Corpse Retriever

Then she carefully opened the envelope and took out the letter.

The handwriting was beautiful, but the contents were brief.

“About the curse cast on my cousin, I need an explanation from you.

Tomorrow at twelve noon, meet me backstage at the university auditorium.

— Li the Corpse Retriever, seated at Hao River Wharf, Nantong.”

Zhao Mengyao’s face changed completely. In a trembling voice, she asked:

“Hey, where’s Yunyun’s hometown again?”

Zhang Xin zipped up her suitcase. She was from Jinling, also in Jiangsu, so she answered offhandedly, “Nantong.”

At that moment, Tong Yanyan spoke up. “Wasn’t that boy following the police today supposed to be Yunyun’s cousin? Then he should be from Nantong too, right?”

Zhang Xin said, “Probably.”Zhao Mengyao got off the bed.

Zhang Xin asked, “You’re going out to see him?”

“Huh?”

Zhang Xin said speechlessly, “That guy. The one who wrote you the love letter.”

“I... I... right, I’m going to see him.”

Zhou Shengnan asked, “You’re going to say yes?”

Zhao Mengyao shook her head. “No, I’m going to reject him and make him give up. Seriously, what are you all thinking? Do you think I’m that casual, that I’d say yes just because of one love letter?

If that were the case, then wouldn’t our class monitor have dated more than ten guys already?”

Because Zhao Mengyao had brought up Zhou Yunyun again, the tiny spark of conversation the others had just managed to find was instantly smothered.

Everyone lowered their heads and fell silent.

Zhao Mengyao walked out of the dorm room. She first went downstairs. At the entrance to the dorm building, the dorm supervisor was just about to lock up. Seeing her come down, she asked:

“Going out? Be quick about it, I’ll wait a bit before locking the door.”

“No, no, it’s fine, Auntie. Go ahead and lock it. I’m not going out.”

As if she had suddenly thought of something, Zhao Mengyao waved her hands repeatedly, then ran back up the stairs.

She did not return to the dorm room. Instead, she entered the shared restroom on the floor, slipped into the innermost stall, and shut the door.

She pulled a folded paper figure from her pocket, opened it, and blew into the middle. The paper swelled into the shape of a gold ingot, but also like a little boat. Then she stuffed that “love letter” into the paper boat.

She looked at her finger and, after steadying herself, took a deep breath.

“Ugh...”

Breathing deeply in a restroom, she was hit by the stench and felt nauseated.

After gagging twice, she made up her mind, put her finger into her mouth and bit the tip until it bled. Then she let the blood drip onto the paper boat. Once the boat was thoroughly soaked with blood, she took out a cigarette pack from her pocket and pulled a lighter from inside it.

Click!

She lit the red paper boat and tossed it into the toilet trough below.

Crash!

Just then, the cistern at the front reached its water level and began to flush. Water surged through the trough, and the burning paper boat vanished into the round drain hole.

From one of the stalls ahead, someone cursed:

“Have you got no manners? Who smokes in a restroom?”

…

Sixth Hospital, patient ward.

Tan Wenbin sat in a chair with his arms crossed, one leg thrown over the other and propped against the side of the hospital bed.

That position put him a little far from the bed, but it allowed him to keep an eye on the patient while also watching the three eternal candles beneath it.

Zhou Yunyun was asleep, and she had been asleep for a long time.

Then her eyelids trembled, and she woke up.

There was still some confusion in her eyes, but the light that belonged to her was slowly returning.

She seemed to be thinking, trying to recall what had happened that day.

Then fear surfaced in her eyes again. One horrifying image after another crashed into her mind, and her body instinctively curled in on itself.

“You’re awake?”

Zhou Yunyun turned her head and looked at Tan Wenbin beside her. She bit her lip, tears spilling from her eyes.

“It’s okay now, it’s okay. It’s all over. You’re fine now.”

Tan Wenbin reached out, wanting to wipe away her tears. This was not the first time Zhou Yunyun had cried that day. Back when she had lain on the hospital bed during the day with vacant, unfocused eyes, she had cried when she saw him too.

