SSC (BL) – Chapter 7

What can he do for me?

Xue Lin was very serious when he asked, and Zuo Qin could even see his poor self in the reflection of his eyes.

Zuo Qin felt that the raucous thumping in his heart had found an outlet, but he just licked his lips and said nothing, blinking his big eyes at Xue Lin. “Anything?”

Xue Lin obviously hasn’t expected him to ask. He froze for a moment then chuckled unconsciously, his words radiating up an indiscernible tolerance. “Hmm.”

Zuo Qin was like a child who had gotten a candy he was craving for and smiled with curved eyes. In the end, he just waved his hand and smiled, “No need. These are all things that I should do. Benefactor, you don’t have to do anything for me. I’m returning the favor ah.”

Xue Lin couldn’t say whether he was happy or lost in his heart at Zuo Qin’s last sentence. He nodded calmly then added, “You don’t need to call me Benefectaro. It sounds weird, just call me Xue Lin. You…”

“My name is Zuo Qin!” The little ghost interjected beamingly, somehow feeling closer to his benefactor.

“Well, Zuo Qin, do you remember your past? I mean before you died, your family and such.” Xue Lin looked at Zuo Qin’s somewhat confused look and rephrased his question.

Zuo Qin’s smile dimmed a bit when Xue Lin mentioned the matter before his death. The look on his face became tangled. It didn’t look sad, more like torn because he couldn’t remember. “I don’t remember too clearly. I just remember that I had a very strict father who taught me a lot about how to live in the world, but I don’t remember the others. It doesn’t matter. Isn’t it said that people die like a lamp? I’ve put it behind me now.”　

Xue Lin was uncertain if Zuo Qin had really put it behind him, but he didn’t probe any further as Zuo Qin looked like he was unwilling to talk about the matter. He just kept it in his heart.

Most of the time, Zuo Qin looked like a child, simple and cute, but he talked and acted in a gentlemanly manner, resembling a young son of a big family. Zuo Qin’s skeleton was found in the forest of Anhe Village, which meant that his residence shouldn’t be far from the village.

Xue Lin figured this out without mentioning it to Zuo Qin. As usual, after hunting in the mountains, he rented an ox cart and hauled his wild catches to the nearby towns and counties for sale. Zuo Qin was a child at heart and probably felt bored in the village, so every time they returned to town or the county, he was particularly excited to see anything unusual.

After Xue Lin handed over the ox cart of prey to the person in charge of the restaurant, he looked askance at Zuo Qin who was drooling in front of the joss sticks shop not far away, then lowered his voice and beckoned the waiter to come, giving him an ingot of silver from his pocket.

The waiter’s eyes lit up at the sight of the silver. He quickly accepted it and then asked humbly. “Master, what can I do for you?”

Xue Lin was trying to prevent being overheard by Zuo Qin, so it was almost like the sound of air whispered in the waiter’s ear, “May I trouble little brother to help me ask in this town if any household has lost a young male of about 18 or19 years old in the past few years, please.”

Although the waiter didn’t understand Xue Lin’s intentions, he also knew what to ask and what not to ask, so he took on the job without saying a word.

In the restaurant, there was a mix of people, and it was easier to get information. The waiter was a runner, and his sources of information were much wider than his.

Although he thought so, the actual operation was not simple, and asking about Zuo Qin’s identity was far less easy than he thought. Many times he had asked around the town and even the county, and either there was no lost person, or the ones who were lost were only children. 18 or 19 years old were also adults, and rarely were they missing.

Anyway, half a year has passed and Xue Lin has found nothing. In fact, he didn’t know why he was so obsessed with finding out Zuo Qin’s identity. After all, as Zuo Qin said, people die like a snuffed out lamp. The person in question didn’t care about it, so should he bother, but there was another voice inside Xue Lin that clamored: No.

If he could find out who Zuo Qin was, he wouldn’t be a lone ghost, nor would he have no words to write on his tombstone.

Although there was no progress in finding Zuo Qin’s identity, the two of them still lived together peacefully for most of the year. Zuo Qin was always particularly keen on hunting with Xue Lin in the mountains, but secretly used spells to help him every time he hunted.

Xue Lin hardly needed to exert any effort, and the prey would keep spontaneously crashing into his face. Zuo Qin thought that he was saving Xue Lin a lot of work, but Xue Lin thought that he was a hunter and should have been hunting, so Zuo Qin’s helping him was a complete deception.

Therefore, after a few times, Xue Lin forbade Zuo Qin from following him up the mountain to hunt. Zuo Qin was naturally reluctant. It would have been fine if Xue Lin was there. However, the cabin without Xue Lin wasn’t appealing to him at all.

Xue Lin could see that the ghost was unhappy. Zuo Qin wore his emotions on his face. His mouth was flat and his eyes weren’t as lively as they used to. He almost wrote “I am not happy” on his forehead. Xue Lin disliked seeing him like this, so after thinking about it for a few days, he went up to the mountains to hunt and carefully retrieve a brood of chicks from a nest.

Zuo Qin:!!!

The chicks looked like newborns. Their tender yellow feathers weren’t grown. Their walks were crooked, and their mouths chirped from time to time. Zuo Qin’s eyes lit up and his heart was about to sprout.

Xue Lin could see that Zuo Qin liked the little guys, and he was quite glad to see him happy again. This was the kind of Zuo Qin he was most familiar with, simple, cute and carefree.

Afterwards, Zuo Qin didn’t clamor to go hunting with him up the mountains anymore. Instead, he just squatted obediently at home to take care of his brood of chicks and followed them step by step to observe.

At first, the chicks weren’t used to it, so weak and sickly they hardly moved. They didn’t even eat the rice porridge that Zuo Qin cooked for them. When he was at a loss and anxious, he hurried up the mountain to seek help from Xue Lin.

Xue Lin was a big ol’ man, himself, and has been living on his own for a long time. He has never raised such tiny creatures before. He couldn’t make up his mind, so he had to go to the old people in the village who had raised chickens to learn from them.

Xue Lin has always been vicious and not easy to get along with in the impression of the villagers, so when those old men saw him approaching, they all thought he was there to rob their house…

However, Xue Lin, a rather rugged man, didn’t get angry facing the old men’s guarded gaze. He merely scratched his head, took out the nest of chirping chicks from his pocket, and asked in some embarrassment, “Elderlies, do you know how to raise chicks? I just picked these up from the mountains. I don’t know why they all won’t eat. They’ve been sickly all day long. Are they sick?”

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