07. The people chasing me
After receiving Teacher Qin's instruction to "continue tracking" from Tingfengchi, Zhang Benyi went directly to the door with a fruit basket.
Tang Xihe's rented house was not far from the school, and having had experience in following people, Zhang Benyi arrived at his destination with ease. He knocked on the door three times and quietly took out the eerie compass from his pocket.
The pointer didn't move at all, as if it were broken.
After waiting for a while, Zhang Benyi knocked on the door again.
The door opened quickly this time, revealing a fierce-looking face. The person was wearing a mask, was slightly short, and had phoenix eyes that glared impatiently at the newcomer without saying a word.
Zhang Benyi glanced at the high-tied pigtails with a strange expression, feeling that something was off. A second later, he suddenly realized: "Tang Xihe, have you gotten shorter?"
"No, my brother isn't home."
The girl's wary expression immediately disappeared. After glancing at the fruit basket in Zhang Benyi's hand, her voice softened considerably as she stepped aside, "My brother should be back soon. Would you like to come in and wait?"
"Ah...sorry, you two look too alike." Hearing the other person's voice, Zhang Benyi realized he had mistaken someone for someone else and awkwardly tried to leave.
"Excuse me, this is a fruit basket for Tangxi. I'll come again next time—"
He pushed up his glasses, turned to leave, and caught a glimpse of three talismans pasted on the wall in the entryway. He was surprised and paused in his steps.
Why are there so many protective charms pasted in the house?
While Zhang Benyi was staring blankly at the talisman, the girl picked up the fruit basket and stared at the badge on Zhang Benyi's arm.
"You're also from the magic academy? Are you my brother's classmate?"
classmate?
Although the courses in the Weapon Forging Department and the Earth Immortal Department do not overlap, they are in the same university, so they can be considered classmates, right?
Zhang Benyi nodded with a forced smile: "Yes."
Upon hearing this, the other person's eyes immediately lit up, and they excitedly half-dragged, half-brought Zhang Benyi into their home: "Really? Come in and wait! By the way, senior, you can just call me Tang Xichun. Um, what's my brother like at school?"
·
A few minutes later.
Tang Xihe opened the door and returned home. In addition to Tang Xichun's shoes that were haphazardly placed, there was also a pair of men's leather shoes neatly placed against the wall in the entryway. He was puzzled and strode into the house. When he passed the kitchen, he saw a scene that made him speechless.
Zhang Benyi, clearly a young master who had never cooked before, stared seriously at his hands. In his left hand was a kiwi the size of half a fist, and in his right hand was a large cleaver gleaming with a cold light. After a few seconds of this standoff, Zhang Benyi turned to Tang Xi for help, as if giving up: "Should we remove the seeds from this?"
Tang Xi couldn't stand it anymore and rolled up her sleeves: "When did you get here? Go sit down."
Zhang Benyi had no choice but to obediently sit on the sofa, his gaze quickly sweeping around the room.
It's a small three-bedroom, two-living-room apartment, just a few steps away. The furnishings are cozy and simple, but all three rooms have their doors closed. The brown room with a thick layer of dust on the doorknob is probably a storage room. From the pink-doored room, I can vaguely hear the sound of ping-pong; I wonder what Tang Xichun is doing.
The gray door must be Tang Xihe's room.
Zhang Benyi strained his ears to listen to the sounds from the kitchen, while secretly taking out the eerie compass and pointing it at the gray-doored room.
Unexpectedly, the strange compass remained unresponsive.
Zhang Benyi fell into self-doubt and, defiantly, poured spiritual energy into the compass, but the compass did not respond. The pointer twitched irritably twice and then stopped again.
What happened?
Last time when I was tracking the strange energy, the compass pointer definitely led me to Tangxi and his rented house. Why did the compass malfunction this time?
Could it really be a misunderstanding?
Unable to figure it out, Zhang Benyi sometimes suspected that the magic artifact his elder brother had given him was broken, and other times suspected that Tang Xi had activated some strange talisman at home, causing the compass to malfunction.
He put away the magical artifacts and looked around.
The furniture and decor are simple. There's a protective talisman on the entryway, three in the living room, and a faint black spot on the talisman on the side wall of the balcony—I don't know if it's a stain or a hole in the talisman...
