When Qin Shu woke up, he found himself still sitting at the head of the bed. He was not wearing any clothes, and the blankets were piled messily around him.
His posture was exactly the same as when he had been pulled into the ghost domain, as if the gears of time had stopped at that moment and only resumed moving once he opened his eyes.
Pei Zhao was sitting in his lap, glaring at him with reddened eyes. When he saw Qin Shu looking over in confusion, he reached out and viciously pinched the soft flesh at Qin Shu’s waist.
“Hiss, ow, ow, ow!” Qin Shu yelped but did not dodge. He only muttered softly with feigned innocence, “What… the past is already past. You said so yourself.”
As soon as he finished speaking, a string of crackling firecrackers sounded outside the window, mixed with the excited laughter of children throwing snap-pops.
The familiar scent of gunpowder seeped in through the gaps around the window, exactly the New Year smell Jiangcheng children loved most, almost as if it were echoing Qin Shu’s words.
“You were so pitiful. I don’t feel good.” Pei Zhao was silent for a moment before speaking softly.
Qin Shu froze, then abruptly understood.
They had already openly discussed what happened in Zhoujue Yin Heavenly Palace once before. Qin Shu knew perfectly well what kind of person he had been in his previous life, and Pei Zhao knew even better. Seeing everything with their own eyes really could cause serious psychological trauma, but the two of them had at least been prepared for that…
But Qin Shu had nearly overlooked one thing.
What Pei Zhao could see was not his own memories, but Qin Shu’s memories… No wonder Pei Zhao’s mood was so strange!
“Zhaozhao, um… did you see the memories of me being captured and taken into the underworld?” Qin Shu asked carefully. “I told you about it before. I used to dream about it in nightmares too… So those nightmares were real?”
“Mm.”
Pei Zhao answered dully. After a short silence, he said in a low, sinister voice, “If Fengdu had not already collapsed, I would personally tear it apart brick by brick today.”
“So fierce?” Qin Shu laughed, pulled him into his arms, and kissed him hard, rubbing his lips against the corner of Pei Zhao’s eye. “Then what am I supposed to say? If the me from my previous life weren’t already dead, should I personally dismantle my own skin, flesh, and bones in this life?”
“You were good to me before too,” Pei Zhao protested quietly.
“That is a pretty twisted thing to say, Pei Zhao.”
“…Anyway, you suffered more than I did.” Pei Zhao paused, dropped the debate over whether it was twisted, and defended himself in a small voice. “You went from being a Xiezhi to… being split in two by them. I thought there must have been some other reason, but they simply coveted your power. That was enough for them to ignore heavenly law and scheme against you like that.”
“Who were they? Major figures like the Northern Emperor over Zhoujue Yin?” Qin Shu asked thoughtfully.
“Mm. I hope you never have to remember any of it. They are all dead anyway. I killed them. And the power of creation that belonged to you has finally been returned to you now.”
Pei Zhao suddenly brought up killing people, then dismissed it just as quickly. He reached up and squeezed Qin Shu’s arm, then his face, as if repeatedly confirming the reality, stability, and completeness of this body…
“So they took the useful power from me for themselves, and they didn’t dare use the bad power… but they couldn’t bear to throw that away either, so I still had to stay in the underworld as some minor official, working day and night for them, living beside major felons, and doing nothing but high-risk jobs.” Qin Shu let Pei Zhao keep squeezing him while mentally sorting through this absurd chain of exploitation, then sighed. “See? I told you Zhoujue Yin’s system was feudal garbage.”
“It was. You never liked that place.” Pei Zhao finally smiled and replied in a ghostly, eerie tone, “They’re all dead now. Good.”
“Ahem… This time I agree.” Qin Shu fell silent for a moment and carefully studied his expression. Once he was sure Pei Zhao’s emotions had stabilized, he continued, “Let’s stop talking about depressing things. Want to do something else? It isn’t completely dark yet.”
