Chapter 09
Although it was the Spring Festival, after making such a long trip, Chen Huai’s stomach was still empty. On the way back, he stopped at a nearby Sanhe convenience store to buy a bag of bread to fill his stomach, then casually found a staircase to sit on and opened it to eat.
The old stone-paved street was surrounded by red walls, with the four characters “长乐无忧” (lasting happiness, free from worry) painted across one of them. Chen Huai chewed mouthful after mouthful of bread. Qin Yao flew out from inside his clothes, drifted around for a while, then asked him if this was Mati Street.
He said it was. Qin Yao suddenly said she wanted to find No. 136. Chen Huai gave her a look as though she were an idiot and said he had never heard of a No. 136 on Mati Street. No. 136 Zhongxin Road was possible, but after checking the map, they found that it was a foot massage parlor.
Qin Yao looked somewhat dejected. Chen Huai asked if she had remembered something again. She said she only remembered this address. Since it was a foot massage parlor, maybe she had gone there to get her feet washed before.
“...” Chen Huai had no idea what was going on inside her head. “You remember getting your feet washed that vividly?”
Although he could not see her eyes in this will-o’-the-wisp form, Chen Huai could still very clearly feel her resentfully glaring at him. After giving a soft “hmph,” she urged him to hurry up and go.
Chen Huai crumpled the bread bag into a ball and lazily remained where he was, only opening his mouth to say, “It’s New Year’s today. There’s no one anywhere. Where are we supposed to go? Back to my place, or go find your parents?”
Even the utility poles had been turned white by the snow. The whole world was a vast expanse of white, and there was nowhere to call home.
“How would I find my parents? I don’t remember where my home is,” Qin Yao said.
Chen Huai smiled. He stood up from the steps, brushed the grains of snow clinging to his clothes away, and tossed the plastic bag into the trash can by the roadside.
“I know.”
Qin Yao looked at him. He cast a sidelong glance at the little ghost fire and pointed at his own head with one finger, looking rather proud of himself. “My memory’s too good. I saw the contact address on that doctor’s computer just now.”
She did not know whether she had been amused or was simply mocking him. She retorted, “Look at you, so capable.”
Chen Huai hissed, raised an eyebrow, and lightly pinched the flame above her head between two fingers. It looked as though he were picking her up by it. “Don’t think that just because you’ve turned into a little ghost fire, you don’t have to be grateful. Without me, you’d still be wandering around everywhere.”
He smiled until the corners of his eyes curved, deliberately taunting her. “Qin Yao, I’m the one who gave you a home, and I’m also the one who helped you find your home. Could you tone it down a little and stop talking back to me so much?”
Qin Yao drawled perfunctorily, “Got it...”
“Then say thank you.”
“...”
“Say it.”
“...Thank you my ass.”
Chen Huai frowned. “Who taught you to swear?”
Qin Yao floated away from his fingertips, looking delighted. “I was twenty when I became a ghost. I’m not a child. Do I need someone to teach me how to swear?”
Chen Huai gave a “heh” and could not be bothered to argue with her.
She was so beautiful, yet her brain was not quite right, and she was an ill-mannered idiot.
He watched the ghost flame drift leisurely around, the corners of his lips lifting slightly for a few seconds. It was a pity that she could not show her true form here. He could only see her face and touch her when he entered a photograph.
It really was... a pity.
He meant that sincerely.
Chen Huai continued to keep her tucked inside his clothes, preparing to take the subway to her home and check on the situation. Halfway there, just as he stepped onto the escalator at the subway entrance, he heard her muffled voice:
“...Thank you.”
He turned his eyes away and smiled. Silently, he mouthed the word, warm mist spilling from between his lips and teeth.
“Idiot.”
...
The address Chen Huai had memorized was an apartment complex. The security did not look particularly strict either. The old man in the security booth was snoring loudly, the door left open, so outsiders could come and go as they pleased.
Building 5, Zone 7, Room 1203. Chen Huai stood downstairs for a while, carefully considering what he was going to say before finally daring to press the elevator button.
This was unlike the compound where Sun Fusheng lived. There, he could see everything just by peering through the windows from outside. If he wanted to get inside this apartment, Chen Huai needed an excuse, an identity.
He went up to the twelfth floor and pressed the doorbell. A distinctly unenthusiastic voice came from inside. “Who is it?”
The peephole cover opened. The person inside looked out and examined Chen Huai. He began to introduce himself as convincingly as he could, saying that he was a university friend of Qin Yao’s. Qin Yao had left something at his place, and he had always wanted to find an opportunity to return it to her, but then, somehow, she had stopped going to school.
Qin Yao’s mother thought for a few seconds before opening the door a crack. She stood sideways in the doorway and asked what it was.
Chen Huai took a notebook out of his bag. “I think it’s a diary. She might have accidentally packed it with my things.”
Qin Yao’s mother took the notebook. She only flipped open one page, saw Qin Yao’s name written there, and then lowered her voice as she said, “Still writing this kind of pointless stuff...”
She politely added, “Thank you for making the trip here.”
It looked like he still would not be able to get inside. Chen Huai pretended to glance into the apartment and asked, “Can I ask why Qin Yao hasn’t gone to school for an entire year?”
The woman’s expression grew more subdued. She pressed her lips tightly together and looked away. “She fell ill and was hospitalized. I guess... she probably won’t be able to go back to school anymore.”
“Oh.” In his heart, Chen Huai thought, This is bad. Making a special trip here just to return some lousy diary was already a flimsy excuse. Chen Huai hesitated for a moment, then suddenly said, “Actually...”
