My Gorgeous Neighbor Is Cooking Every Day - Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Xia Wenyao saw what Xia Xingye was thinking at a glance and pinched her cheek: “Stop letting your imagination run wild! The person who helped me was her teacher.”

Xia Xingye breathed a sigh of relief. Her fingers unconsciously twisted the corner of her clothes. For a moment, she thought Jiang Yingyue was a fox spirit in disguise, which was why she didn’t look old.

Xia Wenyao cast an apologetic look at Jiang Yingyue and continued: “At the time, her teacher brought me back from the brink of death. Afterward, her teacher said she had something to do and originally wanted to ask us to help look after her student, but for some reason, she changed her mind.”

Xia Xingye sighed with some regret. If Xia Wenyao had really helped look after Jiang Yingyue back then, she and Jiang Yingyue would have known each other since childhood, and she would have had an older sister from a young age.

“It’s great that you two know each other,” Xia Wenyao had been a little worried that the person Xia Xingye knew might be a bad person, but now that she saw Xia Xingye knew Jiang Yingyue, she immediately relaxed, her shoulders noticeably easing.

She might not trust other people, but she had one hundred percent trust in Jiang Yingyue.

Xia Wenyao glanced at her phone, the screen light reflecting on her face: “You two get along well.”

Before leaving, she shook Jiang Yingyue’s hand again and said: “I’ll leave her in your care.”

After that, she left in a hurry, her high heels clicking rapidly on the floor, clearly having work to attend to.

Xia Xingye looked at Jiang Yingyue and suddenly smiled sweetly: “Sister, Mom said I need you to take care of me.”

Jiang Yingyue shook her head with a smile. Even if Xia Wenyao hadn’t asked, she would still take care of Xia Xingye. She was older than Xia Xingye after all, and to her, taking care of Xia Xingye was natural.

Xia Xingye didn’t know why, but seeing the maternal look in Jiang Yingyue’s eyes made her feel a little uncomfortable.

She wasn’t small anymore, and she didn’t want to be treated like a child.

But since Jiang Yingyue had agreed, Xia Xingye’s eyes darted around, and she deliberately asked: “Then how does Sister plan to take care of me?”

Jiang Yingyue: “?”

She clearly hadn’t reacted to the meaning of Xia Xingye’s ingratiating expression and asked hesitantly: “Do you still want to watch me catch ghosts?”

Xia Xingye asked sweetly: “Can I?”

Jiang Yingyue thought seriously for a moment and said: “Yes, but if you go today, you will get hurt.”

“It’s fine,” Xia Xingye didn’t take it seriously at all, “Don’t I have Sister here?”

With Jiang Yingyue around, she wouldn’t get seriously hurt no matter what.

Seeing Jiang Yingyue waver, Xia Xingye quickly seized the opportunity.

What if Jiang Yingyue also said it was too dangerous and wouldn’t let her go in the future? The best solution was to follow her and see how she caught ghosts today.

The two looked at each other in silence for a moment. Jiang Yingyue nodded and said: “I’ll take you.”

The person involved wasn’t afraid of getting hurt, so why should she be afraid? Besides, she was confident in her ability to protect Xia Xingye. So it was settled: they would go ghost-catching tonight.

In the evening, Xia Xingye deliberately wore all black, while Jiang Yingyue wore her usual clothes.

Both of them were stunned when they saw each other.

Jiang Yingyue asked, puzzled: “Why are you dressed like that?”

Xia Xingye was even more confused, saying: “Don’t I need to dress like this? What if the ghosts see us?”

Jiang Yingyue said with amusement: “Ghosts see us differently than ordinary people do.”

Xia Xingye asked, half-understanding: “In their eyes, does it have something to do with yang and yin energy? A person’s body has heavy yang energy, so ghosts can recognize them no matter what they wear?”

Xia Xingye asked hesitantly: “Should I go back and change?” She rarely wore black clothes, and the two black items she dug out were not very good-looking.

“Just leave it, we don’t have time to change back and forth.”

“Okay.” Xia Xingye was a little disappointed that she couldn’t show off in front of Jiang Yingyue.

Jiang Yingyue didn’t notice Xia Xingye’s disappointment. She led Xia Xingye through a few turns and stopped shortly after.

They stopped in a park. There was some equipment in the park, and no one was around. Normally, there would be many people in the park digesting their dinner after a meal.

Even without Jiang Yingyue’s ability, Xia Xingye noticed that something was amiss.

“Are there ghosts here?” Xia Xingye asked in a low voice, pulling on Jiang Yingyue’s sleeve with some apprehension.

“Yes, they’re here,” Jiang Yingyue said, taking out a talisman and putting it into Xia Xingye’s hand. “No matter what happens, do not let go.”

“I definitely won’t let go.” Xia Xingye wasn’t afraid of death, but no one would willingly curse themselves to death.

Jiang Yingyue just drew and painted on the ground, creating what looked like a formation. It was quite complicated, and Xia Xingye couldn’t understand it.

But she didn’t need to understand it. Soon, Jiang Yingyue chanted something that sounded like a spell and then said: “Aren’t you coming out yet?”

As soon as the words left her mouth, Xia Xingye felt a gust of cold, ghostly wind blow towards her.

Immediately afterward, she felt a chill on her back. She spun around abruptly and came face to face with a female ghost with long, flowing hair and wearing red.

