Looking at him, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “You were involved in a haunting, so why wouldn’t you think that demons exist as well?”

“That’s not the same though,” Shi Yitong leaned over and nudged me with his shoulder. “So, where’s your little demon? I can’t see him?”

Speaking of which, I had seen neither hide nor hair of Bai since I woke up. I was in so much of a rush to get to class on time that I hadn’t even looked for him. Thus, I didn’t know where he was right now.

“Don’t know, he might’ve gone to get food.” I scratched my head.

“But..” Shi Yitong changed the subject abruptly, looking at me with a worried expression. He lowered his voice, “Is it okay for you to go around doing stuff for Mr. Wen.”

Huh? I didn’t quite understand what Shi Yitong meant.

“It’s not like you don’t know this, but the only reason I’m working for him is because of the money I owe him from that first case,” I said helplessly.

“Is it really only because of that reason?” Shi Yitong’s concerned expression grew instead. “You can tell that reason’s merely a made-up excuse to extort you. Surely it won’t matter even if you just up and ignored him right? If not, then I’ll pay it off for you. You only made the request to help my family out anyway, so it makes sense for me to pay..”

“No, no. Please don’t.” I waved my hands. “This was my responsibility from the start, of course, it’s up to me to pay it off. Though.. why would you say that?”

Shi Yitong scratched his head, but finally still spoke. “To be quite honest, I feel Mr. Wen is a very dangerous man. It will be best for you to stay as far away from him as you can.”

Oh, so that’s the reason. I felt a weight lift off my shoulders and I smiled.

“Thanks for looking out for me. But, I wasn’t really forced into this by Wen Jiubo. From the first time I walked into the old residence, he spoke to me about a lot of things, including my special constitution and other miraculous things in this world. Following him was a choice I made on my own, because.. how should I say this? I really want to understand – I want to know how many other miraculous stories there are in the world, and how many more folktales that I have yet to hear. I’m very curious, and very interested. And also..”

I changed the subject, “And also, I think Wen Jiubo isn’t the type of person you spoke of. Even though he might look like he’s very mysterious and slightly strange, he might be arrogant and haughty in demeanor, and he sometimes really does annoy people. But he’s also helped out complete strangers more than once. So..”

Shi Yitong sighed but then smiled. “If that’s the case and this is your choice, then I’ll support you. Good luck!”

Just when I laughed and was going to make a comment, a voice came from the front of the lecture hall.

“Gu Yu from Language studies, class 16!”

I jumped up in fright. “Here!”

“Please answer the following question.”

“Ah.. Yes!” I hurriedly started flipping through the textbook in my hand.

————————————————————————

I didn’t have class in the afternoon, so after lunch in the cafeteria, Shi Yitong and I planned to head back to the dorms. Suddenly, a snow-white animal jumped in front of us, scaring the crap out of me.

“Bai! Why did you scare me like that? Where did you vanish off to before?”

Bai stopped in front of me, nimbly climbing up my trousers to sit on my shoulder. He stared at Shi Yitong warily as he twitched his ears.

“Ah, don’t worry about him,” I said. “He’s in the know.”

“What?” Bai twitched his ears in dissatisfaction, an unhappy expression on his face. “Gu Yu, it doesn’t matter if you tell anyone else, but why did you have to go tell this dumb-looking guy?”

“What do you mean by dumb-looking? This is my best friend.” I said helplessly.

“I-it spoke!” Shi Yitong stared at Bai, eyes wide. He was so startled that he began stuttering. “The white weasel spoke!”

Bai kicked out with a foot. “I already said I’m not a weasel!”

“It’s obviously a demon! Otherwise, why would there be a white weasel!”

“I’m a ferret. A ferret! You human child!”

“Alright, alright. Can you both just give it a rest?” I asked, feeling a headache building as I stepped between the two of them. “Look at you, you’re already a grown up, can you not pick a fight with a ferret?”

Shi Yitong ruffled his hand through his hair, feeling like what I said was very reasonable.

“Hmph.” Bai crossed his paws. “Today on Gu Yu’s account, I’ll let you off the hook.”

“So? Where did you go?” I picked Bai up from the ground.

“Ah! I was just about to talk to you about it before I was interrupted by that human brat.” Bai bounded upright. “I went back to Xiaoying’s place because I was thinking even though we were chased out yesterday I could still sneak back in through their air vents.”

“Did you succeed?” I asked, a little tensely.

Bai nodded, pulling out a note from god-knows-where. “This is for you, from that girl.”

I took the note, and Shi Yitong also leaned in closer out of curiosity.

Little ferret:

I am really very scared. Yesterday night when I was sleeping, I felt someone enter my room again. I didn’t dare to open my eyes, I could only lie curled up in bed. It doesn’t matter even if I lock my room, the ghost would still come in the middle of the night. My mom said that it’s likely that our family has actually attracted something evil. Little ferret, please bring that big brother to come have a look again. I don’t have any other ideas, I’m really very scared!

That’s right, every Wednesday and Thursday, Uncle Wang isn’t at home, my mom should let you both in. I’m begging you!

I sighed softly. “It looks like Xiaoying considers you her only savior.”

“What? What? What’s written on it?” Bai jumped up and questioned.

“You didn’t read it even though you brought it?” I asked, finding it a little strange.

“No. That is..” Bai lowered his head, embarrassed. “To be honest, I don’t really know how to read.”

“Don’t know how to read?” Shi Yitong cried out in astonishment, “You’re a demon but don’t know how to read?”

“It’s because I’m a demon that I don’t know how to read, okay!” Bai glared at Shi Yitong, recalcitrant. “The human language is all slanty and too complicated and weird. I don’t want to learn it!”

To prevent the two of them from arguing again, I changed the topic with some effort. “Speaking of which, today is Wednesday, right?”

Shi Yitong looked at his phone. “I think it is.”

“So it means that that vicious, evil monster of an uncle shouldn’t be home right?”

“I looked and it doesn’t seem like he’s home,” Bai said.

“Good, it’s a rare opportunity,” I quietly fist pumped to myself. “Let’s go visit again.”

“Then I want to come with you guys as well!” Shi Yitong pounded his fist into his palm. “It’s rare for me to come across something this interesting. You need to take me too!”