Category: My Cthulhu Girlfriend (gl)

Chapter 14: The Subway

After all the turmoil of the past few days, Xiang Er had become quite indifferent to work. As soon as quitting time arrived, she grabbed her bag and left the company under the supervisor’s indignant yet restrained gaze, not even sparing her a glance.

It was dusk in the industrial park. The autumn wind was bleak, the air damp and heavy. A fine drizzle, like countless soft silver needles, began to fall, a gentle, non-piercing rain.

Many white-collar workers wrapped themselves in fashionable coats, heading out into the drizzle. Few bothered with umbrellas; the subway station was only a short walk away. Tiny, transparent water droplets clung to their carefully styled hair, like glittering jewels, trembling and falling as they walked.

Xiang Er’s gaze swept over the passing white-collar workers, her heart beating a little faster. But she didn’t see the figure she was hoping for. It made sense; the woman looked like a company executive, how could she possibly leave work at the same time as her?

One stroke of good luck a day was enough; she shouldn’t ask for more. This was a lesson Xiang Er had learned in the orphanage.

Xiang Er walked slowly in the drizzle. Unlike the hurried white-collar workers around her, she wasn’t in a rush to go home. In this crowded place, she felt safer.

The sky gradually darkened, the rain picking up slightly. The five-minute walk had already taken her ten minutes. She didn’t know why, but she… wanted to linger a little longer.

Some good fortune spoiled with excess, but there was another kind of good fortune that never spoiled: miracles.

She… still hoped for a miracle.

However, even after reaching the gate of the industrial park, she still hadn’t seen one. As expected, she had always been unlucky…

The rain intensified, the silver needles turning into thin threads of water, splattering on the ground. The white-collar workers opened their umbrellas, blooming into flowers of various colors. Above the sea of umbrellas, countless tiny water droplets danced and shimmered, creating a pleasant pitter-patter sound.

Xiang Er didn’t have an umbrella, and there were no familiar colleagues around. Raindrops dripped from her hair, their presence becoming more pronounced, the dampness spreading from her hairline. The sound of the rain grew louder in her ears.

Xiang Er estimated the distance to the subway station, took a deep breath, and decided to make a run for it. She bent down, about to start running, when suddenly—

The sound of rain above her head disappeared, the sensation of raindrops on her body vanished, as if someone had pressed pause on the rain. The world became incredibly quiet, and the light dimmed considerably.

Xiang Er looked up and let out a gasp of delight:

“Ah… it’s you!”

Right beside her, the woman in the red dress held a black umbrella, looking down at her with a faint smile.

The woman’s lips curved upwards at Xiang Er’s involuntary exclamation, seeming pleased.

As soon as the words left her mouth, Xiang Er realized her slip and subconsciously covered her mouth with her hand, then felt even more awkward about this gesture, her face flushing rapidly. She turned away in embarrassment.

They stood together under the black umbrella, neither of them speaking.

Through the edge of the umbrella, Xiang Er could see the expressions of passersby. Many people looked at them, at the two of them, and several men and women stopped to admire them, their faces filled with wonder and fascination. A few even seemed to want to approach them, and someone took out their phone to take a picture.

The top of Xiang Er’s head reached the lower half of the woman’s face. Xiang Er, in her soft, white sweater, her figure slender and delicate, seemed even smaller and more fragile next to the tall woman in the red dress, like a pale, sickly beauty.

The woman’s breathtaking beauty was undeniable, but even more striking was her powerful aura, emanating from her as she stood there, her head slightly lowered. It made it impossible to look at her beautiful, curvaceous figure with anything but pure appreciation, a sense of awe in the face of such beauty.

Under the black umbrella, the woman in the red dress, seemingly unfazed, withstood the gazes of countless people, her eyes fixed only on the girl in white before her.

Her lips curved downwards, her expression cold and indifferent when the girl wasn’t looking at her.

As if she cared only about the person in front of her, her expressions, movements, demeanor, and voice, all reserved for this one person. Beyond the girl’s gaze, she was… a different entity altogether.

She seemed completely indifferent to everything else in the world.

From the perspective of passersby, the two of them, sheltered under the black umbrella with its reddish underside, created a scene of ethereal beauty. But looking closer, they sensed a strange, unique aura that made them uncomfortable, preventing them from looking for too long.

That feeling… as if something terrifying would happen if they continued to watch.

But what could happen? They were just looking at a beautiful woman; everyone did that.

The people taking pictures with their phones, for some reason, felt uneasy even though no one had stopped them. They involuntarily deleted the photos they had taken.

The onlookers, as if by some unspoken agreement, all turned and left at the same time, their expressions puzzled and anxious.

Xiang Er finally managed to compose herself, turning back to look at the woman in the red dress, and said softly:

“Thank you. This is the second time you’ve helped me.”

The moment Xiang Er turned towards her, the woman’s expression softened, her lips curving upwards slightly. She raised a hand and gently brushed Xiang Er’s hair, her voice low and magnetic, like a cello:

“Don’t get rained on. You’ll catch a cold.”

Xiang Er felt a warmth on her head. She touched her hair and realized that her previously rain-dampened hair was now completely dry. She couldn’t help but marvel, was this the charm of a beautiful older sister? The heat from her blushing had actually dried her hair…

This thought made her blush again. She quickly changed the subject:

“Thank you for your concern… By the way, are you going to the subway station too? Are we going the same way?”

The woman in the red dress paused for a moment, then nodded.

Xiang Er breathed a sigh of relief:

“I’m going to the subway station too. Shall we go together?”

She started walking. The woman immediately followed, her perfectly sculpted hand holding the umbrella handle, her jade-white ankles occasionally flashing between the folds of her red dress as she walked.

Xiang Er tended to look down when she walked, and now, because of her blushing, her head was practically bowed to her chest. She clearly saw that the woman’s exquisite silver high heels were spotless, without a speck of mud, as if she had never walked on the ground.

As expected… beautiful women always paid attention to every detail of their appearance. Xiang Er admired her silently, and unconsciously tried to hide her mud-stained flat shoes.

She was truly socially awkward, and unfortunately, the woman in the red dress didn’t seem to be a talkative person either. Silence flowed between them.

But Xiang Er noticed that the woman thoughtfully matched her pace. If she walked faster, the woman would speed up; if she slowed down, the woman would slow down too.

The black umbrella shielded her perfectly from the rain, not a single drop getting through, not even the damp, cold wind. The umbrella seemed to create a private space for just the two of them, transforming the awkward silence into an enjoyable tranquility…

The back of the woman’s other hand occasionally brushed against Xiang Er’s, cold and firm, like smooth jade.

Xiang Er’s ears burned again, her hair feeling even drier. No matter how slowly she walked, they were still approaching the subway entrance.

“Be… careful of the steps.”

Reaching the steps of the subway entrance, she finally found something to say, and she exhaled softly after speaking.

“Mm.”

The woman in the red dress replied softly, closing the black umbrella.

Xiang Er noticed that the top of the umbrella was a gradient, from black to dark red to blood red, the tip like a drop of heart’s blood, vividly red. She suddenly thought of the Evil God’s tentacles, then quickly dismissed the thought.

Why was she thinking about tentacles at a time like this? It was ruining the moment!

They stepped onto the escalator. Even though there were people in front and behind them, as the woman stepped on, the people in front moved forward, and the people behind waited, creating a space around her as if by magic. Xiang Er’s eyes widened. Was this what they called presence?

Reaching the bottom of the escalator, they passed through security and went down to the subway platform to wait for the train.

Xiang Er asked:

“Which line are you taking?”

The woman in the red dress shook her head. Xiang Er looked at her beautiful face and suddenly realized that whenever she looked at her, the woman was already looking at her.

Xiang Er hesitantly pointed at her own face:

“Is there… something on my face?”

The woman shook her head, her gaze unwavering. Xiang Er’s cheeks began to flush, and she averted her gaze:

“Then… why are you always looking at me?”

The woman’s voice, neither loud nor soft, reached her ears clearly:

“Xiang Er, beautiful.”

Xiang Er’s face instantly flushed crimson, and she didn’t dare look up.

Just then, the sound of rushing wind announced the arrival of the subway. The crowd carried Xiang Er towards the train doors, but… the woman in the red dress remained where she stood.

Realizing that the woman wasn’t following her onto the train, Xiang Er’s eyes widened, and she called out:

“Aren’t you taking this train?!”

The woman didn’t answer, just stood there, watching Xiang Er quietly, her expression gradually fading.

In that moment, Xiang Er thought about many things. She had always been a quiet person, preferring not to speak unless necessary, always holding back, thinking long-term, always trying to maintain composure.

But… now, she couldn’t maintain her composure. She had to… she had to know her!

Separated by a sea of heads, Xiang Er was pushed into the subway car. She stood on tiptoe, trying to see the woman in the red dress, her cheeks burning, adrenaline coursing through her veins. An impulsive cry burst from her throat:

“What’s your name?!”

Her sudden shout startled the people boarding the train. Some glared at her, some turned to see who she was shouting at, and someone muttered, “Scared me to death.”

But Xiang Er didn’t care. Holding onto the overhead handle for balance, she strained to see through the gaps in the crowd, unaware of the pleading in her eyes.

Her heart clenched. Just like she had prayed for the Evil God to leave, she now prayed for the woman in the red dress to tell her her name, to stay, to remain in her mundane life, to become her companion!

She prayed.

The sharp beeping of the train doors closing sounded, her line of sight about to be cut off…

Xiang Er heard it, right beside her ear, clear and distinct:

“Shen Yuhe.”

Chapter 13: The Necklace

When visiting museums, Xiang Er often lingered in front of various Buddha statues. She was easily captivated by the faces of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, often carefully observing those visages crafted by artisans with public expectations in mind, gazing for minutes at a time.

One Buddha head had left a particularly deep impression on her. Unlike the benevolent, dignified expressions of similar statues, this one, although possessing refined features that generally conformed to traditional aesthetics, had a slightly sharper upward curve at the corners of its eyes, its nose tip, shaped like a hanging gall bladder, drooped a fraction of an inch, and its lips curved ever so slightly upwards, completely transforming its expression.

It seemed to wear a perpetual faint smile, aloof and detached, yet with a hint of enigmatic amusement, as if all the matters of the world were merely plays being performed under its gaze. It observed and watched, without emotional involvement, without pity or compassion, calmly watching everything unfold. At times, it even seemed as if it might, with that faint smile, gently nudge those teetering on the edge of hell, watching them fall into the abyss.

Standing before this Buddha statue, Xiang Er felt a chilling indifference that made her tremble. She only looked at it for five minutes, but from then on, every time she thought of a god, she would remember this statue.

It became the embodiment of a god in her mind. A god, high and mighty, never pitying the world, never empathizing with human emotions, never extending a helping hand to the weak and insignificant ants, only coldly observing their worldly struggles. And sometimes, even holding the ants in its palm, toying with them at will.

But honestly, was that Buddha statue beautiful?

Of course, it was exquisitely beautiful, beautiful enough to make one lose their mind, beautiful enough to be unforgettable.

Now, as Xiang Er gazed at the woman in front of her, stunned, the image of that Buddha statue flashed through her mind.

The woman’s face bore a slight resemblance to the Buddha head, possessing a classical, elegant beauty. Beneath her arched eyebrows, a pair of phoenix eyes shimmered like cold stars, her lips full and red, her skin like white jade, her face the perfect oval of a classic beauty.

But the greater resemblance lay in their aura. That indescribable aura, not of this world, lofty and cold, the aura of an observer.

The wind died down, time seemed to stand still, there wasn’t a single passerby around, even the swirling fallen leaves stopped falling. The bright beam of sunlight was once again obscured by clouds, and in the dim world, the woman in the red dress was the only splash of color.

The white parts glowed, the red parts burned.

The woman continued to look at Xiang Er, her gaze more like observation than simply looking.

For a long time, neither of them spoke.

Until Xiang Er’s legs grew numb, and she slowly straightened up, her body slightly unsteady. The woman reached out to support her, but hesitated for a few seconds, then slowly withdrew her hand.

Xiang Er stood up straight, now only able to see the woman’s chin. Looking at her delicate jawline, she softly asked:

“How do you know my name?”

