“Well, I’m not that nice and kind.” I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry and pushed Shi Yitong and Su Xiaoyun towards the exit. “Don’t worry about me. Go and do whatever you need to do, okay?”

Su Xiaoyun and Shi Yitong temporarily believed my lie and left the building, leaving only me and Zhu Xuan in the room.

“You’re not going to eat lunch?” Zhu Xuan looked at me as if nothing had happened.

I looked at him and replied sarcastically, “I didn’t know you could lie.”

“How can you call that a lie?” Zhu Xuan smiled happily with narrowed eyes. “That is called ‘knowing how to choose your words’.”

I couldn’t believe that Zhu Xuan always called Wen Jiubo an old fox. I was afraid that he was no better than Wen Jiubo. But, on the other hand, these two monsters had lived for thousands of years, how could we humans outsmart them?

“No, I don’t want to eat. I’m going back to the dorm,” I answered, ready to leave, but Zhu Xuan stopped me.

“Are you going to go back like this?”

“How else do you want me to go back?” I felt confused. “It’s not like I know how to fly?”

Zhu Xuan ignored my joke and looked at me helplessly. “What about your classmate? What are you going to do?”

“You mean Liang Kaifeng?” I shook my head. “As I said, although I empathize with him, Wen Jiubo is out there, looking for clues. It’s impossible for me to deal with some unknown monster alone. However, I will still try and contact him, perhaps he will know what to do.”

“But doesn’t this situation seem weird to you?” Zhu Xuan asked.

“Weird?”

“A deal with a demon, becoming rich overnight, paying a price for it. Don’t you think these details seem familiar?” Zhu Xuan pointed out sharply.

I suddenly understood what Zhu Xuan meant. “Are you saying, Liang Kaifeng’s father may have found the jade——”

But before I could finish, Zhu Xuan interrupted as he waved his hand, “Never mind, he’s your classmate and this is your case. It is up to you to decide what to do.”

Then, Zhu Xuan turned around and walked away, his figure quickly vanishing from sight. He left just like how he showed up, like a gust of wind, leaving me full of doubt.

At night, I tossed and turned on my bed, holding the phone in my hand and hesitating on whether I should tell Wen Jiubo. You may ask why I hesitated, that’s because if I told him about Liang Kaifeng, I would have to tell him that Zhu Xuan was here too, otherwise, I couldn’t explain why I would suspect it might involve the Jade Ruyi.

However, if I told him about Zhu Xuan.. would it cause another ‘bloody fight’?

While I was still hesitant, the phone suddenly rang, startling me.

Unexpectedly, he called me before I did.

“Are you thinking about me, kitten?” Wen Jiubo’s voice came from the other side of the call in a frivolous tone, which made me want to punch him.

I hung up the phone without hesitation.

After a few seconds, Wen Jiubo called again.

“Okay, okay, I’m just kidding. Why are you so angry?”

“Oh, really?” I stressed each word. “I thought it was a pervert that called the wrong number.”

“It hurts, really! Little Gu Yu can’t even recognize my voice.”

“Who cares!”

“Why are you so cold? I’ve missed you so much.” His voice suddenly became low. “We haven’t seen each other for a whole day.”

I got goosebumps all over my body. “You’re so disgusting, aren’t you a man?”

“Whether I’m a man or not, it won’t stop me from thinking of the person I like.” Wen Jiubo chuckled on the other side. “What about you? Didn’t you think of me, even for a tiny bit?”

I suddenly blushed because I felt annoyed and embarrassed at the same time. “Wen Jiubo, don’t you——”

“What’s the matter?” His voice became so soft that it felt like feathers brushing my ears. “Even if it’s just a little bit, you didn’t miss me at all?”

“I, I..” I was so embarrassed that I clenched my jaw and whispered. “A little, maybe.”

“What? Your voice is too low, I can’t hear you.” Wen Jiubo chuckled.

Damn, this guy is definitely doing this on purpose!

“I, I did miss you!” I said with a reluctant expression.

Then, I heard that white weasel’s voice from the other side.

“Ah! How could this happen?!”

Then, I heard Wen Jiubo’s prideful tone. “So I won, right? I told you I would manage to make him say it. Bai, don’t forget that you owe me a week of good wine.”

“This is not fair! You cheated!”

They were arguing over there and completely ignored my existence. I was completely furious. If I was strong enough, I would definitely have crushed the phone.

“Wen Jiubo! You made a bet with a weasel on me?” I shouted at him furiously, and just before I hung up the phone, Wen Jiubo hurriedly explained,

“Gu Yu, don’t hang up, I was in the wrong!” I could hear Bai yelling, “I’m not a weasel!” in the background.

Only a fool would believe you! I was angry, but Wen Jiubo added something before I hung up.

“I mean it! Please don’t hang up, I called you for a serious matter.”

I secretly despised myself because no matter how angry I was, in the end, I would always give in.

After all, he was Wen Jiubo. When he said that he had something serious to say, most of the time it was indeed serious.

I held the phone to my ear again. “Well, you’d better talk before I turn you into fox stew. What’s the matter?”

“I found Lingxiao’s trail.”

I shivered uncontrollably. Wen Jiubo did not lie, this was indeed a serious matter.

“You found Lingxiao?”

“‘Found’ isn’t the correct word to use’.” It seemed that Wen Jiubo changed his posture on the other side, and his voice sounded lazy. It was quite strange since every time Wen Jiubo talked about serious matters, he suddenly sounded lazy. Generally, the lazier he sounded, the more serious the matter.

“I didn’t find Lingxiao, but to some extent, you could say that I found something that he left behind.”

“Something he left behind?”

“Do you still remember the beast Nian I mentioned before? We were sure that Lingxiao and the beast Nian reached a certain consensus, so they started to act together.”

“Yeah, I do.”

“We found some traces of the beast Nian. We guessed that Lingxiao must have been here.”

“Give me the phone, give me the phone!” There was a sudden ruckus from the other end and I guessed that Bai must have taken the phone from Wen Jiubo. “The beast Nian is very powerful, but that beast moves by twisting time and space. So in general, it leaves burn marks at the place where it travels, and those marks are quite obvious. Mr. Wen and I have now discovered many of these marks in the suburbs around Yan City. That is to say, Lingxiao is probably in the city, but he has been lurking and we don’t know what he plans to do. Gu Yu, you must be careful.”

After some noise, Wen Jiubo seemingly took back his phone. “Not only in the suburbs, Gu Yu. Burn marks were also found in many places around the city center. I guess it’s likely caused by Lingxiao trying to break through the magic barriers.”

“Magic barriers? Wait.. why didn’t I know that there are magic barriers in the city?” I was a bit dumbfounded.