Geisterreich

Kapitel 28

I remained silent, still staring at him. Xu Li smiled questioningly, her expression inquiring: "Hello, hello, who are you?"

“I am Yu Fei,” he hesitated for a moment before saying, “and I am your alumnus.”

"Oh, nice to meet you!" Xu Li's tone was very unfamiliar, clearly indicating that she did not know who Yu Fei was.

I already knew who he was. He looked at me, and from my eyes he knew I knew who he was. So he gave a sad laugh, greeted Xu Li, and gestured to me. I then followed him outside.

We walked to the outside of the funeral home. A cool breeze blew by, and the small light bulbs hanging from the surrounding branches illuminated the area. Unidentified flowers swayed their beautiful colors among the dark foliage. We silently continued walking forward, avoiding the crowds coming and going at the funeral home entrance, and sat down on the edge of a flower bed.

"Do you still remember who I am?" he asked, taking the initiative to speak.

"Hmm." This answer sent a strong sense of disappointment across his face, and I understood what he meant. "You're not my schoolmate, you're our classmate, and we used to be lovers, right?" Strangely enough, I didn't panic or blush as usual when I said these words, which surprised me. Then I couldn't help but smile bitterly—Mom, look, I've grown up overnight.

"Xu Li told you, right?" He wasn't surprised.

"Yes, but she herself doesn't remember."

"That's natural, she saw me." I didn't quite understand that sentence, but it's okay, I'll understand eventually.

"So you're the one who left Yangguan Pass in the west?"

"Yes."

"Have you been forgotten?"

"Hmm." He smiled sadly, "I urge you to drink another cup of wine, for beyond Yangguan there will be no old friends."

This line of poetry suddenly brought a pang of sadness to my heart: "Will I also be forgotten?"

“Yes.” He turned his face to the side, hiding it in the shadows, and I shrank back, burying my chin.

"And then we'll all become 'invisible people,' right?"

"That's about right."

Do you know why?

"Maybe he knows."

"Is this a contagious disease? Will everyone who comes into contact with someone infected with it disappear?" I asked. "Is this the punishment for the end of the world?" At this point, a wicked thought came to my mind: maybe everyone in the world will be infected, and then my loneliness and feelings of abandonment won't be so intense.

Yu Fei paused for a moment, then shook his head: "It's not contagious, but you're right, maybe this is punishment for the end of the world?"

"Maybe? Didn't you say you knew why?"

"Maybe they know, maybe they don't."

What do you know?

“Not much, but more than you want—would you like to hear the reason for this first, or our past story?” He looked at me expectantly. Actually, I wanted to know the reason, since I had completely forgotten the past. No matter how our relationship was before, I felt nothing now. However, seeing his expectant eyes, and thinking of the pain of being forgotten, I suddenly understood: he had always wanted to tell me about our past; he had been waiting for this opportunity.

“Let me begin with your story,” I said. He looked at me with surprise and gratitude, and slowly began his narration. It was a long story, almost a lifetime, yet it was condensed into a short paragraph, which was truly sad and helpless. He spoke with great emotion, but I felt nothing. Although he was talking about the two of us, it felt like just a story, a story about a woman with the same name as me, and one in whom I hadn't inherited her feelings. Later, he reached out to take my hand, but I instinctively pulled away. His hand remained suspended in mid-air, trembling slightly, like a pet that had lost its owner.

"I'm sorry," I said, feeling extremely guilty, "I don't remember anything at all."

"It's okay," he said bitterly.

The lights hanging in the trees were being adjusted to flicker, and he and I alternated between the light and shadow. We couldn't appear under the light at the same time, as if we were from two different timelines. He brought a past from another timeline for me to accept, but I felt it didn't belong to me, like a severed arm that could never be restored, or lost memories and feelings that could never be recovered. We both knew this. Although he said it was okay, he was clearly deeply hurt. After saying a few more words, he suddenly fell silent. After a few minutes, he started again, this time not telling the story between him and me, but about how he was forgotten. As I listened to his story, I felt as if I could hear drumbeats in my ears. At first, they were just a few soft beats, barely audible, but as it went on, the drumbeats grew faster and heavier, until they became a thunderous storm, suffocating me. For a long time afterward, I still remembered what he said.

