at Chu Qingjiu with a wounded expression, almost as though he were pouting for affection. "Aren't you happy to see me, big brother?"
Chu Qingjiu tilted his head up to look at Qi Wu's face. With his slightly furrowed brows, drooping lashes, and downturned mouth, he really did look as though he were pouting for affection.
The intimacy that came so naturally through his tone and gestures left Chu Qingjiu momentarily unable to tell whether he was still pretending and deceiving him.
He couldn't see affection scores in the real world, after all.
After watching him for a while, Chu Qingjiu lowered his head, his lashes dipping slightly so Qi Wu couldn't see his expression or tell what he was thinking.
He couldn't really say whether he was happy or not, but Qi Wu's presence had indeed made his uneventful life much livelier and more interesting. It was just that he was genuinely very noisy.
Kids really were energetic, even if this particular kid was much taller and bigger than him.
"...Is your name really Wu Qi?"
Chu Qingjiu thought for a while before asking this question, because he wanted to know whether Qi Wu would be honest with him.
Of course, if Qi Wu really liked hiding things that much, it didn't matter. He just needed to make sure he wasn't calling him by the wrong name.
"You probably don't know this yet, big brother, but you can use alternate identities in instances. Wu Qi is my alias."
Qi Wu admitted it quite frankly. His idiot teammates didn't call him Wu Qi anyway, so since he couldn't keep up the act, he might as well tell him himself.
After all, once he'd refused to explain the talisman, Chu Qingjiu's attitude toward him had turned cold and distant. He'd practically been one step away from telling him to get as far away as possible.
So he'd learned one more thing about Chu Qingjiu: he didn't like being deceived.
Although Chu Qingjiu's expression remained cool and indifferent, without much reaction or even surprise, Qi Wu clearly caught the slight upward curve of his lips.
He's happy now, isn't he?
"Big brother, my name is Qi Wu." His eyes curved with his smile as he held a hand out before Chu Qingjiu. "Shall we introduce ourselves again?"
"..."
What a bothersome little ritual.
With a hint of disdain, Chu Qingjiu shook Qi Wu's hand and said coolly, "Chu Qingjiu."
But playing along seemed rather nice? It was a new experience.
"Big brother, it looks like no one's lived here in ages. The dust is this thick."
As Qi Wu spoke, he casually ran a hand over a nearby surface, and his fingertips immediately picked up dust.
"I haven't lived here for a while. The water and electricity have been cut off."
At the mention of the utilities being cut off, Qi Wu's eyes brightened. He grabbed Chu Qingjiu's hand and said eagerly, "That's all right! You can stay with us, big brother! Guaranteed running water and electricity twenty-four hours a day!"
"...Us?" Chu Qingjiu quietly pulled his hand free. "Other people live with you?"
"I belong to a specialized organization, so we all live together. It makes it easier to look out for each other.
"By the way, Zhang Yaoyao is actually my teammate's little sister. He happened to have an instance of his own, so he asked me to guide her through hers.
"I wasn't going to go at first, but then he said something to me, and I went. Want to know what he said, big brother?"
Qi Wu suddenly leaned closer to Chu Qingjiu with a conspiratorial air, leaving Chu Qingjiu speechless.
It was bad enough that he wouldn't finish what he was saying, but he also insisted on making him participate. And as if that weren't enough, he had to get so close.
I hate kids who have no sense of boundaries.
Sensing Chu Qingjiu's silence, Qi Wu gave an awkward smile and continued on his own. "All right, all right. I know you want to know. You're just naturally quiet.
"He told me I'd meet my true love in that instance, so I went without a moment's hesitation.
"The moment I saw you, big brother, I knew you had to be my true love! We really were meant to meet!"
Chu Qingjiu had a pretty good idea why Qi Wu would say that. Regardless of whether the prophecy about true love was real, he seemed to have been the only person in that instance who could catch Qi Wu's eye.
Because he had a pretty face.
Qi Wu claimed he'd fallen in love with him at first sight, but love at first sight always began with physical attraction. So Qi Wu had merely taken a fancy to his face.
Because of his face, this clingy, noisy kid kept pestering him. It had been that way in the instance, and it was still that way now that he'd returned to reality.
Sometimes being too good-looking wasn't a blessing. Chu Qingjiu had a very clear assessment of Qi Wu: if they stayed together, sooner or later the noise would kill him.
Chu Qingjiu gave a cold smile. "Shallow little kid."
"Come on, how can you say that? It's just that the person I happened to meet was you, big brother, and you happened to be very good-looking. I don't like you because you're good-looking."
Qi Wu's expression suddenly turned very serious. "It was just that moment when our eyes met. It gave me that subtle feeling, right in that instant.
"Feelings are hard to explain, so I usually call that sort of feeling fate. And you're the only person I've ever felt it for."
Before you continue