Chapter 46: A Child’s Happiness Matters Most

“Where are you planning to move?” Su Liumeng asked casually, as if it were just small talk.

“To a small apartment near the school.”

Of course I could tell what she was really trying to say.

“I can take care of you,” Su Liumeng said, her big eyes staring straight at me without blinking.

“Besides, I can cook.”

“You’re pregnant now. You can’t just keep eating out or ordering takeout every day.”

“In the future, once your belly starts to show, you’ll have a harder time getting around. You’ll need someone to look after you, both before and after.”

“Living together isn’t appropriate,” I replied succinctly.

Su Liumeng: “…”

“How did I not realize you were this old-fashioned?”

“Sharing a place equals living together?”

“If that’s the case, then haven’t we already lived together before?”

Seeing that I wasn’t responding, Su Liumeng sped up and stepped in front of me, blocking my way.

With hands on her hips and an indignant expression, the young lady stared at me and dropped a bombshell:

“Don’t forget, Miss Si—we’ve even shared the same bed before.”

Around us, quite a few nosy classmates abruptly stopped in their tracks, waiting eagerly for the juicy gossip to unfold.

Distant memories long buried began flooding back into my mind.

Noticing the curious stares around me, my face turned beet red in an instant.

“That was when we were kids! We weren’t even twelve back then.”

“Don’t say things that can be so easily misunderstood!” I was starting to panic.

Lowering my head, I grabbed Su Liumeng’s arm and dragged her into a secluded area behind the artificial rockery.

A sly, satisfied smile flashed across Su Liumeng’s face.

She wasn’t lying.

Back when I’d first been taken in by the Su family, there was one time during a thunderstorm when we had, in fact, shared a bed.

“It’s different now.” I pursed my lips and tried to explain.

“What’s different?” Su Liumeng asked, hands clasped behind her back, smiling sweetly at me.

She had figured it out—someone’s face was very, very thin-skinned.

The kind that just got cuter the more you teased her.

“Back then, we were just maybe-family in the future. Now… you’re trying to date me.”

I turned my head away, and after a moment, squeezed the words out.

“So obviously, it’s different.”

Living together before dating didn’t sit right with my values.

If I passed the Fifth Trial and was officially granted the family name, I might really become family with Su Liumeng.

But now… everything’s different.

I couldn’t say which version was better—what mattered was that this felt more comfortable.

That’s the most important thing.

“In the end, you’re just old-fashioned,” Su Liumeng said with a grin.

“Are you afraid I’ll sneak into your bed at night and have my way with you?”

“You!?”

The provocation worked—I was the type who fell for it every time.

“Who’s going to have their way with who, huh? That’s still up for debate!”

“Ooh~” Su Liumeng’s voice suddenly turned sultry and teasing, like molten syrup.

“If it’s you, Xiao Yan, then however you want to ‘devour’ me… I’m all yours.”

“…”

I’ve realized something—once a person throws away all sense of shame, there’s absolutely no winning an argument with them.

Who could possibly get the upper hand over a flirt like her?!

I stopped replying and just kept my head down, walking forward.

But just as I took a few steps, a certain milk-dumpling’s grumbling complaint hit my ears—and I stumbled hard, almost planting my face into the ground.

“Disgraceful!”

“Can’t you win just once?”

*****

On the rooftop of Beiqing University Library

A black-robed figure stood overlooking the noise below.

Her robe fluttered in the wind.

Her vacant, lost expression carried a tinge of desolation.

“All of this…”

“Did I really do all this?”

Su Yi stared blankly at her palm, fingers already trembling.

“I’ve told you—no matter what, you and I are the same person.”

Qing Yi’s eerie, cackling voice echoed madly in her mind.

Su Yi clutched her head in pain, her usually cold voice rising into a strained cry.

“No! These… these weren’t done by me!”

“It was you.”

“You’re the one misleading me.”

“You—want to drag me down into hell.”

Her fingertips were already soaked in blood, and her hair was a wild, tangled mess.

She looked utterly defeated.

Fifteen minutes later—

She suddenly fell into silence.

