I'll Take Responsibility for the Child

"Isn't it a horror novel?" Xia Yu was astonished.

"I'm not writing a horror novel anymore, I want to write a detective story," Wen Ziyin replied.

"How is this a detective story? Where's your outline?" Xia Yu searched through the manuscript.

Following Wen Ziyin's guidance, Xia Yu quickly found the outline of the novel.

The outline was quite detailed. Xia Yu skimmed it and was somewhat speechless.

The male lead became a couple with a girl he suddenly met, but the girl only went on dates at night, claiming to be too busy with work during the day.

After a week, the male lead felt something was off and turned to his buddy for help. The buddy was a tech nerd who especially enjoyed accessing classified files. One day, while he was investigating a recent serial murder case online, he helped the male lead look it up and discovered that the girl had given the male lead a fake name.

Through subsequent dates, the male lead indirectly inquired about the situation and took a photo of the girl.

After giving all this information to his buddy, the male lead finally found out the true identity of the girl: she had died the previous month.

Recalling his girlfriend's strange behavior and that she only appeared at night, the male lead was frightened and swore to never see the ghost again. He also sought the help of Buddhist statues, Taoist talismans, and crucifixes.

However, he only lasted five days before becoming impatient with the superstitious trinkets. He went to the hospital for a check-up and, after finding out that his body was fine, he decided that the girl was a good ghost and resumed their relationship.

The two quickly grew closer, but the male lead's friend, upon finding out, immediately tried to dissuade him and even brought in many monks and Taoist priests to exorcise the ghost, but it was all in vain.

For his girlfriend's safety, the male lead changed the meeting place.

Gradually, the male lead noticed that his girlfriend would disappear for a day or two before reappearing, with injuries on her body and a haggard look.

Feeling uneasy, one day after his girlfriend had been missing for a week, he sought out a famous monk.

The monk turned out to be a fraud. After listening to the male lead's story, he looked confused and thought the male lead was delusional. He gave the male lead some advice, claiming that the ghost was left in the mortal world and was being eroded by the Yang Qi (positive energy). The solution was simple: use the monk's talisman to capture the female ghost, unearth her ashes, and reunite her soul with her bones to nourish the soul.

Feeling unable to handle this on his own, the male lead turned to his buddy. During their next meeting with the female ghost, the male lead tied her up with a rope and attached the monk's talisman. As expected, the female ghost could not break free.

He and his friend put the female ghost in the trunk of their car and drove to the place where she had been buried.

They dug up the urn containing her ashes, and according to the monk's instructions, forced the female ghost in front of the urn, telling her to return to it.

However, despite pressing her face against the urn, they couldn't succeed. As they struggled, dawn approached, and according to the monk, once the sun rose, the female ghost would be completely dispersed, with nowhere to hide.

After sunrise, the male lead wept bitterly, throwing himself onto the female ghost to enjoy their final moments together, only to find that she was unaffected by the sunlight.

In confusion, the male lead ripped off the tape from the female ghost's mouth. Tears streaming down her face, she cried out, "I am the murderer! I am the murderer! What do you want from me?"

The outline ended abruptly here.

Xia Yu speculated that the girlfriend was the serial killer observed by her close friend, and she disappeared for a few days to commit the murders. The injuries were caused by the fight, and the reason why the information displayed her as being dead was that she had slipped away.

Staring at the manuscript in his hand, Xia Yu asked Wen Ziyin, "Do you call this a detective novel?"

"It can also be called a comedy novel." Wen Ziyin didn't care.

"It's not suitable to write as a novel. It would be better to make it into a comedy film," Xia Yu commented.

"So what? I'll write it like this," Wen Ziyin insisted.

As the pen was hers, Xia Yu couldn't stop her. Besides, he also wanted Wen Ziyin to fail so he could complete his task.

Picking up the manuscript again, Xia Yu suggested that Wen Ziyin add a plot where the male lead and his friend try to find out if the girlfriend is a ghost, and then deepen the misunderstandings through various coincidences.

Wen Ziyin nodded, and the two of them revised the outline together.

Three hours later, Wen Ziyin significantly changed the plot, revealing from the start that the girlfriend was a human being, but the male lead and his friend didn't know. This made the style of the novel completely absurd.

In the quiet of the night, Xia Yu put down the manuscript and went to bed.

He was looking forward to seeing what kind of story Wen Ziyin's novel would turn out to be.

At six o'clock in the morning, he returned to his own body.

Stretching lazily, Xia Yu's excitement from the previous night disappeared, and he started to worry about meeting Xu Youxiang.

As the saying goes, short-term pain is better than long-term pain, and leaving the problem unresolved would only make him worry. Only by facing it could he solve it.

He got up, packed his suitcase, and sat on the sofa in the living room, waiting.

At seven o'clock, Yuxue came out of her room to prepare breakfast and was startled to see Xia Yu on the sofa.

"What's the matter?" Xia Yu looked at Yuxue.

Yuxue came up to him, reached out and touched Xia Yu's pocket, then had Xia Yu stand up and checked the sofa.

The girl didn't find anything. She stroked her chin and looked at Xia Yu.

"Where did you hide the snacks?" she asked.

Tapping Yuxue's head, Xia Yu retorted, "So if I get up early, it means I'm sneaking food?"

"That's what happened last time," Yuxue said, blaming Xia Yu.

"Get out of here," Xia Yu chased the girl away.

At seven-thirty, An Siyao came out of the bedroom, and the three of them had breakfast together.

Carrying the black cat and two hamsters, the three of them left home again and headed for Yaoguang.

Xia Yu entrusted the two pets to the taxi driver for transport, and he and the two girls took the high-speed train to reach Yaoguang first.

In front of the Yu family's villa, Xia Yu gave Yuxue the driver's phone number and asked her to receive the black cat and the hamsters, while he went to Xu Youxiang's house.

Xu Youxiang didn't live in Yu Liang's villa but rented a house outside.

It was an ordinary high-rise apartment, and Xia Yu took the elevator to the 23rd floor.

Standing at the door, he pressed the doorbell.

The door was quickly opened, and Xia Yu saw Xu Youxiang seated in a wheelchair, and his face became serious.

In Xu Youxiang's arms, there was a baby.

Xia Yu reflected on when he had had such an encounter with Xu Youxiang. Was it when he was drunk? Was Xu Youxiang too quick?

However, these were not the main points. Stepping forward, Xia Yu grabbed Xu Youxiang's hand: "I will take responsibility for the child."

Xu Youxiang originally had a gloomy face, but couldn't help laughing when she heard this: "Don't be ridiculous, you think I'll let you raise my sister?"

Xia Yu visited Xu Youxiang here once or twice a week, knowing that the child was not Xu Youxiang's. However, he did not expect that this was actually Xu Youxiang's sister.

"Your uncle is working hard." Xia Yu poked the baby's face.

"Yeah, not like you." Xu Youxiang replied.

Xia Yu frowned, feeling that there was a hint in her words.