My Little Ghost

Volume 1.3.3 — The Transmission

As Bai Bing Wen carries the smaller guy in his arms back to where his own imperial chamber is, the servants he comes across with and those waiting for him by the door are all staring at him with wide eyes. They are probably thinking that he’s into some kind of kink involving unconscious boys for bringing one who seems to have struggled a lot before losing his consciousness. He’s so tempted to try and explain the situation just to avoid humiliating Ji Feng Huang and himself because that’s far from what he actually is, but in order to save their faces, he also risks the danger of exposing Ji Feng Huang’s identity.

For now, he would rather have these malicious people think of him however they want.

“No one is allowed to disturb me in my chambers. I want everyone else to stay out of the Golden Flower Palace until I call on one of you,” he announces without looking, walking straight into his room.

He carefully places Ji Feng Huang in his bed then proceeds to lock the doors and the windows. He really cannot trust anyone in this place without getting poisoned or enchanted so he needs to be careful. He also sets a few formation traps outside his room and layer after layer of protective arrays around them. He’s grateful for the fact that his cultivation has stabilized. If not, he might have turned into qi deviation after that burst of spiritual force he’s done earlier.

Bai Bing Wen feels the pounding in his chest getting heavier. Although he’s relieved that Ji Feng Huang is with him now and he literally has eyes on him to be sure of his safety, he still has no idea what’s going on with him. He’s also still in a bit of a shock after facing so many cultivators all by himself, since he’s used to just facing fierce ghosts back in the modern world during night hunts. He’s never actually had to face people who have cultivated the same way he did and with learned martial arts skills at that. He has Ji Feng Huang to thank for saving his butt.

After thoroughly checking if Ji Feng Huang has any obvious physical injury, Bai Bing Wen concentrates his spiritual energy to his hands and runs them gently on Ji Feng Huang’s chest. Ji Feng Huang lets out a strained groan, probably feeling the unfamiliar warmth, before the frown on his face slowly eases.

Bai Bing Wen stands up from the side of the bed to get a few more robes from the Crown Prince’s golden chest and walks back to the bed, trying to figure out how he would change the boy’s clothes without getting his conservative nature disrespected. He decides to just make sure he doesn’t look anywhere he’s not supposed to and just change his robes real quick, like how he would for a drunk family member.

But taking Ji Feng Huang’s clothes off proves to be more difficult than just merely removing clothes off of a drunk person. Whenever Bai Bing Wen tries to undo his belt, frost would form as if even Ji Feng Huang’s spiritual cognition knows how to protect its unconscious master.

“Relax, okay? I’m not going to hurt you. I just need to clean you up and change your clothes,” Bai Bing Wen desperately says to no one in particular, letting out an exhausted sigh.

He blows a few of his golden sparkles on Ji Feng Huang’s sleeping face. “Warm up a little, will you? Your sweat is ice cold.” The few specks of gold latch themselves onto Ji Feng Huang’s pale face and throughout his body, bringing back his glowing jade white color. There’s now a hint of red on his cheeks and Bai Bing Wen guesses this has to do with the warmth he’s trying to give the smaller guy.

“Who knew that my fire spirit could be useful at times like this?” he mumbles to himself.

This time, when he reaches out for Ji Feng Huang’s belt, the blue specks of dust simply surround his hands but frost no longer forms to stop him. He quickly takes off the unconscious guy’s layers of robes, easily wearing him new ones to make sure he sleeps well. After this, he concentrates more of his spiritual energy in his hands and checks on Ji Feng Huang’s pulse. He slowly infuses his spiritual energy, only to encounter the same protective layer around his core.

“I won’t do anything harmful, I promise. I need to know what’s wrong so I can help you get better.”

As if understanding his sentiments, Bai Bing Wen feels the protective layer around Ji Feng Huang’s core easing up slowly, letting him feel the small cracks—probably due to forcing his core so much after what he did earlier despite his sickness.

“And you call me stubborn,” Bai Bing Wen grumbles to himself, preparing to transmit a few of his warm essence into Ji Feng Huang’s body to help his core heal faster.

He whispers a few enchantments and gently massages the unconscious guy’s acupoints, infusing his spiritual energy and leaving traces of his essence to keep him warm. He tries to ease up his tensed muscles and strained meridians to allow his spiritual energy to flow smoothly. With this, Ji Feng Huang’s core should be back to normal in no time.

