TBWE Chapter 9

Slap

Chu Li awoke as if from a dream.

Large teardrops rushed out one after another. She didn’t bother wiping them away and stumbled to the basement door, pressing the switch beside the small door.

The bookshelf quietly closed. With trembling hands, she shut the small door and locked it.

“Huff… huff…“

She leaned against the cold door panel. No matter how hard she tried to breathe, she felt dizzy and oxygen-deprived, as if a thousand butterflies were dancing wildly in her mind.

The person who had been intimate with her all this time, sharing her bed, was not Huo Xiu possessed by a ghost.

It was a monster.

Huo Xiu had already died the day he fell into the sea. The monster had borrowed this body, disguised itself as him, and for some unknown reason, had abandoned this physical form.

“It’s okay, it’s okay… calm down…” Chu Li murmured to herself.

Right, there was still what Taoist Ming Wei had given her.

The basement had a good ventilation system. The cold wind blowing on her body made her long dress, soaked with cold sweat, stick to her skin—cold and clammy, making Chu Li shiver involuntarily as she barely regained her composure.

She emptied her mind, ignored the corpse on the specimen table, and forced herself to recall only the methods Ming Wei had taught her, placing the items in their proper positions.

Then she shook the small jar filled with cinnabar and sprinkled it along the walls of the room.

Everything was ready; she just needed a flame.

The bag was filled with things Taoist Ming Wei had given her. Before leaving, he had specifically instructed that after everything was prepared, she should pile combustible materials in the center and light them with talisman paper.

Chu Li’s gaze swept quickly around the basement and settled on a wall cabinet where the compartments were filled with file folders.

Stored in the basement and sealed in file folders, these must be very important things to Huo Xiu.

But she couldn’t worry about privacy now.

The glass cabinet door wasn’t locked. She silently apologized twice and quickly took out several file folders, tearing them open and dumping out their contents.

Photographs scattered like snowflakes.

One photo drifted past Chu Li’s eyes, and she instinctively caught it. The edges were yellowed and the image wasn’t very clear, but she immediately recognized the location—

The bedroom, her bedroom in the Chu family villa.

A young girl in a floral nightgown was lying on the bed with her fair legs crossed, reading a book.

It should have been a peaceful and beautiful scene, but it made Chu Li’s spine run cold.

In the upper left corner of the photo was a line of numbers: 2012.09.14.

This was a photo from nine years ago in autumn, when she had just entered middle school. From the image quality and the timestamp, it looked like a screenshot from surveillance footage.

Chu Li gripped the corner of the photo, staring at it for a long while before realizing it was taken from the direction of the bookshelf at the foot of the bed.

The bookshelf at that time held many miscellaneous books, pretty ornaments, and the white bird specimen Huo Xiu had given her before going abroad.

The photo silently slipped from between her fingers and landed among the colorful photographs scattered on the floor.

Every single one was of her.

Different times, different places, different ages—all her.

Some taken by surveillance cameras, others from her various social media posts, and still others from third-person perspectives she had never noticed.

After Huo Xiu went abroad, someone had been continuously monitoring and photographing her, then sending these photos to him.

The photographer had a very intimate relationship with her.

Chu Li suddenly forgot about the corpse on the specimen table behind her and the monster that had returned to the villa. The image of the solitary boy and gentle young man in her memory kept collapsing in her mind.

With a wooden expression, she took out each file folder, opened it, and poured its contents on the floor.

The file folder covers all had dates written on them, from 2012.09 to 2021.06, organized by month—nine years, a total of 107 file folders.

They recorded nine years of her life from seventh grade to junior year of college.

The records ended last month because they had gone on an island trip and the passenger ship had capsized in an accident.

The watcher died, and the records stopped.

Chu Li opened the last file folder. It was the 108th one, with no date written on it, and inside was a thick stack of letters.

“You look very pretty in a white dress, but I don’t like the male student sitting next to you. Eyes tell me he’s your new friend. You don’t need male friends; having me is enough.”

—Dated May 14, 2013.

Chu Li remembered the transfer student from eighth grade who had hurriedly transferred in, became her desk mate for a week, then hurriedly transferred to another class.

“You haven’t actively mentioned me to Yanjing in a long time. Are you about to forget me?

(TL: 眼睛 (yanjing)=Eyes)

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about that summer. How wonderful it would have been if you had died at Thousand Island Lake. Specimens are beautiful because they remain forever in their most beautiful moment. I hope you could also remain in the moment when you forever remember me.”

—Dated August 3, 2017.

“I’m back, Li Li.”

—Dated July 15, 2019.

Snow-white or yellowed letter paper fell onto the pile of photographs.

Chu Li didn’t read them all—there were many letters, and she only randomly opened some, but it was enough to piece together the real Huo Xiu.

Many of her doubts from these years finally had answers.

She had always felt like someone was secretly watching her, and the friends she made always grew distant for various reasons.

It turned out none of it was her fault.

“Knock knock.“

The knocking came without warning—slow, gentle knocks that stopped after two taps.

“Li Li, are you in there?”

