IWBL: Chapter 56
Xiao Li looked at the man in front of time, particularly the other person’s face that was shrouded in fog and wasn’t clear.
The man didn’t understand Xiao Li’s expression. He sat in the chair, two slender and powerful hands folded together like he really was a psychopath being consulted. He continued to describe his illness. “In addition, I seem to have a disease.”
Xiao Li originally adhered to the ‘silence is gold’ principle and didn’t want to take care of his person. Then he heard this and couldn’t hold back his curiosity. “What disease?”
“Lovesickness.”
“…………”
The man quietly explained, “I am very happy when seeing the person I like or talking to him. It is like my heart is filled with honey and everything I see is pink. I just want to share everything with him.”
“In contrast, once I don’t see him, I’ll be anxious and even want to trap him in a drastic way, so he will only look at me very now on. I will become… very unlike myself. I don’t care about anything apart from him.”
In contrast to his words, his tone was cold and restrained. He was like an iceberg under the sea, only revealing one tip.
“I did many things to him in my dreams and told him my fantasies, but the reality is that I can’t see him. I can only communicate with him in words through certain means. Recently, even these exchanges have decreased. This makes me very unhappy.”
Even so, he was willing to pay the price to enter the instance world and meet the other person.
Xiao Li wasn’t very good in emotional matters and to some extent, he even had a bit of a social barrier. Xiao Li looked down as he felt his face heating up and he rolled up his sleeves, revealing a thin wrist. “This is the hospital’s emergency department, not the psychological clinic.”
The man stared at Xiao Li’s wrist for two seconds.
Xiao Li’s skin colour was white and his wrist was like a jade caring. The blue blood vessels could vaguely be seen and it made people imagine the flow of blood inside.
The man’s voice was lower as he spoke again in a blunt manner. “Still, my state of mind needs to be corrected. That’s what you said.”
He seemed afraid that Xiao Li was angry and knocked on the table with his fingers. Through this action, he gazed at the young man’s bare wrist and then upwards. Today, Xiao Li was wearing white clothes and combined with the white coat, his overall atmosphere was full of abstinence.
“You don’t want to know what I am thinking but I can tell you, Doctor Xiao.” The man spoke briskly. “I want to touch the wrist you just exposed, take off your white coat and press you against the table.”
“You can wear the white coat or it can be changed to me wearing it.”
“However, if you were my patient, I wouldn’t let you out of the ward.”
Xiao Li, “???”
He looked at his wrists after hearing the man’s words and rolled his sleeves back down. Then he thought for a few seconds before reaching to button up his loose white coat.
“My doctor, I told you about my illness. Do you have any advice for me?”
Xiao Li selectively ignored what he was called. “I suggest that the words your brain doesn’t use be donated to the people in need. I didn’t tell you to come to me to correct it. I don’t give advice about these things.”
The man winked and moved closer, smiling slowly, “You are my cause and only you can correct me.”
He laughed. “Or aggravate me.”
The man’s laugh sounded again. In the outside world, a person would absolutely collapse when hearing it but Xiao Li’s expression didn’t waver, at least on the surface. He had experienced the yellow words and was able to ignore this type of thing. He looked at the man in front of him and suddenly asked, “Why don’t you let others see your face?”
There was the headless female ghost earlier and Xiao Li’s brain was filled with the image of the man’s body with an enlarged yellow book as the head. This type of strange image made his expression weird.
The man didn’t know what he was thinking but was silent for a few seconds after seeing the teenager’s question. Then he used a cross-examination question, “Do you want to see?”
Xiao Li always felt this was a trap and the next sentence would be something like ‘Will you want to kiss me if you see me?’ The little yellow book could be considered half a friend in his daily life and Xiao Li had an understanding of him i.e. absolutely don’t say anything that could tempt him it or he would try to sell a kiss.
Thus, Xiao Li didn’t speak.
The man then said, “I can’t show you, at least, not yet.”
