Chapter Ninety-six

  Xia Yunyun felt an unprecedented threat, and that night she couldn't sleep on the bed, tossing and turning. After a half-night of listlessness, she went to the balcony to get some fresh air. Just as she was dozing off, a gentle voice sounded, "Yunyun? Is that you?"

  Xia Yunyun stood up, "It's me, I couldn't sleep, came out for some fresh air".

  Song Zhiyuan held a cup of water and sat across from her, "What's wrong, got something on your mind?"

  "It's nothing."

  It's like this, it's impossible for others to pretend they haven't noticed.

  "What happened?"

  Xia Yunyun thought for a moment, then recounted the whole thing from start to finish, her mind in disarray. "I had always thought that Yu Cai was Qi Shiyu's older cousin, but now that I think about it, looking at Uncle Qi's expression when he looks at her, it seems more like he's looking at his daughter-in-law..."

  Song Zhiyuan pondered, "Yun Yun, actually I've always wanted to ask, what do you like about Qi Shi? Is it his looks, his family background or the fact that he ignores you?"

  Xia Yunyun was stunned and remained silent for a long time. Song Zhiyuan didn't rush to speak either, slowly sipping his water instead.

  "Brother——" Xia Yunyun's voice was already choked with sobs, "I don't know either, sometimes I also ask myself what I like about him, but, but——"

  Song Zhiyuan patted her shoulder, "Think carefully, Qi Xizhen is a cold and indifferent person who is not good with words. Such people are difficult to get along with, even if you really get married, it's not necessarily going to be happy."

  "But he's very good to Yucai," Xia Yunyun choked back a sob, recounting the chocolate incident that day. "At first, I thought she was his cousin, so it was natural for him to be nice to her. But now, Yucai knows him later than I do, doesn't care about him like I do, and isn't as pretty as me... why?"

  "Yu Yu, just like you said, she's not as pretty as you, nor does she care about him as much as you do, and yet he's always late for her, but why does he care for and pamper her instead of neglecting you?"

  "I don't know, I really don't know——"

  Song Zhiyuan sighed, "That Yu Cai, I've only met her twice, and I know she's not simple. Just based on what she said that day, for the sake of a boy's liking to learn taekwondo, can you do it?"

  I can!

  Song Zhiyuan looked at her warmly, with a hint of sadness, "No, you can't do it. She could ignore the face of her family and chase after that boy for a year without getting tired, and even if she failed, she wouldn't feel embarrassed to talk about it with others. But you haven't even said 'I like him' once. Qi Xizhe is also learning, and he's progressing very quickly, which means he's very interested in that. If you could do it, you should have gone to learn it a long time ago, instead of going to learn Latin dance."

  "But Mom said it's not like a girl to learn that at home—"

  "It has nothing to do with your mom, it's you. You think girls learning taekwondo is rough and not elegant, so you're not willing to learn it diligently."

  Xia Yunyun was stunned and muttered, "I don't need to, I don't need to, he likes what I will go learn what".

  Song Zhiyuan smiled tolerantly, "That Zhang Xiao, keep a distance from her."

  "Ah——"

  "Isn't it obvious she's provoking you, can't you tell?"

  "Ah——"

  Song Zhiyuan stood up, "I can only give you one piece of advice, no matter what you think, never provoke Yu Cai, and don't show your disgust."

  At the same time Song Zhiyuan was patiently advising his sister, Yu Cai was tossing and turning on her soft princess bed, unable to fall asleep. After flipping over for half a day, she finally got out of bed quietly with bare feet, and after drinking half a cup of cold water, her slightly aching head felt a bit better. Yu Cai began to think: could it be that because she spent too much time at the Qi's house in recent years, she didn't have time to communicate emotionally with her father, which led to her having strange feelings towards Qi Shu Fan, who was half friend and half father figure?

  Of course, Yu Xiaojie didn't have a good life like Shaomei. She had an older brother who was thoughtful and kind to guide her. All she could do was stare blankly at the huge floor-to-ceiling window of the Qi's house. Usually, staring blankly into the night would end with falling asleep unknowingly, and Yu Cai was no exception. Of course, considering the Qi's sofa was soft and wide enough, sleeping on it wasn't much different from sleeping in bed.

  The hazy light of dawn was refracted through the floor-to-ceiling windows and cast into the living room, where Yu Cai slowly opened her eyes. The first thing she saw was a white dress paired with a black hair floating in front of the Qi family's door. Yu Cai could even imagine that if it turned around, it would reveal a face without any facial features. The strong-willed Miss Yu let out the most ear-piercing scream in history, tumbling off the sofa and hitting her head hard on the corner of the coffee table, followed by another earth-shattering wail.

  The commotion was too loud, even a pig would wake up. The first one to rush out was Auntie who slept downstairs. Due to her age, she wasn't very fast and was actually overtaken by Qi Shu Fan. In just a few strides, he rushed to Yu Cai's side, who had curled up into a ball, picked her up and asked, "Xiao Cai, Xiao Cai, what's wrong?"

