A Strange World

That made so much sense...

If he was already in a world full of monsters, with nowhere to run and no power to resist, what else could he do but accept it?

Though countless questions still swirled in his mind, Xiao Xiao slowly gave up the urge to ask more.

He might just annoy Yang Jia.

She had promised to explain things later anyway.

If this world really had become a monster-filled place, what good would it do to pester her?

Yang Jia dropped him off at the alley entrance. Xiao Xiao looked at the empty street and felt a sliver of relief. He only turned to walk home after the taillights of her car disappeared.

He deliberately avoided the butcher shop that always echoed with the sound of a chainsaw cutting meat. He hurried past the house that always played that hoarse Old Record Player music. Then, with nerves taut, he passed the neighbor's yard where three vicious dogs were kept. The whole way, it was so quiet he could only hear his own heart pounding. In the shadowed corners, swallowed by darkness, it felt like furtive eyes were watching him, letting out low chuckles.

As he was about to push open his door, the torment in his heart reached its peak. He was afraid to see his mother's face.

This place was full of evil spirits...

Xiao Xiao recalled Yang Jia's words, thought of Jiang Cheng's transformation into a twisted monster. After a long, long moment, he steeled himself and pushed the door open.

What greeted him was an unexpectedly warm glow.

"You're back?"

His mother was sitting on the sofa watching TV. She turned down the volume a bit when she saw him enter. "I told you long ago you should go out more."

Thinking about how she had looked like she wanted to chop him with a cleaver when he left earlier, Xiao Xiao felt a lingering fear. He mumbled a vague agreement and prepared to head to his bedroom.

"You brat, not even a word for me."

His mother on the sofa thumped her waist and grumbled, "Too lazy to bother with you. I made dumplings, put them in the fridge. Microwave them if you're hungry."

"Playing games until so late every day, not taking care of yourself. Who am I going to rely on when I'm old?"

"..."

"..."

Xiao Xiao's hand paused on the bedroom door. He responded with a muffled, "Got it."

As he entered, he could still feel her concerned gaze. Recalling the chilling fear from not long ago, he momentarily felt a sense of unreality, unable to distinguish truth from falsehood.

After his parents divorced four years ago, he had lived with his mother. Later, a sudden panic disorder had plagued him, preventing him from even taking his college entrance exams.

For nearly four years, he had stayed in his room, never even holding down a job.

His mother was getting older, but she had always taken care of him. Though she sometimes expressed annoyance, it was mostly out of affection and companionship.

But if his mother had also become a monster, were these memories also fake?

Was all of this just an act?

The moment he closed his bedroom door, Xiao Xiao's body trembled uncontrollably. He raised his hands forcefully and rubbed his face.

That night, Xiao Xiao didn't dare to undress. He lay on the bed fully clothed, waiting until dawn.

He sat on the bed for a while before getting up. After such a stressful day yesterday, he had fallen asleep on the bed without even taking off his shoes, constantly on guard for something.

Yet, nothing had happened that night. It was normal to the point of feeling abnormal.

When he tiptoed into the living room, he found the house empty. "Mom" seemed to have already left. In the old-fashioned living room, breakfast was laid out on the dining table, presumably for him.

It was a plate of pan-fried dumplings and a carton of milk.

Xiao Xiao suddenly remembered. His mother was a very thrifty person. In her eyes, the only irreplaceable delicacy in the world was dumplings.

But she had been too tired from work lately and hadn't made dumplings in a long time.

She must have been worried that he hadn't eaten supper last night, but fearing he'd be too lazy to heat them up, she had fried them for him and left before going to work...

But was the person who left him these dumplings the same person who had threatened to chop him into dumpling filling yesterday?

Xiao Xiao looked at the plate of dumplings and finally didn't try them. He washed his face with cold water and walked out of the door, his stomach empty.

He passed through the small courtyard filled with green plants and entered the alley. This was a run-down neighborhood, but compared to the surrounding high-rises, the space here felt more open. It was surrounded by two or three-story buildings or bungalows with yards. Mingming was located in the heart of a bustling city, but compared to the densely packed tall buildings around it, this place felt like a forgotten corner of the city.

Unlike the fear he felt in the hazy night yesterday, this time, Xiao Xiao truly saw the world he had been away from for four years. It was clearer, yet also somewhat bewildering.

