Chapter 12: Yin Hu

4TH JAN 2022~ VERALUCTL

The smell of disinfectant…

He thought in a daze that there was someone talking next to him. Their words were indecipherable, he only felt that it was slightly noisy. Temporarily losing control of his body, his mind muddled and an omnipresent fatigue seeming to run deep into his bones, he stopped struggling and indulged himself in sinking once more into the darkness of slumber.

It was a long sleep. He could no longer remember how long it had been since he had allowed himself to sleep so freely. He was used to walking through different places, watching different people, witnessing their joys and sorrows, then forgetting about them, reminiscing alone about that girl who had loved the night sky in the dead of the night.

No one else had been able to let him relax like that, but the neon lights of the city had gradually peeled the plethora of stars away from the sky. They slowly lost their lights, their life… then vanished.

He had walked many roads, but all were like falling petals, like the flowing rivers: he couldn’t remember any of them. 

The last place he went… had been the great desert. He had seen many spirits and ghosts, man-faced monsters, beast-hearted men… so absurd that it all seemed like a dream, but there had been that dumb bookworm there as well, challenging his conscience time and time again …

The old bookworm, Professor Mo, Professor Mo…

An Jie’s consciousness cleared with a jolt. Maybe it was because he had been lying down for too long, but his body was a little numb, and his nose oddly sensitive. The smell of hospital antiseptic surrounded him, almost choking him. An Jie was puzzled, disbelieving that he had even survived such a situation.

Adjusting his breath little by little, An Jie slowly opened his eyes and waited for his vision to clear. The first he saw was a deathly pale ceiling; it was indeed the hospital. 

Who had ventured into such a dangerous place and brought him back? Traveling merchants? Or another archaeological team? Did they encounter those man-faced monsters? What about Shen Jiancheng and his illegal weapons… The moment he opened his eyes, several thoughts flashed through his mind. Right, and that strange bracelet.

An Jie’s eyes moved downwards. 

There was nothing on his wrist. Absolutely nothing.

Then, his eyes widened in shock as he stared at his hand, jerking it back for a closer look, disregarding the IV drip still connected to it. It was his hand, there was no way he wouldn’t recognize his own hand, but…

After so many years of rough travel, his hands shouldn’t be so pale and smooth, the skin so clean the way a youth’s would be. A small vermillion mole sat on his inner wrist. An Jie looked at that mole as if seeing a ghost. He remembered clearly that when he was twenty-five, after Mu Lian had gone, he had dug the mole out himself, leaving behind only a hideous scar…

He lifted up his patient uniform lightly; the gun wound on his elbow from Shen Jiancheng was nowhere to be seen, and the place where he had been wounded by the boulder was only slightly sore from the soft bed. That wasn’t right!

“Oh, the little trooper’s finally awake.” A nurse on the elderly side who happened to come in and see him sitting up dumbfoundedly thought that he was still confused from waking up. She smiled affectionately. “It probably doesn’t feel so good right now after lying down for so many days. Your IV drip is still attached; bear with it for now and don’t move around, I’ll call a doctor for you. Don’t worry, it’s nothing serious.”

It was very serious!

Seeing that she was about to leave, An Jie hurriedly asked, “Miss, what hospital am I in? What happened?”

The nurse thought about it. “Who are you again? Oh… Ah, pardon my bad memory; aren’t you the lad that was sent in by a bunch of other people? My, you don’t know what’s going on yourself? I heard you fainted in town and who knew how long it was before someone was able to find you and take you to this little county hospital. We all thought it was just heatstroke at first.”

The old nurse’s eyes were filled with a gossiper’s desire. “I say young man, you’re not from around here, are you? You were separated from your family, right? Oh, we found a leather wallet on you, with this photo inside.” The old nurse motioned to the wallet beside An Jie’s pillow. 

Following her gaze, An Jie immediately saw the leather wallet that he had taken off Professor Mo just before he died. He felt a small ache in his heart. But… young man? Town? An Jie forced down his questions. “Miss, I just came out from the desert; I didn’t bring a guide, almost got lost, and ended up using up all of my resources, so maybe I was a little dehydrated?”

“What else! Did you think heatstroke could make you faint for several days straight? Your organs were on the verge of failure when you were first brought in. You hadn’t consumed food for several days, had you?” The old nurse gave him a hard look. “What are you doing running around at such a young age instead of studying? Entering the desert yourself, you sure are brave. If something happened, what would your parents do…”

“Ah, a moment, miss, I’m a little confused. What date is it today?” This one was a bit of a lecturer and An Jie could almost feel his head begin to throb. He hurried to cut her off.

“The tenth of August; you’ve been lying here for almost two days.”

The tenth… That was around five days after he had lost consciousness in the desert… But wait. An Jie asked again, “The year?”

“‘09. Are you really that confused?” The old nurse chuckled. “Alright, I’ll go call the doctor for you. We better not leave any after effects.”

