Chapter 6 : Summer Should Be Spent Hugging an Air Conditioner

By the time the two girls had huffed and puffed their luggage up to the dorm, the setting sun had already heated the iron railings in the corridor.

Chengzi was shaking her palms, which were red from the luggage straps.
This girl had put on a strongman act just moments ago, but after dragging her luggage up two floors, she started complaining about being tired.

While complaining, she also grumbled about why the elevator was under maintenance during the new student move-in period.

Thankfully, they had finally arrived.

They pushed open the wooden door with a creak.
Two heads poked inside.
The four iron-frame beds in the room reflected the afterglow of the setting sun.
It seemed the other two roommates hadn’t arrived yet.

Chengzi suddenly shook her short hair and rushed in, her canvas shoes leaving a short scuff mark on the cement floor.

“Wow! There’s an air conditioner! Awesome!”

Before Bai Ling could even step into the dorm, Chengzi had already rushed to the desk, grabbed the air conditioner remote, and turned it on.
Her movements were like a cheetah pouncing on its prey.

The cool breeze from the old air conditioner instantly dispelled the lingering late-summer heat.

“This is the life!”

Chengzi cheered and sat down on the bare bed board, which hadn’t been made yet.
“In this god-awful weather, you should just spend your days hugging an air conditioner!”

Bai Ling was squatting in front of her suitcase, unbuckling the latches.
Chengzi watched as the tips of her hair brushed against the back of her hand, and a mischievous idea suddenly sparked in her mind.

She suddenly appeared behind Bai Ling like a ghost.
“By the way, have you heard?”

The citrusy breath of a seventeen or eighteen-year-old girl sprayed by her ear.
‘The ice cream this girl just ate really did taste like orange.’

“Room 606 of Building 12…”

Chengzi deliberately lowered her voice, her nails digging into Bai Ling’s shoulder.
“Someone died here!”

She purposefully mixed her voice with the rhythm of the air conditioner’s condensation dripping onto the floor, trying to create a sinister atmosphere.

“Oh…”

Unfortunately, Bai Ling didn’t fall for her act at all.
“I’m so scared…”

While giving a perfunctory response, Bai Ling pulled the bedsheet out of her suitcase and shook it out with a snap, the resulting gust of wind scattering the floating dust.
“Doesn’t every school have these kinds of boring legends?”

“My old high school had ghost stories like a mirror that could see the future and a staircase with an extra step. This is probably just something bored students made up to scare people, right?”

“It’s not!”

A clear voice suddenly cut off Bai Ling’s deduction.
Chengzi and Bai Ling both turned around.
A girl in black stood in the sunset outside the doorframe, dragging a huge suitcase.

“Someone really did die in this dorm. It was circulating on the Lin’an city forums for a while.”

The girl in black walked into the dorm under their gazes, the wheels of her suitcase making a crisp sound as they rolled over the doorframe.

“Su Jiu Li. It seems I’m your roommate.”

She introduced herself with a cool demeanor.

“Cheng Zhi Qiu! Just call me Chengzi!”

Chengzi suddenly bounced up from behind Bai Ling.

“Bai Ling.”

Bai Ling sat curled up on the bed board, trying to smooth out the bedsheet.
She looked up, her gaze shifting between Chengzi’s orange-tipped hair and Su Jiu Li’s pure black skirt.
“You guys seem to have very distinct personalities…”

Hearing this, Su Jiu Li suddenly turned to look at Bai Ling.
Her gaze was as sharp as a psychiatrist analyzing a patient.

“You seem to have something on your mind?”

“No…”

‘Are you expecting me to tell you that I’m actually a guy who’s now a girl, and I don’t know when I might suddenly change back?’

The girl’s fingers clenching the bedsheet suddenly tightened.
‘What if I really do suddenly change back? Wouldn’t all hell break loose?’

“Are you a little anxious because you’re leaving your hometown and coming to school so far away all by yourself?”

Chengzi interrupted Bai Ling’s explanation, winking at her.

The girl didn’t say anything, which was a silent admission.
In reality, she wasn’t very good at hiding her emotions.

“606… this is it!”

A lively voice came from outside the door, and a petite figure suddenly bumped into the sunset in the doorframe.
“Thank you, Senior Chen Ling!”

The petite girl turned and shouted down the corridor, the ponytail tied at the back of her head bobbing cheerfully.

“It’s okay. Just let me know if you need help with anything in the future.”

The senior standing outside the door put down the suitcase.
The cross-breeze in the corridor lifted the hem of her floral skirt, revealing skin on her calves as cold and white as a plaster statue in the shadows.
A thin line at her ankle looked like a seam stitched with thread.

