Chapter 266 | My Class Is Ghost Bride, But This Isn’t Romance

Bai Ci deeply agreed with Xie Lai's words.

Writing was indeed not as simple as typing a few words, and she wasn't particularly good at it either. But who could she blame when she had pulled a gold card from the deceased husband pool on a single draw last time?

Bai Ci directly activated her cheat, Literature Carries the Dao.

The dense blocks of text on the screen instantly split and restructured. Typos, loose phrasing, disjointed logic... she spotted all sorts of issues with just a single glance.

Moreover, revision plans automatically and synchronously surfaced in her mind.

Even AI wasn't as handy as this skill.

Bai Ci skimmed through the entire document and began making edits.

She didn't edit it to perfection, as that wouldn't fit the standards expected of an intern. Instead, she made minor adjustments to match an intern's writing level.

She preserved the traces of Xie Lai's raw writing and immature phrasing, maintaining a loose but coherent logic to ensure the draft was acceptable.

Seeing Bai Ci start editing without a single pause after just a brief glance, Xie Lai felt nothing but amazement and admiration.

She even leaned in to take a closer look at the content. It was still her own terrible writing style, but the overall piece had instantly transformed from completely unreadable to barely passable.

Not long after the document was saved, the downstairs area grew lively. The team leader and his group had returned from the Red Church.

A peaceful night passed.

The next day, as soon as Bai Ci opened her door, she once again encountered Sang Lan blocking her path.

She really wanted to remind this copycat that just because Sang Lan had waited for her once didn't mean he had to wake up early to wait for her every single morning.

Could he not copy everything so literally?

Could he at least put some of his own thought into it?

“Morning, Sang Lan,” Bai Ci greeted him with a smile.

“Morning, Ci-mei'er,” Sang Lan replied with a smile. He stepped closer to Bai Ci, paused as if lost in thought, and suddenly pinched a strand of hair from behind her ear.

“Stop touching my hair. I haven't washed it in two or three days, so it's really greasy right now.” Bai Ci had no idea what this Sang Lan was trying to do.

However, out of concern for her personal safety, she found a plausible excuse and patted his hand away, rescuing her hair.

Sang Lan ignored Bai Ci's gentle pat. He lowered his head on his own and took a sniff of her hair.

“I like this scent,” he said, his tone inexplicably serious.

Bai Ci only felt goosebumps break out.

She put on a helpless, amused expression. “Even if you like it, it won't do. I can't keep walking around with greasy hair forever. I need to wash it.”

“It's not the grease on your hair. It's your scent, Ci-mei'er.” Sang Lan let go and wagged his finger to correct her.

“That just makes what you said sound even more perverted, Sang Lan.” Bai Ci forced a bashful expression. “Whatever. I'm going to wash my hair right now.”

Sang Lan tilted his head in confusion, showing a blank daze that didn't belong to the original Sang Lan.

Bai Ci was a woman of her word. By the time she finished washing her hair and came out, the team leader, Sang Lan, Wang Dong, and the village chief had already set off for the town to buy supplies.

The village chief's wife had left some food for her, which was currently being kept warm.

Inside the main hall, only Bai Ci, who had arrived late to eat, and Xie Lai and Qu Ling, who had already eaten and had their own plans, remained.

Qu Ling slowly stood up, raising her hand to tidy the stray hairs on her shoulders. She turned to look at Xie Lai, who was resting her injured ankle on the stool, and spoke in a gentle tone, though every word was laced with thorns.

“Since we finally have some free time and the mountain scenery is so lovely, I'm going out for a stroll.”

“As for you, Xie Lai, since you sprained your ankle, you should just rest and recover. Be a good girl and stay in the courtyard.”

The words were simple, but the intent was blatant.

Now that her foot was injured, Xie Lai could only stay at the village chief's house to recover, losing any chance to investigate. Even if she had learned about yesterday morning's events through Bai Ci, so what?

She had picked up a sesame seed only to lose the watermelon.

Xie Lai's teeth itched with rage, but she didn't consider herself one of those brain-dead characters from a novel. She could endure this kind of provocation.

She would absolutely not expose her cooperation with Bai Ci just to get a moment of satisfaction.

Xie Lai treated herself as a mute, saying nothing and simply glaring.

Finding this boring, Qu Ling gave a soft chuckle and turned to walk out.

With only the two of them left in the room, Xie Lai immediately looked at Bai Ci and lowered her voice. “She's gone.”

After finishing her meal, Bai Ci slung the camera Sang Lan had left with her over her shoulder and went out, ostensibly to take some beautiful photos.

Pulling her hat low, she walked openly down the road, following the route Shen Jiayi had sketched yesterday straight to the sprawling sunflower fields.

It happened to be the blooming season. Clusters of sunflowers stood tall, facing the sun, their golden flower heads blanketing the hills and fields.

Bai Ci precisely located the entrance to the dense woods on the west side. Following the landmarks Shen Jiayi had mentioned, she walked deep into the forest for over ten minutes before finally spotting a cave entrance draped in lush green vines.

The entrance was low and concealed, further hidden by the interwoven vines. Unless one knew the exact location beforehand, it would be extremely difficult to find.

Parting the vines, Bai Ci pulled out her phone, turned on the flashlight, and bent down to step into the cave.

The interior was a naturally formed rocky cavern. The stone walls were rough and uneven, but the ground was packed flat and level, showing signs of being trodden on for years. However, these tracks weren't fresh, as wild grass had already begun to sprout.

The cavern wasn't very deep. Scattered around the center were quite a few small, miscellaneous items.

Hand-molded clay bowls, smooth pebble chess pieces, faded and broken woven grass rings, and a few old, tattered coarse cloth cushions laid over flat rocks...

They were all the odds and ends of children playing house.

The traces spanned many years, covered in dust and worn with a heavy patina, matching what Shen Jiayi had said about playing here often when they were young.

Bai Ci scanned everything. The cave was dry, cool, and dead silent—indeed a place an introverted child would like.

Moreover, while the surrounding mountains were teeming with all kinds of insects and bugs, when she swept her flashlight across this particular cave, she didn't see a single trace of any insects.

No insects, no fireflies.

There were no swarms of fireflies that Shen Jiayi had confidently claimed lived here year-round.

Bai Ci lowered her eyes in thought for a moment. Gripping Gluttony in her hand to prepare for any sudden danger, she switched off her phone's flashlight.

The entire cavern plunged into pitch darkness. It was so dark she couldn't see her own hand in front of her face. Only at the cave entrance could a sliver of bright daylight be seen filtering through the gaps in the vines.

In the pitch-black environment, Bai Ci looked around.

Finally, she saw what could be called “fireflies”—right on the ceiling of the cave.

The cave wasn't wide, but it was very high. Bai Ci roughly estimated it to be about seven or eight meters.

Yellow-green points of light flickered on and off in succession, blanketing the entire ceiling like a starry sky. They drifted, swayed, and wandered aimlessly, their appearance highly resembling wild fireflies in flight.

But upon closer inspection, one would realize that wasn't the case at all. There was a heavy sense of incongruity in the way these “fireflies” danced.

The movement of the tiny light points completely lacked the casual, random nature of insects foraging or flying. Their drifting speed was uniform and steady.