Geisterbestattung

Kapitel 14

“That day I saw someone in the supermarket who looked a lot like you…” Li Hui said, watching his reaction closely.

"Ah..." he seemed to be recalling something, "Two or three days ago, I think? I helped my nephew buy a stroller. I'm sorry, I didn't see you then. Were you there too?"

"I didn't see you clearly at the time, and you just walked past. I wasn't sure if it was you, so I didn't say hello."

“Miss Li Hui is very aloof, I can tell.”

Li Hui was speechless for a moment.

“Zhang Lili’s good friend, I guess they all have similar tempers to her, right? Haha…” Mr. Yang was very good at getting others out of trouble. Li Hui felt that he knew how to be considerate of women, and she couldn’t help but feel happy for Zhang Lili.

Half an hour had passed, but Zhang Lili still hadn't returned. Li Hui was getting impatient. She got out of the car and stood on the sidewalk, looking around, hoping Zhang Lili would appear somewhere soon. But with people coming and going from work, there was no sign of Zhang Lili.

At this moment, Mr. Yang opened the car door and called to her, "Get in the car."

"What happened?"

“Lili called and asked us to come and pick her up. She had gone too far and didn’t want to come back.”

"That Lili, she's really something." Li Hui was a little annoyed. She had only come today with great difficulty, and she really wanted to leave. But she couldn't. Lili must be deliberately tormenting Mr. Yang. Her purpose was to "test" him and see if he really had the patience for her.

She composed herself, got into the car, and let Mr. Yang drive to the location Zhang Lili had specified.

The car had only been driving for a short while when Mr. Yang's phone rang again. It was Zhang Lili saying that she had already taken a taxi and asked them to come directly to the hotel to find her.

What exactly is Zhang Lili up to?

It was rush hour, and the roads were so congested that it was impossible to move an inch. Every step was a stop-and-go, incredibly slow. Li Hui sat in her car, unable to concentrate on her book. She just wanted to get through her evening's social engagements as quickly as possible so she could get home early.

The morning email reminded her that as long as she opened her eyes, the terror would not turn a blind eye to her, which meant that she was now surrounded by enemies and in grave danger.

As to where these dangers came from, only she could guess. At a time like this, wandering aimlessly in the streets was clearly not a wise move.

Mr. Yang, sitting behind the steering wheel, glanced at his watch idly before turning back to Li Hui to strike up a conversation. "You were quite the beauty back in medical school, a real campus belle!"

Li Hui was particularly uncomfortable with how he addressed her. Everyone else always called her by her name or her title, but this man always acted like a foreign comprador.

"You've got it wrong. The famous beauty in our college is Zhang Lili."

"No, she was the school beauty in the previous two years, you were the later one."

"You seem to know quite a bit; I hadn't paid attention to these things."

"You know what? In college, the guys would have 'bedside meetings' every night, and the main topic was discussing anecdotes and funny stories about you campus beauties. So even though you didn't know us at all back then, we were pretty familiar with you!"

"Hmm...did you know Zhang Lili back in school?"

"Of course, but we didn't tell them beforehand."

Li Hui wanted to laugh, "That doesn't count as knowing each other, does it?"

"It's unequal! Back then, so many handsome young men fawned over you. We didn't even have a chance to curry favor with you!"

"Look at what you're saying. How could such a thing happen?"

“You don’t believe me? Let me tell you a story.” Mr. Yang deliberately glanced back at Li Hui, keeping her in suspense. “Once, I managed to get my hands on two copies of *Lady Chatterley’s Lover*—you know, back then, that book was unavailable anywhere in the country. People who came to Shanghai on business wanted to buy one to take back with them, but bookstores were always sold out. I got it through a friend who worked at Xinhua Bookstore—at the time, I thought I could give one of the copies to Zhang Lili as a gift, and then take the opportunity to get to know her.”

"I waited for her at the library entrance for days, carrying my wrapped books, and finally she showed up. Good heavens! When I looked, I saw she was followed by at least three or four admirers, all of them arrogant and more handsome than me. I was so scared I didn't dare breathe, and could only obediently slip away with my books..."

Li Hui couldn't help but laugh: "And then?"

"Later I found someone new! I'm a person who's quite self-aware."

"I meant that book..."

"Ah, the book is still here. I was just thinking that one day I should repackage it and 'return it to its rightful owner.'"

