Ghost Bell

Ji Minghuan looked away from the words on the panel and sized up the dejected man before him once more. That tall silhouette overlapped infinitely with Ghost Bell, the murderous and gloomy figure from the television footage.

"You people aren't good enough. Send someone from Rainbow Wing to find me..."

Ji Minghuan had heard that criminal declaration on television. At the time, Ghost Bell had worn a Z Mask, his blood-red eye sockets glinting with cold ferocity. His voice, distorted mechanically into something hoarse and sinister, seemed to still echo in Ji Minghuan's ears.

And at this moment, many of the questions in Ji Minghuan's mind seemed to have been answered.

Why had Gu Wenyu's father not returned home for a full two years?

Why had the supercriminal "Ghost Bell," over the past two years, only harmed Espers who abused their abilities and destroyed priceless cultural relics, yet never laid a hand on ordinary people?

And most importantly:

—Why had Ghost Bell been so insistent on having the Esper Association send a member of Rainbow Wing to arrest him?

Now that he understood the identity beneath that violent madman's mask, the reasons behind all those questions became as clear as a sheet of white paper soaked in water:

Gu Zhuoan wanted to draw out the Rainbow Wing member who had killed his wife, and then... tear him to pieces with his own hands.

The protests and demonstrations against Rainbow Wing years ago had come to nothing. Gu Zhuoan had endured every humiliation, and in the end, he had seemingly chosen to compromise, accepting hundreds of thousands in compensation from the authorities. But in truth, he had never relinquished that obsession. It was like swallowing a ball of fire—if he did not spit it out, it would burn him alive.

That was why he had chosen to become an Esper criminal and had done everything possible to catch Rainbow Wing's attention.

The ironic part was that Gu Qiye's approach had gone in the exact opposite direction.

To find the Rainbow Wing member who had accidentally killed his mother, Gu Qiye had chosen to join the Esper Association and become a powerful Esper, so that the Association could recommend him for Rainbow Wing and he could openly seek out his enemy.

At that thought, the surprise in Ji Minghuan's eyes slowly faded.

Holding the wrist Gu Zhuoan had squeezed hard enough to leave bloody marks, he considered with great interest, They're clearly father and son, yet they made completely opposite choices for the same goal. They even ended up on opposing sides through a twist of fate, putting on masks and slaughtering each other like trapped beasts in an arena... So there was a reason my first Game Character was placed in this family. Does it want me to properly enjoy this Greek-tragedy-style family farce?

Oh no... I've already started unconsciously playing the role of Black Cocoon. Why have even my inner thoughts become this embarrassingly edgy? he thought again.

At that moment, Gu Qiye looked at the finger marks on Ji Minghuan's wrist. His face twitched slightly, and the chill on his already tense, expressionless face deepened.

He did not want to lose his temper in front of his younger brother and sister. So he took a deep breath, suppressed his anger, and said to Gu Zhuoan as calmly as possible:

"What are you doing?"

Yet the calmer his tone was, the more terrified Su Zimai felt. She had never heard Gu Qiye speak like this. Her brother always wore a smile, and his voice was always as gentle as he could make it. Even when he was angry, he would temporarily avoid others rather than let them see it.

Gu Zhuoan remained silent, sitting pale-faced in his chair.

For a moment, he could not find a reason for what he had just done. Perhaps two years spent living on the edge of death, surrounded by danger on all sides, had left his exhausted nerves overly sensitive. Had a mere pat on the shoulder from his own son truly triggered that kind of stress response?

But what had that strange feeling been just now... It was as if a snake had suddenly shot out of the jungle, crawled onto his shoulder, and stared at him with glowing dark-green eyes in the darkness, seeing through every corner of his heart.

"Old Man... I was just passing you the bowls and chopsticks." Ji Minghuan took a breath, then said unhurriedly, "Do your nerves really have to be that tense? Don't tell me you spent the last two years working as an undercover narcotics cop... In movies, undercover narcotics cops often can't go home for years either, right?"

But the strength of a Quasi-Calamity Grade Esper really is terrifying. If he hadn't pulled back in time, my wrist would probably have been torn off, he thought.

Seeing that Gu Zhuoan still did not respond, Ji Minghuan silently opened the System Panel, selected the system settings, and lowered "Pain Sensitivity" from 50% to 1%.

That way, even if he lost an arm or leg, it would only feel like the dull soreness of having his big toe stepped on.

"I'm sorry, Wen Yu, I..." Gu Zhuoan looked at the bowls and chopsticks scattered across the table, stopping mid-sentence.

