ISBH - Chapter 13
Chapter 13: Living Together
Mo Sheng found the female ghost was truly easy to keep.
As long as she acted a little happier, the female ghost would look very happy.
But when Mo Sheng thought back carefully, her own dull and uneventful life over the years made feeling joy truly difficult.
It seemed that since birth, nothing had ever made Mo Sheng especially happy.
Up to now, all of Mo Sheng's life had been full of things beyond her control.
Life had thrown one blow after another at her in quick succession, and Mo Sheng had almost no strength to resist. A life as frail as hers could be snuffed out by anything even slightly larger.
So Mo Sheng had learned to disguise herself, for only a life that was small yet highly venomous could keep surviving in such a harsh environment.
Yet Mo Sheng found she especially loved watching the female ghost busy herself wholeheartedly for her. She did not want to see this female ghost saddened by other matters, diverting attention that should have belonged to her.
Especially when the female ghost mentioned that person in her memories, her expression displeased Mo Sheng greatly, because Mo Sheng understood that was a world she could not enter...
Her father once said, "People start having wild thoughts only when they are idle." Back then he had held an easy sinecure with little work and good pay, but idle thoughts suddenly made him want to do research. It ended up like an absurd dream, and when he woke from the dream, he had nothing left...
Mo Sheng remembered when the female ghost had repaired the wiring before. Her expression then had looked somewhat like her father's when he used to do experiments. Didn't that mean that when the female ghost was kept busy, she would stop dwelling on random things?
Holding to this idea, Mo Sheng began going to the garbage pile every day to haul back a heap of useful and useless things. In any case, demolition was underway in the nearby area lately, and new furniture was thrown out into the garbage pile every day...
Mo Sheng found that the female ghost truly loved tinkering with these things. Once she knew the female ghost's hobby, and since her own home was empty anyway, Mo Sheng started acting as a diligent porter, feeding things to the bored female ghost. Watching the female ghost immerse herself wholeheartedly in this project of reusing scrap, with no room left to miss old friends, Mo Sheng felt relieved and began to focus on reviewing her lessons.
It was already early June and final exams were coming soon. Mo Sheng had to work harder than everyone else to keep studying. The school she attended only granted the tuition waiver policy to the top three students in each class.
Mo Sheng had no money to pay tuition, so to earn that policy she could only study harder than others.
Around this time, however, Mo Sheng discovered another merit of the female ghost. Her grades in life must have been very good. Every time Mo Sheng ran into a difficult problem, the female ghost would lean in, and she would quickly solve it and explain it to Mo Sheng. Moreover, the female ghost's spoken English was extremely standard, almost identical to what Mo Sheng heard in her English listening exercises...
Only belatedly did Mo Sheng realize that the female ghost's family background in life must have been very comfortable. In fact, it showed in her appearance. She looked like someone who had never suffered hardship, the kind of girl who could not have been raised without a certain financial standing.
After realizing this, Mo Sheng looked at the house growing tidier day by day, at the small lamp, kettle, electric oven and electric fan gradually appearing in the home, and her gaze grew more and more complicated...
Han Tian had no idea she was being taken for a female ghost. Looking at the things Mo Sheng had scavenged, her eyes practically lit up...
Han Tian threw herself into improving Mo Sheng's living conditions. She was determined to raise Mo Sheng to be healthy and pretty. For the moment she had no way to give Mo Sheng financial help, so she could only find ways to better Mo Sheng's living environment.
She did not know why, but Mo Sheng had hauled back a huge pile of things during this period.
This gave Han Tian just the place to put her skills to use!
Han Tian had spent years in the laboratory and could repair all kinds of appliances with practiced ease. At this moment she even discovered an advantage to her current state. Since her body now counted as something rejected by the natural world, Han Tian did not need to worry about electric shocks at all, so she repaired appliances extremely fast.
After discovering that Mo Sheng was an extremely muddleheaded little girl who seemed unable to sense changes around her, Han Tian grew bolder and bolder. She used a raincoat Mo Sheng had scavenged to patch the leaking roof, and she started secretly washing Mo Sheng's dirty clothes...
Han Tian even began to feel that she was Mo Sheng's Tianluo Girl.
In the story, though, the Tianluo Girl cooked meals and did housework for the farmer, while she herself was helping Mo Sheng improve her living conditions.
