The Creatures That We Are

Chapter 5: Exposed

Office of Academic Affairs, nine o’clock in the morning.

“Sit.”

Officer Huang sat in the academic affairs director’s seat and leaned into the back of the swivel chair. He had his legs crossed with his hands clasped together on his abdomen. His expression was relaxed, but demanded respect. It felt like he was sitting in his interrogation room rather than another’s office.

Gao Yang sat across from Officer Huang with his back straight and his lips sealed.

Officer Huang gave him a smile. “Relax. We’re alone here. I’m only going to ask you a few simple questions.”

“Okay...” Gao Yang said, but in his head, he was thinking, We being alone is exactly what makes me nervous!

“Did you hurt your face?”

Gao Yang felt around his face with feigned nonchalance. “Yeah, got bitten by some bugs.”

“Then let us get started.” Officer Huang took out a notepad for taking statements. “Mr. Gao Yang, what is your relationship with the victim, Li Weiwei?”

“We met each other at kindergarten and had been close since then. We were childhood friends.”

Officer Huang jotted on the notepad as he continued, “Yesterday afternoon, you were with Li Weiwei, weren't you?”

“Yes. We went to the Dawan Mall for a movie and had dinner together. It wasn’t until quite late into the night that we parted ways and went home.”

“When did you part ways with Li Weiwei?”

“Close to eleven o’clock, I think?” Gao Yang knew that he shouldn’t give too specific a time, or it would only make him more suspicious.

“It was late. Why didn’t you walk her home?”

“I did walk her for a while since we were going the same way, but she told me she would be fine walking the rest of the way herself. I didn’t insist.”

Knowing that the surveillance cameras on the last stretch of the road had been destroyed by Qing Ling, Gao Yang asked on purpose, “Can’t you check the cameras, Officer Huang? You’ll see that I’m telling the truth.”

Officer Huang made a bemused sound, a glint flashing through his eyes. “To tell you the truth, the surveillance cameras on the road where you parted ways happened to be damaged.”

“How can that be?” Gao Yang put on a look of surprise.

“The murder is very likely planned.” Officer Huang quietly stared at Gao Yang like he was looking for a crack in his performance.

“Or the culprit can be someone the victim knows well. It’s all speculation at this point since we haven’t found the murder weapon or any witness.”

“Is there really no clue to follow?” asked Gao Yang.

Officer Huang uncrossed his legs and leaned in. “Is there bad blood between Li Weiwei and any of your classmates, or is there anyone who harbors resentment for her?”

Gao Yang shook his head. “She’s a nice girl, and everyone in the class likes her. I can’t think of anyone who may have a beef with her.”

“Someone who’s jealous of her, perhaps? Or anything else you can think of?”

Gao Yang gave it a moment of consideration before shaking his head. “I can’t think of anything.”

Officer Huang nodded. His gaze had never once moved away from Gao Yang’s face. “You had feelings for Li Weiwei, didn’t you?”

Gao Yang paused. “I...think I did.”

“For the investigation, I checked her WeChat messages. I saw that you had confessed to her, and she accepted it.”

“Yes. It was our first date yesterday. I didn’t know it would be our last...” Gao Yang lowered his head. The sorrow weighing down on him wasn’t an act.

Officer Huang didn’t ask any more questions. Instead, he stood up and patted Gao Yang on the shoulder, his tone seemingly suggesting something unspoken as he said, “Alright, let’s stop here for today... My condolences for your loss.”

...

After the interrogation, Gao Yang finally allowed himself to relax. At least it ended well.

He left the office and made his way to the classroom. Then he heard a voice calling out to him.

“Gao Yang!”

Gao Yang wasn’t able to turn around before a strong arm hooked around his neck.

He almost couldn’t breathe. “Cough... Cough...”

“Muhahaha! You wimp!”

The boy with his hair dyed blonde and a piercing in his lip let him go. It was Wang Zikai.

