Chapter 12 Starving Ghost I Will Find You Myself
"Can't you tell me?" Chang Xile asked him back, "If one day I suddenly disappeared and didn't contact you at all, and even if I came back I wouldn't tell you why, what would you think? Wouldn't you be angry?"
An Ping thought for a moment, then nodded solemnly: "I'm not angry, I will find you myself."
Chang Xile:?
She pointed at herself and asked, "You mean, it's my fault that I can't find you?"
What a scumbag! All sweet talk and smooth talking! He'd done something wrong and yet hadn't the slightest inkling of remorse. Chang Xile remembered how, in this very hospital, she'd once said: If Anping couldn't give her a convincing explanation, she'd break up with him.
But before he could finish his words, Anping's expression changed. He carefully observed Chang Xile's face and suddenly asked, "Are you sad when I'm not around?"
Chang Xile stared at him, wanting to say, "No, I'm not." But as soon as the words left her mouth, she choked up. She blinked back tears, and finally said in despair, "Yes, can't I feel sad?"
Suddenly, Chang Xile's vision went dark. When she came to her senses, she realized Anping had buried his head in her shoulder. His pure white hair brushed against her cheek. The man's voice was muffled, "A very important person is in danger. I must go save her."
Chang Xile was stunned for a moment, and she subconsciously asked, "Has that person been rescued?"
Anping raised his head, touched her hair as if cherishing it, nodded and said, "Yes, she is fine now."
Chang Xile breathed a sigh of relief. She had never seen Anping have any particularly close relatives or friends, but to make him so sad, someone must be important.
As long as the person is fine, we should not be too concerned about trivial matters when it comes to life and death.
But she still complained: "But you should also tell me, at least let me know when you will be back?"
"Promise yourself that you won't disappear without a reason again and you can't leave me alone." Chang Xile held out her hand. "Let's make a pinky promise!"
An Ping hooked his fingers around hers, his expression a bit complicated: "Pink?"
"It's like a promise to never change for a hundred years. Haven't you heard that?" Chang Xile knew from his expression that he hadn't heard that either. She sighed with some pity, "What should I do, Anping? Your childhood and my childhood seem so different."
"Okay! Let's go back to school together?" The rain outside the window had stopped, and Chang Xile gathered her spirits and walked out. She walked a few steps and looked back, only to see Anping still standing there with his head down. She waved at him, "What are you standing there for? Let's go!"
An Ping stared at the figure before him. She was standing against the light, a golden halo surrounding her that made him yearn for her. He didn't move forward, but murmured softly, "But, I'm not sure if I can come back. How can I tell you?"
Chang Xile called out to him with squinting eyes, "What are you mumbling about? Come quickly!"
…
When Chang Xile returned to the dormitory, he was stunned by the scene inside.
"What nonsense are you talking about! Don't think you can fool me just because you can fool the netizens with your tricks. I've checked everything. Have you caught a ghost in all these months since we started broadcasting? How can a charlatan like you say I have a ghost?" Fang Xinai had been very irritable for the past few days. Although her mind told her to be patient, her anger would eventually give way. Now she was pointing at Yang Guisi and cursing, a stark contrast to her usual self, completely utterly undignified.
Yang Guisi seemed much calmer. Even when Fang Xinai's fingertips were about to poke her nose, she simply crossed her arms and said calmly, "If I really wanted to harm you, I would say nothing and wait for you to die. Then we would all stay in graduate school."
"You, you still want to curse me to death?" Fang Xinai became even angrier, and she raised her hand to slap Yang Guisi.
Ren Qing didn't know where he had gone, and Chang Xile hurriedly grabbed Fang Xinai's wrist to prevent her from turning an argument into a vicious incident.
A few days ago, when Fang Xinai was irritable, she would feel better just by being around Chang Xile. However, today, it had no effect at all. Fang Xinai only glanced at Chang Xile and shook her hand away. This time, the force was so great that it pushed Chang Xile to the ground, knocking over the chair beside her with a loud noise.
"Xile...are you okay?" Fang Xinai finally came to her senses after hearing the loud noise. She bent down and tried to help Chang Xile up, but after squatting down, she no longer had the strength to stand up. She simply buried her head on her knees and cried bitterly, "I don't want to...I don't know what's wrong with me lately..."
Chang Xile was still dazed, staring at her wrist, which was covered in red marks. Fang Xinai had pushed her with considerable force, far beyond the capabilities of someone of her size.
Yang Guisi looked at Fang Xinai coldly, and stretched out a hand to the side, pointing it in the direction of Chang Xile.
Chang Xile took her hand and stood up.
"You think I'm a liar, but aren't you curious about how I knew someone was tied up in the room next to that girl?" Yang Guisi smoothly pulled out a can of safflower oil from a drawer, took Chang Xile's wrist, and slowly applied it to her. "No one involved came to investigate me afterwards, which is enough to prove that I had nothing to do with this case."
Yang Guisi was clearly talking to Fang Xinai, but her eyes were fixed on Chang Xile. At this point, she changed the subject and looked at Chang Xile with a smile: "Do you want me to help her?"
Something must be wrong when things are out of the ordinary. Yang Guisi, who was usually cold and indifferent, suddenly kissed her so gently that Chang Xile became slightly wary. She asked, "I think you will help me?"
"Hmm..." Yang Guisi rolled his eyes, raised his right hand and rubbed his index finger and thumb together, "Maybe we need a little exchange?"
Chang Xile asked directly, "What do you want, money?"
