The Haunted Chapter 94

Chapter 93◀︎Table Of Contents►Chapter 95

Chapter 94 The Person In His Heart

Translated by Nessie

 

Chi Yan did not wake up until ten o’clock in the morning. There was tofu pudding and fried dough sticks on the table. The tofu pudding was poured with soya sauce toppings and sprinkled with pepper and chopped leek flowers. Grandpa took his old-fashioned radio to the balcony to listen to Peking Opera and watered the flowers.

 

Chi Yan looked at the breakfast on the table and felt ashamed. His Grandpa had already exercised in the morning and bought breakfast home while he slept in the house all morning. However, he felt comforted and at ease that his Grandpa was physically strong and was able to enjoy himself with the other elderly in the community.

 

After eating breakfast, he cleaned up the dishes and chopsticks. Grandpa bought some vegetables when he returned from his morning exercise. Chi Yan picked up the eggplants, green peppers and potatoes, and stir-fried a dish called “Di San Xian” and fried egg with tomatoes for lunch. Chi Yan was not very skillful in cooking and the dishes he cooked were barely palatable, so he often bought food directly from the school cafeteria home and ate with his grandfather.

 

After eating lunch with his grandfather, Chi Yan went to school and stayed there for half a day. When it was dinner time, he bought dinner as usual and came straight home. He didn’t feel at ease as there was only his Grandpa alone at home and he hoped to spend more time with him. So as long as he was not too busy, he would always go home. Before retiring, Grandpa worked in a government agency and had a monthly pension of 3,000 to 4,000. During the new year holidays, the unit would also give out some rice and noodles. 

 

Chi Yan started his external internship after he entered university. He was currently studying for an academic master’s degree and the tuition fees were not too expensive. His monthly salary for his internship was about one or two thousand RMB. His salary together with his Grandpa’s pension was just enough for two of them to live in this small city, and it would get better once he started working.

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During dinner time in the evening, Grandpa asked, “Xiao Yan, why did you come back so late yesterday?”

 

Chi Yan knew that Grandpa was a member of the old Communist Party and firmly believed in Marxist materialism. Because of the Chi family, he hated anything that has got to do with them, especially those weird religious stuffs and didn’t support Chi Yan in learning those things. Chi Yan didn’t want to make the old man angry just thinking about the Chi family’s affair,  and he didn’t dare to tell Grandpa the truth, so he made up a reason, “I didn’t do anything, I just went out for dinner with Song Jin and the others and played for a while.”

 

Song Jin often came to their home when they were still in high school. The old man had also seen him grow up and knew of his good character, that he had a stable job and had started a family after graduation. Hearing that Chi Yan was with him, Grandpa was relieved. He nodded his head and started mentioning another thing that he was concerned about, “Xiao Yan, you see Song Jin has been married for almost a year, when will you bring your other half home to show Grandpa? Then Grandpa won’t have to worry when it’s time for me to go. “

 

Chi Yan put down his chopsticks and looked at the old man helplessly, “Don’t talk nonsense, you are in good health, why are you talking about these.”

 

Grandpa smiled, and continued, “I have to see you get married and have a stable career then I’ll be at ease. Isn’t Song Jin’s wife working in a hospital ? You can ask her to introduce you to someone around your age. We don’t ask for much so long as the person is good.”

 

Chi Yan didn’t speak any more. He understood that Grandpa was not like those ordinary elders who would hasten him to get married, and although he was not too old, he hadn’t reached the age whereby he had to get married soon. Grandpa was really worried. His mom’s failed marriage was like a fish bone stuck in his throat. He still remembered that at his mother’s funeral, his Grandpa, an old man with white hair sending off an offspring with black hair. He kept crying and mumbling, “I should have insisted not to let you marry in the beginning.”

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Chi Yan felt a little sad thinking of the past, so he comforted the old man, “Don’t worry, this matter can’t be rushed, there is always the most suitable person waiting for me.”

 

“Why are you like a little girl, boys should take the initiative, otherwise let other people snatch away already,” Grandpa laughed, his cloudy eyes sparkled, and then as if remembering something, a touch of nostalgia and sadness flashed in his eyes, “Your mother was also like this in the beginning, and your grandma and I laughed at her.”

 

Chi Yan hurriedly interjected to talk about his internship and school matters, and changed the topic. One of the reasons was he didn’t want Grandpa to think of his mother and feel sad. The other reason was he didn’t dare to tell the old man that he already had someone he liked ever since he began to understand about love, and he had loved that person ever since.

 

He hadn’t seen that person again for the past seven years, and he couldn’t even get any news about the other person. His love and longing grew deeper and deeper in his heart and it hadn’t faded at all. He didn’t know how the other party would respond and after leaving the Chi’s family, he and that person were like living in two different worlds. He didn’t know if they would ever meet again during this lifetime. With his current status, even if he went a long way to the Ye family to look for him, he might not see that person. He would most likely be stopped by the barrier formation outside the Ye family’s door and couldn’t even get in.

 

Thinking about this, he held the porcelain bottle in front of his chest, quietly raised it to his lips and kissed it sadly.

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Whenever he went to bed at night, he couldn’t help missing that person’s embrace and breath. Sometimes in his subconscious state, he felt that that person was just beside him and embracing him. Sometimes he even felt that…that person was hugging and kissing him. But after waking up, he thought that those were just his fantasies and delusions.

 

Just like this, another week went by. Chi Yan was invited to have a meal at Song Jin’s house during the weekend. Song Jin and Tao Juan Juan knew that his grandfather was still at home so whenever they invited Chi Yan to have a meal at their house, they would pack extra food back, like “Four Happiness Meatballs”, braised pork with preserved vegetables, and braised chicken wings. The dishes just needed to be steamed and heated and Chi Yan and his Grandpa could eat again.

