STD CH9

Chapter 9: A Sense of Security

When Xu Chen knocked on the door, Lu Wenxi was right in the middle of thinking things over while eating lunch.

Lin Xiao and Yin Hanwei had never once shared the spirit of weathering thick and thin alongside him. Every single time Lu Wenxi was stuck eating plain boiled vegetables and gnawing on a steamed bun, the spread across from him was guaranteed to be a lavish feast of meat and fish, bursting with color, aroma, and flavor.

Yin Hanwei checked the video intercom, saw who was outside, immediately unlocked the door, and announced to Lin Xiao, “The little assistant is back.”

Lin Xiao sprang straight to her feet and bolted to the entryway to greet him. The instant the door swung open, her eyes lit up like bright lightbulbs.

Lu Wenxi wasn’t sure if all makeup artists were obsessed with good looks, but Lin Xiao was undoubtedly a die-hard face-con; seeing a handsome guy like Xu Chen get her this excited came as no surprise.

What Lu Wenxi didn’t realize was that Lin Xiao was also riding the thrill of finally meeting the “sister-in-law” and getting a firsthand look at Lu Wenxi’s personal type.

Standing in the doorway, Xu Chen hesitated for a split second. His eyes swept around the living room, seeming to notice an unfamiliar person inside, and he refrained from stepping across the threshold.

“Don’t be shy! I’m Boss’s personal makeup artist, so I’m always on set with him—we’ll be seeing each other plenty from now on,” Lin Xiao introduced herself immediately. “My name is Lin Xiao, just call me Sister Lin.”

Xu Chen stared at Lin Xiao for a beat, mulled it over, and finally asked, “Sister Lin, is that… flowery-butterfly-like man currently…”

Sitting at the table eating, Lu Wenxi suddenly realized at that moment that Xu Chen still didn’t even know his name! He had been so arrogant, assuming everyone naturally knew who he was, that he had genuinely never formally introduced himself.

Still, flowery-butterfly-like man… what the hell?!

“Still alive,” Lu Wenxi called out immediately.

Xu Chen stepped into the apartment, shot a glance over at Lu Wenxi, and only then let out a quiet breath of relief.

Xu Chen must have sensed the talisman burning up and rushed all the way back specifically to check on the situation. Running the whole way had left him breathing slightly hard, yet he walked straight inside and asked, “What happened?”

Lu Wenxi glanced at the other two people in the room, feeling it wasn’t quite convenient to speak openly, and said, “I’ll explain to you privately in a bit. Have you eaten yet? Grab some food first.”

Lin Xiao initially felt the dynamic between the two sounded a bit odd, though she quickly stepped forward and popped open a box of rice for Xu Chen. “I actually packed enough for four people to begin with—you got back right on time.”

Setting his backpack down, Xu Chen walked over to the dining table, took a seat, offered a polite “Thank you,” and began eating. Viewing it simply as part of the “free room and board” perks of his new job, he didn’t stand on ceremony.

Xu Chen ate silently, unhurried and poised, displaying impeccable upbringing that made him look every bit like a refined young scholar.

Lu Wenxi watched him for a moment, glanced around the room, and finally pulled his gaze back to resume eating—lest he lose his appetite completely.

After gaining the ability to see ghosts clearly, he had immediately noticed bloody footprints scattered all over his floor, clearly left behind by Deng Xuanhan and the girl ghost—especially Deng Xuanhan, a ghost who had died by slitting her wrists and was drenched in blood.

Aside from the footprints, large smears of blood stained the dining room floor where the two spirits had fought.

There were also faint bloodstains on the living room floor where the girl ghost had rolled around after being slapped with the talisman, as well as on the sofa cushion where she had sat, though not much. What truly made him grit his teeth in irritation was spotting a tiny smear of blood inside the bathroom—he guessed it was a nosebleed from when the girl ghost peeped on him in the shower.

Throughout lunch, Lin Xiao kept sneaking glances at Xu Chen, her eyes curving into crescents like a weasel eyeing a plump hen.

Yin Hanwei, on the other hand, acted normally, multitasking between eating and texting on WeChat before speaking up: “Boss, Brother Han is going to call you in a bit.”

“Since you already know what it’s about, just spit it out,” Lu Wenxi snapped irritably.

“No way. If I tell you, you’ll just vent your temper on me, and I’m not signing up for that. Talk to Brother Han yourself.”

“You’ve been getting real cocky lately, huh?”

“It’s called wise self-preservation.”

Not long after lunch ended, Lu Wenxi’s phone rang with a call from Han Fanming. He answered immediately, pacing a lap around the living room before ducking into the guest bedroom where there were fewer bloodstains—otherwise, the sight alone was depressing.

