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

no respond.

Only the child's laughter, intermittent and sometimes near, seemed to come from a very deep place.

Lin Wan gritted her teeth, raised her hand, and tried to push the door open.

"No!" Xiao Yin stopped him abruptly. "Have you forgotten the rules? Living people can't force their way into the corridor of the dead's obsessions! You'll be devoured!"

Chapter 1312 is almost here.

Lin Wan's hand froze in mid-air, his knuckles white. He slowly withdrew his hand, but said in a low voice, "He's been inside for eight minutes... The clock hasn't rung a second time, and the door hasn't closed. This means... the corridor is hesitating."

"hesitate?"

“It means,” Lin Wan stared at the ray of light, “that he hadn’t finished saying those three sentences, but… that child is about to leave.”

Xiaoyin bit her lower lip, her eyes reddening: "What did he see...?"

Su Ting stood in a classroom.

It wasn't a modern classroom, nor did it resemble any school he remembered. Old wooden desks and chairs sat askew, the blackboard was cracked, and chalk dust lay on the podium like accumulated snow. Outside the window, the sky was overcast, raindrops fell silently, but the ground was dry.

In the last row of the classroom sat a little boy who looked about seven or eight years old.

He wore a faded blue cotton shirt with patches at the knees, and his cloth shoes were torn, revealing his big toe. He kept his head down, clutching a bottle of medicine in his hand, with a faded label on the bottle: "Painkillers".

Su Ting's heart sank.

He slowly walked over and squatted down in front of the boy.

"May I have your name?"

The boy didn't look up, and said in a very soft voice, "They call me Little Tree."

"Little Tree?" Su Ting asked softly, "Who named you that?"

“Mom said,” the boy finally looked up, his eyes so clear it was heartbreaking, “I’m like that little orange tree in the yard; no matter how strong the wind blows, I won’t fall down.”

Su Ting felt a lump in her throat.

He reached out to touch the boy's head, but his hand passed right through it—he was still an "outsider," not yet accepted by this obsession.

"Little tree, why have you been here all this time?"

“I’m waiting for my mom.” The boy lowered his head, his fingertips tracing the medicine bottle. “I brought her medicine that day, but she didn’t open the door. I knocked for a long time, but no one answered. I thought she might be asleep… so I went back to the classroom to wait. But the teacher said school was over, so I left. But as I walked, it got dark, so I went back and knocked on the door again… but still no one answered.”

His voice grew softer and softer: "Later... I could never find my way home again. Every time I woke up, I was in this classroom. My mother said she would come to pick me up... she promised."

Su Ting looked at him, her heart feeling as if it were being gripped tightly by an invisible hand.

It turns out it wasn't that he didn't want to wake up.

He dared not close his eyes—afraid that if he did, his mother would really disappear.

“Little Tree,” Su Ting said softly, “listen to me.”

The boy looked up.

"I heard it."

The wind suddenly stopped. The rain outside the window froze on the glass, like transparent tears.

“I heard you taking a detour to the pharmacy every day after school, I heard you tiptoeing to put the medicine under the doormat, I heard you waiting in the cold wind for three hours until you collapsed with a fever… I heard it all.”

The boy's eyelashes trembled, and a tear fell onto the medicine bottle.

“I don’t blame you.” Su Ting’s voice was even softer, yet it was like a blade slicing through the fog. “I don’t blame you for not waiting for your mother to open the door, I don’t blame you for being afraid of the dark, afraid of the cold, afraid of going home alone. You are a child, and you have done enough.”

The cracks on the blackboard began to heal, and chalk dust rose slowly, drifting away like snowflakes.

“You can go now.” Su Ting reached out his hand, this time placing his palm firmly on the boy’s hair. “You’ve waited long enough. Mom… she’s not unwilling to open the door, she might… be lost too.”

The boy was stunned.

Then, he suddenly laughed, a laugh like sunlight splitting through dark clouds.

"But..." he whispered, "I'm afraid she won't be able to find me."

Chapter 1313 The Moment the Door Opened

Su Ting smiled too: "Then let her remember your last moments—not huddled in a corner of the classroom trembling, but smiling as you say to her, 'Mom, I'm leaving.'"

The boy nodded and slowly stood up.

He gently placed the medicine bottle on the table, and then took Su Ting's hand.

"Brother, could you... walk me to the door?"

“Of course.” Su Ting squeezed his hand. “I’ll take you.”

They headed towards the back door of the classroom.

The moment the door opened, light flooded in.

It wasn't a glaring white, but a warm orange, like the sunset, like the wrapper of a candy orange, like the strands of hair that fall loose when a mother bends over.

A woman stood outside the door.

She wore an old-fashioned polyester shirt, with a faded sunflower brooch pinned to her apron. Her eyes were red and swollen, and her face was streaked with tears, but when she saw the sapling, her whole face lit up.

"Little tree—!"

The boy suddenly broke free from Su Ting's hand and ran towards her.

"mom!"

He threw himself into her arms, his small body tightly hugging her waist, as if he had finally caught a small boat that had been adrift for many years.

The woman knelt down, hugged him tightly, and sobbed uncontrollably, "I'm sorry... I'm so sorry... Mom was at the hospital that day... Mom didn't hear me... Mom..."

Su Ting stood at the door, watching quietly.

The pocket watch suddenly clicked.

The hands moved slowly from 6:18 to 6:19.

He smiled.

"This time... I made it."

The woman hugged the sapling, slowly stood up, and glanced back at Su Ting.

That one glance, though silent, spoke volumes.

Then, hand in hand, they walked into the depths of the light.

Suddenly, Xiao Shu turned around, waved at Su Ting, and shouted loudly:

"Brother! When you go back, please eat a sweet orange candy for me!"

Su Ting waved his hand vigorously: "Okay! I'll eat three!"

The light gradually dimmed, and the door slowly closed.

Su Ting stood there until the last glimmer of light was swallowed up.

He turned and walked toward the door at the end of the corridor.

Every step feels like stepping on memories.

The light disappeared through the crack in the door.

But the door creaked open a crack.

Xiao Yin suddenly held her breath: "The door... is open?"

Lin Wan stared at the crack, her voice hoarse: "It's not open... it's him coming back."

Sure enough, a pale hand reached out from inside the door and braced itself against the door frame.

Immediately afterwards, Su Ting fell out and crashed heavily to the ground, his pocket watch flying out of his hand and rolling to Lin Wan's feet.

"Su Ting!" Xiao Yin rushed over and helped him up. "How are you? Say something!"

Su Ting lay on his back on the ground, his chest heaving violently, his face as pale as paper, but a smile was playing on his lips.

He raised his hand and pointed to the pocket watch at Lin Wan's feet.

Lin Wan picked it up and looked down—

Beneath the rusty watch case, the hands are slowly turning.

6: 19.

6: 20.

6: 21.

Time has finally begun to move forward.

Lin Wan's throat tightened, and she looked up at him, glaring at him: "What the hell did you see?"

Su Ting closed his eyes, panting, and whispered:

"I saw a mother who had finally picked up her child."