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

Chapter 1316 Before Six O'Clock

"Because I haven't... made it before six o'clock."

"Before six o'clock?!" Xiaoyin cried out.

Su Ting smiled.

"go home."

He raised his hand and pushed open the door.

The darkness surged forth like a tidal wave, instantly engulfing him.

The door closed slowly behind us, without a sound or a trace, as if it had never been opened.

Lin Wan rushed forward and pounded on the door: "Su Ting! Su Ting!!"

no respond.

Only the pocket watch vibrated gently in his palm.

The pointer stops at 5:59.

Xiao Yin knelt on the ground, hugging her arms, her voice broken:

"...Hey, Su Ting."

From inside the door came a very soft response—

"Ok?"

Xiao Yin looked up, tears streaming down her face.

"Promise me... when you eat orange candy, you'll remember to say... it's sweet."

"Ah."

The voice from inside the door was as soft as the wind rustling through withered leaves.

Xiao Yin suddenly stood up, rushed to the door, and slammed her palm on the wooden door. Her palm went numb, as if she had struck a layer of ice.

"What did you say?! Did you hear me?!"

Lin Wan was breathing heavily, his fingers gripping the edge of the pocket watch so tightly that his knuckles turned white. He looked down at the watch—the hands were still stopped at 5:59, unmoving. But the cracks inside the watch case were spreading at a visible speed, like a spider weaving a web on glass.

“No…” his voice trembled, “Time has stopped, but it’s vibrating. The watch is… resonating.”

Xiao Yin ignored him, her forehead pressed against the door, her voice lowered, as if afraid of startling something:

"You said... remember to say it's sweet."

There was silence for a few seconds inside the door.

Then the voice sounded again, closer, as if someone were speaking through the crack in the door:

"I remember."

Xiaoyin's tears welled up instantly.

"Don't go...please..."

"I'm not leaving." Su Ting's voice came through the crack in the door, deep but unusually clear. "I pushed the door open, but behind the door... it's not the corridor."

Lin Wan suddenly looked up: "Not a corridor? Then what is it?"

“Black,” Su Ting said, “but not pure black. It’s black with an ‘underlying color’—like… the edge of a charred photograph.”

Xiao Yin took a breath: "What did you see?"

“The corridor,” Su Ting said slowly, “is very long, with dark red walls, like the velvet of an old-fashioned movie theater. The floor is covered with patterned tiles, which are cracked, and grayish-white mycelium is growing in the cracks.”

Lin Wan frowned: "Mycelium? The kind that looks like a spider web and falls apart at the slightest touch?"

“Yes.” Su Ting paused. “And… it has a smell. Not rotten, but old books, camphor, and… sugar.”

"Sugar?" Xiao Yin trembled.

“Orange candy.” Su Ting chuckled. “I can smell it. It’s right at my feet.”

Lin Wan suddenly rushed to the door and whispered in her ear, "Can you pick it up? Can you bring it out?!"

“I tried.” Su Ting’s voice was a fraction lower. “I bent down and ran my fingers through it. Like me… it wasn’t a physical object.”

Xiaoyin bit her lip: "But you can smell it, hear it, and 'remember' the sweetness?"

“I live on my memories,” Su Ting said. “As long as I can still remember that taste, I can stand here and talk to you.”

Lin Wan abruptly took a step back, her eyes fixed on the pocket watch: "Something's not right. Su Ting, when you came in, the door was 'closed.' But you're talking to us now—which means you haven't been swallowed by the rules, nor have you completely fallen into obsession. You... are stuck in the middle?"

“Perhaps.” Su Ting’s voice seemed to come from afar, like a walkie-talkie with an unstable signal. “But this place is different. The previous corridor was ‘someone else’s dream,’ but this place… feels like mine.”

"Your dream?" Xiaoyin was stunned. "When did you have a dream like this?"

Chapter 1317 The Door at the Very End

“I don’t remember,” Su Ting said, “but some details… are very familiar. Like that door—the one at the very end, locked, with yellow talisman paper pasted on it, and black liquid seeping from the cracks in the door…”

Lin Wan suddenly widened her eyes: "Wait—yellow talisman paper? Are you sure it's yellow talisman paper with cinnabar talismans drawn on it?"

