Chapter 27

“Alright, no problem… These are all the checklists. I’ve written the list and the locations of the inspection rooms on this paper. Just follow this order and go through them one by one.” Bai Wei handed the list to Lu Sen with his left hand, while hiding his right hand behind his back. He said to Lu Sen, “Didn’t you hear me speaking?”

“Oh, okay, no problem, I’ll go right away,” said Lu Sen.

Lu Sen seemed absent-minded—although his response was no different from usual, he quickly took the list and went for the check-up. But his walk seemed like his thoughts were elsewhere, as if his heart wasn’t in the small town hospital, but in the hallway of another hospital.

Bai Wei, who was more observant than he had imagined, attributed it to his superior observation skills.

What happened to Lu Sen? Did he discover that he was trying to kill him? The warning red light flashed continuously in Bai Wei’s mind. He shouted at Lu Sen’s back, “Hubby, come back soon after your check-up.”

Lu Sen only muttered, “Mm.” Bai Wei stood still, his face immediately darkened, and a feeling of anxiety gripped his heart.

The hallway was empty, and the benches were vacant. Finally, Bai Wei was the only one left. He sighed and sat down to drink some water. His right hand, which had opened the bottle, was scratched and scarred by his nails, very noticeable.

If grandfather were here, he would have made the butler scold him for this bad habit he often falls into when nervous, Bai Wei thought. Luckily, he was married now and no longer in his previous family. Now, all he had to worry about were the issues in his new family—

Lu Sen’s health check-up couldn’t possibly have no problems, could it?

“…Hmm?”

Bai Wei suddenly realized that the file he had hastily taken out seemed much thicker than he had imagined… He opened the file and found a stack of old records inside. He froze for a moment, then his face turned pale.

He hurriedly flipped through all the documents and noticed that the order of the files had been organized. Bai Wei nearly stopped breathing at that moment. He felt dizzy, his fingers involuntarily twitching, and his teeth began to clench tightly.

—It’s over, it’s all over. He thought.

His darkest past and secrets had been seen by Lu Sen.

—-

“Did you touch his hand when you gave him the things earlier?”

“What’s wrong? What’s with your faces…”

“Don’t you know? It’s been spreading outside, the kid lived with his mother’s body for half a month after she died. In the summer in Black Harbor City… the body had been rotting for over a week, the neighbors called the police, and the police visited twice. He still told them it was fine. He went out to buy food, cooked, ate, and slept like nothing happened.”

“It’s terrifying, like some freak. He learned to lie at such a young age.”

“That’s not even the worst. He even cleaned his mother’s body every day, you know? With his own hands…”

“I think there’s a smell on his hands, did you guys smell it? I heard that the smell of decay can seep into the bones.”

“Ugh, disgusting! Stop talking about it!”

Then there was a loud sound of water running and washing hands. Bai Wei sat in the small room, holding the unopened bread in his hands.

Actually, that person didn’t touch his hand, and there wasn’t any smell on his hands. But even if there was a smell…

He stretched his pale fingers and twisted them like a spider, trying to sniff the scent between his fingers. He did it viciously, like a little beast pouncing on prey.

But even if there was a smell, even if that smell seeped into his bones, wasn’t that his mother’s smell? The body was disgusting to others, and the stench was unpleasant, but it was his mother’s smell. Was his mother also disgusting?

The small room where he and his mother lived, with the sound of wind chimes and the fan blades, was it also filthy?

“Did the principal say someone would come to pick him up today? Is that true?”

“I really can’t stand him staying here anymore. It feels creepy.”

“Stop talking, I just handed him something, and touched his hand. His hand felt like a corpse’s, like frozen dead pork. It’s disgusting, so disgusting…”

That person didn’t touch his hand, but to attract attention, he described Bai Wei’s hand’s touch as if he had actually touched it. Bai Wei was still sniffing between his fingers when he suddenly noticed that his fingers were moist. It was only then that he realized he was crying.

At that moment, the door of the small room opened.

A shadow fell on Bai Wei. He was tall, enough to envelop Bai Wei in a reassuring shadow.

Bai Wei looked up, staring at him blankly.

It was his first time seeing his grandfather, his mother’s father. The old man was tall, serious, and every wrinkle on his face seemed etched with stubborn formality. His straight posture made it hard to tell he was a cripple. Leaning on a cane, he stared at Bai Wei’s face for a moment, and his throat moved once, then again, as though he was forcing all his emotions into those two movements.

Bai Wei thought that was because everyone said he looked just like his mother.

