For lunch, Zhao Mingyue ate at the convenience store. Instant noodles, as usual.
There were restaurants around, but she couldn’t get away. She was the only employee during the day. Besides handling the register, she also had to manage stocking the store shelves. Lu Liangting had originally handled that, but now he was gone too.
“Little Sister Yu, can you smell things?”
While eating her instant noodles, Zhao Mingyue placed the Rabbit Doll on the table. Her cheeks puffed out with each bite, making her words a little unclear.
“Yes.”
“Does the instant noodle smell really bad?”
“It is somewhat unpleasant. I wouldn’t recommend you eat that junk food every day.”
“Mmm, I don’t want to either. Instant noodles only taste good when you first eat them. If you have them every day, they start tasting awful.” Zhao Mingyue put down her fork and picked up the Rabbit Doll with both hands.
No sooner had she finished than she continued, “Little Sister Yu, if you came out in your real body, you wouldn’t be too different from an ordinary person, right? Aside from the skin issue, of course. Like, being in the sun, or picking things up…”
Up to this point, Bai Yu hadn’t noticed any ulterior motive and answered honestly, “Aside from my skin, there are differences from ordinary people, but not many. I can mostly ignore them. As for the sun, as long as the sunlight isn’t too strong, I can handle brief exposure.”
Her body was different from that of a normal Wraith. She was more substantial, lacking that illusory, ethereal feeling.
The fundamental reason was the amount of Blood Threads inside her.
Ordinary Ghostly Monsters were mostly composed not of Blood Threads, but of Black Mist formed from the materialization of resentment. Only when their strength grew somewhat would Blood Threads begin to appear in their bodies.
At that level, if the amount of Blood Threads in a normal Ghostly Monster was ten, then the number inside her body was over one hundred and twenty.
That was why, when she manifested her true body, she was different from ordinary Ghostly Monsters.
But there was a problem. Although she had many Blood Threads, she lacked resentment.
Resentment was the foundation of a Ghostly Monster, and she was relatively deficient in that area.
If the number of Blood Threads in her body was matched by an equal amount of resentment, her power would at least triple.
Bai Yu had been thinking this far and was about to explain it properly to Zhao Mingyue. Who knew this girl, with a sly glint in her eye, would whisper, “Well, no wonder you can help me work, and why that man earlier stared at you.”
“Um, Little Sister Yu, can you cook?”
“Cook?”
“Ahem, I mean, when you were alive.”
As soon as the words were out, Bai Yu understood exactly what this girl was getting at.
Suffice it to say, the abacus beads were practically bouncing off her face.
“You want me to cook for you and bring it here at noon, don’t you?” The Rabbit Doll suddenly raised its head, its two red eyes gleaming with a chilling luster, as if staring at Zhao Mingyue with a deeply resentful gaze.
“Hehehe, you saw right through me.” Zhao Mingyue looked a little embarrassed.
Honestly, that was exactly what she’d been thinking.
Just imagining it filled her with happiness. After working all morning, starving hungry, when lunchtime arrived, she wouldn’t have to eat instant noodles anymore. Instead, a beautiful Fierce Ghost girl would personally cook and pack it up, delivering this “love-filled lunch” right to her.
“I can cook, but compared to cooking, your safety is more important.”
“Ah~” Zhao Mingyue pouted. “Fine. I’ll keep eating instant noodles then.”
“…”
A short while later, after finishing the noodles, Zhao Mingyue tidied the merchandise in the convenience store, wiped down the shelves, and swept the floor. Yawning, she returned to her seat.
With nothing to do and no customers arriving, she propped her chin on her hands, resting her face on the counter.
She hadn’t rested much all night and was genuinely tired. Even so, her face showed no sign of haggardness; there wasn’t a trace of dark circles under her eyes. At most, she had just lost some of that youthful vigor.
In this state, her aura suddenly softened considerably, carrying quite the air of a literary young beauty.
Though Zhao Mingyue’s grades at school were indeed excellent.
“Little Sister Yu, I get paid tomorrow. Assuming nothing goes wrong, I should have a day off. How about we go shopping together then?”
“Alright.” Bai Yu didn’t refuse. It was normal for girls to enjoy shopping.
“I mean, you and me, together.” A subtle curve lifted the corner of Zhao Mingyue’s mouth. Just a moment ago, she’d been troubled that Bai Yu wouldn’t cook for her. Now, some other clever scheme was already brewing in her mind.
“You mean in my real body?”
“Mhmm!” Zhao Mingyue nodded rapidly, her eyes lighting up. “Tomorrow’s overcast! Can we, can we?!”
“It’s very dangerous.”
“I know it’s dangerous. I can dress you up then, so no one will be able to tell, right? I know you’re afraid of being exposed, but think about it: if you walk openly down the street with me, no one would actually suspect a thing.”
“Mingyue… those people are very dangerous.” Bai Yu didn’t quite know what to say. She strongly advised against such carelessness.
“Just this once!”
“No… but I can accompany you using the doll.”
“I…” The light that had just brightened in Zhao Mingyue’s eyes dimmed again, a little crestfallen. She hid this small emotion well, letting it flash past in an instant before immediately putting on a smile again. “The doll is fine too.”
The eyes truly are the windows to the soul. Though they certainly don’t display words like an LED screen, with enough observation, one can discern a person’s mood changes to some extent.
Bai Yu was quite adept at judging someone’s inner thoughts through their eyes, let alone for a girl like Zhao Mingyue, who had no real cunning, at most just some minor cleverness.
Seeing Zhao Mingyue’s disappointment, Bai Yu didn’t say anything more.
She couldn’t let her own whims put Mingyue in danger.
For the entire afternoon, Zhao Mingyue didn’t talk much.
It wasn’t that she was angry. She spent most of the afternoon looking at her Necklace.
The Necklace was clearly an old object. Solid, shaped like a lotus flower, it seemed to contain something inside.
It was likely something left to her by her parents.
Bai Yu suddenly remembered that Zhao Mingyue didn’t know her past, and she herself also didn’t know Zhao Mingyue’s past. Only that her parents had passed away, and the only older sister who cared for her had also passed away, leaving her to live alone. As for what happened in between, she didn’t know, and Zhao Mingyue had never spoken of it.
