Alone, Beautifully – Chapter 100
by Little PandaMy Wife (12)
“Do you like me a little bit today?”
Xu Jiao raised her hand to push aside the actions of the person in front of her.
She averted her gaze and stopped looking at the sky, instead beginning to look around to see if there was any door or passage that could lead down, as curfew time was approaching.
With this glance, Xu Jiao discovered a relatively old iron door, but it was tightly closed, likely locked from the other side. After all, this place was not suitable for students to casually stroll around, as there were no guardrails, and inevitably, there might be people troubled by exams or daily life who come here seeking unhappiness.
She ignored Zheng Zhiyu’s teasing words and didn’t dwell on her instinctive reaction, as she naturally liked girls and had an unclear entanglement with Zheng Zhiyu from the previous world to this one. It was perfectly normal to have a reaction in such close rubs and intimate hugs.
Not hearing Xu Jiao’s response, Zheng Zhiyu still felt unsatisfied and wanted to pull her closer for more teasing, but Zheng Zhiyu suddenly stopped her actions, her gaze abruptly shifting to the direction of the door Xu Jiao had looked at.
A faint “creak” sound came from the old iron door over there.
There was also a slight noise of iron chains colliding.
It seemed as if someone wanted to open the door and come over.
At first, Xu Jiao did not realize that someone was approaching, as the wind on the rooftop was very strong, with a furious howling all around her ears. But very quickly, her wrist was pulled by Zheng Zhiyu, and before she had time to make a sound, she was enveloped by the darkness again—
Immediately following.
The two of them appeared behind the concrete wall of the lightning rod device, and Zheng Zhiyu gently covered her lips, silently looking in the direction of the approaching person. She made a small sound close to her ear:
“Shh.”
Xu Jiao turned her eyes slightly, wondering how this person became so skilled at hiding and eavesdropping.
At that moment, Zheng Zhiyu, upon hearing something, wrapped her in an eerie ghostly air and moved her slightly forward. Xu Jiao quickly heard the approaching person making noise:
“I, I still have many things to exchange…”
“I cannot lose… baby, make your request… I can do anything…”
“Please… I cannot lose all of this…”
Xu Jiao heard the strange pleading sounds and originally did not want to probe into others’ affairs, but seeing Zheng Zhiyu looking as if she was sharing gossip, she could only glance over there.
The scene she saw left her somewhat astonished.
Because she recognized this girl.
Just a couple of days ago, when entering the dormitory building, she had bumped into that girl from the neighboring department. At that time, the girl was surrounded by other students who praised her good complexion and complimented her on her well-coordinated clothes, which left a strong impression on Xu Jiao.
Especially notable was the scarecrow-like ragdoll with an eerie air on her backpack.
Now.
This student somehow got the key to this building’s rooftop and secretly came here without anyone knowing, and was talking to herself…
She indeed was talking to herself, as if she was kneeling toward the sky. Xu Jiao momentarily felt puzzled, wondering if she was praying, speaking to her beliefs, or perhaps heartbroken and seeking solitude to calm down, as it seemed just now like…
Faintly hearing the word “baby,” Zheng Zhiyu seemed to know what she was thinking and silently led her to secretly change direction.
This time, Xu Jiao could see the girl’s profile.
She saw that the beautiful classmate was kneeling on the ground, holding… the ragdoll Xu Jiao had previously seen on her backpack. The doll’s originally black eyes were emitting a red light, and its sewn-shut mouth was pulled wide, resembling a smile stretched to its limit.
It made people suspect that the thread sewing its mouth shut was about to break.
Seeing this smile, the female classmate seemed somewhat excited, with a blush appearing on her face. She lowered her head, gently brushed the scarecrow doll’s hair aside with her fingertips, and gently placed a kiss on what could be considered its forehead.
The action carried a sense of pity within it.
Because of this female classmate’s actions, the whole scene carried an eerie feeling, and Xu Jiao couldn’t help but momentarily suspect that she might be bewitched by something.
