Chapter 13: Are There Really Monsters?

Tonight felt even colder than usual. 

As Luo Yunzhi walked along the roadside, occasional gusts of wind rustled the leaves on the trees with a constant rustle.

The young girl shrank into herself, glancing left and right as if afraid something terrifying might jump out. 

Even her pace was slower than normal.

“Sister Li must be lying, right?” she muttered, following the familiar shortcut she always took toward home.

“Where would monsters even come from?”

She gritted her teeth.

“It’s definitely just hearsay.” 

She didn’t believe the middle-aged woman’s story about terrifying howls in the alley or those so-called glowing green eyes.

After all, this was a firmly materialist society. 

Monsters or ghosts were nothing but fantasy—they couldn’t possibly exist.

But not believing didn’t stop the fear.

The young girl looked around warily. 

The path she had walked countless times suddenly felt unfamiliar, sending unexplained chills down her spine.

Luo Yunzhi quickened her steps, deciding it was best to get home as fast as possible. 

Her shadow stretched long and thin under the streetlights.

Until she reached a certain intersection.

She suddenly stopped.

“It should be here.” 

She glanced sideways. 

Not far ahead was the small alley—the exact one where she had first found Little White.

The area around the alley was pitch black. The streetlight overhead had been broken for years. 

Repairs had been promised, but no one ever came.

Luo Yunzhi swallowed hard. 

She turned on her phone’s flashlight to light the way ahead and walked forward cautiously, her gaze flicking repeatedly toward the alley.

Sister Li had said… the glowing green eyes had appeared in that very alley. 

But Little White was gone now—so where could those eyes have come from?

Unless someone was just bored and trying to scare people?

The young girl didn’t dare think too deeply about it. She kept walking. 

The phone’s beam only lit up small patches of the darkness and did little to ease her sense of unease.

“It really is just a lie, right?”

Luo Yunzhi inhaled sharply.

She was now less than two meters from the edge of the darkness, but nothing had appeared. 

Everything was exactly the same as always.

Her gaze turned resentful and indignant. “Sister Li loves scaring people. This is just like her. Tomorrow I’m definitely going to give her a piece of my mind!”

But the moment the words left her mouth—

Roar~

A low growl sounded.

It was deep… so faint that it would have been easy to miss if the night hadn’t been so deathly quiet. 

Yet in the silence, the sound was unnervingly clear.

The roar echoed right beside her ear. Luo Yunzhi’s face paled. 

She looked around frantically, but there was nothing there.

“Are there… really monsters?” She trembled, nearly dropping her phone. 

The unknown was always the most terrifying thing of all.

Then the young girl’s expression froze.

She sensed something.

There was something there.

Luo Yunzhi turned her head like a rusted machine, movements stiff and jerky. 

She stared into the familiar yet now alien alley.

In the pitch-black alley, two clusters of green light suddenly flared to life—like twin will-o’-the-wisps—staring fixedly at her figure without blinking.

The “will-o’-the-wisps” drifted slightly, accompanied by more of those low, guttural growls and the sound of something thick and viscous dripping onto the ground.

Drip… drip…

Drip… drip…

It sounded like sticky liquid falling from a low height. 

The green “will-o’-the-wisps” flickered, and the growling grew clearer.

Luo Yunzhi’s heart skipped a beat.

Then: “Aaaaaaah!”

***

“Why isn’t she back yet~”

The young girl groaned.

“I’m starving to death.”

Bai Ziyu lay lazily on the sofa, staring at the sky growing darker and darker outside. 

She rolled around, wrinkling the bedsheet into a mess.

For some reason, Luo Yunzhi still hadn’t come home. 

Normally she would have already finished dinner by now.

Bai Ziyu only got two meals a day, and the evening one still hadn’t arrived. 

Her stomach was already gurgling in protest.

“Did something happen to her?”

Click.

Apparently not.

With the sound of the door lock turning, the young girl in the room vanished.

In her place, a black cat lay sprawled on the sofa, two little paws lazily kicked up against her chest.

“Meow.”

Welcome back.

The room’s light spilled into the hallway. 

Luo Yunzhi’s figure swayed unsteadily as she entered. She closed the door and immediately locked it.

Even that didn’t feel safe enough, so she dragged a heavy object over and barricaded the door completely. 

Only then did she finally let out a reluctant sigh of relief.

“Little White, I’m home.” 

She walked over to the sofa and flopped down hard. The cushions bounced from the impact, launching the black cat into the air.

Bai Ziyu was completely dazed as she traced a graceful arc and landed squarely in the girl’s arms.

“Meow… meow?”

Did… did you just cheat?

The black cat was stunned.

“Aaah, Little White, you smell so good~” Luo Yunzhi buried her face in the black cat’s fur and took several deep, intoxicated breaths.

The tension that had gripped her the entire way home seemed to ease a little. 

She lay back on the sofa, pressing the cat against her chest.

“Meow.”

Pervert.

Bai Ziyu felt a bit resentful. 

She tried to jump away, but the moment she pushed off, her paw landed on something soft and she froze in embarrassment.

The girl was surprisingly well-developed. Even stepping on it with a cat paw felt incredibly plush… Was this what “kneading milk” felt like? 

The black cat thought strangely.

She snapped out of her thoughts.

“Meow.”

I’m hungry.

Bai Ziyu had noticed something off about Luo Yunzhi the moment she walked in—including the faint pallor still on her face now.

But she was just a cat. If the girl didn’t say anything, she couldn’t exactly ask. 

Better to focus on practical things, like filling her own stomach.

Luo Yunzhi clearly had no intention of explaining. She simply lay on the sofa staring blankly at the ceiling. It took her a long while to come back to herself.

She let out a soft sigh.

Then smiled faintly.

“You must be hungry, Little White.” The young girl recovered quickly. 

She rubbed the cat’s head, stood up, and hurried into the kitchen to start working.

Bai Ziyu jumped onto the sofa and tilted her head as she watched Luo Yunzhi’s back. 

No need to check what dinner would be—it was definitely going to be some kind of mush again.

What the black cat was more curious about… was what had happened to the girl. 

Why did she look so shaken? Had something occurred on her way home?

Bai Ziyu scratched at the sofa.

“Meow.”

I’ll investigate.

After all, as her owner—well, temporary owner—she couldn’t let anything dangerous happen to her. 

And while Luo Yunzhi’s cooking was ridiculously bad, the girl herself was decent.

Kind… her intelligence might still be up for debate, but overall she was fine. 

The black cat was reasonably satisfied with her.

So anyone who dared to hurt her.

Would not be let off easily.