Ye Qing paused for a moment. "It led the way and brought me to you. I saw something was wrong over there, so I stopped it and found a place to set things up before letting it go save you. Afterward, I contacted Perfected Person Xuanqing to have that area cleared out. But the ghost got away."
The urge to cry had passed. I raised my head and looked at the mark on the sofa opposite me.
"You know what I can do. I wasn't suited to getting close to you on a whim back then." Ye Qing's words sounded like an explanation. "Children are a handful. Especially you, since it must have been your first time encountering something like that."
I stayed silent.
"I don't know what happened to you after that. What are you planning to do now?" Ye Qing changed the subject.
I felt the abruptness of it, but aside from this, Ye Qing and I had nothing else to talk about.
Only then did I remember that Ye Qing was more than ten years older than me. He hadn't spent much time with Xiaobai, either. He couldn't reminisce with me about my childhood and my pet. That wasn't why I'd come to see him.
I wasn't going to say any more about myself, and Ye Qing had no intention of asking.
Still, I was now sure that Ye Qing hadn't "sought me out" by chance. My being put in charge of the demolition of Workers and Peasants Sixth Village hadn't been a coincidence, either. I didn't know how much Ye Qing had done behind the scenes, but I was sure he'd done something.
Someone like Ye Qing wouldn't stand by and do nothing while a child was targeted by a vengeful ghost and set up to