Even if a normal adult likes a doll…
They wouldn’t run to the rooftop late at night, secretly make a wish to a doll, and then do such things to it.
Xu Jiao calmly guessed that she might be under too much study pressure, leading to some mental issues.
She didn’t want to continue listening to what others said at such a time, so she casually tugged on Zheng Zhiyu’s sleeve beside her and silently pointed in the direction of the iron door. Zheng Zhiyu understood her meaning and swiftly moved them to another place.
Xu Jiao’s eyes were momentarily dazzled by the nearby bright light.
She used the back of her hand to shield her face and supported herself with one hand on the table, feeling the warmth of the indoor space that kept the cold wind firmly outside. After a while, she opened her eyes and realized she had returned to the dormitory.
And she was directly seated on her own bed.
She raised her eyebrows and looked at Zheng Zhiyu beside her: “There’s really no need to be this convenient…”
If their two roommates were in the dormitory, they might have been startled by her sudden teleportation, especially since they had recently been troubled by the supernatural “pen fairy” incident.
Zheng Zhiyu nodded in agreement: “Then next time we should use this method less; I also prefer the feeling of walking back with you.”
After the aura of one person and one ghost disappeared from the high building rooftop.
The girl, not knowing what she heard, tightly hugged the doll in her hand. With a very soft voice but heavy emotion, she promised: “No matter what it is, I will find it for you…”
“Baby… please don’t take these things back… okay?”
“What… supplements?”
“What kind of supplements do I need to find for you? Right beside me? Okay… I will do it… no matter who it is, I will bring them to you here.”
“You must always help mommy fulfill her wishes, good child.”
Toward the end, the girl lovingly touched the little doll with straw-colored hair in her palm, ignoring the doll’s smiling mouth corners, with a look of satisfaction on her face. She kissed the doll’s forehead again, and while kissing, she used her fingertips as a comb to slowly smooth out the doll’s messy and somewhat tangled hair.
Her expression was vividly like that of a mother.
Inside the dormitory.
Qian Ai and Zhou Qili returned together, carrying several large and small bags in their hands. The paper bags had clothing logos on them, indicating that the two had gone shopping over the weekend.
Finding Xu Jiao in the dormitory, they smiled and talked about the things they encountered when they went out today. They also mentioned almost missing the last bus back. They then took the new clothes out of the bags and held them up to their bodies several times, asking her:
“Xiaoxu, do you think this outfit looks good on me?”
Xu Jiao saw the shiny, short, and bold camisole and raised her eyebrows, praising, “Hm, very sexy.”
Qian Ai, who likes this kind of mature woman style clothing, heard Xu Jiao’s praise of “sexy” and suddenly got some inspiration. She looked Xu Jiao up and down and said, “Xueba, do you like this style? How about we go shopping together next Friday when the holiday starts? Summer is coming soon, and these clothing stores have already displayed their new summer collections. Xiaoli and I almost couldn’t choose today.”
Zhou Qili nodded in agreement, “Yes, recently the clothes on the pedestrian street are on sale. We can go shopping together.”
She naturally mentioned the cheapest street for clothes shopping. Although she usually buys brand clothes with Qian Ai, she knew Xu Jiao’s financial situation was tight, so she never flaunted wealth in front of her. Even her care was so natural, as if she herself was very eager to go.
Xu Jiao understood their good intentions. If there weren’t other matters, she would definitely agree, but this morning there was that phone call…
She shook her head and somewhat apologetically answered, “I have to go home once during May Day.”
“Eh?”
“Don’t you only go home at the end of the term?”
Zhou Qili and Qian Ai simultaneously looked over with curiosity.
Xu Jiao only said, “There’s a temporary matter at home that requires me to return,” so the two of them didn’t ask further, though they seemed a bit regretful. Zhou Qili went out to wash up, while Qian Ai, holding her phone, climbed up to her dog-nest-like upper bunk opposite Xu Jiao, muttering:
“I originally wanted to say that a new grilled fish shop opened recently opposite the school’s south gate. We could try it during May Day.”