The woman pointed at Xiang Er’s chest. Xiang Er looked down and saw her employee ID card.

Her name was clearly printed on the ID card.

Xiang Er nodded and turned to leave, heading back to the company.

The woman said from behind her:

“Is this yours?”

Xiang Er turned around and saw the woman extending a hand towards her. In her delicate, creamy fingers, a pearl necklace appeared.

The pearls and her fingertips complemented each other perfectly, each enhancing the other’s beauty.

Xiang Er recognized the pearl necklace. She had bought it for herself with half of her first month’s salary after graduation. It was her only piece of real jewelry. The inexpensive pearls weren’t even natural, but cultured, their texture and luster not top-tier, but she loved it. It was a small token of self-love.

But… had she been wearing the necklace when she left the house today?

Xiang Er couldn’t remember.

“Ah… yes, it’s mine, thank you.”

Xiang Er thanked the woman and walked towards her. In her current mental state, it was perfectly reasonable that she couldn’t remember if she had been wearing the necklace. At least it was definitely hers, so she must have dropped it.

She must have dropped it while running earlier.

She reached out to take the necklace, but just as she picked it up, the woman’s wrist turned, and she looped the necklace around Xiang Er’s wrist.

The creamy white pearls contrasted sharply against her pale, bloodless wrist and blue veins. Xiang Er looked down, comparing her pale, thin fingers to the woman’s jade-like fingers.

She still preferred the woman’s fingers; they were so beautiful. They were much more beautiful than her own, like a meticulously crafted masterpiece by Nüwa, perfect in every detail.

*In the creation myth of Chinese folk religion, the goddess Nüwa is the Mother Goddess and creator of all humankind*

The woman’s fingers brushed against hers as she fastened the necklace. Xiang Er recoiled from the coldness. Why were they so cold? It seemed the woman also had a cold constitution.

Xiang Er obediently stood still as the woman helped her put on the necklace, looping it twice around her wrist.

The woman looked at her hand with a satisfied expression, stating firmly:

“Beautiful.”

Xiang Er looked up at her. The woman’s satisfied expression was genuine. Her exquisite features, which had seemed almost doll-like before, now came alive with emotion, something flickering in her beautiful eyes.

This instantly amplified her allure tenfold.

Xiang Er was captivated once again.

The woman looked at her, her eyes sparkling, a slight smile playing on her lips.

In that moment, although it was late autumn, nearing winter, Xiang Er felt as if summer flowers were suddenly blooming all around them, cascades of red roses and fields of white camellias, spreading wildly with the woman at the center.

Xiang Er closed her eyes, her heart pounding in her ears. She withdrew her pearl-adorned hand, gently clutching the cold pearls, and said:

“Thank you. You… are beautiful too.”

It was just a normal social courtesy. She often complimented others like this, it was fine, there was no need to be nervous… But as soon as she said the words, a wave of heat surged upwards, as if burning through her throat, leaving her parched and speechless.

Worse, the heat spread from her throat to her neck, then upwards to her jaw, cheeks, and even her ears… everything was burning.

She could clearly feel the path of the burning sensation on her face, but the more she felt it, the more nervous and uncomfortable she became, further fueling the flames. Finally, her entire body felt like it was boiling, like scalding water, her hair hot, steam practically rising from her head.

At that moment, she heard that cello-like, magnetic voice, filled with alluring laughter, like a spell:

“Xiang Er, beautiful.”

The woman smiled gently, her gaze bright and focused, fixed on Xiang Er’s blushing face.

Xiang Er lowered her head. Now, even her wrist was burning, the pearls like hot beads. She even thought her clothes might catch fire.

“Ah… I, I need to go back, back to work…”

She mumbled, turning and walking towards the company building. At first, she managed to maintain a normal pace, trying to appear composed and elegant, but soon she couldn’t help but quicken her steps, until she was practically running.

Clutching the burning pearls, her ears hot from the wind, she ran, a smile involuntarily playing on her lips, her mood completely different from before.

Was she… really beautiful?

Being complimented by such a rare and uniquely elegant beauty… it made her so happy!

And the woman was so gentle, picking up her pearl necklace, putting it on her wrist… Xiang Er clutched the pearls tightly, feeling like she was floating.

She floated all the way to the building entrance, and as she was about to enter the elevator, she suddenly frowned.

She hadn’t asked for the woman’s name, nor had she exchanged contact information… wasn’t that rude?

But she never casually interacted with strangers. She was socially awkward, and this one interaction was enough for her, enough to savor and replay in her mind for months to come.

Besides… Xiang Er stepped into the elevator, watching the numbers ascend, her mood suddenly plummeting. Besides, in her current situation, with an Evil God lurking, ready to devour her at any moment, how could she have the mood or the energy to make friends?

Meeting such an outstanding woman, more beautiful than a celebrity, was already incredibly lucky; she shouldn’t ask for more.

Thinking this, Xiang Er stepped out of the elevator.

The company continued to operate as usual, unaffected by her sudden departure. The supervisor had pulled the entire team into a meeting, and the office was empty, with only a few people scattered around.

Xiang Er entered the office. Those few people didn’t even look up. She returned to her seat unnoticed, staring blankly at her computer screen.

Just then, someone emerged from the general manager’s office. It was the newly appointed young male general manager. He walked straight towards Xiang Er and said softly:

“Come to my office for a moment.”

Xiang Er sighed inwardly. As expected, there was a price to pay for losing control. Living in reality meant paying a very real price, such as being called into the boss’s office.

She followed the general manager into his office and said softly:

“General Manager Cheng, I just… had an emergency earlier. You can punish me as you see fit.”

General Manager Cheng smiled warmly:

“I’m not blaming you. It’s perfectly fine to let off some steam occasionally. I understand.”

He took out his phone, opened his WeChat QR code, and held it out to Xiang Er.

Xiang Er looked at him in surprise. General Manager Cheng smiled and said:

“Your supervisor has some issues, so I’m helping her add some employees to my contacts. In the future, you can report important matters directly to me, no need to go through her. Of course, I’d also like to chat with you from time to time, to understand the situation in the company, is that alright?”

Xiang Er stared blankly for a moment, her lips moving:

“Al… alright.”

General Manager Cheng tapped his phone screen with two fingers:

“Add me then.”

Xiang Er took out her phone and scanned the QR code.

General Manager Cheng happily accepted her friend request and politely told her to go back to work.

Returning to her workstation, Xiang Er suddenly felt regretful. She would much rather have added that woman’s WeChat than her boss’s!

Such a beautiful woman, the photos in her Moments must be stunning, each one a masterpiece!

If only she had asked for her WeChat, even if they didn’t chat, just looking at her Moments would be enough!

Xiang Er resolved that the next time she encountered that woman, she would overcome her social anxiety, ask for her name, and add her on WeChat. It was just adding someone on WeChat, not like she was trying to make a lifelong friend… Even if she suddenly disappeared in the future, it wouldn’t matter, right? The more Xiang Er thought about it, the more reasonable and exciting it seemed.

She just didn’t expect the opportunity to come so soon.

Chapter 12: A New Friend

Another day arrived, and just like the entire previous month in Lü’e City, it was a gloomy, overcast day, without a breath of wind, everyone trapped in a damp, suffocating shell.

Xiang Er woke up, sat on the bed, and stared blankly for a while, her head throbbing.

She looked down. The sculpture lay on the floor beneath the desk, covered in dust, tilted at an odd angle, wedged in the gap between the desk and the wall, one of its large eyes half-covered, looking rather pathetic.

After thinking for a long time, Xiang Er finally remembered that last night, she seemed to have been… a bit delirious, holding the sculpture and talking to it, then falling asleep, causing the sculpture to fall to the floor.

She hoped the god wouldn’t be too angry with her.

Xiang Er got up, retrieved the sculpture from under the desk, gently brushed off the dust, and after a moment of thought, placed it upright on the small bookshelf.

She hesitated, looking at the sculpture’s grayish-red eye, and whispered:

“Thank you… regardless.”

It had indeed saved her, and she should thank the god for that.

If this were a real god, she should probably offer some kind of sacrifice. But if she did, wouldn’t that mean she had become a believer?

Xiang Er decided against offering a sacrifice. She wasn’t a believer, she wouldn’t worship it, she couldn’t let the god misunderstand.

She got up to change her clothes. Just as she lifted her nightgown, revealing her slender abdomen, she suddenly turned and glanced at the sculpture.

A glint of light flashed in the sculpture’s large red eye, fleeting, almost too quick to catch, but Xiang Er still… noticed it.

Could it be that… It had been watching all along?

She suddenly felt so embarrassed she didn’t know where to put her hands. She quickly grabbed her nightgown to cover herself, and with her lotus-root-like, white, delicate arm, gently turned the sculpture around so that the large eye faced the wall, away from her!

Xiang Er quickly put on her clothes, her hand on the doorknob, intending to change in the bathroom. She paused just before opening the door.

Her roommate’s boyfriend seemed to be here… and the bathroom door didn’t have a lock.

Xiang Er gritted her teeth and lowered her hand, turning back.

Her face flushed, her body feeling weak, she didn’t know what to do. So, all this time, every time she changed clothes… had It been watching?

Although It wasn’t human, this was still… embarrassing.

Xiang Er tried her best to ignore the sculpture, turned towards the wall, took off her nightgown, curled up, and started putting on her underwear.

From behind, her slender waist and abdomen had a soft, gentle curve, without an ounce of excess fat, her figure delicate yet shapely, a lovely petite frame. The skin on her back was smooth and white, with a pinkish glow. The dimples of her waist were slightly compressed, almost invisible, but her spine was prominent, the bones almost piercing through her fragile, white skin as she bent over.

Her beauty was subtle, classical. Her slender, sloping shoulders didn’t conform to current beauty standards, and her pale skin wasn’t the picture of health, but… that frail allure, deep in her bones, was unforgettable.

Quickly, Xiang Er finished dressing. Today, she wore a creamy white sweater and jeans, her legs long and slender, her aura as gentle and soft as her sweater. She turned around and immediately looked at the sculpture—fortunately, it was still facing the wall.

After washing up, Xiang Er returned to her room, picked up her bag, and as she reached the door, she couldn’t help but glance at the sculpture one last time.

The tentacles around the sculpture were swaying, light and graceful, like ripples on water. Although it was facing away from her, it seemed to be greeting her with the movement of its tentacles.

Xiang Er wasn’t surprised. She knew the sculpture would do something; it had never been still for a whole day. Just moving its tentacles was a minor thing.

She waved at the sculpture and whispered:

“Well, I’m leaving.”

After saying this, she felt a surge of absurdity and quickly closed the door, hurrying to the entrance, still berating herself as she changed her shoes: Was she losing her mind? Why was she saying such embarrassing things to a sculpture… to an Evil God?

Was she so desperate for companionship that she was treating an Evil God as a friend? Had she forgotten that she was the Evil God’s food supply?!

Just as she was about to leave, Li Wan’s boyfriend suddenly appeared at the entrance, looking at her eagerly:

“Are you going to work?”

Xiang Er simply replied with a sound of acknowledgment and, without waiting for him to speak, opened the door and left. Seeing men now reminded her of the black dog-man from yesterday, making her feel nauseous.

Li Wan’s boyfriend, left inside, rubbed his chin, his eyes narrowing in a smile, before returning to the bedroom.

The journey to work was uneventful. She arrived early, and her mood was relatively calm.

She put down her bag, sat at her workstation, and just as she unlocked her phone, a local news notification popped up:

“Last night, a local man killed two people and is currently at large. Police are conducting a citywide search. Citizens are urged to exercise caution…”

The notification included the man’s ID photo. Xiang Er glanced at it casually, then immediately sat up straight, her heart sinking.

It was the drunken man with the mouth on his neck. Although his appearance had changed slightly, she recognized him.

But the news didn’t mention any physical transformations… Xiang Er read the news carefully again. The wording was cautious and factual, with no hint of the monstrous nature of the crime, only stating that he was a confirmed murderer.

But… the man must have transformed before the murders. The news said that he had killed a man and a woman. The man weighed over two hundred pounds. Without transforming, he wouldn’t have been able to kill him quickly and escape.

