Chapter 13: She Still Remembers Me

The welfare institution was not in good condition. The paint on the main gate was cracked and peeling, and the lock showed obvious signs of rust.

Gu Wang stepped forward, but before he could knock, several clamorous voices and an adult’s loud scolding came from inside.

Hong Hui immediately tensed. “Is it Xiaobao…?”

Gu Wang knocked on the door.

“Coming, coming. Why so early today? I’m busy here…” The person inside opened the door, looked surprised to see who was there, then said sheepishly, “I thought it was the food delivery. Can I help you two?”

Gu Wang sized her up; she was an auntie past fifty, with greying hair neatly pulled back with a headband. Her clothes were neither new nor old but clean and tidy, and her face was very kind.

Hong Hui stepped forward spontaneously and said, “Are you staff? We want to donate some money to accumulate good karma. Can we look around?”

The auntie’s face lit up. She quickly opened the gate. “Of course, please come in. My surname is Zhou, and I’m the director of the welfare institution. I’ll show you around.”

The two followed her inside.

The welfare institution was not large. The buildings looked old, with several bungalows surrounding a small central courtyard.

Children were playing games in the courtyard, basking in the sun. A teacher was watering a patch of vegetables along the wall, occasionally glancing back at the children.

Seeing Director Zhou bring people in, a little girl cautiously asked, “Grandma Zhou, are they here to help find Pei Zirui?”

Hong Hui was extremely sensitive to any abnormality here and immediately asked, “What do you mean? Has a child gone missing?”

Director Zhou sighed helplessly. “A new child recently arrived at the institution. He seems to have suffered some trauma and doesn’t remember anything from before, but he always tries to run away. He went missing again this morning, and several of our teachers have already gone to look for him.”

Gu Wang suddenly said, “Sister Hong, you go with the director to make your donation. I’ll play with the children for a while.”

Following the director, Hong Hui knew he must have discovered something and didn’t ask further.

The children at the welfare institution were lonely and sensitive.

After Gu Wang played a few games with them, they were already calling him “Brother Gu.”

Gu Wang taught a few children how to fold paper cranes and casually asked, “Have any strange things happened at the welfare institution?”

The little girl who had spoken earlier looked puzzled. “What kind of strange things?”

Gu Wang: “For example, toys that were put away suddenly moving, or disappearing?”

A little boy eagerly raised his hand and said, “I know! Several times, Teacher Zhao said the toys we had put away were messed up at night, but we were all sleeping soundly!”

Another little boy said, “And also, I was drawing and didn’t want to finish, but after a while, the drawing was finished.”

“Wasn’t that drawn by He Xiaohua? After she was adopted, that kind of thing never happened again.”

“But He Xiaohua never draws. She gets rashes when she touches paint, so the teachers don’t let her touch it.”

The children chattered, bringing up incidents like a candy disappearing one day and reappearing the next.

A little while later, the same little girl from before whispered, “Pei Zirui once said that there’s a child’s shadow in the welfare institution that secretly plays with toys when we’re not paying attention.”

“Pei Zirui…” Gu Wang had heard the director mention this name earlier. He asked the little girl, “Do you remember when he said it? And how?”

The little girl looked at him timidly, then said, “Pei Zirui rarely spoke after he arrived. The teachers asked me to look after him, so I gave him a piece of candy. Later, Teacher Zhao said we weren’t sleeping at night and secretly playing with toys and was going to criticize us. Pei Zirui told me that the toys weren’t played by us, but by a shadow. He saw it; it was a white shadow.”

“A white shadow…” Gu Wang looked up.

With his Yin Eyes, he could see that some areas in the courtyard were covered with faint Yin energy, but the children themselves had none, indicating that the entity was careful not to harm the children.

However, that Yin energy was slowly dissipating, meaning the entity had left some time ago.

Could the frequently escaping child named Pei Zirui be related to this?

Just as he was thinking, two more teachers ran in from outside.

Gu Wang heard one of them say, “We didn’t find him. That child ran far this time. We need to call the police quickly before something happens.”

Just then, Hong Hui finished her business.

Director Zhou came out with her and went to call the police upon hearing the news.

Gu Wang lowered his head and asked the little girl, “Do you know what Pei Zirui’s favorite toy is?”

The little girl nodded and ran to get a nine-link puzzle. “A college student sister donated this before. None of us could solve it; only Pei Zirui could.”

Gu Wang took it. While the children weren’t looking, he quickly formed a hand seal and whispered, “Heaven’s command returns to the heart, use the object to trace the soul!”

A faint aura was extracted from the nine-linked puzzle, tracing a direction.

Seeing Director Zhou about to call the police, Gu Wang quickly said, “I know where the child is. Follow me.” He stepped out the door without waiting for others to react.

Everyone exchanged glances and quickly chased after him.

The welfare institution’s location was very poor. Surrounded by old buildings slated for demolition, there wasn’t another household for ten miles around.

Gu Wang, following the magical tracing, climbed over a wall into a dilapidated courtyard and came to the entrance of a basement. He reached out and pulled open the rotted door lock.

Director Zhou tried to stop him, but it was too late. “Hey—that’s the old hospital’s mortuary…”

Gu Wang had already gone inside.

As soon as he entered, he felt a dense Yin energy.

Several ordinary Yin souls aimlessly drifted in the mortuary, disappearing instantly when they heard someone enter.

In the center of the basement, on an old operating table, a small boy lay curled up, his eyes tightly shut.