“After graduation, you went to Nancheng,” he said, “while I found a great job in another city. I originally planned to come to Nancheng with you, but this city was too backward. You liked the leisurely feeling, while I needed a bigger platform for development. We were both thinking about saving more money to buy a house, and after discussing it, we decided that I would stay in that big city. You even said that we were still young and didn't care about being apart day and night.” His face seemed to twitch slightly, but perhaps it was just the effect of the lighting. “We always thought that we could be together forever in the future. Although the days of being apart were a bit painful, it wasn't too hard to bear because there was hope. Back then, we talked on the phone every day, exchanged emails online every day, and if we weren't too busy at work, we would video chat on QQ. It felt like you were right next to me. Two months passed like this, and with National Day approaching, we planned to go back to our hometown together for the holiday. I even prepared gifts for your parents and my parents, and bought a ring to give to you—I was all ready to see you. But things soon changed completely.”

"It all started in mid-September last year. That day seemed no different from any other, except the sky was a bit gloomy, like it was going to rain. The trees outside the window were almost completely bare, but the ground had been swept clean by sanitation workers; not a single leaf could be seen. It felt as if those trees had never grown leaves at all—I don't know why, but this image left a particularly strong impression on me. Even after what happened, I often dreamed of that bare tree, standing starkly against the gray sky… After get off work, I was cycling back to the dormitory with some colleagues. As we passed the main road in front of the dormitory, I saw a girl dressed very provocatively, basically only in her underwear, standing proudly on the road…" Standing by the roadside, her white body stood out starkly against the gray backdrop of everything around her. I muttered to myself, "I never imagined girls these days could be so open-minded." I quickly called my colleagues over to look, but after a few glances, they all said they hadn't seen her. I pointed her out repeatedly, even leading them to her side, but they still said they hadn't seen her. I knew these colleagues well; they weren't exactly celibate, they liked to tell dirty jokes, and if they had actually seen her, they certainly wouldn't have been so quiet. I was completely baffled. Looking around, I saw people passing by the girl in a steady stream, each one acting like a perfect gentleman, their eyes fixed straight ahead, as if no one had seen her at all.

My colleagues teased me a bit, then, seeing me still standing there lost in thought, they rode off on their bikes. I stood in front of the girl; she looked at me with a cold, fearful gaze. Although she wasn't scary-looking, I felt afraid. Just as I was about to turn away, she suddenly spoke: "Can you see me?" I nodded, finding the question strange. After a while, she didn't speak again. So I turned and walked away, when she suddenly shouted behind me: "Be careful!" I shuddered for no reason and turned back to ask: "Careful about what?" She took a step back, rubbing her bare feet on the ground until her toes were black. "I'm not a bad girl," she said, "I just wanted to try again, to see if anyone could see me." Seeing I still didn't understand, she didn't say more, seeming a little shy. "Anyway, seeing me isn't a good thing. Take care of yourself." Then she turned and ran, ignoring my shouts behind her, never looking back. Later, thinking back, I realized what she meant, and understood that she dressed like that just to attract attention. Unfortunately, even if she wore no clothes at all, no one would see her. Although I knew this later, I really didn't understand at the time. I muttered to myself as I walked back, increasingly frightened, even wondering if the woman was a ghost. Back in my dorm, I immediately called you and told you what happened. You've never believed in ghosts and insisted there must be some misunderstanding. After you explained it to me, I finally believed your judgment.

"Since then, I've been seeing all sorts of people, always alone. Gradually, the way people around me looked at me started to change. I knew they suspected I had a mental illness. I felt terrified because I could indeed see those people and talk to them, but they didn't seem to want to talk to me. I didn't know if I was really going crazy. Whenever I saw someone appear in front of me, I would always ask the people around me if they could see him, which made them think I was even more mentally unstable. Sometimes, when I was with other people, we would see someone appear in front of us, and everyone would talk to him. I would breathe a sigh of relief, thinking that this person couldn't just be a figment of my imagination, but then, in the blink of an eye, when I talked to others about that person, no one remembered him. I was terrified. Now, it wasn't just that I doubted whether the people others couldn't see were my hallucinations; I started to doubt that everything around me was a hallucination. I didn't know..." Of all the people who just spoke to me this minute, which will disappear in the next? It seems like only I truly exist in this world, along with you, and even you—I'm not sure if you truly exist. I often wonder, is the you who calls me, the you I video chat with online, just an illusion? Was all the time we spent together just my imagination? At first, I told you about these worries, and you panicked, urging me to see a doctor. Later, I stopped talking about it. I hoped at least you still thought I was normal, because of what I'd said before, I was practically labeled mentally ill. The boss personally spoke with me, advising me to take a long leave. I didn't agree. Those few days, the boss kept picking on me. I knew he wanted to fire me, so I worked even harder, securing a large order for the company. The boss's attitude softened slightly, but my colleagues became increasingly distant.