Besides, when she encountered the monster yesterday, there were traces of blood in its mouth!

So, the police were withholding information. The authorities already knew that the world wasn’t normal! She should contact them, provide clues, let them handle the capture…

Xiang Er wanted to call the police. She took out her phone, her fingers trembling as she dialed 110.

“The number you have dialed is not in service…”

Impossible! Xiang Er checked her phone. She hadn’t dialed incorrectly! But how could 110 be out of service?

She redialed, redialed, countless times, but the number remained out of service!

A vein throbbed in Xiang Er’s forehead. She looked around. Her colleagues in the office were chatting and laughing. Under the bright fluorescent lights, there were no shadows, the world seemed perfectly normal.

But in broad daylight, her emergency call wouldn’t go through!

She put down her phone, covered in cold sweat, and started sending text messages to 110, but the messages disappeared without a trace.

She typed a message:

“Hello, I’m a citizen. I recently traveled to X and bought a sculpture that seems to be possessed by a deity. Many strange things have happened, and I even saw the murderer. Please contact me!”

After sending the message, it turned into a string of garbled characters. 110 didn’t reply with any message or call, clearly not having received it.

Just then, Zhu Minmin arrived at work and greeted Xiang Er:

“Morning!”

Seeing her, Xiang Er suddenly grabbed her arm and whispered:

“I’m going to tell you something. Don’t scream and don’t disbelieve me. Everything I say is true!”

Zhu Minmin’s expression turned serious:

“What’s wrong?”

Xiang Er said:

“I @%￥@%!”

Zhu Minmin frowned in confusion:

“What are you saying?”

Xiang Er tried to enunciate clearly:

“I said my house %#@￥#!!!”

Zhu Minmin cupped her ear:

“Speak clearly! I can’t hear you!”

Xiang Er suddenly raised her voice and shouted:

“My house %￥…%**!”

Zhu Minmin shook her head:

“I still can’t hear you! What are you trying to say?”

Xiang Er let go of her in despair, looking around. The other colleagues hadn’t heard her shouting.

Xiang Er slumped back in her chair. She couldn’t tell anyone about this, just as no one else could see what she saw!

This was all the Evil God’s doing! That Evil God had placed her in a cage, rendering her struggles useless, just to revel in her fear and pain!

It had saved her last night only to savor her increased pain and despair now… As expected, It only took pleasure in despair and suffering!

Xiang Er felt like she was about to break down. She couldn’t stay here any longer. She grabbed her phone, turned around, and stumbled towards the company entrance. She had to leave this place, leave this world that had gone mad, she needed to breathe, she was suffocating under the weight of this invisible cage!

“Hey, hey, hey! Where are you going? Xiang Er! Come back for the meeting!”

The supervisor shouted after her, but she didn’t want to listen. She even walked past the surprised general manager without a glance.

She took the elevator downstairs, panting as she ran outside. She didn’t stop until she reached the gate of the industrial park, her strength finally giving out.

She gasped for air, her hands on her knees, her chest heaving with the damp, cold wind. The dark sky and grey earth pressed down on her, suffocating her in this terrifying world, eternally alone…

She was so lonely!

She wanted to share everything with someone, anyone, but there was no one to share it with!

She could only bear it all alone, struggling desperately in the exquisite cage woven by the Evil God… How long would this struggle last? Months, years, or even a lifetime? She couldn’t predict…

Xiang Er’s eyes were dry and painful. It wasn’t tears, it was cold sweat stinging her eyes.

And beneath her feet, a black river slowly flowed out, a manifestation of her despair. She looked at the river, her expression indifferent, just watching.

She even considered throwing herself into the river, to end it all. But she also knew clearly that the Evil God wouldn’t let her die so easily. It would probably be a fate worse than death.

Just as her thoughts were in complete turmoil, a voice reached her ears:

“Xiang… Er.”

The voice was slightly hoarse, a little hesitant, but with an underlying magnetism, like a cello being played slowly on a moonlit beach, the alluring voice of a mature woman.

Xiang Er looked up in surprise.

A strange white light pierced through the clouds and shone onto the ground, forming a bright beam like a spotlight, the damp, lush greenery behind her serving as a backdrop, the silver-grey walls adding depth to the scene.

It was a beautiful sight, like an oil painting.

And in the center of this painting, right in front of Xiang Er, stood a woman in a red dress.

The woman was tall and slender, her soft, slightly wavy hair cascading over her shoulders. The sharply tailored red dress accentuated her curves perfectly, the skirt flowing to the ground like petals, revealing her creamy white ankles and the smooth, taut lines of her feet.

Her high heels clicked against the ground, a slow, unhurried rhythm, as she walked towards Xiang Er with an air of leisurely grace. She looked down at Xiang Er, her dark pupils reflecting Xiang Er’s bewildered face.

With her cello-like voice, the woman whispered, her tone a mixture of sigh, amusement, and pity:

“Xiang Er…”

Xiang Er couldn’t answer. She was so stunned by the woman’s beauty that she seemed to have lost her hearing.

She had never seen, never even imagined, someone so beautiful, so unique. She was struck by this overwhelming beauty, frozen in place.

Chapter 11: Heterogeneity

The world spun. A damp, fishy wind blew in her face. In the dim light, Xiang Er even saw shreds of flesh and blood clinging to the man in black’s neck.

He had just eaten someone… This thought surfaced in Xiang Er’s mind.

She should have run. She should have bolted, fleeing far from this place, out of the residential compound, out of the shadow of the camphor trees, out of this cold, damp city, into the boundless freedom of the open world.

But she couldn’t move. She had never experienced such direct danger before. Her untrained body reacted slowly, frozen in place, as adrenaline surged through her veins, suppressing the scream in her throat!

A faint buzzing sound echoed in her ears, indistinct, the world around her seemed to be changing, but she couldn’t see clearly. Her consciousness, along with her mind, froze. All she could see was the giant paw of the black dog.

And beyond her terrified gaze, a dark red tentacle appeared beside her face. It wriggled its small body with suckers, raising its tip like a comical little whip, and lashed out.

In that instant, a fissure appeared in the air before her, the order of spacetime disrupted, like a piece of paper torn open, revealing a deep, yellowish alternate space. That was… the god’s domain.

It was just a tiny tentacle, barely the size of the black dog’s claw tip, its strike seemingly without force. Yet the monster with the long neck and mouths let out a bestial howl, an expression of unbearable shock on its face, and fell backwards!

“Aowuuuuu…”

The howl ripped through the air, like a final lament. The monster merged into the fissure, the tentacle vanished, but the fissure closed in, gently enveloping Xiang Er.

A foul-smelling wind blew against her face. With a “thud,” something fell to the ground, followed by a gurgling sound, like flowing water.

Xiang Er wasn’t sure what had happened. Her vision was filled with a yellowish darkness. She looked down towards the source of the gurgling sound.

It was the black river she was familiar with.

Xiang Er’s heart leaped. Even the near-miss with the claws hadn’t made her heart pound this hard.

She was back in the god’s domain!

The black river churned and seethed with countless eyes, tentacles, slippery, grotesque body segments, and mouths filled with sharp teeth. The fine, dense teeth protruded from the mouths, emitting dizzying screams and roars.

The sky was a sickly yellow, the ground an endless black river.

From where Xiang Er stood, the monster that had attacked her was now lying on its back in the river, bound by thick tentacles.

Xiang Er didn’t want to look closely. She just wanted to escape quickly. She remembered what had happened the last time she was here, bound by tentacles, forced to look into that eye. It was incredibly painful, and she didn’t want to experience it again…

But she had no way to escape.

A strange sound came from ahead. Xiang Er looked up. The monstrous man lying in the river was being torn apart and devoured by mouths filled with sharp teeth, and many eyes were gathered around his body, curiously watching the execution.

The man was completely bound by thick tentacles, his mouth stuffed with them. He was conscious, whimpering in agony as his dog-paw hands were ripped apart, the skin on every part of his body torn open, his flesh and blood flowing away and dissipating in the water. His white skeleton lay exposed in the river, surrounded by gleefully pulsating blood-red eyes.

Xiang Er’s body went cold. She watched as the man’s flesh was completely torn away, devoured, dissolved, leaving behind only a gruesome skeleton, a skeleton that was still alive, still twitching!

This scene was completely beyond human comprehension. Her legs went weak and numb with the horror of it. Her joints buckled, and she fell to her knees, but just as she was about to touch the black water…

A pale hand caught her.

The hand was strong, firmly supporting her waist and abdomen, helping her stand upright.

“Huh?”

Xiang Er gasped in surprise. Where did this hand come from?

She looked closely. The hand was pale and delicate, almost identical to her own, just slightly longer. Its fingers were slender and well-formed, but bloodless, like… a hand freshly sculpted in a wax museum, before being painted.

She reached out to grab it, but the hand vanished.

Her vision blurred, the world twisted, a brief sensation of dizziness like motion sickness washed over her. When she looked up again, she was back in the real world.

She was still standing under the streetlight, but the monster was gone.

Xiang Er stood there in a daze.

A damp night breeze brushed against her face. It took a while for her dizzy head to clear. She looked down, and could still vaguely see large dog paw prints on the ground, and a few drops of blood.

But… the man, at least six feet tall, with a mouth on his neck, had completely disappeared, as if he had never existed.

A small leaf from the camphor tree fell, landing on the paw prints. The flickering streetlight illuminated Xiang Er’s pale face.

She slowly turned, searching around, but found nothing.

There were very few traces left. The monster had left almost nothing behind, no clothes, no blood. The small tentacle was also gone.

Had it been used up? Was it a one-time use tentacle?

In any case… it seemed that the god had protected her. And she had entered the god’s domain and returned unharmed.

Perhaps the god’s appetite had been sated by the monstrous man today, and she had escaped another disaster.

Xiang Er took a deep breath, her lungs filling with the damp scent of grass. She finally felt a bit more at ease.

She picked up her bag and walked on, her steps unusually light, treading over the broken stone path, looking up at the dark, starless sky.

Even if the world had gone mad, living another day was still worth celebrating.

Pushing open the apartment door, Xiang Er frowned.

The smell of cigarette smoke filled the air. The living room cushions were thrown on the floor, small objects out of place.

She walked into the apartment, frowning, and heard a woman’s giggle coming from the master bedroom:

“Oh, you’re so bad… heehee… here… don’t touch me there…”

Xiang Er raised her voice and coughed twice towards the master bedroom:

“Ahem!”

The sounds in the master bedroom stopped. After a while, Li Wan opened the door, half of her body visible, wearing a revealing nightgown, and greeted Xiang Er:

“Xiang Er, you’re back. I was a bit scared, so I asked my boyfriend to come over. We won’t disturb you!”

Behind her, a thin man poked his head out, looking Xiang Er up and down, his eyes clearly lighting up. He waved:

“Hello hello, my name is…”

Before he could finish, Xiang Er had already turned indifferently, walked into her own room, and slammed the door shut.

Clearly, she didn’t want to interact with them, but… this was completely unlike Xiang Er’s usual behavior.

Li Wan and her boyfriend exchanged glances. Li Wan was puzzled and a little scared:

“She’s been acting strange these past few days… Forget it, let’s not bother with her. It’s good enough that you’re here with me, hubby. I won’t be scared tonight…”

Her boyfriend glanced at Xiang Er’s room a couple more times before closing the door and embracing Li Wan.

Xiang Er stood inside her room, taking a deep breath. A faint sweet fragrance and fishy smell lingered in the air, the familiar scent of the Evil God.

For some reason, now that she was used to it, the smell gave her a strange sense of peace.

She immediately looked at the wall.

Fortunately, the breathing human skin was gone. The wall looked completely normal.

The soft moonlight, like a thin veil, fell upon the wall, casting faint blue shadows. It was her own shadow. The wall was cold and hard, as if the breathing human skin had been merely her imagination.

But Xiang Er knew she wasn’t prone to such vivid hallucinations. It had all been real. She looked towards her desk.

The sculpture on the desk was facing sideways, bathed in the dim moonlight. The shadows merged with the sculpture, the tentacles around the large eye seeming to come alive, swaying gently.

