BXBX NOVEL Ch74 - [Extra: The Pianist] His boyfriend was dredging up old receipts again!
Chapter Ch74 - [Extra: The Pianist] His boyfriend was dredging up old receipts again!
Translator: reiyu; Editor: GlitteryPanda
As summer arrived, the weather gradually grew warmer.
During the long period for evening self-study, Lin Feiran and Gu Kaifeng stood on the roof of the math building and watched the sunset. The floor of the balcony still radiated heat from being baked in the sun during the day, but the night air had already cooled it some. Lin Feiran happily drank a smoothie as he tilted his head and relaxed on Gu Kaifeng’s shoulder. At the beginning of May, they had changed into summer school uniforms, a comfortable white short-sleeved shirt with a dark tie and long pants. Their exposed forearms pressed against each other, softly radiating heat.
Several birds flew by the building and the noisy chirping made the rooftop seem even more quiet. A gust of air blew by and the ties at their necks lifted at an angle.
“I want to drink yours.” Lin Feiran pushed his half-finished smoothie into Gu Kaifeng’s hands, then took Gu Kaifeng’s iced coffee from his hands and put his lips to the straw.
The good thing about dating was being able to try two sets of food when eating together!
This was half a month after solving the issue of the costume spirit. Two days ago, the mid-term exam results had been released. Lin Feiran and Gu Kaifeng’s class positions had improved a little since last year. During the start-of-the-year placement tests, the monthly exams and the midterms, their class positions were close to each other. Sometimes Lin Feiran was several places higher, and sometimes Gu Kaifeng was several places higher, but they were always close together. In Wang Zhuo’s words, “just looking at the class placement list one can tell there’s a gay affair going on.” Lin Feiran knew that he had done quite well and had improved from last time, so he had relaxed over the last two days, and had free time to think about other things again.
“Kaifeng.” Lin Feiran half-squinted as he watched the sunset in the distance. A thought occurred to him, and like a lazy cat, he rubbed his face against Gu Kaifeng’s shoulder and asked, “Did you make a copy of the prop room key?”
“I did. What about it?” Gu Kaifeng turned his hand and produced a ring of keys. On it was the bedroom key, the house key, and the prop room key.
Lin Feiran bit his straw and straightened up. “Shall we go take a look after school tonight? The piano in the corner of the prop room has a ghost. Have you seen him?”
Gu Kaifeng waved the smoothie in his hand. “I’ve seen him. He looks quite pitiful.”
Lin Feiran nodded with some lingering fear. “I saw him last semester at the arts festival while playing the piano, but he was too terrifying, so I haven’t dared to talk to him... We’re done with our midterms, aren’t we? I want to go see him.”
Those ruined hands and the red-stained piano keyboard had given Lin Feiran a huge shock. Besides, he liked to play the piano, so compared to other ghosts, he was more personally sympathetic to the terrible condition of the piano ghost. But before this, he had to settle the matter of the costume spirit and the weight of schoolwork, so he had not had the energy, but he had always remembered this matter.
“You saw him at the arts festival last semester?” Gu Kaifeng remembered the scene from that time and asked slowly, “You saw him when you were playing the piano on stage?”
“Yeah.” Lin Feiran recalled how terrified he had been then and wanted to laugh. “I saw him during the last minute of my recital. I was so scared, my legs went weak...”
Gu Kaifeng coolly cut him off. “No wonder the moment you stepped off stage you rushed over to hug me.”
My boyfriend’s dredging up old receipts again!
Lin Feiran: “......”
Gu Kaifeng turned Lin Feiran’s face to him and said unrelentingly, “Did you think at that time that I was sick?”
Lin Feiran said truthfully, “Mm.”
Gu Kaifeng was both angry and amused. “You’re quite truthful!”
You don’t even say things that make your husband happy!
Lin Feiran gave a beautiful smile, and cutely moved over to kiss Gu Kaifeng’s lips, his voice soft like a gentle wind. “My heart beat faster at that time, too.”
Gu Kaifeng reached out to catch Lin Feiran by the back of his neck and deepened the kiss.
He remembered the little prince who had worn a suit and played a piano on the middle of the stage. That little prince was now in his arms and was truly warm.
After evening self-study ended, the two of them slipped into the prop room.
The last time they came, it had been to look for the costume. It looked like no one had come to the prop room since then. The floor was covered with a thin layer of dust and the air was musty and damp. Gu Kaifeng opened his Yin-Yang Eyes and the two looked toward the piano in the corner.
The male ghost was still here.
Most of his body was submersed in the piano and only a head and two arms emerged from the top. His head lolled at an awkward angle, his face was covered by long black hair so they could not see it, but the wrists that extended from his sleeves were narrow and pale. He wore a performance outfit, one worn for playing the piano. He looked to be thin and elegant, and although one could not see his face, his overall appearance gave the impression of being refined and handsome.
Of course, terrifying, too...
Sticky blood flowed along the ghost’s fingers, which were all broken at the joints, bloated and rotting. It dripped on the ground, making evanescent little flowers of black blood. The blood flowing from his hands seemed like it would never cease. He lay on the piano quietly in this way. While Lin Feiran had been mentally preparing himself to meet the ghost, he had lain like a corpse and not moved a hair.