Xu Jiao smiled and said to her, “Xiaoli is still at school with you, so you two can go together.”
Qian Ai nodded and said that would have to do.
She lay there playing on her phone, while Xu Jiao organized the textbooks and other items in her schoolbag, then hung the schoolbag on a hook by her bed. When the two roommates appeared, Zheng Zhiyu didn’t speak, and now she sat sensibly beside Xu Jiao, accompanying her, with her bright red clothes taking up most of the bed space.
The dormitory was quiet for a while.
Suddenly, they heard Qian Ai exclaim, “F*ck,” and then she sat up, looking at her phone with an unbelievable expression.
Xu Jiao looked over calmly.
Qian Ai, gripping the bed rail, asked her from a distance, “Xiaoxu, do you know the hotel outside our school? It’s the big chain hotel near the midnight snack stand, the one with the very noticeable billboard that you can see every time you go through the back gate.”
Upon hearing this, Xu Jiao realized it was the same hotel where she and Zheng Zhiyu went to take on a task in room 808 last time.
She nodded and asked, “What’s going on with the hotel?”
Qian Ai touched her arm, as if something had chilled her, and whispered to her, “I heard from the seniors that there’s something strange about that hotel. Every person who stays there is assigned to room 808 and inevitably has continuous nightmares. Even if they ask the front desk to change rooms, they still wake up in 808 the next morning.”
“Because of this, some paranormal streamers even went there specifically to test if it was true, but none of them found anything unusual.”
“Just now, someone from the neighboring department told me that originally there was a death in room 808 of that hotel. It seems the person who died was traveling with her boyfriend, but after an argument, she was killed by him… Later, her boyfriend walked away pretending as if nothing had happened. My god! So scary!”
“Do you know what’s even scarier?”
Xu Jiao, resting her chin on one hand, had somewhat guessed the story of that hotel room, yet she cooperatively acted as if hearing it for the first time and continued the conversation: “What?”
Qian Ai’s eyes widened as she showed her the phone: “What’s scarier is that recently, for some unknown reason, that man suddenly went back to that hotel and specifically asked for the same room. This morning, he was found dead on that bed…”
“There were two corpses on the bed, one was the fresh corpse of that scumbag, and the other had been rotting for a long time, reportedly the girlfriend he killed—”
As Qian Ai spoke, she rubbed her arms more vigorously.
After all, a normal person would feel scared hearing about a murder case so close by. Xu Jiao also heard her secretly relieved, quietly thankful that when she came to enroll at the school, she stayed with her parents at a five-star hotel in the city center.
Xu Jiao calmly asked, “For such a long time, why didn’t the hotel notice anything unusual in the room? If there were dead bodies, how were they dealt with? And how did they reappear later?”
Qian Ai shivered: “You’re asking me? Xueba, can you not use a scientific exploration tone to ask questions in such a scary atmosphere? I’m scared.”
Saying this, she then pulled up the blanket by her feet, seriously wrapping herself into a ball.
Xu Jiao thought about it too; instead of asking Qian Ai, she might as well ask the person beside her…
Her gaze involuntarily shifted to the side.
She happened to meet Zheng Zhiyu’s serious gaze.
Zheng Zhiyu let out a soft laugh, her slightly cool fingers climbing onto Xu Jiao’s shoulder, and leaned to her ear, slowly saying, “If you want to know about this matter, you should come and ask me.”
Xu Jiao looked at her inexplicably proud appearance, as if she was waiting for her inquiry and praise. She lowered her eyes, suddenly not feeling like asking anymore.
Qian Ai, still on the opposite bed, sighed, “Being a scumbag really has no good end… how much hatred must there be to kill… why kill when a breakup could solve the problem?”
Hearing her naive question, Xu Jiao didn’t say anything. She just picked up her malfunctioning alarm clock and phone again and began to observe, staring at the worn-out case, feeling a strong impulse to dismantle and fix it herself.
