When Guo Ming called Lin Jing out of the kitchen at Jingjing Food Stall, a torrential downpour was raging outside.
The rain was so unbelievably heavy that the raindrops pelted the makeshift shelter outside with a deafening pitter-patter. The shelter consisted of nothing more than a sheet of transparent plastic stretched overhead, and before long, rainwater began collecting in its sagging sections, glistening brightly as it hung precariously from the plastic sheet.
Several pedestrians who had failed to find shelter in time hurried inside. They gathered in small groups, watching the weather outside while chatting and laughing among themselves.
The downpour had arrived without warning, just as Guo Ming’s appearance had been equally unexpected. After all, Lin Jing had imagined countless possibilities for his future, but never once had he considered that he might actually inherit an estate.
“Are you Mr. Lin? I’m the lawyer your uncle, Zhou Fangming, appointed to handle his affairs. He passed away last month, and he left an inheritance to you.”
Guo Ming placed a photocopy of Zhou Fangming’s will on the table and pushed it toward Lin Jing. Then, without making his scrutiny too obvious, he studied the peculiar man sitting across from him. Actually, calling him a man might not have been entirely accurate. Perhaps he was still a boy.
As a lawyer who had been in the profession for quite some time, Guo Ming had encountered more than his fair share of eccentric people. However, he had never met anyone quite as unusual as the person sitting before him.
The young man wore a slightly yellowed white face mask, while the hair hanging over his forehead was long enough to conceal his eyebrows and most of his eyes. Only when the wind occasionally swept a few strands aside could Guo Ming catch a glimpse of eyes that seemed to shimmer with an extraordinary, almost beautiful radiance.
There was no doubt that the young man was exceptionally captivating. Yet, for some inexplicable reason, Guo Ming found himself reluctant to meet his gaze. The fear was entirely irrational, with no discernible cause. It was the same instinctive dread human beings felt when confronted with darkness, as though it were something deeply ingrained in the human body from birth.
Consequently, like a small animal instinctively avoiding danger, Guo Ming reflexively averted his gaze from the young man’s face and looked down at his body instead.
The young man was wrapped in a white chef’s uniform, its hem stained with damp patches. His figure did not possess the broadness, fullness, or sturdiness typically associated with an adult man. Although he was tall, his build remained slender and lean, with a hint of youthful fragility. That was another important reason why Guo Ming suspected he might still be a boy.
Lin Jing had noticed the other man’s scrutiny long ago. However, the harmless curiosity in Guo Ming’s eyes interested him far less than the will lying in front of him.
He carefully read through the document. The name and identification number listed under the beneficiary’s details were indeed his own. The will also provided a detailed description of the property he was about to inherit, including an apartment and everything inside it, along with all the money deposited in a bank account ending in 8203.
There was nothing vague or ambiguous about the document. Everything had been written with remarkable precision and clarity.
The only problem was that Lin Jing had absolutely no recollection of the person who had made the will.
“Who?”
He put the document down and looked at the man sitting opposite him.
“Ah! Uh… What?” Guo Ming seemed to snap out of a trance, staring at him in slight bewilderment.
Lin Jing extended one finger and pointed at the three characters Zhou Fangming printed on the paper before repeating his question. “Who is this?”
“Oh, oh, oh! Zhou Fangming. He’s my client, your distant uncle. If we calculate the family relationship correctly, he should be the son of your maternal grandmother’s older sister…”
Guo Ming initially intended to explain their exact relationship using the proper familial term. However, after attempting to untangle the complicated web of relatives, he realized that he was simply incapable of explaining it clearly. In the end, he abandoned the effort.
Lin Jing looked at him silently for a moment before replying, “I don’t know him.”
The slight lapse in professionalism earlier seemed to have been nothing more than a brief accident. Guo Ming quickly regained the composure expected of an experienced lawyer.
He reached into the briefcase he had brought with him, retrieved two photographs, and handed them to Lin Jing.
“Although it might sound unbelievable, the two of you actually met when you were children. You even spent some time together.”
Lin Jing took the photographs and examined them.