But when his hand reached over, Zhou Yunyun grabbed it herself, then buried her head against him.

Tan Wenbin had no choice but to bend down and hold her, patting her gently on the back.

For a girl to serve as class monitor, if she was not strict and did not speak loudly, she could not keep people in line.

As the class’s former left-hand enforcer, Tan Wenbin had been yelled at and lectured by the class monitor plenty of times.

This was the first time he had ever seen her this fragile.

Even on the eve of the college entrance exam, when she had confessed that she liked him, she had still been radiant with confidence, like a rainbow in the sky.

But right now, she was frightened, weak, desperate for support, desperate for a sense of safety.

As Tan Wenbin held her, a fierce look appeared in his eyes.

He had always avoided confronting his feelings for Zhou Yunyun. Did he like her?

He probably did.

She was beautiful. She lived in his memories. Her confidence and her smile had once brightened his youth.

If he had not liked her, he would not have talked about her with Uncle Tan, only for Aunt Tan to overhear it.

If his heart had not been moved, he would not have mentioned her to Runsheng, giving Runsheng endless chances to tease him about when he planned to have kids.

But if you said he loved her so deeply he would die for it, then no, definitely not, because in truth, nothing had ever really started between them.

And yet, she was truly different to him.

It was the kind of difference even outsiders could see, like Lin Shuyou.

And beyond all that, what Zhou Yunyun had gone through today had reopened another wound in Tan Wenbin’s heart.

He had once watched Zheng Haiyang die right in front of him. Today, he had almost watched Zhou Yunyun fall to her death in front of him too.

He had already experienced losing someone once. To face it a second time—the rage that stirred from that was easy to imagine.

He had been suppressing that rage all along. During the day, while Little Yuanhou was there, he had not shown it, because he did not want to interfere with or influence Little Yuanhou’s judgment. Little Yuanhou had already gone with his father to investigate this incident.

Once the investigation results came out and they found the real culprit, Tan Wenbin would kneel in front of Brother Yuanhou and beg him to help him take revenge.

He knew very well that Brother Yuanhou hated being hijacked by emotion and despised acting on impulse, but Tan Wenbin simply could not endure it.

He wanted the person who had laid hands on Zhou Yunyun dead. Dead, dead, dead!

Zhou Yunyun’s crying gradually stopped. She lifted her head away, and the fierce expression on Tan Wenbin’s face disappeared, replaced by a warm smile.

“Thank you, Binbin.”

Tan Wenbin adjusted her pillow so she could lean back more comfortably.

But when he started to straighten up and pull away, Zhou Yunyun lifted both hands and grabbed his clothes.

She was terrified.

“Don’t go…”

Tan Wenbin shrugged and pointed at the fruit on the bedside table.

“I was only going to treat you to the classic bedside apple-peeling scene.”

Zhou Yunyun raised her head and looked toward the bedside table. There really was a fruit basket there.

Her lips were dry as well.

But she still shook her head, her hands continuing to clutch the boy’s clothes.

This was not romance, not girlish reluctance to let the person she liked leave, not coquettishness. She had just been through something terrifying and was still trapped in its lingering shadow.

“All right, then.”

Tan Wenbin picked up an apple and a fruit knife, then turned sideways and lay down beside the hospital bed.

A smile appeared on Zhou Yunyun’s pale face. She rested her cheek against Tan Wenbin’s chest and wrapped one arm around his waist, afraid he might disappear.

Tan Wenbin hummed a tune as he peeled the apple.

Whenever he cut off a piece, he brought it to her mouth. She opened her lips and ate it, not minding in the least when they brushed against his fingers.

And that soft, warm touch made Tan Wenbin’s heart flutter.

After eating half an apple, Zhou Yunyun said, “I’m done. You eat the rest.”

So Tan Wenbin finished the other half himself.

Zhou Yunyun asked, “How did you end up here?”

Tan Wenbin knew this was not the time to help her remember, so he only smiled and asked in return:

“Where should I be then, under the bed?”

Zhou Yunyun seemed to realize that she was pressed against his chest and that her arm was around his waist.