"Not long after, I discovered that they were secretly destroying my things, such as the pens I had used, the contracts I had signed, the business plans I had made, and so on. I found out every time, and they all looked very surprised after I found out, as if they themselves did not expect to do such a thing. Now I know, of course, that they really did not know what they were doing at that time, but at the time, I felt very angry. I felt that they were doing this to me on purpose. Because of this, I even got into a fight with several male colleagues."

"Until one day, while I was signing a contract with a client, I handed him my signed copy. Just as he was about to sign, we both froze—we discovered the contract had been torn in half. The client looked very unhappy, so I quickly printed out a new copy for him. He took it while berating me, and before I could react, he tore it in half again, completely unaware. After discovering the torn contract, he didn't realize he had done it; instead, he pointed at me and accused me of deliberately playing a trick on him. This time, I didn't explain. I finally realized..." These things were inexplicable; it was as if everyone had gone mad. Later, I paid closer attention and discovered that not only my colleagues, but even I myself, were intentionally or unintentionally destroying everything connected to me. I couldn't explain the feeling because it didn't seem to be a conscious thought. It was just that when I saw something and realized it was mine, a strong impulse would arise, and when I came to my senses, I would find that I had destroyed it with my own hands. My colleagues, on the other hand, seemed completely oblivious. They destroyed my things without realizing what they had done unless I pointed it out.

"That incident affected a significant business deal for the company, and I couldn't stay any longer. The boss ordered me to go on a business trip to another city to finish up a few orders, and then I was to resign. I had no reason to object to this arrangement; frankly, considering my performance during that time, it was quite humane. The boss also said that I was welcome back anytime once my emotions stabilized, although it was just a polite remark, it made me feel a little better. Before leaving that city, for some reason, I suddenly became extremely sentimental, feeling a strong attachment to everyone I knew there. Even though I was only leaving for a short time, I felt a lingering reluctance, like a life-or-death separation. This feeling was like a drug addict's craving for drugs, uncontrollable, irresistible—I didn't even have the thought of resisting. You see, at that time, I didn't know what this meant. I thought I really loved all of them so much, and since I longed to see them so much, why should I resist this impulse? Manipulated by this emotion, I turned..." I scoured the entire city, seeing everyone I'd ever met, even those I'd only met once. I tried every means to find out their whereabouts—it seemed my life wouldn't be complete without seeing them. Because many people knew about my mental instability, most of the people I met didn't want to see me. They were polite on the surface, but their eyes were cold. Sometimes, after going to great lengths to find someone's house, that person wouldn't even let me in, just standing at the door and giving me a few perfunctory words. Strangely, I wasn't angry about this. As soon as I saw the people I wanted to see, that intense, flood-like longing seemed to suddenly burst through a dam, disappearing completely in an instant. Then I would wonder why I had such strange feelings, and I wouldn't have the energy to talk to the people in front of me—especially since some of them were even people I disliked. But the faster the longing for those I'd already seen disappeared, the deeper the longing for those I hadn't yet met became. During that time, everyone thought I'd completely gone mad. I knew that, but there was nothing I could do.

