The Otherworldly God I Serve Is Actually a Demon - Chapter 22

Jun Gongyu disliked appearing during the day, so Ruan Jiao had become a night owl, unable to wake up in the morning and yawning as she walked.

“Jiaojiao, I heard a really beautiful transfer student is joining our class, apparently from the capital. I wonder why she’d transfer to a third-tier city like ours and choose such an ordinary major,” Xiang You chatted beside her, gossiping.

“Our university isn’t bad either; it’s at least a first-tier institution,” Ruan Jiao replied dismissively.

News of the transfer student had been circulating in the class group for two days. Even before her arrival, all sorts of rumors were already flying around.

“They say the transfer student is our principal’s long-lost daughter. Someone saw the principal bowing and scraping to coax her into eating at a fancy restaurant,” Xiang You lowered her voice, leaning in conspiratorially.

“That’s even more ridiculous.”

The principal of Jiang University was a woman, so seeing her and the transfer student together at a restaurant sparked rumors of a secret child. If the principal were a man, who knows what kind of rumors would have spread and how ugly they would have been.

Ruan Jiao disliked gossiping behind people’s backs. They didn’t even know this girl, yet just because she was beautiful, all sorts of rumors emerged.

Perhaps sensing Ruan Jiao’s discomfort with the topic, Xiang You didn’t continue discussing the transfer student. As they talked, they reached the floor where their classroom was.

It was morning, but the hallway was dark. To save electricity, the school kept the lights off, and the building was shaded, making it look like nighttime.

“Help me!”

A dark figure screamed and lunged at Ruan Jiao.

Startled by the sudden appearance, Ruan Jiao lost her balance and fell, scraping her palms against the floor, the pain sharp and burning.

The girl had rushed out of an empty classroom. Ruan Jiao was walking on the inner side, and the girl had collided with her.

The girl was disheveled, her face filled with terror, clutching Ruan Jiao’s clothes tightly as if trying to tell her something.

Xiang You angrily pulled her up. “Are you blind? Didn’t you see my friend here? Did you do it on purpose?”

Ruan Jiao grimaced as she got up, looking at the red marks on her palms and wincing in pain. What luck, first ghosts, now people.

“Answer me! Are you mute?” Xiang You pushed the girl.

The girl hugged her shoulders, trembling all over, her eyes darting around like a startled bird. It seemed even the slightest movement would make her explode.

“What a lunatic,” Xiang You muttered irritably, turning to help Ruan Jiao and asking if she was okay.

Aside from the scraped palms and some pain, Ruan Jiao was fine. She blew on her wounds while keeping an eye on the girl in front of her.

Only then did she realize the girl looked familiar, as if she’d seen her somewhere before.

“Don’t you feel it? It’s around me, haunting me. Every night, every night I see it!” The girl spoke, tears streaming down her face.

Ruan Jiao frowned. “What are you talking about?”

“There’s someone… under my bed! As soon as I fall asleep, no, as soon as I lie down, it appears. I can’t even sleep.”

The girl hugged her arms and sobbed, and only then did Ruan Jiao notice the heavy dark circles under her eyes, her eyes filled with red veins.

She remembered why the girl looked familiar, she had seen her before. She was the girl from the neighboring class who kept telling everyone there was someone under her bed.

Hadn’t her family sent her to a mental hospital? Why was she out again? And judging by her mental state, it was clear she hadn’t received effective help.

If it were before, Ruan Jiao would have thought she was simply mentally unwell. But ever since encountering ghosts and experiencing what it felt like to be haunted, she began to suspect that all the unreasonable things around her were caused by ghosts.

If she were truly haunted by a ghost, she probably wouldn’t have survived this long. Or perhaps the ghost hadn’t yet met the conditions to kill her?

Ruan Jiao calmly pondered, already treating this seemingly deranged girl as a victim of a supernatural incident.

“Have you ever tried sleeping with your head on the desk?” she suddenly asked out of the blue.

“Huh?” The girl was taken aback, as if she had never considered this before.

“If there’s someone under your bed, then stop sleeping on it. Try sleeping on the sofa or with your head on the desk, or even standing up. Haven’t you tried other ways to sleep?” Ruan Jiao’s tone was calm.

The girl suddenly understood: “Oh, right! Why didn’t I think of that? If only I had thought of it earlier…”

She murmured distractedly, hugging her shoulders as if she had come to a realization, yet also seemed regretful.

Ruan Jiao nodded, pulled up her WeChat QR code on her phone, and aimed it at the girl. “Add me as a friend and send me 20 yuan for medical expenses later. If you encounter any supernatural incidents in the future, you can tell me. Consultation is 500 yuan per session.”

“Oh.”

Ruan Jiao changed the topic so quickly that the girl couldn’t react in time, but she instinctively took out her phone, added Ruan Jiao as a friend, and then transferred 20 yuan in a daze.

Xiang You stood by, dumbfounded. She hadn’t expected her good friend to be in such a good mental state that she could communicate seamlessly with someone who seemed mentally ill, and even managed to swindle 20 yuan out of her.

Wait, hold on. Thinking about it carefully, it didn’t seem like a mental illness. The description sounded more like she had encountered a ghost.

