She Comes Into My Dreams Every Night - Chapter 44

Chapter 44: Truly Innocent

The time rewinds to a few minutes ago.

Tu Zhizhuo recognized the person in front of her by the flash of electricity that occurred during the fight.

“Hiss… Didn’t you say the probability of me encountering these things was very small?”

Lei Yinyin’s movement of treating her injury paused. “Logically speaking, it should be.”

She had examined Tu Zhizhuo’s fate; her yang energy was vigorous, and she was destined for wealth and status. Ghosts generally did not favor such a fate.

Lei Yinyin’s nose twitched, sensing a faint, peculiar smell.

But there was no time for her to investigate now.

She only treated Tu Zhizhuo’s ankle superficially and immediately stood up.

“I killed that ghost, but its small world hasn’t collapsed. It will attract other ghosts. The situation is urgent, we need to leave here first.”

Tu Zhizhuo tried to twist her ankle. Another piercing pain shot through her. She braced her hands on the ground, but instead of helping her stand, she got splinters of broken glass all over her hands.

Blood gushed out, and her eyes stung.

That was her hand! Her piano playing hand!

Lei Yinyin saw her on the verge of tears but showed no excessive reaction, only saying, “Pardon me,” before bending down.

Tu Zhizhuo thought she was going to hug her and was instantly flustered, but after a dizzying spin, she was astonished to find herself slung over the other woman’s shoulder.

Tu Zhizhuo: ?

“Don’t worry, I’m very steady. If you’re scared, you can hold onto me.”

Lei Yinyin carried her like a sack of potatoes with one hand and formed a hand seal with the other.

A flash of electricity struck, hitting both of them under Tu Zhizhuo’s terrified gaze.

The electric light dissipated, and all signs of life vanished in the darkness.

…

Not long after, in a simple room, Tu Zhizhuo was using her cracked phone to make a call.

“…Yes, I had a car accident… You don’t need to come. It’s not a big deal. Just a minor injury to my foot. I’ll be fine after a couple of days of rest, and I’ll come back to see you then… My friend is here; she’ll take care of me… No, she’s not some shady friend, and she wasn’t drag racing with me… She’s a police officer who happened to be nearby… What do you mean I’ve finally turned over a new leaf? Su Huaiwang would be sad if she heard that… Fine, fine, you guys go to sleep.”

Tu Zhizhuo hung up, letting out a sigh of relief.

Fortunately, her parents, despite their concern, knew her troublemaking nature and didn’t ask too many questions after learning she was fine.

A knock came at the door. Tu Zhizhuo distractedly called out, “Come in!”

Lei Yinyin, dressed in a uniform, walked in. Tu Zhizhuo found it curious. “You actually wear a uniform?”

Lei Yinyin glanced at her. “You have a big heart.” You still have time to pay attention to such details.

Tu Zhizhuo lay down on the bed, pretending to be a dead fish. “I have to have a big heart. I’m helpless when I run into things like this.”

“You recited that number in your mind, which is why I was able to get there in time to save you.”

Tu Zhizhuo turned over. “How so? Does Su Huaiwang know that number too?”

Lei Yinyin didn’t speak, picking up the teapot and pouring some tea.

Tu Zhizhuo pouted, knowing that meant she wasn’t allowed to know.

Observing the person in front of her closely, Tu Zhizhuo noticed that her complexion wasn’t good.

Tu Zhizhuo immediately became nervous. She couldn’t stay lying down anymore, propping herself up to stare at her.

“What’s wrong? What happened? Did something happen to Su Huaiwang?”

Lei Yinyin put down the teacup and said first, “Lie down. Be careful not to hurt your leg again.”

Tu Zhizhuo insisted, “Tell me first.”

Lei Yinyin sighed. “Su Huaiwang is as usual; she’s fine.” She had left a lookout with Su Huaiwang, and to ensure she wasn’t misled, she had even made a trip there herself just now.

Su Huaiwang was completely fine and probably didn’t even know Tu Zhizhuo had gotten into trouble.

“That’s good.” Tu Zhizhuo relaxed and lay back down lazily. “So, what is worrying our esteemed police auntie so much?”

Tu Zhizhuo asked casually, but Lei Yinyin had to choose her words carefully to answer her.

When no response came after a moment, Tu Zhizhuo, being an astute person, immediately guessed the answer: “Is it related to me?”

Lei Yinyin reluctantly nodded. “There are two pieces of news, one good and one bad. Which one do you want to hear?”

“The bad news.”

“The bad news is that you cannot leave for the next half month and must stay here under our surveillance.”

“…And the good news?”

“The good news is that we will protect you for this half month, and we will absolutely not let what happened today happen again!”

Tu Zhizhuo grabbed a pillow and hurled it at Lei Yinyin’s obediently smiling face.

“Those are the same thing!”

Lei Yinyin caught the pillow, a look of apology on her face. “From the current situation, your situation seems more serious than Su Huaiwang’s.”

Tu Zhizhuo rolled her eyes. “How can you tell?”

“I returned to the crime scene just now, intending to clean it up, but I found that someone had already done it.”

“Your colleagues?”

“No, a ghost.”

Lei Yinyin uttered the term for the first time.

The grave words gave the word a chilling and sinister weight.

Tu Zhizhuo raised an eyebrow. “So what? Wasn’t the thing that attacked me also a ghost?”

Lei Yinyin shook her head. “No, the level is different. What attacked you was a ghost with little to no sentience. A ghost capable of cleaning up a scene in such a short time… is at least a powerful wraith.”

She didn’t use the organization’s internal Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches classification system to avoid confusing Tu Zhizhuo.

