Chapter 64 – I’m Afraid

Of course, Su Jinshi didn’t answer him, just slamming the window even harder.

Xu Liangchuan suddenly realized he was on the second floor – how could there be someone outside the window?

“Wh-what is it?” Xu Liangchuan asked, terrified and weak, unsure if it was exhaustion or fear making his voice so faint.

Mustering his courage, Xu Liangchuan got up from the bed and lit a candle.

Su Jinshi snorted and directly opened the window, the howling wind blowing in to extinguish the freshly lit candle with a hiss.

Noticing the empty teacup on the table, Su Jinshi casually knocked it over. The cup rolled a few circles on the table before slowly coming to a stop.

Xu Liangchuan was completely frightened. He hadn’t seen anyone, yet the cup had flipped and spun on its own.

Su Jinshi switched the communication box to public mode and found a scary nursery rhyme on the tablet, pressing play.

The eerie nursery rhyme then echoed through Xu Liangchuan’s room, filling it with a chilling atmosphere.

“Ah!” Xu Liangchuan screamed in terror, throwing off the blanket and frantically fleeing the room, crawling and stumbling.

He rushed downstairs in a panic, but couldn’t see clearly in the darkness and missed a step, tumbling down the stairs.

While Su Jinshi had intended to scare Xu Liangchuan as punishment, she didn’t want to actually harm him. Falling down the stairs was too dangerous.

So as Xu Liangchuan fell, Su Jinshi reached out to catch and cushion his descent.

Though his face was bruised and swollen, and his body battered, Xu Liangchuan didn’t sustain any serious injuries.

However, his cries had already alarmed the guests at the inn. The innkeeper appeared with a candle, “Young Master Xu…”

The candlelight cast eerie shadows on the innkeeper’s face, suddenly appearing before Xu Liangchuan in the dark, startling him further.

“Ah!” Xu Liangchuan screamed and backed away, nearly hitting the innkeeper with a flailing hand.

The windows of the rooms in the inn began to light up one by one as the guests were awakened by Xu Liangchuan’s shouts.

“What’s wrong with brother Xu?”

“Why is he shouting about ghosts?”

“I…I don’t want to stay in that room anymore!” Xu Liangchuan desperately grabbed one of the guests, pleading, “Can I stay with you?”

The scholar immediately pulled his hand away, taking several steps back. They hadn’t seen any ghosts, only Xu Liangchuan had – what if the ghost followed him?

“Xu…Brother Xu,” the scholar stammered, “I’m not used to sharing a room. Sorry.”

“Young Master Xu, there are no ghosts in this inn, please don’t scare the other guests,” the innkeeper quickly intervened, concerned for his business.

“Regardless…I don’t want to stay alone!” Xu Liangchuan cried out in terror. “There really was a ghost, a girl’s voice singing a strange song – it was terrifying!”

“Young Master Xu!” The innkeeper interrupted urgently. “You’ve been running to the outhouse all night, exhausting yourself. You must be sick and having hallucinations.”

“Young Master Xu, it’s not even half an hour until dawn, you don’t need to be afraid.”

“Yes, even if there were ghosts, they wouldn’t appear in broad daylight.”

Though everyone tried to reassure him, no one was willing to share a room with Xu Liangchuan, fearing he may have attracted something inauspicious, especially with the upcoming imperial examinations.

Gradually, the guests dispersed, and the inn grew silent once more.

Xu Liangchuan returned to his room and asked the innkeeper for many candles, lighting the room brightly as he anxiously awaited daybreak.

Though Su Jinshi had successfully frightened Xu Liangchuan, she had inadvertently scared herself as well.

When the inn had been bustling earlier, she hadn’t felt anything, but now that the guests had all returned to their rooms and the inn was quiet again, the silence around her was unsettling.

Su Jinshi had just returned to her own place today after visiting her parents.

Although her bedroom was lit, the hallway outside was pitch black. Her mind kept replaying the eerie nursery rhyme she had played to scare Xu Liangchuan.

Su Jinshi poked Shen Shilang, but the communication box’s effect had worn off, so she couldn’t speak.

“What’s wrong?” Shen Shilang knew Xu Liangchuan’s earlier reaction was due to Su Jinshi’s doing.

After she poked him twice, Shen Shilang understood, “You can’t transmit your voice anymore?”

Su Jinshi poked him twice again in affirmation.

Shen Shilang smiled slightly. “Aren’t you going to sleep?”

Su Jinshi wanted to sleep, but her mind was consumed by the creepy nursery rhyme, and she even felt like she was starting to hear it. She dared not close her eyes.

Frustrated with the game store for not letting her buy a better communication box, Su Jinshi noticed the remaining tea in the cup on the table.

She remembered that when she first met Shen Shilang, she could use a water-soaked cloth to clean his wound, and even write simple words on his body.

Maybe she could write on the table with the tea as well? She just wasn’t sure if Shen Shilang could read the simplified characters she used.

She could read traditional characters, but couldn’t write them.

Su Jinshi dipped her finger in the tea and tried writing on the table. To her surprise, it worked.

The darkened wood of the table revealed the tea-stained words: “I’m afraid.”

Shen Shilang was puzzled. “What are you afraid of?”

Su Jinshi: “I just went to scare Xu Liangchuan.”

To Shen Shilang’s surprise, he could actually understand the simplified characters she had written.

“I know, I guessed as much,” Shen Shilang said, then asked curiously, “What kind of characters are these? They look a bit strange, different from the ones I know, but I can still understand them.”

Pointing to the “scare” character, he asked, “Is this the character for ‘scare’?”

Su Jinshi quickly poked him twice, confirming he was correct.

Even though the characters were simplified from the traditional forms, with the proper context Shen Shilang could generally infer their meanings.

Su Jinshi explained, “In my era, we developed these simplified characters based on the traditional ones, as they’re easier to write.”

“No wonder they look different, but I can still understand them,” Shen Shilang nodded. “What are you afraid of?”

Su Jinshi: “I played that scary nursery rhyme to frighten Xu Liangchuan, but now I’m the one who’s scared, with the song stuck in my head.”

Shen Shilang sighed. Scaring someone only to end up frightening herself – how could that happen?

“You’re living alone?” Shen Shilang knew Su Jinshi’s world was very different from his, but he hadn’t expected a girl could live by herself.

…