Chapter 25: Not at ease in the slightest, I feel tainted.

Bailu instinctively shrank behind Pei Hexuan, her hands reflexively rubbing her arms.

"Snap!" Bai Qianzhou delivered a ruthless slap to the air, and the room's lights suddenly returned to normal.

"Pei Yanlin, do you recognize her?" Bai Qianzhou turned to look at Pei Yanlin.

"Who?" Pei Yanlin blinked innocently, straining his eyes to look in the direction Bai Qianzhou was pointing. But all he could see was empty air—there was nothing there.

Bai Qianzhou looked at the female ghost clutched in her hand, then back at them. As if remembering something, she bit into the apple she was holding, freed a hand, and snapped her fingers in the air.

"Ahh!" In an instant, caught completely off guard, Pei Yanlin saw the female ghost dangling from Bai Qianzhou’s grip and shrieked in terror. Although Pei Hexuan and Bailu didn't scream, they turned deathly pale.

It wasn't just that the spirit was a ghost; she was covered in blood, and something mangled and blurred hung from her stomach.

"Do you recognize her?" Bai Qianzhou asked again.

Pei Yanlin fought back his overwhelming fear and studied the creature in Bai Qianzhou's hand. After a long moment, he had no impression of her at all. He shook his head. "No, I don't."

"How can that be? How is that possible!" The female ghost’s voice was as harsh and grating as tearing metal. Her face was contorted with fury. "I am your most loyal fan, have you forgotten? Every time you had an event, I would come to cheer for you. I even wrote you love letters and sent you gifts, which you accepted! You even smiled at me!"

The female ghost glared at Pei Yanlin, who could not help but take a step back. This woman—no, this female ghost—must be insane, right?

"You aren't a loyal fan; you're a delusional stalker. Listen, dear, chasing stars requires a bit of sanity. You snuck into his apartment to steal his underwear, and on your way out, you were too excited to notice a red light and got hit by a car. That was entirely your own doing. And to think, even after all that, you still won't give up. You died and yet you still want to have some sort of 'meaningful' relationship with him, even resorting to possessing someone else? Why don't you just fly to the moon while you're at it?"

Bai Qianzhou slapped the ghost on the forehead, one blow after another. Pei Yanlin and the others watched clearly as every strike dispersed the black mist surrounding the spirit.

"Sister, what did you just say? She snuck into my apartment? Which apartment?" Pei Yanlin’s face drained of color, tears welling up in his eyes as he looked at Bai Qianzhou, trembling.

"The one where you keep your fan mail and gifts. Relax, you never actually lived there, and you never wore those undergarments. She stole them, so what? Why are you acting so aggrieved?" Bai Qianzhou shot him a look of disdain.

"I can't relax at all. I feel tainted," Pei Yanlin groaned, his soul practically leaving his body.

Bai Qianzhou raised an eyebrow. Is his tolerance for reality really this low?

"It's impossible! This is absolutely impossible!" The female ghost's voice sounded like shattering glass, sharp and piercing. Bai Qianzhou’s words seemed to have shattered her very existence. The resentment that had just been dispersed by Bai Qianzhou surged back like a violent storm in the dark, and in a blink, the ghostly shadow twisted, becoming even more hideous.

She had gone through so much trouble to sneak into Pei Yanlin’s apartment, to steal his underwear, only to be struck by a speeding car on her way out. To be told now that those items were ones he had never even worn—how could she possibly accept that?

The sudden eruption of resentment made everyone in the room besides Bai Qianzhou feel like they were suffocating, and Bailu’s expression turned particularly grim.