Chapter 3 - Love could always turn into hate
JY 3 - Love could always turn into hate
Lin Ge Shuai closed the door to prevent more gas from leaking out. "Meili, if you don't want to leave with us, get out now."
"I'm leaving with her! Just die by yourself if you don't like living so much! Crazy!" Lin Meili could see that her niece have trouble with moving and speech, only able to cry helplessly. There was no time to ask questions so she directly carried Lin Jiayi onto her back, only to be blocked by her elder brother.
"She can't leave."
"Why? Just because you are her biological father you think you can kill her as you wish?! This is a crime!"
Lin Ge Shuai finally broke his peaceful demeanour. "I'm bringing her to apologise to my wife! It's been sixteen years! I've fulfilled my obligation as a father by feeding and clothing her! Now she has the duty as a daughter to apologize and serve her mother!"
"To serve ghosts?! Do ghosts even exist!"
"Yaoyao is waiting for me!" Lin Ge Shuai roared and grabbed Lin Jiayi.
"Brother! She's just a child!" Lin Meili yelled, but as a librarian who was only required to carry books or use a trolley to carry heavy books, how could she be stronger than her brother who worked as night security and also physically stronger?
Like a doll that was cut off her string, Lin Jiayi slide down from her aunt's back and was pulled back to the kitchen. After inhaling a lot of gas, Lin Ge Shuai had some trouble standing straight and Lin Meili took the opportunity to push her brother away, unbalancing him. When his back hit the wall, she did stop momentarily, but remembering that he was trying to murder his own daughter, she ignored him and pulled her niece from his loose grip, half dragging her on the floor towards the back door, which was the nearest exit.
Right now, Lin Meili was the least affected by the gas among them. She had to quickly get out before the effects get to her.
Instead of playing tug of war with his younger sister, Lin Ge Shuai took out the lighter from his pocket. "Meili, you have no more family once we are gone. You are already in your thirties and still unwed. You will be lonely if you are left behind."
His words gave Lin Meili chilling goosebumps, so she spared him a glance. Her eyes shook when she saw her elder brother light the lighter in the middle of a gas leakage. "You're crazy!"
"Yaoyao, I'm coming." Lin Ge Shuai smiled the brightest in the last sixteen years and tossed the lighter in the direction of the stove, which he had earlier cut open the pipe for the gas to release.
Lin Jiayi watched as the lighter soared over to the stove. 'If I'm going to die so early, I might as well just tell everything I feel about him to ease the stuffiness in my heart!'
The fire roared like an angry monster and spread towards Lin Jiayi just as the seven-coloured bead on her wrist glowed brightly before a loud bang with intense heat ate her away.
…And Lin Jiayi woke up gasping loudly.
The shock was so strong that it took a long while before she noticed herself lying down on the floor of her dark bedroom. Her entire back was drenched in sweat, which was uncomfortable in her long-sleeved attire. When she was confident that she could stand up without falling back down, she pushed the dark curtains away and opened the window to let the morning wind cool her down.
The peaceful scenery outside her window succeeded in calming down her frazzled soul, but the memory of the explosion still clings to her heavily.
Is that explosion only a dream?
'So father did not commit double suicide? What a pity.'
Lin Jiayi wanted to ignore her dark thoughts, but she had to accept what she had dreamed. For her to dream of such a thing, did her subconscious self actually view her father so negatively? And on her birthday? Even so, the dream felt so real that the hairs on her arms were still standing up like porcupines.
She parted the curtains even further and looked in the direction of the other house in the same courtyard. She sniffed twice and caught the scent of porridge and dough sticks coming from there.
Every morning, her aunt would cook breakfast for Lin Jiayi before they head to work and school. Remembering the aunt from her dream, Lin Jiayi was a little amused that her subconscious would treat her aunt as a heroine to rescue her whenever she was in danger.
Yet it could not be blamed, for her aunt treated her as if she was her own daughter, taking care of her very well.
After enjoying the peaceful scenery for a good five minutes, her heart finally found peace and she can finally be prepared for the day.
