Courtyard House: My Long and Hard Body Makes Me Play with All the Women in the Courtyard

Xiao Yin's eyes were red, and she sniffled, "Then...did you eat orange candy?"

Su Ting opened his eyes and smiled: "Not yet."

He pulled a crumpled orange candy from his pocket. The wrapper was faded and the edges were torn, but he still carefully peeled it open and put it in his mouth.

“But it’s sweet,” he mumbled. “Really sweet.”

Lin Wan stared at him, then suddenly muttered under her breath, "Idiot."

Su Ting laughed even harder, coughing between words, "You're right... start with this."

Chapter 1314 The Closed Mahogany Door

The wind chime rang softly once.

In the distance, a faint light appeared on the horizon.

Xiao Yin looked up at the gradually brightening sky and suddenly whispered:

"Hey, Su Ting."

"Um?".

"What if... there's a ninth dream?"

Su Ting paused for a moment as he chewed, the sugar melting on his tongue, the sweetness seeping into his cracked lips. He slowly turned to look at Xiao Yin, his gaze seeming to pierce through a distant fog.

"The ninth dream?" His voice was hoarse, carrying the weariness of just climbing out of the corridor of obsession. "The rules say there are only eight. Eight corridors, eight obsessions, eight times... atonement."

“But the door opened.” Xiaoyin stared at the completely closed mahogany door, her fingers unconsciously fiddling with her cuffs. “When you came back, the door didn’t open by itself. It was waiting for you, like letting someone who shouldn’t have come back through.”

Lin Wan squatted down and held the pocket watch up to her eyes. The case was still vibrating slightly, and the hands were moving steadily forward, but a very fine crack had appeared on the inner layer of the dial, as if something had been stretched open from the inside.

“This watch…” he murmured, “shouldn’t be moving so steadily. When someone has just come back from being obsessed, time jumps around randomly, like a broken radio. But this one… is moving too smoothly.”

Su Ting slowly sat up, leaning against the wall, and took a breath: "Because I'm not fully back yet."

The air suddenly froze.

Xiao Yin's eyes widened: "What did you say?"

Su Ting raised his hand, palm facing up—the sunlight shone in, but left no shadow on his hand.

“A part of me… is still there.” He smiled bitterly. “When I sent the sapling away, the rules of the Corridor of Obsession bit me. It said—'You didn’t come to save people, you came to replace them.'”

"Bullshit!" Lin Wan suddenly stood up. "You broke the rules! You allowed a dead person's obsession to complete their farewell, something no one has ever done before! You've crossed the boundaries of the rules, and they can't hold you back now!"

“But it remembered me.” Su Ting shook his head. “It knows I heard. Heard things I shouldn’t have heard, and said those three things I shouldn’t have said. I wasn’t a ‘witness,’ I became a ‘responder.’ So… it made room for me.”

Xiao Yin suddenly shuddered: "You mean...you've become part of the obsession?"

“Not all.” Su Ting looked down at his translucent hand. “Just a trace. Like the bottle of medicine Xiao Shu left behind. I didn’t exactly walk out alive, nor did I die in there. I… am hanging in the balance.”

Lin Wan suddenly grabbed his collar: "Then what about the candy you just ate? Can ghosts eat candy?"

Su Ting grinned and spat out the candy wrapper—the moment the wrapper hit the ground, a wisp of very faint smoke rose up, as if it had been scorched by an invisible fire.

“The sweetness is what I remember,” he said. “The deeper the memory, the stronger the obsession. I can taste it because I still ‘believe’ that there is sweetness in this world.”

Xiao Yin reached out and touched his cheek with trembling hands, her fingertips piercing through it.

"So what are you now...?"

Su Ting looked up at the row of tall windows at the end of the corridor. The morning light crept in inch by inch, falling on his face, but like water flowing over a duck's back, it left no trace.

