The two of them didn’t play games for very long before Shu Yuxin finished making dinner. Once the dishes were on the table, they actually looked quite appetizing, immediately whetting Yan Zhikai’s appetite.

That enthusiasm lasted right up until he ate his first slice of potato.

The potato dish wasn’t exactly bad, but something about the taste felt strange. He couldn’t quite put his finger on what was off—he just knew that after that first bite, he didn’t touch the dish again.

Coincidentally, Shu Yuxin didn’t touch it either.

The ordinary dinner ended quickly. After finishing his meal, Yan Zhikai didn’t stay long. He complimented Shu Yuxin’s cooking a couple of times, then left.

Once again, only Shu Yuxin and Jiang Zixuan were left in the small apartment. Outside, the sky had completely darkened. Sitting by the dining table, Shu Yuxin stretched lazily, then slowly stood up and began clearing the dishes. “Ah… I’m sleepy. I’ll go to bed early tonight.”

“If you’re sleepy, you can go take a shower first. I’ll wash the dishes,” Jiang Zixuan said casually while still sitting there, playing on his phone.

Shu Yuxin shot him a sideways glance and pointed at the table. “Be my guest.”

“…I was just saying that. You’re taking it seriously?”

“I don’t care. I’m going to shower.” Shu Yuxin yawned and turned toward her bedroom.

Jiang Zixuan sighed softly, then looked at the plate of potato slices that had barely been touched and raised his voice. “You put too much salt in these potatoes, didn’t you?”

“…Yeah, my hand slipped at the time,” Shu Yuxin’s voice came from the bedroom.

Jiang Zixuan stood up and took over her earlier work. “Don’t add too much water, and don’t pour it all in at once. That makes the flavor weird.”

“Got it, got it. I’m going to shower.” Shu Yuxin came out of her bedroom holding clothes and went straight into the bathroom.

Jiang Zixuan glanced at the closed bathroom door and said nothing more.

After returning home, their routine seemed to fall back into its usual pattern. The only difference was that they showered a bit earlier than before. Even though she kept saying she was sleepy, after her shower Shu Yuxin still dragged Jiang Zixuan into playing games together in the living room for quite a while. It wasn’t until eleven at night that she finally couldn’t resist the drowsiness anymore. When she caught herself dozing off for the third time, she gave up. “Nope, nope. I’m too sleepy. I’m going to bed.”

Jiang Zixuan took the controller from her and exited the game. “Alright, let’s stop here. We’ll play again tomorrow.”

“Mm… okay. Good night.” Shu Yuxin yawned again and slowly shuffled into her bedroom.

“Good night.”

After Shu Yuxin went back to her room, Jiang Zixuan stayed on the living room sofa for a while longer, fiddling with the PS before shutting it down and tidying up. Once he finished a quick cleanup of the living room, he turned off the lights and returned to his own bedroom.

In the other room, Shu Yuxin lay flat on her bed, staring at the white ceiling, looking lost in thought.

She thought of that damned haunted house again.

The moments before falling asleep were always when thoughts wandered most easily. During that time, there was nothing and no one to interrupt her, so once her mind started drifting, it rarely stopped. That was when her thoughts ran completely free.

Under normal circumstances, her wandering thoughts tended to focus on whatever had left the strongest impression on her recently. And over the past couple of days, what had left the strongest impression?

That hardly needed to be said.

The human mind worked like this: once it started drifting, it was very hard to rein it back in without external interruption. Trying to force yourself not to think about something often produced the opposite effect—the more you resisted, the more vividly it came back, as if your brain were deliberately working against you.

That was exactly how she had been the night before, and now she’d fallen into the same state again.

And once certain thoughts went too far, things quickly got out of hand.

The bedroom was so quiet she could hear her own heartbeat. The ceiling light in the center of the room illuminated everything as bright as day. The room wasn’t very big, so from her bed she could see it all at a glance.

And yet, she felt no sense of security at all.

Thanks to her overactive imagination, the room now felt terrifyingly crowded—

Someone under the bed. Someone in the wardrobe. Someone hanging from the ceiling. Someone lying on the floor beside the bed. Even someone floating outside the window.

Shu Yuxin was utterly panicked now, even more so than the night before.

At least last night had been manageable. Even though she had slept alone in her own bed, she knew Peng Xiaoxiao was in the same room, which gave her some sense of reassurance. It was like back in middle school, when she and a bunch of classmates stayed overnight at a teacher’s house. Eight people crammed into one room, barely any space at all, but she had never been scared at night back then.

Now, though, she was completely alone in this room—and she just couldn’t handle it.

Her heart was pounding.

She was pretty sure she wouldn’t be able to sleep like this, and even if she somehow managed to drift off, she’d probably be plagued by nightmares all night. Even if it wasn’t that extreme, she was certain there’d be at least some.

