Don’t Be a Kept Man

Chapter 106: In This Life, Hiding Our Own Light for Each Other

Yan Yu’s head felt like it was about to crack open, and he started to roll around on the floor from the pain.
Seeing him like this, Su Qing panicked even more at her helplessness in the situation.
But she quickly brought herself back together and began to push all dangerous and hard objects away from him.
After that, she stood still a bit away from him but still nearby with sweat dripping down her back from her haste, uncertain if she should be closer to him.

The system cried as it hit the clown: [ Wu wu wu wu wu wu wu why aren’t you leaving! I’m going to smack you to death, smack you to death! ]

Outside of Yan Yu’s inner mind, there was still Su Qing and Xun Chuan, so the clown in its heavily injured condition would never choose to leave.
It could only fight against the system, trying and wanting desperately to swallow up its power.
Yan Yu didn’t know how the battle was going, but following the time passing, slowly, he could only hear the system hiccupping and crying.

[ MALAWAHQALA do you not understand the human language huh! I’m going to electrocute you to death I’m going to electrocute you to death! You ugly thing even dare to bite me?! Wu wu wu wu I’m going to bite you —- Wu Hu! Wu Hu! Wu Hu! ]

[ Wu Wu Wu I told you to leave but you wouldn’t listen.
You forced my hand…..it’s too scary why did you die here……kick you away wu wu wu……]

The system one-sidedly beat the clown to death.

The last remaining bits of the clown’s broken soul was kicked out from Yan Yu’s body, and it looked so weak, like a wandering spirit who couldn’t even form the shape of a human.
After struggling a bit, a flash of light enveloped the soul and a murky black resentment pearl appeared in its place.

This was a soul pearl created only after a high level ghost has died.

Su Qing froze in shock for a moment before quickly reacting and turning on the light.
Then she moved forward to help Yan Yu up from the ground.
Seeing him so weak to the point of where his face looked translucent and his eyes wavering, she knew he had not recovered yet.
She slapped his face hard, 

“Yan Yu?! Yan Yu?!”

“Cough cough cough……I’m okay……” 

Yan Yu stuttered out as he caught his breath.
He pushed her away and held himself up from the ground, 

“Go, send those ghosts to reincarnate.
The door’s closing soon……”

Hearing this, Su Qing’s face drastically changed.
Taking a quick glance at the time, she realized it was already almost 12.
She quickly ran to her bedroom to find all the jars and bottles of the wandering souls she had collected.
Stuffing them into her bag, she rushed to get them to the ghost door for their reincarnation.
Only, before she left, she took a look at Xun Chuan and then to Yan Yu, hesitating, 

“He……”

Yan Yu shook his head with great difficulty, as even breathing was taking a toll on him, 

“Go……”

And then using the wall as support, he walked slowly, one step at a time towards Xun Chuan.
Seeing this, Su Qing pursed her lips before turning away and gunning for the ghost door.

Xun Chuan had been heavily injured during the fight, and he could barely uphold his human form.
Seeing that Yan Yu was alright, the corners of his mouth weakly tugged up.
When he recalled the current situation however, he quickly struggled to move backwards, 

“I’m not going for reincarnation……”

He shook his head with great difficulty, fear prominently displayed on his face, 

“I’m not going……Yan Yu……I’m not going……”

Yan Yu’s footsteps paused and, enduring the sharp piercing pain running through his body, he half knelt on the ground, leaning over to wrap Xun Chuan in his embrace,

“If you don’t want to go, then don’t go……”

“I, originally, had never thought of forcing you to go……”

Xun Chuan lifted his eyes and found that the corner of Yan Yu’s eyes were a bit red, a state he had never seen Yan Yu in before.
He was surprised and wanted to reach out to touch his face, but when he saw the corroded state of his body, he quickly retracted his hand.

Xun Chuan didn’t need a mirror to know that he must not be in the best state to look at and he covered his face, turning his head to the side, only revealing a pair of eyes that were dimmed and downtrodden, 

“Yan Yu…… you cannot reject me and leave me behind……”

Yan Yu didn’t say anything, and he leaned forward to kiss Xun Chuan on the forehead.
Hoisting him up into his arms, he slowly walked down the stairs.

Xun Chuan seemed to sense that Yan Yu’s emotional state wasn’t quite as stable as he outwardly seemed to be, and he said as he listened to that quiet but heavy heartbeat beside his ear, 

“I’ll be fine in a couple of days.”

Yan Yu still could not utter a word, as it felt like a clump of cotton was clogging up his throat.
He took a moment, indiscernible to Xun Chuan, to hide all his emotions; he was used to this, hiding everything he thought about in his heart, not letting others decipher a single meaning.

When ghosts receive a fatal injury, they would automatically enter into a state like hibernation.
Slowly, waiting for their bodies to recover, in a dark, wet and moldy corner. 

