“Aaaahhh!”
After finally leaving the rural area and getting back onto the main road, Zhao Mingyue started to hit a frantic, frustrated peak. She pressed both hands onto Bai Yu’s shoulders and just shook and shook and shook.
“How could I have said something so embarrassing earlier?!”
On the way back, the more she thought about it, the more something seemed off. She carefully replayed everything she had said to Bai Yu on the way here. ‘And I… I have you.’ ‘I’ve always been an excellent thief, I can even steal time.’ It was seriously, on a whole other level of cringe, okay?!
When she had said those words, the emotional turbulence in her heart had been quite dramatic.
She had been remembering her childhood, then recalling those painful memories, and on top of that, the act of returning to sweep the tomb itself was naturally a bit sad. All these emotions piled up, and she accidentally let things slip. Originally, she had planned to play dumb and pretend she didn’t know anything, even though what she actually knew wasn’t much.
Then, as they talked, she heard Bai Yu seeming to mean she wanted to go and deal with the trouble. Her heart grew a bit anxious and also a bit inclined to just let everything go, so she spilled it all out at once.
Spilling the information wasn’t a big deal. The main problem was that what she said was just way too embarrassing—so mortifying she didn’t even know what to say.
“Little Sister Yu, how about we just erase this unpleasant memory? What do you think? I can pay you.”
Zhao Mingyue was completely serious.
Bai Yu’s response was equally simple.
“That won’t work. I can’t forget it.”
“Aaaaaaahhh! You have to forget!”
“Mingyue, listen to me. At certain times, expressing your emotions like this is completely normal.” Bai Yu put her Sunglasses back on, her tone calm.
“Rather than talking about that, why don’t we talk about the thing you’re afraid of?”
“That thing, huh.” Zhao Mingyue didn’t continue her little fit. She found the little e-scooter she had ridden here and unlocked it again. “I genuinely don’t know what it is, which is why I called it the unknown. But I do know that thing is terrifying, and it has been looking for me all along.”
“That’s why I said, until the day it finds me, my life has all been stolen time.”
“That one point is more than enough.” Bai Yu very naturally seated herself in the back. “Since that thing has been unable to find you for so many years after you ran away, it proves its abilities are finite. To put it bluntly, it’s just like that.”
“That thing is different from ordinary Ghostly Monsters. Their power can be incredibly strong under specific conditions. But if you can just avoid their rules, you’ll realize that they are actually very fragile.”
“I think the dreams you’re having are merely an omen of sorts; they don’t necessarily mean it has already located you.”
“When we have the chance, we can go take a look at your old Village and eliminate this hidden threat.”
Bai Yu’s killing intent had long been stirred to life. This was the first time she had seen Zhao Mingyue in that state, with that attitude. In her impression, Zhao Mingyue should always be the usual sunny and cheerful one. That fear she had seen needed to be strangled.
She currently didn’t know the opponent’s strength. That required investigation. At the same time, she also needed to increase her own power.
Claiming that her former self was this strong or that powerful was all empty. Her current self was the only real thing.
No matter how much she talked, she couldn’t just move her old self over here, could she?
Understand the opponent, improve herself. It was as simple as that.
“Are we really going?”
“Yes. We absolutely must.”
“Fine then. I’m not too keen on going back. That place is a bit scary.” Although Zhao Mingyue verbally expressed fear, deep inside, the fear wasn’t that overwhelming anymore. She’d had a huge psychological shadow concerning this thing since she was little, but growing up had helped a lot.
The most critical point was that she was no longer alone now.
“Then you need to face it all the more.”
“Alright, alright, I get it. It’s not like we’re going right now anyway. Let’s go buy clothes first. I’m going to get you some pretty outfits!”
Riding the little electric scooter, they wobbled all the way toward the city center. Upon reaching a bus stop, they parked the scooter and waited for the bus. The ride back wasn’t smooth sailing, though they couldn’t expect every single bus trip to avoid meeting trash people.
Once on the bus, Zhao Mingyue and Bai Yu went to sit in the back again. This time, the trip to the commercial street went smoothly.
“Little Sister Yu, do you think Lu Liangting and the other one have come out by now?”
“I don’t know.”
“Are we considered to have caused trouble? But we didn’t do anything, and we didn’t say anything either.” Zhao Mingyue felt a tiny bit of guilt, though when she thought about it, she didn’t even understand why she should feel guilty.
She had been sitting there without moving. The other side were the ones who started the trouble. After Lu Liangting came up, she had merely glanced at him. There had been no hint or any words. If Lu Liangting started directly fighting with the other party, what was that her fault?
She naturally couldn’t blame Lu Liangting. If anything, her blame fell on those pieces of trash.
“Lu Liangting has a very strong sense of justice. It’s just that, more often than not, this sense of justice makes him suffer losses.”
“Having too strong a sense of justice is indeed often not a good thing. But it’s a precious quality.” Bai Yu offered a rare compliment toward Lu Liangting.
