The Haunted Chapter 95 Gift
Chapter 94◀︎Table Of Contents►Chapter 96
Chapter 95 Gift
Translated by Nessie
Chi Yan was upset when he saw the notice of the water outage outside the shower room. After thinking about it, he suggested to Song Jin, “I remember there is a public shower room after turning out from the west wall of the school and walking westward for less than five minutes. Why don’t we take our things and go shower there ?”
Song Jin agreed upon hearing this. The school had security guards at the entrance at night, but almost all the boys would jump over the wall on the western side of the field to get in and out, so this was nothing to them.
The bathroom was open until eleven o’clock at night and it was close to closing time when Chi Yan and Song Jin arrived. There were people leaving in twos and threes. The two paid the money, and the staff gave them the keys to their lockers and reminded them, “Hurry up, we’re closing soon.”
Song Jin nodded without thinking about it since they planned to just take a shower. If there were guests who hadn’t finished washing, it would usually close five to ten minutes late, so they should be able to make it.
The shower facilities were very dilapidated, just like the many public bathhouses in the north 20 to 30 years ago. There were shower heads around the four walls, and a bath pool in the middle which few people used. Later, when housing conditions improved, almost every home had bathrooms, hence these public bathhouses gradually disappeared.
The school moved to the new district of R City during their third year of high school. The new district was identified as the key area for future development, but it was relatively undeveloped then. The population of the city was still mainly concentrated in the former old city, making this area look very remote and undeveloped. Many migrant workers lived nearby in order to save rent. They would come to these public bathhouses to relieve their fatigue after work. Moreover, this place was close to the train station and bus station. Some travellers would also stop by to take short breaks and have showers here in summer. As a result, there were a few public bathhouses like this near the school. The one closest to the school was the oldest, the most dilapidated, and the cheapest.
Translated by The Red Oak Tree
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Chi Yan and Song Jin just wanted to quickly wash up, hurry back and have a good rest. They were not too fussy about the environment. They took off their clothes, took their bath supplies and rushed in. When they entered, two others turned off their showers and walked out. The bathing area was not small, except for the two who just left, there were about two or three people still showering, but it seemed like they were almost done.
The bath pool in the middle was empty, and the row of lights near the inside were flickering. The two of them picked two working shower heads and started washing up.
One didn’t need a mouth to take a bath but Song Jin felt bored and started saying, “Chi Zi, I give you a math problem. I found this from the internet – A person was bathing in a bathhouse similar to ours. When he came in, he saw three people in the bath pool and five people under the shower heads. When he was bathing, another four people came in and two people left from the bath pool, one person left the shower head. He and two other people entered the bath pool. At this time, he sat in the bath pool and looked around him and saw seven people under the shower heads. Do you think this is correct ?”
Chi Yan thought for a while, “Think of it this way, it’s based on this person’s situation. There were nine people in the bathroom, so three went away, four people came, so there should be ten people. There were three people in the bath pool, two people left, three people came, so there should be four people, then there should be six people under the shower heads. The calculation is wrong.”
Song Jin said dryly, “This was originally a ghost story.”
Translated by The Red Oak Tree
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Chi Yan looked at him with a complicated expression, “In the middle of the night in the wilderness, don’t tell ghost stories like this!”
Song Jin sneered, “This is so obvious that it was a made up story, who would be so free as to count the number of people so clearly when bathing ?”
While they were talking, three more people finished washing up, packed their things and left. They could clearly hear the sound of opening and locking the lockers in the outer dressing room. Soon the place became silent.
Chi Yan urged, “Hurry up, stop talking, we are the only ones left. The staff should come in and chase us to leave soon.”
Song Jin replied, “It’s okay, there is still another one who came in before us.”
He used his lips to gesture to Chi Yan to look behind him. Chi Yan turned around and saw that there was indeed another person behind him and two shower heads away, taking a bath with his back towards them.
He instinctively felt that something was wrong. When he came in, he didn’t have an impression that someone was there. He whispered to Song Jin, “Da Song, did you see that person when you came in?”
Song Jin shook his head, “I didn’t pay attention. When I first came in, I was anxious to find the shower head and wanted to wash up quickly. I kept my eyes closed while washing my hair and talking to you and didn’t pay attention.”
Chi Yan had also been facing Song Jin and his back facing that person. He didn’t notice when that person appeared, or if the other party had been there all along, and he didn’t pay attention when he came in.
Translated by The Red Oak Tree
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He turned his head and glanced back again. The other person’s back was still facing him with his head down, his hands were rubbing his head, as if he was washing his hair, and the water from the shower head was flowing down, obscuring Chi Yan’s vision, causing him not to see him clearly.
At this moment, there was a shout from the staff, “It’s five minutes past eleven, number 18 and number 19, come out soon, there are only two of you left.”
Chi Yan and Song Jin looked down at the same time. The number plates in their hands were Chi Yan’s No. 18 and Song Jin’s No. 19.
The grumbling of the staff and the sound of footsteps leaving were heard vaguely, “It’s time to close the door, and if you don’t go soon then you won’t be able to leave.”
