My House of Horrors

Chapter 981: Will Never Forget

“You can help Xiao Yu?” The aunty and uncle studied Chen Ge closely. “What are you? A psychiatrist?”

“I own a haunted house, but please believe me.” Chen Ge looked at the two sincerely.

“What nonsense are you talking about now? Leave!” The old man waved the sword. “Before I pull the sword on you!”

“Please calm down and give me ten minutes, okay? Just ten minutes.” Chen Ge used his phone to search for the news article where he had helped the law enforcement in Jiujiang. “Look at this. I am the one in the picture with the police. I really am a good person.”

“A helpful citizen that has helped the law enforcement many times?” The aunty and uncle compared Chen Ge to the man in the article a few times before they believed him. “What do you want from Xiao Yu?”

“I just want to help her. Can you bring me to meet her parents?” After Chen Ge realized that the woman had body temperature, he understood that the ghost that he was looking for was the boy in the picture.

“Xiao Yu was raised in an orphanage. She doesn’t have parents.”

“Does she have any other relatives? Who takes care of her, and who provided her with a home?” Chen Ge felt like it was quite hard for the woman to live independently in her current state, so she should have a caretaker.

“We have never heard Xiao Yu talk about her family before. She was abandoned here about a decade ago. She was just a little girl then, standing in the middle of the road. A few officers and I sent her to the police station, and then the people from the orphanage came. They were so reluctant to take Xiao Yu back. I couldn’t stand the look on their faces, so I allowed Xiao Yu to temporarily stay with me.” The aunty was kind and generous.

“A decade ago?” This time skip was so large that Chen Ge did not know where to start. Ten years was a long time for anyone, enough to forget about the pain and joy that one had experienced, and even the most precious memory faded with time.

“Has she always been like this for this past ten years?” Chen Ge looked at the woman holding the picture, staring with such focus at the faceless boy in the picture. She seemed to be remembering, but there was no recollection in her eyes.

“Yes, Xiao Yu suffers from memory loss. To get to the bottom of the truth, I’ve personally been to her orphanage to ask around. They told me that Xiao Yu’s memory has been bad since she was young. She couldn’t even remember the names of the other orphans, and that caused her to make a lot of mistakes in her chores.” The aunty sighed. “I don’t know whether they told me this on purpose or the illness got worse as she grew older, but after Xiao Yu moved in with me, her illness did worsen.”

“Her memory loss became more prevalent?”

“Yes, she would forget everything until she couldn’t even remember her own name. It was that day…” The aunty stopped to look at Xiao Yu with some sadness in her eyes. “It was that day that she started to tattoo her own name on her body. The name seems to mean a lot to her, and she refused to forget it no matter what.”

“Who gave her this name? The people at the orphanage?”

“No, I heard that when Fang Yu was abandoned at the hospital, there was 271 RMB in her pocket and a letter. The letter said that her name is Fang Yu.” The aunty remembered these things very well. She was truly concerned about Fang Yu and had done many things for her.

“That letter…”

Before Chen Ge asked, the aunty knew Chen Ge’s intention. “The letter has been lost for who knows how long already. Now, the only way to help Fang Yu finds her parent is her name, Fang Yu.”

“That’s why she tattooed Fang Yu all over her body? No, there must be something you’ve missed!” Chen Ge stood in the rain. “A person wouldn’t spend so much effort to look for a parent that she hadn’t met. There is someone that she refused to forget at the deepest part of her memory. She believed that the person’s name is Fang Yu, and she didn’t want to forget that person!”

Chen Ge signaled for the uncle and aunty to get close to the woman. “Do you recognize the boy in this picture?”

“He doesn’t even have a face. How are we supposed to tell?”

“You can get many information from the height, build, head shape, and so on. After Fang Yu moved here, has a boy like this appeared around here? Chen Ge asked.

“Fang Yu rarely interacts with others, but she goes to the nearby park every night. How would she know a boy that way?”

“She goes to the park every night? Are you sure about that?”

“Yes, Fang Yu only goes to the doctor in the morning or stays at home. Even for the tattooing, she only goes there at night.”

“This information is very important.” Chen Ge understood something. “Before moving here, Fang Yu knew this boy in the picture, and they went to the park.”

Fang Yu looked about the same age as Chen Ge. The boy in the picture looked about eighteen, so ten years ago, Fang Yu should have been slightly younger than the boy.

“Fang Yu lived at the orphanage before this, so the boy in the picture probably grew up at the orphanage as well. They were childhood friends.” The rain started to get heavier, and water slid down Chen Ge’s face. “Fang Yu, do you know which orphanage Fang Yu comes from?”

“It’s Jiujiang’s Children’s Home. It used to be a private orphanage and very unprofessional, but it’s gotten much better in recent years.”

“Jiujiang’s Children’s Home? There’s where Fan Yu stays now!” Chen Ge prepared to take the picture, but the woman suddenly refused to let go.

“Fang Yu, I know that you wish to meet the man in the picture, and I will go get him to come meet you now!” Chen Ge pressed on the woman’s hands lightly. “Perhaps he also has been waiting to meet you.”

The woman slowly let go. Chen Ge put away the picture and ran away through the rain.

“Wait a minute!” The aunty had Fang Yu enter the building before she ran over with the umbrella. “Take this. Who knows when will the rain stop?”

“Thanks.” The backpack had the comic and picture, but Chen Ge did not deny the kindness.

“There’s no need to thank me. I saw it clearly just now. You wanted to take away the picture, but Xiao Yu refused to let go. This is the first time that she has cared about something so much.” The aunty handed Chen Ge the umbrella and took Chen Ge’s hands. “You have to help her, you understand? The first day she forgot her name, she broke the teacup and used the edge of the shard to carve the name Fang Yu on her body. When she woke up the next day, she forgot and repeated the whole process. No matter what, she has to remember that name, to stop her from injuring herself. It was me who took her to the tattoo artist.”

“I understand. I will get to the bottom of this.”

Chen Ge looked at the building. The woman was standing on the steps, staring blankly at the names carved on her arms. For other people, ten years would be long, but for her, it was just a mere repetition of the same day over the span of ten years.