Pei Zhao tilted his head, glanced at him, and said softly, “The Spring Festival Gala starts at eight.”
“Exactly. We still have a little time before that.” Qin Shu’s voice gradually lowered. His hand emerged from the tangled blankets and slowly traveled up Pei Zhao’s cold spine, closing neatly around the back of his neck. “Poor little dragon. Your neck got pierced right through…”
Pei Zhao’s breath caught. Every muscle in his body quietly tightened, and the red at the corners of his eyes spread uncontrollably again. He instinctively tried to bite down on his lip, only for Qin Shu to lean in and kiss him, slowly prying his lips apart again.
“Qin Shu, you… you can’t say things like that…” Pei Zhao could only protest quietly. With the back of his neck held, he could not move freely, and even his breathing seemed to grow hotter. “It gives me… a very strange feeling.”
“I can’t?” Qin Shu raised an eyebrow. His other hand silently moved up too, pressing against Pei Zhao’s cold chest and making trouble as it pleased.
“Little dragon, where is your seven-inch vital point? Here, or here?”
“…Neither. Don’t touch.”
“That won’t do. I don’t believe you.”
＊
The facts proved that Qin Shu found it far too easy to be bad to him.
Especially now that he clearly understood exactly how far his own lack of a bottom line could go… casually doing something a little wicked, something that still barely counted as having limits, was as effortless to Qin Shu as drinking water.
At least that inexplicable sense of morality had finally quieted down instead of setting off alarm bells every few minutes. Why would dating require morals? Pei Zhao liked it when Qin Shu occasionally had none anyway.
The first time had been complete concentration on love and affection. The second was pure bullying after discovering how good it felt. Firecrackers exploded outside the house while another kind of battle raged inside… When Qin Shu saw the bite mark on his own face in the bathroom mirror, he was absurdly pleased.
Managing to make Pei Zhao bite him once, heh. Another achievement unlocked on the life checklist.
He lazily picked up his phone and took a selfie, sitting on the edge of the bathtub without getting in. “Feel better?”
Pei Zhao’s head slowly emerged from beneath the water. He silently nodded.
During this lovely late-winter cold snap, he had submerged himself in an entire tub of ice water, even putting his head under. Qin Shu found this kind of deranged behavior completely beyond him.
Pei Zhao had dragged him into the water once and chilled him so badly Qin Shu almost thought he was going back to hell. He hurriedly escaped and took a proper hot shower. Only then did the bathroom gain a little warm post-intimacy atmosphere… instead of looking like Serial Killer Qin’s temporary corpse-preservation room.
Faced with that complaint, Pei Zhao firmly insisted that manual cooling was absolutely necessary.
If he did not soak in ice water for a while, with the emotions Qin Shu had stirred up in him, he could sit on Qin Shu for another ten years and then explode from overload.
Mm… considering the scale of an evil ghost’s impossible-to-satisfy appetites, Qin Shu was certain Pei Zhao was not exaggerating.
Fireworks flashed outside the window. Qin Shu checked the time, reached into the tub, and hauled out his freezing boyfriend. After being chilled again, he quickly wrapped Pei Zhao in a fluffy bath towel and switched on the hair dryer, blasting both of their hair dry at once.
“Hungry?” Qin Shu tilted his head and asked over the noise. “How about we make a quick trip back to No. 2 High? It’s New Year’s Eve. We can fish out some of your refrigerated provisions for you to eat.”
“I’m very full.”
“Hm?”
“…Mm. I ate enough.” Pei Zhao’s voice was extremely soft, but Qin Shu heard every word perfectly clearly.
“What did you ea—oh.”
Qin Shu stopped halfway through the question and immediately shut his mouth. His hand holding the dryer went stiff for several seconds before he continued as though nothing had happened.
Once their hair was dry and they had put on somewhat respectable clothes, Qin Shu hurried into the living room and turned on the television.
“Ao Wang, come back and watch the Spring Festival Gala.”
