NANSO Chapter 24

TL: Hua

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Approaching midnight, Shen Ci quietly returned to the hotel.

He paused slightly outside the suite, swiped the card, and opened the door. The lights were off, and the room was pitch black, save for a small, motion-activated nightlight near the foot of the bed. As Shen Ci walked past, it emitted a dim, yellowish glow.

The main bedroom’s large bed showed the outline of a human form, and faint breathing could be heard. Shen Ci sat down by the bed. Xie Yu was sleeping soundly, half his face buried in the covers, his brows and eyes appearing calm and gentle.

Shen Ci watched quietly for a moment, about to get up and leave, when his gaze fell on Xie Yu’s hand and he suddenly paused.

The wound was not bandaged, not medicated, and completely untreated. In fact, because it had been exposed to water, its edges were swollen and white, and dried blood stained the wound reddish-black, a clear sign of impending inflammation and pus.

Shen Ci reached out and took Xie Yu’s wrist.

He gently turned it over, wanting to examine the wound closely. However, having just come from outside, his fingertips were cold. Xie Yu jolted from the cold, waking up from his sleep. As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw Shen Ci holding his hand, his expression cold and severe, looking particularly displeased.

Xie Yu immediately became wide awake: “System? System!”

The midnight plot twist was here!

When Xie Yu slept, the system also shut down, so its reaction was half a beat slow. In that half-beat, Shen Ci had already turned on the light and sat down, holding Xie Yu’s hand.

He lowered his gaze to the wound, his tone very cold: “I told the hotel to provide a first-aid kit. Why didn’t you treat it?”

Xie Yu: “?”

He was stunned, remembering that an employee had indeed tidied the room earlier, changed the duvet cover and towels, and left some things, but Xie Yu had been too sleepy to notice.

The sensation of Shen Ci holding his hand was very strange. Xie Yu curled his fingers: “Uh, it’s just a small scratch. It’s fine if I don’t treat it, right?”

During his high school years as a delinquent, he had sustained many injuries, big and small, each more serious than this. It was just a scratch from a button; there was no need for medicine.

Shen Ci: “Is that so?”

He took the first-aid kit from the table, grabbed a bottle of liquid, gripped Xie Yu’s wrist, and poured it down without explanation.

Xie Yu was alarmed: “System, where are you? Is the plot pain-shielding ready…”

Before he could finish, the liquid slid down between his fingers. The wound felt cool, but it didn’t hurt. Shen Ci used a cotton swab to wipe away the blood, applied medicine, then took gauze, wrapped it around his palm, and tied a knot.

His expression was cold, but his movements were very gentle, his fingers nimble and precise, even the knot-tying was pleasing to the eye.

Once done, Shen Ci stood up and looked down at Xie Yu: “Uncle Xie asked me to look after you. It would be troublesome if something happened to you while you’re under my care.”

Xie Yu was utterly bewildered: “Uh, okay.”

His hair was messy, and he wasn’t angry about being woken up from sleep, his expression dazed and innocent, like a confused big cat.

While he was offline, the system finally arrived belatedly.

“I’m here, I’m here! Pain-shielding system ready, where’s the plot… Gah?”

Xie Yu’s hand was neatly wrapped in gauze, and there was a faint scent of alcohol and medicine in the air.

It looked at its host in confusion: “Is this the plot?”

Xie Yu said expressionlessly: “Nothing to do with you now. Go play.”

“Ahhhhh, how can there be nothing!” the system shrieked, “If he doesn’t act, what about our mental hospital plot tomorrow?!”

According to the script, tomorrow they were supposed to change maps and start the mental hospital arc. But now, both protagonists, every single one, were offline. How was it supposed to go play?

The system was scared awake, but Xie Yu was still dead tired. He said, “Let’s sleep first, we’ll talk about it tomorrow.”

Xie Yu was carefree by nature; he didn’t mind Shen Ci’s late-night visit. Once Shen Ci left, he pulled the covers over his head and quickly fell back asleep. When he woke up the next day, it was almost noon.

He shuffled into his slippers, got out of bed, and tentatively pulled open the room door. The hotel corridor was empty, with no staff or security guards.

Xie Yu thought to himself, “Strange, Shen Ci didn’t put me under house arrest?”

According to his assumptions, out of respect for Xie Yuanhai, Shen Ci wouldn’t immediately act against him, and he also shouldn’t allow him to move around freely.

He tentatively took a step out; the corridor was empty. He drifted to the elevator, still empty. He pressed the down button for the elevator, and no one stopped him. He swaggered out of the hotel… still no one.

Shen Ci seemed to have completely forgotten about him.