Song Jin laughed, lowered his voice and said, “The staff remembered wrongly?”
Chi Yan turned to look at the person, “he” was still washing his hair with his back facing them, head down and hands on his head.
He didn’t know how to tell his friend.
If he was not wrong, that person should not be a human being.
Chi Yan pulled Song Jin and whispered into his ear, “Did you hear what the staff said just now? ‘Number 18 and number 19, come out soon, there are only two of you left.’ Only two people could get out here. It’s an earth-bound spirit, it can’t get out.”
At this point, Chi Yan swallowed in fear, “Unless it goes out as one of us.”
Song Jin was frightened all of a sudden. Chi Yan was speaking so truthfully, that he felt his hairs were standing up one by one. He turned his gaze but didn’t dare look in that direction. He stammered and asked, “…Why, how to go out as one of us?”
Translated by The Red Oak Tree
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Chi Yan looked at him silently, as if thinking about something.
Half of his face was shrouded in the shadow of the bathroom and his gaze was calm. Song Jin was spooked, but he couldn’t help stretching out his hand to wave in front of Chi Yan’s eyes, “Chi Zi, are you alright?”
He swallowed his saliva and gently asked, “…you are Chi Yan, right?”
Chi Yan nodded and made a gesture to keep quiet. Then he poured the light green aloe vera shower gel on his left palm, grabbed Song Jin’s arm with his right hand, and quickly drew a talisman on the back of his hand with the shower gel. At the same time, he quickly said in a low voice, “Be careful not to rub it off. You go out straight away, the thing can feel that you have something in your hand, and since there is another person here to choose, it won’t risk chasing you. Listen to me, quickly go and don’t worry about me, I have a way, otherwise none of us can escape.”
Song Jin’s muscles tightened with fear, and he could barely force himself to calm down. Although he still didn’t know of the situation at this time, he chose to believe in Chi Yan. So he nodded and calmed himself to walk out normally.
Chi Yan watched Song Jin disappear from the door. He was relieved then his heart tightened again. There was a chill behind him, which he couldn’t be more familiar with, the feeling of being stared at by that kind of thing.
He knew that that thing was staring at him.
If it wanted to go, it had to kill him in order to get out.
Chi Yan lifted his hand and gently rubbed the small porcelain bottle on his chest, trying to overcome the tension and fear in his heart.
Translated by The Red Oak Tree
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He was harmed by ghosts more than once when he was a child. Ordinary ghosts and spirits were afraid of the evil aura in his body and dared not get close, but those fierce ghosts and evil spirits would still deliberately inflict harm on him because he was the eldest grandchild of the Chi family. They were hidden in the dark, trying to put him to death again and again. So he was still instinctively afraid of them.
During his weakest and helpless times, through countless nights of fear, it was that person who held him in his arms, coaxed and comforted him so that he could settle down and fall asleep.
Chi Yan raised the porcelain bottle and kissed it lightly, took it off and held it in his right hand. He wiped off the shower gel, and quickly drew a ghost-expelling charm on the palm of his left hand.
The porcelain bottle was given to him by that person. Two years after he left Chi’s family, he had no more information about the other person. These taoist families boasted of being secluded from the city. It was extremely difficult for ordinary people to find them and it was even impossible for him to send a letter. Just when he thought that the other party had probably forgotten him, he received a gift from him during the New Year this year. Coincidentally the gift was delivered to him on his 18th birthday, on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month.
The packaging of the gift was simple, with only this porcelain bottle and a sticky note inside. The sticky note was written simply, “For my baby, keep this with you all the time” in a familiar handwriting. After Chi Yan received it, he treated it like his treasure. He placed it in his hand and looked at it carefully and couldn’t bear to put it down for a moment. When he saw that there was a black string tied to the porcelain bottle, he quickly fastened the porcelain bottle on his neck.
He didn’t know what the gift was for at first, but it took a few days to realise the effect.
Translated by The Red Oak Tree
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In the past, Chi Yan never dared to expose his body in public, especially taking a bath in a public bathroom like this. In summer, he tried his best to wear dark clothes, because he painted charms on his chest and shoulders with a vermilion pen to suppress the evil aura in his body. If anybody saw what he drew on his body, they would definitely feel that he was weird.
No one in Chi’s family cared about him. The only one who cared for him was his mother but she was just an ordinary person who had no power and speaking rights in the Chi’s family. This charm was always painted for him by that person. Generally, it was enough to redraw once a month. But when he was still at the Chi family, the person would draw this charm for him once a week. After leaving Chi’s family, Chi Yan began to learn to draw them by himself. He couldn’t draw the one on his back by himself so he simply stopped drawing, and the remaining three could still calm some of the evil aura in his body.
Chi Yan originally only wore the porcelain vase as an ordinary ornament as he cherished the person who gave him the gift. Gradually, he discovered that this porcelain vase was extraordinary. It not only suppressed the evil aura in his body, but also ordinary demons and ghosts did not dare to approach it.
Translated by The Red Oak Tree
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