Chapter 24
Jiang Zhuo felt a headache coming on. “What do you mean ‘no’? I’m here to pick you up, isn’t that good enough?”
Jiang Xingbai stared at Lu Yichuan. “You promised to take me home.”
The man glanced at him. “I didn’t promise. You’re the one who said that.”
He said to Jiang Zhuo, “I’ve brought him here. I’ll be going now.”
Seeing him about to leave, Jiang Xingbai panicked and reached out to grab his hand. “Yichuan…”
Before he could finish, Lu Yichuan abruptly shook off his hand.
Jiang Xingbai froze, stunned by his sudden action. It took him a moment to realize that he was still clutching Lu Yichuan’s watch, the cold metal of the watch strap making his eyes sting.
“Why did you push me away? Just because I touched your watch?”
Seeing the situation escalating, Jiang Zhuo quickly got out of the car.
Lu Yichuan adjusted his watch, his face darkening, and glanced at Jiang Zhuo. “Jiang Zhuo, control your brother. There won’t be a next time.”
“Jiang Xingbai…” Jiang Zhuo felt a splitting headache. “What are you doing? Let’s go.”
“Me? Doing something?” Jiang Xingbai looked at Lu Yichuan, the resentment he had been suppressing finally erupting. “Didn’t you see? Just because I touched his watch, he treated me like this! It’s because that watch was a gift from that person!”
Jiang Zhuo’s expression changed. He grabbed Jiang Xingbai and shoved him into the car.
Only after locking the car doors did he dare to look back at Lu Yichuan.
The man stood under a tree, enveloped in shadows, his features obscured by the darkness, not a single ray of light reaching him.
Jiang Zhuo opened his mouth. “He’s drunk, he’s talking nonsense, don’t mind him…”
He trailed off, not because he had nothing to say, but because he realized that nothing he said would matter.
Jiang Zhuo suddenly didn’t dare to look at Lu Yichuan standing in the shadows. He hurriedly bid him farewell and drove away with Jiang Xingbai.
Jiang Xingbai was still crying in the passenger seat.
Annoyed by his crying, Jiang Zhuo snapped, “Stop crying!”
Jiang Xingbai’s sobs subsided. “Brother, are you going to scold me too?”
The car stopped at a red light. Jiang Zhuo rubbed his face tiredly. “I’m not scolding you, but you did go too far this time. You can hang out with whoever you want, but I sincerely advise you to stay away from Lu Yichuan. He’s not as good as you think.”
Jiang Xingbai sniffled. “Haven’t I been good enough? When have I ever humbled myself so much for someone in all these years? Why does he still treat me like this?”
Jiang Zhuo: “…”
He hadn’t heard a word he just said.
“It’s not your fault, it’s Lu Yichuan’s. He’s not right in the head, you know? You can’t warm his heart.”
“Then why could Jiang Heng?”
Hearing the name, Jiang Zhuo froze.
For the past four years, this name had been almost taboo between them, always skirted around, never mentioned directly. He hadn’t expected Jiang Xingbai to bring it up so suddenly.
Jiang Zhuo felt a sharp pang in his chest.
Jiang Xingbai continued, “Tell me! What makes me worse than him? I’m more obedient, I’m smarter, why doesn’t he like me?”
“Enough!” Jiang Zhuo said. “You shouldn’t compare yourself to him.”
“Why can’t I compare myself to him?” Jiang Xingbai gritted his teeth. “All of this should have been mine! Because of him, look at the kind of life I had before!”
“I finally made it back to the Jiang family, and what happened? What did they say about me? They said I’m not as good-looking as him, not as likeable as him, but I’m the victim!”
“I should have been the one growing up with Lu Yichuan! His affection should have been mine! Just because of him, because of him…”
“Jiang Xingbai!” Jiang Zhuo slammed on the brakes and snapped, “I think you’re truly drunk, spouting such nonsense!”
“I’m not drunk! I’m perfectly sober…”
Jiang Zhuo interrupted him. “Do you think that without Jiang Heng, you would be the one by his side?”
“Let me tell you, even without him, you wouldn’t be the one by his side.”
“The only person who can be by Lu Yichuan’s side is Jiang Heng, not the younger son of the Jiang family. Do you understand? He chose Jiang Heng the person, not Jiang Heng the identity.”
Jiang Zhuo hardened his heart and continued, “Do you know why he keeps giving you gifts?”
“It’s not because our families are close, it’s because of Jiang Heng…”
“After finding out about your identity, he’s always felt guilty towards you, wanting to give you everything he has. He hasn’t touched a penny of the money he’s saved these past few years. Before you came to the Jiang family, he gave it all to me. He said it was yours…”
Jiang Zhuo’s voice choked slightly. “Lu Yichuan is good to you because he’s trying to make up for Jiang Heng’s guilt.”
Jiang Heng was kind, and he didn’t want him to carry the burden of guilt towards Jiang Xingbai even after his death.
Lu Yichuan had always hidden his true feelings well in front of Jiang Heng, but after all these years, Jiang Zhuo was the one who saw through him the most.
He had taken care of everything for Jiang Heng, seemingly without any resentment, yet he had subtly severed all of Jiang Heng’s connections to the outside world.
Whether it was his parents, him, or anyone else…
Under his “care,” Jiang Heng had become increasingly isolated, like a lone boat adrift at sea, his only harbor Lu Yichuan.