Xiao Li wondered, “Why?”
“It is because you don’t like me yet. “ The man’s voice had been very light since entering but it suddenly sank when he said this sentence. “You won’t consider it with me? Doctor, maybe after you fall in love with me, I’ll get better without needing medicine.”
Xiao Li stared at him for a few seconds before speaking very real and sincere words, “Do you really think that someone will fall in love without seeing the face, especially when the other person is a little yellow book or a ghost most of the time? Do I look like a person with a fetish in your eyes?”
The man, “…”
He hesitated for three seconds. “You mean, you’ll like me when you see my face?”
Xiao Li, “???”
It wasn’t like that. He immediately retorted, “That’s not it. Don’t misinterpret my meaning.”
The man didn’t speak and stared at Xiao Li in silence, seeming a bit lost. When he was silent, his existence gave off an invisible pressure and deterrence.
Xiao Li himself couldn’t say what type of attitude he had to the little yellow book and his words were sincere. He felt that sometimes the little yellow book was very cute and sometimes the little yellow book made him want to tear up the book. Still, the other side had accompanied him for so long and it was impossible for there to be no feelings.
The problem was here. Xiao Li didn’t love materials and how could he fall in love with a book? At most, he regarded the little yellow book as a friend who loved to say yellow things.
He could only look the other person innocently in the eye. The man stared at his eyes and then a cloud of mist appeared in the position where his eyes would be…
The man finally retracted his gaze. “I’ll think about it.”
Once he said this, he stopped moving and sat like a statue.
Two minutes passed and Xiao Li couldn’t sit still. He didn’t know the exact identity of the little yellow book but this person was very strong. If he saw here then don’t talk about the city, no ghosts would enter this world!
Thinking up to here, Xiao Li suggested to the other person, “Do you want to go back to think about it? I still have to be a doctor here.”
The man seemed surprised. “You have me as a patient. Isn’t this enough?”
Xiao Li, “………”
What was this surprise? Was his ability to realize superfluous things okay?
Xiao Li coughed and brushed away dust that didn’t exist on the white coat. He realized that the brain circuits of the little yellow book were different from that of ordinary people and Xiao Li could only say, “I need some time to think.”
This time, the man listened.
He stared deeply at Xiao Li, smiled and disappeared.
*******
Once the man left, the entire emergency department was empty again.
The little yellow book might be a bit yellow but his sense of existence was unquestionably strong. Now that he was gone, everywhere seemed silent and even breathing seemed to be amplified.
11 o’clock, 12 o’clock, 12:30…
Time gradually passed.
The cold night wind blew the curtains in the emergency department and Xiao Li held his arms. He bent over to hug the little black cat, smothering the cat’s ears with his hands. The little black cat quietly opened one eye, stuck out a pink tongue to lick the finger holding hold, made a comfortable grunt and then nestled back into Xiao Li’s arms to sleep. The cat’s body temperature was so high that it was like holding a plush electric heater.
It wasn’t until nearly 1 a.m. that the door of the emergency department opened. It was a girl who looked to be in her 20s. She had long, shoulder-length black hair and wore a long brown scarf that tightly covered her lower face. For now, it was impossible to tell if she was a person or a ghost from outside.
Xiao Li patted the little black cat’s ass and put it down. He stood up to examine the girl, placing his hands in the pockets of his white coat as he waited for her to explain.
The girl seemed a bit nervous at first by the lights in the emergency room. The wide scarf covered her mouth, causing her voice to come out vaguely. “Do you think… I’m beautiful?”
It was strange. It was impossible for a normal person to run to the emergency room in the early hours of the morning just to ask this. Xiao Li looked the girl up and down and didn’t answer.
The girl held the scarf with her hand and asked again, “Am I beautiful?”
Xiao Li told her, “You just asked me a question. If I return it with a question, you have to nod for a yes or shake your head for a no.”
