Lost Soul
In the morning, fresh vegetables are transported to the vegetable market by trucks. Various vegetables are neatly arranged at each stall. In order to ensure the freshness of the leafy vegetables, the boss sprays water on the vegetables to keep them moist.
Excess water dripped onto the ground, where it was trampled and splashed by the people buying vegetables, turning it into a black and gray sewage. Old vegetable leaves fell onto the stall floor and were crushed by people, making the already dirty ground even more messy.
Liu Muzhe regretted wearing the ivory coat that Ye Jing'an bought for him. Afraid that it would get dirty and couldn't be washed off, he buttoned all the buttons and rolled up his cuffs.
"Brother Liu, it's a bit dirty here. I'll go buy it. You wait for me outside." Ye Jing'an said.
"It's okay, I won't get my clothes dirty." Liu Muzhe said.
Ye Jing'an had originally planned to buy some food from the stalls right at the entrance, but they didn't sell some of the vegetables. Qiu Zimu said Wang Zhiyi wanted to eat some and insisted on buying them. So they had no choice but to walk around the center of the market to see if anyone was selling any.
"Brother Liu, you have lived for so long, can you cook?" Ye Jing'an asked.
"Yes." Liu Muzhe said.
"Then why don't you do it?" Ye Jing'an asked again.
"It's too troublesome. I'd rather spend money to buy prepared food." Liu Muzhe said.
"I don't mind the trouble. I'll cook for you next time." Ye Jing'an said with a smile.
Cooking and Ye Jingan always brought back bad memories for Liu Muze. Thinking of that plate of cola chicken wings whose taste was indescribable, and the corpse of the baby lying on the ground, Liu Muze's eyelids twitched wildly: "Are you dissatisfied with my longevity and want to poison me to death?"
Ye Jingan was speechless for a while, and then he said defensively: "It's not delicious now, but I can learn! It will be delicious if I fry it a few more times. Don't you like eating crayfish? I will make it for you today!"
"I don't want it. If I eat it today, I may not like it in the future." Liu Muzhe said.
"Then cook me a meal. I want to eat what you cook." Ye Jing'an said.
"No." Liu Muzhe shook his head and refused.
"I did it for you last time!" Ye Jingan said.
The uncle who was buying vegetables at the stall in front heard Ye Jing'an's voice and turned around. When he looked closely, he saw that it was really Ye Jing'an, so he smiled and greeted him.
"Uncle Zhou! You are here to buy vegetables too." Ye Jing'an said with a smile.
"Yes, buy some yams and corn and make some pork and rib soup for my daughter." Uncle Zhou glanced at Liu Muze, "Have you cleared up the misunderstanding?"
"Yes." Ye Jing'an introduced to Liu Muze, "This is Uncle Zhou. He saved you and took care of you for the two weeks I was away."
"Thank you." Liu Muzhe dug into his pocket and took out a sandalwood bracelet and gave it to him. "I didn't bring anything nice with me when I went out, so you can wear this bracelet for fun. I'll come visit you next time when I've prepared something."
"No, no. You, young man, are as polite as that boy." Uncle Zhou smiled.
"Did something happen in your family?" Liu Muzhe asked.
"How do you know something happened in my family?" Uncle Zhou asked in surprise.
"Uncle Zhou, he is proficient in talismans, swordsmanship, and fortune-telling. Tell us what happened in your family, maybe we can help you." Ye Jing'an said.
Uncle Zhou sighed and said slowly, "It's my daughter. She went out with her classmates to play some script-killing game a few days ago. When she came back, she looked a little tired. She had a high fever at night and is still dazed. She doesn't eat every day and can only drink nutritious soup."
"Can you take us to see it?" Liu Muzhe asked.
"Okay, okay, that's great! I was so anxious that I almost died." Uncle Zhou said.
"Then I'll ask Qiu Zimu to buy it himself. Let's go to the hospital first." Ye Jingan told Qiu Zimu about Uncle Zhou and asked them to go back first.
It was still the familiar hospital. Uncle Zhou led the two of them to the door of the ward. When Ye Jingan saw the ward number, his heart tightened. He immediately turned to look at Liu Muze and held his hand tightly before he felt relieved.
Pushing open the door, Ye Jing'an's mind was filled with the image of Liu Muze lying weakly on the hospital bed. He subconsciously lowered his eyes. He didn't dare look at the bed, afraid that everything was just a dream. He was afraid to walk into the room and see Liu Muze lying on the white bed again. He was afraid that this person beside him, who had already expressed his feelings for him, was just a figment of his imagination.
Ye Jing'an turned his head and stared at Liu Muzhe, unwilling to enter the ward.
"What's wrong with you?" Liu Muzhe asked softly.
Ye Jing'an rubbed his hand against his face. His hand was warm, even warmer than when he was on the hospital bed. Everything was real.
"Stop messing around and go in." Liu Muzhe said.
The bed near the window in the room was empty, and Ye Jingan breathed a sigh of relief. Uncle Zhou's daughter was lying on the bed next to him. She didn't look as weak as Liu Muze had at the time. She seemed to be sleeping peacefully.
The nurse who was in charge of taking care of Uncle Zhou's daughter said a few words to him and then left in a hurry. Uncle Zhou sat beside the bed and sighed, "This is my daughter, Zhou Ruiyao."