He leisurely sent the message to the white dragon by voice transmission. Unexpectedly, the white dragon answered instantly, its tone full of grievance. “Oh, you remember to call me now? How come you two didn’t screw yourselves to death in bed…”
“Hey, hey. It’s New Year’s Eve. Watch your language and don’t say such unlucky things.” Qin Shu laughed and, in an excellent mood, shot back, “All I did was make you stay at the Dragon Palace a little longer. Is it really that serious? I’ve never seen you miss home this much before.”
“Is this about missing home?!” the white dragon snarled through clenched teeth. “Oh, I get it. Pei Zhao definitely didn’t tell you what happened… The river flooded. A huge flood. I ran myself ragged all afternoon and couldn’t suppress it no matter what I did. The waves broke several of my bones, and then what happened? You two sweetly kissed each other and, hey, the water instantly went back down! Are you messing with me?!”
It really was furious. The shouting practically shook Qin Shu’s brain.
“…Ahem. I don’t think Pei Zhao necessarily noticed either. At least today, neither of us really noticed.” The more Qin Shu listened, the guiltier he felt. “Fine. Come back and eat New Year’s Eve dinner first. I’ll have him light a few extra sticks of incense for you tonight.”
“That’s more like it.”
The white dragon answered irritably. A few seconds later, it had already landed in the courtyard, nudged open the window with its head, and shoved its enormous pair of horns inside. Its speed was impressive.
To avoid the attacking waves, it had clearly been hiding at the bottom of the river the whole time and had not dared use its power casually, afraid of provoking the “strange” force lingering through the water… The entire dragon had been soaked through.
Its wet white-jade body had not yet shed all the water. Illuminated by the brilliant fireworks outside, it looked exceptionally fresh and glossy.
Aside from the resentment filling its eyes, the whole scene actually had a certain artistic charm.
Then it saw Pei Zhao lazily coming downstairs in a thick, bright-red sweatshirt, wrapped from head to toe in a soft cashmere blanket, wearing the thoroughly satisfied air of someone for whom apparently nothing had happened and yet absolutely everything had happened… The white dragon immediately started muttering internally again.
“Hey. Were you really the one who made the river rise?”
Pei Zhao froze, tilted his head, paused for a moment, then calmly nodded. “Mm.”
White Dragon: …
Seeing the suffocated expression of something that desperately wanted to curse but did not dare, Qin Shu burst out laughing. He took several sticks of dragon-saliva incense and stuffed them into Pei Zhao’s hand. “Feed the kid something good. You put it through a lot today.”
“As the master of a Dragon Palace, if you enjoy the height of luxury, then you must also bear the duty of defending your territory and responding to every unpredictable disaster. The more dangerous and difficult something is to resist, the more you must stand at the very front and shelter your people from wind and rain.” Pei Zhao spoke blandly as he accepted the incense and candles and set up the little offering table at home.
There was one bowl each of fish, meat, rice, and noodles, and three cups each of fine wine and good tea. The white dragon listened in silence while tactfully shrinking itself down, jumping onto the offering table, curling up behind the food and drink, and serving as its own “divine tablet.”
Pei Zhao lit the candles and incense, placing the sticks into the burner three at a time as he looked at it. “Remember this. Even Dragon Mother, at the most deranged point of Her mental state, never made subordinates take our blades for Her… What you did today was decent. You didn’t embarrass yourself. With me as precedent, if villains attack the Dragon Palace again, it should no longer be anything worth fearing.”
The white dragon muttered, “What villain would still dare come cause trouble… You’re the biggest villain in Jiangcheng!”
“Mm.”
Pei Zhao calmly agreed again. Watching the white dragon choke into silence, he curved his lips slightly. “Eat.”
No matter how unruly the white dragon acted, only after Pei Zhao said those words did it truly dare begin its meal.
Once one dragon’s dinner was handled, the rest of the little ones received lavish treatment too.
