Falling In Love Inside An Urban Legend — Chapter 6.2

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!

---

Chapter 6.2, Arc 1: Strange Sounds in the Morgue

“Thank you! Thank you so much, Mister An! You’ve saved my life! Can I return it to you in a few days? I’ll make sure to take good care of it!”

Yao Ye was wearing the Ping An talisman around his neck. The tear-stained face finally bloomed with a smile, and for a while, it was too blinding to look directly at.

Seeing that the safety charm he had been carrying with him was now warmed by the body temperature of his beloved Doctor Yao, he blushed and waved his hand shyly, saying, “It’s okay, no need for thanks. It’s only right since you’ve helped me before! As long as I can, I want to protect Dr. Yao, but is this Ping An talisman really useful?

If necessary, I can protect you. I will definitely not let anything harm you! Even if it’s a ghost, you don’t need to be afraid!”

An Ling looked at the tear marks on Yao Ye’s face with distress. He was very strange. He had grown up afraid of everything and let people bully him since he was a child, but the one thing he had never been afraid of was ghosts. He was born with a kind of contempt for ghosts and spirits, just like how an animal at the top of the food chain views its prey without any sense of fear.

Therefore he was being serious when he said that he could protect Yao Ye. But such words would inevitably come off as a little thoughtless to others’ ears.

Hearing this, Yao Ye’s eyes drifted away and he skipped over An Ling’s offer to accompany him, but instead thanked him again and again. He took out his mobile phone and added An Ling on WeChat and QQ[1], then sat back and enjoyed his coffee and snacks.

An Ling also awkwardly drank the coffee with nothing added to it. The taste was terrible. He was choked by the bitterness until tears sprang up in his eyes, but he didn’t wipe them. He just watched Yao Ye while smiling foolishly. It was an entirely ridiculous picture.

Looking at such a simple security guard, the joy in Yao Ye’s heart gradually faded and was replaced by a strong sense of guilt. He forced a smile and chatted with An Ling to suppress these emotions that made his conscience uneasy. It was only after the lunch break ended that he stopped talking.

“It’s getting late, Mister An, let’s go back. This time I really delayed your work. If anyone talks to you about this later, please be sure to tell me and I will explain it for you.” Yao Ye’s face was full of guilt and his eyes were pure and beautiful.

Facing the concerned gaze of his beloved, An Ling nodded silently. The joy in his heart was beyond words.

He followed Yao Ye back to the hospital and didn’t part until they reached the elevator doors.

Even after he watched Dr. Yao get on the elevator, the happiness in An Ling’s eyes remained for a long time. The intimacy with Dr. Yao in the coffee shop made him start having delusions for the first time ever.

If… If Dr. Yao liked him back, then wouldn’t they be able to be together forever?

Looking down at his hands, An Ling’s eyes were misty.

Doctor Yao took the initiative to hold his hand, and he did not scold him for the offense when they were in the elevator earlier. Did that mean that Doctor Yao didn’t mind his closeness?

An Ling fell into an unprecedented fantasy, forgetting his physical disability and ugliness.

Dazzled by love, he didn’t even consider the possibility of being deceived and exploited. He was imagining a bright future with Dr. Yao. The inferiority that was originally engraved in his bones disappeared and the gloomy aura around him also lifted, replaced with rare vigor and vitality.

He hummed while he rode the elevator to the morgue on the basement floor. It was time for the afternoon’s work. First, he should also take a break then continue cleaning.

It seemed that An Ling had never thought about what would happen to him without the Ping An talisman, maybe because his life was so uneventful in the past that he would never be afraid of strange or supernatural things. If not for Dr. Yao saying that he personally had encounters with the paranormal, An Ling would not have believed it at all. 

Actually, the first time he heard that the Ping An talisman could repel ghosts and spirits was from Dr. Yao today. Otherwise he would have always treated the talisman as just a memento left by his mother, and never take it off only because he missed her. 

Ding—

The elevator arrived, and An Ling was quickly alerted to the smell of smoke coming from the basement. When he stepped out of the elevator, he saw the haze of smoke in the air.

An Ling hated the smell of smoke, so he liked this non-smoking hospital very much. This was the first time he had run into anyone smoking in the morgue. He couldn’t help but frown, taking advantage of the black birthmark on his face to make him look scary and intimidating.

Instantly, the lights deep down the corridor in the morgue became much brighter. It was quiet as a chicken[2].

In fact, the legends say that what ghosts and spirits feared the most were those born under the lonely evil star of the heavens. Their special properties were deeper than what could be seen from the surface. Unfortunately, people are most easily deceived by the superficial.

“Who’s smoking?”

The cowardly nature of An Ling, who was nourished by love, had changed and his voice sounded louder.

Not far away, the man with glasses took a puff of his cigarette and exhaled the smoke, looking unconcerned and not at all like he was paying attention to An Ling’s anger.

“Shouting so loud, are you trying to call back a soul[3]?! You wanna die, huh? Idiot!” 

Glasses shook the cigarette between his fingers pretentiously, contempt written all over his face as he said, “It’s rare for you to get the chance to smell such an expensive cigarette!

Boy, don’t mess with me, I saw you go out with Yao Ye to slack off during work hours this morning! Damn, what I hate most is your kind of thigh-holding[4] and ass-kissing! What? Is licking that kid’s shoes so fun?

