Chapter Ten: Bathing
Chapter Ten
The summer air was hot and dry, and the heat was blocked by the glass window. A wisp of heat seeped in through the crack and blew onto the coolest ghost in the room, reddening the tips of her ears.
The ghost was staring at the closed door in the distance, rubbing its chin with its fingers, as if it were pondering something.
Should she go in, or should she go in?
Wen Zhuo jumped up on the spot, her hair sweeping back and forth in the air.
Of course we'll go in!
Wen Zhuo sneaked towards the bathroom, crouching furtively at the door, a chilling aura spreading around her.
As Wen Zhaoye was washing up, he felt a chill down his spine and turned around to glance at the door.
What is Wen Zhuo doing at the door?
We need to stop her from watching her recent TV dramas; look what she's done to her sister!
Wen Zhuo never did these things when she was a child; at most, she would steal the pipa from school to eat.
He wrote obscene stories about the annoying headmaster of students and made them available for everyone to enjoy.
He led his classmates to an internet cafe for an all-nighter during evening self-study and they were all caught in the act.
Wen Zhaoye: "..."
In short, it's the TV series' fault.
Wen Zhaoye thought to himself expressionlessly.
Warm water fell from the showerhead, hovering for several centimeters before landing on him, bringing a refreshing coolness.
Cold?
His temples were bulging; if he remembered correctly, he had taken a hot bath today.
Wen Zhaoye checked the temperature—40 degrees Celsius.
The coolness followed his gaze backward, lingered around the water heater, and then drifted back.
Wen Zhuo didn't understand what he was looking at. She glanced at the temperature, then at Wen Zhaoye's flushed face. What's wrong with the temperature? Is it too hot?
Then let her help cool it down.
She shook her head, marveling at her own kindness, while trying to emanate a sinister aura.
Wen Zhaoye, feeling colder the more he washed: "......"
Is Wenzhuo a balloon? Is it leaking air?
Wait a minute, something's not right. Wen Zhuo discovered that the yin energy he was trying to emit was actually black!
Wen Zhaoye, whose vision went black, thought:
Seeing Wen Zhaoye engulfed by the black aura, Wen Zhu hurriedly withdrew the yin energy, but failed to maintain his body, and half of his body became visible.
Wen Zhaoye, now standing before him in white again, said:
He only cares about his head, not his rear, Wen Zhuo.
Wen Zhaoye couldn't hold back any longer. He said coldly, "Wen Zhuo, shouldn't you explain why you're here?"
Wen Zhuo was shocked: "?!!"
How did you find me?
"I clearly have no flaws!" Wen Zhuo looked at the lingering Yin energy, his voice faltering as he began to secretly let out, "Uh, maybe there is a little."
No, the war isn't over yet, how can she desert! She'd only glanced at it a few times!
Wen Zhuo moved slower and slower, and then stopped under the ceiling. Her gaze wandered around, and perhaps feeling that this was indeed a little awkward, she slowly covered herself up.
A slowly transparent, warm light was watching him from the sky—no, from the ceiling.
I can't take it anymore.
Wen Zhaoye: ""
"Wen Zhuo, get out." He closed his eyes, feeling a nerve throbbing in his brain.
Wen Zhuo's voice was muffled: "I'm not inside."
"It's not like you just stick your head out and say a few words and then leave."
Wen Zhuo asked in surprise, "How did you know?" She sensed her own condition and realized she was still hiding it.
Wen Zhaoye turned off the water. There was no bathrobe inside, so he could only wrap himself in a towel. He turned around and said sarcastically, "I know exactly what you're going to say."
Wen Zhuo sighed, "Vulgar, so vulgar, sigh." She pulled her head out of the wall and stared at him intently, asking seemingly casually, "Oh, by the way, why aren't you continuing your shower?"
Wen Zhaoye's lips curled into a smile: "I'm going to confiscate your phone today!"
Wen Zhuo appeared, made a face at him, and then turned and slipped away.
Before Wen Zhaoye could grab her, his cold expression relaxed, his eyes lowered, and he smiled faintly.
Wen Zhuo smugly retrieved his phone and hid it.
We've utterly defeated humanity today! Worth celebrating, let's go have some fun!
****
After a day of playing around, even if she couldn't go out, Wen Zhuo could still manage to stir up some trouble. Seeing that it was almost time, she tucked herself into the blankets.
Although ghosts don't need to sleep, she still enjoys the process of immersing her thoughts in a void.
She doesn't like sleeping floating in the air; she only likes to sleep in bed. When she solidifies, her body sinks into the soft bed, and she is tightly enveloped. However, she never wakes up in her own room.
Could it be that Wen Zhaoye took her away in the middle of the night? She turned over, unable to figure it out, and then fell into a dark dream.
"Xiao Zhuo?"
"Xiao Zhuo, it's not that Dad is criticizing you, but your brother doesn't need you to do anything anymore, so what are you doing coming here all the time?"
“You know you’re not our child, and your brother isn’t your biological brother. It’s not polite for you to still cling to him like this.”
What nonsense are you talking about?