Great General and Yuanbao had similar tastes. Both were extremely easy to feed, while simultaneously being the kind that could eat endless good things without ever seeming full.
Qin Shu opened the large jar of premium Gu insects Chen Shui had sent over and let the two of them stay in the clay jar tonight and feast to their hearts’ content.
Coalball, meanwhile, returned from No. 2 High leading its entire crowd. A huge flock of clear-eyed, eagle-bodied little ghosts stood neatly across every branch, all wearing an assortment of unfamiliar human faces. Qin Shu’s courtyard instantly became Haunted House 2.0.
Yin energy spread everywhere, mixed with an indescribable “predator” aura. Even the scattered stray souls wandering within a hundred meters retreated and did not dare approach.
Looked at another way, Coalball bringing its whole extended family along really did give Qin Shu’s home a special sort of New Year reunion atmosphere.
Qin Shu, at least, was extremely satisfied. Delighted, he grabbed the little puffball, squeezed it, set it on his shoulder, then headed into the kitchen and turned on the stove.
To make sure their afternoon would not be interrupted, they had started the soup before leaving that morning, and the rice had been set on a timer. Heating up the dishes Aunt Su had sent and stir-frying a few more would be more than enough. After all, the only person in the house who truly needed to eat human food was Qin Shu.
He tossed sliced shiitake mushrooms into the wok with the browned chicken thighs, stir-fried everything over high heat, added sauce, covered it to simmer, then finally tilted his head toward Coalball pacing back and forth on his shoulder.
“Getting impatient?”
Coalball poked his cheek with one tiny wing and bravely confirmed that yes, it was.
“Mm, your food really is harder to arrange. There have been especially few ghosts around Jiangcheng lately…” Qin Shu pretended to be troubled. Only when the wing poking his face grew increasingly forceful did he raise an eyebrow and continue, “How about this? After dinner, we’ll watch a comedy sketch or two, then I’ll take you over to the east side of the city. Want to set off fireworks in the cemetery behind the church?”
Cemetery. The instant that word appeared, Coalball visibly became excited.
“Going to a cemetery to set off fireworks on New Year’s Eve… and you have the nerve to criticize me for saying unlucky things.” The white dragon rolled its eyes in speechless disbelief.
“We aren’t only setting off fireworks. We’re making sure Coalball gets a proper New Year’s Eve dinner too. Huge difference.”
Qin Shu corrected it seriously, carried over the finished mushroom-and-chicken dish, ladled up a generous spoonful of sauce, and poured it over the white dragon’s rice at the offering table. Steam billowed upward, rich with fragrance.
The white dragon fell silent for a moment, then said darkly, “You know I can eat normally, right? I can even sit at the dining table. You don’t need to offer all my food here like I’m some ghost.”
“But this is fun. It feels like feeding a little pet.” Qin Shu answered just as matter-of-factly. “Like playing some otherworld management game.”
The white dragon rolled its eyes again, then furiously took the entire bowl into its mouth and crunched it to pieces along with the food.
“Pretty good, right? That sauce is Ms. Qin’s secret recipe. She guards it like treasure. I told her I wanted to cook for my boyfriend before she finally shared the seasoning list with me. Extremely stingy.” Qin Shu waved the ladle. “Want some chicken too? If you don’t, there won’t be any left later.”
“…I want some.”
Qin Shu gave a smug little laugh. The second time he served food to the white dragon, he raised his phone and filmed a short video of it pouncing on dinner while narrating, “Mom, look. Both dragons in our family are completely obsessed with your secret recipe. Next time you go burn incense, remember to bring a whole basin of food. Guaranteed to improve the effectiveness of your wishes.”
As Qin Shu spoke, he swung the camera toward Pei Zhao beside the coffee table. Pei Zhao happened to be biting into a fresh shiitake mushroom bursting with juice. When he noticed the camera, he froze for a long moment before softly saying, “Hello, Auntie.”
