Mona Lisas blutiges Auge

Kapitel 11

Gu Ming smiled and said, "Let's go back to Moonlight. I'm going back anyway; her room is there."

Deng Fei disagreed with a sour expression, "I'm afraid there are too many ghosts on your side, and she won't be able to sleep soundly."

Gu Ming said, "No ghost would dare to enter Moonlight's backyard. Let her come back to Moonlight with me. It's more convenient there than at school, and we have everything we need."

Then Deng Fei disagreed and insisted on taking me back.

I stood between the two of them for a long time, then suddenly asked, "Oh my god, are you two jealous of each other over me?"

After they finished listening, they both suddenly fell silent. Then Deng Fei looked at Gu Ming, Gu Ming looked at Deng Fei, and the two of them looked at me and shook their heads.

Deng Fei said, "You should go back to Moonlight."

Gu Ming said, "It's good to go back to school; it's safe there."

I opened my mouth, but found my face twitching and I couldn't speak.

Finally, Deng Fei received a phone call saying that there might be news about Xiao Bi. Someone had accidentally taken a picture of her in Hangzhou, and Deng Fei had to rush over to meet that person. As for me, I could only go back to Moonlight with Gu Ming, and the matter was resolved.

After returning to Moonlight and finishing dinner, Gu Ming had some things to prepare carefully. He said that the matter of the female ghost was not over yet, and what was meant to happen would eventually happen. But I didn't have the energy to listen to his new plans. After finishing my diary, I collapsed onto the bed and fell fast asleep.

Hmm, I think I'll get a good night's sleep...

Sleeping on a rainy day, March 29, 2005

When I woke up in the morning, it was still dark. I checked my phone and it showed that it was 8:05. When I opened the curtains, I found that the window was blurred by raindrops. I could hear the pattering of rain. After staring blankly for a while, I decided to go back to bed.

I was woken up by a knock on the door around 10 o'clock. Gu Ming leaned against the door and called me to get up and eat. I asked him if he had ever heard the saying, "Rainy days are good for sleeping." He rolled his eyes at me, turned around and walked away. I continued to lie on the bed.

Around noon, I woke up again with a rumbling stomach. I got up and went to the kitchen to find something to eat, and found a light vegetable and chicken porridge and several side dishes neatly placed on the table, still warm. My appetite was whetted, and I marveled at how authentic the food was, while also thinking that Gu Ming could be quite authentic at times.

Cuihua called me right after I finished eating to tell me that the postgraduate entrance exam cutoff scores were released the day before yesterday: 321. I was really just one point short. When you're lucky, you might win the lottery by picking up a ticket; when you're unlucky, you might get hit by bird droppings while you're just sitting there daydreaming. I guess I belong to the latter.

I shook my head and went to Gu Ming's room to play on the computer. He looked at me without any sympathy and said, "Try harder next time."

I asked in surprise, "How do you know I didn't try this time?"

He smiled and didn't say anything. I find people who pretend to be profound to be annoying, even if the other person is a once-in-a-century eligible bachelor.

"Gu Ming, how come you got two doctorates at such a young age?"

"I had nothing better to do, so I took the exam for fun."

"But exams are so annoying, how can you stand them?"

"Who told you I took the exam on my own?"

"kindness?"

“My uncle once studied the current state of exams in China. He invented a very simple cheating spell and asked me to test whether it worked. All I did was sign up, light a talisman, and conjure up a fake version of myself to take the exam.”

"ah?"

"Surprised? Do you think I'd be stupid enough to spend all my time holding those dogmatic books and taking those boring exams?" Gu Ming shrugged.

"Didn't you say you could write programs and knew something about economics?"

"This problem can only be explained from a genetic perspective. You know, some people are born smart, like me."

"Ha, haha." I smirked, thinking that so-called diamonds are nothing special after all—faking it to get a degree and being incredibly narcissistic.

