CH 15

yoantlers [Translator]11-14 minutes

When Ling Xiao got to Chi Jiayan’s house, it was a mess.

It was more random than before. dbBk6T

The glass window on the balcony had been shattered again at some point—definitely having something to do with Lu Cheng.

Useless pieces of junk and appliances had all been thrown away, but whatever was left in good condition had been wrapped up with saran wrap. A corner of the room had paint buckets and paintbrushes and paint rollers. The two adjacent walls had been partially painted. The walls that were now the color of green beans made the house look a little more open and cleaner.

Chrysanthemum Garden.

Chi Jiayan had just gotten back from school. He jumped in surprise at the sudden appearance of Ling Xiao, eyes unable to hide his shock. “Gege!”

Cang Feng popped its big head in through the window. WEfpuo

Luckily, Xiao Hei had been averse to the oily smell of the paint and had run off somewhere, otherwise there would’ve been another gnashing of teeth and fangs.

Chi Jiayan wouldn’t have liked that.

Ling Xiao expressionlessly shot him a glance. “What are you doing?”

Chi Jiayan threw his bookbag off to the side, grinning wide. “Interior decorating! I did it myself!”

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“Why?”

The humans of this world seemed to love doing these meaningless tasks.

“…Gege, don’t you like places that are clean and tidy?” Chi Jiayan had just spoken when he realized he had let slip something he hadn’t meant to. He subconsciously covered his mouth with his hand before letting it go, revealing his red face. “Lu Cheng told me. He said the reason Gege doesn’t come here is because it’s too messy and dirty.”

Ling Xiao said, “No.” 4PRbBO

Chi Jiayan’s eyes widened, perplexed. “Then why?”

Ling Xiao said indifferently, “I never wanted to come.”

“Oh…”

The young boy’s energy suddenly became downcast. yquBPw

It wasn’t like Ling Xiao was unaffected.

It was just that since meeting this young boy, he felt like he had lost control of himself.

Ling Xiao looked away from him. He asked straightforwardly, “Where are my clothes?”

Chi Jiayan stared blankly for a few seconds before he realized what he was asking. He slowly responded, “In my wardrobe.” 0xm1Dd

Since the living room was being worked on, all the furniture and things were stacked up in the bedroom.

Chi Jiayan had to move aside a lot of bits and bobs. After hauling over a stool, he was able to reach the tall wardrobe.

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Inside the crowded wardrobe was a bunch of clothes, not all of them belonging to Chi Jiayan. There were women’s and men’s clothes, all of which had designs popular in past years. These were likely remnants of his parents, so he had reason to take good care of them even still. The clothes were all messily piled together, but aside from them, there was one black robe set apart.

It was hung up neatly, taking up quite a lot of space on its own. y23SZO

“You haven’t been here for so long, and I wasn’t sure if it was even okay to wash it.” Chi Jiayan took down the robe. It was just as Lu Cheng had said: he really was shorter than the length of the robe. “But I took care of it really well. Gege, take a look.”

Ling Xiao took back the black robe.

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He heard the boy call out after him, making a ruckus as he tripped over a bunch of things just to follow.

But he didn’t look back.

Cang Feng carried him far off into the sky. NQDisy

Very soon, that boy left standing on the balcony looked to be merely a black dot.

Ling Xiao had underestimated this boy’s energy.

He thought he would never see that speech spirit again. However, he kept seeing evidence of that speech spirit popping up now and again.

Sometimes it would be a piece of candy left at a crime scene. O9p4zq

Sometimes it would be a dessert left outside a funeral hall.

Sometimes it would be a glimpse of a familiar face along the path to the next death instance.

It was obviously the juvenile work of some boy.

Ling Xiao didn’t quite understand what he wanted. kQCIYJ

Ling Xiao eventually grew accustomed to these habits. He treated them coldly, not wanting to enable such actions. However, if there ever was a ghost who tried to take these little gifts for their own, they would promptly be swallowed up by Cang Feng.

Ling Xiao was the Grim Reaper. He absolutely didn’t want to mingle with a human.

Chrysanthemum Garden.

Not to mention that this human was supposed to die by his hands.

At some point though, those little acts of kindness came to an abrupt halt. QKdnfe

After dealing with a batch of mass poisoning incidents, Ling Xiao was physically and mentally exhausted. He stood at the entrance of the hospital after Cang Feng returned to his robes.

The media had already reported extensively about this incident, so there was no way the boy didn’t know about it.

He looked around, but he couldn’t catch sight of the boy’s shadow.

Humans were indeed creatures without perseverance. Fl4Kos

Ling Xiao sneered in his heart and left on his own.

Two days later, Ling Xiao rode Cang Feng to the outside of the Qingshui neighborhood. Standing on top of a tree, he could see that through the window of Chi Jiayan’s house, it was pitch black inside. Before, whenever he passed by here, he would see lights inside the house.

Chi Jiayan had no family or friends, so he was home everyday without anywhere to go.

The next day, when Ling Xiao still saw the dark window, he wondered, where did Chi Jiayan go? ftmOQe

No one disappeared for no reason.

Chi Jiayan shouldn’t have died yet. His life shouldn’t have been in grave danger, but it didn’t mean that other things couldn’t have happened.

Ling Xiao didn’t want to admit that he was a little worried.

