"Xu Yin, this is for you."
Songs upon songs were written on the blood-stained sheet music, every note radiating a cheerful melody.
The crackle of static buzzed in his ears, but Xu Yin did not reach for the sheet music in Chen Ge's hand.
He stood silently in place, just as he always had — stationed at Chen Ge's side, never speaking a word, indifferent to everything.
Deceived by the person he loved most. Hurt by the person he loved most. Dismembered by the person he loved most.
It seemed that from the moment the blade pierced his heart, Xu Yin had ceased to be himself.
Every hope, every joy, every shred of love — all of it smashed to pieces.
He had drunk the beverage handed to him by his beloved without the slightest guard. In a daze, he glimpsed his beloved standing beside him, holding a knife.
He wanted to scream, but no sound came out. He wanted to struggle, but his body refused to obey.
All he could do was stare into the face of his beloved and let despair slowly swallow him whole.
After becoming a vengeful ghost, Xu Yin had lost all reason. Every time he encountered an enemy, no matter how powerful, he would charge in like a madman.
He wanted his soul to scatter and vanish. He wanted to end the despair and the pain. He had been actively seeking death all along.
And yet a person like that met Chen Ge.
Whenever the despair drove him mad and the pain became unbearable, Chen Ge would always be there to prop him up, battered and scarred as he was.
In Chen Ge's eyes when he looked at Xu Yin, there was never fear or disgust — only tenderness and concern.
The only person in this world who could truly understand Xu Yin was Chen Ge.
"Take it. More than I want you to grow stronger, I want you to smile again, like you used to."
Chen Ge handed the sheet music to Xu Yin, but the moment Xu Yin's fingers touched it, the worn pages were instantly soaked through with blood.
Song after song — records of beautiful memories — twisted and blurred, forming new words.
"I am a bird that has lost its voice. No one can hear my cry."
"My lover plucked out every feather and drove a knife into my heart."
"They cradled my corpse in their arms and said all of this was for my own good."
"I understand. I know."
"The one she loves — she will create with her own hands."
Blood-red words surfaced across the sheet music, tearing apart the beauty to reveal the gory, cruel side beneath.
Throughout the entire process, Xu Yin had done nothing. He had simply been holding the sheet music from before.
"I can't go back…"
A bird, scarred and pierced through by a blade, had long since lost its clear, bright song.
The sheet music that once recorded beautiful times was steeped in blood, slipping through Xu Yin's fingers. Just before it hit the ground, a pair of hands caught it.
"It's all right. Don't force yourself to embrace the beauty of the past. You can have your own happiness in the present, too."
It was as though light was hidden in Chen Ge's eyes. He patted Xu Yin on the shoulder. "Compared to when I first met you, you've already changed so much. I'll always be by your side."
After finding his heart again, Xu Yin's emotions had grown far more stable. He was no longer controlled by pain and despair, and other colors had begun to appear in his world.
"Someday, I'll make sure you — and everyone in the haunted house — find happiness."
Chen Ge set the blood-stained sheet music on the table, his gaze gentle yet brimming with strength.
Standing before Chen Ge, Xu Yin opened his mouth but produced no sound. His pale fingers brushed lightly across the sheet music, and his body slowly dissolved into threads of blood.
Xu Yin took the sheet music with him. Just before his body faded away entirely, he wrote one final short verse upon it.
"The world kisses me with pain, yet I still wish to answer it with song."
The prop room fell silent. Chen Ge stared at the spot where Xu Yin had vanished.
In the very last instant before Xu Yin disappeared, Chen Ge noticed a terrifyingly powerful force surge from within him. He seemed to have broken through some kind of shackle, carving dark patterns upon his own heart.
"Did Xu Yin realize something? His aura suddenly intensified, and it's starting to differentiate from the other Reds. Those dark markings on his heart resemble the patterns on Zhang Ya's dress hem. Could Xu Yin have planted a seed of a malevolent god within himself?"
"Could the things I drew from the Black Phone really be that useful to the Reds? No — at Men Nan's place, aside from his favorability toward me skyrocketing, his own strength didn't increase at all. I suppose the effects vary from person to person."
The items drawn from the wheel contained sealed fragments of a vengeful ghost's past. They could help vengeful ghosts and Reds become more complete, but they were ultimately only external aids.
The real reason Xu Yin had undergone such a profound transformation was Chen Ge himself.
Who would have thought that a ghost who had done nothing but "seek death" would meet the gentlest person of all?
…
At 8:10 in the evening, the door of a sundry shop on West Street in the old city was smashed open.
Snacks and all manner of goods were scattered across the floor. Before long, a young man in a white shirt was dragged out of the room.
"Brother Bao, Brother Eagle — this doesn't involve family. We had a deal. I'll give you the money." There was blood on the young man's face, but he seemed not to feel the pain. He struggled to his feet from the ground.
"You think we're going to believe you again? A cunning rabbit has three burrows! If you hadn't kept moving around to dodge us, would we have ended up here?" A bare-chested middle-aged man stepped out from inside, smashing a beer bottle in his hand. A scar ran from the corner of his eye, and a leopard's head was tattooed on his arm.
"Brother Bao! Three days at most! I'll scrape the money together and get it to you!" The young man lay on the ground, repeating himself over and over.
"And with what are you going to pay me back?" Brother Bao grabbed the broken beer bottle and thrust its sharpest jagged end toward the young man's face. "I reckon this one-legged grandfather of yours is worth a few coins. Tell him to sell the shop — maybe that'll cover the number."
"No! Absolutely not! That's my grand—"
"What nonsense are you spouting? What right do you have to say no?" The other man — Eagle — slapped his own waist, as if a knife were hidden there.
"Leave my family out of this. I'll get you the money no matter what! Three days — just give me three more days!"
"Fine. If three days from now the money isn't in my hands, I'll take one of your hands." Brother Bao seized the young man by the hair and forced the one lying face-down on the ground to look into his eyes. "There was a guy before who tried to welch. I chopped off his hand — blood everywhere, couldn't stop it no matter what. Want to see that hand? I've kept it as a souvenir."
"No, no need — I'll figure out a way to pay you back. I swear." The young man knelt humbly on the ground, staying there until Brother Bao and Brother Eagle finally left.
He wiped the blood from his face, hung his head, and pushed open the sundry shop's door.
Soda bottles and beer bottles lay shattered on the floor. The shelves had been knocked over. In the middle of the small room sat an old man with a limp.
The old man was advanced in years. A beer bottle had struck his head, and the blood was vividly stark against his white hair.
"Who are you?"
Sometime during the ruckus, another person had appeared in the little shop alongside the old man — a middle-aged man wearing a red coat. He held alcohol and cotton swabs, carefully picking shards of broken glass from the old man's wound.
"Why did that group only beat up your grandfather and not you?" There was not a trace of emotion in the red-coated man's voice.
"My grandpa wanted to protect the shop, so he fought with them…"
"How much money do you owe them?