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“Ah…” Ji Huan’s mouth opened, but only spoke one word before he stopped speaking.
Hiding in the familiar courtyard was the only thing he could think of at that moment. Even though he knew that he probably wouldn’t be able to escape, Ji Huan’s instinct was still to look for a way out for himself, Grandpa and Hei Dan.
The courtyard where he usually worked was very remote. So remote that, other than Ah Jin, he had never seen another person. Maybe, just maybe, there was a one-in-a-thousand chance that they could hide there from the others’ murderous pursuit.
For this one-in-a-thousand chance, Ji Huan used the last of his strength to jump into the courtyard. Who would’ve thought that he would’ve met Ah Jin there by chance?
Ji Huan stared across at Ah Jin quietly.
He watched Ah Jin stand up.
Ah Jin was just as elegant as he always was.
Each movement had its own set of rules. Ah Jin was like a still-life painting that could move.
He had always thought that Ah Jin was an especially unusual man. Having lived this long, it was the first time Ji Huan had met such a person that was eternally composed and knew almost everything.
He could help Ji Huan solve difficult school work problems. No matter how difficult, no matter what subject, there had never been a problem that was difficult for Ah Jin. He also explained in detail the advantages and disadvantages of each major when Ji Huan was choosing a major. Schools in small areas never paid much attention to that sort of thing. Schools only valued minimum passing scores and the reputation of the school, but no one said anything about what specific major suited which student. Unlike Wang Xiaochuan, whose major had been decided from the very beginning because of his parents, Ji Huan’s grandpa didn’t understand it at all. The relationship between Ji Huan and his teacher was very ordinary, so ultimately, Ji Huan received advice on choosing a major from Ah Jin. Ah Jin analyzed his advantages and disadvantages one by one before analyzing every major in Jinghua University for him. Although he didn’t clearly indicate what major Ji Huan was suited for in the end, Ji Huan had cleared his mind. Ah Jin also showed him how to choose an appropriate place to live when he arrived in Jingdu and he even gave Ji Huan advice on clothing colors.
Ah Jin was a refined, meticulous person, from the most general sense to the finest details. When he was with him, Ji Huan couldn’t help but be fearfully cautious, trying to do the best he could as if he didn’t, Ah Jin would get angry.
Strange…
Ah Jin clearly seemed to be a gentle person.
Ji Huan felt his eyelids getting heavier and his eyes getting blurry.
He felt very cold.
With hazy eyes, he saw Ah Jin stand up and, as he usually did, take steps that were neither urgent or slow. Stepping down the corridor and wading through the water, he walked towards him.
Ah Jin’s clothes were just as white as the water lilies in the pond. When he climbed ashore, Ji Huan found that his exposed skin was even paler than his clothes.
Those pale feet were set before Ji Huan’s eyes.
Ji Huan strained to lift his head up and he saw Ah Jin looking down at him, his eyes like stagnant water deeper than the night. He saw Ah Jin’s mouth open faintly and he seemed to say something to him, but —
“Ah Jin, I… I’ve gone deaf, I can’t hear what you’re saying…” Murmuring with his mouth, Ji Huan spoke hoarsely.
Then, he saw the always composed Ah Jin suddenly show an astonished expression on his face. He felt his chin being lifted by him and it seemed like his ears were being examined. Ji Huan suddenly smiled: “Ah Jin, you, you really are a gentle… good person.”
The expression on Ah Jin’s face, however, grew even stranger.
But, Ji Huan didn’t notice it at the time. The scene in front of his eyes had already started to blur together.
“I said before, that when I was admitted to Jinghua University, I would take you to meet my Grandpa and let you see Hei Dan, but it seems that it’s going to be ahead of time…”
Under the moonlight, the battered and exhausted teenager was stained from head to toe, including with blood. His appearance even looked a little sinister. However, in such a despairing situation, the teenager suddenly smiled.
“Look, this… is my Grandpa and Hei Dan…”
It was no longer the stiff smile from before, but one that was a little innocent with a bit of childish nature. For the first time, Ji Huan showed a smile like his age.
With the smile still hanging on the corner of his mouth, Ji Huan’s eyes slowly closed.
Grandpa, this is Ah Jin. He’s a friend I made during that time.
Hei Dan, this man’s name is Ah Jin, you should call him… What should you call him? There hadn’t been many people around in his childhood for Ji Huan to be troubled by the issue of how to address personal relationships.
However, he was feeling troubled in his heart now.
In front of him, Ah Jin had been warping and shifting with the red paper lanterns in the wooden corridor behind him. Squinting his eyes, Ji Huan was bewildered by what he was seeing.
Without hearing, without eyesight, without being able to feel pain in his body or feel the touch of others, Ji Huan was currently in a very fantastical stage.
His heartbeat stopped, his blood no longer flowed. The body that had been heavy before suddenly relaxed, and he felt as if he was floating upwards.
Ji Huan in the air was suddenly taken aback: he saw a very strange scene.
The courtyard was still the same courtyard. Having cleaned the corridors there every day, he had long grown used to seeing the grass, trees, mountains and rocks there. He had believed that he was very familiar with the courtyard, but—
When had there been so many monsters surrounding the courtyard?
Slender eyes suddenly widening, Ji Huan saw that the courtyard was full with fantastic monsters of every description! Their bodies were shaped with gray mist and huge, so huge that Ji Huan couldn’t even make out what they were at first. Each of them were closely packed together, and they surrounded the entire courtyard with their tremendous bodies. With nothing in their will-o’-wisp-like eyes, they gazed down at the ground under Ji Huan!
