Phantom Skeleton Painting

Chapter 28.1 The Promised Land

This situation looked weird and terrifying. Lin Banxia even wondered if Ji Leshui was playing a prank on him, but after observing, he was sure that Ji Leshui was not joking. He hesitated for a moment and thought carefully: “Leshui, what is that thing on your back?”

Ji Leshui said: “Huh?”

Lin Banxia said: “It’s the thing on your back…”

“Oh, you are talking about Cave.” Ji Leshui actually knew what Lin Banxia was talking about. He smiled and took the little skeleton off his back, and gently touched its cheek. His movements were so gentle, and he said, “It has been accompanying me these days while you were gone.”

Lin Banxia’s expression became even stranger. He reached out and touched Ji Leshui’s forehead to make sure he didn’t have a fever: “Are you really… okay?”

Ji Leshui said inexplicably: “You were so surprised that you forgot about Cave after a trip. Hasn’t it lived with us for a long time?”

Lin Banxia: “…” Okay, he was sure something was wrong with Ji Leshui.

He didn’t say anything, just turned around and went out to find Song Qingluo.

Song Qingluo was still packing his luggage when he saw Lin Banxia entering the room with a serious face. Lin Banxia said, “Song Qingluo, something seems to have happened to Ji Leshui.”

Song Qingluo didn’t even look back: “What’s wrong?”

Lin Banxia said: “He is carrying a skeleton on his back and says that the skeleton is his good friend…”

Song Qingluo’s hand movements stopped.

Lin Banxia continued: “He also said that he has known Cave for a long time. Is he really okay?”

Song Qingluo straightened up, glanced at Lin Banxia and said, “It seems like something happened. Let’s go and take a look.”

Lin Banxia nodded and said ok.

So, the two of them went to the next apartment together. When they entered the room, they saw Ji Leshui and Cave chatting on the sofa. He was smiling, as if he was laughing after hearing some joke. Lin Banxia observed him for a few moments, then suddenly remembered something and clapped his hands: “Damn it, what’s wrong? Don’t you have a TV at home? What is he watching these days?”

Song Qingluo said calmly: “It’s okay, it’s just a small problem.” He said and went back. When he came back, he had a pair of black gloves in his hand.

Ji Leshui still didn’t understand what was happening and continued chatting with the little skeleton until Song Qingluo walked up to him and picked up the little skeleton.

“Hey, hey?? Boss, what are you going to do?” Ji Leshui was stunned.

Song Qingluo glanced at him and said nothing.

Ji Leshui immediately became anxious, but he did not dare to argue with Song Qingluo, so he rushed in front of Lin Banxia, ​​feeling extremely aggrieved: “Banxia, ​​Banxia, ​​stop the boss quickly, he wants to hurt Cave!”

Lin Banxia looked at him with a complicated expression and said, “Where did you find this thing?”

Ji Leshui almost cried, he said: “Have you forgotten? Forgot how we picked it up, forgot that we have gone through so much with it – and it saved our lives…you… How could you forget?”

Lin Banxia was stunned. He ignored Ji Leshui and looked to Song Qingluo for an explanation.

Song Qingluo’s movements were still so slow. He elegantly picked up the small skeleton, walked to the corner gracefully, and stuffed it into a black box that was abandoned and opened in the corner of the room. He heard Ji Le Shui cry like he was grieving without looking back: “A small mistake.”

Lin Banxia went crazy: “Is this a small mistake?”

Song Qingluo said: “It’s okay, it’s not very dangerous.”

Lin Banxia said: “So what exactly is this?”

“The sealed object numbered 73920 was found in a bankrupt museum.” Song Qingluo closed the box gently and turned the password disk, as if he was resetting the password. “Normally it will be in a very stable state, and is cautious in contacting the creatures around it, but if the creature shows great fear when seeing it, it will forge a false memory to rationalize its existence. In other words, you will instinctively think of it as your good friend or something like that and it will stay with that person. It is not dangerous, and according to people who have been with it, you will feel extremely comfortable and relaxed when you are with it. Sometimes there will be pleasant hallucinations. In short, compared with other heretical things, it is a very docile item and is not harmful to humans. It is even good for some mental illnesses. The only drawback…”

When he said this, he paused and said, “It’s just when you say goodbye, it makes people a little sad.” Then he glanced at Ji Leshui, who was already sad and about to shed tears.