"Yes." Su Ting's tone tightened slightly. "You've seen him?"

Lin Wan's face turned pale. She turned to look at Xiao Yin: "Corridor Archives, Section 17, Cabinet B-3. Ten years ago, a girl named 'A Ning' reported missing. The last place she was seen was the 'Starlight Cinema' in the old city. The cinema was closed after a fire, and on the door... there was a yellow talisman that was half burned."

Xiao Yin was shocked: "You investigated her?"

“I’ve checked everyone connected to ‘5:59’.” Lin Wan’s voice was hoarse. “A Ning, 19 years old, congenital heart disease, sleepwalking. Every night she dreams of returning to the movie theater—her father died there. On the day of the fire, he locked her in the projection room and went to rescue people, never to return. She dreams of him… calling her name from behind the door.”

"So she always thought he was still waiting for her?" Xiaoyin murmured.

“It wasn’t just ‘thinking’.” Lin Wan stared intently at the crack in the door. “She really heard it. From her dreams, from her obsession, from a crack in time—he kept calling ‘A-Ning’.”

Su Ting's voice suddenly rang out, but it sounded like a completely different person:

“…A-Ning, don’t open the door.”

The three of them were shocked.

“That wasn’t me,” Su Ting said quickly. “That voice—came from the end of the corridor. It was a man’s, hoarse, and choked with sobs. He said, ‘Don’t open the door.’”

Lin Wan gritted her teeth: "That's her father. His obsession was stuck at the last moment, constantly repeating that sentence—'Don't open the door, it's too hot outside, you'll die.'"

Xiao Yin said in a trembling voice, "But Aning... is already dead."

“But she didn’t say goodbye.” Lin Wan stared at the door. “She thought her father was waiting for her, but she didn’t know that when he shouted ‘Don’t open the door,’ it was his last act of protection. She always thought he was telling her to ‘come in.’”

Silence descends like frost.

Su Ting's voice rang out again, but it was so low it was almost inaudible:

“She calls me ‘A-Ning’… because… she can’t see me. She only sees the people she wants to see.”

"So you're a substitute?" Lin Wan roared. "You'd be crazy to take this path for her! You're not her father at all! You're not even A Ning!"

“But I’m listening,” Su Ting said calmly. “I’ve heard her calling out for seventeen years. Every night, every dream, every second that stops at 5:59—she’s waiting for a response.”

He paused, then softened his voice:

"I don't want her to wait any longer."

"So you're going to speak up for her father?!" Lin Wan roared. "What are you going to say? 'I'm sorry, I shouldn't have locked the door'? 'Come on, Dad's waiting for you'? You're fucking lying to a dead man!"

“I’m not lying to her,” Su Ting said. “I’m telling her the truth.”

"The truth is, her father doesn't want her to come in!" Lin Wan slammed her fist on the door. "If you go in, she'll only be in more pain!"

“But she needs to hear,” Su Ting’s voice suddenly softened. “She needs someone to stand on the other side of the door and say to her— ‘I hear you. I know you want to come in. But it’s really too dangerous outside. So, don’t open the door. Stay here. Live well.’”

Xiao Yin covered her mouth, tears streaming down her face.

Lin Wan, panting heavily, pointed at the door: "You're not her father at all... How could you say that?"

Chapter 1318 Strange Gentleness

“I don’t need to be her father,” Su Ting said. “I just need to be the one who… hears her call.”

Suddenly, a rustling sound came from inside the door.

It looked like someone was dragging the body.

Then, a very soft female voice rang out, trembling:

"……dad?"

Su Ting remained silent for a second.

Then he spoke, his voice low and hoarse, yet carrying a strange gentleness, as if piercing through the firelight and thick smoke:

"Aning."

The woman's voice trembled suddenly: "You...you called my name?"

“I heard you,” Su Ting said. “For seventeen years, every night, I heard you standing outside the door. You wanted to come in, to see me, to tell me how much you missed me.”

"I...I miss you so much..." the girl's voice broke. "The fire was so big, why didn't you run away? Why didn't you take me with you?"