Each monster wanted to get closer to the courtyard and they fought with one another, tearing at each other. In the fierce battle, monsters were constantly being bitten, and flesh and blood was torn away, splashing into the air before quickly turning into black ash. Some fell out of the courtyard, but some fell into the courtyard.
When the wind blew, some of the black ash floated into the corridor of the refined, wooden building.
The black ash in the corridor was even coming this way!?
Ji Huan’s eyed widened completely!
Right, those weren’t monsters, but devils!
After realizing it, Ji Huan followed with his eyes where the devils were violently surging towards. With astonishment, he saw Grandpa and Hei Dan. In contrast to the huge bodies of the devils outside the courtyard, Grandpa’s body looked almost petite, not to mention Hei Dan. Wait—
Those devils weren’t looking at Grandpa or Hei Dan at all, but rather —
Underneath Grandpa and Hei Dan, Ji Huan saw his own hair before immediately seeing, crouching beside him…
Ah Jin!?
Ah Jin suddenly lifted his head, and in the split second that he met Ah Jin’s eyes, Ji Huan fell heavily from the air!
“Since the first time I met you, I felt that you would become what you are today.” While watching the young man named Ji Huan tumble in from the outside in a sorry state, Ah Jin spoke to him in that way.
Even though his tone was as steady as usual and his bearing was as graceful as always, the implication of his words was malicious and mocking.
Then, he started to look forward to Ji Huan’s next reaction.
A strong human, a teenager who had experienced too much and improved himself at his age. In those kind of circumstances, what would happen if he heard such a thing from a person who had always been good to him?
Would it become the final straw that crushed his spirit?
He saw with a glance that Ji Huan was already on his last legs. If a straw pushed down on him, he would easily crumble.
Especially is the one who threw that straw was a “gentle, good person” in Ji Huan’s mind.
The man named Ah Jin looked down at Ji Huan arrogantly.
However —
“Ah Jin, I’m… deaf, I can’t hear what you’re saying…”
After waiting with such anticipation and receiving such words, Ah Jin’s face was a little eccentric.
Deaf?
Deaf?
Deaf!
Stretching out a hand, he lifted the teenager’s chin and his eyes immediately fell on his ears. Only then did he discover the blood stain hanging from the teenager’s ears. His eardrums must have been ruptured. Generally, ruptured eardrums didn’t lead to deafness. What could have been capable of achieving this to such an extent…
The teenager must’ve run into a devil’s sound wave attack.
So weak…
His eyes narrowing slightly, the man examined the teenager’s pitiful appearance, and at that moment, he heard that comment again:
“Ah Jin, you, really are a gentle… good person.”
“Look, this… is my Grandpa and Hei Dan…”
At that moment, he saw the teenager’s smile.
“When that person smiled, her smile was like tenacious wildflowers blooming in a muddy, blood-stained field.” —— In that moment, he suddenly thought of a sentence that he had read in a book a long time ago.
It was a preposterous novel describing the romance between a devil and a human. The leading male was a devil that was enchanted by a rural girl, and the process of falling in love was in a single instant. Thee instant he saw the girl’s smile.
Ah Jin had just laughed at it.
But that didn’t stop him from reading the entire story.
Although the plot was ridiculous and the characters in it were silly, he felt that there were still some beautiful sentences in that book.
He likes those beautiful things.
In the instant that he saw Ji Huan’s smile, he suddenly thought of that sentence that he had once felt was very beautiful.
The boy, who was about to die, and the devil next to him in the same half-dead state. Oh! And a dirty little devil.
The moment that the teenager lost consciousness, the old devil that he thought had already died suddenly threw itself over him. While holding the teenager tightly underneath him, he roared weakly at him.
Faced with that level of threat, the man named Ah Jin didn’t even raise an eyebrow. After lightly reaching out with his hand and flicking, the old devil laid back down. He thought that would’ve been the end of it, but who would’ve thought that the dirty little devil would’ve pushed out from underneath the teenager.
Oh? After discovering that its two protectors were gone, it finally decided to give up on them and slip away?
Crouching down, Ah Jin looked calmly at the little shiny black devil.
The little devil was at the lowest level, but it had a very loud voice. When he had first me Ji Huan, Ji Huan had been covered in the scent of this little devil.
The meaning of the scent was, “this is my food, don’t steal.”
A very childish method.
Devils were naturally full of a craving for food, especially newborn devils.
They would sprinkle their scent over anything they determined to be food and warn other devils not to overstep their bounds. In addition to that, they would clutch food tightly to their bodies, guarding it carefully.
The human called Ji Huan, however, was never aware of it.
“Hei Dan is very close to me and clings to me every day,” he once said. It wasn’t obvious by looking at his face, but the teenager’s tone revealed a trace of happiness. And what did Ah Jin do then?
He seemed to just smile.
Ah Jin stared at the little black devil with fixed eyes.
The little devil’s body stiffened and its white-ring eyes squeezed shut, then squeezed even further.
Then, he extended a claw towards Ah Jin.
A dirty egg, round and smooth, laid in the little devil’s equally filthy claws.
It was the egg that he had been treasuring.
Big tears falling from his white-ring eyes, Hei Dan handed Ah Jin his favorite egg.
whoo boy! another really good chapter. (at least in my opinion but i’m probably biased LOL) one of my favorite things about ah jin is that he really isn’t a good person and probably never will be, but he will (eventually) get attached to this little family that he seemed to hold with such disdain, lmao.
as for the devils surrounding the courtyard, the clue lies in the poem at the beginning of the novel…