“I don’t know,” he said softly, “but I do know one thing—when Little Tree left, he said something you didn’t hear.”

Lin Wan released her grip: "What did you say?"

He said, "Brother, in the next dream, she will call your name."

"Who?" Xiao Yin's voice trembled.

Su Ting slowly closed his eyes: "I don't know. But... I heard it."

Chapter 1315 The Pointer Spins Madly Backward

As soon as he finished speaking, his pocket watch suddenly snapped shut.

The watch cover popped open automatically, and the hands began to spin wildly counter-clockwise—

6: 21.

6: 18.

6: 05.

It finally stopped at 5:59.

The three of them held their breath.

"This is impossible..." Lin Wan stared intently at the clock face, "Time... has reversed?"

“It’s not a reversal.” Su Ting opened his eyes, his pupils reflecting another light. “It’s a reset. The corridor is restarting its timer.”

"For whom?" Xiaoyin whispered.

Su Ting did not answer. He slowly raised his hand, palm facing the air, as if catching something invisible.

In the distance, the wind chimes rang once more.

But this time, the sound didn't come from the corridor.

Instead—from the crack in the door behind them.

The mottled mahogany door cracked open once more.

The difference is, this time there is no light.

Only black.

Thick, still, black as if it could swallow your breath.

“That’s not the exit…” Lin Wan took a half step back. “That’s… the entrance.”

Xiao Yin's voice trembled: "Who's coming in?"

Su Ting stood up, stepped forward, and blocked their way.

“It’s not someone coming in,” he said softly. “It’s me who should go in.”

"Are you crazy?!" Lin Wan grabbed his arm, only to find her hand passed right through him. "You just got back! You're not even fully here! You want to go and die?"

“This isn’t suicide.” Su Ting turned around and smiled. “Someone is waiting for me.”

"Who?!" Xiaoyin almost shouted.

Su Ting gazed at the dark slit with an unusually gentle look in his eyes.

“I don’t know,” he said softly, “but she was calling me.”

A very soft call came from the crack in the door.

"...A-Ning?"

Su Ting was startled.

Lin Wan and Xiao Yin looked at each other in bewilderment—the voice was delicate and hoarse, like silk worn thin by time, yet it carried a deep-seated longing.

"Ah Ning... is that you? Did you come back to pick me up?"

Su Ting's breathing became erratic. He raised his hand, wanting to respond, but found his hand trembling slightly in the darkness.

“She… called me Aning.” His voice tightened. “But I’ve never… ever had that name.”

"Then you absolutely mustn't go in!" Lin Wan said sternly. "This is a trap! Obsession is mimicking! It knows you're soft-hearted, it's using your most vulnerable spot to lure you in!"

“But I…” Su Ting closed his eyes, “But I seem to…remember this voice.”

Xiaoyin suddenly rushed forward and hugged his arm tightly—even though her hand could only pass through him.

"If you go in, you'll never come back! Do you hear me? You won't come back!"

Su Ting opened his eyes and looked down at her.

"Xiaoyin," he said softly, "do you remember who you saw when you first entered the corridor?"

Xiao Yin was stunned.

“It’s your mother,” Su Ting said. “She was standing in the fire, telling you, ‘Don’t come in.’ But you still came in because you heard her call you ‘Nannan.’”

Tears welled up in Xiaoyin's eyes: "But I don't regret it..."

“So I can’t regret it.” Su Ting reached out and gently stroked the top of her head. “If someone is really waiting for me… even if she has mistaken me for someone else, I have to go and tell her—I’m sorry, I’m not Aning. But… I heard your call.”

He turned and walked toward the dark slit.

Lin Wan roared, "Su Ting! What the hell are you after?! You saved Xiao Shu, broke the rules, and restarted time! You've already won! Why are you still jumping into hell?!"

Su Ting stopped in front of the door.

He looked back at them, the morning light outlining his translucent silhouette, like a painting about to be torn apart by the wind.