"After meeting everyone, I left that city for a business trip to another. On the train, as we passed through a certain area, I saw a large fire burning by the roadside. Looking at the blazing flames, I felt a strange excitement and, without thinking much, threw my bag away. After throwing the bag, I felt happy and didn't realize what I had done. When I arrived in the city, got off the train, and went to my hotel to check in, I realized my bag was missing. My ID card, phone, and documents were all in that bag; without my ID card, I couldn't check into the hotel. I had no choice but to go outside and check my pockets. Luckily, my wallet was still there, with a few hundred yuan and my bank cards inside. With these, I randomly found a private hotel..." After checking into the hotel, I gave the manager an extra tip, and they didn't check my ID. Once there, I quickly called you to let you know I was safe, without telling you I'd lost something; I've gotten used to losing my things lately. When it came time to meet the clients, a problem arose—their numbers were all in my phone, and without it, I couldn't contact them. So I called the company, hoping someone could give me the clients' numbers. I remembered the company number clearly, and the receptionist, He Yu, answered. After she gave me the company name, I called her name and explained my situation. Before I could finish, she interrupted me, asking who I was. I said I was Yu Fei, and she muttered to herself, "Yu Fei? Who's that?" "I found it strange and asked her name again; it was indeed He Yu. I said, 'Are you kidding me? Stop messing around.' She already had a short temper, and when she heard me say that, her voice suddenly rose: 'Who's kidding? Who are you looking for?' I didn't want to argue with her, so I just said a colleague's name. That colleague answered the phone, and I repeated what I had told He Yu. Like He Yu, he interrupted me: 'Who are you?' At this point, I suddenly understood what had happened. It felt like a heavy hammer had struck my chest, and I couldn't catch my breath for a long time. After a while, the other person impatiently urged me..." I slowly said, "I'm Yu Fei." As expected, my colleague, like He Yu, impatiently asked, "Who is Yu Fei?" I was speechless for a long time, my vision blurring. A faint voice said, "Does no one in your company know Yu Fei?" The other person grew increasingly impatient, and I clearly heard him ask in another direction through the receiver, "Who among you knows Yu Fei?" Through the receiver, I heard a chorus of "No," and before he could repeat himself, I heard that faint voice say, "Oh, wrong number, thank you." After hanging up, I realized that the faint voice was actually myself.

"I was completely forgotten by my colleagues. This was a heavy blow to me. I staggered back to the hotel, wanting to rest and think about what had happened. However, when I reached the hotel entrance, the girl at the counter stopped me: 'Need to check in? Please check in first.' I looked at her in surprise and gave her my room number. She flipped through the records for a while, shook her head, and said there was no guest named me. If you had been there, you would have thought my expression was horrific. Although I couldn't see my own face, I could clearly feel that it was displaying an unfamiliar expression, one I had never used in my life. All my muscles were twisting and twitching in an unfamiliar way, every muscle was trembling, completely beyond my control. Not only that, my whole body was trembling, from head to toe, there wasn't a single part I could control. The girl looked at me in fear..." I struggled to move my tongue, which wouldn't obey me, and stammered, "Give...give...let me see...see..." Because my stuttering was so severe, the girl had no idea what I was saying. I strode towards her, my legs trembling uncontrollably, my knees buckling every now and then. This terrified the girl; she screamed and ran from behind the counter. I ignored her, dragging my body, which felt like it no longer belonged to me and was moving erratically, to the counter. I shakily picked up the registration book. The girl had already turned to the latest page; my name wasn't there. However, I could see that the latest page had been torn out, and the remaining portion had been rewritten. Before I could even examine it closely, the girl had called over several burly men. They grabbed me and threw me outside, and I fell to the ground.

"I passed out on the ground, and in my half-asleep state, I felt them move me a few more times. When I woke up, it was already late at night, and I found myself dumped next to a garbage dump. The garbage stank, and the neon lights in the distance made my vision blurry. I moved around and found that my body had recovered, but my strength had not. I was very hungry, so I went to a night market and ate something, then slowly got up and walked away."

"After I finished eating, I walked alone by the roadside, finally able to think about the problems I was facing. I knew I had been completely forgotten by everyone at the company, without even a trace of my existence. What was even more terrifying was that it wasn't just people at the company who had forgotten me; even the people at the hotel had forgotten me. I didn't know how this could have happened; it was as if someone had placed a curse on me. I felt extremely terrified, and yet it was eerily quiet all around, as if I were the only person left in the world—if everyone in the world had forgotten me, then in my world, I truly would be the only one left. At that moment, I didn't know how powerful this forgetting was; I just wanted to know if you still remembered me. I found a phone booth and called you. The phone rang for a long time before you answered, sleepily asking who I was. This almost stopped my heart from beating—because you had never asked who I was before; every time I called, you could immediately recognize my voice. I remained silent for a long, long time, afraid that if I revealed who I was, you would say you didn't know me, and that would..." My last hope was gone. I felt like someone who knew they were going to die, dragging out the final minutes, clenching their teeth and remaining silent. Later, when you said you were going to hang up, I finally said, "This is Yu Fei." After saying that, I didn't dare breathe, waiting for your words to crush me—but the expected blow didn't come. You quickly and cheerfully called out, "Yu Fei!" Hearing your tone, I felt relieved. I knew you still remembered me, still loved me, and hadn't forgotten me. Only then did I realize how nervous I was; my thighs were soaked with sweat. I happily called your name, but before I could say anything more, your tone held a hint of surprise. You asked why I called you twice in one day, and at two in the morning, if something had happened. I then realized how late it was. I wanted to tell you what had happened, but I felt you wouldn't believe it and would only worry, so I made up an excuse. We didn't talk about anything substantial, just rambling, but I was already content. You hadn't forgotten me, and being able to chat with you like this, without any purpose, was truly enough.

