Chapter – 44
Don’t Go to High Places
Jiang Family Residence.
Jiang Xuxu was carefully wiping the jade bracelet she had finally reclaimed from the Guan family. Her phone, placed at the edge of the table, suddenly rang.
Looking at the displayed number, it was a high school classmate she hadn’t been in touch with for a while.
Answering the call, the other party sounded a bit frantic.
“Guan Xuxu, it’s me. Are you in Haishi right now? I had an accident, I’m in the hospital. My family froze my cards… Could you come by? And, uh, could you front my hospital fees too? Please?”
Jiang Xuxu remained silent, simply listening.
The classmate continued, sounding a bit awkward.
“Aren’t we classmates? You’ll help with this much, right? Hey, Guan Xuxu, you still there?”
“I’m here,” Jiang Xuxu said. “But tell ‘Madam Guan’ next to you this: If she wants to see me, she should send Guan Ruirui herself. She should stop using these underhanded tricks to try and lure me to the hospital.”
With that, she decisively hung up.
The classmate who made the call was stunned. Beside him, Bai Shuqin (Madam Guan) was also stunned.
“How did she know I told you to call?! You didn’t blurt something out, did you?!”
Classmate: …What kind of unreasonable mess is this?!
What Bai Shuqin didn’t know was that since Jiang Xuxu began studying metaphysics, her hearing had become sharper than an average person’s.
Just now, while silent, she had been listening to Bai Shuqin’s hushed, urging whispers.
She could understand Bai Shuqin borrowing someone else’s phone to contact her.
(After all, she had already blocked the contact information of the entire Guan family.)
What she couldn’t understand was why they always maintained such an arrogant, bossy attitude, even when ordering others around.
Right now, they were actually the ones in a position to ask her for something.
—Hmph!
Not meeting. They can drop dead for all she cared.
Carefully putting away the bracelet, Jiang Xuxu got up and headed downstairs. She intended to go to her apartment to get some materials and do some work.
But just as she descended from the second floor, she ran into Jiang Su.
Jiang Su had clearly pulled an all-nighter gaming. Dark circles were prominent under his eyes and his complexion was poor. However, upon seeing Jiang Xuxu, he instinctively snorted disdainfully and made to head downstairs immediately.
But—
“Wait.”
Stopped, he was a bit surprised. Was she finally going to thank him? He turned back with a hint of pride.
“What?”
He answered, peppering his speech with local slang picked up from in-game voice chats. It was definitely language he wouldn’t dare use in front of their grandfather.
Jiang Xuxu simply looked at him and said,
“Don’t meet your online friend today. And absolutely don’t go to any high places.”
Jiang Su let out a derisive snort. “Hah?”
“Are you crazy? Mind your own business!”
With that retort, he stomped downstairs.
Watching the boy’s retreating back, Jiang Xuxu recalled the trace of dark energy she had seen lingering between his brows earlier.
—She gave the warning. The rest was up to him.
Downstairs, Jiang Su was still muttering complaints. “Doesn’t make any sense…”
Just then, Lu Xuexi approached.
“Little Su, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Just ran into an annoying person.”
He glanced at her, “Xuexi-jie, are you heading out?”
“Yes. I have plans to meet an online friend.”
“…Huh?” Jiang Su couldn’t help but react.
Online friend? It weirdly overlapped with what Jiang Xuxu had just said.
Normally, he wouldn’t believe a word she said. But for some reason, he felt uneasy today.
The words slipped out.
“There’s a lot of online scams lately, Xuexi-jie. You shouldn’t go meet strangers alone.”
Lu Xuexi laughed.
“Little Su, I didn’t expect you to be so cautious. But don’t worry. My friend is fine. Besides, you know them too. It’s ‘Chunchun,’ the girl we played games with together.”
“Chunchun?!”
Jiang Su’s eyes widened.
He did remember. A girl with a cute voice, probably around his age.
“Why the sudden meetup?”
“On holiday, so just free and got talking.” Lu Xuexi said, then seemed to have a thought and smiled.
“Hey, why don’t you come too, Little Su?”
“Huh, me too?”
“You said you were worried about me going alone. If you’re with me, I won’t be alone, right? And Chunchun knows you too.”
Jiang Su frowned, about to refuse.
But at that moment, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jiang Xuxu coming downstairs, who glanced their way.
It seemed like an admonition, or a warning.
—For some reason, a rebellious feeling surged within him.
“…Alright, I’ll go too!”
“Then go change quickly. I’ll wait for you here.”
“O-okay.”
Answering, he deliberately shot a provocative look at Jiang Xuxu.
But Jiang Xuxu seemed utterly uninterested, ignoring him and heading towards the entrance.
Lu Xuexi finally seemed to notice, calling out in her soft voice,
“Xuxu, are you going out? If you’d like, you can ride with us?”
Jiang Su, about to go upstairs, felt a strange discomfort upon hearing her words and couldn’t help but pause.
(…What’s with that phrasing.)
But Jiang Xuxu just gave Lu Xuexi a cold glance,
“No need.”
Leaving only those two words, she changed her shoes and left.
As she left, no one noticed her glancing at the limited-edition sneakers placed in the shoe cabinet.
A fleeting shadow of mockery passed through Lu Xuexi’s gaze.
Soon, Jiang Su, now changed, came back downstairs.
Looking listless, Jiang Xuxu was already gone.
“Xuexi-jie… Should we really not go today? Another day would be fine, wouldn’t it?”
Lu Xuexi shook her head.
“We already promised. How can we go back on it? Weren’t you just saying it’s dangerous to meet alone?”
She smiled reproachfully, linking her arm with his,
“It’s fine. It’s good to get out for once. You’re gaming all day anyway, aren’t you?”
In the end, Jiang Su couldn’t refuse and was led out by her.
The moment he put on his shoes, he vaguely felt the sensation was different from usual.
But that fleeting sense of discomfort was soon forgotten.
—Must just be messed up by Xuxu’s “curse-like warning” from earlier.
Why would he believe a word she says?
…Still, just to be safe.
“Let’s not go to high places.”
He made that one decision in his heart.
