Chapter 24: Qian+Kang – Doing that kind of thing

Jiang Shulan had pulled an all-nighter with Dalton.

As he finished breakfast and his sluggish brain slowly began to function again, Jiang Shulan suddenly clutched his chest, startling Renai.

“Shu, where’s your medicine?!”

“It’s fine.” Jiang Shulan closed his eyes in pain. “It’s my conscience that hurts!”

He, a grown adult, had actually stayed up all night playing video games with a ten-year-old child!

“Dalton, hand over your phone.”

“Huh? Why, Godfather?” Dalton asked without the slightest suspicion.

With lightning speed, Jiang Shulan uninstalled the game and smiled.

“We agreed it was only for one day.”

“Godfather!”

The indignant Dalton obediently put on his backpack and headed to school. Before leaving, he pouted miserably.

“Godfather, you can’t do this again. I’ll be mad.”

“Okay.”

There definitely wouldn’t be a next time!

Jiang Shulan waved cheerfully as Dalton left, but his guilty conscience still hurt.

Then, around noon, Renai suddenly received a call from Dalton’s teacher and rushed to the school.

Jiang Shulan’s heart skipped a beat.

The next second, it felt as though a giant hand had seized his heart and twisted it. It wasn’t a sharp pain but a crushing, suffocating ache.

[System, Dalton isn’t hurt, is he?!]

[Take your medicine first. He’s fine.]

Following the system’s instructions, Jiang Shulan hurriedly dug a bottle of pills out of his pocket and swallowed one.

The pain gradually faded under the medicine’s effects, but he still felt uneasy.

Not long afterward, Renai called.

Dalton had simply fallen asleep in class. The doctor had examined him and found nothing wrong.

Only then did Jiang Shulan finally relax and collapse onto the sofa.

[Still going to pull all-nighters?]

The system had warned him countless times the previous night, but Jiang Shulan had ignored every single one.

[No. Never again.]

Since Renai wouldn’t be home for a while, Kelly woke up in the nursery and immediately burst into tears when she couldn’t find anyone.

Jiang Shulan rushed over to comfort her.

What he hadn’t expected was that the angelic little baby who had seemed so adorable and gentle in Renai’s arms yesterday had transformed into a tiny demon today.

No matter how he coaxed, entertained, or begged her, Kelly just kept crying until her voice grew hoarse.

Jiang Shulan felt both heartbroken and helpless.

He nearly started crying with her.

The system panicked as well and frantically searched through parenting information.

[She’s just hungry. Take the formula from the bedside cabinet…]

Following instructions step by step, Jiang Shulan finally mixed the formula and fed it to Kelly.

As she sucked on the bottle, she stopped crying.

Her reddened eyes stared at him, and she even smiled, revealing two tiny teeth no bigger than grains of rice.

Jiang Shulan was instantly charmed.

[System, she’s so cute!]

[Heh.]

Perhaps because she had cried for so long, Kelly fell asleep after drinking only half the bottle.

Jiang Shulan carefully removed it, tucked her blanket around her, and gently patted her back as the system suggested.

Soon, Kelly was asleep.

Jiang Shulan let out a sigh of relief.

[Being a mother is really hard.]

Suddenly, a cold, hoarse voice echoed through the nursery.

“I want her!”

Kelly frowned in her sleep and pouted uneasily.

Jiang Shulan hurriedly covered her ears.

But the voice only grew louder and clearer.

“Give her to me! Give her to me! I want her!”

Annoyed, Jiang Shulan turned toward the dark corner where the voice originated.

“Want, want, want, what is this, a concert? Buy a ticket if you want music! Do you know how hard I worked to get her to sleep?”

The moment the words left his mouth, his heart seemed to stop.

Wait-

Why was there a tall shadow wearing a black wedding dress standing there?

There should only have been him and Kelly in this room.

When had a ghost appeared?!

His limbs went weak with terror.

Scooping Kelly into his arms, he sprinted downstairs.

