MFELY CH87

Edited—

After the atmosphere of New Year grew thick, the weather also grew colder and colder. Zhou Jiayu was practically like a bear that needed to hibernate, wearing thicker and thicker clothes, his movements also growing slower and slower. However, he felt that he was at least much stronger than last year, because when it was cold, he could at least huddle in Lin Zhushui’s embrace to warm himself.

New Year’s Eve dinner was made by Zhou Jiayu and a few disciples together. Of course, Zhou Jiayu held the ladle, making dishes that were everyone’s favorite types. The yellow weasel’s fur had also changed into a thick winter coat. It felt especially good to the touch. Xiao Zhi very shamelessly clung to its body every day, pulling its fur.

At first Zhou Jiayu still advised him a few times, afraid Xiao Zhi would pull the yellow weasel bald again. But seeing that the yellow weasel itself didn’t mind, he no longer took this matter to heart.

As New Year approached, the number of people coming to the Lin family to pay New Year’s respects grew. Most people were blocked outside, but there were also those who could come in. For example, Lin Po’s father, Lin Zhushui’s nominal older brother, came over once.

However, after he came, the process of getting along with Lin Zhushui was not pleasant. Lin Zhushui treated him as air the entire time. Lin Jue had no choice but to exchange a few greetings. Lin Po’s father was also unhappy seeing Lin Zhushui’s attitude, but he couldn’t flare up. When it was about time to eat, Lin Zhushui said one sentence: “It’s noon.”

In this kind of situation, an ordinary person’s next sentence would probably be “stay and have a meal.” But Lin Zhushui was clearly not an ordinary person, so his thin lips parted lightly and he said indifferently: “Please, I won’t keep you for a meal.”

This was about to drive someone out. Lin Po’s father’s face turned ashen. The most miserable thing was that not a single person in the room dared to smooth things over. Even Lin Jue was pretending to play with her phone and didn’t respond.

So in the end, Lin Po’s father left in a huff. Only now did Zhou Jiayu softly say: “Everyone come eat. I made squirrel-shaped mandarin fish and braised lamb chops…”

The moment they heard the dish names, the frozen atmosphere in the room instantly livened up.

Regarding the relationship between Lin Zhushui and the Lin family, one night Lin Jue quietly told Zhou Jiayu the detailed cause. It turned out that back when they discovered Lin Zhushui’s constitution had problems, Lin Zhushui’s parents wanted to buy time, so they went to ask the Lin family for a piece of precious yin-attribute ancient jade. That ancient jade could suppress Lin Zhushui’s extreme yang constitution, giving them more time to save Lin Zhushui.

Who knew that after the Lin family heard the couple’s request, they directly refused. Moreover, the Lin family head at the time expressed that Lin Zhushui’s fate fundamentally couldn’t be changed. Using that piece of ancient jade was purely a waste. Under these circumstances, Lin Zhushui’s parents took a desperate risk, using an extremely dangerous method. While changing Lin Zhushui’s fate, they also lost their own lives.

“What exactly that method was, we still don’t know to this day.” Lin Jue said, “After this matter happened, it became a hurdle in Zhushui’s heart. He could never become close to the Lin family again.”

After hearing this, Zhou Jiayu felt a bit upset in his heart. Lin Zhushui’s parents, in order to let him live past eighteen, had clearly paid a painful price. He didn’t know if after leaving this world, they could know that their wish had been fulfilled.

“When you have nothing to do, run over to Zhushui’s place more.” Lin Jue said, “There are too many people here; it’s not easy to operate.”

Zhou Jiayu was startled: “Operate??”

Lin Jue was clearly an old driver. She enunciated the two characters word by word, heavily separating them: “Fuck. Do.”

Zhou Jiayu made a fist-and-palm gesture of admiration toward Lin Jue.

Zhou Jiayu after all had no experience in this aspect. He had heard of it, but had never practiced it. Under Lin Jue’s reminder, he privately wanted to learn more about this aspect’s content. So he secretly wanted to go online and download some related films to train himself.

However, as someone who didn’t normally watch films, Zhou Jiayu searched for a long time but couldn’t find an entry point. Helpless, he could only vaguely ask Xu Ruwang. Xu Ruwang was also gay; he definitely knew more than him.

The first sentence Xu Ruwang asked after hearing what Zhou Jiayu wanted was: “Who are you with?”

Zhou Jiayu said: “Guess.”

Xu Ruwang said: “Holy shit, don’t fucking tell me you’re with Lin Zhushui.”

