Chapter 30

Ji Wuxin’s body grew hotter and hotter. Accustomed to her perpetually icy chill, she couldn’t help furrowing her brows. But the sweet taste lingering on her lips left her too distracted to spare any effort maintaining her cool temperature. She let herself burn and boil over, nipping and licking at the person beneath her.

It was utterly without method or skill.

In a haze, Song Qian felt like she’d been nipped a few times by some small animal—itchy and a little painful.

“Song Sensen.”

“Hm?”

Satisfied with her nibbling, Ji Wuxin buried her face in that soft expanse and took a deep breath of its fragrance. “Don’t look at anyone else. Not even ghosts.”

A surging wave of possessiveness flooded her mind, nearly overwhelming her reason. Song Sensen had to be hers alone.

Song Qian was forced to tilt her head back, her hands pinned together above her head by a slender, distinctly boned palm. She tried to sit up but couldn’t muster the strength, reduced to enduring the fuzzy itch at her chest.

“Am I pretty?” Ji Wuxin asked again.

Song Qian’s mind flashed to that face that always left her dazed. She answered honestly, “Yes.”

“Prettier than Ji Shixing?”

“You’re prettier… mm~”

“Will you only look at me from now on?”

“…Okay.”

~~~

“Knock knock knock—”

“Sensen, Uncle Ji is here.”

“Sensen? Still not up yet?”

“This girl probably stayed up late again last night. She’s not awake yet. Little Ji, come have some breakfast first.”

“Alright.”

The voices outside the door gradually faded away. Song Qian poked her head out from under the covers. The sunlight filtering through the curtains was a bit blinding, so she lifted a hand to shield her eyes.

As the blanket slipped down, the sudden awareness of her bare skin snapped her mind awake for a moment.

Where were her clothes?

She shook her head, which felt like it had after a hangover. She didn’t remember sleeping naked last night.

A pale arm reached out from beside her and draped over her body. Then a warm, soft form pressed against her back. Song Qian froze, her eyes widening.

There… there was someone else in her bed!?

“Sleep a little longer.” The person rested her head on Song Qian’s shoulder, her voice a bit husky.

That voice sounded familiar.

Song Qian stiffly turned her head. The woman’s face was flushed with color, her eyes still closed, long lashes fluttering occasionally. A touch of vivid red at the corner of her eye lent her an air of delicate allure.

It hit her all at once—last night, Ji Wuxin had torn off her face right in front of her. So this was Ji Wuxin!?

Perhaps sensing the intensity of Song Qian’s gaze, Ji Wuxin furrowed her brows slightly and slowly opened her eyes.

Their gazes met. Song Qian secretly swallowed.

Ji Wuxin mischievously lifted a hand and lightly pressed it to Song Qian’s throat, her brow arching. “Dazed by me?”

Sure enough, that female ghost had been right—Song Sensen liked her like this. Though she didn’t quite understand what had been wrong with her original ghost face, it was clear now that Song Sensen had zero resistance to this one.

Song Qian turned her head away, refusing to look. “No.”

“Why are you in my bed?” As Song Qian spoke, her upper and lower lips inevitably brushed, and her lower one stung oddly.

She touched the sore spot and let out a soft hiss.

Ji Wuxin’s gaze drifted down to those slightly swollen lips—the marks she’d left last night. The wound had already scabbed over.

“What are you looking at? You still haven’t answered me.” Song Qian gave her a strange look, then reached for the mirror on the bedside table.

“Last night…”

“Don’t talk yet!” Song Qian cut her off sharply, pulling the mirror closer.

What!? What was this!?

Her lips were split, her eyes were red, and there were even a few scattered marks on her neck.

Last night…

Song Qian glanced at herself, then at the equally naked Ji Wuxin. What had happened last night!? Did she even need to guess!?

In despair, she flopped back onto the bed and pulled the covers over her face.

She’d gone to bed with a ghost. Oh, no—a jade spirit.

She was pretty, sure, but—

A faint stuffiness settled in Song Qian’s chest. If she had a choice, she’d have preferred her first time to be with an ordinary girl.

And there was another issue…

Ji Wuxin reached out to tug at the corner of the blanket, but Song Qian suddenly popped her head out. Her gaze darted away, cheeks flushing faintly. “You… last night, who was on top?”

Ji Wuxin: “?”

What did that mean?

Song Qian frowned at her bewildered expression. Was this question that hard? Sure, she had all those little marks while Ji Wuxin was spotless, but she still wanted clarity before she died.

“What do you mean… on top?” Ji Wuxin racked her brain for last night’s scene. She’d been pinning Song Qian down for those kisses. Was that it?

Hesitantly, she pointed to herself. “Me?”

Song Qian narrowed her eyes at her. I did it, so why the uncertain tone?

Great. Not only did she have zero memory of the first time she’d been looking forward to, but she’d apparently been the one on the bottom.

She was seriously annoyed.

Uncle Ji was waiting outside. She couldn’t stay holed up in her room.

She started to get up and find some clothes, but her peripheral vision caught Ji Wuxin still staring at her.

“You go out first.”

Ji Wuxin unconsciously licked her lips. “Why?”

It might have been an innocent gesture on her part, but to Song Qian, it was utterly seductive. Imagine someone staring at you like they were starving after you’d done something intimate—chills ran down her spine no matter how she thought about it.

Song Qian snatched the thin blanket from the floor, barely wrapping herself before fleeing to the bathroom like her life depended on it.

Ji Wuxin blinked innocently. She hadn’t done anything.