At the same time, the lazy, thoroughly satisfied aura around him vanished almost instantly.
On camera, Pei Zhao was exactly the kind of well-behaved child parents loved most. A textbook “someone else’s kid”: quiet, polite, beautiful, and wearing red, extremely pleasing to look at… He just needed to gain a little weight.
But not being quite plump enough was also the ultimate weapon for winning parental affection.
Only ten minutes after Qin Shu sent the video, Ms. Qin, in another time zone and barely awake at dawn, directly transferred a huge amount of money and told Qin Shu to take Pei Zhao out for more good food, not to be stingy and embarrass the Qin family.
Because Pei Zhao’s presence had been amplified infinitely, one look at the video and the sleepy Ms. Qin completely ignored the white dragon curled up on the offering table. She even ignored Qin Shu’s improper habit of eating dinner in the living room and focused entirely on sending money for the child.
Handled.
Qin Shu happily accepted the enormous New Year money, transferred half to Pei Zhao, then took the sizzling rack of ribs out of the oven.
He did not even need oven mitts and simply grabbed the scorching tray directly. “Now this is a proper hard dish. Zhaozhao, help me put the trivet in the middle… wow, that smells incredible.”
Pei Zhao pushed the prepared trivet into place, casually tossed the flower vase from the coffee table onto the offering table and startled the white dragon, and just like that, their overflowing New Year’s Eve dinner was ready.
The good thing about having no adults at home was being able to eat on the sofa, sitting around the television and eating while they watched.
Fewer and fewer people watched television nowadays, but Qin Shu had kept the habit and actually disliked watching livestreams on a computer. Maybe the house used to be too quiet, so he had always needed a little background noise. It was much livelier now… but he still preferred even more liveliness.
Of course, the courtyard was not the only lively place tonight. The coffee table serving as their dining table was just as crowded.
Alongside all the proper dinner dishes was a huge amount of dessert. An enormous ice-cream sundae and baked caramel pudding could sit on the table at the same time.
Aside from the New Year’s Eve limited-edition pastries Lin Shi Yu had sent, every other dessert had been made by Pei Zhao himself. His efficiency was astonishing, and he had not interfered with Qin Shu’s cooking progress at all.
Because he used an alchemy furnace.
Yes. He did not use an oven. He used an alchemy furnace. With recipes he had casually learned during winter camp and a few heavenly treasures added as seasoning, things that would make an ordinary person explode if eaten, Pei Zhao could casually produce desserts in an alchemy furnace.
He was not especially skilled at alchemy itself, but the ability to learn by analogy was forever an essential skill of every genius. Qin Shu even took a photo and sent it to Daoist Lord Sifang with the caption: “A genius among geniuses.”
Daoist Lord Sifang replied with three question marks, apparently not understanding. A few minutes later, he sent three exclamation marks. Presumably he understood now.
Only then was Qin Shu satisfied. He turned the television louder, picked up a roasted rib as if he were about to bite into it, then suddenly turned and stole the ice cream off Pei Zhao’s spoon instead.
The instant the flavor touched his tongue, his eyes widened in shock. “Wait, no, how is this actually this good?! Zhaozhao, you could go set up a street stall right now. Set a small target: earn a hundred thousand tonight and come back. Maybe it still won’t even be dark when you get home.”
Pei Zhao had heard endless praise throughout his life, but this bizarre form of compliment still made him pause. After a moment, he said faintly, “Do you know there are many ways to eat ice cream?”
“…Hm?” Qin Shu did not follow. He took the opportunity to steal Pei Zhao’s spoon and scooped up another bite.
“Apparently, ice cream tastes very good on you. And on me too.”
Pei Zhao slowly finished speaking, paused, realized what he had just said, and unexpectedly looked away for a moment before quickly shifting the blame. “King Yingde taught me.”
Qin Shu: …
“I can’t with him. That yellow dragon is the wildest one of the lot!”