“Pah! Pah!” The spirit boy spat the candy—wrapper and all—right back out, landing it with a dramatic plop in his palm. His golden beast eyes flashed with a dangerous, hangry sort of irritation, like a cat who’d just been offered a cucumber.
“No, no, not like that!” Lin Yue said quickly, peeling a candy herself with trembling fingers. “You have to take the wrapper off first… here, watch.” She demonstrated, carefully unwrapping the sweet and holding it up to his lips like she was feeding a suspicious raccoon.
The spirit boy sniffed it, then—ah-woomph!—snapped it up from her hand in one bite. He chewed, eyes narrowing in delight, and let out a little hum of pleasure. Yue wiped her fingers on her pajamas, trying not to think about the fact that a supernatural being had just drooled on her.
She watched, wide-eyed, as the spirit boy thoughtfully licked the candy in his palm, then—because why not—popped it back into his mouth. “So, um… is there any other way to get your core back?” she asked, voice small. “If not, until you think of something, I’m happy to bring you offerings. You know, snacks. Just… please don’t eat me, okay?”
The spirit boy didn’t answer. He just extended his hand, palm up, with all the regal arrogance of a vending machine demanding more coins. “More.”
Yue scrambled to hand over every last piece of candy she owned, thinking of Granny Zhao’s warning: “Spirits are greedy and unpredictable. And they never know when to stop eating.”
Never in her wildest dreams did Lin Yue imagine she’d end up in a symbiotic relationship with a supernatural being. But here she was: part-time college student, full-time spirit snack supplier.
From what she could gather, the spirit—who she’d taken to calling “the snack bandit” in her head—couldn’t stray far from his missing core. If he did, he’d grow weaker and eventually fade away, like a phone with 1% battery and no charger in sight.
So, until they figured out a way to get the core out of her without turning her into lunch, Yue trekked into the mountains nearly every day, arms loaded with food offerings. She’d never been so motivated to learn new recipes—she even started following a “Cooking for Hungry Spirits” blog, just in case.
One morning at six, with the sky painted in streaks of sunrise and the last stubborn stars clinging to the west, Yue huffed and puffed her way up to the mountain’s rocky summit. The mist rolled in thick and fast, like someone had spilled a giant bottle of milk over the forest.
There, perched on a craggy boulder like a brooding anime prince, sat the silver-haired spirit boy. He gazed at the fading moon, looking so poetic that Yue almost expected him to burst into song.
She plopped down beside him, basket in hand, and presented her latest culinary masterpiece: piping hot beef buns. The spirit boy’s nose twitched—he could sniff out a meat bun from a mile away—and he devoured them with gusto.
After spending so much time together, Yue wasn’t as scared of him anymore. She stretched, letting the cool, damp wind wash over her. “The wind feels amazing up here,” she sighed. “It’s like the whole mountain is breathing.”
“Mountain… is breathing,” the spirit boy agreed, mouth full of bun.
Yue blinked. “Wait, you mean the wind is the mountain breathing? That’s so poetic!” She grinned, feeling a little spark of inspiration. “You’re more of a philosopher than you let on.”
The spirit boy, utterly uninterested in poetry, focused on his next bite.
From their perch, they could see the valley below, the mist swirling in great, rolling waves. Suddenly, Yue’s eyes went wide. “Is that… a giant snake?” she gasped, pointing at a long, black shape undulating through the fog.
The spirit boy chewed calmly. “Yinglong,” he said, as if it were the most normal thing in the world.
Yue’s jaw dropped. “A dragon? With wings? I thought those were just in storybooks!”
He finished his last bun and fixed her with those hungry amber eyes. “More.”
Yue laughed, her heart still racing from the dragon sighting. “Tomorrow, I’ll bring you more. But you have to promise not to eat me if I’m late!”
As she spoke, the familiar golden glow flared at her chest. She clapped a hand over it, sheepish. “Sorry, sorry, let me just… control that.”
The spirit boy eyed her chest like a wolf eyeing a particularly juicy steak. Yue scooted away, trying to change the subject. “So, um, can I ask… what kind of spirit are you, anyway? Your ears—are you a fox, a wolf, or, uh, something else?”
He sat cross-legged, tilting his head in confusion. “What do you look like?” Yue pressed, remembering how beautiful he looked without his mask. She reached out, curious to touch the bone mask.
But the spirit boy jerked away, burying his face in his hands and hunching over like a shy hedgehog. Yue blinked. “Wow, you can get embarrassed?”
She tried again. “Do you have a name?”
He shook his head, still hiding.
Yue’s eyes sparkled. “Let me give you one! I think Huiqian will suit you
The spirit boy peeked through his fingers, repeating the name softly: “Hui....qian?”
Yue beamed. “Yes! I read it in a book. It means you’re special.”
He didn’t nod or shake his head, just let his hands fall and gazed up at the sky. His silver hair shimmered in the breeze, and for a moment, Yue wondered what he was thinking.
That night, the sacred white wolf spirit ran through every corner of the mountain, leaping over rocks and whispering to every tree, every stone, every gust of wind: He had a name now—Huiqian.
Time flew by, and soon, August was nearly over.
“Huiqian, I have to go back to C City for school,” Yue said, voice soft as she fiddled with a wild chrysanthemum. “I have to leave the day after tomorrow…”
Huiqian paused mid-bite, a chicken drumstick dangling from his mouth, and turned to look at her.
“I’ve been thinking… your core is still inside me, so you can’t go far. So, um…” Yue took a deep breath, summoning all her courage. “Do you want to come with me? I promise, I’ll feed you every day until we figure out how to get your core back—without turning me into dinner!”
Huiqian considered this for exactly two seconds, then—without a hint of hesitation—nodded and went right back to gnawing on his chicken, as if she’d just asked him if he wanted extra fries with that.
Yue burst out laughing. “Wow, you really are ruled by your stomach, aren’t you?”
Huiqian just licked his fingers, looking entirely unbothered by the prospect of moving to the city, as long as the food supply was guaranteed.
Yue grinned, already imagining the chaos of smuggling a spirit boy with wolf ears and a bottomless appetite into her college dorm. She figured, if she could survive being his snack supplier, she could survive anything.
Chapter 04
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