Without a word, Gu Qiye walked toward Ji Minghuan, intending to inspect his injured wrist.

Ji Minghuan clicked his tongue. Feeling slightly guilty and afraid that this good older brother might notice something, he ignored him. Saying, "It's nothing," he went to the Living Room to look for a bandage.

Gu Qiye was silent for a while. Then he turned to Gu Zhuoan and said quietly, "Don't bring those disgusting habits of yours home... You disappeared for two years without a word, and this is how you act the moment you come back? How do you expect us to trust you?"

His jaw tightened as his voice slowly dropped. "I thought you had changed... But you're still the same as before. You haven't changed since Mom died. Your mind is full of nothing but people who have already left. You never once considered how much your own children were suffering."

"Have you ever thought that your children were just as devastated as you by Mom's death? But to make you feel a little better, every one of us hid our feelings. Yet you turned a blind eye and treated us all like air."

"Do you know how many times Wheat cried after you left without saying a word? How many times she told me she wanted Dad to come back?"

At that point, Gu Qiye laughed in extreme anger, the corners of his lips twisting into a mocking curve.

"I shouldn't have told her you would come back. I should have told her this: someone like you should spend the rest of your life hugging a dead person's coffin. After all, your living family doesn't matter to you... Only your dead family matters, doesn't it?"

Gu Qiye still had countless words he had not spoken, and could not speak.

More than anyone, he understood that the Rainbow Wing incident had dealt his Old Man such a crushing blow that he had never recovered.

To help his father investigate who had killed their mother, and to give himself an answer, Gu Qiye had spent these years balancing school with caring for his younger brother and sister. At night, he had to change into his Battle Suit and report to the Association, carrying out one secret mission after another, brushing past death countless times, and dealing with all kinds of mentally disturbed criminals under extreme pressure.

He had practically gambled his life to earn his current status and reputation within the Esper Association.

But what he understood even more clearly was that falling into permanent despair over their mother's death would be unfair to the children who had survived. So, for the sake of his younger brother and sister's healthy upbringing, he had hidden every bit of pain in his heart over the years and kept a smile on his face at all times.

But after doing so much, after hiding so much inside, he had come close to being crushed countless times...

And what had this useless father been doing?

No, Gu Qiye had never expected his father to do anything from the beginning.

He only hoped his father could move on from their mother's death and face the other children in the family.

He hoped his father could understand that he was not the only one saddened by Mom's sudden death. Every child had seen how defeated he looked, and though they were hurting too, they had still forced smiles for him, patted him on the shoulder, and tried to make him feel better.

But this coward had run away, and he had run for two whole years.

Gu Qiye had originally thought that after two years apart, Gu Zhuoan should have changed. After all... those same two years had turned Gu Qiye from a powerless child into Blue Arc, Li Jing City's most prominent Esper. His father had likely turned over a new leaf as well.

No one stayed in the same place forever.

But Gu Qiye, who had held such hopes, was quickly disappointed—disappointed to the extreme. He even felt sickened by himself for having expected anything at all.

Right before his eyes, the father he had not seen in two years had attacked his own child for no reason.

How was that... any different from being trash?

Yet Gu Zhuoan kept his head lowered, standing there like a stone statue.

No matter how Gu Qiye vented his anger at him, he remained completely motionless. But the more he did so, the more complicated Gu Qiye's expression became. It was like punching a marshmallow—powerless and infuriating, every accusation falling flat.

After a long while, his father suddenly spoke. "Then have you... already forgotten your mother?"

Gu Qiye froze. The next instant, veins bulged at his temples, and he nearly growled, his voice trembling uncontrollably. "Shut up... What do you know about how much I've done?!"

Su Zimai remained silent from beginning to end. With her eyes lowered, she held her chopsticks without saying a word.

Ji Minghuan stood alone in the Living Room. He took a bandage from a drawer in the tea cabinet and symbolically stuck it over his wrist.

Listening to the voices from the kitchen, he glanced sideways at the deadlocked father and son and sighed inwardly, What kind of family melodrama is this... Come to think of it, you two really are something. Outside, you put on masks and fight each other to the death. At home, you take them off and still argue. In a sense, like father, like son.

In truth, he also knew why Gu Qiye was acting so unusually today.

Gu Qiye's emotions were so unstable because both of his triggers had been hit squarely.

First, an uninvited guest named Black Cocoon had played him like a fiddle the night before. Black Cocoon had even told him that he knew his identity, which meant he could harm his family at any time. Since Gu Qiye valued his family so deeply, his heart must have been shaken to the utmost.

