Thread by @Cosmicmilktea

Everyone knows that the dorm atop the hill on Yiling Tech is haunted. Understandable, really, given that the hill is historically named the Burial Mounds.

It is, however, the cheapest housing option available on Campus, so naturally that's where Wei Ying would be staying.

It doesn't sit well with Lan Zhan that Wei Ying has to go through such measures when Jiang Cheng would live in a serviced apartment off-campus. But he's stopped trying to understand how the Jiangs work a long time ago, has settled on taking care of Wei Ying whenever they don't.

His own brother had offered a similar housing option, but was supportive of his choice for the dorms. A formative learning experience, Lan Huan had said to Uncle with a smile.

Brother knows too, that as Wei Ying had followed him to Yiling, Lan Zhan would follow him in kind.

The room is small and the furnitures are old, their beds almost pushed flush together in the narrow space. But the window overlooks the woods outside and it's not the overcrowded eight-person bunk bed nightmare he sometimes sees on Weibo.

Cramped as it is, it's theirs.

And right then, their half-unpacked belongings mingling together on the wooden floors, he realizes. Theirs.

Lan Zhan is going to live with Wei Ying, his best friend and the boy he's been in love with ever since he was twelve.
Perhaps, he had not given this enough consideration.

The realization continues as their shoulders keep brushing as they work, as he catches whiffs of the lotus-spice scent of Wei Ying's hair.

He's so engrossed in not panicking that he doesn't realize that Wei Ying has stopped his chatter.

"Lan Zhan, do you hear that?"

Wei Ying is peering into the darkness of the open window, head tilted "Sounds like...a flute?"

Then he hears it, faint amidst the rustling of leaves, the notes familiar and soothing.

"A dizi," Lan Zhan says softly.

"Huh, does Yiling Tech even have a music dept?"

They don't.

Lights out is at 11, but Wei Ying is quick to dim theirs at 9, and Lan Zhan falls asleep to the soft glow of Wei Ying's phone beside him.

He dreams.

He is on a sunny town square, people and noise bustling around him, a pair of tiny arms wrapped around his knee.

"Hanguang-Jun," someone calls out and in the dream, he raises his head to the familiar voice. "It's really you"

Thinner and more haggard but unmistakably him, Wei Ying smiles at him.

Lan Zhan wakes to Wei Ying's soft snores and the dim red glow of his alarm clock. It's 4 AM.

"So you heard the ghost flute?" Wen Ning sounds almost envious, timid eyes shining with excitement as Wei Ying nods over their shared breakfast.

Quite predictably, Wei Ying had made short work of making everyone in the dorm his friend, and to an extent Lan Zhan's acquaintance.

But amongst all of them, Lan Zhan thinks Wen Ning and his older sister Wen Qing might be his tentative favorite.
Wen Qing is stern but kind and reminds Wei Ying to eat properly within an hour of knowing him, and gentle Wen Ning takes to Wei Ying like a younger brother.

"Lan Zhan heard it too, right Lan Zhan?" Wei ying nudges him, and Lan Zhan merely nods.

"That's so cool! And on your first night there too!"

"You'll hear it soon enough, A-Ning" Wen Qing sighs, rolls her eyes.

Lan Zhan frowns, even as Wei Ying's eyes widens her way.

It would seem that whatever rumors surrounds their dorm has a grain of truth after all. There is, of course, nothing in the vein of bleeding walls or hopping corpses lurking in the shadows.

But there is indeed something -other- living with them in the hill of the Burial Mounds.

It manifests in small things. The sound of a child laughing, clumps of soil on one's doorstep, the sound of a scribbling brush late into the night.

Sometimes it's the faint scent of stale blood, or dry whispers carried by the wind. Sometimes, it's the sad melody of a lone dizi.

"It's never malicious though," Wen Qing concludes, "So it's nothing to worry about"

Despite having known Wen Qing for only a brief period of time, Lan Zhan knows she's not the type to joke or lie about something this strange nor trivial.

Still, he wonders.

Lan Zhan forgets about it soon enough, as classes roll along and he slowly adjust to the new schedule and the syllabus. He shares a few foundation classes with Wei Ying, shares almost all their meals together, figures out a night routine that works for them both.

All is well.

The dreams, however, persists. In disjointed bits and pieces that jolts him awake with a strange ache of longing.

In his dreams, the child hugging his knee is Wei Ying's - The Wei Ying of his dreams that wears black and red and has shadows in his eyes, but smiles the same.

