"Since Uncle has money, he won't abandon me, right?"
Three incense sticks were stuck in the incense burner on the coffee table. The incense burner was brought by Wen Dai from home. After moving to a new place, the ritual of offering incense to the deities could not be avoided. However, for the time being, it was temporarily used by other spirits.
The milk tea was placed in front of the incense burner, but when you tried to drink it, you couldn't taste any flavor anymore.
The boy, still standing in front of the coffee table, pursed his lips, seemingly savoring the rich aroma of the milk tea; with Wen Dai present, other spirits who wanted to snatch it were powerless to do so—this was Qi Ya's only fear, worried that it would attract other spirits.
"What's your name?" Wen Dai moved closer to the boy.
The little boy's voice reached her ears: "Zhang Yi, Zhang with the bow and arrow, one two three four five one. When Mom was still alive, she said I was the first child, and would be the only one." The rustling child's voice gave people a feeling that combined innocence and vicissitude.
The closer distance allowed Wen Dai to see Zhang Yi's eyes beneath his tangled hair—eyes devoid of any light.
"Could I also take a look at this child?" It was Chen Wenkang who spoke, his gaze aimlessly sweeping across his legs without touching Zhang Yi.
The man turned his head and looked at Wen Dai with hopeful eyes.
Chen Wenkang wasn't the only one with this thought. Qi Ya propped herself up on the sofa, leaned towards Chen Wenkang, and stared at Wen Dai, who was not far from him, saying hopefully, "I want to see too."
A third eye isn't something you can just open casually. Wen Dai hesitated and cast her gaze at Chen Sizhe, who was a coffee table away from her. The latter blinked twice.
"Alright, but I'll turn it off for you when you've seen enough. It's not good to leave it on for too long, it's not good for your personal energy field." To give them a heads-up, Wen Dai recited a few words that sounded like gibberish to them.
In an instant, a little boy appeared out of nowhere in what was previously an empty space.
The difference between the dead and the living is still there. Suddenly seeing a paper-thin figure, Qi Ya subconsciously took a deep breath and held it in her nose. After a moment of breathlessness, her eyelids reacted first, and the light in her pupils flickered twice. Her manicured hand rested on her chest and patted it lightly. "Oh...tsk tsk."
Zhang Yi is a two-dimensional character filtered through gray; the brightness of reality cannot reach him.
Upon suddenly seeing this child, Chen Wenkang's heart tightened. His gaze lingered on Zhang Yi, who wore a worn-out blue cotton-padded jacket over denim trousers that seemed out of place for winter, the dirt on the surface giving them a murky color.
Perhaps feeling helpless, Zhang Yi, who could be seen, felt their gazes and her feet unconsciously curled up, causing the toe of her unglued sneakers to lift off the soles bit by bit.
His sigh was followed by a lament: "I never imagined that in this day and age, such a young child would be reduced to this state."
“There are many. As times progress, it’s easy to overlook some people and easy to exclude others; like antivirus software, some that can’t keep up with it will also be ‘killed’.” Frustrated, Wen Dai, who hadn’t touched a cigarette in a while, reached for her pocket.
But the days she didn't smoke made her think she was about to quit, so why would she still have cigarettes in her pocket—besides, she was at someone else's house now.
Having no choice but to pretend he couldn't see Qi Ya, Chen Sizhe tapped his thigh with his hand, then lowered his crossed legs and leaned forward, "Dad..." before he could finish his reminder.
It was Qi Ya who cut him in half. After witnessing the existence of the spirit, her trust in Wen Dai grew even stronger. Chen Sizhe, whom she distrusted, was attacked. She raised her hand and slapped Chen Sizhe's arm, "Why don't you just let Wen Dai see for you? I really saw it. Come and see for yourself. That way you can't call her a fraud anymore. Sigh, Xiao Dai—"
Okay, now I don't need to pretend anymore.
Wearing an indelible mask of materialism in front of Qi Ya, Chen Sizhe initially wanted to refuse, but after meeting Qi Ya's relentlessly pursuing eyes, he gave up. Wen Dai made a gesture, and he obediently closed his eyes briefly before opening them again.
Qi Ya grabbed Chen Sizhe's arm and shook it several times, a smug look on her face. "See? See? I didn't lie to you, did I? You can't call me a superstitious person now."
