After Being Watched by My Paranoid and Gloomy Deceased Wife - Chapter 5

The chill crept up to my thighs. I frowned, regretting that I was wearing shorts, which become much shorter when I sit down than when I stand.

“Do you have a blanket? My legs are a little cold.”

Xi Rong pursed her lips and motioned to me, “There, it’s right beside you. I know you’re physically weak, so I kept it ready for you.”

I took off my disposable gloves and covered myself with the blanket, but the chill lingered.

A thread of cold wind blew over, like someone was blowing air between my legs.

This imagination was quite terrifying. I pulled the blanket down, but it still didn’t block that bit of wind.

“Did you turn on the air conditioner?” I looked at the standing air conditioner in Xi Rong’s living room, which was directly facing my position.

Xi Rong didn’t turn her head, grabbing a skewer of grilled chives.

“What are you thinking? Did I leave the air conditioner on for you? It’s broken. The soonest someone can come for repairs is tomorrow.”

Oh, it’s not the air conditioner fan. I looked at the window again.

The window was tightly closed, and even the curtains were completely still.

Fine, it’s another one of my hallucinations.

That thread of wind was not well-behaved. It not only drilled onto my legs but also blew into the bottom of my shorts.

My eyelid twitched. I spread my legs, pressed the blanket down in the middle with my hand, and clamped the blanket tightly between my legs.

Surely there can’t be wind blowing now?

The wind still carried a chill and crept upwards. Something delicate yet icy slid up along that thread of wind, subtly changing its target.

I lightly sucked in a breath of cold air. Xi Rong looked at me in confusion.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, it’s just… it is a bit similar, haha…” I gave two awkward laughs, not daring to tell her what was happening.

Xi Rong is even more timid than I am. If I let her know, she wouldn’t be able to sleep for days and nights.

It would take at least fifty monks with high chanting skills hitting wooden fish drums by her bedside to soothe her startled little heart.

If she heard that I was going through something like this, she would immediately and without hesitation take out money and hire the entire Bāohuá Temple, from the abbot to the sweeping novice monk.

She didn’t even dare watch horror movies when we were in school. If the power suddenly went out, her soprano voice could rival a dolphin’s pitch and shatter glass. Keeping this matter from her is better than letting her know.

After all, I couldn’t find a solution either. I had gone to Bāohuá Temple myself a while ago. Inside the main hall, the shadow stood with its arms crossed, long hair gently swaying, while I knelt before the Buddha, wondering what wish was left to make.

Finally, I wished that all the people who were important to me could be safe, smooth-sailing, and have their wishes come true.

The shadow heard my prayer and was very quiet the whole day.

Now it was not quiet. I retracted my left hand, put on the disposable glove, and just as I took a grilled chicken leg skewer, the wind pulled the clamped blanket out.

This is getting a bit overly harassing.

“Why are you fidgeting like you have fleas on you today?” Xi Rong took a big gulp of ice cola, let out a satisfied burp, and asked.

How am I supposed to answer that? I have a delusion of being sexually assaulted by the air?

I struggled to clamp my legs together and scooted my bottom further into the sofa, trying to keep my calves pressed close to the edge of the sofa.

“Maybe I’m allergic,” I said.

Xi Rong sighed helplessly, but she was already used to my life full of this allergy and that allergy.

“It’s not easy for you to have lived this long.”

I didn’t pay attention to her complaint, focusing all my energy on fighting against that mischievous wind.

The coolness crept up my ankle, like icy fingertips gently sliding up.

I pulled the blanket down a bit, and the wind simply coiled inside the blanket, the slightly cool touch moving all the way up my calf.

If I don’t reply, Xi Rong will become suspicious, so I could only casually pull a line: “I’m lucky to be alive. Didn’t you all say the scene of that car accident was quite tragic? It’s thanks to the driver speeding that only I, the unlucky passenger in the co-pilot seat, had an accident.”

“I’ve been strangely lucky since I was little. Whenever I encounter something like this, I always come out completely intact. The car was totaled, but I only had to spend a year in the hospital for rehabilitation.”

“That drunk driver was truly wicked and harmed people. Luckily, it was me he ran into; no lives were lost.”

I was locked in a struggle with the thread of wind and didn’t see Xi Rong’s instantly changing expression.

She blurted out: “You were lying in bed for half a year, and you call that good luck? Besides, who said only you had an accident in that crash…”

The teasing wind suddenly froze. I looked up at Xi Rong in confusion.

“Huh? Wasn’t it just me who got hurt?”

I was a bit confused. I was concussed during that time, and my mind was indeed not very clear, but I don’t remember this happening?

All this time, I thought I was the only one who got hurt.

It was then that I noticed the blind spot.

I was in the co-pilot seat, so the driver’s seat definitely had someone in it. Where was the driver?

“Is the driver okay?”

Xi Rong seemed to realize her slip-up and closed her mouth warily. I didn’t give up and still tried to elicit some information from her.

“Rong Rong~”

“Just tell me, is the driver okay?”

