The Restless Spirit's Father

The clock ticked eleven, and it was time to sleep. Liu Xiaodan stopped time one last time to finish the last page. After doing so, he nodded at himself as if giving himself a pat on the back. He then piled the completed arts inside a folder and brought it to Huo Taiyang who was dozing at the librarian's nook.

"Sir, I'm finished." Liu Xiaodan woke him up and gave him the book and the folder. "Thank you for letting me stay here most of the time."

"It's nothing. It's nice to see someone do something interesting in this place." Huo Taiyang received the items and got to his feet before patting Liu Xiaodan's shoulder. "Cherry Medical isn't just a sick hall. I'm pretty sure there would be a place for you to enjoy the same pastime you have here."

"Thank you." Liu Xiaodan walked out of the library, and then a small child followed him out. Guangru also waved at the old man. "Thank you..."

The father walked to his cell, still hearing the siren ringing to let the inmates know that it was time to sleep. He held Guangru's hand as they went, the father not trying to act suspiciously in front of the camera. As he got on the fifth floor, he then turned his head in a direction.

Guangru then ran into the place, trying to stop time for as long as Liu Xiaodan wanted. The father walked to the cell where the Black Boss used to stay. Tang Mingming was lying on the bed and was surprised to feel them coming.

"I guess this is where we say goodbye to each other!" Tang Mingming chuckled, the black shadow casting itself on the wall.

"Don't you want to come with me?" Liu Xiaodan asked.

"...I don't think I want to. We will die in case you do, and you do live a dangerous life." Tang Mingming shook his head while keeping the smile on his face. "Bye, bye, Xiaodan."

Liu Xiaodan only nodded and turned to leave. However, Guangru only stood in front of the cell. Tang Mingming stared into the child's eyes and chuckled again. "I'm sorry. It's been a good time, being in his company. Don't worry, based on what I heard, a lot of us will be willing to spend time with Xiaodan in that new place.

"Moreover, I have no inherent power to protect him. If we hang out with him, it would only attract the hungry ones."

Tang Mingming sighed. "I'm just very scared."

Guangru only nodded and turned to leave as well. He caught up with his father, and he held onto his hand. "Baba, he said that he'd only burden you. Don't be sad. I won't leave your side again."

Liu Xiaodan looked down at the child and smiled. "It's okay. Are you excited to live with Baba somewhere else?"

…

The prison bus arrived, and the wardens got on it with Liu Xiaodan. As he boarded the bus, he saw Song Qixi and Chu Youlan watching him from outside. He had a feeling that this wouldn't be the last time he would be seeing those two.

He sat on the furthest seat. To his surprise, the bus didn't leave readily. After waiting for a few more minutes, he saw three people being rolled in. They were strapped to the chairs, and the other nurse wardens were trying not to be scratched by them.

A nurse then noticed Liu Xiaodan at the back. "We'll be securing them in between the seats. Are you okay with staying back there?"

"Yes." Liu Xiaodan nodded at him with a smile.

A loud screech came from the patient, and the nurse was scratched by the bound hand. The wheelchair rolled forward from the force of the patient's struggling, sending him to the furthest seat at the back. Liu Xiaodan then lifted a foot and stopped the wheelchair from getting too near. Since they were supposed to be secured facing the back, the patient was staring straight at the man.

Liu Xiaodan's cold gaze descended on him, and the patient couldn't help but stop making a noise. It was as if he stayed quiet, the monster wouldn't eat him.

At this moment, the nurse pulled the wheelchair away and hissed at the patient. However, he realized that the patient remained quiet while looking away from Liu Xiaodan. Unlike earlier, the patient didn't want to even make a noise at all. A smell was also coming from him, and it was plain luck that the patients were given diapers before they left.

The father remained in his seat, not minding the noisy other patients. He only looked out and gazed directly at Song Qixi who saw the whole encounter. Song Qixi returned his gaze… with a little amused smile.

The bus started moving, and Liu Xiaodan sighed as he didn't have to stare at that face anymore. A total of four patients were ferried to the mental institution, and they were all from the notorious fifth floor. Since Liu Xiaodan was more familiar with the fourth floor, he had never seen these people before. Neither did they seem to be sane enough to hear about him.

"That's the Boss Liu, right?" Liu Xiaodan's ear perked as he heard a conversation from the front seats. Two of the nurses began talking about him.

"Yeah, for him to be escorted here with no nurse. Wasn't he going to go volatile later?"

