Ch63 - Suspicion

Jiang Aida remembered very clearly that there had been a lot of suspiciously ghost-like spirits appearing in the picture at that time. But Lu Xu had denied it very confidently, and she had unconsciously started to doubt the reliability of her memory.

Ji Xiunian had also happened to be there at the time, so she couldn’t help but want to confirm it.

“I remember they were there, but Lu Xu said they weren’t, it’s making me confused and up until now I still don’t know if they were or weren’t there…”

Jiang Aida’s expression was full of frustration, and she waited for Ji Xiunian to give her a definite answer.

“No.” Ji Xiunian hesitated for a moment and remembered Jiang Aida saying Lu Xu had told her there weren’t any. In the end, he shook his head. “It’s just a bunch of photos with dark lighting. If you look at it now, there’s nothing on there right?”

“That’s right.” Jiang Aida shrugged and thought that maybe she really had remembered it wrong. “There’s nothing in the pictures, could it be that I was too nervous at the time and remembered incorrectly?”

Ji Xiunian looked down at his palm and didn’t say anything else.

He almost never told lies, but for some reason this time, he immediately went along with Lu Xu’s words and followed through with it.

Luckily, Jiang Aida wasn’t the kind to question it to the end, so she just casually spoke and didn’t worry over it anymore, “Nian ge, you should rest well. I’ll leave first. It was really too dangerous this time, but there’s a very good saying, there will definitely be fortune after a big disaster. You and Lu Xu have gone through so much, there will definitely be good karma in the future.”

Ji Xiunian nodded his head slightly. “Hopefully.” When he said that, he couldn’t help looking towards the door, as though expecting that person to come. “What about Lu Xu, is he okay?”

Fan Zeng shook his head and laughed. “Rest assured, that kid is doing fine. I originally wanted him to take a rest, in the end, he said he was fine and wanted to take part in the filming. Oh, the eliminations for the first round are going to be announced soon, a lot of trainees really like Lu Xu. Let’s take a group photo first then talk.”

“So that’s how it is.” Ji Xiunian nodded, then was silent for a while. After going through such a dangerous and exciting experience, for Lu Xu to be able to film the show as usual, he really had a great mentality.

He was also a trainee, so it was natural for him to be with the other trainees.

This reasoning wasn’t wrong, but Ji Xiunian still hoped that Lu Xu would come and see him. In fact, he had a lot of questions for him, but now it seemed like he would just have to wait.

Ji Xiunian picked up his phone, and after thinking about it over and over, he still sent a message to Lu Xu––

[Ji Xiunian: Are you okay?]

The other side only replied after half an hour—

[SS-Lu Xu: We had to film a shot just now and I just got my phone back. I’m doing quite well. What’s up, Nian ge?]

[Ji Xiunian: There are some things I want to confirm with you in person, I don’t know if it’s convenient for you.]

Once he sent that message out, Ji Xiunian immediately regretted it a bit. He vaguely felt that Lu Xu was hiding a really big secret, maybe he shouldn’t be curious. If Lu Xu felt offended, wouldn’t he distance himself?

Just as Ji Xiunian was thinking if he could withdraw his message in time, Lu Xu had already sent a reply––

[SS-Lu Xu: Of course, let’s meet up and talk later when there’s time.]

Just looking at the message alone, he didn’t think that there was a change in Lu Xu’s attitude, so Ji Xiunian was much more relieved.

After he thought about it, he sent another message––

[Ji Xiunian: Thank you for saving me, I don’t know how to thank you.]

[SS-Lu Xu: Hahaha, if there’s a chance later, use your life as repayment?]

Upon first glance of that sentence, Ji Xiunian had thought that Lu Xu had typo-ed ‘body’ as ‘life’.

Giving your body to someone or something like that, it made him unconsciously think about the kiss underwater.

Charming and dreamy, with a fatal attraction…

Even he hadn’t noticed that he wasn’t rejecting this notion of Lu Xu’s request of ‘giving up your body as repayment’.

Without waiting for him to overthink it, Lu Xu sent another message––

[SS-Lu Xu: Nian ge, I’m kidding. Let’s talk when we meet.]

Lu Xu added a laughing sticker at the end. Across the screen, Ji Xiunian could imagine Lu Xu’s smiling demeanour.

