Newly Appointed Head Disciple

"Who is it?" Fu Yating turned to look.

A man stood leaning to the persimmon tree and staring at him. Dark clad black robes and a lining of coral inner collar, long hair sliding down his shoulders as he moves to look back; he opened the dark and yet bright eyes with arms still crossed.

Fu Yating knew those eyes. "Zhou Yixiao?"

"I'll always come back to you." Zhou Yixiao spoke with sincerity that Fu Yating couldn't find the source of. "How do you like me now? Am I handsome enough for My Prince?"

Fu Yating hesitated somewhat, not knowing how to respond correctly. "You are very handsome." He paused and looked into his eyes directly. "The disguise as a child isn't needed." Almost as if taken by surprise, Zhou Yixiao's smile fell for a moment, before being picked up again. There was a strange familiarity that Fu Yating felt for this man, but he couldn't pin point what.

"Here in the back of the mountain is my humble abode. No matter your reason to visit, you are my guest. I don't have much to offer, but accept what hospitality I can afford." Fu Yating spoke softly pushing the door open and carrying the pot of porridge he had cooked. Zhou Yixiao followed behind.

"Such a blissful night, and you wish to stay inside? Not look at the moon?"

"The wind is getting colder and... when you spend decades staring at the same moon, it gets uninteresting." Fu Yating said.

"Not everyone has had decades of freedom, My Prince. It could be someone's first glance at such a beauty, so he shouldn't be asked to look away." Zhou Yixiao said.

"The moon will still be there tomorrow." Fu Yating insisted. "As long as you return each night, the moon will keep waiting. That is all it can do."

They entered inside and seated themselves at the small table. Fu Yating took out two bowls, thinking the ghost couldn't eat and waited for his reaction. Much to his surprise, Zhou Yixiao was prepared to eat, and again, Fu Yating remembered how little he knew of ghosts with human forms. Most ghosts they had to deal with would scream in painful agony, and the Heaven's officer promised them a peaceful afterlife. How much resentment did Zhou Yixiao contain within himself, that he had a strong human form capable of eating like human beings, and yet he would smile so brightly? It didn't make sense.

He pushed such thoughts away as Zhou Yixiao kept staring at him with expectation. "I've been told before, that my cooking was bland." But the ghost started to eat regardless. Fu Yating also began eating slowly, blowing at his bowl to cool it down.

It was oddly silent for the next few minutes, but then Fu Yating put his chopsticks down with a slight noise.

"Your records have almost nothing about your mortal life. But I do feel like we've met before, Yixiao..." Fu Yating scrunched his forehead as a splitting headache started to form. "Have we met before? Perhaps, on mortal realm?"

Zhou Yixiao had a frustrated expression on his face as he stared at Fu Yating patiently, almost as if he could feel the pang Fu Yating was feeling. He then smiled again before answering. "I was only someone who got attached to My Prince, then decided to haunt your office in hopes that you'd befriend me. Much to my dismay, the moment I come there, you've moved to the back of the mountain? No one informed me of it, so I pestered the grim reapers."

It was evident that Fu Yating couldn't extract straight answers from this ghost. He had a sharp tongue that twisted his way around words, brilliantly so.

"Now you've met me. What next?"

A mischievous glint appeared in Zhou Yixiao's eyes. "Now I pester my Prince."

"You aren't winning that game, then. You haven't pestered me one bit."

"That's good. If you're unbothered by such company, I can stay without guilt."

Zhou Yixiao had a fluid way of speaking, making it difficult to counter him with logic or rules. Perhaps because Fu Yating hadn't ever learned to strictly scold his juniors, even a young soul was able to argue back and forth so playfully. Again, Fu Yating didn't feel offended or ashamed, instead he was very impressed. He could become a God of debate, or maybe charm his way through every argument.

"Yixiao, then you should spend your time as you wish. If you wish to stay, then you stay for as long as you please, and when you think it's enough, I'll escort you to afterlife."

Fu Yating didn't know what he spoke wrong, but a displeased expression came over Zhou Yixiao. He drifted his eyes to his palms, opening and closing his mouth without knowing what to say. "What if I never want to leave?"

'You would want to leave eventually, even if you do not think so currently. After all, there is only so much obsession one could afford.' Fu Yating thought sighing with disappointment.

"Don't have to assume the future. So long as you don't bother the grim reapers, you are welcome to stay in this pavilion. I wouldn't mind company."