“Speak. What’s the deal?” Lu Wenxi asked curtly. Earlier, he had tried scuffing at the bloodstains with his shoe, only to discover they wouldn’t wipe away at all, leaving them stuck on his floor as an eyesore.

“There’s been a snag with the new film.”

“What, they’re replacing me?”

“The investors don’t want to replace you—after all, nobody wants to slap your father in the face. However, the director stood his ground and decided that you’ll have to audition before they finalize whether to sign the contract,” Han Fanming said, sounding slightly weary himself.

Han Fanming was a formidable manager—highly educated, sharp-witted, and holding the contracts of two of the agency’s top-earning male stars.

Once the production team proposed this compromise, Han Fanming had undoubtedly gone back and forth with them at length, eventually securing the most reasonable outcome possible for his artist.

Originally, this role had been practically nailed down for Lu Wenxi, since the investors had handpicked him as the male lead. Yet after the recent backlash exploded, the director wavered and insisted on reconsidering the lead casting.

From the perspective of the film’s quality, the director’s decision was completely justified.

Still, with Lu Wenxi already standing in the eye of the storm, losing a role that had been a sure thing would deal a devastating blow to his career.

“Give me the specifics,” Lu Wenxi pressed.

“I fought for every inch I could get, and they made their biggest concession. You are the sole candidate invited to audition for the male lead, and you get to pick your own audition scene. As long as you can win over the director and screenwriter, the role remains yours. If you stick to that wide-eyed glaring routine of yours, then sorry, you’re genuinely…”

Han Fanming sounded on the verge of cursing him out, paused to think better of it, and swallowed the words back down.

The agency had paired Han Fanming with Lu Wenxi specifically because Han Fanming’s temper was even worse than Lu Wenxi’s—he was the only one capable of keeping Lu Wenxi in check. Early on, the two had clashed head-on plenty of times.

Eventually, Lu Wenxi had caved, realizing his combat power simply couldn’t match Han Fanming’s.

Lu Wenxi remained silent for a long moment. Unsure how much longer he even had to live or whether he could survive long enough to finish filming a movie, he wondered if he ought to seize this excuse and simply walk away from the contract rather than drag down the entire production crew.

Turning around mid-thought, he saw Xu Chen standing silently in the doorway, watching him.

He hesitated, refraining from giving a definitive refusal, and merely replied, “I’ll think it over.”

Hearing that Lu Wenxi’s attitude was fairly cooperative, Han Fanming didn’t push further, simply advising, “I want you to use this film to push yourself, improve, and prove your worth. If you lose this role, you’ll become a laughingstock across the entire industry. I don’t want people mocking you—after all, you’re an artist I brought up myself, and I know what you’re capable of. Stop drifting aimlessly. Your future is meant to shine, not be wasted as an idle rich playboy. Think it through carefully and call me back once you’ve decided. I’ll wait for your call until eleven tonight.”

“Alright.”

Hanging up the phone, Lu Wenxi finally spoke: “Close the door. Let’s talk.”

Xu Chen had also been waiting for an explanation. The talismans he gave out only burned—and triggered his spiritual sense—upon making contact with a soul; anything else wouldn’t register. That was why he had hurried back to check on Lu Wenxi.

Once Xu Chen shut the door, Lu Wenxi began, “Three things.”

“Mm, go ahead.”

“First, my name is Lu Wenxi. By profession, I’m an actor and a singer—though honestly, I’m half-baked at both right now.”

“Oh.”

“Second, Deng Xuanhan showed up just now—the woman you were chasing a couple of days ago who nearly turned into an evil spirit.” Lu Wenxi went on to recount the entire incident, describing Deng Xuanhan’s current state in detail along with his own deductions.

Xu Chen listened intently without interrupting.

“If you catch her, how will you deal with her?” Lu Wenxi asked.

“I would seal her inside a purification array. If she is successfully purified after forty-nine days, she will be released; if not, her soul will be scattered into oblivion.”

“Even if she gets purified, since she died harboring hatred, won’t she still be at risk of turning into an evil spirit again at any moment?”

“No. Once purified, she will forget everything, becoming an untethered wandering spirit who will eventually choose reincarnation on her own.”

Hearing that answer, Lu Wenxi fell silent for a beat. The method sounded somewhat ruthless and cold-blooded, yet for the sake of maintaining order, it was indeed the right thing to do.

“If I want to help her, what will you do?” Lu Wenxi asked with utmost seriousness.

