In the café near the arcade, Ling Xiaoyou picked up the mocha in front of her and took a gentle sip. With her quiet and elegant demeanor, she looked completely like a poised and composed young lady.
But Bai Shuanglian, sitting beside her, clearly saw that the small hand holding the cup was trembling slightly. Clearly, her inner state was not as calm as her outward appearance suggested.
Bai Shuanglian naturally understood exactly why Ling Xiaoyou was in such an unpeaceful mood.
She glanced at Su Lihua sitting across from them, who was curiously examining her cappuccino. Obviously, Xiaoyou’s nervousness was because she was worried that her earlier intimate actions with Bai Shuanglian had been noticed by Su Lihua.
While Bai Shuanglian didn’t think there was anything wrong with those intimate gestures in the eyes of others, she knew Ling Xiaoyou had a thinner skin. Feeling ashamed and flustered in such a situation was normal for her.
Bai Shuanglian thought for a moment, then looked at Su Lihua and broke the awkward silence first.
“Su Lihua, did you also come to the Imperial Capital to participate in the Xuantian Martial Tournament?”
Although she had heard Ling Xiaoyou mention that Su Lihua had called to discuss meeting up in the Imperial Capital, she didn’t know if Su Lihua had any other purposes for coming here besides that.
“Huh? Me?”
Hearing Bai Shuanglian’s question, Su Lihua was taken aback, instinctively pointing at herself with a somewhat confused expression. Judging from this reaction, she definitely had little to do with participating in the Xuantian Martial Tournament.
Hearing Su Lihua’s implied denial, Ling Xiaoyou, who was also worried that her earlier intimate behavior with Bai Shuanglian had been discovered, raised her little head and looked at Su Lihua curiously.
“I’m not cut out for that! If I went on stage, I couldn’t beat anyone without using those powerful artifacts!”
As if afraid the two would misunderstand, Su Lihua quickly waved her hands.
“This time, besides coming to the Imperial Capital to have fun and investigating the demons with you guys, I’m also here to accompany my older sister.”
“O-older sister?”
Ling Xiaoyou was stunned, looking at Su Lihua in surprise.
“You have an older sister?”
“Yes, one of my main purposes for coming to the Imperial Capital this time is to accompany my older sister!”
Su Lihua nodded repeatedly.
“Then… where is your older sister?”
Ling Xiaoyou instinctively looked around, then remembered they were already in the café. She looked at Su Lihua and asked,
“Didn’t your older sister come out with you?”
“She… she’s currently at…”
“Ding dong princess~ Hajimi~”
Before Su Lihua could finish her sentence, a ringtone interrupted her. She hurriedly took her phone out of her pocket, gave the two an apologetic smile, then walked out of the café to take the call.
This ringtone…
Ling Xiaoyou wanted to complain, but also felt too lazy to complain.
She glanced at Su Lihua talking on the phone outside, faintly able to hear her saying words like ‘older sister’ and ‘café’.
‘Did her older sister call to find her?’
Ling Xiaoyou thought this, and suddenly saw the space beside Su Lihua blur for an instant. Immediately after, a girl wearing a red fox mask appeared beside Su Lihua, which greatly surprised her.
She stared at the masked girl in shock. Not because of the sudden way she appeared, but because…
This masked girl was covered in shopping bags!
Her arms, shoulders, even her neck were hung with shopping bags of various sizes, making one wonder how her slender frame could possibly bear so much load.
Perhaps because Ling Xiaoyou’s gaze was too noticeable, the masked girl turned her line of sight and glanced at her. This allowed Ling Xiaoyou to see that what she was wearing wasn’t just one mask; there was also a clearly matching white fox mask slanted on top of her head!
Ling Xiaoyou couldn’t help but click her tongue.
‘What a destined bag-carrier, so dutiful!’
The café doorbell rang again. Su Lihua walked back to the two with the masked girl and introduced with a smile,
“You two, this is my older sister, Su Taosheng.”
Then, she looked at Su Taosheng and introduced,
“Older sister, these two are the Bai Shuanglian and Ling Xiaoyou I mentioned before.”
As she spoke, Su Lihua pointed at Ling Xiaoyou and Bai Shuanglian respectively.
“The shorter one is Ling Xiaoyou, and the colder one is Bai Shuanglian.”
“Who are you calling short?! You’re not much taller than me either, you chuunibyou!”
