Chapter 33 Whose family’s ghost came to scare her

At the last class in the afternoon, the shadow play troupe arrived at the school.

It was coincidentally self-revision time so there weren’t any teachers supervising them at the podium. Ning Meng sat near the window and although Shi Qi was just one seat between her and the window, she was still able to see them.

However, in order not to attract Shi Qi’s attention, she still used the corner of her eye to secretly shoot a glance at them.

Since third year class 1 was on the first floor, she was able to get a much better view of them.

Ning Meng could see that there were about 5 people altogether who were on the older side. One even had a crooked waist and a white beard.

Behind him was a very young man who looked to be only 15 or 16 years old. However, the dark bags under his eyes were quite profound, perhaps due to having stayed up all night.

Several students who sat by the windows saw them and whispered in discussion, “Are they the troupe members? They all look pretty old, don’t they have any successors?”

“Who else do you think is watching shadow plays? If it hadn’t been selected for UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage, no one would’ve continued doing this.”

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“Ebld usw pyu kv, kv pswdep pye, kv’p y osaj sq yav yqvla yzz. Ebld R oldv bsxl yde ypjle xu taydexsvbla, pbl pyke pbl zkjle oyvnbkdt pbyeso rzyup vbl xspv obld pbl oyp uswdt, kv oyp lprlnkyzzu qwd qsa bla.”

“Fktb. Rv’p dsv sdzu pbyeso rzyup, svbla vayekvksdp yal pzsozu rbypkdt swv.”

“…..”

G psqv ekpnwppksd qzsyvle kdvs Lkdt Yldt’p lyap. Fbl vkzvle bla blye, oyvnbkdt Fbk Ck yzps pvyal yv vbl taswr sq rlsrzl clzso.

Vlabyrp clnywpl pbl bye clld pvyakdt qsa vss zsdt, bla elpjxyvl pweeldzu vwadle bkp blye.

Fbk Ck pvyale yv bla qsa y obkzl clqsal ypjkdt, “Tso zsdt byhl usw clld zkhkdt blal qsa?”

Lkdt Yldt nswzed’v alynv qsa y xsxldv clqsal alprsdekdt, “17 ulyap.”

Gnnsaekdt vs bla xlxsaklp, Lkdt Lkdt oyp 17 ulyap sze vseyu yde bye dlhla tsdl swv sq Zydfkdt Ukvu, ps vblal oyp ds xkpvyjl vbyv pbl oyp 17 ulyap sze.

She didn’t expect, however, that after she finished her words, Shi Qi would suddenly snort coldly and turned his head away, writing on his paper, and not minding her any longer.

Ning Meng, “…..” How strange.

She subconsciously reached a hand out to stroke him but in the end, she managed to catch herself in the process of doing so and quickly retracted her hand, thinking to herself that that was a close call.

What was going on with the brat. He was as disagreeable as he was when he was a quiet kid and even refused to tell her the reason, making her feel anxious.

She should have made him spill the reason no matter what.

After Shi Qi snorted coldly at her, he regretted it.

What he truly wanted to ask was, Why did you possess another body? Was it you who possessed my grandmother’s body in the beginning?

Also, what happened that day…..

After pondering for a while, he still couldn’t continue writing on his mock paper, so using the book that was standing up on his desk as a cover, he secretly watched her.

It was just as he observed before. The body of his deskmate was controlled by the young figure, her every word and action no different to before.

He could still deeply remember her almost spitting out the words “Call me grandma’ and was even more ascertain that his guesses weren’t wrong.

He might not have seen her face back then but her silhouette, words and actions were enough to solidify his assurance.

Her earlier action of trying to stroke his head was something only that stray ghost loved to do, and the angle she did it at was precisely the same to the finest details. It was not something anyone could do.

Thinking of the little weasel in his home, he narrowed his eyes.

The weasel’s nose was as capable as any other animals. Moreover, Little Yellow wasn’t any ordinary weasel, it could even have its own judgement.

If there were any opportunities that presented itself, he was going to put his conjectures to the test..

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*  *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*  *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

It had been decided that tonight’s revision time was going to be used to watch the shadow play performance.

Even the teachers had specially assigned a little less homework as they all waited patiently during the first night of revision.

However, in the end, the notice didn’t come and the teacher-in-charge eventually announced that the play was cancelled.

At once, the entire class went into uproar.

“Why was it cancelled? Was this the school’s fault?”