Wen Zhuo opened her eyes and saw an old man with white hair at his temples standing in front of her. He looked serious and had a drooping mouth. He was pulling her aside to avoid the main character of the conversation who was working inside.
Is this a dream? Wen Zhuo realized she couldn't control herself, which was somewhat strange. Was this a memory from before?
So that's why I couldn't remember.
Wen Zhuo looked down at herself, then shifted her gaze to the old man's shiny leather shoes, her voice sounding very aggrieved: "Okay, I'll leave right away."
She only pretends to be weak when she's about to cause trouble.
The moment the old man released her hand, she leaped back, moving away from him, and shouted, "You damned Wen Zhaoye, your father told me not to come looking for you, so why don't you come out and say something!"
Wen Zhaoye readily agreed and stepped out, standing at the doorway, and said, "One sentence."
Was Wen Zhaoye this cheerful before?
She heard herself say, "Are you out of your mind?!" She cursed Wen Zhaoye and then started criticizing the old man again: "I think the feng shui of your house is not good. People who live in it will suffer bloodshed. Look, Wen Zhaoye just lay down in there. I suggest that an old man like you who looks like he has kidney deficiency should not live there. Who knows, he might come in one day and not be able to get out."
"Oh, it's also possible that they'll die in bed first."
"At your age, you still want to have a mistress? You're more likely to die in bed, you old geezer."
Wen Zhuo exclaimed in amazement, "That's quite powerful!"
The old man gasped, pointing at her speechlessly. Her expression softened, as if she genuinely cared about him, and she said, "You seem to have a lot of anger about you. Here's what we'll do: go straight ahead, turn right at the first intersection, then turn left, and finally stop at the second door. Then knock and go in."
The old man didn't speak, nor did he ask her why.
Wen Zhaoye couldn't hold back any longer: "Why?"
She said expressionlessly, "That's a traditional Chinese medicine clinic. They suggested he take care of his health."
Wen Zhaoye laughed loudly on the spot.
The old man pointed at the two of them, speechless, then gave a heavy "humph," turned, and left.
She shook her head and sighed, "Completely harmless."
Wen Zhuo was overjoyed. She excitedly took a step forward, but missed her footing. The bright colors around her scattered and disappeared like fragments, falling into the black shadows. Countless images kept flashing through her mind, including her, her parents, and Wen Zhaoye. All the figures disappeared, and her memory finally stopped on a large patch of bloody liquid.
Her body fell from the air, a sharp pain spreading from her abdomen, her brain sounding a piercing alarm before going blank. Before the pain could even reach her brain, her body had already crashed to the ground, her blood spreading.
In the last second before she lost consciousness, she saw a figure running towards her.
"Wenzhuo!!!"
"Wenzhuo?"
"A-Zhuo?"
"Xiao Zhuo?"
Wen Zhaoye gently embraced her and picked her up. She struggled in his arms, and Wen Zhaoye thought he had woken her up. He was startled, as Wen Zhuo couldn't possibly wake up before the ceremony was over.
Wen Zhuo frowned deeply, holding him anxiously, muttering something under her breath.
Wen Zhaoye leaned in to listen and heard her murmuring "pain".
Wen Zhaoye's steps froze in mid-air.
The dampness slid down his face and landed on Wen Zhuo's face. He gently wiped away the salty liquid and hugged Wen Zhuo tightly in his arms. As if she could feel his warmth, Wen Zhuo's limbs were covered in fluid. She hugged Wen Zhaoye tightly, and Wen Zhaoye could only hold her like a child, letting her bury her head in the crook of his neck, her fluffy hair brushing against him.
Wen Zhaoye's face did not have the cheerful smile that Wen Zhuomeng had, but only a heavy gloom.
He led Wen Zhuo to another room. If Wen Zhuo were still awake, she would have realized that she hadn't been mistaken that day; there were indeed two identical rooms in this villa.
The room was spotless, with nothing on the floor except for a huge, eerie dark red pattern.
The warm quilt was placed in the center, its brown veins radiating outwards irregularly, yet seemingly converging together and leading to another location.
The spot where Wen Zhaoye was standing.
His face was pale, and a knife had fallen to the side of his legs. On his arm, in a place that Wen Zhuo hadn't noticed during the day, there were layers of scratches. A fresh mark had just been made by his hand, and blood was dripping down.
The lines lit up, and as blood was absorbed, the blood-red cracks on Wen Zhuo's body slowly faded.
Her furrowed brow was smoothed out.
This is not the main function of this array pattern.
He stood at the other end for a very long time, so long that Wen Zhuo couldn't bear so much studying and complained of the heat on the ground. So long that his face turned as pale as paper, as if he would die with Wen Zhuo at any moment.
Wen Zhaoye walked up and slowly lifted her up. Hearing Wen Zhuo start whimpering about being hot again, Wen Zhaoye pressed his cheek against hers. She clung to him like a little animal just awakened, curiously biting his collarbone a few times before finally leaning against his heart in dependence.
"Thump, thump."
"Thump thump thump thump thump".
It was the sound of his heartbeat; in four days, Wen Zhuo would never be able to leave him again.
His face was hidden in the shadows, leaving only half of his pale face with a chilling smile on his lips.
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