historical

"I suppose you are right. That makes so much sense to me now," Liang Sisi said, "I wonder if Ranran knew about it."

"Then, about the curse.." Li Fei'er brought the issue up once more. If Liang Sisi believed that it wasn't Bai Xinran who cursed her writing, would that mean the curse itself was just a rumor maliciously spreading around to slander her and her novel?

"I wouldn't be surprised if it's also fake. There must be someone pulling the strings behind to slander her name and keep the readers from supporting her work," Shen Minyao replied.

"But that's terrible! Why would they do that?" Liang Sisi exclaimed. "Our Ranran is already gone, and yet they wouldn't stop bullying her even after her death? She doesn't deserve it! She didn't do anything wrong but write her book!"

Liang Sisi was visibly upset by now, prompting Lu Anqi to stop the recording as the latter started to cry, covering her face with both hands. However, something in the way she cried and smelled made Shen Minyao look at her suspiciously. She certainly knew something that she refused to disclose with them.

Li Fei'er and Lu Anqi helped Liang Sisi calm down, and Jiang Chen took this chance to saunter towards Shen Minyao.

"What do you think?" He asked curiously.

Shen Minyao gave him a pointed look and threw the empty carton of her strawberry yogurt drink at a nearby trash bin.

"Why are you asking me? Aren't you the paranormal investigator here?" She cackled with amusement.

"En, and I'm also someone surprised to see a demon parading herself as a human in this school. What are you doing here anyway?" Jiang Chen buried his hands in his side pockets and looked at her suspiciously.

"Oh, my. You're good, Little One." Shen Minyao smirked and rubbed her chin, giving Jiang Chen a good look. She had to give credit to Jiang Chen for being able to sense her faint demonic energy that even the shaman standing next to her couldn't sense. "You are able to tell what I am from a single look, and yet Li Fei'er refused to believe me when I told her I'm a demon."

"Miss Li probably hasn't mastered her ability to distinguish spiritual energies around her," Jiang Chen replied, his eyes returning to the three women.

"So.. what do you think of her statement?" He asked her once again.

"Why are you insisting that I even know the answer to that question?" The fox woman retorted back.

"I'm under the impression that demons can tell when a creature in front of them is lying or not. So I want to know if Miss Liang was lying on her earlier statement," he replied.

"So you don't believe her words, huh? Smart human." The fox woman laughed behind her hand.

"You can say it's my intuition telling me that Miss Liang is hiding something." Jiang Chen shrugged. There was no point in lying in front of a demon like Shen Minyao. She could easily tell if he was up to no good, and he'd rather not offend the demoness next to him, in fear that Lu Anqi would be hurt in the process.

"Relax, Mr. Jiang. I have no intention of devouring your little assistant's liver. In fact, yours would be much more enticing to eat than hers." Shen Minyao grinned at him as if she knew what was going on in his mind.

Jiang Chen stiffened at that and glared at Shen Minyao. It was really his bad luck to have an unfortunate chance meeting with this demoness at a place like this.

"What? Are you scared now? Wanna try to see if you can exorcise me?" She taunted him.

"Unfortunately, I have no time for that, Miss Shen," he spoke in defense, "I merely asked your opinion because you would have known whether Miss Liang was lying or not."

What exorcise? In his current state, Jiang Chen knew he wouldn't be able to beat this demoness. If it wasn't for his sensitive perception ability as a paranormal investigator, he wouldn't be able to tell that his young woman in front of them wasn't a human.

Also, aside from eating infants', priests', and shrine maidens' livers; it was said that the demons also like to feast on humans who were able to unlock their sixth sense.

"She wasn't lying when she said that Bai Xinran was sick, but her scent changed the moment I mentioned the water army that attacked her friend." Shen Minyao decided to answer his question, her eyes paying attention to Liang Sisi's pitiful look.

"What kind of scent was it?" Jiang Chen knew that Shen Minyao wouldn't fail to notice it.

"Liang Sisi's scent changed at the same time as her outburst earlier. In fact, her scent was weird from the beginning. Although she was telling us the truth, she was purposely leaving some details. There's something else that she isn't telling us."

"I've noticed it, too, but it's better not to jump to conclusions." Jiang Chen agreed with Shen Minyao's observation. "I'm not sure if Bai Xinran's spirit is still at the place where she committed suicide, but she's the only one who could give us some answers."

Actually, the moment he and Lu Anqi asked Liang Sisi about her knowledge about Bai Xinran's identity as Yu Lai, Jiang Chen already found her suspicious. There was something about the way her eyes felt off whenever she spoke of her dead friend. At one instance, he could almost swear that he'd seen Liang Sisi's lips curled up as she tried to cover her face with both hands earlier.

That wasn't the kind of friend that truly cared about someone. His suspicion was only cemented when he heard Shen Minyao's opinion.

"Well, you better see and check if her spirit hasn't turned into a malevolent spirit then," Shen Minyao suggested, "Be very careful if I were you; your little assistant isn't strong enough yet."