Complete Metamorphosis Manual

Chapter 10

"I've already said it! I'm not Yao Ying at all, and I don't know any of you! You've definitely mistaken me for someone else!" Kang Hui's voice was filled with anger. She continued, seemingly oblivious to what the other person had said, "Don't let that dirty child call me 'Mom.' I've never been married, my boyfriend went abroad a long time ago, and I could never have a child!" She slammed down the phone, then turned to see Ding Yan, who had a gossipy look on his face, and asked, "Is there anything else?"

"Huh? Huh? What did you say?" Ding Yan pretended to be innocent as she rummaged through her keys. "Where are the keys? Where are the keys? Hehe... I can't find the keys..."

Kang Hui smiled helplessly and slipped inside.

4.

"Is she dead?" Old Postman peered through the curtains and saw Ding Yan sneaking in. "Is someone following you?"

“Huh?! No!” Ding Yan immediately puffed out his chest. “She’s dead, and it went smoothly. I also discovered another safe way to commit suicide by drowning: tie your hands to your thighs as well, and you’ll be even more foolproof.”

"Then why not design a cloth bag with a zipper that works both inside and out? The person committing suicide can crawl inside, zip it up, and then jump—that would be even safer," Da Mi said, teasing Xiao Yi while holding a soccer ball.

Wow! Rice! You're a genius! I can't help but fall in love with you!

"It's not like we haven't loved before, pfft!" Da Mi said casually, continuing to pass the ball to Xiao Yi.

Xiao Jia said unhappily, "Fourth brother, can you please stop playing such a stupid game? We are supposed to be the smartest dogs in the world!"

Xiao Yi muttered something, put the ball aside, and said, "Dogs are inherently smarter than people."

"Why? How could a dog be smarter than a human!" Ding Yan was in a particularly good mood today and couldn't help but tease his four brothers who were so silly they were almost adorable.

"Dogs can understand human speech. Your own well-behaved dog can understand whatever you tell it to do. But humans can't understand dog language. Don't you think dogs are smarter than humans?" Xiao Yi said proudly.

These words amused the old postman, and Dami also clamored that she must tell Xiaomi the joke later. Aunt Mei laughed so hard that she spilled the soup, and called out between laughs, "Xiao Yi, it's all your fault, you made me spill the soup, come and lick it clean!"

So Xiao Yi happily licked the soup off the ground.

“By the way, Da Mi,” Ding Yan stopped laughing, “have Xiao Mi go to Sister Kang Hui’s house across the street to collect the rent later.”

"Why bother calling Xiaomi? Can't I go by myself?" Da Mi said.

“I’m worried that she’s wary of men…” Ding Yan said.

“But Xiao Mi is on her period these days, and her stomach hurts.” Da Mi said seriously, while Lao You laughed even harder from behind the curtains.

Aunt Mei tilted her head and asked Ding Yan, "Ding Yan, are you on your period?"

"No..."

Upon hearing this, Aunt Mei looked at Dami, then at the bathroom, and said seriously, "Dami, could you call Xiaomi out for a bit? I'll massage her tummy; I'm a gynecologist, I'm good at this."

Dami said, "Thank you, Aunt Mei."

"Forget it! Forget it! I'll go by myself! Sigh—" Ding Yan stretched and sighed deeply at the dining table.

5.

When Kang Hui got home, she didn't even feel like cooking dinner; recent events had left her feeling bewildered.

She had always lived alone, painting and teaching students, leading a simple, happy, peaceful, and fulfilling life. Just last week, while she was shopping, a man suddenly grabbed her and exclaimed in surprise, "Ah! It really is you! You look so different from before. I remember you used to be so unfashionable."

Kang Hui is a forgetful person; she doesn't remember many things from the past. Therefore, she wasn't sure if she recognized him, so she could only smile and continue shopping.

The man kept following her, chattering incessantly, and his statements became increasingly outrageous: "Have you made up with your family? Did you bring your husband and child with you? The child is about 10 years old, isn't he?"

Kang Hui told him very seriously, "I'm sorry, you've mistaken me for someone else!"

"Huh? Aren't you Yao Ying?" the man asked, puzzled.

"No!" Kang Hui said impatiently.

"How could that be?!" The man continued to follow her relentlessly. "Even the mole on your neck is the same! I remember back in school, we used to scare you by saying that people with moles on their necks would get strangled! Have you forgotten?"

