“……”
Hua Qi’an, her cheeks flushed bright red, clutched at the edge of the quilt, pulling it up to cover everything below her neck.
The room was pitch black.
After her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she could vaguely make out the furnishings.
But that wasn’t the reason for her blushing.
Beside her was a source of heat, brazenly radiating warmth.
The quiet room was filled with the other person’s rhythmic breathing.
It sounded like she had already fallen asleep.
Hua Qi’an couldn’t help tightening her grip on the quilt.
Lin Yanqiu can actually fall asleep this fast…?
But as for her… she couldn’t sleep at all…
What did she mean, there were no guest rooms because she hadn’t prepared for visitors?
And what was that about, considering her physical condition, she couldn’t sleep on the sofa or the floor?
In the end, it led to the current situation.
Hua Qi’an was forced to share the same bed with Lin Yanqiu.
Even though Lin Yanqiu had brought her a separate quilt, her whole body still felt stiff.
But Lin Yanqiu, as if nothing had happened, was already peacefully asleep.
She turned her face, looking at Lin Yanqiu beside her.
Lin Yanqiu had changed into black silk pajamas—the material didn’t seem cheap, and looked extremely comfortable and smooth.
In the darkness, her sleeping face lost the sharpness and aggression it had when awake, replaced by a sense of tranquility.
But her sleep wasn’t very deep.
As if she sensed Hua Qi’an’s gaze, Lin Yanqiu’s eyelashes trembled slightly, and she slowly opened her eyes.
With half-lidded eyes, she met Hua Qi’an’s gaze for a few seconds.
Then, not fully awake, she closed her eyes again.
“…Go to sleep.”
She hummed a low, drowsy murmur.
Her voice was tinged with sleepiness.
Her breathing soon grew long and even.
Hua Qi’an hadn’t expected someone as alert as Lin Yanqiu to fall asleep so easily.
But perhaps, seeing Lin Yanqiu sleeping so soundly, Hua Qi’an began to feel sleepy too.
Even someone as unpredictable as Lin Yanqiu could sleep so trustingly; there was no need for her to overthink things.
Maybe Lin Yanqiu had looked into her class schedule and knew she had no classes the next morning…
She had originally planned to spend the night in that haunted house tonight for this very reason.
She just hadn’t expected her plans to fall through, and now the empty slot in her schedule had ended up in Lin Yanqiu’s hands.
“……”
Thinking these things, Hua Qi’an’s eyelids grew heavier, and soon she slowly closed her eyes.
Letting her thoughts scatter, she drifted off to sleep.
…
She didn’t know how much time had passed.
Hua Qi’an slowly woke up in the midst of a strange sensation.
Warm breath seemed to brush right by her ear, sometimes light, sometimes heavy, with a tingling that started at her ear and spread through her whole body like an electric shock.
There was a faint, fresh scent at the tip of her nose.
The room was very quiet.
Hua Qi’an could hear that rhythmic breathing right next to her ear.
Each exhale made her involuntarily shudder.
Lin Yanqiu?
To her shock, Hua Qi’an realized that at some point, Lin Yanqiu’s half body had entwined itself around her like an octopus.
If she tried to pull herself free, she’d inevitably wake her.
“……”
Who would have thought Lin Yanqiu’s sleeping posture was this bad?
Hua Qi’an was at a complete loss.
At the same time, she noticed something even more troubling.
The prayer bead bracelet on her wrist had apparently snapped while she was sleeping.
The beads were scattered all over the bed.
Noticing this, Hua Qi’an tried to get up carefully, attempting to shift Lin Yanqiu away…
But misfortune never comes alone.
She discovered she couldn’t move.
Not because she was tangled by Lin Yanqiu… but her entire body couldn’t move at all.
Hua Qi’an knew this feeling well.
Was she being pinned down by sleep paralysis again?
The wooden talisman at her chest seemed barely able to fend it off, only emitting a faint warmth.
At the same time she realized this, a familiar… cold, sticky, salty-wet presence began to seep into the air, winding around her, invading her nose, leaving her completely immobilized.
A nightmare?
She remembered Liu Ran telling her that the nightmares she’d been having were all caused by ghostly energy clinging to her…
But the warm breath on her cheek from Lin Yanqiu was unmistakably stimulating Hua Qi’an’s nerves.
No.
This isn’t a dream?
Hua Qi’an’s heart suddenly sank.
She remembered the two people who drowned in the haunted house pond.
Could it be, because she had unknowingly violated some taboo, the resentful spirit from the haunted house had come to claim her life?
As she was lost in these wild thoughts, her chest suddenly felt heavy.
It was as if something was pressing down on her.
By reflex, she opened her mouth, almost choking.
It was her again…
That all-too-familiar salty-wet scent…
On top of Hua Qi’an, besides the quilt, were Lin Yanqiu’s arms and legs…
Yet the semi-transparent body passed right through all of that, even through Hua Qi’an’s clothes, sticking to her not-very-warm skin without resistance.
That soft, heavy feeling on her chest made Hua Qi’an freeze instantly.
Before she could react, a pair of icy hands began to wander across her body.
Like slick water plants, everywhere those hands passed left behind a sensation as if wetness remained.
It made Hua Qi’an very uncomfortable.
“Mm…”
A stifled, suppressed groan escaped Hua Qi’an’s throat.
She wanted to struggle, wanted to cry out, but her body was completely out of her control, all those emotions that should have burst forth were forced down inside her.
To her surprise, Lin Yanqiu, sleeping beside her, let out a faint mutter and rolled over, wrapping Hua Qi’an in her arms as if she were a pillow.
The warmth of the embrace stood in stark contrast to the icy hands, both lingering on Hua Qi’an’s body, creating a bizarre, indescribable sensation of freezing and burning at once.
Sandwiched hard in the middle, she couldn’t move at all.
[Qi’an…]
Suddenly, she heard that wet, sticky voice as if crawling up from the depths of dark water.
[Your scent… is so nice…]
Hua Qi’an could feel a cold, slippery tongue and lips licking at the sensitive skin of her neck hollow.
Leaving a trail of chilly water marks.
She bit her lower lip, feeling her body trembling uncontrollably.
But her mind was still clear, calmly analyzing the situation and thinking about how to break free.
It felt as though she was in a half-dream, half-awake state…
If she wanted to break free, maybe it was like the nightmare—if she could just “wake up,” maybe she could—
“Eek!”
[Only I can touch you… here…]
As that possessive, almost deranged voice rang in Hua Qi’an’s mind, a jolt of electricity shot through her body.
Hua Qi’an’s body went rigid, her mind blank.
She could clearly feel a wave of unspeakable heat and dampness welling up below.
Damn it…
Was this really someone she might have known before?
This was clearly a lecherous ghost.
She clenched her teeth, desperately suppressing her unsteady breathing, but the faint sounds of her panting seemed especially loud in the dead-silent room.
Sleeping beside her, Lin Yanqiu frowned slightly, letting out a vague murmur.
At the same time, she unconsciously hugged the person in her arms even tighter.
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