But she only lifted her face slightly and loosened her arm a little. A moment later, her face settled back against him, and her arm tightened again.

After a long while, she spoke again. “What exactly… happened to me?”

“A nightmare. Now that the nightmare is over, from here on out it’ll all be sweet dreams.”

Tan Wenbin gently patted the girl’s back with his fingertips.

He had no intention of telling Zhou Yunyun the truth, because not everyone could handle the truth.

After all, Zhou Yunyun was not Ah Li.

Back then, Brother Yuanhou had pushed himself to the brink to finish setting up the formation and counter-kill that dwarf father-and-son pair. Tan Wenbin had driven the tricycle and kept himself awake by slapping his own face all the way back, bringing Brother Yuanhou to Grandpa Li’s yard.

Brother Yuanhou had told Ah Li that someone had tried to scheme against him, that he had already struck back, and that he was going to kill the people who plotted against him.

Tan Wenbin had passed out nearby at the time, but though unconscious, he had still seen it: the little girl Ah Li, always cold and expressionless, had smiled.

But if he told Zhou Yunyun the truth, and then told her about everything he had gone through and everything he would go through in the future—even setting aside the karmic implications of River Walk—could she really accept it?

After following Brother Yuanhou on a job and coming back, was he supposed to tell her: Hey, do you know how awesome I am? Tonight I smashed a man to death with a rock. Tonight I wiped out a whole nest of malevolent spirits by myself!

Not every girl was like Ah Li, delighted to hear something like that.

Of course, he did not want her to become like Ah Li either. He hoped she could go on living the life that belonged to her, just as she used to—confident and sunny.

If possible, being able to see her every now and then would already make him happy enough.

If she found someone to date, he would feel regret in his heart and maybe lie awake one night, but in the end, he would still be able to talk himself through it.

But now… Tan Wenbin glanced at the girl in his arms, and after his fingers stopped patting her back, his fingertips touched through her clothes and could still sense that slick softness beneath.

He was not a naïve person. He knew clearly that the distance he had deliberately kept until now seemed to have been breached.

“Tan Wenbin.”

Zhou Yunyun’s face remained pressed to his chest as she called his full name.

“Your servant is here. What commands does Your Highness have?”

“Tan Wenbin, I want to be with you. The kind where we don’t separate.”

“That’s probably not a great idea. You just happen to be sick right now. Wouldn’t that make me look like I’m taking advantage of the situation?”

“It doesn’t matter if you don’t agree.” Zhou Yunyun lifted her head and looked at his face. “There’s no rule saying only boys can pursue girls. I can pursue you too.”

“No, no, no, that won’t do, that won’t do, old class monitor. You don’t need to suffer that kind of injustice.”

“Do you already like another girl?”

“I do.”

Zhou Yunyun lowered her head and fell silent.

That reply seemed to suck away all the courage she had just managed to gather.

“You know, back then, during self-study periods, I used to clown around on purpose just so I could hear her yell at me, ‘Tan Wenbin, be quiet already!’”

Pffft…

The girl laughed.

Tan Wenbin said, “Tan Wenbin, if you don’t want to study, fine, but don’t disturb the other students!”

“All right.” The girl gripped Tan Wenbin’s waist and gave it a little shake.

“Tan Wenbin, if you don’t start behaving, I’m telling the teacher!”

“That’s enough, that’s enough.” Zhou Yunyun’s face flushed red.

“Tan Wenbin, this is the time to study. Don’t you care about your future anymore?”

“Stop, that’s enough.” Zhou Yunyun lightly thumped the boy’s chest with her fist.

Tan Wenbin lowered his head and looked at the girl in his arms.

“Class monitor.”

Zhou Yunyun’s body tensed slightly.

“I never imagined that one day, a toad like me would get to eat swan meat.”

“No, no…”

Still unhappy, Zhou Yunyun continued lightly pounding his chest.

“At a time like this, don’t use metaphors. Don’t use metaphors.”

Sigh. Women really were hard to please.

“Class monitor.”