Zhou Jiayu: “Mm…”

Xu Ruwang sent over a row of exclamation marks, followed by a thumbs up.

Zhou Jiayu said: “So, do you have that?”

Xu Ruwang said: “Which country’s do you want?”

Zhou Jiayu said: “Any is fine.” After saying this, he added a sentence, “Start with something more subtle first.” If it was too stimulating from the start, he was afraid he wouldn’t be able to control himself.

Xu Ruwang made an affirmative sound and sent Zhou Jiayu a few website links. Zhou Jiayu slowly moved his mouse over and clicked open that website.

The webpage loaded, showing a pair of boys sitting on a bed. As the progress bar moved forward, Zhou Jiayu’s breathing grew somewhat rough, and his ear roots also turned red. He paused, smoked a cigarette, then returned to the screen.

That night, Zhou Jiayu went to the bathroom three times and also had a dream. In the dream, Lin Zhushui was there too, lying beside Zhou Jiayu, looking at him gently on his side.

Those eyes that had always been closed were also open. Within the black pupils was revealed a tenderness that made one drown. Zhou Jiayu embraced him, feeling as if his body had caught fire. He called out Sir’s name in a low voice, his soul melted by the scorching temperature.

The next day when Zhou Jiayu woke up, he discovered without surprise that his pants were wet. He hurriedly went downstairs to wash his pants clean. As a result, in the bathroom he quite unfortunately encountered Shen Yiqiong, who had gotten up for a morning run.

Shen Yiqiong was also an adolescent youth with excessive energy. Seeing Zhou Jiayu washing his pants, he showed an expression of understanding and said, “Yo, which little sister did you meet in your dreams last night?”

Zhou Jiayu glanced at him gloomily.

Shen Yiqiong scratched his head, then suddenly realized: “…Not a little sister but a little brother?”

Zhou Jiayu still didn’t make a sound.

Shen Yiqiong’s expression stiffened: “Could it be Sir…”

Zhou Jiayu angrily threw down his underwear: “If you keep talking nonsense, you’ll eat the noodles you made yourself at noon.”

Shen Yiqiong made a gesture of zipping his own mouth shut and quickly slipped away.

Because of last night’s dream, Zhou Jiayu felt quite embarrassed when he saw Lin Zhushui. Although the two had established their relationship and had already kissed, seeing the real person always made him think of Lin Zhushui in last night’s dream. Zhou Jiayu lowered his head and kept shoveling rice into his mouth, completely not daring to raise his head.

Just as he was shoveling, his phone suddenly rang. He picked it up and saw it was an unfamiliar number. Zhou Jiayu pressed the call button: “Hello.”

“Your package has arrived.” It was actually a courier.

“Package?” Probably because the little golden dragon had left too deep a shadow on them before. The moment he heard the word “package,” Zhou Jiayu felt a bit uncomfortable. He said, “Don’t give it to me, I didn’t buy anything…”

“It was sent by Mr. Xu Jinghuo.” The courier added.

The moment Zhou Jiayu heard the name Xu Jinghuo, his expression froze for a moment, but he still let out a breath: “Then leave it at the guard station.”

“Okay.” The courier hung up.

Zhou Jiayu put down the phone and said hesitantly, “It was the courier. Said Xu Jinghuo sent me a package.”

Clearly everyone was sensitive to this name. The motion of eating food instantly stopped. Lin Jue frowned: “Xu Jinghuo? Why would he send you a package?”

“I don’t know, I’m not familiar with him.” Zhou Jiayu said, “I told the courier to leave the package at the door. I’ll go take a look.”

“I’ll go with you.” Lin Zhushui put down his chopsticks and stood up.

Zhou Jiayu didn’t try to act tough either. After all, if there was something strange in the package, Lin Zhushui would definitely discover it first.

When they reached the door, Zhou Jiayu saw the package the courier had spoken of. It was a very small package, looking like a notebook.

Zhou Jiayu squeezed it in his hand and felt it was a somewhat hard box. Lin Zhushui reached out his hand toward him: “Let me see.”

Zhou Jiayu handed the package over.

Lin Zhushui held the package and simply inspected it. “No dirty things. Open it.”

After receiving Lin Zhushui’s permission, Zhou Jiayu peeled off the package’s outer wrapping. After the wrapping was peeled away, a small wooden box was revealed inside. The wooden box was square, only about the size of a notebook, and looked quite thin in thickness.

“It’s a box.” Zhou Jiayu studied it for a while and found a small button on top of the box. “There seems to be something inside.”

