Can I still be saved? [Transmigration] - Chapter 17
Su Yunjing didn’t dare delay, he quickly picked up the receiver and dialed the number back.
As soon as it connected, he vaguely heard a familiar ringtone, the distinct chime of a Nokia, coming from just outside the door.
His heart skipped a beat.
He put down the phone, tiptoed to the door, and gently opened it.
A gust of cold air whooshed in through the crack, making Su Yunjing shiver.
He poked his head out and saw a small shadow curled up in the dark hallway.
“Fu Hanzhou?” Su Yunjing whispered, afraid to wake the others.
The shadow stirred, then slowly walked toward him.
Only when he came closer did Su Yunjing see clearly, it was indeed Fu Hanzhou.
He was filthy, covered in dirt and mud, like he had rolled across the ground several times. His face was deathly pale, almost paper white.
Su Yunjing immediately pulled him inside.
“Shh. Come with me.” He gripped Fu Hanzhou’s icy cold hand and quietly led him back to his bedroom.
After shutting the door, he turned and asked worriedly, “What happened? Why are you out so late?”
“There were bugs.” Fu Hanzhou’s pale lips trembled like they were coated in frost. He spoke in a strained, almost delirious tone.
“There were bugs all over my bed.”
Su Yunjing’s brows knitted together.
Bugs? In the middle of winter?
But looking at Fu Hanzhou’s appearance, he didn’t seem to be lying, and then a thought struck him.
In the novel, it was mentioned that Fu Hanzhou had inherited a psychological disorder, he would occasionally experience hallucinations.
This is also one of the reasons why Fu Hanzhou fell in love with the heroine.
Because when he was with the heroine, those messy hallucinations would disappear.
Su Yunjing hadn’t expected the symptoms to start so early. He felt distress and helplessness.
After all, he wasn’t the female lead. He didn’t have that kind of healing aura.
He gently rubbed Fu Hanzhou’s head.
“There are no bugs here. You can sleep here tonight.”
Fu Hanzhou nodded slightly.
His long lashes were damp from the cold night air, resting against his eyelid like a fragile butterfly battered by wind and rain.
Su Yunjing had never seen the little cool cub like this. His heart ached as he wiped the dirt off Fu Hanzhou’s face.
His body was as cold as a slab of ice soaked in glacial water. Just touching him raised goosebumps on Su Yunjing’s arms.
“Take your clothes off first and get under the covers. Warm up a little.” Fu Hanzhou’s clothes and face were dirty, but Su Yunjing didn’t dare take him to wash up in case it woke his parents.
Fu Hanzhou’s fingers were so stiff he couldn’t undo the buttons himself.
Su Yunjing couldn’t watch any longer, he quickly helped him undress.
After all that fumbling, even the bed had gone cold. Su Yunjing told him to get in quickly.
Worried Fu Hanzhou would still be cold, he grabbed a few cotton jackets from the closet and layered them on top of the quilt. Only then did he crawl into bed himself.
The moment he lay down, he noticed something was wrong.
“What is it?”
Fu Hanzhou was staring up at the ceiling, jaw clenched, his whole body tense like a drawn bowstring.
“They’re in here too.”
His voice was so faint, it was like desert wind whispering over sand—there and gone in an instant.
Fu Hanzhou’s voice seemed extremely ethereal in the night, like a plate of desert wind, which would blow away.
That day, she wore red.
When she jumped from the building, she looked like a blooming crimson flower caught in the wind.
She was blown high by the wind and crushed fiercely in the cement concrete
Her eyes were wide open, her limbs twisted, and when her lips moved, something surged out of her throat.
Soon, countless white insects rushed out of her mouth.
A flood of bugs, bursting from her mouth like a geyser, all squirming and glistening.
They poured out of her mouth, eyes, nose, cheeks, and entire body.
These insects with sharp mouthparts greedily devoured her from the inside out.
And then, they crawled toward him.
Eventually, a police officer covered his eyes and the bugs disappeared.
But now they were back, like maggots clinging to bone.
They crawled along the walls toward the ceiling, layer upon layer, packed tightly together in a dense swarm.
There were so many of them, so tightly packed, that as they writhed and surged, they squeezed out a stream of white insects, each with grotesque, vicious-looking mandibles.
A few grotesque, sharp-mouthed things fell to the floor with a dull splat.
Fu Hanzhou felt both disgusted and exhausted. His eyelashes trembled, and just as he helplessly closed his eyes, his entire body was suddenly wrapped up.
Su Yunjing couldn’t see the hallucinations, but he could guess from Fu Hanzhou’s expression.
He pulled the quilt up over both of them, tucking it securely around them.
Patting his back, he said softly, “Don’t be scared. They can’t get in. Look, I’ve tucked in all the corners.”
Fu Hanzhou didn’t reply, he just grabbed Su Yunjing’s sleeve like a drowning man grasping a life-saving straw.
His grip was so tight, his knuckles turned pale.
Su Yunjing gently rubbed the back of his neck, like soothing a frightened kitten.
He kept whispering “don’t be afraid,” over and over—at a loss for what else to say.
The little guy rarely showed his vulnerable side. His thin body trembled in Su Yunjing’s arms.
He didn’t have the female lead’s magic touch. He couldn’t banish hallucinations with a hug.
But now, he finally understood what Fu Hanzhou meant that day when he said,
“The truly frightening thing… is something else.”
That ‘something else,’ it seemed, were these nightmares, the swarms of bugs only he could see.