After hanging up the phone, that intense longing returned. This time, the person I missed was so specific, and so strange, you know? It was my client, the only person I knew in this city. Do you know what that felt like? I felt like an orphan, wandering alone in this city. Some places were dark, devoid of human presence; others were vibrant, brightly lit, bustling with noise, but none of it connected to me. Although you cared about me in the south of the city, it was too far away, almost unreal. I felt like I was floating, needing a foothold to stand firmly on the ground, and that client was that foothold. Truly, at that moment, my longing for him surpassed my longing for everyone else, including you—later I learned it was the force that made me feel forgotten, but thinking back to the situation, that feeling seems understandable.

"What's even stranger is that the client's phone number was originally on my phone, but I couldn't remember it at all. However, as my longing grew stronger, everything about that client became clearer and clearer in my mind, and his phone number suddenly popped into my head. I immediately called him. Luckily, he was still out singing at that time, not asleep, just a little drunk. I told him I was Yu Fei, and he immediately remembered me and asked why I hadn't gone to see him during the day. I was overjoyed that another person remembered me. I asked him where he was, and he gave me an address. I said I would go to see him right away, and he didn't refuse."

"When I arrived at the place, the client greeted me warmly with a hug and introduced me to his other friends. We exchanged greetings and sat down to sing together. Everyone was very welcoming, which made me even happier. I thought that even if my former colleagues had forgotten me, I could still make new friends and have new colleagues. In my excitement, I drank several bottles of beer and went to the restroom. When I returned to the private room, everyone stared at me as soon as I entered. Not knowing what was going on, I asked, 'What's wrong?' They looked at each other, and my client said, 'Who are you?' My heart skipped a beat; I knew the same thing had happened again. Without much hope, I said, 'I'm Yu Fei.' They said, 'You've come to the wrong room, haven't you?' What could I say? I forced a smile and walked out."

"After I left, I didn't take any more cars. Anyway, every place in that city was the same to me; there was no place I had to go. In a small alley not far from the karaoke bar, I found a small hotel. As soon as I walked in, several women enthusiastically surrounded me and asked me to sit on the sofa. They turned around and helped me register for the hotel. This time, they were even more lenient; they didn't even ask about my ID. I could tell from their expressions that those women weren't respectable, but what other choice did I have in that situation? So I waited on the sofa."

"After waiting a while, one of the women turned around and walked over to me. When she saw me, she paused for a moment and immediately asked me what kind of room I wanted. I found it strange, as I had already asked that question. I repeated it, and she hummed a song as she turned to go and register me. A little while later, several other women also turned around, saw me, and came up to me enthusiastically, asking if I needed a room. This time I knew something was wrong, but I didn't say anything else and repeated what I had just asked."

"And so, for over an hour, they asked me countless times what room I needed. I already knew what was going on—they forgot me the moment they turned away, faster than anyone else. If there was any curse on me, its power was clearly growing stronger. I had become like those people only I remembered, whom no one else remembered. At that moment, I finally understood the state of those people I had seen, and my fear of them vanished, but my fear of my own situation intensified. I realized that this situation would not only cause me to lose people I knew before, but also make it impossible for me to make new friends." There was a past, but no future. I felt like I was dead, the whole world ignored me, except for these few women. Normally, women like these are the kind of people I least want to associate with; I never want to have anything to do with them. But at that time, everyone else was asking who I was, except them; everyone else rejected me because I was a stranger, but they greeted me like an old friend, even though they never remembered who I was. Every time they saw me, they would say, "Oh, you're here!" Although it was just their professional habit, it made me feel like I wasn't completely abandoned, that at least someone cared about me. Besides, I was exhausted then, and at least there was a sofa I could lean on.

"I sat there for several hours. The hotel was open all night. The women came and went. Men would come in and take one or more women with them. There were also drunk women who would come in and greet me as if I were an old friend."