“You mean some foul thing is targeting me?” Tu Zhizhuo was intelligent and quickly grasped Lei Yinyin’s implication.

Her face didn’t look good either now.

“Or—a very powerful foul thing?”

Lei Yinyin lowered her gaze, pondering something. “We are not sure.”

After all, if that powerful ghost were targeting Tu Zhizhuo, wanting to eat her, or something else, there would be no reason for it to let her fall into the clutches of a minor ghost, nor would there be a need to help clean up the scene.

Moreover… undoubtedly, from every perspective, Tu Zhizhuo should be a worthless target. Why would that ghost follow her?

It could be said that the series of things the ghost did made no sense to them.

“Hmm?”

A wisp of faint black smoke drifted by. When Lei Yinyin focused her mind to observe, it vanished again.

She formed a thought in her mind, concentrated, and moved closer to Tu Zhizhuo, asking her:

“If it’s convenient, please tell us where you’ve been recently.”

“Sure.” Tu Zhizhuo readily agreed. “I haven’t been anywhere these past few days, just stayed at Su Huaiwang’s house. What, do you need to go check her house too?”

To be honest, she was starting to doubt the efficiency of this department.

If Lei Yinyin hadn’t shown her a trick earlier, she would definitely not be cooperating right now.

“Su Huaiwang’s house?” Lei Yinyin first frowned upon hearing this, then her expression dramatically changed.

In a flash, before Tu Zhizhuo could figure out what was happening, her collar was grabbed by Lei Yinyin.

Lei Yinyin bent down, her head close to Tu Zhizhuo, constantly sniffing her neck.

“Hey—! What are you doing—” Tu Zhizhuo’s first instinct was to push her away, but she lessened her force at the last moment.

This was her savior, after all.

“It smells a bit, but not much…?” Lei Yinyin muttered, frowning.

Even a savior shouldn’t do this!

Before Tu Zhizhuo could explode in rage, the woman’s sharp canine teeth bit into the skin of her neck.

A lightning-like illusion flashed through her blood, spreading rapidly through her limbs.

Before Tu Zhizhuo could even scream out in pain, Lei Yinyin released her.

She took out a bandage, tore open the packaging, and put it on the still-bleeding wound.

Lei Yinyin performed the entire series of actions flawlessly.

Finally, a simple “Sorry” ended the incident.

Tu Zhizhuo felt like she was punching cotton. She could only force a smile and look at her. “Care to explain what you were just doing?”

Lei Yinyin wiped the residual blood from her lips. “Tracking.”

“You’re not really worried about me having some disease, are you? What if I had AIDS?”

Lei Yinyin’s motion of wiping the blood froze for a moment. “You don’t.”

“Can I report an information leak?”

Lei Yinyin turned to her, her face expressionless.

Just when Tu Zhizhuo was starting to feel uneasy, she suddenly smiled, adopting a high-pitched voice:

“Of course, dear. You can call the following number…”

Tu Zhizhuo hadn’t expected this and quickly gestured for her to stop.

“Stop! Stop it! That’s disgusting!”

Lei Yinyin finally dropped the bizarre expression, a hint of smugness hanging in the corners of her eyes and brows.

“So, what did you discover just now?”

Her blood couldn’t have been shed for nothing.

When the conversation turned serious, Lei Yinyin’s expression finally became more solemn.

“You have a ghost’s aura on you. The ghost has been in deep contact with you recently.”

Tu Zhizhuo was shocked. “But I don’t have a girlfriend, and I haven’t slept with anyone! Su Huaiwang and I are genuinely innocent, normal, and amicable best friends!”

Lei Yinyin was speechless. “…It’s not necessarily sexual contact.”

Tu Zhizhuo finally relaxed. “But I really haven’t been anywhere recently, have I?”

Other than her own home and work, a simple two-point line, plus a trip to Su Huaiwang’s house, where could she have encountered a foul thing?

“You don’t need to worry about that; we will investigate.”

Lei Yinyin poured herself a glass of water, drank it in one gulp, washing away the taste of blood.

“The ghost doesn’t seem to have any malicious intent towards you. The aura was left on you unintentionally, and it is slowly withdrawing it. When it’s completely gone, you can leave.”

“What’s the principle behind that?” Tu Zhizhuo asked curiously.

“To weaker ghosts, powerful ghosts are like great nourishment. They can’t provoke the powerful ghost itself, but they will covet any creature that is stained with the powerful ghost’s aura.”

“So, you previously wanted me to stay here for fifteen days to get rid of the ghost scent on me?”

“Yes, that was part of it. Before, I thought you only had the smell of the ghost from tonight, and fifteen days, along with our investigation, seemed about right. Now… it’s uncertain. If the powerful ghost doesn’t actively withdraw the aura, it might take you a year or two to naturally disperse it. Since it’s actively withdrawing the aura now, you might be able to leave in a day or two. But I suggest you stay here for a few more days for observation, just to be safe.”

Hearing Lei Yinyin’s explanation, Tu Zhizhuo couldn’t help but say, “That ghost sounds quite nice, actually.”

Lei Yinyin paused her drinking motion.

She turned her head to look at Tu Zhizhuo, her expression meaningful. “Powerful ghosts are no different from humans; they have sentience and emotions. And as it happens, the ghost that left its aura on you… is a ghost that has never harmed a person. In that sense, she is indeed a ‘good ghost’.”

A ghost that has never harmed the innocent. A… wraith.

Lei Yinyin tightened her grip on the teacup, her heart racing.

Su Huaiwang’s house, the aura of a wraith, subsequent cleanup of the scene, and active withdrawal of the aura.

The answer was apparent.