Chapter 204: Leave It to Me
“Grandpa! I’m back!”
Li Mu called out loudly as she stepped into her grandpa’s small courtyard.
She waited a moment, but the only reply she got was the quacking from the duck pen. Her grandpa didn’t answer.
Yu Fan followed behind her, looking curiously at the somewhat run-down courtyard. “Your grandpa doesn’t lock the door when he goes out?”
“There’s nothing worth stealing,” Li Mu said as she looked around. She noticed the electric scooter that was usually parked in the corner was gone, so her grandpa must have gone out.
She had prepared for this visit for a while, but now her grandpa wasn’t home.
She pouted, adjusted the wig on her head, and turned to Yu Fan. “Is my wig messed up?”
“It’s fine. Looks stable. Just don’t move it too much.”
Li Mu nodded, then walked into the house like she knew the place well. She found some snacks and drinks that other relatives had brought for her grandpa, tucked away in the corner under the TV stand.
She grabbed some snacks and sat down comfortably in a wooden chair. Then she called out to Yu Fan, “Come watch some TV. He should be back soon.”
Usually, if her grandpa went out on the scooter, it was just to the nearby market and he’d be back in around 30 minutes. But if he went out walking, he was probably playing mahjong at the small shop nearby. If that’s the case, he wouldn’t be back until dinner.
Yu Fan sat down on a low stool next to Li Mu and looked at the old TV that must’ve been used for many years.
“Your grandpa seems like a nice guy?”
“Yeah, just a bit stubborn,” Li Mu said as she cracked sunflower seeds and drank a bottle of milk. Then she turned to ask Yu Fan, “What about your grandpa? Uncle Chen Yi said he used to be really impressive.”
“No idea,” Yu Fan shook his head.
When he was little, there were talks about him being the family heir, so he knew a bit back then. But now, he mostly just hears weird stories and ghost tales from his grandpa.
Not long after, there was a noise outside.
They thought it was her grandpa returning, but it turned out to be Zhang Hui.
“I thought you weren’t coming back?” Zhang Hui looked surprised. “Did you cut your hair?”
The sudden change in hairstyle caught him off guard.
“Yeah.”
Li Mu didn’t bother explaining that it was a wig. She also wanted to test if it could fool people.
“Looks good.”
Zhang Hui found a spot to sit down, grabbed some sunflower seeds, crossed his legs, and started playing on his phone in a casual, lazy way.
“Um... where’s Xiao Jing?”
He looked around nervously, afraid that Xiao Jing would jump out and scare him again.
Even though he and Chen Yi had already run into quite a few ghosts and even some dangerous ones, the one that scared him the most was still Xiao Jing, with her cousin’s face.
“She didn’t come.”
“Oh, good.”
He let out a sigh of relief. Xiao Jing really spooked him.
What kind of ghost just casually loses its head?!
The room gradually quieted down, with only the sound of the TV playing in the background.
Zhang Hui and Li Mu used to be close as kids, but they weren’t that close anymore. Now, they didn’t know what to talk about.
So Zhang Hui turned to Yu Fan, who was sitting a bit further away and looking a little shy, and started chatting.
They mostly talked about ghosts, funny or strange stories from the past few weeks.
Like the time they got a call about a haunted house in the countryside, only to find out it was just the neighbor’s kid causing trouble late at night because he couldn’t sleep.
Or the time he met a really beautiful female ghost. If she hadn’t grabbed him by the neck and slammed him against the wall, he might have started thinking about having a romance with a ghost.
Yu Fan listened carefully, occasionally adding comments. In the past month, Zhang Hui hadn’t actually run into many ghosts. Just three in total, and two of them still had their minds and were aware of what was happening.
“That's really nice,” Yu Fan sighed softly.
“What’s nice about it? Didn’t you hear he almost died?” Li Mu interrupted, clearly not pleased.
“Yeah, that’s true.”
Even though he said that, there was still a bit of excitement in Yu Fan’s eyes. Ever since he was little, growing up with his grandpa, he had a strong interest in strange stories and ghost tales. He also had a curious and adventurous personality, which made him want to call Chen Yi and ask to join them next time.
But when he looked at Li Mu again, that excitement slowly faded.
As the conversation paused, her grandpa came back at just the right moment.
The thin old man noticed Li Mu as soon as he stepped into the house. His serious face immediately lit up with a smile. “You’re back?”
“Yeah.” Li Mu stood up and walked over, glancing at the bag in his hand. “What’s for dinner?”
Yu Fan noticed that the cold look on her face had disappeared again.
“If you had told me you were coming, I would’ve bought more food,” her grandpa said while putting the bag on the small table. He then complained, “Why haven’t you come back to get your allowance? It’s been months!”
“It's only been a month.” Li Mu sounded a little guilty. She had already forgotten when she last visited him.
“Do you have enough money for daily life?”
“Yeah, I’ve got enough to eat and drink.”
“You’re almost taking the college entrance exams. Why are you still working part-time? It’s not like I can’t support you,” her grandpa mumbled. Then he looked at Yu Fan. “And this is…?”
“My classmate.”
“He’s the one who helped me find my job.”
Li Mu and Zhang Hui said at the same time.
Her grandpa looked at Yu Fan with surprise, then welcomed him warmly. “Why don’t you stay for dinner tonight?”
“Sure.”
Yu Fan became more careful, subtly moving a bit farther from Li Mu, worried her grandpa might notice something about their relationship.
Even though he didn’t mind telling people about their feelings, it was clear that Li Mu’s grandpa would care a lot.
He gave Li Mu a look.
Come on, you’re already living as a girl. You even changed your ID. Shouldn’t you explain things to your grandpa by now?
But Li Mu didn’t understand the look. She was more worried her grandpa might notice something weird about her wig.
Thankfully, her grandpa wasn’t wearing his reading glasses, so he probably couldn’t even see her face clearly.
It was obvious that her visit made him very happy. His wrinkled face looked like a blooming flower. He called to Zhang Hui while walking to the kitchen next door. “You stopped studying after high school, but look at your cousin, he’s going to college.”
“Come on, help me pick the vegetables.”
Zhang Hui looked innocent. “Isn’t she just going to a vocational college?”
“Vocational college is still good. Look at you, you make two or three thousand a month. How far does that get you?”
And with that, her grandpa dragged him out of the room.
“Your cousin probably didn’t dare tell him he actually makes more than that,” Yu Fan said, finally letting out a sigh of relief. “Where’s your grandma? I haven’t seen her.”
“My grandma passed away a long time ago.” Li Mu adjusted the wig again. She still felt like it wasn’t sitting right.
“And now that you're living as a girl…”
Her calm smile faded instantly. She shook her head, looking a little gloomy. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
She didn’t know how she would deal with it later, so she chose to avoid it for now.
“I guess… just wear a wig every time you visit?”
“What about in summer?”
“Then don’t come in summer.” She frowned and shook her head in frustration. “Don’t talk about this. It’s annoying.”
At this moment, Li Mu looked very uneasy. Her face was still expressionless, but her nervousness was written all over her.
Yu Fan was quiet for a few seconds, then gently placed his hand on her shoulder.
She jumped in surprise and quickly looked around. Luckily, her grandpa and cousin hadn’t come back in yet.
“Don’t touch me like that here…”
“How about this? I’ll talk to your grandpa. You can leave after dinner.”
“If things don’t go well, just stay away for a while. You’ll have to face it sooner or later, right?”
She glanced at Yu Fan with hesitation, but the confident and gentle smile on her boyfriend's face reassured her.
“Don’t worry. Leave it to me.”