Chapter 3

Chapter Ch3 - A Fragile and Demure Pea Princess

Although just now he was seriously holding on to the idea of “wanting to walk faster than Gu Kaifeng”, this stupid way of thinking was too embarrassing to be declared openly!

That’s right, Lin Feiran also knew that he was being stupid……

But he still couldn’t control himself!

Lin Feiran’s face turned red. He coldly glanced at Gu Kaifeng, wanting to cuss at him. The phone in his pocket suddenly rang; he took it out and walked outside the room. When he looked at the screen, he was startled – this was the number that his dad used inside the country. His dad went to Europe last month and said that he would come back to see him in three months. He shouldn’t be back this fast.

Lin Feiran rushed to answer the phone: “Hello, Dad, why are you using this number? Are you back?”

Lin Chengyu’s voice that was heard through the phone sounded quite serious: “Feiran, your grandpa is dying.”

Lin Feiran’s heart suddenly went cold. He blanked out for a moment and responded with a soft voice.

Based on what Lin Chengyu said, the general idea was this: the existing illness that was being well-managed had taken a sudden turn for the worse. Nobody knew why. The next morning, Lin Chengyu would come to the school, ask for Lin Feiran to have a leave of absence, and take him to see his grandpa’s last moments back in the village of his birth.

“En, I understand, Dad,” Lin Feiran answered, then hung up the phone.

When he returned to the dorm room, Lin Feiran’s face had turned white. However, his face had always been rather pale so it wasn’t obvious. Gu Kaifeng was leaning on the wardrobe, still in the same position as before. It seemed that he didn’t plan on letting go of Lin Feiran’s embarrassing situation. When Lin Feiran entered, he quickly asked: “Let me ask you, were you racing with me just now? How old are you?”

Lin Feiran was in a bad mood and Gu Kaifeng was pouring oil over the fire. Lin Feiran clenched his fists and glanced at Gu Kaifeng, saying in a low voice: “Get lost.”

Seeing Lin Feiran becoming furious, Gu Kaifeng snorted and shrugged. Taking his water basin, he left to wash up.

Lin Feiran took off his uniform and buried himself under the blanket, pulling the blanket over his head. Thinking that grandpa may soon turn into a black-and-white photo and a small box, his heart was immediately filled with a pain and emptiness that were hard to describe.

Lin Feiran’s relationship with his grandpa was very good; he had lived together with his grandparents until he was seven. After, though he moved to the city where his dad worked to attend elementary school, every winter and summer vacation he would go back to stay with his grandparents for a while. This went on until middle school when school work began to get too heavy and he gradually had to stop going over.

Lin Feiran’s grandpa was very mischievous. Not only did he tell mysterious ghost stories, he also took Lin Feiran all over the mountain to play wildly. In spring they would catch crickets from the grass and fishes and shrimps in the lake; in summer they would dig up mud from the river and build a dam, and when they were done playing they would strip down to their underwear and go swimming. In autumn they would dig out two big and fresh sweet potatoes and roast them over coal. The freshly roasted sweet potatoes were very hot and fragrant. Grandparent and grandchild would both blow loudly and eat the sweet potatoes with their hands. In winter, using a homemade sled, Grandpa would push Lin Feiran to slide down a small hill……

Lin Feiran wouldn’t normally recall these thoughts, but at this moment they suddenly came pouring in like a flood of water through a broken dam. Under the blanket, Lin Feiran pursed his lips, buried his face in the pillow, and cried.

He forgot how he fell asleep; he must have been thinking about Grandpa and cried himself to sleep. That’s why when he woke up in the morning the next day, Lin Feiran’s condition wasn’t very good.

At six-thirty, Gu Kaifeng was changing his clothes on the bunk below. He had yet to put on the school uniform after having removed his pajama top; his body looked very attractive.

Lin Feiran raised a hand to rub his swollen eyelids. Aware that his current appearance might not look too good, he slipped on his slippers and went to wash his face first. When passing Gu Kaifeng while carrying the basin, Gu Kaifeng’s eyes were like a pair of nails, firmly staring at his steamed bun-like, grieving little face.

Lin Feiran was very embarrassed; he quickly lowered his head and walked out of the room in haste.

Gu Kaifeng’s eyebrows were furrowed in confusion：“……”

Didn’t he only tease him a little bit last night? Damn, this was unexpectedly enough to make him cry?

Lin Feiran didn’t realize that he already became a fragile and demure pea princess in Gu Kaifeng’s eyes.

Although in many ways, this wasn’t wrong……

At eight o’ clock, during the morning self-study class, Lin Feiran was called out by the teacher.

Lin Chengyu was already waiting at the classroom door. The teacher patted Lin Feiran’s shoulder to console him and said: “Go ahead.”

Clearly he was already permitted to leave.

Lin Feiran nodded and walked out the school gate with Lin Chengyu.

Lin Chengyu drove quickly and in a little more than two hours, they arrived at their destination.

It was a village well-known to Lin Feiran: the tidy rows of crops, the freely flowing river, the long chain of green mountains on the horizon, and an old residence that appeared worn from wind and rain. As he pushed open the front gate, a big golden dog that he had raised in elementary school came flying at him and bumped against his legs, its tail wagging happily as it licked its owner’s fingers.

Lin Feiran’s grandpa rested in the bedroom on the second floor. His emaciated and shriveled body was wrinkled like an old tree. The old man’s eyes were closed, his face appearing composed and without a trace of pain or fear. Lin Feiran went quickly to sit beside the bed, pulling his grandpa’s cold hand into his own, almost as though he wanted to use his body to help warm him a little. Before he had the chance to speak, the young man’s eyes turned red.