The person outside inquired in a gentle tone.

Chu Li stared woodenly at the cold corpse not far away, a whimper escaping her throat.

Help me…

Someone please save me…

She opened her mouth futilely like a dying bird, unable to make a sound, her heart torn bloody by the photographs and letters scattered on the floor.

Her body began to move on its own.

Chu Li’s soul seemed to leave her body as she watched herself expressionlessly sweep away the photographs on the floor, clear a space, then pile all the letters together, pull out the talisman paper Taoist Ming Wei had given her, light it with a lighter, and throw it onto the pile of letters.

The leaping flames instantly grew higher.

The flames crackled as they licked the paper, and the white paper and black writing quickly twisted and turned into fire.

The person outside seemed to lose patience, and the locked small door crashed to the ground.

“Sizzle—“

The lights began flickering frequently due to unstable electrical current.

Chu Li stood in the intermittent light, with a pile of leaping, burning flames in front of her, illuminating her pale, bloodless face.

Outside the small door was pitch black.

Had it gotten dark?

Seeing the tide-like writhing black mist crawling into the basement, Chu Li hazily realized it wasn’t nightfall.

He emerged from the shadows, walking down the steps one by one, stopping in front of the fire pile.

His expression was gentle, his pupils dark and deep, like a monster whose disguise had been exposed but was still clumsily trying to imitate.

“Sorry Li Li, I forgot to clean up properly and scared you.”

Swimming black shadows wrapped around the corpse, and the specimen table was instantly clean.

The fire pile burned more fiercely, swaying wildly despite the absence of wind, the flickering light playing across his face.

Chu Li suddenly realized that this face actually bore no resemblance to Huo Xiu at all.

Why had she only just noticed this now?

Chu Li opened her mouth, her voice hoarse. “What… are you exactly?”

He looked down at her, the small red mole on his left eyelid like a drop of blood. He took a step forward, his tone gentle. “Li Li, are you hungry? How about stir-fried beef tonight?”

She screamed. “Who are you exactly?!”

He sighed softly and continued forward another step. “I’m Huo Xiu.”

The fire pile had almost burned to the level of Chu Li’s chest.

She watched helplessly as he walked through the flames as if nothing had happened, reaching his hand toward her and saying, “The air quality here isn’t good. Let’s go out first, okay?”

Chu Li’s sanity was like a balloon blown to its limit—it burst with a “pop.”

“Get away!”

Huo Xiu’s face turned to one side, his gold-rimmed glasses flying off to hit the wall and break in two.

Without the glasses to hide them, those narrow, profound eyes seemed like whirlpools.

He slowly turned his head back, gazing at Chu Li, and took another step closer.

Chu Li instinctively stepped back, her lower back hitting the specimen table. Her lost rationality barely returned, and an indescribable fear made it difficult for her to breathe.

Looking at the hand reaching toward her,

Chu Li realized she might be about to die.

That hand grasped her wrist and lifted it, using his cold knuckles to touch her palm, which was numb and burning hot after delivering the slap.

“I’m sorry, does it hurt?”

What was he saying?

Chu Li almost thought she had gone crazy and everything was a delusion after a mental breakdown.

Otherwise, why would a monster ask if it hurt after she had slapped it?

This scene was too bizarre, diluting the intense fear. She forcefully pulled back her hand, grabbed the plastic bag from the floor, and ran frantically out of the basement.

“Li Li?” Huo Xiu seemed confused and followed her out, then stopped at the last step.

The cinnabar flowed like red light, blocking his path.

Chu Li fumbled for the incense sticks Taoist Ming Wei had given her. Because her hands were shaking so badly, she tried three times with the lighter before successfully lighting the three sticks.

Outside the study, the sky had completely darkened. The only light source was the fire burning in the basement.

Huo Xiu stood backlit, his face immersed in darkness.

Chu Li held the three incense sticks, opening her mouth with infinite hope. “Transcend lonely souls, free them from suffering, return, return.”

Then she closed her eyes and bowed.

All around was silent. Bit by bit, she straightened up and opened her eyes—

The tall figure stood quietly in the same place, and the three incense sticks in her hand had broken in half, becoming three broken sticks.

Why?

Chu Li’s head was buzzing.

She took out three more incense sticks, lit them again, and continued chanting and bowing.

When Chu Li tried for the third time, the still figure suddenly moved.

He seemed to tear through some kind of boundary, calmly stepping off the last step. The fire in the basement was extinguished, and the entire villa plunged into darkness.

“Yuan Bao, turn on the lights.”

Light banished the darkness.

Huo Xiu glanced at the broken incense sticks on the floor and chose to give her an answer. “Li Li, I’m not a ghost. This method won’t work on me.”

All the strength drained from Chu Li’s body. She didn’t want to think about what he really was and only hoped he would make it quick.

“What do you really want to do?”

He walked to the desk and pulled out two tissues, then walked in front of her, patiently and carefully wiping the tear tracks from her face and tidying her disheveled, damp hair.

Finally, he took her hand and led her outside, saying, “Cook dinner for you.”