Chapter 23: Funeral It turns out that when people are unlucky enough, they really start to laugh...

"Ah, this is so strange. Don't cats like to talk these days?" Chang Xile stretched. She just complained casually and didn't notice that Anping paused.

"It's cold, so you might not want to move around." Anping tried to defend the cat.

Chang Xile glanced at him, took out his phone and waved it at him: "The temperature today is over 35 degrees, my friend."

"..." Anping was silent for a moment, then changed his words smoothly, "It's hot, so you don't feel like moving around."

"You really are..." Chang Xile stared into his eyes, pointing at him halfheartedly, wanting to complain. But he looked so handsome even when he was talking nonsense with a serious expression. His lake-blue eyes looked at you so tenderly, making it impossible to say anything harsh. Her anger turned to laughter, her poke to a point, and she gently tapped his forehead, saying angrily, "You're using your beauty to commit violence."

This temper reminded her of an old friend.

Chang Xile continued walking, thinking of her "cat senior" from Shancheng University. That blue-eyed, long-haired cat's usual indifference to people was just like Anping's. She smiled again and turned to Anping, saying, "Sometime, I'll introduce you to a friend of mine. I'm sure you'll get along!"

If Anping doesn't speak cat language, she can help translate as an intermediary.

Anping couldn't understand Chang Xile's sudden cheeriness; it made him think his previous remarks were brilliant. He raised his lip and tilted his head slightly to look behind him. In the window of the cat cafe, several white cats lay by the window. Their gazes passed through the endless stream of people, watching someone leave.

When Chang Xile returned to the dormitory, she saw Fang Xinai holding Yang Guisi's hand. Yang Guisi looked disgusted, but did not pull her away.

Fang Xinai had just experienced such a life-or-death experience, and he was in awe of Yang Guisi: "Master Guisi! When are you going to live stream? I want to go and give you gifts!"

Yang Guisi turned his gaze towards Chang Xile: "Actually, the main credit for this matter goes to Xile."

If Chang Xile had not discovered that there was someone behind the wall, she might not have been able to find the source of the starving ghost with her ability.

Fang Xinai bowed to Chang Xile again to express his gratitude, and was frightened and helped to his feet by Chang Xile. After a while, Fang Xinai looked up and asked curiously, "But Xile, how did you know there was someone behind the wall?"

"I had a dream." Chang Xile recounted what happened yesterday after the lights in the Mirror House went out. Yang Guisi raised an eyebrow when he mentioned the reminders given by Yang Guisi and Anping.

"That didn't seem like a dream." Yang Guisi raised his hand to interrupt Chang Xile's narration. "I really said that. At the time, I thought it was your boyfriend leading you to the edge of the room, and his aura was clearly wrong."

"Is that why you told me to be careful of him?" Chang Xile pondered, "But it was that little boy who took me away."

"That's not the reason." Yang Guisi crossed her arms and slowly shook her head. She wanted to say something, but held back for some reason.

When Fang Xinai heard them mention this, she remembered the time when she worked in the "Nameless Haunted House" and the little boy squatting next to her was actually a ghost. She couldn't help but shudder again, and at the same time felt sad - how terrible it would be to die in such a narrow and unknown place?

Thinking of this, she stood up and walked towards where Ren Qing was. Ren Qing was wearing headphones, and even though she didn't play any audio on her device, she couldn't understand the conversation between the other three people at all.

Fang Xinai walked up to Ren Qing, put his hands on his hips and said, "Can you stand up?"

Ren Qing took off his headphones, looked at her warily, and asked, "What are you doing?"

"Stand up!" Fang Xinai put his hand under Ren Qing's arm and helped him up.

Yang Guisi sat upright, ready to pull the two apart if anything went wrong. She whispered to Chang Xile, "Later, you pull Ren Qing and I'll pull Fang Xinai."

Chang Xile had a smile on her face. She shook her head slightly and said softly to Yang Guisi, "Look."

Ren Qing stared at Fang Xinai in confusion. Just when he was about to say, "The dormitory is so small. It's not that I want to eavesdrop, but you should avoid me, okay?", Fang Xinai gave him a bear hug.

"Wuwuwuwu, Sister Ren, I'm sorry, I was wrong. I shouldn't have been so mean to you a few days ago and shouldn't have left you alone to go to the bar and the haunted house. I was so mean and you still took care of me regardless of the past. I want to die to atone for my sins, wuwuwu, don't stop me!" After Fang Xinai howled for a while, he quietly opened one eye to see Ren Qing's reaction.

Ren Qing sneered: "No one is stopping you."

Fang Xinai was silent for a second, and Chang Xile coughed.

Fang Xinai simply closed her eyes and continued to hug Ren Qing and wailed: "I'm sliding down to my knees for you, sister Ren, love me again!" She spoke quickly and hurriedly, and she had just been sick, so she started coughing violently after a while.

Seeing this, Ren Qing quickly broke away from her embrace and cursed, "What can I say to you!" while pouring a glass of water and handing it to Fang Xinai.

Fang Xinai took the water and sipped it, her eyes fixed on Ren Qing's expression. She boldly reached out and shook Ren Qing's arm, saying coquettishly, "That Hangzhou restaurant I mentioned earlier is super delicious and will definitely suit your taste. How about we go there tomorrow?"

"You just got sick, don't go out to eat." Ren Qing pursed his lips and said unhappily, "I'll go with you when you get better."

Fang Xinai immediately smiled happily, put down the cup of water and pushed Ren Qing onto her back. She did not forget to secretly look back at Chang Xile, who winked back at her.

