22: Rabbits don't eat the grass near their burrows.

Du Wenqing reached out and slapped Jiang Nan across the face a few times.

The sound of "slap, slap, slap" was exceptionally loud in the empty room.

Before Jiang Nan could even react, she heard a familiar voice in her ear: "Nan Nan, wake up... Nan Nan, it's time for class..."

Jiang Nan groggily opened her eyes and rubbed her swollen, reddened face, about to shift her body to instinctively make room for Du Wenqing.

That was when she realized Du Wenqing was standing by the bed with her hair disheveled, staring at her without moving.

She was instantly jolted with fear, jumping straight up from the bed, leaping a meter away, and pressing herself tightly against the headboard while covering her head with the quilt.

"Don't eat me! I haven't even washed up yet!"

"Nan Nan, what's wrong with you? You're such a scaredy-cat," Du Wenqing asked, sounding puzzled.

Jiang Nan stuttered, unable to form a coherent sentence, "Y-y-you... Qing Qing, who told you to... in the middle of the night..."

In the dead of night, her beautiful roommate wearing bright red pajamas, her face deathly pale, silently poking her head out—it was truly more terrifying than a ghost.

Jiang Nan feared nothing under the sun, except for supernatural spirits and ghosts. Usually, she had to hug a pillow just to finish watching a horror movie; if she really encountered something unclean, it would truly be the end of her.

Seeing Jiang Nan's terrified expression, Du Wenqing was startled into quickly switching on the bedside lamp. She then pointed at Jiang Nan's forehead, trembling as she said, "Nan Nan, could it be that you've been latched onto by something unclean? Why is your forehead so terrifyingly dark!"

Hearing this, Jiang Nan was speechless and reached out to gently poke Du Wenqing's imaginative little head.

She stubbornly replied, "There's no such thing as anything unclean. It's just the pillowcase I bought for 3.9 yuan with free shipping, and the color is running..."

Du Wenqing awkwardly retracted her impolite hand and snuck a glance at Jiang Nan, muttering softly, "How was I supposed to know! Besides, there are so many supernatural incidents happening in society right now. Only here in C City, where we are studying for our graduate degrees, can we still feel relatively safe."

Jiang Nan raised an eyebrow upon hearing this and asked suspiciously, "Then why did you suddenly barge into my room? In the middle of the night, you nearly scared me to death!" After saying this, she didn't forget to add, "Rabbits don't eat the grass near their burrow."

Du Wenqing rolled her eyes to the heavens, "I was up late writing my thesis and got hungry! I got up to cook some noodles, but then I heard you screaming, so I came in to check."

Jiang Nan looked at Du Wenqing sheepishly, rubbing her stomach, "Is there any noodle left? I'm hungry too."

Du Wenqing said helplessly, "...I'll share half with you!"

"Yay! Mwah ＾3＾ Love you!"

"Get lost!"

After mooching a meal from her roommate, Jiang Nan felt her body warm up a bit, and her limbs were no longer so stiff.

She didn't understand that this state was called "the return of yang energy"; she only felt that she was no longer jumping at every little rustle.

"Maybe I'm just too tired from staying up late to write my thesis, which makes me prone to hallucinations."

"Pika, pikachu, pikapikapika..." A cheerful *pikachu Song* ringtone rang out from her phone.

Du Wenqing, while slurping noodles, pulled her phone from her pajama pocket and, with sleepy eyes, glanced at the caller ID— "Jiang Yi".

"Nan Nan, why is your brother calling me?" Du Wenqing scratched her head in confusion.

Jiang Nan bolted upright, "Oh no! My phone must be dead."

"Oh! Then you answer it! Brother Jiang is probably looking for you." Du Wenqing handed the phone to Jiang Nan.

As soon as Jiang Nan pressed the answer button, Jiang Yi's anxious voice came through the phone. "Xiao Qing! Please check if something happened to Nan Nan; I can't get through to her."

Jiang Nan quickly said, "Hey, brother, I'm fine. My phone just died."

Hearing his sister's voice, Jiang Yi said with a sigh of relief, "That's good, that's good!" After saying that, he shrugged, as if a great weight had just been lifted from his heart.

Jiang Nan asked curiously, "Brother, you're calling in the middle of the night, is there something urgent?"

Jiang Yi hesitated for a moment before slowly saying, "Right, little sister. Have you been having nightmares for the past few days about our hometown town?"

"Damn! Brother, you've also been dreaming about it for days? Seriously! Don't tell me we really ran into something unclean!" Jiang Nan's legs went weak, and she had to hold onto the sofa to keep from collapsing to the floor.

Jiang Nan and Du Wenqing looked at each other, both seeing fear in the other's eyes.

"Brother, let me tell you, my roommate just said my forehead looked black. I thought it was the pillowcase color running, but maybe I really have been latched onto by something unclean." Jiang Nan's voice carried a sob.

There was a moment of silence on Jiang Yi's end before he said, "Don't be afraid for now. I'll go find someone who knows how to perform exorcisms. For the next two days, don't go back to your graduate dormitory. Go to Qingyun Temple in C City to lay low. I know Daoist Master Yunsong at the temple; he's a good buddy of mine."

Jiang Nan and Du Wenqing quickly nodded in agreement. Right now, they just wanted to find a safe place to hide.

Jiang Yi comforted them, "Don't worry. With Daoist Master Yunsong there, you won't have any trouble. I'll call you after I get more information on this end."

After hanging up, Jiang Nan and Du Wenqing quickly packed their things and scrambled off to stay at Qingyun Temple for a couple of days.

Jiang Nan felt a creeping sensation in her heart, as if a pair of eyes were watching her from the dark. Every step she took, she felt a chill down her back, as if something was following her.

Du Wenqing was dragging her suitcase halfway there when she finally came to her senses and patted her forehead.

"Nan Nan! You and your brother are the ones having nightmares, why am I so scared!"

Jiang Nan pouted and acted cute, shaking her arms—a three-part combo executed with fluid grace.

Like a cute little kitten acting coquettishly to beg for a cat treat from its owner, it was impossible to refuse.

"My good wife Qing Qing!"

"That's cheating... Rabbits don't eat the grass near their burrow!" Du Wenqing curled her lip, a look of helplessness on her face.

"Sister Qing Qing... Baby Qing Qing..."

"Fine, fine, fine!"

Du Wenqing agreed helplessly, unable to help but sigh in her heart; she really couldn't do anything about this live wire.

"Love you ＾3＾"

Jiang Nan laughed happily.

...

When the two arrived at Qingyun Temple, it was already past four in the morning.

Jiang Nan and Du Wenqing stood at the entrance, looking at the tightly closed temple gate, a trace of fear rising in their hearts.

"Why does the temple also have such a gloomy, creepy vibe?"

"Do we really have to go in?" Jiang Nan asked nervously.

Du Wenqing gritted her teeth and braced herself, saying, "We're already here, are we supposed to go back?"

Jiang Nan nodded, took a deep breath, gathered her courage, and pushed open the gate.

The interior of the temple was pitch black, with only the faint moonlight spilling onto the ground through the windows.

The two stepped cautiously into the courtyard; everything around them was deathly quiet, with only their footsteps echoing in the night.