The music suddenly stopped playing, the clocks also stopped ticking. It was as if they had reached the end of time. The dim little room was completely silent.
The relaxed, happy smile on the woman's face gradually faded and an uneasy expression started to appear. She was like a dying animal getting a whiff of an ominous smell and then, step by step… she walked towards the closed door. She pushed open the door, then gently reached out and pulled away the white cloth covering the mannequin.
"D-D-D-Don't take it off!" Liu Zhongqi was going insane. He gripped his pen in desperation, all the muscles in his body so tense they were like iron and his heart was pounding hard enough to rupture. "Why is this woman's hand so mischievous! Will it kill her not to touch everything!"
The next moment, there was pandemonium on the screen. The woman was like a little bug trapped in a spiderweb, struggling in despair and terror. All the blood in Liu Zhongqi's body congealed. His neck was stretched out, yet his eyeballs had long since turned to the ceiling out of fear of watching the screen.
Right after that, an ear-piercing shriek rose. There was a snap; Liu Zhongqi had gripped the plastic pen cap so hard that it broke.
After some unknown amount of time, the long horror scene finally ended.
When the background music changed, Liu Zhongqi seemed to collapse. He took a long deep breath and shakily returned his eyeballs that had flown away back into their sockets and looked at the screen again. He saw a man push the door open and enter the room, then say something amidst the scary music.
Before Liu Zhongqi's terrified soul could return to its proper place, a pale hand stretched out from beside him, nearly scaring him into leaping up from the sofa.
"All right." That hand pressed on the pause button. "This line should be easy."
Liu Zhongqi turned his stupefied head around and stared at Gan Qing next to him. Gan Qing was lying across the sofa, her slippers kicked off and her feet resting on a small stool. She was holding a box of Pocky to her chest, a stick dangling out of her mouth the way a cigarette would out of a big boss's mouth. She scraped the cream off with her teeth and bit off the wafer stick. "Why are you looking at me? This line only has three words, it's primary-school level. And you didn't even hear it clearly?"
Liu Zhongqi, "..."
This weekend was a tormenting one, like being tortured with deep water and blazing fire. That imperial brother of his who did not have a good eye for making friends was working extra hours as usual and had entrusted him to the wily courtier Gan Qing. This wily courtier was putting him, this pure and innocent teenager, through such cruel and inhumane persecution, making him transcribe the lines from an English movie, and a horror one at that!
She had even made it sound so nice by saying that horror films had very little dialogue and that the difficulty level was low!
Gan Qing let out a snort of laughter and shook her head. "You're going to be in Year 3 of senior high soon, is it okay for your foundation to be so weak? Let's listen to it once more."
Before Liu Zhongqi could stop her, the "wily courtier" pressed the rewind button. She accidentally rewound too much and went back to the part that Liu Zhongqi hadn't dared watch. The woman's pale hand suddenly reached out from under the white sheet and she trembled as she fought her way out, puking a mouthful of blood. Then, she twisted her head around and let out a terrifying shriek. Something dragged her away swiftly, leaving nothing but a dark trail of blood.
A bloody tongue hung out of her gaping mouth. There was even a close-up.
Liu Zhongqi didn't want to live anymore.
When Yu Lanchuan came back in the evening and picked him up, he realised that after not seeing him for a day, his useless baggage of a little brother had turned as green as a cucumber plant clamped to a trellis. The moment he saw Yu Lanchuan, he was like someone in a disaster zone seeing the relief army. He dashed back home, his eyes full of tears, and seized his blanket and buried himself in it.
Yu Lanchuan asked, "What are you doing?"
Liu Zhongqi complained tearfully, "That woman made me transcribe 'Dead Silence'!"
Who knew if Yu Lanchuan hadn't seen this movie before or if he was really bewitched by the wily courtier. He curiously raised an eyebrow and said, "Do you have to go this far just because of transcribing a movie? When I was preparing for exams, I transcribed the BBC on 1.5 speed. You're going to take the gaokao next year. Time to shape up."
"You shape up!" A howl of despair came from the teenager's room.
"Darling, you forgot this." Gan Qing walked out of the apartment unhurriedly, a small paper bag in her hand. Yu Lanchuan took it from her and without any wariness at all, he opened it to look inside. His hand trembled and he nearly sent it flying—all he saw inside was a bloody brain, and through the paper bag, he could even feel that it was still warm!
