The Creatures That We Are

Chapter 10: The Third Note

It was Gao Yang’s first visit to a love hotel. To be honest, he wasn’t liking it.

Red light, red carpet, red wall, red furniture, and red canopy. He felt like he had just walked into a smaller version of Silk Web Cave, where spider demons called home.[1]

Qing Ling locked the door and pulled on the curtains. Then she opened the metal case and assembled the sniper rifle after only taking a moment to study the different parts.

It was still early, and they had nothing to do.

Qing Ling sat on the oddly-shaped love chair, while Gao Yang sat on the soft water bed. They looked at each other with an awkward air between them—well, Qing Ling actually seemed quite at ease, while Gao Yang didn’t even know where to put his hands.

Then suddenly, his phone rang.

It was Wang Zikai. “Bro! Don’t give in to your urge! It’s evil! Think about it carefully! It’s a step you cannot untake! You’ll be sullied! A man is like rotten cabbage if he doesn’t treasure himself! You’re quickly dropping to the bottom of my list, bro! Ptui!”

“Women are distractions! She’s only gonna slow down your R Flash![2]”

“Come on out! The light side calls upon you to join matches with me!”

“I’m in the 601 gaming room! With a big projection screen and state-of-the-art surround sound! It’s awesome! Come up to my room! True bros earn points and climb tiers til morning comes!”

Gao Yang hung up on him.

“Are you lonely?” Qing Ling asked.

“What?”

She looked genuinely confused. “Why make friends with that idiot?”

“Well...it’s hard to explain.” Gao Yang laughed awkwardly.

Qing Ling stood up and walked into the bathroom. “I’ll have a shower.”

The bathroom did have walls, but the one separating it from the room was all glass. The matte surface didn’t exactly conceal what was going on inside.

Soon, Qing Ling had already taken off her jacket and skirt, leaving them hanging over the glass door. Then she even hung her white undergarment there.

Hello, I’m still here!

Gao Yang hurriedly lowered his head, but the bottom half meter of the glass door wasn’t matte, and Gao Yang could see Qing Ling’s long, slim calves and fair ankles so very clearly. Amid the sound of showering, warm water carried white foam down the line of her calves to her ankles before hitting the floor and splattering.

Gao Yang took out his phone and stared at it instead.

It didn’t take long for Qing Ling to finish. When she walked out of the bathroom, she only had a bathrobe on.

“You should shower too,” she said.

“Do I have to?”

“To others, we’ve come to the love hotel for one thing. We have to do what is expected of that and leave the appropriate traces. We can’t have any monsters suspecting us.”

Qing Ling then walked up to the nightstand and took out the box of condoms in the drawer. She picked up one and tore the pack. Then she wrapped it with tissue before putting it in her bag, like she was going to take it with her.

After a bemused pause, she asked, “Is one enough? How many do you usually use?”

“...”

Speechless, Gao Yang spat out whatever came to his mind, “Just...one, I think.”

After leaving the appropriate traces, they took a short rest. Of course, Gao Yang didn’t feel like sleeping at all. He had been thinking about something—something serious, thank you very much.

...

The alarm rang at five o’clock. Qing Ling opened her eyes, rolling off the bed swiftly.

Gao Yang hadn’t fallen asleep. He got out of bed and asked her eagerly, “You said monsters don’t have a reproductive system.”

Qing Ling nodded. She strode to the small fridge in the corner of the room and opened it, taking two bottles of beverage out. One she threw to Gao Yang, the other she opened and drank from.

“I have a question.” Gao Yang fidgeted with the bottle in his hand. “Isn’t Officer Huang...married?”

Qing Ling nodded and waited for him to finish his thought.

“According to the ratio of humans to monsters, it would be more likely for his wife to be a monster, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then wouldn’t they notice something wrong...when they had sex?”

Qing Ling took another sip of her drink. “Monsters do have genitals. They might not have real human reproductive organs, but they can mimic it. There are differences, though.”

“Mimic it? Differences?”

Qing Ling said without a hint of coyness, “I awakened when I was quite young. The first human I knew was my cousin.”

“And?”

“He slept with many girls until one day, he slept with a human girl and realized things felt different.”

“That was how he awakened?” Gao Yang wondered what he should say about that. It seemed like playboys always got their reckoning. Qing Ling’s cousin wouldn’t have died if he hadn’t awakened.

