"Stop stalling! Are you still a man or not?" Shao Yiyi sounded a bit impatient. She pulled out a small purple cloth pouch again and stuffed it into my hand. At first, I thought it was some kind of thank-you gift for delivering a message, but what she said next shocked me even more.
"This was given to me by him yesterday. Help me return it to him. And tell him I don't like him that way."
What? For a moment, I felt like I was sitting on a volcano ready to erupt, my mind blank. I could only respond reflexively, "Then what kind of guy do you like?"
Shao Yiyi glanced at me and gave my shoulder a hearty pat. "Anyway, not someone like you. In my world, you wouldn't understand." Just then, a girl with a short flat-top buzz cut peeked through the classroom door.
"Yiyi, are you done? If you don't leave soon, we won't wait for you."
This "guy" is actually a girl? If I hadn't heard her voice, just judging by the neat buzz cut, I would have definitely mistaken her for a tough guy.
Hearing that, Shao Yiyi ignored me and threw out one sentence: "I don't care anymore, it's your problem now. Tell him not to bother me again." Then she happily skipped over to the girl, and right before my eyes, they kissed on the lips and walked out hand in hand.
I was already petrified. What the heck was going on? Such a waste of resources!
After their backs disappeared from sight, I finally snapped out of it and remembered—the thing Shao Yiyi just handed me was probably sent to her by Wu Rendi. Now I was completely stuck.
I stared blankly at the little cloth pouch in my hand, not knowing what to do with it. Should I give it back to Wu Rendi? What if he got mad and took it out on me? Forget it, better see what's inside first. It felt heavy—no way it's gold bars, right?
I opened the pouch and dumped a small white jade pendant into my palm. Back in the army, my former squad leader Wang Donghui's family ran an antique shop, and he once taught me how to identify jade. Although I had forgotten most of it, I could still tell this piece was among the lowest quality jade.
It was neither translucent nor pure; it had lots of impurities and the carving was poor. The jade pendant was engraved with some kind of creature—neither tiger nor leopard. Calling it jade was giving it too much credit. It was basically just a stone. Even someone clueless about jade could tell this was junk. No wonder Shao Yiyi said she didn't want it at all.
The item wasn't valuable, so I felt relieved. Looks like Wu Rendi didn't really care much about Shao Yiyi either.
I had no mood to look for Sun Fatty, so I opened my laptop and logged onto the academy homepage to check Wu Rendi's schedule. Whoever arranged it must be joking—Wu hadn't been assigned a single class all week. Even Xiao Heshang had one modern Chinese history class scheduled. What exactly was Wu Rendi doing at Vermilion Bird Women's Academy?
Though I couldn't find the main guy, the Sixth Division had an investigator besides the director. I had dealt with him a few times before; maybe he could help me out. Before class started, I went to the next classroom and saw Yang Xiao sneaking out with his backpack, probably skipping class.
Yang Xiao froze when he saw me. His face flushed slightly, like he was avoiding me.
Before I could say anything, a female student ran up behind him, lowered her head, handed him a letter, then dashed away. I clearly saw a bright red heart drawn on the envelope.
What exactly were these two in the Sixth Division up to? The director was one thing, but the investigator too?
Yang Xiao looked awkward and asked, "You looking for me?"
I pretended not to see what just happened. After all, Yang Xiao was someone no one in the Bureau of Paranormal Investigation dared to mess with. Only Wu Rendi, who had already "eaten him up," and a few directors working together might be able to handle him.
I smiled and said, "Nothing big. Just that your boss Wu's fan asked me to bring him something—a little trinket. I couldn't find Wu, so I thought maybe you could help." Then I handed over the small cloth pouch.
I didn't expect Yang Xiao to refuse the pouch.
"This mess is your own making, so you handle it yourself," he said, clearly seeing through my intentions. His eyes were filled with distrust.
"It's just that I couldn't find your Wu boss. Help me out, just consider it me owing you a favor. If you ever need me, just say the word." Sweat was already beading on my forehead. I really didn't want to get tangled up in Wu Renduo's mess. If I couldn't get past Yang Xiao, I'd have no choice but to find Sun Fatty for help. That guy might act dumb sometimes, but he's sharper than anyone. Plus, with his undercover experience, I doubt anything could slip past him.
Fortunately, Yang Xiao seemed persuaded. After a moment's hesitation, he said, "What exactly is it? I won't handle anything too weird."
Finally having a foot in the door, I held on to the chance. "It's just a small jade pendant." I pulled the jade piece from the pouch and handed it to Yang Xiao.
The moment Yang Xiao saw the jade pendant, his face changed drastically — it flushed red and he started sweating. When I handed it over, he didn't dare take it at first.
"This little jade pendant?" I pressed again, and this time he reluctantly took it. I noticed his hand trembled slightly as he took it.
"Who gave you this?"
"It's from a girl in our class. What's wrong? Is there something off about it?" I stared at Yang Xiao's odd expression. It was as if he had already figured something out.
Yang Xiao's eyes locked on the jade pendant as he warned, "Whoever gave this to you, don't make me ask a third time."
His tone turned icy, cold enough to cut through stone. In that instant, he transformed into the very demon who had shaken Qilin City to its core.
"It really was just a girl from our class. Actually, your Wu boss gave it to her first. She didn't want it, so she asked me to return it to him." Seeing Yang Xiao truly tense up, I laid out the entire story without hiding a thing.
Yang Xiao studied the jade again, then looked at me as if calculating something. After a long pause, he slowly asked, "What's the girl's name?"
I hesitated. "Honestly, I don't know. I just had one class; with so many people in class, how could I remember? By the way, does the jade have any special meaning?"
Yang Xiao glanced at me, flashing a signature Wu Rendi smile. "Want to know?" He handed the jade pendant back. "Go ask him yourself."