Before she looked for long, the phone screen suddenly lit up—
It prompted: Your bank card ending in **** has a transaction.
Xu Jiao’s first reaction was that her card number had been stolen, and she was just thinking about how to handle it when she clicked in and found that she had received a six-figure amount, with the sender showing as from overseas.
Xu Jiao: “?”
She suddenly recalled hearing Zheng Zhiyu say this morning that she had already communicated with the other party about the reward, and this should be the reward from the other party.
But…
Now Xu Jiao feels this reward is a bit hot to handle.
She opened the message page, edited a sentence in the dialog box, then turned the phone over to show Zheng Zhiyu what she had typed.
Zheng Zhiyu, supporting herself with one hand on the bed, leaned to her ear and kissed her: “Rest assured, there won’t be any problem with this money. It’s what that scumbag cheated from her and had left after dating others. She’s willing to give it to you, so just accept it with peace of mind. With so much money, it’s enough for you to have many delicious meals, right?”
Xu Jiao shook her head.
Strictly speaking, this wasn’t money she earned through her own effort; it was Zheng Zhiyu’s.
She typed her thoughts on the phone. Zheng Zhiyu understood her stance and then compromised, saying: “Alright, then just consider it as me storing this with you. Another day you’ll have to spend it for me.”
Xu Jiao nodded.
Opposite her, Qian Ai suddenly, trembling, called out, “Xiaoxu…”
Xu Jiao looked up.
Qian Ai looked at her with a kind of horrified expression: “Why are you sitting there both nodding and shaking your head? It looks very scary…”
Xu Jiao realized she still wasn’t cautious enough.
She gave Qian Ai a smile, didn’t say anything, and didn’t continue interacting with Zheng Zhiyu. She waited like this until just before sleeping, then used the blanket to cover her mouth’s position and softly whispered to Zheng Zhiyu:
“Do you remember, when we entered the hotel, there was a surveillance camera…”
Now that there was a murder case in that hotel, it isn’t a small matter. The police will definitely focus on investigating suspicious people, and Xu Jiao went straight to the eighth floor after entering the elevator, which looks suspicious no matter what.
Zheng Zhiyu touched her head: “Rest assured, no one will look for you.”
Xu Jiao thought of this strange supernatural entity, guessing she probably cleaned up the matter thoroughly, and didn’t mention this issue again, instead bringing up another:
“My phone alarm clock is broken.”
Zheng Zhiyu’s dark eyes suddenly brightened with a bit of light, and she asked, “Do you want to change it?”
Xu Jiao shook her head: “I mean, can you call me to get up at six o’clock tomorrow?”
Zheng Zhiyu was helpless for a couple of seconds, seemingly wanting to say that she was holding tens of thousands and wasn’t even willing to change a phone, but after a while, she thought that waking Xu Jiao up might as well be a kind of fun, so she nodded and agreed.
Xu Jiao, relieved, closed her eyes and went to sleep.
The next morning, Zheng Zhiyu indeed woke her up at six o’clock.
However, this fellow seemed to be venting some anger, and her way of waking people up really made Xu Jiao unable to compliment her. If she hadn’t finally gotten angry, Zheng Zhiyu might have, while her two roommates were still asleep, shaken her bed until it collapsed.
Xu Jiao walked expressionlessly with her backpack on the road to the teaching building. Since she started washing up, Zheng Zhiyu had been beside her doing little things to coax her, but Xu Jiao’s expression didn’t improve for half an hour. Now, she simply went all out, pulling Xu Jiao’s backpack from behind, making it impossible for her to stubbornly keep walking forward.
Facing her sulky-faced lover, although Zheng Zhiyu was clearly the more intimidating one, at this moment she pleasingly tugged Xu Jiao’s clothes corner and then quickly said:
“I… suddenly want to buy something.”
Xu Jiao thought of the reward Zheng Zhiyu earned by her own effort lying in her card and coldly asked, “What do you want to buy?”
