Bringing My Rival Back to Life (Accidentally) - Chapter 26

After Zhao Zirui left, Wu Jiu sprinted back from the balcony.

Wu Jiu clutched the piece of paper and leaped onto the sofa. After holding back for so long, he could finally speak like a human again: “Zhu Xiao, read this out loud.”

Zhu Xiao glanced at it; it was the three characters he had just written.

He didn’t read them out, but simply said, “You’ve seen it, that’s enough.”

“But I haven’t heard it yet.”

Zhu Xiao still insisted, “You’ve seen it, that’s enough.”

Just as Wu Jiu was about to get annoyed, he suddenly realized something: “Zhu Xiao, are you blushing?”

“…No.”

Wu Jiu leaned in to take a closer look, feigning an epiphany: “Zhu Xiao, you really are blushing.”

Without a word, Zhu Xiao picked up the annoying cow-patterned cat and moved him to the other side.

Punished for his impudence, the cow-patterned cat once again expressed his protest by swishing his tail against the ground.

Ignoring him, Zhu Xiao turned his attention elsewhere. But the cat, leveraging his fluffy advantage, began to offer himself as a pillow.

“Zhu Xiao, if I do this, I won’t be cold anymore!” Wu Jiu excitedly wagged his tail in front of him, “Feel it.”

Zhu Xiao touched the cow-patterned cat’s head, and indeed, it was the normal body temperature of a cat, unlike the cold ghostly hand before.

This was far more impressive than the brief ten-second hand-holding. Wu Jiu couldn’t restrain himself. Before Zhu Xiao could touch him again, he rubbed his head vigorously against Zhu Xiao’s hand, as if trying to rub all the fur off his head.

His movements were so intense that Zhu Xiao couldn’t help but recall Zhao Zirui’s question. He took out his phone and searched, also asking, “Do you need to be neutered?”

Wu Jiu leaned over to look and saw that Zhu Xiao’s phone was not displaying work-related content, but rather searches for terms like “male cat” and “neutering.”

It mentioned that unneutered male cats would suffer greatly during their heat periods.

“Since you’re a ghost, it shouldn’t affect anything, right?” He was just the host of this cat, like a house, and it was better to make it more comfortable.

Wu Jiu had already begun to resent Zhao Zirui, “…It would affect a lot, Zhu Xiao, don’t even think about it.”

In fact, Zhu Xiao’s reasoning wasn’t wrong, but out of a man’s pride, Wu Jiu still firmly refused: “I don’t want to be a eunuch.”

He was resolute, and Zhu Xiao didn’t press the issue: “Alright.”

However, Zhao Zirui had already left, and Wu Jiu still hadn’t returned to his original form. Zhu Xiao asked curiously, “Why don’t you change back?”

“I suddenly think this is quite nice,” Wu Jiu lightly leaped and hung onto Zhu Xiao’s shoulder, “Leave me be, I want to be a cat for a while. Aren’t you working?”

Being a cat was great; he could casually hang on Zhu Xiao without any awkwardness.

Zhu Xiao let him stay on his shoulder and sat down in front of the computer desk.

Zhu Xiao was reviewing the second draft of the paper sent by Zhang Yuexiu, while Wu Jiu quietly watched him.

Wu Jiu had gazed at Zhu Xiao’s profile many times, but he never grew tired of it.

As he watched, a bold thought occurred to him.

Could he steal a kiss?

Theoretically, it was quite frivolous.

But he was a cat now, not a human, and certainly not a ghost… it should be fine, right?

Would he be caught if he stole a quick kiss?

After much hesitation, Wu Jiu’s fluffy head rubbed against Zhu Xiao’s neck. After a while, feeling that Zhu Xiao had let his guard down, he quickly lifted his head and, in the blink of an eye, planted a kiss on Zhu Xiao’s face.

Then he glanced at Zhu Xiao—perfect, no reaction at all.

What a fool, he didn’t even notice the sneak attack.

Wu Jiu snorted and leaned in for another quick peck.

Zhu Xiao actually had no idea what Wu Jiu was up to. After all, since Wu Jiu had turned into a cat, he liked to move around a lot. He had searched it up before; it was just because he wasn’t neutered, and he had gotten used to it.

After several rounds of sneak attacks, Wu Jiu fell into a dizzied state, as if poisoned. For a moment, he even thought—he didn’t want to be a ghost anymore, nor did he want to return to being a human.

“Wu Jiu.” Zhu Xiao suddenly called his name.

Wu Jiu snapped out of his daze, “Hmm?”

“Why are you smoking?”

Zhu Xiao frowned. Since Wu Jiu had turned into a cow-patterned cat, he hadn’t smoked. He had thought that having a physical form would prevent it.

Wu Jiu: “What?”

He had always been smoking, and he thought Zhu Xiao had gotten used to it.

Wait, that’s not right.

Wu Jiu looked down and saw that his paws had turned transparent.

Wu Jiu was horrified. Logically, he shouldn’t be smoking now that he was a cow-patterned cat.

There was only one possibility: he had been too long in the human world, enjoying himself and forgetting to return.

