My Gorgeous Neighbor Is Cooking Every Day - Chapter 24

Chapter 24

“Died strangely? How strange?” Xia Xingye asked subconsciously.

The homeroom teacher glanced at her, looked out the window, and said: “She died silently in her dorm room in the middle of the night, like she was asleep. Her roommates didn’t notice for a long time. At first, they thought it was just sudden death. Only when they moved her did they discover a talisman under her bed, completely soaked in fresh blood.”

Seeing Xia Xingye look at her with a serious expression, the homeroom teacher subconsciously stopped and said: “Alright, I’ve told you everything.”

“Wait a minute,” Xia Xingye looked at the homeroom teacher seriously and asked, “Teacher, did you just say she died several years ago? Not this year?”

“Of course not,” the homeroom teacher saw Xia Xingye remain silent and asked her, “Do you have any other questions? If not, go back. Don’t ask too much about this kind of thing.”

After Xia Xingye walked out of the teaching building, she immediately called Jiang Yingyue. Jiang Yingyue didn’t answer. Xia Xingye continued calling while hailing a taxi to rush to the Art Academy.

The taxi stopped at the entrance of the Art Academy. Xia Xingye looked out the window and immediately made eye contact with the security guard. Before the security guard could say anything, Xia Xingye got out of the car and walked to another location, but the security guard called out to her: “Hey, little girl, come over here.”

Xia Xingye stopped curiously and turned to look at the security guard. The guard said: “Your friend has already gone in. Aren’t you going in?”

Xia Xingye blinked and asked: “She went in through the front gate?”

“No,” the security guard said, “She climbed over the wall, but we caught her.”

Xia Xingye: “…Then where is she now?”

“Don’t worry. Although we caught her, the higher-ups called and said to let you in if you came back.”

“Is she at the teaching building now?” Xia Xingye asked. She didn’t want to know why the school was suddenly willing to let them in. She just wanted to find Jiang Yingyue. Jiang Yingyue not answering the phone made her very uneasy.

She was wearing the children’s watch Xia Xingye gave her, which only had Xia Xingye’s number stored. Jiang Yingyue should have known it was her, so why couldn’t she be reached? Was she choosing not to answer, or was she unable to answer?

“She might have been there before, but whether she’s still at the teaching building now, I don’t know.”

Xia Xingye went inside and called Jiang Yingyue. As she was approaching the teaching building, the call finally connected. Jiang Yingyue’s voice came through: “I’m near the dormitories, Building 8.”

“Don’t hang up yet,” Xia Xingye quickly asked someone for directions to Building 8 and anxiously asked Jiang Yingyue, “What happened? Why didn’t you answer the phone just now?”

“I’ll explain later. Be careful when you come over.”

Before Xia Xingye could ask what she needed to be careful of, she suddenly saw everything go black, and a huge shadow was cast over her. She looked up and saw Yin Nianyun floating in mid-air. Yin Nianyun’s face was pale, completely drained of color.

Although she was a ghost, Xia Xingye hadn’t seen her like this before. Seeing Xia Xingye, Yin Nianyun immediately cried out and hugged her. Xia Xingye struggled to push her away, but Yin Nianyun had an inexplicable amount of strength and could even touch her. Xia Xingye couldn’t push her away.

“Go away, don’t touch me.”

“I came to find you, don’t chase me away,” she said with a wronged expression, “You don’t know how terrifying it is over there. I wish I hadn’t taken her there.”

“You took her there?” Xia Xingye briefly stopped struggling. She pinched the back of Yin Nianyun’s neck, pulled her away, narrowed her eyes, and asked, “Spit it out, and keep your hands to yourself.”

“I understand. I’m here to lead the way for you. There might be unclean things on the path.” She said, cautiously looking left and right.

Xia Xingye followed her gaze and saw only passersby looking at her strangely.

Xia Xingye cleared her throat, released Yin Nianyun, and whispered: “Lead the way quickly.”

Yin Nianyun led Xia Xingye forward, occasionally telling her to walk a little to the left or a little to the right. Xia Xingye didn’t understand why, but she followed the instructions.

Jiang Yingyue must have sent Yin Nianyun because there was something only Jiang Yingyue and Yin Nianyun could see, and Xia Xingye could not.

Along the way, Yin Nianyun said fearfully: “You don’t know what I saw in that dorm! I thought taking her to the dorm would be fine, but then I couldn’t find the door to leave. Thankfully, Jiang Yingyue was there.”

“You were just in the dorm?”

“We were in the dorm, but it was clearly not the dorm.”

Having been in the school for so many years, could she still not distinguish what was a dorm? An outsider might think the dorm was just like that, but the changes in the dorm couldn’t fool Yin Nianyun. Something strange was affecting the dorm.

Yin Nianyun didn’t explain clearly, but Xia Xingye had already guessed what was going on. Earlier, when she was riding her bicycle, the road was completely empty of people, which was essentially a ‘Ghost Wall’ phenomenon (being trapped by an illusion). The reason she couldn’t reach Jiang Yingyue earlier wasn’t that Jiang Yingyue didn’t answer her phone, but that Jiang Yingyue was unable to answer.

“Why did you come out? You left her there alone.” Xia Xingye’s tone seemed somewhat accusatory.

Yin Nianyun looked distressed and said: “She’s much more capable than I am. I couldn’t help much there. She can help stabilize the situation there.”

