Ever since I made things official with Lin Yuchen, getting out of bed every morning has become so difficult. At night, holding Lin Yuchen in my arms he smells so good that I spend the whole night restless, which means I can never get up the next day. Luckily, as a ghost, I don’t have to go to school.
One day, after a grocery run with Lin Yuchen, we came home to find two people standing at the gate. The woman was gentle and graceful, her smile soft as water; beside her stood a tall, blond, blue-eyed man. It was Lin Yuchen’s mother, Hu Yuen, and her husband, Will.
When Hu Yuen saw me, she seemed dazed for a second, then softly called, “Xiao Wu.”
Lin Yuchen quickly opened the door and said, “Let’s talk inside.”
I followed Lin Yuchen into the yard, my steps unconsciously quickening as I passed Will. In the living room, Hu Yuen’s gaze followed me the whole time. I wanted to speak, but Lin Yuchen beat me to it.
“Mom, this is Wu Wu. Do you remember her?”
Hu Yuen smiled warmly. “Of course I remember. It’s been years, you’re even prettier now I almost didn’t recognize you.”
She pulled me down onto the sofa, tapped my forehead with a finger, and pretended to be angry. “Was your trip fun? You’ve been gone for so many years without a word.”
My eyes turned red Hu Yuen had always been so kind to me.
Dinner was cooked by Hu Yuen herself, as lavish as ever. She poured Will a glass of blood-red juice, and the aroma caught my attention I was curious what was in it. Hu Yuen poured me some orange juice and sat across from me. “Xiao Wu, you’re not leaving again this time, right?”
I nodded, but my eyes kept sneaking glances at that red juice. Lin Yuchen noticed and poured me a glass. Hu Yuen seemed about to say something, but Will shook his head slightly to signal it was fine. So, under the watchful eyes of all three, I took a small sip my eyes lit up. Surprisingly delicious! It tasted a lot like human blood.
After dinner, Hu Yuen chatted with me for ages. When she found out I was with Lin Yuchen, she couldn’t stop smiling. She seemed to have something else on her mind, but in the end, said nothing.
Because Hu Yuen was staying over, I had to sleep in a separate room from Lin Yuchen that night. Before bed, I went to his room and tilted my head at him. “Uncle Will is like me. He’s a vampire.”
Lin Yuchen wasn’t surprised at all. “When I was eighteen, my mom got together with him. One night I got up for water and overheard them talking.”
I was speechless. “How do you know everything? And you still asked me if vampires existed in this world?”
Lin Yuchen mimicked my blinking expression. “It’s easier to fool a ghost if you pretend you know nothing.”
I punched him. “Who are you calling a ghost”
Meanwhile, Hu Yuen was doing her nightly skincare and asked Will, “Is it okay that Xiao Wu drank your juice?”
Will replied in awkward Mandarin, “It’s fine. She’s like me.”
Hu Yuen: “Huh???”
After her shock, she started thinking about something else. She didn’t actually object to Lin Yuchen and me being together. But humans eventually grow old, while vampires don’t just like her and Will. Will was a pureblood vampire, but because of her health, she couldn’t survive the transformation. That was their biggest regret.
I noticed Hu Yuen was lost in thought for days, often sighing as she looked at me or Lin Yuchen. Finally, Lin Yuchen couldn’t help but ask what she was worried about. She confessed her fears, and I started overthinking too what would I do if Lin Yuchen died someday?
I’m not a pureblood vampire; I don’t have that ability.
Lin Yuchen patted my head and said, “Just being Wu Wu’s blood bag isn’t so bad.”
The corners of my mouth drooped, and Lin Yuchen immediately continued, “Didn’t you say vampires don’t bite their own kind? If I became a vampire, you wouldn’t be able to drink my blood.”
Will interjected in clumsy but firm Chinese, “You can bite. It’s up to you.”
I quickly added, “Yeah, I said I wouldn’t bite them not you.”
Will called Lin Yuchen to the study for a talk, saying he’d save his one and only first embrace for his wife. Lin Yuchen understood this was the responsible thing for his mother.
Suddenly, I had a flash of inspiration. “Huo Zhu’an....Rumeng is a vampire too, so he still has his first embrace”
I immediately called Huo Zhu’an and begged him to help Lin Yuchen. Huo Zhu’an agreed, but only if I helped him win back Rumeng.
I was shocked. “It’s been decades and you still haven’t gotten her back? What are you even doing?”
Huo Zhu’an: “……”
I’d never seen a human turn into a vampire before. So when Lin Yuchen was burning up and unconscious in bed, I panicked.
Huo Zhu’an said it was no big deal he just had to get through the feverish transformation period.
I pouted, “What if he can’t make it?”
Huo Zhu’an grinned, trying to scare me. “Then he’ll just lie there forever.”
At that moment, Lin Yuchen, lying in bed, opened his eyes a crack and said weakly to Huo Zhu’an, “Don’t scare her.”
Huo Zhu’an pushed up his glasses and patted my shoulder. “It’s fine. When he wakes up in a couple of days, he’ll be desperate to bite someone. Someone needs to stay with him.”
I nodded, and Uncle Will saw Huo Zhu’an out.
Two days later, Lin Yuchen woke up. The look in his eyes was full of hunger.
I knelt on the bed and opened my arms to him, grinning. “Come on, first bite’s on me.”
