Chapter 88 She Thinks So Too
After hearing Luxianbei’s request, Professor Ma briefly thought about kicking her out.
Just thinking about the girl in front of him, his chatty student Luxianbei, made him uneasy.
But through his fingers, looking at her face, Professor Ma felt a little reluctant to just throw her out like that.
Who doesn’t like a girl as cute as her?
If only she wouldn’t talk.
After pondering for a moment, Professor Ma straightened up and said seriously, “Are you really Luxianbei? Have you really contracted Nightfall Syndrome?”
“Yes, professor, it’s all true,” Luxianbei replied, nodding her little head vigorously.
“Alright, I can temporarily help you keep it a secret.” After staring at Luxianbei for a few seconds, Professor Ma conceded, a strange smile creeping up the corners of his mouth. “But…”
“But?”
Hearing the sudden change in Professor Ma’s tone, Luxianbei’s heart dropped, and she squinted her eyes, examining Professor Ma suspiciously, feeling like something bad was about to happen. She unconsciously clenched her collar tighter, wrapping her coat around herself more securely.
That old man, he doesn’t have any strange intentions, does he? Like trying to pull off something inappropriate?
I absolutely cannot agree to that! Luxianbei thought. Water Brother has a saying that I completely agree with: a person can lower their moral standards, but they can’t have no standards at all!
…
A few minutes later.
At Huacheng University, on a secluded path leading outside the school.
A girl was walking forward expressionlessly, her gaze wandering, as if her mind was a bit short-circuited.
She wore a deep blue silk-buttoned jacket and linen cropped pants, the style looking quite characteristic of the southwestern minority people.
The girl was Luxianbei, and the clothes she wore were provided by Professor Ma. These were items that Professor Ma had his students replicate based on a special text about fabric dyeing; they had been stored in the storage room.
When they were made, it was meant only for research, and to save materials, the student made them slightly smaller. Unexpectedly, Professor Ma took them out today for Luxianbei to wear, and they fit surprisingly well.
What puzzled Luxianbei even more was whether it was due to consuming the core essence of Pharaoh and others in the urban legends, but her internal powers had become more stable.
After her transformation into an urban legend, wearing the clothes again, although there were strange sensations where the clothing rubbed against certain areas, she still felt embarrassed, but her body temperature did not rise uncontrollably.
Being able to wear clothes normally was an unexpected discovery, wasn’t it?
But…
What exactly was Professor Ma thinking? Luxianbei pondered.
She had made a deal with Professor Ma a few minutes ago, but she still hadn’t come to terms with his divine actions.
…
“You are my student, and it’s only natural for me to protect your interests, so don’t try to act all cute around me. It makes me uncomfortable; I’m old, my heart can’t take it.”
Professor Ma said to Luxianbei, and she felt a rush of joy in her heart. However, before she could thank him, she froze at his next words.
“We won’t discuss that now. Let me ask you, why haven’t you submitted your little paper yet?”
“I haven’t…”
“Not finished? Well, no need to rush; change it into a standard paper and turn it in to me next week.”
Luxianbei, “…” That’s not a big deal anyway, since I have Jumang at home, no, Jumeng herself! I can just ask her to submit a self-report or something, and consider it my rent.
“Once you finish it, I’ll assign you a new topic. Don’t you love studying? I particularly like students who are keen on learning; I will do my best to help you study well!”
Luxianbei, “???”
Just that?!
With such a beautiful girl in front of you, why not use some sweet talk and take advantage of the situation? Assigning extra homework is nothing a real man would do!
After hearing Professor Ma’s words, Luxianbei thought of a joke circulating on the internet.
It was said that a middle school student, nearby the opening of a semester, took a large sum of New Year’s money to a certain venue, called five young ladies at once, specifying that he wanted college girls.
After calling the young ladies over, he did nothing but hand each of them a stack of winter vacation homework and made them write all night.
Luxianbei felt that Professor Ma’s behavior resembled that of the boy in the joke; it was simply too maliciously funny. The image of Professor Ma’s weird smile popped into her mind, making her shiver.
She had faced urban legends a few times, but never had she felt this scared, really.
…
At Huacheng University, there was a very secluded road whose name was unknown. Due to its proximity to Gate Four, students usually referred to it as the path to Gate Four.
The location of this path wasn’t particularly remote; when it was first built, it was one of the many shortcuts leading to the commercial street outside University City.
And a path can fall into disrepair for many reasons apart from its remote geographical position and age, one of which was… haunting.
Yes, the path to Gate Four was haunted.
On a night two or three years ago, a girl attending her boyfriend’s birthday party had a bit of a quarrel and left the gathering early. Facing a heavy rain, she returned to school alone, walking the path to Gate Four, only to have her head severed by some entity.
At the time, it was nearing midnight, and the road was deserted, so no one knew what had happened to her; only a security guard near the duty room heard a chilling scream.
