Chapter 37 I Ask, You Answer

"Just in time. Brother Yifeng wants to talk to you." Li Qiuling was on the phone with Ling Yifeng. She casually handed the phone to Ji Xiaonuan.

Ji Xiaonuan took the phone suspiciously and heard Ling Yifeng's voice.

"Xiaoxi, are you awake?" he asked.

"Yeah," Ji Xiaonuan said apologetically. "Sorry, Senior. I don't know why I overslept..."

She still couldn't figure out why she had slept until now. Clearly, she hadn't been that sleepy yesterday.

"It doesn't matter," Ling Yifeng smiled and said gently. "Are you feeling okay?"

"I'm fine, everything's good," she replied.

"Good. We don't plan to go back at noon," Ling Yifeng said. "You and Qiuling come up the mountain to find us. It's not far, and Qiuling knows the way."

"Ah?" Ji Xiaonuan hesitated.

Go with Li Qiuling? She instinctively felt a bit resistant.

"My classmate was so careless that he left his camera in the villa," Ling Yifeng said somewhat helplessly. "So we have to trouble you two to make a trip."

"All right then," Ji Xiaonuan agreed.

"Xiaoxi, I'm really sorry this time. I'm not too放心 (reassured) about letting Qiuling, a girl, go into the mountains alone," he said apologetically.

"It's okay, Senior," Ji Xiaonuan said. "Anyway, I have nothing else to do here."

Since there was something to do, she had to make the trip.

After hanging up the phone, Ji Xiaonuan went back to her room, put her phone in her pocket, and when she came out, she saw that Li Qiuling had already found the camera. The two of them went out together.

Li Qiuling led the way without saying a word, and Ji Xiaonuan silently followed behind her.

However, the path that Li Qiuling was leading seemed to be getting more and more remote.

"Li Qiuling, are you sure this is the way?" Ji Xiaonuan couldn't help frowning.

"Of course!" Li Qiuling scolded confidently. "We have to reach the village at the top of the mountain before noon at least, so I'm taking a shortcut. If it weren't for you getting up so late, would we have to take this kind of small path?"

Ji Xiaonuan fell silent and silently followed.

I don't know how long they had walked. Li Qiuling was walking along the edge of the hillside, and her steps suddenly slowed down. She kept looking around.

Suddenly, Li Qiuling stumbled. Ji Xiaonuan instinctively reached out to support her, but the camera in her hand had already been thrown out. "Oops—" Li Qiuling steadied herself and looked at the camera she had thrown out with a worried expression. It happened to be hanging on the bushes growing on the edge of the hillside.

"What should we do?" Li Qiuling looked as if she was about to cry. "Xiaoxi, can you help me pick up the camera? It belongs to Senior Sister Zixian. It's said that this camera costs 30,000 yuan, and I can't afford to pay for it at all!"

Ji Xiaonuan frowned and stepped forward.

The hillside in front of her was very steep, and with this slope and height, it was easy to slide down, but difficult to climb back up.

Now the camera was hanging in a very dangerous position. If she went to get it directly, she would easily fall down. However, the camera was in a special camera bag.

Looking at Ji Xiaonuan standing in front of the hillside, Li Qiuling's face darkened a bit. She lightened her steps and slowly approached Ji Xiaonuan.

"You go and look around to see if there's a relatively sturdy long wooden stick," Ji Xiaonuan observed for a while and said. "We can try to hook the camera up..."

A force came from behind. Ji Xiaonuan was on guard and suddenly dodged to the side!

"Ah—!" Li Qiuling let out a scream. She suddenly flashed past Ji Xiaonuan and slid down the hillside directly!

In a panic, Li Qiuling grabbed the bushes beside her and hung on the hillside like that. "Xiaoxi, save me quickly!" she shouted in a panic.

Ji Xiaonuan walked to the edge of the hillside. Looking at Li Qiuling who could slide down at any moment, Ji Xiaonuan's face turned extremely ugly. "You wanted to push me down the hillside? And you threw the camera on purpose?"

Li Qiuling bit her lip unwillingly.

She had indeed thrown the camera on purpose. She had originally wanted to throw it down the hillside and make Ji Xiaonuan go to pick it up. But she was also surprised that it had hung on the bushes.

So Li Qiuling could only try to push Ji Xiaonuan down the hillside when she wasn't paying attention. But she clearly hadn't expected that Ji Xiaonuan's reaction would be so quick! And she had been carried down the hillside by her own speed.

"No, that's not true!" Li Qiuling said in a panic. "I just wanted to pick up the camera..."

Ji Xiaonuan squatted down and looked at her from a superior position.

"Tell the truth, and I'll pull you up. If you don't tell the truth, then goodbye." With that, Ji Xiaonuan stood up and was about to leave.

"Wait, Ji Xiaonuan! You can't leave me here!" Li Qiuling shouted angrily. "Come back! Save me up quickly!"

Ji Xiaonuan glanced at her indifferently and turned around directly.

Seeing that she was really leaving, Li Qiuling panicked immediately. "Ji Xiaonuan, don't leave me behind! Yes, I did want to push you down just now. Who told you to be so close to Brother Yifeng all the time? I like him!" Ji Xiaonuan came back, holding a long wooden stick in her hand.

"What, what are you going to do?" Li Qiuling looked at the stick in her hand with some fear. "Are you going to use this stick to save me? Give it to me quickly."

Ji Xiaonuan looked at her expressionlessly, hooked the strap of the camera bag with the stick, and pulled the camera over.

Holding the camera, she looked down at Li Qiuling. "I'll ask, and you answer."

"You..." Li Qiuling looked at her angrily. But seeing that she slid down a bit more, Li Qiuling quickly said, "Ask."

"What did you do to me yesterday that made me get up so late today?" Ji Xiaonuan asked in a deep voice.

Even if she was a heavy sleeper, it was impossible for her not to hear when others were calling her.

"I put sleeping pills in the milk you drank last night..." Li Qiuling gritted her teeth and said.

Ji Xiaonuan's heart tightened.

She had really been careless. If Li Qiuling had put something other than sleeping pills in it, she might have died here without knowing it. Now she was really glad that Li Qiuling didn't hate her that much.

"Why?" Ji Xiaonuan asked.

"To make you be alone today and come up the mountain with me."

"Then you were going to find a chance to push me down the hillside? And then, what were you going to do?"

"I, I didn't plan to do anything. If a grown person like you disappeared, wouldn't Brother Yifeng and the others look for you? I just wanted to leave you here for an afternoon to teach you a lesson! Then I would say that you were just having fun and ran away on your own." Li Qiuling gritted her teeth and said.

Ji Xiaonuan looked at her speechlessly. She didn't think Li Qiuling was lying.

Whether it was the last time Li Qiuling accused her of being a bar girl or this time when she tried to push her down the hillside, it made her feel that Li Qiuling was really naive! The things she did were like those of a child, completely thoughtless and extremely willful!