Chapter 65

Qi Xu swallowed a mouthful of saliva and fixed her gaze on that sheet of white paper.

That sheet of white paper lay in her palm, but it had been folded in half multiple times into a neat square, requiring two unfolds. Qi Xu stared at it fixedly for a moment before she couldn’t help but think:

‘If it asked to borrow a few more years of my life, would I drop dead on the spot?’

But the money had already changed hands, so whether she opened it or not, the debuff effect was the same. Even if she was going to die, she wanted to at least die knowing why. As Qi Xu pondered whether it wanted to borrow her face, her life, or her money, she unfolded the white paper.

The paper slowly spread open to reveal a line of words scrawled in particularly ugly handwriting right in the center:

With ancient coins as collateral, borrow 15 jin of yin energy.

“?” A huge question mark floated above Qi Xu’s little head, and she even let out an involuntary “Eh?” She wasn’t surprised about borrowing something per se, but borrowing yin energy—and 15 jin of it—was a bit weird.

It wasn’t that borrowing yin energy was especially strange, though that was odd too. What puzzled Qi Xu the most was: Was the unit of measurement for yin energy jin? It felt like yin energy was just like soy sauce, something you could stuff into a bottle and weigh directly.

Qi Xu was genuinely baffled, to the point that she didn’t react for a moment.

Once she did react, her face took on an odd expression. She even felt like this wasn’t a big deal. She didn’t need that much yin energy. Even if excess yin energy could make her super strong, she was already pretty strong with a normal amount. Moreover, Xia Zhiming had explicitly said that too much yin energy might make her croak.

Qi Xu didn’t want to croak, so she didn’t need that much yin energy. Plus, every time she absorbed too much, she lost control, her whole body going dizzy and muddled. Even if she remembered what she’d done after waking up, the feeling was truly awful.

The thought that this red envelope wanted to borrow 15 jin of her yin energy stirred her heart: Her yin energy reserves were probably quite substantial, right? 15 jin was no problem at all—borrowing another 15 jin should be fine too!

With that in mind, the first thing Qi Xu did was turn around, dig up the dirt pit, retrieve the red envelope from inside, and lend it another 15 jin.

She stuffed the ancient coins and white paper into her pocket, then spent half a day on her hands and knees grunting as she dug. When she opened the pit, sure enough, the red envelope was sitting there obediently. Qi Xu happily pulled it out and, following the same procedure as before, used up the remaining half of the yang energy in the peace talisman before opening the red envelope and pocketing the white paper and ancient coins inside.

This red envelope was the same—it too wanted to borrow 15 jin of yin energy.

Qi Xu contentedly put everything away, then checked her phone and saw an email from the Information Processing Department. She opened it to find information on that male student.

His name was Zhuo Zi’ang, in the same grade as her but a different major. Though same grade, he was two years older than Qi Xu.

The folks at the Information Processing Department had kindly noted his class, schedule, and dorm building, and after those key details, they’d added one particularly important note: He’d been held back because he failed his major courses. Last year, he’d barely scraped by with low scores to reach junior year; otherwise, he’d have been held back again.

Seeing that, Qi Xu’s eyelids twitched.

She quickly scrolled through her phone to the next few pages, which were Zhuo Zi’ang’s grades from last semester. Sure enough, nearly every course was a low score, hovering just around the passing line.

At that moment, Qi Xu almost suspected he was some evil ghost hiding in the school. But she’d just seen him, and though he had heavy yin energy, he was human, not a ghost. She couldn’t figure it out, but she decided to go meet him anyway and see what the intel was about.

The Information Processing Department staff were truly enthusiastic, even attaching a screenshot of the last time Zhuo Zi’ang appeared on surveillance footage: the first-floor camera in the male dorm building, confirming he’d returned to his dorm.

Qi Xu put down her phone and headed that way. But after walking a bit and reaching the dorm building, she spotted Xia Zhiming. Xia Zhiming sat on the flower bed under the dorm, chewing on a lollipop.

Her movements had a roguish air, as if her mouth held a cigarette instead of candy.

Xia Zhiming’s complexion wasn’t great; she looked irritated. Spotting Qi Xu, she pulled the lollipop from her mouth and griped at her, “Why’d you take so long to get here?”

Qi Xu blinked and asked, “Why are you here?”

Xia Zhiming pursed her lips. “Woke up from my nap, saw you hadn’t wrapped things up, so I came to check. Wouldn’t want you to die with no one to clean up the mess.”

“…Thanks.”

Qi Xu sized up Xia Zhiming for a moment. She wasn’t wearing the pink Daoist robe today; instead, she sported casual clothes—an open-collar sleeveless new Chinese-style top, cropped jeans below, and white sneakers. With the hot weather, her hair was pinned up, making her look fresh and pretty enough to pass for one of Qi Xu’s classmates.

But this pretty girl’s expression wasn’t great; she looked ready to bite someone.

