Such a Familiar Scent

Liu Xiaodan only lowered his head, but his arms were still around Guangru. Jiang Hou was calling Li Feng for help that night; he must have suffered badly in the hands of the manic residents. He mentioned something he called delicious stuff that was reeking out of Jiang Hou that night.

The more he thought about it, the more he felt rather awful for Li Feng. His son delivered his friend to him, which set the wheels in motion. He was as innocent as Liu Xiaodan—if not more, and yet he was the one in a detention cell right now.

Liu Xiaodan had no idea why Jiang Hou was out there that night, or perhaps what he was doing. No matter the case, Jiang Hou was dead; none could have saved him, truly. Perhaps he had a chance if he was Liu Xiaodan's friend.

His eyes closed as a sharp hiss came out of his mouth. It was too awful for anyone to take responsibility—yet too brutal to be left alone. He didn't know why the residents attacked the man... or if they would attack someone else again. Maybe next time, it would be another friend of Li Feng's; maybe, it would be one of his.

At this moment, Wu Qianqian's phone vibrated, which was felt by both of the parents in the room. The mother took her phone out before gasping sharply. She did file the request to call for the Mian family after their conversations, but she never expected them to respond this fast.

Her eyes flickered and eyed Liu Li who was looking grim. So... he was headed to the hospital as they spoke.

Chuan Nayi had no idea what was happening in their minds; she could only get angry at Liu Xiaodan's conviction. She had never seen him so attached to another person before. Then again, the person in question was a killer ghost—one that had spilled the blood of a human already.

She was both scared of the entity and how other people would act upon him. What if they accused Liu Xiaodan of insanity or terrorism? Would she be able to stand by him?

Would her feelings be strong enough?

Another drop of tear crawled down her eye before she turned her head away. She didn't want to be involved with this case anymore; she was even willing to forsake the best friendship she ever had with a man that she adored the most.

If Liu Xiaodan chose Guangru over her, so be it. She wouldn't mislead anyone to believe he was a bad person, but she wouldn't use herself to shield him from the shit storm coming his way.

Guangru was only watching everyone and feasting on the negative energy oozing from them. The despair was taking form around them, and he was gladly absorbing everything to feed himself. If someone would know everything, this person would tell Guangru to lay off the feeding.

He had been eating a lot for these past few days, and he was still going for more. Only Liu Xiaodan wouldn't be paying attention to the amount, probably. Had they seen how gigantic Liu Guangru's true form was?

Just as he was sucking everything dry, a faint scent made his nose move. His head turned behind them as if he could feel someone was headed towards them. It wasn't anyone he knew from Ting University or connected to those people by blood, but it was such a familiar scent that made him react.

A piercing cold came to the room as the air plunged to 12 degrees Celsius, alarming everyone. Liu Xiaodan ripped his eyes open and saw how murderous Guangru was at the moment. His son had never chilled a big room before; neither did he become this agitated.

His dead eyes were simply comparable to three Everests, and Liu Xiaodan was hoping the child wouldn't turn to him.

"I'm going outside." Liu Guangru flashed from their view, vanishing the next second.

The room instantly grew warmer, and the four people shuddered in residual terror. Whatever the child felt was something that made him morph into the horrifying ghost that he was.

The four didn't make another sound for a few minutes before Liu Li helped Liu Xiaodan move around to get to a better position. He also left the room to call for a doctor to check up on his son.

Wu Qianqian remained on her seat and consoled her son with a hand rubbing his cheek. Her Xiaodan was taking an unconventional path in dealing with terrible spirits, and she had no idea if the request she made would be of any help to him.

Shuffling came to the door, and a nurse stepped inside the room. She felt the strange temperature of the place before heading to check upon Liu Xiaodan. Another two nurses came in along with a doctor and Liu Li.

However, he only stood by the door and called his wife. His face was darker than earlier, and it seemed that he was faced with another problem.

Since the doctor and nurses were there, Chuan Nayi should be fine. She hesitated halfway when they started unwrapping the bandages, and she could hear Liu Xiaodan groaning in pain. The mother would come to aid, but Chuan Nayi turned and reached out to hold his hand instead.

"Xiao Qian, when you called for the Mian family, I didn't think you'd ask for him." Liu Li was certainly in a bad mood, his dark eyes still twitching at every wince his son would make. "I saw his car outside."

"I don't want him here either, but... perhaps it would be best if the best would deal with the child." Wu Qianqian leaned on her husband as they watched the nurses and the doctor tend to their son. "You felt it, didn't you?

