Bringing My Rival Back to Life (Accidentally) - Chapter 25

Wu Jiu had taken some tips from the clever little ghost, and his perfect blind date plan now included many more items that he intended to do with Zhu Xiao. Unfortunately, Zhu Xiao was a living person with a regular job, sometimes unable to leave work on time, causing many of Wu Jiu’s perfect plans to be shelved.

For instance, today Zhu Xiao had to work overtime and brought work home. Wu Jiu’s perfect plan was once again thwarted, and he could only stay at home with Zhu Xiao, feeling heartbroken.

However, being together at home was better than waiting for Zhu Xiao in the office, because at Zhu Xiao’s home, Wu Jiu had more things to do. Even if Zhu Xiao was too busy to pay attention to him, he could float around the house or look through Zhu Xiao’s photos.

And there was that first aid certificate he had been eyeing for a long time. Even if Zhu Xiao wouldn’t give it to him, he could look at it many times, which was almost like owning it.

Zhu Xiao sat in front of the computer, typing away, seemingly a bit tired, occasionally rubbing his temples.

Wu Jiu went to the kitchen to pour a cup of health tea for Zhu Xiao, then pulled up a chair and sat next to him, also helping to look over his shoulder and occasionally offering some suggestions.

After all, they had known each other for many years and had been colleagues for a long time, so their默契 (rapport) was much greater than that of ordinary people. Working together like this, their efficiency was actually higher than when they were competing with each other.

Gradually, Wu Jiu forgot about his perfect plan and just felt that being together like this was not bad at all. Being with Zhu Xiao, even working together wouldn’t be boring.

What was originally a peaceful scene was suddenly interrupted by a knock on the door.

A familiar voice came from outside: “Zhu Xiao, are you home?”

Zhu Xiao turned his head and exchanged a glance with Wu Jiu.

“Zhu Xiao?” the person outside called again.

Zhu Xiao said to Wu Jiu, “You hide for a moment.”

Wu Jiu, being a ghost, wouldn’t scare him, but others might not react well.

“No——”

Before Wu Jiu could say anything, he was forcefully pushed into the wardrobe by Zhu Xiao.

He was also warned, “Don’t make a sound.”

Wu Jiu was fuming inside the wardrobe.

——Why did he have to hide in the wardrobe? It felt like he was having an affair, when he was actually a legitimate blind date prospect.

Hiding in the wardrobe, Wu Jiu wanted to bang on the door to express his anger, but he decided against it since it would make noise.

… After all, his ghostly appearance was indeed a bit startling.

Thinking this through, Wu Jiu reluctantly forgave Zhu Xiao.

After adjusting his mindset, Wu Jiu quietly pushed the wardrobe door open a crack to see who the visitor was.

After hastily hiding Wu Jiu, Zhu Xiao went to open the door.

The visitor was Zhao Zirui, who noticed that Zhu Xiao seemed a bit rushed and asked curiously, “What’s wrong? Were you sleeping at this hour?”

“No, I was just inside and didn’t hear you,” Zhu Xiao said, inviting Zhao Zirui in and offering him a cup of water.

Zhao Zirui sat down and chatted casually with Zhu Xiao.

Zhu Xiao responded normally, acting as if nothing was out of the ordinary, just like before Wu Jiu had died.

For some reason, Zhao Zirui felt that something was missing because Zhu Xiao hadn’t mentioned Wu Jiu doing sit-ups in the coffin today.

So Zhao Zirui brought it up: “Uh, Wu Jiu…”

Unexpectedly, Zhu Xiao’s expression changed slightly: “Can you see Wu Jiu?”

This question was a bit too chilling. Zhao Zirui’s hair stood on end, and he got goosebumps all over. His voice trembled, “Zhu, Zhu Xiao, don’t scare me like that.”

Seeing his reaction, Zhu Xiao quickly changed his words: “Just kidding.”

“Is that how you joke?” Zhao Zirui let out a sigh of relief. “You almost gave me a heart attack. I thought you really had lost it.”

Zhu Xiao glanced at the wardrobe out of the corner of his eye, where a small gap had been opened, and a certain ghost was peeking out stealthily.

“No, I still think something’s off,” Zhao Zirui pondered for a moment, feeling that something was still amiss.

