Lin Yan clearly didn't have much experience being a monster.
His fingertips were too cold. When they touched the warm surface of Xu Zhiyi's lips, they easily gave her a strange sensation. Even though she quickly guessed that he was only reminding her to eat, her eyelashes still fluttered from the momentary tingle along her nerves.
"Brother?" she called out to him, at a loss.
Even if she felt danger because of him, the only person she would turn to for help was still him.
Lin Yan turned his hand over and used the knuckles of his other side to brush against her cheek, then crumpled the plastic wrapper of the chocolate with a crackling sound—just like an old hand teaching a kitten how to eat a treat.
Xu Zhiyi surrendered. "…Fine, fine, I'll eat!"
She moved Lin Yan's hand away, tore open the chocolate wrapper, and when she saw what was inside, her vision went dark. The chocolate bar had indeed been crushed into pieces.
The culprit stood quietly beside her. Seeing that she wasn't moving, he raised his hand again and brushed her cheek.
"…"
There is a kind of hunger called "your brother thinks you're hungry."
Xu Zhiyi popped a piece into her mouth, crunching it as she chewed, then picked up another piece and shoved it toward where the shadowy figure's mouth should be.
Two seconds later, the piece of chocolate fell to the floor with a soft thud.
"…………"
Using the light from the desk lamp in the teacher's office, Xu Zhiyi spread open two copies of Burning Incense and casually pulled over a practice notebook, continuing their conversation on paper: "What is your food?"
Lin Yan looked at the words on the page and thought deeply for a moment.
During the silence that fell over the office, Xu Zhiyi inevitably conjured up all sorts of terrifying possibilities. If her brother was now a ghost who ate white mice…
She—she would still go catch some for him.
Lin Yan clearly had no idea that his sister had just gone through a terrifying mental spiral. After thinking for a long while, he shook his head.
That meant he didn't know.
Or maybe he didn't need to eat.
Xu Zhiyi thought about it. In this state, he couldn't eat ordinary food, but that didn't mean he wouldn't need to eat once he returned to human form at dawn.
She tucked the chocolate into her pocket, planning to share it with him during the daytime.
The teaching building was so quiet it felt like only the two of them existed.
The only sound around them was Lin Yan's continuous rummaging through cabinets and drawers. Every now and then, he would hand her small items. Xu Zhiyi half-asked, half-guessed, and could figure out the purpose of some of them—like the lighter, the needle and thread, and two or three bags of snacks.
But most of what he gave her were small slips of paper, with fragments of conversations between different people written on them. Though scattered, when pieced together, they seemed to be discussions about a certain matter.
Xu Zhiyi's attitude toward exploring the latter was quite passive.
She did look at the slips, but she was only putting on a show of effort without any intention of thinking deeply. Her eyes were on the paper, but her mind had already wandered off somewhere else.
By the time she had collected nearly twenty slips of paper, Lin Yan finally stopped his search. He took her hand again and led her to an art room.
This room was much more spacious than the other classrooms, and also much more abandoned. Most of the easels were piled against the walls or lying on the floor, completely unlike the other rooms that showed signs of regular use.
Though this actually matched the reality of art classrooms—the Hushan Middle School she attended also had an art room full of artistic atmosphere, which looked very beautiful in the admissions brochure.
Yet throughout her three years of middle school, Xu Zhiyi had never once set foot in this legendary place.
She finally regained her interest in thinking and exploring, glancing around, assuming Lin Yan wanted to communicate with her further through drawing.
Just as she was about to pick up the paintbrush from the floor, before she could even bend down, Lin Yan pushed her over to the large cabinet in the corner.
Xu Zhiyi: "…"
She shot Lin Yan a glare tinged with irritation.
Lin Yan soothingly patted her head, then opened the cabinet door and knocked on the wooden panel inside, signaling for her to crawl in.
Xu Zhiyi: "…"
Inside the cabinet was only a small wooden box that didn't take up much space—convenient enough for someone to stand or sit in—but the place was covered in dust and cobwebs, and the door panels naturally bore the black handprints and twisted blood-red text she had encountered several times today.
Xu Zhiyi's face was written with resistance.
Even if her brother were inviting her in, she wouldn't want to stay in a place like this.
The next second, Lin Yan transformed into a feather duster, raising his hand to sweep away those cobwebs.
He was so persistent that Xu Zhiyi, despite her displeasure, finally grudgingly cooperated and stepped inside, pressing her lips together and tilting her face up to look at Lin Yan, demanding with fierce eyes what he was going to do.
Lin Yan pointed at the window.
The sky outside was no longer so dark; faint light was spilling across the earth, and dawn was only a matter of minutes away.
