Chapter 9: Have a Child for Me

After returning, my clothes were still damp. Chu Pei handed me the umbrella and vanished in the blink of an eye.

Gazing into the endless dark night, my heart swelled with melancholy, and I began to feel restless and insecure.

Entering the house, I saw Xing’er hunched over a low table doing homework, dimly illuminated by the faint yellow lamplight.

Xing’er looked up, puzzled. “Teacher Lin, where did you go? Who gave you this umbrella? It’s so unique!”

I smiled faintly and simply told her, “Finish your homework quickly.”

“Oh… By the way, Teacher Lin, there are pancakes warming in the pot, saved especially for you.”

“Alright, I’ll eat later. Let me change first.”

After carefully storing the handmade oiled paper umbrella, I hummed a tune while changing clothes. Just as I finished and turned to leave, the figure standing by the bed startled me terribly.

“When… when did you come in?”

Chu Pei’s expression was stern and unreadable. “I’ve been here all along. Is there a problem, Madam?”

Good grief! A huge problem!

“I was changing clothes! You should have avoided me! How could you do this?” How could he take advantage of being a ghost to brazenly watch someone change?

He walked toward me gracefully with his hands clapped behind his back. Staring at his moving feet, I blinked in disbelief. Who came up with the nonsense that ghosts don’t have feet? What a scam!!

His serious demeanor almost made me stand at attention. After staring at me intently for a long moment with his thin lips pressed tightly together, he finally spoke deliberately: “Madam should get used to it sooner rather than later. After all, we’ll have many such days ahead.”

Who else could say such things with a straight face? But facing him, I could only accept my defeat.

“Get… get used to it! Get used to it!” I shuddered suddenly and scurried sideways out of the room like a frightened mouse.

Munching on a pancake, I walked back into the room thoughtfully and saw him standing by the window with his hands behind his back, gazing at something unknown. But he looked so handsome, dressed in pure white, clean and serene, creating such a poetic atmosphere!

“Chu Pei?”

He turned slowly to look at me. The dim yellow light outlined his handsome features, making me momentarily forget why I had called him.

Only when the warmth from the pancake in my hand registered did I extend the pancake in my left hand toward him. “Would you like some?”

His gaze was fixed on the pancake in my left hand. After a long pause, he finally said, “It’s been a long time since I’ve tasted food.”

“Then… you ghosts don’t need to eat?”

Instead of answering, he approached and bent down, bringing his nose close to the pancake as if inhaling something. After about five seconds, he straightened up and said, “This is enough.”

I remember elders saying certain things about this. To verify those claims, I took a bite of the pancake he had “consumed.” It tasted bitterly unpleasant, truly awful.

Elders say different ghosts leave three distinct flavors after consuming food: bitterness, sourness, or sweetness. If bitterness remains, the person must have died with deep resentment, often transforming into a wrathful ghost capable of harming others.

Swallowing hard, I asked tremulously, “Chu Pei, why did you choose me?”

“Because you resemble someone.”

“Ji Lianqiu?”

“Lian Qiu was my wife in life.”

For some reason, I felt deeply unsettled hearing this, instantly growing irritable: “Then don’t call me Madam from now on! I’m not Ji Lianqiu! I’m Lin Mi.”

This version of myself felt unfamiliar, unlike when I was with Fang Qinnian even when angry or jealous, I would quietly handle it without showing any signs.

“You are Lian Qiu, and Lian Qiu is you.”

Covering my ears in furious resistance, I shouted: “I’m not Ji Lianqiu! I’m not! I’m not!!”

Suddenly, there came a knock at the door: “Teacher Lin, are you alright? Teacher Lin…”

Realizing how badly I had lost composure, I bit my lip, took a sharp breath, quietly wiped the tears from my eyes, and pretended nothing was wrong as I spoke to Xing’er outside the door: “No, it’s nothing. I’m just rehearsing for a play. From now on, if you hear me talking to myself, just ignore me.”

Only after Xing’er left did I finally let out a long, relieved sigh.

“Madam…”

Hearing that address again, I felt utterly aggrieved and sorrowful: “I told you not to call me Madam. If you still see me as Ji Lianqiu, then don’t touch me ever again.”

Seeing that I was about to leave, he suddenly embraced me from behind, his cheek pressed against mine, until I gradually softened in his arms.

He said: “If Madam dislikes it, Changsheng will never speak of past lives or future reincarnations again.”

From what I had learned about Chu Pei these days, I felt he was someone who appeared gentle and refined on the surface but was very domineering and assertive, not one to easily yield to anyone.

Yet now, to appease me, he was willing to lower his pride. Perhaps love is just this capricious bringing inexplicable joy, inexplicable sorrow, and inexplicable resentment.

“Changsheng?”

“My courtesy name is Changsheng.”

I thought for a moment, then turned around and looked up at him: “Don’t people usually call each other by their courtesy names?”

“A name is just a label. Whether it’s Chu Pei or Changsheng, as long as it pleases Madam.”

Delighted, I wrapped my arms around his neck: “Changsheng, Changsheng, Changsheng…”

He lowered his head and captured my lips, his moist tongue tracing circles around them, occasionally nipping gently. As I parted my lips slightly, his tongue slipped inside. Lost in his passionate kiss, my entire body grew weak and pliant.

Suddenly, his hand pressed against my lower abdomen. He pulled back slightly and whispered: “Madam, bear me a child.”

“Wha…” Before I could even form the question, he had already led me to the bed and pressed me down forcefully.

Wide-eyed and incredulous, I stared at him: “Chu Pei, are you serious?”

To prove his sincerity, he repeated: “Bear me a child.”

What followed was his forceful advance, leaving my mind blank. With each of his movements, I felt as though I were adrift on the ocean, my body melting into blissful softness.

Every time after being intimate with Chu Pei, I feel too exhausted to even open my eyes. Nestled against his chest, I murmured: “They say ghosts feed on human Yang energy. Chu Pei, do you?”

He continued kissing my lips, slowly moving downward, his voice slightly hoarse as he countered: “Are you afraid?”

“I’m not afraid.” The answer came almost without a second thought. If I truly feared he would harm me, I wouldn’t have continued sharing a bed with him after noticing something unusual.

He ended the lingering kiss and leaned close to whisper in my ear: “Don’t be afraid, my lady. I would never absorb your Yang energy. However, being intimate with me inevitably exposes you to Baleful energy, which lowers your Yang energy levels. This may cause you to see things you shouldn’t.”

His handsome face reflected in my pupils grew increasingly blurred, and soon I fell into a deep slumber. As dawn approached, I heard a little girl crying outside my window.