“Nothing’s off,” Zhu Xiao forcefully changed the subject. “What brings you here?”

Zhao Zirui suddenly asked, “Are you hiding someone?”

“No,” Zhu Xiao said, “Don’t be ridiculous.”

He wasn’t hiding anyone, but he was hiding a ghost.

Zhao Zirui looked around suspiciously, his gaze falling on the wardrobe.

Zhu Xiao followed his gaze, looking at the crack in the door.

The ghost and human locked eyes, and the crack in the wardrobe door silently closed.

This was definitely not a movement that could be caused by the wind. Zhao Zirui strode forward and grasped the wardrobe handle.

Zhu Xiao frowned. Unlike him, Zhao Zirui might faint if he saw Wu Jiu as a ghost.

“Don’t——”

It was too late. Zhao Zirui had already opened the wardrobe door.

Then, a fluffy black-and-white creature leaped out, landing on Zhao Zirui’s arm and using it as a stepping stone to land smoothly on the floor.

Zhu Xiao’s heart settled.

“When did you get a cat?” Zhao Zirui was taken aback, squatting down to examine the calico cat—its expression was very arrogant, as if someone owed it eight million.

Zhu Xiao vaguely replied, “Just these past few days.”

Zhao Zirui became interested, “Male or female?”

Zhu Xiao said, “Male.”

How could he ask such a question? The calico cat bared its teeth at Zhao Zirui.

A cat’s expression could actually be so vivid. Zhao Zirui curiously asked, “Can I pet it?”

As soon as he said this, the calico cat quickly retreated three steps, the word “refuse” almost written all over its face. Not only that, but the calico cat also showed its claws, ready to give this annoying human a set of military boxing.

But when Zhu Xiao glanced at it, it retracted its claws.

“It doesn’t like to be touched by others,” Zhu Xiao explained to Zhao Zirui, bending down to pick up the calico cat from the floor and moving it to the other side, creating distance between it and Zhao Zirui.

After becoming a calico cat, Wu Jiu had the right to appear normally and didn’t have to hide in the wardrobe anymore.

Zhao Zirui didn’t insist and instead said to Zhu Xiao, “That’s great. Since you still have the leisure to keep a cat, you must be doing okay and not thinking about Wu Jiu anymore, right? —— By the way, what’s the cat’s name?”

“Wu——” Zhu Xiao thought for a moment and changed it to, “Yun.”

“Wu Yun,” Zhao Zirui casually commented, “Quite cute.”

“Not bad,” he said, relieved that Zhao Zirui hadn’t mentioned Wu Jiu again.

When they talked about “Wu Jiu,” the calico cat subtly moved its ears and quietly shifted closer to them.

“You were acting like you were going to die the other day,” Zhao Zirui observed Zhu Xiao’s demeanor. “Now you’re finally back to normal?”

Zhu Xiao clearly felt the calico cat on the ground straighten up and start listening attentively. He said to Zhao Zirui, “When did I ever act like I was going to die?”

“Come on, every time we met, you had to bring up Wu Jiu. Even more persistent than Xiang Lin’s wife. You even got drunk in a bar and started talking about Wu Jiu whenever asked,” Zhao Zirui said. “If I didn’t know you and Wu Jiu had a bad relationship, I would have thought you lost your significant other.”

Zhao Zirui got even more into it, “I’m serious, if I died, you wouldn’t make such a fuss, right?”

Zhu Xiao: “……”

“Really not?” Zhao Zirui was distressed. “At least pretend.”

The calico cat below was already feeling very pleased with itself, as if it had been praised, and puffed up its chest.

Zhu Xiao interrupted him, “Let’s not talk about this.”

“Why can’t we talk about it here? It’s just the two of us,” Zhao Zirui looked around, and Zhu Xiao’s words made it seem like he was hiding a third person here.

Except for… the eavesdropping cat below.

“Tsk, your cat is so nosy, it seems like it understands human language,” Zhao Zirui stopped talking, but it would still poke his leg with its paw, urging him to continue.

But Zhao Zirui didn’t come to rehash old stories with Zhu Xiao. He had something important to say.

“Didn’t you worry about Wu Jiu coming back to life and asked me to find a master to perform a ritual the other day?” Zhao Zirui said. “I found one. But the master didn’t want to come out of seclusion and just gave me a string of Buddhist beads.”