She turned her head and glanced at the three people in the dorm, licking her lips.

Bai Ling suddenly pressed the jade pendant on her chest.
The cold touch seeped through her skin and into her heart through her veins.

She watched the senior’s retreating back.
On the exposed nape of her neck, a few spiderweb-like cracks were faintly visible between the strands of her hair.

‘Were my eyes playing tricks on me?’

“Wow, she’s such a nice person.”

The petite girl bounced into the dorm.
“Eh? Am I the last one? My name is Lin Xiao Xia. It’s nice to meet you all.”

Xu Zhi stared blankly at his phone screen.
The huge red exclamation mark on the screen left him a little stunned.

His knuckles unconsciously tapped on the wooden desk, which was hot from the setting sun.

‘What’s wrong with this kid? Why did he suddenly block me?’

‘Did I do something to offend him?’

“Great Demon Suppression Envoy Xu, what are you thinking?”

A cool fingertip suddenly poked his cheek.
Xu Zhi’s shoulders trembled.
He looked up, his gaze meeting Lu Qingyu’s eyes, which were narrowed into crescents.

The girl was dressed in homely clothes.
When she tilted her head, her ponytail brushed against her apron.
Her sleeves were rolled up as if she was about to get down to business.

And she had indeed gotten down to business, in the kitchen.
Xu Zhi could hear the gurgling sound of something stewing from behind the frosted glass door.

“Nothing…”

Xu Zhi came back to his senses and turned off his phone.

Lu Qingyu placed a plate of freshly cooked, steaming food on the table and sat opposite Xu Zhi, resting her chin on her hand.

It was a plate of sweet and sour pork ribs, one of Xu Zhi’s favorite dishes.

“You’ve been out of it ever since you got back from Rongcheng…”

The girl’s voice suddenly lifted at the end, with a teasing and probing tone.
“You don’t really have an ex-girlfriend hidden there, do you?”

“Where would I get something like that?”

Xu Zhi looked at the porcelain plate pushed in front of him.
The ribs were glossy with a sweet sauce, and the ginger was sliced as thin as hair.

He had to admit, this girl was a really good cook.
Whoever married her in the future would probably be very happy.

“You promised to help me taste-test the food.”
Lu Qingyu’s hand, propping up her chin, was filled with a gentle smile.
“Come on, have a taste.”

“Sis! Boss! I’m back!”

The sudden sound of the door opening, accompanied by a young man’s cheerful voice, pierced through the lazy sunlight.
Lu Qingtian rushed into the room, carrying a canvas bag filled with youthful energy.

This seventeen-year-old boy, carrying the late-summer heat, rushed to the dining table and casually slapped his make-up exam report card on the cabinet.

Putting aside his title as the youngest Demon Suppression Officer of the Lin’an Demon Suppression Division, Lu Qingtian was just a teenager.
He possessed the most common traits of boys his age: impulsive, reckless, self-righteous, and filled with seemingly endless energy.

Fortunately, the young man’s sudden series of noises shattered the ambiguous atmosphere that was about to fill the room.

Xu Zhi suddenly stood up, grabbing the back of the young man’s collar and dragging him out as if he were a lifeline.

“The food smells great! But Commander Ye suddenly called for us…”

“Didn’t I already hand in my self-criticism yesterday?”
Lu Qingtian desperately clung to the doorframe.
“Boss, be gentle! These are limited-edition sneakers!”

Xu Zhi’s response was a sharp glare.
The young man instantly wilted and was dragged out the door like a kitten picked up by the scruff of its neck.

Before the security door closed, he could even see his sister looking down at the plate of sweet and sour pork ribs, poking the dish with her chopsticks, scattering the small pile of ribs.

After the door was completely closed, Xu Zhi casually pulled the young man’s hoodie over his head.

“Didn’t we agree to have dinner at my place today?”

Lu Qingtian pushed back his messy bangs, feeling a little sorry for his sister.

“Still thinking about dinner!”
Xu Zhi flicked his forehead.
“If we stayed any longer, your sister would have eaten me alive!”

“What’s so bad about me being your brother-in-law…”

“I have no such intentions.”
Xu Zhi sighed.

“I have something to do. You wander around for a bit. Don’t go home before 8 PM! Remember…”

“If my sister asks, I’ll say Commander Ye asked me to go with you to sort out the demonic energy monitoring report! I get it.”

The lazy afternoon sun was sliced into fine pieces by the iron railings.
The seventeen-year-old boy watched the eighteen-year-old boy flee in disarray.