Yang Guisi smiled again with his eyes curved: "Oh, don't be so defensive. We're roommates after all, I won't blackmail you."
"I'm just curious." After Yang Guisi had laughed enough, he gradually stopped smiling and asked her seriously, "What's the difference between you yesterday and you today? Why was there nothing on her back yesterday, but it appeared as soon as you left?"
"What are you talking about?" Chang Xile quickly grasped the key point of her words.
"Look, that thing on her back, can't you see it?" Yang Guisi pointed her lips in Fang Xinai's direction. She was tired of crying and was still sobbing on her knees. "She just told me that you were staring at her back yesterday too."
"I didn't see it, it was..." Chang Xile shook her head. She was about to open her mouth to say something, but she stopped in time after her mind turned. She accidentally hit the tip of her tongue and hissed.
Should I tell her that the cat saw it? Who would believe such an absurd statement?
"Really?" Yang Guisi eyed her suspiciously. At that moment, Fang Xinai suddenly stood up again, grabbed the food on the table, and stuffed it into her mouth without any manners. She was already extremely full, but even when she was retching, she kept eating.
Chang Xile held Fang Xinai's shoulders to keep her awake, but he was unable to stop her at all.
"Well, I have a solution, but it's only a temporary fix." Yang Guisi spread his hands and pulled a piece of yellow paper from a drawer. He then dipped his index finger in a little water from the cup on the table and began writing and drawing on the paper with great concentration. The water stain left a shallow mark on the yellow paper, which then slowly dried and disappeared.
Yang Guisi blew on the talisman paper, then pressed it on Fang Xinai's back: "Okay."
Fang Xinai's movements came to an abrupt halt. She rubbed her eyes and said blankly, "What am I doing? Hiss... My stomach hurts."
Yang Guisi casually picked up a biscuit from the table and handed it to her, asking, "Do you want more?"
Fang Xinai stared at the biscuit for a moment, then suddenly covered his mouth and rushed to the bathroom. Then the two of them heard a retching sound coming from the bathroom.
"She probably won't want to eat in the short term." Yang Guisi clapped his hands and leisurely pulled out a stool and sat down.
"So, what's going on?" Chang Xile asked.
"Have you ever heard of a starving ghost possessing someone?" Yang Guisi looked up at her.
Chang Xile nodded happily. This kind of expression was always used to describe people who were starving. In the past, in composition classes, when the teacher listed good words and sentences, he would occasionally mention this kind of word and list this kind of metaphor.
But the version told by Yang Guisi is very different from this traditional metaphor.
When Yang Guisi was a child, he lived with his grandmother in a small village nestled in the mountains. There was a man in his forties who was unmarried. He worked odd jobs to make ends meet, spending most of his money gambling. When he lost everything, he'd go back to odd jobs, and the cycle would repeat. He only gambled what he owned, never taking on debt or credit. This way, no matter how much he lost, the worst that could happen was that he'd start over again; he could always earn more.
However, one day, for some reason, he played mahjong with a few people from outside the village all night and lost so much money that he even borrowed a lot of money from them and ended up losing it all.
Unable to pay the debt by doing odd jobs alone, the man simply found a way to go to sea. Everyone said that he left to avoid debt and would never come back.
A year later, the man returned. It was dinnertime, and the families were still eating. The first thing he did was slap some money on the strangers' tables, then he went to the kitchen, got dinner, and started eating.
Because he paid back so much money at once, the family was a little dissatisfied that he came to eat without asking, but they didn't say anything.
After a while, however, everyone felt something was wrong. The man had finished off the four portions of food on the table, but he still wasn't satisfied. His belly was already swollen like a balloon, but he was still crying out for more.
The wife of that family felt sorry for him because of the hard life he had had while at sea, so she went to the kitchen to make him some noodles. But as soon as she stood up, she was stopped by her husband.
The husband carefully observed the man, seeing his lifeless eyes and constant cries of hunger. He decided he couldn't give him any more food. He had heard of someone who had starved for days after an accident, then ate a meal large enough for several people in one sitting, then drank water. The food swelled in his stomach, and he died of starvation.
What's the big deal if this person dies in his own home? So the husband waved his hand and told the man to go eat somewhere else.
However, the man had nothing to eat, and his temper suddenly became extremely violent. He overturned the table, injured his wife and husband who tried to stop him, and finally ran away.
When everyone found him in the forest, only a cold corpse was left.
But he actually died of starvation.
Local elders said that the man's ship had an accident at sea and had been drifting on the boundless sea for a long time. Finally, the food on the ship had run out. When other merchant ships on the sea met them, the man was the only one left on the ship.
It was hard to say what happened to those who disappeared. As for the man who returned alive, no one knew what he had eaten during those many days on the ship to survive and wait for rescue.
Some old people said that he was possessed by the souls of those who died of starvation, so he demanded food without limit until he died.
"You mean, Fang Xinai is in a similar situation?" Chang Xile asked.
Yang Guisi nodded and added, "She keeps eating and getting thinner, which is totally against the laws of nature. I think she's probably possessed by a starvation ghost, but I don't know what's causing it."
Chang Xile struggled for a long time, but still felt that this statement was too absurd: "Although your feelings make sense, but... I am actually a materialist."
"Please." Yang Guisi rolled her eyes. "Then tell me, why did she return to normal after I drew a talisman just now?"
"Perhaps the tapping you gave Fang Xinai on the back caused her to vomit out the excess food she'd ingested?" Chang Xile tried to explain it with common sense. "But why do you say applying talismans is only a temporary solution?"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
