Ghost Says - Chapter 7.1

Lin Xian was away for a few days, and Qiao Gang had been sleeping very uneasily at night.

He didn’t know if it was because he wasn’t used to being alone at home, but every night, Qiao Gang would hear the sound of someone moving around.

Although he was very clear that he was the only person in this room, the distinct sound of footsteps always made him feel that there was someone else in this house besides him.

The next morning when he got up, he felt increasingly sore, as if his limbs hadn’t moved all night.

Looking at the dark circles under his eyes in the mirror, Qiao Gang began to seriously consider whether he should go to the temple to pray.

Too many strange things had happened recently, and even though he usually didn’t respect ghosts and gods, he was secretly worried.

As the saying goes, “If you don’t do anything to trouble your conscience, you won’t be afraid when someone knocks on your door at night.”

Qiao Gang asked himself if he had done anything to betray his conscience, but it was hard to say if he had unknowingly offended some “good brother” (spirit).

So he asked the elderly people nearby which temple had the most flourishing incense, and found a day to go and offer incense.

After returning, Qiao Gang’s mood still hadn’t brightened.

While offering incense, he kept thinking about whether the direction he had locked onto for the murderer was wrong.

The deaths of Jian Xia and Xiaoyu were strange in every way, and there was also the warning Jian Xia had given him, as well as the recent events happening around him. All these seemed to point to the person who had already died – Song Yuan.

But what puzzled Qiao Gang was, what was Song Yuan’s motive for killing?

This was also why he had never suspected him before.

Lin Xian had once given him Song Yuan’s file records. Song Yuan hadn’t returned home during his four years of university, and after graduation, he was hired by a large local company. After working for two years, he suddenly resigned and returned to this city, then died in a car accident not long ago. The driver at fault was also sentenced to three years in prison.

Moreover, Song Yuan’s home was far from the residences of the other victims. It could be said that he didn’t know those three people at all, and their lives had no intersection.

Could it be that ghosts don’t need a reason to harm people?

Qiao Gang racked his brains over this. Finally, one day, he walked into Lin Xian’s study.

Lin Xian trusted him very much. The door wasn’t locked, and he had never warned about what shouldn’t be touched.

Qiao Gang walked to the desk. He still remembered that last time, Lin Xian had put the key in the second drawer on the right side of the desk.

And that drawer… was not locked.

In the deep of night, when the hour hand pointed to one o’clock, Qiao Gang appeared in front of the Song family’s door.

He was afraid of being seen during the day, so he deliberately chose to come when it was quiet at night.

This could not but be said to be a manifestation of his guilty conscience.

He believed that if there were any clues, they must be in Song Yuan’s room.

Skillfully passing through the courtyard and living room, Qiao Gang went directly to the second floor.

The first thing Qiao Gang saw was the portrait hanging on the wall. The sleeping appearance of the young man seemed more familiar than when he had seen it last time. He stared at the portrait for a long time, still unable to remember whose back view in the class was like this.

After taking his gaze off the painting, Qiao Gang began to rummage through drawers and all hidden places where things could be hidden.

This kind of underhanded method, which also invaded others’ privacy, made him feel a bit uncomfortable. This behavior itself was somewhat desecrating to the dead.

Enduring the discomfort, after turning the room upside down, Qiao Gang still found nothing.

He had searched all the places where boys love to hide things, such as under the mattress, inside pillows, and hidden compartments in the desk, but surprisingly, he didn’t even find a Playboy magazine or any similar adult books. This was really not normal for a man, though it was also possible that Mother Song had thrown them away when sorting out his belongings.

Qiao Gang looked helplessly at the portrait and complained to the sleeping person in it. “Damn it, could it be that I won’t find anything today?”

As soon as he finished speaking, a “thud” sounded in the empty room.

In the quiet night, the sudden sound almost made his heart stop. The startled Qiao Gang quickly looked towards the ground, where a book lay quietly.

It was this book that had just fallen from the shelf.

But why would a book that was properly placed fall without any warning?

Suppressing the doubt in his heart, Qiao Gang picked up the book from the ground and, upon closer inspection, found it to be a thick notebook. He casually opened a page and saw it was densely filled with writing. After a quick glance, it seemed to be a diary.

Qiao Gang read two passages:

[I didn’t see him today, probably skipping class again. Without him in class, time passes unusually slowly. Even the gardenia flowers blooming vigorously under the window sill have lost their usual fragrance…]

[Had potato and meat rice bowl alone for dinner. The meat was tough, the takeout chef’s skills were really poor this time, but it’s still better than mom’s cooking. She’s not home again. Since she and dad started giving each other the cold shoulder two days ago, she hasn’t cooked at all.]

[Honestly, if this means I don’t have to eat her cooking, I don’t mind if she stays angry for a few more days.]

…

Qiao Gang read a few pages, the content was all about daily life. The only constant was that he would mention a person every time.

