Courtyard House: Time Traveler Not Yet a Ghost

"what!"

The sharp child's voice pierced Ling Yun's eardrums like a needle, and he sprang up from the chaos, his killer instincts instantly kicking in!

"Holy crap!" Ling Yun cursed under his breath, his expression changing drastically. How could a child be crying in a rented room?!

He almost reflexively rushed towards the door, countless possibilities flashing through his mind—training on Killer Island? His enemies coming to his door, using a child as bait?

However, the expected sensation of the door opening did not come; his body passed through the door without any hindrance!

"Huh?" Ling Yun was taken aback. Looking down, he realized he was floating in mid-air, and instead of the familiar floor of his rented apartment, he had stepped into empty air.

Floating?!

Ling Yun, codenamed "Thousand-Faced Yama," is a world-class top assassin. Sold to an assassin organization by an orphanage at the age of five, he spent fifteen years in a hellish battle against nearly two hundred children on a deserted Pacific island. Nearly eighty of his fellow "comrades" died at his hands, and the last two survivors, a Russian girl and a Japanese boy, were spared only because he deliberately held back—he never wanted to be the most conspicuous one.

Standing at 1.8 meters tall, with a face so handsome it's almost devastating, and a perfectly defined eight-pack, he possesses the typical idol look, yet he conceals it all perfectly with masterful makeup and disguise. He is fluent in thirty-two languages ​​and countless others, his marksmanship, hand-to-hand combat, and hacking skills are all unparalleled, and his knowledge of finance, stocks, chemistry, physics, mathematics, philosophy, psychology, and law is world-class. For him, killing is easier than drinking water.

This time, I'm temporarily staying in a two-bedroom apartment within Beijing's Second Ring Road. My intention was to escape the bloodshed abroad, have a few drinks, listen to music, and relax. He's extremely cautious and never gets involved with women. Last night, he had a few drinks at a bar and went home. How could this be…?

"Ah!" came a cry, filled with the terror unique to children.

Alarm bells rang in Ling Yun's head, and he instinctively reached under his pillow—where he usually hid his spare pistol. Empty. Right, guns are prohibited in China; he hadn't brought any weapons.

Damn it! He thought the post-traumatic stress from Killer Island hadn't worn off, or some unsuspecting assassin had infiltrated the country. Without a gun, he needed to evacuate as quickly as possible!

He drifted out the window like a wisp of smoke, but a violent tug at the depths of his soul. Then, a cold, mechanical voice echoed in his consciousness, tinged with bewilderment: [Warning! Host soul has separated! Warning! Target body's main consciousness is strongly rejecting it!]

Ling Yun suddenly stopped and looked around.

No, this isn't his rented apartment!

The old gray walls, the roof covered with newspapers, the air filled with a faint smell of coal smoke and a... unique milky smell of a baby?

There was a small earthen bed, and on it lay a little boy of about four or five years old, covering his eyes and crying loudly. The crying was the source of the "ah" sound from earlier.

[Host, I am your 'Courtyard Reversal System'.] The mechanical voice sounded again, this time with obvious panic. [We... seem to have encountered a bit of an accident.]

Ling Yun's mind raced, and combining the scene before him with the sudden influx of fragmented information, he instantly grasped the gist of it.

He, Ling Yun, a top assassin, was actually bound to a so-called "system" and transmigrated with his soul?!

His destination was still the world of the courtyard house fanfiction he had been reading a few days ago while slacking off!

Yi Zhonghai's hypocritical scheming, Liu Haizhong's ambition for officialdom, Yan Bugui's stinginess, Xu Damao's treacherous cunning, and the Jia family's bloodsucking nature... Ling Yun felt disgusted just thinking about the trivialities and sordid thoughts of those characters. He even muttered to himself that if he encountered them, he would just secretly "kill" them to avoid having to watch them while eating.

Just because of this thought? The system came knocking on his door? And actually dumped him here?