Yang Guisi noticed something was amiss and nudged Chang Xile with his shoulder, asking softly, "What's going on?"

Chang Xile giggled and moved closer to Yang Guisi to whisper in her ear.

It was Fang Xinai who had originally approached Chang Xile. The girl wanted to reconcile with Ren Qing, but was afraid of backlash: "What if she really hates me? Will she be annoyed if I keep pestering her?"

Chang Xile hooked her nose and said jokingly, "Have you ever heard that to see whether a person is good to you, look not at what she says, but at what she does?"

Fang Xinai fell into deep thought.

Chang Xile then asked, "Who took you back to the dormitory when you were drunk?"

"Sister Ren."

"Who took care of you when you were sick?"

Fang Xinai replied in a low voice: "Sister Ren..."

"So, how could Sister Ren hate you?" Chang Xile tapped her forehead and said earnestly, "She cares about you, so you have to play it straight and show that you care. Naturally, tsundere people are the natural counter to tsundere people, understand?"

"Hey, good!" Fang Xinai gained confidence and became cheerful. "But why do you look so skilled at coaxing people?"

Chang Xile narrowed her eyes, as if recalling something happy: "When I was a kid, I had a cat. It had a terrible temper. One time, when I was combing its fur, I didn't notice a tangle and it hurt it. It was so angry that it ignored me for several days."

"I was so sad at that time. I wondered how it could just turn against me so suddenly."

"But later, on a thunderstorm day, I was alone at home and crying with fear. It was the kitten that ran into the room and stayed with me by my face. It was so anxious that it kept licking my face, trying to make me stop crying." Chang Xile held her face and slowly fell into memories.

"That's great... I kind of miss my puppy." Fang Xinai sighed and said to her, "I'm going home for National Day soon, and you can go back to see the kitten."

Chang Xile didn't say anything, just shook his head.

That bad little cat suddenly left one day without saying goodbye and never came home again.

Yang Guisi found it miraculous to see Fang Xinai and Ren Qing become so affectionate again. She hadn't experienced such a friendship before; usually, a breakup was a clean break.

Chang Xile proudly leaned his hands behind his chair and was about to speak when he suddenly heard an inexplicable "crackling" sound.

Oh no! Both of them actually reacted, but they only had time to grab each other's hands before Chang Xile inevitably fell to the ground.

Ren Qing and Fang Xinai were startled by the noise and turned around to look. Yang Guisi looked at her hands in frustration, while Chang Xile's eyes were blank. After a moment of silence, she even started to giggle: "Haha ...

It turns out that when people are unlucky enough, they really laugh out loud.

This was originally a tragic thing, but Chang Xile's expression was so cute that soon the laughter infected everyone in the dormitory.

"Oh, the aunt downstairs is really having a headache. She might want to move a chair up and sit up to see how you usually sit." Fang Xinai laughed so hard that he was out of breath.

Chang Xile leaned on Yang Guisi's hand to stand up. She didn't know where she pulled a tendon in her calf, and she grimaced in pain. She said aggrievedly, "Is it my fault that the chair is broken?"

Of course it was the weasel's fault that the chair was broken!

Ren Qingxiao had enough, and did not forget to stroke Chang Xile's fur: "Okay, check if you are injured first, I'll get a chair for you."

Whenever Ren Qing had paper boxes, she would stock up and give them to the aunt in the dormitory to sell. Every time the aunt saw her, her face would be as bright as a flower.

Fang Xinai followed closely behind: "I'll go with you!"

The two of them held hands and went out together.

Yang Guisi glanced at the calendar and said anxiously, "I was supposed to take you to Changle Mountain to see my master today, but now I'm delayed. Are we going tomorrow? ... But a round trip in one day seems a bit rushed."

"Actually, a special forces soldier wouldn't be a problem." Chang Xile was really fed up with her bad luck. She took out her calculator and asked, "How long does it take to climb the mountain?"

Yang Guisi counted on his fingers: "Hey... I haven't been home for a long time. I wonder if Master has gone out to travel."

Chang Xile's vigorous calculations were barely halfway through when the phone rang. She shushed and answered the phone, and Yang Guisi watched as the smiling face, which had never frowned even in the face of misfortune, slowly dimmed.

"Um, Aunt Zhang, it's Xile." The curve of Chang Xile's mouth completely disappeared, and her hand holding the phone slowly tightened. In the end, she couldn't even speak, and could only use "um" to indicate that she was listening.

"Tomorrow, huh? I'll come, ok." Chang Xile hung up the phone and looked at Yang Guisi, "Guisi..."

"What's wrong?" Yang Guisi watched as Chang Xile's eyes gradually filled with tears. She had never seen such a scene before. She frantically took out a tissue to wipe Chang Xile's tears.

Chang Xile frowned fiercely. She reached out and grabbed the front of her clothes, feeling very sad: "Why am I so useless?"

"What? Why is it useless?" Yang Guisi really didn't understand what was said on the phone. Why did it make people cry so immediately?

Chang Xile looked at the call record on his phone and murmured, "I can't even say a word of condolence."

Tomorrow is Xu Wanjia's funeral. Zhang Junchan called and asked Chang Xile to be sure to attend.

"That night, the child kept saying she wanted to call Sister Xile, but I insisted it was too late and I shouldn't bother her." Zhang Junchan's tone was originally calm, but she burst into tears as she spoke. "Why did I have to stop her?"

Chang Xile listened silently to the sobbing on the phone, feeling that any words of comfort were too pale.

The search for a teacher in Changle Mountain had to be put on hold.