After about a couple of hours of repeating the same process, Bai Bing Wen finally feels the exhaustion taking a toll on him. He feels like his core is being drained, twice as fast as it did earlier, but it keeps getting replenished just as soon by borrowing the spiritual energy of the surrounding. This is the advantage of having an environment filled with abundant spiritual energy flow.

He keeps going and doesn’t stop until the cracks of Ji Feng Huang’s core are almost gone. When he’s about to go back to the first step, he feels a huge force sucking in his spiritual energy, making him feel weaker. His knees are almost giving out, but he tries his best to stay firm. He’s in a very compromising position, straddling the smaller guy to get better access to his acupoints so he can’t just fall on his face right here. And although he knows this might negatively affect his core, too, he goes on because he knows that this is also a sign that Ji Feng Huang’s core is responding to his treatment accordingly.

Now, he goes full force in sending his the last bits of energy he has left, not even waiting for his surrounding to fill up his core first. And with one last spiritual energy infusion, Bai Bing Wen drains himself and passes out right then and there. Exactly the way he’s been trying not to end up doing.

The next moment he opens his eyes, the surrounding is a bit lighter and tranquil. He smells a delicious aroma of food, sobering him up. As he sits up, he notices his clothes have been changed to a darker set of just the inner robes and he’s lying in his bed. A few seconds after, he finally remembers what happened right before he lost consciousness.

“Oh! You’re awake! I hope you’re hungry, Xiao Bing,” an enthusiastic voice calls out, walking into the slightly opened doors of his spacious room.

When Bai Bing Wen looks up, he sees Ji Feng Huang wearing the gray set of robes he’s worn back when they strolled through the market street with his hair in jet black color and his headband a bit crooked. “You cooked?” he asks absently with a hoarse voice. No matter what he’s been thinking about earlier, seeing Ji Feng Huang up and about now is automatically making him feel happy.

Ji Feng Huang sits right next to him on the bed after pushing the dishes of food served on a cart closer to the table. “I did. I’ll have you know that I can only cook dishes of the Eastern Empire and I had to make do with the ingredients I can find in your garden. I also made sure to purify them myself so you don’t get poisoned again. I hope you’ll like them,” Ji Feng Huang tells him with an embarrassed smile.

Before he knows it, Bai Bing Wen is already taking the smaller boy into his arms and giving him a warm embrace. “Are you feeling well?”

Bai Bing Wen feels Ji Feng Huang’s body stiffening for a bit before he relaxes and returns the embrace. “I am well. Thank you,” Ji Feng Huang answers with a garbled voice, talking with his face buried in the crook of Bai Bing Wen’s face.

“You scared me,” Bai Bing Wen says in a low voice.

Ji Feng Huang giggles and pulls away from him a little. “I really like the smell of your essence,” he says as the blue sparkles in his eyes dance wildly.

Bai Bing Wen smiles his dimpled smile. “If you promise not to hurt yourself like that again, you can smell my essence all you want.”

Ji Feng Huang’s hands gripping on Bai Bing Wen’s robes are balling tighter while his adorable pointy ears are moving a little. “Really?”

Nodding, Bai Bing Wen takes him back into his embrace. “I really like the way you smell, too,” he says, taking a deep breath. “Let’s stay like this for a little more.”

A few minutes after he finally regains more strength, Bai Bing Wen pulls away and Ji Feng Huang’s cheeks and ears are already tinged with red. “Are you hungry?” Bai Bing Wen hears him asking.

“I am. Please, feed me.”

Nodding excitedly, Ji Feng Huang takes the lightest dish first, probably to make sure Bai Bing Wen doesn’t hurt his stomach. “You’ve been sleeping for three days,” he says, blowing a bit on the steaming bowl of congee.

Either Bai Bing Wen is actually too hungry or Ji Feng Huang has put him under a spell, too, but even the congee looks definitely mouthwatering. “It felt like a week to me, though,” he complains, clearing his throat.

So much has happened to him in just a few days of being here. Perhaps his great-grandfather’s stories about time-traveling are true, after all. But as much as he likes this world for its pure energy and the vast range of magical skills, there are some things he misses back in his world, too. From the smallest to the grand ones, and those he enjoys using the most with his brothers. Especially those devices made by coreless humans with their reliable science.