He turned back into a ghost, touched his head, and the smoke above it grew even more vigorous.

Zhu Xiao noticed the change in his demeanor and immediately understood that this was not a normal phenomenon.

“Zhu Xiao, I have to leave first,” Wu Jiu quickly explained, fearing that Zhu Xiao would cry again, “Don’t cry! I’ve just been in the human world for too long recently, and now I need to go back to the underworld to cool off.”

“…I’m not going to cry,” Zhu Xiao asked, “Will you come back?”

“Of course!” Wu Jiu said firmly, “We still have two more blind dates!”

…Why were there still two?

He remembered so precisely. Zhu Xiao nodded perfunctorily.

“Don’t worry, I’ll just be gone for a few days.”

“While I’m away, take care of yourself and don’t get sick again. I won’t come over to be your ‘snail girl’ anymore!” Wu Jiu said, “Also, don’t meet that older man.”

“…”

In fact, Zhu Xiao had already refused Wu Jiahe on the grounds of “not being suitable” with the elders, and he probably wouldn’t have any more dealings with him in the future.

Zhu Xiao coolly said, “Even if I did, I wouldn’t know you.”

“No way!” Wu Jiu got anxious with him, “I’ve already pushed him out of the picture. You can’t go on blind dates with two people at the same time.”

Zhu Xiao had just been speaking hypothetically; he didn’t have the time to meet other men anyway.

“Got it.”

“Zhu Xiao, I don’t have much time left! I really have to go.”

Wu Jiu’s body was becoming more and more transparent, quickly reaching the critical point.

“Mm,” Zhu Xiao said, “Go ahead.”

The smoke above Wu Jiu’s head was like a smoke bomb, which was a kind of warning that he had to return to the underworld immediately. But just two seconds after he left, he thought of something important and hurriedly came back.

“Zhu Xiao, I’m leaving! This time it might take several days,” Wu Jiu emphasized what he had just said, then asked, “Aren’t you going to say something?”

Zhu Xiao asked, “What should I say?”

Wu Jiu didn’t know either, but he just wanted to hear something: “Anything.”

Zhu Xiao couldn’t help but smile and said, “I’ll wait for you to come back.”

That sounded nice. Wu Jiu’s eyes brightened: “What else?”

Zhu Xiao, seeing more smoke above his head, asked, “Aren’t you going to hurry up and leave?”

He seemed about to evaporate.

Wu Jiu was indeed almost evaporating, but he still didn’t leave: “Not that sentence.”

“Zhu Xiao, quickly say something else. I have to go.”

“…”

“Well then,” Zhu Xiao changed his words, his voice softer than before, but the weight of the words even heavier, “I like you.”

That sounded even better, and Wu Jiu’s mind was exploding with fireworks.

The next second, Wu Jiu swooped in like a whirlwind and lightly pecked Zhu Xiao’s cheek with a lot of noise but little impact, so fast that one could doubt whether he had actually kissed him or not.

Zhu Xiao raised his hand and touched his face, feeling nothing—might as well believe that Wu Jiu had kissed him just now.

“I will definitely come back!”

Wu Jiu’s voice echoed from afar, but the ghost had already disappeared.

Zhu Xiao thought amusingly: Well, Cinderella turned into the Big Bad Wolf.

Back in the underworld, Wu Jiu drooped like a flower without soil and complained, “Why did this happen again?”

Butler Bai tactfully said, “Young master, you’ve been going to the human world too frequently lately…”

Previously, it was at least once every few days, but now he had been going for several days in a row. It was strange that he hadn’t suffered any backlash.

Wu Jiu asked resentfully, “Then why are you fine?”

Butler Bai honestly replied, “I only go to the human world for three hours a day.”

Sometimes it was even less than three hours. He would just pass the time and return. Besides, he had no lingering attachments in the human world and would come back to the underworld on time, so of course he wouldn’t suffer any backlash.

“So you’d better not——”

“No,” Wu Jiu interrupted Butler Bai.

It was definitely not because he wanted to see Zhu Xiao every day and visit him every day.

“It must be genetic. I always said that old man’s genes were no good. It was really a pity that my mom married him. It was like a fresh flower stuck on cow dung.” Wu Jiu never blamed himself and quickly found the reason in someone else, although this “someone” was his own father.

“Achoo——!”

Far away, Wu Xingdong sneezed while miserably reporting to his wife on the phone.

“Yes, yes, don’t worry. That good-for-nothing kid is almost settled. Everything is stable and improving. I told you, it’s still me who knows best.”

“Oh, you said eight hundred and eighty-eight? Of course, I’ll give it to you. How could I hide any private money! As the saying goes, a gentleman loves money but obtains it in a righteous way—so can I keep two hundred?”

“Alright, alright, if I can’t, then I can’t. I don’t really want it that much. Haha, then can I go to bed today?”

“What!” Wu Xingdong clutched the phone, his eyes wide with shock, as if he had heard a thunderbolt, “I still have to wait until that unfilial son gets settled and brings someone home for dinner!”

Wu Xingdong held his head in despair, “This unfilial son… when will I ever get to enjoy some peace?”

