Alone, Beautifully – Chapter 110

My Wife (22)

“There are oxen that die from exhaustion, but no fields that are ruined by plowing.”

The next day.

            

Xu Jiao got up groggily. As she was getting out of bed, she nearly stumbled. Zheng Zhiyu had gone out earlier and just returned now. As soon as she came back, she saw Xu Jiao almost tripping. She instantly moved to her side and supported her while saying:

“How did it become this serious?”

Logically speaking, now that Xu Jiao had taken the ghost core, she shouldn’t be much affected by her yin energy. However, now this person’s low fever had become even more severe, and the illness was continuously dragging on. It looked very abnormal.

            

Xu Jiao waved her hand, tilted her ear to listen to the sounds outside, and realized that the corridor was filled with buzzing chatter. The phone placed on the table had also passed its nighttime silent mode, and because it had received many messages, it kept making notification sounds.

Supported by Zheng Zhiyu, she reached for the phone on the table with one hand, while at the same time tilting her chin towards the outside, indicating:

“What’s happening outside?”

            

Meanwhile, she saw messages on her phone from two dormmates who were still away on a trip and hadn’t returned yet.

Qian Ai had sent 99 messages.

Zhou Yili was a bit better, only asking how she had been doing in the dorm lately, if there were any local specialties she wanted to eat, and that they could bring some back for her. Xu Jiao glanced briefly at the messages, then opened Qian Ai’s message content first. The moment the text entered her eyes, Zheng Zhiyu’s voice also sounded:

            

“That girl from yesterday died.”

The phone screen coincidentally also showed a sentence: “Oh my god, Jiaojiao! Did you know a girl from the neighboring department died? She was from our Building No. 18. I heard it happened around midnight yesterday…”

Xu Jiao’s gaze focused, and then, without bothering to reply to Qian Ai’s various inquiries and rumor-spreading words, she looked up at the red-clothed figure beside her: “Is it Su Qiong?”

            

Zheng Zhiyu nodded: “It’s her.”

Xu Jiao thought of the straw doll on her body, connecting it to what happened yesterday. For a moment, she couldn’t pinpoint the cause of this person’s death, so she could only continue looking at Zheng Zhiyu.

Zheng Zhiyu’s pitch-black eyes gazed into her pupils: “I didn’t kill her.”

            

Xu Jiao chuckled: “I didn’t say it was you. You weren’t here earlier, did you go to look into this matter? Or is there something else not quite right in this building again?”

Zheng Zhiyu hadn’t expected her to understand herself so well.

In this interval of discussing serious matters, an inexplicable sense of comfort welled up in her heart, an indescribable sweetness spreading within. She carefully savored this feeling before answering Xu Jiao’s question:

            

“Both.”

“After you went to sleep, I specifically went to look into the connection between these three buildings you mentioned during the day. I discovered that there is indeed a formation under this building. I heard this building was only completed last year, so the formation was probably set up at that time.”

“While I was looking, a sudden burst of blood energy appeared within this formation. When I traced the source, I saw that the girl was already dead.”

            

Xu Jiao raised an eyebrow: “You mean, you went to the crime scene?”

Zheng Zhiyu nodded: “Mm, it was in the bathroom on the fifth floor. There was a wound on her stomach, and the fatal injury was—”

Just as she got to this point, she paused and asked Xu Jiao: “You haven’t had breakfast yet, right? Let’s talk after you eat.”

            

Xu Jiao shook her head, casually reaching into the drawer under the table to feel for a thermometer, wanting to measure her current temperature. After placing the cold device under her armpit, she sat on the stool beside the iron table, looking up at Zheng Zhiyu in front of her, staring at her red dress that was no longer as vibrant.

The color had darkened, making the dress look a bit worn.

Although it didn’t affect Zheng Zhiyu’s appearance, it was likely that her power hadn’t fully recovered yet.

            

Thinking of the fake monk from before, Xu Jiao was still concerned about letting the tiger return to the mountain. The opponent had suffered such a great loss at their hands, and would certainly not let the matter rest. Now that such a big incident had occurred in the dormitory building where she lived, it would be fine if the other party wasn’t coming for them, but she feared that one wave had not settled before another arose.

“It’s alright, go on. I need to know more information.”

Thinking of her iron heart, Zheng Zhiyu paused for a moment, but still continued with what she hadn’t finished saying earlier: “The fatal wound came from the stomach, as if it had been torn apart from the inside. The internal organs had also been subjected to compression, and the entire person had lost too much blood…”

            

“If it weren’t for the familiar residual qi on her body, I would have thought the deceased was some unfamiliar elderly person.”

Hearing the word “elderly,” Xu Jiao asked thoughtfully: “Hm? Because she died, did she also lose the appearance she obtained through that power? Does this power come with a backlash?”

Zheng Zhiyu, recalling the scene she had witnessed on the rooftop of that tall building, voiced her response to Xu Jiao’s guess: “No.”

            

“Ordinary death wouldn’t cause a backlash, at most it would revert to the original state. She was also a student of this age, she shouldn’t have aged like this—”

“The only possibility is that she experienced a backlash. I suspect she died because of this backlash. I mentioned before that the straw doll was connected to her qi. Do you remember when she was on the rooftop, her posture when making a wish was to kiss the forehead part of that doll? This action represents preciousness and tenderness in human emotions. Moreover, she always combed the doll’s hair and stroked its head…”

“If it wasn’t that her mental state was abnormal, there’s one possibility: she was treating this thing like a child or a younger generation.”

