Jiang Yu felt she shouldn’t have said those words that day. Now, not only did she have to worry about Qi Yin’s dog, but she also had to deal with Cheng Yao, this absolute ancestor of a friend, every single day.
Cheng Yao had been stunned for two full seconds by Jiang Yu’s remark. Then, blinking her clear yet utterly foolish big eyes, she asked Jiang Yu with urgent concern, N-N-No, are you alright? What does it feel like to be possessed by a ghost? Do you feel any discomfort at all? Is there anything I can help you with? She believed it implicitly, so panicked that even her speech started stammering.
Jiang Yu looked at her in disbelief, met Cheng Yao’s worried gaze, and let out a high-pitched shriek: Are you out of your mind?!
Every day after that, Jiang Yu would catch Cheng Yao secretly eyeing her with that same worried expression, occasionally even creeping up beside her, looking like she wanted to say something, only to back away hesitatingly.
Jiang Yu: …
Jiang Yu endured it.
Finally, one day, as Jiang Yu walked past Cheng Yao, she casually glanced at the words on Cheng Yao’s phone screen. Having already taken two steps past, Jiang Yu silently retreated, tilted her head, and read the text on the screen.
Help! What should I do if my friend gets possessed by a ghost? Will it have any negative effects?
Cheng Yao’s phone screen was opened to a forum board. She was totally engrossed in scrolling through the comment section, completely unaware of Jiang Yu standing right behind her.
Cheng Yao was curled up in the sofa like a ball, biting her thumb and reading with great relish.
As she scrolled, her gaze stopped on a particular comment.
Boundless Monk: It’s hard to say in this kind of situation, but according to my recent divination, the outlook is grim. You need to hurry and exorcise the ghost from your friend before it brings disaster upon you. Little friend, if you need an exorcism, feel free to private message me so we can discuss the details.
Such a clumsy scammer.
Jiang Yu thought as she looked at this comment. This kind of fraud tactic was identical to the ones from several years ago, the terminology was unauthentic, entirely dependent on talking nonsense, and long outdated. Only a complete fool would fall for it.
Boundless Monk? More like Boundless Fraud.
It was with this exact thought in mind that she watched Cheng Yao tap into the private chat.
Dory Stewed Chicken: Master, is my friend’s condition very serious? Is there any way to fix it?
Jiang Yu: ?
She couldn’t take it anymore. She wanted to pry open Cheng Yao’s brain to see what on earth was packed inside. Normally, the girl looked quite smart, yet she actually took a casual joke seriously.
Although Jiang Yu was tempted to see just how low Cheng Yao’s IQ could really sink, she simply couldn’t stand this level of pure denseness a second longer. In a breathy tone mixed with exasperation, she cursed, Idiot.
The voice came down right from the top of Cheng Yao’s head. By the time she heard it, she abruptly realized a looming shadow had enveloped her.
She stiffly raised her head and saw Jiang Yu’s large, gloomy face hovering right above her.
Agh, a ghost! Cheng Yao shrieked in terror. Her phone slipped from her hands, and she scrambled frantically to stand up, only to flail like her four limbs were completely uncoordinated as she tumbled face-first onto the floor. She wailed, her voice trembling at the end: Help me, !
At the exact same time, a private message from Master Boundless popped up on Cheng Yao’s fallen phone.
Master Boundless: According to the divination, your friend might not be your friend anymore.
Cheng Yao looked at the message on the phone on the floor, then back at Jiang Yu, who was standing there with a dark, expressionless face.
In her field of vision, Jiang Yu was frowning deeply, her pitch-black pupils staring straight at her without a single blink.
Suddenly, a wave of chill swept through Cheng Yao’s entire body, and she began to shiver all over.
She couldn’t help but wonder: Does Little Yu usually look this terrifying?
Jiang Yu also saw that message, her face darkening even further as she opened her mouth to say, Cheng Yao, your brain is,
Before she could finish, she was cut off by Cheng Yao.
Cheng Yao propped herself up on the floor, closed her eyes in fear, opened them again a moment later, and delivered a trembling threat: N-No matter what kind of freak you are, y-y-you get out of my friend’s body first!
Jiang Yu’s jaw froze stiff.