Just as the female ghost was about to touch her, at the last second, the talisman in Xia Xingye’s hand emitted a beam of light, bouncing the female ghost away.

The female ghost shrieked and shouted: “That’s not fair play!”

Xia Xingye’s mouth twitched and she said: “You attacked someone without a word. Are you being fair play?”

The female ghost glared at her menacingly and suddenly said shrilly: “I’ll make sure you die a miserable death.”

Xia Xingye: “…”

Xia Xingye was completely confused, not knowing what was wrong with the female ghost all of a sudden. She asked strangely: “Go settle the score with whoever harmed you. This is the first time we’ve met, right?”

“I don’t care about you!” The female ghost stubbornly circled Xia Xingye, not sparing a glance for Jiang Yingyue, determined to pick on her, the soft target.

Soft target? Xia Xingye hesitated for a moment and looked at Jiang Yingyue: “Sister, she’s bullying me.”

When you can’t win, you call for backup. The female ghost was the one who was unfair first. Xia Xingye was only here to observe, yet this female ghost immediately tried to attack her. Even if she wanted to pretend to be very kind in front of Jiang Yingyue, she wouldn’t let the female ghost bully her.

Wait, she was always very kind.

Jiang Yingyue warned the female ghost: “If you have an issue, come for me.”

The female ghost turned its head, glanced at her, and stuck out its long tongue, saying: “I don’t care about you.”

She had finally found an easy target brought by the ghost catcher. If she didn’t seize Xia Xingye, how would she have a chance to turn the tables?

Although she didn’t currently know Jiang Yingyue’s strength, she had watched Jiang Yingyue draw the formation so skillfully earlier, so she definitely wasn’t without power.

Since that was the case, she could only follow her own plan. She was just thinking when her foot was suddenly grabbed.

The female ghost looked down in confusion and saw that her foot was entangled by a plant emerging from the formation.

She screamed and tried to break free, but the plant wrapped tighter and tighter, finally pulling her to the ground, and countless vines tightly bound her to the ground.

Seeing the female ghost completely immobilized, Xia Xingye walked up to her, snorted, and said: “I told you not to bully me. You should have looked at who was behind me.”

“You two are despicable! You caught me off guard. If you dare, come at me fair and square!”

“Who is coming at you fair and square?” Xia Xingye rolled her eyes. “Why didn’t you say you were creeping around in the dark when you tried to sneak attack me?”

Xia Xingye wanted to needle her a bit more, but Jiang Yingyue spoke: “Alright, we’ll fight fair and square.”

Xia Xingye looked confusedly at Jiang Yingyue, not knowing what she intended to do, but Jiang Yingyue really started to put away the formation.

Freed from the restraints, the female ghost immediately floated into the air and laughed loudly: “You fell for it!” and was about to fly away.

Before she could disappear into the darkness, Xia Xingye threw the talisman in her hand, hitting the female ghost.

The female ghost cried out and fell to the ground, looking back at Xia Xingye in disbelief.

“You said ‘fair and square,’ so why are you running?” Xia Xingye said, displeased. “Why are you such a dishonest ghost? Were you like this in life too?”

“I was not!” The female ghost furiously lunged at Xia Xingye: “You don’t have a protective talisman now! Let’s see what you’ll do!”

Xia Xingye stood still. Just as the female ghost was about to pounce on Xia Xingye, a glow burst from Xia Xingye’s pocket, bouncing the female ghost away again.

Xia Xingye said innocently: “I really don’t have one in my hand, but I didn’t say I only had one talisman.” She had all the talismans Jiang Yingyue gave her on her body.

Seeing that she couldn’t win, the female ghost immediately showed weakness: “I was wrong. I won’t dare to do it again.”

Jiang Yingyue said speechlessly: “I haven’t even told you what you did wrong.”

The female ghost pouted: “What else could it be? It’s just telling me not to scare people, right? But I never scare people.”

“You didn’t scare people, so who was playing in the park late at night?”

“About that,” the female ghost looked troubled, “If I tell you, I’ll be in trouble. Don’t make it hard for me.”

Seeing that the female ghost was unwilling to say, Xia Xingye thought for a moment and said: “If you don’t talk, we’ll have to deal with you right here. I wonder which is more terrifying: pretending to be a ghost or being sent off to the next life?”

“No, no, no,” the female ghost said nervously, “I still have something I haven’t finished,” she pleaded, “I will leave this place once I complete what I want to do.”

The female ghost turned obedient once she knew she couldn’t win, though her face was terrifyingly pale. She didn’t look very old, about twenty years old. Xia Xingye asked curiously: “What do you want to do?”

“I… I had an appointment to meet my childhood friend here,” the female ghost said sadly, “But she hasn’t arrived yet.”

“What’s your friend’s name? And what’s yours? We’ll help you find her.” Xia Xingye patted her chest, clearly intending to help the female ghost.

Jiang Yingyue was about to stop her, but hearing Xia Xingye’s promise, she didn’t say anything more.

The female ghost asked cautiously: “Will you really help me?”

“Of course, it’s just a small favor.”

“My name is Ren Ruofang, and my childhood friend is Dong Yiyu, but we haven’t seen each other for many years. I don’t know where she is now or what she’s doing.”

“When was the last time you saw her?” Xia Xingye tried to narrow down the search.

Ren Ruofang was silent and didn’t speak. Xia Xingye blinked and asked: “Don’t tell me… you forgot when the last time you saw her was?”