Ring! Ring!A ringing phone woke up Liu Xiaodan. He opened his eyes and saw that it was nighttime... and he was at the lobby. The receptionist quickly answered the phone while writing something down for a different customer. Cold hugged his body, and he burred. The pain from earlier was already gone, and yet he was lost. Where was he? Where was everyone else?
Liu Xiaodan looked around and saw patients in the hallway. They were either standing around facing walls or walking without looking at their path. Some of them moved strangely like suddenly raising their hands and putting it back down while some stood there unmoving. Their faces were all dark and heavy as if it was forbidden to take a look. Just one hallway was all it took for Liu Xiaodan to know where he was.
"Guangru?" he called out his son"s name, hoping to have answers. "Guangru? Where are you?"
"...Wow, you"re conscious." A voice of a woman took Liu Xiaodan"s attention. He turned to her, and then she smiled at him. "Aren"t you that victim from a car crash, was it? The one whose arms had been torn off?"
"Don"t remind me." Liu Xiaodan shook his head. He was talking with a nurse, but she didn"t smell of any antiseptics like most nurses. Since he was in a corridor filled with ent.i.ties, he didn"t think this woman wasn"t a ghost as well. He swore off talking to ent.i.ties, but he had to know what happened to him. Why was he here?
The woman didn"t see panic in his eyes. He wasn"t remotely scared or terrified of these people around them. The smile rose some more before she chuckled. "So... you know you"re dying?"
Liu Xiaodan"s eyes widened. He looked down at his body, and the blood-dyed gown was still on him. His eyes dimmed. "I"m dying, huh? Last night, I didn"t experience this... I was in a worse state."
"I heard a demon exchanged souls with the grim reaper last night." The nurse patted her fingers on her lips. "Right, a demon caught seven malevolent souls in the hospital and used them as a trade-off for a soul not to be collected on time. Seven overdue souls for a fresh one? That was quite a bargain for him, I think."
"A demon? What are you talking about?" Liu Xiaodan frowned at the woman. He then looked around. "How would you know it"s a demon?"
"Well, it wasn"t from this place. It came with a person sent here." Her eyes narrowed with her smile, hoping that it was enough to hint Liu Xiaodan of her meaning. "Everyone here could tell if it was a human soul or not that entered. Howling ghosts? We could stomach that. A demon? You better take your pet and go."
"How sure are you that it came with me?" Liu Xiaodan tried to keep himself from showing doubts; however, the story was quite believable. He had never met a ghost like Liu Guangru before. Ghosts would normally be tied to a place, but the child had gone everywhere he wanted to—he could even make himself visible and tangible to humans. Was he not a mogui but a real demon?
"Hahah, it was sitting on your bed on your way to ER. Of course, it came with you." The nurse shrugged. "Anyway, it didn"t matter now. You"re dying again. That kind of trades cannot be done twice. I guess you should have said goodbye to your people."
"How do I go back?" Liu Xiaodan looked at the nurse that was walking away. "How could I survive?"
"Easy. Follow the light!"
A chuckle surged from his lips. Follow the light? Was she serious? He would be heading to h.e.l.l to be judged if he followed the light. Liu Xiaodan then walked around some more, hoping to find Liu Guangru at a corner. He managed to find his way to the Operating Room, and cries were coming from the hall. There were also streaks of lights inside the room as if lightning was surging in there. Strangely, his chest felt warm every time the lightning drew in the darkness.
Liu Xiaodan listened to the cries carefully, soon making out the voice of his mother. Ah, he was sent to the Operating Room. Could he just come inside to go inside his body? What if he was killed by that lightning?
"Baba?"
That cute, grim voice of his child took his attention from the overlooking mirror. Liu Xiaodan smiled before he turned to greet his child; however, his smile fell as his eyes almost bulged in disbelief. His pretty child... where did he go? Why was there a horrid creature standing in front of him? It was gigantic and disgustingly ugly. It was crouching down just to get its holed face next to the wandering soul of the wounded man.
Liu Xiaodan"s knees grew weak. He then fell to the floor, eyes glued at the black creature. There was no real face, actually. Its eyes were just hollowed portion in what seemed to be a black wooden sculpture. Even its nose and mouth were nothing more concrete than carved holes. The fingers were long and bony, like dried roots of an ancient tree.
"Something like this was sitting on me when I arrived here? No wonder they didn"t miss it." Liu Xiaodan gulped down the lump forming in his throat. He then got up, even taking hold at the finger of the monster. Needless to say, it flinched and recalled its finger after Liu Xiaodan got up. Instead of a horrified face that he was making earlier, the man broke into a smile as he reached out to rub the creature"s nose bridge.