Zhao Zirui had gone through great lengths to contact this master, who was living in seclusion in the mountains and had lost all his hair. Fortunately, his efforts paid off. The master warmly received him and, after listening to the story Zhao Zirui relayed about Zhu Xiao’s encounter, gave him a string of consecrated Buddhist beads.

“This is a good thing,” Zhao Zirui handed the bead string to him. “The master said these beads are extremely powerful. Even if Wu Jiu does come back, he won’t be able to get close to you. —— I don’t know if it’s true or not, but you should keep it for peace of mind. You don’t even have to wear it; just keep it at home for protection.”

Listening to Zhao Zirui, Zhu Xiao glanced down at the calico cat.

——Sure enough, the cat had already arched its back, ready to express its anger.

Zhu Xiao took the beads from Zhao Zirui and said, “Thank you.”

“No problem,” Zhao Zirui said. “You were acting like you’d seen a ghost the other day. It was really worrying.”

“But that’s not what I meant.”

“What?”

“I wasn’t worried about him coming back to life,” Zhu Xiao explained to Zhao Zirui and also to the angry ghost.

“So when you asked about resurrection the other day… You can’t really want him to come back, can you?” Zhao Zirui paused. “You didn’t like him, did you?”

Zhu Xiao and Wu Jiu had been archenemies for so many years. It couldn’t be that Wu Jiu’s death had Zhu Xiao longing for his return.

Hearing the word “didn’t like,” the calico cat below immediately bristled.

Wu Jiu suddenly remembered that Zhu Xiao had never told him “like” —— he had! Shouldn’t this kind of thing be reciprocated?

Although Wu Jiu couldn’t speak now, Zhu Xiao could guess what he was thinking.

It was probably something like, “Zhu Xiao, I’ve already told you I like you. How can you not like me back?”

The calico cat jumped around rebelliously, already showing signs of tearing up the place, sweeping everything within a one-meter radius into chaos.

Zhao Zirui was so distracted by its antics that he forgot what he had just been saying. He looked puzzled and asked Zhu Xiao, “What’s gotten into it all of a sudden?”

“Nothing,” Zhu Xiao didn’t want to explain and simply said, “It sometimes acts like this.”

Zhu Xiao took a sticky note from the table nearby, quickly wrote a few words on it, and then stuck the note on the calico cat’s forehead, “Stop making a fuss.”

The calico cat was instantly silenced. It leaped onto the table, then jumped from the tabletop to the floor on the other side, finding a corner to sulk by itself.

The calico cat had been jumping around so much that Zhao Zirui couldn’t see clearly. He asked Zhu Xiao, “What did you write?”

Zhu Xiao replied indifferently, “Naughty ghost.”

The calico cat, as if it understood human language, glared furiously upon hearing these words, bared its teeth, and hissed, “Hiss—hiss—,” its tail thumping the ground vigorously in protest.

It shook its head in great discontent, flicking the sticky note off its forehead.

The note floated to the ground, and the cat angrily swiped at it with its paw.

But when it saw the words on the note, it immediately stopped its paw mid-air, losing its balance and slipping.

Then it lay down in front of the note, carefully touching it with its paw.

The note didn’t say “naughty ghost,” but three other words instead.

——I like you.

After touching it enough, the calico cat lowered its head and rubbed its face against the note.

A moment later, the note was stuck back on its forehead.

Then it paraded around the living room with the note on its head, strutting proudly.

Unfortunately, the note didn’t stick well and soon fell off its forehead again.

So it cradled the note in its paws and stopped moving around.

It lay down on the ground, holding the note, blissfully content.

“Is your cat really okay?” After a while, Zhao Zirui, watching the cat rolling and kicking on the ground, worriedly said, “Is it in heat?”

Zhao Zirui didn’t know much about keeping cats, but he had seen enough online to know some basics.

So he said to Zhu Xiao, “Has it been neutered? If not, it’s better to get it done.”

Zhu Xiao turned his head, and the calico cat instantly sprang up from the floor and dashed to the balcony.

Bringing My Rival Back to Life (Accidentally) - Chapter 25

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Hate that cliffhanger, don’t you?

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