Xiang Er looked at the floor, then at the ceiling. The trails of slime were gone, everything had returned to its old, familiar state.

For some reason, she felt lightheaded, her mind unable to focus. She should have been scared or angry about many things, but she couldn’t muster any emotion. She felt like she was drunk, light and airy, as if she could float up to the ceiling.

She even smiled, a slightly reckless smile, as she walked straight towards the sculpture on the desk.

She reached out and picked up the sculpture. The cold, hard wood pressed against her palm, but she didn’t seem to notice, just staring at the sculpture intently.

She was a little crazy, she knew it, but she couldn’t control herself. Looking at the sculpture’s wooden, grayish-red eye, she began to speak:

“Akhe… why did you save me?”

She murmured to herself, looking at the bluish windowpane. Outside, a sliver of the pale moon was visible in the cloudy night sky, appearing and disappearing behind the thick clouds.

The room was very quiet, as if she were truly alone. But Xiang Er knew that wasn’t the case. The god was always there.

She chuckled softly:

“Do you want to keep your food fresh? Is that why you’ve started protecting your food?”

The sculpture didn’t answer. The wooden body, warmed by Xiang Er’s hand, pressed against her palm.

Xiang Er stared at It, at every detail, every roughly carved corner, every chipped paint mark. She wanted to know more, but she also didn’t want to know too much. She was curious about this god, but she also knew how dangerous this curiosity was.

It could cost her life, but before that happened, she would understand It.

“What was that hand?”

Xiang Er asked.

Naturally, she received no answer.

Perhaps fearing her questions in her dreams, Xiang Er slept soundly that night, without dreaming at all.

Under the cover of darkness, a black shadow, like a female figure, tall, slender, and curvaceous, stood by Xiang Er’s bed, looking down at her sleeping face, etching every inch of her features into the god’s soul.

The black shadow moved around the room, peeling a large piece of white human skin from the wall, draping it over Itself like a beautiful veil. It then picked up Xiang Er’s pearl necklace from the desk with a tentacle, adorning Its head and neck.

It looked at Its newly acquired skin-covered head in the small mirror, then back at Xiang Er’s sleeping face.

Black mist swirled, tentacles coiling around its head… until a faceless human skull gradually took shape.

Beneath that blurry face, on its slender white neck, Xiang Er’s favorite pearl necklace shimmered.

Regarding the god’s gender, well, from the protagonist’s perspective, it’s still unknown. From our (the reader’s/audience’s) perspective, it’s feminine. And the author keeps shifting the gender, using the pronoun typically reserved for deities that doesn’t represent a gender, although at times it changes as another point of view, a little confusing. The author uses this pronoun: 祂 (tā) – a third-person singular pronoun used for the Christian God, equivalent to the reverential capitalized ‘He’. Well, ‘He’ is used simply due to cultural convention or prior knowledge, but it can also be interpreted as ‘She’ or ‘It’ (genderless).

Chapter 10: Surveillance

In the brightly lit meeting room, a tentacle as thin as a finger swayed leisurely, its movements like something drifting in the ocean current, with a light and supple grace.

Within Xiang Er’s field of vision, there was only this single tentacle. It wasn’t connected to anything, no statue, no body. It looked like a red cigar floating in the wind, carrying a faint fragrance, shimmering with bright red, crystalline specks of light.

It was alive, independent, a red worm embedded in Xiang Er’s vision, writhing and coiling, bright and vivid. Its countless tiny suckers at the bottom opened and closed gently.

Just now, it was this tentacle that had flung the folder back.

And now… Xiang Er slowly turned her aching neck, looking around. Her colleagues were all staring at her; none of them were looking at the red tentacle.

In other words, only she could see it.

It was… the god.

She silently asked in her heart: What do you want from me? When will you let me go?

Naturally, she received no answer. The tentacle continued to curl and stretch, its purpose unknown.

Xiang Er looked away, deciding to ignore it. She turned and walked out of the meeting room.

“What did you do? It was definitely you!”

The supervisor, clutching her cheek, chased after her. Her words were slurred, her momentum considerably weakened, but she still muttered curses, unwilling to give up.

Xiang Er turned to look at her.

The young girl stood half in shadow, half in the pale light of the meeting room, her face a mix of light and dark, the light parts whiter than the walls, the dark parts darker than the night.

Her dark eyes held the cold indifference of a polar glacier.

It seemed that nothing in front of her mattered. Her mind was occupied with grander matters, leaving no attention for the mundane realities.

This wasn’t her usual demeanor… The supervisor involuntarily recoiled, not daring to say another word.

Xiang Er didn’t speak, just turned and walked away, her footsteps dragging, the squeak of her flat shoes against the floor echoing, but no one stopped her.

She slowly returned to her seat, under everyone’s gaze, lowered her head, a few strands of hair falling forward to obscure her face, her expression blank.

The other colleagues in the meeting room didn’t know what to do. They exchanged glances, whispering insignificant words, cautiously returning to their workstations, their faces filled with bewilderment.

Someone said:

“Is this… a workplace haunting? Or some kind of superpower?”

Another replied softly:

“Shhh! Don’t say such things. Maybe we just saw wrong. Talking about these things too much will make them real… It’s scary!”

Everyone fell silent, pretending to be engrossed in their work, but their gazes kept drifting towards that corner.

That usually unnoticed corner, where the frail, pale girl, like a wildflower, was often overlooked.

She… was an enigma.

The supervisor, clutching her folder, was the last to leave. She had wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth, but her messy hair and swollen cheek were impossible to conceal. She used the folder to cover half of her face, walking quickly towards her workstation, tripping over a small object on the way and falling again, this time seemingly hitting her knee.

As she passed by Xiang Er, she couldn’t help but glance at her again, seeing only Xiang Er’s calm profile and her cold, indifferent eye. She gritted her teeth, the taste of blood still in her mouth. She didn’t know what tricks this Xiang Er had used, but she wouldn’t let this go!

Undercurrents flowed through the office. During lunch break, Xiang Er’s takeout arrived. As she was about to get it, a colleague brought it over to her desk, thoughtfully unwrapping the disposable chopsticks and saying:

“Sister Xiang, please enjoy your meal.”

Xiang Er looked at the colleague strangely. It was a girl who had joined the company a year before her. She was older than Xiang Er, yet she was calling her “sister.”

Why? Xiang Er had no time to ponder this question. She took the chopsticks:

“Thank you.”

But the girl didn’t leave. She suddenly leaned in and asked:

“My name is Zhu Minmin, you know, right? This morning in the meeting room… what exactly happened?”

Xiang Er paused, her chopsticks hovering over her rice. She tilted her head slightly, her dark eyes fixed on Zhu Minmin, her face almost expressionless.

Zhu Minmin felt a chill run down her spine, a feeling of being stared at by something inhuman. She shrugged, thinking she must be imagining things. A normal office, how could there be anything inhuman here?

She said with a smile:

“It’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it. I just wanted to say, I also really hate the supervisor, she always makes things difficult for me. You slapping her in the face in the meeting room was like avenging me, I think you’re super awesome!”

Xiang Er didn’t say anything, just hummed in acknowledgment and continued eating.

Zhu Minmin instantly felt the sense of being watched lessen slightly. She made a bit more small talk, and seeing that Xiang Er still didn’t respond much, returned to her own workstation. A little while later, she gave Xiang Er a piece of chocolate, clearly expressing her desire to befriend her.

Unfortunately, Xiang Er wasn’t interested. She ate only to maintain her strength, her mind not really on such mundane matters.

She was thinking about the god.

As she thought, the small, dark red tentacle, like a vine, climbed to the top of her laptop, its soft tip swaying gently.

Xiang Er thought, this tentacle was undoubtedly a part of the god. And, for now, it seemed to be protecting her, even retaliating, but not excessively.

Connecting this to last night’s events, Xiang Er pieced together the chain of logic.

First, she had casually made a wish to the sculpture, wanting her roommate to finish her shower quickly.

Then, when her roommate showered, the showerhead spouted blood. But when she turned on the shower, it turned back into clear water. However, after she left, the clear water turned back into blood, specifically targeting her roommate.

Why did the god do this? At first, she couldn’t understand, but later she realized: It was for the “price” of the wish.

It had been interrupted when it was about to collect Xiang Er herself as payment, binding and entangling her with its tentacles.

Xiang Er didn’t think her roommate’s knocking could interrupt the god’s predation. So why did it stop?

Was it because… the god wanted to savor her properly, undisturbed?

So, this meant that the god rather liked her as “food,” didn’t it?

At least Xiang Er herself liked to enjoy her favorite food slowly and without interruption. If she was disturbed, she immediately lost her appetite.

Perhaps the god was the same.

It hadn’t devoured her last night, and today it even sent a tentacle to protect her. Was this the god protecting its favorite ingredient? Or perhaps, it was a form of all-encompassing surveillance?

So… with mixed feelings, Xiang Er reached a conclusion: She was the god’s favorite ingredient, therefore, before being devoured, she would be temporarily protected and monitored in every aspect of her life.

Such a conclusion, she didn’t know whether to be happy or sad.

How long could she survive as an ingredient? And how could she delay the inevitable, prevent the god from devouring her too soon, or at all?

Could she try to convince the god that she didn’t taste good? But Xiang Er couldn’t imagine the god’s palate, and besides, she couldn’t prove whether she tasted good or not.

Delaying the inevitable seemed like a good strategy. She could continue sleeping with her roommate, away from that terrifying room, after all, the walls of that room were covered in human skin… or maybe she could find another place to rent?

Xiang Er browsed rental listings online, then calculated her savings, and had to abandon the idea of moving for now.

She had spent all her savings on her trip, and with rent and student loans to pay, she simply couldn’t afford to move. Besides, moving wouldn’t get rid of the god.

Looking at the tentacle in front of her, Xiang Er’s heart sank. The god had already followed her to work. Even if she moved, the god would surely follow…

Staring at the leisurely swaying tentacle, Xiang Er’s mind wandered.

The tentacle turned towards her, its tiny black suckers facing her, opening and closing in small groups, as if greeting her.

Such a small tentacle… well, it looked rather like a small craft from Yiwu, no longer scary or repulsive.

Xiang Er couldn’t help but extend her finger, reaching towards the small tentacle.

The small tentacle immediately straightened, its tip cautiously yet excitedly wiggling, reaching towards the tip of Xiang Er’s finger, the suckers opening and closing more rapidly. The entire tentacle turned a translucent, blood red, its surface becoming semi-transparent, blood and darkness swirling within.

Finally, the small, rounded tip of the tentacle touched the tip of Xiang Er’s finger.

Like the tip of a ballpoint pen touching her finger, slightly cold, but because it was so small, there was almost no other sensation.

Xiang Er gasped and quickly withdrew her hand. Was she crazy? This was part of an Evil God’s body, and she had actually touched it, was she afraid of not being eaten fast enough?!

She broke out in a cold sweat, quickly lowering her head, not daring to look at the tentacle again. She had forgotten again, that Evil God could clearly interfere with human perception. Just looking at it would affect her! It would even evoke a strange… grotesque appreciation… this was very wrong!

She hated tentacles, she hated the Evil God!

Xiang Er emphasized this to herself, her racing heart gradually calming down.

The mundane workday ended. This time, Xiang Er went home from work normally, without encountering the black river. But the tentacle remained steadily floating a few inches away from her, always appearing in the corner of her eye.

Xiang Er got off the bus and entered the isolated residential compound. In the darkness, the old women who always sat nearby looked at her with green, gleaming eyes, like a group of tired fireflies.

The compound felt different today. The shadows of the camphor trees were longer, the broken stone path more difficult to navigate, a cold, fishy-smelling autumn wind blew, and not a single insect chirped.

There were very few people around. Along the way, Xiang Er hardly saw anyone. Many of the streetlights were broken, some flickering erratically. As she walked past, their flickering cold light fell upon her, heavy and oppressive.

Passing by a nearly abandoned building, Xiang Er suddenly felt a chill down her spine.

It was the sixth sense of impending danger.

She abruptly looked up, towards the darkness beyond the reach of the streetlights. There, a man, like a drunkard, stood up.

The man chuckled at Xiang Er and walked out, into the light of the streetlamp.

