L'affaire du messager fantôme - Le récit d'une âme qui quitte son corps

Chapitre 30

She immediately replied with those two words.

Finally, as if she had just released a huge weight from her chest, Chunyu let out a scream as she looked up at the sky. She felt she had never been so crazy before.

The temperature has dropped below zero.

At nine o'clock in the morning, Chunyu wrapped herself in a thick scarf and hurriedly ran out to work.

The weather forecast says that a cold front from Siberia will move south in a few days, possibly bringing snowfall. Even the most fashion-conscious girls on campus have to sacrifice their figures and wear bulky ski suits.

On her way to the company, Chunyu took the subway as usual. In the crowded and noisy carriage, she deliberately found a good seat where she could see almost all the faces around her. Those faces were so indifferent; not one of them was what she wanted to see—no, perhaps it was better not to see them at all.

When Chunyu arrived at the company, she found that the people speaking to her were somewhat cold, which made her feel uneasy. She could only bury herself in front of the computer. Because she had hardly done any work yesterday, she worked especially hard today, working for several hours straight until the afternoon, almost without stopping except for meals.

Unfortunately, one of the girls in the company was sick and on leave today, so Chunyu had to stay and work overtime. After working in front of the computer for several more hours, Chunyu noticed that the sky outside the window had darkened and been replaced by countless neon lights. By then, they had all quietly slipped away, leaving her alone in the office.

The empty office suddenly became much quieter. Chunyu stood up and stretched; her neck ached terribly from sitting in front of the computer all day. She was starving, and luckily there was a late-night snack on her desk—for those working overtime. After finishing her dinner, Chunyu prepared to leave work.

As she reached the door, she suddenly heard a deep voice behind her: "Have they all left?"

The sudden sound nearly scared her to death. Chunyu turned around nervously and saw that it was her boss, Yan Mingliang. She lowered her head and said, "They've all left, and my work is finished."

Yan Mingliang's cold expression softened instantly: "You've had a hard day. Come sit in my room."

Although she was very nervous, Chunyu couldn't refuse, so she went into the manager's office and sat on the sofa next to him. "Are you very tired?"

"It's okay." "Everyone's like this when they first start working. You're actually having a relatively easy time. Think about when I was abroad, it was something you can't even imagine."

Yan Mingliang's gaze scurried across Chunyu's face like ants, sending shivers down her spine. She could only lower her head and reply, "Manager Yan, actually, I'm here for an internship mainly to conduct social research for my graduation thesis." "What thesis? I remember my university thesis was about how computer networks would change people's lifestyles. Back then, many people didn't know what the internet was, but now everyone is inseparable from it." "My thesis title was 'Mobile Phone Texting and Human Communication.'" "A very good topic. Indeed, many people's lives have been changed because of it." With each sentence, Yan Mingliang moved a step closer to Chunyu, forcing her to retreat to the side of the desk. Suddenly, a face seemed to flash across her vision, like a spark hitting her eye.

It was a framed picture on Yan Mingliang's desk, containing a photo of a girl. The background of the photo was not visible, only the girl's smiling face and a pair of alluring eyes.

Instantly, Chunyu touched her face and took a few steps back. She recognized the face in the photo; although she had never met the girl, she knew her name—Yunhan.

Although it wasn't the photo in the school records, the two photos clearly showed the same person; there was no mistaking the face or the features. But why was Yunhan's photo on Yan Mingliang's desk?

Yan Mingliang immediately took the photo from the table and whispered, "Don't you think she looks a lot like you?" "Not only does she look a lot like me, but she also looks a lot like someone else—her name is Yunhan, and she was the most beautiful girl in our school's art department eight years ago. You know her, don't you?"

This time, Yan Mingliang backed down. He pursed his lips and thought for a moment before saying, "Since you know Yunhan, then I'll admit it. She was my girlfriend in college." "Yunhan was your girlfriend?" Chunyu couldn't imagine what Yan Mingliang was like eight years ago. She couldn't see what charm he had that made the most beautiful girl in the art department fall into his arms. "If you don't believe me, you can ask others." Yan Mingliang walked to the French windows, turned his back to Chunyu, lowered his head, and pondered, "Since she died, this photo has been with me for many years. No matter how much pain I've been in, I know she's always by my side."

Chunyu felt she had touched someone's most vulnerable nerve, and she apologized, saying, "I'm sorry, Manager Yan, I shouldn't have asked so many questions." "It's too late today, you should go home now."

Chunyu nodded and left the room, quickly departing from the company.

Yan Mingliang was the only one left in the office. He trembled as he turned off all the lights, plunging himself into darkness. He faced the city that never sleeps through the floor-to-ceiling windows—yet he did not belong to this city.