One was a group photograph, while the other showed a man holding a small child in his arms.
There were quite a few people in the group photograph. Unfortunately, the sheer number of people, combined with the considerable passage of time, had left most of their figures blurred and indistinct. The facial features of nearly everyone in the picture were impossible to make out. All that remained recognizable were rows of dark silhouettes standing together.
Strangely enough, Lin Jing still recognized his mother at a single glance.
She had been much younger back then and was standing in the second row of the crowd, holding a chubby, adorable little child in her arms.
That child was him.
There was something unusual about the little boy in the photograph. The colors throughout the picture were gloomy and muted, as though every trace of brightness had been drained away, leaving behind only shades of gray, dirty orange, and dark brownish-black.
Only the child’s skin remained a clear, creamy white, resembling solidified milk fat.
Lin Jing gazed at the little boy’s tiny black eyes. For a moment, it felt as though he were looking directly into the eyes of his former self. It was a strange, subtle sensation, one that was difficult to put into words.
An ordinary person might have been frightened by such an inexplicable feeling. Lin Jing, however, was not.
He merely extended one finger and pressed it against the photograph, right over his younger self, as casually as someone pinning down a lively fish that was swimming about.
“Please look here.”
Guo Ming was still enthusiastically explaining the photographs. “This little boy is you, Mr. Lin, isn’t he? Mr. Zhou left this photograph behind, and it took us quite a bit of effort to obtain it.”
Lin Jing followed his explanation and examined the individual photograph.
It showed an ordinary-looking young man standing beneath a tree, holding a small child in his arms and facing the camera. Neither of them had much of an expression on their faces.
However, there was also a donkey tied to the tree. It was baring its teeth in a peculiar grin, adding a touch of cheerfulness to the otherwise unremarkable photograph.
No one knew where the photograph had been discarded in the past, but the entire thing felt damp to the touch. The images, which must once have been clear, had darkened until they were almost impossible to distinguish. The young man in the photograph was particularly badly affected. Apart from his face, the rest of his body had blurred into an indistinct black mass.
“Mr. Lin, the man holding you is Mr. Zhou Fangming… He’s right here.”
Guo Ming pointed toward the upper-left corner of the group photograph, indicating the figure he wanted Lin Jing to look at.
Sure enough, Lin Jing found Zhou Fangming’s indistinct silhouette in the corner on the left.
“It looks like the two of you were quite close when you were children…”
“Even if that’s true, why me?”
Lin Jing certainly did not believe that good fortune simply fell from the sky.
Guo Ming adjusted his glasses and answered calmly, “Mr. Zhou Fangming never married. He had no siblings, and both of his parents passed away before him. His relationships with his other relatives and friends were rather strained. As for why he chose you as his heir, we suspect it might have been because of the bond you shared when you were young.”
“But…”
“Mr. Zhou had no outstanding debts or loans, so you won’t inherit any debt.”
“But…”
“If you don’t wish to accept the inheritance, you can donate it. The only difficult part would be dealing with the apartment, since your uncle passed away inside it…”
“Where do I sign?”
…
Guo Ming satisfactorily gathered the documents Lin Jing had signed and shook his hand. “Mr. Lin, I’ll come and pick you up in a couple of days so we can handle the formalities with the relevant authorities. Please keep your phone available.”
Lin Jing nodded without the slightest embarrassment. After all, the reason Guo Ming had been unable to reach him by phone and had eventually been forced to come all the way to the food stall’s kitchen was that his phone service had been suspended because he had failed to pay the bill.
“Then I’ll take my leave for now. Goodbye.”
The torrential rain had arrived suddenly and disappeared just as abruptly. By this point, it had already begun to ease.
Guo Ming opened an umbrella, exchanged his farewells with Lin Jing, and hurried away.
After waiting until the lawyer was gone, Lin Jing turned around and looked toward a corner behind the shelter.
Two young women standing there immediately panicked when they realized he had noticed them. They hurriedly put away their phones and gave him awkward smiles.