Jiang Yu: Cheng Yao, is there something wrong with your brain?
Completely rendered speechless by Cheng Yao, Jiang Yu felt utterly dumbfounded at that moment.
It was hard to put into words. Though experiencing a car accident and a system had meant Jiang Yu could no longer be considered a strict materialist, she was still, without a doubt, her genuine, flesh-and-blood self.
With infinite patience, Jiang Yu began to explain to Cheng Yao, who stubbornly refused to listen. At first, Cheng Yao remained entirely trapped in her own world, firmly convinced that the person in front of her was no longer human, and even tried to secretly reach out for her phone to contact Master Boundless to perform an exorcism on Jiang Yu.
It wasn’t until Jiang Yu’s patience completely ran out and she blurted out the memory of Cheng Yao wearing her underwear over her head and running out into the streets to cause a scene as a child that Cheng Yao finally quieted down completely, staring blankly at Jiang Yu.
After a thorough round of debate, Cheng Yao finally became convinced that the person before her was indeed her childhood best friend.
As for Jiang Yu, she only felt utterly exhausted, both mentally and physically.
If it were just Cheng Yao being a total airhead, she could slowly get used to it.
However, having things you can get used to means there are also things you can never, ever get used to.
Far more agonizing than Cheng Yao was Qi Yin, who came to visit Little Yu every single day.
This kind of torment was completely different from Cheng Yao’s flavor of annoyance. Even though Qi Yin simply arrived on time every day just to take a quick glance at Little Yu, stayed for only a short while before leaving, and Jiang Yu completely understood this behavior now that Qi Yin knew Little Yu’s background, she was the only one who knew how agonizingly fast her heart raced every single time she saw Qi Yin.
It felt as though, having loved Qi Yin for far too long, her heart had spent too much time beating for her and had forgotten how to dance for anyone else.
Trying to change it would be difficult; trying to control it was simply impossible.
Sometimes, looking at Qi Yin, Jiang Yu would feel a thought welling up from the bottom of her heart: Forget it, just leave it be. Keep pursuing her. Boldly do what you want to do. Even if Qi Yin doesn’t like you back, so what?
Yet, every single thing in this world has exceptions. The probability might be small, but it’s not zero.
Their relationship had already improved. She now spoke more words with Qi Yin than she had in all their past years combined, and Qi Yin had even started taking an interest in her life. What if, under her continued pursuit, Qi Yin actually grew to like her, only for her to fail the system task and perish as a result?
Jiang Yu loved Qi Yin, and she even craved Qi Yin’s reciprocation.
However, she couldn’t.
She was practically being driven mad by this Schrödinger-esque threat of death.
Jiang Yu had been a straightforward person all her life. She never imagined she could ever become this conflicted. To her, something known to be unobtainable usually led to only two outcomes: either abandoning it no matter how reluctant you felt, or pursuing it no matter the cost.
Previously, she had chosen the second path when it came to Qi Yin. But now, when she tried to switch to the first, she discovered she simply couldn’t do it.
Their frequency of meeting was too high, and their communication had increased too much, this held a tremendous attraction for Jiang Yu, driving her to push the relationship a step further.
Because of these few matters, Jiang Yu hadn’t slept well for several days in a roof. The dark circles under her eyes, which she had finally managed to get rid of earlier, had crept back out, stretching out beneath her lower eyelids.
This is too exaggerated, Cheng Yao exclaimed in wonder.
Because Cheng Yao’s belief in the ghost possession nonsense a few days prior had caused her to lose face in front of Jiang Yu, she had been actively looking for an opportunity over the past two days to get her revenge and reclaim her lost pride, even though the fault in that incident didn’t lie with Jiang Yu at all.
Even though before… ahem, that matter was just an accident, looking at you right now really makes it seem like you’ve been latched onto by something, you know, Cheng Yao recalled, asking, Your goddess comes to visit you every single day and yet you still look like this walking corpse, it makes me suspect you’re up to some shady business every night. Don’t tell me you’ve been entangled by some female demon?
Cheng Yao’s words carried a pointed insinuation.
Jiang Yu wasn’t stupid; she caught the underlying meaning in Cheng Yao’s words.