“See you later.”

That was what Ji Xiunian thought. When he regained his senses, he couldn’t resist searching up things related to Devil’s Bay.

He had no way to explain to others what he had seen, he could only search for some evidence himself then wait to speak with Lu Xu.

But ever since they had got off the cruise ship, Ji Xiunian hadn’t met with Lu Xu.

Although he kept saying that he was fine, for safety’s sake Fan Zeng still sent him to the hospital for a full body checkup. After making sure that there weren’t any problems, only then did they send a car to take him back to the apartment. By that time it was already early morning.

At this time, the apartment was especially quiet. The trainees were all silent.

When passing by room 201, Ji Xiunian especially took note, thinking that at this time Lu Xu was probably already sleeping, so he wouldn’t go disturb him.

“Nian ge is back!”

“Nian ge, are you okay?”

“Wuuuu, when you weren’t here we missed you.”

…

The F4 saw Ji Xiunian coming over and immediately gathered in excitement.

He Xinghua looked at Ji Xiunian from the left and from the right. Seeing that he was still breathing, he patted his chest and said happily, “Thankfully Nian ge is all right, otherwise our group might have become the F5.”

When Ji Xiunian heard this he was a bit surprised. “You know about what happened at Devil’s Bay?”

“Yes yes. When we heard about it we were so worried about you, but after remembering that you were with Master Lu Xu, you definitely would’ve been fine…”

This wasn’t the first time Ji Xiunian had heard the F4 calling him Master Lu Xu.

In the very beginning, he had thought that the F4 were just childish spirits, learning from comics and calling people master. Now that it was in this context, it was hard for Ji Xiunian not to overthink it.

“Have you seen Lu Xu today?”

“Not yet.” Dai Zijin really wanted to talk to idols, and immediately shook his head. “Master Lu Xu didn’t come back much earlier than you, and there were a lot of people around him. We couldn’t even get close…”

“Right right, as expected of our master, his popularity is too great.”

The F4 spoke excitedly with pride. They were too excited, and couldn’t help telling the entire world the attractiveness of their Master Grim Reaper, and didn’t even notice that Ji Xiunian’s expression was becoming more and more complicated.

“So, if you were trapped here and can’t move, and you didn’t see Lu Xu, how did you know about what happened in Devil’s Bay?”

The F4 who had been talking back and forth about Ji Xiunian suddenly went mute. They looked at one another, suddenly not knowing if they should keep talking.

Humans and ghosts were different.

They each lived in their own worlds, for them to disturb one another, there was originally no connection between them.

But for these ghosts who had been wandering in the human realm and were able to meet Ji Xiunian, there was naturally an intersection.

Seeing that the F4 was struggling, Ji Xiunian didn’t push them, he just lightly said, “If I recall correctly, you all still have an evaluation, right? The instructors should have a comprehensive understanding of the trainees’ information. If you were to purposely hide something, I’m afraid there’s no longer any way for me to continue being your instructor…”

“Don’t, Nian ge!”

When the F4 heard this they became agitated, hurriedly explaining, “We didn’t mean to hide anything, we just didn’t know where to begin…”

Ji Xiunian looked at them in silence, implying that it depended on their behaviour.

The four ghosts looked at each other, evidently still somewhat hesitant.

“To be honest, our lives aren’t some secret. Anyways, Nian ge will know sooner or later, so there shouldn’t be a problem with telling him beforehand.” It was He Xinghua who finally thought through to this point and slapped at his thigh as he said, “Truthfully, our ghost world is pretty similar to your mortal realm. Simply put, the mortal realm has its internet, and we have our ghost internet. Something like the fact that many ghosts suddenly went on the road to the underworld from Devil’s Bay would definitely result in ghosts being curious and inquiring about it. And then the message will spread, so we also found out about it…”

Ji Xiunian felt like he had entered some new world as he listened to the F4’s explanation. These events were a part of a world he couldn’t even imagine.

This was obviously the first time he had listened to ghosts talking about the shadow realm’s events, but for some reason, Ji Xiunian felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity.

Seeing that Ji Xiunian was still cold and silent, He Xinghua couldn’t help but overthink. The more he thought, the more information he slipped out.