"Are you crazy?" Kang Hui touched the mole on her neck and yelled, "If you keep bothering me like this, I'm calling the police!"

The man then walked away, but she had a vague feeling that he was secretly following her, treating her like a fugitive.

The next day, another man was waiting at the intersection where she went out. He grabbed her hair and insisted that she was his wife and that she should go back with him. It was completely inexplicable.

Later, those guys probably got her phone number from her students by following her, and they kept harassing her, either begging for her forgiveness and saying they would never hit her again, or threatening to ruin her reputation. Later, he even found some wild child on the phone who called him "Mom" and begged him to come back.

Kang Hui felt that there must be some kind of conspiracy involved.

But she really couldn't think of any conspiracy.

She was naturally indifferent to worldly affairs and had a peaceful personality. She never argued with anyone, let alone made enemies.

She lay on the sofa, sighed, and her phone started ringing incessantly again. Without even looking at it, she turned it off and threw it angrily on the floor.

She firmly believed that if it weren't for the apartment's thoughtful and considerate security services, and if it weren't for the rigid work attitude of those four silly brothers, A, B, C, and D, those lunatics would definitely have come to her house.

"Sister Kanghui!" The doorbell rang along with Ding Yan's voice and the knocking. "Why was your phone off when I called you? Are you home?"

Ding Yan thought, "This Kang Hui looks like a sheep. Could he have run away without paying the rent? Hmph, I'll ring the doorbell, knock on the door, and call out to him all at once. You can't pretend you're not home or that you didn't hear me."

Kang Hui sighed and opened the door: "Just ring the doorbell, I can hear you. Wait a moment, I'll get it for you right away." Kang Hui left the door ajar, seemingly not intending to let Ding Yan in.

"Oh... I was going to call you before I came, but you hung up. I thought you had some guests at home... so it wasn't convenient..." Ding Yan peeked out and looked around her living room.

The living room was dimly lit and had no special furniture, just two large sofas. An easel and some scattered art supplies were placed near the floor-to-ceiling window.

Kang Hui went in and hadn't come out for a while. Ding Yan's neck was getting sore from craning her neck. She decided not to make herself suffer like that, so she went into the room sideways and sat on the sofa.

6.

"Here, for next quarter." Kang Hui came out with an envelope.

"Oh, thank you." Ding Yan took it, but didn't stand up. "Are you satisfied with the house?"

"Very satisfied." Kang Hui opened the door without ceremony, clearly indicating that she was asking him to leave.

"That's good...that's good..." Ding Yan stood up, patted his bottom, and put the envelope in his back pocket. "Oh...right!" Ding Yan stood at the door. "Sister Kang Hui, have you been having some trouble lately?"

“No…” Kang Hui frowned.

“Um… as the saying goes, a close neighbor is worse than a distant relative. If you need any help, just let me know. I know a friend who runs a service company, solving all sorts of problems for people. If you need anything, I can introduce you. You can call…” Ding Yan spoke quickly as she was pushed out the door. Finally, she stood outside and shouted inside, “We can give you a 20% discount!”

After saying that, she sighed seriously, "Doing business is really hard!" If Old You heard her say that, he would definitely give her a good whack on the head. Because all the business development tasks had always been done by Old You working himself to the bone.

Kang Hui leaned against the door and shook her head helplessly. She didn't like others knowing too much about her private affairs, and of course, she disliked the neighbors gossiping behind her back.

She tidied her hair and lifted the canvas in front of the French windows.

On the easel was a Buddha image—the image of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva. She had a strange habit: whenever she felt uneasy, she would paint the image of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva.

But strangely, she wasn't a Buddhist. Sometimes, she even thought those fanatical believers were somewhat foolish.

She picked up her paintbrush and added another stroke to the canvas. Each of her Buddha paintings was remarkably lifelike. That lifelike quality didn't come from masterful use of color or painting technique, but from genuine emotion.

Each of her Buddha paintings is full of emotion. It seems that through her paintings, she expresses the Buddha's universal love and compassion, making people feel safe, peaceful, and even warm when they see them.

Whenever she paints Buddha images, the troubles of the world and the torments of fate seem to be left behind in another world.

7.

The old mailman received a strange suicide service request. The client was a woman who had been paralyzed in bed for three years. She had completely lost sensation below her waist. Facing the gradual rejection from her family and friends, and the increasingly deserted hospital bed, she contemplated suicide and had already transferred the full amount to the account.