Blessed with flawless facial features to begin with, Lu Wenxi looked extraordinarily striking when he turned serious, catching Xu Chen off guard for a fleeting second before the youth recovered and answered, “If you wish to help her, it must be accomplished within forty-nine days of her death. Once that timeframe passes, she will instantly transform into a full evil spirit, beyond all salvation.”

“So you won’t stop me?”

“No. However, if she harms a living person, I will still seal her.”

“Fair enough, I get that. Give me that window of time—I’ll try to wrap things up as fast as possible.”

“Agreed.”

“Third—there’s no way to tell for sure how long I have left to live, right?” Surprisingly, Lu Wenxi saved the question of his own life and death for last.

Xu Chen nodded. “In your current condition, so long as the caster does not activate their ritual formation, nothing immediate will happen to you. You will remain like any ordinary person, with the sole drawback of being able to see ghosts. However, your death aura is far too heavy and will gradually erode your health. If you stay in this exact state, you likely have only a few months left to live.”

“What if I keep doing good deeds and accumulating virtue?”

“It depends on how much karmic merit you accumulate. The more merit you gather, the lighter your death aura will become, extending your lifespan accordingly.”

Lu Wenxi pressed eagerly, “So if I just keep doing good deeds nonstop, can I keep living indefinitely?”

“I am ashamed to admit that my cultivation is still shallow, and having only recently descended the mountain, my experience is limited. I cannot say for certain, as this is the first time I have encountered a case like yours. I do not know what long-term effects being shrouded in death aura will have on you, nor can I predict exactly how long you can survive.”

“Give me a rough estimate then. If I work hard at doing good deeds, can I make it to a full year?”

“You should be able to.”

At Xu Chen’s words, Lu Wenxi actually felt a surge of relief—far better than living in constant terror, afraid that closing his eyes to sleep meant never waking up again.

Yet Xu Chen immediately added, “However, there are many dangers you must guard against. Do not allow an evil spirit to possess you; once they regain a physical vessel in the mortal world, they will never willingly leave your body.”

“Like the kind of evil spirit Deng Xuanhan is becoming?” Lu Wenxi asked.

“She ranks only as a very low-level evil spirit. Higher-tier evil spirits possess immense lethal power, and their intelligence is no different from that of an ordinary human.”

High intelligence, lethal strength, and the ability to physically touch him—that sounded genuinely terrifying.

If one truly wanted to possess him, it could easily beat Lu Wenxi half to death, wait until he was too weak to resist, and slip straight into his body.

While Lu Wenxi was deep in thought, Xu Chen spoke again: “If you are ever possessed, I will exhaust every ounce of my ability to drive the evil spirit out of you.”

“I suddenly feel like I invited a mighty immortal right to my side.”

“You helped me during my most difficult hour; naturally, I will not forget my gratitude.”

“Helping you means… paying your tuition?”

“Yes.”

“Ah, that wasn’t even much.” So far, he had only covered Xu Chen’s university tuition—an amount that was mere pocket change to Lu Wenxi.

“When I went to apply for a job at the library today, I realized my concept of money had been completely distorted.”

“Huh?” What was there to distort?

“Previously, I had no understanding of currency. Many spirits I encountered spoke of money in tens of thousands or millions, so at the time, I thought nothing of the sum you offered me. Only today did I realize…”

Catching on instantly, Lu Wenxi exclaimed, “You kid were equating RMB with hell bank notes?!”

“My apologies.”

“Then why did you suddenly cave when I offered twenty million?!”

“When you named that figure, you spoke through gritted teeth. I deduced the sum must have finally reached a fair market rate, so I agreed. After all, this was my first time accepting a commission, and I was wary of being cheated due to my lack of experience.”

Lu Wenxi was so exasperated his breathing hitched, though after thinking it over, he couldn’t help laughing and asked, “Any chance of a discount then? Honestly, twenty million is equivalent to several months of my acting pay—after the agency takes its cut, what actually lands in my pocket isn’t much.”

“No. A gentleman’s word is as swift as a galloping horse; there is no going back on it.”

Trying to haggle with someone as rigid as Xu Chen was completely hopeless, though Lu Wenxi didn’t particularly mind.

Right now, he felt those twenty million yuan were well worth every cent. Without Xu Chen, he would undoubtedly be losing his mind in panic rather than sitting here this composed.

Just like when he slapped the talisman onto the girl ghost and saw it actually work, his fear had instantly subsided. Subconsciously, he trusted that Xu Chen would come to his rescue. Without quite knowing why, he had begun relying on Xu Chen, feeling that as long as Xu Chen was around, nothing fatal would happen to him.

Xu Chen was someone who gave him a genuine sense of security.

“Your starting rate is pretty steep. Later on, if you read Fengshui for other people or handle minor jobs, they might only pay you a few thousand or tens of thousands—don’t turn your nose up at it when the time comes,” Lu Wenxi teased.

