To Raise a Soul 16

Yin Yan’s eyes fell to Yu Zhen’s lips, and his hands followed his gaze, gently slipping the pill between its target.

As it passed through Yu Zhen’s lips, the dark green pill began to transform. A light medicinal fragrance and plant-like taste spread through his mouth. He shut his mouth reflexively, inadvertently catching Yin Yan’s fingers between his lips.

They both paused before raising their eyes to meet the other’s gaze.

Ba-dump. Ba-dump. Ba-dump.

Yu Zhen heard heartbeats pounding in his ears, but it was hard to determine who they belonged to. Yu Zhen jumped back and pressed his lips tightly together, speechlessly staring at Yin Yan with wide eyes.

Yin Yan pulled back his hand, but his expression remained calm as if nothing had happened. He rearranged his sleeves, seeming to be in a leisure mood, and leaned on the back of the sofa. “Don’t worry, it’s the lowest level heart nourishing pill, which can calm the heart and focus the mind.”

The sound of the heartbeats faded quickly as if what had happened was nothing but an imagined moment.

Yu Zhen raised his hand to his chest and found no signs of his heart jumping and skipping madly. Uncertain, he left his hand there for a moment. His tense nerves were melted away by the heart nourishing pill.

“Heart nourishing pill?” He removed his hand and moved a little closer to Yin Yan. Gaze on Yin Yan’s hand, Yu Zhen asked, “Where did you take it out from? Is it magic?”

Yin Yan raised his hand again, and Yu Zhen reflexively moved backward. Realizing his action, he froze in embarrassment. He carefully glanced up at Yin Yan’s expressionless face. Then, he coughed to one side and silently moved back to his previous spot.

“So, I-I was just a bit surprised. Right, I was surprised. I wasn’t trying to hide from you, really.”

With the obvious guilt in his words, he had practically put up a signboard saying he was hiding.

Yin Yan waited for Yu Zhen to draw closer again, then flicked his forehead. Once done, Yin Yan spread open his fingers and turned his palm to face the ground. He replied, “The heart nourishing pill was from my mustard seed space¹. My mustard seed space lies within my sea of consciousness*, and the keys to the space are the rings on our hands.”

*识海, The vast knowledge in one’s mind/soul.

Stunned by the head flick, as if he were a child being admonished by an adult, Yu Zhen stared blankly and digested the words slowly.

“The rings on our hands? Ours?”

He held out his hand with the ring. He wasn’t sure if he imagined the sensation. However, a gentle, pulsing heat seemed to emanate from his ring.

“Your fate and mine are intertwined, and we are both fragments of our souls. To access my sea of consciousness again, we can only use the token of our contract.”

Yin Yan held his hand, and his palm became hot. He appeared to circulate power. “You’ve dealt with ghosts twice, and the accumulated power is now enough to open my sea of consciousness, but the mustard seed space is different. With your soul’s current strength, you won’t be able to open the space easily. So for now, the only way is to use this method.”

The slightly hot sensation slowly disappeared. In its place was a strange pull on his heart.

Yin Yan removed his hands, and with a ‘poof’ sound, a white, palm-sized, furry animal appeared on top of Yu Zhen’s palm.

Yu Zhen’s eyes widened to the size of saucers, and he stretched opened his fingers.

“This is the spirit of the mustard seed space. If I’m not by your side, you can bring your requests to it.”

After Yin Yan explained, his fingers gently tapped on the head of the curled-up animal, and then he leaned back onto the sofa.

The originally fluffy, ball-like animal began to move – its tiny claws scratching against Yu Zhen’s palms. Stretching, it unfolded its body and stood up. Looking up at Yu Zhen, it opened its mouth and said, “Meow.”

Yu Zhen released the breath he held. He looked at the unfurled white kitten and asked, “A cat?” Is it a small kitten? The tiniest of small kittens?

“It has transformed into the appearance of a house cat, but its true form is a pagoda tower. It’s known as Xu Wu.”

Xu Wu.

Yu Zhen contemplated the oppressive name in silence and looked at the cute, white kitten within his hand. He couldn’t call out such a name in good conscience. Unable to suppress his love for the adorable creature, he gently stroked the kitten’s head and looked at its black² eyes. With a lowered voice, he said, “I’ll call you Xiao Wu. Is that all right?”

With the decline of his owner’s strength, the appearance of Xu Wu had regressed to its cutest form. As it listened to Yu Zhen speak, it tilted its head and rubbed against his palm. It sniffed at Yu Zhen’s scent, sat down meekly, and swished its tail. “Meow~”

“In that case, I’ll take it as you’ve agreed.”

Yu Zhen showed a rare, very happy smile. As he moved to hold Xu Wu in his embrace, a knock came from the door. The weight on his hand disappeared, his ring warmed up, and the little kitten vanished.

Yin Yan grasped his empty hand and gently squeezed it, causing Yu Zhen to suppress the little yelp he almost let out. In the door’s direction, Yin Yan said, “Come in.”

The advantages of having a good network could be seen as the business was handled easily. In less than half an hour, Yin Yan transformed from a poor soul to an ultra-rich one.

After confirming the bank transfer, he led Yu Zhen out of the jewelry store under a respectful send-off from the head of the jewelry store. They immediately went to the menswear section on the fourth floor and chose a shop with a simple style.

“You want to buy clothes?”

Yu Zhen forcefully stabilized his voice. He hypnotized himself into unseeing the terrifying price tags and asked the question ‘calmly.’

“En.”

Yin Yan nodded and swept his gaze over the shelves. He pointed to a white sweater and told the shop assistant who stood a short distance away, “This one. In his size. Thank you.”