In his dreams, there is Wen Ning, pale and bound with strings of paper, Wen Qing hugging him. There is a cave.

"Come back to Gusu with me," Lan Zhan said in his dream, fear and hope a crushing thing inside his chest, as Wei Ying's eyes harden and the shadows around them deepen

"You been sleeping okay, Lan Zhan?"

A styrofoam cup of tea is pushed gently into his hands over breakfast, the faint scent of his favorite jasmine tea wafting over Wei Ying's smile.

He nods, but then frowns as he really looks at Wei Ying.

"Has Wei Ying been sleeping well?"

"Stop answering questions with questions, Lan Zhan!" Wei Ying laughs, but then shrugs as Lan Zhan holds his gaze steady "I mean, you know that architecture is a harsh mistress! We're doing our first design assignment - Like actual design, not just drafting! It's a big deal!"

Lan Zhan doesn't sigh, but something of his discontent must have shown as Wei Ying scooted closer and nudges Lan Zhan's shoulder.

"I'll pay up all the sleep debt on the weekend, I promise!" Wei Ying looks up at him from beneath his lashes, and Lan Zhan almost forgets to breathe

Wei Ying's smile quirks up, mischief creeping into its edges
"In fact, so you'll know for sure I'm getting enough sleep, why don't we spend this weekend sleeping together, Lan-er-gege?"

"Shameless," Lan Zhan hisses, and doesn't dare look at Wei Ying for the rest of breakfast.

Perhaps mercifully, Lan Zhan doesn't see a lot more of Wei Ying for the rest of the day, and then the next, the other boy not staying long after breakfast and slipping in after lights out.

Lan Zhan knows Wei Ying has a scholarship to maintain, is also working on a submission.

"It's for this summer program in Shanghai," Wei Ying had said, eyes shining with excitement "It has a grant for student projects that they could work on during the program."

He knows Wei Ying works hard, pours his everything into the things he does. But Lan Zhan worries still.

Lan Zhan dreams, and it's the cave again, the Wei Ying of his dreams smiling in a way he knows to be forced. He is too thin, too pale.

"I know well what I must do. It's not like anyone is giving me a choice."

He wakes up to darkness and an empty bed beside him.

This late, the dorm corridors are only dimly lit, and Lan Zhan is considering options on where Wei Ying might be when the light at the far end starts to flicker.

The flickering stops as Lan Zhan steps closer, and the light next to it, right above the stairwell, starts.

That is how he finds Wei Ying, as the last light leads him to the communal charging stations on the 4th floor - He sometimes see students working there well into the night, after the library has closed & there's nowhere else to go that still has electricity after lights out.

Wei Ying is fast asleep, slumped against the wall, laptop on his knees and ringed by construction drawings. He looks pale in the fluorescent light, the dark bruises beneath his eyes echoing the Wei Ying in his dreams

Lan Zhan carefully drapes his cardigan over the sleeping boy.

Lan Zhan is familiar enough with Wei Ying's project after weeks of the other boy rambling about it, and as Lan Zhan peruses through his drawings, he's relieved that there's only the typical section and details left. The joints are tricky, but manageable.

He sets to work.

"Wei Ying would have done the same for me," Lan Zhan says, almost chiding, as Wei Ying thanked him for what is probably the thirty-third time.

"No, really Lan Zhan, ugh, you're so good to me, and what an ingenious joint detail! How will I ever make it up to you?!"

"Sleep."

Surprisingly enough, Wei Ying does sleep over the weekend. They wake up, get breakfast from the canteen and some light snacks for lunch, and then Wei Ying sleeps for the rest of the day until it's time for dinner.

On Sunday, Lan Zhan falls asleep next to him and dreams.

They are on a dusty path, close yet never touching.

"Thank you, Hanguang-Jun," Wei Ying says, & Lan Zhan hates it. Hates the constructed weight of his thanks, how Wei Ying's smile doesn't reach his eyes.

The child tugs at his knees again, eyes bright as his father's had been.

"Will you stay for dinner, gege?" and Lan Zhan wants with all his heart to say yes, to stay.

But in the dream, he leaves.

Lan Zhan wakes up with a start, and feels Wei Ying shift on the bed beside his. Turns to see Wei Ying's eyes, wide and haunted upon him.

"You're here," Wei Ying says, too surprised, too lost for Lan Zhan's liking.