Realizing this belatedly, after the girl left, Xiang You gave Ruan Jiao a thumbs-up. “Jiaojiao, you can even help people exorcise ghosts now. I think you have the makings of a Taoist master.”

Ruan Jiao ignored her and asked her to help carry the books to the classroom to secure seats while she went to the restroom to rinse the wound on her hand. The ground was so dirty, if bacteria grew on it later, it wouldn’t be good.

The cold water washed over the scraped wound, sending a tingling pain through it. By the time the wound was thoroughly rinsed, a small piece of half-detached skin had turned pale.

Ruan Jiao simply used her fingernail to peel off that piece of skin and tossed it into the sink.

The restroom at Jiang University was old-fashioned, with low stall doors. Standing outside, one could easily see inside by standing on tiptoe. There were two rows of stalls, four in each row, arranged facing each other. The sink was located beside the two rows of stalls, right by the entrance.

The fluorescent light on the ceiling flickered due to years of disrepair, making it painful to look at.

A dark object fell into the sink, standing out starkly against the white porcelain bottom. Ruan Jiao looked closely, it was a clump of black hair, which had fallen right in front of her. Clearly, it wasn’t hers.

Why was hair falling from the ceiling?

The moment this question arose in her mind, she instinctively wanted to look up. But just as she began to tilt her head slightly, her body froze instantly.

In her field of vision, a cascade of long, inverted hair appeared right in front of her forehead, hanging dangerously close. It seemed as though someone was dangling upside-down from the ceiling above her.

Moreover, from the mirror, she could see a pair of pale feet appearing on either side of her shoulders, ghastly white, veined with black, unmistakably the feet of a corpse.

She didn’t dare look any higher, because the moment she sensed its presence, Ruan Jiao stopped her reckless upward glance.

This wasn’t her first encounter with a ghost. After taking two deep breaths, she managed to calm herself down. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see those feet swaying gently just a few centimeters above her shoulders.

Her mind involuntarily began to conjure images: a woman with long, flowing hair, hanging from the ceiling above her, peering down with dark, lengthy strands dangling right before her eyes.

The strand that had just fallen into the sink was one of them.

When had it appeared? While she was washing her hands? Why had it come? Was it because she was rinsing her wound here, attracting the ghost?

Stay calm. Think of a way out. The hairband on her wrist wasn’t stinging, meaning this ghost currently held no murderous intent toward her, she hadn’t yet met its killing conditions.

Yes, ghosts each had their own killing conditions, this was something Ruan Jiao had deduced herself.

The peeping ghost had to cling to someone’s back before it could kill; the starving ghost would devour the first person it saw; the mother ghost would disguise itself as a normal human until its identity was exposed.

This ghost surely had its own conditions too, and for now, she hadn’t met them. So, staying calm was key, she just needed to find a way to escape.

Easier said than done, though. A lone woman encountering a hanging ghost in a restroom… talk about stacking the odds.

No, no, this one genuinely scared her a little.

No matter how hard she tried, Ruan Jiao couldn’t calm down. Every time she glimpsed those feet from the corner of her eye, a chill ran through her entire body.

It felt like the first time she’d encountered the peeping ghost, that sheer terror of facing a ghost alone. The previous two encounters had at least involved other living people nearby, so the fear hadn’t been as intense. This time, she was completely alone.

She was always especially timid when left by herself.

A faint, cold breeze seemed to brush against her ear, as if something was blowing gently toward it.

Ahhh!

Ruan Jiao shut her eyes tightly, not daring to look at her surroundings. She whispered the name “Jun Gongyu,” then covered her face like a turtle retreating into its shell.

Suddenly, the temperature around her dropped significantly. A pair of hands reached out from behind, wrapping around her waist and pulling her into an embrace.

When the “deity” appeared, all threats in this world would retreat before her.

Jun Gongyu pinched the soft flesh on Ruan Jiao’s cheek, finding the girl, now trembling like a quail in her arms, utterly adorable.

“Jiaojiao, it’s me.”

Hearing the familiar voice, Ruan Jiao cautiously opened her eyes. In the mirror, the long-haired, white-robed deity gazed down at her. The terrifying corpse feet that had loomed above her head were now nowhere to be seen.

As soon as she clearly saw the reflection, she turned around and hugged the cold yet immensely comforting figure.

Half in grievance and half in pitifulness, she said, “Jun Gongyu, I’m scared.”

Like a fledgling bird seeking shelter, the girl nestled adorably and delicately in the arms of the deity she believed in, tightly clutching the drooping sleeve.

Perhaps the ghost hadn’t frightened her that much, but in the presence of someone who could offer her boundless security, she allowed herself to indulge in a bit of coquettishness.

Jun Gongyu’s scent was comforting; as long as she was in her embrace, Ruan Jiao feared nothing. In truth, she often wished for Jun Gongyu’s company during the day as well, but she knew such a request would be overstepping, so she never voiced it.

The deity disliked daylight, and she couldn’t always summon her for trivial matters.

Jun Gongyu raised her hand to stroke her head, softly soothing her, “With me here, don’t be afraid.”