Chapter 234
Chapter 234
After leaving the area near Xiao Xuan’s home, Song Xiaotian and I both felt a little heavy-hearted.
People’s hearts are made of flesh, after all. We’d thought we were just here to deal with a Little Ghost, and once we handled him, that would be the end of it.
But we never expected there to be so much more to the story.
Especially when Xiao Xuan said, “I’m holding it in.” Those words shook me more than I cared to admit.
When I was eight, whether I was Chen Mo or Li Fuguang, my family was whole, and I lived a happy life.
But when Xiao Xuan was eight, even when he missed his mother, he couldn’t cry.
Because he knew that even if he did, his mother wouldn’t come to comfort him.
“I saw Rat last night,” I said to Song Xiaotian. “That kid was short and terribly skinny. Skinny to the point he barely looked human anymore.”
And after a person died, before they went to the underworld, they wore the clothes they had died in.
Rat’s clothes were ragged, worse than a homeless man’s. He looked like a beggar.
Then look at Xiao Xuan. He was dressed cleanly, raised plump and fair, with a sturdy, bright-eyed look to him. He didn’t look like he’d suffered a day in his life.
Because Rat had suffered all of it for him.
“He stole money, stole things, stole food-all of it was for Xiao Xuan.”
“He gave the good food to Xiao Xuan, and had Xiao Xuan save up the money he stole so he could go to school in the future.”
Song Xiaotian listened, then planted his hands on his hips and sighed. “Xiao Xuan isn’t even related to him by blood. He’s basically a little brother he picked up off the street. Why was he so good to him?”
I said, “He was a stray child too. No father to care for him, no mother to love him. Maybe he saw his former self in Xiao Xuan. In taking care of Xiao Xuan, he was really taking care of and making it up to the child he used to be.”
Rat had lured that homeless man to the river and drowned him because the homeless man had once bullied Xiao Xuan.
Rat had been small and frail. He must have been bullied often. He couldn’t tolerate his little brother being bullied too.
If we wanted to catch him, it looked like we’d have to start with Xiao Xuan.
That child earlier had said he’d once seen Xiao Xuan outside in the middle of the night, talking to himself. By then, it had already been past midnight.
Xiao Xuan was definitely sneaking out every night to meet Rat.
So as long as we staked out the area near Xiao Xuan’s home, wherever he went at night, we could follow. Then we should be able to see Rat.
That afternoon, Song Xiaotian and I returned to the inn and caught up on some sleep, getting ready to keep watch near Xiao Xuan’s house that night.
We slept until around six, then came out of the room and went downstairs.
The inn owner was on the first floor eating noodles. He greeted us.
I asked the inn owner if he knew a boy around thirteen or fourteen, dressed in rags. The boy was called Rat.
He thought for a moment, then shook his head. “I don’t know any Rat. But there was a little brat who came here to steal things before. I caught him. He was probably around thirteen or fourteen, dressed real shabby.”
“I slapped that little brat a few times back then. Let me tell you, in a place like ours, there are plenty of kids like that. No parents to control them, and they don’t bother learning to behave. All day long, they’re stealing and sneaking around.”
“If their parents won’t discipline them, I’ll do it for them. Steal a needle as a child, and he’ll steal gold when he’s grown.”
After hearing the owner, Song Xiaotian and I immediately understood.
The little boy he’d hit back then had most likely been Rat.
So after Rat died, he often came here to steal things as simple revenge against him.
But the owner wasn’t really in the wrong either. After all, stealing was wrong in itself, and the man was running a business.
At nine that night, Song Xiaotian and I staked out the area near Xiao Xuan’s home.
It was a pretty boring job. Once we crouched down to wait, it would be several hours at least.
We crouched there until around two in the morning. Then Xiao Xuan came out of the house, still half-asleep.
He was carrying a snakeskin sack, but he seemed awake enough as he made his way down the alley, heading who knew where.
Song Xiaotian and I quickly followed behind him, though we didn’t dare get too close.
It wasn’t that we were afraid Xiao Xuan would notice us. We were afraid Rat would.
After following him for a little over ten minutes, we reached an abandoned pavilion, and the two of us immediately stopped in our tracks.
Xiao Xuan was inside the pavilion, talking to the empty air as if someone were there.
Then we saw a chicken drumstick appear out of thin air, floating in midair. There was a hamburger too.
Xiao Xuan took them with both hands, eating as he smiled and chatted with the empty space in front of him.
No wonder that kid from before had said something was wrong with Xiao Xuan’s head. If he’d seen a drumstick and a hamburger floating in midair, he probably would’ve started questioning reality too.
“Why can’t we see him…?” Song Xiaotian asked me in a low voice.
I quickly took out the Yin Gathering Talisman and recited the spell for seeing ghosts.
At first, Xiao Xuan was the only person in the pavilion. But after I finished the spell, another figure appeared in front of him.
The figure was short and thin, dressed in rags, and was stuffing scattered bits of change into Xiao Xuan’s pocket.
That figure was Xiao Xuan’s older brother, Rat.
He was basically the lowest kind of Ghost. The Ghosts of the elderly and of children were both very weak-in other words, their magnetic fields were weak-so ordinary eyes couldn’t see them, unless the person had lived closely with them while they were alive.
“Ge, why aren’t you eating? Every time it’s me eating. I eat more than you. Why don’t you eat?” Xiao Xuan asked Rat as he ate the hamburger.
“I already ate.”
Rat’s voice was very low and muffled. That was because a Ghost couldn’t speak the way a living person could. It could only influence a person’s brain to transmit sound. In truth, it was an auditory hallucination.
“You’re still growing. You need to eat more, get stronger. Then no one will bully you in the future.”
“Ge, you always say you ate. Then why aren’t you growing?”
“I… don’t like growing.”
The two brothers chatted for a while, and before long, Xiao Xuan had finished the food.
Rat took his hand, and we had no idea where he was taking him.
We kept following behind them, even more carefully than before.
After trailing them for ages, we finally realized that every night, other than stealing things, Rat came out to keep Xiao Xuan company while he collected bottles.
The two of them seemed to have endless things to talk about. Xiao Xuan kept asking him why he didn’t come out during the day, why he wouldn’t go home with him at night, and whether he had gotten into a fight with their grandpa.
But Rat never answered.
He had no way to answer.
He didn’t want Xiao Xuan to know that he was already dead.
“Ge, are you still stealing things? You haven’t been caught by them, have you?” Xiao Xuan asked him.
Rat nodded, then shook his head, but didn’t speak.
“I can steal too. You can teach me,” Xiao Xuan said, discussing it with him very seriously.
Rat suddenly stopped walking and said, “You can’t steal.”
“Why can’t I steal? If I steal with you, you won’t have to work so hard,” Xiao Xuan said.
Rat shook his head. “Schools won’t want a kid who steals, so you can’t steal. You can’t learn from me.”
Xiao Xuan said, “But going to school costs a lot of money. You’d have to steal for a really long time. And I heard them say you have to go to school for many, many years. Even when I’m grown up, I’ll still have to go to school. That needs a lot of money.”
Rat looked at him. “You don’t need to worry about that. After New Year’s, you’re going to school. Don’t steal from anyone. I’m a thief, but you’re not.”
Xiao Xuan nodded. “Okay. I’ll listen to you. I won’t steal. I’m scared people will hit me.”
Song Xiaotian and I watched for a long time. The more we watched, the more our hearts ached. The more we watched, the worse we felt.
All of a sudden, I didn’t want to interfere anymore.