Lonely, Solitary, and a Little Cold

If Nana is whispering sweet nothings to Chef Xiang, Yang Zhen'er will secretly listen in on the gossip.

If Nana is chatting with someone other than Chef Xiang, Yang Zhen'er will secretly eavesdrop on the gossip.

But now, Nana is talking to something, and it's not just a few words; it seems like there's a back-and-forth exchange. Yet, she can't hear the voice on the other end. Nana isn't wearing headphones, and she's not video chatting with anyone...

Yang Zhen'er's mind was filled with seven or eight scenes from horror movies, making her feel uneasy, her palms sweating, and her forehead cold.

But her best friend was inside. Even though she was nervous and scared, Yang Zhen'er still poked her head in and asked, "Nana, who are you talking to?" Her voice was trembling slightly.

Tang Baona, who hadn't heard the door open and didn't know Yang Zhen'er had returned, jumped up from the bed, startled.

Startled, Tang Baona looked at the head peeking out from the doorway. Only after confirming it was Yang Zhen'er did she breathe a sigh of relief and instinctively throw a pillow at her.

"Yang the Third, why did you come home without saying a word? You were sneaking around like a thief."

Yang Zhen'er caught the pillow, looked at her friend nervously, and repeated her question, "Nana, who were you talking to just now?"

"Huh?" Tang Baona was taken aback, raised her hand to cover a strand of hair at her temple, and subconsciously said, "No, I wasn't talking to anyone."

Yang Zhen'er stared at Nana suspiciously. "Really not?"

"By the way, Little Bell went to bed so early today? Has Sister Lin already returned?" Tang Baona "naturally" changed the subject.

Yang Zhen'er wasn't fooled. "I clearly heard you talking just now, something like 'Do you think I'm the cute type, the melancholic type, or the sophisticated type?' and 'I'm hungry, I'm going to order takeout, do you want some?'"

Tang Baona immediately said, "No! I didn't say that! I said, 'Is my voice suitable for singing cute songs, melancholic songs, or grand songs?'... What you're saying makes it sound like you're asking me if I'm cute or melancholic."

"Ha! Confess! Tell me honestly, who were you talking to just now?" Yang Zhen'er immediately asked.

"I wasn't talking to anyone. I was just talking to myself, figuring out my singing style. Look, there's no one in this room," Tang Baona said "righteously." Then, looking at Yang Zhen'er standing at the door, she said, "Why are you standing there? Come in. What are you afraid of? You don't think there's someone you can't see in this room, do you?"

Yang Zhen'er, carrying a pillow, slowly moved into the room. When she got close to the bed, she suddenly threw the pillow on Tang Baona's head, then rushed to the wardrobe, quickly pulled open the door, checked it, and finding nothing, rushed to the bed, lay down to look under it, and then discovered that the bed was directly connected to the ground, with no gap under it, so she could not crawl in. She could only clap her hands and stand up embarrassedly.

Holding a pillow and staring blankly, Tang Baona couldn't help but exclaim at Yang Zhen'er's somewhat comical actions, "Yang the Third! What are you doing... like you're catching a mistress? Hmm, Laosan catching a mistress, that rhymes..."

Yang Zhen'er rolled her eyes at her, said nothing, and continued to move closer to the window of the room. She pulled back the curtains to observe the room and even opened the window to peek down.

"The room's really empty. I was just looking for some songs to record a video later when I have time. I haven't updated my Bilibili account in ages. Sigh~, you and Little Bell aren't here, I feel lonely and a bit cold, so I'm just talking to myself. Zhen'er, are you hungry? Let's order takeout..."

Tang Baona had only spoken halfway when Yang Zhen'er suddenly interrupted her, saying, "You're lying!"

"No way..." Tang Baona said somewhat guiltily. Seeing Yang Zhen'er pick up her phone and start fiddling with it, she thought Yang Zhen'er had just secretly recorded her. She wondered if she had somehow exposed the "Little Sprite's " behavior, and she couldn't help but nervously try to recall what had happened.

Unexpectedly, after fiddling with her phone for a while, Yang Zhen'er started playing the classic execution theme from Detective Conan, then turned the volume down, put the phone behind her back, picked up Nana's glasses from the computer desk, put them on her nose, and started pacing around the room.

"Nana! As your friend of decades, I know you inside and out, so... your lies won't fool me!"

"Nana, you little fairy who was born with a silver spoon in your mouth have no idea how to lie!"

"Haven't you noticed that when you lie, you always subconsciously fidget with your hair, either your sideburns or the ends? Also, when you lie, you avoid eye contact with others, always looking to the side, and most of the time to the right! After you've told a lie, you purse your lips! It's so obvious!"