~~~

A few minutes later.

“Ji Wuxin!”

An angry roar came from the bathroom.

Song Qian emerged fully dressed, her face several shades darker. She pointed at the unmistakable marks on her neck, glaring at the person still lounging on the bed.

“How am I supposed to go out like this?”

Ji Wuxin crawled over on the bed and leaned in close to her face for a look, even reaching out to touch them.

“Where’d these come from? Who hit you?”

Song Qian: “…”

With the evidence right there, what was she playing at?

“Don’t you know what you did last night?”

The reminder sparked a memory in Ji Wuxin’s mind—of herself buried in Song Qian’s neck, biting away. Yeah, those were definitely her doing.

Her eyes curved in delight. Ji Wuxin tilted her head and planted another kiss on Song Qian’s outstretched neck.

“I did that.”

Song Qian’s face exploded red as she jumped back. “You… you…”

How could she be so nonchalant!?

She took several deep breaths. No point arguing with Ji Wuxin anymore— she’d just end up more worked up.

She picked out a shirt that mostly covered them. Even with her hair down to help conceal, a couple of marks were still visible at a glance.

Ji Wuxin rummaged in Song Qian’s closet and pulled on a white dress. She looked utterly harmless—and stunningly beautiful.

Song Qian ground her teeth and shot her a glare before heading out.

She ran into Lin Qing at the top of the stairs, who had just gotten up too.

“Uh, morn…” Lin Qing’s words caught in his throat. His gaze shifted awkwardly away—he’d clearly spotted something he shouldn’t have. “Morning.”

Song Qian clenched her fists and forced a smile. “Morning.”

Downstairs, Grandma Song and Ji Jiusheng had just finished breakfast and were chatting happily.

Song Qian walked over as if nothing was amiss and took a seat across from them. She ate the breakfast Grandma had prepared, keeping her head down and fiddling with her phone.

“Sensen, why didn’t you even say hi when Uncle Ji got here?”

Lin Qing picked up on her embarrassment and stretched his leg under the table to nudge her shoe.

Song Qian paused mid-chew and shot him a shocked sideways glance. What was with him? In her memory, Lin Qing wasn’t the type to be so cheeky.

In fact, he’d done it on purpose. The bowl he lifted hid the grin he was fighting.

“Sensen?”

Song Qian was always polite around elders. At Grandma Song’s call, she immediately looked up.

Damn.

Sure enough, Grandma Song and Uncle Ji’s expressions stiffened. Their gazes locked on the same spot.

“What’s wrong, Grandma?” As long as she wasn’t embarrassed, it was everyone else’s problem.

Grandma Song gave her a look full of exasperated disappointment and set down her milk, no longer drinking.

Ji Jiusheng, however, grinned and handed Song Qian an extra egg. “Eat more, Sensen. You’ve gotten skinny lately.”

It looked like his sister had landed herself a wife. Not bad for his little sister—good job.

Ji Wuxin came downstairs just then and saw Ji Jiusheng handing Song Qian the egg. Her face darkened. With a flicker, she appeared and shoved the egg back into the bowl right in front of everyone.

“Don’t eat what he gave you.”

Lin Qing choked on his porridge and coughed hard twice.

As he coughed, he watched Grandma Song and Ji Jiusheng’s reactions. They couldn’t see Ji Wuxin.

