I’m right here, right beside you.
Gu Yi remembered the words Bai Nuo had said in the dream.
She had said them to Lin Ming, but how could he have seen that scene? What had happened between Bai Nuo and Lin Ming?
A faint guess had already formed in his mind, but it was something he did not want to face, because if it were really like that, he would not be able to control himself.
If that were the case, Bai Nuo was too pitiful.
Lin Ming clutched his hair, his face pale, and continued in pain, “That night, she was in my house. I was sleeping, and she was lying beside me. I was too scared, I didn’t dare open my eyes at all, and I made it to dawn like that. I was still alive. When I got out of bed, the white high heels by the bed were gone too. I thought she wouldn’t hurt me, but when I went to school I found out that Zhang Qiang and the others… were all dead.”
As he said that, Lin Ming’s emotions collapsed even more. He pressed both hands against his temples, trying to make his fear lessen a little, but the trembling in his voice only grew more violent, “They died in a strange way, all of them woke up and died with blood coming from all seven apertures. The police couldn’t find the cause either, but I knew! It was because of Bai Nuo! Everyone who saw her died, and I also heard her voice. She said in my ear that I would be next! I was very scared. I didn’t go to class, and as I walked, I ended up here.”
Lin Ming suddenly stood up from his seat. He grabbed Gu Yi’s hand, his face full of pleading, just like when Gu Yi had once begged him to return the jade pendant. Lin Ming’s hand was icy cold, and when he held Gu Yi, cold sweat kept beading in his palm, “Gu Yi, help me. Bai Nuo was closest to you when she was alive. She always treated you as a friend. Help me talk to her, beg her to let me go. I didn’t do it on purpose, I didn’t mean to hurt her, I was just too unwilling to accept it, but I don’t deserve to die for it either…”
Gu Yi looked at him quietly and asked, “What exactly did you do to Bai Nuo?”
“Don’t you understand yet?”
Bo Si exhaled a ring of smoke and said lightly, “He said Bai Nuo was the girl he thought about day and night, so.”
Bo Si glanced sideways, casting his dark gaze onto Lin Ming. “Bai Nuo being pregnant, that was your doing, right?”
“I…”
Lin Ming could not deny it, but he also did not have the courage to admit it. He kept saying “I” for a long time, unable to get out a single complete sentence, only nodding and shaking his head, his face full of terror and panic.
After all, it was an evil thing, but he had indeed done it.
Bo Si continued, “You liked Bai Nuo, but Bai Nuo paid you no mind. You were proud and arrogant, and you couldn’t stand that kind of disregard. You also envied Gu Yi for becoming Bai Nuo’s friend. The moment you came in, I noticed it. Your build is very similar to Gu Yi’s. The photos on the school forum were actually you. You thought that by dressing up like Gu Yi, you could win Bai Nuo’s favor, but Bai Nuo hated you even more. You flew into a rage from humiliation, and together with your few brothers, you dragged Bai Nuo into the small grove. Later, Bai Nuo got pregnant and jumped off a building to kill herself. You were very happy, weren’t you?”
“No! I didn’t!”
Bo Si’s words shattered Lin Ming’s last line of psychological defense. All his rationality completely collapsed. He held his head and shouted again and again, as if remembering what happened that day was also a huge pain for him, “I never thought about wanting Bai Nuo dead! I admit it, at that time, when she didn’t accept me, I was indeed angry, and I did awful things to her. I was going to pin all of this on Gu Yi, but that was after Bai Nuo died, it was Zhang Qiang and the others who did it, I didn’t know about it either! After Bai Nuo died, I was miserable every day. I always dreamed of her coming to find me. I told her countless times that I was sorry. I really was just acting on impulse. I never thought she would be so unable to think straight, that she would die just because she was pregnant. If she had told me about the pregnancy, we could have solved it together. My family is rich. This matter, I would have handled it so no one would know!”
Hearing this, Bo Si narrowed his dark eyes and said, “That was the girl you thought about day and night. Now she has come for you. You should gladly accept her, not reject her. You put on your pants and then refuse to recognize the person. That’s not true love.”
“She’s not a person! She’s already turned into a ghost! She’s here for revenge! But I still don’t want to die!” Tears streamed down Lin Ming’s face. He grabbed Gu Yi and cried out, “Gu Yi, help me, help me! You’re the person Bai Nuo liked when she was alive, you can definitely help me! I’ll give you money, I’ll let you keep going to school, you won’t have to work, and you can go to university too, how good would that be——”
“Thud——!”
Lin Ming fell to the ground!
He hit the chair, a dull pain shot through his back, and he cried out.
His right cheek was swollen from Gu Yi’s fist, tilted to one side, with threads of blood seeping from the corner of his mouth.
Gu Yi’s anger surged like a landslide, like a silent storm. In eighteen years of living, this was the first time he had ever hit someone.
And yet it was not enough.
This was still not enough.
At that moment, Gu Yi could only hear the pounding of his own heartbeat. Lin Ming’s face looked vile in his eyes, and he even wanted to tear the whole of him to pieces.
He remembered Bai Nuo standing on the teaching building that day, smiling at him. The next second, Bai Nuo had become a mass of red flesh in a pool of blood.
It was Lin Ming! Lin Ming had hurt her, made her pregnant, and driven her to desperate death!
Gu Yi’s eyes were filled with crimson bloodshot veins. His anger was so intense that it had already taken control of all his reason. The fist just now was not enough to vent his rage. When he wanted to strike again, his arm was held back by Bo Si.