"Besides, as your best friend, longtime roommate, and loyal general manager's assistant, I've seen you talk to yourself before! When you talk to yourself, you're especially childish, asking and answering your own questions, and you seem to be playing two roles. But just now, you were clearly only speaking from your own perspective, without responding to what you were saying!"

"More importantly, when I first asked you who you were talking to, you seemed guilty and evaded the question, not giving a direct answer! So, there's definitely something fishy going on!"

"In conclusion, Nana, you weren't just talking to yourself, you were communicating with... with what! Confess, Nana!"

After Yang Zhen'er finished speaking, she pressed the button on her phone to pause the background music, then stared at Nana sitting on the bed, giving her what she thought was an extremely intimidating look.

Tang Baona was stunned for a moment, then slowly stood up, reached out her hands, pinched Yang Zhen'er's cheeks, gently tugged and rubbed them, and said in a serious tone, "You're not my Yang the Third, you're Lao Xia, right? Quickly peel off Laosan's skin and show your true face!"

"Go away, Nana, don't even think about changing the subject. Confess now." Yang Zhen'er pulled Nana's hand away, maintaining her "authoritative" demeanor as she spoke.

"Really, no, you've already seen it all, there's no one in the room..." Tang Baona said, raising her hand to touch her hair, then remembering what Zhen'er had just said, she stretched as she raised her hand.

"Hey, hey, hey! Look at you, look at you, you're pursing your lips again, you still want to laugh, Nana, you know you can't lie at all, you're about to burst out laughing!" Yang Zhen'er said, getting close to her friend's face to take a closer look, then frowned and said, "Your cheerful appearance doesn't seem like you're possessed."

"Pah, how could I be possessed? Possessed my foot! I'm starving! Get out of the way, I'm going to cook some instant noodles." Tang Baona got up and walked to the door, then suddenly stopped and turned back to Yang Zhen'er, saying, "By the way, Third Brother, are you hungry? I'll make you some noodles."

After telling this suggestive joke, Tang Baona laughed and ran away as if she had gotten a good deal, leaving Yang the Third in the room dumbfounded.

However, Yang Zhen'er eventually went to cook instant noodles with Tang Baona. After eating, they laughed and joked around for a while before taking a shower, washing up, and getting ready for bed.

Lying in bed, Yang Zhen'er glanced at her best friend who was sharing the bed with her, and suddenly felt a little melancholy.

She could tell that Nana was definitely hiding a secret from her—after so many years of friendship, she knew Nana too well.

She had originally planned to go home and discuss the strange phenomenon she saw that evening with Nana, and see if Little Bell had gained superpowers or if some supernatural event had occurred.

But unexpectedly, not only did Little Bell have a secret, but Nana also had one.

Thinking about it more carefully, Little Apple clearly has a secret too. The training method for "Object-Sensing" that she mentioned is practically like a superpower. Moreover, now that she's in Chongyun Village, in the house they live in, she walks and picks things up very freely, not at all like someone who can't see. She even climbs mountains faster than her.

Gold Glitter was also quite different. She had researched it online and found that the concept of guide birds had always remained just that—a concept. No one had ever actually successfully trained a bird to be a guide companion. Gold Glitter's behavior was just too intelligent; it was nothing like an ordinary bird. It was even smarter than her friend's Border Collie. Moreover, it was so fat that most people wouldn't recognize it as a canary. Seven out of ten people would probably mistake it for a pigeon!

Even her cousin, "Big Guy," acted all mysterious after returning from Myanmar. At first, he discussed his "conjectures" about being rescued in Myanmar with her, but later he stopped talking to her about it, as if he had already figured something out and looked down on her "theories"!

As for Lao Xia, needless to say, he's been a secret since childhood.

Chef Xiang... he must have the most secrets. I bet he has so many secrets that hiding them has taken so much brainpower that he's lost all his hair!

Everyone has secrets, and no one tells her.

Yang Zhen'er lay on the bed, suddenly feeling a little lonely and cold. She curled up on her side, hugged her knees, and felt wronged.

Tang Baona was sleeping on the other side, was also still awake. Just as Yang Zhen'er understood her well and could see through her lies at a glance, she understood her good friend Yang the Third very well as well.

So she keenly noticed Yang Zhen'er's emotional change. She leaned closer and put her arm around her friend's shoulder from behind. "Zhen'er, you'll always be my best friend. You know that, I'll always trust you. Goodnight, okay?"

"Goodnight." Yang Zhen'er's mood improved again.

Actually, Tang Baona was also a little hesitant about whether to tell Yang Zhen'er about the existence of the "Little Sprite".