After receiving a vague "hmm" from Chen Sizhe, she leisurely withdrew her hand, resumed her aristocratic demeanor, and demurely leaned back on the sofa.
Finally getting a chance to speak, Chen Sizhe lowered his eyelids, looked at Zhang Yi, turned his face slightly towards Chen Wenkang, and asked directly, "Why are you with him?"
Zhang Yi was being watched by several adults, and he kept fiddling with his fingers. If his cotton-padded jacket could be torn, the place where he was pinching would probably have a hole.
“Mom…Mom passed away. Dad often said I was a money-loser. He said the family didn’t have the money to support me and that I should go begging on the streets. I thought he was just saying that in anger.” The voice was low and hoarse, the childishness worn away.
Zhang Yi's eyelashes fluttered, brushing against the stray hairs that fell down. He no longer felt the stray hairs stinging his eyes, but his eyelids remained slightly open. He didn't dare make eye contact with any of them, and just silently thought to himself:
“One day after school, I went home and found that I couldn’t open the door. I sat outside and waited for a long, long time… but nothing came. My neighbor said that debt collectors would come to my house and told me to hide there. Later, a lot of people came and kept banging on the door. It was very noisy. I asked the neighbor where my father was. She said he ran away. She said that the debt collectors had come in the morning and she had been listening in. She said that my father was hiding in the house pretending that he wasn’t home. After those people left, my father left too.”
His head slumped, and he switched from pulling at his cotton-padded coat to pulling at his fingers, peeling off the sides of his nails one by one. "I thought Dad would come back. Auntie told me to wait for Dad at her house; but I waited for a long time, more than a month... Auntie bought me this cotton-padded coat. She said it was cold in winter. Actually, I only wore the cotton-padded coat when I came out. I heard Auntie's mother talking to Auntie. That grandma told Auntie not to make trouble for herself."
“I know Dad won’t come back. I don’t have a dad anymore. He never wanted to be my dad, but sometimes it seems like he did. He was very nice to Mom and me sometimes. After Mom went to heaven, he didn’t want to be my dad anymore. I can’t trouble Auntie anymore, but it’s too cold outside, so I wore this cotton-padded coat. I took off all my other clothes and put them away. I washed them.”
In the now quiet living room, only the sound of a somewhat heavy narration echoed.
The boy, who looked to be only about ten years old, didn't yet have the ability to be concise and to the point. He laid out his story, slowly recalling and telling it to them: "When I was alone, I thought seriously about why my dad didn't want me because I was a money-loser. My grandma told my aunt not to make trouble for herself, which was also because I would cost money."
Zhang Yi raised her head slightly, glanced quickly at Chen Wenkang, and stammered, "After being hit, it hurt so much, I kind of wanted my mom and dad... When I saw this uncle's car, it looked really nice, and the uncle seemed nice too, not like someone who needed money. I wanted to stay with this uncle. If he's rich, he won't abandon me, right? I shouldn't be a burden, right?" Her tone was filled with longing.
His answers pieced together fragments, each fragment striking a chord deep within. Qi Ya's composure crumbled; a sniffling sound abruptly broke the silence. Zhang Yi finished speaking, and tears streamed down her face.
The lady stretched out her body, reached into the coffee table and pulled out a tissue box. She pulled out a tissue and covered the corner of her eye with it, but her eyes, which were twitching frequently, still couldn't hold back the tears, and she couldn't blink them dry.
With her head bowed, Wen Dai hid her face in the shadows, her empty eyes staring blankly out, her lower lip partially bitten and pressed between her teeth.
"What is your name...?" When Zhang Yi answered Wen Dai earlier, they had not yet seen his abilities, so Zhang Yi's voice only reached Wen Dai's ears.
Zhang Yi straightened his neck and looked at Chen Wenkang from behind his hair. "My name is Zhang Yi, Zhang with the radical 'bow' and the character 'one'. When my mother was still alive, she said I was her first child and her only one."
The second self-introduction took on an ironic quality after the initial encounter in the statement section.
Zhang Yi, a "child" whose rights as a child have been deprived.
The environment fell silent once again, and no one could speak; or rather, it was too difficult to speak to such a "child".
“…Zhang Yi.” Composing herself, Wen Dai’s lips naturally lifted into a gentle smile. She straightened up and leaned forward, closing the distance between herself and Zhang Yi.
