Chapter 19

Parsed with an automated reader. The content accuracy is not guranteed.

Original Title: 挖坟挖出鬼

Genres: Drama, Horror, Mystery, Supernatural, Yaoi

This translation is based on multiple MTLs and my own limited knowledge of Chinese characters. If I have made any egregious mistakes, please let me know.

Chapter Index

Chapter 19 - Confuse

When he left, the crowd was gone. The corridor was empty. The old custodian didn’t even turn on the ceiling light to save electricity. Only the wall lamp glowed a dull yellow. Lin Yan’s face drained of all colour. He suddenly felt like he was in a horror movie. He was the lead actor stumbling along the wall in a terrifying corridor.

The professor’s story made him feel incredibly afraid. Behind him was a ghost, a murderer who put people to death in a cruel and bloody way. He didn’t even dare to look behind him. He was afraid that when he turned around, a ghost covered in bloodstains would be there, grinning sinisterly at him through a veil of long hair, saying: It’s your turn.

Lin Yan’s breathing became heavier and heavier. When he couldn’t resist the urge to run away, he was suddenly pushed harshly against the wall. His body was wrenched around. Lin Yan raised his head and squeezed his eyes shut.

“Stay away from me.” Lin Yan said flatly: “… I don’t want to die like this.”

He bit his lip and pushed at Xiao Yu, but the ghost entangled himself around him and sucked at his neck fiercely. Lin Yan turned his head and stubbornly refused to look at him. He felt that he should be scared, but he couldn’t even understand the feeling in his heart. It was unpleasant. It took Lin Yan a minute before he realized that the emotion he was feeling was disappointment.

He was disappointed with the ghost.

“… Lin Yan” Xiao Yu seemed to be anxious too. He gently rocked Lin Yan’s body. His hands slid off his shoulders, and stopped on Lin Yan’s small and slender wrist. Pressing his fingers onto his pulse point. feeling his racing heart, he clasped Lin Yan’s hands, intertwining their fingers.

The cold hands felt like they were made of fine porcelain, and his fingers were devoid of warmth.

“How could you be so cruel? Even if they entered your tomb with bad intentions, all you had to do was scare them away. You let a woman kill her husband and slit her own throat. How could you do that?!” Lin Yan yanked his hand out of Xiao Yu’s. Everything he wanted to say seemed to be stuck in his throat; all he could think about was the ghost. He had protected this man during the events in the temple, and he rested on his chest obediently in the car. When he was onstage, he comforted him when he saw him having bad stage fright. Lin Yan thought he must be out of his mind, otherwise how could he feel so wronged by the shamelessness of this ghost?

The ghost was so strong that Lin Yan couldn’t get away no matter how hard he struggled. Xiao Yu pressed into him, his cold body holding him against the wall. Lin Yan helplessly bowed his head, but Xiao Yu dragged his chin to the side and pushed his lips delicately onto his.

“I owe it to you for disturbing your tomb.” Lin Yan said wearily: “Get it over with. Just leave my body in one piece.”

Xiao Yu’s voice took on a bit of urgency as he said in a hushed voice: “… I don’t want to hurt you.” After speaking, he seemed to be unable to think of anything else to say. He stepped back a few steps and caught Lin Yan’s hand. On his palm, he stroked: “They deserve to die.”

Lin Yan withdrew his hand. He shook his head and stepped back, turning around and stumbling along the corridor and started running. After he got a few metres away, he couldn’t help looking back. The ghost was still standing in the same place, the hem of the blood suit fluttering from the gust he made when he rushed away. He looked at him with a sad and lonely glance.

Suddenly, Lin Yan couldn’t move anymore, and he felt a pang in his heart. Like he said, this ghost had never hurt him. While, on the other hand, they, in the name of research, had destroyed this ghost’s resting place and all the objects he had loved during his lifetime. The last memories he had from before his death were all put into a museum. Since then, he had become a lonely soul wandering around the world, sitting at the door of the ruined temple like a wild spirit in the western mountains in rainy weather, waiting centuries for someone to take him away.