Looking out the window at the towering skyscrapers, their lights gleaming eternally in the darkness, he suddenly remembered that smoky morning. He lay in his small hut, his nostrils filled with the smell of livestock. Yes, unlike any of the characters in this story, Yan Mingliang was born in a poor mountain village. That morning was his first memory; he was awakened by his mother's heart-wrenching screams. Opening his eyes amidst the pungent smell of livestock, he saw his father straddling his mother's head, slapping her until her head bled profusely.

This was Yan Mingliang's extraordinary childhood. Although his family was so poor they couldn't even afford food, he still managed to finish primary and secondary school. Perhaps it was poverty that made him mature prematurely. Looking at his destitute home, his mother who cried all day, and his drunken father, he resolved to leave this place and to make something of himself one day. Despite being looked down upon by everyone, his grades were always the best, and he always endured bullying with his head down. He hated his father because he fell asleep every night to the sound of his mother crying. His father could never change his habit of beating women, from fists and feet to belts and wooden sticks. His mother never dared to speak out when she was beaten, silently enduring the pain, holding her son through the long nights. Until one day, his father drank two jin of cheap liquor, pushed his mother against a door, and beat her severely with a stool. The son witnessed everything but was powerless to help, tied to the bed by his father. Finally, his father accidentally hit his mother's temple, at which point he seemed to wake up from his daze and stopped, taking his mother to the hospital for emergency treatment. But it was all too late; the mother's tragic life came to an end.

He watched his mother being beaten to death by his own father. At that moment, he didn't shed a tear; he felt his tears had turned into blood, flowing back into his heart. Knowing he had committed a grave crime, his father jumped off a cliff and died. He was sixteen that year, becoming a true orphan. After his parents were buried, he learned his true parentage—he was the result of his mother's infidelity, not his "father's" real son. Therefore, his "father" had never loved him and had always punished his mother with beatings until they both perished.

He felt a deep sense of shame, a shame that had been branded upon him since birth. He knew that without his existence, his mother's fate wouldn't have been so tragic. He could no longer lift his head, and could only study day and night, desperately trying to leave this place he never wanted to see again.

Finally, he used the meager savings left by his parents to complete his three years of high school. He then ranked among the top twenty in the province and was admitted to a prestigious university in Shanghai. He thought that going to university in Shanghai would allow him to escape the scornful looks of others, but people still looked down on him. His roommates didn't want to talk to him because he came from a poor rural area and was pitifully unsophisticated; people felt it would be embarrassing to be friends with him. He had to work odd jobs to scrape together his tuition fees. He attended classes at school during the day and worked on construction sites at night, carrying cement and going to sleep in the middle of the night covered in sweat.

He majored in computer science and started working for a computer company after his junior year. At least he no longer had to work like a migrant worker and could save some pocket money. That same year, he met a girl named Yunhan. Meeting Yunhan was purely coincidental. It was a dark night when he returned to school from working outside and saw several thugs harassing a female college student at the back gate of the school. Using the strength he had developed in the countryside, he beat the thugs to a pulp. From that moment on, he became Yunhan's true hero. At that time, he maintained his early rising habit from the countryside. Every morning at six o'clock, while his roommates were still asleep, he would go to the school's large sports field to run. Yunhan would also run there on time, and the two of them would run laps around the sports field together until the students gathered around to watch and talk about the latest news on campus—"country bumpkin" Yan Mingliang had gotten together with the most beautiful girl in the art department.

No one could understand why Yunhan would fall for him; this poor country boy had absolutely no charm. Although many boys secretly admired her, she didn't like those pretty boys; she only liked men like Ken Takakura, and Yan Mingliang was her Ken Takakura. Yan Mingliang aroused the jealousy of many; they often bullied him, and some even used despicable methods to uncover his shameful past. Suddenly, everyone on campus knew.

From then on, wherever he went, he was pointed at and gossiped about. He felt utterly ashamed, as if his clothes had been stripped off and displayed before all his teachers and classmates. In this time of despair, only Yunhan did not despise him; instead, she openly appeared with him. Yunhan's parents were both leading cadres. When they heard that their daughter was dating a "country bumpkin," they almost thought she had gone insane. When they heard about Yan Mingliang's shameful background, they demanded that their daughter immediately sever ties with him. Initially, Yunhan refused to yield to her parents, but she had always been a good daughter to them, and she didn't want to see them heartbroken. Yan Mingliang eventually compromised; he didn't want Yunhan to break off her relationship with her parents because of him. Under pressure from the school and her parents, Yunhan was finally forced to leave Yan Mingliang. But she was so heartbroken that she cried all day, became mentally unstable, talked nonsense, and even sleepwalked at night. She was sent to psychological treatment several times, but to no avail. From a healthy and beautiful campus belle, she gradually turned into a mentally unstable girl. Finally, one day, tragedy struck. Under the cover of darkness, Yunhan ran to a teaching building, wrote a suicide note, and then hanged herself. Yan Mingliang was devastated; neither the school nor Yunhan's parents had anticipated this outcome. Unable to determine who should bear the responsibility, the matter was hastily closed. In utter despair, Yan Mingliang considered suicide, but anger and hatred kept him alive. After graduating from university, Yan Mingliang decided to study in England, but he couldn't afford the expensive tuition. To raise the funds, he gritted his teeth and sold one of his kidneys, finally boarding a plane to Europe.

