CH 5.2

From this point onwards, the records were mostly connected to this particular black mobile phone that came out of nowhere. Chen Xu tried all sorts of method to get rid of it but to no avail. The mobile phone would return to his side, undamaged. 

1st October

I opened it. 

And it all made sense. 

But I refused it. 

I’ve already had enough of such abilities. 

Please don’t come back anymore.

“’It’ refers to the phone, right?” Tang Tian wondered to herself in a low voice. “If he refused it, that means that the phone must’ve made some request of him, or offered to make a deal, and he said no.” After some thought, she added, “More importantly, what exactly was Chen Xu’s special ability?”

Recalling the books she had read on the occult, it was said that only people with unsettled troubles would linger in the human world after death. How severe must his troubles be, for Chen Xu to seem so powerful even as a ghost?

Soon, she had flipped to the last entry. 

12th July 2007

It’s my birthday today. 

A bowl of soup took away my dearest Da Huang, my loyal companion for more than a decade, and another person, someone whom I once regarded as family. 

Whatever, I’m leaving this place.

The last entry was six months after the day he discovered the black mobile phone. He was only 16 years old then. 

The entry only had a few sentences, but between the lines, there was great melancholy and despair, and after this entry, there was nothing else written in this notebook. Since it was hidden amongst the vast number of books here, with piled up dust gathering on its side, no one seemed to have touched this book in a very long time. 

“Leaving at 16 years old? Was he going to study overseas?” Tang Tian remembered that, according to Wang Li, the Young Master of the Chen Family had studied at an overseas university, and even continued to pursue further studies after that. It seemed that he had intended to stay there, but came back at his father’s express request.

She rested her head on one hand in contemplation. “Was there some sort of poison in the soup that killed his pet dog? And ‘someone whom he once regarded as family’? Could that be Chen Bao, perhaps?”

In the latter half of his entries, he had barely mentioned anything about Chen Peng and Chen Bao. 

A ghost matchmaker like Wang Li wouldn’t have information about such events that happened years ago in this household. Only those living in this old estate would know a thing or two. 

“It seems that I need to mingle around with the people who live here.” For some reason, she, of all people, was being haunted by a ghost who couldn’t rest in peace. And after reading through this notebook, she had even more unresolved questions. 

With so little time left to live, what difference did it make if curiosity killed this cat?

Might as well use the rest of it to help him with his dying wish, whatever it is. 

The entries didn’t indicate where, or with whom, the phone ended up later, and Tang Tian suspected that Chen Xu never figured out how to get rid of it—maybe it followed him overseas. The existence of the mobile phone was too strange, and she fervently hoped that she would not come in contact with it. Thus, she didn’t even think to search the study. 

As she placed the notebook back in its original spot on the shelf, darkness engulfed her in an instant. 

“Ugh…”

The next morning, when Tang Tian opened her eyes and tried to move, a slight pain spread from the bottom of her neck to her shoulders. She instinctively reached her hand to the back of her neck. 

It must’ve been my posture while I slept.

She massaged her neck gently to ease the ache while she sat up. Her blanket slipped down from her chest onto the bed. Tang Tian then realised she was in her own bedroom, with no memory of how she had gotten back. Terrifying flashbacks of last night’s events resurfaced in her half-conscious mind and had the effect of shocking her awake, like so many buckets of cold water. 

“Another weird dream?”

As she moved to get out of bed, something unusual caught her eye—she was still wearing a pair of slippers. 

“…”

Should she feel grateful to him for safely returning her back to bed without forgetting to cover her body with a blanket, after bringing her out against her will in the middle of the night? 

But why did he forget to remove the shoes? 

No wonder she had felt something hard against the soles of her feet. 

Never mind, I shouldn’t have high expectations for a ghost. Who knows whether he still retains any of his human consciousness.

Tang Tian checked the date on her phone. It was the 17th of July. She suddenly thought back to the day she first saw Chen Xu in her nightmare, which was the 12th of July. It was also the same day as Chen Xu’s birthday.

Abruptly, a warm sensation rushed up her throat. She quickly bent down by the bedside, just as she had done many times before, and covered her mouth as she coughed violently.

After the coughing finally stopped, she grabbed some tissues that she had prepared beside her pillow and wiped away the blood on her hands. Glancing down, she watched with morbid fascination at the way the bloodstain slowly bloomed across the tissue paper, and was reminded of the doctor’s words.

“You have terminal stomach cancer. The cancerous cells have spread to the rest of your body, and chemotherapy can’t do much anymore.”

“By our best estimate, you have one more month, at the most.” 

That one sentence had sealed her fate. 

“Another twenty-three days left.” Tang Tian counted as she slowly got to her feet. That was how much time she had left, after excluding the time spent in the hospital and the long journey to get here. 

She sighed. “Time flew by way too fast.

“But I guess I’m the only one who feels that way. Everyone else in this estate would probably love it if time went more quickly.”

The sooner she died, the sooner they could finalise the ghost marriage. Only then could this family be rid of their worries. 

As she stepped forward to throw the bloody tissues into the bin, she froze in her tracks when she saw what lay in the space right next to her pillows. 

It was a mobile phone that she had never seen in her life. 

Its exterior was covered in streaks of ashen silver that gradually faded into a deep, inky black. Under the bright light, the unusual gradient reflected a multi-coloured hue.  

Tang Tian instantly felt a shiver race down her spine.