“I was preparing to snap a few photos to share with my friends, now I can’t even do that anymore.”

“Didn’t some people come in the afternoon? Why was it suddenly cancelled?”

Though the classroom was a bit rowdy, Chen Yan stood expressionlessly on the podium and soon, all the voices died down, eventually turning into absolute silence.

Chen Yan then started to explain, “I got to know from the director that due to a problem that had cropped up during character cutting in the shadow play troupe, they would need to make revisions and reworking, so the performance is going to be postponed to the end of this month, everyone need not fret, they’ll be living on campus temporarily for now. If you have anything you’re curious about, you can go over and ask them yourselves, just make sure not to disturb them too much.”

As soon as the last words were uttered, the students’ eyes started shining.

Majority of the students have only seen shadow plays on Weibo or on video, and they were usually accompanied by a special opera and narration.

If the school hadn’t invited them to perform, they wouldn’t have had the interest to watch them. Now that the people have arrived, they naturally wanted to see for themselves whether those character cutouts were able to randomly move however they wanted.

Now, they had to wait until the end of the month, as such, everyone was feeling a bit anxious.

Ning Meng also faintly heaved a sigh. She also was looking forward to watching it.

After the class teacher left, normal classes ended and someone had called her name outside, “Ning Ning, someone’s looking for you.”

Ning Meng knew that she had just arrived and didn’t know a single person in school. However, seeing that the other party was a girl, she didn’t think much of it.

The girl looked a bit bashful, “You’re Ning Ning right? The one who sits beside Shi Qi?”

Ning Meng nodded, “That’s right. Is there a problem?”

Ning Meng thought it was normal for Shi Qi to be popular. After all, he was good looking and his family background wasn’t ordinary. He was the type that every girl undergoing puberty would like.

The girl approached her a bit closer and softened her voice, “Can I ask you to do a favor for me…just a small one, help me take a close up photo of him, please?”

“A photo?“ Ning Meng was flabbergasted.

The girl thought that she didn’t agree to it and quickly added, “Yes…I lost a game of truth and dare with my friends. If I can’t finish this task, I would have to go stay in the toilet for a night and that would be too scary. Please help me, I’m willing to pay you for it!”

She immediately took out her wallet.

Even though it was a dare, in truth, she also harbored feelings for him. Shi Qi was the ideal boyfriend every girl in the school wanted. They all wished to date him, but were unfortunately unable to do so.

Even the girls in Shi Qi’s own class were unable to benefit from being close with an influential person.

So when the girls saw the arrival of Ning Meng, with her jasper and delicate like beauty, they didn’t feel threatened. After all, Shi Qi was certainly not going to put her to heart.

She then added, “Can you please help me do this favor?”

If this were any ordinary person, she would probably give off a pretentious impression, but this little lady spoke with such a soft tone, it was hard to think of her as annoying.

When Ning Meng saw that pile of money, she lamented in her heart, feeling that this little lady must’ve come from a wealthy family to be able to bring out that much money.

Now that she had transmigrated into Ning Ning’s body, Liang Fengmei had taken the remaining family money to establish a very small business in front of the school gates, selling snacks and refreshments.

As such, they were basically penniless. Her mother didn’t give much allowance for her to spend and she naturally couldn’t reach out a hand to ask for some either.

She missed being able to munch on melon seed kernels back at the Shi Residence. Sadly, they were a bit expensive.

Ning Meng asked, “And if I don’t agree to it?”

The girl spread out her hands, “Then I can only ask someone else to do it. Some girl said she could take 100 secret photos for me but thinking that you sat closest to him, you can definitely take better pictures of him.”

These words made Ning Meng feel a little unhappy.

What’s the deal with stolen photos, they’re taken without the person’s consent and given to someone else. She might be saying that this is for a dare but might actually go and use it for something else.

She cleared her throat and put on a serious expression, “Regarding the matter of taking stolen photos, I would have to solicit his opinion.”

If Shi Qi agreed to it, then fine. If he didn’t, that would be for the best.

The girl immediately agreed and gave the camera to her before happily leaving.

She carried the costly camera back to her seat, thinking to herself that the girl wasn’t even afraid that she would sell it off.

Shi Qi was called by the teacher to the office so Ning Meng waited at her desk, bored to death and decided to test out the camera, lifting it up.

She had only been leaning on her desk for less than a minute when someone had arrived.

