It was soon the end of the year. The past month had been quiet, nothing had happened. After Chi Yan went home the next day with trepidation, there had been no issue, and he slowly relaxed.
The only aftereffect was that Chi Yan didn"t quite dare to get food delivered again. He started to cook at home, thus serving Ye Yingzhi more home-cooked meals.
As a New Year"s Day gift, company had given out to every employee two boxes of fruits, one box of vegetables and a huge bag of walnuts. The walnuts were small, though they tasted good, they were tough to sh.e.l.l.
On New Year"s Day, after eating, Chi Yan sat in front of the TV, eating walnuts. He couldn"t get the strength right and smashed most of them. He made do with the crumbs and for those that he managed sh.e.l.l perfectly, he would put them on Ye Yingzhi"s altar.
The person he couldn"t see was sitting right next to him. Every time he put down a walnut, the person would lick at his fingers lightly; at times when Chi Yan threw a walnut into his own mouth, the thing would lean over and lick the tip of his tongue.
Those who could, went home to celebrate. As for those like Chi Yan who did not have a home to return to, or whose homes were in other states, gathered together and organised a dinner party. Even though he was invited, Chi Yan rejected them. He didn"t dare to be out later than 12am, and his colleagues had planned an overnight stay at a villa in the outskirts, which to him, just sounded like a backdrop of a horror flick. He had barely recovered from the previous fright a month ago and wouldn"t be able to take it if something should happen again. Thus when he heard of their plans, he instinctively stayed away.
But it was inevitable that he would feel lonely celebrating the holiday alone. He had bought a bottle of wine in the morning, and drank a gla.s.s at dinner. Now, he was eating walnuts alone, and an inexplicable sense of sadness. The festive sounds from the tv programme, as well as the pinging messages of well-wishes he received on his phone, felt distant.
None of these belonged to him.
When he was a child, he would also feel the same after being left alone. But at least then, he had his grandparents to pamper him. Now that he was alone, who could he sulk to? To dissipate this sudden sense of melancholy, he took out another wine gla.s.s, poured out both gla.s.ses, and placed one on the altar. Raising the other gla.s.s, Chi Yan smiled, "Cheers Third Master. Happy New Year, I"ll be in your care next year too." He then downed the gla.s.s in one shot.
What was he doing, celebrating New Year"s with a bottle of ashes and a spirit tablet. Priest Zhang already clarified that Mr Ye had left nothing but his ashes behind, and that it was only his ashes that had the special effect. Setting up the altar and praying to his spirit was only to show respect and grat.i.tude towards the deceased.
But just like a kid who developed feelings for his toys, Chi Yan also naturally developed feelings of closeness and dependency towards "Ye Yingzhi" who had protected him so many times.
Chi Yan started to reply to his messages, and sent back well-wishes to his friends while drinking the wine. Soon he had finished the whole bottle, and while the wine wasn"t that strong, he wasn"t a good drinker and was already beginning to feel tipsy. By then it was already 12 am. He rubbed his eyes and prepared to go to bed. Stumbling along to the toilet, he washed up quickly and threw himself onto the bed. Before losing consciousness, he darkly thought about how no knocking would be able to awaken him tonight.
In his drowsy state, Chi Yan had forgotten to switch off the lights in the living room. The light casted onto his bed, where he was wrapped up in the blankets, sleeping peacefully.
"…"
A very soft sigh sounded in the house. It faded away very quickly and even if there was another person in the house right now, he would have just thought it was an illusion.
Immediately, the lights in the living room flashed twice, and then went off.
The other occupant of the house unhurriedly walked into the bedroom, and sat at the edge of the bed. It reached out and softly caressed Chi Yan"s face, before slowly lowering down and licked the side of his face.
Lightly and slowly, like a demon savouring a b.l.o.o.d.y carca.s.s before him.
"He" didn"t want the other person to be sleeping peacefully and slowly like usual, slid into the bed and pulled over the covers and burrowed under them.
Deep in sleep, Chi Yan shivered at the sudden chill and made a sound, as if grumbling, before becoming still again, his brows wrinkling.
The thing chuckled, and used its fingers to smooth out the frown, before pressing a kiss to Chi Yan"s forehead.
It wrapped Chi Yan in its arms, and started to kiss him slowly. However soon kissing was no longer enough to satisfy its desires, even with Chi Yan tight in its embrace. Like a smouldering ember, the flames grew from the depths of its soul, getting hotter and hotter, eventually engulfing it.
Suddenly, with a beep, the heater turned on, and the vents started to swing.
The thing pulled away the covers from Chi Yan"s body, and laid on top of him, greedily taking…
Chi Yan woke up feeling extremely tired, like he was plagued by dreams all night, yet he couldn"t recall anything. His body was slightly aching as if after a long run. Usually this would only happen when sleeping on an unsuitable mattress, however Chi Yan had this bed for quite sometime, and he never had any issue with it. Still, he dismissed this as an aftereffect of being hangover, though he wondered again since he didn"t even have a headache. And surely that bit of wine wouldn"t give one a hangover?
When talking to Xu Jiang over the phone, he inadvertently brought this up, and Xu Jiang said, "Scientifically speaking, this is a case of pain transfer." Chi Yan beat himself up for even asking Xu Jiang, but with Xu Jiang"s joke, he relegated this issue to nothing.
It was only at month"s end that he discovered something was wrong. His electricity bill had never been so high before. Even though the central heating wasn"t the best, and the house was always slightly cold, he had never had to turn on the a/c to warm the room before. However the amount on the bill was as if he had been using the a/c everyday for the whole month.
Still, this wasn"t enough to alarm Chi Yan, though he had his suspicions, he was never one to be hysterical. Until that night after his shower, he was looking into the mirror as he b.u.t.toned up his pjs that he saw on his chest, beside his nipple, there was a red mark, as well as bruises that looked like finger marks.
Like those left behind by an impatient and demanding lover.