"You haven't told Lili about this yet? Tell her quickly, I guarantee this old story will instantly rekindle your relationship." Li Hui, who had been too lazy to speak, suddenly became excited by this story.

"Sigh..." Mr. Yang sighed and stopped talking. Li Hui felt that he seemed to have some unspeakable troubles, but she didn't want to ask too much, and the car fell silent for a moment.

The flow of people and vehicles on the street was still like a raging flood. Li Hui and Mr. Yang sat in the car, each lost in their own thoughts, as time passed little by little.

Suddenly, Mr. Yang's phone rang. Li Hui heard Zhang Lili raise her voice and argue a few times on the other end. She couldn't hear the details, but her impatient tone was very obvious.

Mr. Yang explained repeatedly, "There's a traffic jam, a traffic jam... Just a little longer, we'll be there soon!"

He let out a loud sigh after hanging up the phone: "Beautiful women are hard to please! Zhang Lili seems to still have the same temper as she did five years ago."

"This shows that she still maintains her youthful vitality, just like before. It's so rare for someone to stay unchanged their whole life!"

"But as the saying goes, 'Sing the song that suits the mountain you're on,' how do you explain that?"

"What do you mean?" Li Hui felt that there was something dark about this man surnamed Yang. He wanted to win back his past dream lover, but he was also psychologically unbalanced and felt that he was wronging himself.

"After all, she's not the school beauty anymore. Women age more easily than men," Mr. Yang sighed.

"Are you saying we've all become yesterday's news?"

"That's not what I meant! You're still quite young. When I saw you the other day, I felt you hadn't changed at all."

Li Hui tried to change the subject: "Where is Lili now?"

"She said she had already arrived, and if we hadn't arrived by then, she would have gone back first."

"Ugh! Today was really tough."

"Weren't we waiting for her? Otherwise, we would have arrived long ago." Mr. Yang's tone was flat, revealing no emotion, but his choice of words implied considerable dissatisfaction.

Li Hui didn't know what to say for a moment, so she simply kept quiet and pretended to read a book.

"In Shanghai, women like you who have no temper are becoming increasingly rare." To everyone's surprise, Mr. Yang suddenly blurted out this remark.

She could only pretend not to hear, thinking to herself, "I'm not from Shanghai anyway."

The phone rang again. Zhang Lili said loudly and quickly on the other end, "Drive slowly, don't rush! I'm going home now. Call me if anything happens!"

"What? Wait a minute..."

The other party had already hung up, and Mr. Yang stood there, phone in hand, stunned. After a long while, he finally came to his senses: "Is she angry? What does that mean?"

"She's not angry. Maybe something really has come up at home. Her mother is old and often has sudden illnesses. She's a doctor, and these things always call her back." Li Hui hurriedly defended Zhang Lili, but seeing that Mr. Yang's face had turned from cloudy to gloomy, she knew it was no use saying anything.

The two sat in the car, staring blankly at the street scene outside. The neon lights were already on, but the traffic showed no signs of clearing up. Li Huizhen really wanted to get out of the car and walk around for a while before taking the subway, leaving Mr. Yang stuck in traffic alone. After all, he was the car owner, and she couldn't help him anyway.

But after thinking about it, she didn't dare to speak up. After all, Mr. Yang was already unhappy tonight because of Zhang Lili, and she had no reason to add fuel to the fire.

The car, moving forward one or two meters at a time, stopped halfway in front of a hotel by the roadside.

This is a five-star hotel catering to foreign guests. There is a huge square in front of it, and the sign for the underground parking lot is hanging not far in front of them.

Mr. Yang suddenly turned on the turn signal, made a neat turn on the steering wheel, and the car swerved to the right side of the road.

When Li Hui looked out the window again, a neatly dressed child was already standing in front of their car door.

"We're not leaving. We'll have Western food here tonight," Mr. Yang said to Li Hui as the car door was suddenly opened beside her.

Midnight Horror

This was Li Hui's first time dining at such a luxurious hotel. Mr. Yang ordered food and drinks with practiced ease, as if he were treating Li Hui tonight. Zhang Lili had already retreated to a secluded corner.

She felt very uncomfortable and tried several times to find an excuse to leave, but ultimately couldn't bring herself to do it.

I was really hungry. Anyway, everyone was going to eat something at this time, so I might as well take this opportunity to talk to him about Zhang Lili. There was a misunderstanding about the phone call earlier. Perhaps he didn't know Zhang Lili's character very well.

