After Bumping Into a Ghost, I Got a Happy Ending with the Patriarch

[Completed. On September 27, the story will be moved to the completed section starting from Chapter 25. Please check your reading progress so you don't buy the wrong chapters!]

[My next book, "The Sickly Beauty Goes Viral After Bringing His Ex on a Parenting Show," is now underway. Please add it to your reading list! ^3^]

Ying Chunwan considered himself an ordinary college student who believed in materialism, except that he often had strange dreams.

In his dreams, his robes fluttered in the wind as he pinched talismans and wielded a sword, personally sealing away a great demon who treasured him above all else.

When he woke up, Ying Chunwan thought: Ha, I must have read too many comics.

Then he stayed at a hotel and ran into a ghost, and unexpectedly learned that he was a descendant of a renowned feng shui family who had been lost to them.

Ying Chunwan: ...It's fine. He can keep holding on to his materialist convictions a little longer.

After returning to the Ying family, Ying Chunwan became a disciple of the family's Dingmiao Sect's legendary grandmaster, a peerlessly handsome man who rarely showed himself.

Well, he couldn't shake the feeling that his handsome master's face looked familiar.

So Ying Chunwan quietly thought it over.

The great demon he'd sealed in his dreams seemed to have silvery-white hair. He'd heard that the founding patriarch of the Ying family had silvery-white hair too.

And the handsome master who'd brought him into the sect and taught him to cultivate had silvery-white hair as well.

He wondered, Does everyone just really like silver hair?

His handsome master lifted an eyelid. "Heh. You tell me."

Later, his handsome master revealed his true form, radiant and dazzling, his silver hair streaming in the wind.

Ying Chunwan panicked.

Wasn't this the Ying family's founding patriarch... No, wasn't he the spitting image of the great demon sealed in his dreams?!

The handsome master, sealed great demon, and founding patriarch declared, "After all this time apart, aren't you moved to see me again?"

Ying Chunwan: ...I wouldn't dare be moved. Not at all.

Good grief, he had a feeling he'd gotten himself into something huge.

*

One day, Ying Chunwan suddenly remembered that the founding patriarch in his dreams had nine pure-white tails.

They looked fluffy and very soft to the touch.

The founding patriarch leaned against his armchair and smiled faintly. "Awan, want to touch them?"

Thinking of those huge, cloud-white, fluffy tails, Ying Chunwan suppressed his excitement and walked over to the founding patriarch, who was beckoning him with a finger.

...Then the founding patriarch touched him all over.

Ying Chunwan: Founding Patriarch, that isn't what we agreed on.

Founding Patriarch: Next time, for sure.

Ying Chunwan: ...What do you mean, next time?!

Main couple, 1v1, HE. Fox god founding patriarch gong x frail, obedient shou. They only ever have feelings for each other. A sweet paranormal and occult romance.

PS: The founding patriarch isn't a monster. He's on a much higher level than monsters.

[Advance Notice 1: This is my next book! Click into my author page to add it to your reading list!]

"The Sickly Beauty Goes Viral After Bringing His Ex on a Parenting Show"

Su Ye, former frontman of the boy band Orli and now a washed-up C-lister, joins a parenting show after years away from the group and the spotlight.

The child assigned to him happens to look exactly like his ex, Xi Yu, whom he dumped five years ago.

Su Ye suppresses his feelings, crouches down, and calls, "Kiddo." The child grabs his open collar and pulls it shut.

"Kiddo" says expressionlessly, "It's one degree below zero today. Aren't you cold?"

Su Ye: ...Huh?

Are five-year-olds this mature now?

*

After the parenting show's lineup is announced, his antis are furious. The top trending topic on Weibo that day is "Su Ye, get out of the entertainment industry."

[Just a casual passerby here, this guy still hasn't retired?]

[So he's going to leech off O Group for the rest of his life, huh?]

[He quit the group for no reason and now he's got the nerve to go on a variety show??]

