Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Ye Yuwei followed Gu Juexi to the restaurant. Gu Juexi knocked on the door and there were noises from inside the restaurant.
Ye Yuwei peeked at Gu Juexi. His expression was cold, she couldn’t see anything else in those eyes.
The door opened with a creak. “Who is it? It’s late, we are closed now.” The owner opened the door and saw Gu Juexi first. His gaze then fell on Ye Yuwei. He staggered back in shock, as though his legs were going to give way.
Gu Juexi immediately pulled Ye Yuwei into the restaurant.
In Ye Yuwei’s opinion, looking like a human but behaving like a dog made him no different from a bandit.
The old man was awakened by the noise, but Gu Juexi didn’t feel sorry for what he did.
The old man put his clothes on slowly. The lighting in the room was dim and the stools were wooden. Gu Juexi had no intention of sitting so Ye Yuwei stood beside him.
The old man sat at the table with the help of his son. “So you are the daughter of the Ye family?”
Ye Yuwei glanced at Gu Juexi and nodded.
“You look exactly like your grandmother,” said the old man while lighting his Chinese pipe tobacco. The smell was somewhat irritating.
“Do you know them?” asked Ye Yuwei.
“The other day, someone came asking about Ye Shu and he got nothing. Do you know why?” The old man knocked his pipe slightly and asked his son to switch on all the lights. The room had brightened up finally.
Ye Yuwei looked at the old man in front of her. He looked about eighty-something, around the same age as her grandparents.
“Why?” asked Ye Yuwei.
“Why? It began with the plague forty years ago,” said the old man and asked his son to leave the room.
“Plague?”
“Yes, plague,” said the old man, looking at Ye Yuwei again. “Back in those days, your grandparents were the best doctors in the neighborhood. They saved a lot of people during the outbreak. Unfortunately, they were not enough to control and stop the spread of the plague.”
“Plague? Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, other than the large scale epidemic outbreak of SARS, I never heard anything about a plague.” Gu Juexi interrupted the old man.
The hand that was shaking the tobacco bag stopped. Gu Juexi sat directly across the old man and pressed his hands on the table. “Look, sir, we came all the way here. It would be meaningless if you go on like this.”
The old man listened to Gu Juexi, his shaking hands quite steady.
“Why is it that no one talked about it but now it’s being brought up? Let me ask you, is it because that person has decided to let you talk?” Gu Juexi asked in his deep voice. “I, Gu Juexi, am here right now to listen to your story. So let’s be open and honest. Since you are going to tell us a story, please begin with an authentic one.”
The old man was still smoking his pipe. “The plague was real, I wasn’t bluffing.”
Gu Juexi tapped his fingers on the table lightly. Ye Yuwei leaned on his shoulder, feeling nervous and cautious.
“Where is Ye Shu?” demanded Gu Juexi.
Ye Yuwei’s body stiffened ever so slightly.
“Listen to the story first, then go and look for him,” said the old man, knocking the remaining tobacco scrap out of the pipe.
Gu Juexi held and squeezed Ye Yuwei’s hands. “Please proceed, I’m all ears.”