He saw the three Big Dogs from the neighbor's yard. One was foolishly chasing butterflies in the yard, another was desperately digging holes in the ground, and the last one was lazily lying on the ground, letting the dirt bury its head.

There were no vicious, man-eating dogs. These three dogs were so silly they wagged their tails at cats.

He saw the second-floor neighbor's house, where the eerie Old Record Player sound had drifted from yesterday. White curtains fluttered in the wind, and he could vaguely see a slender figure dancing to soothing music behind the window.

He saw the butcher shop on the street. The owner, wearing a leather apron and with a cigarette in his mouth, greeted everyone with a smile and was exceptionally polite.

The sun was warm, and everything was peaceful.

Xiao Xiao looked at the old people chatting in the old alley and the little girls skipping, feeling as if he had entered another world, completely different from the gloomy and chilling atmosphere of yesterday.

His heart felt much lighter, but he still didn't dare to relax. With his hands in his pockets, he walked through the alley and onto the main street.

Looking up at this world, he felt a sense of unfamiliarity.

The commercial buildings that had sprung up out of nowhere, the light rail lines that traversed the city halfway up, the huge factories at the city's edge, and the pale, dim sun.

There were traces of his memory, but they seemed different.

But what met his eyes was not the gloomy ghost realm he had seen yesterday, but a city so vast it seemed boundless.

Before him were only people from all walks of life, living their varied lives.

Busy or leisurely white-collar elites walked the streets with coffee in hand, a young girl with a ponytail frantically sprinted to catch the subway, and on tall billboards, hot and scantily clad girls blew kisses to the city.

Everything seemed to be operating normally, different from his memory, yet somehow natural.

Was it the unfamiliarity born from being indoors for four years, or had this world been replaced, making so many things feel strange to him?

Xiao Xiao couldn't quite discern it.

He simply gazed at this vast and profound world, unable to question its reality.

How could all these people, living, breathing people, be monsters?

Perhaps, everything truly was his illusion, and everything he experienced yesterday was just his hallucination and fancy?

Xiao Xiao hurriedly lowered his head and glanced at the band-aid on his hand. He suddenly pulled it off forcefully, revealing the deep wound beneath.

The wound, reopened, reminded him that this was not fake, so his experiences yesterday were also real. He had "killed" Jiang Cheng, and Yang Jia had put the band-aid on him...

But...

He thought back to the past four years, the countless ramblings that felt both real and fake, the bone-deep torment in his head, the invasion of dreams into reality.

He suddenly felt a pang of fear again. What if yesterday's memory was also fake?

What if he hadn't really "killed" any monster, and had just punched a mirror, causing his hand to get injured?

Like his mother, was her care for him also a disguise by a monster?

The more he thought, the more agitated he became, and he suddenly quickened his pace towards home.

But just as he pushed open the courtyard gate, he suddenly heard a cold voice:

"Where did you go running off to all day again?"

"..."

Xiao Xiao looked up and saw his mother standing in the courtyard with a dark, cold expression, forcefully dumping the untouched dumplings into the trash can.

She was still wearing the uniform of a sales assistant from a large supermarket, seemingly having just returned home and not yet changed. But upon seeing Xiao Xiao, she couldn't hide her dissatisfaction: "You don't eat, you don't come home."

"You're already a grown person, what exactly do you want to do?"

"You're going to get married, you're going to have children and get a wife. You're counting on me for everything, do you expect me to serve you my whole life?"

"Go find your dad, you're two of a kind. Go let him take care of you, he has plenty of money anyway!"

"..."

Xiao Xiao stopped at the courtyard entrance, staring fixedly at his mother.

He watched his mother pace irritably in the courtyard, constantly smashing things in her hands. When her frustration reached its peak, she suddenly turned her head fiercely towards Xiao Xiao.

Beneath her skin, an eyeball rolled with a squelching sound.

"Swish..."

At that moment, Xiao Xiao suddenly felt a chill run through his body and stumbled back a step.

But for some reason, a sense of unexpected relief arose within him, and the confusion in his mind slowly dissipated.

She was indeed a monster, a monster just like Jiang Cheng.

He no longer needed to be confused or avoid it. This world truly was, as Yang Jia had described, full of monsters everywhere.

Only...

He looked at his mother, whose expression grew increasingly ferocious, as if her skin were about to be torn apart by some writhing monster, and suddenly felt a flicker of hesitation...

What should he do?