She briefly linked Qi Yin to the female demon label and surprisingly found it rather fitting. Wasn’t that exactly the case? Qi Yin hovered in her mind day and night, completely refusing to leave.
Naturally, Jiang Yu would never admit to this out loud. She waved her hand dismissively and retorted, What, not looking for someone to perform an exorcism this time? Decided to hire a demon hunter instead?
Silenced by her own defeat, Cheng Yao shut her mouth.
In the end, Jiang Yu failed to come up with a proper solution to this problem.
Because her dark circles were so severe, she was even questioned about it by Qi Yin, who came by to check on the dog that afternoon.
Jiang Yu’s heart ached. Facing the very culprit behind her misery, she had grievances she couldn’t voice and could only manage a forced smile.
Her sorrow-filled eyes could barely contain the vastness of her troubles.
She looked at the calendar and let out a heavy sigh.
Qi Yin would come to take Little Yu away before the New Year. Counting the days, it was rapidly approaching.
Just endure it a little longer, and it would all pass. Once it passed, their interactions would naturally fade away.
That was what Jiang Yu kept telling herself.
The next day, Jiang Yu took a whole pack of small animals out to play and let loose. Watching Snowball successfully provoke several large dogs into an annoyed frenzy, Jiang Yu thought to herself that there really was no one quite like this cat.
The only person who ever boarded a cat at Jiang Yu’s facility was Snowball’s previous owner.
Her shop primarily catered to pet dogs, and while there were dedicated feline boarding shops nearby, Snowball’s former owner had insisted on paying a high price to place Snowball in Jiang Yu’s shop instead.
At the time, Jiang Yu felt something was slightly off about it, but upholding the principle that turning down money makes you a turtle’s egg, she didn’t care whether there was an ulterior motive or not.
Back then, Jiang Yu had simply assumed the cat was a bit too mischievous and nothing more.
Thinking back on it now, she had been far too naive.
Presumably, this cat had already been kicked out of every cat-boarding shop in the area, leaving it with nowhere else to go, compounded by the fact that it was truly insufferable.
Jiang Yu had figured that since she could understand what all the small animals in her shop were thinking anyway, as long as she gave a few extra reminders, cats and dogs wouldn’t actually end up fighting even if their species didn’t mix.
Therefore, she occasionally brought Snowball out to the main play area to run around with the others.
However, Jiang Yu had overlooked one crucial detail: Snowball’s foul mouth was something she had witnessed long ago.
Ever since the cat remarked that her hair was greasy, she should have realized what kind of creature it was.
Allowing a foul-mouthed cat to hang out freely with a pack of seemingly friendly dogs was simply not a wise choice.
Perhaps because it had finally been adopted by someone new, Snowball no longer needed to use pet boarding conditions as its attack angle; instead, it picked right back up on physical appearance critiques and prepared to carry them forward.
I’m telling you, stop chasing me already! Look at your face, your eyes, nose, and mouth are all scrunched together like some kind of emoji. You are genuinely so ugly! Am I wrong for stating facts? You’re hideous! Just stating facts here! Snowball yelled as it fled from the Golden Retriever hot on its heels.
Jiang Yu massaged her temples.
Even a large dog with a temper as mild as a Golden Retriever could be driven to the brink of rage by Snowball, was there anything this cat couldn’t ruin?
Jiang Yu pondered for a moment and actually came up with one dog that would happily let Snowball torment it to its heart’s content: Qi Yin’s Border Collie.
The dog Qi Yin raised took after its owner; its emotional stability was truly terrifying. It was precisely because Little Yu’s emotional regulation was scarily solid that it could maintain a non-hostile relationship with Snowball, occasionally even being dragged along as an unwilling accomplice.
Snowball hadn’t exercised properly for a long time, and stamina-wise, it simply couldn’t sustain intense, prolonged activity. After all, the Golden Retriever several times its size had already chased it in three full laps around the yard.
Running out of breath, Snowball glanced back, only to see the dog still hot on its tail.
Are you an absolute simp?! We’re never going to work out! Even on the verge of doom, Snowball continued its non-stop commentary. Catching sight of Little Yu lounging by itself in a corner, its eyes lit up as it sprinted directly toward it, screaming, Little Yu, save me!