She felt considerably less inclined to kill that kid now. Having him alive had both advantages and disadvantages.
The advantage was that he could attract the attention of most Game Participants. The disadvantage was the possibility of him managing to win over Zhao Mingyue. However, recently, she probably didn’t need to worry about that point anymore. Still, his presence could also bring danger to Zhao Mingyue.
“Hold on. That piece of clothing looks really good.”
As they were speaking, Zhao Mingyue suddenly pulled Bai Yu into a shop. She had spotted a black dress that she thought would look utterly gorgeous on Bai Yu.
It was a pity she couldn’t try it on. She could only hold it up in front of Bai Yu to gauge the look.
As Zhao Mingyue said, ‘Good thing I know your body well. Otherwise, buying clothes would be a real hassle.’ The dress was two hundred eighty-eight Yuan, but Zhao Mingyue fiercely haggled it down to one hundred and ten.
Watching her bargaining momentum at the time, Bai Yu was even thinking: if she could be like that when facing the Evil God, then they would truly be set.
After buying that dress, they dashed through several more shops. By the end, Zhao Mingyue had bought Bai Yu a total of eight pieces of clothing, large and small. It cost a little over a thousand Yuan, spending nearly a third of her monthly salary.
And she didn’t show the slightest heartache over it. Completely contrary to her usual little money-grubber personality. After finishing with the clothes, it was on to shoes, slippers, hair clips, and similar small knick-knacks. When all the items, large and small, were tallied up, she had spent a total of fifteen hundred Yuan.
It wasn’t that Bai Yu hadn’t tried to warn her in the middle. It was that warning her had been utterly useless.
“Mingyue, buying me all these things really isn’t necessary. Truly.” On the way to the snack street, Bai Yu spoke in a low voice.
“It’s nothing.” Zhao Mingyue patted Bai Yu’s hand.
The heartache was real heartache, but when she thought about her true purpose, she felt it was all worth it.
The clothes she bought weren’t just for summer. She had even gotten two sets for autumn.
That’s right. She wanted Bai Yu to live just like a real, living person while at home.
She had asked about it before—whether staying in the shadow or being outside made any difference to Bai Yu. The answer had been: absolutely no difference whatsoever.
Since that was the case, always living inside her shadow seemed inferior to living outside, living like a real, living person.
Having finished buying everything and while on the way to the snack street, Zhao Mingyue’s peripheral vision suddenly caught something.
“Hey, isn’t that Lu Liangting?”
Bai Yu also looked over. Sure enough, she saw Shen Shuyun pulling Lu Liangting around everywhere.
“Let’s go over and say hi.”
Zhao Mingyue had just spoken when Bai Yu tugged at her clothes. Puzzled, she glanced back and saw Bai Yu give a tiny shake of her head. “Don’t go over.”
“Huh?”
Zhao Mingyue looked back and indeed saw the issue.
Lu Liangting had stopped and was standing with Shen Shuyun.
Opposite them stood a pair of sisters who looked almost identical, mainly differing in dress style. Zhao Mingyue recognized them at a single glance. Weren’t these the twin maids who, back at the Classroom door, had told Lu Liangting she had especially worn black stockings? It turned out they were twin sisters. Lu Liangting sure knew how to play around. And she had to admit, these sisters were exceptionally beautiful.
And today, this Maid pair, both of them were wearing Black Stockings.
One was in a dress, likely the older sister. The other was still in a Maid Outfit, looking like she was cosplaying.
“Hold on, looks like there might be even more people.”
By now, other people on the street had also noticed the strange atmosphere and voluntarily widened the distance, clearing out the area centered on Lu Liangting and his group.
Within this cleared zone, on the left stood a tall girl wearing a baseball cap and a long trench coat. On the right stood another girl in a V-neck casual outfit.
Yep. All girls, anyway.
“Tsk, this scene is… kinda terrifying.”
Zhao Mingyue wasn’t sure if it was just her intuition, but the looks in the eyes of all five of those girls seemed so scary, so scary.
“That girl in the baseball cap looks like she goes to our school. Wait, that blonde girl is from our school too, right? I think she’s the one who gave Lu Liangting the Love Letter.”
Zhao Mingyue pulled Bai Yu close and began giving Bai Yu a battlefield situation report.
“And those two Maid sisters, you saw them before too, right? The type to say that sort of thing right in front of the whole class.”
Zhao Mingyue’s voice was very low, deliberately suppressed. “Ahem, ‘Young Master, I wore your favorite Black Stockings today.’”
After saying that, she looked Bai Yu up and down, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. “When we were shopping today, Little Sister Yu’s head-turning rate was super high. How come Lu Liangting basically didn’t seem to notice back then? I think I might know the reason now.”
She looked down. On Bai Yu’s legs were a pair of White Stockings.
“Mingyue!” Bai Yu frowned and pulled Zhao Mingyue to leave.
“We’re not going to watch anymore?”
