Chapter 54: Chen Xiaoyao Meets Li Yun

The teachers in our class shared a common trait: as long as you showed up in the classroom, they would never interfere too much with whatever you were doing. They often said, "The path is your own, and the way you walk it is your own choice. I am merely the one who brings you to the path; whether you walk it and how you walk it are entirely your own matters."

Therefore, even when Chen Xiaoyao fell asleep during class, the teacher merely frowned. After all, Chen Xiaoyao's behavior today was drastically different from yesterday.

Today, he had first arrived late and then fallen asleep in class, acting as if he had become a completely different person.

Chen Xiaoyao slept soundly all the way until the end of the lunch break. He rubbed his face, opened his sleepy eyes, and glanced at me. "What time is it?"

"Not late, half-past two in the afternoon!"

I originally expected him to react like this—slamming the desk fiercely, jumping up, and shouting, "What? It's half-past two?"

In reality, however, his reaction was this: upon hearing the time, the head he had just raised drooped back down, and he muttered vaguely, "Only half-past two? Still early!"

With that, soft snoring sounds began to emanate from him.

I turned my head and stared at him for a long while. What on earth was this kid up to last night?

My eyes scanned up and down his body, but I found nothing unusual, save for some mud on his trouser cuffs and shoes.

"Could he have gone to work at a construction site last night?"

Wait, since he was so exhausted, could it be that he went out to catch ghosts yesterday?

That seemed highly probable. The thought instantly stirred my curiosity. I stealthily reached out my hand, wanting to verify whether he had indeed gone ghost-hunting. All I needed to do was check his fingers; even someone as formidable as my grandfather had to use his middle finger's blood to catch ghosts, and I refused to believe Chen Xiaoyao was stronger than my grandfather.

Chen Xiaoyao was sleeping with his head pillowed on his arms, his fingers curled inward, making them completely invisible.

I picked up a stray hair from the desk and slowly poked it into Chen Xiaoyao's ear, then began to wiggle it.

Sure enough, the trick worked. Chen Xiaoyao stirred and shifted his sleeping position, pressing that ear—no, rather, pressing that side of his face against the desk, exposing his other profile. As his posture changed, his other hand naturally dropped down.

I ducked under the desk to examine his middle finger.

Then I popped back up. Just as I thought, there was a small scratch on his middle finger. Judging by how fresh it looked, it must have been inflicted yesterday.

And the kid had the nerve to claim he didn't know Taoist arts, especially since he had used that very finger to point me out last time! Once he woke up, I was definitely going to give him a good "humiliation."

Yet, what kind of ghost could possibly wear him out to this extent? Could it be that, just like me, he had shared a bed with a female ghost last night? Seeing how exhausted he was, he must have used protection; otherwise, mere fondling shouldn't have left him this drained.

I chuckled foolishly while letting my imagination run wild with fantasies of his "epic battle" with a female ghost.

Just at that moment, however, my eyes flicked down to his pocket, and I caught sight of something that completely shattered my composure.

I was intimately familiar with that object. It was a sash—the sash from a long black dress. The material and color were an exact match. It was identical to the sash of the dress Li Yun had worn that fateful night.

At that, I could no longer remain calm. Just as petty thieves fear encountering police officers, ghosts fear encountering ghost-hunters. That was precisely why I kept Huang Ying safely tucked away at home.

***

I reached out, snatched the sash from his pocket, gripped it tightly in my hand, and violently shook Chen Xiaoyao awake.

He opened his eyes, looking rather irritated. Everyone has a temper when woken from sleep, and he was no exception.

He glared at me and snapped, "What on earth are you doing? I was sleeping!"

"Where did you get this sash?" I held up the black sash for him to see, my heart pounding wildly in my chest, desperately hoping his answer wouldn't be the one I feared.

He glanced at the sash in my hand, immediately patted his pants pocket, realized it was missing, and lunged forward to snatch it back from my grasp. "Taking someone else's property without permission is theft," he retorted.

I didn't care in the least about whether it was theft or not. I reached out, grabbed him by the collar, yanked him closer, and raised my voice. "Tell me right now, where did you get this sash?"

"Found it!" Seeing my expression darken, he tossed out those two words.

