Chapter 24: You’re a Thief

Chapter 24: You’re a Thief

Mei Lixiang had lost a jar of face cream. The cream had been stolen by someone in the neighboring dormitory who had a habit of theft.

The thief used the face cream on their feet, thinking that the owner would not care about a small jar of cream.

Unexpectedly, that jar of face cream had been brought back from overseas by one of Mei Lixiang’s relatives. She liked it very much, and when she discovered it had been stolen, she pursued the matter relentlessly.

A notice written in red characters on white paper was posted downstairs in the dormitory building, filled with all kinds of vulgar curses, attracting the school’s attention.

Afraid of being discovered, the thief placed the used face cream beneath Xiao Hong’s pillow.

As a result, Xiao Hong was wrongly accused of being the thief. Without a second word, Mei Lixiang slapped Xiao Hong across the face, and Xiao Hong refused to back down, erupting into conflict with Mei Lixiang.

In the end, neither side would yield, so they simply called the police.

Fortunately, the police were competent. They proved Xiao Hong’s innocence and frightened the real thief into exposing themselves.

But the reputation of Xiao Hong being a thief had already spread.

Mei Lixiang felt guilty for wrongly accusing her, but she stubbornly refused to admit fault and would not apologize, constantly arguing that she was a victim too.

Her belongings had been stolen, so in her anger she had wrongly accused Xiao Hong, against whom the evidence had seemed conclusive. She had been anxious too. Surely that was understandable!

Who told Xiao Hong to be so poor and look so much like a thief?

The face cream had been found beneath her pillow. If she was not the thief, then who was?

Mei Lixiang’s unreasonable behavior made Xiao Hong become even more withdrawn and isolated. Eventually, she started hanging around with delinquent girls from society.

From then on, the relationship between the two dropped to freezing point.

Mei Lixiang also frequently fabricated bad stories about Xiao Hong, mixing seven parts truth with three parts lies. Her mouth never stopped gossiping.

Seeing Pei Ye looking at her, Mei Lixiang let out a snort through her nose, and the smile on her face vanished instantly.

“What bad luck!”

She deliberately said it loudly and tossed the bag in her hand onto the bed.

She dropped herself heavily onto the mattress, causing the bed frame to creak and tremble.

Pei Ye smiled and said, “Looking at that face of yours that’s clearly suffering from bad luck, it really is unlucky.”

Mei Lixiang’s eyes widened with anger.

“Xiao Hong, what do you mean by that? Looking for trouble on purpose, are you?”

Mei Lixiang had already been in a bad mood today. Meeting Lei Yating had improved it somewhat.

Unexpectedly, the moment she returned to the dormitory, her improved mood was ruined again, and fury immediately flared up.

Seeing the two facing off again, Zhou Huirong could not help stepping forward to say a few conciliatory words and ease the tension.

“Boss, stop taking her side! I’ve had enough of her. From now on, either she stays in Room 4021 or I do. We can’t both stay here!”

Mei Lixiang shook off Zhou Huirong’s hand, yet she was completely certain of what choice the roommates would make.

The roommates also disliked Xiao Hong because Xiao Hong was a delinquent who mixed with shady crowds and, relying on her pretty face, had supposedly engaged in compensated dating many times.

Whenever the roommates gathered together to complain about Xiao Hong, they were always unanimous in condemning her.

Pei Ye asked her, “Shouldn’t people have at least a little self-awareness? You’re so eager to leave Room 4021?”

Mei Lixiang stared with wide eyes in astonishment.

She had not expected that after only a few days apart, Xiao Hong’s sharp tongue and shamelessness would have reached a whole new level.

Pei Ye delivered another blow. “Moving out would be good. At least you won’t keep bringing disaster to the people in this dorm.”

“What exactly do you mean by that?”

“Didn’t I just say you look like someone suffering from bad luck? There are two debt-collecting ghosts following behind you. If people stay around you too long, they’ll be unlucky too.”

Pei Ye did not know how to read faces, but she could hear what ghosts were saying.

Beside Mei Lixiang was an old woman dressed in gray cloth. As she tugged at her bound-foot cloth, she repeatedly shoved it toward Mei Lixiang’s nose while muttering nonstop.