System: [Yes, host. We have detected a strong desire to 'modify' the courtyard house world, which meets the binding conditions. Therefore, the time travel procedure will be executed. Target world: 1940, courtyard house. Target identity: Protagonist He Yuzhu, current age five.]

Ling Yun frowned: "So what's going on now? Why am I floating? Who is this brat?"

[Target: He Yuzhu, five years old. The system is preparing to execute the soul fusion procedure, but... but at the very last step, just as your soul entered, little He Yuzhu suddenly screamed, and your soul was 'repelled' out by his main consciousness!] The system's voice carried a sense of "I'm helpless too" frustration. [He is now strongly resisting any soul entering his body! I... I'm dumbfounded! This script is wrong!]

Ling Yun: "..."

He looked at the little He Yuzhu who was still crying on the kang (a heated brick bed), then at his own ethereal hands, and then at the equally bewildered system deep in his soul.

So, he failed to time travel and became a soulless ghost? Or a ghost floating in a courtyard house in Beiping in 1940?

System: [Theoretically... yes, host. We are now homeless wanderers.]

Ling Yun took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down. Fifteen years as an assassin—what storms hadn't he weathered? Transmigrating into a ghost, while absurd, wasn't the end of the world.

He floated to the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed) and carefully examined this future "Silly Pillar." The little brat was crying his heart out, his face flushed and his eyes watery. He looked quite robust, but his vigilance... was a bit too high. A five-year-old with such strong soul power?

System: [Perhaps the original owner He Yuzhu's soul is rather 'stubborn'? Or... was it because your 'conditioned reflex' of running away just now too loud and startled him?]

Ling Yun recalled that from being startled awake by the "Ah!" to thinking he was being attacked, and then rushing out the door, the whole process was lightning fast, a completely instinctive reaction etched into his bones. Could it be that his overreaction "frightened" the original owner's soul into a self-protective state, causing it to refuse to merge?

What kind of nonsense is this!

[Host, the situation is urgent!] the system warned. [We have no physical form, cannot interact with the material world, and cannot stray too far from this area. If we cannot find a 'carrier' as soon as possible, your soul energy and my own energy will continuously dissipate, ultimately resulting in... complete annihilation.]

Ling Yun's eyes narrowed. His soul scattered? That wouldn't do. He, the Thousand-Faced Yama, had dominated the world; dying in a mission was one thing, but to transmigrate into a ghost and then dissipate? If word got out (if there was any chance it would), it would be incredibly shameful!

"A courtyard house... 1940..." Ling Yunpiao sat in the simple room, his gaze sweeping over the mottled walls and earthen bed. "Five-year-old He Yuzhu... was ejected before he could even integrate... This start is truly hellish."

He, Ling Yun, a top assassin, has now become a ghost in the courtyard world—a person without a body, without weapons, and whose system is completely bewildered.

Watching He Yuzhu, who was gradually stopping crying but still sobbing and scanning his surroundings with wary eyes, Ling Yun felt for the first time that dealing with a five-year-old kid seemed... more challenging than facing a group of heavily armed mercenaries.

"System," Ling Yun's voice regained its assassin's composure, "Analyze the current situation and formulate a plan. What do we have now?"

The system paused for a moment, seemingly calculating frantically: [Reporting to the host, we now possess: your top-tier assassin experience, a reserve of various master-level skills, system space (inactive), system attribute panel (inactive), system navigation (weak signal). And… a system entity that is also floating.]

Ling Yun: "...Let's summarize?"

System: [Summary: We currently have nothing, just two ambitious but somewhat 'floating' individuals.]

Ling Yun: "..."

Alright, Yama of a Thousand Faces, from today onwards, you must either solve your "housing" problem or find a way to strengthen your soul in a courtyard house in Beiping in 1940.

As for those "beasts" who disgusted him... Ling Yun's eyes turned slightly cold. He'd deal with them after he had a body. By then, it was uncertain who would scheme against whom.

However, these days of drifting are probably not going to be easy. Winters in Beiping in 1940 are not easy to endure; even a ghost would feel a chill permeating the room.