Chapter 200: Another Confession
Yu Fan sat on the floor mat, playing with his phone out of boredom.
From time to time, his eyes would drift to Li Mu, who wasn’t far away, and then to Xiao Jing, who was hugging Li Mu like an octopus.
"Do ghosts need to sleep too?" He whispered to himself, feeling a bit jealous of Xiao Jing’s arm resting around Li Mu’s waist.
Usually, he stayed up until 3 or 4 a.m. during holidays, but Li Mu hadn’t taken a nap that day, so she had gone to sleep around 10 p.m. She was even grinding her teeth a little, and didn’t seem to be sleeping very well.
His computer was in the living room, and the study was too close to it. If he typed on the keyboard, it might wake Li Mu. So he just sat there playing with his phone.
The only light in the room came from the moon outside the window. In the quiet darkness, Yu Fan carefully lay down on the mat.
The mat was large. Even with three people lying on it, there was still a lot of space. He glanced at how close Li Mu was, just an arm’s reach away, and slowly scooted a little closer to her.
Li Mu had a light, pleasant smell. In the past, it had a ghostly scent, but now, it had a mix of something that made a man feel excited.
It made Yu Fan a little dizzy.
He turned to his side and, using the faint moonlight, looked at Li Mu’s beautiful face.
He couldn’t help but reach out and gently touch her cheek. It was soft, smooth, and bouncy. An amazing feeling.
He had never touched another girl’s face before, but he thought this was probably even better than his little brother’s skin before he hit puberty.
Back then, his little brother’s skin was great, chubby and soft, and touching it felt really nice.
Maybe he moved too much, because suddenly Li Mu let out a soft sound, scaring Yu Fan into quickly pulling his hand back and placing it neatly by his side. He lay flat and closed his eyes like nothing happened.
Li Mu only turned over and kept grinding her teeth.
“I don’t even know how you got this teeth-grinding habit,” Yu Fan muttered softly, turning his head slightly to look at Li Mu, who was now lying facing him.
But then he was shocked to see her big, bright eyes open, and looking at him with a faint smile.
"When did you wake up?" he asked, feeling guilty.
"When you touched my face."
Her sleep was that light? He had just touched her cheek!
Yu Fan grumbled in his head but replied awkwardly, "I couldn’t help it."
"You can’t control anything," Li Mu said, giving him a glance before yawning. "What time is it?"
"A little after midnight."
"Mm."
Li Mu slowly sat up from the floor mat and walked toward the bathroom.
She hadn’t taken a shower that night, so she felt uncomfortable in bed. Yu Fan’s small movements had woken her up.
Normally, even though she was a light sleeper, she wouldn’t wake up this easily.
After using the bathroom and washing her face, Li Mu leaned against the wall outside the bathroom and looked at the floor mat in the living room.
Xiao Jing was sleeping soundly. Although neither she nor Yu Fan understood why a ghost needed to sleep, it was now basically just the two of them in the room.
Before, it was technically the two of them too, but there had always been a ghost hanging around.
"Yu Fan, it’s the New Year now."
She looked out the dark window. She had wanted to stay up for New Year’s Eve with Yu Fan, but she got too sleepy and fell asleep halfway through.
"Yeah."
Yu Fan got up from the floor, put on his slippers, grabbed a jacket from the sofa, and walked over to put it around Li Mu’s shoulders.
The weather had gotten much colder. Because of the cold wave, the temperature had dropped to single digits in the past few days.
Li Mu didn’t refuse his kind gesture. Instead, she wrapped the jacket around herself more tightly and asked with a bit of worry, "What if Grandpa notices it’s a wig?"
"Doesn’t your grandpa have bad eyesight?"
"He’s not blind though," Li Mu muttered.
"Tomorrow we’ll visit Grandpa... Oh, and we also need to go to Lin Xi’s parents’ place. Then... maybe we can go watch a movie together?"
"There’s nothing interesting in theaters lately," Yu Fan replied. He wasn’t very into movies.
He leaned against the wall too and looked down at Li Mu beside him. "Wife."
"......"
Li Mu was silent for a moment, then looked up with a helpless face.
"That’s childish."
To her, they were still just boyfriend and girlfriend. Calling each other “husband” and “wife” sounded like the playful romance of middle school kids.
"But other people have nicknames or cute names for each other. How about I call you Mumu?"
"Forget it." Li Mu turned her head with a look of disgust. "You’re so dumb, I might as well call you dummy."
If Yu Fan weren’t so dumb, he would have been a "player" already, Why would he need to wait until he was eighteen to get a girlfriend?
She had just planned to chat a bit and then go back to sleep, but she realized she wasn’t sleepy anymore.
So she walked straight to the dining room, turned on the small light, and sat down.
They had only eaten about half of the big dinner earlier. Li Mu grabbed some bowls and chopsticks, put a few dishes into the microwave, and asked Yu Fan, "Wanna talk while we eat?"
"Sure."
Yu Fan happily helped out, but then suddenly heard Li Mu ask.
"What do you like about me?"
"Um..." His hands froze in place, and he looked at her awkwardly.
"Most people would lose interest if they knew I used to be a guy, right?" Li Mu looked at him curiously.
She had been keeping this question inside for a long time. She never understood what exactly made her attractive.
If it was about looks. Sure, she was prettier than most girls. But the truth was, as long as a girl had a decent face and a good body, with some makeup she could look beautiful too.
And with Yu Fan’s looks, he could easily find a girlfriend who looked like an internet celebrity.
Plus, compared to most girls, she still had a bit of a guy’s personality and habits.
She really didn’t get why Yu Fan didn’t care about her past, didn’t mind her cold and distant personality, and ended up choosing her over so many other girls.
Yu Fan had wanted to avoid the question, but when he saw Li Mu’s big eyes staring at his face, he knew he had to give a real answer.
"Wait, are you gay? Did you already like me when I was still a guy?" Li Mu suddenly asked.
"What? Of course not! If I were gay, then after you became a girl I wouldn’t be into you anymore."
"Or was it just a curiosity?"
“......"
Yu Fan didn’t like that word, but he couldn’t think of a good argument against it either.
He thought for a while and then slowly said, "Maybe it’s because... we investigated things together, fought ghosts together, got hurt together... and over time, I just started to like you."
"I guess..." His face turned a little red. "I really liked that feeling of fighting side by side. And you’re different from other girls... especially when talking about games..."
"That’s it?" Li Mu looked a little unhappy with his answer.
"Because you always have that cold face, so when you smile or get shy... I really like it. It always makes my heart race.”
“So, I will do everything in my power to make you happy. I hope I can be the person who gets to enjoy those glimpses of your warmth and wants to keep them safe."
Li Mu suddenly realized this felt like Yu Fan was confessing his love to her all over again.