Gu Wang picked him up, frowning. The child was missing one of his po souls. ^[1]t/n: po (魄) is known as the corporeal souls and represents the yin, physical, and material aspect of the human soul in contrast to the hun (魂), which is the yang, … Continue reading

Behind him, Director Zhou and the others rushed in. She lovingly embraced Pei Zirui. “This child, how did he end up here?” She then thanked Gu Wang.

In a place like this, even the police would take a long time to search, and something bad might happen.

Hong Hui quietly asked, “Is the child alright? Is he… related to Xiaobao?”

Gu Wang shook his head. “He’s not related to her. This child is missing one po soul, which is why he has no memory. Because his soul is incomplete, he can see Yin entities and is easily bewildered by Yin energy, which is why he often wanders off.”

Meanwhile, Pei Zirui had woken up but remained expressionless, completely unaware that he had frightened the adults.

Gu Wang pulled a triangle-folded talisman from his pocket, walked over, and asked Director Zhou, “Do you mind?”

Director Zhou was stunned for a moment before realizing that their journey to this secluded mortuary and directly finding the child was somewhat extraordinary. She stared blankly at the talisman, then suddenly reacted. “You, you… No, I don’t mind.”

Gu Wang placed the talisman on Pei Zirui’s chest.

Perhaps it was just an illusion, but the moment the talisman was placed, Pei Zirui’s expression seemed to become more animated. He even snuggled into Director Zhou’s arms on his own accord.

Director Zhou also smiled and whispered, “Thank you so much. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure the child keeps this on. He won’t take it off even when he sleeps.”

Gu Wang nodded and patted Pei Zirui’s head. He said gently, “I heard other children say you saw a shadow in the welfare institution. Is she still here?”

Pei Zirui slowly shook his head. “She’s not here anymore. After He Xiaohua was adopted, that shadow wasn’t here.” He paused, then added, “She had the best relationship with He Xiaohua.”

Gu Wang: “Could He Xiaohua see her too?”

Pei Zirui shook his head. “It liked He Xiaohua.”

Director Zhou didn’t know what they were talking about.

Gu Wang didn’t explain. He wrote down a phone number. “This child has a special destiny. If anything happens in the future, you can call me.”

He wasn’t sure if the boy was born with a missing po soul or if he was harmed by evil magic. If it was the latter, anything could happen.

With the matter handled, Gu Wang was about to get up when Pei Zirui grabbed his hand.

The little boy gently placed something in his palm.

Gu Wang looked closely; it was a man’s cufflink made of a gemstone. He didn’t understand such things but knew it was worth at least tens of thousands of yuan. He tried to return the cufflink, but the child desperately pulled his hand back, as if the cufflink was burning him.

Director Zhou suddenly said, “Pei Zirui was found by the police. At that time, all the clothes he was wearing were worth tens of thousands of yuan, and this cufflink was also with him. The police originally thought someone would come looking for him quickly, but after a long wait, no family reported him missing, and they couldn’t find any information about the child, so they could only send him to the welfare institution.”

She looked at Gu Wang. “This child is stubborn. If you don’t accept it, he won’t give up. Besides, with your abilities, you might be able to help him find his family.”

Gu Wang sighed helplessly. Accepting it meant another karmic entanglement. He felt like his main job was doing good deeds, with opening an amusement park as a side gig.

Putting the cufflink in his pocket, the two bid farewell to the welfare institution staff and headed once more towards the home of He Xiaohua’s adoptive parents.

On the way, Gu Wang explained what he had found to Hong Hui, and they soon arrived at their destination.

The couple who adopted He Xiaohua lived in an urban village in Yaoguang City, which was also reportedly slated for demolition soon.

It was said that this couple had been married for over ten years and had no children of their own, which led them to decide to adopt. They had visited the welfare institution several times, took a liking to the well-behaved and shy He Xiaohua, and decided to adopt her.

The two got out of the car.

From a distance, they could see a small courtyard where a little girl was playing with stones.

Gu Wang, however, saw more. Under the sunlight, besides the little girl, there was also a small, constantly moving skeleton in the courtyard.

The poor little doll was only a few months old when she died, but after being nourished by Yin energy underground for over ten years and living for another five years after waking, the little skeleton had grown to the size of a two- or three-year-old child.

The delicate little bones were heart-wrenching to see, but the little one didn’t seem unhappy. On her round skull were several pink butterfly stickers, and small flowers were painted on her cheekbones with watercolors. Her ribs were also carefully adorned with light yellow buttons.

She was a very aesthetically conscious little skeleton.

At this moment, she was playing with stones with Xiaohua, her jawbone opening and closing, emitting a soft, childish voice, “One for Xiaohua, one for me, one for Xiaohua…”

He Xiaohua couldn’t see her, only felt the stones moving on their own, so she carefully arranged them.

Both little girls had very good temperaments; they played for a long time without much fanfare, yet they were happy.

Suddenly, Gu Wang’s hand was grabbed. He turned and saw Hong Hui’s expression, a mix of tears and laughter, speaking incoherently, “You… you quickly look! Look there quickly…”

Gu Wang thought she had seen the Bone Child, but then realized that wasn’t right.

Following her gaze, he saw He Xiaohua’s sleeve fall down, revealing a conspicuous blue-grey birthmark on her wrist.

Looking down again, Hong Hui had already rolled up her own sleeve, revealing a similar birthmark on her wrist, in a similar position.

Hong Hui’s tears flowed uncontrollably. “She still remembers me… Xiaobao still remembers me…”