Global Ghost Stories: I'm Investigating Ghosts in My Nightmare!

Chapter 76 Warm Winter Sun
The success of her daughter's heart surgery was like a timely downpour, extinguishing the flames of despair that were about to burn down the entire family.

When that little figure was once again hopping and chasing butterflies in the living room, and when that crisp laughter echoed in every corner of the house, Bai Yu truly felt that her heart, which had been hanging on the edge of a cliff, had finally been pulled back to solid ground.

This sudden crisis was like a hard touchstone, testing the family's resilience and forging Bai Yu's soul, which had long been accustomed to comfort, to rediscover the tenacity and sharpness hidden deep within his bones. He did not return to the library to live that peaceful and tranquil life, but chose to remain in the cutthroat world of finance.

But he did this not to pursue more wealth or higher status. He simply wanted to build an unbreakable "iron wall" for his warm and joyful home. He wanted to ensure that, in any future years, no matter what storms he encountered, he would have the ability to protect everything he cherished.

He's like a apex predator lurking in the urban jungle—calm, precise, and efficient. By day, he engages in dazzling capital operations on a battlefield composed of countless data points and candlestick charts. But when night falls, he sheds all his sharpness and coldness, transforming back into an ordinary man who checks his daughter's homework and watches mindless soap operas with his wife.

Two completely different life states were perfectly integrated in him.

The march of time has never paused for a moment because of anyone's happiness or sorrow.

As her daughter grew up day by day, her parents grew old day by day, and the fine wrinkles that quietly crept up the corners of her wife's eyes, Bai Yu's life slowly transitioned from the splendid summer into the quiet late autumn.

At the age of forty, his career reached its peak. His private investment firm had become an undeniable legend in the industry. But this also made him busier. He began traveling frequently, shuttling between financial centers around the world. He spent less and less time with his family.

This led to the first truly intense argument between him and Lin Wan.

"How much more money do you need to earn?!" In the living room that had once been filled with their warm memories, Lin Wan's eyes were red, her voice filled with uncontrollable disappointment and grievance. "Look at yourself now! How long has it been since you had a proper dinner with us? How long has it been since you attended your daughter's parent-teacher conference? Do you know that last week's essay topic was 'My Dad,' and she wrote three whole pages, but it was all about you that she saw on TV and in magazines! Has this home become, to you, a hotel that only needs your money?!"

Bai Yu stood there silently, looking at his wife's face filled with sorrow, and at the family photo on the wall that had long since yellowed. A huge sense of exhaustion and powerlessness overwhelmed him like a tide.

He wanted to explain, he wanted to tell her that everything he did was simply to make their lives better, without any worries.

However, when he saw the unfamiliar and distant look in his wife's eyes, any words seemed so pale and powerless at that moment.

His once self-proclaimed invincible mind felt helpless for the first time when faced with this family problem filled with mundane details of daily life.

The argument ended with Lin Wan slamming the door and leaving, leaving Bai Yu alone in the empty living room for the entire night.

At daybreak, he made a decision that shocked all his partners—he entrusted all the company's ongoing projects to his most trusted deputy, and then he took an indefinite leave of absence.

He returned to the home he had left long ago.

He began to try to make up for the time he had missed.

He would appear at the gate of his daughter's school on time every day, just like any other ordinary father, patiently waiting for that familiar figure among countless parents waiting to pick up their children.

He would awkwardly follow Lin Wan into the kitchen to learn how to make her favorite sweet and sour pork ribs, even though his first attempt almost set the entire kitchen on fire.

Every weekend, he would turn off all communication devices and take his family on a random hike in the mountains outside the city.

He clumsily tried to mend the rift caused by his "absence" in his own way.

Looking at her husband, who seemed to have "changed overnight," Lin Wan felt her resentment and disappointment gradually melt away in his gentle and proactive manner.

On a sunny afternoon, as Bai Yu was clumsily watering the flowers and plants he was growing on the balcony, Lin Wan gently hugged him from behind.

“Welcome home,” she whispered, pressing her cheek against his broad back.

Bai Yu's body stiffened slightly. He then put down the kettle in his hand, turned around, and tightly embraced the woman he had loved with all his life.

……

After fifty, life seems to be fast-forwarded.

Their daughter was admitted to a prestigious university with excellent grades. When Bai Yu and Lin Wan were at the airport, watching the little girl they once held in their arms now grow into a graceful young woman, dragging her huge suitcase alone, full of hope for the future, waving goodbye to them again and again, their hearts were filled with pride, but also with an indescribable sense of loss.

After seeing their daughter off, the house, which had been bustling for nearly twenty years, suddenly became empty and quiet.

Bai Yu and Lin Wan finally transitioned from being "parents" back to being "each other".

They began to pick up the hobbies they had once abandoned because of the trivialities of life, just like they had when they were young.

Bai Yu returned to the municipal library, this time not as a librarian, but as a volunteer. He would tell the children who came to borrow books ancient stories about the stars and the sea.

Lin Wan sat down again at the somewhat old piano, her fingers, though no longer slender, still elegant, playing the songs of their youth on the black and white keys.