… But not long after, peace once again fled from Lin Jiayi's soul.
In her tiny bathroom, Lin Jiayi saw herself in the mirror. At first, she thought the figure in the mirror was a ghost, only for the 'ghost' to move as she did. If it was just normal makeup, she would not have been scared, but they were smeared all over her face!
She does not remember putting on makeup, something her aunt had never allowed her to touch until she finished high school.
Before, she had assumed she was wearing her thick knitted sweater by her aunt, but what was this black leather jacket that screamed 'luxury' and 'punk' she was wearing? This was not something she could effort with her pocket money, and this 'all-black' funeral clothing style she would not dare to pick!
Her problem with her attire was pushed aside when she noticed another strangeness, her hair. It was still the same bob length, but instead of her familiar straight hair, it had slight waviness at the ends that she often wanted to have. She was not knowledgeable about curling, but the repeated tugs of the curls failed to straighten her hair even the slightest.
However, the thing that creeped the hell out of her was her bedroom interior. The furniture was arranged opposite of how it used to be, and it could no longer be thought of as a prank when the door, basin and toilet bowl were installed in different directions.
Lin Jiayi was still affected by the nightmare, and her mind could not make sense of what was going on, or what should she do.
…Let's just start by removing the mess on her face.
It took longer than expected to wash them off, and the experience killed most of her original enthusiasm to try makeup. It was a waste of time, water and soap. She did not change her clothing and hurried out of her room to find out what was going on.
Yet, there was an even bigger blow awaited her in the living room.
"Where's everything?" Lin Jiayi gawked at the almost empty living room. The twenty-year-old couch, the second-hand table and chairs… where were they? It was still acceptable if they changed their position, but it was not alright if they ceased to exist!
'Is there a robbery? Wow, which fool did this?'
Shengzhang village does not really fear thieves, as one attempt at robbery would earn everyone's condemnation, with how most of the aunts could easily identify a person even with just their back in sight. Adding on to how fast gossip travels when one does not have much privacy once they were outside their house, that person would immediately be a social outcast.
She checked the kitchen and found that although it was very different from how it used to be, at least it was still better than the almost bare living room.
The family dining table was changed into a smaller, two-person table, and the tacky green refrigerator and stove were gone. The window was similarly closed just like those in the living room. This space does not seem to be used much with the musky smell and stifling air.
The nightmare of being unable to move in this place could not be fully evoked from this unfamiliar yet familiar kitchen. To be honest, that nightmare had made her hate her father. She was not an understanding adult and was still a child. This nightmare made her learn that familial love was not unconditional, just like how her father could never love her, and she learned to despise him.
'Love could always turn into hate.'
She would have chosen to stay away from her father until this raw emotion learned to settle down, but this strangeness forced her to seek him out.
Lin Jiayi headed to the small corner near the kitchen, which was where her father's bedroom was. She slowed down and started to walk on tip-toe to reduce the noise. It was still early morning, and her father worked the evening shift so daylights were his sleeping time.
'Just ignore him. Why seek trouble again?'
Knocking and calling out to her father was the same as waking up a dragon, so she could only sneakily peek in. Her hand recoiled when they touched the metal doorknob. It had a thick layer of dust, which was something that could not happen. Her father would touch it at least twice per day, which would prevent this amount of dust to accumulate.
Ignoring the strangeness for now, she tried the doorknob, only to discover it was locked.
But her father never locked his bedroom door, just as she tacitly never approached his room even for cleaning.
'Everything is strange the moment I woke up after the explosion… Am I actually hallucinating before dying for real?'
"Calm down Jiayi. Dad could just want to sleep better so he locked the door. Yeah, let's eat breakfast with Aunt first!" Lin Jiayi talked to herself all the way to the front door and almost forgot to wear her shoes. She received another shock when she saw the inside of the shoe cupboard.
There were no male shoes, and there were only shoes of her size. She even saw some nice shoes of her size that she does not remember having before.
Lin Jiayi feel her back turn cold just as the hairs of her body stood up. As if there was a ghost on her back, she ran towards the other house without looking back.