CH 4

Lightning struck over the horizon, and after a delay, there was a thunderclap.

Chi Jiayan ran quickly. 

His little figure ran around the entire block in the rain.

Sure enough, just as Chi Jiayan said, there was a hospital called “Caring Pets” not far away. In actuality, it wasn’t much of a hospital, but rather a small-scale pet clinic. In such bad weather, apart from the foster animals, the clinic was virtually empty. The only two veterinarians on site were also very busy.

Chi Jiayan was too small. He tried several times to push the heavy glass door open, but he couldn’t.

The Grim Reaper stood behind him. 

Chi Jiayan turned around and said, “Gege, can you push the door open for me?”

The rain adhered to Chi Jiayan’s eyelashes. He couldn’t even open his eyes properly, causing the insides of his pupils to appear extra dark.

The Grim Reaper’s mask hid his face and blocked his expressions, making him look like he was standing there aimlessly. His mask was pure white with only two holes where the eyes were for vision. If it was anyone else looking at him, they would shudder at this weird appearance.

Chi Jiayan hadn’t felt any of these fears. It was possible he just regarded the Grim Reaper as a cosplay lover. Seeing the Grim Reaper just standing there silently, he became so anxious that he had no choice but to pound on the glass door, shouting, “Uncle—Uncle Doctor—quickly open the door!”

The shrillness of his child’s voice made the Grim Reaper’s head ache.

In fact, he couldn’t stand children. He thought little kids were noisy and annoying creatures.

Fortunately, Chi Jiayan was a speech spirit. With a voice that loud, the veterinarian inside could hear it no matter how absorbed he was in watching the TV.

“Kid, what’s the matter?” A fat vet opened the door. 

“Uncle Doctor, this little kitty’s hurt.” Chi Jiayan opened his clothes to reveal a little black cat curled up by his stomach. Probably because he only remembered halfway through running that he had forgotten his umbrella, he hid the cat in his clothes, afraid that it would get caught in the rain.

The kid’s shirt was stained with blood. The fat vet took the cat, surprised. “Quickly, come inside.”

The Grim Reaper also followed in. The vet asked about the origin of the cat, and Chi Jiayan responded in his childish voice. No one noticed that the temperature in the small pet clinic had dropped suddenly, all due to the Grim Reaper’s honored presence.

The other, thin vet turned off the air conditioner and said, “The weather is so strange lately. It was hot and stuffy just now, so why is it so cold all of a—was this cat hit by a car?” 

The fat vet put the kitten on the examination bench, probing it gently. “Yes, it was. Its stomach is injured, and the ribs are also poking out.”

Chi Jiayan was so anxious that he subconsciously grabbed onto the Grim Reaper’s hand, asking, “Will the kitty die?”

The fat doctor was kind. He thought for a while. “It’s not certain yet. Though, it has suffered a serious injury, so the possibility of saving it is very slim.”

Whatever he said next, the Grim Reaper wasn’t listening. 

His attention was turned to the little hand wrapped around his finger. An indescribable emotion enveloped the Grim Reaper in an instant.

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“…I have money!” After talking for a while, Chi Jiayan suddenly raised his voice.

At the same time, the Grim Reaper looked down to see the top of Chi Jiayan’s hair. His hair was black, and the strands were limply attached to his scalp from the wet. Chi Jiayan pulled out money from his pocket, unfurling the crumpled ball.

It was twenty seven dollars and five cents.

The thin vet: “…Kid, is this all your money?” 

“This is the money I was gonna use to buy takeout just now!” Chi Jiayan said. “I have more at home,  Ican go get it!”

“You went out to buy takeout by yourself when you’re only five years old?” asked the fat vet.

“Yeah!” Chi Jiayan nodded. “My parents are too busy with work. I’ve been very good.”

Parents? 

The Grim Reaper once again noticed the yellow magnolia hanging around Chi Jiayan’s neck on a red string. He’d read the natal chart before he set off. This child had the fate of being the bane of others’ existence. He was doomed to be alone for a lifetime, regardless of parents, relatives, or friends. If this was the case, the child’s parents were still alive, so the Grim Reaper couldn’t just take him away.

The reason was that the impact on the future would be too great, and other people’s fates would be disturbed.

The Grim Reaper would have to choose a different death instance.

“Uncle Doctor, please save the kitten, I’m going home to get the money now!” 

After Chi Jiayan finished speaking, he was about to run back out, but the skinny vet quickly grabbed him. “Don’t rush! It’s still raining outside.”

“I’ll have Gege come with me!” Chi Jiayan took the Grim Reaper’s hand and left.

The remaining two vets exchanged glances. What gege?

Perhaps children with high emotional intelligence weren’t afraid of strangers. In the event of saving the injured kitten, Chi Jiayan really wanted to see it all the way through with the same stranger. The Grim Reaper was towed away by the hand. Along the way, he encountered several wandering spirits, all of them huddled in dark corners, watching them like they had seen ghosts themselves, though their own appearances were even more frightening. 

Chi Jiayan should have noticed these spirits too, but he turned a blind eye to them. It was hard to imagine a five year-old child growing up surrounded by such circumstances.

“It’s that lord! Why is he still here?!” muttered a hanged ghost on a street lamp, his tongue lolling out in fear to the point of almost falling out.

