Chapter 98: Is the Fourth Floor Haunted?

Song Mingcheng let out a cold laugh. “I just want you to know: as long as I’m here, you can stop trying to scheme about her, and don’t think you can get anyone else to do it either—because I won’t allow it!”

“How I treat her is none of your business. What right do you have to criticize me?” Lin Feng retorted angrily. “If it weren’t for you, maybe I—”

“Maybe you could have had your cake and eaten it too—especially after you heard Ren Jiaxuan was interested in her! Lin Feng, don’t you think you’re being selfish?” Song Mingcheng replied evenly. “When no one competes, she means nothing to you. The moment someone else comes along, she becomes a treasure. I know you too well.”

“Fine, think what you want. But let me warn you, Ren Jiaxuan isn’t as easygoing as I am. If you two run into him tonight, he won’t just let it go. You’d better go find him and explain, so Yan Yan doesn’t get dragged into trouble.” Lin Feng’s voice was icy.

Song Mingcheng merely smiled with indifference. “Don’t worry, she can handle it herself.” He thought to himself, if a woman in her thirties can’t even pacify a teenage boy, she must be hopelessly dense.

Just then, the phone rang. Lin Feng got up to answer it, and Gu Xiaohan’s voice came through, “Hello, could you get Song Mingcheng for me?”

“Hold on a second.” Lin Feng put the call on speaker and handed the receiver to Song Mingcheng, who asked, “Hello? What is it?”

“Song Mingcheng? Did something really haunt Yan Yan on the fourth floor just now? Oh my god, that’s terrifying! Are you okay? What did the ghost look like? Did you see it?” Gu Xiaohan exclaimed dramatically.

“Uh… What? Where’s Dong Yan Yan?” Song Mingcheng asked, completely bewildered.

“Fourth Sister took her to the sink to wash her face—she was so scared she’s been crying like a red-eyed rat,” Gu Xiaohan said.

“I see.” Song Mingcheng frowned, slammed the phone down, and hurried out, with Lin Feng following anxiously.

Song Mingcheng rushed to knock at the door of Dorm 501. He was met by He Jingxuan, who clenched his fists and sneered coldly. “Song Mingcheng, I was just about to look for you! Come in! You too, Lin Feng.”

The two of them entered the room, nerves on edge. The door slammed shut behind them. Song Mingcheng immediately noticed Ren Jiaxuan standing by the window, a bandage wrapped around his head, glaring at him with obvious hostility. Relief washed over Song Mingcheng, and then he couldn’t help bursting into laughter. “That woman is something else—if she was just after his looks, she could’ve let it go, but she left him with a huge lump on his head!”

“Song Mingcheng, you—”

“Calm down, let me explain. It’s all a misunderstanding—just a misunderstanding.” Song Mingcheng replied with good humor.

*

Room 103 was fraught with awkwardness. Dong Yan Yan was crying while Xiaohan and Leng Yue tried to comfort her. Unexpectedly, Yu Xia and Liu Ying were cold and indifferent, not even acknowledging her. The lights went out at eleven, and Tiantian came running down from upstairs, cheerfully stuffing her headphones into Dong Yan Yan’s ears. “Ren Jiaxuan requested a song for you—listen!”

The moment Dong Yan Yan heard Ren Jiaxuan’s name, it was like an explosion went off in her head. She immediately flung the Walkman to the floor, and it shattered with a loud crash. Pieces of the Walkman scattered, and Tiantian, startled, pouted in annoyance. “Sister, why would you do that?”

Dong Yan Yan was shaken herself, and quickly apologized, “I’m sorry, Tiantian, I didn’t mean to. I’ll buy you a new one tomorrow.”

“Fifth Sister, are you okay? What happened?” Tiantian asked with concern, staring at her red eyes.

“It’s nothing. Just the more you walk at night, the more likely you are to run into ghosts. Lights are out—go wash up and sleep.” Dong Yan Yan didn’t have the energy for further conversation. With a sigh, she climbed into bed and pulled the covers over her head.

Yu Xia quickly tuned the radio to the traffic arts station, then sat up and asked in confusion, “Fifth Sis, did you two have a fight? Ren Jiaxuan is apologizing to you!”

Dong Yan Yan gave no reply, burying herself in sleep.

First, she’d reunited with Song Mingcheng, then had a falling out with Ren Jiaxuan—it was a night of highs and lows, and she was utterly exhausted.

*

As expected, when she went out to deliver newspapers in the morning, Song Mingcheng was there.

“I knew you’d come today. Good, I always feel bad making Xu Cheng do this alone.” Dong Yan Yan smiled weakly.

Song Mingcheng feigned displeasure. “So you feel bad for me, but not your husband? The treatment is worlds apart.”

“That’s all in the past, don’t bring it up—I don’t want to hear it. If you think it’s too much trouble, go back to sleep. I’m not begging you.” Dong Yan Yan pushed her bicycle onto the road, speaking carelessly. Seeing it was still early, Song Mingcheng also wheeled his bicycle alongside hers, keeping pace.

