My Little Ghost

Volume 1.3.1 — The Transmission

Bai Bing Wen doesn’t know if he’s simply too open-minded or he just doesn’t understand the gravity of the difference. What does it matter if one is a mage cultivator? What does it matter if one is a martial cultivator? What does it matter if two people of similar cultivating cores get together?

Ji Feng Huang offers him one simple answer, “Lives get connected when a martial-mage pair does a blood vow.”

“See, this is the part I don’t really understand. Blood vow and marriage—are they the same?”

“Before a blood vow, a marriage has to happen.”

“And getting married doesn’t necessarily mean you need to have a blood vow, correct?”

Ji Feng Huang nods.

“What did you mean when you said that lives get connected in a blood vow?”

“It means that whatever happens to the martial cultivator, under the protection of his mage, he would never suffer any physical pain. The mage would bear the agony of suffering to ensure the safety of their martial.”

“What does a mage get in return for that?”

Ji Feng Huang stares at him for a bit before answering, “They get the blessing of reincarnation.”

Bai Bing Wen almost laughs at this. If not for the weirder things he’s seen in a single day, he probably would have. But now, seeing the serious expression on Ji Feng Huang’s face that almost borderlines to desperation, he believes it.

“If they don’t find their rightful martial, their souls and spirits would disappear together with their mortal bodies once they die,” Ji Feng Huang adds.

“You mean as soon as we do the blood vow, if what you believe is true, you get to have the chance to get reincarnated?”

“Yes.”

“And me?”

Ji Feng Huang pouts at this. “What do you mean?”

“What do I get in return? Aside from your protection. Being reincarnated is kind of a big deal, you know. So I think getting just your protection is a little too unfair for me.”

“Then...” Ji Feng Huang looks around, his cheeks and ears starting to get red. “You can have me.”

Bai Bing Wen raises an eyebrow. “Why do you look so embarrassed saying that? You make it sound like I’m not supposed to have you after I let you use me to get your reincarnation card.”

“But... am I not enough?”

Letting out an exasperated sigh, Bai Bing Wen pats Ji Feng Huang’s head. “That’s not what I mean.”

“Okay, but aside from that, you also have a better chance at becoming an immortal if you have a mage pair.”

Doubtful, Bai Bing Wen rolls his eyes. “Now, you’re making things up just to convince me. That’s called scamming and in my world, you’ll get death penalty for a serious offense of that.”

“No, I’m not making this up. Mages are closer to the qilin royal beast. The qilin royal beast is the only beast that has practiced mage cultivation. If the mighty qilin senses a pure mage’s essence on you, they would grant you immortality. So long as you promise to protect your mage.”

“Why do I need to go through such trouble when I have your essence in my necklace’s pendant? I can just wear it all the time and I would have your essence with me that way.”

Sensing the direction of this conversation leaning towards Bai Bing Wen’s rejection of his proposal, Ji Feng Huang frantically shakes his head. “No. That’s not enough.”

“Okay, then how is the qilin royal beast supposed to sense a mage’s essence on me if not for that?”

Ji Feng Huang thinks about it for a few seconds before his eyes light up. “The grumpy Eastern Empire’s Emperor said that the martial-mage pair must consummate their marriage so that the blood vow can get activated and the essence of the mage would be all over their martial. Just like how the martial’s skills can be used by their mage because the martial’s blood will be with them.”

Hearing this, Bai Bing Wen’s eyes widen. He clears his throat, seeing the innocent look on Ji Feng Huang’s face. “You don’t really understand what that means, do you?”

Ji Feng Huang, confused, can only shake his head. “It must not be too difficult to consummate a marriage... right?”

“Right.” Bai Bing Wen looks away, feeling a little uncomfortable with the subject. “What exactly do you need from me? I want you to tell me the truth. Is it only marriage or the more complicated one?”

Looking a little nervous, Ji Feng Huang squeezes the ribbon of his belt. “The blood vow.”

Bai Bing Wen crosses his arms over his chest, taking a deep breath. “I honestly don’t know why or how I was sent here, but I do hope this would all make sense once everything is falling back to their rightful places. For now, I want to know how you plan on exiting the imperial harem.”

Ji Feng Huang looks up at him with bright eyes. “Why? I don’t get your meaning.”

Bai Bing Wen looks back at him. “I mean, how am I supposed to date someone who’s already married to someone else?”