"Not going anywhere," he reaches out before he could lose his nerve, takes Wei Ying's hand in his.

"Good. That's good"

Their hands stay entwined until they both fall back asleep, & he dreams no more.

But he dreams still, as days pass. He dreams of pain, of stepping gingerly thru scorched earth and the scent of burned flesh. Of scrabbling to find something, anything.

He finds a child, Wei Ying's child. Their child.

He doesn't go back to sleep, listening to Wei Ying breathe

And then, Lan Zhan starts hearing the guqin.

The sound of plucked strings are familiar to him from his childhood of lessons and recitals, but there's something else to the familiarity that stirs in his chest as he strains his ears towards the open window.

He knows this song.

Wei Ying hums it sometimes, when he works. The ghostly dizi song, its melodies haunting but well-worn and strangely warm for something that comes from an urban legend still at large.

Lan Zhan joins in with what he's noted down from the mysterious guqin sound, the notes meeting.

And oh, how they meet. Wei Ying's hum falters for the briefest second before he continues, their passages harmonizing and taking turns, beautiful and whole.

The reason the ghostly dizi always sounds so haunting, he thinks, is because it was never meant to be played alone.

"Lan Zhan!" Wei Ying laughs, when the final notes of the song had dissipated from between them, "Did you really compose an accompaniment for our dear flute-playing ghost?"

He shakes his head, lost on how to explain, but tries anyway.

"There is, apparently, a ghost guqin."

"I mean, has anyone ever really looked into this ghost flute thing? As in, this whole place is called the Burial Mounds, surely there's like, legends and stuff?" Wei Ying puzzles over lunch, after Wen Ning confirms that no, there's never been reports of any ghost guqins before.

"Not much, actually," Wen Ning muses "The standard version is that this land used to be a source of death and evil before a hero brought light to cleanse it. And anything you know, creepy, is probably just a leftover of all that evil"

Something nudges at him, at the words.

The next time he dreams, the landscape around him had stopped burning, but all around him is the silence of death.

He kneels on the ground, white silk on grey ash, and plucks at familiar strings until his fingers bleed.

He wakes up to Wei Ying's hand holding his.

The other boy gives a start as Lan Zhan shifts in his bed, his hand loosening before it tentatively settles into a soft grip. Lan Zhan is thankful for it.

"Lan Zhan! Sorry, did I wake you? You were having a nightmare, I think? I just thought-"

Lan Zhan tightens his own grip.

"No, thank you, for waking me. It was...an unpleasant dream"

"Poor Lan Zhan," Wei Ying says across him, voice cottony with sleep, "Bet you didn't think rooming with me would mean haunted dorms and nightmares, huh"

"It's no trouble," he hesitates "Wanted to be with Wei Ying"

Wei Ying is silent for so long that Lan Zhan is afraid that he's said the wrong thing. Shown his hand somehow, his pulse too loud, too telling from their still joined hands.

"Thank you," Wei Ying finally says, voice small and uncertain in a way Lan Zhan doesn't like.

It reminds him too much of the Wei Ying in his dreams, whose eyes are too resigned, flits too much beyond Lan Zhan's shoulders. He takes a deep breath.

"No," he manages "Wei Ying, it's only me. No thank you and sorry between us. Not with me, not with us."

"Lan Zhan, you can't just say things like that" Wei Ying's hand loosens again, but Lan Zhan's dream is still too fresh, and he holds on "Warn me first!"

"Mn," he murmurs, "Will warn Wei Ying next time"

They drift back to sleep to Wei Ying's chuckles, their hands still entwined

END OF PART 1 - To be concluded tomorrow ✨
Thank you for joining me! I've always wanted to do a haunted dorm AU with wangxian, and what better time to do one with the Ghost Festival upon us! Have a great night/day and see you tomorrow 💛

PART 2 of Wangxian haunted dorm AU! ✨👻

It takes Lan Zhan another dream to figure out what had niggled at his mind at Wen Ning's story. While far milder from his previous one, it somehow features Jiang Cheng.

Lan Zhan has never liked Wei Ying's adoptive brother, and can't honestly pinpoint an exact reason for it.

But whatever his reasons might be, the Jiang Cheng in his dreams does not help his waking counterpart's case any.

He is dressed in rich purple and gold, a striking contrast to the ashes and bones all around them. Lan Zhan wonders, vaguely, how many of the dead were by his hands.

