Ghost Says - Chapter 9.2

Behind this door was a demon.

It had killed the person he loved and destroyed his peaceful and satisfying life.

The demon said all this was because of love for him.

Qiao Gang didn’t understand when love had become such a cruel and ugly thing.

Love should represent all that is pure and beautiful in this world, carrying light and hope, but here it had become the best excuse for someone to satisfy their desires.

He could not accept such love.

Taking a deep breath, Qiao Gang grabbed the doorknob and opened the door. But the moment he walked in, he found himself not in Song Yuan’s room.

As if the stage set had suddenly changed, the door behind him had also disappeared, replaced by a long corridor.

The lower half of the walls painted green, the cement floor, and the metallic railings gave him a strange sense of familiarity.

Two seconds later, Qiao Gang understood where this familiarity came from. This building was indeed all too familiar to him.

This was the place where he had spent three years of his high school life, his high school.

The bell for class dismissal had just rung, and students were coming out of their classrooms. Soon the corridor was filled with people.

Qiao Gang noticed that none of the students passing by seemed to notice him, as if he were invisible to them. After a student passed right through his body, Qiao Gang finally realized that the people here weren’t real; in other words, everything before him was an illusion.

If this was Song Yuan’s doing, what did he want him to see?

Qiao Gang walked aimlessly, watching familiar and unfamiliar figures pass by. When he passed the boys’ restroom, he found his answer.

From the unclosed door came intermittent muffled groans, mixed with crude curses. Judging by the sounds, there were multiple people involved. Qiao Gang knew very well what game was being played inside. Some unfortunate soul must have offended the school’s troublemakers and was now being dealt with. Anyone with any sense would naturally stay far away.

Taking advantage of the fact that the people here couldn’t see him, this kind of commotion was naturally worth watching.

Qiao Gang effortlessly passed through the door panel and walked in.

Inside, a group of four people surrounded a boy in the middle. The boy was thin and short, no wonder he was being bullied. Moreover, there were four opponents; even he in his younger days would have had to think twice.

In his youth, Qiao Gang had a fiery temperament and liked to be alone. Working outside, he inevitably encountered some troublemakers, and he never hesitated to fight back.

He was ruthless, fighting recklessly. Ever since an incident where a small-time thug hit him on the head with a beer bottle, and he still chased the guy for four blocks with a bloody head and broke his leg, no one dared to provoke him again. He became a force to be reckoned with at school, the only “big brother” without underlings.

However, Qiao Gang himself didn’t see it that way, thinking these kids at school were just influenced by too many Hong Kong dramas.

Qiao Gang stood watching the scene in the bathroom for a while. The boy being beaten was half-kneeling on the ground, seemingly badly hurt. The youth was tough though, not making a sound for so long, only occasionally grunting through his nose when it was too painful.

“This’ll teach you to be stubborn! This’ll teach you not to pay up!”

A boy with very short hair, revealing his bluish scalp, stepped on his shoulder and ground down hard a few times for good measure.

Qiao Gang narrowed his eyes dangerously. If anyone dared to treat him like this, he would beat them until their own mother wouldn’t recognize them!

The boy on the ground still didn’t make a sound, only gripping the hem of his clothes so tightly his knuckles turned white.

Sometimes, silence not only fails to make the perpetrators of violence relent but can actually be a catalyst for more violence.

Qiao Gang watched the scene unfolding before him, suddenly feeling a sense of familiarity.

Just as he was trying to remember where he had seen this before, someone else entered the bathroom.

The gang of four looked at each other in confusion. Hadn’t they told Xiao Wu to guard the door? How did someone else get in?

The leader cleared his throat, intending to intimidate the newcomer and chase him away. But unexpectedly, the youth who entered merely glanced at their setup before walking straight to the urinal, stopping, unzipping, and relieving himself – all in one smooth motion, without hesitation.

The others watched in stunned silence, forgetting what they were about to say. The young thugs felt embarrassed and angry; this person’s actions were essentially a slap in their faces.

Qiao Gang, however, was shocked. He recognized this youth. More precisely, he hadn’t forgotten his own face at sixteen.

This arrogant, brazen youth was himself from eight years ago.

Suddenly having an ominous feeling, Qiao Gang looked at the victim on the ground whose face he hadn’t clearly seen before.

The student with the long bangs and pale face was, as he feared, Song Yuan.