Yu Lanchuan used all his prehistoric strength[1] and just barely managed to maintain the cold expression of a domineering boss on his face. He forced himself to take another look and only then realised that it was a fondant cake made to resemble a brain. The colour had been tweaked so that it could pass for the real thing, and there were even gradients in the colouring!
"What you eat makes up for what you lack," Gan Qing said.
Yu Lanchuan, "..."
Little Master Yu had a pair of emotionless eyes, their curvature beautiful yet cold. When he looked at someone, he wouldn't open his eyes completely and his eyelids would always be slightly down. But his pupils were very clear and bright, like they were preserving completely the traces of his innocence. Hence, when that gaze pierced through those thin lenses to look out steadily, there was a kind of indescribable conflict. It was a bit of a shock.
Gan Qing had always been someone who could find ways to make herself comfortable. But for some reason, she became nervous under the scrutiny of this gaze.
Yu Lanchuan asked, "Why have I never gotten something like this?"
"At Lunar New Year, who cooked the food that you ate?" Gan Qing took a step back and leaned against the side of the door, crossing her arms over her chest. "Ask your conscience before you speak, Little Master Yu."
Yu Lanchuan raised his hand and pressed it against the left side of his chest. "I ask my conscience and say, you have never ever given me a gift of food. Don't you girls like to bake sweets and make chocolates to give to others? I received a lot in the past."
With a smile that was not quite a smile, Gan Qing asked, "You received a lot, but did you appreciate them?"
Yu Lanchuan had wanted to subtly show off the fact that he had many pursuers in the past but he was unexpectedly put in checkmate all of a sudden. He felt like it wouldn't be right for him to say that he had appreciated them, but to say that he had not would be even more wrong.
"You basically just threw them away without even eating any, didn't you? You can quit pretending." Gan Qing waved him off. "This is just to make children happy. Who likes handmade presents? Only poor and petty young girls poisoned by idol dramas would think that their thoughts and efforts are so precious-"
The poor and petty "young girl poisoned by idol dramas," Yu Lanchuan, was embarrassed to the point of anger and interrupted her. "Why do you talk so much nonsense? Are you going to do it or not?"
"Okay, okay, okay." Gan Qing tsk-ed. "Is this something that can be forced… What you eat makes up for what you lack, Alliance Leader. I'll offer up one made to look like a stack of renminbi to you, all right? The face value is one hundred million."
Yu Lanchuan felt that this offering was more like the kind meant for the dead. He was just about to bristle all over when his phone suddenly chimed. He picked it up and glanced at the message. "Zhu Qiao is getting released today."
Gan Qing, her sleeves rolled up in preparation to make fake renminbi, paused.
Yan Hao asked Boss Jiang to borrow the old-fashioned electric car that was parked at the bottom of No. 110 and drove it to bring Qiao-Qiao back. The old scooter had been through wind and sun, and the words "Traditional Acupuncture and Moxibustion Treatment" were half faded away, leaving only "Traditional… puncture… Treatment." Together with the burial clothes and flower garlands advertisement that came after it, it turned into an eerie and sinister horror story.
Qiao-Qiao said goodbye to the lawyer that had been helping her the whole time and nudged the flower garland that occupied half the back seat aside, making enough space for one person to sit. She climbed into the car and got on the road, accompanied by the bright and colourful decor. It gave her a feeling like she had died peacefully at a ripe old age.
Swamped by the curious gazes of the onlookers throughout the journey, the two of them returned to the pet store at the bottom of No. 110 Courtyard.
In the past, Qiao-Qiao lived in a small room on the second floor of the pet store. She didn't have to pay rent and it was also convenient for her to take care of the animals at night. At this moment, the large and burly boss of the pet store was giving a dog a shave. A toothpick dangled from his mouth and his brows were furrowed, his face full of murderous aura like he was ready to go hack someone down. The dog under his hands was shivering, not daring to move an inch.
"I-It's okay, don't be scared." Yan Hao stopped the car and turned around to look at her. He saw the girl sitting among the paper flowers looking helplessly weak. The one with rage-reddened eyes who had held a knife to stab someone the other day seemed to be a female ghost that had possessed her. "Go back and bathe with mugwort water to dispel the bad luck. I… I've already explained things to your boss. He only said that as long as you're still willing to, you can continue working at his shop."