Xie Yu sighed, raised his hand to hail a taxi: “Driver, to Qingshan Psychiatric Hospital.”

If the mountain won’t come to him, he must go to the mountain. As long as he appeared at the mental hospital today, half of the plot would be complete.

Out of his sight, in the hotel lobby, someone silently drafted a text message and sent it.

Xie Yu got into the car and called Xu Qingshan, subtly expressing his desire to visit. They hadn’t seen each other in over five years since Xie Yu went abroad. Xu Qingshan readily agreed, and in less than half an hour, Xie Yu was sitting in Xu Qingshan’s office.

Xu Qingshan had been extremely busy with several new patients. He poured Xie Yu a glass of water and then left him in the office.

Xie Yu, meanwhile, placed the novel’s screen in front of him, and he and the system looked at each other, sighing.

According to the plot, when the original owner was brought here by Shen Ci, he was already hysterical, his voice hoarse from shouting, very much like a manic episode. So, the doctors gave him several sedative drugs. The novel, to emphasize Xie Yu’s downfall, described at length the scene of him being forced to take medication, even naming the drugs.

Psychiatric medications are controlled substances and cannot be prescribed without a prescription. Xie Yu calmly waited for Xu Qingshan to return. Using his experience with bipolar disorder from years ago and his somewhat mediocre acting skills, he successfully convinced Xu Qingshan that he was ill and subtly expressed his need for medication.

Many of the drugs mentioned were for severe patients. Xu Qingshan considered carefully: “I don’t think your condition is that serious.”

After assessment, Xu Qingshan determined that Xie Yu was mildly ill and prescribed some safe medications. Then he pushed a card over.

Xie Yu saw it and realized it was a black card.

He looked puzzled. Xu Qingshan explained, “This is the money you invested back then, but given that our hospital has been open for many years and is in a stable phase, there aren’t many places to spend money. I used the remaining portion for investment, and luckily, I made some profit.”

He looked at his nephew’s wrinkled clothes and subtly added, “If you’re short on money, you can use this to buy some new clothes first.”

Yesterday, Xie Yu had gotten into a fight with He Zhiyuan, and his neat suit was now crumpled. Later, Shen Ci took him away, and he had no place to change.

Xie Yu: “…”

He politely declined: “No need.”

Xie Yu had a good impression of his maternal uncle. He pushed the card back, revealing, “Keep it. In three months, you can buy some shares of Xie Group.”

The novel briefly mentioned the fates of the supporting characters. The only certainty was that none of the three Xie family members were good people. The original owner, Xie Yu, goes without saying. Xie Yuanshan and Xie Yuanhai both had illicit dealings that would be exposed in three months, causing Xie Group’s stock to plummet and trigger mass panic selling. Just half a year later, Shen Ci would take over the group, and the company’s profits would steadily rise.

There were still several million yuan on the card. Now, it couldn’t buy many shares, but if Xu Qingshan bought them in three months, he would be financially secure for the rest of his life, even without running the mental hospital.

Xie Yu had settled a matter and was in a good mood as he walked out. It was around dusk now. The system perched on his shoulder: “Are we going back to the hotel?”

Xie Yu hesitated slightly.

Yesterday, Shen Ci brought him back to the hotel because it was too late, and his place was too far, inconvenient to drive to. It was a temporary compromise. But Shen Ci hadn’t said he could stay long, so going back now seemed a bit inappropriate.

The system hesitated: “Back to Wengtou Village?”

As a high-tech system, it had never stayed in such a rundown guesthouse and was quite reluctant, grumbling faintly.

Xie Yu sighed: “Let’s go home.”

System: “?”

Xie Yu: “Actually, I have a house in Jiangcheng.”

System: “?!”

It was even more confused: “How come I didn’t know?”

To avoid taxes back then, Xie Yuanshan’s house was registered under the company’s name. Now that Xie Yuanhai had taken over the company, the house naturally belonged to him. Xie Yu himself had never considered it home; he always stayed in hotels.

Xie Yu: “Let’s go back to Wengtou Village first.”

The two of them returned. Xie Yu rummaged through his luggage for a moment and pulled out a brown paper bag from his backpack.

The system recognized the item. It had traveled across oceans and countries with Xie Yu and safely returned to China. The brown paper was still pristine, without a single wrinkle, showing how well its owner had preserved it.

System: “What exactly is this?”

It had been curious for a long time. The item looked unassuming, even shabby, a bag worth at most a few yuan. It was one thing for the original owner to carefully store it in a luxury safe, but Xie Yu was equally meticulous with it.

Xie Yu tore open the seal and placed the contents on the surface.