"Hanguang-Jun," the other man calls out as Lan Zhan sweeps past him, deeper into the ruins that has became of Wei Ying's home, "If that bastard ever does comes back, I'll find him first."

Lan Zhan startles awake with the lingering taste of rage, and a realization.

It was a place of death and evil, Wen Ning had said, before a hero brought light to cleanse it.

Hanguang-Jun. The light-bearing lord.

He runs a hand over his face, glancing at the clock needlessly to see that it's 4 AM.

The legend is old, and what parts of it survived the cultural revolution he finds in bits and pieces, much like his dreams.

The general outline of the Burial Mounds legend follows Wen Ning's story, but there are details it left out, details that are wholly too familiar to him.

There is, of course, the matter of Hanguang-Jun himself. An ancient folk hero that historians argue might have been based on a real person - Most often depicted in all white, a guqin on his back.

And then, there is the Yiling Patriarch, of whom the accounts are wildly varied.

He seems to be everything from a child-eating demon to a benevolent local God, but the Burial Mounds is always his home. Hanguang-Jun always the one who slew him, and the one who later cleansed the Mounds at the end of his own life.

Lan Zhan doesn't know how to feel about it.

And for all his new discoveries, Lan Zhan doesn't have anyone to share it with.

Wei Ying would have been his first choice in any other matter, but not when the dreams are so strangely, so closely tied to him. And Wei Ying would worry, which is something Lan Zhan doesn't want.

Finals are fast approaching, but also the deadline for the Shanghai Grant, and Wei Ying is running himself ragged.

He's gotten quite good at avoiding him too, probably due to Lan Zhan insistence on helping - Civil Engineering having less physical workload to contend with.

And it would have been so frustrating for Lan Zhan, if he doesn't have the help that he has. Even if the help seems to be, against all logic and reason, the spirit of the Burial Mounds.

For one, he never has any difficulty finding Wei Ying on campus grounds.

"Ugh Lan Zhan, how do you always find me?" Wei Ying whines around the very late dinner he bought him, as Lan Zhan finally gets to have a look at Wei Ying's work, as Wei Ying finally lets him help.

(It was a simple matter of drainage. Wei Ying gets stuck on details, sometimes)

Lan Zhan doesn't tell him, that as with the mysterious flickering lights, there would always be something guiding him to wherever Wei Ying is - A gust of wind, a lone firefly, the sound of a dizi.

He doesn't know, doesn't dare question why the Burial Mounds is so kind to them.

He doesn't know why there are lotus seeds on Wei Ying's pillows sometimes, peonies on his.

Doesn't understand how lamps stay alight long after lights out just for Wei Ying and his papers, and how locked doors simply admits Lan Zhan when he takes Wei Ying home to sleep.

There are things that simply could not be helped, of course, such as Wei Ying's old laptop finally expiring after too many hours of rendering.

Lan Zhan is quick to push his own laptop at Wei Ying, and the brief time it takes him to accept is a sign of just how bad things are.

Wei Ying starts to tell him where he's setting up to work for the night, doesn't fight him overmuch when Lan Zhan brings him dinner or checks over his structures and straightens up his CAD drawings.

It's a Wei Ying that Lan Zhan doesn't see often -

This Wei Ying with the tired, sleepy smile who leans so easily on Lan Zhan's shoulders for a nap between renders, trusting and almost pliant.

And as much as Lan Zhan relishes being able to take care of Wei Ying, he hates it that it took the other boy being pushed this far.

Lan Zhan knows how tightly Wei Ying budgets. How he skips meals and takes odd jobs on campus, because scale models and papers and supplies are expensive, and Wei Ying has no one but himself.

He wonders if the Mounds knows it too. Wonders if that's why it's so kind to Wei Ying.

The dreams are not kind, without Wei Ying in it.

His dreams of the Burial Mounds are now desolate and quiet, ashes on his knees and the tremble of strings beneath numb fingers.

"Are you there?" he asks, the question old and well-worn, like a ritual.

No one answers.

Lan Zhan blinks awake, his right shoulder cold and empty.

He scrambles up from where he's fallen asleep leaning on the wall, the final notes of his questions still echoing from the dream.

Wei Ying, he thinks, almost desperately, where -

"Lan Zhan?"

Lan Zhan turns to see a smiling Wei Ying, two steaming styrofoam cups in his hands.

"Oh," Lan Zhan blinks, stares hazily at the cups, then at Wei Ying "I thought you are..."