Qing Ling nodded. “He told me that if I had never had sex with a human, I would never notice no matter how many times I’ve had sex with monsters. One true experience, though, and I’ll notice the difference.”

“So...you have experience?” Gao Yang swore he was only curious about this from an academic standpoint.

“No.” Qing Ling shook her head. “My cousin told me that it’s easy to tell the difference with males. Male monsters’ genitals, while based off of human’s, react at once, but actual human male react gradually.”

Recalling the test she had done on him that night, Gao Yang couldn’t help but blush.

“As for female monsters, he said that you would only know once you try it for real.” Qing Ling suddenly gave Gao Yang a look. “Maybe we should do it once. Then we’ll both have experience.”

Gao Yang spat out the drink in his mouth.

“What?” Qing Ling said with a frown. “What’s funny about it?”

“No, nothing. Maybe next time...we’ll talk.” Gao Yang hurriedly changed the subject and glanced at his phone. “It’s almost six.”

Qing Ling took out the note in her pocket, her eyes glinting coldly.

“We’re killing someone, aren’t we?” Gao Yang had guessed what they would be asked to do. “Who?”

Qing Ling gave Gao Yang the note. “Read it.”

—Six o’clock. The second overlook along the scenic Li riverbank. Kill the woman I’m with. Aim at her head or heart.

Gao Yang stared at the note and fell into deep thought.

‘The woman I’m with.’ That means Officer Huang will show up with her. The target must be his colleague, friend, or family. Not only does he not take matters into his own hands, he decides to be with her when this happens, right under the watch of the surveillance cameras. He must be looking to create a perfect alibi while someone else does the dirty work so that he won’t be suspected.

There had to be more to the story.

Qing Ling parted the curtains and pushed the love chair to the window, setting up the sniper rifle. With her head tilted, she pressed her right eye to the scope. She painted quite the picture with only a bathrobe wrapping around her slim and tall body while she perched on the love chair, aiming a sniper rifle.

After a while, Qing Ling said, “Target sighted.”

Gao Yang moved closer. “Let me see.”

Through the scope, Gao Yang observed the second overlook along the Li River.

Under the soft, clear morning sunlight, a bookish woman stood on the platform. She looked over at the scintillating river in a long red dress with a white shawl around her shoulders.

Then Officer Huang showed up in sportswears, a towel on his shoulder. He stopped at the overlook, and the woman turned to give him the bottle of water in her hand, her smile gentle.

Officer Huang took the bottle. The woman picked up the towel on his shoulder and wiped his sweat for him like it was the most natural thing in the world.

After a short conversation, Officer Huang took the towel back and kept running. It seemed that he was going another lap or two. The woman lovingly watched him go before turning back to the riverview.

“His wife?” asked Gao Yang.

Qing Ling nodded. She had come to the same conclusion. “His wife may have noticed his identity, or at least questioned it. Officer Huang decided to take her out. He had us do it for him just in case.”

Click!

With the rifle set up, Qing Ling said, “Leave it to me.”

Gao Yang didn’t respond. His head was a mess.

He was in no way a saint, and he didn’t have the right to judge Officer Huang for his decision. Putting himself in the man’s shoes, though, he wondered if he could pull the trigger if the one on the other end of the scope was his grandmother, father, mother, or sister.

A myriad of thoughts warred in his mind. He didn’t have an answer.

“Target isn’t moving.” Qing Ling took a deep breath. “Three, two, one...”

Swoosh! Qing Ling pulled the trigger. Although the rifle had a silencer on, the gunshot sounded wrong. It was muffled and came way too soon. Like it was a dud.

Gao Yang realized something was wrong as well. When he looked up, he was stunned.

Qing Ling frowned. She hadn’t expected this to happen.

A figure had dropped from above the moment she pulled the trigger and took the hit instead of her target. Soon, Gao Yang and Qing Ling got a good look of who it was.

Wang Zikai.

1. Spider demons from Chinese mythological stories such as Journey to the West often appear as women and lure their prey through sexual attraction. ?

2. A trick used in League of Legends where you follow up your powerful R skill—which requires time to cast—with the movement skill Flash to unleash the R skill the moment you reach your target. ?