However, his life in England was even more difficult than back home. Besides studying computer programming during the day, he often spent entire nights washing dishes in restaurants and even collecting seashells on the beach. This took a heavy toll on his remaining kidney. He lost his masculine physique, suffered humiliation like a woman, and was frequently beaten to the point of near death by street thugs. He endured hellish torment, both physically and mentally.

Just as he was hating everything around him, even hating himself for coming to this world, and preparing to disappear completely, he unexpectedly encountered someone in a small town in southern England. This person completely changed his fate—Yan Mingliang finally opened his eyes, and in the smooth floor-to-ceiling glass, he seemed to see the person's reflection. His lips slowly moved: "Who should go to hell?"

When Chunyu left the company, it was already past seven o'clock in the evening. She walked through the bustling streets and entered the subway station platform.

The rush hour was over, and the platform was only occupied by people going home from work overtime, and young men and women out for fun. After entering the subway car, she finally found a seat and immediately closed her eyes. She was so tired today, and the swaying of the subway had a kind of hypnotic effect; she felt herself sinking very, very deep underground, and she fell asleep.

She didn't know how much time had passed when a hand nudged Chunyu's shoulder. She immediately woke up in a panic, realizing she had arrived at her school stop. She stood up nervously, but all the seats around her were empty, and no one else was standing. Who had nudged her? She touched her shoulder, feeling that half of her arm was almost cold. Was the hand that had nudged her a ghost in the air?

The train doors opened, and Chunyu immediately ran onto the platform. She looked around again; almost no one was getting off. Perhaps it was just her imagination? Although she was still exhausted, she forced herself to stay awake and hurriedly ran off the platform. But all the way, she felt like there was something behind her, but when she looked back, there was nothing there. This made her anxious all the way into the campus.

On a winter night in the campus, the path was covered by bare trees, and there was hardly a soul in sight. Only the dim lights in the distance faintly illuminated the way ahead. The spring rain suddenly stopped, and in the silent darkness, she seemed to truly hear footsteps behind her.

—Is someone behind you?

The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. She slowly turned her head, imagining what terrifying sight she would see behind her. Chunyu finally saw it—in the dark shadow of a withered tree, a tall figure moved slowly. She took a few deep breaths nervously and shouted, "Who are you?" Her voice echoed through the empty campus, making it even more frightening. The dark figure continued to walk towards her. Gradually, the dim light shone on the figure, and that familiar silhouette suddenly jumped into Chunyu's eyes—was it him?

Chunyu opened her mouth wide, puffs of white breath escaping from her lips. She could never forget that person. No, that familiar scent came too, slowly entering her nostrils—it was that person's scent, that terrible scent that could never be changed.

That man was her stepfather.

A sudden gust of cold wind blew, causing Chunyu to take a few steps back. She covered her mouth, preventing herself from uttering the words "stepfather." The figure continued to approach her, only about ten meters away, one step, two steps…

She was terrified, trembling for a long time before turning around and running desperately towards the dormitory. The only sounds were dim lights and the howling wind. She didn't dare look back, just kept her head down and ran forward, finally reaching the girls' dormitory building.

Still shaken, Chunyu ran back to her dorm room and quickly locked the door, then closed the windows again. She huddled under the white light, covering her ears with her hands, terrified that there would be a loud knocking at the door.

Trembling, she waited for a long time, but the expected knocking did not come. Only then did Chunyu raise her head and gasp for breath.

The image of that person from before resurfaced in her mind; she would never mistake him, especially for his scent. But how could her stepfather be on her school campus? Could it be someone else with a similar build and appearance? Chunyu simply couldn't understand it.

Could it be that the "person I hate the most" from the Hell Game last night worked?

Yes, that man was the person she hated the most.

Chunyu closed her eyes again, tears slowly welling up. In the hazy darkness, she seemed to see her father's face again. He lay in the cold funeral home, and the eleven-year-old watched as her father was taken to the crematorium, her mother holding her tightly, her clothes soaked with tears.