"Found it? Who do you take me for, a ghost? Who just casually picks up a sash on the street? And tell me, what on earth were you doing last night? Why is the middle finger of your right hand injured?" I clutched his clothes and roared, startling the entire classroom. Everyone raised their heads to stare at the two of us.

"Are they fighting again?"

Murmurs rippled through the class, but I couldn't care less about them now. If Chen Xiaoyao were to tell me right then that he had subdued the owner of this sash, I swore I would throw down with him right here and now.

Though I wouldn't go so far as to say I was in love with Li Yun, I certainly had feelings for her, not to mention that I still owed her a tremendous debt.

Chen Xiaoyao shook off my hand, his expression turning equally hostile. "How dare you investigate me?"

"Just tell me where this sash came from!" At that moment, my sole desire was to get to the bottom of the mystery.

"Come outside with me!" Chen Xiaoyao spat, and marched out of the room first.

It was still the beginning of the lunch break, so there were no teachers around. If a teacher had been present, nobody would have dared to make such a scene.

I got up and followed Chen Xiaoyao out.

Several classmates stood up as well, eager to watch the spectacle.

As soon as I stepped out of the classroom, I slammed the door shut behind us.

Chen Xiaoyao led me to the corner of the teaching building, a secluded spot where people rarely wandered.

Once there, he faced the playground, resting his hands on the railing. "I hunt ghosts."

"That's not what I want to ask you!" Not a trace of surprise crossed my face. From the very first moment I met him, I had known he wasn't ordinary.

"Do you know what I was up to last night?"

Any fool could deduce that after announcing he hunted ghosts, he would ask what he had been doing the night before.

"Ghost hunting," I answered concisely.

***

"Correct," he nodded. "Last night, I ran into a woman in black at the southern suburb villas."

The southern suburbs? The villas? Wasn't that where Li Yun lived?

"And then?" My heart grew increasingly tense. Li Yun's home, Li Yun's sash—Chen Xiaoyao must have encountered Li Yun.

"That woman in black was immensely powerful, but she was still no match for me! This sash was left behind by her." Hearing this, I braced myself inwardly. With even her sash left behind, Li Yun was likely in grave peril. I clenched my fists tightly, waiting for what came next.

"Just as I was about to subdue her at the very end, an accident occurred."

"What accident?"

"At the critical moment, another woman appeared and rescued her. Some of my soul energy was even extracted by that woman!" Chen Xiaoyao recounted.

I let out a sudden breath of relief, the stone that had been lodged in my throat dropping safely back into my stomach. As long as Li Yun was alive, that was all that mattered.

"How is she?" I asked. Li Yun must have sustained heavy injuries, given that Chen Xiaoyao had reached the final stage of the confrontation.

"Who?"

"The woman in black!"

"Her condition is very bizarre. Even though she has been dead for over a decade, her physical body remains intact. With the help of that other woman, she probably won't fade away."

"Oh!" Only then did my mind completely settle. As long as she was safe, nothing else mattered.

After taking a couple of deep breaths, Chen Xiaoyao looked at me with a frown and asked, "Do you know her?"

I darted my eyes away and stammered, "No!"

Even I didn't believe my own words. Given the expression I had just worn, anyone could tell at a glance that I definitely knew her.

Chen Xiaoyao nodded and said merely, "Take care of yourself," before turning back toward the classroom.

After Chen Xiaoyao left, I leaned against the railing, gazing out at the bright sunshine. The world felt so serene; how wonderful it would be if I could just lie down on the playground right now.

From the looks of it, Li Yun was indeed still lingering in this city, and she had even returned to the villa. The corpse in the chest freezer had been manipulated by her, but why was she hiding from me, and who was the woman that rescued her?

I thought of the woman who had laughed so chillingly over the phone. Could it be her? What kind of relationship existed between her and Li Yun?

I felt as though the truth was finally coming to light. It was now certain that Li Yun was still here, and the woman by her side was most likely the murderer of our dormitory head. As long as I found Li Yun, all of this would become crystal clear.

After greedily inhaling a few breaths of fresh air, I turned and headed into the restroom, splashed cold water over my face, and then returned to the classroom!