Chapter 22: Smart Voice Assistant
Yu Fan didn’t stay long at Li Mu’s house. After they had dinner, he quickly left, afraid that he’d be asked to help out with chores again.
So in the end, Li Mu got a cleaner for free and a free meal.
Feeling pretty pleased with himself, he returned to his bedroom. But after turning on his computer, he just sat there staring at the screen. A few minutes later, he pressed the power button and shut it off.
For Li Mu, holidays were honestly kind of boring.
Back at school, even though he didn’t have many friends, at least the place was lively, and he could sometimes chat with his roommates or classmates. But at home during holidays, all he could really do was play games.
Back when his family passed away, he played games all night to escape reality, so much that he got completely tired of them.
He stood up from his chair and unconsciously shivered.
“Sixteen degrees is still too cold.”
He glanced at the air conditioner but didn’t bother to adjust it. Instead, he turned off the lights, jumped into bed, and wrapped himself up tightly in a thick blanket like a sushi roll, getting comfy and ready to sleep.
It was still pretty early, just 8 PM.
However, he had been having many dreams these past few days, leading to poor sleep quality. Not long after lying down, he drifted off into a hazy sleep.
………………………………………
In the middle of the night, Li Mu woke up needing to pee, still half-asleep.
As he pushed the blanket off, a chill ran through his body.
“Why... is it so cold?”
His teeth were chattering so much he could barely speak. He quickly pulled the blanket back over himself, finally feeling a bit of warmth again.
Carefully, he reached one hand out from under the blanket and turned off the air conditioner. Only then did he finally relax.
He regretted setting the temperature so low in the first place.
After waiting a bit for the cold air to fade, he shakily climbed out of bed and made his way to the bathroom.
He turned on the bathroom’s dim light, bent over slightly, and looked at his face in the mirror.
“My skin... looks kinda better?” he mumbled, rubbing his eyes and wiping the dusty mirror with a cloth.
It wasn’t that he looked more feminine, just that the layer of dust on the mirror had blurred everything and made him look smoother, like a real-life beauty filter.
Seeing no signs of becoming more girly, his mood brightened a lot.
He finished using the bathroom and wanted to hurry back to bed. He needed to get up early to visit his grandfather and pick up this month’s living expenses...
And maybe he could also ask if his grandfather knew any famous fortune tellers or shamans.
Just as he was about to walk into the bathroom, the light suddenly started flickering like crazy.
It startled him. He looked up at the blinking light. “Broken again?”
At his place, lightbulbs burned out every three days on average. He suspected the wiring might be messed up, but since he didn’t spend much time at home, he’d never gotten around to calling someone to fix it.
Still... something about the flickering in the middle of the night was kind of creepy.
Also, he had clearly left the bedroom already, so why did it still feel so cold? Could it be… ghosts?
He rubbed the goosebumps on his arms and walked into the bathroom with a frown.
A moment later, he came out feeling much better, casually turned off the still-blinking lightbulb, yawned, and started heading back to his room.
Suddenly, a chill ran down his spine.
Li Mu twisted his waist and kicked out with his left foot, but it hit nothing but air.
“Who’s there?!”
“Another ghost?!”
He looked around carefully, unsure if he was just being paranoid or if there really was someone hiding in the shadows, watching him.
It felt like a cold stare was scanning him from head to toe, so sharp and real it was as if his every inch of skin was being seen through. Goosebumps popped up all over his body.
In the pitch-dark room, Li Mu couldn’t actually see anything, and that just made his fear worse.
“Come out! Don’t say I didn’t warn you, I’ve taken down a ghost before!” Li Mu shouted, trying to sound fierce, even though he was actually scared.
“That ghost was completely destroyed by me! Not even its ashes were left! And you, a little ghost, dare mess with me?!”
He was trying hard to act strong, but his legs were shaking from fear.
Just then, the feeling of being watched disappeared.
Li Mu began to wonder if it was a thief instead. After all, according to what Yu Fan had said, ghosts weren’t common in small towns like this.
And surely his luck couldn’t be that bad…
“Wuuu~”
A soft, muffled crying sound suddenly came from right in front of him. It startled Li Mu so much he nearly threw his phone.
Luckily, he remembered just in time that this phone was a birthday gift from his grandpa, it cost 3,000 yuan, so he quickly stopped himself. Instead, he turned on the flashlight function and pointed it toward the sound.
It was coming from the bathroom mirror.
“Damn it, is it really a ghost this time?” he muttered, trying to build up his courage. His legs still felt like jelly as he carefully moved toward the mirror.
The flashlight lit up everything in front of him, but the sides and behind him were still completely dark. In that darkness, it felt like dozens of eyes were secretly watching him, waiting to make a move.
Finally, he reached the mirror again.
He aimed the light directly at it, and saw himself in the mirror, sitting on the ground, head buried in his knees, crying sadly. The figure was shaking slightly.
Li Mu could hear the thumping of his own heart in his ears. It felt like his brain wasn’t getting enough oxygen, his whole body was trembling, and his hands and feet were icy cold.
“You... why are you crying?” he asked through clenched teeth.
The “Li Mu” in the mirror slowly raised his head, revealing a face identical to his, but cried out in a little girl's voice.
“You scared me! You’re mean!”
“......”
Why does he always run into weird ghosts?
His racing heart slowly calmed down. Staring at the ghost that looked just like him, he honestly didn’t even know what to say.
He turned on the bathroom light, but the bulb was still flickering.
“Can you stop messing with my lights?”
The ghost in the mirror stopped flicking the switch on its side.
“This is my house!” the mirror ghost replied with a sob, sounding like a wronged little girl.
So… I’m gone for a month, and a ghost takes over my home? A mirror ghost, no less?
Or maybe this ghost had always been living in the mirror, and he just never noticed it before…?
Wait! Does that mean all those broken lightbulbs weren’t really broken?
It seemed like this ghost lived in the mirror and could copy the appearance of the person standing in front of it.
So... should he just remove the mirror and throw it out?
The ghost kept sobbing in a high-pitched voice, which was starting to get on Li Mu’s nerves.
He slapped the mirror with his hand. “Stop crying already!”
In an instant, the ghost stopped. It slowly lifted its head, revealing only a pair of scared, teary eyes, looking timidly at Li Mu from inside the mirror.
Li Mu took a deep breath, and suddenly he wasn’t scared of this ghost anymore.
What kind of dumb ghosts are these, seriously?
Back when he met Lin Xi, he thought she was the only weirdo.
But now this one’s also kind of... stupid?
“What’s your name?” Li Mu asked with a straight face.
The ghost shrank back and replied, “I don’t know.”
Li Mu nodded, then calmly said, “Don’t bother me when I’m sleeping. Set the room to sixteen degrees, but don’t let it get so cold that I wake up again.”
“Okay...”
“Around six or seven in the morning, raise it to twenty-six degrees. Otherwise I’ll be cold when I wake up.”
“Got it.”
Suddenly, he had a strange feeling of déjà vu.
Was this... a smart voice assistant?