Don't even think about going out in the middle of the night.
Ji Shuhe stood on the threshold of the living room, caught in a dilemma. It was almost the start of autumn, and the wind in the dead of night blew gently, carrying a chill that settled in after only a moment's exposure. As the temperature dropped, the cicadas had quieted down, with only an occasional chirp breaking the silence. Everything was still.
Ji Shuhe wanted to go out, but before she could take a step, she pulled her foot back and instead grabbed the doorframe, peering outside. Clearly, her increasingly urgent need couldn't be ignored. Summoning her courage, she decided to go downstairs, but just as she was about to step into the pitch-black darkness ahead, she froze again. The unlit alleyway was too dark. The municipal streetlights only reached the main road, leaving the alley without any public lighting. Earlier, she could barely see by the light from neighbors' windows, but now that everyone was asleep, the narrow passage was dark, deep, and bottomless, easily conjuring visions of an abyss ready to swallow her whole.
Ji Shuhe pulled her head back in, rubbed the goosebumps on her arms, and felt a chill down her spine. The old house didn't have a bathroom, which meant she had to go to the public restroom at the entrance of the alley. To get there, she first had to cross several dark lanes. Her? Alone, fumbling through a maze-like alley in the dark? No way. She might as well go back to bed and hold it in until dawn. Anyway, summer mornings came early—she just had to last another three or four, maybe five hours...
"What are you doing here in the middle of the night? Come down to look at the moon?"
Ji Shuhe's mind was still full of ghosts and monsters when the sudden voice behind her startled her. She hugged the doorframe tightly, almost in tears. "Why don't you make any noise when you walk!" she complained, her voice trembling, though it lacked any real force.
"...You were lost in thought," Wen Shaoyu said, feeling wronged. He had deliberately made his footsteps heavier when coming down, afraid of scaring the timid cat. But who knew... Though he couldn't see her expression clearly, the outline told him she was terrified.
"What moon is so beautiful that you couldn't hear me coming down?" Wen Shaoyu mimicked Ji Shuhe's earlier pose and peered out, but the night sky was covered in clouds, with no moon in sight. He turned back to her. "There's no moon either?"
Who said she was looking at the moon! He was talking nonsense! Unbelievable! Ji Shuhe was already irritable from holding it in, and she snapped, "None of your business!"
Hearing this, Wen Shaoyu nodded, his gaze dropping as his eyebrows rose. He didn't look angry. He held an object in his hand and shook it. "Fine. Then you can stay here and look at the moon." As he finished, a beam of light suddenly appeared. Without looking back, he shook the flashlight and walked off.
Ignoring the glare from the light, Ji Shuhe quickly called after him, "Wen... where are you going?"
Wen Shaoyu was already a few steps away, his voice carrying a faint, mocking tone: "N—one—of—your—business."
Instant karma, right back at her. She didn't actually want to know, but... she really couldn't hold it anymore.
Ji Shuhe bit her lip, torn. But as the beam of light moved farther and farther away, she threw caution—and pride—to the wind, quickly closed the door, and chased after him.
The same dark alley stretched long and black, but now there was a bobbing beam of light.
Hearing the soft footsteps behind him, Wen Shaoyu's lips curled upward. He took small, deliberate steps, lazily tracing semicircle after semicircle with the flashlight, as idle and unruly as he was. It wasn't as if he had any business wandering around with a flashlight in the dead of night. He just... heard the noise from the attic and decided to be kind and help the newcomer, the jumpy cat.
Yong'anli was sandwiched between two popular commercial areas. The shikumen houses were old and cramped, but they were prime real estate slated for demolition. Families with means had already bought new homes and moved out, leaving their old houses to wait for the demolition payday while renting them out. So a single building often housed five or six households, each behind locked doors. They had to take turns using the kitchen, and for nighttime trips to the bathroom, they used chamber pots—no one went outside.
Though their building only had two families, it was located at the far end of the alley. Going to the public restroom at the front in the middle of the night was too inconvenient, so everyone stuck to the old way of doing things. This wasn't openly discussed, and since it was Ji Shuhe's first night in the attic, her family had obviously forgotten to tell her how to handle nighttime needs. Of course, it was none of Wen Shaoyu's business. But the kitten's descent had disturbed his sleep, and the way she clung to the doorframe was pitiful. For the sake of... that tissue, he decided to do a good deed and save her from her predicament. Who knew she wouldn't appreciate it?
Wen Shaoyu dawdled at the door, waiting. When no one came, he was about to turn around and go back to sleep when the timid cat finally poked her head out and tiptoed after him. He deliberately swung the flashlight even more wildly, sweeping it from one red wall to the other, over the flagstones wet with dew or air-conditioner runoff, as payback for her "none of your business."
Ji Shuhe, unaware of Wen Shaoyu's childish revenge, only grew more anxious with each sway of the light. She didn't know Wen Shaoyu, nor where he was going with that flashlight in the dead of night. All she cared about was that he had to pass the alley entrance, so she could follow him that far. But then she remembered his notorious reputation and the bruise-faced chubby boy, and she shrank back. She realized she had forgotten to be afraid of him in her desperation. What if he led her somewhere and sold her? Ji Shuhe put some distance between them, stepping on his shadow where his head would be. That way, she could follow the light but still be ready to run if danger arose—and even stomp on his shadow out of spite.
