Lin Jue sprinted from the upper floor corridor to the next stairwell as fast as he could. Song Hanzhang wasn’t there. In the bloody and corroded corridor, there was only an overwhelming scarlet, the dim flashlight only making the empty hallway seem more ominous. He felt his heart drop and immediately thought that he had probably run too fast for Xuezhang to make it over.
But that wasn’t right either. He had started running after seeing Song Hanzhang disappear behind the turn of the corridor. There was no reason for Song Hanzhang to not be there after he ran the entire way here.
Lin Jue grew panicked and quickly ran down the stairs. He looked around the lower floor but still saw no traces of Song Hanzhang.
“Song Hanzhang–!” Lin Jue couldn’t help but shout, not caring if this might alert Dan Liang who was hidden somewhere in the building. He shouted as he ran, searching to no avail.
How could Song Hanzhang vanish in just a few seconds?
Lin Jue’s mind blanked, his stomach convulsing from anxiety. He thought and thought and suddenly came up with a possibility – in the short time that they were apart, Song Hanzhang had been taken into an illusion.
If he was taken into an illusion, then he would return to where he had been when he left the illusion. Lin Jue leaned against the wall at the corner of the corridor, looking left and right from time to time whenever he seemed to hear the sound of footsteps, only to be met with disappointment again and again.
Lin Jue comforted himself, reminding himself not to stress, that it took time to kill the illusion’s monsters, and that as long as that damned death announcement didn’t sound, everything was good. As long as he waited here patiently, Song Hanzhang would come
Just as he began to grow anxious, a loud sound came from beneath him. It was the sound of the metal dormitory door being rammed open. Lin Jue jumped up like a startled rabbit, looked up for a few seconds, then sprinted towards the stairwell.
When he rushed downstairs and saw Song Hanzhang unconscious on the ground, he felt his mind go blank.
The fear of losing Song Hanzhang which was buried deep in his heart was now a reality. Lin Jue sprinted to Song Hanzhang and kneeled down in front of him, that familiar yet pale face stinging his nerves. He called out twice, before reaching out with trembling hands in a daze to feel his breath.
At this moment, he had forgotten about the death announcement and forgotten to consider why Song Hanzhang would appear here by himself, not to mention the many, many other issues he should have noticed. These signals of danger were completely thrown to the back of his mind… and he would pay a heavy price for it.
Just as his hand was about to reach Song Hanzhang’s nose, Lin Jue moved!
At that moment, from either instinct or intuition, or perhaps from a certain voice reminding him – danger!
Danger!
Lin Jue’s brain was still filled with fear, but his body reacted in that moment. Before his eyes noticed the ‘Song Hanzhang’ on the ground thrusting his dagger at him, he was already moving. Even if it was just a small movement, it was enough for him to evade that deadly strike which would have slit his throat!
His reaction was quick enough, but this man who had been planning for so long would not let go of such a rare opportunity. That glinting dagger made a small turn, the angle of the tip twisting slightly, and that sharp blade slashed hard across his skin, from under his ear to his forehead – immediately, blood spewed out and his left eye cried tears of blood.
Lin Jue’s reactions weren’t bad; he didn’t retreat after the attack, instead sending a stab towards the opponent. Unfortunately, the well-prepared enemy made a few agile rolls on the ground and stood up.
Lin Jue also stood up, his left hand covering his bleeding eye. He felt as if a million needles were stabbing incessantly at it, warm blood flowing through the crevices between his palm and his face, some even slipping into the corner of his mouth, coating his tongue with the taste of rust.
The fury of deception burned in Lin Jue’s heart. Lin Jue’s remaining right eye glared at the ‘Song Hanzhang’ standing not so far away with a smile on his face. His desire to kill had never been stronger.
Dan Liang, this man was Dan Liang!
“Yes, that’s the expression, I like that expression.” Dan Liang’s eyes were bright, filled with a sick hidden desire. “You can be even angrier, even more pained, even more in despair! Your Song Hanzhang has already abandoned you.”
Lin Jue’s pupils contracted, the possibility hidden at the bottom of his mind which he didn’t even want to think about exposed mercilessly.
“My reward only works after I come in contact with the person I need to copy. So take a guess on why I can take his form. Why did he leave without turning back even though he knew I’d lie to you with his appearance? Does it really matter to him if you’re alive? Would he be sad over your death? The fact that he’s left you is an answer in itself, yet you’re still lying to yourself. Lin Jue, you’re so pathetic!” Lin Jue’s shrill voice twisted from excitement.
Amidst Dan Liang’s crazed cries, Lin Jue was like a lightning-burnt tree, hollowing out as time passed, growing brittle as it kept standing, ready to break at any moment in a storm.
Why? Lin Jue asked that distant figure. It didn’t answer. He always buried everything deep in his heart and never confessed.
Lin Jue had been angry, had been mad, and had secretly criticized Song Hanzhang’s bad character countless times, but in the end, he still cared for him.
Of course, he wasn’t happy. He wanted badly to find him and beat him up, to question him after he finished, to force him to swear he would never do it again. But he knew that when that time came, all of his anger would have faded. Just seeing Song Hanzhang safe and sound would be enough.
So he needed to live, to kill every laughing clown in his way, and clear away whatever danger stood in his path. Anger was useless, complaints were useless, he had never been a wretched dog that wagged its tail for pity when fate turned its hollow eye on him!
Lin Jue slowly took his hand away from his eye, revealing the left side of his face, split open and bloodied.
Dan Liang felt a shock through his heart. Even though his person had just taken such a deep blow, why did he feel such fear? How could this terrifying murderous intent and pressure appear on Lin Jue?
“Dan Liang,” Lin Jue looked at him with cold eyes and said, contemptuous and mocking, “trash like you that lives in lies and deceit, who would care about you? Has anyone cared if you lived? What right do you have to think of someone else as pathetic?”
Dan Liang’s expression immediately turned. Without his medications, his emotions had gone haywire and just a single remark from another could make his malice rise up; this sort of talk, which picked at his sore spots, left him livid.
Fragmented memories tumbled in the darkness. Curses, hospital, hanged men, fire… fragments of imagery swept over him and he plunged headlong into the abyss of chaos.
Viscous darkness slowly congealed in the corridor where the two men faced each other. Lin Jue felt it first, but it was too late to back out now. He looked at Dan Liang who used Song Hanzhang’s appearance and his own dark and malicious eyes to look at him in disgust. Dan Liang watched as the darkness surrounded him and murmured in a daze, “You’re here…”
The scenery suddenly changed. Swallowed into the illusion, Lin Jue found himself standing in a living room, the sofa and television both from a decade ago, appearing even eerier after the mutation. Blood and rust were sprayed everywhere across the walls, floor, and ceiling.
Lin Jue stared straight ahead of him. It was a kitchen of around seven or eight square meters and in the middle of the kitchen, was a hideous hanging female corpse!
Vera & Luci Translations 