Qiao-Qiao lowered her head and followed him down from the car. She picked at her own fingers, her heart extremely flustered. Were it not for her, Yan Hao wouldn't have dared talk to her boss whose arms were decorated with an azure dragon on the left and a white tiger on the right, not even if he went to the bank and took a loan of two hundred guts.
She had caused trouble and couldn't settle it herself. She dragged in a group of friends who got injured because of it. How was she to repay this debt?
And she hadn't even been able to kill the target of her revenge with her own hands.
"You're finally back, a-achoo!" The pet store boss turned and let out a huge sneeze. "This damned dog fur! I'm not doing this anymore, the rest of the work is yours."
Qiao-Qiao stood nervously in front of him.
The pet store boss lifted his eyes and looked at her. "What?"
Qiao-Qiao was at a loss. She signed: I'm sorry.
The pet store boss extended a hand as large as a palm-leaf fan and cupped it on the girl's head, turning her head up. "Who doesn't have a bit of a story behind them?"
Qiao-Qiao looked at him in a daze.
The boss continued to say, "But if you ask me, you shouldn't have one. You're just a tiny thing of a child, your heart and mind have not developed fully. Why is your heart so heavy? You guys talk, I'm leaving now."
The few dogs in the dog pen at the door that were being boarded at the store heard those words and their ears perked up. The boss's fierce eyes swept across them and they quickly flattened themselves to the ground, their ears drooping, playing the coward for one last time.
When Gan Qing and Yu Lanchuan came to the pet store, they found that the animals were all celebrating wildly. The pack of dogs were singing in chorus and the cats were parkouring heroically on the cat tree—two of them collided and tumbled down the wooden board, rolling together into a ball of fur.
Yu Lanchuan asked in shock, "What's this? A sign of an earthquake coming?"
Qiao-Qiao washed and tidied herself up and came down from upstairs. Her hair was not dry yet and she was like a drenched kitten. With a shamed expression and crestfallen eyes, she pointed the splint on Gan Qing's right arm and bowed at the two of them.
"It's fine." Gan Qing waved at her. "Even without your part in it, we would look for Yang Ping. It's only a matter of time."
"We would look for him using a reasonable method, find a way to get something to use against him and send him to the court of law." Yu Lanchuan shot Gan Qing a glare and turned to Qiao-Qiao. "And not charge up to him, hack him to death, then wait to be sentenced! Did you not finish your nine years of compulsory education? Don't you know that murder is against the law?"
Qiao-Qiao lowered her head even more. Her hands signed a few words.
Yan Hao translated for her, "She really didn't finish the nine years. She dropped out in Year 3 of junior high."
Yu Lanchuan, "..."
The education level of the young heroes of the martial arts community nowadays was enough to make a person bald from worry.
"Was your grandfather a Beggars' Sect sect elder?" Gan Qing stretched out a hand and caught a kitten that had somehow slipped out. The kitten had its tail up high in celebration just now but once it was in her hand, it seemed rather scared and started trembling visibly. Gan Qing had no choice but to put it down. She rubbed her own nose. Since young, she had not been liked by small animals. These little things might look foolish but they were actually very sensitive and knew which people were bad news.
Qiao-Qiao took out her notebook and wrote: Zhu Jianjun.
"A former Beggars' Sect Nine Pouch Elder." Yu Lanchuan took a glance. "When he was Old Yang's right and left hand man, those Tian and Zhao fellows were still having pissing contests in some mountain full of monkeys. Because his family died in a tragedy, he looked for Travellers' Sect to get personal revenge. He was sentenced to prison and later died behind bars."
Qiao-Qiao's eyes darkened. She drew an arrow under the name and wrote: Zhu Cong.
Gan Qing asked, "Your father?"
Qiao-Qiao nodded.
Yu Lanchuan asked, "Where did he go after that?"
A relative's place, Qiao-Qiao wrote. Very far, not around here.
A thirteen-year old teenager stayed overnight at a school friend's home. Afraid of being scolded the next day, he prepared a bellyful of excuses such as "doing homework" and "revising school work" and nervously headed home… but who would have thought that he no longer had a home.
The moment his father, whose eyes were reddened, saw him, he locked the teenager at home, forbidding him from meeting anyone.
