Chapter 26: Stay With Me
Loud clanging from a direction took Liu Xiaodan's attention. His body felt so weak and stiff that he had no idea if he could still control it. His heavy eyes opened slowly, even flickering to combat the bright light on top of him. It was a flat light, and many shadows were moving around over him as if dancing wildly and fast.
He felt warm and cold in different places and very uncomfortable around his hips. What were they doing to him?
His eyes closed again as he recalled the last things he could remember. He was in the police mobile with Officer Bai, with Guangru in the backseat. He noticed that the black horse never showed up for a long while, and so he asked him about it.
Ever since Guangru started picking fights with the other entities, his big brother should be protecting him, right?
However, before the child could even talk, the car moved forward even though Officer Bai quickly stomped at the brakes. Then, a van crashed into them at full speed, throwing the police mobile into destruction.
He remembered being in a very uncomfortable position, but Guangru was holding onto his father's head and upper torso. The sudden shake made him faint, and that was what he last remembered.
As to what happened to him and to Officer Bai, he had no idea.
Right now, he began hearing voices. They were asking some to hurry... and warning them that the patient was awake. Liu Xiaodan opened his eyes again, and he connected gazes with the man behind the white mask and hair guard.
Shucks, it was a doctor. He was being operated on.
"What?" Liu Xiaodan weakly spoke, alarming more of the nurses and doctors on site. He then moved his head to take a look at what was going on, only to find them stitching around his pelvis area. He didn't seem to be dismembered waist down... probably just a big-ass cut that he aggravated by trying to look down.
"Get more sedatives!" A doctor called out while two nurses laid him down gently. They whispered assurances to the man before someone injected sedatives to his drips. Liu Xiaodan felt more lightheaded and found the need to sleep again.
He moved his head to the side and saw through the gaps between the nurses checking up on him.
A child was sitting at the corner and looking at them with red eyes. His poor son was crying again, and his heart felt a lot more wrenched. He didn't care about his own body; he only wanted to assure Guangru right now... and, of course, find Chuan Nayi.
"Guangru..." He called quickly, trying to beckon the child to come to him. However, he didn't feel like he could move his arms at all. When his eyes slid to see why, he was hit by a gust of bitterness. He had no more arms, and so that was why he couldn't call his son to his side.
"It's not your fault..." His voice was a little louder, gaining the attention of one of the nurses. She then shushed Liu Xiaodan and asked him to sleep. She moved Liu Xiaodan's head to face the ceiling before attending to her prior duty.
The father then felt freezing cold next to his face. He moved his head again, soon seeing Guangru next to him. He heard his voice—that's good.
"Papa, stay here." The child moved away, but Liu Xiaodan called his name again in a whisper.
"No, Guangru. You stay here... I'm scared..."
The child had his big eyes stare at Liu Xiaodan again. He then held out his arms to hug his father's head and rubbed his cold cheeks against his father's. It wasn't warm enough to do anything, but Liu Xiaodan's heart had sunk a little deeper.
After all these, he wanted to make Chuan Nayi understand... or else he might have to find a new mother for Guangru.
Hours had passed by, and Liu Xiaodan woke up again. He was now in ICU, and his little boy was lying next to him. The room was still dark, but he could see the clock in the dark. It was eight in the evening... or the next morning.
His eyes flickered so his vision could get clearer. He then turned to his side to look at the child who raised his head to look back at his father.
"Hello, thank you for staying." Liu Xiaodan wanted to move, but he still felt like his body wasn't his own. He kept on remembering the wound across his tummy and his amputated arms.
The child got up and sat on the bed, beaming a small smile at him. Guangru wanted to smile like he used to, but seeing his father like this was making him feel difficult to do so.
To be honest, Liu Xiaodan was the first one who didn't run away from him... and even asked him to stay.
"Baba, Mama is here, too. She's okay." Guangru hung his head low. It was his fault that Chuan Nayi was in the hospital, which was exactly why his father was in that car. As for who initiated the accident, he had no idea who had the audacity to harm his father.
For now, he would stay next to his scared father. However, he would soon hunt down whoever dared to kill off his father. Perhaps it was because they were scared of letting Liu Xiaodan live longer.
They feared Guangru being born.