Who the f*ck is he! A useless rich kid born with a golden spoon in his mouth, he’s definitely worthy of hanging around scum like you! Haha!” 

Glasses’ face was distorted as he cursed, releasing his jealousy. His hatred of the rich was top-tier and he despised wealthy second-generations[5] the most. 

Unable to bear this man’s slander, An Ling was extremely angry, but his face remained expressionless. 

“Dr. Yao is a thousand, no, a hundred thousand times better than garbage like you!”

He couldn’t bring himself to use any swear words; however, the look in his eyes was spine-chilling. The man in glasses shivered, and then furiously raised his hand to slap him.

“What? How dare a piece of trash talk like that to lao zi[6]? Do you want to get beaten again? You don’t want to have a job anymore, do you!? Don’t think that I won’t dare to hit you just because you have that kid to back you up!” 

Glasses couldn’t stand the way An Ling looked at him like he was trash. He already had an inferiority complex on top of his arrogant personality, and he had always bullied the weak while pandering to the strong. Now that he was being looked down on by a person he normally scorned, the situation was so reversed that he couldn’t bear it.

But who could imagine that An Ling would easily squeeze his arm and lift him into the air like a little chicken.

Glasses never thought that this stupid big man who couldn’t fight back would resist. His jaw immediately dropped and cold sweat beaded on his forehead. With his glasses slipping down his nose, he cut a sorry figure. 

An Ling looked at him coldly, and enunciated each word, “Apologize. To. Doctor. Yao!”

Others can scold him for anything, but they can’t say a word about his Dr. Yao.

Glasses pissed his pants in fear from that murderous gaze. Shivering, he apologized over and over, but the humiliation in his heart dyed his eyes red.

Hearing the doctor who had been looking for trouble apologize, An Ling didn’t bother pursuing the matter any further. He casually threw him aside before heading to the morgue.

The small room next to the morgue was his quarters. There was some food kept inside; he was a little hungry since he hadn’t eaten enough in the coffee shop just now, so he had to eat more.

An Ling didn’t notice the resentful look in Glasses’ eyes behind him.

Anyone can bully him, and now even this fool dared to fight back… go to hell, they can all go to hell! How do these bastards who look down on him still deserve to live in the world?! They should all die and go to hell!

The man in glasses was enraged. The wet crotch of his pants completely destroyed his last shreds of sanity. 

Today, he had been scolded by the head of the department, and the beautiful nurse he was pursuing didn’t even give him a second glance. Everything in this world was against him!

God was so unfair, why wasn’t he born with a good background, but a little white face[7] like Yao Ye got everything? Even that fool An Ling was tall, but only he had nothing… 

The red eyes behind the pair of glasses caught the alcohol spilled on the ground from the bottle he had brought with him. Earlier, he had bought a full case of liquor to drink in the basement. Now, he splashed the contents of the case over the entire morgue.

He also cautiously snuck over to An Ling’s quarters and, seeing that the door was ajar, used something to bar the door shut. With this, he took away any chance the person who dared to bully him had of escaping.

An Ling was eating instant noodles in his room. His mind was still adrift in the fantasy of his coffee shop date with his beloved Dr. Yao at noon, and thus did not notice anything off outside.

The eyes of the man with glasses were crazed and bloodshot, as if they were covered by a haze. He danced around with his lighter, watching the flames gradually ignite while jumping up and down with excitement. His laughter rang out, unhinged and obscene. 

The bloodied ghost that was lying on his back and covering his eyes with his hands also revealed a hideous grin.

The legends say that what ghosts and spirits feared the most were those born under the lonely evil star of the heavens. In reality, what those ghosts and spirits were really afraid of was that these mortals couldn’t be harmed by supernatural means; after all, as long as they were alive they would still be protected by the heavens.

Perhaps what the Ping An talisman actually suppressed was not ghosts, but the evils contained within the human heart.

---

The author has something to say: In order to celebrate that the number of bookmarks is over 470, more was added, la~ Please leave a comment, otherwise there will be no energy ying ying ying (t/n: crying sounds) QAQ

---

[1] instant messaging/social media apps popular in China

[2] for some reason, Chinese uses “quiet as a chicken” the same way English uses “quiet as a mouse.” i read somewhere that it’s because it’s a common TV trope for the chickens stop squawking as soon as an important character appears on screen, but i have no idea if that’s true or not lol

[3] originates from a folk belief that children who receive a fright or people who undergo trauma will have their soul shocked out of their body, thus the custom of “calling the soul” is needed to lead the wandering soul back into the body. there are a variety of practices on how to do this, but most of them include loudly calling the name of the person who lost their soul many times, usually at night.

[4] idiom meaning to cling to sb influential or famous

[5] children of entrepreneurs who became wealthy under the economic reforms of the 1980s; usually used to describe “new money” rich kids who spend their parents’ wealth flagrantly and act entitled or arrogant

[6] father; daddy; “I, your father” (in anger, or out of contempt); I (used arrogantly or jocularly)

[7] attractive young man (usually derog.); pretty boy with looks but no substance

---

thoughts of dogpotato: (((；ﾟДﾟ)))))

---

Previous | Table of Contents | Next