Wang Zikai was a classmate of Gao Yang’s—or he had been until a week ago, when he beat up a boy from the other class for the umpteenth time and finally got himself expelled.

His reasoning was simple: the boy shot him a look.

Wang Zikai’s family had money. He always came to school driving a sports car, and he was good looking. Tall, handsome, and rich. He had it all. Yet somehow, he wasted the good hand he was dealt and became a thug people avoided like plague at school.

For some reason, this thug had been unusually friendly to Gao Yang since the first year of highschool. Wang Zikai had pointed out more than once that Gao Yang was his best and only friend.

Gao Yang was both pleasantly surprised and puzzled. Under the somewhat forceful friendly overtures, he tentatively became Wang Zikai’s friend. Over time, he realized that Wang Zikai was actually a pretty good guy outside of his tendency to start fights and occasional lapses in judgment.

Wang Zikai seemed to be in a good mood today. He was probably here to finish the termination process.

“What’s wrong?” asked Wang Zikai. “You look like you’ve eaten a bug.”

“Li Weiwei’s dead,” said Gao Yang.

“What?!” Wang Zikai jumped. “How?”

“Mugged. She was killed...”

“Holy—what bad luck.” Wang Zika smacked his lips. “I wouldn’t have set you up with her if I had known this would happen. That reminds me, did she accept? She must have rejected you hahaha! You’re not the kind of person girls like!”

Gao Yang rolled his eyes. This idiot never knew the right thing to focus on.

“You have my condolences, bro.” Wang Zikai patted Gao Yang on the shoulder. “Look at the bright side, you never have to worry about her getting together with someone else!”

Gao Yang swallowed the curses threatening to come out.

“I’ll drive here to pick you up once school ends! Let’s join matches together today! We’ll reach Platinum this season with pain as our fuel!”

“I’ll pass. I’m going to Li Weiwei’s funeral this evening.”

“My, my!” Wang Zikai jumped away dramatically. “You rascal! Are you going to get her while her body’s still warm...”

“Piss off!”

Gao Yang was speechless. He was this close to kicking Wang Zikai in the butt. But that was just the way Wang Zikai was. Whatever came out of his mouth, it was never something a normal human being would say.

“Seeya!” Wang Zikai ran away waving him goodbye, leaving just as suddenly as he showed up.

...

Funeral Home, Shanqing District. Seven o’clock in the evening.

Along with more than ten classmates and their homeroom teacher, Gao Yang attended Li Weiwei’s funeral.

On one hand, Gao Yang did care about Li Weiwei. Although she had turned into a monster last night, he still wanted to see her off. On the other hand, he was wondering why Li Weiwei hadn’t been cremated first thing after her death, which contradicted what he knew about this world.

It was dim and solemn in the mourning hall. Li Weiwei’s photo was set up on the altar, which captured her bright beam. Her body was stored in a glass freezer coffin, embraced by a plethora of white blooming flowers.

Li Weiwei’s parents stood by the coffin in black suit and black dress respectively. They bowed to everyone who came up to pay their condolences.

Li Weiwei’s mother couldn’t stop crying, while her father supported his wife with a face etched with sorrow.

Their homeroom teacher led some students to pick up incense sticks to pray for Li Weiwei. Then one by one, they shook hands with Li Weiwei’s parents before walking around the glass coffin once to conclude the ceremony.

Gao Yang was among the students. He took the opportunity to inspect Li Weiwei’s body. She was dressed in black burial shroud with makeup putting colors back onto her face. She looked no different from when she was alive, like she had merely fallen asleep.

Yet this was the girl who had almost broken his head last night. Fear surged from his feet through his body, making his hair stand on end.

Their teacher went up to Li Weiwei’s parents to talk with them. Gao Yang’s mouth was getting dry. He moved away from the attendees and went to the refreshment room on the side of the mourning hall to get some water.

When he opened the door, Qing Ling was there.

