Banjaxed

Chapter 4 - So I'm really dead?

***'Dark thoughts'***

***Normal thoughts***

Chapter 4 

So I'm really dead?

Their small land had not been renovated much since the olden days when their ancestors used to be quite well off in Shengzhang village. By the time it arrived in their current generation, the wealth was gone, so they had to earn money by themselves. What was left behind by their ancestor was their house which was maintained well.

Her aunt lived at the main house, which was also her deceased grandparents' house, while she and her father lived in a smaller house on the same land. With her father sleeping till noon, Lin Jiayi relied on her aunt for breakfast and lunch to be packed before she headed to school.

The front door was unlocked, which was her aunt's habit every morning to ensure that Lin Jiayi could enter if she was still busy in the kitchen.

With her own home out of order, Lin Jiayi was already mentally prepared for the unexpected. So she was less panicked seeing the interior of this house was also placed on the opposite side than it used to be. Other than that, the house seems to be more lived in, filled with decorations that her late grandmother loved. Her little aunt had packed most away so they could last longer, and now Lin Jiayi did not dare to assume anything about why they were out of the storage boxes.

Her optimistic side helpfully provided an excuse, 'Maybe her aunt took them out to celebrate her birthday!'

'Or the world decides to screw your mind over when murdered by your own father is not enough.'

'That's just a dream!'

'Is it really a dream?'

Her tiny feet came to a full stop when her sight collided with a single-seater couch that was strategically placed right beside the window to get natural light.

"This is the afterlife?" Lin Jiayi asked dazedly, her eyes not moving away from the figure seated on it, reading the newspaper like he always does in her long-forgotten memory.

"You're early," the elderly man in his sixties, wearing long-sleeved office wear, mumbled grumpily after noticing her.

This was really her grandfather!

"So I'm really dead?" Lin Jiayi mumbled dazedly.

Her father preparing her feast just to drug her, set the house on fire, and her aunt dying along with them... was not a dream?

Grandpa Lin looked displeased when he saw what she was wearing. "Why are you wearing that?"

The already crying Lin Jiayi stepped closer to her grandfather, wailing like a poor bullied cub. "Grandpa... Grandpa..."

Her grandfather had died not long after her grandmother passed away from a terrible fall. As a healthy elderly, he could still live at least two decades with no serious illness, but no one could cure loneliness easily.

His children and granddaughter failed to fill his empty heart.

"Jiayi? You come just in time." Grandma Lin came out of the kitchen when she heard the noise. "Come and eat before it gets cold... why are you not dressed for school?"

Grandpa Lin stared at his wife who managed to look loving when her hands actually itched to hit their granddaughter.

Yesterday was their granddaughter's sixteenth birthday. Lin Jiayi was not willing to celebrate her birthday with two old people, so she hung out with her friends at the new shopping mall in Mantao City. The two elderly had constantly gazed out of the window and continued doing so until their granddaughter returned.