That person should be one of their classmates, but unfortunately, after flipping through several pages, he didn’t see that person’s name. Qiao Gang felt he should take the diary back, perhaps he could discover something from it.

As he closed the diary, suddenly a cold wind blew past his ear, making Qiao Gang’s body shiver sensitively.

Just now, it seemed like something had touched his earlobe. Actually, he felt the word “licked” would be more accurate…

He vigilantly looked around. The doors and windows were tightly closed, with no sign of anything unusual. But if no windows were open, where did that wind come from earlier?

Qiao Gang suddenly felt chills running down his spine, involuntarily remembering the Song Yuan he had seen last time. The beautiful light blue eyes in his memory now seemed eerie and sinister.

He didn’t want to stay here for another moment, so he hurriedly left the room.

Past the corridor was the staircase. The stairs were wooden and quite old, making creaking sounds when walked on.

Qiao Gang took two steps and realized something was wrong—

There was an extra set of footsteps going down the stairs!

As if someone was following closely behind him, Qiao Gang felt all the hair on his body standing on end!

His breathing became rapid. He silently told himself not to look back, to pretend he didn’t know anything was happening. He didn’t dare to run either, only trying hard to maintain a steady pace forward.

But that sound followed him like a shadow, as if in the next second, a hand would pat his shoulder from behind. At this moment, Qiao Gang’s ears were buzzing, and his heart felt like it was about to jump out of his chest.

The entire staircase took at most half a minute to descend, but he felt it was the longest half-minute he had ever experienced in his life.

When his foot touched the last step, Qiao Gang could no longer resist the fear. He sprinted towards the living room exit. Fortunately, the living room door wasn’t as hard to open as he had imagined earlier. He smoothly passed through the courtyard and ran outside.

The moment he heard the main gate close, he bent over, breathing heavily, as if he had left something unpleasant behind that door.

After calming down, he also wondered what would have happened if he had turned around then?

If it really was the deceased Song Yuan, wouldn’t it have been the perfect opportunity to ask him about the murder case?

But people are always full of fear towards things they don’t understand. It’s human nature. At that time, he had simply obeyed his instinctive warning.

After resting for a while and steadying his heartbeat, Qiao Gang quickly left the place. There were no more buses running in the deep night, so Qiao Gang had to choose to take a taxi home.

It wasn’t until he got home that he felt truly safe. By then, it was already three in the morning.

Fatigue quickly overtook his body. Too tired to even take a shower, he fell face-first onto the bed and sank into deep sleep. The diary in his arms slipped onto the bed…

The next day, Qiao Gang was naturally late. The loss of his monthly bonus darkened his mood for the entire day. In the end, he declined his colleagues’ invitation for a gathering and returned home early.

After casually cooking something to appease his stomach, he began to study the diary. Although he had always believed that prying into others’ privacy was immoral.

Starting from the first page, the time was year 20XX, exactly eight years ago, when Qiao Gang had just started high school.

The diary wasn’t written daily. Sometimes there would be entries every two or three days, and during longer intervals, entries would be made once every one or two weeks.

The diary began with disdain and disgust for high school. From the diary’s narration, Qiao Gang learned that Song Yuan had already self-studied all high school courses during middle school.

Moreover, he disliked collective life. In a large environment, his gloomy and introverted personality often made him a target of ostracism. For him, interacting with people was a troublesome and boring affair.

This point was already very evident in his diary.

But at the same time, Qiao Gang was surprised to discover that he was a person with an extremely strong desire for revenge. Everyone who had ever bullied him later suffered his retaliation, although most of the time, they didn’t know it was orchestrated by him.

Intelligent, antisocial, indifferent to others, and narcissistic – this was the Song Yuan that Qiao Gang saw from the diary.

Although Song Yuan found high school life very boring, he still insisted on going to class on time every day and maintaining above-average grades in every exam. This way, he wouldn’t be the focus of teachers and classmates, and with his ordinary appearance, no one would pay special attention to him.

For him, high school was like a game he had to play but found uninteresting.

This situation only began to change with the appearance of one person.

There was a long interruption in the diary entries, during which another person’s figure entered Song Yuan’s field of vision.

After that, the content basically revolved around him every day.

According to his description, that person was different from everyone around him. Beneath his cold and unrestrained exterior, he was actually a very gentle and kind person. In the diary, he compared the other person to sweet chocolate with a soft center – once you bite through his seemingly hard and bitter shell, you would encounter his soft and sweet heart.

When Qiao Gang saw this metaphor, he felt a chill in his heart.

With such obvious characteristics, he should have had a strong impression, but no matter how much he searched through his memories of high school classmates, he couldn’t find anyone matching the description.

Song Yuan meticulously recorded everything this person did each day in his diary, down to details like the color of clothes worn, hairstyle, and breakfast contents, making Qiao Gang almost suspect if he was a flea on this “chocolate brother’s” body.