It was rare to see Xia Zhiming in such a foul mood. She was never especially cheerful, but in daily interactions, she was fairly mild-mannered—her words might be blunt, but she didn’t walk around with a sour face all day.

So Qi Xu found it pretty strange. “What’s wrong? Who pissed you off?”

“Never mind me. Go up and check on that guy, quick.”

Qi Xu wasn’t surprised that Xia Zhiming knew about Zhuo Zi’ang. For one, Qi Xu was under Xia Zhiming’s guidance, so as her senior, getting intel directly from the Information Processing Department was totally normal. For another, Xia Zhiming was a first-grade investigator, worlds apart from a noob intern like Qi Xu.

If they were extra friendly to a rookie intern like her, imagine how they treated a first-grade like Xia Zhiming—she must have all sorts of privileges Qi Xu didn’t know about.

Hanging out on the forums daily, Qi Xu knew how rare first-grade investigators were.

Since Xia Zhiming said so, Qi Xu naturally headed up to find Zhuo Zi’ang. But first, she planned to tell Xia Zhiming about the ancient coins. Qi Xu sat beside her, and as Xia Zhiming’s irritation built, she pulled the six ancient coins and two sheets of white paper from her pocket.

She shoved them straight into Xia Zhiming’s palm and recounted what had happened.

Xia Zhiming took one out for a close look. Once Qi Xu finished her story, she asked, “What’s the deal with these ancient coins?”

“Curses you to have a child in old age.”

In an instant, Qi Xu’s hairs stood on end—this was one vicious curse.

“Haven’t you heard of the Qilin bringing a child? ‘Heaven-granted Qilin’ is followed by ‘to an elderly couple’—legend has it Confucius’s parents were childless until old age, when a Qilin brought them a son. So this thing is a curse.”

Qi Xu was a lesbian who liked women. It was well known that two women couldn’t have kids together. There were cases of egg cells combining to make babies, but widespread use was years away… Still, the moment Qi Xu realized she was gay, she’d given up any thought of kids.

So in every sense, this heaven-granted Qilin legend of a late child was a real curse for her.

As for Xia Zhiming…

They’d rolled in the sheets twice and kissed countless times—if Qi Xu still didn’t know Xia Zhiming was gay too, she’d be a total idiot.

That was why Xia Zhiming called it a “curse” outright.

But Qi Xu’s senses were sharp, and her understanding of Xia Zhiming had deepened, so she quickly noticed—this was Xia Zhiming deliberately changing the subject. The Qilin bringing a late child was real, but this ghost sending her ancient coins surely wasn’t about that.

The ghost had attacked her, clearly not planning to let her enjoy a happy old age.

Moreover, Xia Zhiming probably knew what the ghost really meant. She’d been genuinely pissed earlier—Qi Xu didn’t know why, but Xia Zhiming was furious. Yet the instant Qi Xu showed the six ancient coins, Xia Zhiming calmed down.

Very calmly, the fire in her eyes vanished, and she naturally shifted to this bizarre “curse” aimed at Qi Xu.

That only made Qi Xu more curious about the ancient coins’ deeper meaning.

But clearly, Xia Zhiming had no intention of telling her. Qi Xu didn’t expect to get anything out of her anyway; she just knew it was time to go find Zhuo Zi’ang. She stood, taking back the ancient coin from Xia Zhiming’s hand.

Xia Zhiming hadn’t expected that. Only when Qi Xu took it did her eyes widen. Qi Xu grinned. “These are good stuff. It wants to borrow my yin energy, so of course I’ll give it some. Less yin energy on me means more living human vibe.”

Qi Xu’s logic was oddly touching, leaving Xia Zhiming silent. She wouldn’t stoop to snatching it back from Qi Xu, and she truly believed the ancient coins weren’t important, so she didn’t make a move.

Qi Xu adjusted her backpack straps, slung it on properly, and headed for the dorm building. Before she got close, the dorm auntie called out to her, “You—yes, you! Girls aren’t allowed in the boys’ dorm! That other girl just tried to go in—what are you all thinking every day?! Want to see your boyfriend, have him come down. No girl’s going up into the boys’ dorm!”

The auntie’s rant suddenly made everything clear for Qi Xu.

Xia Zhiming had probably tried to go in just now but got stopped by the auntie. With Xia Zhiming’s personality, she surely hadn’t said anything nice, so they’d argued—which explained why Xia Zhiming was super pissed yet still obediently waiting at the entrance. She couldn’t get in.

Qi Xu smiled directly at the dorm auntie. “Auntie, you misunderstood. I’m here on behalf of our class to deliver a gift to a sick classmate.”

“What?” The auntie was stunned.

Qi Xu pulled out the six ancient coins from her pocket. “I’m from the archaeology department. Our classmates pooled money to buy these for him—could you make an exception?”

A moment later, Qi Xu came back out and beckoned Xia Zhiming to come in with her.