Gao Yang averted his eyes and got some water without bothering her, but Qing Ling came up to him and asked, “What did the police ask you?”

“Nothing.”

“Tell me everything,” Qing Ling ordered.

Gao Yang looked around to make sure they were alone before saying candidly, “And now you stop acting?”

After a pause, Qing Ling asked, “Acting?”

“What you did in the morning,” Gao Yang said with a hint of anger. “Didn’t you put up quite an act then?”

Qing Ling’s eyes flickered. “You met her?”

“What are you talking about?”

“My other self.”

Gao Yang was taken aback, but it didn’t take long for him to figure out what she meant. “Are you saying that...you have dissociative identity disorder?”

“I do.”

Gao Yang didn’t say anything.

Qing Ling carefully closed the door. “To survive in this world, it’s necessary to fool even yourself. Over time, my second personality emerged. I consider her my sister and call her Little Qing Ling[1]. Most of the time I’m in charge, but she comes out every now and then on her own. Li Weiwei’s death had a big impact on her.”

Gao Yang didn’t lower his guard. “I can no longer tell where the truth ends and the lie begins with you.”

“Doesn’t matter to me.”

“Give me a reason to trust you.”

“A reason?” Qing Ling raised an eyebrow. With an almost imperceptible move of one of her fingers wrapping around the disposable cup, she sent a blade as thin as a cicada's wing flying out of her breast pocket, and the blade pressed into Gao Yang’s neck.

“I can kill you even more easily than Li Weiwei could ever do. Is that a good enough reason for you?”

“It is...”

As long as the mountain still stood, there would be no shortage of firewood. Survival was always the priority.

Gao Yang briefly went over his conversation with Officer Huang.

Qing Ling fell into thought.

“You’re clever enough to not expose yourself.”

“It’s just one cop,” Gao Yang goaded. “You think I can’t deal with that?”

Qing Ling scoffed. “You still have a lot to learn. Do you know how many monsters there are in this city alone?”

“How many?”

“The ratio is ten thousand to one.”

“One out of ten thousand people are monsters,” Gao Yang mused. “That is quite a lot.”

“No, there is only one human out of ten thousand monsters.”

“What?!” Gao Yang almost screamed out loud. “Are you...pulling my leg?”

“No.”

“That’s impossible!” Gao Yang found that hard to believe. It was so absurd that he felt numbness spreading through his scalp.

“That’s the reality. Do you understand now?”

Gao Yang’s hands trembled.

“It’s already a miracle that there are two humans at our school.” Qing Ling took a step toward him, her eyes steely. “Your family, your friends, your neighbors, 99.99% of all the people you have encountered and will ever encounter in your lifetime—most of them are monsters of different shapes and forms.”

Gao Yang stood rooted to the spot. Fear coiled around him like a venomous snake.

Grandma, dad, mom, sister, as well as his teacher, classmates, and friends... Everyone could turn out to be monsters, and Gao Yang had been living among them for twelve years since his transmigration!

His stomach twisted. He felt bile rushing up his throat.

“I’ll be frank with you. You’re the third human I’ve ever run into. The other two were stronger than I am, but they both died.”

Gao Yang clung to what little hope he had. “That doesn’t make sense. If I were surrounded by monsters...I should’ve been dead already.”

“That’s because you weren’t aware of them. Monsters never touch an unawakened human. They only go after awakeners like us.”

“Why?”

“I’m not sure.” Qing Ling shook her head. “They seem to play by their own set of rules. I don’t know much about them...”

“What are you talking about?”

Gao Yang and Qing Ling both flinched.

The door to the room opened. Officer Huang was standing right outside with a big smile.

“What do you mean by ‘monsters’?”

1. In the original, the Qing Ling we know is written as 青灵, while her other personality was written as 青翎. 灵 and 翎 are pronounced the same with the former meaning ‘spirit’, and the latter meaning ‘bird feather’. ?