Ghost Realm was different from the Mortal Realm. (duh.) Ghosts were obviously different from mortals.

The living can become the decrease but the decreased could not become the living. Yet there were more ghosts in the Mortal Realm than there are the living in the Ghost Realm.

Hua Yuan had not gotten used to it.

The atmosphere in Ghost City varies greatly from Beijing back in his previous life. Not that Hua Yuan ever went out much. He mostly stayed cooped up inside his apartment, idling about, living off take-outs and ramen, never having to bother to learn to cook.

Now Hua Yuan can see how it was a tiny bit pathetic. A little tiny bit.

Hua Yuan hurried down the stairs, his hand clutching the money pouch. He stopped when he reached the foot of the stairs, and then Hua Yuan tied the pouch onto his waist.

Something fluttered by Hua Yuan's eyes, startling him just as he finished tightening the pouch onto his sash.

Hua Yuan tried to take a step back but the back of his heel hit the stairs behind him and he landed on his butt. On the ground, Hua Yuan looked up, his palms pressed against the floor. The fluttering thing became bigger as it darted closer to Hua Yuan's eyes before zipping away. It was a will o' the wisp. Hua Yuan's eyes followed the tiny ghost light.

There was a huge lake beside Paradise Manor.

Above the calm glossy surface were many of these will o' the wisps. They zip about, here and there, flickering, emitting little tiny slivers of light. Sometimes they would disappear before reappearing in another spot of the lake.

These little ghost lights reminded Hua Yuan of the fireflies in the mortal world.

There was a balcony Hua Yuan had in his apartment. During the summertime, one can see fireflies at night. Their little glowing light blinks against the dark sky, looking like twinkling stars.

In the olden times, which Hua Yuan supposed was now, people would have caught fireflies into glass jars and covered the jars with a cloth poked with holes. They would use them as lamps. And when they go to rest, they'll release these fireflies again.

In modern times, there was no need for such and it was mostly just for fun to try to catch fireflies in your cupped hands.

Hua Yuan watched the will o' the wisps for a little longer before hopping back up and hurrying into the streets of Ghost City.

If the surrounding areas of Paradise Manor had a calm and serene ambiance, then the busy streets of Ghost City had a lively, fast-paced, and hectic ambiance. Just about anywhere and everywhere Hua Yuan looked, there was a ghost or demon doing something questionable.

A ghost stall nearby was selling some consumable stuff that made you sneeze cockroaches out of your nose. The weirder thing comes in when you don't have a nose. Then it comes out from your body in another place. Like your ears. Then at the stall next to this sneezing cockroach shop, the stall owner was frying the very same cockroaches for consumption also. Side by side, the Sneeze Cockroaches stall, and the Fried Cockroaches (straight from the nose! or other body parts) stall. How appetizing.

Hua Yuan shivered as he watched a rooster-foot ghost guy order a bag of fried cockroaches with sweet and sour blood on the side.

Oh, Hua Yuan wasn't shivering because of that. It just suddenly became very chilling.

Sometimes, when one walked down Ghost City, one will feel a strange sensation behind them. It was like there was some frigid wind blowing up their back, sending chills down the spine. Then one would shiver and feel goosebumps prickling the skin on their arms.

Most of the time, it'll be a local ghost playing a trick on you.

Such was the case for Hua Yuan.

Hua Yuan yelped and spun around, the ghost almost scared the shit out of him.

It was an actual ghost.

What Hua Yuan meant was that it looked like those ghosts he saw on tv, a cartoon ghost. Hua Yuan thinks he had dressed up as one for Halloween once when he was little, using a white thin tablecloth.

Hua Yuan: "..."

The ghost: "..."

Being caught blowing behind someone's neck, the ghost just floated there, in front of Hua Yuan. Hua Yuan took a step back.

Hua Yuan wonders what is actually underneath the ghost.

Then the white sheet slipped off and fell onto the ground.

"..."

。。。

。。。

。。。

"Yin Yu. You heard all that just now?"

"...Yes, Chengzhu. You told me to stand over there."

Yin Yu was in the corner of the great hall near a column the whole time. The shadow had hidden him from Hua Yuan.

And no, Yin Yu was not told to stand near the column because he was on time-out. Yin Yu was told to follow Hua Yuan's every move. Now Yin Yu was standing near the table, in front of Hua Cheng as Hua Yuan had previously.

The child was strange. Very strange. Very very very strange.

The first thing that struck Yin Yu as strange was the fact that the child could eat Xie Lian's cooking. Okay, maybe strange wasn't quite the word for it. It was extraordinary. Watching the kid at the breakfast table casually asking him about the "chain tattoo" on his wrist while spooning dark green and lumpy congee into his mouth was extraordinary. Truly... A little chengzhu.

For a while, Yin Yu doubted little Hua Yuan was mortal. But that wasn't it. Then was the child possessed? No... That wasn't it either. Could there truly be someone else in this world that could eat his highness's cooking???

Yin Yu found it a bit difficult to believe.

Once, Yin Yu became ill for three days and nights after eating Xie Lian's "special" pancakes that Xie Lian claimed to have put a lot of thought into. He couldn't refuse when Hua Chengzhu was right behind Xie Lian, arms crossed, eyes boring on him. It should have been a warning sign when the pancakes were square-shaped.

vertically.