Lin Banxia: “…”

Ji Leshui cried: “No!! I don’t believe it!! Cave has obviously been living with me for many years, Banxia!!! Banxia!!!”

Lin Banxia: “…” I never saw you so sad when you broke up with your girlfriend.

Song Qingluo said: “Maybe Ji Leshui touched the box and accidentally took it out. It’s also my fault. The password should be more complicated. The impact of your house number on your friend has been reduced. You’d better let him move out as soon as possible.”

Ji Leshui cried out in grievance, with an expression as if he was about to say goodbye to his best friend. Lin Banxia was a little broken by his crying, and couldn’t help but look at Song Qingluo, and discussed tactfully: “Well…since there is no bad influence, why don’t we let it accompany Ji Leshui again?”

Song Qingluo’s expression was a little subtle when he heard this, which made Lin Banxia think that he had made some excessive demands. He hesitated and said: “Don’t you think a skeleton is a bit scary?”

Lin Banxia: “It’s okay, the little one is quite cute.”

Song Qingluo fell into silence.

Ji Leshui continued to howl next to him: “Oh my Little Cave, my Little Cave.”

In the end, Lin Banxia went crazy: “Stop screaming, stop screaming, if you scream again, the urn next to you will be screamed to death. Let’s go out to eat hot pot. After the hot pot, can we talk about the small Cave?”

Ji Leshui said sadly: “Don’t lie to me. No one can enter the depths of my heart like small Cave.”

Lin Banxia said: “Yes, after all, it is a skeleton.”

Ji Leshui said angrily: “You are racist.”

Lin Banxia thought: Please shut up.

In the end, Lin Banxia and Song Qingluo discussed that they would finish the hot pot first and discuss the small skeleton in the evening.

Half an hour later, after Ji Leshui had finished crying, Lin Banxia dragged him out to eat hot pot. The three of them ordered a red soup. Ji Leshui drank a lot and said that he wanted to drink to relieve his sorrow. Lin Banxia asked Ji Leshui how long he would stay like this. Ji Leshui said it would depend on when Little Cave came back.

So Lin Banxia drank the beer in front of him and pointed out that Ji Leshui had only been sad for two hours when he broke up with his girlfriend last time.

Ji Leshui spread his hands and said, “She and I only had a physical relationship, but Little Cave and I are absolute soul mates.”

Lin Banxia decided to give up and continue discussing the small skeleton with Ji Leshui.

After three rounds of drinking, Ji Leshui was knocked out as usual and was helped back home by Lin Banxia, but even so, he didn’t forget the little hole in his heart. He cried and begged Lin Banxia to give it back to him, making Lin Banxia look like an evil mother-in-law who broke up lovers. Lin Banxia was so troubled that he had no choice but to look at Song Qingluo for help.

Song Qingluo pretended not to see it at first, but later couldn’t bear it anymore, saying that if he spoiled him like this, something would happen to him.

Lin Banxia said: “Otherwise… Should I let him cry to you in the future?”

Song Qingluo spent two minutes weighing the pros and cons, decided to give up on treating Ji Leshui, and carefully took the little skeleton out of the box. Lin Banxia stood nearby and saw the small skeleton up close. This seems to be the skeleton of a child with smooth and round bones. The material was more like jade than bone. Song Qingluo carefully held it in his hand with extremely gentle movements, as if he was holding something fragile.

“Can I touch it?” Lin Banxia asked curiously.

“Okay.” Song Qingluo said, “But if you touch him…”

Lin Banxia said: “What will happen?”

Song Qingluo sighed: “You won’t be willing to stuff him into the box.” Even so, he still handed the small skeleton to Lin Banxia.

Lin Banxia took it over with curiosity, held it in his arms, and felt the cold touch. The moment his skin and the Cave came into contact, the dead thing in his arms seemed to come to life. He saw the small frame actually blink its big hollow sockets and look at itself carefully.

