My Family Is Very Odd

"Master Bai… Miss Ghost has returned home safely."

Bai looked up, focusing on the painting on the wall. Long chains hung behind him. The Dwarf Doll walked slowly toward him, standing respectfully by his side.

"Yes." Bai replied softly, his gaze still lingering on the painting.

The painting was most likely painted by Master Bai himself. He had a studio and often spent the entire day there.

The painting depicted a dark house. From Master Bai's perspective, it was a picture of a happy family of six: five adults and one little girl. Men and women, old and young, they formed the basic composition of a human family.

Everyone in the picture was smiling happily. There was even a hazy light shining in from the window, warmly and softly falling on the little girl, making the family look like angels descended from heaven.

It was a heartwarming sight that brought a smile to the face of anyone who saw it. Even though the family was set against a black background, no one could doubt the happiness and contentment that the painting conveyed.

However, the Dwarf Doll knew that if one looked at the painting from its angle, or from any side angle, the five adults surrounding the girl, with their clean and kind faces, would twist into hideous figures with fangs and claws. Their smiling eyes would sink into two dark holes, their pupils nowhere to be seen. Their healthy complexions would turn pale and lifeless. The corners of their mouths, which were gently upturned in the front view, would appear gloomy and bloodthirsty. Even their slender fingers would seem like the claws of devils, ready to twitch, cold and ready to strangle someone's throat.

Full of malice!

Only the light behind them and the little girl sitting in the middle remained unchanged, her smile innocent and sweet, surrounded by a group of people with distorted faces.

This stark contrast, this hidden dark side, was more impactful than a simple and beautiful family portrait.

It would no longer bring comfort but send chills down one's spine and make one's feet tingle.

Dark, twisted, strange, and incongruous.

There were many similar paintings in the hallway, all centered around the girl and the five "people." From the side, they depicted the girl and the evil spirits, but as one approached and looked straight on, they transformed into warm and beautiful portraits.

The Dwarf Doll had seen the subjects of these paintings many times, both inside and outside the paintings. This was the haunted house and its girl.

To be honest, it didn't understand Master Bai. He claimed to like this human girl, filling the walls of the house with paintings of her and having the doll collect information about her every day. But when he saw that a disobedient Abyss had set its sights on the human girl, he remained indifferent, only asking the doll to keep an eye on them and report back once a day.

The Abyss was vicious. Knowing that the human girl was good at exorcising spirits, it had deliberately changed its approach, finding a large and strong contracted human to follow her. No matter how agile and powerful she was, she could never match the physical strength of an adult human male.

And spiritual power had no effect on humans.

He had been following her for several days. From the first day, the Dwarf Doll had been watching him and reporting to Master Bai. But Master Bai only told it to observe, seemingly unconcerned.

It was Master Bai who had ordered the Abyss to wait and not cause trouble. But when an Abyss did emerge, Master Bai remained silent, as if giving his tacit approval.

It was as if his previous orders were nothing more than empty words.

The Dwarf Doll knew that the human girl would eventually make her move. Before tonight's incident, it had a vague premonition. Tonight was the perfect opportunity: the last day of military training, followed by a party.

It was still hesitant. If something were to happen, would Master Bai let it intervene? Or should it take it upon itself to stop it?

Fortunately, at the last moment, the human boy who was always by her side appeared.

The Dwarf Doll stood by Master Bai's side. "It was Shen Chen who saved her."

Bai raised an eyebrow and sighed. "How unfortunate."

Lost in thought, Bai suddenly laughed. His gaze traced the lively and amiable face of the girl in the painting, but his smile faded as quickly as it had appeared, his expression unreadable.

The Dwarf Doll continued, "The puppet took him away. Shen Chen stuck a talisman on him, so they should find the Hanging Ghost soon."

"Yes."

"The puppet next to the Hanging Ghost is from our district…"

The Dwarf Doll recalled the winter when that restless puppet had tried to persuade it to run away. It had not expected it to have gone to the North District. It seemed that it truly wanted to change the current situation.

"Once it leaves, it's no longer from our district. Don't let me hear that again. My people are to stay put. I won't have them causing trouble."

The Dwarf Doll remained silent.

"With its temper, I wouldn't dare provoke it. I'm a well-behaved one, after all," Bai said softly.

The Dwarf Doll looked at Bai, its gaze filled with incomprehension. He was born from the Abyss, his contractor an immature human who had only summoned him for an exam. Neither of them truly understood the world outside the Abyss. In the Dwarf Doll's eyes, Bai, who had emerged from the Abyss first, was the most powerful being. It couldn't understand why Bai would be so…yielding.

Unable to contain its curiosity, the Dwarf Doll asked, "Is it very powerful? Compared to Master Bai, why be so accommodating?"

"Isn't it interesting?" Bai replied. "It's all about passing the time. It doesn't matter how."

"Tell me, if you had the chance to become human again, would you still want to?"

The Dwarf Doll thought for a moment before replying firmly, "No, Master."

"Oh."

"But I see them pretending to be human with such relish. Look, they're five unrelated lonely ghosts, yet they're raising a human child and even formed a family. Why is that?"

The Dwarf Doll hesitated. "Perhaps…out of boredom? To…pass the time?"

"Do you think they're serious?"

"I don't know, Master."

"Can ghosts truly compete with humans?"

"I don't know, Master," the Dwarf Doll repeated.

"I'm so curious to know…so curious… A family of humans and ghosts… How interesting."

He had painted many portraits of Li Xiao Gui, from her childhood to her adulthood now. The girl had grown up, but the five faces beside her had remained unchanged.

"I can't wait to flip to the last page and see the ending."

An orphaned human girl and the ghosts who raised her.

This might be the most interesting fairy tale he had ever witnessed.

Li Xiao Gui had not yet returned. The haunted house was dark and eerie, only the television in the living room flickering with light.

"What are you looking for? You've been sitting there for an hour!" the Female Ghost exclaimed.

"It's almost the weekend," the Burly Ghost replied. "I'm looking for a movie to watch with Little Gui!"

"Go find it when I'm asleep. Get out of here, I'm watching TV!"

"Oh," the Burly Ghost mumbled, not daring to disobey. "What are you watching?"

"Happy Grandma's Growing Diary."

"?"

Author's Note:

Miss Female Ghost: Sigh So much to worry about.

ʕ•́ᴥ•̀ʔっ

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