“Mmm…”

“I like you.”

Zhou Yunyun was satisfied. She closed her eyes, a smile curving at the corner of her mouth, her breathing gradually evening out.

Just as Tan Wenbin had said before, the nightmare had passed. What came next would be sweet dreams.

Let it be a dream, then.

At least in the dream, she had gotten what she wanted.

She fell asleep.

This time her brows were no longer knit together. Her expression was peaceful and comfortable, even carrying a faint trace of sweetness.

A smile appeared at the corner of Tan Wenbin’s mouth as well.

Even though the setting was not appropriate, and smoking was bad for health, and secondhand smoke was even worse, and he had quit already, and the pack he used to carry had been given to his old man…

He still desperately wanted to lie there and light a cigarette right then, then puff out one excited little smoke ring after another, like a steam locomotive in a cartoon: “Toot toot toot!”

He gently moved the girl’s hand aside, settled her in properly, and tucked the blanket over her.

Tan Wenbin got off the bed, lowered his head to check the three candles, which were still burning normally, then straightened up and lightly rolled his neck and waist.

Brother Yuanhou and his own dad had gone off to investigate. Who knew whether his dad had inherited enough of his excellent natural talent to properly cooperate with Brother Yuanhou.

Suddenly, Tan Wenbin felt as if a gust of Ghost Wind had blown in, brushing across his face and leaving his forehead cold.

The ward’s doors and windows were all shut. There was no airflow.

After everything he had been through, Tan Wenbin had enough experience now: something was wrong.

He slipped his left hand into his pocket to pull out a talisman, and with his right hand drew the Yellow River Spade from his bag.

He slowly circled past the bed and faced the ward door.

In the past, he was used to standing behind Brother Yuanhou. Now there was one more person behind him who needed his back.

The hospital late at night felt eerily quiet. This floor consisted entirely of single rooms. Those who stayed here either had unusual medical conditions or unusual status.

So tonight, aside from this room, all the other wards on the floor were actually empty.

An old man wearing a torn white undershirt, carrying a bamboo basket on his back and leaning on a wooden stick with his left hand, came up to this floor by the stairwell.

He looked to be about seventy, though he might not actually have been that old, because that wrinkled, gaunt face looked like nothing more than that of an ordinary old farmer from the countryside, weathered by a hard life.

The only respectable thing on him was the pair of new cloth shoes on his feet. Dressed like this, he looked as though he had gone out to market.

The old man raised the wooden stick in his hand, hooked it into the bamboo basket on his back, and flicked forward.

A dirty, tattered cloth doll dropped to the floor.

Strange, muddled syllables came from the old man’s throat as he used the wooden stick to draw circles around the doll again and again.

The doll began to tremble. Wisps of black smoke rose from it, gathering ahead into the shape of a fourteen- or fifteen-year-old girl in ragged, miserable clothes.

Her body was covered in stitched patches, and silver needles were stuck all over her. Her messy hair completely hid her face.

She began to move forward, dragging each step, until she arrived before that ward.

She turned and tried to enter, but after half her body passed through, some unseen force suddenly flung her back.

Behind her, the old man looked puzzled.

Inside the ward.

Unable to Walk the Shade, Tan Wenbin only felt the Ghost Wind suddenly intensify, then stop just as abruptly. Faint trembling and scraping sounds came from all around the ward.

He immediately turned to look and saw that the three candles beneath the bed had only flickered slightly and were still burning normally, which made him breathe a little easier.

Just then, in the silent hospital building, a crisp finger snap sounded from somewhere unknown.

Snap!

All three candles went out instantly!

Tan Wenbin’s eyes widened. What was going on?

The girl was making a second attempt to enter. First half her body passed through, and then all of her.

Seeing this, the old man’s confusion vanished, replaced by a reserved little smile.

“Heh, heh. A nobody Corpse Retriever I’ve never even heard of actually dares demand an explanation from my family.

Fine, then. This old man will satisfy you tonight.

Let’s see whether you’re satisfied with this explanation.”

At that moment, a young man’s voice rang out:

“Very satisfied.”

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