Yin Shou Shu

Chapter 7 Green Handprint

Amidst the anxiety and restlessness of fear and worry, it was finally time to go home from school.

The moment the bell rang, the quiet teaching building suddenly became noisy. The classrooms seemed to wake up, and the students laughed and made all kinds of noises.

But at this time, Ran Qing sat stiffly in the chair, not daring to get up.

When Ran Qing thought about meeting that man, he felt inexplicably frightened and nervous, and even wanted to escape.

It wasn't until someone patted his shoulder from behind that Ran Qing suddenly woke up.

"What are you daydreaming about, Ran Qing? School is over."

After hearing the classmate's casual reminder, the two boys walked past Ran Qing and headed out of the classroom.

Ran Qing looked at the classroom which was gradually becoming empty and the students on duty who were starting to clean up, and he had to pack up his schoolbag and leave at a snail's pace.

When he walked out of the teaching building, there were almost no students left in the old teaching building except for the students on duty who were cleaning the classroom.

The air was filled with the smell of dust and the laughter of students on duty playing in the classrooms.

The noisy laughter echoed in the church building, facing the setting sun outside the window, seeming to sparkle with golden light.

But Ran Qing, who was walking alone with his schoolbag in the noisy sunset, was all alone. This noisy and bustling world seemed to be separated from him by an invisible wall.

He walked with uneasy and heavy steps, crossed the school's tree-lined path and walked out of the school gate.

Students were walking out of the school gate in small groups. The security guard was sitting in the security booth and talking. Outside the spacious school gate stood some students wearing uniforms from other schools, as well as parents waiting for someone.

Ran Qing's eyes swept silently across the school gate, trying to find a familiar face.

But when he looked around, he found that among the people waiting at the school gate, there was not a single face that looked familiar to him.

He hesitated and stood stiffly at the school gate holding his schoolbag. He didn't dare to move for a moment, but stood there waiting for the man to come out of the crowd and call him.

But Ran Qing stood stiffly at the school gate with his schoolbag in his arms, waiting for a long time. Students in school uniforms came out one after another behind him, until the uniformed security guard came over and closed the school's iron gate. All the people waiting for students at the gate of No. 3 Middle School had left, but Ran Qing still did not wait for the man.

At the school gate, Ran Qing was the only one standing alone.

From a row of small restaurants across the street, the aroma of food filled the street, and gradually students who had finished dinner returned to school.

When they passed by, they would curiously look at Ran Qing standing at the school gate.

Soon, the sun sets and night falls.

When the street lights at the school gate began to light up, even Ran Qing's classmates who rented houses outside the school returned to school, but Ran Qing was still alone.

Students gathered in groups of three or four at the gate of No. 3 Middle School in the dark, as evening self-study was about to begin.

A familiar classmate saw Ran Qing and greeted him curiously.

"Ran Qing, are you waiting for someone?"

"Ran Qing, class is about to start, why aren't you going in yet?"

"Ran Qing, Mr. Jin's class is tonight. It's terrible to be late."

Classmates came one after another, greeting him jokingly, and Ran Qing smiled stiffly and reluctantly.

He didn't wait for his father in the end.

He stood alone at the school gate for two hours, from the time school was over until the evening, but the man who promised to pick him up still did not show up.

Alone, he seemed to have returned to the winter after his mother's death. In the cold little mountain village, he stood alone in the white mist on the edge of the field, watching the man leave with his bag on his back, without looking back.

He was left behind again.

But this time, Ran Qing didn't cry.

He just walked silently to the school gate, bought a bowl of glutinous rice, and then walked into the school gate with the glutinous rice.

I feel a little empty in my heart.

But it's just empty.

He returned to the classroom, sat in his familiar seat, listened to the familiar voice of Teacher Jin lecturing at the podium, looked at the familiar textbook, and devoted himself to classroom learning.

At least knowledge will not deceive him. As long as he studies hard, he will gain something and achieve something.

For Ran Qing, studying hard has become an instinctive reaction that he is familiar with and can do subconsciously without any effort.

But Teacher Jin's first class was interrupted halfway through by the head teacher who showed up unexpectedly.

Teacher Jin walked to the classroom door and whispered with the head teacher in the corridor. Judging from Teacher Jin's surprised expression, something seemed to have happened.

