Chapter 22
No, my friend, where do you live?
Joyson hadn't said a word yet, but it seemed as if he had already said it all with his vivid expression.
Jiang Yunu: "I never had the chance to tell you before, but we actually live so close to each other."
Jiang Yunu thought that Qiao Yisen was simply shocked by the coincidence.
Unexpectedly, the next second Joyson raised his hand tremblingly and placed his palm on her shoulder very carefully.
Jiang Yunu: “?”
Jiang Yunu thought this was some unique farewell ceremony.
Joyson patted her shoulder and touched her arm.
Jodaisi couldn't stand watching from behind, so she finally raised her son's ear and said, "Joyson, what are you doing?"
Joyson's face was filled with shock and trance. When his mother pulled his ear and let go of his hand, he curled up his hand and rubbed his five fingers together.
"It's warm and still soft to the touch," Joyson said. "It just had dinner at my house and spent time with me in the library during the day... This means it's a living person, right?"
Jiang Yunu and Qiao Yisen looked at each other in bewilderment. She also touched herself and said, "If nothing unexpected happens, I am indeed alive now. I shouldn't die in the short term."
Jiang Yunu imitated Joyson's sentence structure.
Then he saw the red-haired boy living next door taking a deep breath.
"That's great." Joyson's shoulders relaxed, his expression filled with relaxation and relief that Jiang Yunuo couldn't understand.
He repeated, "That's great."
Jiang Yunu was really confused. She didn't understand and asked, "What's so good?"
Jiang Yunu's intuition told him that Joeysen should not be happy about discovering that the two were next-door neighbors.
Joyson was not going to lie, and he and Jiang Yunu were forced to stare at each other for a while, while Ms. Qiao Daisi crossed her arms behind her back and watched the show.
Finally, Joyson said honestly, "I, I thought the house opposite was haunted. I even saw a pale ghost smiling at me from the second-floor window."
Jiang *"Pale Ghost"* Yu Nu: "...Isn't that me you saw?"
Qiao Yisen opened his eyes wide, as if he was recognizing Jiang Yunu all over again. He carefully examined her face, hesitantly shook his head and nodded, "I was so scared at the time that I didn't even see her face clearly."
But Jiang Yunu had no family, had just moved to the dilapidated street, and lived at No. 80, the dilapidated street opposite the Joyson family.
Who else could it be except her that "ghost" that appeared in the abandoned house?
Jiang Yunu's mind replayed the image of the figure closing the window with a long pole. She also looked at Qiao Yisen again and again, and finally chose to tell the neighbor who thought she was a ghost the truth: "I had just moved to this street and had just settled in my place. I noticed that your window was open and I saw you popping out, so I wanted to say hello to you and show my neighborly friendship."
It turned out that the neighbor was not "socially anxious" but was really terrified. She mistook her for a genius and quickly ran away.
Joyson's face had turned as red as his hair. When he heard Jiang Yunuo say that he lived across the street, all kinds of old horror movies he had seen popped up in his mind again, such as "ghosts following people", "ghosts coming to the door", and "curse cycle". He couldn't help but touch Jiang Yunuo with his hands, and brainstormed to recall the whole day's interactions between the two of them, just to urgently find evidence to prove that "Jiang Yunuo is indeed a living person."
"I, I'll take you back!" Joyson tried to make up for his blind speculation.
But Jiang Yunu just thought it was funny, and the more she thought about it, the funnier it became. She didn't feel offended or angry, and waved to her kind-hearted neighbor: "No need, it's only a few steps from your door to mine. I can go back by myself."
The Joysons' door opened, and the light from inside illuminated the street from No. 78 to No. 80.
Taking advantage of this light, Jiang Yunu walked towards her own door. She stood in front of the obviously dilapidated gate of Building 80, turned around, and waved to the red-haired mother and son standing at the door of Building 78: "Good night, see you tomorrow!"
This was a greeting that was rarely heard among residents of a dilapidated street.
Jodie almost never spoke to anyone like that, nor did she receive such greetings, and the same was true for Joyson, who grew up on a run-down street.
Joyson was very excited to receive such a greeting. He quickly waved back and said, "See you tomorrow. What time do you want to go to the library tomorrow? I usually get up in the morning and catch the noon bus."
Remembering that they had agreed to go to the library together the next day, Joyce hurriedly made an appointment with Jiang Yunu.
Jiang Yunu needed Qiao Yisen's help to cross the gate. She heard Qiao Yisen's usual departure time. Accustomed to getting up early, she thought for a moment: "Do you mind leaving earlier? For example, an hour earlier than your usual departure time?"
She was also embarrassed to ask others to follow her out at 1:05, so Jiang Yunu just hoped that they could leave a little earlier.
Joyce changed the departure time to half past ten.
After confirming the departure time, Jiang Yunu waved to the two people who were still standing at the door, asking them to close the door quickly and go back to the house. Then she opened her own door, which had a useless lock, and slipped into the house and disappeared in the blink of an eye like a shadow entering the darkness.
Joyson waited at his door for a while, but found that the lights in Building 80 opposite did not turn on, and he did not hear any movement inside.
Joyson almost suspected that this cheerful white-haired girl had been eaten by the house opposite.
"Mom." Joyson went back to the house with Qiao Daisi in a daze. The door was closed, but he couldn't help but look through the window at the small building opposite. He was a little suspicious, "Doesn't Jiang Yunu turn on the lights at home?"