After observing for only a few seconds, Tang Xihe came out with a fruit platter, forcing Zhang Benyi to look away.
"Teacher Qin came to talk to me and explained things to me. She thought I also practiced strange energy," Tang Xi said. "I'm sorry, I misunderstood you and thought you were a liar."
"No, I was too hasty and didn't explain clearly."
After a moment of silence, Zhang Benyi tentatively asked, "Um... what did Teacher Qin want to see you about?"
"you do not know?"
Tang Xi raised an eyebrow, feigning surprise. "Aren't you Teacher Qin's right-hand woman? How could you not know?"
Tsk!
Zhang Benyi gritted his teeth: "Who wants to know! I was just asking casually!"
“Oh, okay, so you wanted to see me? I’ve already been to Teacher Qin’s place,” Tang Xihe emphasized, “I was personally invited there by Gui Fang Wu Di.”
Zhang Benyi felt a pang of unease. It was Gui Fang again, Qin's confidant and the only student in the independent Department of Mystic Arts.
"Can't I come to see you if there's nothing wrong?"
Zhang Benyi picked up a piece of fruit with his fork and said, "I can tell you in advance that the news of your zero points has spread throughout the school."
"It's okay." Tang Xi waved his hand; he had done it on purpose anyway.
But for some reason, Xuan Yingxian didn't seem to tell Bei Chen Suixing about the 0 points. The Martial Arts Department was quiet for several days. Tomorrow is the freshman comprehensive test, and the Martial Arts Department is still not making any moves.
Do they think the 0 points is fake news?
Tang Xi was lost in thought, somewhat distracted. Zhang Benyi added, "Tomorrow is the freshman comprehensive assessment. As soon as the assessment is over, the departmental ranking competition will be arranged—"
A loud thud suddenly echoed from the pink-doored room, and both of them glanced over simultaneously. Zhang Benyi, afraid of being overheard, lowered his voice:
"Because of your zero points, many students have complained to the student council about the school rules, so the rules for the challenge letter will definitely be adjusted."
With this implication, Tang Xi understood that if the number of complaints reached a certain level, the rule that high-scoring students could not arbitrarily issue challenge letters would likely be canceled.
— This means that troubles will follow one after another.
However, Tang Xihe didn't seem to care at all, saying, "Let's find them then."
?
Zhang Benyi looked puzzled. "There are over nine thousand people across several departments. Can you handle that?"
"I'm not stupid enough to accept a challenge willingly," Tang Xi chuckled, a fork dangling from her lips. "I have my own clever plan."
"...Trying to run away again?"
"Of course I'll run!"
That's really fast.
Zhang Benyi put down his fork, leaned back, and pretended to casually lean towards the balcony. "Hey, your blanket fell off, and one of the protective talismans on the balcony is broken."
As soon as he finished speaking, Zhang Benyi suddenly realized: Was it because 'that thing' had run away that the compass wasn't responding?
Because of the blind spots created by the piled-up furniture, Tang Xi didn't notice the problem on the balcony immediately. Upon hearing this, she was taken aback and hurriedly got up to check.
No wonder I felt like I'd forgotten something when I got home. Where's Pipi?
Observing Tang Xi's unnatural expression, Zhang Benyi raised his voice and asked, "So nervous? You're not hiding something dangerous at home, are you?"
Why do you feel that I am hiding something dangerous, rather than that something dangerous has come looking for me?
Tang Xi bent down and picked up the quilt, revealing the breach in the barrier. The bite marks around the breach were very obvious.
It crawled out from here?
Tang Xi frowned, subconsciously adjusting the thin blanket in her arms, and suddenly felt something rustling inside.
Pippi looked down and saw a tortoiseshell-colored "doll" peeking out from under the blanket. Pippi looked extremely nervous, remaining motionless and not daring to blink.
Tang Xi breathed a sigh of relief, then coldly questioned it in a whisper, "Why did you drag the blanket out? And pretend to be dead?"
"According to what you're saying..."
Zhang Benyi's voice kept getting closer to the balcony, and Tang Xi, feeling guilty, quickly tucked Pipi into the quilt to hide.
