What was wrong with the convenience store? What happened between that boy and Dongcheng Thirteenth High School? Was the thing chasing him one of the fierce ghosts inside the school? And where did he go after he escaped the store?
These questions would likely remain unanswered for a while, but they only deepened Zhao Mingyue’s curiosity.
Her next mission location was Dongcheng Thirteenth High School, a place she knew very little about and hadn’t had time to investigate yet. That boy had at least revealed some information.
First, the ghost chasing him was inside the school. This ghost probably had a grudge against the principal. It didn’t just want to kill the principal; it wanted to kill every student in the classes under his charge. But it seemed, for some reason, the ghost itself had also died, otherwise it wouldn’t be a ghostly monster there.
Dongcheng Thirteenth High School—despite being called a high school—actually had an elementary school division within it, too.
But whether it was elementary or high school, they were all children. For this ghost to have attacked children while alive, it deserved to die ten thousand deaths.
After returning home, this was exactly what Zhao Mingyue said to Bai Yu in the bathroom.
“Little Sister Yu, when you find this ghost, you have to beat him to a pulp. He’s absolutely despicable!”
As she spoke, the force of the bath scrubber in her hand increased. Only because Bai Yu was a ghost did she endure it; a normal person would have had half a layer of skin scrubbed off.
The small bathroom was filled with steam, the only sounds being Zhao Mingyue’s voice and the water spraying from the showerhead. Bai Yu sat on a small plastic stool, holding a bath towel in front of her, head lowered as the water streamed down her hair and over her skin.
Zhao Mingyue was behind her, unclothed and half-crouching, scrubbing her back.
She regretted it now. Maybe she shouldn’t have lied to Zhao Mingyue about being able to feel warmth from a hot shower. If she hadn’t said that, Zhao Mingyue definitely wouldn’t be dragging her into the bathroom every few days.
“Forget it, let’s not talk about this. We’ll discuss it when we go.”
“Speaking of which, Little Sister Yu, this skin of yours really makes people envious.” Her fingertips gently slid across Bai Yu’s smooth back, and Zhao Mingyue sighed with sincere admiration. The touch was truly wonderful.
Unlike most ghosts, which were intangible and untouchable, Bai Yu could be touched by her. The tactile sensation of her skin was crystal clear to her senses.
It was fine and silky smooth, yet with just a little pressure, she could feel her body’s softness and elasticity. Though it lacked the warmth of a living person, the icy cool sensation was also quite, quite pleasant, especially in summer.
Her coldness wasn’t the sharp, shocking chill of ice water. It was gentle, slowly seeping into your body. If you touched her for too long, it would indeed feel like your soul was freezing. But before that point, the sensation could only be described with a single word: bliss.
To use an imperfect analogy, it was like a piece of soft, peerless cold jade. Beyond the smoothness, that icy softness was truly addictive.
And that was just the feeling of her skin.
After finishing scrubbing Bai Yu’s back, Zhao Mingyue stood up and suddenly hugged her from behind, resting her chin on Bai Yu’s shoulder.
“So this is what the ancients meant by ‘a delicate beauty’s body, as soft as if boneless’.”
Bai Yu said nothing, merely sighing inwardly. The astonishing softness pressing against her back made her mind slightly flustered. All she could do was silently vow never to bathe with Zhao Mingyue again.
This girl’s hands were, more or less, a bit dishonest.
After hugging Bai Yu from behind, Zhao Mingyue only teased her verbally. Her hands, in fact, didn’t wander.
She just leaned against Bai Yu’s shoulder, eyes half-closed.
As she absorbed the icy cold from Bai Yu’s body, her own body heat was also constantly dissipating. Fortunately, she was a living person; the heat loss wouldn’t kill her.
Earlier, Bai Yu had told her that soaking in a warm bath could relieve the cold. At the time, she had genuinely believed it. Only later did she realize things were definitely not that simple.
Setting aside the slim possibility that a warm bath actually had that effect on ghosts, the sensation she felt while hugging Bai Yu from behind alone proved it wasn’t that simple.
If bathing didn’t work, it wasn’t like there were no other options.
For instance, what she was doing right now: using her own body heat to bring her a tiny bit of warmth.
The aura of the living was greatly beneficial to ghosts. At the very least, it allowed them to find a trace of warmth within their coldness.
That was information she definitely wouldn’t share with Bai Yu.
She could perfectly imagine Bai Yu’s reaction if she told her: a stern face, a dead-serious voice, staring at her while saying, ‘No. Don’t do this anymore.’
“Little Sister Yu, let’s sleep together tonight.”
“No.”
“I knew it.”
…
Daylight came. Zhao Mingyue, as usual, got up early for class.
Her appearance was the same as ever—far from refined, one could only call it neat and clean. Even her shoulder-length short hair was simply tied into a casual ponytail. Yet she still commanded an incredibly high rate of second glances. She was brimming with youthful vitality, a sight so refreshing it involuntarily made people nostalgic for the past.
Very few people noticed that her shadow was slightly different from her own self.
Dressed in a pleated skirt with a single ponytail, her shadow was actually a delicate girl with a side ponytail and a long dress.
A red ribbon in a side ponytail, a white hair clip with long earrings, a white dress, and short boots.
This was Bai Yu’s attire today. Who had dressed her up was self-evident.
Back in class, the moment Zhao Mingyue pushed the door open, she sensed something was off. Everyone seemed to be looking back at something.
She only understood the eerie atmosphere after she stepped inside.
The victim was, once again, Lu Liangting.
His desk was covered in hearts drawn with red paint. More importantly, a long-handled paring knife had been stabbed into his desk. Hanging from the blade was a plastic bag, suspended in mid-air, holding a box of something unknown.
Walking past him, Zhao Mingyue saw what looked like a label on the bag. It read:
“This is breakfast for you.”
Objectively speaking, it looked as if someone had drawn hearts all over Lu Liangting’s desk, realized there was nowhere to put the breakfast, and simply nailed it down with a knife.
Zhao Mingyue coughed lightly and quietly retreated to her own seat.
“This girl’s way of expressing affection is really a bit terrifying…”
“It’s normal. If you knew these people, you’d find this expression is actually quite gentle,” Bai Yu remarked.
“Hiss, how scary.”
It took Lu Liangting a long time to scrub his desk clean. Thankfully, it really was just paint on top.
As for that breakfast… for some reason, he didn’t even have the courage to open it.
“After I resolve the matter at Dongcheng Thirteenth High School, I’ll have a good talk with this girl. But this handwriting…”
Lu Liangting recalled something. He took out yesterday’s love letter and compared it to the note on the breakfast. His unease began to grow.
Damn it. The girl from yesterday and the one today… they didn’t seem to be the same person…