The rain kept falling, and the sky was very dark. It was like that all day long. I spent the whole afternoon playing games at Gu Ming's place. Later, I got so bored that I opened his hard drive to find some movies to watch.

Gu Ming's computer was only partitioned into two drives: the C drive contained system files, and the D drive was for entertainment. Upon opening it, he discovered a startling scene, as follows:

My music; my pictures; my scriptures; my romance novels; my horror movies; my charms; my pornographic films; my animated films; my selection of Mao Zedong's poems; my sports games; my beautiful selfies.

I blinked and glanced at Gu Ming, who was reclining on the sofa reading a magazine. Suddenly, I felt a chill run down my spine. You really can't judge a book by its cover. My mother once said that people these days are all weirdos in private, saying one thing to your face and another in private. Now that I think about it, it's so true.

Just then, I noticed Gu Ming look up from the magazine, give me a sly smile, and ask, "Are you so engrossed in looking at me? Even though I'm very handsome, I can't just let you feast your eyes for free."

My lips twitched. "You still want money from me?"

"No, it's just that I'd like to ask you for dinner tonight. I'd like to have cherry pork, cold shredded vegetables, sweet fermented rice balls, celery and lily bulbs, and oh, and water shield soup."

Are you asking me to do it?

"certainly."

Do you think I would do that?

"Keep trying."

"..."

I let out a sigh of relief, got up and went to the market to buy groceries. Of course, before I left, I accidentally mixed up the file names on Gu Ming's computer. For example, I swapped the file names of "My Porn" and "My Selfies".

Yes, I really didn't mean to, it was an accident, just an accident.

I called Deng Fei that evening, but his phone was off.

I'm really worried about Xiao Bi. When will that girl come back? I miss her so much.

Light rain on March 30, 2005

Gu Ming is sick; he started vomiting around 1 a.m. last night.

I admit my dinner yesterday was a complete failure. The cherry meat was mushy, the celery and lily bulbs weren't cooked properly, and I didn't know how to make sweet fermented rice balls, I could only cook frozen ones... and they all broke. The cold shredded salad was simple, but I bought the wrong ingredients, so I ended up making shredded white radish, shredded carrot, and shredded water radish...

But... but I didn't force him to eat it all!

It was past three in the morning when Gu Ming finally stopped vomiting and drifted off to sleep. Looking at his pale face, I felt a little guilty. So I got up early and cooked some millet porridge for him. He smiled and said, "It's not your fault. The food last night was pretty good."

I'm a bit annoyed. Actually, these charlatans aren't always this weird.

"Xiao Mo, have you called Deng Fei yet?" Gu Ming suddenly asked.

"I called yesterday, but the phone was off."

"Let's try again," Gu Ming said thoughtfully.

"What's wrong?" I asked as I pulled out my phone, but after trying for a while, it was still switched off.

Gu Ming nodded, put down his bowl, stood up and said to me, "There are some things I need to tell you. Come with me."

I looked at him with a puzzled expression, then left the room and went to another small house in the backyard of Moonlight. The house was small, with blank walls and a pure white floor. A square incandescent light bulb on the roof illuminated every corner brightly.

"Xiao Mo, do you know where Xia Canyue went?" Gu Ming smiled at me from the middle of the room.

"Huh? You're actually asking me? You were the one who told me she was going out for a while."

"Yes," Gu Ming said with a smile, "she went to Hangzhou."

"What do you want to say?" I asked.

Gu Ming pulled me to sit in the middle of the room. Despite it being March, the floor was surprisingly warm and comfortable. Gu Ming produced another talisman from somewhere, with characters I had never seen before on it. He clasped his hands together, and the talisman suddenly flew from his fingertips, coiling around our heads like a small yellow snake, spinning faster and faster until we could only see a yellow circle.

"Deng Fei said someone accidentally took a picture of Xiao Bi in Hangzhou," Gu Ming suddenly said, smiling at me. "Want to see Hangzhou?"

"Huh?" I asked him, looking at him blankly.

