Chapter 154: Li Mu Is Here
"This kid’s too timid. Otherwise, he could’ve been promising."
Chen Yi sipped some white liquor and kept teasing. "A grown man being more scared than his little cousin… shameful."
"Li Mu is different. She’s special," Yu Fan replied seriously. "She’s not like other girls."
"Right, if she wasn’t special, you wouldn’t like her."
Yu Fan wasn’t happy with that and shot back. "Well, you like a ghost!"
"What can I say? She’s pretty," Chen Yi said calmly. "Just a bit too intense, I can’t handle her."
"......"
Forget it, I’m still a virgin. I can’t out-talk a middle-aged man when it comes to dirty jokes.
Yu Fan had no comeback. Xiao Jing, who was playing with a doll nearby, looked at them curiously and asked, "What are you two talking about?"
"Nothing. Go play." He gently pushed Xiao Jing’s face back to her toy.
After lunch, the two guys and one ghost sent Zhang Hui back to the hotel.
Chen Yi started prepping the equipment for the night, kerosene lanterns, homemade torches, and a huge stash of candles, all brought to the hotel room. Meanwhile, Yu Fan gave in to Xiao Jing’s constant whining and took her out for a walk in town.
To be honest, shopping with a girl is one of the most boring things ever, even if she’s just a little girl. But Li Mu was different.
Yu Fan followed behind Xiao Jing, watching her run around while he munched on some street snacks, still hungry from lunch.
It had been half a day since he last saw Li Mu.
Feeling a bit bored, Li Mu’s face popped up in his mind again.
"The snacks around here taste pretty good. Li Mu would probably like them too," he mumbled to himself. "Last time we came here, we didn’t even get to explore properly, just had some grilled meat."
"Brother Yu Fan!"
"What is it?"
"I want milk tea!" Xiao Jing hadn’t eaten for years, so now that she had the chance, she just wanted to stuff herself.
Yu Fan sighed and patted her head. "I’ll get you the most expensive milk tea."
"Yay!"
"But you better say good things about me in front of Li Mu," he added, a bit bitter. "I’ve already spent over a hundred today, and most of it’s because of you."
Since Chen Yi had assumed Xiao Jing was Yu Fan’s little sister-in-law, the job of paying for everything fell on Yu Fan.
Xiao Jing pouted. "I always say good things about you in front of her!"
Though she had definitely said she wanted a different “brother-in-law” last time...
So what if he’s broke? All students are broke unless they’re rich kids.
Yu Fan honestly bought her the milk tea and sighed deeply. His allowance for the month was almost gone.
He had wanted to save some money to treat Li Mu to a nice meal next time. Not like yesterday, where they had to awkwardly split the bill.
Yu Fan leaned against the wall beside the milk tea shop, watching Xiao Jing sip her drink happily, while his heart ached from all the spending.
But just as he was feeling that pain, he suddenly looked up without thinking.
The bus pulled up to the stop, and a rush of passengers exited from the back. Finally, a tall and graceful figure slowly stepped down.
"Li Mu?"
He looked around, then took out his phone and prepared to make a call.
"Sister!" Xiao Jing suddenly shouted, running off with her milk tea in hand.
Li Mu looked up when he heard the voice. His eyes met Yu Fan’s, and for a moment, that usually cold face showed a soft, gentle smile.
"Li Mu really looks beautiful when she smiles," Yu Fan felt his heart skip as he quickly walked over to Li Mu.
"Sister! What are you doing here?" Xiao Jing handed Li Mu an untouched fried sausage, full of excitement. "Did you come to hunt ghosts too?"
Li Mu mumbled weakly, “Call me ‘brother’.”
When he saw Yu Fan walking over, he quickly said, “I was just worried about Xiao Jing.”
“Got it.” Yu Fan gave him a bright and cheerful smile. “Have you had lunch yet? Want me to take you to eat something?”
That same smile used to look so annoying and teasing… but now, it made Li Mu’s heart beat just a little faster.
He nodded calmly, then looked over at Xiao Jing. “Nothing happened this morning, right?”
“I saw that big dummy again!”
“???”
Yu Fan quickly explained, “Your cousin happened to go pray for safety at Granny Zhou’s place, and we ran into him again.”
“Later, we went back to the hotel to rest, and it just so happened that he was staying on the same floor. When he saw Xiao Jing, he got so scared!”
“Then Uncle Chen Yi said that since he always runs into ghosts so easily, maybe he has a talent for dealing with ghosts. He wanted to explain things to him, in case he keeps getting scared and ends up with real mental problems.”
At that point, Yu Fan paused and looked at Li Mu to check her reaction.
Li Mu just nodded in agreement. “Makes sense.”
Rather than letting Zhang Hui keep running into ghosts and scaring himself half to death, it would be better to explain what’s going on. Once someone understands a bit about ghosts, they’re less scared, because they’re not afraid of the unknown anymore.
“Then right when we told him Xiao Jing is a ghost, he fainted.”
“......”
Let’s just pretend that cousin doesn’t exist.
Li Mu awkwardly changed the topic and pointed at a nearby restaurant. “How about we eat there?”
“Sure, my treat.”
Holding Xiao Jing’s hand, Li Mu followed Yu Fan into the restaurant. As they ate lunch, they talked about ghost-related stuff.
Having gained a rough idea, he brought Liu Shenglong into the conversation.
“Liu Shenglong’s been pretty calm lately. I saw him sitting on the school field this morning.”
He remembered how Liu Shenglong just sat there alone doing nothing and sighed. “If we can help him, we should, right?”
Li Mu never had much prejudice against harmless ghosts.
“Yeah,” Yu Fan answered with a smile, resting his cheek on one hand. No matter what they were talking about, his eyes kept drifting back to Li Mu’s face.
Li Mu lowered his head and focused on his food, trying to ignore the staring. But his heart kept beating faster, and he could feel his face getting warm from that intense gaze.
Not wanting to make a fool of himself, he frowned and asked, “Is there something on my face?”
“No.”
“Then why are you staring at me?”
"Am I not allowed to admire something pretty?" Yu Fan said with a smirk.
Li Mu was speechless. He just muttered, “You’re not allowed to look...”
“Sister’s getting shy!” Xiao Jing shouted without hesitation.
Li Mu immediately smacked her on the head.
But he used a bit too much force. Her head tilted to the side at a full 90 degrees with a thud. That scared Li Mu so much he quickly reached out and straightened her up, nervously looking around.
Luckily, no one saw.
A little girl tilting her head might look cute, but tilting it 90 degrees? That’s just creepy.
At that point, Li Mu gave up on arguing. Afraid of causing more trouble, he just silently continued eating while ignoring Yu Fan’s gaze.
“By the way, did you get permission to leave school?”
“Yang Ye wouldn’t let me, so I just left on my own.”
“You’re turning bad, huh.”
Yeah… he used to be too scared to even sneak out at night, but now he was skipping school like it was nothing.
He jokingly blamed it on someone else. “Yang Ye said you're the one who led me astray.”