Ran Qing, who was sitting in the prime position in the third row, happened to see Teacher Jin in the corridor outside the classroom door.

The head teacher, who cared about him very much, was talking to the grade director at this time. Then Teacher Jin seemed to hear something. He raised his head in surprise and looked at Ran Qing.

This moment of gaze made Ran Qing's heart tremble violently, and he inexplicably had an uneasy premonition. ——And this uneasy premonition soon came true.

After Teacher Jin finished talking to the head teacher, he walked directly to the classroom door and called Ran Qing out.

Half an hour later, Ran Qing stood in the dim corridor of the hospital's inpatient department and saw the sleeping man in the ward.

The strong smell of disinfectant was floating in the air, making Ran Qing's nasal cavity feel extremely uncomfortable.

But at this moment, Ran Qing's field of vision was only that of the unconscious man lying on the hospital bed.

There was a blood-soaked bandage wrapped around his messy hair, and his exposed skin was covered with scratches of varying sizes, making him look rather miserable.

The woman holding the child sat beside the bed, head bowed, and said calmly, "I was in a car accident and my right leg was broken, but luckily I got emergency treatment in time. The doctor said there's no danger to my life, and I should be able to wake up in two days."

The beautiful but mean woman in Ran Qing's memory was now sitting beside the hospital bed, holding a two-year-old child.

The dim light in the ward fell on her face, revealing her soft eyebrows, slightly pursed lips, and a few wrinkles at the corners of her eyes. She was clearly a delicate and gentle lady, completely different from the glamorous and mean image in her memory.

The little girl in her arms had cute pigtails and was looking at Ran Qing curiously with her fingers in her mouth.

Before his grandmother passed away, Ran Qing remembered that she said that he had a half-sister, who should be two years old this year.

This is the first time we meet tonight.

At this moment, Ran Qing didn't know what to say.

This is a difficult problem that is more difficult to deal with than books and test papers.

The woman before him, whose features were gentle and soft, with a hint of fatigue, and who seemed to have been busy for a long time, filled him with an inexplicable fear. It was as if he had seen a terrifying evil spirit.

——Ran Qing knew very well that it was his fault that his father in the hospital bed got into a car accident.

If my father was still on a business trip and hadn't rushed back, he wouldn't have encountered such a misfortune.

Ran Qing was afraid that women would scold him.

Fortunately, at this time, three visitors came outside the ward, easing Ran Qing's anxiety.

"...Ms. Luo, regarding the medical expenses..."

When these three visitors came in, they disturbed the other patients in the ward.

Luo Xuefang, holding her daughter, stood up and said, "Let's go out and talk."

When passing by Ran Qing, the woman gestured, "Ran Qing, you sit down first."

After saying this, the woman left with the three visitors.

From their conversation, two of them were the car owner and his friend, and the person they brought was from the insurance company, who came to discuss compensation and medical expenses.

As the woman left, the ward became quiet.

The families of the other two patients just glanced at Ran Qing curiously, but no one came over to talk to him without permission.

Ran Qing did not sit down, but walked to the bedside and looked down at the unconscious face of the man on the bed.

There were several scratches on the middle-aged man's loose face, but fortunately there was no disfigurement and the wounds were not deep.

But he seemed to be in some pain in his coma, with his brows furrowed.

Ran Qing's gaze moved across the man's body, and every time he saw a scar, his heart tightened.

Finally, his gaze fell on the man's right arm, and his eyes suddenly focused.

There was an extremely exaggerated bruise on my father's right wrist.

Other abrasions are just minor skin breaks that will heal in two or three days.

But the bruise on the right hand is very large, and it looks shocking.

And after Ran Qing looked at it carefully, he found that the bruise on his wrist had a slightly strange shape. It looked like a... blue handprint?

It doesn't look like a fall injury, but rather like something was grabbed by the hand.

This strange association inexplicably appeared in Ran Qing's mind, and instantly made him shudder.

Because what he thought of instantly were the horrible things he saw in the rental house last night.

Could it be that my father encountered something like that when he was in a car accident?
He subconsciously reached out and tried to lift his father's arm to get a closer look.

But at this moment, a strong smell of tobacco rushed into his nose.

Then a sinister woman's voice suddenly sounded behind him, which frightened Ran Qing.

"...You are Ran Qing, right?"

(End of this chapter)