The Restless Spirit's Father

A woman emerged from the door, but her limbs were all a meter long while her feet and palms were on the ceiling. Her head had long hair covering one of her eyes. Her neck extended to Liu Guangru"s eye level before twisting to face him properly. She grinned. "h.e.l.lo, young one. I heard a woman here. This poor one had been starving for years. Can I eat her?"

Liu Guangru only looked at Chuan Nayi"s direction, and the head extended past the child. "Ah, such fine feed."

An ear-piercing scream came from Chuan Nayi as she tried to escape the ghost woman. The long-limbed woman laughed in exchange, moving across the ceiling without looking at where she was. She crawled to the side and used her arms to descend to the floor. Her reach was ma.s.sive, and Chuan Nayi could only drag her body around. She planned to go away, but now, the beds were obstructing her path. The mother tried to climb up the bed, but the ghost lady"s head went close to her face.

"What"s wrong, little girl? Scared?" The ghost woman"s hand appeared next to Chuan Nayi. "Here, let me give you a hand." She was answered with a scream and a hard push away from her. The mother crawled away again, and she saw the kid glaring at the ghost lady.

"G-Guangru... why are you doing this to me?" Chuan Nayi cried with her voice growing shrill and hoa.r.s.e from terror. "...I thought you wanted me to be your mother? Why are you trying to kill me again and again?"

"Mother? Hahah, a ghost child having a mother? What a joke." The ghost lady snickered before extending her limbs towards Liu Guangru instead. "Listen, kid. You think you will be able to stay with these humans? They"re selfish, and they think they"re higher than us who were just like them but dead. Can"t they see we"re powerful? Why choose a human to be your mother?" Her body moved across the ceiling. "Here, here. I can be your mother instead. What do you say?"

Liu Guangru lifted his face and glared at the head. "Baba wouldn"t like a rubber band lady. Also, you"re mean. I don"t like you."

The ghost lady made a grim face before laughing out, using her arm to grab Liu Guangru"s chin. "Oh, aren"t you just begging to be eaten? How about I eat your mother before you? You could still be together in my belly."

The child"s eyes grew devoid of light, and his gaze had grown glacial—even affecting the woman before him. "Don"t touch me. You"re disgusting and filthy."

A roar came from the ghost lady, but the entire room had gone dark. Chuan Nayi only flattened herself on the floor, her hands on her ears. A scream echoed in the room, and the mother screamed in return. Ah, women, why were they always so noisy?

Breath.

Chuan Nayi softly gasped as she found herself still standing in front of the door. Before her was the image of the Liu family and the black bear... as well as that small child on the s.p.a.ce next to Liu Xiaodan"s waist and opposite of Wu Qianqian. The child was eyeing at her through the crack of the door. There was no smile on his face, and he was still as gloomy as earlier.

She shook her head and calmed her racing heart before pushing the door open. The woman noticed the visible change in Liu Xiaodan"s face as well as his parents". She only smiled faintly towards them and slowly walked with her crutches, Liu Li getting up to aid the female to her bed. Her nurse had been called as soon as she got to the floor so Chuan Nayi a.s.sured her that she could make it to her room on her own.

"Xiaodan..." Chuan Nayi was never a good actress, and her bitter smile spoke on its own. She had heard of their conversation and was probably hoping to hear an explanation. Her eyes weren"t as sharp as her mother"s, but she could see Liu Guangru just fine right now. Even Liu Xiaodan was surprised that the child was already next to him.

"Nayi, I..." Liu Xiaodan was cut off by the flickering of the lights. The door slowly closed with a soft click, and Wu Qianqian made a soft gasp as she saw this child across her son"s bed. Liu Li was shocked, but his first action was to run to his wife"s side and catch her clinging at him for security. In contrast to their action, Chuan Nayi lied down slowly and calmly. It was as if she had accepted her fate if the child decided to murder them four then and there.

"Guangru, did you... do something?" The father frowned at his son. His son"s head then hung low and away from his view from the bed. However, he only reached out to pet his head. Liu Guangru then caught his hand and held it down. His cold fingers felt a little warm and sticky, with the father squinting some more. He just had some shots against his allergy since it was all over his body after the accident. Right now, his hand grew itchy, but no hives came out.

