Chapter 201: A Visit
Early the next morning.
Li Mu, along with her “family of three,” arrived at Lin Xi’s house.
The wig she ordered hadn’t arrived yet, and she didn’t want to cut her hair, so she came ahead of time to give her New Year’s greetings.
She gently knocked on the door. A moment later, a tired-looking middle-aged woman opened it slightly.
As soon as Aunt Cai saw Li Mu, joy clearly appeared in her eyes.
“Why are you here?”
She opened the door all the way, took out three pairs of slippers from the shoe cabinet, and began chatting nonstop.
“Your Uncle Lin went on another work trip. It’s supposed to be a holiday for New Year’s Day, but he still has to work overtime.”
“Well, he’s supporting the family. There’s no choice.” Li Mu walked in with a smile.
Aunt Cai stared at her smile for a moment, then gently pinched her cheek with a warm expression.
“You should smile more. You look really beautiful when you smile.”
“Mm.”
Then Aunt Cai noticed the little girl following behind them. She already knew Yu Fan, but this was the first time she had seen Xiao Jing.
“This is my little sister,” Li Mu said.
She also noticed that the house was a bit messy. It looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in a while.
“Oh, your little sister? Come on in.”
Aunt Cai quickly started preparing snacks and drinks for them while talking the whole time.
“Ever since Lin Xi left, the house has been so quiet. I stay at home every day with nothing to do. I’m starting to feel sick from the boredom.”
“When Lin Xi was living at school, I still had hope. I would mop the floors and clean everything, just waiting for her to come home to a tidy place. Now I’m always here alone.”
“I’ve been thinking maybe I should get a job. Not to make money, just so I have something to do.”
Soon, she finished cleaning the coffee table and sofa, then heated up three cups of milk for them and sat down beside them.
“Why don’t you stay for lunch?” Aunt Cai smiled, her eyes full of wrinkles from joy, and she kept looking at Li Mu’s face.
Li Mu was going to say no, but seeing Aunt Cai’s happy face, she couldn’t bear to reject her and just nodded instead.
“Is he your boyfriend?” Aunt Cai looked at Yu Fan with a big smile. “I’ve seen him a few times before. You two seem even closer now, huh?”
“Is it that obvious…”
“When you came in just now, he even neatly arranged the shoes you left outside.”
Yu Fan gave a shy, honest smile.
He knew how important Li Mu was to Aunt Cai, and visiting her like this today was almost like meeting the parents.
“Such a handsome young man.” Aunt Cai smiled at him too, then picked up the remote and turned on the living room’s standing heater.
“The weather’s been changing a lot lately. Cold one day, warm the next. Make sure to wear enough layers and wear a mask when going out. There’s a lot of flu going around right now. Don’t get sick.”
“Mm, I know.”
When talking to Aunt Cai, Li Mu always had a soft smile on her face, like when she was with Yu Fan. She wasn’t cold and serious like she was at school.
Yu Fan used to think Li Mu’s care for Aunt Cai came from sympathy since Aunt Cai had lost her daughter. But now, it seemed like her feelings ran much deeper.
“Auntie! I want pork ribs for lunch!” Xiao Jing suddenly popped her head out and said.
“Sure.” Aunt Cai nodded with a laugh. “I’ll go buy some groceries in a bit. Do you want any drinks? I can pick some up too.”
Before Li Mu and Yu Fan could shake their heads, Xiao Jing excitedly said, “Cola!”
“It’s cold outside, drink something warm.”
“Then hot milk tea!”
It seemed Aunt Cai liked Xiao Jing too. Or maybe it was just that most people found it hard to dislike cute and cheerful girls like her.
Even though Xiao Jing could be a little annoying sometimes, when it came from a cute girl like her, it was just playful and sweet.
As long as she didn’t show that scary scene where she separated her body.
Aunt Cai had gone out to buy groceries. She felt completely at ease leaving Li Mu and the others at home.
Li Mu was scrolling through TikTok with nothing to do, while Xiao Jing ran around the new place, exploring everything. After a while, she came back over.
“Big sister, a ghost has been here before! It smells kind of like you!”
“Mm.”
Back when Lin Xi died and before she met Li Mu, she had probably come back here. That’s why it made sense for Xiao Jing to sense something familiar.
Li Mu looked up at the photo of Lin Xi above the TV.
The photo had been cleaned so well that it shined, which stood out against the messy and dusty living room.
“That girl Lin Xi hasn’t come out once since she went into your body,” Yu Fan muttered.
“With her personality, she’s probably hiding somewhere just watching all the drama. Hey, Xiao Jing, since you often stay inside Li Mu too, have you seen Lin Xi in there?”
He wasn’t really sure how it worked when ghosts entered Li Mu’s body, whether they all lived together and could talk to each other or something else entirely.
“Yeah, I’ve seen her,” Xiao Jing said, looking up at the photo. “They never talk. They just sleep all the time.”
“It’s already crowded in there, and they don’t even sleep neatly. Every time I go into big sister’s body, I have to move them around first.”
At first, Li Mu didn’t think much of it, but the more she listened, the weirder it sounded. She finally looked at Xiao Jing and asked,
“They?”
“They?” Yu Fan was also confused.
Xiao Jing looked puzzled and didn’t understand why they were reacting so strongly. “Yeah, what’s wrong?”
Seeing the curiosity in their eyes, she explained, “One is the girl in the photo, Lin Xi. The other one, I don’t know who she is, but she looks a lot like sister.”
Li Mu was stunned. She had no idea another ghost had moved into her body.
Wait a minute, wasn’t that basically illegal possession?!
She looked at Yu Fan, and he gave her the same confused look. Neither of them understood what was going on. So she told Xiao Jing, “Next time, ask her who she is and when she got into my body.”
“She’s sleeping…”
“Then ask when she wakes up.”
Li Mu was totally confused now and started thinking hard about which ghosts she had been in contact with.
The ones she had interacted with and had a good relationship with were only Lin Xi, Xiao Jing, and Liu Shenglong. The others couldn’t even talk with her properly.
“Maybe a ghost quietly entered your body but hasn’t tried to control you yet?”
“No idea.”
She shook her head and was about to say something else when Aunt Cai came back, carrying big bags full of groceries.
She was clearly in a great mood today. She bought so much food and looked really happy, like a mom who hadn’t seen her children in years.
“I’m going to cook now. Oh, there’s a computer and tablet in Lin Xi’s room. If you get bored, you can play with them.”
“Here’s the hot milk tea the little girl wanted, one cup for each of you.”
“And I also bought a few burgers, just in case you get hungry before lunch.”
In the eyes of older people, young people like Li Mu usually loved eating burgers and similar fast food.
“Thank you.” Li Mu took what Aunt Cai handed her and stood up. “I’ll help you cook.”
“Me too!” Yu Fan quickly stood up to join in.
Li Mu glanced at him, and he sat back down awkwardly.
“Okay, I’ll stay out of the way then.”