Lin Feiran made his mental preparation, then took Gu Kaifeng’s hand and walked closer. He asked politely, “How do you do? Can you hear me?”
The ghost moved a little but he did not lift his head.
Lin Feiran continued, “We have the Yin-Yang Eyes and can see you. Do you have unfulfilled wishes? Perhaps we can help you.”
At the word ‘wishes’, the ghost slowly lifted his head. Although Lin Feiran had been mentally prepared, his heart still skipped a beat when he saw the ghost’s face, and he held on tighter to Gu Kaifeng’s hand. The ghost had probably died from hanging. It was impossible to tell what he had looked like while he was alive. He looked like a blown-up balloon, his face was bloated and purple, and a tongue lolled shapelessly by his lips. His eyes bulged. Although his eyes were dead like fish’s eyes, Lin Feiran still felt that the ghost was looking at him.
Gu Kaifeng inhaled deeply to calm his emotions, then he pulled Lin Feiran into his arms and whispered, “Don’t be afraid.”
The intimacy between Gu Kaifeng and Lin Feiran seemed to have provoked the ghost. His body stiffened and he shook like a ghostly noisemaker. His eyes, which had already been bulging out of his head, now bulged out even more, as if they would pop out of his eye sockets any second. Hs produced harsh breathing noises from his throat and looked very fervent.
Lin Feiran awkwardly took one step to the side, freeing himself of Gu Kaifeng’s embrace.
After the two separated, the ghost regained some calm.
Gu Kaifeng looked innocently at Lin Feiran.
Lin Feiran: “......”
They could not feed this ghost dog food!
“Do you have any wishes?” Lin Feiran repeated.
The ghost lolled his head and stared at his fingers resting on the piano keyboard with his bulging eyes. Although it was difficult to discern the expression on his bloated, balloon-like face, Lin Feiran felt that he was probably mourning his hands which could never play the piano again.
But the ghost still did not answer Lin Feiran’s question. After staring at his hands a moment, he produced several garbled syllables from his throat: “Ji... Xuan... Ji Xuan...”
After that, no matter what Lin Feiran said to him, the ghost only kept repeating these two words.
He seemed very like the old school founder had been before he resolved his regrets. They had both died horribly, and because they had great regrets chaining them to this earth, their minds were clouded. Their spirits were locked in their own mental world, and although they were aware of the outside world, they were unable to communicate with it.
“It seems like a person’s name?” Gu Kaifeng guessed. “It sounds like ‘Ji Xuan.’”
“Sounds like it to me too.” Lin Feiran nodded. “But the name alone is no use...”
“It might not be useless. Ji is a rare surname. If we search just within this city, there won’t be many people with this name,” Gu Kaifeng touched his chin and said. “Right. I remember there was a Ji Mansion near Binghe Street. That place...”
It might have been a coincidence, but when Gu Kaifeng spoke the words ‘Ji Mansion’, the ghosts immediately straightened up, half his body still submersed in the piano, and he looked straight at Gu Kaifeng.
“He reacted.” Gu Kaifeng repeated, “Ji Mansion.”
The ghost was extremely excited. He even stretched out his hands to Gu Kaifeng as if he was about to pounce over and grab him. Lin Feiran quickly dragged Gu Kaifeng back two steps. The ghost howled low in his throat, but did not pounce.
“There’s really a connection.” Gu Kaifeng smiled. “What a coincidence?”
Lin Feiran searched his mind for information about the Ji Mansion. “I think I’ve heard of it...”
“You must have,” Gu Kaifeng said with certainty. “It’s one of the legendary haunted spots in this city. When I was in elementary school I even went there with some of my classmates, but didn’t even find a fart.”
At Gu Kaifeng’s reminder, Lin Feiran now recalled it. The Ji Mansion had been abandoned for many years and was a derelict and broken-down bungalow. There were once rumors of ghosts, but Lin Feiran had been terrified of such things before so he had not paid much attention and did not have a clear memory of it.
“You’ve even been there...” Lin Feiran’s face was full of admiration.
“Yeah. We were young and ignorant, like a pack of bear cubs. We broke the window and slipped in,” Gu Kaifeng recalled. “Inside was just a messy pile of furniture. Even if it were tossed out on the street, no one would want it. There was a very broken-down piano and it seemed dreary, but there was nothing at all and it wasn’t scary.”
Lin Feiran said obligingly, “You must not have been scared at all.”
Gu Kaifeng radiated so much Yang energy it would blind ghosts, so it might be the ghosts who were afraid of him!
The two of them looked up the Ji Mansion and kept talking, then Lin Feiran noticed that the dimly lit scene before them wasn’t quite right. He turned to see that the ghost was no longer lying on the piano, but standing several paces from the piano. He had regained his appearance from before his death. He was a very handsome and refined man, straight-backed, with an elegant, gentle smile. He stretched one hand in front of him, palm closing lightly around something which he brought down, then pulled back, as if he was opening a door for someone.
Lin Feiran quickly realized something. Just like the old school founder, this ghost with deep regrets also re-enacted the circumstances of his death at the same time every day...