“Beep beep beep!”
The sudden ringing of the phone jolted me awake from a nightmare. I clutched my wildly pounding chest and struggled to sit up in bed.
Hot sunlight streamed in through the window, casting square, dazzling patches on the grayish-blue antique-style brick floor.
I was dazed for a moment before I realized I was lying in Si Jiangchen's bedroom.
“Hello...”
Without even bothering to wipe the cold sweat from my forehead, I quickly answered the phone.
“Hello what? Xiao He, do you want to starve your grandpa to death?”
My grandpa's voice boomed out from the receiver. “The sun is already high up, and you're still not up?”
“Grandpa, I'll go right away!”
I instinctively jumped up, but a sudden bout of dizziness hit me, and I flopped back onto the bed.
“Xiao He, are you awake?”
Si Jiangchen's voice came from the doorway, scaring me so much that I quickly stuffed my phone under the pillow.
“What's wrong?”
Si Jiangchen walked in, carrying a faint aroma of ingredients. “Since you're awake, get up and have something to eat.”
Saying that, he naturally leaned down and was about to kiss me somewhere on my face. I quickly covered his mouth and frantically winked at him to keep quiet.
Si Jiangchen understood what I meant. He took my fingers and kissed them gently, then whispered in my ear, “Get up and have breakfast later.”
“...” I nodded silently.
Watching Si Jiangchen's tall figure walk out against the sunlight, I hurriedly pulled out my phone from under the pillow.
“Hello, Grandpa... Wait for me. I'm already buying breakfast!”
Saying that, without waiting for my grandpa's reply, I immediately hung up the phone, jumped out of bed, and ran into the bathroom.
After quickly brushing my teeth and washing up, I grabbed my backpack and was about to run out.
Unexpectedly, Si Jiangchen just happened to walk out of the kitchen. He reached out and grabbed my waist, lifting me up. “If you leave without eating, you might faint again.”
“I don't have time! I don't have time! Grandpa will scold me to death!”
I was extremely anxious. “I forgot to bring him breakfast!”
Ignoring my struggles, Si Jiangchen carried me back to the dining room. “It's all ready. Have your breakfast first, and then take a portion over. I'll ask Ji Chen to take you there.”
“Um... No, I can take the subway. It'll be fast.”
I wasn't used to being picked up and dropped off. I felt more convenient going on my own. If there was a full - time driver, I always felt like I was being supervised all the time. Moreover, Si Jiangchen's flashy luxury car couldn't even drive on the small alleys in Beijing. Just thinking about it made me feel annoyed!
Si Jiangchen didn't insist either, but he just demanded that I must have breakfast before going.
My grandpa's phone calls came in one after another like a death knell. I couldn't sit still any longer. I just grabbed two slices of golden - brown toasted bread, picked up the insulated lunch box, and ran out of Si Jiangchen's yard...
In the end, I still took Ji Chen's car to the hospital.
Because he was driving a very ordinary domestic car today. He was waiting outside the hospital gate, saying that General Manager Si had required him to make sure to take me to the hospital. If he failed to do so, he wouldn't have to go back to work.
I didn't know how much of what Ji Chen said was true, but seeing his dejected face, I really couldn't refuse his request.
In the car, I finished the toasted bread and fried eggs I had brought out.
I asked Ji Chen if he had had breakfast. That guy gave me a sly look and said it was General Manager Si's loving breakfast, and he wasn't lucky enough to enjoy it.
The car was really fast. I arrived at the ward in less than twenty minutes.
As soon as I pushed open the door, I saw a crowd gathered around my grandpa's hospital bed. There were patients in hospital gowns and family members in ordinary clothes. They were all chattering and seemed to be asking something of my grandpa.
“Time to eat!”
I walked into the room with the lunch box in my hand, and the crowd immediately made way for me.
“Hey, it's Xiao He!”
“What a filial child! Here comes the breakfast!”
...
I was a bit confused by their sudden praise. I looked at Du Wenzhong sitting on the hospital bed with a questioning look in my eyes, wondering what was going on.
Unexpectedly, Du Wenzhong put on a proud face and ignored me.
“Xiao He, you don't know... There was a ghost in our ward last night!”
The speaker was the uncle in the bed near the ward door, the one I saw with the blood - red eyes on his back last night.
“In the middle of the night, I don't know how, but I just woke up.”
The uncle's face was pale. Even though it was broad daylight and the ward was full of people, he still trembled a little when he spoke. “All the lights in our room were off. Only the light from the corridor shone in through the glass on the door...”
Saying that, he shivered. “I saw... I saw a grayish - white shadow floating in... and it just pounced on me!”
“Ah?!”
I immediately thought that the shadow was probably a clone of the One - Eyed Buddha Mother, out looking for something to eat!
Damn it! I suddenly felt a bit remorseful. I was so distracted by Bai Wei and the others at the banquet yesterday that I completely forgot about the hospital. I didn't even have time to mention Yang Fan and the “Buddha Mother” to Si Jiangchen. If I'm not mistaken, Yang Fan has already become a host for the “One - Eyed Buddha Mother”. As long as the Buddha Mother isn't driven out of Yang Fan's body, she can keep cloning herself. The more souls she absorbs, the stronger she'll become, and she'll have more clones...
“Look at what you're saying. You're scaring the kids!”
The uncle's wife gently slapped him on the arm. “I've told you it was just a nightmare. You were just having a bad dream!”
“It wasn't a nightmare. It was real! If it weren't for the talisman Master Du gave and hidden under my pillow, someone in our ward might have died!”
The uncle didn't agree with his wife at all. He slowly opened his tightly - clenched right hand, and inside was the talisman I gave them for free. “When that grayish - white shadow pounced on me, I was so scared that I quickly closed my eyes. It thought I was asleep and pressed its face against mine... It was so cold!”
The uncle rubbed his face hard. “I felt like it wanted to suck out my soul! I was almost fainting, but then, a warm current suddenly came from under my pillow. It was like a hand that pulled me back!”
My precaution yesterday had finally paid off. Using those talismans to protect them seemed to be the right thing to do!
As I was thinking this, the uncle spoke again. “That ghost thing found it couldn't suck me... so it turned to Uncle Wang in the second bed.”
Saying that, he pointed to the bed opposite his. “Although I was squinting, I could see clearly! That thing's tongue was long and thin. It stuck it out and licked Uncle Wang's nostrils... Uncle Wang had a talisman in his chest pocket! It bounced that thing far away!”
“Alas!”
Uncle Wang in the second bed took out his own talisman with a worried look on his face. It was completely blackened. The head and body of the talisman were burnt beyond recognition. “I don't know what's going on, but this is really scary... Miss Xiao He, do you still have these talismans? I want to buy a few more!”