I sell demon meat in the city

Chapter 293 New Year's Party

On the eve of New Year's Day, Yu Qingge's eighteenth experiment failed.

Xiao Qi offered a perfunctory few words of comfort to her master, only to be waved away and banished from Sanqing Mountain.

Before he landed on his butt, Lu Xiaowu caught him and took him directly back to school. He also went along to see what the so-called party was like.

I've seen it on TV, but I've never seen it in person.

"Xu Shishi in our dorm sings really well. She's the girl who was with me last time. She wears glasses and has a fair complexion."

Lu Xiaowu nodded perfunctorily, but in reality, he didn't remember what the person looked like at all; he just hadn't paid attention.

Like Lu Xiaowu, Xiaoqi was very interested in the live party, since it was her first time participating.

So I specially brought my senior brother to find a middle seat in the fourth row, and sat down with great interest to wait for it to start.

Meanwhile, a couple who were originally sitting in those two seats inexplicably appeared in the third row near the aisle. They were both dizzy and felt that something was wrong, but they couldn't remember what had happened.

It was at this moment that the hosts of this New Year's party came on stage.

Xiao Qi whispered in Lu Xiaowu's ear, "This girl is the vice president of the student council, a third-year student majoring in Chinese literature. I heard she even pursued Dongfang Shuo."

"Who told you that? I didn't know you were such a gossip."

Xiao Qi slowly turned her head to look at the other side, and saw Dongfang Shuo sitting there calmly, looking at her with a forced smile.

Xiao Qi:
She was too relaxed; she didn't even notice him coming close.

Meanwhile, a sophomore boy who was originally sitting in Dongfang Shuo's seat was now sitting in the corner, lost in thought.

"You don't even need to listen to anyone; just grab anyone and they'll know which class's beauty queen chased after Peach Blossom, and which department's beauty queen chased after him too."

Xiao Qi sat up straight and confidently stretched out her fingers to count them off one by one. With each finger she counted, Dongfang Shuo's face darkened a little more.

Xiao Qi stopped counting and chuckled, "With the market so good, why are you still angry? By the way, where's your childhood friend? I haven't seen her in ages, have you made up with her?"

This made Dongfang Shuo even angrier. He glanced coldly at Xiao Qi and turned his gaze to the stage.

Lu Xiaowu grabbed Xiao Qi's hand and squeezed it, signaling her to be quiet.

Dongfang Shuo caught a glimpse of their clasped hands out of the corner of his eye, lowered his eyes, and pursed his lips.

Upon hearing the host's announcement, Xiao Qi couldn't help but lean close to Lu Xiaowu's ear and whisper, "Our class has two performances tonight. One is Xu Shishi's solo, and the other is a street dance by a few boys. Xu Shishi showed me their rehearsal video before, and it was pretty good."

Lu Xiaowu nodded, extended a finger to press her head back into place, and gently scolded, "Sit properly."

Except for Dongfang Shuo, who seemed distracted, the two of them watched with great interest and enthusiasm.

With only two performances left before Xu Shishi's solo, Xiao Qi suddenly received a call from Xia Yi.

"What? I'm watching the variety show, don't disturb my good time."

Xia Yi:
Watching a variety show can be considered a good thing?

She rolled her eyes and said quickly, "You're in the auditorium, right? That's perfect. You know it's almost Shishi's solo performance, right? The class monitor can't find her, and she's not in the dorm either. Can you help me find her and see where she is?"

Xia Yi knew that Meng Qi had her own unique method of finding people, which should be the legendary divine sense. Her cultivation had reached the point where her divine sense could be projected outwards.

This is unique in the entire modern cultivation community.

"Can't find Shishi?"

Xiao Qi was still holding the phone in her right hand. Her expression remained unchanged, but her divine sense had already spread out, instantly covering the entire Qingzhou University.

So it was easy to find Xu Shishi in a storage room behind the physics lab building, about 200 meters away.

"Senior brother, I'm going out for a bit."

