“Huh? You’re still at school? Wow, Little Gu Yu, when did you become a nerd like Qi Bojian? It’s so horrible,” exclaimed Zhou Lang. “I tell you, I almost went nuts after attending the new teacher’s class. That guy taught us metaphysics, and I didn’t understand a word of it. You know what the most horrible thing is? There are so many girls that like him! Duh, this is all only because he is such a good-looking guy. If I were as handsome as him and gave some speeches about idealistic psychology on the podium, I bet all the girls in our class would like me too.”

Wen Jiubo, standing by my side, could clearly hear our conversation. The corners of his mouth kept inching upward.

“Shut up, don’t you have a girlfriend?” I glanced at Wen Jiubo before cutting off more drunken rambling. “If you don’t have anything else to say, I need to hang up. You guys have fun.”

“Ay, hold on!” Before I ended his call, Zhou Lang shouted, “We called you to let you know that we won’t go back to the dorm tonight. Do you have your key with you?”

I paused after hearing his words. The smile froze on my face. I searched my pockets, but as expected, I didn’t have my key.

“Just like we thought!”

“It’s fine,” I said, trying to end the conversation, “Don’t worry about me. I’ll work it out. You go ahead and have fun!”

“Are you sure?” Zhou Lang asked doubtfully.

“No, I’m not sure! I’m actually a princess that needs protecting all the time, I need you guys to watch over me 24/7, or some strange man will kidnap me.” I rolled my eyes.

There was a burst of laughter over the phone. “All right, all right! We’ll leave you be, bye!”

“Bye-bye.”

After hanging up the phone, I saw Wen Jiubo staring at me with a half-smile.

“What? What’s wrong?” I said with a bit of heat in my voice.

“Nothing.” Wen Jiubo’s eyes arched like a crescent moon. “I just think you are really adorable.”

“Adorable is a word for describing girls.” I rolled my eyes again.

“That’s a perfect word for you, little princess.” Wen Jiubo laughed boisterously. He didn’t restrain himself until I kicked him.

“Well, let’s be serious, you don’t have a key, and your roommates won’t be coming back. What are you going to do?”

“Go to a motel, or ask the dormitory manager for the key. It’s none of your business,” I huffed.

“Are you sure?” Wen Jiubo put a finger on his chin and said, “However, why do I feel familiar with this situation? It seems like this has happened before.”

Hearing what he said, my whole body became tense. I prayed with my whole heart that Wen Jiubo wouldn’t mention what I thought he was going to.

“It seems this situation happened once before. You couldn’t enter the dorm, so you went to my house and slept on my bed.” Wen Jiubo narrowed his eyes, smiling like a fox.

“No! That was a special occasion!” I argued.

“Oh? How was it special?”

“It was Bai that insisted we go to your house. It had nothing to do with me,” I spouted. “Bai fooled me. It wasn’t my idea, ok?”

“Did Bai tell you that there is a vacant guest room in my house?”

I was stunned but quickly shook my head. “What? He didn’t tell me that.”

“So, you will have a place to stay if I decide to be kind.” Wen Jiubo smiled.

“Wait!” I didn’t want to give in, I tried to fight for my self-esteem one last time, “I can find a place to stay tonight. I just forgot my key, the dorm manager will let me in. Besides, even if he won’t let me in, I can still ——”

“Then that’s that,” Wen Jiubo interrupted me and shrugged. He intentionally stressed each word, “However, I have to go back. After all, there are a lot of materials about curses and supernatural events to go through. I have to do some research to see if I can find something useful. Otherwise, I can’t solve this case.”

Damn, this trick Wen Jiubo played on me was so cunning. If I didn’t go to his house, it would make a bad person who refused to help the investigation and had no empathy for the client. I gave him a ferocious stare and replied, “Fine, I give in! I’ll go back with you!”

Wen Jiubo looked very happy and clapped his hands like a satisfied child. He pinched my face and said, “Mm, you made the right choice.”

The weather in Yan city was humid today. It had rained yesterday, so the streets hadn’t dried yet. Some roads were still muddy, especially the roads at the back of the mountain, where people had to walk carefully due to the treacherous footing.

“Do you know what you look like right now?” I commented, following behind him.

“Oh?” His tone suggested that he was smiling.

“You look like a pervert who has kidnapped a child,” I barked.

“Well, in our country, raping a boy doesn’t break the law.” Wen Jiubo was smiling for sure now.

I was speechless, I didn’t expect him to be so shameless.

“The guest room is here.” Wen Jiubo led me to a room in an odd corner of the house. No wonder I didn’t notice this room before. It looked ordinary, though smaller than the other rooms in the house. However, once inside, I found it equipped with everything necessary. Unlike the parts of the house Wen Jiubo used frequently, everything here except for the sheets and quilts on the bed seemed aged. There was no electric light, instead, a candlestick adorned the table. Wen Jiubo walked in and lit the candle with a match.

“This is the oldest room in the house, it’s small and is in a bad location, so I don’t use it. That’s why there is no electricity here. You can sleep here and rough it out for a night.”

I looked around. There were a bed, an old peeling wooden table and a huge bookshelf that was only seen in some period dramas. The bookshelf was full of books, most of them were time-worn and thread-bound.

I was so curious after seeing this room, ” How old is this house?”

Wen Jiubo smiled slightly. “Older than you think.”

His words made me even more curious. “Did this house belong to you since it was built? Or..?”

Actually, it would be no surprise to me even he said yes. Afterall, I would not be surprised if Wen Jiubo told me he was a hundred years old.