Qin Yao seemed to guess what he was about to say. She became somewhat restless, running back and forth inside his clothes, but Chen Huai still said it.
“Actually, I came because I wanted to get back together with her.”
Qin Yao’s mother looked at him a few times, somewhat awkwardly, before hesitantly asking, “You and her... were dating?”
He answered smoothly, “Yes, but she dumped me. I kept messaging her throughout last year, but she never replied, so I thought I’d find a time to come and talk to her in person.”
“What illness does she have? Is it serious? I’m very worried about her.”
Qin Yao was silent for a long time before quietly cursing him for being so fake. Chen Huai patted his clothes, and she fell silent again.
The woman sighed, pulled the door open, glanced at the neighbors, and told him to come inside.
Paper window decorations were still pasted on the windows at home. It looked as though they had just finished cleaning. Everything was spotless. Qin Yao’s mother asked why he had chosen to come at a time like this, and Chen Huai’s mind worked quickly enough. “Because my parents are busy. We don’t celebrate the New Year at home. At most, on the first day of the New Year, we go to a relative’s house that we’re close to and have a meal there.”
Qin Yao’s mother nodded and sighed. “Same with us. Qin Yao’s father and I are busy too. We were actually supposed to work today. We came back, cleaned the place, and put everything away while we were at it.”
As she spoke, she casually tossed the notebook into a box of miscellaneous things, apparently intending to throw it away with the rest.
She poured Chen Huai some hot water and sat down across from him, supporting her head with one hand. “You’re from Shandong University too? When did you two start dating? She never mentioned it.”
Chen Huai guessed that the relationship between Qin Yao and her family was not very good. Otherwise, Cao Yu would not have said that her parents only went to the hospital twice a year. So he said, “I guess we weren’t close enough yet for me to be introduced to her family.”
Qin Yao’s mother gave a bitter smile. “Whether you were close or not, I doubt she would have told us anyway.”
“What illness does Qin Yao have? She hasn’t gotten better after so long. If there’s anything I can do to help, I’ll do everything I can.”
“It’s no use.” She sighed and anxiously grabbed a handful of her hair, looking like she was not in a very good mental state. “She’s been lying there for a year. Every day, she’s barely kept alive by albumin infusions. She’s no different from a vegetative patient. It’s just burning through money.”
Chen Huai saw medication for calming and aiding sleep sitting on the cabinet. He recognized it because he had taken it before, too.
Losing two children one after another had indeed been a tremendous blow to the couple.
Qin Yao’s mother began muttering in a frantic, almost unhinged manner. “Her older brother was the same. Brain-dead. They tried and tried to save him at the hospital, but they couldn’t. Then her father and I brought our second child back from her grandmother’s place in the countryside, and now this happened again. What a sin... what a sin. Something filthy has latched onto our family...”
Perhaps realizing that her emotions were getting out of control, Qin Yao’s mother suddenly stopped speaking. Her fingers trembled as she tucked her hands behind her back, then she rose from the stool and said she was going to wash her face. She took the calming medication from the cabinet and went into the bathroom.
Chen Huai looked around the room. He did not drink the water either, first tucking the important diary back into his bag.
“Your mom looks really shaken.”
Qin Yao was silent for two seconds before saying that she could see it.
Weak sobbing came from the bathroom.
Qin Yao said, “She’ll probably be crying for a while. Hurry and find the photo.”
Chen Huai was certain now that Qin Yao’s relationship with her parents really was bad. She had not been moved in the slightest... Though it was also possible that it was because of her amnesia.
He opened the doors of several rooms in succession, but none of them looked like a girl’s bedroom. One of them had even been completely emptied out. There was not even a quilt left on the bed.
At the end of the hallway was the last room. The furnishings inside looked simple, and the bedsheets were plain khaki plaid, but everything had been covered with dust covers.
After Chen Huai entered, he turned around and closed the door. There were several nails in the wall. He guessed that photographs had once been hung there and later taken down.
Searching through cabinets in someone else’s home always gave him a sense of guilt. Chen Huai made an excuse for himself, telling himself that he was only doing this to help Qin Yao.
The drawers were all empty. It seemed Qin Yao’s mother had already cleaned them out, leaving nothing behind. Afraid that he would take too long and be caught by Qin Yao’s mother, Chen Huai sped up his search.
There was something at the very bottom of the bedside table. Just as Chen Huai pulled it out, he heard the sound of a running faucet.
In the midst of his movements, he even cut his hand. When he turned the wooden object over, he found that it was a shattered picture frame. Large drops of blood welled from Chen Huai’s fingertips, smearing across the face of the shorter child beside it.
Someone was moving around outside. Qin Yao’s mother had probably started looking for him. This was the first time Chen Huai had ever done something so furtive. He shook out his clothes and told Qin Yao to come out quickly.
Qin Yao landed on the photograph. Just as she began to speak, “This isn’t...”
“Don’t worry about it.” The doorknob was being turned. Chen Huai urged her, “Whatever it is, get inside and hide first.”
Blue light spread from her body, gradually enveloping the two of them.
The bedroom door was thrown open. Qin Yao’s mother pushed it open forcefully, only to see an empty room, along with snow that had struck the windowpane and was now rustling down outside.
The clasp on the diary in Chen Huai’s bag suddenly sprang open by itself. Writing began to appear on a new page.
But the protagonist was not Qin Yao.
It was someone named “Yuan Sheng.”
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