Xiao Qi disappeared as soon as she finished speaking, but to outsiders, there was still a person sitting in her place. It was a puppet that Lu Xiao Wu took out the moment she disappeared and used an illusion to make it look like her.

Dongfang Shuo felt a pang of jealousy at the instantaneous understanding the two had reached.

He thought that if she hadn't gone to the cultivation world with Lu Xiaowu for three years, he would have been the one with the best understanding with her.

He wanted to chase after her to see what had happened and what she had gone to do, but he had to sadly admit that he couldn't catch up.

Looking at Lu Xiaowu again, apart from the moment he took out the puppet, his attention seemed to be focused on the stage, and he didn't care at all about what was wrong with Xiao Qi.

However, Dongfang Shuo knew clearly that it wasn't that he didn't care, but rather that his divine sense could track her whereabouts.
"Shishi?"

When Xiao Qi reappeared, she was already at the back of the physics lab building. Because it was the start of the new semester, students were either attending the New Year's party in the auditorium or going out in groups of three or five to eat and do activities, so the lab building was very quiet and there was no one there.

She deliberately walked with a thud and called out loudly, "Shishi? Xu Shishi."

Xu Shishi's hands and feet were tied, and her mouth was stuffed with a wad of cloth of unknown purpose. Her coat was nowhere to be seen, and her pale yellow knitted dress was torn at the shoulder, revealing her underwear and her skin, which was purple from the cold.

"Woo. Woo."

Fortunately, she was still conscious. Hearing Xiao Qi's shouts, she anxiously whimpered and struggled to move towards the door.

"Shishi, Xu Shishi."

Bang!
Xiao Qi walked to the door, didn't even look at the lock, and kicked the door open.

"Shishi?"

Xiao Qi pretended to be surprised and walked into the storage room. Then she pulled the cloth out of Xu Shishi's mouth and asked, "Who did this?"

"Ahem. It's...it's Mu Rao!"

"Calm down, speak slowly."

Xiao Qi untied the ropes binding her hands and feet, helped her up from the ground, and then took off her own down vest and put it on her.

Even though it was the dead of winter, she usually only wore a down vest over a fleece-lined sweatshirt; she never wore a down jacket because she found it too bulky. So, the only thing she could offer Xu Shishi at this moment was the vest.

However, as Xu Shishi spoke in a trembling voice, her voice shaking from the cold, she placed her left palm against Xu Shishi's back and quietly injected a wisp of true energy into her body.

It wasn't much, but as it flowed through Xu Shishi's blood to her limbs and bones, it warmed her stiff body a little, and her upper teeth no longer touched her lower teeth when she spoke.

"Ma Xiangyu said he had something to give me and lured me here. Then Mu Rao suddenly appeared with a few people. Without saying a word, they pushed me into that storage room, took off my clothes, and tied me up. Waaaaa, Xiao Qi, I was so scared!"

Xu Shishi spoke while crying. Her face was already made up and covered in dust, and now, mixed with her tears, it was a colorful mess, like a dye shop had been opened.

Xiao Qi put her arm around her and walked out while gently comforting her, "We're out now, so don't be afraid anymore. Ma Xiangyu and Mu Rao, right? Fine, neither of them will get away. I'll take care of them for you later. Now tell me, you still have two more performances before your turn, are you going to sing or not?"

Without hesitation, Xu Shishi immediately nodded, "Sing! Of course I have to sing! I've been preparing for so long, and I've rehearsed five times already. How can I back down at the last minute?"

"Okay, you're going to sing, right? Let's go back to the dorm first, wash our faces and change our clothes. We'll deal with the rest after the performance."

"Okay, thank you so much, Xiao Qi. If it weren't for you finding it today..."

Before she could finish speaking, Xu Shishi turned around and found that the two of them had arrived at the dormitory entrance.

Hey?
this.
"Hurry up and go inside to wash your face and change your clothes, or you'll miss the performance."

