Chapter 56: Eerie Black Shadow

Chapter 56: Chapter 56: Eerie Black Shadow

Gu Qing returned home with the cookies.

His parents were in the living room; his father was watching TV, and his mother was on her phone.

His sister was nowhere to be seen. ’She must be in her room studying,’ he thought.

"You silly boy, if you were coming home today, why didn’t you come back two hours earlier for dinner?"

Seeing Gu Qing finally home, Wen Wanyi shot him an exasperated look and chided him.

With that, she got up and headed for the kitchen, urging him as she went, "Go wash your hands. I saved you some food. I just need to heat it up, and you can eat."

Gu Qing: "You don’t have to, Mom. I’m not hungry."

Wen Wanyi: "You have to eat something even if you’re not hungry. Otherwise, you’ll get hungry in the middle of the night and want a snack, which is bad for you."

Gu Mingbo: "Listen to your mother. She even saved you a big chicken leg."

Since both his parents insisted, Gu Qing had no choice but to comply.

Soon, Wen Wanyi brought out the reheated food.

Gu Qing sat down and started eating.

"What’s this?"

Wen Wanyi asked, looking at the bag on the table.

It was the bag of cookies Gu Qing had brought back from school.

"They’re cookies a classmate of mine made. She wanted me to bring them home for you all to try."

Gu Qing said as he shoveled rice into his mouth.

A classmate?

Wen Wanyi raised an eyebrow, and a teasing smile spread across her face. "What kind of classmate bakes cookies for you to bring home to us?"

"Fess up!"

"Did you find a girlfriend at school?"

"..."

Gu Qing never talked about his love life with his family.

Three years into university, his family still didn’t know he’d had a girlfriend named Bai Ningyu, let alone that they had now broken up.

So, when Wen Wanyi saw him bring home a bag of handmade cookies, her first thought was that he’d gotten a girlfriend.

Gu Qing denied it. "It’s not like that. It’s really just a regular classmate. We just get along well, that’s all."

Seeing her son was unwilling to talk, Wen Wanyi didn’t press the issue.

Instead, her gaze fell upon the cookies.

"Fine, if you say so, Mom believes you. Now, let me try your ’regular classmate’s’ handiwork."

Saying that, Wen Wanyi opened the bag, casually picked out a cookie, and placed it in her mouth to savor it.

Gu Mingbo also reached for one. "I’ll try one, too, see if they’re any good."

Just then, Gu Yao came out of her room to get a glass of water.

The moment she emerged, she saw her parents eating cookies and immediately rushed over to condemn them.

"Father Emperor! Mother Empress!"

"How could you!"

"Eating snacks behind your daughter’s back!"

As she spoke, Gu Yao plopped down next to her mother, Wen Wanyi, carefully selected a strawberry-flavored cookie, and started eating it.

Wen Wanyi shot her an exasperated glance. "You little rascal, did you wash your hands? Grabbing a cookie and stuffing it in your mouth without a care for hygiene."

Gu Yao was unfazed. "A fairy’s hands don’t get dirty."

Wen Wanyi was speechless. "You should watch less TV. All this ’Father Emperor,’ ’Mother Empress,’ and ’fairy’ talk all day long... what has gotten into you?"

"Okaaaay—!"

Gu Yao dragged out her response.

Then, she asked curiously, "Mom, these cookies are amazing! Where did they come from?"

Wen Wanyi: "A ’regular classmate’ from your brother’s school gave them to him."

Hearing that, Gu Yao immediately turned to her brother and asked, "Bro, did you get a girlfriend at school?"

Gu Qing: "No."

Gu Yao: "Stop pretending. You totally did!"

Then she added, "Sigh, I can’t imagine what blind girl has taken a liking to you. To think she’d even bake you cookies by hand... what a perfect flower wasted on a pile of cow dung."

Gu Qing ignored her and looked at his mother across from him.

"Mom, it’s been a while since I’ve had your mung bean cakes. Could you make some tomorrow for me to take to school?"

Before Wen Wanyi could answer, Gu Yao cut in.

"Mom, he’s definitely taking them to school for his girlfriend! Then he’ll lie and tell her he made them himself. My brother’s the master of schemes like that!"

"Silly Yao, you’re asking for it, aren’t you?"

Gu Qing had had enough.

He grabbed his sister’s soft little foot.

Clenching his fist, he aimed for the sole of her foot and unleashed a vicious tickle attack, the Electric Venom Dragon Drill.

She squirmed like a maggot under the assault.

Her mouth hung open as she howled.

...

「Ten minutes later.」

Having finished his meal and washed the dishes, Gu Qing prepared to go out and meet up with Liu Zhiyi.