But after some consideration, she decided not to say anything. Although Yang Zhen'er had a wildly imaginative mind and was always full of wildly imaginative speculations, the "Little Sprite" thing was, after all, a real event, not a joke or a guess. Moreover, she didn't have any direct evidence to prove the existence of the "Little Sprite." If she tried to prove it directly through changes in the lighting, the "Little Sprite" might not be willing to respond.

Moreover, she wasn't sure if the "Little Sprite" would be willing to let Zhen'er know about her existence, and whether this would have any impact on the "Little Sprite" or Zhen'er.

The next day was the weekend. Since there were several new projects to be launched, Tang Baona and Shiling's Mother had to go to the company. So Yang Zhen'er went early to act as a "nanny" and took the Little Chubby Girl out to play. However, the Little Chubby Girl asked to go to a bookstore instead of an amusement park or a shopping mall.

In the bookstore, Liu Shiling tilted her little head back and wandered among the popular science books, occasionally asking Yang Zhen'er next to her how to pronounce and what the titles of those books she couldn't understand meant.

"This book is called <The Mysterious World of Quantum>, uh, not a magical world, but a mysterious world, the mysterious kind of mysterious. What does quantum mean? Quantum is something from physics, you can't learn it now, and you wouldn't understand it even if you read it! Can you learn it in junior high? Probably... no, um, no! You can't learn it even after graduating from junior high! You have to wait until you grow up, like your Lao Xia... your Roast Chicken Wing Sister, after you've read so many books. This book, none of us can understand it now, you can't understand it, and neither can I." Yang Zhen'er said, flipping through the book, and then exclaimed in surprise, "Huh? This is actually a comic book?"

After glancing at it twice and finding it somewhat understandable, Yang Zhen'er picked up the book confidently and said, "I'll buy this one. Old Fairy Sister will read it to you tonight!"

As Liu Shiling continued wandering among the bookshelves, Yang Zhen'er couldn't help but ask, "Little Bell, let me ask you a question. You know... if you had a very close, trustworthy best friend, someone you used to talk to about everything, someone you'd share all your secrets with, and she did the same, but suddenly one day you have a secret you don't want to tell her, what do you think would be the reason? By the way, you didn't argue, and your relationship didn't break down."

Liu Shiling thought for a moment, then walked over and somewhat shyly took Yang Zhen'er's hand, saying, "Sister Laoxian, I didn't mean to keep it from you, but I promised Uncle Baldy I wouldn't tell anyone the secret. However, I asked Uncle Baldy last night, and he said you can ask him if you have any questions, and he'll tell you..."

Yang Zhen'er paused for a moment, then laughed, "Little Bell, I wasn't talking about you, I wasn't talking about your business, I was... wait, what did you say? You asked Chef Xiang? You even have a secret agreement with Chef Xiang? Oh my, Little Bell, you really do..."

Halfway through her sentence, Yang Zhen'er noticed the Little Chubby Girl tilting her head back, raising her left index finger to her lips, and making a "shh" gesture with a serious expression. Yang Zhen'er immediately swallowed the rest of her "superpower" speech.

After leaving the bookstore, as they were about to eat at a restaurant, Yang Zhen'er eagerly dialed Xiang Kun's number and immediately asked:

"Chef Xiang! What secret do you and Little Bell have?"

"Huh? What secret? Explain it clearly? Is it about Little Bell eating five steamed buns in one meal?" Xiang Kun laughed on the phone.

"Stop pretending! I mean... uh, wait, five buns?" Yang Zhen'er looked at the Little Chubby Girl sitting across the table, flipping through a newly bought science comic book while waiting for the food. She knew very well how big Xiang Kun's meat buns were. Even with her large appetite, four would be her limit. How could Little Bell, who was so small, eat five?!

"I was just kidding, how could there be five? Do you think Little Bell is you? What exactly do you want to ask? Explain yourself clearly." Xiang Kun's voice continued.

"No, Chef Xiang, don't interrupt. Didn't you tell Little Bell that she could ask you directly if she needed anything?" Yang Zhen'er said, somewhat annoyed.

"Yes, so you need to be more specific about what it is."

"Well... last night, I was playing a game with Little Bell, a game of throwing erasers..." Yang Zhen'er began to describe in detail what happened when she played the eraser game with the Little Chubby Girl last night to Xiang Kun, and finally said, "I'm absolutely sure that the eraser was hovering in front of Little Bell's forehead, for about... a second!" As she spoke, she lowered her voice, shrank to the wall of their booth, half-pressed her head against the wall, and whispered into her phone, "Chef Xiang, tell me honestly, does Little Bell have superpowers?"

"Haven't you ever considered that you might be the one with superpowers?" Xiang Kun said leisurely from the other side.