This clearly wasn’t the first time it had happened.
Sigh.
Fu Hanzhou buried his head in Su Yunjing’s shoulder, desperately absorbing his warmth.
The little Kujiao’s physique is too special. Even after being held for a long time, his body still felt like ice.
At least his breathing had stabilized.He nestled on Su Yunjing’s shoulder and slowly drifted off to sleep.
Su Yunjing was sore and numb. His arm was crushed beneath Fu Hanzhou and aching badly, but he did not dare to move for fear of waking the boy.
So he lay there, holding him all night.
Su Yunjing didn’t sleep well the whole night and woke up several times in the middle.
He slept in a daze until after five o’clock, and woke Fu Hanzhou up.
He had to get Fu Hanzhou back before anyone realized he had snuck out, or things could get complicated.
Fu Hanzhou hadn’t slept well either. When Su Yunjing woke him, he sat silently on the bed with a blank expression.
Su Yunjing flexed his arm, which had gone numb from being pinned all night. Ignoring the pins-and-needles sensation, he pulled out Fu Hanzhou’s clothes.
“Hurry up and get dressed. I’ll walk you back,” Su Yunjing said, already helping him into a sweater.
After getting dressed with Su Yunjing’s help, Fu Hanzhou lowered his gaze and gently rested his forehead against Su Yunjing’s shoulder.
Seeing how downcast he was, Su Yunjing couldn’t help but reach out and ruffle the little guy’s cool, soft black hair.
“I know you’re still sleepy, but I have to get you back before anyone at the orphanage realizes you snuck out in the middle of the night.”
“How about this? today I’ll talk to my mom and ask her to check with your director, see if you can come stay over here at night.”
Fu Hanzhou immediately looked up, his pitch-black eyes shining like stars.
“Really?”
“When have I ever lied to you?” Su Yunjing replied with a smile.
Hearing that, Fu Hanzhou visibly became more energetic. He finished dressing himself, with newfound energy in his movements.
Su Yunjing, worried Fu Hanzhou might catch a cold, wrapped an extra coat around him before quietly escorting him back to the orphanage.
When Su Yunjing slipped back into the house, it was still not yet six. So he took the chance to grab a little more sleep.
At 7:20, Su Yunjing was woken up by Song Wenqian.
Still groggy, he listlessly brushed his teeth and washed up. After breakfast, he hopped onto the back seat of Song Wenqian’s bicycle for the ride to school.
As soon as they exited their residential complex, Song Wenqian spotted a familiar figure standing at the orphanage gate across the street, a pretty little boy.
“Is that Hanzhou?” she asked.
Su Yunjing looked up sharply. Sure enough, Fu Hanzhou had gotten up early again to see him off to school.
He was small, but his posture was straight and proud, like a pine tree standing tall against the biting winter wind.
“How come Hanzhou’s always standing out here? Doesn’t that child feel the cold?” Song Wenqian murmured in mild confusion.
Su Yunjing didn’t say anything. His throat felt like it had been soaked in saltwater, swollen and sore.
What had happened last night finally made him realize something. Fu Hanzhou had started to rely on him.
Back when Fu Hanzhou was still a cold and aloof little tsundere, even when he had hallucinations, he would endure them alone.
But now, he came to Su Yunjing the moment something went wrong.
Because he relied on him. Because he saw him as family.
That was why, regardless of the weather, he would wake up early to send Su Yunjing off to school and wait anxiously for him to return in the afternoon.
Su Yunjing thought, maybe he’d fallen for the charm of this little second male lead too.
At this point, he really didn’t understand the female lead anymore.
How could she not fall for his cub, who was this precious and outstanding?
Love really was unreasonable.
Su Yunjing had to shamelessly act cute and plead before Song Wenqian finally agreed to ask the orphanage director whether Fu Hanzhou could stay overnight at their house.
After multiple reassurances, the director eventually gave in.
Su Yunjing took the hand of the little sickly cub and brought him home.
Although It wasn’t Fu Hanzhou’s first time visiting, but now that he could stay over openly and legitimately, the usually proud and aloof boy was clearly in a good mood.
After dinner, Su Yunjing took Fu Hanzhou to take a bath.
Fu Hanzhou really liked it when Su Yunjing washed his hair.
Su Yunjing’s hands were gentle, and when they ran through his hair, scrubbing lightly at his scalp, Fu Hanzhou felt nothing but comfort.
He sat quietly on a small stool, his skin as pale and smooth as ivory, now tinged with a faint pink from the rising steam.
With his rosy lips and bright teeth, he looked especially endearing.
Su Yunjing watched the tiny water droplets glistening on Fu Hanzhou’s long eyelashes and felt that the little cool cub seemed more obedient than ever.
When he first started getting close to Fu Hanzhou, he was acting purely out of a sense of duty just trying to complete his mission.
But now, he genuinely felt sorry for the child. He truly hoped that the little cool cub could grow up happy, with a warm and beautiful childhood.
After rinsing the shampoo suds from Fu Hanzhou’s black hair, Su Yunjing pulled out a blue towel and gently dried it for him.
“My mom said she’s going to make braised fish tomorrow night,” Su Yunjing said, his young face bathed in the warm orange light of the bathroom heater, softening his already delicate features. “Do you feel like having some?”
Fu Hanzhou’s brows curved slightly as he nodded.
In truth, he didn’t even like fish all that much.
But he liked the way Su Yunjing would carefully pick out the fish bones for him.
He liked when Su Yunjing focused all his attention on him.