            

“I’ve heard of a kind of evil magic where some people, in order to obtain wealth or beauty that they can’t easily possess, would deliberately find the souls of children who died young and put them into dolls by their side. They would nurture them with unique magical methods. The thing that’s nurtured can fulfill their wishes. That thing is extremely evil and not something ordinary people can control. But once it recognizes its master, it will be very obedient, except in one situation.”

“When it’s betrayed.”

“The greatest wish of such ghost infants is to stay by their mother’s side and receive their mother’s love. What they fear most is being abandoned. Abandonment will trigger their violent nature. Once, someone who didn’t believe in these superstitions boldly raised many such dolls at once, and the final outcome was tragic.”

            

“I’ve examined it. When that girl died, the organ that suffered the most damage was her uterus. The ghost infant must have entered her body, trying to be reborn through this method.”

After hearing this, Xu Jiao imagined the gruesome scene. No wonder Zheng Zhiyu had asked her to eat breakfast first. Although it was already early summer, the heat suddenly emerged. Hearing such a story wouldn’t make one feel cold, but in this temperature, it was easy to lose appetite. After hearing such a description, the faint-hearted might not dare to eat red meat for a week.

Zheng Zhiyu, after all, had the advantage of being able to go to the scene. Xu Jiao sorted through her statements and felt there weren’t any major issues: “Then did you find that doll at the scene?”

            

Zheng Zhiyu shook her head: “This is also the key point I wanted to make. That doll has disappeared. After retaliating against that female student, logically, it should have become a masterless fierce ghost. After all, this Su Qiong violated its taboo, which is equivalent to triggering the killing energy from its time of death. However…”

“By the time I arrived, it had already vanished. I couldn’t see that doll anywhere near that girl either.”

“Moreover, Su Qiong’s blood has triggered the violent nature of this formation. I’m worried that some terrible things might happen between this dormitory… and those two teaching buildings.”

            

Hearing this, Xu Jiao already had some ideas in mind—

There were several possibilities. One was that Su Qiong brought about her own death, suddenly no longer needing that doll for some unknown reason, violating its taboo, not only suffering backlash but also losing her life. Another was… someone had set up a scheme, possibly to obtain the doll, or perhaps for some other purpose.

Different scenarios would lead to different outcomes. Considering the doll’s disappearance, the latter two possibilities seemed more likely. After all, Su Qiong was using evil magic, and whoever obtained the doll through such a violent and cruel backlash against its original owner certainly wouldn’t be a kind-hearted person.

            

The triggering of this formation, it was unclear whether it was coincidence or inevitable.

Xu Jiao felt herself engulfed in a fog of confusion. She took out her phone to reply to Qian Ai’s message. After scrolling through many messages, she casually responded to various comments and speculations about Su Qiong’s death, then turned to ask about a seemingly unrelated matter:

“Ai’ai, do you know when our Building No. 18 was built? Did anything strange happen during its construction? Also, do you know anything about the Bagua Building classrooms near our department building and the Arts and Sciences Building?”

            

Qian Ai: “?!”

Just as the chat box showed that a message was being typed, a large block of text jumped into view, indicating Qian Ai’s excited mood: “Xueba, since when did you become interested in this kind of thing? In the past, no matter what I told you, you never had much reaction. Now you’re actually actively inquiring about these kinds of stories? Is it because Su Qiong’s incident has shocked you somehow… I guess it makes sense, after all, it happened right around us. To be honest, this is the first time I’ve encountered someone I know suddenly being gone like this.”

Qian Ai seemed to have been greatly shaken.

            

It was precisely because of seeing these words that Xu Jiao realized her reaction was so different from others, her way of thinking and response to these events were utterly dissimilar.

Before she could read the other messages Qian Ai was typing, Zheng Zhiyu raised her hand to adjust Xu Jiao’s collar and pulled the thermometer out from her pajamas.

37.8.

            

The fever was not low.

Zheng Zhiyu’s face turned a bit paler, which was a sign of her bad mood.

She lifted Xu Jiao’s chin, carefully observing her current expression, then went to feel her wrist. Xu Jiao allowed her actions, realizing that her condition was probably not very optimistic, so she suggested:

            

“Then we’ll go to the hospital today.”

Ah, more money to spend.

Zheng Zhiyu’s pitch-black eyes stared at her. Just by looking at her facial features and pulse, the problem with Xu Jiao wasn’t her body… but her soul.

            

But given Xu Jiao’s current state, Zheng Zhiyu didn’t dare to enter her body, after all, she was a fierce ghost, and Xu Jiao was just an ordinary person. Even with the protection of a ghost core, she would still be impacted.

However, there was nothing wrong with Xu Jiao’s three hun and seven po.

What exactly was the cause?

            

Xu Jiao guessed from her silent attitude that her condition was unusual, and raised an eyebrow to ask her: “Why aren’t you saying anything? Feeling guilty?”

Zheng Zhiyu: “…?”

She slowly blinked once: “Why should I feel guilty?”

            

Xu Jiao raised her eyebrows even higher, meaningfully locking eyes with her: “Because my condition became more serious this morning, obviously—”

She said, enunciating each word: “You f*cked me up.”

Zheng Zhiyu: “!!!”

            

Who was it that started the seduction last night anyway!

Of course, that wasn’t the main point. The main point was, when did her saint, her goddess, start talking so crudely?

Zheng Zhiyu’s aura grew colder and colder. She tightened her grip on Xu Jiao’s wrist, then answered softly: “How could that be? Haven’t you heard a saying?”

            

Xu Jiao: “?”

Zheng Zhiyu slowly replied: “There are oxen that die from exhaustion, but no fields that are ruined by plowing.”

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