Geisterreich

Kapitel 13

Just as they were searching, Li Yuntong walked in.

"What are you doing?" Li Yuntong asked.

"Looking for a research report." I briefly explained the situation to him. He listened with a frown, then turned his head to the other side, as if looking at someone.

On the other side was a wall, completely blank. Occasionally, colleagues would walk past it, but Li Yuntong's gaze wouldn't waver. His eyes remained fixed, staring intently at the wall, nodding occasionally. This expression made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end—if you didn't look at the wall, just by looking at Li Yuntong's expression, anyone would think he was listening to someone on the other side, when in fact there was no one there. I swallowed hard, about to ask him what he was doing, when he suddenly spoke up: "So, are you done?"

"Not yet..." Before I could finish speaking, he interrupted me again.

"Now that you're done, give it to me quickly." He kept his eyes fixed on the wall, not looking at me at all, his tone somewhat stern. "They're all looking for the documents, bring them here!"

These words startled me at first, then I realized why he said that, and I couldn't help but gasp. I subconsciously looked towards the wall—Li Yuntong was clearly not talking to me, he was talking to that person—that's right, it must be so. Both his eyes and the content of his words indicated that he was talking to Gu Quan.

Gu Quan is on the other side of the wall!

And I still didn't see anything!

"Who are you talking to?" I whispered in Li Yuntong's ear.

“Gu Quan,” Li Yuntong said without lowering his voice, which made me uneasy. I didn’t know what I was afraid of. “He’s already finished the research report,” he continued, glancing back at me. “Why don’t you ask him for it? What are you looking for?”

Li Yuntong appeared perfectly lucid at that moment, but the fact that he was speaking to someone who was alone made him seem like a mental patient, which both frightened and worried me. Although I had some faith in Gu Quan's existence, I was even more...

Li Yuntong appeared perfectly lucid at the moment, but the fact that he was speaking to someone who was alone made him seem like a mental patient, which both frightened and worried me. Although I had some belief in Gu Quan's existence, I was still mostly skeptical. However, at this point, if I didn't believe in Gu Quan's existence, then I could only believe that Li Yuntong had mental problems. In comparison, I preferred to believe that Gu Quan existed.

If he exists, then where is he?

I stared intently, trying to make out Gu Quan's silhouette, but the air there was no different from anywhere else. My colleagues walked back and forth in front of the wall, making me worry that they might somehow pass through Gu Quan's body at some point. After staring like this for a while, I noticed that although my colleagues kept walking past the wall, there was one area that no one ever went to. No, perhaps it couldn't be called an area; it should be said... a very small patch of ground. My colleagues would always detour around it, which struck me as very strange, as if they all knew there was someone there. It was a small patch of ground in front of the wall, with some water stains on the floor tiles. I looked closely, and yes, that was it—the floor tile with a water stain that looked somewhat like a plum blossom. Not a single colleague failed to detour around it.

Gu Quan, was he standing on that floor tile? I tried my best to suppress my fear. Li Yuntong was still beside me talking to Gu Quan; they seemed to be discussing the contents of a research report. I didn't disturb him for the time being, just watched secretly. When Xiao Geng walked past the wall again, I involuntarily held my breath, my eyes following his body closely as he walked straight towards that floor tile, one step, two steps, three steps… I watched intently, secretly hoping for something. Xiao Geng didn't notice my gaze. He kept his eyes forward, whistling as he walked. He was only two steps away from stepping on that floor tile, his eyes unchanged. But when he lifted his foot again, his path had bypassed that floor tile.

"Why don't you walk in a straight line?" I couldn't help but shout.

"What?" Xiao Geng looked at me in confusion.

"It's nothing." I realized what I was doing and gave an awkward laugh.

"Nonsense." Xiao Geng curled his lip, walked past me, and opened another filing cabinet, searching for something.

Before I could say anything more, I suddenly had a strange feeling. It seemed that some different atmosphere was spreading in the office.

When did it become so quiet? Apart from Xiao Geng continuing to whistle, the people who had been searching for documents in the office had all stopped. They stood a few meters away from Li Yuntong and me, looking at us with puzzled expressions and whispering among themselves. I looked over at them and met Aunt Xu's questioning gaze.

"What's wrong?" I asked, puzzled.

