In the luxurious living room, only the cheerful sounds from the cartoon continued to echo.
“What is it?”
A vague sense of foreboding stirred in my chest.
As far as I could remember, this was the first time she had ever spoken to me in such a serious tone. It was enough to make me completely forget about the cartoon.
I put down the recipe book I had been holding all this time. Curled up in the corner of the spacious sofa, I pressed my thumb a little harder into the soft cushion.
“Why are you still afraid of me?” the ghost baby asked, her tone heavy with helplessness.
I didn’t respond.
It felt like some terrifying ghostly aura was gradually condensing in the air, as if it was about to explode at any moment. My body shivered instinctively. That suffocating sensation crept in again.
I couldn’t take it anymore—my voice cracked as I finally snapped.
“You keep pushing me for answers! Is hearing the truth that important to you?”
“Of course I’m afraid of you!”
“You think I wanted to make a contract with you?”
“You’re the one who said you’d kill me if I didn’t sign it!”
Let’s go back to the start. I never wanted this.
Yes, later on, after I found out she had cured my illness, I did start to feel a glimmer of hope—some faint, irrational longing.
Caught in the chaotic swirl of ghost energy, I let out a bitter laugh.
But that’s all in the past now.
That slightly naive person had already been shattered by her own hands beneath the peach blossom tree.
“…I’m sorry.”
The oppressive ghost aura slowly began to recede.
The ghost baby, who had once again lost control of her emotions, spoke in a low voice.
“Back then, I really did want to get along with you. But when you secretly went to the hospital, trying to get rid of me, I got so angry…”
“The first time we met, you had this scent that made me feel so at ease. I just thought… you were someone I’d feel close to.”
She was trying to open up, to bare her heart.
But right and wrong can’t be resolved in just a few words. I slowly closed my heavy eyelids.
If I could go back—if she had told me from the beginning that it was a deal, and the price was curing my cancer—I probably would’ve agreed without hesitation.
But reality doesn’t work with “what-ifs.”
Later on, after I learned I was cured, I really did decide to take the contract seriously.
If nothing else, it was a way to repay her kindness. Even now, I still feel that way.
I remembered the disappointment I felt that day. Rather than constantly living in fear, why not just treat this as a simple partnership?
Once our contract was completed, whether she killed me or let me go…
At this point, I was just too tired to keep thinking about it.
“…Here.”
“It’s what you wanted,” the ghost baby said, her voice unusually flat and restrained. She seemed genuinely upset.
A glowing scroll appeared in front of me in an instant.
“I almost finished revising it yesterday, but I was too tired and accidentally fell asleep.”
“…What is this?” My fingertips trembled as I took the scroll, my voice tinged with disbelief. As I flipped through the pages, I was stunned.
“A completely new cultivation method?”
“But you said that day…” My mind felt like it was spinning, unable to fully process all this.
“That was just something I said without thinking,” the ghost baby sniffled, sounding aggrieved for the first time.
“You ignored me all day. I had just heard this fun story from someone and wanted to share it with you, but you were too busy talking to Su Liumeng and didn’t even look at me.”
“Then later, when you suddenly talked to me, I got moody and snapped at you.”
I clutched the book in my hands.
Inside, it was full of scribbles and revisions—countless marks that showed just how much thought and effort had gone into this.
*****
Outside the window, the trees rustled softly in the wind.
The television in the living room was still playing a children’s program as I concentrated on studying the cookbook in my hands.
The cartoon wasn’t for me to watch anyway.
Since this was for prenatal education, of course it was meant for the baby.
So whether I watched or listened didn’t matter at all.
At this very moment, a certain little dumpling—who had been enduring the noise pollution for some time—finally couldn’t hold back anymore.
“Can you change the channel already?”
“Why do you always like watching such childish stuff?”
‘The things I like…’ Childish? My hand, flipping the page, froze.
The ghost baby reached out her chubby hands to cover her ears tightly, but it was no use.
Because this wasn’t her physical body.
It was just a ghost form deep in the sea of consciousness—how could she have real ears to cover?
The little dumpling was a bit upset and stood up abruptly.
But rather than arguing over this minor issue, she brought up something even more important—a deeper misunderstanding.
She had been waiting in the sea of consciousness for a long time, finally catching Xinyan alone.
“I have something I want to talk to you about.”
Just like my heart that couldn’t calm down.
“You’re not… laughing at me?” I blinked repeatedly, no longer sure how to describe how I felt.
I reached out to wipe my eyes and stared at the book in my hands, my expression more complicated than ever.
“These past few days… you’ve been helping me revise it, haven’t you?”
“Yes,” the ghost baby replied.
“The time you promised already passed several days ago.”