“Quickly run.” A short kumbhanda nudged him, trembling. “What’re you looking at; quickly run away, and be careful of that wolf he’ll send out to eat you…”

The Grim Reaper didn’t turn his head when he heard these whispered comments. In his eyes, these spirits’ existences were about the same as ants. He would allow those ghosts to think about running away. 

Chi Jiayan was focused on going home to get money. Taking the Grim Reaper’s hand, he walked into the Qingshui neighborhood, going up to the third floor of the community. When he opened the door to his home, he had to tiptoe slightly to reach the keyhole. The interior of the home was warmly furnished, and it was apparent that the family who lived there was harmonious, so how did Chi Jiayan become that sort of scumbag when he was twenty-seven?

The Grim Reaper was a little curious.

After entering the door, his hand was released.

That familiar coldness spread all over the Grim Reaper again. Glancing at his hand, he watched it return to being pale. 

It had just been a one-time physical contact with a human, but it left him nostalgic, so much that he hadn’t avoided it for a long time.

Chi Jiayan brought over a small stool, but he still couldn’t reach the piggy bank on the cabinet.

“Gege, carry me.” Looking up, he faced the Grim Reaper and stretched his arms out, face pleading.

Actually, with the Grim Reaper’s height, he could easily reach out and grab it. 

But for some reason, he still bent down and picked up the little dumpling. “Okay.”

When Chi Jiayan grabbed hold of the piggy bank, he threw it on the ground without hesitation. With a “boom”, the piggy bank broke apart, and countless coins scattered all over the place. There was roughly over a hundred yuan.

The expressions on the vets’ faces when they received a bag of coins were very colorful.

Even without the money, they would’ve saved the little cat, if only for the sake of such a pure and lovely child. 

The kitten underwent an operation, so it had to be hospitalized in the clinic. Chi Jiayan laid beside its cage. “Kitty, you’ll definitely get better.”

This might’ve been the first time Chi Jiayan used his speech spirit abilities.

Because he didn’t have any side effects.

For speech spirits, the more they talked, the more they would experience backlash. An early death was the most common way for a speech spirit to die. The longest they would live to was never over thirty-five. 

After bidding farewell to the veterinarians, the two returned to the road.

Chi Jiayan wasn’t even as tall as the Grim Reaper’s waist, so he had to tilt his head up. “Gege, do you accumulate good virtue by doing good things?”

The Grim Reaper was a little taken aback. It turned out that this child knew from the beginning that he did not belong to this world.

He probably thought of him as a special kind of ghost. 

The Grim reaper lowered his head slightly. One tall and one small figure stood under the streetlamp, casting long shadows. “There is no such thing.”

“Ah?” Chi Jiayan sighed in disappointment, tears filling his eyes at a speed visible to the naked eye. “I thought as long as I do good things, Grandpa would get better.”

The Grim Reaper was silent.

“I don’t want Grandpa to die. I also want my parents to not have to go to the hospital anymore. I want them to stay with me.” Chi Jiayan had lied earlier. It turned out that his parents weren’t busy with work, but that they were seriously ill and unable to divide their attention. 

The Grim Reaper reached out a hand to stroke his head.

The Grim Reaper was ruthless, but he could be merciful.

To him, everything in the world was as fleeting as a blooming cactus flower. When someone was born or when someone died was just something that would pass by in a flash. Time was a constant for him, and all he had to do was make sure that every life on the natal chart died at the right time.

He also understood that right now was not a good time to take Chi Jiayan away. 

Chi Jiayan didn’t know that in this short moment, he had already been through a life-or-death situation. He sniffed and put on a brave front. “Actually, I didn’t come out to buy takeout. I just wanted to secretly buy ice cream while my parents were away.”

The Grim Reaper: “…”

The rain had stopped at some point, leaving the sky above Chunnan City a dark blue.

The rain came and went quickly. 

“I better not just be seeing things! That lord, did he really just buy something for a human?” The hanged ghost propped their head up on a trash can.

The short kumbhanda was still trembling and crying. “Country bumpkin, that’s called ice cream. I’ve eaten it a few times before I died.”

“Bleh, that looks like shit; it’s all dark, so how could it taste good?” the hanged ghost spat. “How could I have never seen it before?”

“That’s chocolate. You’ve been dead for more than a hundred years, so it’s natural you’ve never encountered it.” After the short kumbhanda finished speaking, he felt a chill run down his back. He turned his head and saw the Grim Reaper’s cold gaze sweep over them. 

Their noisy voices silenced immediately.

The Grim Reaper looked at his watch, feeling it was time to schedule someone to clean up the junk here.

“Gege, are you going home?” Chi Jiayan asked, licking his ice cream with a look of satisfaction on his face. With just one ice cream, all the sadness in his little head was erased.

“Mm.” The Grim Reaper’s voice was indifferent. 

“Will I see you again?” Chi Jiayan’s eyes were sparkling.

The Grim Reaper nodded. “Very soon.”

After he spoke, a wolf howled. The golden totem embroidered on the Grim Reaper’s black robes shone brightly, and a huge black wolf with its head bowed appeared.

The Grim Reaper mounted the back of the wolf. The wolf opened up its mouth to spew golden light, forming something like an infinite tunnel. 

When the giant wolf leapt into the passage with the Grim Reaper and disappeared, Chi Jiayan’s ice cream fell to the ground.

“So cool…” he said, looking up at the sky.