Lin Yuchen pulled me into his arms. There was a slight sting on my neck, and then warm tears.
I teased him like a child, “Crying over a meal?”
Lin Yuchen hugged me tighter and licked my wound. But since he’d just turned, his saliva didn’t work well, and the bite kept bleeding.
“Can’t bear to bite my baby.”
“So cheesy.... From now on, you’re only allowed red juice. You’re getting all the perks and still complaining.”
Lin Yuchen put a band-aid on my neck, finally stopping the bleeding. Then, like a three-year-old, he held out his arms for a hug. I let him. After all, we could hug for hundreds of years from now on.
Extra: Lin Yuchen & Wu Wu
When Lin Yuchen had just finished his transformation, he wanted to bite everyone he saw. So I had to stick with him everywhere including at school.
When I went to school with Lin Yuchen, his friend Li Jian couldn’t keep calm.
Li Jian slung an arm around Lin Yuchen’s neck. “Li-ge, you love her that much? Bringing your wife to school?”
Li Jian definitely noticed the hungry look in Lin Yuchen’s eyes but he didn’t know Lin Yuchen literally wanted to eat people.
Li Jian put his hands up in surrender. “I’ll shut up.”
I quickly pulled Lin Yuchen aside and whispered, “He’s just being weird, ignore him.”
Li Jian gave me a big thumbs up.
Finally, after class, Lin Yuchen dragged me to the stairwell. His fluffy head nuzzled into my neck.
His voice was hoarse: “Baby, I’m hungry.”
I hugged him back. “Take a month off come back when you’re stable.”
Lin Yuchen nodded.
Just then, the door banged open with a burst of laughter. Li Jian swallowed nervously. “Li-ge, they pushed me as a joke”
“Uh… I’ll leave you two alone.”
He closed the door behind him, and through it, we could hear him scolding someone, “If looks could kill, I’d be dead already.”
I looked at Lin Yuchen. “I think your friend misunderstood something.”
Lin Yuchen, finally full of energy, smiled. “No misunderstanding. We really are doing unspeakable things.”
Me: “……”
Extra: Lin Yuchen
Another three-pointer. Cheers from my teammates rang in my ears. I wiped my sweat and looked at the last streak of sunset in the sky.
“Lin Yuchen, let’s go. See you tomorrow.”
I nodded, waved, and headed home. The electronic lock beeped as I opened the door.
Inside was nothing like the emptiness I expected. The lights were on, and my mother was busy in the open kitchen.
When she saw me, she hurried over, washed her hands, and took my backpack. “Look at my baby did you miss your mom?”
My mom is the director of a modeling agency and travels all over the world. I can count the times I see her in a year on two hands.
I pursed my lips and nodded. Of course I missed her.
She gently ruffled my hair and pushed me toward the sofa. “Go play with your sister for a bit. Dinner’s almost ready.”
Sister?
I looked up.
There was a girl in a little dress on the sofa, like a porcelain doll.
The doll smiled at me. “Hi, I’m Wu Wu. Your name is Lin Yuchen, right?”
She loved to smile. I thought it was a silly smile.
That time, my mom stayed home for more than two months, and Wu Wu lived with us too. We planted sunflowers together she said we could eat free seeds when they were ripe. We went to haunted houses she said people pretending to be ghosts weren’t as good as catching real ghosts for NPCs. We rode drop towers she said her soul nearly left her body and told her not to mess around.
I was really happy with Wu Wu.
I really liked her.
But one day, Wu Wu left.
After my very first crush, I didn’t know where she went. In my last year before college graduation, I finally found my porcelain doll again.
Extra: Lin Yuchen & Wu Wu
Still half-asleep, I was woken by a gentle knock at the door. When I sat up, my waist and stomach were sore. I gave the still-sleeping Lin Yuchen a hard slap. “Starving ghost.”
Lin Yuchen opened his sleepy eyes, unfazed, and pulled me into his arms. “Wife, let’s sleep a bit longer. It’s the weekend.”
This year is our fifth wedding anniversary.
I pulled his hand off my waist. “Your son is waiting at the door.”
At that, Lin Yuchen jumped up and opened the door. Outside stood a wobbly little bun, our son, Gu Yi. He ran in barefoot, climbed onto the bed, and planted a kiss on my face.
In a milky voice, still not speaking clearly, he said, “Good morning, Mommy.”
Lin Yuchen, hands on his hips, demanded, “What about Daddy?”
Little bun snuggled into my arms, ignoring Lin Yuchen, and looked up at me with big eyes. “Mommy, hungry.”
After nursing him, I carried him to the dining room just as Hu Yuen finished breakfast.
During breakfast, Hu Yuen suggested, “Yi Yi should be weaned by now.”
Lin Yuchen nodded in agreement. He’d thought the same thing while feeding him that morning.
Lin Yuchen poured half a bottle of red juice into Gu Yi’s bottle. The little guy took one sip and hugged it tight, refusing to let go. Lin Yuchen patted his head approvingly. “That’s my boy didn’t let Dad down.”
Hu Yuen, in our second year of marriage, risked her life to undergo the transformation. Luckily, she made it through. She and Will traveled the world for a year. When she learned I was pregnant, she rushed back from abroad to take care of me. Now, red juice is a staple on our dining table.
The lights are warm, life is cozy.
End
Chapter 05
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