“Right, Shan Shan will be coming over in a little while, and I still need to go buy a few things.” Without waiting for Mo Ka to answer, Hao Shuai rushed out. Not long after he left, Gao Shan Shan arrived. Hao Shuai’s girlfriend was dressed to the nines. Without even looking directly at Mo Ka, she merely admired her brightly painted purple nails. “Where’s Hao Shuai?”
Mo Ka immediately grew stiff. He was seriously uncomfortable around strangers; whenever he was left alone with someone he didn’t know well, an inexplicable heaviness and awkwardness settled over him.
“H-He just went out.”
“Just looking at that half-dead expression of yours annoys me. Hao Shuai and I have plans. Can’t you take the hint and leave for a while? What are you staring at? Never seen a woman before?”
She really had no shame calling herself a woman. She was nothing but a shrew. Mo Ka kept the thought to himself. He didn’t want to argue with Gao Shan Shan; it would only drag on and get worse. He left the apartment, not because he was afraid of her, but because he happened to remember something he needed to buy. The elevator stopped on the eighteenth floor, and the person who stepped inside caught Mo Ka completely off guard. It was Chen Ge. Apparently, seeing his face up close made it even easier for him to stir Mo Ka’s heart. Mo Ka retreated into the corner of the elevator, leaving a meter of distance between them.
The elevator reached the first floor far too quickly, as though it had taken only the blink of an eye. Just as Chen Ge was about to step out, Mo Ka had no idea what came over him. He suddenly grabbed the corner of Chen Ge’s shirt and lowered his mask. “What brand of laundry detergent do you use?”
Chen Ge tilted his head, wearing a smile that wasn’t quite a smile. His expression looked gentle and polite, yet somehow kept people firmly at arm’s length.
“Tide.”
That was all he left behind, along with a personality Mo Ka still couldn’t make heads or tails of.
Mo Ka went to the supermarket and bought Tide detergent powder, liquid detergent, and soap, filling an entire bag before returning to the apartment. Gao Shan Shan was standing on the balcony, which immediately made Mo Ka somewhat unhappy. Even so, he carried a basin of water out there. By chance, he noticed that Gao Shan Shan wasn’t wearing a mask, but that was none of his business, so he didn’t pay much attention. The water coming from the faucet was faintly rust-colored. Mo Ka poured in a large amount of detergent.
Gao Shan Shan seemed to be talking to herself. “Why live in a world like this? Why live in a world like this?”
Mo Ka turned around in confusion. Only then did he clearly see the red patches beneath the thick layer of foundation on Gao Shan Shan’s face. He guessed they had been caused by excessive use of toxic cosmetics. Gao Shan Shan turned toward him and bit one of her purple-painted fingernails. The skin around her nails had reddened. She stared at Mo Ka. “Mo Ka, why are you alive?”
Then she pitched forward.
Her movement and expression looked no different from someone simply bending down to pick something up. In the next instant, her entire body vanished from Mo Ka’s sight.
Gao Shan Shan had jumped from the building.
Mo Ka remained frozen in the middle of washing clothes, unable to react. His face turned deathly pale. Only after a long time did he dare stand up and look down.
Gao Shan Shan lay in a pool of blood below, looking terribly small from this height.
People who spent all day saying they were depressed and wanted to die generally didn’t end up dying. Most people who truly intended to kill themselves showed no obvious sign beforehand. Perhaps one second earlier they had still been joking around with friends; perhaps one second earlier they had still been busy working. Then, in the very next second, they hurriedly ended themselves. They didn’t want to live, so they didn’t want anyone to notice. They didn’t want some meddler to save them.
Night came again.
Mo Ka was alone in the apartment. He locked his bedroom door and lay beneath the blanket, staring at the alarm clock. No matter what he did, he couldn’t fall asleep. The tick, tick of the second hand gave the room an indescribably strange atmosphere.
The apartment door outside his room was pushed open.
Mo Ka sat upright and held his breath.
Was it Hao Shuai?
His phone vibrated beside the bed. He hurriedly picked it up, and the message on the screen made his mind go completely blank. His eyes widened as he checked it again and again.
[Hao Shuai: I need to help Shan Shan’s family with the funeral arrangements these next few days. I probably won’t be home for a while.]
If that wasn’t Hao Shuai—if that wasn’t Hao Shuai—then who was in the living room?!
The sound of high heels gradually blended with the ticking of the second hand.
