Chapter 22: The Newcomer
“Xiaoya! Xiaoya!”
Hearing the sound of the plate breaking, the mother’s terrified scream came from the living room instantly.
“Are you okay?
Let mom take a look!”
However, before she rushed to the kitchen door, the dilapidated wooden door was knocked again.
Knock…knock…knock…
“Who is it?!
Are you annoying?!
You keep knocking!”
The mother turned around suddenly and yelled towards the door.
Her emotions were on the verge of collapse because of these series of accidents.
“Auntie, it’s okay.”
Ling Yicai’s voice sounded calmly and gently.
She walked out of the kitchen with a soothing smile on her face and gently supported the agitated woman.
“Xiaoya is fine, she just accidentally slipped her hand.
Please sit down first, I’ll go open the door and take a look.”
She comforted the old woman in the chair, then took a deep breath, turned and walked towards the door, like a master defending her territory.
Xiahou Ming stood at the kitchen door, staring blankly at the door that kept being knocked.
The door creaked open.
Ling Yicai held her breath.
Standing at the door was a thin figure.
But it wasn’t the figure she expected.
The expression on her face changed from alertness to a hint of surprise in an instant, and then turned into a condescending gentleness.
“…Wen Xuelan?”
Standing at the door was the girl from their freshman year who had often been bullied.
She was wearing a washed-out school uniform, her head lowered, not daring to look into the room.
The moment Xiahou Ming saw her, she was stunned at first, then she subconsciously turned her head to the side and covered her face with her long hair.
“Ling… Ling Yicai… classmate…”
When Wen Xuelan saw that it was her who opened the door, she was so nervous that she couldn’t even speak clearly.
Although Ling Yicai had never done anything bullying, Wen Xuelan was one of those who stood by and watched.
What’s more, she is Xiahou Ming’s childhood sweetheart…
“Are you looking for Xiao Ming?”
Ling Yicai said, a polite smile plastered on her face as she calmly blocked the doorway.
“She’s not home today.
She’s out playing with her classmates.”
“But how did you find this place?”
She paused and asked again, her tone seemingly casual but actually full of scrutiny.
“I…I…”
Wen Xuelan was so flustered that she was at a loss.
“I asked…I asked people on the street…”
She hurriedly took out an aluminum lunch box from the old schoolbag behind her, her hands shaking so much that she could hardly hold it.
“I’m here… to deliver something…
Someone asked me… to bring it to her…”
When Xiahou Ming saw the lunch box, her heart skipped a beat.
She had seen the lunch box.
“Since she’s not here…”
“Who asked you to bring it here?”
Ling Yicai interrupted her, her voice as cold as a sudden rain in late summer.
“I…I don’t know her either…”
Wen Xuelan’s voice was filled with tears.
“It’s just…a girl I don’t know…”
After she finished speaking, she didn’t dare to stay for another second.
She stuffed the lunch box into Ling Yicai’s hand, then turned around and rushed into the sunlight of the alley as if running away, and disappeared.
“What a weirdo.”
Ling Yicai looked at Wen Xuelan’s fleeing back and commented in a low voice.
She was about to close the door, but the lunch box in her hand stopped her.
‘…lunch box?
Why send a lunch box for no reason?’
A thought flashed through her mind.
In their first year of high school, Lin Xiaomei bullied Wen Xuelan the most.
And recently, that annoying follower has turned her attention to Xiao Ming.
‘Is it Lin Xiaomei’s prank?
What’s in this lunch box?
Bugs?
Or something else disgusting?’
Thinking of this, Ling Yicai couldn’t help but frown.
She leaned against the door frame, her fingers clasping the lid of the lunch box, ready to lift it open.
She wanted to expose this low-level trick herself.
Just when she was about to exert her strength—
A pale and thin hand suddenly stretched out from outside the door and held down her hand that was about to open the lid.
“Who gave you permission to touch it?”
An emotionless voice came faintly, as cold as winter.
“You’ve been so self-righteous for so long that you can’t even understand what people are saying?”
Ling Yicai’s movements froze.
She turned her head sharply.
The woman was standing behind her, less than half a step away from her.
Gloomy and obscure.
“Why are you haunting me, woman?”
Ling Yicai finally came to her senses and yelled in a panic.
But Yu Yuhui completely ignored her anger.
She gently exerted force and pulled the lunch box out of Ling Yicai’s hand.
“It’s not for you.”
Then, she no longer paid attention to the “hostess,” took a step forward, and calmly walked into this home that did not belong to her.
She walked up to Xiahou Ming, who was stunned, and stopped.
She looked at Xiahou Ming’s face, which was speechless due to shock, and a meaningful smile appeared on the corner of her mouth.
“Just now, when you opened the door, you were disappointed, right?”
“Do you… hope that it’s me standing outside the door?”
Xiahou Ming stared at the pair of bottomless dark eyes, looking at herself reflected in the pupils.
“You…why are you here?”
She subconsciously asked in a low voice, feeling her heart about to beat out of her chest.
“Didn’t you say I’m not as good as you at cooking?”
“I made this yesterday.”
Yu Yuhui shook the lunch box in her hand and handed it to Xiahou Ming.
Xiahou Ming swallowed nervously.
Under the gazes of Yu Yuhui and Ling Yicai, she stretched out her trembling hands and opened the lunch box that was supposed to contain her “lunch.”
A stench of spoiled food hit her in the face.
Xiahou Ming stared blankly at the disgusting thing in the lunch box that was no longer recognizable.
She understood.
‘This is a punishment.’
Yu Yuhui looked at her pale face, and the smile on her lips became even more intense.
She lowered her head, leaned close to Xiahou Ming’s ear, and whispered softly like a lover:
“Try it?”
Xiahou Ming’s time seemed to freeze at this moment.
She knew very well that if she ate this “meal,” she might suffer from diarrhea, vomiting, or even worse.
But not eating?
She couldn’t imagine what more terrible things the woman in front of her would do.
And…
She looked at her bewildered mother, then at Ling Yicai, whose body was trembling slightly with anger and was about to explode.
‘We can’t let them stay here any longer.
She and this family can no longer afford any more “accidents.”’
Xiahou Ming reached out and picked up the half of the salted duck egg that looked the safest in the corner of the lunch box.
Under Ling Yicai’s shocked gaze, she stuffed the duck egg, which was still oozing oil, into her mouth.
“Xiao Ming!?”
She chewed expressionlessly.
The delicate, crunchy salted egg yolk, mixed with just the right salty flavor, melted instantly on her tongue.
This should be a rare delicacy.
But all she felt was the bitterness of her heartbeat and the nausea churning in her stomach.
“Tasty.”
She mumbled these two words to Yu Yuhui.
Then, under Yu Yuhui’s interested eyes, she grabbed her wrist.
“Come out with me.”
She pulled her and walked towards the door without saying anything.
“Xiao Ming?
Where are you going!?”
Ling Yicai’s exclamation came from behind, full of disbelief.
“You come out too.”
After saying that, she no longer paid attention to anything in the house.
She pulled Yu Yuhui and walked out of the door without looking back, disappearing in the light and shadow of the alley.