2009, the tenth of August. Five days after An Jie, who was thirty-six, almost died in the desert, he mysteriously appeared in this county hospital. And then… it appeared that he was in a body from before he was twenty-five.

Actually, when he was finally able to see himself again using the bathroom mirror, he felt that this body was no older than eighteen. 

This youth had soft, slightly long hair that obediently rested on his neck. His hair color was naturally light, more of a light brown than a black. His face no longer held the traces left behind by time and years of traveling, his skin shining with the characteristic glow of youth, just a little pale due to the state of his body… apart from the fatigue in his eyes.

An Jie stared at the familiar stranger in the mirror. He thought, apart from that uncharacteristic expression, he could almost have believed that he had returned to when he was still eighteen. But… when he was eighteen, Mu Lian had still been there, and there had still been so much youth for him to spend and so many wishes in his heart… On this hot August day of 2009, all he received was his youthful husk.

He held the sink and buried his head deep, not knowing how he should react to such an absurd reality. All he could do was laugh lightly. He was an old cucumber, but after getting brushed by that green pus from that inexplicable string of green beads, he was now a tender youth again?

To leave no trace in time: no trace in time so it removed half of his age?

===========

Ten minutes later, An Jie borrowed the telephone from the inpatient service desk. After some hesitation, he dialed a number that he had thought he would never have the chance to dial again in this life.

It took a while before the other side picked up, and the low voice of a man with a certain unpleasant wariness and caution came through. “Who are you?” 

An Jie paused a little, the expression on his face easing. “… Zui She1?”

The person on the other side held their breath for a moment, their tone suddenly lowering. If one listened carefully though, they could hear an eagerness under those almost threatening words. “Who are you? How did you get this number?”

An Jie smiled. “It’s me, An Yin Hu.”

It was silent on the other side. After a while, the man’s low voice came through the line again, restraining a faint tremble. “Yin Hu… Yin Hu!? You’re alive? Holy shit! What the fuck have you been doing all these years? You bastard, why did you not contact us; you…”

Zui She’s words became increasingly unpleasant to the ear and by the end of it, he had finished talking about all eighteen generations of An Jie’s family tree. An Jie held the phone and listened avidly, his smile growing bigger and bigger. For the first time, he had found it so enjoyable to be berated. Maybe he had hidden masochistic tendencies.

Zui She performed his high-level cursing techniques for an entire five minutes and finally was defeated by dehydration and lack of words. An Jie, hearing the sound of water being drunk, gently prompted, “Keep going after you finish drinking.”

Zui She muttered sullenly, “I have no words left; I’ll repeat itself if I continue.”

An Jie laughed.

“What are you laughing at!” Zui She’s voice seemed to fill with amusement. “Which dark corner are you squatting in growing poisonous mushrooms? Hurry up and get back here!”

An Jie thought a little and read out the full name of the hospital he was in. “I’m covered in poisonous mushrooms; the research institution thinks I’m an alien and wants to perform an autopsy on me. Your brother will be waiting for your assistance.”

It seemed that Zui She ordered someone to check it out, and after a pause, he asked in confusion, “Why did you go to a place where even birds wouldn’t visit? To provide assistance to the great north-west?”

An Jie looked gloomily at his hands which were pale enough to be a hand model’s. “I really was attacked by aliens, I’m not lying. How about this: when you have time, send someone over and take a look. You’ll see.”

Eight hours after putting down the phone, a helicopter appeared above this small county hospital, causing many people to gather and stare, almost causing a traffic jam.

A group of baffled followers watched as their boss, Zui She, who normally ran every sentence through his mind eight times before saying it aloud, received a phone call and immediately drove a helicopter to this small county which no one had ever heard of before, then ran straight to the inpatient unit. In just a few moments, they had written up countless scripts in their minds.

A long lost illegitimate son? An underground lover who had gone through life and death with him? A mysterious benefactor?

Zui She took off his sunglasses; the slanted scar reaching down just above his left eye was just like the typical drama’s big boss’. Even though those bosses were nothing special apart from trying to destroy the earth and giving off an idiot’s air, this strange uncle’s murderous expression still managed to scare the small nurse at the service desk.

Zui She asked in a sinister tone, “What room is An Yin Hu in?”

“I-I-I… don’t know…”

With a clang, the table almost fell apart. Zui She squeezed the words out from between his teeth. “I’ll ask again, where is An Yin Hu…”

“Alright, are you robbing a bank or filming a horror movie?” In a long, drawn-out tone with a special laziness and nonchalance, the speaker of the sentence trailed off. Zui She suddenly felt like all of his words had been caught in his throat, his chest stuffy.

Everyone stared, wide-eyed, at this young man in a patient gown, leaning against the door… Mhm, a pretty young man. Their gaze at their boss Zui She turned from shock into understanding: we can’t believe we didn’t know that this was your type after being brothers for all these years.

By the time Zui She had finally calmed himself down and slowly turned around, he had frozen once more at the sight of the teenager there.

Author’s Notes: Come and support~~~

Vera: Go and support~~~

1Drunk Snake.