When he snapped out of his thoughts, he found Cang Feng sniffing the candy left in his pocket. gJ6qK2

They traveled all  the way south, following Chi Jiayan’s scent to a villa area. The tree-lined roads along the mountainside here were staggered, similarly to the place he had seen through the Dream God’s crystal ball. In other words, Chi Jiayan was likely at his uncle’s house.

Ling Xiao stood in front of the villa wearing a mask, silent as the night wind.

Cang Feng returned to its golden totem form after its job had been completed.

The swimming pool in the front was the one where Chi Jiayan had almost drowned. CbOeIF

Flashbacks of the incident played before Ling Xiao’s eyes. To his surprise, even though it was a dream, it implied that this incident had truly happened in the past, and though it was already in the past, he felt a slight anger welling up in his heart.

Someone came out from the house, standing next to the pool to smoke. “Fuck.”

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

Another person with a head of bleached blond hair followed after him. “Chi Rui, if we keep going, he’s gonna die.”

“That disaster star’s not going down that easily.” Chi Rui shook his cigarette. “I made him eat a bellyful of incense when he was little, and he didn’t die. It’s always been him harming people. Others can’t harm him.” fu0YDE

“But he won’t yield.” The blond haired one spit on the ground. “If we keep going and get found out, it’ll be our problem.”

Chi Rui said, “I have an idea.”

Ling Xiao followed them back into the house. He found that inside was a whole gang of scrappy, lowlife hooligans. There weren’t any adults in sight.

What was more surprising, in the midst of the foul atmosphere, there was a single girl who obviously didn’t look like she belonged there. m0pcs

It was Yu Xiaoqiu.

Yu Xiaoqiu sat on the sofa, face wan, trembling ever so slightly.

Chi Rui walked over and touched her face in a familiar manner. “Qiuqiu, it’s all up to you now. You already know he’d do anything for you. Go down and say a few words to him, let him say something to let us win?”

Yu Xiaoqiu knew what they meant was winning a sports gamble. cZrItO

Taking advantage of the fact that his parents were out, Chi Rui stole their credit card and gathered his friends to gamble. He borrowed from a loan shark, and the revolving interest was more than three million.

Now that the situation couldn’t be kept under control anymore, he needed Chi Jiayan to say just one sentence, letting the sports team they’d bet on win in a breeze.

“Chi. Rui.” Yu Xiaoqiu covered her face. “Stop forcing me.”

“Did you forget? He’s the one who brought death to your father.” Chi Rui rubbed his head. “If you hadn’t been so good to him, would he ever have harmed your dad? Who’s to say he didn’t curse you, just like how he cursed our grandfather, how he cursed me; everyone who helps him has the same fate.” rGVOpP

“That’s not it…” Yu Xiaoqiu’s tears leaked between her fingers.

“I already asked an expert. The source of his spiritual power is our kindness. The softer we are and the closer we get to him, the stronger his spiritual power will be. How could he not know? Don’t be fooled by how Chi Jiayan usually is. He looks innocent, but he did all those terrible things with his own hands. Why should we let such a monster go?” Chi Rui’s expression grew more and more fierce.

The blond haired hooligan said, “Right. This plan was originally set by everyone, and now it’s too late for you to quit. Yu Xiaoqiu, don’t mistake what’s good and bad.”

Yu Xiaoqiu refused to go no matter what. d5HN7K

It was a pity it was too late.

Chi Rui had already lost all rationality.

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He dragged Yu Xiaoqiu and went to the basement. The others followed to watch the excitement. It seemed like they were already used to this series of events.

Ling Xiao remained silent, also going down the stairs. OImJCM

In the dim light, his first glance was drawn to the thin figure there.

“It’s so cold.” One person shivered. “Chi Rui, is this a basement or a fucking freezer?”

“It’s so cold, there has to be a ghost.”

“Speaking of unusual shit, I just came down earlier and it wasn’t this cold.” igFpCw

“Shut up and put your earplugs in, don’t get controlled!”

Chi Jiayan was huddled in a dark corner. He probably hadn’t eaten for days, and had lost a lot of weight.

An iron chain was fastened to his skinny right ankle, giving him a range of motion of about one to two meters.

When he saw Yu Xiaoqiu, his eyes flashed for a moment. “Qiuqiu jie.” nAOHrQ

Yu Xiaoqiu was also wearing earplugs. It was obvious it wasn’t the first time she’d been down.

In other words, she was probably the reason Chi Jiayan was here.

Yu Xiaoqiu was standing numbly. Chi Rui shoved a tablet at her. “Show him. Let him say which team has to win. Tell him as long as we win, I’ll let him go.”

With red eyes, Yu Xiaoqiu handed the tablet over to Chi Jiayan. dYuU0s

Her hands were shaking, and she was choking with sobs.

She had regrets, but if you ride a tiger, it’s hard to stop; it was too late to turn back.

Chi Jiayan stared at her trembling hands and said casually, “Qiuqiu jie, why are you with them? Did you know how worried I was about you? They said if I let them win, they’d let you go. I didn’t dare because I was afraid they’d lie to me and backtrack on their words. But it turns out you…”

It was unclear whether or not Yu Xiaoqiu had heard. z9XQ3D

Chi Jiayan didn’t continue. “…Forget it.”

He reached for the tablet.

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But he was stopped by a pale, slender hand with well-defined knuckles.

He was immediately engulfed in that familiar, cold aura. MEr5Im

He looked up, and that pale mask was close enough to reach.

Ling Xiao’s eyes were as cold as ice that had been frozen for thousands of years.

Chi Jiayan laughed, as bright as a summer flower. “Gege.”

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