Chapter 16 : A Brand new start

“Hangover… My head hurts so much…“

Morning light poured in through the dusty window screen, plating Chengzi’s bird’s-nest hair with a golden edge.

The girl thrashed on the bed like a beached fish, making the iron-frame bed groan as if on its deathbed.

“Bai Ling…“

She dragged out the end of the name, her voice like the wail of a drunken cat still waking from a hangover.

Bai Ling was on her tiptoes, steadying the iron coat rack.
Hearing this, her hand trembled, nearly causing the rack to fall and shatter into a million pieces.

Lin Xiao Xia poked her head out of the bathroom, a toothbrush in her mouth.
“Bai Ling-jie, where did you go last night… glug glug… what were you doing?“

Her mumbled words, mixed with the roar of the drainpipe, sounded like an angry frog was hiding in the bathroom.

“I… I went to…“

Bai Ling’s eyes darted around like a washing machine drum.
In her peripheral vision, she saw Su Jiu Li’s bed curtain suddenly shake like a sieve.
The black-haired girl poked her head out, her hair sticking up in all directions.
Under the eye mask printed with a Q-version skull, her dead-fish eyes were bloodshot, as if from staying up all night binge-watching dramas.
She looked just like a life-claiming female ghost.

‘Should I tell them I went to a desolate mountain and got beaten up last night?’

‘Wait a minute! Didn’t you guys encounter that weird thing last night? How come you’re all acting like nothing happened this morning? Last night, both of your faces were pale with fear!’

“No, didn’t we have a dorm dinner last night and then…“

Bai Ling stammered, trying to probe.

“Yeah, we came back right after the dorm dinner last night. This silly girl Chengzi was so drunk we could barely drag her up. She was spouting Sichuan-Chongqing dialect the whole way.“
Su Jiu Li stared at Bai Ling as if a psychiatrist were analyzing her patient.
“You, on the other hand, insisted you had something to do halfway through and ran off. You didn’t go see your lover, did you?“

“I… I went to an internet cafe to play games last night! An all-nighter!“

Bai Ling hastily concocted a lie.
To prove it, she even pulled out the ID card she had just gotten last night.
The sunlight happened to shine on the stiff, fake smile in her ID photo, making her look just like a student caught skipping class by the head teacher.

“See, I even brought my ID card!“

As she said this, she happened to glance at the open copy of “Introduction to Psychoanalysis” by Su Jiu Li’s pillow.
‘So this girl wasn’t binge-watching dramas last night but reading this thing for half the night?’

Su Jiu Li jumped off the bed barefoot, her feet landing precisely on her flip-flops.
“You need an ID card to get a room too…“

She suddenly turned and raised an eyebrow, the skull eye mask hanging on one ear swaying with the movement.
“You smell like cedarwood. Remember to spray some perfume to cover it up next time you come back.“

The tips of Bai Ling’s ears instantly turned bright red.
The words “get a room” were still too far-fetched for a novice girl like her.

She flusteredly tried to cover Su Jiu Li’s mouth, to help her retract a message, but Su Jiu Li had already slipped into the bathroom in her flip-flops, squeezing Lin Xiao Xia out.

‘Wait a minute!’

Bai Ling suddenly realized!
‘They seem to have no memory of what happened last night at all?’

‘Was what happened last night my illusion?’

But the extra sophora flower bracelet on her wrist told her that it was no illusion.

“Hey, hey, hey! My roommates don’t seem to remember what happened last night!“

Bai Ling quickly took out her phone and sent a message to Guan Qing’s account.

“Ping, ping!“

Guan Qing’s reply came quickly.
“They were hypnotized by the Demon Suppression Division and their memories were sealed. Demons must be kept secret from civilians!“

“There are no side effects other than a headache for a few hours. If you disturb my sleep again, I’ll beat you up!“

Guan Qing sent two messages in a row, seeming to be a little grumpy from waking up.

‘So Chengzi’s headache wasn’t because of a hangover but because the Demon Suppression Division hypnotized her…’

Bai Ling suddenly thought of the hypnosis-themed doujinshi she had once drawn.

