As Liu Haoyu swaggered away through the Blue Wisteria Gardens, feeling very satisfied with himself, he suddenly stopped walking and choked.

Hold on—he’d seen that rude shimei’s face somewhere before!

Those intense eyes, that black hair inky like the night sky—this wasn’t the first time he’d seen them!

He stood there under a cherry blossom tree for a while, rubbing his chin furiously and racking his jumbled mess of memories since coming here. In the end, he didn’t come up with anything. The only way he could’ve seen her before, then, was as Liu Haoyi, before that damn mirror ate his soul. As all seasoned transmigration otakus know, this was a common theme in transmigration stories: important memories from a body’s past owner staying with the new owner.

He was pondering the meaning of this while walking aimlessly when, suddenly, someone laughed nearby.

“GAH! Who’s there?!” Yes, the same line from before. What else should he say?! ‘Come out from where you hide, you scoundrel!’?! ‘Hear ye, who goes there?’?!

The amused laugh turned into a chuckle. It was coming from behind a large bush.

“Come now, you know who it is. Aren’t you going to come and greet this master?”

Liu Haoyu froze.

Master?!

Could that person be—Liu Haoyi’s shifu?

Well, if that was the case, he didn’t really have a choice, did he? He couldn’t just turn and flee from his—ahem, Liu Haoyi’s—shifu! Then everyone would definitely know something was up!

Trying to walk as un-suspiciously as possible, Liu Haoyu strolled around the bush. What he saw was a sparkling, glassy pond as still as ice, with a strange red glow emitting from it, like the bottom was covered in jewels. This must be the Red Glass Pond.

Lying leisurely atop a large, shining white rock sank right into the middle of the Red Glass Pond was a beautiful person. Dammit, was everyone here either so pretty or beautiful that it made you want to cry just looking at them? If he was in a novel, he wanted to grab the author and strangle them. Who were they to set such unrealistic beauty standards?!

The beautiful person on the rock—it was impossible to tell whether they were a man or a woman. Their robes were loose and flowing, making it difficult to tell from their body. Their luscious, flowing white hair and ghostly pale, slender face were the peak of both feminine and masculine beauty. Even their voice earlier was both full and playful. Basically, only one thing was clear about them: they were an unparalleled beauty, whatever their gender was!

While Liu Haoyi struggled over this person’s unfair universal attractiveness, the person on the rock looked very amused.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

“Another fight with your shimei Ji Huishi?” Liu Haoyi’s shifu sighed somewhat dramatically. “You two have never gotten along. In fact, it seems you’re only getting worse. You’ve called her an immature loser this time? Mm, she’ll remember that for a long time.”

Liu Haoyi quickly made three notes:

1. That jerk shimei’s name was Ji Huishi.

2. Ji Huishi was known to keep long grudges.

3. Liu Haoyi’s shifu had heard everything.

Wait—Liu Haoyi’s shifu had heard everything?!

“Ahem…shifu was listening?” Liu Haoyu stammered. Dammit. This person’s beauty was really too much. Could he get his own hair to flow like that? So shiny…

Liu Haoyi’s shifu smiled. “You know I have a penchant for gossip. Tell me, Haoyi, what is my name?”

Liu Haoyu froze. He was still dazed from this person’s appearance, but the back of his neck prickled. He shook his head, blood running cold.

“...Shifu’s name…?” Uh oh. This was not good. 1), He had no idea what their name was. Crap, he really should’ve asked Yinuo about that sooner. 2), Why were they asking this in the first place?! It couldn’t be anything good. Unless…it was an inside joke, or something…? He laughed awkwardly, coughing into his fist. “Ah…why is shifu asking…?”

Liu Haoyi’s shifu smile again, reclining further back on the stone. “No reason.”

Liu Haoyu breathed a sigh of relief. All right, maybe it wasn’t anything important. That was a close one. As soon as he got back to the Plum Blossom Pavilion, he’d ask Yinuo—

Out of nowhere, a ghostly white hand closed around his throat, crushing his windpipe. What the hell?! How had they moved so fast? One second, they’d been sunbathing in the pond, and now they were bearing down on Liu Haoyu, choking him to death and looking like they wanted to murder him! More than that—they looked like they wanted to tear him to pieces and bury him alive! How could such a terrifying gaze be on such a beautiful face?!

“No reason,” they repeated, voice bitingly cold. “It’s just, my disciple is clearly possessed.”

At that moment, all the blood drained out of Liu Haoyu’s face.

Well, shit.

----------------------------------------

Well, shit.

This was how he was going to die. For the second freaking time! By being choked to death by a beautiful man-woman-person whose disciple’s body he’d stolen! Fuck! Why couldn’t Liu Haoyi’s shifu be as clueless as everyone else here? Or at least less violent? He’d just gotten here! He didn’t want to die again so fast! That wasn’t manly at all!

“W-Wait…” he gasped. “Let me…explain…”

Liu Haoyi’s shifu’s eyes flashed. Their hand tightened around his neck like a jade boa constrictor. “What is there to explain? All I can sense of Haoyi’s spirit in this body is a faint wisp. I want to kill you right here and now.”

WHAT?! How unreasonable! They hadn’t even given him a chance to explain himself! Injustice! What happened to “innocent until proven guilty”?

Suddenly, they let go, expression dark.

“...But I can’t. You don’t seem to be a demon or a ghost, so I can’t exorcise you and dissipate your spirit. And I can’t kill this body, because it belongs to Haoyi. So you’ve gotten lucky. Explain yourself if you can, intruder. If you can give me a good enough reason, I won’t start looking for a way to rip you out of my disciple’s body and tear you to pieces so that you’ll never reincarnate again.”

Liu Haoyu gulped. Never reincarnate again? Tear him to pieces? Rip him out of this body?

No thank you!

What else could he do in this situation? He fell to his knees and squashed his face into the soft grass, spilling everything.