Shouldn’t ghosts be the bumps in the night that kill without mercy? Lin Yan knew that it was just his anger speaking at this point, but he couldn’t control it. He thought maybe Xiao Yu could have been a good person. Lin Yan thought, maybe he was just lonely and resentful for too long.

… Lin Yan’s own thoughts surprise him. Was… was he making excuses for the ghost?

It was a mess. It was all so messed up.

Lin Yan stood there for a while, and walked back slowly. The ghost seemed to be stunned. He waited until Lin Yan stood in front of him before he hesitantly stretched out his hand and pulled him into his arms. He quietly muttered: “Lin Yan…” He seemed to think over his words carefully, but the ghost was already determined to follow him, so he slowly said: “Don’t go.”

Xiao Yu hugged his waist tightly, rubbing his forehead lightly against the nook of his neck like a big docile cat that ran back to his master to beg for forgiveness after eating his dried fish. Lin Yan couldn’t shake him off. The two of them lingered in the dark corridor for a while. He opened his eyes angrily, and yelled at the ghost with all his might: “Why can’t I get rid of you?!”

Lin Yan tucked Xiao Yu’s hair behind his ear, revealing a handsome face. The ghost dropped his eyes and didn’t dare look at him. Lin Yan looked at him and laughed despite his frustration. He said softly with a sideways glance, “Why do you have to follow me?”

“… Do you like me?”

Xiao Yu’s expression relaxed, but his hands squeezed around his tighter. He quickly glanced up at Lin Yan, his eyes shining with expectation.

Lin Yan ran his finger through Xiao Yu’s hair and straightened it down, resting them on his back. In the past, scholarly poetry, calligraphy, music, horseback riding and archery were all available. Because of that, the muscles on his back were very firm. Lin Yan was taken aback. He hid his surprise and sighed: “I deserve all of this. I picked up a ghost after a good archeological internship.”

Lin Yan took Xiao Yu’s shoulders and looked at him earnestly: “Xiao Yu, you can stay if you want. I’ll tell you if you do anything that hurts me. You can’t touch any of my friends or anyone around me otherwise I’ll go back to the monk and send you away.”

A soft kiss fell onto his cheek, and Lin Yan smiled. He knew that for Xiao Yu, this reaction was akin to a promise. After getting used to how stubbornly intimate this ghost was, this kiss made him feel at ease. The power in the corridor was unstable, and the dark yellow wall lamp kept flickering. On any normal day, he would definitely want to get out of this horror movie scene as soon as possible. Today, he didn’t feel any fear. What could be more terrifying than being held by a murderer? Lin Yan played with the long hair in his hands and said helplessly: “I don’t want to talk about a ghost’s morality. Let’s go home. You can take a bath and change your clothes. You’re shaving years off my life every time you appear and scare the crap out of me.”

On the way home, Lin Yan recalled the PSP guy’s shit-eating expression. He whistled happily while listening to his CD, occasionally glancing over at the passenger seat. Xiao Yu was resting on the dark green seat cushion. Lin Yan couldn’t help but secretly smile. Since Weiwei had broken up with him half a year ago, no one had been there to accompany him home. While waiting for the red light, Lin Yan raised his hand and brush aside the messy hair covering Xiao Yu’s face. The ghost woke up in a daze. His eyes opened and looked over at Lin Yan. Seeing that there was nothing wrong, he closed them again and went back to sleep.

Actually… he was almost like a Tibetan mastiff or something like that. Lin Yan’s heart beat with happiness. If he were a dog, if Lin Yan was able to take care of him, there shouldn’t be any problems with him staying at his apartment. Either way, he still had more than two months left, enough for him to take his time investigating the situation. But it that didn’t work… the monk would have to send him away.

Lin Yan’s expression froze, and his heart twitched. He didn’t even want to think about what would happen then.

