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Chapter 7
Chapter 7: Take-outs After finishing his food, Xu Jiang brought up what Chi Yan told him over the phone previously. “Chi Yan, is your aunt still trying to introduce her niece to you?’ ‘Yeah…,’ Chi Yan nodded. ‘And my uncle has agreed as well, so it’s hard for me to say no.’ Especially since his uncle was his only living relative. While he could still buy some time now by using work as an excuse, over Chinese New Year, it would be harder for him to reject them face-to-face. Xu Jiang said, ‘Well, it won’t do you any harm to try it out. We are not getting younger and it’s time to think about it. Though you shouldn’t just follow your aunt blindly… now it’s ‘try and see if you are compatible’, next year it will be ‘try and get along’, soon she’ll tell you it’s time to just settle on a date. Then, wouldn’t you be at a loss?’ Chi Yan kept quiet and Xu Jiang continued, ‘I don’t mean to scold you, since you haven’t even seen any organism of the opposite s.e.x for the past three years at your workplace. How about this, I’ll introduce you to two of my juniors? They said you were cute when I showed them our photos from high school. I joked about introducing you to them and they didn’t refuse.’ Silently, Chi Yan defended his choices, since males had stronger ‘yang’ energy which could help to dispel ghosts. He had chosen his major simply due to its 8-2 ratio of guys to girls, and thus his related job would similarly have the same gender ratio. However for Xu Jiang who studied sociology, there were only three candidates for cla.s.s hunk. Xu Jiang confidently said that he could win by a margin even if he was disfigured. For the past 20 years, Chi Yan had been living in fear and trepidation. With his own life on the line, he had never considered having a family. While he had met girls who had shown interest in him, he had always tried to keep a distance for fear of implicating them. Hearing what Xu Jiang had to say, he agreed with him. Since his uncle was simply worried that he would end up alone, if he found someone he liked, then he wouldn’t have to go for the blind date. With Third Master Ye looking out for him, his life was no longer in danger, so he could live normally now right? After weighing his decision, Chi Yan agreed to Xu Jiang’s suggestion. At the sight of Chi Yan’s nod, Xu Jiang felt very flattered as he was prepared for rejection, thinking it was time Chi Yan became enlightened. Working quickly, Xu Jiang made arrangements by the following Wednesday, calling Chi Yan to tell him about the lunch date on Sunday, where he would bring along two of his juniors. Chi Yan didn’t have any plans on Sat.u.r.day, and since he would be out on Sunday, he was too lazy to shop for groceries, and thus decided to call for delivery for dinner. He ordered at about 5pm, and by the time it arrived, it was already 7pm. The twilight sky was darkening with streaks of orange across the horizon. Chi Yan was cleaning up the house when the doorbell rang. Guessing it was the delivery, he quickly answered the door. Opening the door just wide enough for the food to be pa.s.sed through, he took the bag and thanked the delivery man, who simply nodded and left. Chi Yan caught a glimpse of the down jacket he was wearing, noting that he was wrapped up. It was only when Chi Yan took a look at the bag that he realised something was wrong. He frequents this shop, and knew that the packaging was different. Moreover, no shop would attach a white paper flower to their bags, which symbolised offerings to the dead or G.o.ds. Chi Yan felt a chill, and turned to Ye Yingzhi’s altar, making a short prayer. He’d lost his appetite and mood. Leaving the bag unopened, he left it outside at the door and called the shop to check what happened. Rather trying to get his rights, he just wanted a.s.surance. He took out his phone and realised there was no network. Recently, there seemed to be some issues with the infrastructure, resulting in the loss of mobile network in the area. This only added to Chi Yan’s anxiety and unease. The sky had gone completely dark, and it was hard to see in the house. Chi Yan quickly turned on the lights, but the white light provided no warmth. Suddenly, rhythmic knocking sounded at the door. Chi Yan’s heart skipped a beat. He frowned, and walked to the door. He looked out from the peephole – there was no one there, only a block of greenish whiteness, with some thin red lines that looked like blood vessels. It took a while before Chi Yan reacted, looking through for at least ten seconds, before leaping back. The thing was looking in. Chi Yan stumbled backwards, almost falling. He quickly backed out of the doorway and shut the wooden door, turning the lock twice before running back into the living room. His face was awashed in white, his lips trembled unconsciously. The knocking continued tirelessly. To Chi Yan, it sounded like a death chant. He ran to the altar and felt slightly better. Touching the bottle hanging from his neck, he looked at the Ye Yinghzi’s tablet, deep