“You damned girl, return my things!”

Beside the old woman stood an old man who occasionally smacked Mei Lixiang’s right hand with the walking stick in his hand.

“Steal, will you? Steal, will you? I’ll break your hand.”

The two ghosts worked together. Every time they struck her, Pei Ye noticed a slight fluctuation in Mei Lixiang’s spirit.

The fluctuation felt familiar. Every time the System Records notified Lei Yating that her Fortune had been deducted, the same fluctuation appeared.

Therefore, Pei Ye felt that Mei Lixiang would probably suffer a period of bad luck.

When Pei Ye said this, a trace of surprise appeared in Lei Yating’s eyes as she stood nearby.

Although she had cultivated a strand of primordial qi, it was only a single strand and not enough to open her heavenly eye.

However, the cultivation technique she practiced was extremely advanced, allowing her to vaguely see illusory human figures. There really were two figures following beside Mei Lixiang.

At first, she had assumed these figures were Mei Lixiang’s grandfather and grandmother. Earlier, while chatting with Mei Lixiang, she had learned that Mei Lixiang had used the opportunity of returning home to renew her identity card to visit her grandparents’ graves. She had therefore assumed the elderly couple were worried about their granddaughter and had followed her back. Now that she heard this, it seemed her guess had been completely wrong.

“What nonsense about ghosts are you talking about?”

Mei Lixiang was furious. She had originally thought her roommates would speak up for her, but to her shock, the roommates who usually got along with her well were avoiding her one after another as if she were a venomous snake.

“Hey, what do you all mean by this? What era is this? Who still believes in ghosts and spirits? Xiao Hong, have you stopped doing compensated dating and started pretending to be some supernatural fraud now?”

Pei Ye stared at the two ghostly figures and said solemnly, “You took that old woman’s belongings. She and her old man are following right behind you.”

The moment those words left her mouth, the two ghosts who had been diligently harassing Mei Lixiang shuddered all over and froze in place.

“Old man?”

“Old woman?”

“That girl can really see us.”

“Ask that girl to tell this damned brat to return what she stole.”

As they spoke, the two ghosts turned and approached Pei Ye. When they came within half a metre (~1.6 ft), their ghostly faces twisted in terror, and they howled as they fled in the opposite direction.

“My goodness, why does that girl look so terrifying!”

Pei Ye: “...”

It seemed that both ghosts had suffered from poor eyesight while alive. They only managed to see clearly once they were half a metre away.

“Can’t afford to provoke her, can’t afford to provoke her, let’s get out of here!”

Although they kept saying they were leaving, they actually moved slowly and hid behind Mei Lixiang, cautiously sticking their heads out to look in Pei Ye’s direction.

The old man asked, “She can’t see us like this, right?”

The old woman replied, “Can’t see us, can’t see us.”

After being ghosts for so long, they assumed everyone else’s eyesight was as bad as theirs.

If they could not see others, then naturally others could not see them either.

Mei Lixiang, meanwhile, was so angry that her face turned bright red.

“Who stole anything?”

“You did. Or could it have been me, the person you falsely accused?” Pei Ye looked at the somewhat adorable old ghosts and smiled. “If you don’t return their belongings, they’ll keep following you. At best, you’ll suffer bad luck. At worst, you’ll lose your life. If you die a violent death, then when you wake up, you might see them standing in front of you demanding repayment and telling you to return what you stole.”

“That’s bullshit!”

Mei Lixiang’s eyes had turned red with anger.

“Believe it or not.”

After a while, Zhou Huirong quietly said, “Lixiang, if you really stole their things, you’d better return them quickly.”

If those two ghosts kept following Mei Lixiang, wouldn’t that mean they would also keep staying in Dormitory 4021?

“Bullshit!”

Mei Lixiang’s temper instantly exploded.

“Your brain isn’t working properly either. You actually believe her nonsense? If you’re so superstitious, why don’t you go find a ghost husband? Then you wouldn’t have to keep begging me every day to take you to social mixers!”

Zhou Huirong’s face alternated between green and red as humiliation and anger mixed together.

At that moment, the two old ghosts had something to say again.