There’s a few seconds of silence before Ji Feng Huang finally asks, “What’s a date?”

Of course, the ancient little ghost wouldn’t understand. Bai Bing Wen has figured as much so he simply offers him an easier explanation, “It’s being engaged for some time to see if we can work together as a couple.”

Cheeks tinged with all shades of red for the umpteenth time, Ji Feng Huang scrunches up his nose. “That... that sounds like a romantic relationship.”

“What, so you want to get married right away? Without even knowing if you don’t hate the way I look when I’m sleeping or the instability of my spiritual energy when I’m cultivating? Dating is an essential step towards marriage. Why do you sound so uncomfortable with that idea and can openly discuss getting married to a stranger without batting an eye?”

Ji Feng Huang glares at him like he’s an i***t. “Because we’re both men.”

“But you’re a mage, you said. And I’m a martial, you said. What’s so bad about that? If anything, we’d make a perfect cover. We can just let people think what they want and tell them I’m the mage and you’re the martial because I really don’t care about these labels. And, also, I thought you originally came here to seduce me?”

“I... I did.”

“Then, that’s it. But I’m not about to make myself your mistress. Let alone, you’re my father’s consort. For all I know, you could be kissing him or more once you return to the palace in your other form and you expect me to just let you get away with that?”

“No, I have never kissed anyone in any of my forms,” Ji Feng Huang quickly blurts out, instantly covering half of his face after this revelation.

“What?” Bai Bing Wen asks more in disbelief than confusion. “How is that possible when you married a man who’s supposed to marry plenty of people for this exact reason?”

“What reason?”

“Reproduction. You said it yourself. If not, how did you and the emperor spend the night of your wedding?”

“I gave him a remarkably believable illusion,” Ji Feng Huang smartly replies with a proud look on his face. He crosses his arms over his chest, too, and raises an eyebrow. “In fact, the emperor seemed happy the following day. I had put him under a spell and let him see whatever he wanted to see.”

Bai Bing Wen’s face contorts at the idea. “It seems to me that you really have no idea what these things mean. The emperor could have had done dirty things with you in his imagination.”

“The emperor is not like that. He’s a kind gentleman,” Ji Feng Huang argues lightly.

“Oh, he is. Except that he has, like, five other women in the palace who are only brought in to serve him in bed. How else do you think they’ve been spending nights together? Playing wei qi?”

Thinking about it, Ji Feng Huang’s face suddenly turns pale. In a few seconds, his jade white skin is almost turning green. “That shameless, dirty scum,” he mumbles gravely to himself, turning his back on Bai Bing Wen.

Bai Bing Wen almost laughs at the disbelief on Ji Feng Huang’s face. He follows when the smaller guy starts walking away.

“I’ll have you know that you must never use such tricks on me if we ever get married. I can hold back in doing the ‘consummation’ part but as a courtesy to my willingness to help, I sincerely hope you do not use your magic to make me believe we’re doing things just to satisfy what you think my desires would be. Even if I ask, you can tell me ‘no’, and I would respect that.”

As Ji Feng Huang finally understands what consummation means, he prepares to hit Bai Bing Wen’s arm but remembers he’s wearing the ring. He puts his hand back down and groans inwardly instead. “Why would you even think about that?”

“Because,” Bai Bing Wen starts off, catching up to Ji Feng Huang’s steps, “You told me I can only get my reward if I have your essence on me.”

Ji Feng Huang doesn’t answer. He doesn’t seem as confident in this conversation now as he has been before.

“You get your reincarnation card, I get my immortality card. Win-win,” Bai Bing Wen finishes with a dimpled smile, tickling the smaller guy’s ear.

It might be for Bai Bing Wen’s crazy imagination, but he’s almost a hundred percent positive that he sees Ji Feng Huang’s ears reddening in embarrassment before running away from him, slapping his cheeks lightly.

This time, Bai Bing Wen lets out a peal of boisterous laughter, running after the man.

Before heading back to the palace, Ji Feng Huang reminds him to address the fourth Imperial Consort by her palace name. They would probably see each other again in the palace sooner or later and the people must not suspect them of anything to avoid having more eyes watch them. The Shadow Empress is already suspicious enough of the fourth Imperial Consort. But from having Bai Bing Wen acting so differently from the original Crown Prince to seeing the two of them together more frequently than usual, the Shadow Empress would probably get more paranoid. Especially when they have been talking more today than they have ever been for the past few months since the consort entered the palace.