"She lost a soul. What did you say she was playing before?" Liu Muzhe asked.
Uncle Zhou told the two that Zhou Ruiyao and her friends had played together for the entire day and had been to many places. He checked with each of them one by one and all her classmates were fine.
Zhou Ruiyao's classmates hadn't encountered anything strange all day. After dinner, they went shopping. Wanting something exciting, they tried playing a script-killing game. During this process, Zhou Ruiyao got scared. The other classmates didn't notice anything, and just assumed she was frightened out of her mind.
"Where is that store? Let's go and take a look." Liu Muzhe said.
"I'll send you the location." Uncle Zhou looked embarrassed. "The nurse had something to do at home today, so she took half a day off. I want to go back and make pork rib soup for her. Can you keep watch for me for a while?"
"Of course, Uncle Zhou, you go ahead and do your work." Ye Jing'an said.
After Uncle Zhou explained some things, he hurried home.
"Script killing, I haven't played it yet, why don't we try it?" Ye Jing'an said.
"Okay." Liu Muzhe pondered for a moment, "What happened when you just walked in?"
Ye Jingan's eyes moved to the empty bed next to him: "When you were unconscious, you slept in this ward."
Liu Muzhe was stunned.
"I used to dream about you all the time. In my dreams, you would play with me like you do now, and tell me everything that was on my mind. I knew it was a dream, and you wouldn't do that in real life. After dying and returning to the underworld, I still thought I was dreaming when I met the real you." Ye Jing'an smiled and said, "Now, I can't tell if I'm dreaming or not. I'm so scared of seeing you lying on the bed the moment I open the door. I'm so scared of you telling me I'm dreaming and then disappearing bit by bit."
"It's not a dream." Liu Muzhe held Ye Jing'an's hand tightly.
"No matter whether it's a dream or not, as long as you are here, it's fine." Ye Jing'an leaned against the wall, staring at the empty bed with squinted eyes.
Liu Muze realized that he seemed to have left a deep psychological shadow on Ye Jing'an, and he didn't know what to say. The only sound in the quiet ward was the ticking of the clock on the wall. The occasional conversations between family members, nurses, and doctors from outside the ward could not break the silence.
Fortunately, Uncle Zhou's house was not far from here. He was quick and nimble, and he quickly made the soup and fried some home-cooked dishes.
"Come and try my cooking skills." Uncle Zhou handed them the chopsticks.
"Uncle Zhou, let's not eat. Let's go to that store first and bring your daughter's soul back. Later, I must taste the food cooked by Uncle Zhou." Ye Jing'an said.
"Okay, okay, Uncle Zhou will cook a whole table for you then!" Uncle Zhou said with a smile.
Ye Jing'an and Liu Muze followed Uncle Zhou's address to the script-killing shop where Zhou Ruiyao and the others had played together. This shop was a well-known one in the local area, located in a residential area, and they owned the 22nd to 26th floors.
Walking into the shop, I saw two large bookcases in the living room, filled with various script-killing books. In the reception hall, four or five young people were drinking and playing table games. One of the boys lost the game and complained, "Why haven't you come yet? We've been waiting for almost an hour."
There were a lot of people playing at this time of day, so there was only one staff member left in the hall, who was currently explaining which books were more interesting to a group of girls. Ye Jing'an and the other man sat on the sofa and waited. Liu Muze carefully observed the room, but there seemed to be nothing unusual on this floor. Staff members dressed in various costumes would occasionally walk down from upstairs to the living room to get props or change costumes.
Ye Jing was bored, so he picked up the horror mask on the sofa and tried to play with Liu Muzhe.
"Stop it." Liu Muzhe put the horror mask aside. "I haven't played this before. I heard the staff over there say that we have to choose which version to play and which character to choose. So which one did Uncle Zhou's daughter play?"
"I forgot to ask, let me ask now." Ye Jing'an said.
Uncle Zhou himself didn't quite understand these things and was afraid of missing out on any key details, so he directly gave Ye Jing'an the WeChat address of Huang Jia, Zhou Ruiyao's best friend.
Many things that were difficult to explain happened that day. Huang Jia saw that Zhou Ruiyao's condition was not optimistic, and she was afraid that Uncle Zhou would worry, so she did not say many details.
Ye Jingan learned more from Huang Jia. They were playing a horror game with a school theme. In the second act, each player needed to go to their own place to collect clues.
Huang Jia and Zhou Ruiyao were both on the rooftop, where they were collecting their certificates. The room was dark, so if someone was hiding in a corner, they wouldn't be able to notice. Arm in arm, they tiptoed onto the rooftop, following the signs.
Huang Jia's quest clue is in the small attic on the rooftop, while Zhou Ruiyao's clue is not clearly written, requiring her to search for it on the rooftop. Given the previous scenes in the first and second acts, the atmosphere on the rooftop at this moment seems particularly eerie to Huang Jia and Zhou Ruiyao.
The small attic was pitch black. According to the staff, a flashlight was hanging behind the door, and she needed to open the door to get it. Huang Jia, who was already timid, was coaxed and tricked into coming in. The staff had frightened her for a moment in the first scene, but this time she was even more terrified. Who knew what was hidden in this small room? She didn't dare to open the door or go in.
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