"Look at him though. He looked so normal. I wonder why he was put on the fifth floor."

"Eh, you haven't heard? He killed fifteen people outside the prison… a lot more inside." The nurse tried to lower his voice, but Liu Xiaodan could hear him perfectly. "Sgt. Song submitted enough doc.u.ments for the judge to reject all pleas of the Ren family to convict him. The judge was surely convinced that that guy is committing murders because of his damaged mind."

The other nurse gulped down and cast a fearful gaze at the inmate at the back. Liu Xiaodan wasn't even chained or closely watched by the wardens. He then looked at the escort warden closest to them. "Sir, don't you think you should cuff him to the seats at least?"

An escort warden, who always watched over Liu Xiaodan, waved his hand. "No need, he's the best behaved in the prison if you asked me. I think all those things they said about him were only to get rid of him. They're all scared of some guy rumored to control a ghost."

The other warden also nodded and agreed. "That's true. Ghosts aren't real."

An unsure gaze was exchanged between the two nurses in front. They didn't seem to be convinced. The prison had no reason to get rid of Liu Xiaodan if he's not really lacking in the mental department, right?

The nurse handling the quiet patient looked at Liu Xiaodan. To his surprise, Liu Xiaodan had turned towards the nurses up front as if he knew they were talking about him. Moreover, he could spot a shadow of a small child sitting at the window seat of Liu Xiaodan's row.

"The ghost he controls… what did they say it looked like?" The nurse turned to his colleagues, but none of them wanted to answer him. Before he could ask again, a warden answered, "They said it was a child."

"Like a six-year-old?" The nurse followed up, but the warden only shrugged his shoulder. No one specified how old the child was.

The nurse then felt his patient jolt away from him. When he took a look, the patient was staring wide-eyed in a direction… like something was on the row behind him. The nurse then turned, unperturbed… only to see a black-haired child sitting there.

Guangru smiled at the nurse as if he knew the nurse was not scared at least. It was as if the nurse had gone through a lot in the prison's sick hall.

"Shit, it's real..." the nurse murmured as he stared into Guangru's face.

"Hi, uncle. Why aren't you scared?" Guangru tilted his head.

The nurse's eyes only flickered as he took a look around. He then looked back at Guangru. "I'd say take a look around you, but it seemed that everyone ran off."

Guangru only giggled. "Do they hurt you, uncle?"

"No, they're only annoying."

The nurse was actually quite a person that attracted a lot of spirits. The only difference was that none of them ever left him alone. He used to be a hospital nurse, but the feeling of having them around and shocking him most of the time made him unable to keep his job. The notion of him reacting to nothing had also created a bad name among his colleagues.

He then found a vacancy in the prison's sick hall. Seeing that it had fewer chances of having people die, he chose to work there. Just that… he was so wrong. However, the only plus side was that he didn't have to deal with surgeries so he didn't have to be cursed when his hands suddenly shook.

That was why he wasn't scared when he saw Guangru. Such a beautiful child was a hundred times better than a bunch of deranged inmates.

"Can Guangru eat them?"

The nurse frowned at such a shocking question. Ghosts could eat each other? Then again, he arrived at a problem. "They're not here anymore. How could you do that?"

Guangru lifted his face up to look at the ceiling of the bus, and so the nurse followed suit. Even if he couldn't see anything, he could feel that the scary things that were stuck to him were all hiding on top of the bus. The nurse then looked back at the child.

"I don't care, really. One goes, and another replaces them. Even if they all disappeared, they will pile up again."

"Then, Guangru will eat."

Blink. The child vanished in a blink of an eye… while the heavy feeling shrouding the nurse started to grow lighter. He could feel that the suffocation the ghosts caused began to dissipate. Even if he was feeling sorry for letting the child on them, they shouldn't have stuck onto him like he could help.

In the end, the air had cleared. The child appeared again… but next to the inmate who seemed to be already sleeping at the back.

"Hey..." the same warden from earlier called the nurse's attention. "Who are you talking to?"

"Let him be. He does that a lot," one of the nurses in front spoke before the person in question could answer.

"Huh? That's strange," the other warden murmured, remembering how Liu Xiaodan would do the same. Then again, he turned to the psychic nurse. "Who were you talking to? Some dude who died on the bus?"

The other nurses rolled their eyes, not noticing how the patients had stopped making noises. The psychic nurse only smiled.

"No, it's a child."