Xu Zhiyi's eyes instantly lit up brilliantly.
Brother was going to change back!
But she still couldn't understand why she had to stay in the cabinet. She took a step outward, wanting to get closer to Lin Yan, but he immediately blocked her back.
"…………"
The faceless shadow patted her head, then pressed down on her shoulders, signaling for her to sit on the wooden box.
But since he wasn't coming in, Xu Zhiyi understood this meant she was meant to stay here alone—he was probably going to leave, and he needed her in the cabinet to feel at ease.
He was going to leave her again.
Xu Zhiyi was nearly developing PTSD over this, but Lin Yan's attitude was exceptionally firm. Every time she tried to step out, he would soothe her with head pats, shoulder presses, and gestures for her to sit back down.
After several rounds of this, she was so angry she was practically radiating black fumes.
In the end, she gave in.
But this was the last time. Xu Zhiyi leaned against the cabinet wall, her brows furrowed in displeasure.
If Lin Yan didn't come back as promised this time…
She was just thinking about how to punish him when the man himself gripped the cabinet door and closed it without mercy.
Xu Zhiyi: "…"
The cabinet was made of solid wood, leaving barely any gaps to see through from the inside. The moment Lin Yan shut the door, all light inside was stripped away completely.
She inevitably became flustered—not because of the darkness, but simply because Lin Yan was no longer in her sight.
The wait was too agonizing, so Xu Zhiyi had to think of other things to distract herself—something even more hair-raising, fighting poison with poison.
In another week, it would be finals week.
Even though she'd been dragged into this bizarre world, if they made it back, she and Lin Yan would probably still have to take their final exams.
It hadn't been long since she entered the Instance World, but she already felt like she'd forgotten most of the knowledge she'd reviewed just a few chapters ago. And Lin Yan, in his state of not being able to read Chinese characters, would surely be in even more danger.
Of course, brother was still brother—even if he forgot everything, he'd drag her into all-night study sessions to create miracles.
Compared to the terror of reality, the pitch-black darkness before her suddenly seemed much more bearable.
Xu Zhiyi tried hard to recall the key points the professional course teacher had marked last time. The teacher's face was clear, and the sound of her roommate flipping pages beside her was also clear—only the textbook content was a blur.
At that moment, a considerable commotion suddenly came from outside the cabinet—the harsh scraping sound of a fallen easel being stepped on and dragged across the floor, along with the sounds of scratching against walls and shin bones knocking into stools.
Xu Zhiyi listened in terror. There were at least seven or eight people outside, but normal humans wouldn't keep colliding with the obstacles around them.
She held her breath and gently pulled the cabinet door open just a crack.
As if anticipating she would peek out, several desks had been stacked in front of the cabinet, firmly blocking the door. Still, through the gap she'd opened, Xu Zhiyi could clearly see that what was directly colliding with the desks was a malformed humanoid creature with a sunken skull.
The others were similar to him—pale faces, vacant eyes, mindlessly attacking everything in their path with equal ferocity, whether tables, chairs, walls, or windows.
The kind of thing where one extra glance meant an extra month of nightmares.
Xu Zhiyi carefully closed the door again.
She wasn't actually that nervous. If Lin Yan had blocked the door this thoroughly without leaving her an escape route, then he must have absolute confidence that he could come back.
All she had to do was wait peacefully for her brother to return.
Xu Zhiyi propped her chin on her hand and sat back down properly on the wooden crate, then broke off a small piece of chocolate and popped it into her mouth.
If Lin Yan turned into one of those zombie-like creatures outside, maybe his head would be flattened and he'd be missing an eye.
Then when they returned to the real world, he'd probably have to wear a baseball cap year-round. She would carefully pick out her brother's first hat.
But Halloween would be different.
Others would need makeup and costumes—Lin Yan would only need to take off his hat to stun everyone!
While Xu Zhiyi was cackling with glee inside the cabinet, the nonsensical banging outside the door seemed to grow more intense.
Window glass shattered, something rolled across the floor with a clattering sound, and the zombies outside seemed to be attacking each other.
The fight ended quickly too—at least by the time Xu Zhiyi was about to pry the door open and peek again, all sounds around had ceased.
Had the world been destroyed?
Her ear was very close to the cabinet door as she listened nervously, holding her breath, when a "tap tap" knocking sound rang out right by her ear.
"Xu Zhiyi." The voice outside was both intimately familiar and strangely foreign, gentle and soft. "Won't you come out and see your brother?"
It felt like they had been parted for a long time, and Xu Zhiyi was actually a little hesitant to open the door, frozen in place for a few seconds.