"It's nothing." Aunt Xu hurriedly waved her hand, glanced at the other colleagues, then at Li Yuntong, and beckoned to me to come over. I walked up to her, and the other colleagues slowly gathered around.

"Who was Li Yuntong talking to just now?" Aunt Xu asked in a low voice.

My heart skipped a beat, and I quickly turned around to look at Li Yuntong. He was no longer speaking, standing there blankly with his head down, as if he was thinking about something.

What should I say? Should I say that Li Yuntong was talking to someone she couldn't see? I looked at my colleagues; their eyes and expressions clearly showed their suspicion of Li Yuntong, a suspicion that perhaps began after the Liufang Lake incident was reported on television.

They suspected that Li Yuntong had mental problems.

Such suspicion is certainly understandable. If Meng Ling's incident hadn't happened around me, I would never have believed that Li Yuntong could actually see people others couldn't. I would have thought, like them, that it was all Li Yuntong's hallucination. And now, after so many unbelievable things have happened, my suspicion of Li Yuntong hasn't completely disappeared. Just now, what Li Yuntong said to that deserted place did, on the surface, sound like the ramblings of a mentally ill person. As for the plum blossom-patterned water stain on the floor tile that everyone avoided, I'm probably the only one who noticed it and can't explain it to anyone else. Li Yuntong, such a kind and helpful person, being mistaken for mentally ill—whether this suspicion is true or false, it makes me feel very uncomfortable.

"Wasn't he just talking to me?" I said with a smile, my face burning with nervousness and anxiety.

"Oh..." Aunt Xu clearly didn't completely believe me. She was about to say something when Li Yuntong suddenly looked up and waved to me. I quickly went over. Behind me, the low whispers of my colleagues seemed like a cold wind blowing, and I felt uneasy.

Li Yuntong had been silently watching me until I walked up to him, at which point he asked in a very soft voice, "Can't any of you see Gu Quan?"

I felt something strong and stubborn rising in my throat, making me unable to speak for a moment, so I could only nod.

Li Yuntong's face turned unusually gloomy, and he remained silent for a long time. This silence made me feel awkward, and the speculative gazes of my colleagues around me felt like needles pricking me. I wanted to get away from Li Yuntong, so that I could get away from the focus of everyone's attention—however, at this moment, leaving Li Yuntong alone to be exposed to those gazes was something I couldn't bear to do.

“Let’s talk in the restaurant,” Li Yuntong finally spoke. I nodded quickly. He smiled and waved towards the wall—a small gesture, hidden in my shadow, unnoticed by the others, but it made me panic—clearly, he was beckoning Gu Quan. I tried my best to avoid looking at the wall and followed Li Yuntong out. We walked one after the other through the corridor lined with colleagues. He smiled and greeted the others as if nothing had happened, and they smiled and greeted him back. But I couldn’t remain nonchalant. I kept my head down, my eyes fixed on Li Yuntong’s heels, my face burning as if it were on fire. I could imagine what my colleagues were thinking. Ouyang even reached out and gently tugged at me. I looked up at him, and he shook his head slightly, as if telling me to stop Li Yuntong. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the gazes of my other colleagues. No one believed Li Yuntong anymore. His behavior just now made everyone suspect that he had a mental problem. When facing Li Yuntong, they showed an extremely cautious expression.

Good heavens, I really don't know how to handle this awkward situation. I can only lower my head even further and hope that Li Yuntong will leave quickly and get out of the office.

"Jiang Ling," Aunt Xu called softly, her voice barely a whisper. I guessed what she was going to say, but I kept my head down, pretending not to hear. But she stepped forward and blocked my way, her warm breath brushing against my ear: "Don't go with him!" Aunt Xu thought she was whispering, but the office was so quiet that everyone could hear her clearly. I saw Li Yuntong pause slightly before continuing on her way.

"Why?" I gritted my teeth and had no choice but to play dumb.

"He..." Aunt Xu didn't say anything more, pointed to her head, and made a mysterious expression.

"What?" I continued to grin foolishly.

As we talked, Li Yuntong and I continued walking forward. Soon we reached the door. Before Aunt Xu could say anything more, Li Yuntong turned around, smiled at me, and said, "Jiang Ling, hurry up, or we won't be able to get a table."

