“So, what kind of trouble has our Young Master Lu run into this time?”
It was a Saturday. The weather was clear and sunny, and Peace Square was bustling from early morning. Mostly, it was parents bringing their children to feed the pigeons, creating a lively, bustling scene. In one corner of the square, Shen Shuyun, dressed in fashionable but slightly revealing clothes and wearing sunglasses, sat down on a bench next to Lu Liangting.
“Here, I bought this for you.” She handed him a stick of candied hawthorn, then unwrapped one for herself.
“Thanks.” Lu Liangting took the candied hawthorn but didn’t open it for a long while. His gaze was fixed on the laughing children in the distance, his eyes slightly lost.
“What’s wrong? You look so gloomy. Tell me, so I can get a laugh out of it too?” Shen Shuyun smiled, taking off her sunglasses. Suddenly, she grabbed Lu Liangting’s shoulders with both hands.
Lu Liangting jumped in surprise and turned his head to meet Shen Shuyun’s eyes.
The smile Shen Shuyun had worn moments before was now replaced by an extremely tense expression. She let go and pointed at her own red lips without speaking, as if she had discovered something terribly important.
Her expression made Lu Liangting instinctively think something unclean had appeared in the square. But the problem was, it was daytime, with such bright sunlight.
Just as he was still wondering what was happening, Shen Shuyun spoke.
“Here… this can help you regain hope…” Her eyes narrowed. After saying this, her face immediately returned to its usual faint smile, as if the previous gravity had never existed. “I’m wearing a new, very expensive lipstick today. So, want to try its flavor?”
Lu Liangting had still been staring at her red lips. Hearing this, he immediately averted his gaze. His already gloomy mood soured even further.
He just knew asking Shen Shuyun out would bring no good. As expected.
What went through this woman’s head?!
“Alright, alright, I’m done teasing you. Tell me, what’s the problem? It’s rare for you to take the initiative to ask me out.”
Seeing Lu Liangting’s reaction made Shen Shuyun giggle. She knew Lu Liangting didn’t have feelings for her, that his heart was set on the Doctor. But that was fine; the Doctor didn’t like Lu Liangting, so her own chances were plentiful.
Wasn’t this a great development? The guy actually initiated contact and even asked her out.
Lu Liangting took a deep breath. “Have you ever heard of an organization called ‘Ghost Domain’?”
“Ghost Domain?”
“Yes.” Lu Liangting pulled out a business card from his pocket. It was primarily black and red, with patterns chaotic and intricate, tracing countless black and red blood threads. On the bottom right corner of the back, two words were neatly inscribed in a standard red pen: Ghost Domain.
Against the twisted, horrific style of the entire card, these two clean, sharp pen-written characters seemed especially out of place.
Taking the card, Shen Shuyun examined it meticulously, holding it up against the sunlight. Frowning, she seemed to notice something. She handed her candied hawthorn to Lu Liangting, then produced a dagger from somewhere—her dress didn’t even have pockets.
Under Lu Liangting’s puzzled gaze, she used the blade to cut a small wound on her finger. Before Lu Liangting could protest, she squeezed the wound, dropping a few drops of blood onto the front of the card, then smeared the blood across it.
A strange scene unfolded. Hair-thin streaks of red began to spread across the card, devouring Shen Shuyun’s blood. As the blood threads consumed, the patterns on the card started to change. It had been half black, half red; now, the red was gradually expanding.
Soon, red dominated the card. In the area previously covered by black, a faint pattern emerged.
Lu Liangting quickly took it back, frowning intently. He realized the pattern appearing on the card looked like the front facade of a building, somewhat like a hospital.
Before the red color faded, he took photos from multiple angles with his phone.
“It looks like some hospital. Where exactly did you get this card?” Shen Shuyun looked at Lu Liangting. She had stopped joking around, sensing that this matter was far from ordinary.
Lu Liangting rubbed his fingers over the card’s smooth surface. There was no trace of blood left now.
“I found it on someone. This person, or rather, the organization behind this person… has a grudge against me.”
“A grudge?!” Hearing these two words, Shen Shuyun’s eyes lit up.
This was a golden opportunity! Lu Liangting’s grudge—if she could settle it for him, would winning his heart even be a question?
Finally, her chance had come.
“Quick, quick, tell me everything.”