Ji Feng Huang also tells him to just wait for a few days while he executes the plan to smoothly exit the imperial harem without looking suspicious. And as far as warnings go, he’s also asking Bai Bing Wen to be wary of the Shadow Empress, the Empress Dowager, the three other consorts, and the concubine. While looking all prim and proper on the outside, they are all suspects in poisoning the Crown Prince, and seeing him alive might agitate these people more.

“Your Highness, the time for your afternoon tea has passed before you got back. Would you like us to send for your dinner, instead?” an imperial servant asks with head bowed as Bai Bing Wen steps out of his carriage.

He walks for a bit before pausing to tell the servant, “Prepare a warm bath for me. I’m not hungry.”

And while the servants seem to be doing exactly what he asks them to do, he knows well enough to not trust these people, as much as the original Crown Prince never did. He can’t trust them with his food, he can’t trust them with his teas, he can’t even trust them with his clothes now, but what can a warm bath do to harm him? He believes it is less likely that these people can find a way to sabotage even his bath.

As he enters his royal chambers, he notices the Frostbite still attached to his hip. At this, he looks at the ring on his finger, too. The silver ring sparkles a blue glow as if acknowledging Bai Bing Wen’s recognition of it. He touches the ring, sending bits of his spiritual energy into it, making gold and blue dust swirl together around his finger. He smiles to himself, shaking his head. In less than a day, he’s been teleported to a completely different world in a completely different timeline and almost affianced himself to a complete stranger. His family is going to have a field day if they ever learn of his crazy adventures after passing out.

Not noticing the passing time, a servant calls out to his address outside his door, informing him that the bath has been prepared. He removes all the other layers of his robes, leaving just what the ancient people consider to be undergarments.

“Leave,” he announces, opening the double sliding doors of his chamber. The handmaidens gape at his shameless display of indecency, looking away as he walks by.

When he reaches the odd-looking bathroom, he feels the familiar sense of coldness around his finger like it’s warning him of an impending danger. “What is it?” he mumbles to himself, as if expecting the ring to actually respond. When the gold and blue sparkles around the ring intensifies, he frowns, looking around him to see if anyone’s watching.

Seeing that the hall is empty, he looks back at the ring. “You’re as mischievous as the crazy little ghost who you gave you away.” But thinking about it, Bai Bing Wen figures that he might be just as crazy to actually consider talking to the ring. He opens the door to where the jade bathtub is, preparing to get himself soaked in warm water, only to get overwhelmed by the heavy scent of flowers.

Bai Bing Wen realizes that this isn’t how normal baths should be like. And to think that he almost believed that no one could sabotage this one request for him, he clearly underestimated the people who wanted the Crown Prince dead.

Thankfully, the dizzying sensation leaves as soon as he feels it affecting him, feeling the layer of frost from the hairpin that he’s now clipped on his undergarment robe spreading to his whole body. He resolves to just keep the robe on, seeing that people won’t probably leave him alone even during this time, and comfortably soaks himself into the warm bath. The warmth isn’t as comforting as the coldness, though, so he sighs in disappointment, looking back at the ring.

“By any chance, can you make this tub of poison a bit colder so I can at least enjoy it?” he says pointlessly, wiggling his fingers.

The blue and golden sparkles around the ring expand inside the spacious bathroom and as specks of blue fall into the steaming warm water, small, beautiful snowflakes form on the surface while the temperature of the tub of poison slowly drops. When the water has turned into that comfortable coldness, Bai Bing Wen kisses the ring on his finger and smiles his signature dimpled smile. “Good job.”

As if responding to his compliment, more sparkles of blue scatter around the room, forming a replica of the galaxy with endless specks of blue dots. The golden specks of his spiritual energy, probably sensing their master’s shallow joy, start blending with the blue ones, forming beautiful constellations of bluish and golden stars. Suddenly, this room is not so horrible anymore.

Despite only meeting the little ghost in less than a day, he doesn’t deny that this new world he’s been sent to isn’t as terrifying as it must have been if he had to be alone the entire day.

Ji Feng Huang—this little guy is actually helping him learn a lot more things about himself without realizing it. Because of this, Bai Bing Wen begins to feel that being sent to an entirely different world isn’t so bad anymore. He has to thank his Jie-gege once he gets back.

If he gets back.