As their eyes met, she guided them, “You are in a soul state right now, you know? It’s his problem that he doesn’t want you. You’re not a problem. You’re a problem for your biological father only because he’s selfish. The neighbor aunt didn’t want to abandon you, right? The aunt’s mother was also thinking about her. That grandmother doesn’t want her daughter to bear the fate of a child who has no blood relation to her. That’s normal. That’s what’s normal.”
“Zhang Yi, people who love you wouldn’t want you to suffer, and people who love children wouldn’t want their children to suffer; it’s good that the aunt offered you help, and the grandma said you were a burden, but from her perspective, she wasn’t wrong. Of course, you weren’t wrong either; it’s not that rich people won’t abandon their children, there are plenty of them, being rich doesn’t mean being willing to give; you should find a responsible and kind person, these are the most basic conditions for being a parent.”
She gazed into his eyes, her hand unconsciously rising as if to brush the hair from his forehead—but it passed right through.
With dry eyes and no lubricant, Wen Dai momentarily thought that she was probably losing her ability to empathize.
She knew her words seemed somewhat heartless, but before she could explain, Zhang Yi, whom she saw, started pecking at his head.
You couldn't see his whole face, but you could see the seriousness in his eyes. He said, "I understand, thank you, sister."
Just as Wen Dai was relieved that her words hadn't hurt the little boy, she heard Zhang Yi's next astonishing sentence—
"Sister, I think you must be the kind of good person you described. Would you like to be my mother?"
Wen Dai, who had only intended to teach him some tips on reincarnation, suddenly looked up, wondering if she had misheard. "Huh?"
Chen Sizhe, who had been keeping his mouth shut, pinched the bridge of his nose. He lifted his eyelids, his gaze lingering on Zhang Yi. "Zhang Yi, even if you find someone in this world who won't abandon you and is willing to accept you, you won't be able to hug that person, you won't be able to feel warmth anymore, you won't even be able to touch that person's hand. Have you seen the Little Match Girl? Dreams end, dreams are meant to end, and sometimes, dreams shouldn't exist."
“You should go to another world now and wait there. You will find new parents, and perhaps they will fill the void in this world.”
Wen Dai thought she was cold-blooded enough, trying to reason with a child like this, but she realized that there are always people more capable than her, and Chen Sizhe's words were as cold as frost.
Chen Sizhe, his lips smeared with frost, received a slap on the arm from Qi Ya. The noblewoman, her eyes red from crying, disregarded her composure, her voice hoarse and shrill with a nasal tone: "If you can't speak properly, then don't speak at all! How could I have given birth to such a thing as you? Dating, not getting married, not having children—that's one thing, but now you're even starting to chase people away, oh no, you're chasing away ghosts! Did they bother you?"
With a hiss, Chen Sizhe rubbed his arm, which had been slapped hard, and decided to remain silent once again.
“Auntie, you don’t need to hit this older brother. He’s doing it for my own good.” Zhang Yi looked anxious when he saw this scene. He had unknowingly floated between Qi Ya and Chen Sizhe. Then he lowered his head and said in a hesitant tone, “But… I don’t know how to get to the world I’m supposed to go to.”
He raised his face and looked closely at Chen Sizhe. His dark pupils were so deep they seemed to reflect a mirror. He simply looked at Chen Sizhe and asked, "Can I go to heaven? I want to go find my mother. She must be waiting for me. But how do I get there?"
Her unintentional remark revealed a key point that Wen Dai had overlooked due to her habitual way of thinking.
Her hands tightened suddenly on her thighs, her voice urgent: "What do you mean? Zhang Yi, you're dead... When you came out of your body, didn't you see something dark coming towards you?"
The child's obsession was simply to have parents who wouldn't abandon him, but his mother had already passed away. So, his obsession could be divided into two parts: one was to find "parents" in the world who wouldn't abandon him; the other was to search for his mother.
Was there no "senior" to guide him?
She carefully scanned the little boy who stood there blankly in his place. If he harbored deep resentment, he would be powerless to keep up with Chen Wenkang, and would most likely remain at the scene of the car accident or return to his original "home"; while the thin resentment on Zhang Yi had long since dissipated after their few words.
Now that they've spontaneously let go of their resentment, why would they stay in the same place?
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