It was a deep red booklet with six large, gold-embossed characters.

“Property Ownership Certificate.”

Xie Yu touched the red booklet: “This should be the house my mother… no, his mother left him.”

He and the original owner had vastly different personalities but shared a tyrannical father and a gentle, dutiful mother who loved them deeply.

Xie Yu’s own mother had also left him a property deed, also wrapped in brown paper and carefully placed in his luggage.

This house, of course, couldn’t compare to Xie Yuanshan’s large flat, it was just a regular one-bedroom residence outside the Third Ring Road, but in his current situation, it was Xie Yu’s best refuge.

The house was on the second floor of an old residential area, with no elevator. Xie Yu carried his suitcase upstairs by hand. As soon as he opened the door, he coughed twice—the house had been uninhabited for a long time, and dust covered the floor, the sink, and the old, peeling chest of drawers.

The system looked around hesitantly: “Should we… should we hire a housekeeper?”

Xie Yu: “Hire what? Have you forgotten our character setting?”

A rich second-generation heir who was penniless, couldn’t even afford a taxi, and was scammed by his own uncle—where would he get money to hire a housekeeper?

He rolled up his sleeves: “The sooner we finish, the sooner we can start a fire for dinner.”

The old house had many old items: an enamel cup from the last century, pillowcases and duvet covers with large floral patterns, yellowed posters and old calendars. Xie Yu sorted the unwanted items, packed them in boxes, and paused slightly when he reached a calendar, raising his hand to wipe away the dust.

The system asked, puzzled: “Why clean an old item from decades ago?”

Xie Yu ignored it and carefully placed the calendar upright. Only then did the system notice a date circled in red. As Xie Yu placed each calendar in order, he saw that the same date each year was circled in red, the handwriting crooked and childish, clearly drawn by a child.

January 7th.

That was just three days away.

This calendar was from ten to almost twenty years ago. At that time, the original owner was just a little kid. So many years had passed, the ink had faded slightly, and the glaring red circles on the old, yellowed paper resembled mottled bloodstains.

The system responded, “… what does this mean?”

It was completely baffled, but Xie Yu sighed slightly, as if he understood something.

Xie Yu stood up, holding the calendar: “I think I know what’s going on.”

He sighed again: “I need to buy some alcohol. In three days, I have to go somewhere.”

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Ten kilometers away, Shen Ci wearily pinched the bridge of his nose.

He had finished his work for the day. The screen displayed not financial reports, but several academic papers—he hadn’t read papers in a long time since leaving school.

These papers weren’t in his field of research but were related to bipolar disorder. This condition is a common mental illness, with relatively clear causes, symptoms, and treatment plans.

Causes: Patients may have experienced violence in childhood, which aligns with the scars on Xie Yu’s back. Symptoms: Anxiety, violent behavior, also align.

The papers also mentioned that restricted activity space might exacerbate symptoms.

Shen Ci couldn’t pinpoint how far Xie Yu’s condition had progressed. Xie Yu had been receiving treatment at Qingshan Psychiatric Hospital, where patient privacy was strictly protected. On the surface, Xie Yu appeared completely normal, showing no symptoms.

Just then, a special notification sound rang. Shen Ci swiped it open and saw the latest message: “Mr. Xie did not return to the hotel after leaving the mental hospital.”

Shen Ci was not surprised in the slightest. He pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a self-deprecating scoff.

Ever since Xie Yu returned to the country, he had tried his best to distance himself from Shen Ci, whether it was pretending not to know him at the banquet or using formal, polite titles afterward.

He lowered his gaze and typed: “Did he go back to Wengtou Village?”

Young Master Xie, rather than condescending to stay in a luxury hotel suite, would rather live in a small guesthouse without proper water, electricity, or heating.

“No, he went to Xingfu Community, Room 302.”

Shen Ci paused slightly.

Xingfu Community (Happy Community)—the name reeked of an old-fashioned charm from the last century, sounding out of place among today’s “Luxury Mansions” and “Elegant Gardens.”

He continued to browse the papers: “Are there any vacant rental units in that community?”

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At this time, Xie Yu had finally tidied up one room.

Given that cleaning the entire house would be too difficult, he first cleaned the sleeping area, washing and changing what needed to be washed and changed. He paid the utility bills for water, electricity, and gas, and even bought some scallions, green vegetables, and a bit of spare ribs from a street vendor.

Xie Yu tied on a little bear apron, started the stove, and blanched the spare ribs in the pot. His movements were easy and skilled. He was in a good mood, humming a tune with the window open, completely oblivious to the fact that the lights in the neighboring apartment had quietly turned on, and a figure had appeared by the window.

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