My heart skipped a beat. Could it be that I had gotten myself into trouble again?
"Yan Lin, I can't go shopping with you anymore. You go back to the dorm first. I have to go home right away."
After saying that, I trotted all the way to hail a taxi and head home.
As soon as I got in the taxi, I called He Bi to ask if Gu Yuan had come back and if he was sober.
But I couldn't get through to He Bi no matter how hard I tried. That stupid guy always let me down at critical moments.
Forget it. It was still early. It would be the same if I went home to check myself. It was broad daylight. Could there really be ghosts and demons running around?
I sat in the taxi, scrolling through my phone. I always felt a bit cold in the car.
"Driver, did you turn on the air - conditioner? Could you turn it off? It's too cold." I said politely to the driver.
The driver responded and manually turned the switch.
But after the air - conditioner was turned off, it got even colder. It was as if I was standing naked at the bottom of an ice - cold pool, my hands and feet cramped from the cold.
Even stranger, my consciousness was getting more and more blurred. I knew something was wrong, but I couldn't say a word. I slumped limply against the seat.
Just as I was about to pass out, I vaguely saw a passenger sitting next to me.
This passenger was none other than the female corpse that had just been fished out of the artificial lake. She was soaking wet, her hair sticking messily to her face. Her head rested on my shoulder, and her venomous gaze was filled with a strange smile.
My heart twitched violently, but my eyelids were getting heavier and heavier. Eventually, I lost consciousness completely. My body felt as if it was wrapped in ice water, and I felt extremely uncomfortable.
"So cold!"
...
When I woke up again, it was pitch - black outside. I was lying on my side on a bench, watching the autumn wind blow the fallen leaves. The ginkgo leaves were fluttering under the streetlights.
I took a deep breath and smelled a faint fragrance of grass and trees. I had smelled this scent before. It was the scent of the fox - fur pendant.
I moved my head slightly, and my cheek happened to rest on something white. It was so soft and furry. It felt so comfortable against my face.
No, why was there something furry? I was in a taxi, wasn't I? How did I end up here? I suddenly sat up from the bench.
Only then did I notice a teenage boy sitting beside me. He was holding a cup of milk tea in his hands but didn't drink it. When he saw me sit up, he smiled at me with curved eyebrows.
That smile was as warm as a spring breeze, and his eyes were full of starlight.
"Who... who are you?"
Although his smile was very nice, seeing a strange boy sitting with me in the middle of the night, and he even had a big tail, anyone would be scared to death.
The boy licked his lips and said, "My name is Bai Qi. This is for you."
That smile was so healing that I couldn't refuse his milk tea at all.
I took the milk tea carefully, and he even helped me insert the straw.
"You were frozen just now. I thought you might want something hot when you woke up, so I bought this milk tea." That ethereal voice like a celestial sound dispelled most of my fear.
"Thank you."
I held the warm milk tea in my hands and just sat there, not saying a word for a long time.
Finally, Bai Qi broke the silence: "What's your name?"
I gave him a smile and replied, "My name is Lan Chiyu. Just call me Lanlan."
He smiled warmly again.
I looked around. Isn't this the artificial lake in our school? This was the place where the corpse was found.
My heart suddenly tightened, and I hurriedly asked, "Why am I here?"
"I brought you back."
Suddenly, Han Mengyao's words popped into my mind: Before a white fox comes to claim a life, it will always leave something behind. It will strike up a conversation with anyone. As long as someone replies, it will give the thing in its hand to that person, and then that person will die miserably.
The white fox is looking for a substitute. Anyone who talks to it will die?
Although I didn't really believe her words, but seeing a white - clothed boy here in the middle of the night, and he gave me a cup of milk tea, and I took it and talked to him.
Is he going to kill me next?
In a hurry, I stuffed the milk tea back into his hands and said, "I don't know you. Let's pretend we've never met. Bye."
I picked up my backpack and was about to leave, which left Bai Qi quite confused.
Bai Qi didn't chase after me. Instead, he looked a bit disappointed and lowered his head to look at the milk tea that I had returned without taking a single sip.
For some reason, I felt that he didn't seem like a bad person. I looked down at the time. It was already past midnight. Gu Yuan should be sober by now. If I encountered danger and couldn't handle it myself, I could always ring the bell.
I summoned up my courage and turned around to ask, "Why do you kill people?"
Bai Qi was a bit stunned by my question. He tilted his head, looking at me with his furry ears. He really looked very cute.
I took a step forward and continued, "This morning, a female corpse was found here. There was also a tuft of fox fur in her hand."
I held up the fox pendant on my backpack to help him recall the incident.
Only then did Bai Qi understand what I meant and said, "Her name is Xu Xiaocui. She committed suicide by jumping into the lake out of hatred because her boyfriend cheated on her. Her soul has turned into a fierce spirit. Coupled with the water being a profound evil, it has further increased her evil aura.
"Last night, when the moon was full, she had turned into a ghost and was wandering on the lake, looking for a substitute. I tried to persuade her, but it was useless. So I had her body surface in the hope of helping her get rid of the evil aura. I didn't expect that she would try to take your extremely yin body today to increase her ghostly energy. That's why I took action."
After hearing what he said, I realized that it wasn't the white fox looking for a substitute at all. It was the fierce ghost that was looking for a substitute.
"But many classmates said they saw a white - clothed person wandering around here, looking for a girl. Wasn't that person you?" I continued to ask.
"It was me." A warm smile appeared on his face again.
"Did you find that girl?"
"I found her. Her name is Lanlan."
My eyebrows shot up. I could hardly believe my ears. He was actually looking for me?
Bai Qi stood up. His snow - white tail and ears gradually retracted. At this moment, he no longer looked like a teenage boy but had turned into a real man.
Tall and handsome, with a pair of fox - like eyes emitting a charming blue light, his voice also changed from the ethereal celestial sound to a very magnetic one.
He was completely different from the teenage boy just now.
I looked up at him. From this angle, he really was very handsome.
Suddenly, I felt a bit nervous and took several steps back, saying, "What... what do you want from me?"
"Don't you remember that I gave you a little fox on the Yellow Spring Road?"
His words suddenly reminded me: "No wonder I found eleven little animals when I was saving Yan Lin's soul. So one of them was him?"
"You... you actually tricked me into bringing you out. What's your purpose?"
"I just stayed in the Yellow Spring for too long, so I wanted to come out and have a look. I also wanted to find you by the way."
Before our conversation ended, I felt the lake water rippling slightly and the leaves rustling. The wind was blowing.
Bai Qi's originally warm expression became extremely serious. He said coldly, "It really is a persistent ghost."
As soon as he said this, I seemed to feel a cold wind blowing around me. It seemed that something not to be trifled with had come.