novelraw Chapter 167: Scared to Death
Chapter 167: Scared to Death
After a long break, Qian returned to the dorm and found Dong Yi already reading a book.
"When did you get back?" Qian put down her luggage.
"I’ve been here all along." Dong Yi was reading a newspaper and jotting down numbers. Half of the page was filled with tutoring job ads.
"Didn’t go home?"
"Nope." Dong Yi finished noting the numbers and was about to leave when Qian stopped her.
"Use my phone card to call." She noticed Dong Yi was copying numbers, probably to use a public phone outside to inquire about tutoring jobs.
"No need."
Qian didn’t insist. Dong Yi was the type who wouldn’t take advantage of anyone, not even a cent. She was meticulous about accounts and refused any food given to her.
Looking at the opposite bed, Shi Touyu’s suitcase was on it, indicating she had returned too.
She was probably off chatting in some other dorm.
As expected, a few minutes later, Shi Touyu returned, and upon seeing Qian, she exclaimed loudly and lunged at her, "Qian, I’ve missed you so much!"
Qian nodded, "I brought some specialties from my hometown. I’ll share a bag with you."
"Hurry, give it to me!" Not hesitant at all, Shi Touyu accepted it with a smile as Qian took out the gifts Jia Xiufang had asked her to bring for her roommates.
"Wait, I have a gift for you too."
She rummaged through her suitcase and found a skincare set for Qian, "I bought three sets, wanted to give one to Dong Yi, but she won’t accept it. I might as well give it to Xu Ruxin."
Xu Ruxin was the naive one who frequently mooched off Shi Touyu’s stuff.
"Shi Touyu, your family must be burning money, giving things to everyone?" Qian recognized the brand as an imported one. Shi Touyu didn’t consider these items special, but to others, they were luxuries.
"What can I do? Dong Yi definitely won’t take it!" Before, she had offered Dong Yi fruit, which she also refused.
"Silly, if you can’t give things, just leave it be. Watch me later." Qian understood that Dong Yi’s circumstances were challenging, so she was careful about accepting things from others.
Someone knocked on the door, and Shi Touyu went to open it—it was Xu Ruxin.
"Xiaoyu, I found it. It wasn’t easy to find."
Qian looked up, seeing Xu Ruxin handing Shi Touyu a schoolbag-sized piece of red cloth and a string of garlic. Shi Touyu nodded, "Thank you."
"So what was the gift you were going to give me?" Xu Ruxin’s eyes lit up at the cosmetics on the table.
She was used to receiving gifts from Shi Touyu, but Shi Touyu was a bit troubled. Qian had told her not to give them away, so she had nothing else.
Qian tossed the discount fish fillets her mischievous brother had bought with his first month’s salary to Shi Touyu, "Give this."
"Right, Q City specialty, tasty and affordable!" Shi Touyu nodded.
Xu Ruxin was a bit disappointed, "Just this..."
She thought Shi Touyu would give her something special, "I spent quite a bit on the garlic."
"How much, I—" Shi Touyu hadn’t yet said she would compensate her when Qian interrupted.
"You use her phone card all the time, eat her food. Why don’t you mention that?"
"What’s the point of counting everything among friends, hehe... Xiaoyu, I have to go." Xu Ruxin slipped away.
Once she left, Qian glared at Shi Touyu.
"Don’t bring just anyone to the dorm next time, it’s irritating!"
Only Shi Touyu would consider someone who only takes without giving as a friend.
"She’s just a bit petty, it’s no big deal." Shi Touyu hadn’t realized the seriousness of the issue. She used her teeth to bite the red cloth, making a few small holes, then ripped it into three strips.
"What are you doing with this?"
Shi Touyu handed one of the torn strips to Qian, looking around nervously and whispering.
"Qian, let me tell you a secret... Our dormitory is haunted!"
Qian was drinking water and almost choked from her dramatics.
"What?"
"Haunted!" Shi Touyu said while tying the red strip to the head of Qian’s bed, speaking with urgency.
"As soon as I came back, I heard it spreading. Didn’t we have a holiday? Then there was a senior who stayed here to work, didn’t go home. One night, she woke up and saw a white figure floating around... Oh my God, it scared me to death!"
Qian wasn’t terrified by her story, but rather startled by her sudden increase in volume.
"Shi Touyu, you barely got into university with extra points for art, but no matter how you made it, you’re still a college student. How can you be so superstitious?"
"How is it superstitious! The senior saw it! Along with some others, they checked upstairs and found no one. It’s terrifying!"
"Maybe someone went upstairs at night to get some air. If the senior looked and then walked over, there could be a time delay. Maybe by then, the person had coincidentally left. Why bother with this spooky stuff?"
Qian reached to untie the red cloth, but Shi Touyu slapped her hand away.
"Better safe than sorry! Don’t untie it. I asked my mom, and under such circumstances, everyone should tie a red cloth so that thing won’t dare come near our dorm!"
"Then what’s with the string of garlic!"
"Combination of Eastern and Western superstition, just in case it’s a Western spirit? I’ll hang this on our dorm door so no one dares come near!"
"You’ll be waiting for the dorm supervisor to knock, then." Hanging such stuff will only attract them to check, Shi Touyu really knew how to stir things up.
"Can’t care about that now, let’s hang it first! It’s so scary~"
Qian looked at Dong Yi’s empty bed, lost in thought.
In a past life, it was said that Dong Yi became a vengeful spirit after dying in this dorm building, but now Dong Yi was alive and well. How could there be such rumors?
She didn’t believe in ghosts or gods. Qian was very strong-minded and not afraid of such things. She didn’t trust Shi Touyu’s white figure story either; it had to be a student’s mistake.
She peeled off the labels from the cosmetics and casually asked Shi Touyu.
"Can your family bring stuff from abroad?"
"Uh, are you looking to buy something?"
"I want a few bottles of pure plant essential oil from Country F. Price is negotiable, but I want the good stuff." Qian had long wanted to buy these. During hypnosis, she used essential oils tailored to different physiques.
At this time, you couldn’t get anything too pure domestically.
"Sure, write down what you need."
Qian wrote down her needs and thought for a moment, adding one more item.
"Also want this brand’s men’s lotion and aftershave."
Yu Minglang’s skin was dry, and he didn’t like to use scented skincare products. The men’s products she bought for him in the past were unscented imports, and now they could only be brought from abroad as there were no stores in the country yet.
Shi Touyu glanced over it, "Qian, you know your stuff. I bought this for my brother, and it’s so pricey! He uses it like a regular cream, has no clue!"
"Money’s not an issue, just tell me the total, and I’ll pay you together."
For something to be used by Yu Minglang, she never bought anything inferior. It was the same in her past life, and it remained so in this one.