How can a skeleton blink? As soon as this idea came into Lin Banxia’s mind, his attention was quickly attracted by the other movements of the small skeleton. It used its tiny hand Cave to gently pat Lin Banxia’s arm, and then pointed at Ji Leshui who was still calling for Little Cave.

Lin Banxia looked at Song Qingluo: “What does it mean?”

Song Qingluo said: “Tell Ji Leshui to stop crying.”

Lin Banxia: “…” Ji Leshui, you are disdained by your Little Cave.

At this moment, he understood what Song Qingluo meant when he said that he would be reluctant to stuff it into the box. This little skeleton had movements and expressions that were not like a skeleton, but like a cute little creature. After just interacting with it for a while, an irresistible softness emerged deep in Lin Banxia’s heart.

“Let’s go back and rest.” Song Qingluo checked the time and saw that it was not too early now, “Let him stay with Ji Leshui.”

Lin Banxia put it on the ground, and it jumped over to Ji Leshui’s side, rubbed his cheek against Ji Leshui, and hummed a few more times. Ji Leshui stopped howling, stretched out his hands in a daze, hugged the small skeleton in front of him, and murmured, “Little Cave.”

Lin Banxia glanced at him and made sure there was nothing wrong with him, then he and Song Qingluo went home.

From this day on, there was an extra guest in their home. Although with the help of Song Qingluo, Ji Leshui realized that his happy trip with the little skeleton was a false memory, he did not show any concern at all and was affectionate. Fortunately, Little Cave helped him create this memory, otherwise he would have gone crazy the moment he saw the skeleton moving…

Lin Banxia had no choice but to urge him to move out quickly, fearing that he would open something else from Song Qingluo’s boxes. However, Ji Leshui shamelessly said that he had no intention of leaving for the time being. He was living happily with Little Cave, who was his darling.

Lin Banxia gave him a pair of supercilious looks and a few insults, but it was completely unable to make the screaming chicken change his mind.

After these ten days, Lin Banxia’s annual leave came to an end, and he went to work as usual.

When he arrived at the unit, he was told that Zhou Jitong, the newcomer who came before, couldn’t stand it, and resigned before he finished his first week. The unit was still recruiting people and had not found the right one yet.

Lin Banxia had no choice but to follow other groups. Spring was coming, but he actually didn’t like this season very much. Because spring was the peak season for mental illness, you could see all kinds of horrific death scenes that were beyond the scope of human imagination. It was no wonder that the newcomer didn’t last a week. Lin Banxia understood why.

Song Qingluo’s work also became busy. He didn’t see him more than a few times in a month. Even if he did, he would mostly be catching up on his sleep at home.

Lin Banxia asked him, and he said that there have been a lot of things happening recently, but they are all small matters and there was no need for Lin Banxia to take action.

Lin Banxia missed the numbers in his bank card and thoughtfully said that he could be there at any time.

Song Qingluo asked him what he would do about his job.

“It is all dealing with dead people, so I must choose the one with more money.” Lin Banxia acted very calm.

Song Qingluo fell silent. He actually felt that what Lin Banxia said made sense.

After being busy like this for more than a month, in early summer, when Lin Banxia came home one day, he saw Song Qingluo sitting on the sofa waiting for him.

“What’s wrong?” Lin Banxia saw some clues from his expression.

“There are some things.” Song Qingluo placed a USB flash drive. He looked at Lin Banxia and said softly, “Let’s take a look together?”

Lin Banxia said: “Okay.”

Song Qingluo inserted the USB flash drive into his laptop and clicked on a document. Then the screen went dark. When it lit up again, Lin Banxia saw a brilliant sky full of stars.

 

Translator’s comments:

Hey guys, I’m the translator for this novel. If you have any questions or thoughts feel free to comment and I’ll do my best to answer everything. If you notice any inconsistencies or errors, drop a comment and I will fix it.  Thanks so much for reading Phantom Skeleton Painting, I hope that everyone enjoys the novel. If you are interested in fluffy BL novels, consider giving the other novels that I am translating a try. They are ‘I’m Really a Dragon’ and ‘The Leader’s Warpet Hamster’. New chapters released everyday.

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