"Okay." I quickly agreed and followed him until we turned a corner and completely got rid of the scrutinizing gazes behind me. Only then did I let out a deep breath.

16

We walked in silence, neither of us speaking, only the sound of our footsteps echoing. Following the brightly lit corridor, the large glass window on our left shimmered like water in the light. A potted cycad in the corner emitted a glossy green glow. I saw faint shadows of Li Yuntong and myself on the smooth floor. When I tried to find a third person, I couldn't. We silently reached the elevator. After a minute or two, the doors opened, and Li Yuntong stepped inside. I followed almost immediately. Just as I was about to press the button for the first floor, Li Yuntong stopped me.

"Why aren't you coming in?" he asked, looking over my shoulder at the empty corridor outside the elevator. I nervously peered into the corridor, but still saw nothing.

“He took the stairs,” Li Yuntong said after a few seconds.

"Why?" I pressed the button, and the elevator began to descend.

"I don't know." He shook his head, as if he didn't want to say much, and I wisely kept quiet.

As the elevator descended, I felt a slight dizziness. The small space was empty except for the two of us, and it was eerily quiet. A sense of unreality welled up inside me, making me realize that everything that had happened these past few days was just my own imagination. This bizarre imagination, including Meng Ling and the invisible Gu Quan, and everything else, was confined to the small space of this elevator. Even Xu Xiaobing didn't seem so real anymore—perhaps, when the elevator doors opened again, I would find that this absurdity had vanished, and the world outside was the real one.

The elevator doors opened again quickly, and the cold air of the office building rushed out. The building's staff were busy in the lobby on the first floor, a scene of quiet yet bustling activity. Li Yuntong and I walked through the empty lobby, stepped out the door, turned right a few steps, and arrived at the building's cafeteria. The first clear sky of March gently spread over us, the tender spring sunshine shimmering in the air, and the scent of grass seemed to linger in our breath. The gentle breeze softened Li Yuntong's tense expression. We entered the quiet cafeteria, sat down at a window seat, ordered a clay pot rice each, and then he began to gaze out the window, lost in thought.

"Speak," I couldn't help but remind him, "Who is Gu Quan?"

He silently turned his gaze away from the window and sighed. "He hasn't come yet. I've never seen him before. When I saw him this morning, he said he was a planner at the company—isn't the company hiring? I thought he was a new planner, but I didn't expect..." He chuckled self-deprecatingly and pointed upwards. "They probably think I've lost my mind."

"Mm." I nodded.

"And you?" He placed his hands on the table, propped himself up on his elbows, and stared directly at me. "Don't you think I've lost my mind?"

“I had the same suspicion,” I glanced at the napkin on the table and subconsciously straightened it, “but what happened in my rented apartment, and besides…” I paused slightly, organized my thoughts, and then explained my method of judging Gu Quan’s existence.

"So that's how it is!" He looked surprised. "That's indeed a solution. I hadn't noticed until you mentioned it; it turns out everyone was actually going around Gu Quan." After saying that, he seemed to suddenly realize something. Although his gaze remained on me, it froze, and he fell into deep thought. I awkwardly picked up my teacup and took a sip. Although I knew he wasn't looking at me, being stared at like that still made me feel uncomfortable. Fortunately, his state of deep thought didn't last long.

"What you just said reminded me." He also picked up his teacup and took a sip of tea. "What the news said is true."

"What?" His words were completely incoherent, leaving me utterly confused. Seeing my bewildered expression, he chuckled twice, then quickly composed himself, glancing sideways at the corner of the table. He sighed and said with considerable emotion, "What the news said is true. I do often see people that others never see."

"Oh?" I looked at him expectantly, eager to urge him to continue.

Without me prompting him, he had already told me everything: "I didn't know I had this... ability before—even if it is an ability—I didn't know that there were people in the world that others couldn't see—maybe ghosts—anyway, the kind of thing that others can't see but I can see—I never thought that such a thing existed before. Even if I saw that ghost child in the hospital yesterday afternoon, even if I was the only one who could see that woman in Liufang Lake, I didn't think that this kind of situation would be common."

“Ubiquitous?” The word terrified me. I looked at him incredulously, and he nodded. “Yes, ubiquitous.”