 

On Wednesday night, the doorbell rang after Chi Yan finished his dinner and washed the dishes. Grandpa opened the door, and the person who came was Song Jin.

 

Chi Yan was a little surprised. He couldn’t guess why Song Jin came to look for him. He wiped his hands, greeted him and brought his friend into his room.

 

There were three bedrooms in the house. One of them was used by Grandpa and Grandma, but now there was only Grandpa left. The second bedroom was used by Chi Yan; and the third one was used by Chi Yan’s mom. After his mother’s death, Grandpa once asked Chi Yan to convert the room as his study, but Chi Yan rejected, saying that he already had his room and it was sufficient. So that bedroom was unused, and Chi Yan would only enter it when he cleaned the house.

 

When his mother and him moved back here to stay, Chi Yan was still going to high school and needed a place to study. There was no more room for him to be his study room. So Chi Yan’s mother deliberately chose a smaller room as her bedroom. The larger room was reserved for Chi Yan. Inside his bedroom, there was a 1.5-meter-long single bed, a wardrobe against the wall, his desk and a small bookshelf on the other side.

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It was not the first time Song Jin went to his bedroom. He flipped through the book on the Chi Yan’s table casually. The complicated pattern drawn on the yellowed and thin paper made him dizzy. The seal script beside the picture was also illegible. He could barely recognize a few words.

 

“…With his bones, into this heart…what are these things?” he muttered.

Chi Yan walked over and put away the book, “It’s those things that should be buried in Chi’s family house.”

 

According to the tradition of the Chi family, the eldest son would inherit the family’s property and business. The other descendants could take a copy of a book away from the library before they were separated from the family. One would blindly choose any of the books and nobody knew the content of the book beforehand. But he was the first eldest son and eldest grandson to be separated away. He was supposed to inherit the Chi family. Since there was no precedent before, he blindly selected the originals of the three books.

 

Chi Yan picked two big and thick books and one that looked particularly shabby. There was a lot of content from the thick books. There might probably be some rare records in the old books. He thought so at that time. After he got them, he found that the two books recorded some basic skills, which were suitable for him, but not very valuable. The old books recorded many secret techniques that he couldn’t understand.

 

Chi Yan had no feelings for the Chi family, and naturally he didn’t crave or even care about Chi family’s things. At that time, when he took those books away, he had a little idea of sabotaging the Chi family. After leaving Chi’s family, he found out that due to his body’s constitution, ordinary ghosts dared not get close to him, but he still often got into trouble. Thus, in order to protect himself, he started reading those two books. He grew up in Chi’s family since he was a child. Although no one taught him these things before, he had heard and seen them, thus he learnt quickly and it didn’t take him long to master some techniques.

He has nothing to do with the Chi family except for the “Chi” surname. 

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The Chi family once arrogantly said that his mother could remarry, but Chi Yan was not allowed to change his surname. But the reason why he still kept the surname of Chi and didn’t change his surname to his grandfather and his mother’s surname, Su was not because of this. He didn’t want to change his surname because of that person.

 

He missed that feeling when that person called his name. In a Taoist family clan like the Chi family, he also believed that a person’s name had a special meaning. As long as he was still Chi Yan and called Chi Yan, then at least that person would still remember his name. But if he changed his surname, then that person wouldn’t even know what his new name was, then they might totally lose contact.

 

As Song Jin looked at his friend put those books away, he remembered the great deed Chi Yan did saving his wife. He suddenly felt awe, clasped his hands together and worshipped the books that had been put away.

 

Song Jin got to know Chi Yan in high school. They had always been in the same class in high school, which was considered a kind of fate. After being friends for a long time, Song Jin knew some of Chi Yan’s family situation – his family was originally from another town. Only Chi Yan’s mother was from City R. When Chi Yan’s father had an affair and divorced his mother, his mother took him back to City R to stay with his grandfather and grandmother. It was not unusual for marriages to break down so Song Jin, who was still in high school, only sighed and didn’t pay much attention to it.

 

He found that his buddy was not like any other ordinary person during the third year of high school. That day was the eve of the college entrance examination.

 

In high school, they could either choose to commute to school from home or stay in the school hostel. Classmates who lived in the city usually chose to stay at home and commute to school while those who lived farther away near the border of the town would choose to live in the school hostel. Song Jin and Chi Yan usually stayed at home and commuted to school but as it got nearer to the exams and time was very precious, they both decided to apply to stay in the school hostel in order to save travelling time.

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Almost a month before the college entrance examination, the two of them were self-studying at 10:30 one night. After that, they planned to go back to the hostel to take a shower before going to bed. The air con was not working in the classroom and those two nights were rather hot. Many students who cramped inside the classroom to self-study for three hours were perspiring. When they got out of the classroom, they felt even more uncomfortable when the wind blew at them.

 

Coincidentally, the bathroom at the hostel had no water that night and it was impossible to wash up.

 

Song Jin was stressed by his studies during that time and was very nervous. He was very uncomfortable that his plans were obstructed and were not going as well as he had originally planned. Initially, he was only seventy to eighty percent wanted to take a shower, but after feeling so stressed up, he was one hundred percent needing a shower. If he didn’t have a shower then he couldn’t get through the night and couldn’t sleep well.

 

Later, when he thought about it, his heart was like being influenced by some evil spirits at that time. It was probably a premonition prior to being haunted.

Translated by The Red Oak Tree

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Chapter 93◀︎Table Of Contents►Chapter 95