Fu Hui once again brought Lan Xi to camp out in Old Master Fu’s hospital room, just as they had before. They ate and studied there.
Of course, this time was different in one respect: they even slept there.
Little Fu Hui himself did not know what outcome he was waiting for.
Was he waiting for proof that Lan Xi had smelled something wrong?
Or was he waiting for Lan Xi to understand that some people and things in this world were bound to part ways?
Fu Hui had come to understand that himself when he learned that his father and mother were going to separate.
He could not call it overwhelming sorrow or pain, but there had been a dull ache in his chest that lasted for days and days.
It had lasted until, one day, he finally accepted it.
Fu Hui thought it would be better if Lan Xi never had to go through that.
＊
Old Master Fu hardly acted like someone who was seriously ill. Whenever he had time, he still taught Lan Xi to play the harmonica and practiced spoken English with him. He also made Fu Hui read newspapers and watch the news with him, paying no attention to how young Fu Hui was, as though he wanted to pour every bit of his wisdom and political acumen into the boy.
It took only one short week.
Both Fu Hui and Lan Xi had grown noticeably thinner in the face.
Old Master Fu had lost weight too, but his spirits were excellent. He immediately made the decision: “I’m leaving the hospital. We’re going home.”
His secretary tried to persuade him otherwise.
Old Master Fu smiled. “Look at those two. If I stay here any longer, both children will be nothing but skin and bones.”
And so they went home.
Fu Lin hurried back that very day as well.
While the adults gathered around Old Master Fu to ask after his health, Fu Hui was talking to Lan Xi. “Lan Xi is a demon. Do demons come from hell?”
Tears still in his eyes, Lan Xi nodded.
“Then is there a heaven?”
Lan Xi nodded again.
“What’s heaven like? Is it nice?”
Lan Xi said, “Everyone’s very happy there, and there’s lots of food.”
“Oh, that’s good, then,” Fu Hui said, relieved.
Lan Xi gazed at him without fully understanding and felt as though a weight had lifted from his own heart too.
“Fu Hui,” Fu Lin called from outside the door. “Grandpa wants to see you.”
Old Master Fu had specially called Fu Hui over to give him an instruction. “Don’t forget to feed my koi.”
Many members of the Fu family had come. Hearing this, they knew that the relationship between grandfather and grandson had improved considerably over the past two years. Perhaps Old Master Fu would leave much of what he owned to Fu Lin and his son.
For a moment, everyone’s eyes turned toward the father and son. Oh, and toward that peculiar little thing standing nearby.
At his age, Fu Hui did not yet have a clear sense of what those possessions meant.
He only knew that it meant Grandpa had stopped resenting him because of his mother.
He slipped away from Fu Lin’s side, stepped forward, took Old Master Fu’s hand, and said earnestly, “Mm. I’ll make sure they grow nice and fat.”
No one had time to debate whether fish were supposed to be fattened up.
Old Master Fu managed to squeeze out a warning. “Just don’t let Lan Xi catch them and eat them…”
With tears still pooled in his eyes, Lan Xi blinked innocently from the side. “…?”
Having given all the instructions he wanted to give, Old Master Fu caught his breath and said, “All right, everyone, go on. I need to rest.”
But Lan Xi refused to leave, clinging tightly to the side of the bed.
Fu Hui crouched down beside him.
Old Master Fu did not have the strength to deal with them just then, so he closed his eyes to rest.
Who would have thought that by the time darkness fell, neither child had left?
Old Master Fu was baffled. “Aren’t you going to eat dinner?”
Fu Hui thought for a moment. “We can eat here.”
The nanny had no choice but to make the arrangements.
The adults still had plenty to attend to and could not stay there all the time. But when the other children heard what was happening, they brought their bowls over too.
They at least understood that they could not disturb Old Master Fu now. One by one, they ate quietly, while the delicious smell of their food wafted right under his nose.
“…Help me sit up. I’ll eat a little too.”
Old Master Fu ate a little, threw some back up, and somehow made it through the evening.
They could not watch television or speak loudly while keeping him company. One by one, the other children grew restless and went off to bed.
Only Lan Xi and Fu Hui remained.
Old Master Fu looked at the time. It was getting late. “What, are you going to finish a couple of test papers before you leave?”
Fu Hui thought that sounded perfectly reasonable. “Lan Xi, let’s do our homework.”