The usually arrogant principal awkwardly smiled, following the old man. Behind the small door were two bodyguards in suits. An unprecedented power descended on the small room, and the old man’s aging eyes landed squarely on Bai Wei’s face.

“Bai Wei!” The old man accurately called his name and said sternly, “Stand up! Look up, you are the gentleman of the Bai family!”

He didn’t say a second word to Bai Wei but stubbornly stared at him. His gaze was as oppressive as a hawk, and Bai Wei placed his feet on the ground, holding the crushed bread in his palm… slowly stood up and followed behind the old man.

The principal awkwardly followed them, saying, “I will deal seriously with those spreading rumors…”

It was like a lion walking among the sheep being inspected. In the dusty classroom, everything was divided into two worlds. The adults and children who usually talked and mocked, now carefully lowered their heads, huddled on both sides of the wall like quails. The old man walked through the center of the classroom, like Moses parting the sea.

Bai Wei followed in the shadow behind the old man. At that moment, he suddenly realized that the old man’s authority was something truly great, the first sense of order he had encountered in his life since his birth, a power strong enough to overthrow and correct everything. This gave Bai Wei a new home, and the staff who dared to make arbitrary judgments should be dealt with. This force protected him so powerfully that, at that moment, the room he and his mother shared in Black Harbor City became clean, and all the noise disappeared.

He stood behind his grandfather, looking up, waiting for him to complete all the formalities, though his shoulders were trembling. The old man didn’t say a word to him until they got into the car, and then he said, “You are Bai Ju’s child.”

The old man looked into his eyes in the rearview mirror, and that momentary daze in his gaze became imposing again.

Then, he suddenly said, “You are a child of the Bai family.”

After that, they remained silent all the way. The car drove Bai Wei into the unknown. Despite his palms sweating, his bread was crushed, and the sugar and oil stuck to his hand, melting. He didn’t dare open his hand, though it was uncomfortable.

Before entering the airport, he secretly threw it away. In that moment, he felt like a thief.

They traveled by car and plane, and Bai Wei kept tightly clenching his hand. After they arrived at the Bai family’s estate, the old man, leaning on a cane, walked through a grand garden with a fountain, into a hall full of portraits of family members. There were no outside discussions, nor the sound of wind chimes tinkling. The old man, with his back to Bai Wei, said, “From today on, you must remember, you are a descendant of the Bai family.”

Bai Wei looked up at the portraits, noticing that the Bai family’s ancestors had held many high-ranking positions. The men in the paintings had solemn expressions. When he reached the portrait of the elderly man, it was an empty frame.

“That empty frame once belonged to Bai Ju. Unfortunately, she made a mistake,” the old man said, his hand resting on the cane. “Let the butler show you to your room. Afterwards, I will ask a doctor to conduct tests on you, both a physiologist and a psychologist, to ensure your recovery.”

He waved his hand, signaling for the butler to take Bai Wei away. The old man’s back remained to Bai Wei, and that day, Bai Wei never had the chance to see his face. He guessed that the old man’s face was as imposing as his words, certainly not one to be crying.

The butler took him to a room where he could see wisteria flowers. There were ship models on the cabinet, and even a military book on the desk, half-opened as if untouched since the owner left. The butler told Bai Wei to settle in, politely asking, “Do you have any questions, young master?”

“This room is…?” Bai Wei asked.

“This room used to be your mother’s,” the butler explained. “Your mother, Bai Wei, was the only child of the old man, and his pride. Entering the Naval Academy was a dream shared by the old man and your mother. Please, young master, be careful not to damage these models.”

The “rotting corpse” spoken of by outsiders was the pride of this mansion. At that moment, Bai Wei had such a thought.

All of this was only possible because of the order and rules within this mansion.

Bai Wei spent the next several years in this room, never changing any of the furnishings. Before that, he told himself that he must become a qualified descendant of the Bai family. He went through years of treatment with the Bai family’s psychologist, enduring several “disappointments” from them. He corrected his flaws and finally became the perfect embodiment of their ideals.

At last, he was healed. When he lay in bed at night, he no longer felt pain but peace. The flawed, rebellious past was buried in his medical records. Even his childhood friend, Li Yuan, didn’t know about his past.

But now, everything had been seen by Lu Sen.

And Lu Sen was not a qualified Bai family member, nor someone who followed the rules of the family like Li Yuan. He certainly wouldn’t have the same recognition or worldview that Bai Wei had because of Bai family etiquette. He wouldn’t ignore these things, nor would he remain silent because Lu Sen himself was a chaotic person!

It felt like a magnet in his stomach pulling him, forcing him to sit heavily in a chair. Bai Wei felt his vision blur because he feared Lusen would talk to him about these matters, just like Lusen had naively talked to him about that chaotic dinner!

“Maybe I should…”

In a split second of thought, Bai Wei found himself nearly at the elevator. He couldn’t accept Lu Sen discovering his past and trying to talk to him about it, just like he couldn’t accept Lu Sen discovering he was plotting against him. He pressed the button, his eyes narrowing as he saw his sleeve.

A few drops of fresh blood were clearly visible on the fabric.

“What’s wrong? Why aren’t you pressing the floor?” Someone muttered impatiently behind him, pressing the button themselves. “You’re acting weird…”

“Quiet, maybe something just happened at home,” another person poked the first.

Bai Wei paid no attention to them. He exited the elevator but only stood in the lobby, not walking outside. People passing by only saw the tall, handsome man staring at his sleeve, his expression sometimes as gloomy as a strong wind, sometimes as crazy as erupting magma…

Soon, what was even more shocking was that the tall, handsome man suddenly grabbed a file and, at a frantic pace, ran into the bathroom.

And started washing his face.

“Damn Lu Sen, damn Lu Sen! You were really lying to me!”

“The thing that splashed on my face earlier… it really was blood!”

Bai Wei was in complete panic.

He had known it all along! He had known it! He could see it clearly! Lusen’s neck was crushed under the piano board! His entire neck twisted, and blood splattered onto his face! But in the blink of an eye, Lusen came back to life! He was chatting with him casually in the ambulance, smiling and joking with the doctor, and even the blood that had splashed on Bai Wei’s face had turned into so-called “sweat,” but…

But!

Bai Wei flipped his wrist and looked at the inside of his sleeve. Then, with what seemed like a proud gesture, he held the sleeve up to the mirror.

A few drops of bright red blood were deeply stained on the fabric of the shirt.

This… is the evidence!

Lu Sen didn’t notice, and Bai Wei, just arriving at the hospital, didn’t realize that he had wiped his face with the shirt. Bai Wei could believe in the fake-death conspiracy of crawling out of a grave, believe in the expiration of arsenic, believe in the special constitution that causes a heart to stop beating, and believe in Lu Sen’s many irrational strokes of luck, but this time, everything he witnessed couldn’t be explained by coincidence or logic.

Lu Sen had indeed died and come back to life right in front of him. The blood that splattered was also mysteriously turned into sweat!

But Lu Sen had still missed something. He didn’t expect that Bai Wei had wiped his face with the sleeve of the shirt they had tossed aside. He had turned all the other blood into a transparent color, but he had forgotten about these two drops that had already soaked into the fabric.

So, his husband, Lu Sen, was indeed not a human, nor a ghost without a physical form.

He was a monster!

A monster of unknown nature!

Bai Wei washed his face desperately. He clearly remembered the sensation of Lu Sen’s blood splattering on his face. He didn’t know whether Lu Sen had used magic to turn the blood into water or just cast an illusion. If it were an illusion, wouldn’t his face be covered in blood right now?

After washing his face three times, Bai Wei stood in front of the mirror, his face soaked. He stared at his reflection, his mind completely blank.

The intense fear and shock had washed away all other emotions, leaving only pure confusion. When a person is in extreme confusion, strange thoughts can arise. For instance, at that moment, a rare and strange sense of joy appeared in Bai Wei’s mind.

It was like losing an argument and suddenly remembering a major flaw in the opponent.

Lu Sen had discovered his dark history, and now he had discovered that Lu Sen was a monster!

He hadn’t even accused Lu Sen of being a monster. Why should Lu Sen accuse him of his dark history? (Referring to his childhood.)

But soon, Bai Wei started shaking his head violently.

What was he thinking? Was he thinking of using Lu Sen being a monster as an excuse to argue with him, to say that Lu Sen had no right to criticize his hidden past?

Was there something wrong with his mind?

At that moment, Bai Wei suddenly seemed to understand many of the abnormalities in his life. Why Lu Sen could crawl out of a grave, why Lu Sen couldn’t be killed no matter how hard they tried, it turned out that Lu Sen wasn’t a lucky ghost but a monster to begin with. This even made Bai Wei think back to why his grandfather had wanted him to be set up with a man…

At that moment, Bai Wei’s phone suddenly rang. He flinched but didn’t answer.

The monotonous ringtone echoed loudly in the bathroom again and again. Outside the door, footsteps were gradually getting closer.