As the content was so extensive and complex, Qiao Gang felt dizzy after reading a few pages and had no concept of what this person looked like.

To wake up early for work tomorrow, Qiao Gang wisely put the diary aside and crawled into bed for a good night’s sleep.

For the next few days, Qiao Gang returned home early to study the diary, continuing until Lin Xian came back. After much thought, Qiao Gang decided not to tell Lin Xian about this matter yet, as its origin was questionable. He feared Lin Xian would ask how he obtained it, so it was better to find a clue himself before telling him.

Upon returning, the first thing Lin Xian did was dive into his study, staying there for a day before coming out.

The table was already set with dishes prepared by the hourly worker. Qiao Gang, sitting at the table, asked him how his trip went. Lin Xian thought for a moment, nodded, and said, “It was somewhat fruitful.”

Then the two began eating. Lin Xian suddenly remembered and asked, “Do you still feel sore when you wake up in the morning?”

Qiao Gang nodded, “It seems a bit worse than before.”

Lin Xian took out a bottle of medicinal oil from his bag and handed it to him.

“Here, the medicinal oil there is good. I brought a bottle for you. Apply it well tonight.”

After receiving it, Qiao Gang felt touched, thinking that although this person was usually quite serious, he had a very kind heart. So he happily took a hot bath, then applied the medicinal oil and lay down on the bed early.

In another room, Lin Xian sat on the bed, with a small TV in front of him playing a recording. The person on the screen was none other than Qiao Gang.

On the screen, Qiao Gang had just come out of the bathroom, with a towel wrapped around his lower half, walking to the bed to change into his pajamas.

Lin Xian’s face was expressionless as he stared at him without blinking.

Qiao Gang, having changed into his clothes, quickly fell asleep, leaving only a small bedside lamp lit.

Then came a long wait. Lin Xian was very patient; he hardly changed his posture during this time.

Finally, after two hours had passed on the screen, the abnormal activity began.

Lin Xian held his breath, staring at the screen without blinking.

Seeing it to the end, he pulled back the corners of his mouth. “Just as I thought.”

The next day, Qiao Gang felt that Lin Xian was behaving somewhat abnormally from early morning. There was no difference in his appearance, but his behavior and demeanor…

Seeing Qiao Gang staring at him, Lin Xian smiled and asked, “What’s wrong?”

Qiao Gang asked with some concern, “Are you alright today?”

“I’m fine. Why do you ask?”

“You’ve given me pickled vegetables twice and refilled my porridge bowl twice today.”

Lin Xian continued to smile. “Is there something wrong with that?”

“…”

It was very wrong! Lin Xian had never been so attentive to him before. His attitude was so good that it made Qiao Gang’s scalp tingle.

Lin Xian looked at him, still with a face that said, “I’m normal, are you alright?”

Qiao Gang gave a dry chuckle, but at that moment, Lin Xian suddenly reached out and caressed his cheek.

Qiao Gang instinctively shrank his neck, but Lin Xian had already picked a grain of rice from the corner of his mouth. Before Qiao Gang could react, Lin Xian put it in his own mouth, then smiled, showing his teeth. “Wasting food is a bad habit.”

Qiao Gang’s chopsticks fell on the table.

“I… I’m full!”

Qiao Gang finally walked out the door with his arms and legs moving in unison.

For the next few days, Qiao Gang felt like he was in a dream. Lin Xian’s attentiveness made him wonder, “Is the end of the world coming?”

Since that morning, Lin Xian had changed his usually slightly cold attitude. Every day, he would gently ask what Qiao Gang wanted to eat and then instruct the cooking auntie to cook according to his requests. After returning home from work, Lin Xian would even thoughtfully prepare bath water for him.

What Qiao Gang found most unbearable was Lin Xian’s physical contact.

Recently, he liked to suddenly hug Qiao Gang’s waist or touch his face. No matter how much Qiao Gang protested, the bad habit persisted.

Qiao Gang, who was overwhelmed every day, even slowed down his progress in reading the diary.

He even had the urge to take Lin Xian to see a psychologist!

Perhaps even the heavens couldn’t bear to watch Lin Xian’s behavior anymore. Recently, whenever he went out, something was bound to happen.

If it wasn’t a flowerpot falling from upstairs, nearly hitting his head, it was a car suddenly losing control on the road, almost hitting him as he obeyed traffic rules and crossed the pedestrian lane on a green light.

His streak of bad luck made Qiao Gang worried, advising him to stay home as much as possible to avoid misfortune.

But Lin Xian just smiled when he heard this, seeming not to take it to heart at all. During dinner, he even jokingly kissed Qiao Gang on the cheek, though the price was a bruise on his abdomen. When it came to the speed and strength of hitting, Qiao Gang was indeed quite good.