[Bet his face is wrecked and unwatchable now, hehe.]

But when the first day's livestream begins, Su Ye's foxlike eyes are still as beautiful as ever, with a fragile, captivating quality.

And the child he brought along, Yu Yu, is absolutely adorable.

Antis: [...Ha! It's just heavy editing! Come on, let's go in as a group and roast this washed-up leech!]

The antis charge into the livestream with knives drawn, only to see:

Su Ye smiling as he wipes Yu Yu's mouth, then turning around and tripping over himself.

Su Ye telling Yu Yu not to be picky, while picking out a whole pile of carrots himself.

Antis: [Hahaha, what is wrong with this guy... Wait, we came here to insult him!]

The biggest face-slapping moment comes when Su Ye's supposedly "heavily edited" face still looks gorgeous on camera.

Unconvinced, the antis watch the show with magnifying glasses, only to spot:

The barely noticeable needle marks on Su Ye's wrist.

The little medicine bottle in his bag with its label peeled off.

The lip tint he carries with him everywhere.

And his lips, which turn pale whenever he isn't wearing it.

So Su Ye's beauty is fragile and radiant, like a crystal that could shatter at any moment.

Antis: [...Hahaha, see? We told you it was all fake!]

...So why do they feel a little sorry for him?

Later, even the antis are the ones spamming the comments when Su Ye is picky about his food:

[No spitting it out!! Eat it!!]

When Su Ye takes Yu Yu to see the night scenery, the comments flood in:

[Ahhh, you damned man, put on some more clothes!]

Then, during the talent show, Su Ye kisses Yu Yu, turns around, and takes the stage to perform one of Orli's old group dances.

The antis can finally take no more.

This is intolerable!!

How dare he dance to a group song!!

...This is too much!

[...Ughhhh, no one else is allowed to look!! That's my wife!! [Crying] [Twisted] [Fist]]

[Don't kiss Yu Yu, kiss me, kiss me, ahhh!!]

[Sorry, I've switched sides. I'll call him my wife.]

Onlookers who witness the antis' entire conversion:

[Good grief, you antis are so freaking weird...]

[Just a casual passerby, but doesn't Yu Yu look a little like... one of Orli's lead singers? Could he be his son?]

*

No one knows that Su Ye, former frontman of Orli, and Xi Yu, the band's former lead singer, had a secret relationship that lasted three months.

Then Su Ye left without a word. Xi Yu searched for him like a madman for a very long time, until his love gradually twisted into something else.

Su Ye's name became an obsession carved into Xi Yu's heart.

When Su Ye's name, absent for years, appeared on the cast list of that parenting show, Xi Yu had to hold himself back from rushing over to find him.

...Then, so distracted that he wasn't paying attention, he crashed his car.

After waking up, Xi Yu had inexplicably shrunk overnight and turned into a child, with his worried assistant and family by his side as they discussed work arrangements.

Xi Yu, on the other hand, just smiled coldly.

So you disappear, huh? So you turn into a kid, huh? So you go on a parenting show, huh?

Heh heh. Su Ye, just you wait. I'm going to make your life hell.

*

The parenting show becomes a huge hit, and after five years, Su Ye's name once again reaches the height of popularity.

His fans are so obsessed that they even ship Su Ye x little Yu Yu, a wildly inappropriate pairing.

It starts because on the show, Su Ye tells Yu Yu not to be picky, and Yu Yu promptly shoves a carrot into Su Ye's mouth.

When Su Ye kicks off his blanket in the middle of the night, Yu Yu glares as he tucks him back in.

Later, feeling guilty, Su Ye simply hugs Yu Yu and sleeps with him.

Yu Yu: ...!

Fans: ...!

Holy crap, they have chemistry!

Later, when news breaks that Su Ye and Xi Yu are together, many of the former antis are outraged and in tears.

[Dammit! I don't approve of this relationship! Yeye should wait for our Yu Yu to grow up!]