Zheng Zhiyu said, “I haven’t eaten anything for a long time. I want to drink fresh hot soy milk, and I also want an egg-filled pancake, and it would be best to add a grilled sausage.”
Xu Jiao felt hungry from her words.
But there were only a little over fifty yuan left in her card, and if she continued spending recklessly like this, she would starve this month.
With firm willpower, Xu Jiao headed towards the cafeteria, rarely taking the initiative to ask, “How do you want to eat?”
In this state, can Zheng Zhiyu really eat food from the human world?
Upon hearing her question, Zheng Zhiyu did not answer, she only looked at her with big black eyes. Xu Jiao guessed she might have some special method, so she went straight towards the cafeteria.
As soon as she reached near the cafeteria, a strong breakfast aroma wafted over, and Xu Jiao’s stomach made two gurgling sounds. However, her face showed no expression as she walked straight in and, following Zheng Zhiyu’s instructions, swiped her card to buy hot soy milk, an egg-filled pancake, and a grilled sausage.
Then she carried the breakfast to the most secluded spot in the cafeteria to sit. Fortunately, there weren’t many students up at this time, it was the weekend, and it wasn’t close to exam time, so there weren’t many people around.
She looked at Zheng Zhiyu beside her: “You eat, I’m going to study.”
After all, letting a hungry person watch others’ eating broadcasts is really too cruel.
The hot soy milk emitted rising heat, spreading the fresh and delicious taste of ground soybeans. The egg on the pancake was cooked with slightly burnt edges, with the taste just right. The grilled sausage was also grilled until it burst open, and just looking at it could make one think of its biting texture.
So Xu Jiao chose not to look.
She wanted to leave, but Zheng Zhiyu didn’t let her, only supporting her chin with one hand, holding her head as she looked at her and said: “I can’t eat, you help me eat.”
Xu Jiao: “…”
Zheng Zhiyu saw her face go momentarily blank and didn’t want to create a sense of pressure from a favor, so she thought for a moment and explained: “I just thought, if I spend a lot of money on you, you definitely wouldn’t agree. Just treat it as if I’m lending it to you, and you can repay me when you work in the future. How about it? This way, can you eat well and live well?”
Xu Jiao still didn’t make a sound.
Zheng Zhiyu continued: “Also, the money received yesterday, I’ll lend it all to you. You definitely have a lot of pressure, and I have nowhere to spend the money — just now I thought that you could donate that money, keeping only enough for your living. Is that okay?”
Xu Jiao this time asked: “In your name?”
Zheng Zhiyu shook her head: “No, I am already a dead person; you can use your own name.”
Xu Jiao: “This isn’t appropriate.”
Saying this, Zheng Zhiyu leaned over and kissed her cheek: “What isn’t appropriate? Using my name and using your name are the same to me. My purpose is merely hoping you can live better, have better luck. Isn’t it said that doing good deeds accumulates virtue?”
She comes to accumulate virtue for Xu Jiao.
Zheng Zhiyu’s life has permanently stopped, it will not have any more changes, and there is no possibility to move forward, but she hopes Xu Jiao’s life can be safe and smooth. For this, she, as a ghost, is willing to believe in those gods and Buddha’s words of accumulating good deeds.
She wants her god to have wishes come true, wants her to continue to become that dazzling existence, and is unwilling to see her forced by life like this.
Zheng Zhiyu wants to give Xu Jiao the best.
Xu Jiao listened to her words, remaining silent for a long time. Zheng Zhiyu saw that the breakfast on her plate was getting cold, so she held her hand to move the chopsticks. If she wasn’t worried about the cafeteria’s surveillance capturing the scene of an egg-filled pancake actively flying into someone’s mouth, she would have already fed Xu Jiao directly.
Xu Jiao lowered her head to hold the chopsticks and actively ate her breakfast.
Seeing her taking action, Zheng Zhiyu let out a sigh of relief—
This meant that Xu Jiao agreed to her requests.
In her happiness, she asked, “By the way, I just casually ask, you don’t need to answer me—today, do you have a little bit of liking for me?”
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