When Cen Yu saw Meng Yunqiu's horrified expression and wide-eyed shock, he knew that the matter was settled.
He was certain that Pei Leyun was the person he was looking for... but the exciting scene he had anticipated did not appear at all. Instead, Meng Yunqiu showed a weak expression as if he had just recovered from a serious illness. He looked at Cen Yu and opened his mouth as if to say something, but in the end, he only asked, "When did you and Pei Leyun... meet?"
Cen Yu assumed the other party wanted to know about Pei Leyun's past, so he briefly explained how he met Pei Leyun.
Meng Yunqiu's expression remained solemn. After a long while, he finally spoke, "I may have met Pei Leyun."
Many years ago.
Perhaps it was the incident that happened in the mountains near the main house that instilled a subconscious fear in Meng Yunqiu. After his mother's family helped him temporarily resolve his problem of seeing ghosts, he never went to that place again. After that, his life proceeded in an orderly manner, with school, extracurricular activities, summer camps, and so on. New things filled his life, which made him quickly forget the strange incident from many years ago.
Looking at Pei Leyun in the photo, he still remembered that night when he overheard his mother and the rest of the family whispering—
"How did you end up in that mountain?"
"I'm captivated..."
"Logically speaking, it should be difficult for him to come back."
"I heard there's still a village in those mountains, and the children from that village brought him back." The mother chuckled as she said this. "He's a little devil, and he said he'd already received his reward, so they sent him back and told us to keep an eye on him and not let him wander off."
Meng Yunqiu was not asleep at the time, so she remembered that after her mother finished speaking, she paused for a moment, and finally someone from her mother's family said, "That mountain is not an auspicious place."
His mother seemed to know about it, but she was also afraid of that place, so she didn't say anything in the end, only saying, "It's good that nothing happened."
According to his mother, the boy who took the money was the one who brought him back in the end... The other person, who should have been Pei Leyun, was nowhere to be found.
Meng Yunqiu didn't know how to tell Cen Yu about this, but in the end, Wen Jingyao noticed the unnaturalness in his expression and asked, "Do you know Pei Leyun?"
Cen Yu glanced at Wen Jingyao and thought he asked a good question!
"Ex-boyfriend?" Wen Jingyao asked tentatively.
“No!” Meng Yunqiu immediately retorted, so anxious that he almost stood up from the sofa… After seeing Cen Yu, he regained some composure and sat down on the sofa in a different position. “We met many years ago.”
Cen Yu immediately perked up his ears; this part wasn't mentioned in the original work.
Meng Yunqiu kept it brief, only recounting his experiences near his mother's ancestral home years ago... As he spoke, the expressions of the two people in front of him became subtle.
Wen Jingyao looked at him, "Your mother's surname is Bai?"
Meng Yunqiu nodded.
"Near the Bai family's old residence..." Wen Jingyao knew about that mountain. It was said that an evil god was suppressed in the mountain, and the Bai family lived nearby, partly to prevent the evil god from causing trouble for the world.
Cen Yu was even more confused. "Let's not talk about feudal superstitions for now."
"This place is perfectly normal; there are many farmhouses and guesthouses here."
"You know so much about it, have you been there?" Wen Jingyao asked.
“Of course I’ve been there,” Cen Yu said matter-of-factly. “My home is in that mountain.”
The original owner's hometown was a small village in the mountains. At that time, there was a one-on-one assistance program in the city... That's how the original owner got the money to go to school. From the time he went to junior high school in the county town until he graduated from high school, a kind person always sponsored his schooling.
Cen Yu knew about this past, so she understood why Pei Baijun's money was always thought by the original owner to be tuition money for his schooling.
Wen Jingyao: "?"
It seems like this person said something extraordinary?
Meng Yunqiu looked at Cen Yu in surprise, "You live in that mountain?"
“Yes.” Cen Yu nodded.
This part wasn't specifically mentioned in the novel; it only said that the original owner came from such a mountain... He didn't expect that this mountain would have such a legend of suppressing an evil god, and he certainly didn't expect that this place was near Meng Yunqiu's mother's family.
An absurd thought suddenly popped into Meng Yunqiu's head.
He didn't even care whether his mother was still resting; he immediately called his family. As soon as the call connected, he began to speak—
"Mom, what did the boy who brought me home look like when I fainted near the Bai family's old house that year?"
Cen Yu pricked up his ears to eavesdrop.
"Why did you suddenly ask that?" Although the other person said that, perhaps because the matter had left a deep impression on her, after a moment, they gave an affirmative answer.
"I remember it was a boy, quite handsome..."
She thought for a moment, then remembered another feature, "Oh right, he also has two beauty marks under his eyes..."
Cen Yu paused.
Meng Yunqiu turned to look at Cen Yu. His mother was still on the other end of the phone asking him why he suddenly asked this question. After giving a few vague replies, Meng Yunqiu hung up the phone, saying that he had to work.
Meng Yunqiu had just made a phone call on speakerphone, so Wen Jingyao naturally heard Meng's mother's reply.
He looked at Cen Yu, then at Meng Yunqiu, "You two know each other?"
"Have you met before?"
"And Pei Leyun," Wen Jingyao said to Meng Yunqiu. "You said that one of the boys you saw back then was Pei Leyun?"
Meng Yunqiu fell silent, frowning, still somewhat puzzled by the matter.
Cen Yu was completely bewildered; he had absolutely no memory of this. "I don't remember ever seeing Pei Leyun..."
He remembered that the first time he met Pei Lejun was during a group project. The village was so small that it was impossible for him not to remember Pei Lejun's presence there.
“So,” Wen Jingyao said, looking at the two of them, “if you hadn’t seen a ghost.” He pointed at Meng Yunqiu.
"If it weren't for the fact that you two were both having a fit of hysteria."
He took out his phone and dialed Pei Heng directly, "Why don't we hear what Pei Lejun's father has to say?"
...
"Impossible." These were the first words Pei Heng uttered upon arriving at the apartment.
He had a strong personality and was used to speaking like that, but after seeing Cen Yu's gaze, he softened his tone slightly, "That year he was taking classes at home."
“Xiao Le’s grades weren’t very good during that period…” Pei Heng thought for a moment and said, “Uncle Sun can also testify that he was the one who accompanied Xiao Le to class during that time.”
Pei Heng would obviously not lie about this.
Cen Yu had no reason to lie.
The memories of Meng's mother and Meng Yunqiu at least prove one thing: Cen Yu did indeed bring Meng Yunqiu back to the Bai family at that time.
Meng Yunqiu frowned. It seemed that the only one with a problem was himself.
After all, he was the only one who saw Pei Leyun at that time... and in his memory, Pei Leyun was also strange and indifferent.
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