Ling Xiaoyou retorted angrily, but didn’t take it too much to heart. After all, this was how she and Su Lihua usually interacted; occasionally ribbing each other was common.
After saying that, Ling Xiaoyou took another look at the girl named Su Taosheng, noticing she had already stored all those shopping bags into a Space Ring, leaving only the two masks on her head and face still in place.
Looking at the silent Su Taosheng sitting across from her, Ling Xiaoyou inwardly went ‘Uwah~’ and sighed:
‘She looks like someone who’s very difficult to get along with.’
Thinking this, she glanced at Bai Shuanglian beside her and suddenly thought,
‘But when it comes to being difficult to get along with, Bai Shuanglian probably isn’t far behind, right?’
After all, Bai Shuang at the very beginning had the demeanor of an ice-cold beauty, though now she completely gave off the feeling of a ‘gentle and virtuous wife.’
Noticing Ling Xiaoyou’s gaze, Bai Shuanglian turned her head and gave her a gentle smile. Ling Xiaoyou also hurriedly returned a smile. Then, she stopped paying attention to the aloof Su Taosheng and looked at Su Lihua, asking curiously,
“By the way, Ah Hua, when did you arrive in the Imperial Capital?”
“What kind of name is Ah Hua… it sounds like a dog’s name…”
Su Lihua complained, then explained, “Time-wise, it was the morning of the day before yesterday. I came by Underworld Transport.”
“Huh?”
Ling Xiaoyou was stunned, asking somewhat puzzled,
“Then why didn’t you contact us? I thought you hadn’t arrived in the Imperial Capital yet.”
After all, they had agreed to meet up in the Imperial Capital. The late-arriving Su Lihua naturally should have called to inform the two, otherwise how would they know when Su Lihua would actually arrive.
Hearing this, Su Lihua paused, cautiously glanced at her older sister beside her, then immediately pulled out her phone and tapped away on it for a while.
Just as Ling Xiaoyou was wondering what she was doing, she sensed her phone in her Space Ring vibrating. Taking it out, she saw it was a message from Su Lihua sitting right in front of her.
She gave Su Lihua a strange look.
‘Why send a message when you’re right here?’
Though puzzled, Ling Xiaoyou didn’t ask further. She just opened her phone and looked: ‘Because my older sister doesn’t like me having contact with outsiders. Also, she was really angry about me going on adventures with you guys before; she almost grounded me. I had a hard time getting her to agree to let me go out this time.’
‘Plus, this time when I came out, I’m sharing the same room with her, and she’s always sticking to me like glue. I really haven’t had much chance to contact you guys.’
Looking at the message on the screen, Ling Xiaoyou nodded her little head in understanding and replied:
‘Maybe it’s because you got into danger before, which made her overly worried, so she’s sticking close to protect you?’
Su Lihua glanced at Ling Xiaoyou, then at her reply, and typed back:
‘While I do think there’s an element of that, she was actually pretty much the same before too. Though not to the point of being inseparable, she basically followed me wherever I went.’
“Huh?”
Ling Xiaoyou was stunned.
‘It was like that before too?’
A bold idea surfaced in her mind. She glanced at the aloof masked girl in surprise, turning back to her phone before Su Taosheng’s gaze could land on her, and replied: ‘Your older sister’s behavior strikes me as very strange! I suspect… she might be a siscon!’
Before Ling Xiaoyou could finish typing this sentence, she suddenly saw Su Taosheng stand up, as if having sensed something. That slender, snow-white right hand reached straight for Ling Xiaoyou’s phone.
Her movement was slow, yet seemed unstoppable, like an inevitable judgment destined to fall.
Ling Xiaoyou wanted to avoid the grasp of that hand, but she felt like a small butterfly already caught in a spider’s web; no matter how she struggled, she couldn’t break free from that destined grasp.
Just as that hand was about to reach her phone, and Ling Xiaoyou had already prepared herself to be scolded for being caught with the chat log, at that moment, a pale, delicate hand blocked Su Taosheng, slapping her hand away.
Slap!
The sound of the hand being knocked away was so distinct. Ling Xiaoyou was stunned, then immediately realized something and looked at Bai Shuanglian. Clearly, Bai Shuang had just helped her.
Thinking of this, Ling Xiaoyou felt slightly relieved and gave Bai Shuanglian a sweet smile of thanks. The latter also returned a smile.