Gone, the quiet dread of his dream whispers. Gone where I can't reach you.

"Lan Zhan?" a note of worry creeps into Wei Ying's voice, and then they're sitting down against the wall again, side by side and shoulders close enough to touch.

"Oh Lan Zhan, I'm so sorry. I know I've been disappearing and working late a lot - It worries you, doesn't it?"

It's true, but the rueful crook of Wei Ying's smile makes Lan Zhan shake his head

"Ah Lan Zhan, isn't lying forbidden? What would your uncle say?" Wei Ying nudges his shoulder "It's okay, I know I'm a bother but I'm trying not to do that so much, so you don't-"

"Not a bother."

Wei Ying tilts his head questioningly, and Lan Zhan draws a deep breath.

"Wei Ying is never a bother, whatever he does"

Wei Ying's eyes widens, "Lan Zhan! don't just say things like that! What if I decide to become a supervillain, huh? Or a hermit in a cave?"

"Then I'll still be with Wei Ying," Lan Zhan says unbidden, and for a brief moment there is something unspeakably heavy between them, an endless undercurrent of forgotten things.

They don't talk for the rest of the night, their touching shoulders enough for the both of them.

There is a storm warning, the morning of Wei Ying's Grant deadline.

"I'll stay put right here!" Wei Ying is quick to assure him "Just one last perspective render to go. I'll definitely be done before lights out!"

Halfway through the day, Wei Ying's phone rings.

Even from behind, Lan Zhan can see the shift on the line of Wei Ying's shoulders, the hasty way he scrambles up from his seat and gestures apologetically towards Lan Zhan, phone already pressed to his ear.

The door closes behind him before Lan Zhan can utter a word.

Wei Ying doesn't come back.

At first, Lan Zhan tells himself that some phone calls are simply long, like his calls with Uncle. Occupies himself with his book and checking on the progress of Wei Ying's rendering.

And then an hour pass, then two.

Lan Zhan paces their small room with nothing else to do, Wei Ying's render completed and zipped neatly, his submission form filled and waiting to be sent.

He considers an emergency - Wei ying has never shied away from throwing everything to help a friend. But Lan Zhan remembers

He remembers the tension on Wei Ying's shoulders, that weary look on his eyes as he slipped out the door. Remembers Wei Ying's smile, telling him that he'll try not to worry Lan Zhan so much.

He doesn't know, doesn't know what could be said to make Wei Ying disappear like this.

When the soft patter of rain starts to hit the glass of their window, Lan Zhan - having failed to call Wei Ying for probably the twentieth time - decides that it's enough.

He takes an umbrella and Wei Ying's parka, opens the door.

And comes face to face with Jiang Cheng.

"What are you-" Lan Zhan starts, the same time as Jiang Cheng's "Is he-"

They both pause, and Jiang Cheng tries again,
"Is he inside?"

Lan Zhan shakes his head and steps forward. He doesn't have the time nor patience for this. Not now.

"Wait. Where is he, then?"

"I don't know," Lan Zhan grits out, "Now if you will excuse me-"

"I said wait. Holy shit, how does that idiot even deal with -" Lan Zhan glares, and Jiang Cheng takes a deep breath. "Look, at least, do you know...if he's submitted his Grant application yet?"

Lan Zhan stops.

"How do you - "

"Has he submitted it or not?"

"No," Lan Zhan snaps, the sound of rain louder now despite the walls of the corridor cocooning them "And that's why I'm going to-"

"No," Jiang Cheng cuts him off "We have to submit it for him first"

Lan Zhan stares.

The phone call, it would seem, was from Madam Yu - Jiang Cheng's mother and Wei Ying's adoptive mother.

The Jiangs' name is a prominent one in the construction industry, and a place in the prestigious summer program Wei Ying's coveting is something of a given for them.

And yet, there is the Jiang heir and the Jiang ward - and with two of them in the running, Madam Yu had most probably suggested that Wei Ying take himself off the game entirely.

"And you know how that idiot is. You know that he'll just have to play the hero."

There is a wealth of things that Lan Zhan wants to say to JIang Cheng. That Wei Ying never wants to be a hero, that he does not care about Jiang Cheng's pride and only hates for Wei Ying's hardwork to go to waste, but he sees the concern in Jiang Cheng's eyes, a mirror to his.

He checks Wei Ying's submissions one more time, clicks send, and leaves.

