Chapter 10: Does That Make You Happy?

Video-calling at a time like this—no matter how you looked at it, it reeked of a show of force.

Mingyang stared down at his phone, his blood running cold, hands and feet like ice.

Normally, seeing Gu Yuan was the thing he looked forward to most. But today, he had no idea whether he should pick up or not.

It was Lu Yiyan who picked up the phone for him and handed it over: "Put it on speaker."

Mingyang's breath trembled as he took the phone from Lu Yiyan's hand.

He stared at the screen for a long while before finally swiping to answer.

"Hello? Yangyang."

"Why'd it take you so long to pick up? You—" The man's voice on the other end was deep and magnetic, sounding no different from any normal person.

He paused, then frowned: "What happened to your face?"

Mingyang instinctively dodged away from the camera. "Noth—"

But the moment he spoke, he realized his voice was frighteningly hoarse. He quickly cleared his throat: "Nothing much—"

"What happened?" Gu Yuan frowned, his voice low.

Mingyang looked at the phone screen.

Gu Yuan in the video was probably sitting in a car—his features were hard to make out, and only when they passed a light source could the man's outline be faintly seen.

He was holding his phone a bit low, so only his jawline and slightly thin lips were visible.

Mingyang had never noticed before—Gu Yuan's skin was so pale, so pale that you could even see the blue veins on his neck.

"Got into a fight?" Gu Yuan asked. "Does it hurt?"

Mingyang pressed his lips together, gripping the phone tightly, and said nothing.

"What's wrong?" Gu Yuan seemed to sense something. "Are you unhappy?"

"Did something happen?"

The man's voice carried endless patience, impossibly gentle.

Mingyang finally steadied his breathing and said through gritted teeth: "...It's really nothing."

"...You don't want to talk about it?" Gu Yuan paused for half a second, as if thinking something over. "Can't you tell me either?"

"Or did I make you upset?"

"...No." Mingyang looked at the phone screen, listening to the man's words, and rubbed his eyes.

Gu Yuan was so real.

So gentle.

How could he possibly be a dead man?

"Then why?" Gu Yuan paused for half a second, then ventured tentatively: "Why does it feel like you don't really want to talk to me?"

Mingyang took a deep breath, not knowing how to answer.

Actually, before answering the video call, he'd been a little afraid. But the moment it connected, his fear vanished instantly.

Looking at Gu Yuan in the video, he just felt wronged.

He felt miserable.

He was afraid he wouldn't be able to control his emotions.

"...No," Mingyang rubbed his eyes again and mumbled, "If there's nothing else, I'm hanging up."

"Wait—don't. Don't hang up."

"Don't, Yangyang." Gu Yuan called out repeatedly to stop him, but it was clearly useless—Mingyang raised his hand to end the call.

"Mingyang."

Gu Yuan suddenly called him by his full name, and Mingyang froze for a moment.

The man shifted his body into the light.

He adjusted his position, and then his entire face appeared on the phone screen.

Gu Yuan stared at the phone, that gaze seeming to pierce through the screen: "Mingyang."

The man's voice had changed somewhat—flat, without inflection—his eyes fixed straight on the phone: "What exactly is wrong with you?"

As he spoke, the skin of his face twisted eerily from the movement. He asked: "Or did someone say something to you?"

When Mingyang's eyes met Gu Yuan's, his heart lurched violently!

His fingertips trembled, and he nearly dropped the phone.

Lu Yiyan steadied him.

"Mingyang," the man's voice came again, "whatever problem you're facing, you can tell me."

He said: "I won't hurt you."

Hearing this, Mingyang slowly closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

Gu Yuan's voice was firm and earnest: "I will never hurt you."

What should he do?

Whose words should he listen to?

On one side was the boyfriend he'd been with for five years.

On the other—Mingyang looked at Lu Yiyan.

Their eyes met. The young man's eyes were warm and bright.

After a long moment, Lu Yiyan gently shook his head.

