Chapter 80: Who Is It

Today is Saturday, and at noon, Lin Pi will come home for lunch. Thinking back to last Saturday, when someone inexplicably cooked us a table full of delicious dishes, if my guess is correct, that person must have done it for Lin Pi. Otherwise, at no other time has anyone ever prepared lunch for us.

Because it was morning and the ferry terminal was in the suburbs, it was extremely difficult to get a taxi. In the end, Lu Jiu, though clearly reluctant, finally took out his phone and ordered a ride-hailing car, and that was how we managed to get a ride.

After we got in, I asked Lu Jiu why he hadn’t called for a ride earlier—was he afraid to spend money? Lu Jiu’s face instantly turned red. “Do I look like someone who cares about a few hundred yuan for a taxi? Let me tell you, I’ve never been stingy with my brothers...”

“Deduct the taxi fare from my share of the profits,” I cut him off.

“Fine!” Lu Jiu swallowed the word “stingy” that was about to come out, his face suddenly blooming with a happy smile.

Just as I expected, we got stuck in traffic on the way. The taxi driver told me that ever since Longtou Canal and Qinglong Mountain were built, there had obviously been a lot more people coming to Ferry City. But the city’s infrastructure couldn’t keep up, so traffic jams happened all the time.

It was almost eleven by the time we arrived at Feng Shui Alley. Aside from the days around Qingming or the Ghost Festival, when it’s a bit busier, the alley is usually deserted. I hurried to my place—the door was still locked, and I couldn’t hear any movement inside.

I told Lu Jiu to stand guard at the door. There might be something sinister entering soon, and if he noticed anything off, he was to support me immediately.

Seeing how serious I was, Lu Jiu, though still completely baffled, nodded and said, “Don’t worry. Your business is my business. Your home is my home...”

“My home can’t take any more people, don’t even think about it,” I replied as I entered the room. I glanced around the main hall—everything was exactly as I’d left it the morning before, untouched.

I checked the time. It was eleven. Lin Pi would be back from class around noon. If someone was going to come and cook, it would be about this time. I opened the door of a large cabinet, squeezed myself in, and fixed my gaze through the crack, watching the scene outside intently.

Tick, tick.

Time passed minute by minute. Just as I thought no one would come to deliver food today, I caught a strong whiff of perfume. Then I saw a flamboyantly dressed woman, hands full of bags and lunch boxes, swaying her hips as she entered.

Her makeup was garish, and I had never seen her before—she was a complete stranger.

She hadn’t come in through the front door, because I’d heard no sound of it opening. She hadn’t come through the windows, either—I could see them from my hiding spot, and both were tightly shut. With only solid walls besides those, there was only one explanation: the woman before me was not human.

Moving as if she’d done it a hundred times, the woman found several plates in my home, laid them out neatly, and carefully transferred the packed dishes onto them, arranging each one as meticulously as if she were in a hotel kitchen.

I made a rough count—there were at least a dozen dishes, most of them rare delicacies that would sell for exorbitant prices at the market.

Once the woman had finished laying out the food, she turned to leave. I kicked open the cabinet door and blocked her path, fixing her with a steely glare. “Who are you? Why are you in my house? Tell me the truth and I won’t make things difficult for you.”

She clearly hadn’t expected someone to be hiding in the cabinet. For a brief moment, panic flashed across her face, but she quickly regained her composure. Beckoning to me, she said, “Yang Xi, come here—I’ll tell you who I am.”