They would sign up together for calligraphy classes at the senior university, and then, like two elementary school students, they would mock each other for how ugly their handwriting was.

Together, they would pack simple bags and travel to places they had always wanted to go when they were young but never had the time, embarking on one spontaneous trip after another.

Their hair had unknowingly turned the color of time. The marks of years were etched on their faces.

But the way they looked at each other was still as tender and loving as when they first met in the rain.

However, time is both the fairest and the cruelest deity. While bestowing upon you countless wonderful things, it will also, in some unexpected moment, mercilessly take back everything you cherish.

In the winter of his sixty-fifth year, Bai Yu's father, the usually gentle and refined scholar, developed serious cardiopulmonary complications after a common cold. In the end, he passed away peacefully in his sleep on a snowy morning.

Then, less than six months later, his mother, a woman who had lived a life full of gentleness and resilience, also passed away suddenly, following in her husband's footsteps, due to excessive grief and her body, already weakened by illness.

The successive deaths of her parents struck Bai Yu's heart like two heavy hammers.

Even though he had anticipated this inevitable "separation" countless times, when the day actually arrived, the pain that came from the depths of his blood still nearly broke this old man who had long since become indifferent to the ways of the world.

He didn't shed a single tear at his parents' funeral. He simply stood there like a lifeless stone statue, gazing at the two familiar faces still smiling in the black and white photograph.

His eyes, which had become somewhat cloudy, revealed a childlike confusion and helplessness.

He felt as if he had become that eight-year-old boy again, watching helplessly as his parents disappeared before his eyes in endless darkness and deathly silence. It was Lin Wan who held his cold, lifeless hand tightly, using her body heat to pull him back from the abyss of sorrow that was about to engulf him.

……

Seventy-five years old.

Bai Yu's body inevitably began to decay under the erosion of time.

He was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.

His memory was like old, worm-eaten pages of a book, gradually becoming fragmented and chaotic.

He started forgetting what he had just said, and he forgot the way home.

He started calling out Lin Wan's name during video calls with his daughter, who had long since married and moved overseas.

He even started to give his wife, who had always been by his side, an apologetic smile on a sunny afternoon, and then softly ask, "Excuse me... who are you?"

Whenever this happened, Lin Wan would neither cry nor try to correct him.

She would simply reach out and hold his hand tightly, just like on that rainy evening sixty years ago, his hand covered with age spots from aging. Then, in an incredibly gentle yet powerful voice, she would tell him their story again and again.

She would tell him about the first time they met in the library.

She would tell him about the clumsy way he first held up that little umbrella for her.

She would tell him about their innocent first kiss in the karaoke bar, and his simple yet incredibly sincere marriage proposal on the hill behind the house.

Her voice was like the strongest thread, reconnecting the fragments of his memories that were about to drift away completely in the wind.

In the final leg of his life's journey, Bai Yu spent most of his time in the hospital's white ward, which was filled with the smell of disinfectant.

His body had deteriorated to the point that even getting out of bed was extremely difficult.

But his cloudy eyes appeared unusually peaceful and calm most of the time.

He would lie quietly on the hospital bed, his head turned to the side, looking out the window at the azure sky that was cut into a square.

His previously confused memories seemed to become clear again at this moment.

He thought of his short yet long life.

He remembered his parents' unconditional love, his wife's lifelong tenderness and devotion, his daughter's clear laughter, and his friends' well-intentioned banter...

His life was filled with irreplaceable happiness and fulfillment.

He had no regrets.

However, in the deepest part of his soul, in a corner he himself had long forgotten, there seemed to be other memories that did not belong to this life at all.

Some memories about battle, about protection, about shattering, about a companion named "Black Words".

Those memories are like treasures sunk to the bottom of the sea. Although they are covered by thick silt, they still emit a faint but inextinguishable light in the darkness.

On a snowy winter afternoon, Bai Yu felt that her life was finally coming to an end.

He could clearly feel his body temperature gradually decreasing, and his breathing becoming weaker and weaker.

Lin Wan stayed by his bedside, holding his hand tightly and pressing it against her cheek, letting her hot tears fall onto his cold hand.

Bai Yu used the last of his strength to slowly turn his head and look at the woman who had accompanied him throughout his life.

He wanted to say "thank you" to her, and also "I'm sorry".

But he could no longer make any sound from his throat.

He could only use those eyes, which were about to lose all their luster, to deeply etch her image into his soul.

Finally, bathed in the warm winter sun outside the window, and amidst his lover's sorrowful sobs, Bai Yu slowly closed his eyes.

His heart, which had been beating for nearly eighty years, finally stopped beating.

At that moment, consciousness plunged into endless darkness and nothingness.

However, death is not the end.

After an unknown amount of time, in a chaotic mix of warmth and darkness, a faint consciousness slowly began to awaken once more.

He felt as if he were enveloped in a warm ocean, surrounded by rhythmic pulsations...

“Wow! Wow!”

A loud cry once again announced the arrival of a new life.

This also signifies that this endless cycle has begun once again.

(End of this chapter)