I Swear, I've Seen a Ghost

[Alternate Republic of China] [Chinese-Style Subtle Horror] [Banter] [Past and Present Lives]

A group of people gather in an old mansion: a dazzling movie star, a wonton-stall owner, a prickly high school student, and a brain-damaged young man. The only one with even the slightest connection to ghost-hunting is Li Qiuyou, an extremely timid mystery novelist. Yet she becomes the most dependable pillar of their little group.

Before the unknown horrors of night descend, Li Qiuyou discovers an incredible way to save her own life! She has acquired a golden finger!

Her golden finger lets her use the pen in her hand to change a word in the script and alter the plot.

The bad news is that this life-saving pen always runs out of ink at the most crucial moment!

The script reads: [The young master returns to the residence at a quarter past midnight. Everyone dresses in their finest and waits at the gates to welcome him. The opera singer takes the stage, the cook prepares a feast, the young attendant steps forward to greet him, and the bride-to-be, who is marrying him to bring him good fortune, returns to her guest room.]

The group stare at one another in the eerie old mansion. Li Qiuyou is the only one with a golden finger, so everyone places their hopes in her.

The movie star says, "I can't sing opera."

The wonton-stall owner says, "I only know how to make wontons."

The high school student says, "Given how things are going, there's no way this young master is human!"

Li Qiuyou nearly cries. "I can only change one word, okay?!"

So, trembling, she prepares to change "everyone" to "no one" in the script. But she has written only a single stroke when the damn pen runs dry, and no matter what she does, she can't draw a second one.

Everyone backs away three feet. "One person, then. You go."

That night, the exceptionally kind brain-damaged young man accompanies her as she waits outside. Upstairs, several heads crowd around the window, staring down at the entrance.

"This young master ghost is pretty handsome."

"Handsome or not, he's still a ghost!"

"Hey, why is the young master patting Xiao Li's head?"

"We're doomed! Is he going to twist her head off? Xiao Li's shaking so hard she's a blur."

"No! The ghost young master really is just smiling and patting her!"

Who could have guessed that the ghostly young master would only smile at her, his gaze tender and lingering? Looking at Li Qiuyou as if she were a priceless treasure, he says, "After a hundred years, you've finally come back."

.

At first, Li Qiuyou is always afraid that He Yanqing, this male ghost, will accidentally crush her head like a dog's.

Later, she realizes that He Yanqing is seriously strange. He's technically her older, adopted son, yet he has no sense of propriety at all. He doesn't call her Auntie, and worse, he calls her by her nickname every day, acting completely insolent.

Every night, without fail, he personally escorts Li Qiuyou back to her room. To make sure she sleeps peacefully, he proposes giving her a goodnight kiss every night, claiming it will keep ghosts and monsters from disturbing her dreams.

Naive Li Qiuyou thinks he's a kind male ghost, until one day she discovers the secret of this handsome ghost: he's hidden away the wedding dress she wore when she and he performed the wedding ceremony in place of his father, and he sleeps beside it night after night!

So he'd been coveting his own auntie all along!

And that auntie is none other than Li Qiuyou herself!

Blurb written July 12, 2025, updated November 8, 2025

Reader's Guide:

1. Plot-focused, set in an alternate Republic of China. This is an alternate setting, so please don't nitpick historical details. It's meant to be light and entertaining, with no difficult mystery plot. Turn off your brain and enjoy.

2. [Important] There is a male lead. He is not just set dressing, and the romance gets plenty of page time.

3. The heroine is not stunningly beautiful. She is the same person in both her past and present lives, and the male lead has only ever had eyes for her.

4. This little author is still growing. Each book is a writing exercise that I take seriously. If it doesn't suit your tastes, please leave gently. Love to everyone who reads the official version. Love you all!~

----- Coming Soon: Period Fantasy Romance, The Heiress Will Never Suffer! [Period]

A fabulously wealthy, doted-on real heiress; an inhumane System; a fake heiress big sister who spoils her to no end; and an incredibly gentle marriage match who showers her with money.

After discovering she isn't Factory Director Lin's biological daughter, unlucky Lin Wanting hears a radio-host voice speaking inside her head: [Passive Heiress System Test Unit 001 activated]

[From this moment on, you are forbidden from paying for anything of your own accord. If you force yourself to spend money, the System will punish you.]

At the time, she is waiting at the entrance to the compound for her birth parents to come pick her up. Hearing the voice in her head, she simply buys two steamed buns from a roadside vendor and eats as she waits, paying it no mind.

[The System has detected that the Host spent two mao. Punishment will begin in thirty seconds.]

She still doesn't take it seriously. She looks around the breakfast shop but can't see a radio anywhere.

[Countdown: 30, 29, 28... 3, 2, 1. Punishment begins.]

Suddenly, it feels as if countless ants are gnawing at Lin Wanting's legs. Her strength vanishes, and she crashes to her knees. The two buns in her hands roll to the roadside, where a black Audi runs over them.

Then it backs over them again. A woman jumps out and rushes to Lin Wanting, tears streaming down her face. "Our girl hasn't even met us yet, and she's already kneeling. My poor girl..."

With her legs numb, Lin Wanting kneels before her birth mother, hot tears running down her cheeks.

Lin Wanting weeps so hard she could move heaven and earth: I can't even spend two mao! Dad gave me so much money, and I haven't spent any of it yet!

-

The real heiress of the Sheng family is back. Sheng Qili has already prepared to leave the company and the Sheng family, but then she sees her real younger sister, glittering with gold, covered in jewelry, and wearing a pretty little cupcake dress. The girl clings to her arm and sobs, "Big Sister, could you please not give me money? Will you come get a perm with me instead? I also want to buy a few pairs of bell-bottoms. I saw a really beautiful Swiss watch."

"Please, wonderful Big Sister." Lin Wanting's eyes brim with tears, and she looks utterly pitiful.

Sheng Qili changes her mind.

As a fake heiress, getting as far as she has in the Sheng Group is already a gift from fate. What's wrong with spoiling this one little sister a bit?

-

Zong Zhao is betrothed to a daughter of the Sheng family. Although he's never met the girl, he has always remembered that he has a fiancée. Since childhood, he's been disciplined, proper, and chaste.

On the day he returns to the mainland, he goes to the foreign trade department store to buy a few changes of clothes and household necessities. There, he encounters a pitiful girl.

The girl is dressed in finery, yet crouches in a corner of the store, crying as she shoves ice cream into her mouth. Zong Zhao walks over and is just about to ask what happened when the girl suddenly springs up, startling him.

She puts the ice cream in her hand into Zong Zhao's as he stands there in a daze. Her eyes light up with delight. "Huh? It doesn't hurt?"

She takes the ice cream back from him, pulls a pained expression, then puts it back in his hand.

The girl presses her lips together sheepishly and smiles, revealing two little tiger teeth. "Thanks." Then she leans over and eats the ice cream in Zong Zhao's hand.

For days afterward, Zong Zhao can't get the girl out of his mind. He thinks he may have emotionally cheated, so he prepares to visit the Sheng family and discuss breaking off the engagement.

But the moment he brings up the engagement, he sees the girl coming downstairs in the Sheng family's building: the very girl with the ice cream he'd been thinking about for days. To his shock, she's the Sheng family's daughter whose engagement he just tried to end!

Theme: Believe in science