The Creatures that We Are

The next day, Gao Yang’s Lie Detection had cooled down at three o’clock in the morning. He immediately went to the special ward to talk to Ke Yo and used the Talent on her. The result was that she didn’t lie, and she was benevolent.

She was actually benevolent. Incredible.

It seemed that Ke Yo had truly lost her memory and forgot everything, even herself, and she wasn’t a bad person by nature.

Gao Yang walked out and told Vermilion Bird the result. She seemed to have expected it.

“What do you think?” Vermilion Bird stood by the window with a cup of milk tea in her hand, half of her face illuminated by the cool moonlight. The scene would’ve looked even more cinematic if she lit a cigarette.

“Perhaps Liu Qingying could help,” Gao Yang suggested.

Vermilion Bird considered it. The way Liu Qingying’s Sweet Dream worked wasn’t a secret, and she had heard about the fact that the Talent’s first invasion into one’s mind always triggered a nightmare.

“True. Maybe she will get something from the nightmare Ke Yo comes up with subconsciously.” Vermilion Bird nodded and came to a decision. “Alright. I’ll keep her locked up here for the moment and try every option.”

“Okay. Let me know when you make any progress.”

His phone rang as soon as he said that. He checked the caller ID. It was Officer Huang. He picked up immediately.

“Hello?”

“I have updates, Gao Yang.” Officer Huang sounded tired. “I should’ve reported it sooner, but things are a little complicated, and we’ve been cleaning up the mess until now. Hong Xiaoxiao hasn’t had the time to report to Vermilion Bird, either.”

Hong Xiaoxiao.

A new member Team Vermilion Bird had recruited. Her Talent was on the higher-ranking side, and it was of the Miracle-type. Gao Yang remembered her somewhat.

“What happened?” Gao Yang asked. “Did something go wrong on your end?”

“Something did happen, but…we barely got out of it alright.” Officer Huang laughed bitterly. “If I remember right, the college boy called Mi Shi is your roommate, isn't he?”

“He is.” Gao Yang started, hit with an ominous feeling. “What happened to him?”

“He visited my wife this evening, and…” Officer Huang paused. “He woke up. He was a freerider, and a particularly strong one at that.”

Gao Yang’s heart sank. He didn’t respond.

“We took care of it,” Officer Huang spoke apologetically. “Sorry for your loss.”

“Okay, I understand.”

Officer Huang hung up. Gao Yang was still clutching onto his phone and standing where he was, at a loss. He could tell that something was wrong with Officer Huang, but the man didn’t seem eager to talk about it, and Gao Yang was too preoccupied with the tragedy that befell Mi Shi to go into it.

“What is it?” Vermilion Bird came up to him.

Gao Yang slowly turned around and put away his phone. “Hong Xiaoxiao will brief you.”

Vermilion Bird sighed. She could tell that it must be another downer of an occurrence, and she didn’t press. She would be told sooner or later, and she preferred being told later. ᚱαɴОᛒÊṢ

“Do you still have cigarettes?” Gao Yang asked.

“Huh?” Vermilion Bird thought she had heard wrong.

“Give me one.” Gao Yang’s chest felt tight, and he wanted to do something.

Vermilion Bird took out the pack of cigarettes in her pocket. Just when Gao Yang was going to take it, though, she pulled back with a slight smile.

Gao Yang’s hand stopped midair. He looked at her in confusion.

“Trust me, smoking isn’t going to solve anything. It’s only going to give you an unhealthy bad habit.” Vermilion Bird took a step forward and patted Gao Yang on the shoulder. “Don’t thank me.”

Clack, clack. Vermilion Bird left, her red stilettos clacking on the floor.

…

At noon, Gao Yang returned to his dorm room.

Lin Dajian and Qiu Qiu had pulled an all-nighter playing games and only woke up then. The burly Lin Dajian was rinsing his mouth, wearing a tanktop, a pair of shorts, and flip flops. Meanwhile, Qiu Qiu was still lazing on the bed, his thighs holding onto the blanket as he browsed Tok Tik for videos of pretty girls dancing.

