The knock sounded twice in succession, but Liu Xia was deep in slumber; even the sky falling wouldn’t necessarily elicit a reaction.
Gu Lingluo stood at the door and closed her eyes to sense the interior.
There were two breaths: one was heavy, the other subtle. The heavy one was long and steady; the subtle one didn’t sound human.
She was home alone and already asleep.
Since she was sleeping, she would just leave.
Gu Lingluo turned to walk away, took half a step, and then stopped.
Didn’t she always say she stayed up until dawn watching shows? Why is she sleeping so early today?
She recalled Fourth Sister’s chatter during dinner earlier.
【This flu is indeed quite serious. There was even a death. Although the University City is in the suburbs, you should still be careful. I’ll cast a ‘Step-by-Step Lotus’ charm on you later, just to be safe.】
A Lotus rises unstained from the mud. The Step-by-Step Lotus is a charm that cleanses and isolates the body at every step, Fourth Sister’s specialty protective spell.
If even Fourth Sister was concerned, it meant this flu was genuinely severe.
Since she had already come, she might as well go in and check.
Gu Lingluo glanced at the surveillance camera at the end of the corridor. With a flick of her finger, a mist of water instantly covered the lens.
When the mist dissipated, the area in front of Apartment 1209 was empty.
In the dim apartment, Gu Lingluo walked lightly to the sofa. She noted the silver medicine blister pack on the coffee table—a few pills were missing—and the half-empty bottle of iced tea next to it.
Drinking medicine with tea? How little common sense does she have?
Even the lowest quality tea can potentially negate the medicine’s effect.
She looked at Liu Xia on the sofa. Curled up into a small ball, hugging a half-peeled banana cushion, she occupied less than half of the two-meter-long sofa. Unlike her bright and ostentatious demeanor during the day, she looked lonely and pitiful.
Gu Lingluo frowned. She turned, went into the bedroom, pulled out a thin blanket, and carefully draped it over her.
She tucked the corners, brushed the messy long hair from Liu Xia’s face, revealing a clearly pale little face.
She had only seen her yesterday morning in German class. How had she become this way in just a day?
She reached out and felt her forehead.
Not hot.
The fever had broken.
As long as the fever was gone, there shouldn’t be any major problems.
Time to leave.
Gu Lingluo stood up, but a light pa-sha sound occurred as she stepped on something.
The object was squeezed between the coffee table and the sofa, and it was quite dim, but she still saw it clearly.
This was thanks to her heightened five senses. Not only could she hear far away, but she could see clearly. As long as there was light, even a tiny speck, she could see clearly, as if it were daytime.
It was a homework notebook.
She picked up the notebook, and pa-lang! a string of keys dropped.
Car keys.
No wonder she was dressed neatly and passed out on the sofa. She was seriously planning to go to school to hand in the homework, wasn’t she?
Gu Lingluo let out a faint sigh and glanced at Liu Xia. “Are you an idiot?”
Her cool voice echoed faintly in the living room.
Liu Xia remained completely oblivious in her sleep.
Gu Lingluo shook her head, genuinely wanting to pry open her skull and see its structure.
She placed the keys and notebook on the coffee table. Gu Lingluo hesitated for a moment, then went to the kitchen.
The kitchen had a brand-new thermos, but the water inside was cold, clearly having been sitting for days.
She looked back at the soundly sleeping Liu Xia, walked quietly to the apartment door, and opened it a crack.
That way, if Liu Xia woke up later, she could explain that the door wasn’t locked and that’s how she entered.
After putting water on to boil, she rummaged through the cabinets for cotton swabs. She didn’t find any cotton swabs, but she did find a takeout menu.
Steamed perch, sweet fermented rice dumplings, osmanthus bean sprouts, southern-style marinated drunken shrimp…
All her favorite foods.
Pressed under the menu was a box of tea leaves: Lushan Cloud Mist.
Also her favorite.
She hadn’t expected this troublesome person, who was not at all progressive in her studies, to be so diligent about these “side methods.” She was surprisingly thorough in her investigation.
Gu Lingluo could almost imagine how Liu Xia would retort if she heard that thought.
【How can you call it a ‘side method’? You are the treasure I revere most, love most, and hold most precious in my heart! Nothing else matters but you! You are always first!】
She definitely had to test that prediction another day to see if she was right.
A faint smile unconsciously touched Gu Lingluo’s lips. She put the menu and tea back. The water was now boiling.
It seemed pointless to look for cotton swabs. Someone so incapable of taking care of herself would certainly not think to keep them stocked.
Gu Lingluo went to the bathroom, found a clean, absorbent washcloth, dampened it with warm water, and sat by the sofa, gently moistening Liu Xia’s dry, peeling lips.
They’re so dry. How long has she gone without drinking water?
She was a grown woman but still couldn’t take care of herself. It seemed she’d spent too long in her ivory tower.
The night deepened. In the silent apartment, apart from the click-clack of the clock and the kitten’s soft purring on the balcony, there was only the faint sound of her applying the warm water.
She moistened the lips again and again. They finally regained some moisture. In her sleep, Liu Xia instinctively licked her lips.
The tip of her bright red tongue was clearly visible in Gu Lingluo’s sight. Her heart inexplicably paused for a beat, and that strange feeling spread through her again.
No, something is definitely wrong!
Gu Lingluo lifted a corner of the blanket and probed Liu Xia’s pulse again. Icy-blue light surged from her fingertips, spreading like clouds and mist, permeating Liu Xia’s entire body from her wrist.
There was no dark energy.
She was indeed an ordinary person.
Then what was this feeling of being tempted?
Could it be that she hadn’t checked carefully enough?
Besides probing the pulse, there was a more effective method for checking dark energy: Heavenly Court to Heavenly Court.
The Heavenly Court is located on the forehead, between the Yintang (third eye) and Shenting (Spirit Court), and is the first place where dark energy accumulates. Only when it accumulates to a certain extent does it spread to the rest of the body.
The common saying, “the Yintang is darkening,” refers to the dark energy accumulated in the Heavenly Court reaching a critical point and spreading to the Yintang, which is indeed an ominous sign.
Simply put, tiny traces of dark energy that the pulse might miss would definitely be detected by the Heavenly Court to Heavenly Court method. If even that method failed to detect it, it could be almost conclusively determined that the person had not been corrupted by dark energy.
Gu Lingluo put down the washcloth, pushed back a lock of long hair that had fallen onto Liu Xia’s face, leaned down, forehead to forehead, Heavenly Court to Heavenly Court, and pressed close.
An icy-blue streak of light overflowed from the junction, like ten thousand fireflies streaking across the night sky. It swirled over every inch of Liu Xia’s skin, down to her hair tips, and then slowly gathered back, leaving a teardrop-shaped glow on Gu Lingluo’s forehead.
No trace of dark energy. Not a single bit.
How strange. There was no dark energy, yet she was certain she had been tempted by her just now. Not just now, but once before in the library. To be able to tempt even her, there should logically be a significant amount of dark energy. Why was this happening?
The first time could be explained as an accident, but the second time was a stretch.
Gu Lingluo hesitated, just about to pull away, when a hand suddenly reached out from under the covers and hooked around her neck!
Gu Lingluo was startled. Before she could push her away, a soft, wronged whisper, laced with a cry, sounded in her ear.
“Don’t go…”