“Wait a moment.” The shop assistant immediately stepped forward to fulfill the request and did not brazenly look at Yu Zhen, thus not noticing Yu Zhen’s widened eyes.

As if Yin Yan had eyes on the back of his head, he turned around and used a meaningful look to stop Yu Zhen’s words of refusal. “All of your clothes were buried under the ruins. New ones are needed.”

“But you don’t need to buy this…”

“It’s needed,” Yin Yan interrupted him. He pointed to a plain colored shirt and signaled for the shop assistant to find it in the right size. Then he walked to Yu Zhen’s side and said in a low voice, “The Yin Family’s business in B City is very big. Right now, I am Yin Yan, and you are Yin Yan’s partner. What we wear is not simply clothing, but the reputation of the Yin Family.”

“…”

Yu Zhen recalled that Qiu Feiqian presented a gift worth tens of thousands at their first meeting. He swallowed down his refusal. When the shop assistant returned, he voluntarily reached for the clothes and took them into the dressing room.

Shirt, sweater, cashmere coat, trousers, shoes, belt… One by one, his old clothes were removed, and well-fitting ones replaced them. Yu Zhen was like a dust-covered pearl being washed clean, finally exposing his original brilliance.

Without the old-fashioned, cotton-padded clothes hiding him, his figure became clear.

His body was somewhere between that of a teenager and a young adult, but his proportions were good. Long limbs, beautiful neck and shoulder lines, a beautiful, curved neck… All the details that had been covered by those old clothes were revealed. When he turned slightly sideways, the line from his lower jaw to his shoulder was perfect; perfect to the point that it made people want to hug him.

But Yin Yan took a step back. It was a big step.

Yu Zhen, who happened to turn his head and witness that scene: “…”

He touched his neck uneasily and stopped looking at the mirror.

Without the protection of his jacket’s upright collar, his half-exposed neck felt a little chilly. He felt an itch to pull up the shirt collar.

“Is it strange?” He looked at Yin Yan and asked in a low voice. Reaching for the sleeve of his coat, Yu Zhen pulled at its cuff.

Yin Yan returned to his senses. Although no one had noticed, his soul had actually escaped for a moment.³

Instead of answering Yu Zhen’s question, he looked at the quiet shop assistant and said, “We’ll take all of these. And also, bring over a scarf. A soft one.”

The shop assistant nodded and turned to pick out a scarf. Yu Zhen couldn’t help approaching Yin Yan, but Yin Yan took another step back.

“… Do I have germs?” Yu Zhen stopped and asked numbly.

Yin Yan moved his sight from Yu Zhen’s neck to his face, then to the top of his head, and answered, “Just needs a little more.”

Yu Zhen was silent. It was a quiet sign of sullen anger.

The shop assistant returned with a tan-colored scarf made from wool. It was very soft and thick.

Yin Yan took the scarf. Finally willing to get close, he wrapped the scarf around Yu Zhen and only stopped when it covered his neck and most of his face. He patted Yu Zhen’s head gently, then followed the sales assistant to settle the bills.

An itchy feeling rose in his heart briefly, but Yu Zhen didn’t take note of it. His attention was focused on the scarf that smothered him as he tried to rescue his nose from the scarf with a flurry of movements.

When he breathed fresh air again, the man who angered him and committed the evil deed had already run away. The feeling of itchiness in his heart had also disappeared.

“He keeps saying things that people can’t understand…”

Yu Zhen furrowed his eyebrows and muttered to himself quietly. When he realized that he was grumbling, he touched the soft scarf on his neck and bowed his head. He buried his face under the scarf again.

After buying clothes, Yin Yan kept a polite two steps away from Yu Zhen, and led him to a high-end barber shop one floor down.

“Trim the hair around his missing fringe.”

Yin Yan spoke to the hairdresser and took a seat on the sofa. He picked up a magazine and flipped through it.

Yu Zhen looked at Yin Yan’s face. It was calm, almost to the point of showing indifference. With a sullen expression, he sat down on a chair. In a hotheaded moment, he said to the hairdresser, “Shave it all off.”

“Only Buddhists need to shave their heads,” Yin Yan remarked without looking up from the magazine. He calmly continued, “Our Yin family doesn’t like bald heads. I don’t like bald heads either.”

“…”

I want it shaved even more now! What should I do?!

Yu Zhen looked at the hairdresser who had a blank expression. He suppressed his rising willfulness and said, “Then… give me a buzz cut. And you can style it as you wish.”

The hairdresser was silent. He looked back and forth at the two men, and decisively deleted the words “a buzz cut” from his mind since it insulted his aesthetics and skill, and selectively listened to the five words “style it as you wish.”

With a reserved smile, he observed Yu Zhen’s face and his eyes lit up. He had an idea.

The hairdresser became tyrannous once he started working. After two hours of trimming, blowing, and straightening, Yu Zhen was brought to stand up from his seat.

The person in the mirror had a full head of black hair. There were no messy curls or random colors. His hair looked fresher and fluffier than before, and it looked good enough to touch and stroke.

His bangs were completely changed and showed his forehead. His hair was shorter, highlighting his facial features, especially his eyebrows and eyes.

In short, it was very good looking. It was eye-catchingly attractive but didn’t look deliberate. It appeared very natural.

“Thank you for your hard work.”

Yin Yan had put down the magazine at some unknown time and stood behind him. He raised a hand to block his view of the new hairstyle. Then he took out the scarf from earlier and once again wrapped up Yu Zhen’s head, hiding the beautiful features which had been exposed.

Yu Zhen, whose sight was completely blocked by the scarf: “…”

Is my face so unsightly? His heart had a tickling feeling again. Probably because I want to smack someone.