“You went home for the night again yesterday?” Lin Dajian asked unclearly as he brushed his teeth.

“Yeah.” Gao Yang put on a forced smile.

“Heh, it’s good to be near home.” Lin Dajian spat toothpaste foam into the sink. “Where’s Old Shi? I didn’t see him last night.”

“I don’t know,” Gao Yang lied. “I didn’t see him either.”

“Hmph, Old Shi is a sneaky one. Perhaps he’s got a girlfriend without us knowing.” Qiu Qiu, sleeping on his bunk bed, rolled to his side. “Maybe he went to a hotel with a girl. I have to get the answer out of him once he’s back.”

“Haha, yeah.” Gao Yang smiled.

No,you won’t be able to.

Mi Shi is a mutated freerider more powerful than the regular ones, and he woke up, ended up killed and erased from the world by awakeners.

Tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow at the latest, police will come knocking, telling us that Mi Shi have gone missing. He can’t be found anywhere, and he’s unreachable on his phone.

We’ll worry over him and ask around, and we’ll have the hardest time for the next week. In half a month, however, we’ll come to accept the fact that Mi Shi is gone.

The next few months, he’ll be the one thing we talk about the most often. We’ll think of him and ask ourselves, Where did Mi Shi go exactly?

The pessimists among us will think that he’s dead, either killed by someone or himself, but they won’t say it out loud.

The optimists will think that just like the protagonist of Stars and Six Coins[1], he’s gotten tired of his current life and lost his way after twenty years of frugal, extremely disciplined life with nothing but studying, and thus he left to live under a different identity, starting a second life that’s crazy, degenerate, or epic.

Then it will pass, and we’ll forget about Mi Shi.

About ten minutes later, Lin Dajian and Qiu Qiu went to have lunch. Gao Yang stayed, telling them that he had eaten.

Bam. The door closed, leaving only silence in the room.

The sun was too high up at noon for the light to shine into the window, and the room was a little dark. Gao Yang looked up to glance at the desk under Mi Shi’s bed. On the desk were a large pile of textbooks and reference books, a cheap laptop that was closed, a small chargeable desk lamp for late night study, a lidded glass water bottle, and a box of cooling essential oil.

When he studied late at night, Mi Shi would put some under his nose whenever he was getting drowsy, waking himself up.

The smell was strong and permeated the air. Qiu Qiu had roasted him many times about it and urged him to drink coffee instead.

Every time, Mi Shi gave him an apologetic smile, but didn’t change his way. Because the essential oil was cheaper.

Gao Yang rose to walk up to Mi Shi’s desk and sat down. On the wall before the desk were various post-it notes and tables, including his class schedule, calendar, weekly study plan, monthly study plan, semester plan, and words to encourage himself with.

“Why sleep in when we’ll fall into an eternal slumber after death?”

“Don’t work hard only when you see hope. You’ll only see hope if you work hard.”

“Even a bug in a ditch should look up at the starry sky.”

Gao Yang read every note and felt the weight on his chest grow heavier and heavier. He took a deep breath, telling himself to stop wallowing.

The boy who woke up early every morning, cleaning the room and sorting out the shoes his roommates had left in a messy heap, who remembered his roommates’ preferences and didn’t need a reminder when bringing them food, who tutored his roommates for free and patiently explained a problem to them dozen of times, who ordered less when his roommates were buying and urged his roommates to order more when he was buying despite being tight on money, who avoided eye contact due to lower self-esteem, yet his kind and gentle nature were in plain sight when one cared to look at his eyes…

He no longer wanted to be a bug at others’ mercy. He was now gazing up at the stars.

Don’t mourn him, Gao Yang. Wish him good luck.

1. Translated literally from the raw, 星星与六铜板, but I can’t seem to identify what it’s a reference to. ☜

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