Not everyone possessed the sheer courage to stand face-to-face with a monster, let alone actively hunt down its tracks. Such reckless behavior was practically indistinguishable from suicide.
The old gardener studied Xia Miao for a long moment before the urge to kill her suddenly faded away.
If he actually went ahead and killed Xia Miao, that idiot would undoubtedly come looking for him to fight to the death. After all, Xia Miao was reeking entirely of Lu Yan’s scent—like a clear territorial mark broadcasting to every single eerie entity in the area that she belonged exclusively to him.
With a sly, wrinkled smile, the old gardener chuckled:
“You want to see Lu Yan? Sure thing, I can take you there.”
Following closely behind the old gardener, Xia Miao waded through a patch of gloomy, pitch-black woods. Amidst an eerie, biting chill, she laid eyes on a sight she had never encountered before.
A sprawling sea of flowers and a quiet, glassy lake rested here in profound silence. A towering black building loomed under the night sky, its wide-open front doors resembling the gaping maw of an abyss, waiting hungrily for prey to walk right into its trap.
This was the very first time a living human had ever set foot in this place.
A headless female entity, squatting deep within the flowerbeds and rifling through a pile of trash, straightened up. She seemed to be blankly “staring” directly at the human who had willingly thrown herself into the lion’s den.
The conjoined brothers, who had been busy debating what to eat tomorrow, abruptly fell silent in perfect unison. Slumping flat to the belly on the ground, they lifted their heads, four pitch-black eyes locking steadily onto the girl’s retreating back.
Leading Xia Miao right up to the front entrance of the dormitory building, the old gardener grinned amiably.
“Lu Yan’s room is right on the second floor. Go on in and find him.”
Xia Miao instantly retracted her passing thought that this area might make a great, breezy retreat to beat the summer heat. Without a shred of hesitation, she picked up her stride and stepped right through the front gates.
This building shared a similar layout with a standard student dormitory. The lobby was vast and echoing, casting a deep, ink-black void when the corridors lacked overhead lighting.
Right down at the very end of the hallway sat a tightly shut white door. Finding a stark white door sitting squarely within such a gloomy, lightless environment gave the entire space the quintessential atmosphere of a low-budget horror film.
Walking straight up to it, Xia Miao raised her hand and banged heavily on the door.
Silence greeted her from within.
She doubled down, hammering against the wood with increased force.
A moment later, a volatile, frayed voice snapped from the other side:
“I already told you not to bother me, get lost!”
“Lu Yan, it’s me.”
A sharp bang echoed from across the threshold, sounding as though someone had tumbled right out of bed. Followed by a flurry of frantic, stumbling footsteps, someone slammed their body heavily against the back of the door.
“Miaomiao… why did you come here?”
“You refused to come see me, so I came to see you!” Xia Miao pressed her cheek flush against the wooden panel. “Lu Yan, open the door. I want to see you.”
Stammering nervously, Lu Yan cried out:
“I—I’m sick! I’ll end up infecting you, I can’t let you see me.”
“I’m not scared of getting infected.”
“Well, I am!” Lu Yan’s voice trembled with rising panic. “Miaomiao, your body is so fragile; if you catch a cold, you’ll suffer terribly! Don’t look at me, hurry up and go back!”
Stubbornly, Xia Miao refused to budge:
“I just want to catch a glimpse of you!”
“No way!” Lu Yan matched her stubbornness in kind. “I’m never opening this door!”
Xia Miao tried shoving the door several times to no avail; it was locked tight. Exhausting her remaining patience, she snapped irritably:
“Fine! If you don’t want to see me, then I’m leaving!”
Pressed flat against the door inside the room, the boy listened as her footsteps gradually receded and faded into nothingness. Slumping down in utter defeat, his posture collapsed as he slid along the doorframe, hitting the floor in a miserable heap.
Inside the pitch-black, lightless room, the boy’s form was swaddled entirely beneath white bedsheets, hiding himself completely from the outside world. Only his deadpan eyes—overrun by an expanse of glaring white sclera—could be vaguely made out in the dark, shining with a lifeless, decaying dullness.
Sitting back in his lounge chair to rest, the old gardener watched Xia Miao storm out of the building looking thoroughly disgruntled. While he wasn’t particularly surprised by her exit, he raised an eyebrow in genuine astonishment when she suddenly halted in her tracks and pivoted toward a different direction.
“Hey, you guys are Lu Yan’s coworkers, right? I need your help.”
Even when seeking assistance, Miss Xia maintained her usual high-and-mighty attitude. Fishing a box of chocolates out of her pocket—treats she had originally intended to gift to Lu Yan—she waved them in the air.
“This is just a down payment on your reward for helping me out. I’ll hand over plenty more once the job is done!”
The conjoined brothers exchanged a bewildered glance.
Meanwhile, the headless woman remained crouched on the ground like a stray animal, blankly “staring” at Xia Miao.
As a mere human, Xia Miao had the sheer audacity to stand before a pack of terrifying monsters with a haughty, arrogant expression, barking orders at them as if they were subordinates.