Yan Yu placed Xun Chuan softly on his bed, and seeing him not move at all, as if he was in a deep sleep, he reached over to turn off the lights, drenching the room into a sudden darkness.

Yan Yu leaned his back against the side of the bed, taking a seat right there on the floor.
He suddenly recalled something and opened his eyes, calling out silently in his mind for the system.

[ Wu wu wu……what……what are you calling me for…..hup…… ]

The system was still hiccupping from its sobs, and it appeared in its original form in front of Yan Yu.
A silent burning blue ball, floating up in mid air.
Because of its appearance, the room had brightened up, but its light wasn’t sharp or piercing to the eyes.

Yan Yu paused, 

“Thank you for saving me.”

The system wasn’t crying as strongly as it had before, but there were still some remnants of its sobs before, 

[ Not to save you…..
hup…… I was saving……saving myself……]

Yan Yu hesitated a bit before warmly asking, 

“…..Can you save him then? I can exchange for something.”

The ball of light stopped its sobbing and slowly flew higher.
It quietly swirled around Xun Chuan, before flying back to its spot in front of Yan Yu.
It swayed a few times, as if to shake its head: 

[ Life is irreplaceable.
There is no possible price.
Nothing that can be exchanged for it ]

Yan Yu asked, 

“What about a life for a life?”

The system still shook its head: 

[ Not possible.
]

Then it flew leisurely around the room in a circle.
It looked through the glass window, looking down at the homeless man sleeping in the alleyway and looking at the wandering spirits crowded in the alleyway, all who wanted their own chance at reincarnation, and then looking at some drunken teens in their rebellious phrase.
Muttering, 

[ Humans already have their most precious thing, why waste it and let it slip through their fingers with so much time.
]

Yan Yu looked out the window, taking in the same sights as the system and then closed his eyes.
A hatred born from the feeling of helplessness erupted in him, but to say what his hatred was directed towards, he wouldn’t be able to say.

Perhaps it was towards those humans who were clearly living but did not treasure their lives, or perhaps towards Xun Chuan for doing nothing wrong yet had died so painfully.
And maybe, even moreso, towards himself.

Seeing that his head was lowered and that he wasn’t talking with his fingers tightly clenched on the window curtains, veins even popping out from the force of his grip, the system covertly shifted back away from Yan Yu, 

[ Do you know why life is so precious…… ]

[ Because in many numerous situations, everyone has only one chance at life.
]

Treasure your life, that is a principle everyone understands, yet not many could really do so.
When humans pass their days in a haze, wandering ghosts desperately want to feel the sunlight.
When humans cry to the heavens for their unfairness, they don’t realize that living to some was a burning but unachievable desire.

The alleyway was crowded with ghosts, almost up to the thousands or even millions, all cramped into this tiny walkway.
The noises of their yells were overpowering as they all rushed towards the ghost door.
They didn’t care that their heads were cracking with blood as they pushed and shoved each other, trying desperately to get in, all for the sake of a life.
Just a life.

The system floated over to the top of the blankets, borrowing its own quiet, shimmering blue light to take a look at Xun Chuan’s face.

Yan Yu followed along, quietly kneeling down by the side of the bed.
He reached out to gently caress Xun Chuan but did not quite dare to touch him, keeping a layer of air between them.
In that moment, there was finally a calm tone, almost too faint to see, of a smile in his eyes.

The system re-entered back into his body:

[ Give those two resentment pearls for him to swallow, my dear host.
Please become self sufficient and self reliant soon ~ The galaxy’s strongest system is here at your service ]

Yan Yu paused and then remembered that when the ghost baby of that old fortune telling man was killed in the abandoned building, it had turned into a resentment pearl.
And just then when that clown’s soul dissipated into the air, it had also left behind a resentment pearl.

He didn’t know what those items were for, and he hadn’t paid too much attention to them.
Hearing the system, however, he quickly ran upstairs, picking up that resentment pearl left behind in Su Qing’s apartment and then flipped his own drawers to find the ghost baby’s resentment pearl that he had so casually tossed away.

Two pearls in total, one big, one small, both tainted black all the way through, and Yan Yu could faintly feel the enormous power bundled and frozen inside.
After a faint moment of contemplation, he fed them to Xun Chuan before pulling away the blankets, anxious to check on his situation.

Not long after he was fed the two pearls, a thick black cloud of resentment visibly started to float up around Xun Chuan’s body, wrapping him tightly within.
Yan Yu’s two fingers came together and swiped across his eye, but even after opening up the heavens’ eye, he couldn’t see anything.
Anxiety started to appear on his face, and he called out to the system a few times.
But he received no response back, and he could only quietly wait on the side.

As the clock hands tick tocked away, when they both pointed at 12, a sudden wave of gut wrenching cries rang out, sending a sharp and freezing cold deep to the hearts.
Yan Yu looked out the window and he could see numerous ghosts shedding tears, unwilling to leave the area.