"There's no way a newbie would be able to handle that. Also, what do we know?" She tried to put a smile on her husband's face. "Since it's me, maybe he'd do it for free."

A short and fleeting chuckle came from the man. Truly, hiring any shaman from the Mian family descent or apprentice would cost a fortune.

They were normally hired by institutions and companies who would pay extra to keep their transactions off-media. If it worked, then Liu Li would have to take a five-digit amount from his bank account. Six-digit if he managed to piss off this old man.

Either way, it would be all worth it.

Minutes had passed, and the doctor and nurses talked to the parents about being stricter towards the young man. When they left, they were heard greeting someone outside who seemed to ask about the patient's health.

Soon, a pretty girl peeped from the door and smiled at Chuan Nayi. Also, a man walked in while wearing quite a sullen expression. He didn't greet the two and just stood next to Liu Xiaodan's bed.

"I heard you got into an accident. Looked like you weren't guarded at all." His voice was cool and bitter. His hand was on his abdomen, noticing that it wasn't reacting to the place. He didn't look around at all.

"If I wasn't, I would be dead." Liu Xiaodan sighed as he knew who it was before even opening his eyes. "Li Feng, I did say they'll release you. They lack the evidence to hold you accountable."

"Jiang Hou's still dead, and we don't have an idea what happened that night." Li Feng glanced at Chuan Nayi. "Even your girlfriend's here with you. How lucky can you get?"

"I don't want this to be my 'luck'." Liu Xiaodan had a small smile. At least, Li Feng was released. He then looked at his parents. "Mom, Dad, this is Li Feng. He's a senior of ours in school."

The young man only nodded at them, not wanting to know them at all. He was actually scared to get knee-deep in his relations with Liu Xiaodan... as if he could do something about it.

Moreover, Liu Li—the proud man—cared too little about this disrespect; he was going to be disrespectful to someone else later after all.

He only nodded as well before gazing at the old man that entered the room. Liu Xiaodan only stared at him while the old man and the other assistant smiled widely at his mother.

"Ah, Qianqian, there seemed to be trouble... now that you came to me yourself." Mian Tianyu greeted the woman, but Liu Li automatically stepped forward and shielded his wife from the old man's eyes. The wide smile on the old man's face dropped. "And I find it pleasing to see you, too, Liu Li."

"Lady Qianqian, greetings." Kang Jun bowed and regarded the other people as well. "Liu Xiaodan, Ms. Chuan, Mr. Liu. This is the honorary Master Mian of the Mian family, head of our Shaman Organization. We received your request and, therefore, had come to your aid."

"I have heard about a peculiar ghost child that had been haunting Ting University recently." Mian Tianyu walked towards Liu Xiaodan. "Worry not, young man. We'll vanish him as soon as I..."—he reached out to hold Liu Xiaodan's head—"see what we're dealing with."

His hand only hovered on top of Liu Xiaodan's head. "Ah, its power is massive... I've never seen anything like this..."

Mian Tianyu glared at the hand he extended. There was a small shake that he hadn't felt in a while. Ah, so that was why Li Feng was scared of it. He recalled his hand and looked at Li Yunru. "You say that it had only killed one boy in school?"

Li Yunru, who had gone to Chuan Nayi's side, grew startled and nodded at her grandfather. "Yes, Grandfather! Only one was confirmed..."

He then nodded and looked at Wu Qianqian with a sullen expression that Li Feng seemed to have inherited from him. "Qianqian, how long has your son been disturbed by this spirit? I have to say. This ghost child didn't seem to be young at all.

"The kind of aura he had left on your son isn't something a simple ghost could have. The child might only look like a child, but it seemed to have a rather violent past. The stench of blood is too strong; it must have killed non-stop for at least thirty years.

"How could something like this show up here in the city? I had cleansed this city more than once a year to prevent entry of this kind of ghost. Could he have gotten it from somewhere outside the city?" Mian Tianyu disregarded the gaze Liu Li was giving him and conversed naturally with the mother. For some reason, he was very concerned and distressed.

"A thirty-year-old ghost?" Chuan Nayi shook in her bed, only having Li Yunru's stroking to ease her heart. She then brought her gaze at Li Yunru who was as terrified as she was.

"Thirty years..." Li Feng murmured before sitting down next to Liu Xiaodan. "Have you ever thought that child was a lot older than you?"

Liu Xiaodan chuckled. "More than you think..."