"He doesn't act like a normal child," Hua Cheng commented, interrupting Yin Yu's thought process on how pancakes can be vertically square-shaped.

Yin Yu lowered his head and said, "Yes, Chengzhu."

"You said he was poking around in Paradise Manor more often than not?"

"Yes, Chengzhu."

"...What are your thoughts about it?"

Yu Yin thinks. He said slowly, "It could be because children are naturally curious about things or Hua Yuan could have been looking around with an alternative intent..." (It's actually because he was bored as fuck)

That was the problem. Little things Hua Yuan had done could have either been because of the way a child's mind works or because of something else. But there was something off about Hua Yuan, Hua Cheng believes.

Was Hua Yuan's intent to seek curry favor with his Gege while sticking his tongue out at him behind Gege's back reallyyyy just an immature gesture or was it something more? Every time Xie Lian comes home, Hua Yuan will shout "Daozhang-!!!" and proceed to run to hug Xie Lian before Hua Cheng could even say, "Gege, welcome home!"

Yin Yu saw Hua Cheng's eye twitch and had a feeling that Chengzhu was thinking about the wrong thing.

Yes, to Yin Yu, Hua Yuan was a bit weird and strange. There were times when some of his actions didn't make sense. And there was that one time with the ghost paper cranes.

"What about the spiritual cranes, Chengzhu?" Yin Yu asked.

Hua Cheng glanced at Yin Yu. "What do you think about that?"

"Well, it does remind Yin Yu of Chengzhu's butterflies," Yin Yu admitted.

"Does it now?" Hua Cheng said amused. "Wonder why they disappeared."

Yin Yu was pretty sure it was because it landed in Xie Lian's soup and thus like him needed some time to recover.

"Maybe it's because Hua Yuan is young and he doesn't have any spiritual power inside him to control these cranes. These cranes are different from Chengzhu's butterflies in the way that it was folded and created with ghost papers. Perhaps when Hua Yuan's older, it'll reappear," Yin Yu said reasonably.

"Huh," Hua Cheng commented. "Should I send him to go cultivate?" he mused. It wasn't half of a bad idea to send Hua Yuan to the mortal world and make him train under a cultivating sect or something. Then San Lang can have all of Gege's attention again! :D

"..." Yin Yu had a feeling Hua Chengzhu was thinking about the wrong thing again.

"Chengzhu... I don't think Hua Yuan's a bad kid or someone with bad intent."

Hua Cheng looked at Yin Yu, letting Yin Yu go on. Yin Yu continues, "Yes, Hua Yuan can be a bit... strange at times but Yin Yu doesn't think that he wants to do any harm." Truly, Yin Yu just doesn't sense that sort of motive from Hua Yuan.

Plus, Yin Yu doesn't think Hua Chengzhu really believes it either. Why else, would Hua Yuan still be able to walk and talk freely while carrying Hua Chengzhu's surname? Yin Yu suspects that somewhere inside Hua Chengzhu was there a fondness for the child.

"Ah, Chengzhu, do you want Yin Yu to observe Hua Yuan right now?" Yin Yu asked.

"Nah, leave him for now, he couldn't do anything while under my domain," Hua Cheng said lazily.

"...no, Yin Yu meant..." What Yin Yu meant was should he go check up on Hua Yuan before he becomes demon food by accident.

"...Just leave him, or do you want to stroll around the city also? You can do that. Here, have some money." Hua Cheng flicked a coin towards Yin Yu.

"..." Yin Yu looked at the small coin in his hand.

。。。

。。。

。。。

What the fuck.

When the cloth slipped off, a man appeared.

Hua Yuan goggled at the man as if they had spouted three heads. Actually, that might have been better. The man looks quite normal and Hua Yuan's not used to that.

Also- how did such a tall man appear from the ghost cloth?? This man is like thrice the height of Hua Yuan! (Please keep in mind that Hua Yuan is in a small tiny toddler body.)

Hua Yuan: "..."

The man: "..."

The man was tall with a great presence that was previously coated by the white cloth. He looks around eighteen or nineteen. The young man has a straight nose and deep brows, with raven, curly hair like a lion's mane. Exceptionally handsome in an erratic and wild way.

And he was tall. Hua Yuan suddenly feels like an ant that could have been easily squashed by the man's foot. (He's exaggerating)

The man looked down at little Hua Yuan. Hua Yuan stared at him, trying not to tremble under his presence.

"Are you Crimson Rain Sought Flower and his Highness the Crown Prince's child?"

Hua Yuan: "...-?"

Although Hua Yuan didn't say anything, the man's face turned rigid and he muttered to himself, "So it was true."

The man turned to Hua Yuan and his face turned determined. He said loudly, "Then do you know how my Shi-xiong's doing? I don't get why he keeps avoiding me, I just want to talk and see Shi-xiong again."

Hua Yuan: "..."

"It wouldn't hurt Shi-xiong to see me again? Does he hate me that much?" the man muttered to himself. His face scrunched up in a childlike confusion.

Hua Yuan: "..." wait wait wait, hold up. Who are you, sir? Who's this Shi-xiong? Let me breathe first? What does your Shi-xiong have to do with me?

Hua Yuan was confused. Again.

✨✨

Thank you for reading!

Don't forget to vote, comment, and follow me! It will definitely be highly appreciated! ☆ ★

Word Count: 2166