Blood. There was blood on his little fingers, which was suspicious. It was normally his hair that reeked of blood; why were his fingers drenched in it as well today? Did he touch a corpse? Was he hurt?

Wu Qianqian could only stare at the pretty child. Ah, such a shame that he was nothing human. Her gaze then landed on Liu Li who was doing worse than her. His belief against the supernatural was being broken hard now that the child was in front of him. He was such a pretty child, and he knew that this thought was mutual with Wu Qianqian. Surprisingly, the couple wasn"t scared s.h.i.tless, unlike normal people.

The younger woman only stared at Liu Xiaodan"s face. He wasn"t terrified that he was being held; he looked concerned instead. She then pulled on her blanket. "Xiaodan, did you ask him to kill Jiang Hou?"

The Liu family threw their gazes at the woman. Liu Xiaodan then flickered his eyes before answering, "No. Why would I ask Guangru to do stupid things? I don"t want him to hurt anybody." He narrowed his eyes at his supposed girlfriend. "Nayi, Huang Kun was the only one. The others were... the others were killed by someone one else."

"Then, was it Li Feng?" Chuan Nayi hummed. She had grown apathetic at the moment. She didn"t even want to look at the man she wanted to see all the time. "You talked to him, right? What did he say?"

"That... wasn"t him either. There"s no way he could have hurt his best friend." Liu Xiaodan gritted his teeth. He hated how Chuan Nayi was treating him at the moment. Perhaps, it would take more than just one "talk" before everything would go back to normal. "Nayi, listen to me. I know it sounds bad, but Guangru would never—"

"So it was just me then?" She moved her head to have the father and son in her eyes, ignoring the seniors behind her boyfriend. "I was the only one he could hurt? Can"t you see it, Xiaodan?" Her voice had regained emotion, but it was anger. "I could have died. What would you do if I died? Are you still going to defend your... your monster pet against your own guilt?

"What evidence do you have that he wasn"t the one who killed Jiang Hou, Chen Gang, and Officer Bai? What kind of evidence would you use to convince the world?" She bit into her lip once. "Can"t you see how bad things are for you? Even if we all believed you, the police won"t... and you"re all they could think of right now. The school cared too little about you no matter how much of a genius you are!" She slammed her fist against the bed as her eyes grew misty. "The moment the police decided that it was you, the school wouldn"t even protect you!

"You were the most innocent in this chain of murders, but you could be executed for it!" She began tearing up. "That monster child you"ve got... he"s dangerous and cruel! As long as you"re involved with him, you"ll never get away from this. It"s a murderer... it has to be killed."

"Killing Guangru?" Liu Xiaodan"s eyes widened and stared at Chuan Nayi who had shifted her gaze at the guilty boy. He then turned to his quiet parents, who had—in turn—looked away from him. His eyes then flew to Liu Guangru who seemed to be aware of their plan. "How are you even going to do that? Even Li Feng didn"t have the b.a.l.l.s to do it." Liu Xiaodan tried to get up as if trying to embrace the child and shield him from these people. "You can"t... you can"t go on with that..."

The child looked up and watched his father aggravate his wound again by sitting up. He had always wondered why Liu Xiaodan remained true to his role as his father. Most men he had used to be only fake-smiling towards him while Liu Xiaodan even put his health in the line again for him. He received his father"s embrace first before speaking. "It wasn"t me."

A soft gasp came from the women. Liu Xiaodan looked at the child under his embrace. Liu Guangru then lifted his face and looked at Chuan Nayi. "It wasn"t me, Mama. It was those other people at home. They caught that guy lurking in Baba"s house... and he was filled with so much delicious stuff. They attacked him when everyone was away." Liu Guangru was sure that they were dealing with Ye Ling when Jiang Hou was locked in their room.

"He ran around until he found the kitchen... and then he got attacked again." Liu Guangru couldn"t help but giggle a little since it was a show down there while another was happening at the rooftop. However, his smile reverted to a pout after getting a glare from Liu Xiaodan. "I cleaned up the room before Baba got back. When I got to the kitchen, he was already bleeding with a knife in his chest. The others had eaten his delicious stuff, and then I took him to his friend. He was calling him for help..."

Liu Guangru lifted his face to look directly at Liu Xiaodan"s eyes. "I remembered it right, right? He was that guy named "Li Feng"..."