Xi Yu: ...

Unable to speak up, he had never suffered such an indignity in his life.

Even worse, when Su Ye finds the little bracelet in Xi Yu's pocket, the kind only Yu Yu wears, he smiles sweetly.

"Care to explain?"

Xi Yu: ...QUQ. Yu Yu doesn't know anything, okay?

1v1, HE, shou-centric, younger gong, second chance romance.

Gentle, careless, aloof sickly beauty x gloomy, attentive younger wolfdog.

2022.7.24. To Zizhi

--Advance Notice 2--

"Wicked and Vile"

After graduating with a history degree, Qi Ran is immediately unemployed. With the little money he has left, he moves into an old courtyard house.

The real estate agent cautiously asks him several times whether he's sure he wants to live here, because the place is...

Qi Ran: Haunted, right? It's fine. I'm a ghost too, a poor ghost.

Agent: ...

Qi Ran's reasoning is simple: So what if it's haunted? That can't change the fact that this old courtyard in the city center costs only 598 a month!

He thinks happily, For just 598, I can bring home a themed villa. What a bargain.

Qi Ran figures that for a price like that, even if Sadako shows up, he can shove her back into the TV with his bare hands.

Come on, let's see who's scarier.

On the first day after moving in, the lights flicker.

On the second day, he hears footsteps in the room.

On the third day, Qi Ran discovers that he... has woken up on an ornate, antique bed.

At the bedside, a handsome "evil ghost" with a sinister gaze stares coldly at him. Long, slender fingers tighten around his throat.

"Who are you?"

Qi Ran: ...

Believe him, he's just an innocent, weak, pitiful pauper.

*

Qi Ran looks into it.

At first, he thinks the old courtyard is haunted. Later, he discovers that time and space overlap here, allowing people to travel between the past and the future.

And that "evil ghost" is also a real person from history.

Eagerly reading through the history books, Qi Ran discovers that the "evil ghost" is named Wen Yao, a famous and powerful minister who was tyrannical and cruel, and who died without a proper burial or even an intact corpse.

While Qi Ran reads the historical records, the "evil ghost" is behind him, fussing as he feeds some food to the stray cats in the courtyard.

Qi Ran: ...? The official history must be off. Maybe I should check the unofficial accounts.

The unofficial accounts are much more exciting. They dwell on the dramatic love-hate relationship between the "evil ghost" and a certain learned guest in his household.

Munching on melon seeds, Qi Ran reads on:

"The learned guest's name is now unknown. It is said that the jade pendant buried with Wen Yao had only one character carved into it, 'Ran,' which may have been the guest's single-character name."

The "evil ghost" feeding the cats behind him calls out just then, "A Ran, why won't this cat open its mouth?"

The melon seeds fall from Qi Ran's hand.

Holy... crap...

Could it really be him?

*

The history books record that the powerful minister Wen Yao was ruthless and wicked throughout his life, and that there was only one person he could never forget.

Wen Yao died young, killed by commoners who had risen in rebellion. On the brink of death, he could no longer hold a sword, yet he clutched a jade safety pendant tightly and refused to let it go.

It was the only token his beloved had left him.

*

Bonus scene:

Later, Wen Yao learns about Qi Ran's bold declaration that they should "see who's scarier," and readily accepts the challenge.

He asks Qi Ran, "Who's scarier?"

The man who'd made the boast has red-rimmed eyes and a broken voice, and can barely get the words out.

Qi Ran: You... you're scarier... you're scarier.

Also known as "I Woke Up as the Powerful Minister's Beloved Guest." HE, 1v1. Shou is a hard-on-the-outside, timid-on-the-inside poor optimist. Gong is a sinister, beautiful, tragic powerful minister. Gong and shou can travel between the past and the future. Entirely fictional setting with a modern backdrop, so please don't overthink the historical details.

2022.7.11+ To Zizhi

Theme: Meeting you again