This card was found on the woman Lu Liangting had brought home last night. He hadn’t performed the body search himself, nor had he taken any advantage of the woman—though that wasn’t important. What mattered was that he finally knew the organization’s name.
He had Bai Yu to thank. Without Bai Yu’s help, he definitely wouldn’t have been a match for his opponent, nor would he have obtained this lead.
Just as Lu Liangting was about to explain to Shen Shuyun, a young girl’s voice rang out nearby.
“Young Master, what are you doing here?”
Turning, he saw a girl with a side ponytail walking towards them.
Today, she wasn’t wearing a maid outfit, but a seemingly simple yet quite elegant dress. It was predominantly black, and as a result, she was also wearing Lu Liangting’s favorite: black stockings.
The girl’s name was Gardenia, the younger of the twin maidservants at Lu Liangting’s estate.
Gardenia’s face was usually expressionless, mostly cold. It was rare for anything to cause an emotional fluctuation that would move her facial muscles.
It was worth mentioning that late last night, it had been Gardenia who searched the woman and found this card.
“Just out for some air.” Lu Liangting nodded.
He was sitting on the bench, his gaze low. Before he even looked up, a pair of round, straight, slender calves wrapped in black stockings entered his field of vision.
Looking up, he found Gardenia staring into his eyes.
“Young Master, you said last night that if anything happened, you would notify me first.” Gardenia’s eyes, for some reason, held a hint of danger. Even Lu Liangting felt a prickling sensation.
“I…”
“Young Master, I believe I understand you better than she does.” Stepping forward in her high heels, Gardenia placed her foot on the bench space between Lu Liangting’s legs and leaned forward.
“Why deceive yourself? The fact that Lu Liangting thought of me first, not you, when he ran into trouble—doesn’t that speak volumes? I didn’t threaten your young master. He came to find me himself.” Shen Shuyun refused to back down, squeezing closer until she was almost pasted against Lu Liangting’s side.
“Do you want to die?”
“Just you?”
“Yes, just me!”
In a blur before Lu Liangting’s eyes, one girl drew a short blade, and the other pulled out a uniquely shaped pair of scissors that looked incredibly lethal.
In his memory, these two had slight personality defects but were generally decent. Attributes like gentleness and thoughtfulness existed in both of them. But for some reason, whenever they met, they transformed instantly, as if becoming completely different people.
He couldn’t tell which version was more real: the ones threatening each other with blades now, or the occasionally possessive but mostly caring and cute ones they usually were.
Very often, Lu Liangting felt they were more “manly” than he was, especially in a fight.
For instance, back in Pingshan Village—their attacks were wide open and powerful, their laughter unbridled, their movements crude, savage, and violent. Not a trace of girlishness. Even he, a man, couldn’t match such ferocious fighting style.
“Alright, Gardenia, sit down too.” Lu Liangting had a headache. He truly didn’t have the energy to mediate between them right now. His mind was completely occupied with the Ghost Domain matter.
“Hmph.” Gardenia snorted coldly and sat down on Lu Liangting’s other side. The sway of her long skirt carried a faint, delicate fragrance.
She also deliberately leaned very, very close to Lu Liangting, almost sticking to him. But she didn’t hug Lu Liangting’s arm. Instead, she slapped the scissors down onto her own lap with a thwack.
On the other side, Shen Shuyun did the same, laying her blade across her thigh, her eyes dangerous.
Most passersby in the square cast their gazes their way. Seeing Lu Liangting with a beautiful girl on each side, both clinging so close, the women inwardly cursed him as a scumbag. The men, while feeling a twinge of envy, also secretly cursed him as a scumbag.
Both beauties were so perfect. Did he have to have one on each arm?
They cursed that he’d end up with neither, that they’d all leave him!
Some of the male onlookers felt they were issuing the most venomous of curses. What they didn’t know was that the most venomous curse was the exact opposite.
It would be: may all these types of girls end up clinging to Lu Liangting forever.
Lu Liangting thought for a moment, first telling both of them to sit on the same side and not cling so close—it would be bad if it caused a misunderstanding. Then, he began speaking, starting with his younger sister.
His sister’s story was a scar on his heart, too painful to easily share, so he summarized it briefly, letting them both grasp the general situation. Then he detailed the Ghost Domain and its grudge against him.
In short, his sister had been killed by a vile ghost kept by the Ghost Domain. His sister’s ghost was now missing. For years, he had been tracking the Ghost Domain, but the organization was powerful and hidden, leading to no major breakthroughs.
