44 Different Definitions

Hui Yin studied the Hui Jinhai that was acting indifferent to her and sighed.

It seemed her beautiful memories were the only reminder left of the doting older brother whom she had always adored.

"Forget it." She stood up. "It doesn't matter anyway."

Hui Yin turned towards Lu Shen.

"Promise me that you won't take off the handcuffs."

He nodded. "I promise."

Hui Yin smiled and walked out of the room. Lu Shen followed after her. But she held up a hand and stopped him.

"I'm just going to take a walk outside, to calm down. You don't have to come with me."

Recalling Hui Jinhai's words, Lu Shen understood. She wanted to be alone. As much as he wanted to comfort her, he knew he was unwelcome. So he didn't insist and agreed. He thought she would only take a walk around the building.

But Hui Yin got out as soon as Lu Shen gave her the green light. After coming back to the alley above the underground parking lot, she hailed a taxi cab and went to the nearest shrine for the worship of Yue Lao.

There were couples praying for a happy marriage, singles in search of love or parents eager for their children to be married inside the shrine. Yue Lao's statue was often depicted as an old man holding the book of marriage in his left hand and a walking stick in his right hand. Hui Yin immediately saw him, sitting in the right hall. His neck was adorned by numerous red strings hung by hopeful singles.

Hui Yin took out her bottles of rice wine and refused the red string that was being offered to her. She muttered a quick prayer and offered her bottles of rice wine.

"Senior, wherever you are, please quickly meet me," she beseeched. "I already did what you asked me to do. I want to go back to my present life as soon as possible!"

After she was done praying, Hui Yin roamed the streets of Beijing. She was surprised at how a lot of things had changed. There were more advanced technologies now, and the current fashion was something that she couldn't understand. Comparing their bright and sparkly outfits with Lu Shen's, she realized how understated he was. There were even some men who wore make-up. Twelve years...it was indeed a long time.

She realized that the whole mansion itself was trapped in a time stasis. She never felt that twelve years had passed except for the disappearance of a few familiar faces from the household staff. He had kept everything in a similar way when she died. He could have renovated, or even transferred into a new home, but he didn't.

Hui Yin was overwhelmed with what this all meant. She couldn't occupy such a big space in his heart, could she?

"Girl, where's my beer?"

Hui Yin jumped. An old man was clasping his hands behind his back, his head leaning over to whisper in her ear. He looked like a beggar, with his straggly beard and mismatched clothes. But Hui Yin knew better.

"Senior!"

She didn't think that he would come so quickly.

"Senior, you're here! I already did what you told me to do, and captured the culprit. Senior, that means you're going to break the red string between me and Lu Shen right? That also means I can go back to the present time right?"

"Eh." Yue Lao stuck out his pinky finger and cleaned his ear. "You really did that?"

"En!" Hui Yin nodded her head vigorously. "I really did that!"

His eyes became out of focused for a brief second, before a grumpy expression replaced his blank look.

"Girl, you didn't really capture him, you only rode on the coattails of your ex-husband!"

Hui Yin grimaced and sheepishly poked her index fingers together.

"But, but...technically...Senior, you know, when you don't focus on the details too much..."

"Ah, I get it, I get it!" He flapped his hands. "I'll let you go back. But only after a week!"

Hui Yin was flabbergasted. "Why only after a week? Can't I just use the hairpin that you gave me?"

"That hairpin doesn't work if the body is not your own. If you really do stab it in your neck, Huian will only die and you will become an unfettered soul."

Hui Yin's blood turned cold. "But why...only after a week..."

"Hehe, it's because I want you to supply me with beer first for letting you get your reward on a 'technicality'!"

"..."

Hui Yin nearly puked blood. Is this what they called 'pushing the boat with the current'?

"Senior—"

Yue Lao's eyes slightly widened, and without waiting for Hui Yin to finish, he said, "Girl, goodbye, remember my beer—" and was gone.

Hui Yin's mouth was still open, but the words were stuck in her throat.

She turned around and around, but the old man had vanished completely. She couldn't even find a single strand of his white hair.

"How am I supposed to deliver him his beer...?"

In the next second, three black cars suddenly skidded down the road and encircled Hui Yin. The nearest car to her was a familiar one, and before Hui Yin could ask what he was doing here, her face was pressed against the man's heaving chest, leaving no gap between their bodies.

"Lu Shen..."

She could hear his fast and uneasy heartbeat, and cold sweat trickled down Hui Yin's back.

Haha...he would let me go, he said? With this kind of tight hug that didn't make room for her to even slightly wriggle, where can the words 'let go' be even found? He was clearly suffocating her!

"I thought you left." His voice was hoarse and was filled with anxiety and fear.

Hui Yin was speechless. To 'let go' of a person...doesn't it include letting them leave and freeing them? Why did she feel like the two of them were talking about different definitions of the same word?

Hui Yin didn't like this kind of reaction from him.

She didn't really like it.

And she had to stay here for another week!

Can't that drunkard deity of love and marriage have pity on her, ah?!

Hui Yin coughed and awkwardly patted his back.

"I didn't leave." At least, not for another week.

"Don't leave."

"..."

"Promise me that you won't leave."

"But..." Hui Yin grasped for the words like a drowning man reaching for a life jacket, "You said you'd let me go?"

He stiffened, as if she reminded him of something that he didn't want to remember. Slowly, he said, "Letting go doesn't mean you can leave me."

Ah? In what kind of universe?!

"...how? Enlighten me."

A brief pause.

"We...haven't officially divorced."

He hadn't signed the papers.

Hui Yin choked. "But I'm dead!"

"Technically, you're not."

"My corpse is there for everyone to see!"

"But you can't deny that you're here. You vowed during our wedding that you would forever stay with me."

"You...you..." Hui Yin tried to push at his chest but couldn't. "Stop hugging me!"

Lu Shen knew she was getting angry and quickly appeased her, "I'm still letting you go. You just have to stay beside me."

"Your version of 'letting go' sucks! What's it worth for, anyway?"

"That means you can date whoever you want."

Hui Yin stopped struggling. He would really let her do that?

"But I have to be with you in all of your dates. And I need to examine the man if he's qualified for you."

Hui Yin wanted to strangle him.

Bastard.

He was really a bastard.

Indeed, he would let her go. But she had to stay beside him all the time. And he would let her freely date anyone she wanted. Except, Hui Yin thought that whatever poor guy whose name she would pick would probably be wiped off the face of the planet.

"If I date someone else, you wouldn't use unscrupulous means to deal with him?"

"...I won't?"

The long pause and the question mark at the end left nothing to the imagination. Hui Yin knew what it meant.

It was unfortunate that Hui Yin didn't have any enmity with the opposite sex. If she had some jerks she wanted to assassinate, this would probably be the best time to mention their names.

But...Hui Yin felt like she had forgotten something important.

Something that was related to her brother...