“You mean,” I looked around. The restaurant was nearly empty, with only two or three fashionably dressed men sitting not far from us, and the waiters leaning lazily against the counter, “you mean there are a lot of those unseen people?”

“I don’t know if that’s a lot,” he frowned and thought for a moment, “it’s much more than I thought.”

"What do you mean?" I clenched my fists. "Tell me!"

“Yesterday afternoon, after my son finished his IV drip, I took him home. It was raining, so I hailed a taxi. The driver was a big bearded man who seemed very aggressive and drove very fast. He drove incredibly fast, and the people on both sides looked distorted by the rain. My son looked out the window, clapping and laughing non-stop. Every time our car passed another car, the little guy would fawn over the driver, saying, ‘Uncle, you’re awesome!’” Li Yuntong smiled slightly as he spoke of his son. “There weren’t many people or cars on the street at the time, so the taxi’s speed didn’t seem to cause any traffic disruption. The road didn’t turn, and when we approached a pedestrian crossing, the driver looked ahead and saw no one crossing and no traffic police nearby, so he didn’t slow down—I felt this was inappropriate and patted him on the shoulder, but he didn’t listen and sped straight towards the pedestrian crossing!” He stopped, catching his breath. “At that time…” The car was about 100 meters from the pedestrian crossing when I saw a figure appear on the side of the road, seemingly about to cross. I quickly told the driver, "Someone's here!" The driver immediately slammed on the brakes, looked around, and turned to ask me, "Where is he?" He seemed a little annoyed, as if I had lied to him. The person was on the right-hand side of the road, wearing a white cashmere coat, hands in his pockets, pacing back and forth, seemingly unsure whether to cross. I pointed the person out to the driver, who stared at him for a while, then shook his head: "I didn't see him." My son also peered out of the right window for a long time, saying he hadn't seen anyone either. This struck me as odd. Before I could say anything more, the driver started driving again, but this time more slowly. Just as we were about to reach the pedestrian crossing, the person suddenly darted out from the side of the road, seemingly heading straight for the car. I was immediately startled. "I was stunned, completely unable to react, watching helplessly as that person's face appeared on the windshield..." He shuddered, as if reliving the scene. "That face was completely bloodless, looking utterly hopeless, yet, this hopeless face was also smiling—it looked so bizarre. I couldn't help but scream, and then I heard a 'bang' in front of the car, the car jolted, and the person's face disappeared. I gaped, unable to close my mouth for a long time, and what surprised me even more was that the driver acted as if nothing had happened, the car didn't stop for a second, and kept driving forward. My son, standing beside me, asked curiously, 'Dad, why did you scream like that?' I didn't have time to answer my son's question, I grabbed him, covered his eyes, and yelled at the driver, 'Stop the car! You've hit someone!' I used all my strength, but the voice that came out was very soft, completely unlike my own. The driver slammed on the brakes, and the car stopped." "Get out." He turned back to me in a panic: "What did you say?" I said, "You hit someone, aren't you going to get out and check?" Without saying a word, he immediately got out of the car. I continued to cover my son's eyes, but he struggled in my hands like an eel, insisting on getting out to see. Of course, I couldn't let a child see this, so I opened the car door and looked outside. There was no blood on either side or behind the car, nor did I see anyone who had been hit. The driver walked around the car, then lay down to look under it, and stood angrily in front of me, hands on his hips: "Where is he?" I felt strange and asked him, "You didn't see him?" He said even more angrily, "No." At this moment, my son broke free of my hand, and I didn't care about him anymore. I quickly got out of the car and looked around—there was indeed no one under the car, but on the side of the car, a person was lying on the ground groaning. The front left wheel of the car was dangling his coat, which had been soaked gray by the sewage on the ground, but there was no blood.

"My first reaction was to grab my son, who was running around the car. Then I said to the driver, 'Call an ambulance right now.' Unexpectedly, the driver glared at me fiercely: 'Are you crazy?' He crossed his arms, raised his chin, and stared at me like he was ready to fight me to the death. The person on the ground had already slowly gotten up, still swaying slightly, as if he didn't understand what had happened. Seeing the driver's indifferent expression, I felt extremely angry and pointed at the person, saying, 'Look at him, I wonder if he has internal injuries. If you won't call, I will!' As I was about to make the call, the driver stopped me. This time, his expression turned to surprise, and he looked at me strangely: 'Who are you saying has internal injuries?'"