in thought. The knocking grew louder, almost as if the door would be broken down. What’s weird was that given how loud the sound was, there was no reaction from his neighbours. Chi Yan took out his phone, but there was still no signal for both mobile and data networks. With the knocking still resounding through the house, Chi Yan quickly picked up Ye Yingzhi’s tablet and dashed to his bedroom, locking the door firmly behind him. He then backed his bedside dresser against the door, and took out the jade pendant from the drawer. He got into bed under the bed covers, hugging Ye Yingzhi’s tablet with his right hand while his left held the pendant. Chi Yan kept his eyes on his bedroom door, and focussed on any sounds outside. ‘Creak’, he heard the door outside opening. Chi Yan was sure he had locked the door. There were no footsteps, but he could feel the thing looking around before heading for his bedroom. He was freaking out. Gooseb.u.mps rose all over his body as he shivered with fear. While a ghost had push him down the stairs when he was very young, this was the first time that he experienced such close proximity to a ghost and felt such intense fear. He vaguely recalled his grandma telling him a folktale of how one shouldn’t open the door to strangers – by allowing it to come in once, the next time it could enter even without invitation. This was why he had ran to hide in the bedroom and locked the door, hoping that the door symbolised another s.p.a.ce. Knocks sounded against the bedroom door, so close as if it was right next to his ear. Chi Yan couldn’t bear to look any longer. He buried his head under the covers, as if trying to hide himself away, pretending he wasn’t there. Trembling, he hugged the tablet tighter, unconscious that his face was wet with tears. Words fell out from his mouth as he prayed, “Third Master Ye, Master Ye, Ye Yingzhi, Yingzhi, please…please save me, Yingzhi, I beg you…please…” His prayers soon turned into sobs. In horror movies, the character who hid under the bed covers during crises was always mocked, not knowing that this was in fact human’s most basic reaction to a frightening situation. Chi Yan hugged onto the tablet like a lifeline, but where he couldn’t see, a dark shadow was hugging him as well, chest to chest, its chin resting on his shoulder, a smile seemingly on its face. It looked down at Chi Yan, and very gently licked away the tear tracks on his face. The knocking outside the door continued, but the dark shadow was occupied with licking Chi Yan’s face, untroubled by the grating sound.
Chapter 7: Take-outs After finishing his food, Xu Jiang brought up what Chi Yan told him over the phone previously. “Chi Yan, is your aunt still trying to introduce her niece to you?’ ‘Yeah…,’ Chi Yan nodded. ‘And my uncle has agreed as well, so it’s hard for me to say no.’ Especially since his uncle was his only living relative. While he could still buy some time now by using work as an excuse, over Chinese New Year, it would be harder for him to reject them face-to-face. Xu Jiang said, ‘Well, it won’t do you any harm to try it out. We are not getting younger and it’s time to think about it. Though you shouldn’t just follow your aunt blindly… now it’s ‘try and see if you are compatible’, next year it will be ‘try and get along’, soon she’ll tell you it’s time to just settle on a date. Then, wouldn’t you be at a loss?’ Chi Yan kept quiet and Xu Jiang continued, ‘I don’t mean to scold you, since you haven’t even seen any organism of the opposite s.e.x for the past three years at your workplace. How about this, I’ll introduce you to two of my juniors? They said you were cute when I showed them our photos from high school. I joked about introducing you to them and they didn’t refuse.’ Silently, Chi Yan defended his choices, since males had stronger ‘yang’ energy which could help to dispel ghosts. He had chosen his major simply due to its 8-2 ratio of guys to girls, and thus his related job would similarly have the same gender ratio. However for Xu Jiang who studied sociology, there were only three candidates for cla.s.s hunk. Xu Jiang confidently said that he could win by a margin even if he was disfigured. For the past 20 years, Chi Yan had been living in fear and trepidation. With his own life on the line, he had never considered having a family. While he had met girls who had shown interest in him, he had always tried to keep a distance for fear of implicating them. Hearing what Xu Jiang had to say, he agreed with him. Since his uncle was simply worried that he would end up alone, if he found someone he liked, then he wouldn’t have to go for the blind date. With Third Master Ye looking out for him, his life was no longer in danger, so he could live normally now right? After weighing his decision, Chi Yan agreed to Xu Jiang’s suggestion. At the sight of Chi Yan’s nod, Xu Jiang felt very flattered as he was prepared for rejection, thinking it was time Chi Yan became enlightened. Working quickly, Xu Jiang made arrangements by the following Wednesday, calling Chi Yan to tell