Chapter 43: I Am the Living Ren Yunwen

"Yes, you can."

"I... can?" I repeated those words, which were laced with doubt, a hint of sarcasm, and a complex tangle of various emotions.

Liu Sui must have been joking. Even he couldn't save Qiu Xiaoli, yet now he was claiming I could? If this wasn't sarcasm, what was?

Lowering his head, Liu Sui continued his nonsense, "Do you think I'm joking? I said you can, so you can. Since you were able to find her, it means you share a fated bond destined by the heavens. Therefore, only you can do it."

Put that way, I found myself starting to believe him. The concept of fate was truly wondrous. The world was so vast, yet the people I had seen in my lifetime were so few, and those I could actually get to know amounted to less than one in ten thousand. To know someone and become friends with them was even rarer.

And within all this lay the workings of fate.

Pulling myself together, I quickly asked Liu Sui, "What specifically do I need to do?"

Liu Sui explained, "She is a soul now, and a soul is essentially a ghost. Ordinarily, since you don't possess Yin-Yang eyes, you wouldn't be able to see her. But now, you can see her, which proves that you share a bond with her. This is a sign of sorts, meant for you to use this bond to help her."

"And then?"

Liu Sui looked at me. "Then you can go ask Ren Yunwen for help. As long as Ren Yunwen helps you, you can successfully recall her soul."

Doubt struck me once more. "Wasn't Ren Yunwen's soul taken by you?"

Liu Sui shook his head. "Who said anything about looking for Ren Yunwen's soul?"

"Then what should I look for?"

"Find a living Ren Yunwen." With that, Liu Sui raised his head to look at me, then leaned in close and whispered in my ear. When he finished speaking, I was too shocked to utter a word.

It took a long while after Liu Sui finished before I regained my composure. "I understand. I will definitely do as you say tonight. But aren't you going? What if it fails?"

Liu Sui shook his head. "I won't be going. If it fails, there's nothing I can do either. I can capture his soul, but since she herself refuses to return to her body, I have no way of summoning her back."

I nodded, indicating I understood. Then I fell into deep thought, and the more I thought about it, the more something felt amiss.

"You said earlier that being able to see her means having a bond with her?"

Liu Sui nodded.

That made me even more puzzled and bewildered. Being able to see her? What about the office worker, the bus driver, and the female shopkeeper from earlier? Weren't they all able to see Qiu Xiaoli's soul?

Looking at Liu Sui in startled suspicion, I said, "You must be joking. I'm not the only one who can see her. By your logic, do those people share a bond with Qiu Xiaoli as well?"

Liu Sui frowned. "That's right. Anyone who manages to encounter Qiu Xiaoli's soul and see her without possessing Yin-Yang eyes shares a bond with her. To recall Qiu Xiaoli's soul, all these people who can see her are crucial figures."

Wait. Hearing Liu Sui put it this way, I began to think it might actually be possible. Just imagine: the bus driver, the office worker on the bus, and the shopkeeper.

On the surface, these people seemed to have no connection to one another. But upon closer reflection, if, as Liu Sui claimed, Qiu Xiaoli's soul could only be recalled if these people were indispensable, then they could be forcibly linked together.

Could it be that when Qiu Xiaoli's soul boarded the bus, there had to be a passerby on board? And the bus required a driver. After getting off, Qiu Xiaoli entered the small shop, where there was bound to be a female shopkeeper.

Although they had no prior connection, could it be imagined that they had once jointly witnessed an event concerning Qiu Xiaoli? And this jointly witnessed event was the binding knot connecting these three individuals to Qiu Xiaoli.

Lost in thought, the afternoon gradually melted away. Dragging my exhausted body out of the campus, I felt a slight surge of excitement. Following the bus route from the previous night, I arrived at the small shop ahead of time. Inside, the shopkeeper sat behind the counter, leisurely playing with her phone.

Upon seeing me, her expression turned ugly. "You—don't come near me."

Puzzled, I asked, "What's wrong?"

With a deeply strange look on her face, the shopkeeper said, "Last night..."

I shook my head at her, offering no explanation. Wasn't it just that I had spoken with Qiu Xiaoli's soul last night? Walking up to the counter, I took out a photograph and held it out right in front of her.

The shopkeeper had been on the verge of driving me away, but the moment she laid eyes on the photo, her voice cut off instantly, and her expression froze. Pointing at the picture, I asked, "Do you know this girl?"

The girl in the photograph was indeed Qiu Xiaoli, though she was alive in the picture. Upon seeing Qiu Xiaoli, the shopkeeper's expression changed at once, and I could read a strange emotion written across her face.

Before long, the shopkeeper's gaze grew misty as she murmured, "I know her. I know her."

In truth, Qiu Xiaoli had been appearing at this small shop as early as half a year ago. Accompanying Qiu Xiaoli on her visits here was always one other person—Ren Yunwen.

The reason the two of them had caught the shopkeeper's attention was that every time they appeared at the shop, they would come inside to buy a single lollipop. Though the lollipop was humble and cheap, the shopkeeper could see genuine contentment written across their faces.

Later on, the shopkeeper learned from Qiu Xiaoli and Ren Yunwen that the doorstep of this very shop was the exact spot where they had gone on their very first date. This small shop and the lollipops within it had witnessed the love between Qiu Xiaoli and Ren Yunwen.

After listening to the shopkeeper's account, my body alternated between waves of heat and cold. So that was how it was. Qiu Xiaoli's soul came to this small shop because it was the place of her first date with Ren Yunwen. And the shopkeeper could see Qiu Xiaoli because she was a witness to the love shared by Qiu Xiaoli and Ren Yunwen.

So all of these events and all of these people were interconnected. Looking at the shopkeeper, I initially wanted to tell her that the girl in the white dress was actually Qiu Xiaoli, but ultimately, I held my tongue.

Leaving the shop, I walked out onto the street, my mind turning to the other two people: the middle-aged office worker and the bus driver.

By that reasoning, could those two also be connected to the romance between Qiu Xiaoli and Ren Yunwen? Or perhaps, on the bus, had they also witnessed the love story between the two of them?

In truth, the word "love" was difficult for a man to voice aloud; it felt far too sentimental. Women, however, held that word in immense importance. Take Qiu Xiaoli, for instance. To be honest, I was touched to the point of almost wanting to cry. How could there be a woman so stubbornly devoted?

Leaving the shop, I boarded the bus and sought out the bus driver. My guess proved correct: this driver was indeed a witness to the love between Qiu Xiaoli and Ren Yunwen. Because both of them were impoverished students, they took the bus every single day.

Sometimes, when it grew very late, they would be the only two passengers on the bus, and they would occasionally strike up a conversation with the driver.

In the end, the bus driver agreed to my request to get off together at the shop's doorstep that night.

That left only the office worker. I couldn't track her down at the moment, but she was bound to take the bus that evening, and by then, it wouldn't be too late to tell her everything.

Night fell swiftly. I gathered the items Liu Sui had instructed me to prepare, organizing them one by one. I also changed into a new outfit, and after inspecting myself in the mirror, I felt satisfied.

What I wore was the clothing of the deceased Ren Yunwen.

I was that living Ren Yunwen.