C13 Chapter 13

They were glued to each other all day, telling each other everything. I don’t really get the world of women, but in their words, it was “can’t believe we didn’t meet sooner.”

And this weird development also meant something else—something unfortunate.

It meant I had to deal with two crazy women at once.

Liang Jing really seemed to think I was her personal errand boy. Any time she felt like it, she’d call me over just to chew me out. Still, hanging around them meant I could mooch meals, so honestly, I didn’t mind.

But the stuff these two talked about all day sometimes gave even me—the heir to a ghost-eater—goosebumps. And sure enough, here they go again.

Liang Jing: “Ningning, did you hear? There’s a black cat on campus that got possessed!”

Mo Ningning: (nodding like her life depended on it) “Of course! They say it was an old lady—her grandson abandoned her on the street, she froze to death, and her spirit latched onto a cat so she can hunt him down for revenge.”

Me: “We’re eating! Can you college students talk about something positive for once?”

Ignored by both of them, without mercy...

Wow. The world is so cold. I can’t feel any warmth. Just bury me.

While they were going back and forth, totally fired up, the guy from a couple sitting nearby suddenly stood up and shouted at Mo Ningning and Liang Jing, “Are you two seriously this bored? If you don’t know what you’re talking about, maybe don’t make stuff up!”

Mo Ningning’s expression turned icy on the spot. In a voice just as cold, she said, “Say that again.”

The moment the guy realized it was Mo Ningning, his face changed. He snorted, turned around, and walked off.

After he left, Liang Jing suddenly clapped her hands. “Ningning, you’re a total badass! How do you do that—going full ice-queen in one second? That was legendary!”

Mo Ningning smugly brushed her bangs. “Born with it.”

Me: “...”

“You got a problem?”

I set down the chicken wing I’d been chewing on and nodded toward the table next to us. “Did you notice that girl’s crying?” I meant the girlfriend from that couple we’d just seen.

“Seriously? Guys these days are trash,” Liang Jing snapped. “He makes his girlfriend cry, then yells at strangers, then just walks off like nothing happened. What a piece of garbage!”

Mo Ningning was even more blunt. She marched right over, slammed her palm on the table, and said, “Why waste tears on a guy like that? I’ll set you up with someone better. Wu Xiaogang! Get over here—show this girl what a real man looks like, the kind who’ll bend over backward for you!”

I wanted to cry. Where did the icy, untouchable Mo Ningning I first met go?

The girl heard that and somehow started crying even harder.

Mo Ningning froze, suddenly at a loss, and shot Liang Jing a desperate look for help.

Yeah, right, I thought. Like Liang Jing was the comforting type.

Sure enough, with those two “helping,” the girl cried for over an hour. In the end, she probably just wore herself out and finally stopped. Then Liang Jing and Mo Ningning switched into full gossip mode. Under their combined interrogation, the girl finally explained what happened.

Her name was Jiang Yu. The guy’s name was Ge Li. They really were a couple. It was her birthday, and he gave her a jade pendant—then told her he wanted to break up. She didn’t understand and begged him through tears, but he wouldn’t budge. Finally, he slammed the table, and that was the scene I’d witnessed.

Liang Jing and Mo Ningning were both teary-eyed by the end, cursing him out for being a total jerk.

But my eyes stayed on the pendant around the girl’s neck. It was a protective charm—blessed, and powerful, too. Worth a fortune.

A guy gives his girlfriend an incredibly valuable protective charm right before dumping her. That only meant one thing: he was in trouble. He didn’t want to drag her into it.

Suddenly, what Liang Jing and Mo Ningning had been saying earlier flashed back in my mind, and a bad feeling twisted in my gut. Unless…

I glanced out the window—it was already dark.

“Crap!” I shouted.

All three of them stared at me, stunned. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

I didn’t have time for that. I rushed to ask Liang Jing, “Where’s the easiest place on campus for someone to kill themselves?”

Liang Jing’s eyes went wide. “What? Since when is that your thing?”

I snapped, “Cut it out! This is life or death—tell me, now!”

“Uh…” Liang Jing paused to think. “It’s not like I’ve ever tried it. I can’t just pull an answer out of nowhere.”

Beside her, Mo Ningning suddenly muttered, “If I wanted to make a scene, I’d jump in the lake—someone would definitely find me. If I wanted to do it quietly, I’d go to the basement and slit my wrists—no one would find me.”

After hearing that, I repeated to myself, “The lake, the lake, the lake…” and bolted out the door.

Behind me, Liang Jing and Mo Ningning called out, confused, “What’s going on?”

What they didn’t know was that Jiang Yu took off after me the moment I ran out.

When I reached the lake, sure enough, Ge Li was there.

“You’re really going through with this? Trading your life for hers?” I shouted.

Ge Li turned back, puzzled. “Who are you?”

“Who I am doesn’t matter,” I said flatly. “What matters is you’ve got this all wrong. If you don’t actually fix what happened and you just disappear, how do you know that’s what’s best for her?”