Bo Si’s strength was not great, but the moment he touched him, Gu Yi somehow stopped moving.
Meeting Bo Si’s eyes, Gu Yi’s heart suddenly calmed down.
He could not tell what the feeling was, but the pain on the back of his hand made Gu Yi understand what had just happened.
He had punched Lin Ming.
Before, he had always avoided him as if he could not get away fast enough.
But this bastard had hurt Bai Nuo, and he had not known a thing.
If he had known, he would not have let Bai Nuo suffer alone for so long.
If he had known, he would have stopped Bai Nuo from killing herself.
He had also indirectly hurt Bai Nuo, because from beginning to end he had never understood Bai Nuo’s feelings.
His heart hurt.
It hurt so much he could not speak, because right now, all words seemed so pale.
Seeing him like this, Bo Si’s eyes reddened slightly, whether from anger or sorrow it was hard to tell. He could not help but sigh, then said in a low voice, “People like that, one beating is enough. If you hit him too much, your own hands get dirty.”
“You’ve already hit him. You should be relieved now, right?”
Lin Ming seemed to feel no pain at all. He just knelt there, raising his miserable face and looking pleadingly at Bo Si and Gu Yi, “I beg you, help me. I really don’t want to die. I can pay any amount. As long as you can help me drive Bai Nuo away…”
“She’s set her sights on you. Driving her away won’t be easy.”
Bo Si did not even look at him. He walked forward a few steps and said, “The appearance of ghosts comes from obsession in life. She hates you. If she doesn’t kill you, how could she be satisfied?”
Lin Ming sucked in a cold breath in fear. “Really, there’s no way at all?”
Bo Si lowered his eyes and laughed once. “Kid, you should have also seen some ghost movies. Red-clad vengeful ghosts kill people, each move fatal, with no escape. She said the next one is you, then the next one will definitely be you. Her resentment is too deep, and when she died she still had a fetus in her womb, and she was wearing red. For this kind of ghost, even if the King of Hell sees her, he’d have to take a detour. If you want her to let you go, one word, hard.”
“I’m willing to pay any price! As long as she can get rid of her resentment! Really! I’m serious!”
Lin Ming was already so scared he was talking nonsense.
Bo Si turned back and looked at him, his black eyes showing no emotion at all, “Would you even be willing to go broke and have no descendants?”
When Lin Ming heard there was still a chance, he no longer cared about anything else. He nodded repeatedly and shouted, “Willing! As long as she can leave me, I’m willing to do anything!”
“Fine, then I’ll go and take a look for you.”
Lin Ming grinned gratefully.
“But.” Bo Si added, “before going, you need to kowtow to me three times and loudly call me grandpa three times.”
“…” Lin Ming was puzzled, his face showing confusion. “W-Why do I have to do that?”
Bo Si said, “There’s no why, I just think a guy like you has to be insulted a bit before I feel comfortable.”
“…”
In order to survive, Lin Ming endured the humiliation and still did as he was told.
Bo Si turned around and looked at Gu Yi, who had been silent the whole time. His eyes were deep as he asked, “Coming too?”
“Of course.” Gu Yi answered without thinking, “If I can still see Bai Nuo.”
Bo Si curved his lips. “She may already not look the way you remember.”
Gu Yi said, “I don’t care.”
Bo Si reached out and ruffled his hair. “Little brat, you’re pretty devoted. Let’s go. Maybe she also wants to see you.”
The three of them set off together, and on the way, none of them said anything.
Bo Si drove, Gu Yi sat in the passenger seat, and Lin Ming sat alone in the back.
Gu Yi did not want to see him. Seeing him would make him think of Bai Nuo’s miserable death, and that was something he could not bear.
The car drove for a long time. Lin Ming realized this was not the direction to his home, and he felt a little strange, asking, “Where are you taking me?”
Bo Si said, “To Bai Nuo’s graveyard.”
“What!?” Lin Ming was shocked. Hearing graveyard, he thought of the day he had followed Bai Nuo. She had come to the graveyard, standing before her tombstone in a red dress, very beautiful, only missing a pair of human feet…
Lin Ming spoke in fear, “Why are we going there, wouldn’t it be better to just go straight home?”
“I want to know how deep her resentment really is.”
As soon as Bo Si finished speaking, Gu Yi suddenly widened his eyes and called out in a low voice, “Bai Nuo!”
He saw Bai Nuo!
The graveyard was in the suburbs. At this moment the car was traveling along a small road. There was no one on the road, only rows of dim streetlights on both sides. Beyond the streetlights was a stretch of vegetable fields, and Bai Nuo was standing beneath that dim light, her red clothes fluttering, long hair swaying faintly, her pale face with no trace of blood staring straight at their car.
Gu Yi looked down and found that, indeed, she had no feet.
Her thin figure floated in the air. At this moment it was close to night, and the yellowish light shone on her somewhat transparent body. She had no shadow, and there was no expression on her face, but when the car passed by her, through the window, Gu Yi met her eyes, and in that instant, he clearly felt a deep sadness from her eyes.
“Bai Nuo! It’s Bai Nuo!”
Lin Ming had clearly seen her too. He screamed in terror. Bo Si frowned and said, “Don’t look back.”
But he said it too late. Lin Ming had already turned his head, and even pointed with one hand at Bai Nuo’s figure constantly receding behind them, shouting in terror, “She’s set her sights on us! We shouldn’t have come here! Last time I also came here, and that was what made her follow me home!”
Bo Si’s temples twitched twice, and he said a little angrily, “Damn it, I told you not to look back, and you’re still pointing while looking. What a waste of my time.”