She didn’t want any of that. She just wanted a good night’s sleep.

After thinking it over in bed for a long time, Shu Yuxin finally made a decision.

She spent a full two minutes working up her courage, then hugged her pillow, jumped out of bed, and rushed out of her bedroom.

Meanwhile, Jiang Zixuan was still tidying up his bed. When they had gone out earlier, he’d tossed a pile of clothes onto it while packing, and now he needed to clear enough space to sleep.

He had just folded the clothes and put them into the wardrobe when Shu Yuxin burst through the door and slammed it shut behind her.

The way she came in startled him. “…What are you doing?”

“Zixuan, let’s sleep together again tonight?” Shu Yuxin grinned, flashing a row of bright white teeth.

Jiang Zixuan twitched the corner of his mouth. “What’s wrong now? Can’t sleep on your bed?”

Shu Yuxin tossed her pillow onto the inner side of the bed and climbed on without waiting for his consent. “No, I just want to sleep with you.”

Jiang Zixuan looked at her for a moment, a little helpless. “It’s a single bed. Aren’t you going to feel cramped?”

“Doesn’t matter, it’s enough.” Shu Yuxin pulled back the blanket, cleared half the space, then patted the mattress and smiled at him. “Come on, sleep together.”

“Yuxin.”

“Hmm?”

“Are you scared to sleep alone?”

“Of course not!!” Shu Yuxin immediately retorted. “Do I look like a coward?! Can’t I just want to sleep with you?! I’m a girl now, you know! Sleeping with me is you getting the benefit! And you’re still complaining?!”

“…Why are you reacting so strongly?”

“You… I—” Shu Yuxin choked on her words, then gave up and rolled over. “I’m going to sleep.”

Jiang Zixuan felt a headache coming on.

Did she even realize she was a girl? Or had she just never seen him as a man at all? Did she really think he was some kind of saint?

Even though he was a bit dissatisfied with her behavior, Jiang Zixuan didn’t say anything more. After finishing tidying the wardrobe, he climbed onto the bed and lay down beside her.

“I’m turning off the light, okay?” He faced away from Shu Yuxin, reaching for the switch by the bed as he asked.

“Wait,” Shu Yuxin’s voice came from behind him, sounding a little embarrassed. “Um… I didn’t turn off the light in my room. Could you go help me turn it off?”

Jiang Zixuan couldn’t help turning his head to look at her. “You ran over here without turning off the light?!”

Shu Yuxin looked innocent. “I was in a hurry… Just go help me turn it off, okay? Leaving it on all night wastes electricity, right? And you’re the one paying the bill…”

“I really…” Jiang Zixuan sighed and got out of bed again.

Her bedroom door across the hall was still open, and sure enough, the light inside was on. It was obvious just how much of a “hurry” she had been in.

From her behavior, Jiang Zixuan could more or less guess that this had something to do with the haunted house earlier.

He had known for a long time that she was timid. She never dared to watch horror movies, never played horror games, and generally avoided horror novels altogether. Back in middle school, when classmates took turns telling ghost stories in the dorm at night, she had even begged them to stop. Jiang Zixuan remembered it clearly—she had ended up climbing into his bed that night and staying there until morning. It was one of those common bunk beds in school dorms, less than a meter wide. Even two middle schoolers sleeping together felt ridiculously cramped. When he woke up the next morning, he realized he was sleeping on the floor—fortunately, they had been on the lower bunk. It was because of that incident that Jiang Zixuan became determined to move out and rent his own place.

Ahem—getting off track.

Another obvious sign of Shu Yuxin’s cowardice was how easily she could scare herself with her own memories of horror. No matter how long ago something had happened, or whether she thought she’d forgotten it, as soon as she encountered something new and scary, all those old memories would resurface. They would pile together and frighten her all over again, indirectly making her unable to sleep alone. She would either tough it out or find someone to sleep with.

Last night, she had forced herself through it. Tonight, she couldn’t anymore.

Now Jiang Zixuan was starting to regret dragging Shu Yuxin into the haunted house.

She really wasn’t suited for that kind of thing.

After turning off the light in Shu Yuxin’s room and closing her door for her, Jiang Zixuan returned to his bedroom. Shu Yuxin was sprawled out on his bed in a starfish position. When she saw him come back, she immediately shifted over to make space for him. “Come on~!”

“Let’s just sleep. Don’t do anything else,” Jiang Zixuan said as he climbed onto the bed. “Kai wants us to help tomorrow.”

“I wasn’t planning to do anything…” Shu Yuxin muttered softly, then turned over. “Good night.”

“Good night.” Jiang Zixuan turned off the light.