“No more watching. We’re leaving.”
There was no need to guess. Including Shen Shuyun, these five girls were definitely all Game Participants. If Zhao Mingyue stayed here any longer, there would be trouble.
At the same time, the tension in the field finally started erupting.
It started with the Maid Outfit younger sister from the Maid twin pair. She stepped forward. “Young Master, if I recall correctly, the Old Master clearly told you before that you were not to associate with women of unknown origin. If the Old Master finds out you were out strolling with a strange woman, he will be angry.”
“Therefore, I must ask the Young Master to return home with me. If the Young Master hasn’t had his fill of fun, I am perfectly willing to accompany you onward.”
As she spoke, taking a step forward, those long legs in Black Stockings made quite a few male onlookers swallow their saliva, cursing Lu Liangting for failing to appreciate what was before him.
Could Shen Shuyun beside him, at best, only be described as pure and cute?
But purity and cuteness are utterly crushed in the face of raw sex appeal, right? A real man picks black stockings with zero hesitation, no contest!
“Who might you be, I wondered? Turns out it’s just a dog kept by the Liangting family. As a dog, you should have a dog’s self-awareness, you know? Is that how you speak to your master?” Shen Shuyun refused to yield even a step. Her long legs also strode forward.
She was mentally grumbling about Bai Yu putting on makeup and dressing in little foreign dresses, but in truth, she was no better.
The makeup on her face was arguably even thicker than Bai Yu’s. Her clothes also fell into the pot-calling-the-kettle-black category. Her short skirt barely passed her knees. She even went bare-legged, paired with heeled sandals that had ribbon ties.
“Liangting, the wretch at your side is a rabid dog. I believe I don’t need to tell you that you already know. Listen to me, put some distance between yourself and her.” The tall, aloof girl in the baseball cap and trench coat also spoke up. She stepped forward as well, wearing similarly Black Stockings, with a leg shape arguably even better than the younger Maid’s—slender, straight, yet not appearing too skinny.
The key thing was, her Stockings were even more sheer than the Maid sisters.
The most normal-looking person present was probably the casual-outfit girl. The problem was, her “assets” were the most abundant of anyone present. That scale was something even Zhao Mingyue could only admit defeat against, especially since she was wearing a low-cut top. That expanse of fair skin made hearts flutter just looking.
There was no need to mention Lu Liangting. Even the male onlookers outside the field were starting to suffer choice paralysis.
Damn. This was honestly a tough choice.
The pure and adorable Shen Shuyun. The svelte and mature twin Maid flower. The cold, icy queen of black stockings. And also a “busty queen.”
Aside from choice paralysis, it was pure envy, jealousy, and resentment.
Had that guy in the middle saved the universe or something? These girls were throwing themselves at him, practically for free!?
As for Lu Liangting, standing at the center of this battlefield, he currently only wanted to flee this place as fast as humanly possible.
The casual-outfit girl on his right was named Yang Lan. She had once written him a Blood Love Letter, using a single sentence to fill the entire sheet of letter paper:
‘Become my beloved.’
And the aloof girl on his left, surnamed Zhou, had once kidnapped him. Though she eventually let him go, she left him with a classic famous quote:
“If you cannot find it in your heart to fall for me… then I shall kill every woman at your side.”
As for Shen Shuyun, she needed even less introduction. Had you ever seen a Love Letter with a Pig-Slaughtering Knife tucked inside? The type where half the handle stuck out.
The relatively normal one was his Maid.
The problem was, even this Maid sister pair was pretty strange. They frequently put drugs into his water and would wear clothes that made men blush and their hearts race before crawling into his bed to wait for him to sleep. In the end, he always had to go rent a hotel room alone.
The quarreling between the girls grew increasingly fierce, to the point it felt like they were about to start physically fighting.
What was utterly absurd was that they had just come out to stroll the streets, yet the “equipment” these ladies carried on them was truly considerable. There was a Switchblade, a huge pair of scissors, brass knuckles, a Pig-Slaughtering Knife… and even a wrench.
For the life of him, Lu Liangting could not figure out: just where in that Maid Outfit of yours did you pull that wrench from?!
“Ahem, maybe… I could say something?” Lu Liangting ventured in a small voice.
The instant his words fell, every girl’s gaze simultaneously swiveled toward him.
Almost in perfect unison, they shouted, “Shut up!”
“Little Sister Yu, why are we walking so fast?” Zhao Mingyue was puzzled as they were pulled out of the snack street.
“Because they’re going to start fighting soon. An armed brawl. If you’re nearby, they’ll unite and target you first.”
“Why?”
“Because of Lu Liangting.”
“Huh?”
Bai Yu shrugged, unwilling to say more. She couldn’t exactly say: Those sweet-looking, adorable women were all former murderers and psychopaths, right?
With a group of women like that gathered together, let Lu Liangting look forward to the blessing. There was no need to go join the excitement.
Especially not when Zhao Mingyue held the position of the Female Lead.