“This is not a good situation. She has already stated in the power of attorney that she wants to hang herself, and asked if we can secretly hang her from the roof beam in the middle of the night.” Old Postman closed his laptop.

"That won't do, then we'd be murderers!" Ding Yan handed the room fee to the old postman for deposit. "What about the rice?"

“Dami is resting, and Aunt Mei is massaging Xiaomi’s belly!” Old You frowned. “I really don’t understand how Xiaomi could actually have her period.”

"Huh?" Ding Yan exclaimed, "Xiao Mi really got her period?"

Old Postman nodded. "And that only applies to Xiaomi. Let's not talk about that for now. Let's figure out how to solve this customer's problem. I can feel that every minute she's alive is torture for her."

“This…” Ding Yan pondered for a moment, “Hanging doesn’t necessarily have to be done from a roof beam or tree branch, have you forgotten? Last time someone even hanged himself on a bookshelf!”

"What should we do then?" Old Postman wandered around for a moment, then slipped behind the curtains.

“It’s simple! Just draw a diagram and send it to her. She can hang herself on the IV stand! She can still die with her lower body still in bed, and the corpse won’t look bad. Isn’t that great? Besides, it’s different from other suicide methods. As long as she’s not discovered within ten minutes, it’s OK.”

Old Postman mumbled something, then floated out from behind the curtains, took his notebook, and went to his workroom to draw diagrams.

Ding Yan turned on the TV listlessly. A relationship advice program was playing, and a little boy in the guest section was crying with snot running down his face: "Mommy, please come back... I'll be very good, I'll never make you angry again..." The man next to the boy had a sullen face, holding a photo in his hand, and said: "Viewers, if you see the child's mother, please contact us immediately..."

The camera pans to a photograph, where the woman's face fills the entire screen.

"Sister Kanghui!" Ding Yan exclaimed, then leaned back on the sofa. "Oh... so Sister Kanghui has this kind of unspeakable secret..."

She suddenly remembered Kang Hui's phone call in the elevator earlier that day; it must be related to this matter.

8.

The stranger said that people with moles on their necks would die from suffocation.

Kang Hui stood in the bathroom, touching the mole on her neck. The mole was large, dark, and very noticeable. She vaguely remembered a close friend once saying that it was good to have a mole, because it would be a prominent physical feature when writing a missing person notice if someone got lost.

Kang Hui smiled, trying hard to recall who the friend who said those words was. However, whenever she tried to delve into a particular memory, her head would throb violently.

In the end, she gave up.

She sighed deeply, turned on her computer, and her email notified her of a new message. She opened it casually.

It was a mass email with several rows of email addresses listed at the top. She thought it was spam and was about to delete it when she found her own name in the email.

People are always very sensitive to their own names and can easily find their own names in the whole text at a glance.

The email read: "Our high school classmate Kang Hui has committed suicide by hanging. Please attend Kang Hui's funeral on a certain date."

Upon seeing this, Kang Hui couldn't help but touch her neck. The funeral date in the email was three days later.

Could it be that I will die within three days?

She was a little scared, but also very angry. She felt that this must be an email from the people who were harassing her, but she didn't expect that they could even find her email address.

The room was quiet and dimly lit; everything seemed lifeless the moment she received the email.

Suddenly, a small red dot pierced through the glass of the French windows and hit the opposite wall. The swaying dot, with a hint of provocation, landed on her face several times.

She quietly got up and stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window. She saw a man holding up a sign on the building across the street: "Yao Ying, stop hiding!"

Yao Ying was referring to her, and the man was the one who had repeatedly harassed her, claiming to be her husband. His face was always gloomy, even when he was smiling.

That's why she was so determined that even if she lost her mind, she would never marry someone like that.

She angrily pulled the curtains shut, sat on the carpet, and pinched the bridge of her nose.

Ever since she was mistaken for Yao Ying that day, she hasn't had a single day of peace.

9.

"Hey? Where are Xiao Yi and Xiao Jia?" Ding Yan looked at Xiao Bing and Xiao Ding, who were crawling by the door. She remembered that the four brothers were always together.

"Recently, people have been trying to sneak into the apartment, so the four of us brothers are taking turns standing guard at the entrance." Xiao Bing licked an ice cream cone on the ground. "Absolutely 24/7!"