Chapter 132: Completely Worn Out
Li Mu didn’t have the energy to think about why a man would like him.
The next day, he and Yu Fan walked around the town again. They went to every place they could think of. In the end, they were just wandering aimlessly through the streets.
The worry they felt at first slowly faded as they got more and more tired. When they were both completely worn out, Li Mu gave up and sat down on a bench by the road.
When a ghost really wants to hide, there’s no way to find it.
Li Mu hung his head, but from time to time he looked up at the people walking by, hoping to see a glimpse of Xiao Jing.
But the truth was, Xiao Jing had always presented himself in the form of others. At this point, Li Mu couldn’t even clearly remember what she had looked like when she was alive.
Yu Fan sat hesitantly beside Li Mu. Ever since Li Mu exposed him again last night, he felt a bit awkward about how to face him.
All day, he had helped search seriously and carefully, but he had barely said a word to Li Mu.
“Let’s go home,” Li Mu said, lifting his head.
“Okay. Let’s get on the scooter.”
“Let’s walk.” Li Mu still hoped they might run into Xiao Jing on the way home.
Yu Fan understood what Li Mu was thinking, so he nodded and walked beside him, pushing the electric scooter.
Li Mu was even quieter than usual. His eyes kept scanning the people walking by, often stopping on families with kids or groups of middle school students.
Yu Fan, on the other hand, was mostly focused on Li Mu’s side profile. Since they were walking close together, he could faintly smell the orchid-like scent on Li Mu’s body.
It would take at least one or two hours to walk home from here.
But Yu Fan didn’t feel annoyed. In fact, the longer they walked, the calmer he felt inside.
As he looked at Li Mu more and more, he noticed something. Without even realizing it, Li Mu’s posture and movements had become more feminine.
Maybe it was his body changing, but Li Mu now walked with a slight sway in his hips, and the way he moved his arms looked softer and more natural...
In the past, Yu Fan didn’t dare look too long at Li Mu, afraid people would think he was some creepy guy into men. But in this “girl mode,” Li Mu didn’t seem to notice him watching.
Now that his secret was out, Yu Fan just gave up trying to hide it and let himself look freely.
Anyway, Li Mu used to be a man too, so he can probably understand this kind of behavior.
As they passed another street, Li Mu suddenly stopped and looked at a fried skewer shop across the road.
He crossed the street and walked up to the shop’s entrance, leaning forward to peek inside.
The auntie working there noticed her and immediately smiled.
But after a short pause, the auntie looked at Li Mu’s short, boyish haircut, then at his pretty face, and hesitated. Finally, she asked, “Little brother, what would you like to order?”
Yu Fan noticed right away that Li Mu looked a little happier.
“I’m having a look,” Li Mu said, then turned to Yu Fan. “What do you want?”
“Just get me the same as what you’re having,” Yu Fan replied.
It was already afternoon, but they hadn’t eaten all day because they had been running around nonstop.
This shop was one Li Mu used to visit often when he was in elementary and middle school.
Back then, he rode his bike to school every morning and always passed by this place. The smell of fried skewers would tempt him, and he spent almost all of his weekly pocket money, just a few yuan, at this shop.
Even after he finished middle school, whenever he passed by, he would stop for a snack. Back then, the auntie still remembered him and would ask how he was doing.
But now, she couldn’t even tell if she should call him “little brother” or “little girl.”
Li Mu knew his appearance had changed a lot, so he didn’t really care whether the auntie recognized him or not. He just walked into the shop with Yu Fan, who had locked up the electric scooter.
Since this fried skewer shop mainly served students, and it was the weekend, there were only two customers inside, Li Mu and Yu Fan.
Looking at the menu on the wall, Li Mu ordered over ten skewers, then lay down on the table without saying much.
Yesterday, he and Yu Fan had barely slept. They had spent the whole night staring at the TV in silence, waiting for Xiao Jing to come back. At around six in the morning, they went out again to keep looking for her.
Li Mu hadn’t really slept since then.
Yu Fan had more energy than he did. During the National Day holiday, this guy often stayed up all night and didn’t care, since he had a strong body.
After just a few minutes with his head down on the table, Li Mu nearly fell asleep. Luckily, the smell of the skewers the auntie was cooking woke him up.
The auntie liked to talk. As she fried the skewers, she started chatting with Yu Fan. “Did you hear? There was a haunted hotel last night.”
“Haunted?” Yu Fan turned to look at her. “What do you mean?”
“I heard it from a friend. They said in the middle of the night, there was a ghost running around the hotel. The guests couldn’t sleep the whole night.”
“A haunted hotel, huh…” Yu Fan looked at Li Mu.
Li Mu shook his head.
Even though Xiao Jing could be mischievous, she wasn’t the kind to scare people on purpose.
“My friend lives near that hotel. The police came and checked the security cameras. In the end, they said it was just a thief.”
“I knew it,” Yu Fan said with a laugh. “We can’t be superstitious. What’s the name of that hotel?”
“It’s that 711 hotel.”
Yu Fan nodded, clearly interested. “So a lot of people saw the ghost?”
“Yeah. They said the ghost didn’t have a head and was carrying its own head, walking around the hotel. But when the police arrived, it disappeared.”
The auntie didn’t tell the story very well, but she still looked a little scared. “I heard the police took all the video footage and didn’t let anyone else see it. They just said it was a thief.”
“Sounds like a prank,” Li Mu said. He was now even more sure it wasn’t really a ghost.
In fact, ghosts couldn’t be captured on camera, and it was almost impossible for so many people to see one at the same time. Unless all of them had really bad luck and weak bodies.
Yu Fan just treated the story as something interesting. He joined in now and then, and his cheerful attitude made the auntie enjoy the conversation. In the end, they stayed for about half an hour, eating and chatting.
When they left the shop, Yu Fan started his scooter and asked, “Want to check out that hotel?”
There was only one 711 hotel in the area, and it wasn’t far from where they were.
“Forget it, I just want to go home and sleep,” Li Mu said with a yawn.
Yu Fan nodded. “Then let’s ride. You’re so sleepy, no point in walking. Even driving back from here takes twenty minutes.”
But just as he got on the scooter and looked back, he saw Li Mu standing there, frozen.
“What’s wrong?”
“I think I just saw Xiao Jing,” Li Mu said, frowning and rubbing his eyes.
“For real?” Yu Fan quickly looked toward the crowd.
Not far away, at a crosswalk, a large group of people was walking across the street. There were so many people packed together that they couldn’t clearly see anyone’s face.
Li Mu quickly ran forward, but just as he got close, the traffic light turned red. Cars began rushing by, blocking him at the side of the road. He could only stand there and watch as the crowd slowly scattered and disappeared.