Naturally, Jodais also noticed this unusual thing. She had experienced more and had seen more strange residents on the dilapidated streets.
Jodie only said, "Maybe she has her own reasons."
The reason why Jiang Yunu didn't turn on the light was actually so simple and plain - she didn't have a light yet.
A few days ago, when Jiang Yunu was cleaning the recycling bins as usual, he picked up a small desk lamp from a recycling bin in a certain neighborhood. It was a rechargeable model, and the donor did not forget to donate the charger as well.
However, when Jiang Yunu brought the small desk lamp back, she found that there were no electrical wires in her small garbage house. Or perhaps there used to be an electrical circuit here, but as the house was abandoned, the circuit had long been deactivated and there was no electricity in the house.
She had a rechargeable desk lamp, but she couldn't charge it at home.
Fortunately, Jiang Yunu was already used to living without lights on. She usually did things in the dark, taking inventory of remaining supplies and washing up. Dimness was an old friend in her daily life. Her eyesight did not seem to decline after long-term night vision. On the contrary, it was vague. Jiang Yunu felt that her eyesight had improved a little.
The next day, as agreed, Jiang Yunu knocked on the door of Room 78 next door at 10:30.
Joyson opened the door with a look of surprise on his face: "I was going to call you, you are so punctual."
Jiang Yunu went out at five o'clock again today. She had already walked around the nearby blocks and checked the time by the clock on the public floating screen on the street. She estimated the time it would take to return to the dilapidated street and came to call for help just in time.
Unlike yesterday when he traveled light, Joyson went out today with a bulging backpack.
Jiang Yunu didn't ask about the bag at first, respecting the other person's privacy and travel habits. When they arrived at the library entrance, Qiao Yisen used the same trick again. The two of them took advantage of the fact that the turnstile at the corner was less crowded. Qiao Yisen quickly led Jiang Yunu through the turnstile together, took the elevator upstairs again, and came to the information area where they had been together yesterday.
Joyson first went to the reading room and found a seat at a long table in the corner, while Jiang Yunu went to get the books that he had not finished reading yesterday.
She had just returned with a thick stack of books, and Joyson helped her take some of the books and put them on the table. However, he immediately picked up something from the table and placed it on top of the books in front of her that were already a lot shorter.
Jiang Yunu heard the brief friction sound of the plastic bag and the book cover. He looked down and found a large loaf of bread in a food bag in front of him.
"Shh." Joyson made a secret gesture to keep quiet and whispered, "You can eat some mild food in the reading room. This is made by my mother."
When Jodie heard that the two children were going to the library in the morning, she was sure that they would not go home for lunch at noon. Children from poor streets did not have much spare money to eat out, so she made the most ordinary large bread and stuffed it into Joyson's bag, and also stuffed some fruits that had little odor and could be eaten secretly in the public library.
The reason Joyson's bag is so bulgy is because these things are double portions.
Qiao Daisi made Jiang Yunu's portion as well.
Jiang Yunu originally thought that this special treat was just a coincidence because Qiao Daisi had just met her. This behavior was a bit similar to the parents of the neighbors next door giving some candy and snacks to the newly moved children.
But Jiang Yunu didn't expect that Qiao Yisen would carry this backpack for the next few days, and she would get a share of the other party's rations every day.
"Aunt Daisy."
On the morning of the fifth day of Jiang Yunu's "freeloading", she intercepted Qiao Daisi at the door of her house as she was about to go out to work.
It was not yet time for her and Joyson to go out, and Joyson was probably still sleeping in the room on the second floor.
The red-haired Ms. Qiao Daisi didn't expect Jiang Yunu to wake up so early. She lowered her head and looked at the little girl: "What's wrong? Do you need me for something?"
Jiang Yunu thought for two days about how to express her feelings tactfully. She felt embarrassed to eat free food from her neighbor every day, but she was really used to being straightforward. "Is there anything I can do for you?"
Qiao Daisi raised her thin eyebrows: "Huh?"
Jiang Yunu raised his head and said frankly, "I feel embarrassed to always eat your cooking for free."
"Is that all?" Jodaisi's eyebrows dropped, and she waved her slender fingers. "I also want to thank you for finally getting that brat Joyson to pay attention to his studies. He always said he wanted to go to a supernatural school and study supernatural powers in depth, but he only started to actually take action recently. Maybe having you two as companions gave him more motivation."
Jiang Yunu blinked: "But this is not enough for you to feed me. My contribution does not seem to be equal."
Qiao Daisi looked down at Jiang Yunu, moved her slender fingers, and swept her eyes over the little girl's hair ends that looked like they were bitten by a dog. Finally, she patted Jiang Yunu's head.
"Children shouldn't think so much," said Aunt Daisy. "It's just a meal, but you still have to ask children to consider whether their contribution is equal or not. There's something wrong with this world."
Jiang Yunu: "..."
Jiang Yunu originally just wanted to discuss with Aunt Daisy whether he could do some light labor to make her "freeloading" feel more at ease, but he didn't expect that it would lead to criticism from the whole world.
Qiao Daisi signaled Jiang Yunu to do what he should do and stop thinking about unnecessary things.
She guessed that she had already discovered that Jiang Yunu was a person who could easily break the "three principles" of the residents of the run-down street.
This frank and enthusiastic little girl is really scary.
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