"Guangru? Can you help me? I need to go back inside..." Liu Xiaodan was horrified nonetheless, but he tried to accept it swiftly. So what if his little pretty boy wasn"t a ghost at all? In fact, with that kind of strength, he had long doubted what kind of ghost Liu Guangru was. If he wasn"t like this, then he would have cried with the kind of resentment the child had carried inside of him. Such a young boy to be filled with too much negativity.
Instead of replying, the thing only looked at him. Looked would be what he would say if he was asked—to be honest, this thing didn"t have an actual face; he could only guess what it was doing. He wasn"t answered by the creature; it only continued to freeze and stay looming towards Liu Xiaodan.
"Argh..." The man felt pain blossom in his chest. The lightning grew more frequent. He looked at it through the overlooking gla.s.s, only to see that it had grown less and less again. The pang was now gone... and it was growing cold. He then turned to the black creature next to him.
"If I go back, am I still going to see you?" He wasn"t answered. Liu Xiaodan shook his head and walked to the doors to open it. "I"d be waiting for you again."
As soon as he stepped inside the Operating Room, everything went pitch-black. It had grown cold all over, but a freezing cold hand patted on his face.
Liu Xiaodan opened his eyes, and he was back at the recovery room where he was earlier. There was another bed in the room, and Chuan Nayi was sleeping on it. Ah, such an enticing beauty. Liu Xiaodan tried to move, only to realize that even breathing caused his pain. His abdomen would be recovering again, but—this time—from square one. He then turned to the side and saw Wu Qianqian and Bethany Jiang talking to each other. Liu Li wasn"t around—as well as his friends, but there were bags on the couch. Perhaps they had gathered food and drinks.
A small hand then patted his forehead. He turned to the other side again, seeing Liu Guangru peeking from the edge of the bed. The man smiled at him and struggled to send strength to his arm. "h.e.l.lo there. You surprised me last night..."
"Baba, you still love Guangru?" Those big eyes flickered, the fragrance slowly sifting into the room.
"Of course, I do..." It had been hard to let go of such a child now. Liu Xiaodan had no idea why he felt difficult throwing away his ties with Liu Guangru. It hadn"t been that long yet, but he didn"t feel like severing it. Liu Guangru had brought nothing but trouble to him, and yet he still wanted to protect the child. He"s not even a real child at this point.
"Guangru loves Baba, too..." The child had made a rather bashful smile towards him. Perhaps he had been too human to Liu Xiaodan who had seen ghosts most of his life. Liu Guangru reached out to pat his father"s cheek. "Stay here. I"m going to get Baba a gift."
"Okay." Liu Xiaodan felt so weak like a real patient. He now regretted miscalculating his body"s limit. He could have gone with Liu Guangru right now and picked a gift for Chuan Nayi. He could have also convinced Chuan Nayi to accept the child. Then again, these were all dreams now, what-ifs that had turned into impossibilities.
The man had fallen asleep again. Unknown to him, both mothers were gazing in his direction. They had heard him murmuring, and Bethany Jiang even managed to see a silhouette of a child next to him. She had no idea why a child was there, but Liu Xiaodan was actively talking to it like he didn"t question its presence.
The businesswoman hummed towards the housewife. "Say, Mrs. Liu, do you believe in ghosts?"
Wu Qianqian only looked at the woman who had turned to her. She then dropped her gaze at the hand-woven bracelet on her wrist that she was fiddling with. "I"m not sure what to say about them."
"That bracelet..." Bethany Jiang stared at the hand-woven bracelet. "My Nayi used to have one similar to that. I wonder where she placed it now."
"Similar? That impossible." Wu Qianqian tilted her head before looking at the bracelet again. "This design... is dangerous to be worn without proper knowledge of the symbols." She chuckled weakly, hoping that her husband wouldn"t catch her talking her bracelet. "This is my mother"s Yang-energy-gathering ward. It makes me insusceptible to ghost attacks."
"Yang-energy-gathering ward? Insusceptible to ghost attacks?" Bethany Jiang"s eyes glittered. "My Nayi kept on saying her bracelet is important and cannot be taken off. Do you think they were being attacked by ghosts for real? Those ghost killings in their school are getting worse after all."
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"Ghost what?" Wu Qianqian"s eyes widened. "People are dying in their school?" She then looked at her son. So it was true... her son was being dubbed as a cult leader.