If I could have gone myself, would I have asked you? I was annoyed inside but didn't show it. "Forget it, it's not gold or silver. Just tell Wu director you have it." I shoved the pouch back into Yang Xiao's hand.
"Old Yang, I'm leaving this with you. If anything happens, don't bother me—just talk to Wu director."
After a few polite words to prevent him from backing out, I said I had to go meet Sun Fatty and hurried off. Yang Xiao didn't seem to care; his mind was fully occupied with the jade pendant. He was already fiddling with it, ignoring me completely.
That hot potato was no longer my problem. A weight lifted off my chest, and I had no desire to stay for class. The classroom still had Xiong Wanyi and Ximen the Big Official; missing one of us wouldn't matter, and besides, nothing would happen in broad daylight.
I had planned to find Sun Fatty, but the guy was nowhere to be found. I decided to head back to the dorm to rest. With early morning self-study starting soon, I wasn't used to waking up so early, so a quick nap sounded good. Waking up, it was almost lunchtime.
When I reached the fourth floor, I saw five or six female students standing outside the bathroom door, tiptoeing and shouting inside, "Are you done? If you're done, hurry up. We want to get in!"
A familiar voice came from inside, "I'm not stopping you. Seriously, if you want in, come on. I don't care."
The girls outside shouted back, "Nonsense. You're a man in the ladies' room, and a few girls want to get in. Can you hurry up? Our patience… is limited."
It was Sun Fatty, teasing the girls in the bathroom. But wasn't there another bathroom on the second floor? Were they really fighting over one toilet? Environmentalism?
I couldn't stand it anymore and cleared my throat. Turning to the shouting girls, I said, "Isn't there another bathroom on the second floor? Why don't you…" My interruption embarrassed the girls a bit. The one shouting replied, "If we could go, do you think we wouldn't? This building only has two bathrooms—both originally for girls. One was given to you guys, but the fat guy inside is hogging it. Damn Fatty! Are you ever going to get out? If not, I'm coming in, consequences be damned!" She stomped her foot angrily, clearly the least patient of the group.
"Fine, come in." The door opened, and Fatty came out holding a tool for unclogging drains.
"Fatty, we'll settle this later." The girl who shouted ran in first. The others shouted after her, "Yiyi, hurry! This is Old Liu's class. If you're late, you'll get scolded again."
I was stunned. "Another Yiyi?"
"Hey, Lazi, what are you doing here?" Sun Fatty grinned wickedly. "Isn't this the ladies' room?"
I rolled my eyes. "I came here to find you. Heard you were trying to outsmart a bunch of girls, so I came to learn a few tricks."
Standing outside the women's restroom chatting felt awkward. Sun Fatty pulled me aside and said carelessly, "You said Yiyi? That silly girl? I don't take her seriously. Honestly, if I was like her, I'd come out only after wetting my pants."
Sun Fatty's words confused me. "Who's this Yiyi? Why does she have it in for you?"
"Not really 'have it in for me.' That girl's a Student Union officer. Yesterday when I went to the school's maintenance office to check in, she was there too. I just asked the boss if I could get a day to adapt before starting work, but she immediately jumped on me like a teacher scolding a kid. Said my work attitude wasn't serious enough, that nowadays, such attitude won't pass market economy standards and I'd be phased out sooner or later. Lazi, do you think that's fair? A perfectly good civil servant suddenly turned into a janitor, and this little brat gives me attitude? Can I swallow that? No way!"
Wait, I remembered Sun Fatty came back to the dorm earlier than me yesterday. By the timing, it didn't seem like he unclogged the whole building's drains. I asked, "Great Sage, so did you actually do the job or not?"
Sun Fatty looked at me and said, "Of course not. That little brat isn't even from maintenance. Who's she to boss me around? Even if she was, who told her to give me orders? Dream on!"
Just as Sun Fatty finished, the 'dreamer' girl came out of the bathroom. She glared at Sun Fatty and said, "Sun Fatty, we'll see about that."
Probably afraid of being late for class, this 'Yiyi' dropped that threat and hurried upstairs with her classmates.
"Lazi, what do you want from me?" Sun Fatty finally had a chance to ask.
This Yiyi wasn't the same Yiyi as Yiyi one—what kind of students were at this school? So far, I'd only met two 'Yiyis,' and neither was normal. One hated men, the other was way too manly.
Sun Fatty wasn't much better. This fat guy was degenerating, now bored enough to tease a sixteen- or seventeen-year-old girl. He cheekily asked what I wanted. Honestly, I hesitated to tell him about the jade pendant Wu Renduo gave to Shao Yiyi. Knowing Sun Fatty, while full of schemes, often went off on tangents. If I told him, who knew where he'd take me? Better leave the jade to Yang Xiao's care.
I made up an excuse. "Nothing much. I just couldn't stand the classroom anymore; listening to lectures was making my head spin. I graduated high school and went straight into the army. If I was any good at studying, I'd have gone to military academy. I just can't stand it and needed some air."
Sun Fatty pouted. "What do you want me to do? How about this—we swap. I go to class, you do the janitor's work and unclog drains? I'm telling you, I've cleared all the drains in my life these past few days. Want to try?"
I ignored him and thought about the attitude of that Yiyi. Curiously, I asked, "Great Sage, are you just taking out all your anger on that girl named Yiyi?"
"Don't be ridiculous. You think I'm a mad dog, biting anyone? No way." Sun Fatty changed tone and raised his eyebrows. "That girl's last name is Ma, Ma Yiyi."
"What's her last name got to do with me?" I sensed something in his tone but saw him deliberately holding back, so I was itching to know more.
Sun Fatty gave a sly smile. "Still don't get it? The surname Ma, like Ma Xiaolin's Ma."