him about the lunch date on Sunday, where he would bring along two of his juniors. Chi Yan didn’t have any plans on Sat.u.r.day, and since he would be out on Sunday, he was too lazy to shop for groceries, and thus decided to call for delivery for dinner. He ordered at about 5pm, and by the time it arrived, it was already 7pm. The twilight sky was darkening with streaks of orange across the horizon. Chi Yan was cleaning up the house when the doorbell rang. Guessing it was the delivery, he quickly answered the door. Opening the door just wide enough for the food to be pa.s.sed through, he took the bag and thanked the delivery man, who simply nodded and left. Chi Yan caught a glimpse of the down jacket he was wearing, noting that he was wrapped up. It was only when Chi Yan took a look at the bag that he realised something was wrong. He frequents this shop, and knew that the packaging was different. Moreover, no shop would attach a white paper flower to their bags, which symbolised offerings to the dead or G.o.ds. Chi Yan felt a chill, and turned to Ye Yingzhi’s altar, making a short prayer. He’d lost his appetite and mood. Leaving the bag unopened, he left it outside at the door and called the shop to check what happened. Rather trying to get his rights, he just wanted a.s.surance. He took out his phone and realised there was no network. Recently, there seemed to be some issues with the infrastructure, resulting in the loss of mobile network in the area. This only added to Chi Yan’s anxiety and unease. The sky had gone completely dark, and it was hard to see in the house. Chi Yan quickly turned on the lights, but the white light provided no warmth. Suddenly, rhythmic knocking sounded at the door. Chi Yan’s heart skipped a beat. He frowned, and walked to the door. He looked out from the peephole – there was no one there, only a block of greenish whiteness, with some thin red lines that looked like blood vessels. It took a while before Chi Yan reacted, looking through for at least ten seconds, before leaping back. The thing was looking in. Chi Yan stumbled backwards, almost falling. He quickly backed out of the doorway and shut the wooden door, turning the lock twice before running back into the living room. His face was awashed in white, his lips trembled unconsciously. The knocking continued tirelessly. To Chi Yan, it sounded like a death chant. He ran to the altar and felt slightly better. Touching the bottle hanging from his neck, he looked at the Ye Yinghzi’s tablet, deep in thought. The knocking grew louder, almost as if the door would be broken down. What’s weird was that given how loud the sound was, there was no reaction from his neighbours. Chi Yan took out his phone, but there was still no signal for both mobile and data networks. With the knocking still resounding through the house, Chi Yan quickly picked up Ye Yingzhi’s tablet and dashed to his bedroom, locking the door firmly behind him. He then backed his bedside dresser against the door, and took out the jade pendant from the drawer. He got into bed under the bed covers, hugging Ye Yingzhi’s tablet with his right hand while his left held the pendant. Chi Yan kept his eyes on his bedroom door, and focussed on any sounds outside. ‘Creak’, he heard the door outside opening. Chi Yan was sure he had locked the door. There were no footsteps, but he could feel the thing looking around before heading for his bedroom. He was freaking out. Gooseb.u.mps rose all over his body as he shivered with fear. While a ghost had push him down the stairs when he was very young, this was the first time that he experienced such close proximity to a ghost and felt such intense fear. He vaguely recalled his grandma telling him a folktale of how one shouldn’t open the door to strangers – by allowing it to come in once, the next time it could enter even without invitation. This was why he had ran to hide in the bedroom and locked the door, hoping that the door symbolised another s.p.a.ce. Knocks sounded against the bedroom door, so close as if it was right next to his ear. Chi Yan couldn’t bear to look any longer. He buried his head under the covers, as if trying to hide himself away, pretending he wasn’t there. Trembling, he hugged the tablet tighter, unconscious that his face was wet with tears. Words fell out from his mouth as he prayed, “Third Master Ye, Master Ye, Ye Yingzhi, Yingzhi, please…please save me, Yingzhi, I beg you…please…” His prayers soon turned into sobs. In horror movies, the character who hid under the bed covers during crises was always mocked, not knowing that this was in fact human’s most basic reaction to a frightening situation. Chi Yan hugged onto the tablet like a lifeline, but where he couldn’t see, a dark shadow was hugging him as well, chest to chest, its chin resting on his shoulder, a smile seemingly on its face. It looked down at Chi Yan, and very gently licked away the tear tracks on his face. The knocking outside the door continued, but the dark shadow was occupied with licking Chi Yan’s face, untroubled by the grating sound.