Upon hearing that she might miss the performance, Xu Shishi immediately stopped worrying about how she suddenly returned to the dormitory and rushed into the bathroom.

While she was washing her face, Xiao Qi called Xia Yi and took a black knitted dress from Xu Shishi's wardrobe and placed it on the bed.

When Xia Yi rushed back to the dormitory, Xu Shishi had already put on some light makeup and changed into a black dress and leggings.

She only had one long down jacket, but Mu Rao snatched it away.

Now you can only wear shorts when you go out.

Without saying a word, Xia Yi handed her her long down jacket, saying, "Hurry up, or you'll be late again."

"Thank you, Xia Yi, turn around."

The moment the word "first" left their mouths, Xiao Qi and Xu Shishi had vanished from the spot.

Xia Yi's lips twitched. This was really too bold!

"Hey? Xiao Qi, we..."

"Hurry up, it's your turn."

Xu Shishi felt her mind go blank for a moment, and her head had just gone blank.

When she came to her senses, she was already at the entrance of the auditorium, and Meng Qi was leading her through the back door into the backstage area.

Strange, how did we get from the dorm?

Why don't I remember?

Xu Shishi was suddenly terrified. She felt as if her brain had been damaged by the cold in the storage room, or that she had some kind of aftereffect. Otherwise, she would not forget how she got from the dormitory.

"Xu Shishi? Oh, you're here! Come on, it's almost your turn, come and get ready."

Their class monitor, Luo Qiaodan, was anxiously discussing with the senior student in charge of the gala backstage whether Xu Shishi's solo performance could be moved to the later part of the show.

Just then, Xu Shishi walked in from outside. Her eyes lit up immediately, and she urged everyone to get ready quickly.

After seeing the person in, Meng Qi left the backstage area and then, in a flash, returned to her seat.

Lu Xiaowu waved his hand to put the puppet away, without asking where Xiao Qi had gone.

Seeing that he didn't ask, Dongfang Shuo didn't ask either. He just turned to look at her and asked, "Where's your disguise?"

"Oh? I left it in the dorm."

Dongfang Shuo knew she wasn't afraid of the cold, so he didn't ask any further questions. From her words, it wasn't hard to deduce that she had left for her roommate.

Xiao Qi's eyes were on the stage, but her divine sense spread out to search for Ma Xiangyu and Mu Rao.

Ma Xiangyu is from the same hometown as Xu Shishi and is a sophomore in the Computer Science Department. He is tall, likes to play basketball, and looks very sunny and handsome, which is the type of person Xu Shishi likes.

Knowing that Xu Shishi was interested in him, Ma Xiangyu also acted somewhat ambiguously towards her.

For example, when she went to watch him play basketball, he would toss her his jacket to hold, ask her to buy him water, and even take her out to eat with his teammates.

The two are now practically ready to confess their feelings.

At this critical juncture, he actually did something like this!
Xiao Qi found Ma Xiangyu in a corner of the auditorium near the entrance. He was staring wide-eyed at the stage, looking like he had seen a ghost.

Clearly, they hadn't expected Xu Shishi to appear here.

Mu Rao and her boyfriend, who were sitting in the seventh row, shared the same expression as him.

Xiao Qi clearly heard her muttering repeatedly, "How could this be? How could this be?"

Xiao Qi chuckled.

Last month, Mu Rao moved out of their dormitory because a girl in the next dormitory was diagnosed with depression and took a leave of absence from school.

Mu Rao quickly seized the opportunity to apply to her counselor and finally managed to get rid of the three of them.

Of course, the word "get rid of" came from her mouth, but in reality, the three of them completely ignored her.

But in her own words, it became that the three of them were giving her the silent treatment, which led the counselor to have a special talk with Mengqi and the others one by one.

Xu Shishi is soft-hearted and even considered reconciling with Mu Rao. Even if they couldn't be good friends, they were still roommates, and peaceful coexistence was still necessary.

Is it necessary?
With someone like her?
(End of this chapter)