Outside, the light drizzle had turned into a steady torrent - His surroundings a dark, hazy blur as Lan Zhan considers where Wei Ying could be, suddenly feeling lost beyond belief.

He walks nevertheless, mapping out Wei Ying's usual haunts in his head as he tries to see past the curtain of falling water all around him - Hoping to see something out of place, the sound of a dizi, anything.

And yet, today of all days, the Burial Mounds tells him nothing.

Lan Zhan grows more frantic as he walks on and the storm descends in earnest.

What if Wei Ying lost his way in the downpour, amidst the uneven paths of the hills? What if Wei Ying is hurt? What if -

What if he's gone, the clawing desperation of his dreams whispers. What if Wei Ying is gone where Lan Zhan can't reach him, before Lan Zhan has the chance to say everything he wants to say.

What if the dreams were only given to him as a taste of what's coming for him?

"Please," Lan Zhan whispers, barely recognizes his own voice amidst the unrelenting sound of rain, not knowing who, what exactly he's pleading to

But he remembers the Mounds, the sound of dizi and peonies on his pillow.

"Please. I need to find Wei Ying. I need him to be fine."

And then he hears it. Faint but high above the heavy rainfall, lilting and warm instead of haunting. The sound of a dizi.

His body moves before he even registers it, steps careful but hurried as the melody draws closer, louder. And then -

"Lan Zhan?"

There are arms around him, sudden and familiar and impossibly warm in the deluge drenching them to their skin, and Lan Zhan almost forgets how to breathe, almost drowns in this wet dry land.

"It's really you," Wei Ying whispers into his hair "When I heard the guqin, I thought-"

"Wei Ying found me," Lan Zhan says, not exactly knowing why, not exactly caring anymore. "Tried finding Wei Ying, thought Wei Ying might not want to be found, might be -"

Gone. Lan Zhan feels himself choke, a hurt too deep to only be his.

"But Wei Ying found me."

Somehow, they manage to trudge back to the dorm in one piece, where Jiang Cheng and Wei Ying had a very brief round of shouting match before Jiang Cheng flings himself into Wei Ying's arms, making the three of them equally surprised and equally soaked.

"The dreams," Wei Ying finally says, after they're showered and dried and warm under Lan Zhan's many old cardigans. "You've been having them too."

It's not a question. Lan Zhan nods, and silence falls around them again.

"He wanted to thank him, you know"

"But not as a courtesy, nothing like that"

Wei Ying is looking straight at him, something tender and old in his eyes that Lan Zhan has never seen before "In..in the end, he's sad that he never got to say how thankful he is to have you - To have Hanguang-Jun in his life."

"After he's gone," Lan Zhan says, feels the beginning of what could be laugh or a sob in his throat "Hanguang-Jun kept looking for him, kept trying to find him, to say sorry - because it's too late."

He feels himself shudder "He's too late, so he could only say sorry-"

"If only he tried harder, understood better, tried harder-"

A hand grasps his, warm and familiar and safe, and Lan Zhan is reminded of his own words as they held hands like this.

"No sorry and thank you between us.." Wei Ying whispers.

And oh, Lan Zhan wants to laugh, wants to cry all at once at the sheer luxury that has been given to them. The hills around them had seen the people in their dreams shackled by their platitudes and regrets, had wanted them to see too.

And it should be strange, shouldn't make sense. But Lan Zhan knows what he has to do, what the man in his dreams never got the chance to do

"And he had wanted his friend to know, that he loved him, that he's always loved him. Just as I love Wei Ying, have always loved Wei Ying"

Wei Ying's smile, watery as it is, is a beautiful, blinding thing
"Lan Zhan - Ah, Lan Zhan, both of you are really the smarter out of us? He never knew - I didn't know. Had he, had I known-"

And it doesn’t make sense and yet it feels right for Lan Zhan to answer him with a kiss.

They fell unto his bed, hands gentle and unhurried, revelling in the sense of being so known, so loved.

There are no desperate declarations of love, or the hanging crackle of war and storms to come. Just two boys, falling in love, and the world spread open before them infinitely

Everyone knows that the dorm atop the hill on Yiling Tech is haunted.

But some nights, the duet of a ghostly dizi and a guqin echoes through the hill - telling a story of a love lost and found. And one might say that maybe, not all hauntings are that bad.

THE END ✨
Thank you so much for joining me in this soft ghost story! I hope everyone has a warm and gentle day/night ahead of them! We're all haunted houses but we can always be friends with our ghosts!💛💛