Gu Ming smiled and flipped his left hand over, then put his right hand to his lips and whispered something. Suddenly, the yellow talisman above his head spun into a vortex, and the small house began to shake. I instinctively grabbed his clothes, wondering what kind of strange magic this was.

Soon, the vortex grew larger and larger, engulfing the entire room. The surroundings were no longer pure white, and some sounds came from afar. The walls began to blur. I stared blankly at this scene, muttering, "Could this be the legendary spatial teleportation technique?"

Gu Ming chuckled beside him, "What spatial teleportation technique? I'd rather use the Qiankun Great Shift."

I didn't have time to pay attention to him; I just watched the wall grow increasingly strange. Gradually, the voices became clearer, and figures, buildings, and trees appeared on the wall. People slowly crowded around, old people, children, and couples, laughing and moving around on the wall. In the distance, there was a shimmering lake with a stone bridge spanning it—it looked familiar.

"How about the beautiful scenery of West Lake in March?" Gu Ming patted my head and said.

"Huh? West Lake? Hangzhou?" I exclaimed, looking at everything that was happening on the wall.

“Yes. The Illusion Technique can project scenes from another place,” Gu Ming said. “My cousin is in Hangzhou, and Xiao Bi is also in Hangzhou.”

"Gu Ming, is there something you're hiding from me?" I asked in a low voice, looking at the lake and the broken bridge with its beautiful legend.

"I'm not hiding anything from you, it's just that some things are still uncertain."

"What's up?"

"Regarding the reason why my cousin suddenly went to Hangzhou," Gu Ming said, "my uncle discovered some strange celestial phenomena while he was meditating in the mountains and notified us to go and investigate."

"What strange celestial phenomenon? Demonic energy soaring to the heavens? Or is the Earth about to be destroyed?"

"Xiao Mo, what's going on in your head?" Gu Ming chuckled and tapped my forehead. "Just some strange phenomena, you wouldn't understand even if I told you."

"What does that have to do with Xiao Bi?"

Gu Ming looked at me, then at the scene on the wall. “It’s just strange why she was there. You might call it a coincidence, but I always feel that something is unusual. The female ghost we met at the villa, and the shadowy figure that rescued her—I feel like there’s some connection between these things, but I can’t figure it out.”

I shook my head. What he didn't understand, I understood even less of. I was only worried about Xiao Bi, Deng Fei, and Xia Canyue. As long as they all came back soon, and came back safely, that was all that mattered.

Have you ever been to Hangzhou?

"No. I've only heard the story of the White Snake." The lake on the wall is indeed very beautiful. I wonder if, a long, long time ago, a white snake really did stage a love story there.

"Have you read 'The Legend of the White Snake'?" Gu Ming asked.

"I've only watched The Legend of the White Snake. When I was little, I thought Zhao Yazhi was very pretty, Xiaoqing was very pretty, their clothes were very pretty, and they were even prettier when they could use magic and fly. I just didn't understand why Xu Xian was a woman back then. I also collected a lot of stickers. I would buy any stickers from that TV series, even stickers of Xu Xian's sister and Li Gongbu..." I rambled on and on. Gu Ming smiled irritatingly and said, "I'll take you to Hangzhou sometime."

"Okay." I nodded. "But I want to ask, why did you use the illusion technique to show me West Lake? Can I see Xiao Bi from here?"

"No way, it can't be that coincidental." Gu Ming shrugged.

"Will we be able to see the waning moon?"

"That can't be right."

"Then why did you make me see this?" I asked him, puzzled.

"I just suddenly remembered that you don't seem to have been to this room before, nor have you ever seen the Illusion Technique, so I asked you to come and take a look at the beautiful scenery of West Lake." Gu Ming said innocently, "I think it's quite beautiful."

"Gu Ming".

"kindness?"

"I think you're really boring."

"Hmm?" Gu Ming blinked. "Don't want to watch anymore?"

"Okay." I nodded.