Inviting Her Mortal Enemy to a Haunted House for May Day

"This gift..."

Shao Enci walked over to the bookshelf and looked at the pink carousel music box, still as good as new. For a moment, a sting rose in his nose.

Lu Xiaoxiao instantly panicked, her whole face burning with embarrassment.

Her family had seen her throw the gift away back then. Ms. Wen had picked it up and brought it home, then given her a scolding: "A gift from a classmate carries their goodwill. No matter how much you dislike him, you can't just throw it away."

She blinked, enduring the dragging ache in her lower abdomen as she got out of bed and slowly shuffled away from it. Digging her fingertips into her palm, she lied, "This music box looked expensive. It would've been such a waste to throw it away, so I secretly picked it back up when you weren't looking."

She couldn't very well tell him the truth: her mom had picked it up and brought it home.

After hearing her explanation, the boy's thick eyelashes trembled, and his throat felt choked.

She had kept it.

She wasn't someone whose soul had transmigrated into another body. She was his Lu Xiaoxiao.

The summer breeze lifted a corner of the curtain, brushing coolly against Lu Xiaoxiao's burning cheeks.

She was on tenterhooks, afraid he wouldn't believe she had picked it up herself.

After a moment's contemplation, Shao Enci relaxed his restrained grip, turned, and embraced her, enfolding her petite frame in his arms.

Lu Xiaoxiao froze, at a loss. She didn't know whether to raise her arms and wrap them around his back or push him away on instinct. She could clearly feel the boy's chest heaving, his warm breath sweeping past her ear as he spoke in a low, husky voice:

"Lu Xiaoxiao, let's make peace."

Let's stop being enemies and become lovers.

"Make peace?" Her pretty brows knitted. "Didn't we already make peace when I treated you to dinner yesterday?"

A quiet "Mm" escaped Shao Enci's throat. Bending over, he rested his chin on the girl's shoulder, a trace of an unrestrained smile curling his lips.

This was probably the most unexpected surprise he had received in his eighteen years.

In the blink of an eye, May Day was approaching. With her schoolwork keeping her busy day after day, Lu Xiaoxiao hadn't seen Shao Enci for several days. The 037 system bound to her had also been quiet for a long time, and her carefree life had nearly made her forget that she had been reborn to complete tasks.

After returning home from school that day, Lu Xiaoxiao sat cross-legged on the living room sofa, holding her phone as she talked to Meng Yuan.

The girl's sweet, soft voice came through the receiver. "Our school's giving us five days off. How about we go out tomorrow?"

"Sure." Lu Xiaoxiao smiled, then suddenly remembered something. "Aren't you going on a date alone with He Xi? Wouldn't I be a third wheel if I came along?"

Meng Yuan's tone turned a little coquettish. "Oh, come on, of course you're more important. I can see him the day after tomorrow."

Pretty little dimples appeared in Lu Xiaoxiao's cheeks. "All right, then. The whole day tomorrow belongs to just the two of us."

As soon as she hung up, 037, which had been gone for three days, finally popped up:

[Task 9: Invite your mortal enemy to a haunted house for May Day. Countdown: 15 hours and 59 minutes.]

The smile instantly faded from Lu Xiaoxiao's face. Unable to resist rolling her eyes, she grumbled inwardly, 037, I suspect heaven sent you to mess with me.

One moment, she had just made plans to go out with her bestie tomorrow; the next, it had issued a task.

How annoying.

037's tone was gentle for once: [Xiaoxiao, let's focus on the task first.]

Lu Xiaoxiao shuddered. "You're suddenly being so gentle. Now I'm even more scared."

She scratched her head and, taking advantage of the empty house, let out a frustrated yell.

There were still ninety-one tasks left. When would she finally be free...

Meanwhile, Shao Enci sat in his study, his slender fingertips flying across the keyboard. The screen was filled with densely packed code and experimental data.

The database performance optimization experiment Professor He had assigned the previous week required an interim report after May Day. Three times the data volume, five new boundary conditions, and doubled performance requirements.

His groupmates were all complaining in the group chat that their holiday was ruined. Shao Enci said nothing, simply breaking the task down into three modules and tackling them one by one.

A set of tests finished running on the screen, but the results were less than ideal. He frowned, picked up the iced Americano beside him, and took a sip before reviewing the code logic again.

His phone screen suddenly lit up. He instinctively looked down, thinking it was a message from Lu Xiaoxiao, but when he opened it, he found it was from Qiu Boye, who was far away in the United States.

[I'll be at the airport at two tomorrow afternoon]

[Remember to pick me up at the airport. I'll treat you to a meal]

Shao Enci put his phone back on the desk without a change of expression and returned his attention to the experimental data.

The B+ tree index module optimization still wasn't finished, and the submission deadline was May 6. He simply couldn't spare the time to pick anyone up.

Before long, his phone vibrated again.

Thinking it was Qiu Boye again, Shao Enci didn't pick it up immediately. Instead, he took a sip of coffee and waited a few seconds before reaching over to open the message.

His gaze swept across a corner of the screen, where a conspicuous red unread dot glowed beside Lu Xiaoxiao's profile picture.

He immediately put down his coffee cup and unlocked the screen.

Lu Xiaoxiao: [Want to go to Happy Valley for May Day?]

Shao Enci stared at the message, his brows drawing together slightly.

Happy Valley?

After a few seconds of thought, he set aside the screenful of data he hadn't finished debugging and called Xie Yihui.

The call connected three seconds later. The voice on the other end was full of surprise. "Hello? What made you call me out of the blue?"

Unless something important came up, Shao Enci never took the initiative to contact anyone.

"I'll stay up all night to finish the rest of the experiment. I have something to go out for tomorrow," Shao Enci said concisely and directly.

Xie Yihui's voice shot up. "Come on, man, Professor He's keeping a close eye on this experiment, and you're leaving your post at the last minute again?"

Shao Enci's thin lips curved slightly, and he said mildly, "A date."

The other man came straight out with a swear: "Fuck!"

After hanging up, Shao Enci saved his code, closed his laptop, and picked up his phone to reply to Lu Xiaoxiao: [What time?]

Lu Xiaoxiao: [Nine in the morning. Meet at Happy Valley's north gate]

Shao Enci lowered his eyes to the message, a smile spreading freely in them.

He could stay up late to catch up on the experiment, but he wasn't willing to delay even a second when she had taken the initiative to invite him.