His neck was severed, the jagged edges of the wound lined with sharp canine teeth, forming a large mouth. He tilted his head, both the mouth on his face and the one on his neck chuckling, extending a pair of black, hairy dog paws.

“Little girl… come play with big brother…”

He slurred drunkenly, his voice seemingly coming from both mouths.

Then, those black dog paws lashed out at Xiang Er!

Chapter 9: Slime

Through the barriers of countless times and spaces, she glimpsed the first light of dawn, cities and houses collapsing… A tall, slender woman approached, cupping her pale, weak, and helpless face, leaning in, bestowing kisses and licks and bites, a shower of touches and pressures, intertwined in a world filled with smoke and dust.

She opened her eyes wide, rising and falling in a sea of desire, but no matter what, she couldn’t see the woman’s face.

***

That night, Xiang Er slept soundly.

When she opened her eyes again, she felt so refreshed that she was surprised.

Even before her trip, she hadn’t slept this well in a long time. What had happened last night? It was as if someone had been guarding her dreams.

Moreover, she couldn’t remember the content of her dream at all, only a vague feeling that she had a beautiful dream.

Was it because sleeping with someone else made her feel more secure? Xiang Er turned to look at Li Wan, assuming she must have slept well too, after all, she knew Li Wan always had good sleep quality.

But that one glance almost made her jump out of bed.

Li Wan’s hair was a mess, her dark circles reached her chin, her eyes were dull, her complexion sallow, her whole body looked like it had fallen apart, like a vengeful ghost.

Xiang Er asked:

“What’s wrong? Did you not sleep well?”

Li Wan’s voice was weak:

“I had nightmares all night… I’m going to die…”

She crawled out of bed like a sleepwalker and left the room, leaving Xiang Er alone, bewildered.

Had her and Li Wan’s sleep quality completely reversed last night?

But then again, Li Wan had just experienced the bloody bathroom incident, so it was normal for her not to sleep well. On the other hand, she was the one who had slept well, which was the bigger problem.

But time was tight, and this wasn’t the time to think about these things. Xiang Er grabbed her quilt and pillow, left the master bedroom, and headed towards her own room.

Standing in front of her closed door, Xiang Er hesitated.

The memories of last night gradually surfaced in her mind. The sweet fragrance filled her nostrils, the slime from the tentacles reappeared on her skin, the dark red and black, rough surface writhing in the air, as if ready to tear her to shreds…

She knew these were just memories, just illusions, nothing to worry about, but Xiang Er still couldn’t shake them off.

The slender girl in the green nightdress stood at the door, her head bowed, her fingers digging into the quilt. A sharp pain in her fingertips reminded her that she had scratched them.

Slime, the slime seemed to reappear on her fingertips. She rubbed them hard against the quilt.

She wished she could never enter this room again.

But that was obviously impossible.

She told herself not to be afraid, it was fine, it was just an Evil God, the price should have been paid yesterday, it wouldn’t happen again today. Even an Evil God had to be reasonable, right?

With her scratched fingers, she touched the doorknob and turned it.

Xiang Er pushed open the door, squinting as she looked inside. For a moment, she seemed to see those dark red and black tentacles again, writhing and coiling on the ceiling, on the floor, in the air.

Fortunately, it was just her imagination. The room was clean and tidy, no tentacles, no abnormalities. And the sculpture’s eye, unusually, wasn’t facing the door.

Xiang Er breathed a sigh of relief. It was good that there were no tentacles… but, what were those?

The faint morning light, filtering through the dark blue windowpane, cast a pale blue glow on the ceiling. And under that light, the entire ceiling was covered in countless crisscrossing trails of slime, thick and thin.

Sparkling, transparent, dotted with shimmering specks of light.

When she was young, in the orphanage, Xiang Er often saw snails on the walls. After it rained, the snails would crawl out of the fields, climbing high, sticking to the cement walls. The matron said they were coming out to bask in the sun.

The walls where the snails crawled would be covered in such trails of slime, long, thin streaks, the width of a snail’s body, making her fingers sticky when she touched them. After the sun came out and dried them, the slime would disappear, turning into white, dry trails, eventually crumbling into fragments that would be blown away by the wind. The dried-up snails would also fall, their withered, dark bodies curled up inside their shells, dead.

Xiang Er hated snails.

And now she also hated these tentacles.

They had completely dirtied the only place she had in this world!

“So disgusting!”

She glared at the sculpture.

Anger momentarily overwhelmed her fear. Carrying her quilt, she strode into the room, threw the quilt and pillow onto the bed, turned to leave, and glared at the sculpture again.

The next second, her feet slipped.

The floor was also covered in slime trails. She hadn’t noticed and stepped right into it. Her slippers flew off, and she went crashing towards the wall, with enough force to crack her head open!

“Ah—!”

Xiang Er cried out, reaching out blindly, but grasping only air.

She was facing the wall, about to crash headfirst!

The expected pain didn’t come. Instead… there was a feeling of her forehead pressing against something warm.

Xiang Er’s breathing was heavy, her nostrils filled with that strange, sweet fragrance, and a faint fishy smell, much like… tentacles!

She abruptly looked up, her mind filled with images of writhing tentacles, fearing that she would be captured again. But… there were no tentacles.

The surroundings were clean, except for the shimmering slime, there was nothing unusual.

She looked at the wall where her forehead had struck, her eyes widening slowly.

That part of the wall was—breathing.

Slowly rising and falling, rhythmically expanding and contracting, like the surface of a woman’s skin, warm, honey-colored skin, stretching out smoothly.

The spot where Xiang Er’s forehead had hit had somehow transformed into a patch of female skin, looking incredibly delicate and soft, rising and falling with each breath, smooth as jade.

The delicate, honey-colored skin spread outwards, as if Xiang Er’s impact had broken some kind of barrier. It grew rapidly, soon covering the entire wall.

The skin continued to inflate and deflate, following the same rhythmic breathing. Faint blue lines of veins were visible beneath the delicate, honey-colored skin, even tiny pores with fine hairs, detailed and exquisite, just like… a large sheet of human skin, the skin of a young woman.

Living, breathing, woman’s skin.

Covering the entire wall.

A prickling sensation ran down Xiang Er’s neck, her hair standing on end.

She couldn’t bear to look any longer. Her head buzzed, her vision blurred, her ears rang, her sanity slipping away. Her survival instincts kicked in, and she quickly backed away from the wall, stumbling out of the room.

The wall… didn’t follow.

Fortunately, the wall had no eyes, it wasn’t staring at her.

The sculpture hadn’t turned around either, its blood-red, shimmering eye not looking at her.

Xiang Er managed to escape.

***

Throughout the workday, Xiang Er was distracted, not even reacting when her supervisor scolded her in front of the entire team.

“…Are you even listening to me? Hey! Xiang Er!”

The supervisor slapped a folder against the table. The sharp sound finally broke through the invisible barrier. Xiang Er looked up at her supervisor and replied:

“What?”

The supervisor was furious. This employee dared to ignore her during a meeting? She had never seen anything like it! She slammed the folder on the table repeatedly:

“There were three data errors in yesterday’s summary, and you didn’t notice? Huh? Why didn’t you check them? Even though Xiao Zhang wrote the report, you were responsible for compiling it. Didn’t you know you had to check it carefully before sending it out? I was called out by the boss and criticized because of you. Let me tell you, I lost my performance bonus, and don’t think you’ll be getting yours either! Go back and write a self-criticism report, do you hear me?!”

Xiang Er listened, but a mental barrier seemed to separate her from these real-world events. She felt like a detached observer, watching a play unfold, with an air of cold indifference.

She thought, what could be worse than this?

The walls of her home were made of human skin.

Was this job really worth keeping?

Her home had been invaded by an Evil God, and she herself was about to be torn apart and eaten by it.

She let out a cold laugh:

“Heh.”

The supervisor instantly flew into a rage. This time, instead of hitting the table, she threw the folder directly at Xiang Er’s face:

“What are you laughing at! You dare to laugh!”

Xiang Er stood still, not moving an inch, her eyes even following the trajectory of the folder, her mind sluggishly thinking: Oh, she wants to hit me in the face with this.

But she didn’t react, nor did she want to.

Some of the other team members wanted to reach out and stop the folder, but fearing the supervisor’s wrath, they retracted their hands, only able to watch Xiang Er with pity.

The supervisor’s eyes flashed with malice, also fixated on the folder, watching it fly towards that pale face, anticipating the impact.

The supervisor had her reasons for doing this. Yesterday, her boss had told her that they were going to promote someone within the team to assistant supervisor to help her with her work, hinting that her position might be replaced, that she might be demoted to a regular team member at any time. And the candidate the boss had in mind was Xiang Er.

If she could force Xiang Er to quit at this juncture, then there would be no one to compete with her for the supervisor position. She wanted to humiliate Xiang Er publicly, to crush her self-esteem, because she knew that young graduates like Xiang Er were thin-skinned, and this method would definitely force her to resign.

So, today, this hit had to land.

She assumed Xiang Er would dodge, but found that she just stood there, motionless. Wasn’t this even better? The supervisor waited, a smirk playing on her lips, already picturing Xiang Er’s swollen, bruised face. It was just too…

However, just as the folder was a few centimeters away from Xiang Er’s face, the wind it created rustling Xiang Er’s hair, the folder suddenly stopped.

Yes, it completely froze in mid-air, defying all laws of physics, hanging suspended.

“Eh?” “What’s this…” “Huh?”

The others, witnessing this scene, couldn’t help but exclaim in surprise.

The next second, as if pushed by an invisible force, the folder abruptly reversed direction, flying towards the supervisor!

“Ah!”

The supervisor screamed and, although bewildered, dodged to the side. Under normal circumstances, the folder would have simply fallen onto the table. But now, as if equipped with an automatic guidance system, it accurately changed its trajectory in mid-air!

With a “bang,” the folder slammed into the supervisor’s face. Her face instantly reddened and swelled, blood trickling from the corner of her mouth.

She looked on in disbelief, clutching her face, muttering in pain as blood flowed:

“What’s going on? How… ugh, how is this possible?”

The mischievous folder landed on the table, behaving itself, as if nothing had happened.

Silence descended upon the meeting room.

Everyone froze, their terrified gazes fixed on—Xiang Er.

They had all seen clearly that Xiang Er hadn’t done anything, yet the folder had turned and struck its owner.

And Xiang Er, at the center of everyone’s attention, was even paler than before, staring at a point in the air, a vein throbbing in her forehead.

Only she could see that what had just happened was the work of a familiar, dark red tentacle.

“It”… truly wouldn’t let her go!

Chapter 8: Sweet Fragrance

The silence in the room was terrifying.

Like an isolated boat, adrift in the damp night wind, causing her mind to sway uneasily.

Xiang Er strained her ears, but heard nothing.

The splashing water in the bathroom, the constant chirping of insects outside the autumn night window, the rustling branches of the camphor tree, the occasional whirring of a tram motor… the night shouldn’t be this quiet.

But she couldn’t hear anything.

Nor could she see clearly. Everything outside the window was hazy and indistinct. The moon, as if draped in a fuzzy edge, shone in from a distant point beyond the glass, making her dizzy the longer she looked.

The world… was shut out, beyond the confines of the small room.

And Xiang Er and the Evil God residing within the sculpture stood facing each other. The air seemed to shift, and she wondered… how would it collect its price? And what price would it demand? Wasn’t now the perfect opportunity to strike?

She realized what was about to happen. Perhaps it would be her flesh, perhaps her spirit. She was about to be harvested.

She stepped back, then suddenly turned and ran towards the door.

But after running for a while, she found herself still in the same spot, her body hadn’t even turned. Her body was no longer under her control. Turning, running, the door, it was all an illusion. In reality, she just stood there, frozen.

Her skin began to itch, and she found it difficult to breathe. Where had all the air gone? Her throat, her throat began to prickle with a thousand tiny needles… but even more prominent was the itching on her skin, almost unbearable.

Her mind was muddled. Was she the price? The sacrifice? The gift to please the god? Was she standing here, a dish waiting to be savored? Was the god about to taste her?

She didn’t want to be eaten. Although the human world wasn’t perfect, she didn’t want to die! Especially not to be reduced to a pile of mush, swallowed whole or chewed up, bones and all, by an Evil God… No!