The girl’s hand clutching the scarf trembled slightly. She watched Xiao Li for a moment before nodding slightly.
That’s why Xiao Li replied in a perfunctory manner. “Beautiful, a big beauty.”
The girl bowed her head shyly and then slowly raised her head, removing the long scarf to reveal a mask underneath. She took off the mask and was eventually bare-faced. Her facial features were intact but the corners of her mouth were cracked. Two rows of tool-like scars spread from her lips to her cheeks, creating a terrible crack that revealed the flesh inside.
She looked up, making the wound look even worse as she asked, “Then.. what about now? I… am I still beautiful?”
As she spoke, the two cracks looked like the Mariana Trench, constantly stretching with the movement of her lips.
The split mouthed woman.
Xiao Li first thought of the Japanese horror ghost. In the legend, the split mouthed girl would always stop passersby to ask about her beauty. If the person said she wasn’t beautiful then she would naturally become angry and kill the other person. If the passerby answered that she was beautiful then she would let the passerby become as ‘beautiful’ as she was, cutting open their mouths. No matter how the question was answered, it was a must-die question.
Xiao Li looked the two scars and didn’t answer the split mouthed woman, instead asking a question. “Where did the two scars on your face come from?”
The split mouthed woman, “……”
She hoarsely asked again, “Am I still beautiful?”
Xiao Li wondered, “Did you come to the emergency room to see me for stitches?”
“Am I beautiful now?”
Xiao Li told her, “I can’t do stitches very well and there aren’t any needles here. Can I use a staple?”
The split mouthed woman, “???”
The two people’s dialogue wasn’t on the same dimension and it was a cross-service online chat.
Meanwhile, in the doctors’ quarters, the rest of the reincarnators weren’t sleeping peacefully. On the contrary, they lost all sleep. There might be rooms to stay in but this was a terrible haunted hospital. How could anyone sleep? With the exception of some people who managed to fall asleep after tossing and turning, most people were watching the clock and time passing bit by bit. Of course, there were some people searching the dormitory for clues.
In a dormitory. An unassuming teenager lay in bed, eyes staring straight at the ceiling. He didn’t dare turn off the lights to sleep. So even if things were more visible, he turned on the lights and filled the room with light. Even so, he didn’t dare to close his eyes.
‘Zhang San, you have to sleep, be sure to sleep. Otherwise, how can you keep up tomorrow?’
He thought again and again in his mind.
One sheep, two sheep, three sheep…
Zhang San forced himself to close his eyes and waited to sink into sleep. Contrary to his expectations, the more he thought about sleeping, the tenser his spirit became and the more sleepless he was.
10 minutes later, he opened his eyes again and sat up on the bed, giving up the idea of forcing himself to sleep.
The doctor’s dormitory had wooden beds and a vertical front door. It was similar to a school dorm and above the thick wooden door was a high glass window.
Zhang San sat up like this and happened to see the glass window above the wooden door. He also saw the face attached to the glass window. The face was squeezed out of shape and straw-like hair was flying around. It was staring closely at Zhang San and it was unknown how long the ghost had been watching him.
Zhang San stared with a blank mind and couldn’t even scream.
At the same time, there was a loud knock on the door of the room. The ghost head against the glass window mouthed, ‘Let me in.’
Zhang San was dazed for a full minute before returning to the real world. He rolled straight off the bed and to the other side of the window to hide. “No, don’t come in!”
The ghost head hovered in the air and the headless ghost’s shoes were reflected at the door. It was getting closer and closer to the room. Fortunately, he had locked the door before he went to bed! This was the only thing Zhang San felt good about now.
He was clutching a life-saving charm as the wooden door slowly opened outwards. It was moving bit by bit, like the ghost outside was deliberately playing with him. The 20 seconds it took the door to open felt like 20 minutes in Zhang San’s world.
The next second, the door opened.
The author has something to say:
Little Yellow is feeling deeply yellow.