Until last night, when he captured a member of the Ghost Domain.
Hearing that Lu Liangting had been with the Doctor last night and had even fought the Ghost Domain, Shen Shuyun and Gardenia exchanged a look.
“Let’s first figure out where the hospital on the card is,” Shen Shuyun changed the subject.
After searching for a long time on her phone, checking every hospital in and around Tianchang City, they finally found it.
“Tianchang City, Tianyang County, Fourth Hospital?”
She pulled up a photo of the hospital’s main entrance and compared it to the image that had appeared on the card. It was a perfect match.
Locating the target, they dug deeper and discovered the hospital had been abandoned for at least ten years.
That made sense. An organization like this couldn’t use a fully operational hospital as its base.
“Could this hospital really be their main lair?” Gardenia suddenly asked.
“I’m not sure, but we’ll find out when we go take a look. If you’re scared, don’t come.” Shen Shuyun sneered. She twirled the now-normal business card between her fingers. She had a somewhat bad feeling.
The source of her unease was the organization itself, but also elsewhere.
She currently felt that the connection between the Doctor and Lu Liangting was far too coincidental. It must be because Zhao Mingyue was the Female Lead and Lu Liangting the Male Lead. The Doctor followed Zhao Mingyue, which could explain the frequent encounters.
But that wasn’t necessarily a good thing.
“Last time in Eternal Life Village, he had to ask the Doctor to save him. I’ve never been involved in anything so crazy. I hope there won’t be any surprises this time.”
“It’s in a small county, over sixty kilometers away by car. It shouldn’t be that coincidental again.”
Shen Shuyun comforted herself with this thought. She glanced at Lu Liangting, hoping his protagonist halo wouldn’t flare up again. She couldn’t handle it.
…
“Wang Xinxin was indeed my friend, though we weren’t that close.” Inside the convenience store, Zhao Mingyue looked at the text on her phone and patted Miss Rabbit’s head.
“I actually knew it, you know. She looked down on me—my family, my life. She’d often pity me from a lofty position. Maybe that made her feel accomplished.”
“Being friends with someone worse off in every way, then bringing them into her own social circle—it probably made her seem more impressive.”
“But I didn’t really mind. Whatever she offered me, I took. They were all high-end products I couldn’t afford. I just needed to flatter her a bit, and she’d happily give me even more.”
“She was happy, I was happy. Wasn’t that good?”
“Maybe it lacked dignity. But compared to dignity, I truly needed money more back then.”
“My scholarship only covered my tuition. If the Principal hadn’t known my father, I couldn’t even afford the fees at such an elite school.”
“If it were the me of now, I definitely wouldn’t agree to it. Because I have a job now.”
“Hmm… Probably, that kind of situation wouldn’t happen anymore anyway. Because later on, Wang Xinxin’s boyfriend confessed to me. He even gave me a huge bouquet of flowers.”
“After she found out, she was furious. She even wanted to hit me. Too bad she couldn’t beat me.”
“I really wasn’t trying to seduce him, even though some people at school kept saying that for a while. The pure need no defense. I couldn’t stand her boyfriend anyway. He couldn’t walk through walls, couldn’t hide in my shadow, couldn’t flirt with me telepathically, and certainly couldn’t protect me.”
“Ahem, just kidding. I had absolutely no thoughts of romance back then. I even thought I might never fall in love in this lifetime. The reason is too embarrassing, so I won’t tell you.”
“Anyway, after that, she disappeared, along with her boyfriend. I just assumed she transferred schools. I never thought she was sick. Some people said she died of illness.”
“Sigh.”
Zhao Mingyue reminisced about the past. During that period, she had been in a daze. Because of this incident, Wang Xinxin had paid people to curse her out, calling her a slut for a long time. She was almost cornered and beaten up at the school gate once.
It was also during that time that she felt suicidal.
Her life was terrible. She didn’t have a single person to confide in. Her parents were dead, her sister missing. She had no money. Her tuition was overdue.
At school, she was called a slut. After class, she had to worry about being attacked.
She truly hadn’t done anything, and she truly had no interest in Wang Xinxin’s boyfriend.
Her only mistake, perhaps, was staying by Wang Xinxin’s side, seeking scraps of pity.
After hearing this, knowing Zhao Mingyue as she did, Bai Yu figured out the gist of it.
“Wang Xinxin, is it? I’ll remember her.”