Lin Zhushui said: “I’ll do it.”

Zhou Jiayu handed the box to Lin Zhushui.

Lin Zhushui’s fingers moved slightly and pressed the button on the box. With a click, a small drawer popped out from inside the box. Zhou Jiayu saw Lin Zhushui take out the thing from the small drawer.

“Paper?” Lin Zhushui slightly furrowed his brows, seemingly also not understanding what this was.

Zhou Jiayu took the paper and discovered that what was placed in the wooden box was a very thin piece of kraft paper. The paper color displayed a kind of aged yellow, seemingly torn from something. One could even see the unevenness at the edges. Zhou Jiayu flipped it over and searched up and down but didn’t see anything special: “There’s nothing on the paper.”

Lin Zhushui fell into contemplation, clearly thinking about something.

Zhou Jiayu didn’t dare disturb him either and just stood quietly nearby. After a moment, Lin Zhushui spoke: “Let’s go back first.”

“Mm.” Zhou Jiayu nodded.

The people at home were all quite curious about what exactly Xu Jinghuo had sent Zhou Jiayu. After seeing that completely unremarkable piece of kraft paper, they all showed baffled expressions.

“Why would he send paper?” Lin Jue pinched the paper and studied it all around, not discovering any abnormality on the paper. It seemed to be just an ordinary piece of paper with no other aura.

“I don’t know.” Zhou Jiayu also didn’t understand. He wasn’t familiar with Xu Jinghuo and didn’t know what he was thinking.

Lin Zhushui’s fingers tapped on the table, not speaking the entire time.

Until after everyone discussed it in a circle, he said: “Keep it for now. Since he sent you this thing, it should have some use.”

Zhou Jiayu thought this was the only way. So he put the paper back into the wooden box and carefully locked it into the cabinet in his room.

This package seemed to be just an insignificant interlude and didn’t bring any changes to their lives.

Once New Year passed, Lin Zhushui became busy again. The number of people requesting his help began to grow. Some people could be blocked, but some had to be received.

For example, these past few days Lin Zhushui was reading the fortune of a young lady.

“Mr. Lin, can you help me look at my marriage fate?” What the lady asked was a question that most young girls worried about.

Lin Zhushui gently pinched the lady’s hand, then let go: “Are you raising some kind of animal at home?”

“Animal?” The lady thought carefully. “I like animals. I raise quite a few… Both cats and dogs.”

“Something more special.” Lin Zhushui said.

“Special…” The lady thought back and forth, then suddenly had a flash of inspiration. “Oh! I raise a white fox!”

Lin Zhushui said: “Release the fox.”

The lady was a bit unhappy upon hearing this: “But I really like that fox. It’s beautiful and understands human nature…”

Lin Zhushui said: “So do you want the fox or a boyfriend?”

The lady began struggling again and said grievously, “Can’t I have both?”

Lin Zhushui didn’t say anything to comfort her. He picked up the tea before him and took a sip.

In the end, the lady compromised and said she would release the fox when she went back. Then she worried again that since she had raised the fox for so long, it might have lost its ability to hunt. It seemed she truly liked this pet.

Lin Zhushui finally said one sentence. He said: “The fox must be released into the wild, as far away as possible. Don’t raise this kind of animal again in the future.”

“Why?” the lady asked.

“Because they will be jealous.” Lin Zhushui said. “A jealous animal is sometimes more terrifying than a person.”

The lady showed a somewhat frightened expression upon hearing this. She nodded, then asked about some details before getting up to take her leave.

When Lin Zhushui did these things, Zhou Jiayu stood nearby, more or less accumulating a bit of experience. This lady had a beautiful widow’s peak on her forehead and upward-curving eyes that were standard peach blossom eyes. Logically speaking, her peach blossom luck should be quite good. He hadn’t expected her to be troubled by marriage matters.

“Foxes also attract peach blossoms.” After the lady left, Lin Zhushui gave Zhou Jiayu a lesson. “But when there are too many peach blossoms, they instead easily become malevolent. Everything must be done in moderation.”

Zhou Jiayu nodded.

After returning from S City, Lin Jue followed up on the bone house matter. After reporting to the police, the house was demolished by personnel specially assigned by the police. They found over two hundred skeletons in total. These skeletons were broken apart and then all embedded into the walls, arranged in order from shortest to longest. Although they hadn’t seen the scene, just hearing this description made one’s scalp go numb.