At this moment, the young Qiao Gang, who had finished washing his hands and was preparing to leave, also noticed this fact.

A flash of surprise crossed his face, then he walked over to Song Yuan and said in a somewhat lazy tone, “Song Yuan, the bell for class has already rung. Why aren’t you going? Trying to skip class or what?”

The gang of four became upset and snarled, “Hey, kid, this is none of your business! If you know what’s good for you, get lost!”

Young Qiao Gang narrowed his eyes. “What did you call me?”

As soon as he finished speaking, he threw a punch. The person next to him was caught off guard and fell to the ground awkwardly.

Qiao Gang’s fighting principle had always been steady, accurate, and ruthless! His strikes were heavy and his angles tricky! Qiao Gang had a strong sense of territorial protection. No matter what, Song Yuan was from their class, and he couldn’t let outsiders bully him like this in front of him! So he acted without hesitation.

Watching this, Qiao Gang finally remembered what had happened back then, and he knew how things would develop.

After teaching those four troublemakers a lesson in turn, he had also earned some bruises himself. The small-time thugs threw out a few threats and ran away. Qiao Gang was about to make a cool exit when Song Yuan called out to him from behind.

“Hey, why did you help me?”

How had he answered back then?

The young Qiao Gang, now at the door, turned his head. His lip, split in the fight, curled into a slight smile.

“Because you’re too weak, idiot!”

Sunlight fell on his face at that moment, and then the youth walked away, radiating brilliance.

The boy left behind stood in the shadows, motionless for a long time.

For Qiao Gang, this was a forgotten memory. For him, it was just an insignificant past event in his life.

What he was seeing was Song Yuan’s memory, not his own.

After the young Song Yuan walked out, only Qiao Gang remained in the bathroom.

“This is all your doing, isn’t it? Why are you making me watch these things? Why don’t you come out and talk to me face to face? Come out! Why don’t you dare to come out now, damn it!”

Qiao Gang shouted angrily! He furiously kicked open the doors of all the stalls one by one!

Each stall was empty.

His patience had reached its limit. The only thing he wanted to do now was to find Song Yuan!

“Come out, you bastard!”

Qiao Gang kicked open the last door, and at that instant, a blinding white light burst forth from inside.

He reflexively closed his eyes and shielded them with his hand. When he opened them again, he found himself in a classroom.

A classroom full of people, in the middle of a lesson.

On the podium was his history teacher from second year of high school, lecturing about the “Guangwu Restoration” of the early Eastern Han dynasty.

He stood in the middle of the aisle, with his younger self in front of him, and Song Yuan sitting diagonally behind him, one row back.

His younger self was dozing off as usual, while Song Yuan had a blank sheet of paper in front of him, sketching something with a pencil.

Qiao Gang remembered the drawing he had seen in Song Yuan’s room.

Soon, the scene before him changed again.

He saw the youth secretly putting a letter into his desk drawer in an empty classroom, then saw himself carelessly throwing the letter into the trash can, while the youth stood behind, silently watching.

Then came a series of mundane daily life scenes. In each scene, there was always the silent youth’s figure behind himself, along with that unusually deep gaze.

Graduation from high school also meant separation. Qiao Gang didn’t have the time to experience the melancholy atmosphere of parting, because his mother had been admitted to the hospital once again.

He had to care for his mother and find ways to earn more money to pay for the expensive medical bills.

But no matter how hard he tried, the medical expenses were simply too enormous. What he earned from part-time jobs wasn’t even enough to cover the cost of medication.

Qiao Gang’s mother had no formal job, so naturally, she had no health insurance. The family’s remaining savings were almost used up, and the hospital was pressing for payment every day. Without money, they would stop the treatment. Qiao Gang was anxious every day, like an ant on a hot pan.

He had stopped going to classes and found several jobs, while still making time to visit the hospital to care for his mother.

His mother couldn’t bear to see him working so hard. She cried and said she would stop treatment, but Qiao Gang managed to persuade her otherwise, lying that they still had money.

In the end, Qiao Gang sold their house and, combined with other funds, barely managed to scrape together enough for the medical fees.

Unfortunately, Mother Qiao still passed away two years after the surgery.

Qiao Gang watched as the young Song Yuan secretly followed him into the hospital, then stood outside the door for a long time.

He didn’t know what the young man was thinking then. But after that, he saw Song Yuan being severely beaten.