Mo Ka didn’t dare move. He stared at the bedroom door, feeling as though even the blood in his body had stopped flowing. The sounds from the living room continuously tormented his nerves, and soon it seemed as though the noises weren’t only coming from the living room anymore.
There were sounds inside his room too.
He heard the high heels stop directly outside his bedroom.
The door handle began to move.
Mo Ka leapt out of bed, grabbed the handle, and pressed his back against the door.
The sound of someone biting their fingernails seemed to come from right beside his ear.
Click. Click. Click…
Click-click-click-click-click…
Faster and faster.
Mo Ka covered his ears. His hands wouldn’t stop trembling. He suddenly pulled out his phone, but his fingers couldn’t hold it properly, and it fell to the floor. He crouched down and called Hao Shuai.
“Hello? Mo Ka, why are you still awake this late?”
“Quick… come back.” Mo Ka’s weak voice trembled.
“What’s wrong? What happened?”
“She’s here. She’s in the living room.”
“Who?”
“Gao Shan Shan.”
“Can you look at the time? Is this really the moment for jokes?”
“It’s true. It’s really true. Come back. There’s someone inside the apartment.”
“Did a thief break in?”
“No, no, no! It’s Gao Shan Shan. It’s definitely her.”
“Did you have a nightmare? I’m at the funeral home with Shan Shan’s parents right now while they repair the damage to her body. She’s dead. I feel awful too, but you can’t keep frightening yourself like this.”
“Come back. Hurry back.”
Mo Ka didn’t take in a word Hao Shuai said. He only kept repeating himself.
Hao Shuai sighed. “All right, all right. But I can only come back for a little while.”
The instant the phone screen went from bright to black, it reflected Mo Ka’s face.
And above Mo Ka’s head was Gao Shan Shan’s face.
A chill shot through the back of Mo Ka’s neck. When he looked again, only his own reflection remained.
He shrank into the corner.
The living room had gone silent. Hugging his knees, Mo Ka didn’t dare blink even once.
He had no idea how much time passed before someone knocked on the outer door.
It was Hao Shuai.
“Hey, Mo Ka, are you asleep? I forgot my key. Open the door for me.”
At the sound of Hao Shuai’s voice, Mo Ka’s heart finally dropped back into place. He took a deep breath, threw open his bedroom door, and rushed toward the entrance.
Hao Shuai walked inside and looked around the empty living room. “What exactly did you call me back to see? There’s nobody here.”
“There was definitely something here before.”
“You took a psychological blow today too. You must’ve had a nightmare.”
Hao Shuai raised a hand.
Terrified, Mo Ka backed away step by step.
Then he noticed Hao Shuai’s other hand hanging by his side.
His fingernails—
They were purple.
The sound of teeth biting fingernails came again.
Hao Shuai turned around, his face gray as ashes.
“I… see… you…”
Mo Ka nearly fell over.
He bolted toward the stairs like he had gone mad. The footsteps behind him refused to disappear.
Mo Ka pounded on the door of the eighteenth-floor apartment. “Open the door! Hurry! Please, open the door!”
Closer.
Whatever was behind him kept coming closer and closer.
His body stiffened as he slowly turned his head.
His gaze met a pair of eyes.
Bloodshot pupils rolled wildly inside their sockets.
At that moment, the door opened.]
“Why did you stop?! You’re right at the crucial part!” Ying Xiu Jie urged him.
Zhang Luo cleared his throat. “I’ve been talking for so long that my mouth is getting dry. If you guys could chip in a little drink money to show your appreciation…”
“How about a cup of chrysanthemum tea?” Chu Hao Yu asked while making the One Thousand Years of Death hand gesture.
Elio’s Notes: “Chrysanthemum” can also be slang for the anus in Chinese internet slang. Chu Hao Yu pairs the offer of “chrysanthemum tea” with the One Thousand Years of Death prank gesture—a finger jab to the butt—to turn it into a threat.
“Everyone wash up and go to sleep. I’m tired.” Zhang Luo gave an exaggerated yawn.
He was immediately pinned to the bed and beaten by the others, but no matter what they did, he refused to open his mouth.
Ke Bu picked up Zhang Luo’s precious laptop. “Then don’t blame me for defiling your wife.”
As he spoke, his hand started moving toward his pants.
Zhang Luo immediately begged for mercy. “Don’t defile my wife! She’s still an untouched maiden!! I’ll keep talking, okay?!”
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