Chapter 1

Chapter 1

I am a mushroom.

But my master doesn’t see it that way.

My master, Gu Yushu, is a diligent office worker.

To take care of me, he even set alarms to remind me that I have to eat every day at nine in the morning, twelve at noon, and five in the afternoon.

I held my rice bowl, completely bewildered. “But I’m a mushroom spirit. I don’t need to eat.”

At that, he sighed and placed his large hand on my head, gently rubbing it. “I worked hard to make this for you. Just do it for my sake, okay?”

“Fine.”

I reluctantly agreed.

Although I had become a spirit from a mushroom, it wasn’t as if I couldn’t eat grains.

In fact, I was extremely picky about the taste of food.

Aside from not wanting to eat, I also didn’t like sleeping in bed. I would often crouch in a corner and doze off, and whenever Gu Yushu came home from overtime, he would quietly carry me back to bed.

He would arrange me properly, then tuck the blanket around me.

He was a programmer at a large company and was extremely busy with work. Knowing he was tired, I would do some chores around the house.

But I couldn’t go outside.

Because as a mushroom, not only was I afraid of people, I was afraid of light, and even more afraid of the slightest rustle or disturbance.

I could even be frightened by swaying tree shadows badly enough to have nightmares all night.

Because of this, I was actually terrified of being abandoned.

After all, the virtuous wives on TV dramas could all handle the drawing room and the kitchen. Unlike me, who was useless at everything except eating.

Whenever I showed my worries, Gu Yushu would always hold me and comfort me gently in that cool, streamlike voice of his.

“This world is like an amusement park, and life is like a game.”

“If all you want is to be a mushroom…”

“Then be one. It’s okay.”

That day, Gu Yushu went to work as usual.

I woke up, as always, deep in the bedding, and took a long sniff. There was still a faint trace of soap in the quilt.

Warm and quiet.

But I still wasn’t used to sleeping in a bed. I was just about to run to the corner and hide for a while when the metal door not far away was suddenly slapped loudly.

I didn’t answer, so the person outside kept knocking. “Mr. Gu!”

“Is Mr. Gu home?”

“Who is it?”

Hearing my wary voice, the person outside sounded overjoyed. “Hello!”

“Um, we’re from the TV station. We’ve been entrusted by two guests to come and discuss something with Mr. Gu-”

What on earth were they talking about?

I said impatiently, “You have the wrong person, don’t you?”

“No! According to the information provided by Mr. Gu’s company, he lives right here!”

Before he even finished speaking, he had already put me under tremendous pressure. My chest tightened, my heart raced, and I could barely breathe. “Are you annoying or what!

“I said he doesn’t live here!”

They clearly hadn’t expected me to get so worked up. The person outside seemed startled, and in the next second began apologizing repeatedly.

“Oh, oh, sorry. We’re sorry.”

After a long while, the sounds outside gradually disappeared.

I waited until there was no more movement, then quietly opened the door.

Gu Yushu was still very young and had no parents. All his savings had only been enough to buy this forty-five-square-meter apartment, and even so, he still had more than six hundred thousand in loans left to pay off.

Because it was a new apartment building, there weren’t many residents here. Across from us lived a single auntie.

She was very kind and would occasionally bring us homemade snacks.

At that moment, I opened the door a crack and happened to meet the auntie’s eyes. She was carrying several bags of trash, and when she saw me poke my head out, she jumped in fright. “Wenwen, why did you come out?!”

“Huh? I…”

“Hurry back inside!”

As she spoke, she abandoned the trash and quickly came over to help me close the door. “You mustn’t go out on your own! What if someone abducts you? What would Mr. Gu do then?”

Before I could react, the metal door had already been swiftly shut from the outside.

Bored out of my mind, I had no choice but to crouch back in the corner and start rewatching that cliché meal-time drama for the hundredth time.

In fact, Gu Yushu didn’t forbid me from going online. He only insisted that if I went out, he had to be with me.

Although I didn’t like going out anyway.

But whenever I looked out the window, he would unconsciously reveal a trace of worry.

…

…

Night fell. Eight o’clock in the evening.

From outside the door came the familiar sound of a key turning in the lock once again.

I had just been about to go open the door when the sound grew softer, replaced by a light, quiet voice.

“Someone came by today. Could it be that you’ve been found out?”

After that, I heard Gu Yushu’s cool voice.

“It’s fine. Thank you.”

Then the front door opened. The man’s tall, slender shadow was cast into the dim entryway, while a bit of clear lamplight filtered in through the bay window, laying a thin layer over his magnolia-pale forehead and revealing a faint sheen of sweat…

He looked at me in silence.

“You heard everything?”