“Listen up: I am someone who always repays my debts. You can go ask my desk-mate—I am an absolute saint of a person.”
Lifting her chin, the outer corners of her eyes tilted upward in a fierce, overbearing glare.
“As long as you help me out, whether it’s a five-star gourmet feast or a crown carved entirely out of diamonds, I can buy it all for you!”
The conjoined brothers and the headless woman instantly perked up with intense interest.
Inside the darkened room, a heavy, rotting stench drifted and expanded, turning the air thick, damp, and suffocating.
A curled-up figure wrapped himself entirely beneath a bedsheet, squatting deep in the corner. His skeletal, ivory-white fingers clutched the fabric of the sheet as his body gave an occasional, shuddering spasm, accompanied by the distinct sound of muffled sniffing.
I want to go see Miaomiao, too, he thought miserably. I always tell her I hate it when she touches and hugs me, but the truth is, my heart skips a million beats with joy. I’m just such a twisted mess, always saying the exact opposite of what I feel, only ever daring to skulk outside her window like some creep.
A sudden, intense gaze bored into the room. Snapping out of his spiral, the huddled figure sensed something and jerked his head upward, his entire body freezing stiff.
Outside the glass pane, the girl’s face was pressed flat against the glass, distorting her pretty features into a comical, slightly grotesque shape. Her dark, glossy eyes stared straight at the person inside without blinking, looking precisely like a peeping, gloomy stalker.
“Lu Yan!”
Slapping her hands aggressively against the glass pane like a home-invader casing a joint, she holstered a demand:
“Open the door—no wait, open the damn window!”
Her silhouette wobbled unsteadily, looking as though she might collapse at any second.
Panic overriding all else, Lu Yan threw caution to the wind, scrambling across the room to shove the window open and snatch her by the wrists.
“Are you out of your mind?!”
Xia Miao flashed a triumphant, smug grin.
“If I didn’t go a little crazy, would you have rushed out to see me?”
Lu Yan’s room was on the second floor; relying solely on her own physical strength, climbing up here was an absolute impossibility.
Stationed at the very bottom, the conjoined brothers were currently acting as a human pillar. The headless woman stood balanced atop their shoulders, and standing precariously right on top of her shoulders was none other than a swaying, wobbling Xia Miao.
Lu Yan had never witnessed such a bizarre spectacle in his life, leaving him momentarily thunderstruck.
Reaching out a hand toward him, Xia Miao urged:
“Hurry up, I’m about to fall!”
Instinct kicking in, Lu Yan reached out and hauled Xia Miao bodily inside through the window. The pane slammed shut ruthlessly behind her, leaving the conjoined brothers and the headless woman standing outside with the distinct, bewildered impression of having been used and instantly discarded.
“Lu Yan!”
The moment her feet hit the floor, Xia Miao leaped into his arms in an exaggerated, dramatic tackle.
Lu Yan instinctively wrapped his arms around her waist, but the moment he caught sight of his own half-skeletal, bone-exposed hands, he panicked and yanked them back, tucking them hastily beneath his bedsheets.
Reaching out to feel his body, Xia Miao lifted her face to study him.
“You’ve lost so much weight.”
“No, I haven’t! I’m just—just experiencing thermal expansion and contraction!” Lu Yan scrambled for a passable excuse. “Yeah, that’s it! Thermal expansion! The weather’s been getting colder lately, right?!”
Xia Miao maintained a completely deadpan expression.
Catching him utterly off guard, she reached out and ripped the curtains straight down in one swift yank, exposing the boy’s ghastly, emaciated state in the harsh light.
His frame was slender and reed-thin. Half of his body had just barely sprouted raw flesh devoid of skin, leaving it a blazing, bloody crimson where tendons and blood vessels looked agonizingly visible, while the other half remained bare, withered bone covered by only a thin, translucent membrane of flesh.
His face was still wrapped in bandages, but they hung loosely and slackly now, revealing the freshly regenerating flesh underneath the gaps.
It was an indescribable sight—a grotesque fusion of absurdity and pure horror that violently battered human sanity and challenged every known cognitive limit.
Trembling violently, Lu Yan whimpered:
“Don’t look at me!”
Scrambling to grab a blood-stained bedsheet to wrap back around himself, he found his escape blocked when one of Xia Miao’s sneakers stepped firmly onto the hem of the sheet. Terrified of causing her to trip, he didn’t dare pull against it with force, leaving him no choice but to retreat step-by-step into the corner, curling inward to hide his mutilated form from view.
Yet Xia Miao pressed forward relentlessly, invading every inch of his hiding space and leaving him completely cornered.
Clutching his knees to his chest, Lu Yan begged:
“Don’t come closer, don’t look at me… please, don’t look…”
With a force that was both fiercely commanding and infinitely gentle, the girl reached out and cupped his chin, forcing his face upward.
“Look at you. I told you not to starve yourself—you’ve wasted away your skin and bone!”