“You beast!” A man swung a belt, striking him repeatedly.

“So you’ve grown up now! Stealing money from home, huh?”

Song Yuan’s father beat and scolded him, while Song Yuan’s mother cried softly on the side.

“What are you crying for! Look at what kind of thing you’ve given birth to! He’s never been honest since he was little!”

Qiao Gang saw Song Yuan kneeling straight on the ground, lips pressed tightly shut, not saying a word.

“Speak! What did you do with the money? A hundred thousand yuan! Where on earth did you take so much money?”

Another lash of the belt came down, instantly leaving a red mark on Song Yuan’s face.

At this moment, Qiao Gang thought of the hundred thousand yuan he had received when he was most helpless.

At that time, the hospital told him it was from a kind-hearted donor who insisted on remaining anonymous.

He always remembered that during those darkest days, someone had pulled him out of the abyss of despair.

Could it be…

Qiao Gang looked at the stubborn youth kneeling on the ground. He just knelt there on the cold, hard floor, neither resisting nor defending himself.

Song Yuan’s father, red-eyed, raised the belt high and brought it down.

Qiao Gang, without thinking, instinctively moved to block it. But the expected pain didn’t come. The belt passed through his body and landed on Song Yuan.

That somewhat frail body trembled, and Qiao Gang felt his heart quiver along with it.

At that moment, he thought of the youth who had silently stood outside the hospital room door.

The scene before him changed quickly. In a blink, Song Yuan was boarding a northbound train.

Six years later, Song Yuan returned to his hometown and once again stood before Qiao Gang. However, Qiao Gang didn’t notice Song Yuan, whose appearance had changed significantly. He just walked straight past him.

In that instant, Qiao Gang didn’t catch the expression on Song Yuan’s face.

The scenes continued to change. Song Yuan drove to Qiao Gang’s workplace almost every day, stopping at the entrance, waiting a while to see Qiao Gang go in, and then coming back in the late afternoon to watch him leave.

The final scene, however, was of Song Yuan being hit by a car and falling to the ground.

That coral-red color stained the ground, and Song Yuan lay in a pool of blood, his body twitching slightly, his eyes unwillingly fixed on a spot in the crowd.

Qiao Gang followed his gaze. Xiaoyu was at the edge of the crowd, looking on. Qiao Gang himself was beside her, frowning and saying something, his eyes glancing impatiently at this scene twice before pulling Xiaoyu away by the hand.

Song Yuan’s mouth moved slightly, but no sound came out. Blood rushed out of his mouth.

–Don’t go, please… turn back and look at me…

Strangely, Qiao Gang could read what Song Yuan wanted to say from his eyes.

The man who wanted to run over because he saw him was hit by a drunk driver, then died from severe injuries. This was Song Yuan’s end.

If Qiao Gang had recognized him then, would Song Yuan have had such deep regret? Would everything that happened afterward have been avoided?

Qiao Gang stood beside Song Yuan, looking at his increasingly unfocused eyes, and sighed.

Walking to his side, Qiao Gang crouched down, looking at the eyes that still refused to close, still gazing towards the crowd. With a slightly trembling hand, he gently covered Song Yuan’s face and closed his eyes.

At the moment his eyes closed, a transparent tear slid onto Qiao Gang’s hand.

Though it was cold, Qiao Gang felt it burn his hand.

He sighed again.

Whether it was for Song Yuan or something else, perhaps even he couldn’t say clearly.

Qiao Gang shook his head, wanting to walk away, but suddenly realized that all the people around had disappeared, leaving only the person on the ground lying quietly there.

The surroundings were frighteningly quiet, as if even time had stopped. The blood on the ground ceased to flow.

Then — the person moved.

The person on the ground, in a twisted posture, slowly stood up. The leg that had been hit by the car, exposing bone and muscle, began to move towards Qiao Gang in an extremely unnatural motion.

Qiao Gang couldn’t help but take two steps back, then forced himself to stand still.

Song Yuan’s movement speed was no slower than a normal person’s. He quickly came to stand in front of Qiao Gang.

His face, previously obscured by blood, returned to its original snow-white color. His calm eyes flickered with a feverish light. Qiao Gang found himself unable to resist as Song Yuan’s outstretched arms embraced him. Then he saw Song Yuan reveal a bright, gentle smile.

“You’ve finally…come to find me.”