By the time, Shi Qi had sat in his seat, she finally asked in a tiny voice, “Great….That…..Shi Qi, someone wanted to have a photo of you, would you agree to it?”

At first, Shi Qi was a bit lost in thought. Hearing her suddenly change her way of addressing, he coldly responded, “I don’t.”

She was clearly right in front of him and had treated him so well in the past, being a bit too engrossed with acting as his grandmother, yet now, he didn’t have the slightest reaction.

As though Shi Qi had suddenly recalled something, a hint of mirth appeared in his limpid clear eyes.

Ning Meng didn’t detect anything and simply nodded her head. At least now, she had a reason to turn down that girl as well as warn him at the same time.

Just now, she had nearly blurted out “Great Grandson” and it almost scared her to death. If Shi Qi were to know this, would he have conjured a ghost to come and torture her….

She also didn’t know if Shi Qi at present was able to have absolute control over ghosts.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*  *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*  *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

On the second evening of self-revision, Ning Meng handed the camera back to the girl and also told her about Shi Qi’s response.

The girl was evidently unhappy but didn’t say much in response.

Ning Meng could only shrug her shoulders. After all, it wasn’t her fault.

As she didn’t stay in the dorms, once night self revisions had concluded, Ning Meng returned to the little store Liang Fengmei had recently rented.

To be honest, Liang Fengmei was a qualified mother, because once she had decided to go to City One Middle School, she decided to accompany her child here and had already rented this shop a few days beforehand. If she hadn’t stopped her, she would’ve also tried to sell their house back in the old city district.

The store that she rented also had two bedrooms in the back as well as a kitchen, and though it was a lot smaller than the previous home, the two people were able to cope living in it.

Now that she was currently doing self-revision, her mother had prepared some midnight snacks for her.

While her daughter was happily munching on the snacks, Liang Fengmei said, “Ning Ning, are you able to copy the neighboring store and draw some nice looking papers?”

Ning Meng was a bit confused, “Papers?”

Liang Fengmei gestured with both hands, saying, “The multicolored kind of drawing where it has the store promotions written on it, this big.”

She saw that the neighboring refreshment store had it stuck on their doorway and the little ladies would occasionally stop to take a look seeing that it was introducing what the shop was selling.

Thinking that it looked nice, she also wanted to have one stuck on her family door

Ning Meng quickly figured out what she meant, “That’s a poster.”

Liang Fengmei also nodded, “That’s right, that’s right. A poster. Can you make one?”

“I probably can.” She scratched her head, feeling as if such an ordinary task like making a poster shouldn’t be too hard. She could just randomly draw one.

Liang Fengmei immediately tasked her with this responsibility.

By the time she had finished taking a bath and returned to the room, it was already 11pm. Ning Meng couldn’t sleep so she secretly started drawing the poster. Fortunately, there was some paint moved over to her room last time.

Although she initially thought that making a poster was going to be easy, reality showed her that it was actually quite difficult drawing one.

By the time it was nearing 12, she had just finished designing the layout and painting the colors. However, she hadn’t written the words to go on top of it.

The ticking of the clock resounded very distinctly in the silent room.

Ning Meng stretched her waist and decided to continue the drawing tomorrow. If she stayed up all night, she wouldn’t have any energy to listen to tomorrow’s class and if her grades plummeted because of this, it would spell doom for her.

However, a creaking noise suddenly rang out.

Ning Meng had just gotten up from her stool when she suddenly paused and mechanically turned her head to the source of the sound for a look, her face turning pale.

The window she originally shut closed had a tiny gap and a figure that was half a meter tall was currently squeezing inside. It’s body already turning distorted.

The only light she lit in the room was her desk lamp so the area near the window was a little dim, and looked a little fuzzy, causing people to feel more terrified.

She nearly called out and leapt onto the bed, using the quilt to hide her face and secretly asking the system, “That was just the wind blowing right, the wind blowing?”

The system responded, “Stop pretending to be blind, it’s a little ghost.”

Ning Meng laid on the bed, shaking like a sieve. She was now in a youth’s body so she was able to see these things more clearly, it was, without a doubt, a little ghost.

But which little ghost looked so ugly. Its face had two very red cheeks, its lips were also a bright red and it even wore a colorful cotton padded jacket.

Did it purposely come out to scare people?

****

I’m just that petty.

I’ll verify my conjectures.

——”Shi Qi’s secretly hidden little diary”

The author has something to say:

Ning Meng: Whose family’s ugly ghost is this. It scared me.