This matter was too sensational. The number of victims involved was truly too great. If the media found out, it would definitely cause a huge news story. Fortunately, the police’s confidentiality work was done well and it wasn’t exposed. Although it had already spread within the industry, at least ordinary citizens didn’t know.

After investigating in detail the residents who had lived in the house, the police also reached a conclusion similar to theirs. This bone building was made by the first owners, that couple. Logically speaking, to build such a villa, no matter how you did it, you would have to make some noise. But according to feedback from surrounding residents, when this house was built, it could practically be described as silent. It went up without anyone noticing. And that couple who lived inside was never seen by anyone.

As for the property registration, when the house was built, the internet wasn’t developed yet. The police discovered that the two people’s names on the property registration records were fundamentally fake names. Such a couple didn’t exist.

“So the culprit still hasn’t been found?” Zhou Jiayu said, “What exactly was the purpose of this house?”

“It seems to have been used to suppress some dirty thing.” Lin Jue also couldn’t say for sure. “Since they’ve left now, it means the thing being suppressed is also gone. Mm… It really is a bit strange.”

Zhou Jiayu vaguely felt this matter wasn’t over yet.

It turned out his premonition was really accurate. A few months after leaving S City, Jiang Xutao suddenly called Lin Jue. On the phone, who knew what he said, but Lin Jue’s brows knitted tighter and tighter.

“What happened?” Zhou Jiayu asked.

Lin Jue said: “Do you still remember Jiang Xutao’s daughter?”

“I remember.” That girl had left quite a deep impression on Zhou Jiayu; he naturally remembered.

“Something happened to her.” Lin Jue’s tone was a bit agitated. “That bone house was demolished, right? Now it’s already a ruin. Jiang Xutao said his daughter secretly runs to that ruin every night and only comes back the next morning.”

“…Was she bewitched?” Zhou Jiayu could only think of this possibility.

“I don’t know.” Lin Jue said, “I estimate we’ll have to go take a look.”

“Alright.” Zhou Jiayu had no objection.

Lin Zhushui naturally also knew about this matter, but after understanding the situation, he appeared very calm: “Then let’s go take a look. That house probably has some special aspects that you didn’t discover.”

Lin Jue made an affirmative sound, so the group quickly returned to S City once again.

Compared to a few months ago, Jiang Xutao’s mental state looked much better. Although he was still full of worry because of his daughter’s situation, at least there were no more bluish-purple marks on his body, and he wasn’t troubled by fear.

When he saw Lin Zhushui, he showed an expression of wild joy and called out “Mr. Lin” several times in a row.

“Where is your daughter?” Lin Zhushui got straight to the point.

“She’s in the room.” Jiang Xutao said, “Her mental state isn’t very good…”

“Just take me to her.” Lin Zhushui was also quite direct.

Jiang Xutao nodded. Then he saw Zhou Jiayu standing behind Lin Zhushui. He hesitated for a moment and said in a small voice, “You can come too. My daughter really likes the paper crane you gave her before.”

Zhou Jiayu nodded, overwhelmed by the favor.

Then the two followed Jiang Xutao into the house and saw Yaya in the corner of the room.

Compared to a few months ago, Yaya looked somewhat thinner. Her originally fair and round face had become pointed at the chin. She sat silently in the corner of the room, holding her doll in her embrace, sitting with her head lowered.

“Yaya.” Jiang Xutao gently called out.

Yaya raised her head and saw Zhou Jiayu and Lin Zhushui. After seeing the two of them, her expression didn’t show any special change, and she lowered her head again.

“Yaya.” Jiang Xutao said, “Can you tell us if something is wrong? Uncle can help you resolve it…”

Yaya didn’t speak.

Jiang Xutao spoke a few more words of persuasion. Just when Zhou Jiayu thought she would remain silent until the end, Yaya slowly opened her mouth. She said, “They want to find something.”

“Something?” Jiang Xutao said puzzled, “What thing?”

Yaya shook her head: “I don’t know either. I only know it’s a black box, buried beneath the house.”

“Black box?” Jiang Xutao was completely baffled. “And who are they…” He still wanted to ask more but was stopped by Lin Zhushui.

“Directly take us to see the house’s ruins.” Lin Zhushui said.

Jiang Xutao hesitated briefly but still agreed to Lin Zhushui’s proposal. He picked up Yaya and went to the ruins.

On the way there, Yaya didn’t speak the entire time. Her expression looked neither fearful nor expectant; instead, she seemed somewhat numb.

Zhou Jiayu felt a bit worried in his heart seeing her like this.

