Through a long corridor, a group of people came to the divination room.
The divination room was dimly lit, creating just the right atmosphere. A woman wearing a witch's robe sat at the table, with messy hair, dark eye makeup, and lazily flipping through tarot cards. "Please take a seat," she said languidly.
Lin ChuSui glanced down and saw she was wearing flip-flops under the table.
Noticing Lin ChuSui's gaze, the fortune teller tucked in her legs and said, "You can call me Katherine."
Looking at her emerald green eyes, Lin ChuSui asked, "Are you a Western witch?"
"Obviously," Katherine replied as she flipped over an hourglass. "You can ask me anything - about relationships, studies, work..."
Lin ChuSui sat down opposite her and lowered her voice to ask, "First question - do you believe there are ghosts in this world?"
Katherine smiled faintly, "There are no ghosts in this world, but there are ghosts in people's hearts."
After saying this, she glanced over the row of people Lu Chi had brought, her gaze finally settling intently on Xiao Yan. Her rouged lips parted lightly, "Ghosts exist together with human desires."
Xiao Yan looked away, avoiding her gaze.
Lin ChuSui whispered to Lu Chi, "She sounds quite professional!"
Lu Chi nodded in agreement, "Yes, very profound!"
Katherine retracted her gaze and placed the tarot cards on the table. "I only do readings for two people at a time. Who wants their fortune told?"
Lin ChuSui quickly pulled Xiao Yan over to sit down, "Do ours! Or rather, do his!"
Xiao Yan turned to Lin ChuSui, "Why mine?"
"Don't you want to know your future? Like whether you can get into college."
Xiao Yan retorted, "Does that need divining?"
"In front of all these academic slackers, shouldn't you try to be a little more modest, Mr. Top Student?"
Katherine looked them over and seemed to grasp the situation. She said, "Let me tell your relationship fortune instead."
Lin ChuSui quickly agreed, "Yes, do that!"
"Put your hands on the table, left for the man, right for the woman."
Lin ChuSui obediently put out her hand. Xiao Yan wasn't too happy about it, but seeing her enthusiasm, he also rolled up his sleeve and held out his hand.
There's no harm in comparison. Next to his fair, slender fingers, Lin ChuSui's pudgy little claws...were totally outclassed.
Just as Lin ChuSui was about to self-consciously withdraw her hand, Katherine suddenly grabbed Xiao Yan's hand and placed it on top of hers.
Lin ChuSui's heart jolted as if electrified. She was about to pull back when Katherine said, "Don't move! It's coming..."
Puzzled, Lin ChuSui watched as she stared intently into her crystal ball, murmuring incantations.
This was the longest minute in Lin ChuSui's life so far.
She felt Xiao Yan's rough palm lightly covering her hand. His warmth made her ears flush red.
If this had happened before, Xiao Yan would have lost patience with such silliness long ago.
Yet now, he was calmly playing along.
His hand gently clasped hers.
Natural yet discreet.
"It's here!" Katherine exclaimed. "You two...have a profound and complex bond!"
"Really?" Lin ChuSui quickly asked, "Tell us more!"
"You're fated, but you'll face many trials before achieving a happy outcome. So you must persevere."
Lin ChuSui was confused, "That's it?"
"Yes."
Lu Chi murmured in awe, "So accurate!"
Lin ChuSui questioned, "What was accurate?"
She had no doubt that if it was her and Xu Jia Ning sitting here today, this Katherine wouldn't have changed a word of her spiel.
Unwilling to let her consultation fee go to waste, Lin ChuSui asked again, "What else can you tell about him, like his face reading?"
Katherine scrutinized Xiao Yan again before concluding, "He's plagued by peach blossom luck. Many girls must be chasing him."
Lu Chi exclaimed, "So true! Wow, she's amazing!"
Lin ChuSui: ...
With Xiao Yan's looks, wasn't it obvious?
Suppressing her frustration, she persisted, "Tell us more."
Seeing she was unconvinced, Katherine directly asked, "What is it you really want to know?"
Lin ChuSui glanced at Xiao Yan, then whispered to Katherine, "I want to know if he's possessed. We played Spirit of the Pen
before and it didn't leave. Strange things have happened since."
Hearing this, Katherine first shuddered, knocking over the hourglass on the table. "Oh my god, don't scare me!"
Lin ChuSui: ...
Yup, just a fraudster.
Even more useless than a quack.
...
Lin ChuSui pulled Xiao Yan along as she left the Paranormal Research Center. She turned back to Zhang Cheng Yu, "Some fortune teller she is, daring to charge 500 yuan for a consultation! No professional ethics whatsoever. Even I could do a better witch costume than flip-flops."
Zhang Cheng Yu helplessly replied, "They're an internet celebrity shop, with great reviews online."
"It's all marketing!"
Lin ChuSui was very disappointed. Not only did they waste money, but Xiao Yan had refused the university's offer to come today, only to get this kind of result...
Xu Jia Ning said, "Instead of going through all that, you should just ask him directly."
Embarrassed, Lin ChuSui peeked at Xiao Yan but couldn't bring herself to say anything. Stomping her feet in frustration, she left.
"Hey, where are you running off to?"
"Lin ChuSui, come back! Coward!"
Watching her figure disappear, Xiao Yan's eyes darkened.
Ever since they entered the Paranormal Research Center, he had guessed what these people were up to with their little "scheme."
But even knowing, he had to pretend he didn't.
Those were the rules of the game. He couldn't tell.
