Ch15 - He was this unwilling to concede that he was old!
Translator: reiyu, Editor: Pyrrhae
“I’ll be going out, I’ve been cooped up for a week already.”Gu Kaifeng’s gaze fell on Lin Feiran, who seemed to want to say something but had stopped himself. Gu Kaifeng smiled slightly then asked very casually, “Where do you want to go?”
Lin Feiran wondered, “Aren’t you going out with Wang Zhuo and the others?”
“I don’t plan on going with them.” Gu Kaifeng ditched his original plans in a second. “They want to go to a bar and I find that too noisy. Where do you usually hang out on weekends?”
“I usually go with my friends—” Lin Feiran paused and swallowed back the words ‘to sing karaoke’.
What was the difference between dragging a tone-deaf person to karaoke and taking a cripple to a disco? Nothing!
“Normally we go shopping, watch a movie, play video games — that sort of thing,”Lin Feiran said considerately.
“Then let’s do that. Let’s stop at the classroom to grab our homework and go to the dorm to change clothes first.” Gu Kaifeng put on his uniform jacket and made a phone call as he walked out of the music room. Since he was walking very quickly and Lin Feiran still had to lock the music room’s door, Gu Kaifeng rapidly put a lot of distance between them.
The corridor near the music room was very quiet so even though Lin Feiran was far away, he could still faintly hear Gu Kaifeng’s voice as it drifted down the hall, carrying with it an overtone of playfulness. “Little Zhuo-zi… I have something going on tonight and won’t be joining you… Yes, I’m spending time with my wife. What? Jealous of me? …”
What wife! Lin Feiran’s face swiftly went hot. He hurriedly snatched his keys from the lock and, taking the longest strides he could with his two not-very-long-legs, flew down the hall. Simmering with aggression, he cut a path to Gu Kaifeng. Each step he took resonated heavily from his anger. Once he stood before Gu Kaifeng, he fixed him with a stern glare, his eyes accusing him of having let his mouth run away like a train!
“I can’t talk anymore, I’ve made him angry, bye-bye.” Gu Kaifeng’s mouth was speaking into his cellphone, but his eyes were looking at Lin Feiran. He was currently standing in front of a window and the warm sunlight that passed through the glass illuminated the bottom of his eyes, making them glitter brightly like two pieces of chestnut brown stained glass.
Lin Feiran looked into his eyes and was momentarily dazed.
Gu Kaifeng hung up the phone and slid it back into the pocket of his pants. As though he had not noticed in the slightest that Lin Feiran was angry, he very casually patted Lin Feiran’s head and strode around him. Heading towards the descending staircase, he asked, “What would you like to eat tonight? My treat.”
Lin Feiran rushed to catch up, demanding, “Who did you say was your wife just now?”
A faint smile was on Gu Kaifeng’s face. He said leisurely, “Do you care a lot about this issue?”
“Don’t care, just asking.” I’m a straight guy! Why would I be concerned about a joke? Lin Feiran shook his head self-righteously and swiftly changed the topic. “As for food, let’s just split the bill.”
Gu Kaifeng tsked and said, “Troublesome. Next Saturday, you treat, then it’ll be fine.”
Next Saturday night was settled as well! Lin Feiran’s heart couldn’t help but leap in joy. He said happily, “Good, it’s agreed.”
The two arrived at their classroom to retrieve their bags and packed the homework they would have to turn in on Monday.
Lin Feiran took all of his homework with him. Although he still did not know what he would be doing that night, he couldn’t go back to the dorm and face that big group of ghosts alone no matter what. After getting their bags, the pair went back to the dorm and changed into casual clothes before leaving the school.
They went to a shopping district that was only about three kilometres away from the school. Because it was near campus, the students from their school all came here to hang out during their time off. Gu Kaifeng was very familiar with the neighborhood. He brought Lin Feiran to eat a very delicious meal of barbecued meat at a local restaurant. The sticky cake Lin Feiran was fed until he became a barbecue-stuffed meat bun. They then entered a shopping mall and Lin Feiran was in high spirits as he looked around.
As it was a Saturday night, the shopping mall was very crowded. In the middle of the central hall, a store had invited models to walk on a runway and do promotional activities. The music was so loud it shook the ceiling. Waiters stood by the entrances to their restaurants wearing radiant smiles as they distributed flyers. Couples walked past hand in hand, their happiness overflowing. In all directions, lights shone brightly. Advertisements rolled across LED displays and the atmosphere was thoroughly lively and exciting… This was not the type of place that would have ghosts, right?
Lin Feiran wanted to try opening his Yin-Yang eyes here. Since inheriting the Yin-Yang eyes he had never left school. According to Gu Kaifeng’s hearsay, their school had once been a graveyard. It was normal for graveyards to have a lot of ghosts, but maybe other places did not have any? Without looking, how would he know?
Carrying this incidentally fortuitous train of thought, Lin Feiran refrained from touching Gu Kaifeng.
The two took the elevator from the first floor to the top floor.
The top floor was a movie theatre and it was also an area where couples congregated. Many young lovers paired up and chatted, their expressions sweet.
“I don’t know which movies are good right now…” Gu Kaifeng murmured to himself as he walked up to a movie poster and began looking it over. Several girls who had come in a group to see a movie were also standing by that poster and, seeing Gu Kaifeng approach, they instantly began whispering excitedly. Occasionally, bouts of their melodic laughter reached Lin Feiran’s ears.
Lin Feiran was about to be envious, as had been his habit, because the attention of those girls had been completely ensnared by Gu Kaifeng while no one was looking in his direction. But, the familiar cool air rose from Lin Feiran’s feet and his body felt as though it was a vessel that was suddenly filled with ice water. Lin Feiran felt himself turn several degrees colder.
