Chapter 8: I Am Your Real Cousin

He opened and closed the cupboard doors, swept his gaze over the stovetop repeatedly, and even lifted the sofa cushions in the living room to check underneath.

Nothing. They weren’t anywhere!

The pot was still sitting on the stove, the leftover red chili broth bubbling and steaming, the spicy and savory aroma drifting throughout the entire apartment.

But the two bowls of freshly cooked hot and sour noodles had completely vanished, as if they had never existed.

“How weird!”

He rested a hand on the kitchen doorframe, disbelief written all over his face. “Did a ghost take them?”

The woman in the golden dress leaned forward, smiling as she spoke.

“Guangxin, can we talk for a bit?”

Jiang Xiaoyu snapped his head up, staring unblinkingly at the woman in the golden dress sitting on the sofa.

His eyes were narrowed into two thin slits; although he couldn’t clearly see her expression, his face was pointed dead-on in her direction, staring with absolute intent.

The woman in the golden dress felt her hair stand on end under his gaze, and she subconsciously shuffled backward until her back hit the armrest of the sofa.

“What are you doing… staring at me so intently?”

Jiang Xiaoyu took a few steps closer, bent slightly at the waist, and lowered his voice. “Cousin…”

The woman in the golden dress shrank back another half-inch.

She was genuinely terrified.

This person wasn’t afraid of light erosion; her greatest life-saving trump card was practically useless against him.

A man capable of dragging her out of the door of light with his bare hands, who could freeze the golden light in the entire room with a single sentence—and right now, he was squinting, leaning over, and calling her “cousin” in an incredibly suggestive tone.

A lone man and a lone woman alone in a room together—what was he planning to do?

“Don’t… don’t come any closer!” Her voice was pulled taut. “If you have something to say, just say it!”

Jiang Xiaoyu straightened up and let out a scoffing laugh.

“Quit playing innocent! Cousin, tell your older brother the truth: did you secretly eat both bowls of noodles?”

The woman in the golden dress blanked.

She looked down at the coffee table, then back up at Jiang Xiaoyu, her tense shoulders slowly relaxing.

So that was what this was about. She had thought he was going to do something bad…

She patted her chest and spoke softly to comfort him. “Guangxin, don’t get worked up. I might know who ate the hot and sour noodles. It’s not urgent, though. I have something much more important to tell you.”

Jiang Xiaoyu was startled upon hearing this. He had just been joking around—why was his cousin taking it so seriously?

He hurriedly waved his hands, grinning. “Cousin, your brother was just messing with you. If you ate them, you ate them. I’m actually not that hungry anyway.”

He paused, rubbing his nose. “To tell you something you might not like to hear—the moment I stepped off the bus, I smelled a stench of blood coming from the academy. It made my stomach churn, so I really don’t have much of an appetite to begin with.”

The woman in the golden dress’s eyes suddenly flashed.

She abruptly stood up from the sofa, walked quickly over to Jiang Xiaoyu, and grabbed his arm with both hands.

Tears suddenly welled up in her distinct, dark phoenix eyes. It wasn’t a look of grievance, but rather a long-suppressed anticipation, glowing with a searing intensity.

“Guangxin, let me ask you a question.” Her voice trembled faintly. “What is your relationship… with the woman in the white dress?”

Jiang Xiaoyu was baffled. He reached out and pressed his palm flat against her forehead, holding it there for two seconds.

“You don’t have a fever.”

The woman in the golden dress slapped his hand away, her fingers tightening their grip on his arm.

Her phoenix eyes stared straight at him, the tears shimmering with tiny specks of light under the starlight.

“Guangxin, there is something I need to confirm. Will you please tell me?”

Jiang Xiaoyu, completely bewildered by her earnestness, had no choice but to answer honestly. “We’re cousins, of course.”

Cousins.

The woman in the golden dress let go of him and stepped back a few paces.

She repeated the word a few times, as if chewing on something difficult to swallow.

Then she suddenly planted her feet, turned to face him directly, and spoke with a sharpness he had never heard from her before.

“What makes you so certain that she is your cousin?”

Jiang Xiaoyu finally understood. “Oh, so this is what this is about! Cousin, you’re absolutely right to be cautious; girls should always be careful. You sent me a text message—white top, long hair, white dress, and a photo too. I have all the proof. I really am your older cousin.”

The eyes of the woman in the golden dress suddenly lit up. “Could you let me see?”

Jiang Xiaoyu pulled out his phone, instantly crying out in realization.

“I forgot, my phone’s dead, so I can’t look at the photo. Cousin, take my phone and find an outlet to charge it; you’ll be able to see it soon.”

The woman in the golden dress took the phone, furrowing her brows deeply.

“Do you have any other proof?”

“White top, long hair, long dress, waiting for me at the school gates, named Xiaoqi. If you can’t even confirm that, then what else is there to confirm? Don’t worry, cousin, I’m the real deal.”

The woman in the golden dress gently placed the phone on the coffee table.

Then she raised her head, stared straight at him, and spoke one word at a time.

“What if I told you that my name is also Xiaoqi? What if I told you that I have much stronger evidence to prove that I am your real cousin—what would you do?”

The living room went dead silent.

The smile on Jiang Xiaoyu’s face turned to slack-jawed shock, and then the shock warped into sheer terror.

The corner of his mouth twitched, and then twitched again before he finally forced out a stutter.

“C-Cousin, don’t scare me like this… That joke isn’t funny at all.”

The woman in the golden dress stepped forward and gently grasped his arm with both hands.

Unlike her frantic grip earlier, her movements were incredibly light this time, as if she were afraid of startling him.

She tilted her head up slightly. The tears in her phoenix eyes had already receded, replaced by a kind of gentleness he had never seen before—a clumsy, careful gentleness, like someone who hadn’t treated another person well in a very, very long time and suddenly wanted to try.