‘Hiss…’

“So that means I can continue to stay at school?“

Bai Ling shrank into the corner of the top bunk, pressing her pillow into the shape of a shield.
Her thumbs tapped on the screen like two fluttering butterflies.

“As long as you don’t expose yourself to the Demon Suppression Division, it’s fine. I’m really going to beat you up now!“

The blue light of the phone screen reflected the unconscious curve of Bai Ling’s lips.
Guan Qing’s last message, “I’m really going to beat you up now!” was followed by a kitchen knife emoji.

The morning light from the balcony window suddenly intensified, mixed with the scent of the cherry blossom laundry detergent Lin Xiao Xia had just opened, converging into a light and bright flavor in her nasal cavity.

Bai Ling caught a glimpse of her silly smile reflected on the black screen of her phone.
The curve of her lips was like that in the famous photo “The Mentally Challenged Also Have Spring.”

“It’s okay! Good night!“

Bai Ling suddenly decided to climb down from the bed and play some games.
She hadn’t fought the White Snake boss yesterday, and she hadn’t finished the novice quests.
Today was the weekend, so she could play all day.
Tomorrow was the class meeting, and in two days it was the club recruitment day.
The history major she had chosen also required her to buy some books…

The gloom that had been lingering in her heart ten minutes ago was instantly swept away by the morning light.

‘Mountains and rivers conceal the path, doubting there’s no way; willows cast shade, flowers give light, another village appears!’

Chengzi hummed “The Horse-Taming Man, You Are Mighty and Strong” as she ran into the bathroom.
Lin Xiao Xia held the breakfast she had just bought and placed it on the table one by one.
Su Jiu Li grumbled as she was pushed out of the bathroom by Chengzi, the tips of her hair still wet.

In this morning clamor unique to the dormitory building, Bai Ling swung her dangling feet and clicked the login button.

On the screen, the small icon on the loading screen of “Xuanhuang Ji” was spinning.

“Xuanhuang Ji” was worthy of being the hottest game recently.
It was important to know that the time with the fewest online players for an online game was always in the morning.
At this time, those who had stayed up all night should be asleep, those who were at work or school couldn’t play, and those who weren’t at work or school and hadn’t stayed up all night weren’t awake yet.

But even in the morning, the main city was still packed with players’ characters.

When the Snake Demon Swordswoman Qing Lin popped out from the resurrection point, Bai Ling was munching on a shrimp dumpling fed to her by Lin Xiao Xia.

Fireworks suddenly exploded on the screen.
Ye Yuan, with her fluffy fox tail, leaped into the screen with a tiger jump.

“Young man, you’re addicted to the internet! Waking up so early on a weekend to play games!“

A shaking beer can emoji popped up in Ye Yuan’s dialogue box.

“My roommate woke me up this morning singing ‘The Horse-Taming Man’.“

Bai Ling glanced at Chengzi, who was applying moisturizing cream to her face, and held back a laugh as she typed on the keyboard.
“The ‘Horse-Taming Man’ is washing his face right now.“

Anyone could see that this girl was in a very good mood right now, an explosively good mood.

“Come, big sis will take you to run a dungeon!“

The half-demon assassin bounced and invited the Snake Demon Swordswoman into the party.

“By the way, why are you up so early?“

The Snake Demon Swordswoman brandished her sword, which was her character’s idle animation.

“Don’t even mention it. I was called in for overtime last night. I just got back after working all night.“

The half-demon assassin said.
Before she could finish, a black afterimage suddenly flashed across the screen.

The tassel of the greatsword of the human knight “Duan Yue,” who was wearing coarse linen clothes, brushed past their shoulders, casting a towering shadow on the blue stone path.

“Isn’t that the knight ‘daddy’ from yesterday?“

“Get him!“

The tip of the Snake Demon Swordswoman Qing Lin’s sword fiercely poked the human knight Duan Yue’s butt.

The sound of the half-demon assassin laughing like a goose leaked out of her headphones, startling the clothes drying on the balcony so much that they all spun around in the morning breeze.

‘The weather is so nice today. The sun is shining, and my mood is bright.’

‘It seems like everything has a brand new start.’