They switched on a little lamp and began working beside the bed. More accurately, Fu Hui did the work. Lan Xi turned a couple of pages, then started dozing against him, though his eyes were still trained on Old Master Fu, almost but never quite closing.
Old Master Fu: “…”
Old Master Fu felt that he had more energy than Lan Xi did.
He could not help saying, “You’re so sleepy you can barely keep your eyes open. Go back and get some rest.”
Lan Xi’s eyes flew wide, as if that proved he was not sleepy at all.
“N-no,” he said.
Old Master Fu found the two of them both amusing and adorable.
“All right, all right. I’ll leave you alone.” He pulled his quilt higher and closed his eyes.
His strength was failing him more and more. Before long, he was fast asleep.
The monitoring equipment connected to him emitted a steady, regular sound.
In the early hours of the morning, Old Master Fu woke with a suffocating sensation, unable to catch his breath.
The monitor’s abnormal alert had awakened Fu Lin and the others too, and they hurried over.
Old Master Fu was already sitting up in bed. When he turned his head, the first things he saw were two little faces.
Lan Xi and Fu Hui were staring at him, both wide awake.
“These two little ones… Why are they still here?” Old Master Fu struggled for breath and tried to smile, but could not quite manage it.
Fu Lin sat down beside the bed. “They refuse to leave.”
Old Master Fu found it difficult to sleep soundly. He kept falling asleep and waking again.
Whenever he opened his eyes, he could see Lan Xi and Fu Hui.
After pondering it for a long time, Old Master Fu thought he had finally found the problem. “Do they think… I was giving my last words yesterday? That I’d die as soon as I’d finished speaking? Are they afraid that if they fall asleep, they won’t get to see me one last time?”
“Please don’t say things like that,” Fu Lin said with a frown.
Old Master Fu smiled. His breathing had eased a little. “You two can’t keep sitting here with your eyes open all night. Children need sleep. If you don’t sleep… you won’t grow tall. Go ahead and sleep. Don’t worry. I’ve still got a few days left in me.”
When elderly people became ill, it really was not like with young people, who might die suddenly, all at once.
In the days that followed, Old Master Fu alternated between feeling better and worse. He spent more than two months recuperating at home and had to be rushed for emergency treatment three times. Yet after each emergency, he insisted on returning to the old residence. Precisely because he knew his days were numbered, he wanted to spend as much time at home as he could.
As that long struggle dragged on, Lan Xi gradually became less frightened.
The two children no longer kept watch at his bedside day and night.
Instead, Song Xu picked them up after school every day and drove them back to the old residence.
Old Master Fu was very pleased by this. At dinner, he asked, “Aren’t you tired?”
The old residence was far from school. The drive took a full hour each way.
Lan Xi nodded.
Old Master Fu laughed at him, then started coughing. After taking a moment to catch his breath, he said, “In that case, why don’t you come once every few days…”
The adults were busy, and they did not visit nearly so often.
Lan Xi frowned hard and shook his head.
Fu Hui took the opportunity to stroke his head. “We need to bring some things over.”
“What things?”
“Lan Xi’s shampoo, his hair-care oil, his little towel…”
Lan Xi had not properly cared for his hair and feathers in some time, and the little succubus was looking a bit wilted.
“Bring them, then. Isn’t this your home too? Bring whatever you want.”
“Mm.”
After that, no one suggested that they come only once every few days again.
They celebrated the New Year at the old residence, and Fu Hui grew another year older.
Even when the new school term began, they were in no hurry to move out.
Smiles returned to Lan Xi’s face.
And Old Master Fu got to experience the joy of having children come home from school every day.
In the past, the family’s children had been afraid of being scolded for bad manners, so they barely spoke at the dinner table. But Lan Xi and Fu Hui had always made a habit of sharing what had happened that day when they got home.
They carried that habit over to the old residence.
“Teacher said Lan Xi was clever today!”
“The pear I ate today scored a hundred points for tastiness!”
“There’s a teacher whose way of talking I really don’t like…”
Old Master Fu suddenly cut in. “Which teacher? What’s their name? How good are they at teaching? If you don’t like them, replace them.”
Fu Hui’s uncle could not help protesting from the side. “Aren’t you going a little too far? If word gets out, people will say our family throws its weight around.”