Li Hui felt that as Lili's good friend, she had a responsibility to do this well.

Mr. Yang ate very elegantly, slowly and deliberately, making lighthearted remarks to lighten the mood as he ate. He seemed to have sensed Li Hui's restraint and unease.

Li Hui had been wanting to say what she had prepared, but she couldn't find a way to interject. It wasn't until they were having coffee that she finally found an opportunity while Mr. Yang was lighting a cigarette:

"Today I accepted Mr. Yang's warm hospitality on behalf of Zhang Lili, and I will convey your kindness to her when I get back."

Unexpectedly, Mr. Yang burst out laughing: "You're so naive! Women need to be careful what they say to each other. If you go back and report everything that happened tonight to Zhang Lili, well, I'm sure you've lost your good friend."

"Don't think of Lily as so... petty. She wouldn't."

"You don't understand Zhang Lili at all," Mr. Yang said, shaking his head as he smoked. "And you don't understand women at all!" Li Hui stood there, speechless.

For the rest of the time, Li Hui listened to Mr. Yang speak.

Mr. Yang was in high spirits tonight and became even more talkative. He talked about everything from how male classmates in college would team up to find out about female students' dating history and family backgrounds, and then how they would separately pursue their crushes, to how all sorts of swindlers in society cheat people out of money and sex; from how his first family broke up to his long romantic journey afterward. Under the influence of alcohol, Mr. Yang spoke eloquently and vividly, which broadened Li Hui's horizons.

"Since so many young and beautiful girls are pursuing you, why did you come to Zhang Lili?" Li Hui asked indignantly.

"You don't understand. There are two types of men. One type likes young women, like media mogul Rupert Murdoch, who married a Chinese woman younger than his daughter. The other type prefers to marry older women to manage the household and finances, like me."

Li Hui could no longer tell whether Mr. Yang was being humorous or shameless. She felt that Zhang Lili might have encountered a cynical and irresponsible devil, which made her very worried.

Time flew by, and Li Hui realized it was already past ten o'clock at night, immediately becoming tense. She thought of the "disaster" that she had suspected might befall her today.

"I should go now, it's getting late."

"What's the rush? We have a car, I'll take you home in a bit. Now let's get a hair wash, a relaxing hour-long massage, and then go home for a good night's sleep. We can do what we need to do tomorrow!"

At this moment, Li Hui's selfish motives came into play. She thought that it was absolutely impossible for her to pay out of her own pocket for a hair wash and massage at a hotel of this caliber. Now that someone was willing to treat her, and that person was Zhang Lili's boyfriend, why not take the opportunity to enjoy herself?

So somehow she obediently walked into the beauty salon, where the ladies helped her to sit or lie in a comfortable chair, and she slowly closed her beautiful eyes.

While getting her hair washed, Li Hui tried her best to stay alert, but when it came to the massage, she couldn't hold on any longer. The fatigue of the past few days came over her at once, and she fell asleep as soon as the massage started.

The massage went from gentle to forceful, and the whole process took more than an hour. Li Hui slept for more than an hour until the masseuse turned her over and stepped on her spine until it hurt terribly, finally waking her from her deep sleep.

After fully enjoying the treatment that Mr. Yang had paid for, and getting up from the massage bed with satisfaction, she was surprised to find that it was already past 1 a.m.

Mr. Yang has long since disappeared; it is unknown whether he is still getting a massage somewhere or has already run away.

Li Hui hurried downstairs. The lobby was already nearly empty. As soon as she reached the counter, a clerk on duty came over to greet her: "Are you Miss Li Hui?"

"It's me."

"Please follow me. Please." The waiter bowed attentively and gestured "please" towards the elevator.

The elevator went straight up to the floor, and Li Hui's heart began to pound wildly. The long corridor branched off several times, and Li Hui was completely disoriented by the maze-like passageway. Finally, it stopped outside a room door.

"Please wait a moment, the floor attendant will be here shortly." With that, the young attendant turned to leave.

"Wait, is anyone in here?" Li Hui finally couldn't contain her fear any longer. She stopped the young lady who was about to open the door, making it look like she was ready to run away at any moment.

"This is your room, how come there's someone else here?" The young lady looked at her in bewilderment, then gently moved her hand on the door. The magnetic card beeped, and the door opened silently.

"Please come in, Miss."

The door slammed shut behind Li Hui with a heavy, dull thud. Startled, Li Hui quickly fastened the safety lock before turning to examine the suite.