Chapter Thirty-Two: Li Yun's Home

"I want to take a day off today!" I said, walking up to the principal. He didn't say a word, just nodded.

After a long night of struggle, my head was spinning, and I didn't even know how I had made it home. When I arrived, I hadn't even knocked on the door before Huang Ying opened it. I smiled at her, then ran to the sofa and collapsed into a deep sleep.

Everything outside was irrelevant now. Only at moments like this could I feel truly relaxed, with nothing to worry about and nothing to concern myself with.

I don't know how long I slept, but when I woke up, the first thing I did was call Li Yun.

Although I suspected her, I didn't want to believe it, and I couldn't bring myself to believe it. Every time she appeared, she had a physical body, and she had even had physical contact with me.

After a long while, Li Yun finally answered. "Are you trying to get me killed? I'm in class!" Her voice was faint; she must have been hiding under her desk to take the call.

"Oh, it's nothing important!" It was too complicated to explain now; I would find out once I got her to meet me tonight.

"You're insane!" Li Yun cursed and hung up.

After that, I called my grandfather. I hadn't been able to reach him yesterday because I was busy. As soon as the call connected, the first thing I asked was whether there was any ghost capable of separating a soul from its body and then reuniting them.

"Yes," my grandfather said firmly. My heart tightened instantly. I really didn't want it to be Li Yun.

"But it's extremely rare!" he added. Just like me, he liked to keep people in suspense.

"In such cases, the soul must have already separated from the body before death. After death, the soul reunites with the body. By the time they fuse again, the person is already dead."

"If the soul and body are separated, aren't they already dead?" I asked. The body is just a tool for the soul; once the soul leaves, the person should be dead.

"That's not how it works! A brief separation doesn't lead to immediate death. If it did, wouldn't it be better if we were all dead? The body still plays a certain role in control; it's not entirely governed by the soul."

"Alright." I didn't fully understand what my grandfather was saying, but it was enough to know that such ghosts existed. He then taught me some methods and warned me of certain taboos.

After the call, I went to find Huang Ying in her room. "Were you following me all day yesterday?"

I asked as soon as I entered. Huang Ying looked up at me. "I was just worried about you!"

I hadn't returned all day yesterday, and today, before I even knocked, she had opened the door. She was too anxious. Even if my IQ were only five, I would have known she knew I had returned. The only explanation was that she had been by my side the whole time.

She had said she was afraid I would grow tired of her, which was why she watched over me from the shadows. But she was wrong—how could I ever grow tired of her?

I believed that if that female ghost had tried to harm me yesterday, Huang Ying would have definitely stepped in. It seemed my concern for her didn't even compare to her concern for me.

"Don't do this again in the future. There are many strange people out there, and I'm afraid you'll be in danger!" I thought for a long time, but that was all I could manage to say. Huang Ying nodded, but I could tell my words were wasted; she was surely letting them go in one ear and out the other.

"I'm going to cook!" Seeing me staring at her with burning eyes, she got up and left the room.

After Huang Ying left, I called the dorm leader's mother. She should have already received the news of his death. I wasn't good with words, especially when it came to comforting others. I had considered not making the call, but the dorm leader and I had always had a good relationship; he had even called me just a minute before he died, which spoke volumes about our bond.

No one answered. After all, anyone dealing with such a tragedy wouldn't be in the mood to pick up the phone. When school let out, I called Li Yun again. It was noisy on her end; she was likely at a bar again.

"Come out. Now. I'll be waiting for you on the footbridge." I hung up immediately. If I had tried to plead with her, she might not have come.

I waited on the bridge. If she really was the ghost, what was I supposed to do? It was agonizing. If only I hadn't gone to school to find the dorm leader in the first place. After about ten minutes, Li Yun, dressed in a low-cut outfit, walked onto the bridge.

"What do you want?" she asked irritably.

"The dorm leader is dead," I said.

She was silent for a moment before saying, "I know."

"He was killed by a ghost."

"Bullshit!" Li Yun snapped and turned to leave.

"He wrote two characters on the blackboard. The person who harmed him has the surname Li, and she's a woman!" I shouted at her back.

She stopped, without turning around, and said, "What are you implying?"

"I hope that person isn't you."

She walked toward me and asked, "And if it is?"

I didn't answer. She had told me she liked me just a few days ago. If I said I wanted to take her down now, and it turned out not to be her, it would break her heart.

"Forget it, I was just joking," Li Yun said with a smile when I didn't respond. She turned away again. "I'm off to hook up with someone. If you have needs, you can call me too. Better to give it to you than some stranger!"

I watched her back, suddenly at a loss for words. This scene felt so familiar. When I first told Huang Ying I liked her, I had also dismissed it as a joke to deflect, using the exact same tone.

"I'm coming with you!" I called out as she descended the bridge.

She turned back and looked at me. In her eyes, there was a sense of loneliness and desolation that reminded me of Huang Ying.

"Why are you coming? Didn't you say you hated places like that?"

"I want to go." I couldn't find a reason; the thought had just suddenly struck me.

She smiled faintly and said, "Let's go," waving her hand at me.

I followed her. She walked in front, and I trailed behind with my head down. She didn't take me to a bar but instead led me to an old villa.

"Aren't we going to a bar? Why bring me here?" I asked, standing before the villa in confusion.

Li Yun turned around and said, "This is my home. I changed my mind. I wanted to bring you home to see it."

I didn't say anything. I wasn't afraid of her assaulting me!

"Come on, let's go in." Li Yun opened the gate and walked in first.

The villa looked quite old, at least a dozen years. The lights inside were off, and it was pitch black. I followed her. In the night, she wore a black, low-cut dress, which gave her an eerie, unique charm in this environment.

Li Yun pushed the door open directly without even using a key. Did she never lock her door when she left?

After she turned on the lights, I could see the interior. The decor was elegant but aged, yet it was impeccably clean. The dim, yellowish light pierced through the space and fell upon Li Yun's face.

"How is it? Not bad, right?" she asked, spreading her arms and spinning around. Her dress swirled with her. She had a smile on her face, and for the first time, I felt she was truly innocent.

"You know, only when I come back here can I be like this," she said, stopping to look at me.

"Come on, let's go upstairs!" She ran over, grabbed my hand, and led me up. She seemed like an angel living in the dark. I felt like a wooden puppet, letting her pull me along. I didn't know why she acted so differently from the Li Yun I knew, but she was definitely someone with a story.

Upstairs, she led me into a room.

"This is my room. You're the third man to ever come in here!" She jumped onto the bed and lay down, staring at the ceiling.

Hearing that, I felt a pang of disappointment—I was only the third! The room was filled with plush toys and all sorts of strange little trinkets. She clearly seemed like an innocent girl; why had she become the person she was today?

"Are you the only one living here?" I hadn't seen anyone else since I entered.

Li Yun sat up and stared blankly at the white wall. After a long time, she said, "People? Everyone has left. Let's talk about that later, okay?"

I nodded blankly. What was wrong with this world? Why were people never what they seemed? My grandfather looked like a simple old country man, but he knew Taoist arts and held secrets far beyond that. Huang Ying looked like an innocent girl, but she was a ghost. Li Yun seemed loose and wild, but here, she was incredibly pure. I no longer knew which version was the real one.