But luckily, she was overthinking again.
As soon as they reached the dim streetlamp at the alley entrance, Wen Shaoyu turned off his flashlight, ignored Ji Shuhe completely, and ducked into the men's restroom. Ji Shuhe finally relaxed, scurried into the women's restroom, held her breath, and took care of business. While washing her hands at the sink, she started worrying again: Had Wen Shaoyu already left? If he had, she'd have to go back alone—no light, no guide, through the maze of alleys home... That would be even worse. At least earlier she had been at her doorstep, but now she might end up stranded at the public restroom. What if her grandparents noticed she was gone? Ji Shuhe sighed deeply. Why did she always mess things up, no matter how careful she was?
She rubbed her worried face and trudged out of the restroom, despondent. The cement ground was mottled, the streetlamp stood silently, casting a hazy circle of light. Suddenly, a gust of wind rustled the tree shadows, making a rustling sound. Who else was awake at two in the morning? She didn't know, but the scene was certainly creepy. Ji Shuhe's mind was prone to overthinking, and as she squinted, she felt as if the wind-blown surroundings were crowded with figures. Stories she'd read before came to life in her mind: white-clad ghosts floating, red-dressed hanging spirits. She squinted, afraid of seeing something she shouldn't, and shuffled forward before mustering the courage to open her eyes. Until... a dark human silhouette appeared abruptly on the empty ground.
"Don't scream, and don't say I'm a ghost."
"Are you a cat? So easily scared." Wen Shaoyu's tone was flat, laced with resignation. "I'm Wen Shaoyu. Stand up straight and open your eyes to look at me."
Recognizing his voice, Ji Shuhe found her courage again. She opened her eyes to see Wen Shaoyu leaning against the wall as if deliberately showing off, a layer of white dust on his shoulder. The fifteen-or-sixteen-year-old boy was sprouting up; Ji Shuhe only reached his shoulder, so he looked down at her, his bangs half-covering his beautiful peach blossom eyes.
"Wha—what are you doing here!" Under the dim light, his unruly face softened for a moment. Ji Shuhe briefly lost herself in his looks before realizing how close they were. She turned away, blinking guiltily.
Wen Shaoyu ignored her question. "You took so long. I thought you fell in."
"...Even if I fell in, I wouldn't need you to fish me out," she muttered. This guy only knew how to criticize her; every sentence was a jab. He wasn't part of her family, so she didn't have to suck up to him. She wouldn't take it lying down!
"Don't flatter yourself. I wouldn't fish you out." Wen Shaoyu raised an eyebrow, sneering. "I'd just grab a megaphone and shout from one end of the alley to the other, 'The Ji family's new granddaughter fell in the toilet!' Before your grandparents could come get you, half the neighborhood would show up to watch. Within half a day, you'd be famous in Yong'anli."
He teased knowingly, "Seamlessly integrated into Yong'anli. What do you think?"
"Not good at all!" Ji Shuhe shuddered at the mere thought of the embarrassment. She shot him a glare and turned to walk into the alley. "You're crazy! I'm done talking to you!"
Wen Shaoyu stood still, a genuine smile spreading across his face as he watched her leave. He straightened up lazily, flashlight in one hand, as he brushed the dust off his shoulder with the other, thinking he'd need to change clothes before bed. At that moment, a tentative voice came from the darkness: "Aren't you coming home?"
The dark silhouette was barely visible against the light, but Wen Shaoyu could picture the kitten mewing with its paws out. "Not coming back," he said, stretching. "The moon's pretty nice tonight. Want to stay and look at it together?"
Ji Shuhe looked up at the cloud-covered sky and rolled her eyes internally. "No thanks, I'm going home!"
"Well... have a safe trip." Wen Shaoyu waved his flashlight, as if saying goodbye. "Good night, sweet dreams."
Ji Shuhe turned and gritted her teeth. She swore Wen Shaoyu knew exactly what she was thinking, but he deliberately went against her. She couldn't rely on anyone but herself. Besides, he wasn't obliged to help. It was just a dark alley, after all. As long as she firmly believed there were no ghosts, she could get through it!
Taking a deep breath, she was about to step forward when a beam of light suddenly lit up from behind, illuminating the wet flagstones beneath her feet—a patch darker than the rest. Ji Shuhe's nose wrinkled, her mood brightening with the light. She stopped and turned, challenging him: "That was a quick moon-viewing session."
Wen Shaoyu yawned theatrically and said curtly, "Got sleepy."
Let's just say he really was sleepy. In a war of words, she seemed outmatched so far.
Small animals, especially cats roaming the streets, always moved lightly and quickly. In no time, she saw her door, and Ji Shuhe got the illusion that if she had a flashlight going to the bathroom at night would be no big deal.
"Xinhai's public security is decent, but there's a lot of transient people. It's not as safe as you think." Wen Shaoyu turned off his flashlight and was locking the door when he suddenly said this out of the blue, leaving Ji Shuhe puzzled.
"Don't even think about going out in the middle of the night."
"Next time... you might not be so lucky to have someone going the same way."