Chapter 178
Chapter 178
“Really?” Lu Yuanshi moved as though to take a bite of the sweet potato in Xiao Huai’s hands.
Xiao Huai turned aside, unwilling to let him taste the bitterness, and stuffed more than half the sweet potato into his mouth.
It was so hot that his pupils abruptly contracted.
“Cough! Hah… Hot, hot, hot…” Tears instantly welled in his eyes, and the tip of his scalded tongue peeked out.
He squeezed one eye half shut, while the other refused to open under the sharp pain.
Even then, Xiao Huai smiled as though refusing to admit defeat. “Once I’ve bitten it, it’s mine.”
Lu Yuanshi froze slightly and stared at him without blinking, an unreadable darkness in his eyes.
He raised a finger as if to touch the corner of Xiao Huai’s eye. When Xiao Huai dodged, however, the faintest smile touched Lu Yuanshi’s lips, and his fingertip brushed the corner of Xiao Huai’s mouth instead.
The touch was light and soft.
Gone in a flash.
Lu Yuanshi brought his fingertip to his lips and licked it.
His brow furrowed. “A little bitter.”
Xiao Huai blinked in a daze. What had Lu Yuanshi just done?
He seemed to have…
Lips.
Fingertip.
Touched his lips again?
The tips of Xiao Huai’s ears suddenly blazed red. He had read a similar scene in the book Sophie gave him.
Damn it. For one instant, he wished his memory were not so good.
But he remembered every detail in that book.
The later pages contained even more scenes. Merely thinking about them left Xiao Huai incredulous.
Returning to himself, he puffed his cheeks like a hamster and blew on the sweet potato. “If it’s bitter, don’t eat it. I like it anyway.”
Xiao Huai turned his back. At that moment, he thought he heard Lu Yuanshi laugh softly. The sound was quiet, but still clear enough to hear.
Xiao Huai paid no more attention to him. He did not know that Lu Yuanshi badly wanted to tell him then,
The sweet potato might be bitter, but the corner of Xiao Huai’s mouth
Was very sweet.
* * *
After returning to his room, Xiao Huai looked up at the clock.
Nine fifty.
Most people would not have been asleep at this hour, yet the courtyard was unnaturally quiet.
No one left their room. There was not even the sound of someone moving about.
Something was wrong.
Just as he prepared to investigate, Xiao Huai’s eyes shifted and his peripheral vision caught on the window.
When had someone poked a hole through the paper?
If Lu Yuanshi wanted to find him, Lu Yuanshi would either knock or simply walk in without knocking.
Xiao Huai pretended not to notice the hole. He extinguished the candle, moved beyond the observer’s line of sight, and waited silently.
Several minutes later, a figure crept up to the window.
The person seemed to be searching for something, their shadow shifting constantly across the paper.
Something resembling a bamboo tube slid neatly through the hole. Xiao Huai instinctively held his breath.
As expected, smoke drifted through the tube in the next instant.
Only after completing the entire process did the shadow outside slowly depart.
Xiao Huai quickly covered his mouth and nose and bought a mask from the shop. Though he moved fast, he inevitably inhaled a small amount of smoke.
His head immediately grew heavy, and an overwhelming urge to sleep came over him.
Xiao Huai moved to the bed. The broken mirror from earlier still lay beneath it.
He merely leaned against the bedside and quietly waited for the smoke to disperse.
He shook his head. To keep himself awake, he bit his lip hard enough to draw blood.
The metallic taste of rust instantly filled his mouth.
Pain shocked his mind and broke through the drowsiness caused by the smoke.
Xiao Huai drew his brows together and concentrated.
So this was why the courtyard had become unnaturally quiet.
Someone wanted every player to fall asleep early.
That only made it more certain that something would happen at midnight.
The shadow outside his window had not been particularly tall and seemed to be wearing a hat.
Given what he currently knew, it was almost certainly Butler Yang.
Xiao Huai tipped his head back and narrowed his eyes, fatigue still shadowing them as his Adam’s apple shifted lightly.
Then a rustling sound came from the door.
He opened his eyes and looked over warily.
Before he had focused for even a second, the door flew open. A figure seized Xiao Huai and pulled him into the darkness.
Xiao Huai’s eyes widened, and he prepared to strike.
But when he looked up, he saw Lu Yuanshi.
A thin sheen of sweat covered Lu Yuanshi’s forehead, and he was also wearing a mask.
“Shh.” Lu Yuanshi removed the mask while pressing a finger to his lips.
He occupied the room beside Xiao Huai’s. After returning from the kitchen, they had apparently both encountered Butler Yang’s attempt to release smoke.
But Xiao Huai had not broken into a sweat like Lu Yuanshi. Had something else happened in Lu Yuanshi’s room?
Xiao Huai removed his mask and silently mouthed,
“What happened?”
Lu Yuanshi pointed outside and formed the words, “There’s a ghost.”
Then he clasped his hands and begged twice, as if asking Xiao Huai, *Please, please. Can I hide here for a while?*
Xiao Huai had never seen Lu Yuanshi behave this way. Nothing about him suggested he feared ghosts.
But could Lu Yuanshi genuinely be afraid of them?
Surely he was not pretending merely to stay with Xiao Huai.
No one would do something so childish, would they?
Though Xiao Huai looked suspicious, he nodded and pushed twice against Lu Yuanshi’s shoulders, signaling for him to stop pinning Xiao Huai down.
When Lu Yuanshi charged in, he had knocked Xiao Huai over and pressed him into the corner.
One arm curled around Xiao Huai’s shoulders. They were much too close, making their position thoroughly ambiguous.
Amusement flashed through Lu Yuanshi’s eyes so quickly that Xiao Huai failed to notice.
Lu Yuanshi immediately put on a frightened expression again. Like a startled white rabbit, he took a long time to release Xiao Huai before raising his head toward the window.
As Xiao Huai rose, eerie singing sounded outside the door.
More precisely, it sounded like someone performing Chinese opera.
A woman’s voice stretched long and soft, filled with bone-deep sorrow and farewell, desolate beyond words.
Lyrics drifted faintly from the distance.
“Pear blossoms bloom as spring brings rain. Pear blossoms fall as spring sinks into the earth.”
“This life goes only toward one soul. I call the mortal world far too unjust.”
The lyrics came from *Ode to Pear Blossoms*, but the final line had been changed.
The original was, *I call even the sovereign lovesick.* Here, it had become, *I call the mortal world far too unjust.*
Xiao Huai raised an eyebrow. Had *The Mortal World* not appeared among the clues?
The mortal world covered far too broad a range. What exactly did it represent here?
Perhaps understanding its meaning would bring them another step closer to the world’s truth.
*Ode to Pear Blossoms* praised the flowers, but even more, it praised love.
The operatic singing continued, but Xiao Huai saw nothing resembling a ghost in the courtyard.
He looked at Lu Yuanshi with a frown, clearly questioning him.
*Are you lying to me?*
Lu Yuanshi shook his head pitifully and mouthed, “In my room.”
If so, they might as well see what sort of ghost it was.
Xiao Huai extended a hand to Lu Yuanshi and raised an eyebrow. He whispered, “Shall we see the female ghost first, then listen to an opera?”