When the security guard and his colleagues followed the sound to investigate, they found a headless corpse lying in a pool of bl**d.
The legend says that the reason the girl returned early was that she had discovered something indescribable between her best friend and her boyfriend at the party and, due to her tragic d*ath, harbored resentment, turning into an urban legend that haunts the area around the path to Gate Four.
Every night or on rainy days, people have claimed to see a girl holding a pink umbrella, shielding half her body, drifting like a lonely ghost, encountering those who walk alone…
“System, I feel like you keep following me; it’s impossible for that urban legend to attack me!” Gu Qiqi complained angrily while sitting on a bench near the path to Gate Four. “Didn’t it say in the rumors that only those who are alone will encounter it?”
Ever since Gu Qiqi entered Huacheng University, she has tried to walk the path to Gate Four every time she entered and left the campus.
Others feared encountering urban legends; she did not. For an urban legend of such middling power, she hoped to meet more of them to exchange them for campus card recharge limits with the system.
It must be said that, to some extent, Gu Qiqi had become a guardian of Huacheng University, for since her enrollment, the number of urban legend incidents had noticeably decreased.
“Complaining won’t help,” the system said.
What can be done? Have you ever seen a system that can act independently of its host?
Fine, there are indeed some, but those are because the host is exceptionally powerful and helps the system form a body at will.
You, Gu Qiqi, a stinky sister, have no idea how many hundreds of years it’ll take to reach that level.
While the system was secretly complaining, Gu Qiqi noticed a faint red thread, almost unnoticeable, seemingly growing from her flesh, and murmured, “System?”
“Yes?”
“Why did you have me embed the fragments I deducted from the bamboo slips into my flesh? Although I didn’t feel any pain, I’m still a bit worried about infection and pus.” Gu Qiqi said.
As a girl who had been wandering the streets since she was fourteen or fifteen, she was particularly worried about infections; she had seen many homeless people d*e from untreated wounds.
“What are you worried about?! I can definitely tell you that you will never have a chance to get infected in this lifetime,” the system said loudly in Gu Qiqi’s mind. “You can only establish a connection with the bamboo slips by embedding the fragments into your body, and when the night of the full moon comes, you will go to that place.”
“Uh…” Gu Qiqi pouted, “Speaking of which, since you mentioned it will be tight on time, why do you want me to actively participate in the student union’s school celebration organization? Isn’t that wasting time?”
“What do you know? I’m helping you create an alibi!” the system responded somewhat smugly.
“When the time comes, the bamboo slips will undoubtedly trigger a strong Spirit Energy Fluctuation, and Siye Society will soon investigate this matter. If you don’t have an alibi, do you want to be invited for tea?”
“Learn from this, stinky sister!”
“You make a good point, but if others see us before we enter the bamboo slips, wouldn’t that nullify our efforts?” Gu Qiqi asked sincerely.
“How could we be… Wait, this aura? How could this be? No good! Gu Qiqi, run!”
“Eh? What did you say?” Gu Qiqi was a bit stunned by the system’s sudden panic. Tilting her head, she saw a girl walking towards her from the other side of the path to Gate Four.
Gu Qiqi wasn’t worried about encountering an urban legend on the path to Gate Four. In fact, she hoped to strike it lucky and make some profit, so she often used this route to enter and exit the campus.
And Luxianbei had the same idea.
After her transformation into an urban legend, staying in Professor Ma’s research room was not a solution. If she were to be seen by someone, or if Li Xuan suddenly returned, it wouldn’t be easy to explain.
So, after a brief discussion with Professor Ma, Luxianbei decided to leave campus first, letting Professor Ma handle the related affairs at school.
By the way, when Professor Ma asked her when she could return to normal, she had a flash of inspiration. With a light bulb moment, she smoothly delayed the paper submission deadline by a week by saying, “At least three to five days.”
She didn’t want to say more about the time because she worried that too much time would lead her counselor to have a talk with her, and Professor Ma might not believe her.
To avoid being seen by too many people when leaving school, Luxianbei wound her way to the vicinity of the path to Gate Four, preparing to leave the campus from there.
However, she didn’t expect to run into Gu Qiqi here.
Seeing Gu Qiqi staring blankly from afar, Luxianbei frowned.
Why is she here? Does she usually use this route to enter and exit campus? No wonder I’ve never seen her around school.
While Luxianbei was thinking this, Gu Qiqi suddenly stood up, turned, and ran towards the school exit, her expression panicked as she glanced back at Luxianbei several times.
Luxianbei, “…” Why does she always run away when she sees me?
I have to catch up with her; I have so many questions to ask her!
Luxianbei thought, opening her mouth and shouting, “Stop! Don’t run!”
As soon as she spoke, Gu Qiqi slightly trembled and then ran even faster.