Even in death, he wouldn’t allow Jiang Heng to have any connection with anyone else.
Jiang Zhuo had seen the look in Lu Yichuan’s eyes when he looked at Jiang Xingbai, a coldness that sent chills down his spine.
“I don’t care who you want to be with, but Lu Yichuan is off-limits.”
Everyone knew how deeply Jiang Heng’s death had affected Lu Yichuan, but time heals all wounds, no matter how deep.
But four years had passed, and Jiang Zhuo felt that he hadn’t calmed down, but had instead become increasingly unhinged.
This madness was hidden beneath his aloof, gentle façade, undetectable to most, but Jiang Zhuo, his friend of over ten years, had sensed something wasn’t right.
“Don’t provoke him,” he said.
“Because I don’t know what he’s capable of anymore.”
Lu Yichuan didn’t return to the dormitory. He took a taxi to his villa.
The villa was dark and silent, empty, devoid of any signs of life. Standing in the foyer, looking inside, the darkness seemed to swallow everything.
Lu Yichuan turned on the lights, changed his shoes, and went upstairs.
He walked to the innermost room on the second floor and opened the door. It seemed to be his bedroom, but strangely, there wasn’t a single window. The fluorescent light illuminated the room with a cold, stark brightness.
Under the light, Lu Yichuan’s face was even paler than the walls.
But his lips were red, a vibrant, blood-red.
He took off his clothes and changed into a pure black outfit. The black made his skin look even paler, his exposed wrists like those of a corpse.
The gold watch on his left wrist was the only spot of color on him.
Lu Yichuan walked to the bookshelf, pulled on the door, and it opened, revealing a hidden passage behind it.
He washed and disinfected his hands and entered.
Inside was a room the same size as his bedroom. Before he opened the door, a faint red light seeped through the cracks.
Lu Yichuan placed his hand on the doorknob and entered a familiar code.
Click. The door opened.
As soon as it opened a crack, a flood of red light poured out.
It was a chilling room. The walls were covered in yellow talismans, and red strings crisscrossed the room haphazardly, adorned with bells and paper charms. The moment he pushed the door open, the bells chimed in unison.
The ceiling was draped with red cloth, a dark, almost black red, with a faint metallic scent. Paper money and paper effigies littered the floor, creating a suffocating atmosphere.
A shrine was built into the wall, but instead of a deity, a color photograph sat inside, flanked by two burning candles.
Lu Yichuan sat cross-legged on the floor, lit some incense, and then burned a piece of paper money.
The smell of incense ash filled the airless room.
“Rongrong…”
He spoke with a gentle smile, as if afraid to disturb something. “It’s been a while. I’ve been very busy lately.”
“I found a part-time job at the beginning of the semester, working at a café. You said many university students work part-time to earn money, so I tried it.”
“But I’m too lazy and often took days off, so the boss fired me.”
Lu Yichuan’s smile widened, the candlelight reflecting off the red cloth and onto his face, giving him a ghostly appearance.
“But the paper I told you about got published in a C-ranked journal. I came here in a hurry and didn’t bring it with me. I’ll remember to bring it next time and burn it for you.”
He looked up at the photo of the smiling boy.
The background was a clear blue sky, and beneath his feet was green grass. The boy in the photo, wearing an orange jacket, was the brightest spot in the room.
Lu Yichuan blinked.
“Are you still mad at me? Is that why you don’t even come to see me in my dreams…”
Although there was no wind, the ashes from the burning paper money in the brazier swirled up and landed on his face.
“Rongrong is still mad at me, isn’t he? Mad that I didn’t go with you.”
“But they say that if no one remembers them, ghosts become lonely spirits.”
“What if I leave, and Rongrong becomes a lonely spirit?”
“I can’t bear it.”
Lu Yichuan lowered his head and coughed.
He shifted his position, stretched out his legs, and picked up a blank paper effigy.
He took out a box of paints and dipped his brush in them. “I met a master a while ago, and he said that if you paint the face of the person you want to see on a paper effigy, you can trap their soul inside.”
“But I can never draw Rongrong’s face right. I practiced for a long time before daring to show you this.”
With the brush dipped in ink, he carefully drew the nose, then the mouth, and finally the eyes.
One shouldn’t dot the eyes of a paper effigy, but Lu Yichuan, holding a red brush, did it without hesitation.
“It doesn’t look very much like him. Rongrong won’t blame me, right?”
No one answered. The paper effigy in his arms grinned, a chilling and eerie sight.
A single bed was placed against the wall on the other side of the room. He carried the paper effigy to the bed, placed it under the covers, then paused as he was about to get in. “I touched other people today. I should take a shower first.”
He left the room and went back to his bedroom. The gold watch on his wrist glinted, the crystal still sparkling, but the hands had long stopped moving.
Time had stopped for him.
He unfastened the watch strap, revealing a long, ugly scar on his wrist, almost a finger’s width, like a centipede.
Just one look, and one could tell how deep the cut had been.
Lu Yichuan traced the scar with his right index finger and began to undress.
As he unbuttoned his shirt, the black string around his neck slipped out, revealing a glimpse of the object hidden beneath it, seemingly long and cylindrical.
As he undid more buttons, the object was finally revealed under the cold bathroom light.
It was a cylindrical object, warmed by his body day and night, polished to a jade-like smoothness, emitting a soft sheen.
From afar…
It looked like a finger bone.