  Yu Cai's hands grasped his neck tightly, her body shaking violently, "Ghost——"

  If it were usual, he might have even teased her about her nonsense, but now, all he saw was the blood all over her head and hands. "Xiao Cai, don't be afraid, I'll take you to the hospital right away, don't be afraid."

  "There's a ghost, there's a ghost..." Yu Cai wept without making a sound, half of it was out of fright, the other half was out of pain. Alright, this kid is also quite unfortunate.

  "Qī shū doesn't know where the ghost language comes from, but his mind is clearly not on that. 'Release it, quickly, take my bag and send Xiao Cai to the hospital. Auntie, just wait at home.'"

  Considering Chi Shu Fan's anxious mood, when the car drove out of the courtyard gate, he didn't notice that there was one more person at the entrance of the courtyard and one more car. Another clear-headed person was busy checking Yu Cai's injuries, and also had to hold him tightly, in case someone who was trembling with fear would roll out of his arms, so it was natural that he didn't discover anything.

  Yu Cai had always claimed to have seen a ghost, but when asked about it again, she couldn't say anything coherent. Qi Shu Fan was at his wit's end and could only ask the doctor to add some tranquilizers to her medicine. Under the effect of the medication, Yu Cai soon fell asleep. Qi Shu Fan gently wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes, which still showed signs of crying. "Zhi, do you know what happened?"

  He furrowed his brow and shook his head. He was even later than him, how could he have known what had happened?

  "You go back and change your clothes first, then ask Auntie to help Xiaocai bring some clothes over, my phone is on the table in the room, can you bring it over for me?"

  Ji Shizhi had just entered the house when he saw Xia Yunyun sitting anxiously on the sofa, and upon seeing him, she stood up, "Ji Shizhi".

  Ji Shi didn't have the heart to reason with her, nodded and went straight upstairs, changed into pajamas, helped Ji Shu Fan and Yu Cai each take a set of clothes, and also took Ji Shu Fan's phone. However, when he saw the unreturned call from Xia Yunyun on his own phone at 4:50, his brow furrowed.

  Xia Yunyun saw Qi Xizhi preparing to leave as if he hadn't seen her, and she couldn't help but step forward and block his way. "Qi Xizhi, I've been waiting for you for a very long time..."

  Ji Shi saw her wearing a white dress and narrowed his eyes, "When did you arrive?"

  Xia Yunyin looked embarrassed, "I arrived at four something and have been standing outside your house door without daring to disturb your sleep..."

  "Excuse me," he interrupted her, "I have something else."

  Xia Yunyun felt even more wronged, after talking to Song Zhiyuan last night, she really couldn't sit or lie down, when the sky was slightly lit up, she drove her stepfather's car to the Qi family gate, but when she arrived at the gate, she suddenly lost her nerve and didn't know how to speak, "Qi Shizhi, I——"

  Qī Shì gave her a cold glance, "Trying to scare people early in the morning, very amusing?"

  It seems that Ji Da Shao is indeed living up to Yu Zai's prophecy, becoming more and more poisonous-tongued.

  Xia Yunyun was stunned, and on the other side, Qi Shi had already left without a trace.

  When Ji Shi arrived at the hospital, Yu Cai was still not awake. Ji Shu Fan leaned against the chair by the bed with his eyes closed, resting his mind. When he heard a noise, he opened his eyes and smiled slightly.

  "Is Xia Yunyun."

  "Ah——"

  "Xia Yunyun was wearing a white dress and turning around at the door early in the morning, Yucai probably didn't see clearly."

  Qishu suddenly fell silent for a moment, rubbed her eyebrows with her hand, and said, "This girl, how can she be so timid?"

  Qizhi moved a chair and sat down, Qishu took the clothes into the bathroom to change, after changing, he went out to buy breakfast and put it on the table. "Zhi, Xiaocai will probably sleep for a while longer, I'll go to work first and come back at noon."

  Qishu nodded, Qishu Fan stretched out his hand to touch Yu Cai's pale face, but unexpectedly Yu Cai suddenly became restless and started twisting around, her head shaking left and right, her hands unconsciously grasping the bed sheet tightly. Qishu Fan held one of her hands with one of his own, while using the other to pat her face, "Little Cai, Little Cai——"

  Her eyeballs were rolling vigorously and her eyelashes were trembling violently, but there was no sign of opening her eyes.

  "Get her awake."

  "Let him go and call a doctor."

  The doctor came and calmly said, "She should be having a nightmare but can't wake up due to the effect of the medicine, nothing serious."

  "Can't we use medicine to wake him up?"

  "It's better for you not to use it, having a nightmare is still better than taking medicine randomly."

  Qishu Fan just nodded and said, "Thank you."

  The doctor left, and Ji Shi opened her mouth. "You take a half-day off," she woke up to see you should be happy, and more at ease.

  Qibook Fan was taken aback and looked at his own son. Considering that this was the first request his son had made in many years, he agreed to it, no matter how small the problem was.