Just as Xia Xingye was about to ask why Jiang Yingyue needed to stabilize the situation there, she saw thick black mist rising from the nearby dormitory. Other people, as if oblivious, continued to walk inside.

“They won’t be affected,” Yin Nianyun explained, “Only those with abilities and those like you who can see will be affected. To be honest, I’m a little curious,” Yin Nianyun looked at Xia Xingye, “You’re really strange. How can you see me? She can see me because she studied it, but what about you? Are you one of those people who can naturally see ghosts?”

Xia Xingye shook her head. She wasn’t born with the ability to see ghosts. If she were, she would have known long ago. Why would she only be able to see ghosts after meeting Jiang Yingyue?

“I don’t know,” Xia Xingye said. She had a vague guess in her heart: perhaps it was because she stayed with Jiang Yingyue, and Jiang Yingyue influenced her, allowing her to see ghosts.

Recently, when she saw ghosts, Jiang Yingyue wasn’t always doing anything specific or even right next to her, yet she could still see them. She wondered how long this would last, whether it was related to the total time spent with Jiang Yingyue, or the distance between them. No matter how curious she was, she would have to wait to ask Jiang Yingyue later.

“What exactly is going on with the dorm?”

Yin Nianyun looked troubled and said: “You’re already here, so you’ll know once you go in and look.”

Xia Xingye was speechless but still walked inside. Yin Nianyun brought her here, and she wasn’t completely unwary, but she wore the talisman Jiang Yingyue gave her. If anything attacked her, the talisman would keep her safe.

Besides, she wanted to find Jiang Yingyue. She was worried Jiang Yingyue might not be able to handle things alone inside. If asked what ability she had, Xia Xingye knew she had none, but Little Jiang had told her that Jiang Yingyue would be more powerful when she was with Xia Xingye. That was enough. It was enough for her to go find Jiang Yingyue, even if she might get hurt.

After walking into the dormitory, everything went black for a moment, but then the scene instantly became clear again.

Jiang Yingyue stood in the dormitory corridor. Not far from her was a human-like figure surrounded by black mist, making it impossible to clearly see who it was.

Xia Xingye saw Jiang Yingyue and immediately called out softly: “Sister, are you okay?”

Jiang Yingyue turned around, saw it was Xia Xingye, and looked at Yin Nianyun.

Yin Nianyun said: “You told me to find her, didn’t you want me to bring her over?”

She belatedly realized that Jiang Yingyue might have wanted her to protect Xia Xingye, but since she had already brought her over, she could only bite the bullet and say so.

Jiang Yingyue reached out to Xia Xingye: “Come here. Stay by my side. Don’t wander off.”

Xia Xingye would have gone over even if Jiang Yingyue hadn’t told her to. She took Jiang Yingyue’s hand and stood by her side, squinting at the black shadow not far away, and asked: “What is that?”

“Dong Yiyu,” Jiang Yingyue said. As soon as she spoke, Xia Xingye looked at her in shock. Jiang Yingyue continued to explain: “Ren Ruofang got the time wrong. She didn’t die this year, and Dong Yiyu had already died before her. Their agreement wasn’t for this year either.”

Although she had learned on the way that Dong Yiyu was no longer alive, Xia Xingye hadn’t expected this situation. She looked at Jiang Yingyue’s pocket and said: “Where is Ren Ruofang? Isn’t she coming out?”

“She refuses to come out,” Jiang Yingyue sighed helplessly. She naturally wanted Ren Ruofang to come out and explain what was going on with Dong Yiyu, but Ren Ruofang had suddenly retreated like a turtle and refused to come out no matter what Jiang Yingyue said. Jiang Yingyue was not good with words, so she was stuck at an impasse.

Xia Xingye looked at the black shadow, then at Jiang Yingyue, and whispered: “Give me the bottle.”

Jiang Yingyue didn’t understand but still handed the bottle to Xia Xingye.

Xia Xingye tossed the bottle up and down twice in her hand: “Hey, Ren Ruofang, are you really not coming out? If you don’t, I’ll smash you, and then you’ll have no choice but to face her.”

Hearing Xia Xingye say that, Ren Ruofang whispered: “That can’t be Dong Yiyu,” her voice choked with sobs, “How could anything happen to her? I was only a little late.” She refused to believe that Dong Yiyu was dead, and she refused to believe that many years had passed.

Xia Xingye understood that Ren Ruofang was afraid to face the truth, but could they just stay with her because she was afraid?

Xia Xingye said sternly: “If you don’t come out, she will be trapped here as a malevolent ghost forever, lost and unable to reincarnate as a human. Is that what you want for her?”

Ren Ruofang remained silent.

Xia Xingye asked Jiang Yingyue: “If she continues like this, will she be captured?”

“She was taken advantage of. Although it wasn’t her intention, if she harms innocent people, the authorities below will eventually come to capture her. Even if she was taken advantage of, she will still be punished.” Before she finished speaking, the black shadow seemed to sense their conversation and lunged at them fiercely.

Xia Xingye quickly pulled Jiang Yingyue and dodged to the side. The black shadow manifested something like a paintbrush in its hand and smashed it onto the ground. The paintbrush was emitting an unsettling black mist.

“Can you capture her?” Xia Xingye retracted her gaze, gripping Jiang Yingyue’s hand tighter. “Let’s capture her first.”

They came here for Ren Ruofang, but now Ren Ruofang insisted the person in front of them wasn’t Dong Yiyu. Now, regardless of whether she was or not, if they hesitated any longer, they would inevitably get hurt.