“Nian ge, we really didn’t want to hide it from you. Didn’t you also not ask about it before? Furthermore, this isn’t something we purposely went to find out about. It’s because the ghosts that came out of Devil’s Bay are talking about it everywhere, so the entire ghost realm knows about you jumping into the ocean…”

This was not false. Even Ji Xiunian knew that there were many dead spirits nearby when he jumped into the water to save Lu Xu.

He only knew that those dead spirits had watched him jump into the water, but he didn’t know the dead spirits all generally thought he was a little stupid.

He was merely a mortal human with a fleshly body and he had actually dreamed of going under the ocean to save a grim reaper. He didn’t even find the person and almost became a quota himself. In a certain sense, Ji Xiunian really lived and died for Master Lu Xu.

Fortunately, his life hadn’t ended and he had lived to return to the mortal realm. Many of the dead spirits felt that Ji Xiunian’s life was rather difficult; normal people would have died many times already in this situation. No one felt like Lu Xu had been purposely avoiding his work duties; after all, Lu Xu had no interests in anything other than his work.

If Ji Xiunian was really supposed to die at that time, Lu Xu could have just sent him off on the spot.

The F4 also only found out what had happened at Devil’s Bay from their ghost friend circles. On one hand, they were happy for Lu Xu in that he had sent away so many souls in one go. Master Grim Reaper’s performance quota was definitely rushing towards first place.

But on the other hand, they were afraid for Ji Xiunian and were glad nothing had happened.

Although they didn’t feel much after having been dead for so long, most things were more interesting when done alive.

Death was not scary, but if they had a choice, living was better than being dead.

The F4 carefully told Ji Xiunian about the world after death, fearing he really wouldn’t want to give them an evaluation.

“So, what kind of person is Lu Xu actually?”

“Ai?”

The F4 had originally adopted the philosophy of ‘if you don’t ask we won’t talk about it’, but they hadn’t thought Ji Xiunian would immediately ask about Lu Xu when he opened his mouth.

Although their situations were not secrets, they could not involve the privacy of Master Grim Reaper.

Especially knowing that Lu Xu had a task at hand, they were afraid they would disturb Lu Xu’s plans and wouldn’t open their mouths no matter what.

They stubbornly claimed that they were merely Lu Xu’s fans and didn’t know anything else.

But these four ghosts always wore their emotions on their sleeves. In a glance, Ji Xiunian could tell that they were lying.

The more they insisted they didn’t have any relation with Lu Xu, the more Ji Xiunian became certain there was something else he didn’t know.

“Lu Xu isn’t a normal person, right?”

The F4 shook their head and expressed that they didn’t know anything, before slipping away like they were purposely avoiding Ji Xiunian’s questions.

Ji Xiunian was helpless and could only sit there thinking up plans.

With complicated emotions, he opened the door. Before the lights even came on, he heard Ba Mei’s excited ‘meow’.

“Ba Mei, I’m back…”

Ji Xiunian originally wanted to call Ba Mei over, but after scanning the living room he was rooted to the spot in shock––

He had just come in and hadn’t turned on the lights yet. The moonlight filtering into the room was neither bright nor dark.

With the moonlight, he could see someone sitting on the couch. Long, slender fingers were on Ba Mei’s body, helping it comb its fur, gently and patiently.

He couldn’t see the face clearly with the backlight, but the body shape and profile were outlined very clearly by the moonlight.

The image of the youth holding the cat and waiting for him was like a paper-cut silhouette, making him feel unsure whether it was reality or a dream.

Ji Xiunian’s hand stopped by the lightswitch, suddenly not knowing whether he should turn the lights on.

That person over on that side heard the movement and tilted their head, still hugging Ba Mei and slowly standing up.

Click!

The lights came on with a sound, and a very familiar face was seen very clearly.

“The grim reaper is three metres tall with strong muscles…”

“He even has a cat, covered with black fur…”

Lai Chengshan’s previous words rang in his ear. Ji Xiunian looked at Lu Xu who was standing in front of him, holding the cat, and he couldn’t help feeling at a loss…

nao: ghosts to jxn: you’re stupid. i like that in a man.

peep jxn thinking about his underwater kiss for the next 1839018 years

happy lunar new year! happy the year of the ox!