If Lin ChuSui discovered her father was still alive, she might...never recover.
Unless Xiao Yan willingly gave up his body for Lin Xiu Ze to be reborn.
Otherwise, he absolutely could not let her know that in a certain sense, Lin Xiu Ze lived on inside him.
...
Lin ChuSui crouched alone in the bathroom, burying her face in her knees.
Xu Jia Ning chased after Lin ChuSui and said helplessly, "You coward, why'd you run off!"
"I am a coward! A big coward!" Lin ChuSui cried out uncontrollably. "I don't dare ask. I'm afraid he'll say yes, and even more afraid he'll say no. I'm afraid Dad will see what I've become, yet I'm even more afraid Dad really left forever."
Tears rolled down her cheeks and she scrubbed them away harshly, "I'm a coward! No courage, no confidence, I'll never get better!"
Xu Jia Ning's heart instantly softened. He finally understood why the Lu siblings were so against him bringing up anything about her father again.
He had watched her slowly emerge from the shadows of the past these days.
Yet with his meddling, her old wounds had reopened.
Filled with guilt and distress, Xu Jia Ning crouched down and gently hugged her, clumsily trying to comfort her, "There, there, don't cry."
She cried even harder with someone so gentle consoling her, and got snot all over Xu Jia Ning's shoulder.
"Ew, gross."
Xu Jia Ning wanted to push her away but she clung tightly to his clothes. "Brother, just tell me if it's really him or not."
Hearing her call him "brother", Xu Jia Ning's heart melted completely.
"I don't know, but...he's decent to you."
"It's like knowing fortune-telling is fake, yet still hoping against hope. I know Dad is gone and Xiao Yan is Xiao Yan. He can't possibly be Dad. But part of me still wants to believe that night we played Spirit of the Pen...Dad really came back."
"Let's not talk about this anymore," Xu Jia Ning murmured. "You like Xiao Yan, right? Just let him take you to movies and dinner. Let's have some fun."
Lin ChuSui nodded slightly then immediately denied, "Who says I like him?"
Xu Jia Ning wiped away Lin Chu Sui's tear stains with his palm and pulled her up, "Alright, high school seniors don't get many chances to go out and have fun like this, don't waste time hiding here."
Lin Chu Sui looked at Xu Jia Ning and said in a husky, tearful voice, "You're a good brother."
Xu Jia Ning rarely saw her so gentle and obedient, and laughed, "You're just realizing that now?"
...
Outside the movie theater, Xiao Yan bought popcorn, but the movie hadn't even started yet when Zhang Cheng Yu and Lu Chi had already eaten over half of it.
Helpless, he bought another box.
This time, in order to protect the popcorn, he stood alone at the entrance, maintaining a safe distance of 4-5 meters from those two big eaters.
Xu Jia Ning brought Lin Chu Sui back to the movie theater. Everyone tacitly ignored Lin Chu Sui's red eyes without asking too many questions.
Lu Chi waved his hand, "The movie's about to start! We've been waiting for you to get the tickets!"
Lin Chu Sui walked up to Xiao Yan and awkwardly said, "Sorry, I just had to urgently use the bathroom..."
"Oh," Xiao Yan wiped away the tear stains at the corner of her eye, "Constipated? You cried so much your tears came out."
"..."
The guilt dissipated instantly. Lin Chu Sui pushed him, "You're the constipated one! Your whole family is constipated!"
Xu Jia Ning immediately corrected her, "Just curse him alone, don't bring his family into it."
Everyone entered the movie theater and sat in the last row.
Xiao Yan and Lin Chu Sui sat on the very edge. Xiao Yan passed her the popcorn he had been hiding for so long.
Lin Chu Sui was slightly surprised, "For me to eat?"
"Mm," Xiao Yan said.
"I saw you hiding and covering it just now, I thought you were going to take it home as a midnight snack, afraid I would snatch it away."
"I bought it just for you," Xiao Yan said helplessly, "You and your friends are reincarnated hungry ghosts, no matter how much I buy, you all eat it up. This one is...quite expensive."
Movie theater popcorn is quite expensive.
Lin Chu Sui knew every cent Xiao Yan had was hard-earned.
In this regard, although Lin Chu Sui was well off, she was spending her mother's money. Compared to him, she fell far short.
"Let's not bring them along in the future," she said softly. "That way you won't have to buy them popcorn."
The corners of Xiao Yan's mouth quirked up slightly as he murmured, "Okay."
Lin Chu Sui ate a crispy popcorn and then passed one to Xiao Yan, "You have some too."
"Mm."
Xiao Yan naturally took the popcorn from her fingers with his lips.
His warm lips lightly grazed her fingertips, sending another tingle down Lin Chu Sui's spine. She turned her head to look at Xiao Yan.
His side profile was elegant, his features sharp and distinct, his eyes reflecting the movie screen lights.
Earlier, he had also eaten pistachios from her hand like this.
Lin Chu Sui had always felt only very intimate, very close relationships would eat food from each other's hands.
Did he see their relationship as the intimate kind?
To test this, she passed him another popcorn.
Sure enough, he lowered his head to take it again.
This time, Lin Chu Sui pulled back, "Don't you have hands?!"
Xiao Yan finally tore his gaze from the movie screen to look at her in confusion.
"I'm giving it to you, not feeding you!"
Xiao Yan reacted after a moment―
"Oh."
A few minutes later, he picked up a popcorn and held it out to her, "It's not for you."
"?"
"I'm feeding you."
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