Chu Ting x Shadow ①
Chu Ting and a male classmate walked into the coffee shop. The classmate turned around and went to the counter to order, while Chu Ting walked to a seat by the window, put his backpack on the empty chair next to him, and took out an exercise book and a pen.
“Baby, I don’t like you being with him.” Beside the seat, a transparent shadow, taking advantage of the fact that others couldn’t see or hear it, swayed back and forth.
"Shut up." Chu Ting didn't even look up.
Shadow complained, "After school, you should go home and do your homework. Your desk at home is so big, why do you have to come to the coffee shop with him?"
"I already said it's a group assignment," Chu Ting said in a low voice. "The teacher specifically requested that we work together. How can we do it if we don't?"
No sooner had the words left his mouth than the person who took the order returned with two cups of coffee. He asked, "Chu Ting, would you like a latte or an Americano?"
"American style, thanks." Chu heard this and reached out to take it.
The other person sat down opposite him. "How should we divide the work for this assignment? I looked at the questions, and they seem a bit complicated."
"You collect the materials and case studies, and I'll translate the articles. We'll check them together at the end; that way, we'll be more efficient."
"OK."
The transparent shadow next to Chu Ting started muttering again, puffing out its cheeks: "Why does he have the right to sit so close? There's only so much space on the table. Look at his arm, it almost brushed against your hand just now... And when he smiles, his eyes are almost slits. He's definitely up to no good."
Chu Ting's eyelids twitched, but she dared not make a sound, afraid that the person opposite her would think she was talking to thin air. So she quickly wrote in the blank space of her notebook: "Be quiet, don't cause trouble."
The shadow gave a pitiful "Oh," its voice barely audible, like a mosquito's hum.
Chu Ting could feel him obediently retreat to the empty chair next to him and curl up into a ball.
But after sitting for a short while, Shadow couldn't stand it anymore.
A very light breeze brushed against the back of Chu Ting's neck, tickling him slightly; it was Shadow blowing on his neck. Then the voice trailed off, like a spoiled child: "Baby, it's time to go home. It's too noisy here. The people at the next table are talking too loudly."
Chu Ting paused, then wrote on the paper: "Half an hour left, I'll leave after finishing this part."
"It'll take so long..." Shadow sighed. "How boring, and the music here isn't good either."
Chu Ting looked at the first draft of the translation on the paper, then glanced at her classmate across from her who was frowning at the computer screen. After hesitating for a moment, she added below the previous text: "It's for you to play with, don't mess around."
Shadow immediately perked up and shouted, "Great!"
The next second, Chu Ting suddenly felt a chill on her collar, as if something light and airy had slipped inside.
Then came a slight tickling sensation, which quickly turned into a biting, somewhat rough feeling.
He gripped the pen tightly, his knuckles turning white.
The classmate opposite him happened to look up and ask, "Chu Ting, what's wrong? Your face is a little red."
"N-nothing," Chu Ting quickly lowered her head, pretending to tidy up papers. "It's a bit hot indoors."
"Oh." The student didn't think much of it and swiped his finger across the phone screen. "By the way, I just found a news article from eight years ago. See if you can use it in our report."
"What?"
“It’s a murder case from eight years ago. A pedophile targeted a child, and another child who was with him tried to save him but was stabbed more than a dozen times by the perpetrator,” he paused, his tone tinged with sadness, “and ultimately couldn’t be saved. Do you think this case should be included?”
Chu Ting felt the shadow hidden in the clothes suddenly pause.
He didn't look at the phone screen, but simply replied in a low voice, "Find a few more, this one... isn't quite right."
"Okay." The classmate put away his phone and continued scrolling, casually remarking, "But this kid is really brave. The report said he was only twelve years old at the time. If he were still alive now, he'd be about our age."
"...Probably."
Half an hour later, Chu Ting said goodbye to his classmates and left. Only when he was alone did he turn slightly to the side and say with a hint of helplessness, "Move aside, you're so heavy."
A wronged voice immediately came from behind: "Baby is lying, ghosts have no weight."
Chu Ting was stunned for a moment, then realized, oh right, where does a ghost get its weight?
He didn't dwell on it and said, "I'll take you out to play."
The other party happily agreed, but when Chu Ting led him into the bookstore, he wilted: "What's so fun about a bookstore?"
Chu Ting picked up a comic book, waved it around, and raised an eyebrow, saying, "You can read comics in a bookstore? Isn't this your favorite?"
The shadow fell silent, as if pondering something, before reluctantly replying after a while, "Okay, that makes sense."
So Chu Ting found an empty spot next to a bookshelf and started reading a comic book. Shadow obediently stayed behind him, reading along with him.
But as he looked at it, his attention shifted from the comics, and his mind was filled with the baby who was so close to him.
Chu Ting was engrossed in watching when she suddenly felt her legs being gently parted.
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