Her fingers curled, then she suddenly pushed the door open.
The malformed creatures lay scattered on the floor in every direction, the room in complete disarray—yet Lin Yan stood clean and spotless outside the door.
Those deep, beautiful eyes caught sight of her, curving into a gentle smile as he opened his arms toward her in an embracing gesture.
"Zhizhi."
He looked like any normal human—limbs intact, only his complexion slightly pale.
Xu Zhiyi leaped from where she stood, jumping onto Lin Yan.
His body temperature was ice-cold—whether it was the cheek she pressed against him or the arm supporting her thigh, everything was far below normal human warmth. Xu Zhiyi's heart ached terribly, and her tears fell onto his shoulder, soaking through to form two small, scalding pools.
Lin Yan held her in his arms, his long legs stepping over the corpses whose hands were still twitching on the ground. He set her down on the desk, gently patting her back to soothe her.
Xu Zhiyi finally had the real Lin Yan in her grasp, and she cried to her heart's content before reluctantly pulling back a little.
Her face was streaked with tears, and her voice choked with sobs.
She hadn't actually wanted to make the atmosphere too heavy—after all, seeing her brother was supposed to be something to be happy about.
When she looked up, Lin Yan was gazing at her tenderly.
The tears Xu Zhiyi had just managed to stop immediately began to well up again. Her lips curved downward, and a mist started to gather before her eyes.
"Brother…"
Lin Yan hummed softly in acknowledgment, reaching up to brush the teardrops from her cheeks, then dabbing them at the corner of his own eye.
Xu Zhiyi's sorrow froze for a moment. She tilted her head, her eyes brimming with deep confusion at her brother's strange behavior.
"I really want to cry right now too," Lin Yan said with complete seriousness. "But I'm a ghost now, and a ghost's body can't produce tears, so I'll borrow yours."
Xu Zhiyi had never heard of such a thing before. She blinked blankly for two seconds. "R-Really?"
Her cheeks were cupped in Lin Yan's ice-cold hands, and he said with a grin, saying something that completely ruined the somber mood, "That's right. I need five liters of tears to express my sadness right now."
"…………"
Xu Zhiyi's temper flared up instantly—a small fire, a small fury. She grabbed his arm and rubbed her damp face against his shoulder, trying to wipe all her tears off on him.
Lin Yan let out a laugh, pulling her into his embrace, slowly combing his fingers through the hair at the back of her head.
This kind of intimate hug was comforting to Xu Zhiyi. She drew the sense of security she craved from it, feeling relaxed and warm.
She had really found her brother!
After a long embrace, Xu Zhiyi's head was still buried in Lin Yan's chest, her chin nuzzling against his turtleneck, warming the spot until it carried the temperature of a living person.
Her smile didn't last long.
Because she quickly noticed something unusual about Lin Yan.
At the collar of his sweater, there was a thin scar hidden away, trailing down into the shadows beneath. It was very well concealed—if she hadn't been this close, she probably wouldn't have noticed it for a very, very long time.
She was silent for a second, then started tugging at Lin Yan's collar.
Xu Zhiyi might have experience being human, but she had no awareness of how to deal with ghosts.
Her hands were too warm for a ghost.
Small, too, and soft.
She didn't notice how Lin Yan's gaze suddenly darkened. She just frowned tightly, staring at the vicious, long scar on his neck, extending from that small exposed section deep into his collarbone.
No wonder he'd been wearing a scarf when he called her back then.
Xu Zhiyi pressed her lips together, her fingertips carefully tracing the scar from top to bottom. Her touch was so light it was no different from a feather brushing against the skin.
"Brother." Her eyes began producing those five liters of tears. Her heart ached too much to keep touching, so she reached into her pocket for the chocolate. "Are you hungry?"
Just like how, back in the old days, if she walked out of school feeling low, Lin Yan wouldn't ask any questions—he'd just take her to get some delicious, piping-hot oden.
Unfortunately, the same trick didn't work on Lin Yan.
Xu Zhiyi's wrist was caught.
She had a fragile, innocent, beautiful face. When she looked at someone, her moist dark eyes always gave them the illusion of being warmly depended upon—as if she would easily nod and agree to whatever they said.
"Zhi Zhi." Lin Yan called her in a low voice.
Xu Zhiyi looked at Lin Yan with a dazed expression, genuinely confused yet completely trusting him. Her rosy lips parted and closed as she spoke: "You don't eat chocolate? Then I still have some cookies. Do you want some?"
No one had ever told her that ghosts eat people.
Lin Yan lowered his gaze, staring at her bright, dark eyes. His throat bobbed.
She was so worried about him.
And yet he felt hunger—for her.