The man in the white cashmere coat was already staggering towards the roadside. I pointed at him and told the driver to chase after him. The driver looked in that direction for a while, then asked me with even more confusion, "Where's the person?" My son also looked at me strangely, "Dad, who do you need an ambulance to save?" Their words struck me as unbelievable. I loudly told the driver that his car had hit someone. He shook his head repeatedly, sneering and gritting his teeth, not only denying that he had hit someone but also calling me crazy. I got angry, grabbed the driver by the collar, and dragged him toward the man. The driver was furious, but I was also quite angry. The two of us wrestled along the way. My son was terrified and cried loudly. The man in the cashmere coat didn't turn back at all; instead, he quickened his pace. Just as I dragged the driver behind him and forcibly pulled the driver to touch his seemingly bloodless hand, he suddenly twisted his body and slipped away from our grasp.

"I was utterly astonished and said to him, 'You need to see a doctor.' He shook his head with a wry smile, 'It's nothing, I wasn't hit, I just tripped.' Before I could say anything, the driver and my son shouted at the same time, 'Who are you talking to?' I pointed to the person standing in front of the three of us. The man smiled wryly again, turned around, and swayed as he walked forward. My son and the driver were both looking at me with strange eyes, which made me feel uneasy. After a short while, the driver sighed and patted my shoulder, 'Never mind, get in the car.' By then, I already felt something was very wrong, so I got in the car without saying anything. In the car, my son whispered to me, 'Dad, were you having a fit just now?' This confused me, and the driver continued, 'Brother, you seem to be hallucinating. We didn't hit anyone, but we saw you talking to yourself, talking to someone you were imagining.' He glanced at me in the rearview mirror and carefully added, 'Are you under too much pressure?'"

When he got to this point, I couldn't hold back any longer and whispered, "Is that person in the cashmere coat also one of those people that others can't see?"

He nodded. "Later in the car, I didn't say a word. I started thinking about the people I'd seen these past few days—when I talked to you at the hospital, although I knew I was seeing things others couldn't, I never imagined this would keep happening—in the car, I first realized my eyes were different from others'. Do you know that feeling? I've heard countless ghost stories since I was little, but I always thought they were superstition, never believing there were really ghosts wandering around us. But at that moment, seeing things others couldn't see with my own eyes, that fact made me feel like I was going to collapse—really, being able to see things others can't see, you don't know how terrifying that is, it's like, it's like…" He pressed his thumb against his damp temple, searching for words intently, "Yeah, it's like that feeling—like the whole world is shrouded in fog, and what we can see makes us think everything around us is beautiful, but one day the fog clears, and suddenly we discover there are so many monsters walking around us—can you imagine what that feels like? Can you imagine how I felt then?" He chuckled self-deprecatingly, gazing out the window, silent for a long time. I had never seen him look so dejected. His ashen forehead gleamed in the shadows of the curtains, making him look somewhat like a ghost. I felt I should say something, but after thinking for a while, I couldn't come up with anything suitable, so I asked, "And then what happened?"

"And then?" He chuckled self-deprecatingly again. "Later, I started to doubt whether the people walking past the window really existed. Every time someone passed by, I would pull my son aside and ask, 'Did they see the person watching the house?' Every time, my son would say, 'Yes, Dad.' Eventually, he got annoyed and pretended to be asleep, ignoring me. So I had to ask the driver, who said sympathetically, 'You should go to the hospital to get it checked out.'" He lowered his head, looking at his two palms resting on the table. "When I got home, I didn't tell my wife about it. I barely slept last night. I don't know what's going on, whether it's a hallucination or not, and I don't know what to do. This morning, I tried to pretend nothing had happened. I hoped that the hallucination wouldn't come back, but I never imagined that even Gu Quan (the person watching the house) wouldn't exist." He sighed deeply, leaned back, and then looked me straight in the eye: "Am I out of my mind?"

I lowered my head under his gaze, unsure how to answer his question. Although something rather strange had happened in my room, it was completely different from what he had encountered; although I had personally witnessed everyone avoiding Gu Quan's area, perhaps it was just a coincidence… The key was that there was no evidence for anything he said. From beginning to end, he was the only one who saw those people, and no one could corroborate his claims—no, there was one person. Thinking of this, I felt a sense of relief: "Didn't you say there was someone in the hospital who saw the child just like you?"

