Falling In Love Inside An Urban Legend — Chapter 3.1

original novel: 在都市怪谈里谈恋爱[快穿]

author: 小生不知

mtl’d and edited by dogpotato. please leave a comment if there are any questions or errors!

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Chapter 3.1, Arc 1: Strange Sounds in the Morgue

Yao Ye looked at the ashes on the ground for a moment. He took a step back, trying to avoid the pile of unburnt joss paper.

Unfortunately, his ankle was injured and his reaction speed wasn’t fast enough; the soles of his shoes were already stained with off-white paper ash by the time he pulled back.

Although Yao Ye didn’t believe in ghosts and spirits, he felt that it would be unlucky to meet someone burning paper offerings in the middle of the night, so he subconsciously veered away from the corner of the street.

He continued on forward, suddenly recalling the nurses’ conversation when he was getting water at the service desk just now—people burning joss paper at the crossroads to change their fortunes and transfer their bad luck to whoever stepped on the paper ash.

After a pause, Yao Ye touched the reddened tip of his nose, a little dazed.

Things dealing with fortune and luck have always been very sinister.

When he was a child, he heard folk stories from his elders about how in ancient times there were many evil methods of exchanging fates. The methods were different, but without exception, once someone wanted to change their fortune, the bad luck they abandoned would definitely be transferred to another person.

As a result, the matter of exchanging fates was the most harmful to yin virtue[1].

In fact, the ‘luck’ being transferred was nothing more than the manifestation of a person’s yang energy. At most, the one who takes the luck would be healthy for a while. The one who loses theirs would be weak for the same period of time, usually at about the degree of a common cold.

However, there were exceptions. Some weak or injured people who lose too much yang energy could easily run into malevolent things, so there were cases of people dying.

Thinking of this, Yao Ye looked back at the traces of paper ashes behind him.

The wind had blown away most of the ash. The yellow remnants of paper became more and more conspicuous in the middle of the night.

So it turned out that there were actually people who took these luck transfer legends seriously.

Yao Ye retracted his gaze, shrugged, and left the pile of ashes behind.

People still believing in this kind of feudal superstition was really a failure of public education.

When he was young, he had been deceived for a while. But now that he was older, he didn’t believe in such things.

To put it bluntly, this kind of folklore was nothing more than psychological comfort for the older generation. There was no scientific basis for ‘yang energy’ or luck.

The concept of fate exchange was even more absurd. A person’s fate is controlled by their own efforts. How can it be influenced by this pile of paper ash? It’s sad that there are people who hope to change their fortunes by transferring luck.

Yao Ye gathered his collar together and quickened his steps. The night was getting darker and he really wanted to hurry back and rest.

Whoosh—

The wind whistled as it swept by, blowing past Yao Ye’s black trousers and whisking away a few pieces of joss paper from the ground, leaving only a few white-gray traces of ash.

The cold wind in the middle of the night was too piercing, causing Yao Ye’s strides to get longer and longer. Although he couldn’t run because of his ankle injury, his pace was quite fast.

He braved the cold and the wind all the way at the speed of a trot. At long last, a familiar apartment building appeared in the distance.

“Phew! Finally home.” 

It was deep into the night, and the guard was already dozing off in the guard room. Yao Ye felt like he’d almost been frozen solid. Shivering, he swiped his card to get into the building and went straight to the elevator.

The elevator doors were tightly closed. Yao Ye looked at the display screen. The 15-story elevator had just descended to the 13th floor.

Someone was waiting there.

Yao Ye touched his red ears, pressed the elevator button and waited for the elevator to descend to the first floor.

As the elevator slowly moved downwards, Yao Ye rubbed his frozen palms and took out his phone to scan the news. A local headline caught his eye.

“Recently, many students have committed suicide by jumping from multiple-story high-rise buildings. Their families are distraught and their deaths also caused great distress to the lives of nearby residents. After investigation by the police, it seems to be caused by excessive academic pressure…”

Seeing this, Yao Ye felt regret in his heart. After all, they had been so young. It was a pity that their lives ended too early.

Nowadays, students act too impulsively. No matter how heavy the burden of their studies was, there would always be a method to resolve it. There was no reason to treat one’s life carelessly.

Ding—

After a while, the elevator reached the first floor.

Yao Ye smoothly locked his phone screen and waited for the elevator doors to open. He had already exhausted himself to his limit and couldn’t wait to go home and relax with a hot bath.

As the elevator doors slowly opened, a female junior high school student with long black hair wearing a blue and white school uniform appeared in front of Yao Ye.

The junior high student’s face was pale. She stood straight in the middle of the elevator, blocking the elevator entrance without the slightest intention of giving way at all.

Seeing this, Yao Ye blinked suspiciously and asked in a gentle voice, “Excuse me, is there something wrong? Do you need help?”

This little girl standing in the elevator in the middle of the night probably impulsively came out on a whim after fighting with her parents.

The junior high student looked at Yao Ye and shook her head slowly before she seemed to realize that she was in the way and trudged out of the elevator.

After the student walked out, Yao Ye looked at the elevator doors that were about to close and pressed the button again to make them reopen. He turned his head and said to the silent junior high student standing not far away, “Little girl, it’s getting late. It’s better to go home soon or your parents will be worried.”

Thinking of the local news that he just saw, Yao Ye was really a bit afraid that this little girl might take things too hard right now. 

The junior high student stood directly in front of the elevator doors. She stared coldly at Yao Ye without saying a word, seemingly very impatient.

Yao Ye’s warm face was pasted on a cold butt[2]. Embarrassed, he had no choice but to enter the elevator.

On second thought, a stranger suddenly talking to you in the middle of the night would indeed be unpleasant. It was normal for her to ignore him.

Yao Ye secretly scolded himself for being so soft-hearted. Acting like some kind of Holy Mother indeed. He simply stopped concerning himself with the student and pressed the button on the tenth floor of the elevator, waiting for the doors to close.

However, just as the elevator doors were about to close, the junior high student who had been standing in front of the elevator suddenly approached and leaned against the doors. Through a gap that was only the width of a child’s arm, a pair of eyes with pupils blown wide stared at Yao Ye inside the elevator, flashing with a cold, sinister light. 

Ding—the elevator doors closed completely and began moving upwards.

In the elevator, Yao Ye’s eyes went round and he subconsciously took a step back. His whole body was stiff, as if a bucket of ice water had been poured over his head. His breathing stopped for a moment and his eyebrows slowly rose with horror.

The image of the eyes that abruptly appeared just now had a huge impact on him. 

Since Yao Ye had been standing very close to the elevator doors, he could clearly see that those empty and soulless eyes were dilated to a degree no longer in the category of a normal human’s.

Anyone who has studied medicine would know that those black pupils encompassing the edge of the iris—they could only belong to the dead.

And that pair of eyes stared dead straight at him, full of resentment.

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[1] Confucian/Buddhist ethic referring to virtuous things done in secret, or good deeds done in the living world that are remembered in the underworld

[2] idiom meaning to treat someone warmly only to be faced with cold indifference

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thoughts of dogpotato: don’t worry yao ye she’s just shy ╰(´︶ `)╯

testing out the NU bot so this might be posted later today. as always, thank you for reading! ❤

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