If the driver got hurt because they were driving me, I would feel guilty about it for the rest of my life. Even if it wasn’t my fault, I survived.

Xi Rong was unwilling to tell me. She avoided my gaze and stuffed a skewer of grilled cauliflower into my hand.

“Mmhmm, nothing serious happened. Okay, hurry up and eat yours. Food can’t even shut up your constant chatter. If you have low bl00d sugar, don’t show off here. Shove a few more bites down quickly so you don’t pass out at my place.”

“I don’t have a princess here to wake up Sleeping Beauty with a kiss.”

Afterwards, I tried to trick her into talking a few times, but Xi Rong skillfully dodged all of them.

Damn it, when did she become so guarded!

Since I brought up that topic, Xi Rong’s mood remained low. Only our chewing sounds and the background noise of the dramatic TV show were left in the living room.

“What are you looking at? You don’t get any of this! You’re a fragile glass beauty. Don’t constantly think about shameless things.” Noticing me staring at her, Xi Rong quickly protected her large bottle of coke, which was covered in condensation.

I pouted, rolling my eyes like she did.

“Stingy.”

What important matter needs to be hidden from the person concerned, denying them the right to know?

Since I temporarily didn’t want to go back to my cold house, after dinner, I shamelessly stayed over. In the guest room Xi Rong left for me, I leaned against the pillows and hugged the quilt. The room had plenty of light.

Actually, I wanted to drag the quilt to her room and sleep on the floor. After all, her carpet was thick, so I wouldn’t worry about rheumatism sleeping on the ground, but—

Glancing at my shadow idly playing with its long hair, I felt I still needed to consider my only two good friends.

Xi Rong can occasionally be meticulous. If she found out, she would be scared to death.

If I don’t go to hell, who will? (A phrase meaning one must make a noble sacrifice)

With this heroic feeling, I turned on all the lights in the room, threw out my slippers, and placed the mirrors with the reflective side against the wall.

I should be safe.

Regardless of whether it helps or not, trying is no loss.

Okay, now I can do something Xi Rong wouldn’t allow.

Relying on others is worse than relying on oneself. Sure enough, even the best of friends are unreliable. The only truly reliable person is oneself.

I pulled out my phone and started searching for the news from that year on Baidu.

Although my memory is not very clear, I’m not so confused that I don’t remember when my car accident happened.

It’s just that with so many traffic accidents every year, searching for a three-year-old news article is quite tedious.

I vaguely remembered that this incident had made the news.

I was sitting in a wheelchair at the time, and the caregiver and others sighed, saying I was incredibly lucky to survive such a serious traffic accident with only leg injuries and a bump on the head.

Actually, I still remember the way they looked like they were about to speak but held back in front of me. Everyone seemed to be hiding something from me.

Later, when I entrusted the lawyer to handle the lawsuit, I found out that the driver who caused the accident had a sudden acute illness and died after ineffective emergency treatment a month after the incident.

How odd. What was there to hide about this?

My condition at that time was far from optimistic, and I didn’t have the energy to learn too much, so I fully entrusted the matter to the lawyer and Xi Rong to handle for me.

This was the first time I was seeing this news.

The accompanying picture of the accident scene was indeed very tragic. As an eyewitness, I couldn’t help but gasp.

I survived this? And my precious face is perfectly fine, only the back of my head and my legs suffered a bit.

I sighed with amazement before seriously reading the headline.

[Serious Traffic Accident in Lishan City Results in 1 Death and 1 Injury; Vehicle Responsible Suspected of Speeding]

[…resulting in the driver of the struck vehicle dying instantly at the scene. The co-pilot passenger was severely injured and taken to the hospital, where she is now out of critical condition.]

I read it over and over again, even reciting it out loud, before blankly realizing.

In that accident, I was the sole survivor.

I felt a suffocating tightness in my chest. My hands started shaking uncontrollably, and my nose and eyes instantly stung with tears.

I swallowed with difficulty, randomly wiping away the sudden tears, wanting to know just one thing.

Who was the driver?

Why did no one ever mention this to me over the years?

The driver’s family did not come forward to pursue the matter after the accident. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have thought that I was the only person involved who was hurt in that crash.

I have a driver’s license, but in my memory, I haven’t touched the steering wheel much. Most of the time, I find driving bothersome and prefer to take a taxi.

Could that driver be someone from one of my past ride-hailing orders?

I sniffled, let out a long breath, and wiped away the tears that had fallen again at some point.

If I want to know, wouldn’t checking my ride-hailing orders for that day be enough?

The news time was very clear; I don’t need to worry about misremembering.

I opened the “Da Da” ride-hailing app and searched by date.

No corresponding orders recently.

How is that possible? I didn’t give up and searched using another phone number.

Still none.

Could it have been a street taxi hailed by hand?

Impossible. Ever since I was scammed by an unlicensed car on the first day of college, I’ve never taken that kind of taxi again.

Why are there no orders? Who exactly was the driver who died in the accident?

Would Guan Lan know?