By this time Han Tian had learned to amuse herself. Thinking of this, she found it rather funny. She drifted over to Mo Sheng, who was reading, and with bright animated delight told the story and her comparison of herself to the Tianluo Girl all by herself.
"Little Mo Sheng, from now on call me Tianluo Sister..."
Mo Sheng naturally would not answer her, and Han Tian had not expected Mo Sheng to respond. After finishing the story, she straightened up and floated into the air again to patch the roof.
As she spoke, Han Tian had leaned close to Mo Sheng's neck. She herself felt nothing, but it was hard on Mo Sheng, who was pretending not to see her.
Mo Sheng kept her eyes on her book and pressed her lips together hard, only feeling goose bumps rise one by one along her neck while her whole back went numb and tingly...
Too close!
No one had been this close to Mo Sheng for a long time. Those people either despised Mo Sheng for smelling bad or despised her for being dirty...
If the female ghost had a sense of smell, would she despise her too?
Mo Sheng's heart was a little unsettled.
Fortunately, the female ghost floated away again after she finished speaking!
Mo Sheng breathed out quietly without showing a trace, and thinking of the female ghost's words about 'Tianluo Sister', she let her gaze sweep over a corner of the room and curled her lip.
So clumsy, yet she had the nerve to call herself Tianluo Sister.
Stuffed in that corner were two rags, and those two rags should originally have been cotton T-shirts.
Mo Sheng had scavenged these. When Mo Sheng brought the T-shirts back, they were extremely new and had probably been worn only once or twice. Mo Sheng had meant to wash them herself, but later she saw the female ghost lingering eagerly in the corner of the room. Mo Sheng blinked, set the clothes down, and went out to do her homework.
Han Tian happily heated water, planning to disinfect the T-shirts Mo Sheng had brought back. She had not expected the clothes Mo Sheng scavenged to be pure cotton, and pure cotton shrinks as soon as it touches hot water. Looking at the wrinkled clothes in the basin, Han Tian realized she had caused a disaster...
Relying on the fact that Mo Sheng could not see her, Professor Han immediately decided to destroy the evidence. Her face red, she quickly fished the clothes out. Luckily, in her current state she could not feel heat or cold at all, so Professor Han promptly turned the wrinkled T-shirts into rags...
Mo Sheng of course saw all of this! Yet the female ghost with red cheeks using the T-shirts as rags looked truly adorable, so Mo Sheng simply played along and pretended not to notice.
In other respects, though, even Mo Sheng had to admit that Han.Tianluo Girl.Tian possessed remarkable talent.
In less than half a month, the house had changed completely. The drafty gaps were repaired, and the room had electricity, with a small lamp, an electric fan and other things set out. Teacups stood on the table. Though they did not match, they had a charm of their own...
On the day of Mo Sheng's final exams, after ruining several dresses Mo Sheng had scavenged, Han Tian finally succeeded in altering one. She remade a dress that fit very well for Mo Sheng and placed it at the head of Mo Sheng's bed early in the morning.
Mo Sheng saw the dress as soon as she got up.
Han Tian had taken in the waist of the pale yellow dress, making it look youthful and cute. Han Tian had even sewn two fabric candies onto the shoulders of the dress.
Mo Sheng looked at herself in the window's reflection and realized for the first time how terribly thin her arms were, and how frighteningly dark her skin was. But few girls do not love beauty, and Mo Sheng could not bear to take the dress off...
Watching Mo Sheng carefully change into the clothes and head off to her exams, Han Tian smiled as she watched from behind, feeling like an old mother sending her own child to the examination hall. It was a pity she could not do as her coworkers did for their children and prepare two fried eggs for every exam to wish for a perfect score. Mo Sheng was truly too thin, looking almost like skin and bones, and urgently needed to eat something nourishing...
Still, when Mo Sheng lifted her head, she looked somehow familiar...
Han Tian did not think about it closely. She felt no sleepiness today and kept waiting for Mo Sheng to return from her exams.
At around four in the afternoon, the lock suddenly clicked open. Han Tian went to greet her in delight, yet she had not expected Mo Sheng to return looking like this. Mo Sheng's hair had come loose, her cheeks were somewhat red and swollen, the two fabric candies on the dress were gone without a trace, and the dress was stained with large smudges...
"What happened?"
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