Xiang Er struggled, but her body was limp and weak. She couldn’t muster any strength, and she couldn’t even see where the door was, the light was too dim.

The air slowly grew hot and thick, a unique sweet fragrance permeating the room.

The sweetness was cloying, as if a million flowers of every variety had been overturned, so thick it was almost tangible. It forced its way into Xiang Er’s nostrils, into her body, surging through her veins, filling her from the inside out with a sweet fragrance, until she could barely stand her own scent.

But there was nowhere to escape. Her body grew sweeter and softer, until she could no longer stand, her thoughts sluggish and dull.

She could no longer distinguish between reality and illusion. She watched helplessly as several dark red tentacles extended from the sculpture. The tentacles, covered in endless suckers and bumps, writhed and flailed, like a group of excited elementary school students about to go on a spring outing, flying towards her through the air!

With a few “plop” sounds, more than ten tentacles reached out, clinging to her clothes, wrapping around her entire body, leaving almost no gaps!

“Nn… let go…”

Xiang Er gasped, her voice hoarse, laced with a strange desire that startled her.

She was terrified, but unable to move, her sweet-scented body twisted into strange positions by the tentacles.

She no longer needed to stand. The tentacles bound her feet and lifted her into the air. Her slippers fell off, and the soles of her feet suddenly touched the tentacles’… countless suckers.

So cold!

Her feet were burning hot, but the suckers on the tentacles were incredibly cold. The contrast made her gasp, and she quickly lifted her feet, forced to cling to a thick tentacle in front of her to prevent herself from falling.

Beneath her palms, the strange, thick tentacle pulsed and shifted.

This was the first time she had truly touched it. The tentacle felt soft, elastic, and cold, covered in a thin layer of unsettling slime, completely different from human skin. Its surface was covered in tiny, raised bumps, like some kind of marine creature, or a cold, scaled serpent.

As she touched it, the slime clung to her fingertips, both disgusting and terrifying.

Xiang Er could feel several such tentacles, some large, some small, some constantly changing shape, wrapping around her body coil after coil. The force wasn’t particularly strong, but it was enough to immobilize her.

She had been hot before, and being wrapped like this, close to suffocation, was even more unbearable. The slime constantly emitted a nauseating sweet fragrance and fishy odor, a combined assault on her senses!

She was about to vomit, but she didn’t dare open her mouth. A small tentacle, like the tip of a vine, hovered near her lips, poised to strike.

She could easily imagine that the moment she opened her mouth, the tentacle would nimbly and forcefully invade, forcing its way inside until she exploded!

Absolutely cannot… open her mouth… Xiang Er half-closed her eyes, trying to ignore the slime and the smell, desperately trying to move her muscles, but to no avail.

Countless suckers on the tentacles, large and small, opened and closed, like countless mouths about to tear her apart and devour her.

The tentacles, with their uneven bumps, pressed tightly against her through her clothes, binding her, twisting her, their cold, damp breath staining her completely red!

The tentacles completely engulfed her, lifting her high into the air. She stared straight ahead at the ceiling, her fragile neck craned back, a weak sound escaping her lips:

“No… let me go… ah…”

The dim yellow light flickered, the tentacles twisting into a writhing root system, enveloping and lifting the slender girl in white. Numerous red, fleshy lumps, like snakes, twisted, pulsed, and coiled, tightening and wrapping around her thin limbs. The girl’s eyes widened like a dying fish, the whites almost bloodshot…

“Knock, knock, knock!”

A sudden knock on the door.

The tentacles paused, then quickly dispersed and retreated, vanishing without a trace. Xiang Er, caught off guard, fell to the floor, her hands weakly pressing against the floorboards, gasping for breath.

Her whole body was flushed and hot, her exposed fingers and toes incredibly red. The scent of blood and the intense sweet fragrance mingled, the air in the entire room still thick and cloying, suffocating her with every breath.

Something strange stirred deep within her body, like a slowly growing flame, creeping upwards from her lower abdomen, spreading through her flesh.

She hadn’t felt this strange… flame before, when she had been bound and unable to move, barely able to breathe, on the verge of death.

What was this? What was happening? Why was she becoming so strange?

Xiang Er extended her fingers. They were covered in a transparent slime, that strange, slippery sensation, cold and soft… She couldn’t think about it anymore.

The transparent slime was sweet, with a faint fishy smell.

Xiang Er rubbed her fingers hard against the floor, until they bled.

It was a deep-seated, primal terror, an unending horror that accompanied the slime, the tentacles.

Was this… the price the Evil God wanted to collect?

Xiang Er thought breathlessly, as expected of an Evil God. If not for the knock on the door, would It have already torn her to pieces, savoring each piece?

She had even more bizarre suspicions, but she refused to dwell on them. She knew that the more she delved into the Evil God’s thoughts, the more she would lose her mind. The more she thought, the more the Evil God would revel in it. This was what the Evil God wanted…

The Evil God wanted to drive her mad.

Xiang Er told herself that she would never, ever make another wish to the Evil God.

The knocking came again, more urgent this time, accompanied by Li Wan’s voice:

“Xiang Er? Xiang Er?”

Xiang Er leaned against the wall, pulling her weak body upright, and called out to the door:

“What’s wrong?”

Her voice was hoarse and soft, with an undeniable allure. Xiang Er cleared her throat forcefully, tasting the sweet blood in her throat, and spat it out.

A bright red flower of blood bloomed on the old floorboards.

Xiang Er looked at the blood flower, her throat filled with the sweet fragrance, her body trembling. She was slightly grateful that she wasn’t afraid of blood.

Li Wan’s timid voice came from outside the door:

“Um… I came to thank you… and, I’m really scared tonight, can I sleep with you?”

Xiang Er steadied herself, pushing herself off the floor:

“Okay.”

She had been thinking the same thing. Although she knew that it made no difference to the Evil God which room she slept in, she didn’t want to sleep in this room anymore. It was too convenient for the Evil God to torment her.

She went out and met Li Wan. Li Wan’s hair was still wet, and unlike her usual bossy demeanor, she spoke to Xiang Er cautiously:

“Just now… how did you do that? Why was the shower… like that when I turned it on, but it was fine when you did?”

Xiang Er’s body was covered in damp, sticky slime. Her clothes were soaked through. Li Wan didn’t seem to mind, but she couldn’t stand it.

Swaying slightly with each step, she carried her toiletries basket and went into the bathroom to shower.

At the bathroom door, she turned back to Li Wan and said:

“Maybe… it was just a coincidence.”

Li Wan stood hesitantly at the bathroom door, watching as Xiang Er went in, closed the door, and turned on the shower. A hazy shadow fell on the door.

Li Wan felt like she had encountered something unclean, but Xiang Er was a pure, innocent girl, who hadn’t even had a boyfriend. Sleeping with Xiang Er would surely ward off the evil… hopefully even transferring it to Xiang Er.

Just then, her vision blurred, and the shadow on the shower door suddenly sprouted several tentacles, dancing in the air like Medusa’s hair!

Li Wan’s scream caught in her throat. A second later, she looked again—it was just the silhouette of a graceful girl.

Where were the dancing tentacles? She must have been too stressed and imagined it… imagined it, right?

Still, Xiang Er was really strange. Li Wan thought about this, glancing at Xiang Er’s half-open door, peering inside.

Strange… why was it so dark in there? She must have turned off the light. Li Wan didn’t dare look further and returned to her own room.

After a while, Xiang Er came back. She had changed into a light green nightdress, her figure slender and graceful. Carrying her pillow and floral quilt, she spread them out on Li Wan’s large bed and immediately burrowed under the covers.

Li Wan wanted to talk to her, but when she turned her head, she found Xiang Er already asleep. She had no choice but to turn off the lights and go to bed herself.

Soon, both of them were sound asleep.

In the faint moonlight, a black shadow slowly flowed to the head of the bed, a dark, head-like shadow drooping down towards Xiang Er’s side.

Xiang Er was dreaming. She had showered, but the sweet fragrance still lingered on her body, and the nightmares came quickly and chaotically.

In her dream, she saw a tall woman, her face obscured, leaning down towards her…

Chapter 7: The Price

It was almost midnight.

Under Li Wan’s pained and shocked gaze, Xiang Er didn’t reach out to her, but instead retreated a few steps.

Standing by the door, the smell of blood overwhelming, Xiang Er trembled all over, every inch of her skin, every joint, shaking uncontrollably, as if about to fall apart.

She stumbled, her slender, white legs bending as she leaned against the wall, raising a hand to cover her chest, like a fragile, fish-white porcelain vase about to shatter. All the color drained from her face, leaving her pale as a ghost, her eyes wide, resembling a fish.

A cool breeze blew in from the high window in the bathroom, chilling Li Wan to the bone. She was encased in a hard shell of viscous blood, unable to see any hope of rescue.

Gritting her teeth, she said:

“Come here! Help me… up…”

Xiang Er paused for a moment, then seemed to take a deep breath, facing the balcony in the living room, away from the smell of blood.

She slowly took a few steps forward.

Unexpectedly, she stepped over Li Wan, her foot landing in the pool of blood on the floor with a “splatter.”

She winced, holding her breath. She was wearing slippers, but the feeling of something sticky and slimy on her feet almost suffocated her. Trying to ignore the strange sensation, she reached for the shower faucet.

Seeing her about to turn on the shower, Li Wan’s eyes almost bulged out of their sockets. She lunged forward, screaming incoherently:

“No… don’t! The shower is full of blood… it’s all blood aaaaaaa!!! Don’t turn it on!!!”

Xiang Er looked down at her, her eyes filled with panic, finally understanding:

“The blood is… coming from the shower?”

Li Wan nodded and shook her head, then shook and nodded again, frozen in place.

But Xiang Er gritted her teeth and turned on the shower with a “click.” She wanted to see for herself.

The sound of the shower water made Li Wan flinch, and she quickly retreated:

“No… don’t…”

However, after a moment of panic, she suddenly realized… clear water was flowing from the showerhead.

Clean, clear water, with warm steam, just like a normal shower.

Xiang Er’s chest heaved violently. Trembling, she reached her soft, tofu-like wrist into the water. The warm water soothed her skin, easing her tension and pain.

She exhaled and whispered:

“It’s okay.”

She stiffly turned her head, looking at Li Wan’s face, her gaze carrying an unfamiliar quality that made Li Wan afraid to meet her eyes.

Xiang Er said calmly:

“You can continue your shower.”

After she finished speaking, she took the showerhead and rinsed her feet and slippers.

Warm, clear water flowed steadily from the showerhead, sparkling, diligently washing away the bloodstains on her feet, revealing her translucently white skin. The water washed away the nearby pool of blood, revealing a patch of clean floor, exposing the broken grey tiles underneath.

The clear water washed away the mess of blood, flowing smoothly into the drain. Everything became normal.

So normal that… Li Wan began to wonder if she was crazy to have seen blood spraying from the showerhead.

After cleaning up most of the blood, Xiang Er handed the showerhead to Li Wan.

Li Wan frantically waved her hands, refusing to take it. Xiang Er stood on tiptoe, her wrist weak, and with difficulty, placed the showerhead back in its holder.

She turned around, her face flushed from the hot water, her eyes sparkling, tiny beads of water clinging to her hair like pearls. She gave Li Wan a gentle smile:

“Alright.”

Li Wan, watching this scene, felt her heart skip a beat. She felt a shadow looming over her, as if watching Xiang Er with her. The shadow emanated a strong aura of terror, choking her, suppressing her senses!

She wanted to say no, don’t go, she didn’t want to shower anymore… but she couldn’t say anything, her expression frozen.

Xiang Er walked out, closing the bathroom door behind her.

She stood outside, exhaling softly. Even after experiencing so many supernatural events these past few days, the scene of the bloodbath still made her feel uneasy. She stood by the sink, turning on the faucet to wash her hands, thinking about what had just happened.

This was obviously another one of the Evil God’s games. For some reason, the Evil God had chosen Li Wan as a new toy, but seemed to be… crueler to Li Wan than to her, playing in this very direct and physical way.

Was it because Li Wan was stronger and seemed more capable of enduring it?