Seeing he was about to leave, Gu Yao asked curiously,

"Where are you going this late?"

"To chat with Sister Zhiyi."

"I’m coming too!"

"No way. Go back to your room and study."

"Nope, I’m going! I want to go pet the cats, dogs, and hamsters!"

"Suit yourself."

The siblings bickered back and forth as they left the apartment and headed for the pet shop together.

Downstairs, as they reached the entrance to their residential complex, Gu Qing saw a woman from the complex arguing with the gate security guard.

The argument was fierce.

He lingered for a moment to watch the commotion. Apparently, the guard had been a bit slow to open the gate for her, and she was accusing him of looking down on her.

Gu Qing found the woman ridiculous.

’How can someone be so sensitive?’ he thought. ’I wonder how her family puts up with her.’

After grumbling internally for a bit, Gu Qing decided not to stick around and led his sister toward the pet shop across the street.

"Bro, Aunt Zhang has gotten so aggressive lately."

"I remember she used to be so good-tempered and polite to everyone."

"I don’t know what’s happened these past couple of days, but I keep seeing her arguing with people."

Gu Yao said, looking puzzled.

Gu Qing guessed casually, "Maybe she’s going through menopause."

Soon, the siblings crossed the road and arrived at the Little Fairy Pet Shop on the other side.

Gu Qing was about to push the door open, when a figure pushed past him from behind, barging in with a menacing air.

It was none other than the woman who had just been arguing with the security guard at the complex entrance.

Upon entering the shop, the woman marched straight up to Liu Zhiyi and began screaming at her:

"You fucking bitch!"

"Every day you’re either in stockings showing off your legs or in sandals showing off your feet! You dress so slutty, are you trying to seduce my husband?!"

"Hurry up and put on some socks to cover those filthy feet, or I’ll burn this dump of a pet shop to the ground!"

The tirade was completely unexpected.

Gu Qing and his sister were both stunned, unable to comprehend what was happening.

As for Liu Zhiyi, the target of the abuse, she remained perfectly calm.

"I haven’t seduced your husband. I don’t even know what he looks like."

"Just because you say so?"

The woman’s face was contorted with rage. "My husband passes by here every day after work! You know this, so you dress like a whore every day to seduce him!"

After listening to their exchange, Gu Qing couldn’t help but frown.

He suspected the woman before him might have some kind of mental problem.

’Her husband is a poor, ugly, balding man. Liu Zhiyi would have to be insane to try and seduce him.’

"Aunt Zhang, could there be some misunderstanding?"

Gu Qing stepped forward to mediate. "Sister Zhiyi isn’t that kind of person. Let’s just talk things through calmly instead of starting with accusations."

Gu Yao chimed in, "Yeah, Aunt Zhang, you must have misunderstood Sister Zhiyi."

Seeing the siblings take Liu Zhiyi’s side, the woman flew into a rage as if provoked, turning on them and screaming,

"Oh, wonderful! It’s not enough that one shameless hussy is bullying me, now you two siblings are ganging up on me too!"

"Fine, we’ll see who has more people!"

"I’m calling for backup to curse you all to death!"

Saying this, the woman pulled out her phone and frantically made a call to summon people to the pet shop.

Seeing that reasoning with her was impossible, Gu Qing gave up and simply pulled out his phone to call the Security Office and report the situation.

But before the Security Officers could arrive, the woman’s backup showed up first.

It was her daughter-in-law and her daughter, two young women in their twenties.

The moment they arrived, they started screaming abuse at Liu Zhiyi.

"You shameless slut! Seducing my dad every day, dressing like a whore! Believe me, I’ll strip you naked and parade you through the streets!"

"Bitch! It’s bad enough you’re seducing my father-in-law, but now you’re trying to seduce my husband too? I’m going to smash up your shop!"

These two women seemed just as crazy. After cursing out Liu Zhiyi, they started smashing things.

’It’s one thing for an old woman to have a menopausal meltdown, but why are these two young women going crazy too?’

’Something feels very wrong...’

Gu Qing’s brow furrowed. He sensed something was off.

Just then!

He saw faint, shimmering threads floating above the heads of the three crazed women.

The three threads stretched from the tops of their heads all the way into the residential complex across the street.

Following the path of the threads with his eyes, Gu Qing saw a dark, humanoid silhouette perched on a large tree within the complex.

Its outline was blurry and indistinct, swirling and undulating like smoke.

At that moment, the dark, humanoid silhouette was using its hands to manipulate the three threads, continuously drawing an essence from the three women, which flowed along the threads and directly into its body.

’Is that... a monster?!’

Gu Qing’s mind reeled in shock.

...

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