The Creatures that We Are

Spectres’ Mansion, early morning.

The silver moon hung high in the sky, watching over the mountain and forest shrouded in silence. A gust swept through the trees like a gentle, invisible giant hand and rustled the leaves. Then silence returned, as if the sleeping forest had merely turned around blearily.

Soon, the gale reached the front yard of the mansion and made a soft landing, sweeping the fallen leaves on the ground away.

Two small figures emerged, Nainai and Hong Xiaoxiao. They hurried to the mansion.

“Captain! It’s bad!” Hong Xiaoxiao panickedly opened the door. “The Millenium Tower, the Millenium Tower fell!”

Gao Yang had only been resting with his eyes closed on the sofa in the living room. He opened his eyes and said calmly, “Take your time, Hong Xiaoxiao.”

“I…Nainai and I…” Hong Xiaoxiao collected her breath. “We were patrolling above Li City and went past Daxu District, and suddenly, the Millenium Tower collapsed…”

“An explosion? Or an outside force?” Gao Yang asked.

“Neither!” Nainai put her hands on her hips. “It’s the power of the Creator Witch! Hmph, I sensed its insidious energy!”

“It wasn’t an explosion. And there wasn’t any outside force. It just fell. Although it seemed a little like the result of an earthquake, it couldn’t be that.” Hong Xiaoxiao went up to hand Gao Yang her phone. “We sneaked closer and took some photos.”

Gao Yang took the phone and quickly flipped through the photos before concluding, “It seems to be the foundation that was destroyed. Something hit the underground sixth floor.”

Hong Xiaoxiao blanched. She had made the guess on her way back, but it was still difficult to accept when Gao Yang put it into words.

The Twelve Zodiac Signs were powerful. They had War Tiger, Dragon, and…Zhong He. How did this happen?

Gao Yang was going to say something when he felt a heaviness in the back of his head; his eyelids were going to fall. That gave him a hunch.

He slowly lay back on the sofa and closed his eyes. Before his consciousness was pulled into a Sweet Dream, he instructed, “I’ll be asleep for a while. Gather everyone and wait for me to wake up.

…

Gao Yang paused when he opened his eyes. He was sitting in a cafe. The interior was a retro design. In the brightly lit cafe, a gentle folk tune was playing. Outside the window walls were streets from a bygone period. Ginkgo leaves pelted the ground, falling too quickly for all to be cleaned up. Every once in a while, a car would drive past.

Gao Yang sat at a coffee table by the window. Across from him was Liu Qingying.

Her hair was dyed brown and curled slightly. She was wearing a milk-white jumper with a white skirt and black and white sneakers, looking bright and youthful.

Gao Yang was quite surprised. Liu Qingying seemed to be playing herself when she was young.

Technically, Liu Qingying’s appearance had changed little, but her different makeup and outfit made her presence seem completely different.

Gao Yang decided to go with his usual address for her after some deliberation.

“Miss Liu,” he said faintly.

The woman didn’t respond. It was as if she couldn’t hear him.

Instead, she looked outside the window with an eager expression, checking her watch every once in a while and sipping her coffee. Then she would look out of the window again.

Gao Yang realized then. This was a Sweet Dream Liu Qingying left him with, a premade one rather than a real-time dream.

“If, and I do mean if, one day I die, you’ll soon enter the dream.”

Gao Yang remembered what she had told him. His heart sank. It seemed that Liu Qingying was dead, and her death was likely linked to the collapse of the Millennium Tower.

All this time, Gao Yang had never trusted Liu Qingying fully. They had been using each other, nothing more, nothing less. Nevertheless, they had shared a lot of time.

Gao Yang looked at the young woman before him. The young Liu Qingying must have been drinking coffee and waiting for someone at some point in the past. She wouldn’t have foreseen the path she would walk on and the death she would meet.

Witnessing this snippet in the past, Gao Yang was hit with a sorrow he couldn’t explain.

He stopped himself from overthinking it with Psychic Armor.

Soon, Liu Qingying’s eyes lit up, her face bright with joy and excitement.

Gao Yang turned around to see a woman wearing a baseball cap, white shirt, ripped jeans, and canvas shoes walking past the window. A few seconds later, she opened the glass door to the cafe. The wind chimes sang.

“Here.” Liu Qingying raised her hand and greeted her.

The woman in the baseball cap spotted her and strode up to the table, sitting down on Gao Yang’s chair, her figure overlapping with his.

Gao Yang started. Only then did he realize that they were only holograms of sorts.

He stood up and took a seat on the chair beside the table to better observe them.

“One black coffee.” The woman made an order before taking off the baseball cap, tucking the strands of hair on the sides of her cheeks behind her ears. She grinned at Liu Qingying. It was Ba Qiuchi when she was young.

Her eyes were bright, her facial features pretty and handsome with the corners of her mouth seemingly always curled into a smile. There was a natural gentleness to her that drew people in. However, she didn’t seem to be in a good condition. Her skin was too pale, and her lips, too.

“Little Liu.” Ba Qiuchi propped her head up with a hand on her cheek, giving Liu Qingying an exaggerated once-over. “Did you grow another cup bigger? That’s cheating! How are you still growing?”

Liu Qingying pulled a long face and shot her a glare. “Don’t try to get out of this.”

Exposed, Ba Qiuchi stuck out her tongue and lowered her voice, “Are you angry?”

“How can I not be?” Liu Qingying matched her volume. “I get that you would want some time on your own after your divorce, but how could you just disappear for a whole year without letting anyone know?”

Liu Qingying paused, her eyes reddening. “I thought, I thought…”

“That I got eaten by a cutie[1]?” Ba Qiuchi chuckled.

Liu Qingying nervously looked around and shot her another glare. “Keep it down.”

“Don’t worry. The owner of the cafe is a white face.” Ba Qiuchi was still smiling. She leaned in to take one of Liu Qingying’s hands. “Little Liu, I’m sorry. I’m fine, right? Don’t be angry with me.”

Liu Qingying was still angry. She was going to pull her hand back, but Ba Qiuchi wouldn’t let her.

“Why don’t I sing you a song to make up to you?” Ba Qiuchi acted shamelessly on purpose like a child and sang loudly, “I love you. You love me. Little Ba and Little Liu under a tree…”

“Enough already!” Liu Qingying gave in, embarrassed. “Stop singing. I tap out.”

“Tee-hee, Little Liu is the best!” Ba Qiuchi only let go of Liu Qingying then.

The cafe owner brought a cup of black coffee to the table.

“Thank you.” Ba Qiuchi smiled sweetly before enjoying the coffee. Liu Qingying didn’t say anything but looked at her closely, as if she was worried that Ba Qiuchi would disappear right in front of her.

After some time, Liu Qingying said, “You lost weight, Little Ba.”

“Really? I haven’t checked for a while.” Ba Qiuchi put down her cup and gave Liu Qingying a small smile. “There must be a lot you would like to ask me, Little Liu. I’ll tell you later. There’s something I have to ask you to do now. You’re the only one I can entrust the matter to.”

1. It’s a term for wanderers introduced quite early, but rarely gets used. ☜

Houseau3's Thoughts

More backstory. It seems that Ba Qiuchi will turn out to be an important character, or at least her and Liu Qingying's past will reveal an important, unknown faction in this world.

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