“I thought you had already forgotten.” My knuckles tightened around the book, as heavy as the feelings in my heart.
Even though I now held the cultivation technique I had long dreamed of, the thought of what the ghost baby had been doing, and how I had thought of her… gave me an overwhelming surge of emotion.
For the first time, I found my own personality unbearable. If I had just asked others more questions, if I hadn’t been so silent all the time—wouldn’t I be much happier?
“A few days ago, I didn’t hear what you said. There was a battle about to break out outside. I was too nervous,” I explained.
The ghost baby’s voice was a bit stuffy. “It’s okay. As long as you explain it clearly.”
The next moment—
My consciousness seemed to be pulled away, gradually floating upward.
I arrived at the depths of my sea of consciousness.
When my vision returned, I could finally see what lay before me.
A vast, light blue ocean stretched endlessly into the distance, breathtakingly beautiful.
Countless points of light rose continuously into the sky.
It was a dreamlike scene that I’d never even seen in my dreams—so beautiful it could make one stop and stare.
A little girl, about three or four years old, with the most ordinary twin buns in her hair, appeared before me in a blink.
She gently tugged on the corner of my shirt, her lips tightly pursed. She didn’t look happy at all.
“Can you stop being scared of me?”
“I won’t hurt you.”
Her voice was hoarse, no longer the soft and cute tone from before.
This was the world I had seen once in my mind.
Only now, the terrifying ghostly aura was gone. The cold and eerie imagery had been completely subdued, leaving only this dreamy ocean behind.
“Did you just cry?” I stared at her dry little face and suddenly asked.
The little dumpling turned her body, looking a bit embarrassed. Her voice suddenly grew several times louder.
“Who cried? Don’t slander me!”
She looked utterly adorable, yet was speaking in such a tsundere tone that it made one want to scoop her up and comfort her.
Of course, I only wanted to. There was no way I’d dare hug such a powerful ghost king.
“Okay, I believe you.” Faced with a girl barely reaching my knees, I instinctively crouched down to speak to her on equal footing.
I tried to keep my tone as calm as usual.
But how many emotions and complexities were hidden within that calm… even I probably couldn’t understand.
The ghost baby was quite pleased with my attitude and couldn’t help the corners of her mouth from curling upward.
She was never one for manipulative schemes—she had always believed my words without question.
“Not bad, not bad. You’re getting better at coaxing kids.”
“I declare you’re officially a qualified mom.”
Her cheerful voice was like a sudden thunderclap out of nowhere, tearing open a gap in my heart.
A mom?
Am I… already someone’s mom?
The highest praise a mother can receive in this world probably comes from the spontaneous words of her child.
I was not someone devoid of maternal love. I too had tenderness in my heart.
I instinctively reached out to pat her on the head.
Unexpectedly, the little girl didn’t dodge at all. Instead, she leaned into my hand, rubbing against it like a clingy kitten.
Boom—
High above in the sky of the sea of consciousness, it seemed like thunder was forming.
The ghost baby still couldn’t fully control her world.
Everything she had suppressed before I arrived now started to overflow all at once.
Endless ghostly energy surged and roared through the space.
I seemed to see countless pale bones and illusionary realms representing all the world’s darkest, most extreme emotions swirling around her small body—rising, falling, and then dissolving again.
In that moment…
She looked more like a terrifying ghost emperor from a hellish realm, with all the malevolent spirits groveling at her feet.
Suddenly, I was jolted out of my earlier emotions. I couldn’t reconcile such a supreme, terrifying existence with the idea that this was my child.
It created a sharp and visceral sense of dissonance.
A kind of dissonance that made fear surge uncontrollably inside me.
But the little ghost baby remained in an excited mood the whole time.
She hadn’t realized anything was wrong yet—hadn’t noticed how stiff and frozen my arms had become.
My body, already cold to begin with, grew even more rigid… until I felt a small, warm hand trying to hook around my pinky finger.
The little girl tilted her head. Her twin pigtails fell forward, and her big eyes were filled with confusion.
“What are you thinking about?”
Her tiny, soft fingers had no strength to them at all.
More than anything, they felt like a delicate little brush gently scratching at the corners of my heart.
A scene that had replayed countless times in my dreams… was now happening right before my eyes.
A little girl—so unbelievably adorable, like a porcelain doll, like an angel that had descended to the mortal world.
Yet she stood at the very center of a sea of ghostly energy… and used that sweet, soft voice to say the most chilling words.
“Si Xinyan.” She called my name. Then, in the next instant, her tone changed, her gaze turning hopeful.
And as she spoke, my mind exploded in chaos.
“I think… you’re a pretty good person.”
“So, will you be my mama from now on?”
Why is it always repeat section? And missing section? It’s really annoying