Later, Lin Yan regretted it. He discovered that in addition to reading, writing, painting a counterfeit fan and being a scary ghost, Lin Yan found other characteristics that left him dumbfounded. When I arrived home at nine o’clock that evening, the small red voicemail light on his phone was flashing. Lin Yan picked it up and listened. The first message was from the little Daoist, saying that he had arrived home safely. The second one was Yin Zhou, saying that he hadn’t found anything while searching through the database, but his relatives traveled to Lingyin Temple and bought a very effective amulet for Lin Yan to use if he needed it.

Lin Yan hesitated as he held the receiver and left a voicemail for Yin Zhou: “The lecture gave me some new information. I’m waiting for more news to meet up for an interview with someone.”

“About the amulet… I don’t need it for the time being.” Turning his head with a guilty conscience, a silhouette could be vaguely seen in the dark living room. Xiao Yu was leaning on the sofa and waiting for him.

Lin Yan hung up the phone, and dragged Xiao Yu to the bathroom. After wiping down the bathtub and filling it with hot water, Lin Yan pulled the shower curtain aside and said, “I’ll bring you new clothes after. Yours are soaked in blood. There’s no way to clean them. I’ll just throw them out and you can wear mine.”

“Call me if the water gets cold.”

Xiao Yu didn’t move. Lin Yan wanted to go outside, but he started following him after just a few steps.

Lin Yan looked back with wide eyes: “You really can’t go an hour without following me? Can’t I wait for you outside? I won’t run away, don’t worry.”

Xiao Yu glanced at the bathtub, naturally raised his arms and stretched them outwards.

Lin Yan didn’t understand what that meant. He recalled the scenes of a TV drama he had seen, and tentatively asked: “You… you’re not waiting for a maid to help you, are you?”

Xiao Yu actually nodded. Ten thousand grass mud horses stomped across Lin Yan’s heart. He couldn’t help shouting: “I don’t have one in my house! I’m an adult so I just do it myself!”

“Hey, don’t get ahead of yourself!”

Lin Yan tore into the ghost in his bathroom, and Xiao Yu looked at him with an unchanging, stoic look, waiting expectantly.

After several failed attempts to persuade him, Lin Yan angrily took off the traditional dress he had worn for the whole night, threw it on the chair, and harshly pressed his finger into Xiao Yu’s forehead: “Give me a minute, let me go change my clothes and I’ll be back to help the oh-so-great Young Master Xiao get changed and bathe.”

Ten minutes later, Lin Yan slipped on his flip flops and reappeared in the bathroom. The ghost was still standing in the same spot. The blood-stained shirt was eerie in the light. There was no shadow under his feet, and the ghost had his head bowed with paint-black hair covering most of his face. If this were two weeks earlier, Lin Yan would have run out in fear, but now… Lin Yan sighed. He draped a towel over his shoulder and untied Xiao Yu’s belt.

Lin Yan instinctively turned his face away when the blood-caked clothes fell to the ground and didn’t dare peek over. All that was in his mind was the horrific image of dead people’s intestines, and the rotting abdomen showed dense white bones, red new flesh, black rotting flesh… Xiao Yu lifted Lin Yan’s chin with his fingers and forced him to turn his head. Lin Yan took a deep breath, gritted his teeth and fixed his gaze on Xiao Yu.

Unexpectedly, there were no bloody holes or exposed bones like he imagined. Instead, there was a beautiful body in front of Lin Yan. There were broad shoulders and a narrow waist, tight and strong muscles, and messy long hair hanging down to his waist. Lin Yan blushed. Ever since the last time this ghost had teased him to the point of needing to masturbate over it, he had reluctantly accepted the fact that he had feelings for men, and the image in front of him was absolutely vivid. Being in his twenties, coupled with the fact that he hadn’t gotten any action in over half a year, Lin Yan couldn’t help but internally moan, internally lusting over the thought of doing things with this man.

The bathtub had filled with hot water, and the whole room was covered with milky white mist. Lin Yan tested the temperature of the water, staring at the wall behind Xiao Yu’s shoulders, and whispered, “It’s okay, you can get in.” After speaking, his face blushed again, and he gestured at Xiao Yu: “You can… take your pants off yourself.”