Just then, she heard another broken scream from the bathroom:

“Aaaaaaaaaah—it’s happening again, blood!!! Aaaaaah!!!”

Xiang Er paused, a puzzled look on her face. She didn’t really want to intervene. If this was the Evil God’s game, what right did she have to interfere?

But she looked up at herself in the mirror, and a sudden realization struck her like lightning. She remembered what she had said to the Evil God sculpture.

She had made a wish to the sculpture!

What if… this game was caused by her?

Perhaps, this god enjoyed fulfilling people’s wishes, taking pleasure in it? So it was because she made a wish that Li Wan was enduring all of this?

Thinking this, she pushed open the bathroom door again.

This time, Li Wan hadn’t turned off the shower. Xiang Er saw with her own eyes that what was falling from the showerhead, like beaded chains, was blood.

Streams of thick, viscous blood, falling from the sky, drenching Li Wan’s head and body, splattering on the floor, flowing into the drain. The drain was already clogged, the black-red blood accumulating in the room, like some horrifying structure rapidly taking shape.

Li Wan, utterly terrified, huddled in the corner, covering her head, muttering:

“Why is this happening… why… it was already fine… it was fine…”

Xiang Er closed her eyes, holding her breath. The strong smell of blood was suffocating, and with the steam, the bathroom resembled a blood-red hell.

She no longer felt the initial shock, nor did she tremble. She simply said:

“Turn off the shower first.”

Li Wan was completely petrified, unable to comprehend, looking up at her.

Xiang Er’s face was pale, her expression calm. She extended her jade-like fingers, pointing towards the shower switch beneath the curtain of blood.

Li Wan understood. Her eyes, like a frightened child’s, were filled with fear and anxiety, but she was obedient. She moved, struggling to stand up, her hands against the wall, her feet slipping. She managed to steady herself against the blood-smeared wall, carefully maintaining her balance. After a long while, she reached the shower and, with one hand, pressed the switch. The shower stopped.

Li Wan froze, then after a while, took a breath and turned to ask Xiang Er:

“Is this… is this okay now…?”

Xiang Er shook her head, her face weary:

“I don’t know.”

She didn’t know when this god’s game would end.

She just wanted to stop this farce now, no matter who was being tormented. She just wanted it to stop. She was too tired, she just wanted to rest.

She also wanted to conduct an experiment, so she turned to look at her room.

In the dark living room, her bedroom door was half-open, a steady, yellowish light spilling out, forming a fan-shaped, warm patch on the floor.

She didn’t know if the god was listening.

But, panting, she suppressed her hoarse voice and, facing the half-open door, said loudly:

“I hope this will end.”

After she finished speaking, the living room and bedroom fell silent. Except for her own panting and Li Wan’s sobs, there was no other sound.

Li Wan sat in the pool of blood and, for some reason, burst into loud sobs, her tears carving paths through the blood on her face.

So… had the god heard this new wish?

Would the god fulfill her wish?

Xiang Er looked at her bedroom, then back at the bathroom.

Fatigue slowed her thoughts. Her body acted before her mind could catch up. She leaned forward, her fingers lightly touching the shower faucet, her weak fingers struggling to exert force.

Gritting her teeth, her body pressed against the wall outside the bathroom, she finally managed to turn on the shower again.

“Whoosh—” clean, hot water flowed from the showerhead, sparkling brightly, perfectly normal, nothing unusual.

Li Wan stared with her red, swollen eyes, dumbfounded:

“Huh?”

Xiang Er said softly, wearily:

“It’s okay now, hurry up and clean yourself.”

After she finished speaking, she pressed against the wall, dragging her legs, and stepped out of the bathroom. She reached for the door to close it, but heard a scream from behind:

“Don’t close the door! Don’t…”

She let go of the doorknob and slowly walked back to her room, step by step.

Reaching her door, Xiang Er paused for a moment, her gaze slowly moving upwards from the old, yellow light… upwards.

When her gaze reached the level of her desk, she saw it. As expected.

The god statue was staring intently at her with its blood-red eye.

Through the dim, yellow light, the eye seemed to emit a bright fluorescence, like the clean water from the shower, and also like… the eye of a god residing within the sculpture.

Silent, sinister, carrying an aura of evil and otherworldliness, watching her, as she teetered on the edge of collapse.

Xiang Er finally entered her room. She had no choice, like prey walking into a spiderweb, delivering herself into the yellowish light.

With a “bang,” she closed the door.

Only she and the sculpture remained in the small room, staring at each other. A thought surfaced in her mind:

Would such an evil god fulfill the wishes of its believers for free? Besides, she wasn’t even a believer. She had crushed one of the god’s eyeballs this afternoon.

Perhaps… when the god accepted her wish, it had already set a price for her to pay.

So, what price could she pay?

She looked around. There was practically nothing of value in this room. The most valuable thing, her laptop, was probably something the god wouldn’t even glance at.

A chill ran down Xiang Er’s spine, her gaze… slowly turning towards herself.

Besides herself, she had nothing.

So, the god wanted… her.

Chapter 6: Eye Contact

The moon was silver-yellow, the city lights golden-red, interweaving and blending together, a dreamy and frivolous world.

Xiang Er sat on the bus, feeling deeply relaxed. The sense of being watched was gone; she had, at least temporarily, escaped.

She even boldly got off the bus midway and ate a bowl of rice noodles at a small roadside shop. The steaming hot rice noodles, with their heavy sense of reality, gave her twenty minutes of almost moving tranquility.

After eating her fill, she swayed on the bus, enjoying the scenery all the way back to the residential compound. Getting off the bus—Xiang Er’s steps stopped.

She looked at the grey and black apartment buildings, their walls covered in moss. Occasionally, a building was draped in ivy, the green leaves shimmering coldly in the moonlight like layers of dense skin.

Inside the last building was the statue of that “Akhe.” She could almost see that blood-red eye, gazing at her through the window, watching her, waiting for her to return to the nest woven with mushrooms, waiting for her to deliver herself to its doorstep once more.

She didn’t really want to go in, so she wandered around the small shops, the vegetable market, and the fruit stands outside, buying a few things.

But the longer she stayed outside, the later it got. The later it got, the more likely something would happen.

Xiang Er’s mood darkened again. Carrying her bags full of groceries, she reluctantly entered the residential compound, leaving the reassuring bustle of the city behind.

She slowly unlocked the door with her key, standing at the entrance for a moment, mentally preparing herself.

Entering the apartment, she placed the plastic bags on the shoe cabinet in the entranceway and turned on the living room light. The bright yellow light spilled down, as if through a glass cover, never quite illuminating things clearly.

It was time to change the lightbulb… to a bright white one. Xiang Er thought, squatting down to change her shoes, then padding into the living room in her slippers.

Her first glance involuntarily fell on the sofa. Early this morning, she had lost consciousness on this very sofa. But now the sofa looked perfectly normal, still its old, worn self, the cushions dented.

Just as Xiang Er was about to head to her room, her roommate, Li Wan, suddenly emerged from the master bedroom. Seeing her, an undisguised look of annoyance appeared on her face.

Li Wan snorted casually, about to leave, when she noticed the shopping bag in Xiang Er’s hand:

“Did you buy oranges? I was just craving some.”

She walked over and took four oranges from Xiang Er’s bag, leaving her with only two, finally giving a small smile:

“You’re back so late today. Did you get paid or get a bonus? Going out to enjoy yourself without me?”

Xiang Er hesitated, wanting to speak, then shook her head after a while:

“I didn’t get paid, and it wasn’t like I didn’t take you…”

Li Wan waved her hand dismissively:

“Hmph, fine, no need to explain. Oh, remember to buy shampoo when it runs out in the bathroom, and the toilet paper is almost gone too.”

Saying this, holding two oranges in each hand, she turned and walked towards the master bedroom. Xiang Er wanted to say something, hesitated again, and by the time she came to her senses, Li Wan had already gone back into her room.

This was their usual interaction. Living in the same apartment made them roommates, if not friends. She would do her best to take care of Li Wan, hoping for a similar response.

But there wasn’t one. Li Wan never reciprocated, only becoming increasingly demanding. She used to at least ask before using Xiang Er’s shampoo. Now she just used it all up and, without a hint of embarrassment, told Xiang Er to buy more.

But now, Xiang Er had no time to worry about these things. Her mind was full of the sculpture in her room.

She stood there for a moment, holding the deflated shopping bag, dragging her feet as she slowly walked towards her room.

Her cold fingers touched the even colder doorknob, the metal sending a shiver down her spine. She turned the doorknob extremely slowly, a long drawn-out “creak—” as the small room behind the door came into view.

The sculpture was indeed facing her. But the eye, surrounded by tentacles, no longer had that suspicious glow, looking like an ordinary wooden carving.

Xiang Er stood at the doorway, staring at the sculpture for a long time, before averting her gaze, entering the room, and starting to settle in.

When it was time to change into her pajamas, she reached out with her left hand, the hand that had crushed the eyeball, her slender, pale fingertips pressing against the eye of the sculpture, lifting it and turning it around, so that the eye faced the window.

After changing, Xiang Er glanced at the sculpture, a slight sense of relief washing over her. It hadn’t turned back.

Xiang Er sat on the bed, picked up her phone, aimed it at the back of the sculpture, and took a picture. She posted the picture in the comments section of the travel blog, asking:

“Does anyone recognize this? I bought it from an ethnic minority vendor. Has anyone else bought something similar?”

She refreshed the page repeatedly, but no one replied. The travel blog itself was quite old, so it was normal for no one to see the new comment. After thinking for a moment, Xiang Er posted the picture on the platform where the travel blog was hosted, tagging it with the name of the ethnic group and the location, hoping to attract more views.

She really wanted to know if she had any companions in this experience.

She really wanted a companion.

After posting the picture, she waited, but there was no response for a long time. It seemed she wouldn’t get an answer tonight. Xiang Er was a little disappointed, but it was also expected.

She had been scrolling through her phone for over an hour, her eyes aching. She looked up at the window and suddenly noticed… the angle of the sculpture seemed to have changed.

It had been facing completely away from her, but now it seemed to have… turned about thirty degrees.

Comparing it to the picture she had just taken, it was true. The small sculpture had turned slightly, revealing the corner of its eye, as if peeking at her.

Xiang Er stared at the picture in astonishment. As she was comparing, the small sculpture slowly turned back, returning to the angle in the photo.

The eerie wooden base, with its coiled serpent tail, slid slowly on the table, giving off a sneaky vibe.

…She almost wanted to laugh.

Xiang Er realized that since crushing the so-called god’s eyeball, her mental state had improved considerably. She could even find the sculpture amusing.

She pursed her lips, pretending to look at her phone, but the corner of her eye kept glancing at the sculpture.

After patiently waiting for about ten minutes, the base of the sculpture indeed started to rotate slowly again, like a stuck revolving door, inching along until the corner of the eye could clearly see Xiang Er…

Xiang Er abruptly looked up, her gaze fixed on it.

The sculpture immediately froze, as if its acupuncture points had been pressed, the tentacles and snake-like body at an awkward angle, only a small part of the white of its eye visible.

Truly comical.

Xiang Er felt a mixture of amusement and exasperation. What was this, a game now?

A mischievous thought suddenly occurred to her: If she threw it in the trash can, would it jump out to look at her?

As soon as this thought appeared, she narrowed her eyes, looking at the still-frozen sculpture. But she quickly shook her head.

No. This morning, this god had nearly killed her for looking up monks and Taoist priests. If she did anything bad to the sculpture, she definitely wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight.

What a nuisance… Xiang Er’s briefly lightened heart instantly plummeted.

She was just a small toy in the god’s hands, and she was actually playing games with its statue… she really didn’t know what was good for her.

Dejected, she lowered her head, focusing her gaze on her phone. She needed to find someone with a similar experience as soon as possible…

The sound of running water came from the bathroom next door; Li Wan was taking a shower. She showered every night from eleven to twelve. Xiang Er usually showered before her, but she had forgotten tonight and would have to shower afterwards.

The thought of staying up late again tonight made Xiang Er feel utterly exhausted. She sighed.