“Mm, I understand.”

“Are you still going to your afternoon classes?”

“I would like to.”

“And?”

“Class has already started.”

“Then skip it. Cutting class is totally normal in college.”

Xu Chen pressed his lips together, hesitated briefly, and finally gave a small nod.

“Since I’m technically your employer now, give me a copy of your class schedule,” Lu Wenxi continued.

“Mm, alright.”

“My place here is close to your campus, so you can just stay here. Worse comes to worst, I’ll transfer the deed of this apartment over to your name later as part of your pay. The location isn’t top-tier, but it’s still worth over ten million.”

“Acceptable.”

“Why do you always carry your backpack around? Can’t you leave it in your dorm?”

“My roommates are not very friendly, and they play pranks—throwing my belongings away.”

Lu Wenxi instantly understood. With Xu Chen’s aloof, old-fashioned personality, fitting in with typical college students was bound to be tough; getting picked on by dormmates made complete sense, which explained why Xu Chen lugged his worn backpack everywhere.

Giving a nod of understanding, Lu Wenxi stood up and walked over to open the bedroom door, saying, “Get ready, you’re coming with me to see my parents.”

The moment he opened the door, however, he saw Yin Hanwei sitting squarely in the middle of a pool of ghostly blood on the sofa, casually scrolling through his phone—a sight that left Lu Wenxi’s emotions thoroughly tangled.

Lin Xiao, meanwhile, was already organizing her makeup kit again. Lu Wenxi genuinely couldn’t fathom how she loved those cosmetics so much that she sorted, categorized, and arranged them neatly multiple times a day.

Walking over, Lu Wenxi sat down to let Lin Xiao touch up his makeup and instructed, “When you head back tonight, prep some hair dye and dye my hair back to black.”

“Huh? Once we dye it black, other colors won’t take well later.”

“The character I’m auditioning for definitely wouldn’t have hair this color.”

“Got it, understood.”

After finishing Lu Wenxi’s makeup and styling his hair just as they were about to head out, Lin Xiao suddenly turned her gaze toward Xu Chen.

“Little Chenchen, let me do a quick makeup look for you too!” Lin Xiao declared brightly.

“Why?” Xu Chen asked in surprise.

“Aren’t you going to meet the parents?!”

“Is it required for work?”

“Sort of! Let me go grab a few outfits from Boss’s closet—they’re guaranteed to fit you.” Saying so, Lin Xiao happily bounced off to rummage through Lu Wenxi’s wardrobe.

Lu Wenxi glanced at Xu Chen; his current clothes really did look rather shabby, so he didn’t object and simply sat back to wait.

Before long, Lin Xiao returned holding a relatively understated outfit of Lu Wenxi’s and handed it to Xu Chen. “Go change into this.”

Assuming this was merely a standard dress-code requirement for his job—essentially putting on a work uniform—Xu Chen raised no objections, accepted the clothes, and headed into the guest room to change. The outfit consisted of a white neoprene sweatshirt featuring a three-dimensional embossed pattern across the chest, paired with black trousers.

When he stepped back out dressed in the new clothes, Lin Xiao immediately hurried over to inspect him, marveling, “Even the waist fits perfectly! You two really have the exact same build.”

After gushing over the fit, she dragged a thoroughly bewildered Xu Chen over to her makeup chair.

Lu Wenxi sat off to the side watching Lin Xiao apply a natural everyday look on Xu Chen, until halfway through, he couldn’t hold back a reminder: “That’s my lip balm.”

Lin Xiao didn’t pause for even a fraction of a second as she swiped the balm across Xu Chen’s lips. “With the relationship you two have, why on earth would you care about that?”

“Why wouldn’t I care?!” Lu Wenxi nearly lost his mind. When on earth had Yin Hanwei and Lin Xiao guessed he was gay? And how was their acceptance level this sky-high?!

Worse yet, he had explicitly explained things to them, and neither of them believed a word!

So frustrating!

“Tsk!” Ignoring him completely, Lin Xiao kept applying the balm, convinced Lu Wenxi was just putting on an act, wearing an expression that clearly said, I know what’s up, don’t try to fool me.

Lu Wenxi stared at Xu Chen’s lips for a moment—glossed with the balm, they looked moist, full, and remarkably soft.

After staring for a beat, he abruptly turned his head away and refused to look anymore.

__

Author’s notes:

Lu Wenxi: Everyone around me thinks I’m the top, ehehe!
Xu Chen: …
Lu Wenxi: How about I swap that twenty million for hell bank notes instead?
Xu Chen: No. [Resolute attitude]