"Then, another woman came in. She looked very young, with heavy makeup. As soon as she entered, she saw me and, like the other women, came up to greet me and offered me a cigarette. I said I wanted a beer, and she turned around, went to the counter, grabbed a few bottles, and placed them in front of me, saying, 'Drink as much as you want.' Hearing this, I suddenly looked up at her: 'What did you say?' She nonchalantly exhaled smoke and said, 'Didn't you want to drink? I'll drink with you, just remember to pay.' What shocked me wasn't what she said, but that she remembered me!" She didn't turn around and forget me like the others! I couldn't believe such a miracle, so I walked up behind her. She immediately turned around, smiling, and said, "What are you doing? Trying to scare me?" I finally believed that she really did recognize me. This feeling of being recognized seemed like something I hadn't experienced in a long time, as if I had been lonely for centuries. "He looked up at me, coughed, and said, "I'm afraid of that feeling of loneliness. This woman's appearance was like a straw to cling to when I was drowning. So, when she pulled me upstairs, I didn't refuse."

"The next day, I woke up very early and it took me a while to realize where I was. The woman was still asleep. I lay on my back, feeling terrible for you, but more than anything, I was wondering why this woman could see me—it didn't take long for me to understand. This woman was just like I used to be; she had also seen people others wouldn't remember, which meant she would soon become like me. Thinking of this, I suddenly felt a tender sympathy for the woman beside me. I turned around and hugged her. She was still asleep, her unmade-up face looking like a child's. I held her tightly, thinking of you. For a moment, it felt as if she were you, and I felt even more sorry for her, even a little anxious for her. She was woken up by my increasingly tight embrace. She looked at me, thinking I wanted to do something else, and turned to hug me back—I still didn't refuse; in fact, I longed for it myself. At that moment, the whole world disappeared. We seemed to be floating in a distant sea, only her and my bodies were real, and I knew that even we would eventually melt into foam..."

"We didn't get up until noon. I left her all my money, but then I thought it wasn't enough, so I gave her my wallet too, and told her my bank card PIN. She was very surprised and didn't understand why I was being so nice to her. I didn't explain anything and just turned and left. She followed me and saw me to the door, trying to ask me something, but I didn't give her the chance. I didn't know how to make her understand these things, so I didn't say anything; I figured she'd find out eventually. Finally, I looked back at her. She was taking out lipstick and applying it in front of a small mirror, her brightly colored clothes making her look like a wilted vegetable leaf. I felt as if I had abandoned her."

"I only remembered you when I was out of sight of her. I felt incredibly guilty, but I knew that if this happened again, I would still have no other choice. The thought of this made me extremely sad. I felt like I could never live a normal life again, and I could only continue like this, without even feeling guilty. And this kind of thing used to be the thing I hated the most, but now it seems so natural... I called you, chatted for a few words, and then hung up—I feel like you're already very far away, and I even doubt that I like you anymore, because your voice sounds carefree. You can't understand how I feel."

"At this moment, that longing returned. This time, the object of my longing was my parents. You know, once this longing arises, it cannot be eliminated; one can only act according to its commands. I called them, and they still remember who I am, just like you. But I know that as soon as I see them, they will forget me, just like that client—I've figured it out. You and the others who haven't forgotten me aren't incapable of forgetting me; they just haven't seen me yet. Once they meet me, that curse will erase me from their memories. This longing terrifies me because I cannot resist it. I can only follow its guidance step by step to everyone I know, and then watch them forget me, watch them treat me like a stranger."

"I tried to resist the pull of that longing, but I couldn't. The feeling was indescribable, and I couldn't resist it. In the end, I got on the bus. I'd already given my wallet to that woman; I was penniless. The driver glanced at me and asked for my fare. I said yes and walked towards the back of the bus. He didn't even turn his head—he'd forgotten I hadn't bought a ticket. After getting off, I grabbed some food at a supermarket near the train station and walked indifferently towards the exit. The security guard stopped me and asked for my receipt. I said yes and quickly slipped past him—he didn't turn around either. He didn't remember me, someone who'd taken things without paying. I felt like a ghost. All the moral codes I used to follow shattered in this completely new situation. Those rules had no binding force on me, and no one required me to follow them, but I felt terrible. For someone used to following rules, suddenly losing all constraints is like suddenly not knowing how to walk. I didn't dare think about whether I was a thief. Deep down, I vaguely hoped the security guard would catch me, even if it meant taking me to the police station." Spending a few days in jail felt like a luxury to me. Several other people, like me, emerged carrying loads of belongings. We exchanged bitter smiles: we were all the same kind of people. You might ask, since we were the same, why couldn't we be friends? I thought so too, but you don't know, their bodies reeked of a foul stench I'd never smelled before. Before I was forgotten, I had no idea that those only I could see could emit such an odor—no one could stand it, it was suffocating. One girl was very pretty, and she reeked just as badly. From their expressions, I realized I smelled the same way. No matter how much I longed for closeness, this stench became a natural barrier. We gave each other helpless glances and quickly scattered. Even after they left, the stench lingered, making me want to vomit. "But you didn't smell anything," he said, interrupting me, "and I didn't smell anything bad on the others either."