It had come… Lin Feiran took a deep breath and forced himself to look around.
One of the theatres had just started allowing people in. Customers about to watch the movie thronged toward the ticket entrance and lined up, waiting in an orderly fashion to be let in. However, not only people were rushing toward the ticket entrance: after the announcement for entry had rung out, at least a hundred ghosts drifted forward from all directions.
There were all kinds of ghosts. Some were carefully holding in their intestines, some were supporting their wobbly brains, and some had lower halves that had become a bloody mush, making it so they could only lie on the ground and crawl forward… Of course, the majority were still comprised of those whose lives had ended from old age or illness. Most of the ghosts only had the gaunt, sunken faces of the dead and terribly white complexions, their arms and legs intact.
Obviously these ghosts were planning to see a movie for free.
After all, the movie would already be playing — it would be a waste for them not to see it!
The total number of people who had lived and died on Earth was 108 billion — Lin Feiran could not help but think of the line Gu Kaifeng had said in the music room. This world really had ghosts everywhere.
Even though Lin Feiran had made full mental preparations, he was still scared to the point of shuddering by the more than one hundred ghosts who were congregating happily at the ticket entrance from all directions. Just as Lin Feiran was about to touch Gu Kaifeng in a panic, a married old ghost couple tottered in Lin Feiran’s direction, holding each other for support…
They must have been very, very old when they passed away. They looked like they were more than ninety years old. The amiable smiles that hung on their heavily wrinkled faces seemed very out of place next to their immaculate burial clothes and deathly pale, ashen skin. They were so old that they were probably accustomed to using canes when they moved about, but now that they were ghosts they had none at hand and could only rely on one another to hold themselves up. When the granny was about to fall, the grandpa would help her up, and when the grandpa staggered sideways, the granny would catch his doddering body…
It could be said that walking was extremely difficult!
Lin Feiran was stunned for a moment. These two old people did not look frightening. At least, after the group of ghosts Lin Feiran had just seen who were headless, legless, or had split-open chests and eviscerated stomachs, these two ghosts who had died in their sleep at the end of their lives could be said to be very pleasing to the eye. Lin Feiran could not help but glance at them a few more times.
“You can’t even walk properly, but you still want to imitate others and watch movies,” the granny ghost wailed.
“Who said I can’t walk properly?” the grandpa ghost held his neck unyieldingly straight as he retorted stubbornly. He brushed off the granny’s hand and walked, wobbling, until he stood in front of her. Trembling as he bent unsteadily at the waist, he declared, “I can even carry you on my back! Get on!”
He was this unwilling to concede that he was old!
In the end, now that the grandpa had stooped over like this, his originally difficult-to-maintain balance was broken. In a moment, his entire crooked body uncontrollably pitched toward the ground…
“Ai?” The two ghosts were right beside Lin Feiran. Lin Feiran’s brain worked on autopilot and almost instinctively, he took a step sideways and fully blocked the forward trajectory of the old grandpa ghost.
The grandpa ghost fell headfirst toward Lin Feiran. He was hit once again by an icy feeling like his body was exposed during the coldest day of the year. Lin Feiran sharply inhaled a breath of frigid air. He saw that the momentum of the grandpa ghost had slowed a lot as he was falling through him, as though the air contained a viscous glue. With the decrease in his speed, the old granny ghost whose eyes were not swift and whose hands were rather slow barely managed to pull him up.
“Hu—” Lin Feiran didn’t care about anything else. He took a deep breath to reduce the tension that had frozen all the joints in his body, ran to Gu Kaifeng’s side, and patted his back. The moment his palm touched Gu Kaifeng, the deep chill that permeated his entire body vanished without a trace as if it had never existed at all.
There’s really something wrong with me, ah! Lin Feiran mercilessly beat himself up internally. That old grandpa had already become a ghost. If he fell, then he fell. Don’t tell me he could die again? What did I rush to block him for?
“What do you want to watch—” Gu Kaifeng turned around and his eyes narrowed slightly. “Your face looks very white.”
Lin Feiran pointed at the blinding white lights on the ceiling and said, “The glare from the lights, surely.”
Suddenly, Gu Kaifeng extended his hand and very casually caught hold of four of Lin Feiran’s fingers. His eyes curved slightly and he said gently, “Your hand is cold, too. Are you cold?”
“No.” Lin Feiran shook his head and the color returned to his face. His face, which had been sheet-white a moment ago, was even tinged red now.
Gu Kaifeng loosened his grip but his inky-black eyes were still filled with a smile as he gazed at Lin Feiran.
Lin Feiran’s heart was pounding inexplicably. He quickly changed the topic and asked, “Are there any good movies lately? I haven’t been paying attention.”
“There’s a horror film with quite good reviews,” Gu Kaifeng pointed at the poster behind him. “Do you dare to watch it? Don’t make yourself unable to sleep tonight by seeing it.”
“How would I be afraid of that?” Lin Feiran laughed.
I, big brother Lin Feiran, just touched a ghost! I’ve seen more than a hundred genuine ghosts. Would I still be scared of a horror movie? What a joke!
Gu Kaifeng also laughed and said, “Then I’ll go buy the tickets. There’s a showing in fifteen minutes.”
Lin Feiran grabbed hold of Gu Kaifeng by the wrist and said nervously, “I’m not seeing it.”
While a movie really couldn’t scare him anymore, the scene just now of all the ghosts rushing to get ahead of one other as they poured into the ticket entrance had made it so he was not in the mood to see a movie. Heaven knew what the situation would be like in the theater. Since the ghosts had gone in, where would they be sitting? Were they going to stack on top of the living patrons like a human pyramid?
How could this skittish little bun be so fun to play with? Gu Kaifeng found Lin Feiran so cute he was overwhelmed. He composed himself and asked, “Then what are we going to do?”