Beneath a backdrop of drifting clouds, the girl’s motionless figure, half-kneeling on the ground, appeared especially eerie.

After a brief pause, she lifted her head—her eyes were already bloodshot.

“Si Xinyan.”

“A body of pure yin.”

The girl slowly stood up.

With a thud, her phone slipped from her hand and fell to the ground.

The screen, still lit, displayed a conversation from WeChat:

[I found some intimate photos of Si Xinyan and her ex-boyfriend in her locker.]

[Not files, just pictures.]

[North Campus, Peach Blossom Grove, 12:15 PM. Don’t be late.]

*****

Fifth floor of a teaching building near the North Campus.

Behind a window, two slender figures stood quietly, using the curtain as cover while they observed the peach grove below.

“Will the person behind all this fall for it?”

Su Liumeng was silent for a moment, then murmured, “Hard to say.”

“If it’s Su Yi, then definitely.”

“Sufficient greed can devour anyone’s wisdom.”

“But if it’s someone else, and they take a more cautious approach—like getting someone else to pick up the item, or using some roundabout method to avoid appearing at the scene—then over a longer timeline, it’s much easier to spot inconsistencies.”

My head was starting to ache.

She was talking too much. I needed a while to process all of it.

“Didn’t catch that?”

My dazed, slightly blank expression made Su Liumeng’s eyes widen in disbelief.

“Never mind.”

She patted my shoulder and let out a faint sigh.

Maybe it was because my confused expression looked too earnest, but Su Liumeng suddenly deflated.

She reached out and gently rubbed my head.

“You just need to follow my lead and make up the numbers.”

Am I some kind of mascot?

A decorative vase or something?

Isn’t it possible that your explanation was just way too fast, and I didn’t catch any of it?

I gave her a complicated look but said nothing.

Su Liumeng turned back to me.

“Why aren’t you bantering with me today?”

I curled my lips.

Returning the same look Su Liumeng had once given me, I said, “Trying to prove your innocence is the dumbest thing of all.”

It’s not like I hold grudges or anything.

Su Liumeng gasped dramatically.

This had nothing to do with the saying “pregnancy makes you dumb for three years.”

A giant question mark suddenly popped up in her mind.

So… was Si Xinyan’s brain completely unaffected by pregnancy?

I had always known that when Su Liumeng was with me, she would constantly find things to talk about.

She just wanted to speak with me a little more, that’s all.

The future, life, adversity…

Just like countless youths who, after laughing and arguing, would suddenly fall into a moment of confusion and uncertainty.

“Hey.”

Su Liumeng reached out her tiny hand and waved it in front of me.

“Let’s go. What are you spacing out for?”

“Don’t tell me you’re overthinking things again.”

At that moment, the antique clock on the wall struck exactly twelve o’clock.

My train of thought was interrupted—I really had been overly emotional lately.

I took a deep breath, let my eyes soften a little, and followed her down the stairs.

“Once we catch her, what do you plan to do?”

Su Liumeng suddenly asked.

I remained silent, but the ghost infant in my sea of consciousness had already clenched her tiny fists and replied in a soft, childish voice:

“Kill her. Kill her.”

“Must kill.”

Unfortunately, only I could hear her adorably sinister voice.

As I listened to her, I blurted out almost unconsciously, “Kill her?”

Su Liumeng froze, then gave me a very complicated look.

“Sure. I respect that. As expected of someone from the Su family.”

I really wanted to say I wasn’t actually that cruel.

But the ghost baby’s excited little voice made me swallow all of it back down.

“Hehe.”

“You evil rascal. You do care about me, after all.”

Sigh.

As long as the child’s happy, that’s what matters most.

Trying to talk about law with a ghost is like playing music to a cow.

Likewise, if someone pisses off a ghost and ends up getting killed by her, what does that have to do with me, Si Xinyan—or the law?

Once the ghost baby was in a good mood, her words started to match my desires.

She patted her tiny chest and promised me solemnly:

“Why hesitate?”

“No need to hesitate.”

“As long as you raise this Ghost Queen properly, everything you want will be yours.”

She had originally thought…

That evil rascal didn’t want to talk to her anymore.