Then, Ling Xiaoyou looked at Su Taosheng and found the red fox mask staring motionlessly at Bai Shuanglian, as if surprised that Bai Shuanglian had been able to block her hand.
Bai Shuanglian also looked at Su Taosheng, narrowed her eyes, then as if suddenly thinking of something, raised an eyebrow and was about to say something.
Suddenly, Su Taosheng grabbed the hand of Su Lihua, who looked completely baffled about what was happening, stood up, and looked at the two. A somewhat muffled and distorted voice came from under the mask.
“Apologies, you two. We have some matters to attend to, so we’ll take our leave first. We’ll settle the bill.”
After saying that, she pulled Su Lihua toward the cashier.
‘Leaving after just one disagreement…’
Ling Xiaoyou complained inwardly.
“Huh? No, older sister, we’re leaving already?”
Only then did Su Lihua seem to finally react. She first gave the two an apologetic smile, then was pulled by her older sister to the front of the cashier.
Watching their retreating figures, Ling Xiaoyou understood that after what just happened, the following interaction would indeed become very stiff, so leaving was indeed a good choice. But this was too decisive!
‘I feel like you left in a hurry because you were worried I’d show the chat log to Su Lihua?!’
‘Are you really a siscon?!’
Ling Xiaoyou vented fiercely in her heart, picking up the mocha in front of her to suppress the urge to say it out loud.
Suddenly, from the corner of her eye, she saw a slender figure hurriedly running past outside the glass window.
It was a young woman, looking to be in her early twenties. At this age, the prime of loving beauty, girls at this age would at least put on makeup to look pretty before going out.
But this woman looked haggard, with disheveled hair and somewhat messy clothes, completely not the proper attire for going out.
Moreover, her steps were very hurried, as if she wished she had a dozen more legs, as if something terrifying was chasing her from behind.
But these were not the main focus of Ling Xiaoyou’s attention. The main point was…
This woman had no shadow! And the surrounding pedestrians acted as if they couldn’t see her at all; even such a strange sight as her fleeing hurriedly right in front of them didn’t warrant a second glance.
Clearly, this young woman was a Ghost. That’s why she had no shadow and couldn’t be seen by the people around her.
Ling Xiaoyou scratched her little head in confusion, not understanding why this Ghost was running away.
‘Was she being chased because of debt?’
Before she could think of an answer, she then saw a group of burly men in suits pushing through the crowd, chasing after the direction the female Ghost had fled.
‘Whoa, it really is debt collectors?!’
Seeing this scene, Ling Xiaoyou instinctively thought this, quickly taking a sip of mocha to express her surprise, not expecting she had actually guessed right.
Just as she was really thinking this, she heard Bai Shuanglian’s voice come from beside her.
“The ones who just ran past… seem to be demons in disguise.”
“Huh?”
Ling Xiaoyou was stunned, dumbly looking at those black-suited men who could be said to be charging recklessly. She watched them ignore the complaints and curses from the crowd, relentlessly chasing after the direction the female Ghost had fled.
“Then let’s chase them! That’s definitely a clue related to some demon conspiracy!”
After saying that, Ling Xiaoyou directly stood up, grabbed Bai Shuanglian’s hand, ignored Su Lihua who was wondering why they were suddenly running off too, pushed open the shop door, and chased after the direction the demons had left.
“What are they going to do?”
Su Lihua withdrew her right hand that was about to wave goodbye, staring blankly at their retreating figures. Suddenly, she recalled the last words Ling Xiaoyou said before leaving—demons.
As if understanding something, she anxiously glanced at her older sister who was settling the bill, then looked in the direction the two had left.
Seeing their figures about to disappear, she gritted her teeth, stamped her foot, and used a previously prepared artifact for ‘Cicada Shedding Shell’ to break free from Su Taosheng’s grasp. She also pushed open the shop door and chased after the direction the two had left.
“Lihua, where else do you want to go later? If not, then we’ll head straight back to the hotel… Lihua?”
Su Taosheng finished paying the bill and was about to ask her younger sister when she suddenly found the space beside her empty, with only a glove identical to a hand remaining in her grasp.
She stood dazed for a moment, then as if understanding something, glanced in the direction where Ling Xiaoyou and the other had already disappeared.
She hurriedly put the glove into her Space Ring, dispelled the illusion barrier left by the artifact, and relying on the psychic connection between sisters, chased after the direction Su Lihua had gone.