“You’re right, that kind of smell, you can only smell it when you’ve been forgotten.” He gave a wry smile and continued, “Because no one remembers who I am, I boarded the train smoothly and returned home. My parents were both surprised and happy to see me, asking me all sorts of questions. I kept moving nervously, trying not to escape their sight, so that they would remember me for a little longer, even if it was just a few more minutes. They hadn’t seen me in a long time, and excitedly pulled me to sit on the sofa to talk. Maybe it was because no one had cared about me like that in a long time, maybe I was too tired, or maybe the house was too comfortable, but I fell asleep before long.”

"When I woke up and realized I was home, I sat up abruptly, my heart heavy. I slowly walked towards the kitchen—the aroma of food and the clinking of a knife were wafting from there. Looking at the clock in the living room, I realized I had slept alone on the sofa for over two hours. That long was enough for them to have forgotten about me several times over. I felt incredibly sad, my mind a jumbled mess, like someone tuning a radio, making a lot of noise. I reached the kitchen doorway and saw my parents busy cooking, making all my favorite dishes. I thought they would never eat these things with me again. How could they possibly finish so much food? They would soon wonder: why did you make so much food? They would forget that it was originally prepared for me, for their only son. As I was thinking this, my mother looked up and saw me, happily beckoning me to come to the living room to watch TV. This completely bewildered me—I hadn't expected her to recognize me!"

"'Mom!' I couldn't help but call out. She looked up at me with a smile and said she had made my favorite dish. I quickly turned and walked out of the kitchen—my face was already wet with tears, and I was afraid they would see.

Upon first seeing the blank face, Du Zhong felt a jolt throughout his body, as if he had been electrocuted, and his hair seemed to stand on end. However, he immediately realized that Yu Huici was probably wearing some kind of mask to scare people, and with that thought, he reached out his hand.

He and Yu Huici were very close. The dim light could only illuminate the upper half of a person's body. His hand silently reached out. Although Xiao Xueqing could see the silhouette of an arm, Yu Huici, who was facing him, could only see the cross-section of the palm. Because the target was too small and mixed with the shadows of people moving in the darkness, Yu Huici did not notice it until his palm touched her face. Only then did she suddenly dodge backward.

Although it was only a brief moment of contact, Du Zhong clearly sensed that the blank face was not wearing any mask, and the skin to his touch was delicate and smooth, with an unusually cold feel.

The lights went out completely at that moment, plunging the classroom into darkness.

Du Zhong gasped sharply, abruptly withdrawing his hand. Sweat poured from his body like a stream, and the icy chill from Yu Huici's face still lingered in his right palm. Suddenly, an icy hand reached out from his left, and he growled in a low voice, "Ah?"

"It's me," came Xiao Xueqing's trembling voice.

The other students didn't notice what was happening and made all sorts of strange noises in the darkness. Some pretended to cry like women, and some mischievous female students stretched out their cold claws and scratched people everywhere, making eerie noises like "Give me back my life." There were terrifying screams, both real and fake, everywhere. Several male students were chasing each other in the open space at the back of the classroom. People walked by from time to time, but no one knew who they were.

Only where Yu Huici sat was deathly quiet, without a sound.

"Where is Yu Huici?" Xiao Xueqing almost pressed her mouth to Du Zhong's ear.

"I don't know," Du Zhong replied in a shallow, breathless voice.

A chill emanated from where Yu Huici was sitting, as if someone had opened the door to a cold storage room.

"Why is it so cold?" a boy in the back seat shouted.

"A ghost is coming!" someone shouted.

The whole class was in an uproar.

The lights suddenly came on.

The time from when the lights dimmed to when they came back on was only a few minutes, but it felt incredibly long to Du Zhong. In the seat to his right, Yu Huici sat ramrod straight, bathed in bright light. Du Zhong vigorously wiped the sweat from his face, leaned forward, and casually glanced at Yu Huici's face.

Her features returned. It was still that strangely beautiful face, but her expression had changed; her signature toothy smile was replaced by a faint sorrow. She handed a note to Xiao Xueqing, who hesitated to take it. She glanced at Du Zhong, who nodded, and only then did she accept it.