Just as he hid Pipi, Zhang Benyi stepped onto the balcony and saw the breach in the barrier. Suddenly, he understood:
"Are there dangerous individuals tracking you? Did you get into trouble outside of school?"
Tang Xihe carried the quilt into the room, throwing the bed and locking the door in one swift motion. She turned around and said to Zhang Benyi, who was following closely behind her, "No, not at all."
Zhang Benyi's gaze fell on the tightly closed gray room, and he craned his neck, "Keeping a mistress in a golden house? Not letting anyone see anything."
"Are we that close? No way." Tang Xihe gave him the boot, pushing him toward the entrance. "Hurry up, hurry up, don't disturb my studies."
"Oh? You're studying?" Zhang Benyi said sarcastically. "I know, it's to deal with the challenge, right? I understand. You keep practicing, I'm leaving."
Click.
The two fell silent at the same time, turning around to face Tang Xichun.
"Brother, I want to use it for the test tomorrow!"
Tang Xichun pointed to the long sword on her back. The plain long sword was taller than Tang Xichun and looked unremarkable.
Tang Xi nodded. "Okay."
Zhang Benyi caught the key words and looked at Tang Xi in surprise, "Her?"
"This is my sister. She will participate in the freshman comprehensive assessment tomorrow."
? ? ?
"Your Tang family is truly blessed with outstanding talents," Zhang Benyi exclaimed sincerely. "Two cultivators have emerged from your family at once."
·
After seeing Zhang Benyi off, Tang Xichun finally stepped out of the room and stretched vigorously.
"I thought he was your friend! We chatted for a bit, and then I realized he didn't know anything about you, so I let him play by himself in the living room."
"From now on, if guests come to visit, you can't leave them standing there, understand?"
Tangxi and serious education.
Tang Xichun protested: "He's not exactly your friend—"
His eyes narrowed.
"I know, I know."
Tang Xichun pouted somewhat unhappily, then, as if remembering something, stood at attention and tattled, "Brother! When I got home, I saw a suspicious, ugly thing gnawing at the barrier on the balcony!"
Ugly thing?
Tang Xi turned back to the room and explained the whole story of meeting Pipi to her younger sister, gritting her teeth as she said, "So, now it's my... contracted pet."
Tang Xichun immediately changed her tune, cheering excitedly, "Really! I knew it! It's so special! It's both a rabbit and a dog! So cute!"
"It hasn't been registered with the Rare and Exotic Beasts Research Institute yet, so you can't tell anyone else about Pipi's existence."
"Okay, bro! I know, bro!"
Tang Xi then let Pipi out of the room, exclaiming, "You little rascal, you ran faster than me!"
The room door was wide open, but Pipi was unusually quiet. Instead of rushing over to play the victim or asking Tangxi to "ask about the contract every day," he trembled as he crawled out from under the covers, revealing a terrified and dumbfounded face.
"Brother, are you talking to your contracted beast?" Tang Xichun's face showed a hint of disdain. "Its name is Pipi? Has it become intelligent? It seems like it can't understand what you're saying."
Tang Xi pulled Pipi out of the blanket and found that Pipi was so frightened that its fur stood on end, and it remained motionless.
Why are you so scared?
Tang Xi was puzzled, but when she turned around, she saw the long sword on Tang Xi Chun's back and realized what was going on. "Xiao Chun, put the sword away."
Tang Xichun gave an "oh," put the long sword into her storage ring, and poked Pipi in confusion, "It's still trembling? Hey, am I that scary?"
Pipi finally blinked. It was a simple, ordinary action, but it seemed to be very difficult for Pipi. The blinking motion also showed an unnatural stiffness.
"I, faked my death, time."
Tangxi and He understood, and hugged Pipi in their arms to stroke its fur. They didn't forget to give Tangxi a science lesson, "Some monsters can fake their death to fool their natural enemies. When they enter a state of fake death, it's like this. They need some time to recover before they can return to normal."
Tang Xi nodded blankly.
Pipi suddenly spoke up: "Tangxi, and..."
"It can talk!" Tang Xichun exclaimed.
Pipi spoke haltingly, "That person is chasing me!"
"......who?"
Tangxi paused slightly in her caressing hand.
Pipi shuddered, then spoke more coherently, "Glasses guy! Compass!"
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