He’s also long abandoned the idea of brushing his teeth in this world so he figures he can only take the long process of physical cleansing using his spiritual energy since it’s something they have so much of. Despite knowing there’s water to use for bathing, he really cannot trust anyone with anything here if he doesn’t want to die, even for the slightest need of a bath. For now, he can only rely on the person who’s trying to give him a spoonful of congee. Because of all he’s encountered in this world, even if Ji Feng Huang is probably the most powerful of them all, he’s also the most harmless to Bai Bing Wen.

“You don’t like it?” Ji Feng Huang asks with a dismayed voice, taking the spoon back. He tastes the food and clicks his tongue. “Is it too spicy?”

Bai Bing Wen takes Ji Feng Huang’s hand holding the spoon and takes the remaining food on it in his mouth. “No, it’s delicious,” he remarks, swallowing the food.

Ji Feng Huang’s eyes are bewildered, staring at the spoon. “I just put that in my mouth. Why would you...” he trails off, mumbling to himself.

Bai Bing Wen chuckles. “It’s colder when it goes through your mouth first so the temperature is more tolerable for me.”

Ji Feng Huang blinks up at him innocently, but soon enough, just as Bai Bing Wen has expected, his cheeks and ears turn red. “That’s... Do you want me to put ice in your food?”

“That’s not necessary,” Bai Bing Wen says, smiling his dimpled smile. “Okay, forget it. Give that to me,” he says in between peals of laughter, taking the bowl from Ji Feng Huang’s now frozen hands.

As Bai Bing Wen finishes his bowl of congee, Ji Feng Huang prepares the other dishes without looking at him. He observes how the smaller guy is removing the orange-colored vegetable cuts out of one of the three dishes and placing them into an extra empty bowl.

“What’s that?” Bai Bing Wen asks.

“Carrots. I’m removing them so you can eat this,” Ji Feng Huang answers, still focused on removing every last piece of Bai Bing Wen’s most hated vegetable.

“Ah, you remembered,” Bai Bing Wen remarks, raising an eyebrow.

“How can I forget? I have to remember these things for my future martial.”

At this, they turn quiet while waiting for Ji Feng Huang to finish serving the food.

Bai Bing Wen finishes most of the dishes while Ji Feng Huang just sits right next to him, occasionally eating whatever Bai Bing Wen places in the extra bowl. Because of this, Ji Feng Huang has found out that he not only hates carrots, but he also doesn’t like onions. Ji Feng Huang eats them all. He doesn’t eat his food when it’s still hot, too, so most of them, Ji Feng Huang has to blow on first before he starts eating. He says that the blue sparkles that come out of Ji Feng Huang’s mouth every time he blows air is turning into tiny little snowflakes, but Ji Feng Huang tells him he’s just imagining things.

After their meal, Ji Feng Huang cleans up the dishes and pushes the cart outside the room. When he walks back, Bai Bing Wen has already removed another layer of his robes.

“These clothes are really too thick for me,” he complains.

Ji Feng Huang sighs. “But the servants are already complaining about how you’re always dressing so indecently lately.”

“Well, they’re not the one sweating buckets so they can’t complain.”

“Okay. Come here,” Ji Feng Huang says, whispering a few enchantments to his hands. His spiritual energy expands on his palms as he places them on Bai Bing Wen’s chest. Slowly, the familiar feeling of frost spreading all throughout his body is giving him the comfortable coldness he likes the most. “Is that better?”

Bai Bing Wen stretches his limbs for a bit, smiling to himself. “Yes. Thank you. I like this very much.”

Picking up the discarded robe, Ji Feng Huang drapes it back to Bai Bing Wen’s shoulders. “Why do you always want to feel so cold? I like your warmth.”

Bai Bing Wen looks up to see Ji Feng Huang’s pout. “Here. You can have all my warmth,” Bai Bing Wen says, spreading his arms wide to welcome the shorter guy into his embrace.

Ji Feng Huang thinks about it for a bit before resolving to just give in. He walks into Bai Bing Wen’s embrace and drapes his arms around Bai Bing Wen’s waist, burying his face onto the taller’s chest. “I really like your smell,” he says again.

Bai Bing Wen hugs him tighter. “You can make all of my smell yours, too.”

“Hmm.”

They stay like that for a long time without talking. Bai Bing Wen knows there’s so much to talk about after what just happened but perhaps it is the mutual understanding in between them that they’re holding off on this talk so they can rest their minds first. Because they both know that after this calm, another storm is about to hit them. And probably more disastrous than the last, too.

Until they find out who’s trying to murder the Crown Prince and catch who’s attempting to sabotage the fourth consort, they can never be at ease outside the comforts of their embrace.