Chapter 164
Chapter 164
Her gaze immediately settled on Qiao Yu.
Shang Yan narrowed his eyes at her. Her lips moved as she said something, then she smiled eerily and slammed the window shut with a bang.
She had said, “Qiao Yu, do you like this welcoming ceremony?”
As the Ghosts departed one after another, the backyard returned to the lonely, harmless appearance it had worn during the day.
Qiao Yu stared at the towering wall ahead, listening absently to the chirping crickets on the other side.
Just as Shang Yan thought he was in a bad mood, Qiao Yu suddenly laughed and pointed at the wall. “Did you know the other side is beautiful? Want to climb up and take a look?”
“What?” Shang Yan did not understand how the subject had changed so abruptly and was momentarily speechless.
Qiao Yu paused. Watching the horizon gradually blur in the distance, he lowered his lashes. “Forget it. The more beautiful something appears, the more shameful the truth behind it.”
He turned and left in silence. His receding figure sank into the night like a wisp of smoke about to drift away.
Shang Yan’s throat became painfully dry, and a faint fear rose in his heart.
One second before that figure stepped through the courtyard gate, Qiao Yu stopped, turned around, and held out his palm. “Come on. Do I really have to carry you before you’ll leave?”
At the smile on the boy’s lips, Shang Yan’s suspended heart slowly settled. He quickly caught up and slipped his smaller hand into Qiao Yu’s palm.
For the first time, he felt utterly secure.
Shang Yan pursed his lips. Before turning the corner, he instinctively glanced back at the distant wall and suppressed the questions in his heart…
At the dormitory door, Qiao Yu encountered two uninvited guests.
Lucia ran forward carrying bedding, her pale-blue eyes full of smiles. “I want to move in with you.”
Feeling Shang Yan squeeze his hand hard, Qiao Yu hurriedly stepped back and shook his head. “Men and women need proper boundaries.”
Inside the room, question marks practically covered Kong Xianya’s and Luo Yunmeng’s heads.
What, were they not women?
Before anyone expected it, Chinnawat squeezed forward and loudly declared, “I’m male. No boundary.”
The jealous man beside Qiao Yu squeezed his hand again. Qiao Yu frowned. “Thai people are excluded.”
Chinnawat protested, “Why?!”
Qiao Yu smiled calmly. “I suspect you’re a ladyboy.”
Chinnawat fell silent for a moment, then whispered, “How did you know? I wasn’t one yet when I was this young. You can really tell?”
Qiao Yu was speechless. “I saw you secretly holding out your pinkie during the day.”
Chinnawat muttered, “You’ve got sharp eyes.”
Qiao Yu opened the door. Before the two could squeeze inside, he slipped through, slammed it, and locked it. “Go back to sleep. No free rides from this powerhouse!”
Chinnawat sighed and prepared to leave, but Lucia refused to give up. She pounded on the door. “Give me a refund!”
Qiao Yu sneered. “No refunds. I don’t provide after-sales service.”
“Then can’t you at least give me a freebie?”
“The freebie is the lesson you got after spending your money. No need to thank me. Good night.”
Lucia was speechless.
What a profiteer!
Fortunately, no other disturbance occurred during the second half of the night. The terrifying game had exhausted everyone in both body and mind, and they soon fell asleep.
But as Shang Yan tossed and turned, he returned once more to that rainy day.
The heavy sky pressed down until he could hardly breathe. Fine rain fell steadily, like silk, gauze, mist, and smoke…
On his second day after being released from quarantine, he received a police report stating that Qiao Yu had been buried in a cemetery in the western suburbs.
He had missed him by only thirteen days. Just thirteen short days.
The suburban path was soaked by rain and exceptionally slippery. Shang Yan lost count of how many times he fell before finally stumbling to the gravestone.
The first thing he did was neither pay his respects nor cry. Instead, as if possessed, he began digging at the grave with both hands until his parents arrived, stopped him, and took him away.
Qiao Yu had died in a car accident. Because his body was badly damaged, he had been cremated the next day.
Even if Shang Yan dug him up, all he would find was an urn of ashes. Why disturb his peace?
Those had been his father’s exact words, and they successfully made him abandon the idea of opening the grave. But an even worse consequence followed.
Shang Yan tried to die.
He swallowed pills and was rushed to the hospital to have his stomach pumped. He cut his wrists, but the wounds healed unusually quickly.
He also tried jumping from a building… but every time he reached the roof, he inexplicably fainted.
In short, none of his attempts succeeded.
He never considered causing a traffic accident. His own death did not matter, but given his father’s foul temper, the man would probably take his anger out on the driver and might even destroy their entire family.
After several attempts, Shang Yan’s family became frightened and invited Master Guan down from Mount Mao.
Master Guan did nothing except speak to him.
“Life has only one ending: death. But countless kinds of Ghosts can be born from obsession. Most become earthbound spirits, imprisoned forever within a single place and unable to leave by even one step. If that happens to you… then you’ll have died for nothing.”
The words struck the suicidal Shang Yan like a blow to the head. A trace of life returned to his empty eyes.
Master Guan smiled. “If you want to see him, you can do it while you’re alive.
“Entering the Live Stream Room opened your yin-yang eyes. Searching for his soul as a living person will be far easier than doing so as a ghost.
“Don’t let yourself be bound by life and death. If you aren’t afraid to die, why fear facing a dead ghost while still alive?”
After Master Guan left, Shang Yan returned to the cemetery in the western suburbs. He embraced the cold, gray-white gravestone and sat there numbly for an entire night…
Outside the window, birds that refused to return to their nests chirped from the branches. The noise of trucks entering the gate sounded through the early morning.
Aunt Deng knocked on the doors one by one and shouted in her rough voice, “Get up! Someone’s here to make a charitable donation!”
After being forced to play that deadly game until the middle of the night, everyone resented being dragged out of bed so early. Children’s bodies were naturally prone to sleepiness to begin with.
The knocking startled Shang Yan out of his nightmare. He opened his eyes, panting, and immediately looked at the bed opposite his.
The boy was eleven or twelve. Malnutrition had left his face thin, but he was still a beautiful child.
As the person outside continued urging them to hurry, the boy’s raven-feather lashes trembled. He opened his eyes impatiently.
His dark, lively eyes rolled twice. Their vividness pulled the ice-cold Shang Yan back into the world of the living with him.
That was right. Qiao Yu had returned. He had broken through the boundary of life and death… and come back to Shang Yan’s side.
“So annoying!”
Qiao Yu rubbed his eyes and yawned as he lined up at the faucets to wash. Then he followed the crowd squeezing through the dormitory doors.
Everyone frowned once they were outside, their moods sour.
Qiao Yu grabbed Shang Yan and quietly slipped away from the back of the line.
Shang Yan was dragged through several twists and turns into a secluded courtyard. There, Qiao Yu crouched beneath a tree and silently watched a colony of black ants moving home.
Only after a long while did Shang Yan ask, “Aren’t we supposed to welcome the people making the donation? Why did we come here?”
Qiao Yu found a small stick on the ground and mischievously scattered the line of ants. Without looking up, he said, “You can’t go.”
“Why not?”
Qiao Yu poked the ants’ nest again. “You’re too pretty. I need to hide you.”