Fu Yating took away the empty dishes began preparing to sleep. 'He would need somewhere to sleep too.' He thought with a puzzled intent. The place only had one bed, and offering that would leave him with no place to sleep with, also Yixiao wouldn't accept that. He could send the ghost back to his old office till he prepared another bedding the next day, but he also didn't want to appear as if driving his guest away.

"You've been trying to find disciples, right?" Zhou Yixiao caught his attention while playing with his own hair. "This little place has only enough space for one person, where would your students live? Or will you build another residence nearby?"

"There are two rooms here, one is the office and the other is the bedroom. I could manage with one room, the second could be used by disciples." Fu Yating replied. 'If I manage to find any, that is.'

"Hmm... I'll take the floor." Zhou Yixiao excitedly spoke and lied on his back. He exaggerated a cat like stretch, as if he had found is ideal nap position, and yet it didn't look bad on his tall, lean form.

"Yixiao... you should take the bed..."

"All night long, I'm going to stare at my Prince, perhaps haunt him and give him nightmares. I certainly wouldn't need a bed for that, and I don't even sleep."

Fu Yating considered the offer. It would've been awkward if Yixiao himself hadn't suggested it, but now he was shamelessly relieved. "Goodnight then, Yixiao." He said and lied on the edge of the bed, facing the ghost and staring back. The confused look on Yixiao's face, was completely worth the imbalance he was feeling due to his sleeping position, feeling as though he would roll over and fall on his face.

"Since you don't plan to sleep, let me make your staring and haunting more comfortable by facing you this way. With our circumstances, this the the best hospitality I can provide." Yixiao tittered out playfully, resting his head on a folder arm.

"My Prince is so unfair, how would I appear in your dreams if you don't fall asleep?"

"Alright, I'll close my eyes now." And Fu Yating did. He didn't understand how, sleep arrived easier this night, feeling like a certain smile occupying all his thought, not leaving any place for worries. And although the ghost had threatened to give him nightmares, the next time that Fu Yating opened his eyes, it was already morning.

He found himself lying comfortably on the center of his bed, like he would usually sleep and draped over by a blanket. He got up hurriedly to see Yixiao missing from his spot on the floor.

"...Yixiao?" Fu Yating amazed himself at how naturally the name came out. He had only been saying it for half a day, and yet it sounded habitual.

Upon getting no response, he rubbed his eyes and looked around. Had he decided to run away and bother the grim reapers again? Luo Ming would get upset if the pranks started again, and even blame him for going easy on the ghost child.

"My Prince." Fu Yating looked up to see a pale face staring at him and hanging on the ceiling like a spider.

"Yixiao... why are you there?" Such a sight first thing in the morning would have scared most people, but for experienced grim reapers and Spirits like him, it was only a prank that ghosts played to appear more supernatural. Human beings do not expect to be greeted from the top of their heads. "Come down." He realized that for him to sleep in a comfortable position, Yixiao had to climb up the ceiling just to look at his face.

The pale face slowly gets sucked into the roof and the young man walks in through the door. "I told you... Just stare from where you lied."

Yixiao ignored him completely, giggling his way towards the pantry. He came back excitedly, "Look, my Prince. I brought you soup. Your kitchen is so pathetic, only rice and salt? Why even bother to eat?" He spoke loudly and sat at his bedside, nearly spilling. Fu Yating felt embarrassed having Yixiao sit so close, and his heart jumped out when he took a spoonful and tried to feed him. He retorted with a, "I'm not sick. Need not feed me." and a tinge of red appeared on his face. Zhou Yixiao only laughed more and set the bowl aside.

"I think I told you to let me take care of you. Now it seems you've reversed the roles."

"But I don't like when my Prince treats me like a guest."

"You are a guest, for so long as you refuse to move on. It may sound unfair to you, since your resentment must've been too much for you to have such a stable form after death. Whatever grudge you hold, your loved ones would've wanted you to forget and move forward." Any other ghost would've lashed out at him, of course a Spirit wouldn't understand their agony or revenge, of course they'd want them to move on. But Yixiao only stopped smiling and looked into his eyes, his expression turned exhausted.

"My Prince barely knows anything about ghosts then. If I could move on, maybe I would have. But some unfulfilled wishes are impossible to achieve. What reassurance could your techniques provide to a soul that has no hope to fulfill his wish in any lifetime?" Fu Yating knew one thing for sure, that heavens indeed lacked information about ghosts. Yixiao's point seemed valid, and by theory, such a ghost wouldn't be able to move on.

"That's to say... I have too much time left in this form. My Prince should make me his disciple; maybe I'd be useful then?" Yixiao cut off the heavy air with this smirk.

"What?"