He looked up at me, gave a wry smile, and that smile made me feel quite uneasy.

"Why are you laughing like that?" I asked him nervously.

"Of course I thought of that." He looked at me with a wry smile. "What do you think I did all morning?"

"Huh?" I pointed at him, my mouth agape. He nodded. "I went to the hospital."

"You went for a checkup?" I was quite surprised.

He shook his head: "Do you remember the nurse Feng Nan I told you about yesterday?"

I nodded.

He laid his hands on the table, his tired face slightly tilted, and said with a wry smile, "I went to the hospital to see her." His eyes flickered, and he looked at me with a lazy expression: "Guess what?"

"How about it?"

“She doesn’t remember saying anything to me!” He smiled helplessly. “She remembers that I once spoke to her about the strange child I saw, and she remembers that I mentioned it, but she no longer thinks it’s normal, and she doesn’t believe that anyone else has ever seen such a person as I have.”

"Is she lying?" I asked instinctively.

“It doesn’t seem like it,” he said thoughtfully. “She’s only a little older than you. If she’s lying, I’ll be able to tell.”

"What's going on?" I asked—I found myself increasingly inclined to ask questions rather than think—who could possibly figure out something so strange? The more I thought about it, the more my head ached.

“I don’t know. I had already made an appointment with a psychiatrist and was going to see him tomorrow morning,” he said hesitantly, looking at me. “I had already thought it was my problem—that I was the only one who saw those people, the only one from beginning to end, it was obviously my hallucination, but…” His eyes became serious. “Is what you said about Gu Quan true?”

"What is it?" I asked, completely puzzled.

"Everyone is going to avoid him?" His expression was full of anticipation.

I hesitated—was I really sure? Could I have made a mistake? Even Feng Nan denied what she had said—maybe she never said those words at all, maybe it was all just Li Yuntong's own imagination, maybe she hadn't considered anything at all—but what about that document? My mind was a mess, I dared not nod or shake my head, and I broke out in a sweat.

"I think I'll go see that psychiatrist tomorrow." Seeing my reaction, Li Yuntong seemed very frustrated. He muttered to himself, "Am I really going crazy?"

I didn't know what to say, I just silently looked at him. Maybe I made a mistake—I shouldn't have connected what happened at No. 6 Yunsheng Street with what happened to Li Yuntong in the first place. What made me think they were necessarily connected? Just because Li Yuntong said Meng Ling might be the kind of person who can't see? I shook my head. If Li Yuntong really did have mental problems—which now seemed quite obvious—then how could his words be trusted? What happened to me and what happened to him were completely different things. If I thought about it that way, things would be half simpler, at least Li Yuntong's half of the problem would be solved. I looked at him; he was silently stirring the claypot rice with a spoon, his square forehead covered with fine beads of sweat. Could someone like Li Yuntong really have gone mad? I suddenly felt a chill run down my spine. I didn't know which outcome was more terrifying: being diagnosed with mental illness or seeing non-existent people. But I knew that, in either case, Li Yuntong would never be accepted by society.

So what's the story with that woman at Liufang Lake?

I tried my best to find evidence to prove that Li Yuntong was mentally sound, but I later realized that even if I believed everything he said, he couldn't convince everyone. Li Yuntong was effectively isolated unless he stopped claiming he could see those people.

“Don’t say you can see those people again,” I said.

He stopped chewing, looked up at me, and seemed a little confused about what I was saying. But he quickly came to his senses. I can't describe his gaze; it seemed to hold a hint of gratitude, a hint of understanding, but mostly, it seemed to show hurt. He stared at me like that for a long time. I was at a loss, looking at him one moment, then at something else the next. Finally, I lowered my head and stirred the rice in the casserole, making a complete mess of the meat slices and rice grains.

After a long silence, he finally spoke: "I didn't mean to say that." I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye and saw that he was looking down. So I looked up to look at him directly, and he looked up at the same time. Our eyes met, and I felt a little flustered. He seemed to feel the same way. However, this feeling was only fleeting, and we quickly looked at each other calmly.