Her gaze drifted to the sculpture again. It was still in the same position, the corner of its white eye looking at her. Of course, the white of the eye was wooden, not the blood-red, terrifying kind.

Xiang Er lowered her head, a thought popping into her mind: If the god behind the sculpture truly existed… could It help her take a shower earlier?

As soon as this thought appeared, almost in the next second…

“Aaaaaaaaaaah—”

A scream suddenly erupted from the bathroom, like a clap of thunder!

Xiang Er jumped, immediately standing up and shouting:

“Li Wan? What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

Her only reply was a continuous, almost breathless scream. Li Wan seemed to be in extreme terror, her voice completely broken, incredibly shrill:

“Aaaaaah—blood, there’s blood aaaaaaaaaah—uwaaaaaah—”

Xiang Er frowned and walked towards the door. As she opened it, she subconsciously glanced back at the sculpture.

She saw that now, the sculpture’s eye was facing her!

The elegant silver moonlight streamed in through the window, the leaves of the camphor tree casting flickering shadows on the table. The sculpture’s eye flickered along with the shadows, like a real… Evil God, staring at Its prey.

Capricious, unpredictable, an aura of eerie danger washed over her.

Xiang Er’s heart pounded against her ribs. She swallowed, quickly stepped out, and slammed the door shut behind her.

In the living room, the intermittent, broken screams were even more terrifying. Braving the assaulting noise, Xiang Er opened the bathroom door. In an instant… her own breath caught in her throat.

Li Wan was collapsed in the middle of the bathroom, covered in blood!

Her mouth was choked with bloody foam, her hair and body drenched in blood, the floor awash with blood, almost overflowing the entire bathroom, a scene more horrifying than a murder scene!

Li Wan was somehow still conscious. She raised her head, her lifeless eyes turning towards Xiang Er, her broken voice a bloody cry for help:

“Help… help me… help…”

She crawled towards Xiang Er, a bloody hand clutching Xiang Er’s leg, her face covered in blood that continued to flow down.

Her voice was barely a whisper:

“Help me…”

Xiang Er looked down at her leg dully. Bloody handprints stained her pajama pants. How would she ever wash this out?

Her mind drifted, her nose catching a strange fishy smell.

Amidst the overwhelmingly strong scent of blood, she distinguished a faint… familiar fishy odor.

Damp, salty, eerie, and unique.

Its scent.

Chapter 5: The Toy

During lunch break, Xiang Er didn’t eat a single bite, but instead lay slumped on her desk to rest.

Her consciousness drifted hazily, wandering in the thick air. Xiang Er imagined herself as a paramecium, not allowing herself to think about anything, just wanting to simply relax her brain.

Her brain had suffered quite a bit of damage these past few days. Especially before dawn yesterday… from the moment she regained her memories until now, her head was still buzzing.

However, she couldn’t help but think.

Yesterday at dawn, in her dream, she was clearly about to be strangled to pieces by that… “Akhe.” Why was she able to wake up?

The most crucial point was that she woke up in her own bed, and her body seemed completely fine. Even the bruises that had inexplicably appeared on her calves and other places yesterday had completely vanished.

If waking up in bed was thanks to her roommate, then the disappearance of the bruises… who did that?

Xiang Er didn’t want to message her roommate to ask. She was afraid of receiving an answer she couldn’t bear.

That answer was already in her heart; she was just deliberately choosing to ignore it.

It was probably all Akhe’s doing.

Carrying her back to bed, and healing her bruises along the way.

Or lifting her into the air, breaking her into three pieces with angry, sharp tentacles.

All of this was Akhe’s doing.

A capricious, mysterious, and eerie god, whose amusement was perhaps torturing humans.

Xiang Er just didn’t know what about her had attracted “It”, making “It” willing to torture her, then heal her, then torture her again. Just like a cruel child would do to a new toy, repeating the cycle endlessly, day after day, an eternal loop.

Would she… become “It” toy from now on, tortured over and over like this, until finally, either It lost interest, or she completely broke down?

She couldn’t think anymore, her head was about to explode. She pressed her pale fingers against her temples, burying her head in her arms on the desk, letting out a very soft moan.

Suddenly, something touched her fingertips. Xiang Er jumped as if electrocuted, screaming and abruptly lifting her head, her movement so fast she almost hit the back of the chair.

“Ah!”

“It’s me!”

A male voice reached her ears. Xiang Er calmed down slightly, turning to see that it was the new general manager.

The general manager asked with a surprised expression:

“What’s wrong?”

Xiang Er shook her head, unable to speak, looking down at her desk, trying to slow her breathing, telling herself, it wasn’t… it wasn’t that thing.

“I saw you didn’t eat. I happened to order an extra lunch, so here, have it. If you don’t like it, that’s fine.”

The general manager placed a lunchbox on her desk. It was a high-end salad.

“Ah…”

Xiang Er responded dully, glancing at the lunchbox. The half of a cherry tomato on top reminded her of that blood-red eye… She said numbly:

“Thank you, I don’t need it.”

The general manager said:

“You’re already very thin, you don’t need to lose weight. I just joined the company and wanted to show some concern for my employees. Don’t overthink it. You should still eat lunch.”

The feeling of being watched subtly changed, as if the gaze now carried some emotion. Displeasure? Or disgust?

Xiang Er could sense that inexplicable emotion, and she could feel the hairs on the back of her neck, as if being blown by something.

Xiang Er hesitated, then shook her head:

“Thank you, but… really, I don’t need it. I’m not feeling well, I can’t eat.”

The general manager left the lunchbox and walked away. A few female colleagues nearby cast complex glances at her, but Xiang Er didn’t notice.

She focused entirely on the gaze on the back of her neck. That strange, incomprehensible emotion had indeed disappeared after she refused the food. Why? No, she couldn’t overthink… couldn’t overthink…

Xiang Er sat in her chair, her gaze averted from the lunchbox, staring blankly at the computer screen. The pixels on the screen, one by one, resembled the tiny bumps on the tentacle’s skin, so small they were only the size of pores, yet they could leave such a distinct granular sensation on her…

Following her train of thought, goosebumps appeared on her arm again, but she refused to look.

Why, when she had only seen the tentacles a few times, could she remember all the details so clearly? Xiang Er really hated her brain.

The afternoon passed quickly and peacefully. The feeling of being watched remained, but Xiang Er tried her best to ignore it, focusing on her work without looking around. Nothing strange happened again.

She finished her work quickly and, unable to find any other tasks, reluctantly started to goof off, looking at her phone for a while.

Her phone pushed more news notifications. A water pipe explosion in some place injured many people… a suspect escaped in some place, urging citizens to be careful… strange weather phenomena appeared in some place, experts debunking it as normal… all sorts of chaotic news.

There were also some unsafe news locally, suspected thefts, experts reminding people to lock their doors and windows. Xiang Er thought of the window in her room. She habitually left it slightly open for ventilation. Those mushrooms happened to be growing on the exposed wall. She hoped that when she returned, the sun would have dried them up and made them disappear.

It was time to leave work. Her tasks were completed, and there were no sudden meetings or assignments, but Xiang Er remained seated, unwilling to get up.

At the company, in the crowd, she felt safer.

But other people were leaving, and soon there were only a few people left in the office. Someone turned off the lights, and the room suddenly became dark and quiet.

A rustling sound came from beneath her feet, as if something was crawling across the carpet, a distinct, viscous sound.

Xiang Er’s hair stood on end. She immediately grabbed her bag, not daring to look down, practically sprinting out of the office.

Covered in cold sweat, the moment she stepped out, she couldn’t resist looking back at her workstation.

Through the transparent glass wall of the office, she vaguely saw a dark, columnar object slowly rising, twisting… the darkness distorted along with it, the world becoming chaotic.

Xiang Er had already reached the elevators. She frantically pressed the down button, her lip almost bleeding. The glow of the evening sunset shone on the elevator entrance. The few people waiting for the elevator looked at her in surprise.

Xiang Er looked at the people around her, her voice almost a sob:

“The elevator… why isn’t it coming…”

A well-dressed woman said:

“Young lady, don’t worry, the elevator is almost here. Look, it’s only three floors away.”

Xiang Er turned around trembling. The sense of being watched grew closer, a cold wind blowing through her hair. A thick, black liquid flowed out from the open glass door of the office, emitting that maddening fishy smell.

She turned her head, the bloodshot eyes frightening the people beside her, who stepped back. She finally broke down, crying out:

“Look! Look over there! Those things… those things are flowing out! It’s going to eat us all!”

She rarely lost control like this in front of strangers, but now she couldn’t care less. She just wanted to find companions; she couldn’t face this alone!

The girl in the white sweater, her face paler than her clothes, her lips pale as if seriously ill, only her eyes were blood red, the bloodshot color filling the whites of her eyes, her expression extremely terrified, veins even bulging on her forehead.

Her appearance was… more terrifying than the things she was describing.

The well-dressed woman glanced down the corridor, puzzled:

“What’s flowing out? There’s nothing there.”

A man said:

“Miss, if you’re not feeling well, don’t come to work. Seeing you like this, how can your colleagues work?”

Xiang Er looked at the corridor. In her vision, the corridor was overflowing with black liquid, bubbling, as if there were fish swimming inside, blowing bubbles.

But those weren’t fish. Xiang Er saw clearly that what was swimming in the black water were numerous tentacles, and many eyes, curiously looking at her.

Those eyes… were all blood red, dozens, hundreds of them, all fixated on her.

Xiang Er couldn’t feel her body. She realized that the gaze she felt while working was probably from these eyes.

She wasn’t being watched by one being, one pair of eyes. She was being watched by all these eyes, together.

And these… Xiang Er turned to look at the others again, her eyes pleading, looking at those strangers.

Everyone looked normal, relaxed. They all looked at her with puzzled and disgusted expressions. Some took out their phones to play with, others looked out the window.

No one saw the black river flooding the corridor. No one saw the world in her eyes.

Xiang Er turned her head. The eyes, the black river, the tentacles, the strange, hidden, grotesque body… were about to engulf her ankles.

The well-dressed woman smiled at her and said:

“The elevator’s here, let’s go.”

The elevator doors opened with a “ding,” and the others filed in. The woman held the door open, waiting for Xiang Er to enter.

Xiang Er looked down at her feet. The black river now encircled her, filling the elevator lobby, but… it didn’t enter the elevator.

The black liquid seemed to be waiting for her decision.

Xiang Er raised her head. The pale girl gave a tragic smile, waving to everyone:

“I still have something to do… you go ahead. Thank you.”

The woman said with concern:

“Then… take care.”

Then she released her hand, the elevator doors closed, the black river shut out.

Xiang Er looked at the black river at her feet. The viscous, thick substance had already enveloped her ankles and was climbing upwards.

Like a child finding its beloved toy, wrapping the entire toy in its embrace.

Claiming it as its own.

Xiang Er suddenly let out a low laugh:

“So… it’s only me… you’re here for me… hehehe… hahaha! Ahahaha!”

She laughed shrilly, hysterically, like a madwoman!

The constantly surging black river, the tentacles, the eyeballs, all paused slightly.

She lowered her head, opened her hand, and plunged it into the black river!

As expected, she could feel it. That thick, viscous sensation, tightly wrapping her skin, the frantic and indiscernible whispers exploding in her mind, her sanity instantly teetering, her body on the verge of a mad transformation, as if something was about to grow out of her, like all the prayers in the world were concentrated in her brain.

Xiang Er’s hand grasped an eyeball.

A blood-red eyeball, the size of her palm, its dark red pupil now darting around, as if panicked, no longer looking directly at Xiang Er.

“Akhe, is this what you want…”

Xiang Er murmured, as if in a dream. She raised her hand and, with all her might… squeezed tightly.

A soft “pop” sounded, blood and thick black liquid splattering out, her vision blurring, her ears ringing, the world echoing.

Then… everything disappeared.

Xiang Er leaned on her knees for a moment, her breathing gradually evening out. She looked at her hand.

Clean, pale, no trace of the crushed eyeball, just like the clean, brightly tiled corridor.

Night had fallen, the gentle, soothing darkness washing over the world. Xiang Er stood at the center of the world, weary but exhilarated, the corners of her pale lips curving into a slight smile.

“Heh…”