VIP Volume, Chapter 86: Ghost Shaving

Big Gold Tooth stared at Ye Xiaoxuan with bulging eyes, blood at the corner of his mouth, shock written all over his face. It took him a long while to recover. Then he burst into tears and shouted at the police, “Officers, he hit me! Are you just going to ignore it?”

The two policemen had not expected this country bumpkin to be so bold as to curse even them.

But after all, they had been in the wrong first, so they swallowed their anger. The shorter one said to Ye Xiaoxuan, “Mistakes happen on the job. Since it was all a misunderstanding, let’s leave it at that. Don’t push it too far, or we can charge you with assault.”

Ye Xiaoxuan was just about to harden his heart and vent the rage inside him, when he accidentally hit the speakerphone button. Jiaran’s anxious voice came from the phone at once: “Little Third, what are you doing? Why is it so noisy over there?”

Ye Xiaoxuan froze. It was as though a ten-thousand-ton boulder had suddenly been dropped onto the mouth of a volcano on the verge of eruption; all the fire inside him was smothered at once. Lowering his voice, he said into the phone, “Jiaran, I’ll call you back in a few minutes.”

He hung up. Without even glancing at the people before him, he crouched down, picked up the banknotes from the floor, and stuffed them into his pocket without counting them. He no longer had any heart to buy fruit. Turning around, he headed straight for the stairwell.

The short policeman suddenly called after him, “Hey, I’m just asking—you’re going to the twelfth floor, right? Why are you taking the stairs both up and down?”

Ye Xiaoxuan forced down his anger and said, “What, is climbing upstairs against the law too? If I don’t take the stairs, am I supposed to take a plane?”

The short policeman gave a wry smile. “You can take the elevator.”

Ye Xiaoxuan blinked, then said awkwardly, “I couldn’t find it. I thought there wasn’t one.”

The policeman shook his head helplessly and pointed at the sign overhead. “You need to learn how to read these signs. It’s over there.”

Ye Xiaoxuan followed the direction of his hand, and behind him came a burst of mocking laughter.

“What a hick. Twelve floors and he doesn’t even know how to use an elevator. Going up and down on foot and not even feeling tired.”

Inside the elevator, Ye Xiaoxuan pressed the button for the nineteenth floor. As people got on and off along the way, less than five minutes passed before the doors opened on the top floor.

He stepped out and walked up the stairs, then pushed open the door to the rooftop. A faint breeze drifted toward him. The vast roof was empty except for him alone, making the loneliness all the more acute.

The sky overhead was thick with gloom, nothing like the clear heavens back in the countryside; not a single star was nearly visible.

Only the distant neon and the brilliant decorative lights crowning the high-rises lent this night sky a touch of man-made splendor.

The phone rang again. Unable to put her mind at ease, Jiaran had not waited for Ye Xiaoxuan to call back and had called him herself.

“Little Third, what happened just now?” Her voice over the phone was full of worry.

Warmth stirred in Ye Xiaoxuan’s heart, yet his nose turned sour beyond control. He called out, “Jiaran...” and could not say another word. Grievance welled up inside him, and tears burst forth like a flooded lake breaking its banks, running wildly down his face.

Jiaran said nothing more. She simply listened quietly to his muffled sobs. She was not someone who knew how to offer words of comfort.

Ye Xiaoxuan sat in the middle of the rooftop, facing the clamorous city, and let his tears flow without restraint. He had only been here for a single day, and already he felt it deeply: this city did not belong to him.

Only when his breathing had finally calmed did Jiaran speak softly. “Little Third, if you’ve been wronged out there, then come home early.”

Ye Xiaoxuan wiped away his tears and said, “Since I was fourteen, this is the first time I’ve cried in front of you. And it will be the last.”

Jiaran said in mock displeasure, “This one doesn’t count. It’s over the phone, not in front of me. Last time, I cried right in front of you.”

Ye Xiaoxuan knew she was trying to cheer him up. He smiled faintly, stood up from the ground, and walked to the parapet. Looking at the neon in the distance, he said, “Jiaran, the city at night is so beautiful.”

She gave a soft snort. “You’ve only been there one day and you’re already enchanted? Wasn’t the night back home beautiful too?”

Ye Xiaoxuan burst out laughing. With one spring, he leapt onto the top of the wall. Beneath his feet was the height of nineteen stories; the cars below looked as small as beetles, and the sight made him slightly dizzy.

He closed his eyes until the dizziness in his mind faded, then spread his arms and said into the phone, “Home? Jiaran, remember this: wherever I am, that is home!

Little Reed Village is not my home. Scholar’s Crest Township cannot keep me either! And what is a mere Immortal Lake City worth?

One day, I will stand at the highest point in the whole city. I will make the people below kneel and worship me. I will make them say it with their own mouths—that I am the true master of this city!”

Jiaran said solemnly, “Little Third, no matter what you do, I will support you without a moment’s hesitation.”

Ye Xiaoxuan raised his right hand high as well. “Jiaran, no matter where I go, I will never let you leave me!”

When he returned to the hospital room, Little Fish had already changed into a patient’s gown and was lying quietly in bed. Ye Xiaoxuan thanked the nurse beside her and sent her out.

He hurriedly took a cool rinse in the bathroom, changed into the new casual clothes he had bought, then came back and climbed onto the bed. There were two beds in the room, yet he squeezed himself into the same one with Little Fish, holding her tightly in his arms. Leaning against the headboard like that, he fell asleep before long.

He slept deeply. It seemed as though people were constantly walking back and forth around him, but his eyes simply would not open. It even felt as though someone was prying at his arm. Even in sleep, his stubbornness rose up; he clung to Little Fish and refused to let go.

By the time dawn broke and he woke, Little Fish was still sleeping peacefully in his arms. Though she still had not awakened, her complexion looked much better than yesterday, and even her lips had begun to regain a healthy flush.

Still half dazed, he carried his washbasin off to freshen up. All around him, people stared at him as though he were some kind of monster. Some even pointed and whispered, as if flowers had bloomed on his face.

Ye Xiaoxuan did not know any of them, so he could hardly ask what they were looking at. He carried the basin into the washroom, finished washing and brushing his teeth, then borrowed another basin of water and brought it back to the room, just in time for the little nurse to begin her morning rounds. The moment she came face to face with him, she covered her mouth and bent over laughing so hard she could barely straighten up.

Irritated, Ye Xiaoxuan snapped, “What’s wrong with all of you? What on earth is on my face?”

Still laughing, the little nurse took a small mirror from the drawer and handed it to him. “Look for yourself.”

Ye Xiaoxuan took the mirror and glanced into it, then instantly went dumb with shock.

There was nothing wrong with his face. But his hair was truly beyond saving.

His whole head looked like a patched-up ball mended a dozen times over, bald in one place and bare in another. Even the worst barber in the world could never have produced something this disastrous.

Ye Xiaoxuan looked ridiculous, but he could not laugh at all.

Because his hair had been turned into this state, and he had absolutely no idea who had done it.

He had merely gone to sleep, and when he woke the next morning, his appearance had been utterly transformed. How terrifying was that? Who could be so bored as to pull a stunt like this?

Or perhaps... no one had done it at all. Perhaps it was that thing of legend... the ghost’s haircut.