Mingyang took a deep breath, his eyes shifting, and said to Gu Yuan: "I just..."

"I just had a disagreement with a friend," Mingyang said. "There's nothing I'm hiding from you."

Gu Yuan lowered his eyes, a trace of disappointment in his expression that was easy to miss.

After a moment, he raised his eyes again and said: "Mingyang, I'm your boyfriend. You can trust me."

"I love you," Gu Yuan looked at the camera, his words sincere—almost pleading: "Will you believe me?"

Hearing this, Mingyang felt as if something had seized his heart.

He looked at Gu Yuan and opened his mouth, but it was as if something was stuck in his throat—he couldn't make a sound.

Lu Yiyan gently tapped Mingyang's phone screen, signaling him to look.

Mingyang followed his gaze and saw the driver sitting beside Gu Yuan.

The driver looked very strange, dressed in a black Tang-style suit, both hands gripping the steering wheel.

His mouth and cheeks were very red, but it didn't look like healthy coloring at all—more like he'd rubbed against something. His eyes were wide open, staring straight ahead, the corners of his mouth turned up in a constant smile.

So strange. A little eerie.

Just as Mingyang was staring at him, the driver suddenly turned his head back!

The pale streetlights shone through the car window onto the driver's face, light and shadow intermingling eerily across his features.

He was still smiling, eyebrows raised, eyes wide.

Suddenly! His eyeballs jerked! And locked onto Mingyang's gaze!

Mingyang screamed and immediately hung up!

In an instant, everything around him went silent.

Gu Yuan's fingers curled in the darkness.

His fingertips rubbed back and forth across the phone screen.

*

Mingyang's heart was racing, his body trembling uncontrollably.

The faces of everyone around him had gone pale too, each one looking as if they'd seen a ghost, staring at Mingyang: "You... who were you just talking to?"

Mingyang was still shaken, his mouth open, gasping for breath.

"Who were you just talking to?" his friends looked at Mingyang. "We—"

"We—why did that voice sound so strange?"

In everyone else's eyes, Mingyang had been talking to himself the entire time.

Yet somehow his words seemed to have back-and-forth responses.

Until the very end, when a few extremely agonized shrieks suddenly came from the phone!

Like a person unable to speak, air forced from the lungs! It sounded utterly shrill and piercing!

Mingyang blinked blankly.

"Lu Yiyan," a friend suddenly called out, "what were those sounds coming from the phone just now?"

This question snapped quite a few people back to their senses: "That ghost isn't going to come after us, is it?"

"Is there any way to help Mingyang?"

"Just kill that ghost and be done with it!"

Hearing this, Mingyang's head shot up: "No!"

He backed away several steps, clutching his phone, lips trembling: "I—I can handle it myself..."

"I don't need your help!"

With that, he turned and ran.

"Hey! You've lost your mind!" A few of Mingyang's closer friends, afraid something would happen to him, chased after him. "Mingyang! What the hell are you doing!"

The scene instantly descended into chaos.

"Lu Yiyan," the one who was closest to Mingyang hadn't run after him. He looked at Lu Yiyan and asked: "Is Mingyang really going to die in three days?"

Even though the two had just come to blows, they were still friends at the end of the day, and he didn't want Mingyang to actually die.

Honestly, that little brat Mingyang was actually pretty decent.

"Do you have any way to help him? I have money."

"Or..." The man thought for a moment. "I remember when my mom got tangled up with something nasty before, she went to some temple?"

"If I take Mingyang to a temple to pray, could he avoid it?"

Lu Yiyan laughed at this. He looked at the man, calm and composed: "No need."

"As long as he wants to live," Lu Yiyan said flatly, a smile on his lips, as if stating something impossibly simple, "I can protect him."

As long as he wants to live.

If a ghost blocks the way, destroy the ghost. If a Buddha blocks the way, destroy the Buddha.

Pray to what deity?

Pray to me.