A Nine Pouch Elder of Beggars' Sect had friends all over Yanning. The spirit of the jianghu emphasised caring for the old and young like they were your own parents and children, and entrusting your child to another person was a common thing. He could entrust his son to anyone and his son could grow up well with his own people. However, Elder Zhu secretly sent him to his dead wife's distant relatives who lived far away in a farming village.
"Then…"
"Then…"
Gan Qing and Yu Lanchuan opened their mouths at the same time. They exchanged a look and Gan Qing gave way. "Looks like we have telepathy. Alliance Leader, please go ahead."
Yu Lanchuan took the right to speak without any modesty and asked a question he felt was very important. "Then, do you have a Yanning household registration now?"
Gan Qing, "..."
Qiao-Qiao shook her head and looked at him in bewilderment. At her age, she still did not understand what was the use of a household registration.
Yu Lanchuan frowned, his expression severe. "Then, it's troublesome. If you want to continue studying and working..."
Gan Qing smacked a hand on his upper back. Who knew what kind of technique she had used; Yu Lanchuan suddenly choked on his breath and the second half of his sentence was cut off in his throat.
Yu Lanchuan coughed, shooting her an angry glare at the same time. Unruffled, Gan Qing withdrew her claws and turned to ask Qiao-Qiao, "Which is to say, at that time, your grandfather was already guarded against his fellow Beggars' Sect members?"
A slight bloodthirsty light shone from Qiao-Qiao's large eyes. She pressed her lips together and nodded.
Gan Qing asked gently, "Was it your father who told you about the old matters from over thirty years ago?"
Qiao-Qiao shook her head. He died a long time ago.
Yu Lanchuan asked, "How did he die?"
Qiao-Qiao again shook her head and wrote: I don't know, I can only confirm that he's dead. My dad had always been investigating what happened that year. Whenever he got a whiff of any news, he would drop everything and leave to follow the clue, leaving for months at a time. Hence, he could not keep proper jobs for long and could only do odd jobs for other people. He seemed to have a friend outside helping him who frequently sent him news but he had never brought this friend home and I don't know who it was. Whenever he left on long journeys, he promised my mum that he would send a letter home every month. But ten months after I was born, our family never again received a letter from him.
Yu Lanchuan said, "Could it be…"
The speed of Qiao-Qiao's pen increased, her words flying across the page: My mum said that my dad is someone who cared for his family. After going through that tragedy as a child, he didn't dare not care for his family. Even if he was on his last breath, he would write a letter to his family and come up with a way for us to survive.
Gan Qing seemed to recall something. Her gaze fell on Qiao-Qiao's work badge where her name and zodiac sign was written. Perhaps Teacher Meng-Meng was possessed by the spirit of a charlatan; she looked at the zodiac sign deep in thought, her expression rather grave for some reason.
Qiao-Qiao continued to write: My mum passed away when I was in Year 3 of junior high. Someone from my relatives came and told me that my dad was adopted and since I was also a girl, I shouldn't occupy the family's house and land. I can't speak and couldn't out-argue them so I was thrown out and I came to Yanning to look for work. My mum said that the enemy of our family lives here. I found out that the Martial Arts General Assembly is held here and had snuck in once to observe. I saw that man, Yang Qing. They say that he places justice before family and that he even ousted his own son when his son did something wrong. I don't believe that.
Qiao-Qiao wrote faster and faster: When my dad was still alive, he had said repeatedly that my grandpa had been called away by Yang Qing's son so the Yang family must be related to the matter! Yang Qing is a hypocrite who pretends to be honourbel...
Qiao-Qiao's writing sped up and there were even mistakes. Yan Hao grabbed her wrist. "The Old Sect Leader isn't someone like that."
"Young lady," Gan Qing asked, "When your father stopped communicating, you were only one year old. Who told you all these things?"
Qiao-Qiao fought free of Yan Hao's grip.
My mum.
She wrote: Since I was young, my mum told me that her life, my dad's life, our whole family… were all destroyed by these evil people. I must take revenge. Even if I do nothing else, I must take revenge.
T/N:
[1] "Prehistoric strength" here is 洪荒之力. This phrase became a meme after the swimmer Fu Yuanhui used it in an interview after winning the bronze medal in the 100m backstroke competition in the Olympics in 2016.