The villa area had been sealed off since the incident, but Jiang Xutao probably had connections with the police. After greeting someone, they went in.

The bone house villa had already been demolished, leaving only a ruin. Amid these broken walls and ruins, Yaya seemed to be attracted by something and wanted to go toward the center again. But Jiang Xutao was afraid she would get hurt and kept holding her without letting go.

“There’s something, there’s something below.” Yaya called out, struggling with all her might to get down from Jiang Xutao’s embrace.

Upon hearing this, Lin Zhushui slowly stepped forward and walked to a patch of overturned mud. He casually picked up a steel bar nearby and began digging. Zhou Jiayu and Shen Yiqiong saw this and hurried over to help.

The soil was somewhat hard and strenuous to dig. Even with several grown men, they dug with some difficulty.

As they dug, Yaya watched expectantly from the side, her face full of excitement.

Half an hour later, the few of them were all somewhat sweaty. Zhou Jiayu took out a tissue and very naturally helped Lin Zhushui wipe his forehead and temples.

Shen Yiqiong watched Zhou Jiayu with eager eyes and was ruthlessly rejected by Zhou Jiayu: “Do it yourself.”

Shen Yiqiong showed a resentful expression and said you changed.

Zhou Jiayu said I turned gay.

Shen Yiqiong: “…”

They had already dug quite deep. If the person who chose this spot weren’t Lin Zhushui, Zhou Jiayu would probably suspect they had dug in the wrong place. After they dug for another ten-odd minutes, they finally discovered something. Zhou Jiayu touched something hard. He said, “There’s something!”

After digging down a bit more, a delicate little iron box appeared before everyone.

“Box—” Zhou Jiayu quickly dug the iron box out of the soil. This was presumably the thing Yaya was looking for.

A small lock hung on the iron box. From the traces of rust on the outside, it had some years on it.

Zhou Jiayu used paper to wipe clean the stains on the iron box, picked it up, and shook it up and down. “Not heavy… What’s inside?”

“Let me see.” Lin Jue said, “This lock is specially made. Without the key, it’ll probably have to be forcibly removed. But if there are dangerous items inside, is it okay to just open it like this?”

Lin Zhushui spat out one word: “Open.”

So everyone took the iron box back to the house directly, found tools, and began dismantling the lock. This job was still Lin Jue’s. From that time at the school, Zhou Jiayu had discovered that Lin Jue was quite adept at lock-picking. He didn’t know when she had learned this skill.

After the box was dug out, Yaya’s emotions became very calm. Her gaze didn’t move away from the box for a moment.

The lock on this box was indeed somewhat troublesome. Lin Jue worked on it for nearly one or two hours. When everyone was a bit tired, they finally heard a light click sound. The small lock above fell to the ground in response—the box was open.

“Open.” Lin Jue said with pleasant surprise.

The box was moved aside. Everyone gathered around, extremely curious about the object inside the box.

Lin Jue lifted the box lid and saw what was inside the iron box. After clearly seeing what it was, she appeared somewhat surprised: “This is… a photo frame?”

Indeed, it was a photo frame placed face-down inside. Lin Jue reached out and picked it up, flipped it over, and let everyone see the details of the photo frame.

Embedded in the photo frame was an old black-and-white photograph. The photo was a family portrait of three. A little boy of about seven or eight years old stood in the middle, revealing a brilliant smile. On his left and right were his father and mother holding his hands. From their expressions, one could see the flavor of happiness.

Only, Zhou Jiayu didn’t know if it was because the photo was too old and distorted, but he always felt that the people in the photo looked somewhat ghostly and sinister, full of an uncomfortable feeling. Especially the parents standing on both sides—their faces were stained with faint black spots.

“This is…” Lin Jue’s expression was a bit complicated, “The villa’s first owner?”

“It seems so.” Zhou Jiayu said, “But didn’t they always say that only a couple lived in this house? How did an extra child appear…”

The room was extremely quiet. No one answered Zhou Jiayu’s question. Instead, Yaya, who was being held by Jiang Xutao nearby, revealed a brilliant smile at this moment.

Author’s Note:

After Xiao Zhi eats things, his belly will bulge out. It’s a round protrusion, soft when poked. If you poke it a few more times, he’ll get unhappy and move your hand away. Being flat, he can also wear clothes. He can stick them to his body, or use two sheets of paper glued together and pull it over his head. But Xiao Zhi is a boy. If you give him a little skirt to wear, he’ll have a bit of a mood.