"I'm sick and can't speak." That was the sentence written on the note. If there were no punctuation, Xiao Xueqing felt she could understand it perfectly well, but with punctuation, the meaning seemed off, and reading it aloud was difficult. She handed the note to Du Zhong, who also found it strange and turned to ask, "You're sick, so you can't speak?"

Yu Huici tilted her head back, as if her chin had been forcibly lifted. Before Du Zhong and Xiao Xueqing could understand what she was doing, her head slammed down again, as if someone had suddenly pressed it down, before returning to its original position. This action puzzled Du Zhong and the others, and they didn't dare to ask again. Du Zhong chuckled awkwardly and said, "I understand."

As soon as he finished speaking, he felt a blur before his eyes. Yu Huici's sorrow vanished abruptly, replaced by her signature toothy smile. The transition from sorrow to smile was seamless, like switching between two masks, or like a continuously playing videotape missing frames, leaving only the beginning and end, creating a "flash-in" effect that felt jarring. Du Zhong had never seen anyone change expressions so quickly and completely. The other woman's pearly white teeth made his vision blur. He lowered his head, took his cup from under his desk, and called to Xiao Xueqing, "Xiao Xueqing, are you going to get some water? Let's go together." He then got up and walked towards the water dispenser at the back of the classroom, with Xiao Xueqing following closely behind.

After putting some distance between himself and Yu Huici, Du Zhong whispered to Xiao Xueqing, "Did you see her face when the lights were off?"

Xiao Xueqing nodded, her voice still trembling slightly: "What does it feel like to touch it?"

Du Zhong told her his feelings, and Xiao Xueqing's eyes widened in fear. She seemed about to cry. "What should we do? She's moving into our dorm tonight, and she's going to stay in my lower bunk!"

“Keep a close eye on her; she’s really acting very strange,” Du Zhong said sympathetically. “If anything happens, just text me.”

"What's wrong with her?" Xiao Xueqing asked. "Does she have some strange illness that's causing her to act that way? Is it contagious?"

"I don't know." Du Zhong shook his head.

Teacher Wang walked in, and they quickly returned to their seats. The other students who had been wandering around also hurriedly went back to their places. A student reported the power outage that had just occurred, and Teacher Wang nodded and said he understood. He then walked around the classroom with his hands behind his back. Xiao Xueqing's heart was pounding. Several times she wanted to stop Teacher Wang as he walked by and tell him about Yu Huici, but considering that the teacher wouldn't believe her, she forcibly held back.

Du Zhong's mind was also preoccupied with Yu Huici. From every angle, this girl seemed strange, even the note she wrote was odd—he unfolded it in his textbook, examining it closely. Aside from incorrect punctuation, Yu Huici's handwriting was beautiful, almost excessively so, just like her. Every stroke was exceptionally neat, horizontals level, verticals straight, almost like printed text, square and precise, without the slightest deviation. All of this made him uneasy. He deliberately leaned closer to Yu Huici, trying to confirm that cold feeling again, but he felt nothing. No more chill emanated from her; that incongruous coldness seemed merely an illusion in the darkness, along with her blank face—it all seemed like an illusion.

But it's all true.

A normal person would never do that.

Du Zhong suddenly had a thought: Could it be that Yu Huici, like Zhou Xuwen and the others, also received the gift of the Flower of the Dead?

Thinking of this, he stared at Yu Huici for a long while before finally asking, "Do you know about the Undead Flower?"

Before she could finish speaking, Yu Huici began shaking her head rapidly. Her hair flew up and formed a black halo around her head, making it look like a huge shuttlecock, which was both ridiculous and unsettling.

"You really don't know?" Du Zhong swallowed and asked again.

Yu Huici shook her head even faster, as if she were on a motor, wildly swinging it from side to side, seemingly unable to stop. With her head swaying like this, no one could see her face clearly. Those around her stared in astonishment. Lin Guozhu, clutching his chest, said, "Yu Huici, don't scare us! Your head's about to fall off!" The other students' eyes turned to her, and Teacher Wang also came over. Seeing Yu Huici's actions, he was also startled and quickly reached out to press on her shoulder: "What's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?"

Yu Huici suddenly stopped.

She stopped as soon as she said it, her hair and head quickly returned to normal, and her beautiful smile returned to her face. Teacher Wang was startled and quickly withdrew her hand, cautiously asking, "Should we go to the hospital?"