After not seeing Wu Jiu for a few days, Zhu Xiao felt a bit bored for the first time in a long while.

He would occasionally open the PowerPoint presentation that Wu Jiu had made on his computer before. It was filled with a lot of personal content, and one could almost imagine Wu Jiu’s incessant chatter from the densely packed descriptions.

Although there was a lot of self-promotion, there were not many pictures. There was only one photo in the section titled “Wu Jiu’s Handsomeness,” and it was a red-background ID photo found online.

Every time Zhu Xiao looked at it, he thought: No wonder Zhang Yuexiu couldn’t make a clear PowerPoint presentation; it was because he inherited the same style from his former mentor.

Everything seemed to have returned to the time before Wu Jiu appeared, when he regularly visited his grave and they could only communicate through the Yin-Yang communicator, unable to meet in person.

However, this time was a little different from before because Wu Jiu had said he would come back.

Wu Jiu sent him messages every day, about everything. Sometimes they were trivial shares: an ugly bird in the underworld, the flooded Huangquan River, or even a small stone by the roadside that looked a bit like Butler Bai.

Today, Wu Jiu sent another message: Zhu Xiao, the flowers of the other shore have bloomed.

Zhu Xiao asked: What do they look like?

The flowers of the other shore had bloomed, with vast patches of bright red spreading along the Huangquan Road. As they swayed in the wind, the red waves rolled, forming a bright red ocean.

It was a beautiful sight, but Wu Jiu was not happy.

Wu Jiu: Red flowers, no leaves, very ugly.

The flowers of the other shore would never bloom when there were leaves. When the flowers bloomed, the leaves had already disappeared.

The flowers and leaves would never meet, just like being separated by life and death.

Wu Jiu: Zhu Xiao, we haven’t seen each other for six days, five hours, three minutes, and twenty-eight seconds!

Zhu Xiao knew what he meant and replied: We are not like the flowers and leaves of the other shore.

Then he added: We will meet when you come back.

…

In the afternoon, Wu Jiu received a flower that Zhu Xiao had offered at his grave.

It was a begonia flower, also red like the flowers of the other shore.

The difference was that it had both flowers and leaves, bright and dripping with beauty.

Why a begonia?

What did it signify?

Wu Jiu didn’t understand flowers. He only knew red flowers, white flowers, yellow flowers… In short, he distinguished them by color, with no difference between different varieties.

But fortunately, he had a think-tank. He sought out the ghost in charge of trimming the flowers of the other shore—it was an old antique ghost—and asked him what it meant to send a begonia from the human world.

“Do I even need to ask? It’s obviously about longing,” the old antique ghost said confidently, “He likes you.”

The old antique ghost leaned in and circled the begonia flower, then immediately revealed a knowing smile: “Oh my, look at this flower with leaves. Isn’t that the line from the poem?”

“That poem, ‘Sue Zhongqing,’ was written by Yan Shu.”the old antique ghost had been working in the underworld since the Song Dynasty and happened to be a contemporary of the poem, so he remembered it, “Something like ‘May you and I be like the begonia’s flower and leaf——”

The old antique ghost got stuck there. He had been dead for too many years and couldn’t remember the poems clearly.

He wiped his eyes, put on a pair of glasses, and took out his 2G button mobile phone, “Let me search.”

“Oh, found it. Look,” the old antique ghost held up his phone to show him. The text on the screen was enlarged to the maximum size because of his poor eyesight.

He pressed the down key and scrolled to the last line.

On the narrow screen, there was a large line of text.

——Like flowers and leaves, year after year, sharing the spring breeze together.

“See, he definitely likes you,” the old antique ghost said confidently.

Wu Jiu held the begonia flower in his arms. He had wanted to act reserved in front of others, but he couldn’t help the corners of his mouth from curling up: “Of course he likes me!”

After politely seeing off the old antique ghost, Wu Jiu carefully inserted the begonia flower into a vase and tended to it with the best water and soil.

Staring at the begonia flower, he felt quite restless—he couldn’t wait to appear in the human world and stand in front of Zhu Xiao.

Wu Jiu opened the Yin-Yang communicator and had a sudden thought: Zhu Xiao, it would be great if we were dating.

He sighed and typed: Why haven’t we started dating yet?

After going through three blind dates, he was sent back to the underworld, and the remaining two dates would take a long time to come.

Thinking about this, Wu Jiu became restless. He was supposed to start dating in just two days.

And his perfect plan—nothing had been accomplished yet.

But he didn’t want to seem too eager, in case he scared Zhu Xiao away. He wasn’t that frivolous person.

So he added another sentence in the chat box: Forget what I just said, I’m not that eager!

He put down his phone and took out his brand-new perfect plan again.

He added one more item to it: the next time they met, he would also give Zhu Xiao a begonia flower.

After finishing, he opened the Yin-Yang communicator again and saw an unread message from Zhu Xiao.

It was Zhu Xiao’s reply to his previous two sentences.

Zhu Xiao: We’ve already been dating for ten days, you fool.

Bringing My Rival Back to Life (Accidentally) - Chapter 26

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Hate that cliffhanger, don’t you?

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