The other trigger was his father hurting his younger brother right in front of him, then saying something like, "Have you already forgotten your mother?" Gu Qiye had spent recent years risking his life to work his way up through the Association, all for a chance to join Rainbow Wing and uncover the truth behind his mother's death.

Yet all those unspoken efforts had been casually dismissed by a single sentence from his father. Forgotten? How could he possibly forget?

Although he seemed to be the spark that had set everything off, Ji Minghuan did not think this was his fault.

Because sooner or later, Gu Qiye would definitely learn of Gu Zhuoan's other identity. He would learn that Gu Zhuoan was Ghost Bell, the supercriminal he had fought to the death twice, and that Gu Zhuoan, like him, had been "striving" to uncover the truth behind their mother's death.

When that time came... the Defense Line Gu Qiye had built in his heart over so many years would probably collapse completely in an instant, shattering on the ground beyond repair.

Ji Minghuan was merely giving things a small push for his own benefit, making this inevitable event happen sooner. The fire was destined to burn; he was only making it burn faster, not setting it in the first place.

"Are you two done arguing?" Su Zimai suddenly spoke.

Staring at the chopsticks in her bowl, she asked softly, "Didn't you say... we were going to have a nice meal?"

Gu Qiye paused. The anger flooding his head gradually subsided, his Adam's apple bobbing.

Gu Zhuoan still said nothing, standing quietly there like a statue.

Ji Minghuan turned to look. Su Zimai had her head lowered, her eyes hidden behind her bangs.

Su Zimai continued, "I'm going to stay at a classmate's house for the rest of Summer Vacation. I'm leaving tonight. I hope none of you come bother me." With that, she put down her chopsticks, rose from the dining table, hurried into the Living Room, slung her backpack over one shoulder, and left without looking back.

Her hurried Footsteps faded away. Then the sharp sound of the door slamming shut pierced through the entryway and reached the Living Room.

After that came Dead Silence. Not a sound remained in the house, while the cicadas outside shrieked deafeningly.

After a long silence, Gu Qiye took a deep breath.

He leaned against the disinfection cabinet, bracing his right hand on the edge of the sink, and said to Gu Zhuoan, "I cleaned up your room in advance. I don't want to see you right now."

Gu Zhuoan nodded in response. Looking at the dusk beyond the window, he said quietly, "Wheat, she..."

"You don't need to worry about her," Gu Qiye said calmly. "You haven't cared about her for two years anyway."

Ji Minghuan immediately jumped in with a suggestion. "Then I'll go find Little Sister."

Clearly, he did not enjoy this bitter, heavy family atmosphere. As an outsider in spirit, it was better for him to avoid it. Otherwise, some veteran actor's soul might possess him at any moment, and he would end up wiping away tears as he joined this twisted father-son pair in their family melodrama.

Gu Qiye raised his head and looked at him. "But you haven't eaten yet."

"No need... Who could still eat after all this? I've lost my appetite. And didn't she say she didn't want you guys bothering her? If anyone goes to find her, it should definitely be me."

Having said that, Ji Minghuan—the instigator of it all—walked straight out without looking back.

The instant he shut the door behind him, he pulled out his phone from the pocket of his school uniform jacket. As he used an anonymous app he had casually put together to compose a message, he extended the Restraint Band and used Restraint Belt Senses to probe into the dusk, searching for the direction Su Zimai had taken.

A short while later, Ji Minghuan finally finished editing his text, entered the recipient's phone number, and tapped send.

At that moment, he also used the hearing of Restraint Belt Senses to distinguish Su Zimai's Footsteps. He slipped both hands into his school uniform pockets and followed the sound.

His figure gradually melted into the dusk.

At the same time, Gu Qiye sat alone in the kitchen, holding his forehead. With his eyes lowered, he muttered, "I shouldn't have lost my temper in front of Wheat..."

As he was thinking, his phone suddenly chimed in his pocket. It was the notification sound for a new message.

He had initially wanted to turn it off immediately, but considering that it might be a message from Su Zimai or Gu Wenyu, he picked up his phone and glanced at it anyway.

It was a text message. The sender's name and number were hidden, like a common prank or spam message.

But the content made Gu Qiye freeze for a second.

Anonymous User: So? Do you believe me now? Have you begun to feel even the slightest... suspicion toward your father?

Gu Qiye's face twitched slightly.

After hesitating for a while, his mind in chaos, he opened the message thread.

Though he already had an answer in his heart, he still sent a message to confirm it.

Gu Qiye: Who are you?

Black Cocoon: I see... Then you should recognize me better if I use this name to speak with you.

Requesting Moon Tickets, requesting Moon Tickets!