The ghost door only opens for four hours, and there are too many who want to reincarnate.
Those who were weak, those who could not push and shove their way to the front have no chance at all to reincarnate.
They could only huddle in their spots, wailing, and their sounds were like crashing waves, echoing through the alleyway.

The residents who lived nearby may not be able to hear the noise, but for the next half a month, they would be affected by the level of resentment crowding around, and their mentality would be lowered, dreaming of nightmares night after night.

After the entire ordeal Yan Yu just experienced, his soul was very weak.
So when all these thousands of ghosts started crying, he could only feel a pain in his head as if it was being split apart.
Cold sweat dripped down his back and his consciousness began to fade away.
In the end, he couldn’t hold it anymore and his body swayed, falling onto the floor.

Su Qing barely made it just right before the ghost door closed.
She stuffed some goodies into the hands of the ghost in charge of the door to send the ghosts she had in her hand for reincarnation.
But afterwards, because the alleyway was still crowded by the lot of unsuccessful ghosts and she didn’t grab a lot of tools to ward them off, she had to find a spot to hide, not daring to step out until it was day.

The people on her mind the entire night were definitely Yan Yu and Xun Chuan.
So when she didn’t find them upstairs, she ran down to knock on their apartment door, 

“Yan Yu?! Yan Yu?! Are you here Yan Yu ?!”

Not long after, the door opened with a creak and before Su Qing could see who it was, the level of resentment inside the room scared almost half her life away and she reflexively backed away.

The one who opened the door was Xun Chuan, and he turned his head around to look at the person lying inside before saying to Su Qing, 

“Yan Yu’s asleep.”

Su Qing nodded her head, breathing a sigh of relief, 

“If he’s alright, that’s great.
Almost scared me to death.
How about you? How are you doing?”

After she said that, she subconsciously scanned over Xun Chuan.
Yet she was surprised to find that there was a bit of a change that happened to him since yesterday.

Xun Chuan’s original skin tone was pale white, pale to the point of a greenish hue with eyes as red as blood.
Yet now he was just pale white, and his eyes were even redder than before, so thick of a red that it was almost black.
With just a quick glance, he wouldn’t even look that different from a normal human.
Su Qing quietly sensed the surroundings.
She immediately grasped the feeling that Xun Chuan’s power of resentment was even higher than that of aggressive ghosts, and her face slightly changed.

Questioningly, she asked, 

“You……?”

Xun Chuan calmly replied, 

“I am fine.”

And then seeing that Yan Yu had flipped over and was now almost dangling over the side of the bed, about to fall, he turned away from her and walked back over to the bed.

Why ghosts are called ghosts, well, that’s because they are different from humans.
Spending a long time in dark and sinister places, their hearts will slowly fill with evil, and they will start wanting to kill humans, exploiting their anger.
The more evil they cause, the more evil they become and the more vicious they become.
And in the end, they could be out of control.
So to meet up with a high level ghost, it wasn’t quite a good thing to shu-shis.

Especially those like Xun Chuan, whose level seemed to be way higher than that of an aggressive ghost’s……

Su Qing peeked through the gap in the door, and she saw Xun Chuan lightly pushing Yan Yu back to the center of the bed before leaning over to steal a kiss.
The dark, shadowy gentleness on his face suddenly grew to a bright smile, and through the light sunlight peering between the gaps in the window and showering them both with a faint glow, there was a sense of serenity that could only be achieved by the passage of time.

For some reason, Su Qing began to mockingly laugh at herself before closing the door and headed back upstairs quietly.

How good……

To be quite honest, humans can turn evil, and especially so for ghosts.
There are times they could unknowingly turn into someone you feel like you never knew, even to the point where they wouldn’t even be able to recognize themselves.
But if there was someone they liked, and they always kept that love, they wouldn’t do things that couldn’t be reversed.

They were like two sharp blades, but were also each other’s sheaths.
In their interactions, in their relationship, they would be safe, hiding away their sharpness and thorns.

TL Tidbit:

And we are just about to conclude Yan Yu and Xun Chuan’s story! Just 2 more chapters left… Not quite too sure how I feel about it honestly.
Still, hopefully you have been enjoying their story so far, which has definitely been a bit different from the previous 3 volumes, especially in regards to the heavily emotional scenes.
It’s a different kind of volume, especially paired up right after volume 3 (and boy, had it been hard to translate volume 4 as I edited with Plum on Volume 3 T_T).

But in any case, just a few more details left to tell of our couple in this volume, and with that, coming up to the end of volume 4, we will be having a small break (giving Plum their 1 week off haha), and we will be back with Volume 5 on June 19th! I’ll follow up with some details then, but volume 5 will have a bit of normalcy back, not terribly heart wrenching agony that this couple certainly put me through…

In any case, may you all Galactic Judges have a great weekend, and stay safe! See you all back on Monday for the wrap up of Volume 4!