Old Master Fu paid that no mind. Instead, he asked Fu Hui whether he had encountered any troublesome people or situations at school. He was probably hoping to settle whatever he could while he was still around.
Fu Hui did not have many friends at school, but he did not have any enemies either. He shook his head at once.
Lan Xi, meanwhile, had already gone on to tell them about his classmates.
Classmate A and Classmate B had argued over a pen.
One had called the other a country bumpkin who had never seen a pen set with diamonds, and said they would have to pay if they damaged it.
Lan Xi said, “It’s very expensive, you know.”
Old Master Fu immediately spoke up again. “What sort of pen was it? Grandpa will buy some. I’ll buy them for both of you.”
Lan Xi also complained about how annoying his classmates were. “Big phones are obviously so pretty and amazing. They’re huge and impressive… Why do they laugh at Lan Xi’s phone?”
No one knew where Lan Xi had picked up that new accent. He had taken to saying things like “how come?” and “what’s that?”
Fu Hui frowned. “Those classmates are awful. They shouldn’t be allowed to be Lan Xi’s classmates.”
Old Master Fu was angry too. “Exactly! Kick them out!”
Everyone else: “…”
Secretary Li had recently been assigned to handle matters on Old Master Fu’s side. Hearing this, he wanted to laugh as well.
They truly were grandfather and grandson.
One was forever trying to transfer Lan Xi to another school. The other was even more outrageous, wanting to kick all of Lan Xi’s classmates out instead.
It took everyone quite some effort to talk the two of them out of it.
And so the days passed.
On Lan Xi’s seventh birthday, he curled up in Fu Hui’s arms and wished that humans would not die.
He had no idea whether that was possible. He only knew that on his fifth birthday, he had wished to go to heaven, and then he had ended up in Fu Hui’s wonderful home. On his sixth birthday, he had wished never to go back to hell, and he really had not gone back.
Wishes came true!
That was what the little one believed.
With great solemnity, he blew out the candles and cut the cake together with Fu Hui.
Now that he knew how fragile humans were, the little succubus was a bit more generous this year. He even set aside a tiny corner of cake each for Song Xu, Fu Lin, and Old Master Fu.
Naturally, no one else got any. There were so many people! How could Lan Xi possibly divide it among all of them? It certainly was not because he was stingy.
As promised, Old Master Fu bought diamond-studded pens for both Lan Xi and Fu Hui.
The secretary even laughed and said the pen Lan Xi’s classmate had bought was not set with diamonds at all, just crystals. And crystals were not particularly expensive.
Lan Xi did not understand the difference between expensive and inexpensive.
He liked them both anyway, so Fu Hui bought him a crystal-studded pen as well.
With the new school term underway, Old Master Fu also bought them new schoolbags and shoes.
That morning, he guided Fu Hui’s hands as he showed him how to feed the koi. Once the lesson was finished, he seemed to have used up every last bit of strength. He said he wanted to take a nap.
And then he never woke up again.
Those long two-odd months had given everyone time to prepare themselves for accepting what was coming.
Lan Xi did not cry anymore, even when he went along to the funeral. He only held Fu Hui’s hand tightly, so tightly.
＊
After Old Master Fu passed away, the Fu family still had a great many matters to deal with, and Fu Lin became even busier.
Around this time, Lan Xi began running a fever again, something that rarely happened now.
The adults thought the fright might have brought it on. They could not help feeling sorry for him and came to regard Lan Xi even more as a child of their own family.
But everyone was busy, and no one could spare the time to keep the children company. In the end, Song Xu took Fu Hui and Lan Xi home with her.
Lan Xi did not feel particularly happy or unhappy about it.
He became Fu Hui’s constant little accessory, always hanging off him.
Even while sleeping, he had to hold Fu Hui’s hand to feel safe.
If Fu Hui needed to get up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, he had to wake Lan Xi and bring him along.
Otherwise, Lan Xi would wake up, discover that no one was beside him, and start crying.
Well, that was how it went at first.
Starting on the second day, though, if Fu Hui was gone for even a little too long, Lan Xi would greet him with two solid punches when he came back.
Song Xu thought they could not go on like this. She suggested, “How about Mom takes him to sit in on a couple of lectures? He can hear how people have understood life and death throughout history.”
Fu Hui thought it over and agreed.
Of course, Fu Hui went with them.
With a child on either side of her, Song Xu attracted no end of attention.