[System, save me! There’s a ghost!!!]

[That’s your exit method.]

[I DON’T WANT IT!]

Jiang Shulan ran for over ten minutes while carrying Kelly.

Only after putting more than a kilometer between himself and the house did he finally stop.

His back was soaked with sweat.

His legs trembled.

His vision blurred.

“Shu? What are you doing here?”

Renai had never expected to find him looking so disheveled by the roadside and immediately stopped the car.

Jiang Shulan handed Kelly over.

“Renai…”

His voice trembled pitifully, on the verge of tears.

“There’s a ghost in your house!”

“What?”

Renai clearly didn’t believe him.

“It’s true!”

Jiang Shulan described everything he had seen.

After listening, Renai frowned.

“I’m going back with you.”

She found it far more likely that someone had broken into the nursery and startled him.

“No! I’d rather die than go back!”

In the end, he returned anyway.

Because Renai had called the police.

Having officers present made him feel slightly safer.

But once they arrived home, everything appeared completely normal.

The police concluded he had been playing a prank.

Before leaving, one officer warned him,

“Kid, because you’re so pretty, we’ll let this slide. Next time, we’ll be taking you on a tour of the jail.”

Jiang Shulan forced a smile and looked utterly miserable.

He desperately wanted to leave the house.

But Renai and her family still had to live there.

He couldn’t just abandon them.

He needed proof that the place was haunted.

He had to convince them to move out.

That night, Jiang Shulan was too scared to sleep alone.

But he couldn’t exactly sleep with someone else, either.

So he curled up beneath his blanket, clutching his medicine bottle and muttering:

“My blanket barrier protects me. No person, no ghost, can get through.”

Click.

The door opened.

Jiang Shulan immediately stiffened.

He swallowed another pill and held his breath.

“Hey, Shu. Are you asleep?”

It sounded like Josh.

But it absolutely wasn’t Josh!

There was no way he was sticking his head out and breaking the blanket barrier.

Receiving no answer, “Josh” walked closer.

Jiang Shulan’s pupils shrank.

He trembled uncontrollably.

“D-don’t come any closer! Debts have their owners! Go haunt whoever hurt you! I’m sorry! I shouldn’t have yelled at you! Waaaah…”

“It’s really me.”

Josh sighed and stopped approaching.

“There are no such things as ghosts. Don’t be afraid. I installed cameras and alarms outside your room. No one’s going to hurt you.”

Jiang Shulan pouted and stayed silent.

As if talking exactly like Josh would make him believe it.

Ghosts lied!

After “Josh” left, Jiang Shulan waited several more minutes before finally daring to breathe normally again.

No.

At this rate, he’d be scared to death.

Before that happened, he had to help Renai’s family escape.

He needed reinforcements.

He was a priest.

Surely he knew plenty of people.

But after scrolling through his contacts, besides Renai there was only one name,

Constantine.

The note beneath it read,

“Strongest Exorcist.”

Jiang Shulan’s eyes lit up.

He immediately called.

The call was rejected.

That was fine.

Experts were always temperamental.

He called again.

“Ugh. You’d better be dying.”

The call finally connected.

The moment Jiang Shulan saw the screen, his face flushed scarlet and he hung up instantly.

On the other end was a man.

An incredibly handsome man.

His black hair had been brushed back, exposing a smooth forehead.

His upper body was bare, displaying a muscular chest.

A bead of sweat trembled at his throat before sliding slowly down over his abs.

Jiang Shulan couldn’t see anything below that.

And he absolutely did not want to.

Covering his burning face with both hands, he sank into endless embarrassment.

If this had happened before he gained more life experience, he might have assumed the man was exercising.

But after surviving three movie worlds, he knew better.

The man named Constantine had clearly been in the middle of something when Jiang Shulan interrupted him.

📚 Also on NHV Novels

Enemies on a Single-Log Bridge

AcademyBattleBL

Read Now →
Not interested