“I was only joking; why take it so seriously? Xiaohan told me you cried half the night yesterday. I thought you wouldn’t make it this morning.” He sounded a bit apologetic. “Last night, it was my fault. I should’ve explained things before I left—then maybe there wouldn’t have been all that chaos.”

“It’s all right. I only lost a man—I’ll just find another one.” Dong Yan Yan pursed her lips with a smile.

“Don’t say that. I explained everything to him last night—I made up a really good story, and he believed it. He even wants to apologize to you,” Song Mingcheng said with a grin.

“Oh? What did you say?” Dong Yan Yan asked, smiling.

“I told him how we grew up together, but my family moved away and we hadn’t seen each other in years. Suddenly, we end up at the same school and for half a year didn’t recognize each other, so when we finally did, it was emotional. I even told him that my Seventh Great Uncle doted on you when we were little, and you were so sad because you heard he’d passed away. Seeing you cry made me remember my uncle, so I got emotional too… He seemed to understand,” Song Mingcheng recounted nonchalantly.

Dong Yan Yan shook her head with a wry smile. “You can lie without blinking. Seventh Great Uncle—how did you even come up with that?”

“We’re adults. Who blushes over a little lie?” Song Mingcheng laughed. “Last night—nothing happened to you, right?”

At the mention, Dong Yan Yan felt a lingering fear. She didn’t understand why—a woman in her thirties, who’d seen all sorts of things, and yet she was still afraid of this sort of thing. Ever since she returned to this body, she was even more afraid of harm. She was no longer that naïve, timid girl; her mindset had changed, and she would never let herself suffer even the slightest loss.

“No. Just realized this man isn’t right for me. A man being a little lustful or bad-tempered is nothing, but lustful and violent? I can’t handle it.” Dong Yan Yan sighed softly, a bit regretful. After all, he was such an excellent young man, someone she could talk and joke with—how could he suddenly become someone she didn’t recognize? She forced herself not to dwell on it; the more she thought, the more it hurt.

Song Mingcheng couldn’t help but laugh again. “You have the nerve to call him lustful and violent? Who’s the one always taking advantage? Who wants to flirt with every handsome guy? He offers himself to you and you smash his head open, made him bleed, and you’re the one aggrieved? At your age, is that the best you can do? Xu Cheng has spoiled you—your temper’s grown but your brains haven’t. Ren Jiaxuan, after searching for you all over last night, finally found you with me. Honestly, anyone would be angry. And since I’m the class heartthrob, it’s normal he’d be jealous. I thought you’d just coax him a little and it’d be fine. Instead, you made him angry and hit him too. The fact that he wants to apologize is already pretty good. What more do you want?”

Dong Yan Yan remained silent, a bitter smile on her lips. Thinking back, she still felt a chill. If she hadn’t reacted quickly, she might have become the victim of a violent incident. No girl can stay calm after something like that; as long as nothing happened, it was all right, but if something did, crying would come too late. Yet she couldn’t say this to Song Mingcheng. No matter how close they were, some things were too personal to discuss.

“So now it’s all my fault? But did he give me a chance to coax him? He exploded right away! Enough, I don’t want to talk about it. Mind your own business—you just make things worse!” she replied irritably.

“All right, my fault. After we finish delivering newspapers, breakfast is on me!” Song Mingcheng said cheerfully.

“At least you have a bit of conscience left. I’m freezing and starving,” Dong Yan Yan replied with a wry smile.

After delivering the newspapers and eating breakfast, Dong Yan Yan remembered she needed to buy Tiantian a new Walkman—the last one had been raffled off, He Jingxuan bought her another, but she barely had it before Dong Yan Yan smashed it. She had to get another to make it up to her.

By half past eight, the nearby mall had opened. After freezing outside for a while, Dong Yan Yan and Song Mingcheng hurried to the second floor’s music section. The stall owner’s wife greeted them warmly as they approached.

“Auntie, I want a Walkman—the kind with radio and tape player, in silver,” Dong Yan Yan said, gesturing.

“Yes, yes!” The owner’s wife took out a silver Walkman from behind the counter. “Child, buy this one—it’s our best seller these days!”

Dong Yan Yan saw that it was exactly like Tiantian’s. She’d already bought three of these recently—no wonder they sold well.

“All right, I’ll take it. How much?”

“One eighty, but since you’re my first customer this morning, one sixty!” the owner’s wife replied with a smile.

“Eighty. Auntie, all my classmates have bought several already, and that’s the usual price,” Dong Yan Yan bargained with a grin.

The owner’s wife hesitated, then put the Walkman in its box and handed it over, grumbling a little, “You students really know how to haggle—I’m barely making anything. Here you go, come back if you need anything else!”

“Thank you!” Dong Yan Yan paid cheerfully.