Not long after sending the message, Cheng Orange replied with a “Coming soon.”
Shen Yao left a note, telling Aunt he was going out with Cheng Orange.
He pushed open the door; sunlight filled the little vegetable garden in front of the house.
Aunt would always plant some loofah, melons, or cilantro in the garden.
Every June or July, she’d make a loofah soup, and after a meal, serve a sweet, fresh melon, making it feel that coming to the human world was worth it, even if only for this.
Shen Yao, carrying the sneakers he’d managed to score from Big Dog Owner, stood in front of Cheng Orange’s house, hearing Cheng Cheng’s Mother call from inside,
“Cheng Orange, Shen Yao’s here! Hurry up, mushrooms are about to grow in the bathroom!”
“Mom! Do you have to yell so loud?!”
Shen Yao focused on his nose, his nose on his heart, pretending he hadn’t heard anything.
Before long, Cheng Orange came out, her face red. “Shen Yao, my mom’s voice is way too loud, I can’t stand her.”
Shen Yao handed over the shoebox. “For you.”
“What?” Cheng Orange opened the box. “Shoes?… These look expensive, I don’t want them. Return them, they’re too pricey.” As she spoke, she pushed the box back.
Shen Yao smiled. “The big spender paid.”
Cheng Orange’s eyes widened. “Qiao Yunxue paid for it? You used her money to buy me a gift… Won’t she mind?”
“Consider it the wages for working for her.”
Cheng Orange stopped refusing, took the shoebox from Shen Yao’s hands, and, almost reflexively, giggled twice. “Hehe.”
“What are you laughing at?”
“Hehe.” She wobbled her head and put on the new shoes. “They fit perfectly, thank you, Shen Yao.”
After speaking, she pulled Shen Yao along, skipping and hopping ahead, clearly overjoyed.
Shen Yao didn’t quite understand why girls got so happy over something like this. It was just a gift, was it really such a big deal? Didn’t they often exchange gifts anyway?
The two of them boarded the bus.
Cheng Orange turned her head and asked, “Shen Yao, what do you actually do for her?”
Shen Yao considered for a moment. He felt that hiding everything would only backfire.
“I help her with Ghost Catching. She really likes studying all sorts of supernatural things.”
Cheng Orange was incredulous. “So the rumors are true? Qiao Yunxue is kind of, kind of… uh…”
Shen Yao didn’t like speaking ill of people behind their backs. “Not at all. She’s perfectly sane, just lost her mother early, so she’s a bit obsessed with this stuff. Even though she’s rich, she’s probably more pitiful inside than most.”
Cheng Orange mused, “Really? Even rich people can be unhappy? Then how did you guys end up at the murderer’s hideout in the Yaoguang City Female Student Disappearance Case?”
“It’s a long story. Basically, we pick times and places with heavy yin energy to do Soul Summoning or similar rituals, and by a twist of fate, we ended up there.”
Cheng Orange got goosebumps. “That sounds creepy. Did you guys really see a ghost?”
Shen Yao hesitated a bit. “How could we? There are no such things as ghosts.” Strictly speaking, anomalies and ghosts in the traditional sense are two different things.
“Do you need my help?”
“No.” Shen Yao answered without thinking. “You really want to work for Qiao Yunxue? She’s not the easiest to get along with.”
Cheng Orange shook her head. “Forget it.”
She suddenly noticed Shen Yao’s body was tense, and couldn’t help but pinch his waist. “What’s wrong with you? Why are you so stiff?”
Shen Yao asked, “Do you have any water? I’m a little carsick.”
“Carsick?”
Shen Yao closed his eyes and pretended to nap.
In truth, he wasn’t carsick, it was his old problem acting up again.
The engine on these old buses was usually mounted to the right of the driver’s seat, and some passengers would even sit on the raised bump above it.
But ever since he was little, Shen Yao never wanted to sit there.
He was afraid that constantly shaking, ominously rumbling machine would explode.
Though, as his knowledge and experience grew, he understood that the chance of an explosion was almost zero, that fear had never really gone away.
Just now, he’d seen thick black smoke pour from where the engine was, but the driver acted as if nothing was wrong and kept driving.
He realized it was another hallucination.
Today was supposed to be a day to hang out with Cheng Orange, and he didn’t want to spoil it.
So he simply closed his eyes, telling himself that what the eye doesn’t see can’t bother the heart.
Sure enough, after resting his eyes for a while and opening them again, the strangeness in the bus was gone.
After they arrived in the city center and got off, Shen Yao finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Cheng Orange said with concern, “Let’s walk home later. It’s been a long time since we went for a walk.”
Shen Yao nodded, then pointed to a newly opened milk ice cream shop. “Let’s go. Haven’t you been talking about it for ages?”
Cheng Orange’s face lit up with joy.
That’s just how she was—her moods clear as day, rarely hiding them. Very rarely.
Shopping with Cheng Orange was never boring.
She always found something fun to do and never tired of it.
The Game Arcade near home, the PS2 Game Bar in the city center, the Toy Gun Shooting Range next to the Supermarket, and even the little street shop selling Pokémon Cards—her lively presence was everywhere, along with tales of her exploits.
It was said that in all of Yaoguang City, no fewer than three hundred kids had lost to her.
She had won countless Marbles, Glass Marbles, cards, Game Tokens, Plush Dolls, and even Meal Cards and Meal Tickets issued by the school.
After graduating junior high, she hid all those trophies somewhere.
Countless young kids searched for her treasure, believing that whoever found Cheng Orange’s buried haul would gain the highest honor among all of Yaoguang City’s elementary and middle schoolers.
Of course, those were just silly rumors.
The Cheng Orange Shen Yao knew was a cheerful, lovable, and warm-hearted girl.
Cheng Orange licked her ice cream and noticed Shen Yao’s was barely touched.
An idea popped into her mind. “Aren’t you going to eat yours? Let’s swap. I want to try the banana flavor.”
“But I’ve already bitten into it.”
“That’s nothing. We’ve even swapped clothes before.”
Cheng Orange exchanged the ice cream, pretending not to care as she took a small bite.
Then she peeked at Shen Yao out of the corner of her eye, finding he wasn’t paying attention, and a fleeting sense of secret joy and luck bubbled up inside her—something she herself didn’t even realize.
They strolled along.
A gust of wind blew a flyer into Cheng Orange’s hand.
“New amusement park opening… There’s a pirate ship and a roller coaster, Shen Yao, should we go?”
Cheng Orange asked excitedly. “With this flyer, we get half-price tickets. I want to ride the roller coaster.”
A roller coaster…
Shen Yao was a bit afraid of heights and always worried those things weren’t stable.
Plus, after being troubled by Urban Legend Syndrome lately, he really didn’t dare get on.
But seeing the hopeful look on Cheng Orange’s face, he couldn’t bear to refuse, so he nodded. “Just once.”
Cheng Orange grinned. “Are you afraid of heights? Remember back in sixth grade? You climbed onto the wall bars and got so scared you couldn’t get down. They had to get a security guard and a ladder to carry you down.”
Shen Yao was embarrassed. “You still remember that?”
Cheng Orange said, “Of course I do. At the time, I thought, if only I were a bit taller, we wouldn’t need to ask for help—I could protect you myself.”
Her voice grew softer and softer, so that only she could hear the end of her sentence.