“Sorry! We’ll delete the pictures right away… By the way, would you be interested in taking a part-time job?”
“I’m not interested.”
“Don’t reject us so quickly! We’re students from the fine arts academy next door. Do you want to see our student IDs? Hey, do you know how beautiful you are? Oh, sorry, we haven’t actually seen your face, but there’s just something about you that makes you stand out from everyone else. It’s like how celebrities attract attention even in a crowd. You have this kind of dazzling presence… Anyway, you’re just really special! We want to invite you to work as an art model for us. We’ll pay you 600 yuan an hour. What do you think?”
Lin Jing: “…”
Six hundred yuan an hour?!
Lin Jing’s heart began pounding uncontrollably.
That was six times his current hourly wage! And the job involved nothing more than sitting still and posing as a model for artists!
“What would the requirements be? I mean, would it be possible for me not to show my face?”
He was genuinely tempted by the offer. It was a temporary job with excellent pay, and if he could avoid showing his face, that would make it even better.
“Of course! Absolutely! That’s perfectly fine. Although we might ask you to reveal certain parts of your body, such as your neck or hands. Just a little bit, that’s all. Would that be acceptable?”
The two women immediately grew excited. Afraid that Lin Jing might change his mind and reject their offer, they even used their hands to demonstrate just how little they meant. And they really did mean very little, only about one or two centimeters.
“No problem.”
“Great, great! What’s your phone number? Do you use WeChat? How should we contact you?”
Lin Jing took out his phone and added them on WeChat. Although his phone service had been suspended, he could still use the food stall’s Wi-Fi.
“Good luck! You can do it, handsome!”
After obtaining his contact information, the two women linked arms and walked away together. Before leaving, perhaps because they assumed Lin Jing had some personal reason for concealing his face, they even gave him a few words of encouragement.
The generous hourly rate had left Lin Jing thoroughly satisfied. He was equally happy and waved goodbye to them. Only after the two women had disappeared into the distance did he turn around and return to the kitchen of Jingjing Food Stall.
At this point, it was worth mentioning his other job.
Lin Jing was currently employed as a kitchen assistant responsible for chopping vegetables at Jingjing Food Stall. His duties were straightforward and required little thought, although they involved chopping an endless supply of scallions, ginger, cilantro, and various other ingredients every single day.
On top of that, he had to wash vegetables, prepare skewers, and wash dishes. Whenever the owner was too busy to manage everything himself, Lin Jing occasionally had to step in and help the head chef stir-fry a few dishes as well.
The work was exhausting, and the workload was heavy. Nevertheless, Lin Jing considered the job reasonably good.
After all, he did not have to show his face here, his wages were paid daily, and the owner never delayed payment. The owner was a cheerful, straightforward man from northern China who was easy to get along with and generous toward his employees.
He was also remarkably tolerant of one tiny flaw in Lin Jing’s character: the young man ate an extraordinary amount of the staff meals.
When Lin Jing returned to his place in the kitchen and picked up his knife to resume chopping scallions, Xu Hao, who was working beside him, suddenly squeezed his way over and launched into an unstoppable stream of chatter.
“Hey, buddy, who was that looking for you? Someone from your family?”
Lin Jing ignored him.
For some reason, Xu Hao seemed particularly fixated on finding out who Guo Ming was. Holding a bunch of Chinese chives in his hand, he ran from one side of Lin Jing to the other, persistently questioning him. “Was that someone from your family? Huh? Was it your family or not? Are you leaving? What’s your name, anyway? We’ve known each other for so long, and you still aren’t willing to tell me your name?”
So noisy.
Lin Jing really wanted to stuff all the chopped scallions in his hands into Xu Hao’s mouth.
And it wasn’t just the noise. Lin Jing could also smell an indescribable odor coming from him.
The smell was similar to that of certain pungent plants, celery, for example. It was also remarkably fresh, giving Lin Jing the impression that if he simply washed Xu Hao clean, he could toss him straight into a pot and start cooking.
We are here with another horror book but this time.. It’s about cooking… So let’s enjoy Cthulhu cooking 🔪