She showed them how to place their arms on the desk and sit up properly, so they would look respectful in the classroom.
But the university desks and chairs were far too big for them. Lan Xi stretched for ages without managing to reach the desktop.
Not knowing whether to laugh or cry, Song Xu pressed their little arms back down. “Just sit the way you are.”
Lan Xi’s feet could not even touch the floor.
The two children listened first to what great writers of ancient and modern times had written about life and death, then to lectures on funeral customs and burial traditions.
When they got back, Lan Xi still looked downcast. He looked up, counted on his fingers, and said, “When Fu Hui dies, let’s put two clay Lan Xi figures in his tomb.”
Song Xu, who was sitting nearby, nearly sprayed her tea out of her mouth.
After listening to all those lectures, that was what he had taken away from them?
But Fu Hui actually considered it seriously. “Wouldn’t ceramic figures last longer?”
Song Xu: “…”
“Oh… no, two won’t be enough,” Lan Xi said. “We should put more in.”
He curled his fingers into a fist and announced with tremendous conviction, “Put a hundred in!”
Fu Hui said, “All right.”
Song Xu: “…………”
A moment later, Lan Xi’s expression crumpled again. “But those would be fake Lan Xis!”
Seeing the little one on the verge of another breakdown, Song Xu was about to say something comforting.
But Lan Xi had already come up with a new idea. “Then the real Lan Xi should stay with Fu Hui in his tomb.”
He even had the schedule planned out. “Stay with him in the morning, stay with him at night, and go out for hotpot at noon.”
Song Xu let out a snort of laughter.
Only a truly innocent child could say something like that…
Staying with someone inside their tomb would mean being buried with them.
And he was still planning to go out for hotpot at lunchtime? How could he possibly do that?
Fu Hui, however, saw nothing wrong with the idea.
“That sounds nice,” he said.
Lan Xi heaved a huge sigh of relief, as though he had finally found a way out of his predicament.
But that night, he still woke up crying from a dream.
Fu Hui patted his back and watched Lan Xi slowly open his watery eyes.
“What’s wrong, Lan Xi?” Fu Hui asked.
Utterly heartbroken, Lan Xi thumped Fu Hui’s chest with both fists. “Lan Xi doesn’t want a dead Fu Hui! Lan Xi wants a living Fu Hui! If Fu Hui lies in a tomb, he won’t be able to scratch Lan Xi’s itches anymore!”
Lan Xi became so upset that his fever shot up to 39°C.
Everyone in the Song family was woken by the commotion. They decided to take the little one to the hospital for an IV drip.
There was no way he could walk on his own.
Fu Hui’s younger maternal uncle reached out to carry him.
Lan Xi refused again and again, shouting as though his heart were breaking, “I want Fu Hui! I want Fu Hui!”
The young uncle exclaimed, “Good grief! He’s not much bigger than you are. How’s he supposed to carry you?”
No sooner had he spoken than his nephew made an attempt, straining to carry Lan Xi out. Even in the depths of winter, sweat broke out all over his forehead from the effort.
The younger uncle watched with a sigh. “Those two must be so used to relying on each other for everything.”
At the hospital, the doctor put Lan Xi on an IV drip.
Fu Hui served as a cushion for him.
After thinking it over, the younger uncle decided to show some proper consideration as an elder. He became a cushion for Fu Hui.
Except… “Goodness, you’re heavy.”
The efficiency of modern medicine worked wonders on Lan Xi, a little country bumpkin from the backwaters of hell.
By the time the drip was finished, Lan Xi’s temperature had gone down. He fell straight into a comfortable sleep, and even when several adults took turns carrying him, he did not stir once.
Behind them, Song Xu touched Fu Hui’s forehead and asked, “You’re not feeling sick yourself, are you?”
Fu Hui shook his head.
Up ahead, the younger uncle laughed. “Little Lan Xi is always so restless at night. Maybe he’s been running a slight fever now and then, and that’s why he’s been feeling miserable.”
At last, Lan Xi slept soundly again.
When Fu Hui opened his eyes, he found Lan Xi sitting beside him, looking as if he had just thought of a terribly serious question.
The little succubus spoke gravely. “Fu Hui, Lan Xi secretly put some feathers in Grandpa’s grave. I wanted the little feathers to keep him company. But, but if he goes to heaven, will the angels mistake him for a demon and arrest him?”