Chapter 113 Old Stories
However, after he had completely crossed the threshold and the door of the ancestral hall slammed shut behind him, Qing Bai no longer cared about his belt or the cat that was still clinging to his belt.
He stared almost blankly at the familiar figure in front of him, then slowly turned his head, his voice hesitant and trembling, half confused and half... asking for help.
"Nine...nine years?"
Qing Bai's gaze couldn't find a place to rest, there was no one around him.
But his call still received a response. The figure turned around and looked at Qing Bai with surprise: "You're here!"
Qing Bai did not respond. He almost forced himself to look away from the person in front of him.
After the initial shock and confusion, what came to my heart was an irrepressible anxiety and anger.
Qing Bai rudely ripped the stowaway from his belt like a chicken, then held the tiny black ball in front of him. Without saying a word, he narrowed his eyes and stared at it fiercely, staring at the weak, pitiful, and helpless little black fur ball until its hair stood on end and its tail stiffened like a spiked mace. Then he slowly said, "You did this?"
Black-haired ball: "Meow?"
The kitten tilted its head and blinked its round eyes, as if to say, "What are you talking about? I'm just a kitten." The kitten looked confused and didn't understand what people were saying.
Although it was a bit inappropriate, its pretentious attitude was really cute. If it were a soft-hearted cat lover, he would probably surrender immediately and become addicted to petting cats, but it happened to be Qing Bai... Who hasn't been a cat?
"You don't understand human language, right? What a coincidence," Qing Bai sneered. "I was a cat for a while, too, so I can barely understand a bit of cat language. If I heard correctly, you called that woman... Mom?"
Lingxi was naturally not a cat. Qing Bai understood that the cat's meow was real, but it was just a noisy meow. It was the first time he had triggered this passive talent skill that was said to be Lingxi's innate talent. He was not very experienced in the business and did not hear many useful ones. He only heard the black cat's abrupt and shrill "Mom" when the young woman announced her pregnancy in the sedan chair parking lot just now, and he heard it very clearly.
Qing Bai waited for a while, and seeing that the black-haired ball still didn't respond, he sighed in disappointment. Communication failed, and it seemed that he could only be the bad guy for once.
Qing Bai didn't realize that the black cat in his hand, which seemed motionless, was not without reaction. Before he pointed it out, the shrill howl in its voice was when it called out for its mother. The black cat's round pupils instantly dilated, and its black pupils were smooth and dull, blending perfectly with its black fur like frosted glass balls.
Then it used its dark cat eyes to stare at Qing Bai's face, which was half hidden in the dim light and shadow, with a look of neither surprise nor panic, as if it was confirming something.
...It's not that there was no reaction, the whole cat was frozen.
"...Since you call her mom, then I'll do the cat a favor and put you into her belly. How about that? After she's been pregnant for ten months and you're born, you can rightfully call her mom."
It's hard to say Qing Bai truly has the talent to be a villain—his eyes narrowed, his voice lowered, his handsome, slightly pale face half-hidden in the dim light, revealing only a smooth, clean-cut jaw and a slightly upturned, yet cold, unsmiling mouth. Add to that his all-black attire and the harsh, ruthless way he carried the cat, and the scene, to anyone who saw it, would have been mistaken for a perverted, handsome man attempting to infringe on a cute little kitty.
The kitten was very cooperative. It was stiff for a moment, then quickly reacted and began to struggle hard. Qing Bai was not a bad guy after all. Seeing the black cat refusing to obey and rushing to break its neck without caring about the skin on the back of its neck being "broken bones", he was shocked and subconsciously loosened his grip. So the black cat, which was still fighting desperately in Qing Bai's hands the previous second, shot out like an arrow from a bow the next second, rushing forward like a wild boar in a vegetable field... and then, as expected, passed through the figure that had been neglected for a long time.
Yes, not surprising.
From the moment he saw the back of that figure upon entering the door, Qing Bai knew in his heart that it was just an 'image', or an 'illusion'. Although the figure was lifelike, with all the characteristics that a living person should have, even some that he could no longer remember, and could move and talk, and look at him with an expression that Qing Bai was familiar with, it was still just a shadow, a shadow that had passed away for many years and should never appear here... Jiu Nian was clearly right next to him just now.
The more 'lifelike' it looked, the angrier Qing Bai became. However, he was too weak to be so. Even though he knew it was fake, he couldn't bring himself to do it. All he could do was to direct his anger at the suspicious black cat, who was suspected to be one of the culprit candidates.
Fortunately, the cat did not disappoint Qing Bai. Although it did not knock away the frightening figure, it did create a new world - the dark and old ancestral hall that he had not had time to take a closer look at slowly dissipated like a drop of ink into a pond, with dizzying invisible ripples, and was replaced by a bright and illusory campus scene.
Qing Bai had just come back to his senses from his dizziness when he heard that particularly dignified figure say to him, "Qing Bai, are you going to the hospital visit organized by the school this afternoon?"
A hospital visit organized by the school? Qing Bai hadn't expected this figure to proactively ask him questions, leaving him stunned.
