Chapter 31: So Real
He couldn’t move!
No matter how hard Yu Fan tried to lift his legs or wave his hands, his body, now under the water, refused to listen.
He couldn’t breathe!
His chest felt like it was squeezing his lungs, trying to make the little bit of air left move around inside his body.
He started to panic and wanted to open his eyes and raise his head above the water to breathe.
Most people can hold their breath for a minute or two in normal situations, but underwater, fear makes it harder. Once he began to panic, he could no longer control his breathing.
He could hear his own heartbeat, feel the pulsing in his body, and even sense something in the water moving toward him.
That cold gaze seemed to come even closer, and he felt like something was breathing right next to his ear.
Suddenly, something like a vine wrapped around his wrist.
Yu Fan instantly became alert.
A ghost was here.
Why is he always so unlucky during these spirit-summoning games?
More and more vines wrapped around him. His arms, legs, waist, and then climbed up to his neck and face.
It felt like a cold face was pressed against his ear.
“&*%!”
Three sharp sounds exploded beside his ear, making his whole body tremble in fear. His sudden movement caused the vines around him to tighten, squeezing his limbs and neck.
‘No! I have to get out of the water.’
The pressure on his neck cut off the little oxygen he had left. His head became dizzy. His hands reached up on instinct, grabbing at the thing around his neck, trying to lift his head out of the water.
“&*%!”
The sound came again, sharp and painful to the ear. Though he didn’t understand it, he could tell it meant the same thing as before.
Yu Fan couldn’t speak. All he could do was struggle in the water.
He wanted to open his eyes, to see what this ghost really was.
His eyelids felt heavier than ever, like when you wake up with sticky eyes from a cold.
Finally, he managed to force his eyes open.
But just as he did, something hit his stomach hard. He bent over like a cooked shrimp, and his tightly shut mouth opened from the pain.
A large amount of water rushed in through his mouth. His breath-holding was useless now, water entered his nose and mouth and flooded his lungs.
Just before he completely drowned, he looked up. Standing in the bathtub was a middle-aged man covered in black mist.
‘This ghost is trying to kill me!’
Yu Fan burned the ghost’s face into his memory.
The ghost looked down at him with no expression, then reached out and pushed Yu Fan’s struggling body back under the water.
Bang, bang, bang.
“Yu Fan, time’s up.”
“Are you still playing in the water?”
“If you don’t say anything, I’m opening the door.”
“Don’t die in my house. That’d lower the price.”
Li Mu knocked on the bathroom door a few times, but only heard splashing sounds from inside. He suddenly had a bad feeling.
He quickly opened the door and peeked in.
For some reason, Yu Fan was struggling in the bathtub. Because of his movements, the water level had gone down. His head was already above the water, but he was lying back with his hands around his neck, his face turning blue and purple.
“Yu Fan!” Li Mu panicked. He ignored the water on the floor and rushed over, grabbing Yu Fan’s arm.
“Yu Fan!”
Suddenly, Yu Fan turned over and leaned out of the tub, throwing up water. After a while, he finally calmed down and weakly lay back in the bathtub again.
He breathed in the air greedily, his chest rising and falling quickly.
“Yu Fan?”
A slightly annoyed voice came from the side, but he didn’t have time to respond.
Yu Fan turned around, reached out, and turned on the bathtub faucet. The warm water soothed his limbs, which were somewhat blue from the cold, and the pale color on his face slowly returned as he took deep breaths.
As his body started to feel normal again, he finally looked up and saw Li Mu standing by the bathtub.
His clothes stained with Yu Fan's vomit, Li Mu looked both cold and uncomfortable. He lowered his head and looked directly at Yu Fan’s completely naked body without any hesitation.
“So small.”
“......”
After a short pause, Yu Fan quickly tried to change the topic. “I saw a ghost. He tried to kill me.”
“Otherwise, I wouldn’t be standing here looking at you naked and getting vomit on my clothes.” Li Mu said, grabbing the toilet paper and wiping vomit off his clothes.
Yu Fan was speechless again, his face turning slightly red.
He told himself it wasn’t a big deal that someone saw his little Yu Fan… After all, back in school, it was normal for guys to compare size when using the bathroom together.
But still, for some reason, he felt really embarrassed.
Maybe it was because he hadn’t been seen naked since growing up… or maybe he and Li Mu weren’t close enough friends to compare that kind of thing.
Li Mu gave Yu Fan’s body a calm glance, then closed the bathroom door. He took a towel from the hook behind the door.
“If you’re cold when you get out, just wrap yourself in the towel.”
Didn’t expect that, Yu Fan’s actually in pretty good shape without clothes. Better than he ever was.
And now? Definitely better than him.
“Is that your towel?”
“Of course. Just throw it in the washing machine after,” Li Mu said as he looked at the mirror at the end of the tub.
In the mirror, “Yu Fan” covered his face with his hands, his face completely flushed. One eye peeked through his fingers, curiously observing Yu Fan's body outside the mirror. His mouth was wide open in shock.
“Set the room to 36 degrees”
“Okay,” said Xiao Jing in the mirror shyly.
Yu Fan casually used one hand to cover his private part, then looked up at the ghost in the mirror, his face turned even redder. Li Mu said this ghost was a girl…
Li Mu finally finished cleaning off the vomit. He planned to take a shower soon, closed the toilet lid, sat down, and asked Yufan, “What did you encounter?”
“Can you not ask that right now? Let me rest a bit and put some clothes on first, okay?”
It’s okay, I guess… but you look so awkward right now, it’s hard not to tease you.
Li Mu stood up, glanced at Yu Fan again, and said once more, “So small.”
“It’s because of the cold! Usually it wraps around my waist!”
“Same,” Li Mu nodded calmly.
“Don’t forget to clean the bathroom. I’m taking a shower next,” he said while yawning and walking out. Then he stopped and turned back for a moment. “If you’re not going home tonight, just sleep in the living room. Xiao Jing won’t let you feel cold.”
With that, he slowly walked away to change clothes.
Being thrown up on really sucks. Even if it doesn’t smell, it still feels gross.
After wiping his body down with a towel and changing into clean clothes, Yu Fan also came out of the bathroom.
His face still looked terrible. When he saw Li Mu, he quickly told him everything that had just happened.
“That ghost really tried to kill me…”
Even though Yu Fan liked thrilling things, when it came to real danger, he reacted like a normal person, scared.
“That’s what you get for playing with death,” Li Mu said, counting on his fingers. “That’s the fourth ghost we’ve run into.”
“Weren’t ghosts supposed to be rare? Like, most people never see one their whole life?”
He gave Yu Fan a strange look. Yu Fan scratched his head awkwardly and said, “Maybe… my grandpa was wrong?”
And just like that, he blamed his dead grandpa.
Li Mu wanted to say something sarcastic about Yu Fan’s grandfather… but then he thought, What if his grandpa turns into a ghost and comes after him?