"That's good to hear." Liu Xiaodan chuckled. Now, he had to think of a way to let Chuan Nayi know without her panicking too much. He then closed his eyes again. "Guangru, let's talk again later. Please stay with me still..."
"Guangru promises..." The child lied down again. He curled like a cat next to his father in the bed. For now, he didn't want to think about those mongrels who dared harm Liu Xiaodan. For now, he needed to make sure Liu Xiaodan would survive and be normal again. Of course, with him, everything would be fine.
…
In the security room, Detective Hung frowned at the weird things that had been happening around this man. First, there was this weird heinous murder right after Chuan Nayi threatened Huang Kun as he said he would do something to Liu Xiaodan.
Then, this murder done by Li Feng, wherein he managed to talk to Li Feng. After that, Chen Gang died while being watched over by Liu Xiaodan. Recently, he and Officer Bai got into an accident, with the latter dying on arrival.
The college student's arms were torn by the impact, and his abdomen was sliced halfway by the dashboard. However, he survived... but he kept on talking to someone in the room.
There was no one else there, but he kept on talking to this 'Guangru'.
Earlier, he ran into Liu Xiaodan's friends, but none of them knew who this Guangru was. Even if they knew, they probably didn't trust the police wouldn't use it against their friend.
Liu Xiaodan was innocent of all these three killings; wouldn't the police and court accuse him of insanity if they said Guangru was a ghost? Then again, they weren't also sure if he was really a ghost.
Officer Yu bit into her lip as she kept on watching the video while cross-referencing everything she unearthed from Liu Xiaodan... even from his youth. He was quite a liar back when he was a child until he turned ten. Up until now, he showed no strange behavior for anyone to take note of him.
Liu Xiaodan wasn't even an outstanding student outside his major 'Film and TV Prod'. His teachers were starting to praise his work as a director, but they kept it reserved because of his grades.
However, Li Feng was the opposite. Li Feng was a star in their school. Alongside his dashing looks, he had the making of a brilliant producer-director. His family was also wealthy, and his relatives were all accomplished people. The only downside was his little shady hobby with one of his grandfathers. Looking into this hobby deeper, Officer Yu managed to discover that Li Feng was also a high-ranked shaman... alongside his cousin, Li Yunru.
Li Yunru was playing junior detective for them when it came to small cases involving strange events, but for her to get involved here was a breach to her own policy... now that Li Feng was a suspect.
Connecting this shady hobby and Liu Xiaodan's past accounts—combining it with the accounts of her favorite cousin brother and the veterans of the school dorms, Officer Yu could only deduce that Liu Xiaodan and Li Feng were making contact with the ghosts of their dorms.
This would rule the ghost killing humans quite plausible... but without scientific and physical evidence. No matter how true this was, they couldn't defend it in court.
Three deaths had happened in less than a month. Ting University had a prestige that was never tarnished by bad graduates and alumni before. Right now, a graver moral damage was being inflicted on its reputation.
Students were dying... three male students. It was like making the school relive the nightmare of having seven students falling out of the rooftop altogether.
That time, no one was caught. This time, the school would want someone to be responsible. They felt they had already caught a culprit, but another person died while Li Feng was in prison.
If anything, the lawyers of the school might end up having Liu Xiaodan and Li Feng receive the full brunt of their ire. The moment they laid their gazes at Chuan Nayi, they would be keeping the rest of the horsemen under surveillance as well.
A gang who would disguise heinous murders as ghost attacks. That—that would be a conclusive end of everything.
…
The morning came, and Liu Xiaodan awakened at the sound of his crying mother. He lifted his eyes and saw his parents seated next to him. His father was shocked to see his eyes open while his mother was busy crying on her hands. Liu Li wore a crooked smile of bitterness at his son, knowing that he was being viewed as a suspect to what seemed to be a cult killing.
"Xiaodan, you're awake. You have us really worried here..." He reached out to caress his son's head lightly. "Do you feel pain?"
"Dad..." Liu Xiaodan tried to return the smile. He could see that there was something in their eyes. Ah, when was the last time he disappointed them? Right, forever.
Just when he thought he would make them proud by placing top of his class even just in their major, he was here in the hospital—crippled and suspected of murder.
"Xiaodan!" His mother dropped her hands and dove to hug her son, making him crumple his face in pain. "Xiaodan!"
"Wu Qianqian, don't kill our son!"
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone