Chapter 17

Gu Shuge’s mouth was more honest than her brain, and she immediately blurted out, “I like you too!”

The moment the words left her mouth, she turned red from head to toe like a cooked shrimp. She could even feel scalding heat on her pale, transparent face. Gu Shuge hurriedly covered her mouth and looked at Shen Juan in terror, afraid that she might have heard.

Shen Juan heard nothing.

She received no response at all. In the empty study, there was only her. If another person saw this scene, they would only see her leaning against the door, speaking to thin air.

Once Gu Shuge imagined that, her hand slowly lowered.

Shen Juan seemed to have already soothed her own emotions. She went to the computer, searched for a movie, and opened it, saying to the empty air, “I’m going to rest for a while. Stay here and watch something.”

Gu Shuge said, “Okay,” and sat properly in the chair.

Shen Juan’s hand left the mouse. She shifted her gaze above the chair and paused for a moment. She said nothing, then left, even closing the door behind her.

Under her gaze, Gu Shuge’s nervous, transparent form had gone rigid. Only after the door closed did she let out a small breath and turn to watch the video.

She watched for about three minutes.

Gu Shuge rubbed her face in distress. Her face was still burning even now, all because of Shen Juan’s words: “But I… have never disliked you.”

Not “disliked” meant “liked.” Gu Shuge had an excellent grasp of double negatives.

This was Sister’s affection for a younger sister. As Gu Shuge rubbed her face, she hurriedly warned herself not to overthink it. Shen Juan definitely liked her. Otherwise, what was she doing now? She had left the inheritance she had just received unsettled, left such a large business unmanaged, and spent every day running between the mortuary, the police station, and all sorts of temples, whether they were efficacious or not.

She definitely liked her.

Gu Shuge’s heart felt sweet, but also a little sour.

And her face grew hotter and hotter. No matter how she told herself that Shen Juan’s liking was merely an older sister’s liking, she still could not control the heat rising in her face.

This was exactly why she had insisted on keeping her distance, insisted on not meeting or calling Shen Juan. Because in front of Shen Juan, she could not control herself at all. Forget four years; perhaps in just four days, she would have exposed all her feelings completely.

Unable to bring down the temperature on her face, Gu Shuge had no choice but to use the ultimate move she was very unwilling to use. Silently, she recited: You’re already a ghost. You don’t have such rich human emotions anymore.

She recited it three times.

It still did not work.

This move, which had always worked like a charm, had actually failed at the crucial moment.

Gu Shuge could only accept her fate. With a face so hot it was almost cooked through, she sat up straight and watched the video Shen Juan had played for her.

She watched for two hours, yet she did not know what era the movie was set in, what the plotline was, who the protagonist was, or when the video ended. Every scene projected into her eyes was automatically replaced by Shen Juan’s appearance.

She began growing restless. Just because of Shen Juan’s “I have never disliked you,” she could not calm down no matter what. It was as if her chest had been hollowed out and a lively little deer had been stuffed inside, crashing wildly in every direction.

It must be because they had been separated for too long before. So much so that even though she had been by Shen Juan’s side almost every moment these past few days, it was still not enough to make up for the four years they had spent apart.

She wanted to see her.

Gu Shuge rose from the chair and drifted out of the study.

Two servants were cleaning the living room. Gu Shuge walked past them, and no one noticed her existence.

When she reached the outside of Shen Juan’s bedroom, she circled around for a while but still did not dare go in.

If she had no other feelings for Shen Juan, then going in would not matter. After all, they were both girls; there was nothing wrong with looking at each ​bailiantales.com​other a little. But once those feelings existed, it was different.

She would feel guilty.

After thinking it over, Gu Shuge still walked away and entered the room next door.

That was her bedroom.

As expected, the bedroom was clean, with not a speck of dust. The curtains were open. Snow was falling outside, and a few flakes hit the window and melted, blurring the glass so the scenery outside could not be seen clearly.

With her back to the window, Gu Shuge looked around this spacious bedroom and unexpectedly found it very unfamiliar. She stood there for a while, then walked to the bookshelf and saw that pile of books related to criminal investigation. They were all arranged very neatly. There were also other books, a messy variety of novels, biographies, history, essays, and even all kinds of reference books.

Gu Shuge remembered that when she left, she had simply stuffed them in casually, but now they were sorted by category. If she had seen this before, she probably would have assumed the servants had organized them while cleaning. But now, she thought it was probably Shen Juan.

The bookshelf was at one end of the window, with a lounge chair in front of it. At the other end of the window was a round table, with round stools beside it. The arrangement was very light and lively.

Gu Shuge sat on a round stool and saw a bottle of ink, a fountain pen, and a stack of papers on the table. It had been so long that she could no longer remember what had originally been placed here. She only naturally assumed these were things she had left there before and did not pay much attention.

Only when her gaze swept across the stack of papers and she saw Shen Juan’s handwriting did she realize that these should belong to Shen Juan.

Why would Shen Juan come to her bedroom to write things?

Was it because she was too lazy to go downstairs to the study, so she used Gu Shuge’s bedroom as a temporary place to work and write?

Gu Shuge was curious. She leaned forward to see what was written on the paper. As soon as she leaned over, most of her body sank into the table, and then she saw the contents on the paper clearly.

It was a character analysis. Gu Shuge knew this character. They came from a novella. Gu Shuge had read that novella. Not only had she read it, she had even complained to Shen Juan about one of the characters inside. This character analysis was about that very character.

At the time, Shen Juan had listened to her seriously until she finished. Then, after thinking for a moment, she said, “I haven’t read this one. After I read it, I’ll exchange opinions with you.”

Shen Juan had always been this rational. She did not easily express opinions on things she did not understand. Unfortunately, a few days later, Gu Shuge overheard her brother proposing to Shen Juan, and from then on, they never discussed this novel again.

Shen Juan’s handwriting was just like her person, carrying a cold, decisive quality between the strokes. Gu Shuge read it slowly, word by word. Her attention on the handwriting itself far exceeded her attention on the contents.

Only after she had read every word completely did she place her attention on the content and look at how Shen Juan had analyzed this character.

This stack of papers was nearly as thick as a notebook. Gu Shuge read the analysis on top from beginning to end four or five times before a great sense of regret arose in her. Because she could not touch objects, she could not turn the papers over and look at what was written beneath.

Words could always arouse a person’s curiosity and imagination, because words could transmit a person’s thoughts and feelings.

Gu Shuge stared at that stack of papers for a long while.

A faint sound of a door opening came from next door.

Shen Juan had woken up.

Gu Shuge immediately tossed the stack of papers to the back of her mind. She passed through the bedroom door and went outside. Shen Juan had just reached the staircase. Gu Shuge followed her.

After sleeping for a while, Shen Juan’s complexion looked much better. She went downstairs and headed directly to the study. The study computer was still on, and naturally, the video had already finished playing long ago.

Shen Juan looked toward the chair in front of the computer. She probably thought Gu Shuge was still sitting obediently in the chair, waiting for her to return.

So Gu Shuge walked over and sat down, so that Shen Juan would happen to be looking right at her.

“Was it good?” Shen Juan asked the chair.

“Let’s watch it again next time. I wasn’t paying attention this time,” Gu Shuge answered.

Shen Juan sat in the chair she had sat in last night and said, “Later, let’s try again and see whether we can find a way to ‘talk.’”

Over the past few days, they had tried many methods. Aside from the first attempt to write in incense ash, there had also been writing in cinnabar, writing on mirrors, and many others. None had succeeded.

After failing so many times, Gu Shuge was nearly numb to it, but she still said, “Okay.”

“I want to try letting you possess me,” Shen Juan said again.

Gu Shuge’s expression changed at once. Although they had tried many things before, they had all been relatively gentle methods. If they succeeded, that would be good; if they failed, there would not be any frightening consequences.

Possession was different. If possession was not done well, it could affect the chosen body!

Gu Shuge objected. “No! I don’t agree! Hurry and give up that idea!”

“All right. Since you agreed, then it’s decided. We’ll wait until nightfall,” Shen Juan said without changing expression.

She had forcibly made the decision for her. How could she be this domineering? Gu Shuge could only state it again. “I didn’t agree. I won’t cooperate!” After thinking for a moment, she added, “Hurry and throw that book away.”

This method of possession had also been introduced in the book brought back from Guangping Temple. If it succeeded, then two souls could coexist within one body. In order to seize a new body, some ghosts would forcibly possess someone with a lighter fate, then devour the original soul inside the body and completely occupy that vessel.

Of course, Shen Juan was not asking Gu Shuge to possess her because she wanted to feed herself to her. Rather, she wanted them to communicate within the same body. Moreover, possession had another advantage: it could hide yin energy and evade capture by underworld officials.

It was probably because last night, Gu Shuge’s yin stolen content malevolence had surged and frightened Shen Juan. She was worried it would attract underworld officials who would take Gu Shuge away.

They seemed to be asking and answering each other, but in truth, Shen Juan was only speaking to the air.

Gu Shuge had originally had no opinion about that book. But now that Shen Juan wanted to try a dangerous method, she suddenly felt that this book was completely feudal superstition and not worth keeping.

All at once, she resonated with the head of a family whose loved ones had been deceived by feudal dregs. For a moment, she forgot that Shen Juan could not hear her and spoke a long string of words in one breath.

“That book must be fake. Look, we’ve tried so many methods, and none of them worked. Besides, I’ve already been a ghost for seven or eight days, but I haven’t seen any ghosts besides myself. Even in a place like the mortuary, where bodies are stored, I didn’t see any other ghosts. Things like underworld officials and yin malevolence might just be made up to trick people. I’m the one and only ghost in the world, so the methods in that book are all useless on me. Don’t believe it.”