The two of them froze for a moment, then grew visibly excited.

Grandma Song looked at Song Qian and asked carefully, “She’s here too?”

Ji Jiusheng’s hand clenched tightly under the dining table, his nerves on edge—his sister was right there too.

This didn’t seem like a viable long-term solution. Song Qian recalled how Lin Sheng had previously enabled Yuan Yuan and Xu Yan to see ghosts. Perhaps Lin Qing could achieve the same result.

In the morning, as people headed out to work, they passed by Grandma Song’s house and glanced toward it. The doors and windows were tightly shut, with curtains drawn tight—nothing to see inside.

“Grandma Song’s sleeping in late today?”

“Her granddaughter’s back. They might’ve gone into town for a nice meal.”

“That makes sense.”

Inside the house, Lin Qing drew a drop of blood from Song Qian’s fingertip. The talisman paper burst into flames on its own and fell into the bowl of water. The water erupted in a half-meter plume of white smoke. When the smoke finally dissipated, only a few drops of talisman water remained at the bottom of the bowl.

Lin Qing carefully applied the talisman water to Grandma Song’s and Ji Jiusheng’s eyelids. After a few seconds of adjustment, they blinked their eyes open.

“This…”

They too saw the world shrouded in red mist. Right beside Song Qian stood a girl in a white dress, glaring unhappily in their direction.

“Qingqing!” Ji Jiusheng shot to his feet, unable to contain himself, tears spilling uncontrollably from his eyes. It was really her—his sister had come back to him.

Ji Wuxin frowned at him. Who was he calling?

Song Qian gently tugged at Ji Wuxin’s pinky finger. Ji Wuxin glanced down at her.

“Qingqing, it’s Second Brother. Look at me—do you remember?”

“See, this is a photo of you from when you were little. You always loved clinging to me to play.” In a frantic scramble, Ji Jiusheng dug into the inner pocket of his clothes and pulled out a photograph. It showed a little girl tugging the hand of a slightly older boy.

Song Qian took the photo and examined it. Sure enough, this little girl bore a striking resemblance to the current Ji Wuxin.

She held it up next to Ji Wuxin’s face. Yeah, the likeness was even clearer this way.

“What are you doing?” Ji Wuxin irritably swatted the photo aside. She stared expressionlessly at the man across from her, who was sobbing so hard he could scarcely catch his breath. “I don’t know you.”

Ji Jiusheng stared at her, eyes red. “What?”

Ji Wuxin grew impatient, her tone turning icy. “I don’t know you. Are you deaf? I’m not Qingqing. My name is Ji Wuxin.”

“No, no—you are Qingqing. Just listen to me. That jade—the one Sensen is wearing.” Ji Jiusheng pointed at Song Qian’s chest. Noticing the flicker in Ji Wuxin’s eyes, he pressed on hurriedly. “I gave that jade to Sensen.”

“You… gave it?”

Ji Wuxin’s gaze grew hazy for a moment. In a foggy blur, she glimpsed a man kneeling on the ground, wracked with sobs, clutching that very jade in his hands.

Whose memory was this?

Ji Wuxin shook her head. No—she didn’t know this man. Jiao Niang had raised her. Yes, that’s right—Jiao Niang had raised her.

“Are you all right?”

A warm, gentle hand steadied her arm. Ji Wuxin seized it and gripped it tightly.

“Song Sensen.”

“I don’t know him.”

The jade at her chest suddenly flared hot. Sensing something was wrong, Song Qian followed her lead. “Okay. You don’t know him. I believe you.”

Ji Wuxin turned her head slowly to look at her, then gradually dissolved into wisps of smoke and slipped back into the jade.

“Ji Wuxin?”

“Qingqing!? Qingqing…” Ji Jiusheng collapsed back into his chair, mumbling his sister’s name like a man who’d lost his soul.

“Why don’t you recognize your brother anymore? You loved Second Brother the most…”

“Uncle Ji, a newborn jade spirit is like a blank sheet of paper. She no longer remembers her past life. Pushing her like this will only destabilize her soul—it’s extremely dangerous.” Lin Qing seemed to have already deduced that Ji Wuxin was an artificially created spirit.

No wonder the Special Investigation Group had no records on her.

“Will she be okay now?” Song Qian touched the jade, which was still burning hot. Ji Wuxin hadn’t looked well a moment ago.

Lin Qing shot her a meaningful glance.

“That all depends on how much effort you put in tonight.”

“?”