Compared to his son, Lin Chengyu’s response was more apathetic; he just stood beside the bed and looked on in silence. His eyes seemed undisturbed, almost unfeeling.

Lin Feiran wasn’t surprised by his dad’s indifference. He knew that his dad only came back because of his filial obligations, not because of his real feelings. Using modern standards, Lin Chengyu is someone who had “made it”: he was a brilliant student who was loved by his family. After being admitted to university, he married the beauty of his faculty. Both husband and wife always had a good relationship and can be also said to have achieved professional success.

As a very ambitious person, Lin Chengyu continually studied hard since childhood. He wholeheartedly wanted to leave this small village, but his father always wanted him to inherit his legacy. If it weren’t for the other family members fiercely and relentlessly opposing his father’s will while insisting the family head let the kid attend university, Lin Chengyu would now most probably be following in the footsteps of his father. This meant living in the village as a Manchu shaman, scraping together a meager living by calling back the lost souls of sick children and watching over graves. Maybe even finding a wife would be a struggle.

fiercely and relentlessly opposing his father’s will while insisting the family head let the kid attend university, Lin Chengyu would now most probably be following in the footsteps of his father. This meant living in the village as a Manchu shaman, scraping together a meager living by calling back the lost souls of sick children and watching over graves. Maybe even finding a wife would be a struggle.

Thinking about the possibilities, the ambitious Lin Chengyu felt his whole body grow cold. Not only did his father refuse to acknowledge his own shortcomings, he harbored ill opinions towards the son who refused to obey him, thinking that Lin Chengyu’s unwillingness to continue his legacy meant he was killing the “family tradition”. So, before Lin Feiran was born, his old father rarely spoke to Lin Chengyu. When his lively and cute grandson was born, their father-and-son relationship improved — that is, on the surface, they reluctantly managed to be civil.

Lin Feiran did not know the details of these matters. He only vaguely knew that Grandpa was unhappy with his dad at that time because of his dad’s career choice, but the specifics were unclear.

At this time, Lin Feiran’s grandpa woke up.

The old man’s eyes brightened. He looked at Lin Chengyu for a while and wrinkled his brows. Then, his gaze fell upon Lin Feiran.

“Grandpa!” Lin Feiran called out, quickly wiping his tears as he tried his best to put on a cheerful smile. He did not want his grandpa to feel conscious that he would soon die.

Lin Feiran’s grandpa pulled up the corners of his mouth and smiled. Light pouring through the window was reflected in his previously murky and unclear eyes, which now shone brightly. In an instant, the expression on his face became somewhat cheeky like a naughty little kid.

“Feiran-ah.” Grandpa patted the back of Lin Feiran’s hand, and abruptly said, “I think that thing will probably be passed down to you.”

His voice was firm and resolute; each word could clearly be heard. He didn’t sound even a little like someone who was chronically ill and rapidly approaching death.

Lin Feiran also wondered about the legacy that grandpa wanted to pass over, but felt that this kind of conversation was inappropriate. He immediately changed the subject, asking: “Grandpa, how do you feel now? Do you want to drink some water?”

Grandpa waved his hand and continued to speak: “This is not something that I can control; that stubborn kid loathed this old man so much, most likely it can’t be passed on to him. But in the Lin family, other than him, there’s only you — the only child — so if not you then who else could it be……”

Lin Feiran vaguely felt that who his grandpa meant by “that stubborn kid” and “him” was actually Lin Chengyu, but even with this, he still felt confused.

Grandpa repeatedly gasped for breath, his voice gradually becoming weaker: “Feiran, when you see those things, don’t be scared. People will all die. Dead people were also once alive, there’s actually not much difference between us……”

Lin Feiran knitted his brows in confusion: “Grandpa, what do you mean?”

Grandpa opened his mouth, as if he was trying very hard to say something, but after trying for a while, he began to sweat and limply lay back on the pillow, sighing: “Even in the end it’s still not possible, maybe the mysteries of heaven can’t be revealed……”

Hearing the old man’s bizarre speech, Lin Chengyu’s eyes flashed with a hint of frustration. He had never believed in these supernatural things, but who told him to have a father like this?

Lin Chengyu was starting to feel impatient until he suddenly heard Lin Feiran’s loud sobbing and became aware that his father had passed.

Lin Feiran was grasping his grandpa’s hand and weeping convulsively, completely unaware that under his dead grandpa’s eyelids, his eyeballs suddenly freakishly turned around…

At the same time, a chilly air passed through his grandpa’s slim fingers going all the way to Lin Feiran’s palm. From his palm, the chilly air flowed through his entire body. Lin Feiran shivered, but he was out of it and didn’t pay much attention to the sensation. With a lowered head, he grieved and sobbed.

The village’s funeral processes and customs were many and Lin Chengyu didn’t want to delay Lin Feiran’s return to his classes. In any case, the important thing had been to give the grandpa and grandchild, who were very close, the chance to see each other again. With this goal achieved, he waited until Lin Feiran’s mood calmed and in the afternoon, Lin Chengyu drove him back to school.

In the car, Lin Feiran was finally able to hold back his tears. He sat in the passenger seat and held his arms close to his chest. After a while, he stretched out a hand and turned up the temperature.

Lin Chengyu: “Are you cold?”

Lin Feiran softly said yes.

He was cold, awfully cold. Since Grandpa passed away at ten in the morning until now, Lin Feiran felt a constant stream of iciness creep through his body, making him shudder.

The ghosts are coming

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***