Fortunately, he had an excellent memory. After a brief recollection, he knew which period of Tongjiu year this figure, which should not have appeared here, came from... In their senior year of high school, a female classmate of Qing Bai's class unfortunately suffered from an extremely rare acute illness. Not long after entering the hospital, she was faced with the embarrassing dilemma of having no money to continue medical treatment.
Birth, aging, sickness, and death are normal aspects of life. A long-running school is bound to encounter one or two such unfortunate students every few years. The school, with its extensive experience, quickly organized a fundraising campaign. Of course, financial support alone isn't enough; emotional support is crucial. The homeroom teacher, with a generous gesture, reserved two spots for representatives from the classmate, along with several girls who were close friends with the student. Besides fruits and flowers, the gifts also included notes from the student's absence, specially prepared by the class leaders, a thoughtful gesture that expressed the teacher's and classmates' hope for her return to school.
Back then, Qing Bai did not have much of the ambition and desire to perform that a young man should have. He only symbolically served as a class representative, which was not a serious class leader. On weekdays, he had nothing to do except studying and taking exams.
As for Tong Jiunian, he was the class monitor for three years in high school. Unfortunately, he was in the liberal arts class. Although it was not completely unrelated to the science class that Qing Bai attended, they were separated by a teaching building.
So, at such a critical moment, when someone who appeared at such an inopportune moment brought up this old story that Qing Bai had almost forgotten, Qing Bai unexpectedly felt a strange surge of interest. Could there be another 'old friend' here? Someone who knew both him and Tong Jiunian?
Thinking of this, Qing Bai calmly asked, "Are you going?"
Tong Jiunian looked at Qing Bai strangely. "Of course I have to go. We're all classmates. If I can't see you one last time, it would be too..." He paused, as if trying to think of the right words to persuade Qing Bai. "...That would be such a pity."
Qing Bai's lips curled up slightly, but there was no smile on his face and he didn't feel surprised.
He did not go to the hospital to visit her that year, and the sick girl was not Tong Jiunian's classmate. Her real classmates didn't even know that it was the last chance to see her. Everyone only knew that she had an acute illness.
To be honest, Qing Bai didn't know what happened to that female classmate later. Was her illness cured? Did she return to school as her classmates and teachers wished?
But this was not his fault. The timing of the female classmate's illness was really bad. It happened to be the college entrance examination that year, and it was not easy for the school to find time to let students visit the hospital. After that grand and chaotic exam, Qing Bai tragically lost the most important person in his life, and half of his life was gone. He struggled to deal with all the funeral affairs, and before he could completely wake up from the pain, confusion and reckless indulgence, his old man in the family asked the teacher to squeeze him into another high school to repeat his senior year. From then on, he lost contact with his classmates who were once estranged.
After so many years, there is a follow-up here. What a great fate.
So Qing Bai said, "Then go."
As if he had not expected Qing Bai to agree so readily, Tong Jiunian showed a hint of surprise on his face, which was soon overshadowed by joy. Although it was only for a brief moment, Qing Bai's eyes still caught it. He thought to himself that it didn't look that similar now... but his frown relaxed a little.
Perhaps it was because the scenery was changing randomly, the familiar dizziness and the familiar invisible ripples came over him again, but this time Qing Bai insisted on not closing his eyes, watching the surroundings change from the bright and illusory campus scenery to the appearance of a hospital in an instant, just like the changing of the curtains in a stage play.
This hospital is not unreal at all - the hall is well-air-conditioned and bustling with people. The dense and noisy voices just cover up the heavy footsteps and occasional sobs. There is a long line outside the registration window. The doctors and nurses whose faces can't be seen through the glass disperse the long lines to various departments with calm tones soaked with disinfectant. And there are those who are either tired and numb or desperate and anxious sitting in the waiting area...family members?
Qing Bai raised his eyebrows. He seemed to have found a bug in this scene that was so realistic that he could almost smell disinfectant in the cold air... Even though he didn't respond to the class teacher's call to visit the hospital and didn't know what the specific situation was that day, he could still spot the problem at a glance.
After all, his high school teacher who was fond of wearing polo shirts with suit pants and shiny leather shoes would definitely not have a face exactly like Qi Xiaopang's, which looked more wilted than a dehydrated mushroom as if he was about to cry. Of course, the class monitor would not wear a Zhu Bajie mask on his head.
"Qing..." The chubby Qi version of the homeroom teacher stood up like a hapless crop that had been dry for three seasons the moment he saw Qing Bai. He opened his mouth to call him brother, but fortunately, the 'Zhu Bajie' next to him could read the air and slapped the words that were about to come out of his mouth, and seamlessly continued, "Classmate Qing and... and this classmate, you are finally here! It's good that you are here, it's good that you are here, now let's... let's go in together? Don't let... let the patient wait for us for too long..."
The Zhu Bajie mask could hide Xiao Wu's featureless face but it couldn't hide her surprised look. She just saved the situation for Qi Xiaopang, but in the blink of an eye, she was shocked by the immature version of the Nine-Year Master beside Qing Bai, and her speech became slurred and halting.
——Help! There really is something wrong with Master Jiunian!
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