Recap
“There is no time, Teacher. I want to come in.”
Shen Ji stood firm.
“Would you prefer I speak outside? Someone else might eavesdrop in our conversation. If you don’t mind this, I won’t mind it too.”
The choice was handed to Shen Ji.
The man’s cunning and shamelessness once again shattered Shen Ji’s expectations. Defeated, he opened the door, letting him in.
But he had not lost yet. The negotiation had only begun.
Even if it meant bargaining with a tiger.
The door was already closed. Shen Ji stood at the entrance, arms crossed, his voice cold: “What do you want to talk about?”
The neighbor sat upright on the sofa, turning his head with a surprisingly innocent look. “Date me, or I’ll expose your secret.”
Shen Ji walked forward, his face calm until the moment he reached him, his fury erupted. He pinned the man to the sofa, like a beast trapped in a cage, driven to desperation.
“Enough! Shut up! Shut up! Who are you?! What do you… want?!” Shen Ji’s head spun, his mind filled with countless whispers, teeth grinding, gnashing in torment.
His wrist was seized by a hand. Shen Ji’s attention was drawn entirely to the neighbor’s eyes.
Those calm eyes carried a strange power, quieting him.
“Teacher, don’t be afraid,” the neighbor said. “They’re all fake. Only I am real. If you don’t believe me, touch me.”
The neighbor guided Shen Ji’s hand to his chest. A heartbeat rose from within, vigorous and alive.
Shen Ji was shaken by that eerie vitality, letting the neighbor hold his hand, gently kiss it.
“Teacher, I like you. In return, you should like me. Even if you can’t, don’t reject me. Please?”
Shen Ji heard himself answer: “Alright.”
Suddenly, he was the one lying on the sofa. He felt the beast devouring him; his flesh, his bones, his body, all exchanged to undergo a kind of transformation.
His soul drifted upward, silently watching his body cry.
…
Shen Ji was trapped in a nightmare.
At some unknown point, he had wandered into a twisted world.
In that world, humans bore animal heads, homes became lairs of monsters, dragon scales covered the sky, eyes vast and unblinking.
He lay with his lover, only to open his eyes to a headless corpse.
He woke from the dream, body damp and sticky. His boyfriend’s face slept peacefully, serene and eternal.
Shen Ji rose, forcing himself to the bathroom, turning on the shower to cleanse.
Water cascaded over his renewed body, washing away old shackles, granting rebirth.
When he finished, his boyfriend awaited outside, gently brushing back his hair, kissing his forehead, whispering: “Teacher.”
Confusion struck. Was this his boyfriend, or the neighbor?
His lover held his hand, pressing it to the chair, blow-dryer humming against his hair. The sound of his pained whimpering mingled with the roaring blast like the cry of a wild beast, echoing like his own cries.
Yet his cheeks were dry. His damp hair, clasped in his lover’s hand, slowly dried.
The part of him that had left began to return gradually.
When the dryer stopped, Shen Ji opened his eyes.
From behind, the neighbor, Jiang Chen, covered his eyes with both hands. “Teacher, do you feel afraid after it gets dark?”
Shen Ji closed his eyes, removed his hands, and faced him directly. “If I date you, will you keep my secret?”
The neighbor smiled as if beholding something precious. “Yes, teacher. Date me, and I’ll keep your secret. Anything you want, I’ll do.”
“Even becoming a killer?”
“I told you. I’ll be anything you want. Even your accomplice if you wish.”
Shen Ji ended the conversation. “You should leave.”
“Looking forward to the next time.”
The neighbor obeyed, leaving Shen Ji alone in his fragile sanctuary.
Shen Ji threw himself into writing, exhausting himself before recalling the negotiation. Without a doubt, it had been a complete failure.
He had braced for threats, but never imagined one so bizarre. Terror and anger mingled, he wanted to rip that face apart. Yet later, seeing his lover resurrected, fear returned, stripping him of resistance.
The negotiation became a transaction of bodies. In the end, the deal was struck. Shen Ji had secured the promise he wanted.
The next day, Shen Ji stepped onto the fourth-floor corridor.
There lived a failed actor and an elderly woman. He glanced at the open doors but did not visit. His goal lay on the fifth floor.
The quarreling couple lived there.
As he pushed open the stairwell door, a woman’s shrill curses rang out. A man’s heavy roar answered. Broken furniture flew out from the only door ajar into the open doorway.
Shen Ji realized the fourth and fifth-floor residents never locked their doors. Did the sixth and seventh do the same?
He listened to the escalating fight, unmoving. Waiting patiently.
The boy had said: every day at noon, the couple would fight their way out of the building, returning at 1 o’clock.
Waiting through the morning, near noon, Shen Ji heard a startled cry from within. He cracked the stairwell door.
A frail woman ran out first, fleeing toward the opposite stairwell. Then a towering man followed, easily over two meters tall, heavy steps in pursuit.
Shen Ji hadn’t seen the woman’s face, but he clearly saw the boy’s “bear-like” father.
Were these the boy’s parents?
When their voices faded, Shen Ji approached their door.
Inside, filth and debris covered the floor. He stepped carefully, finding a broken photo frame in the mess.
The photo showed the man and woman, with a young man in striped hospital clothes.
The man was tall, the woman strikingly beautiful. Both stood behind the youth, their hands pressing on his shoulders, pinning him in place.
The youth sat in a chair, eyes hollow, gaze unfocused, body limp like a puppet stripped of will.
The bedroom door creaked open. Shen Ji’s senses tingled, he lifted his head and saw the misfortune* bound to the bed.
*(I guess misfortune isn’t just a metaphor. It’s a person’s name. The chinese is 不幸 (Bu Xing) which means misfortune, literally. The name is sus, but there are people naming their characters things like: 无悔 (meaning no regrets), or even a popular one you might’ve seen before in 2ha: 怀罪 (huai zui, meaning contain/having sins)
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