Mom came closer and closer, the hatred in her eyes almost tangible. Everything around them seemed to warp and distort, taking on the appearance of a nightmare.
So, in reality, not everything had returned to normal...
He remembered what Yang Jia had told him earlier. Was it because he had killed Jiang Cheng before that this world had granted him less than a day of leniency before returning to its state of overwhelming malice?
Then what should he do now?
At some point, his heartbeat had begun to grow heavier and heavier, while waves of blood were being forced into his brain.
"Is this Xiao Xiao's home?"
But just as the panic and unease began to brew, nearly causing Xiao Xiao's fear to flare up again, a voice suddenly sounded from behind him.
Xiao Xiao turned around in surprise and saw Yang Jia in a white shirt and jeans. She wore a white baseball cap and carried a box of bird's nest. Smiling, she looked into the courtyard.
His mood suddenly relaxed, as if he had seen a savior.
"This..."
Before Xiao Xiao could say anything about the lingering fear in his heart, "Mom," who had just walked out of the courtyard, also looked distinctly startled.
The hatred and venom on her face rapidly vanished in an extremely short time, as if she had changed faces.
First she looked confused, then pleasantly surprised, and asked Xiao Xiao, "This child is..."
Before Xiao Xiao could answer, Yang Jia had already brushed past him. Smiling, she greeted her, "Hello, Auntie. My name is Yang Jia. I'm Xiao Xiao's high school classmate."
"Oh, hello, hello..."
Mom was clearly flustered. She hurriedly ushered Yang Jia inside. "Come sit down, dear. Look, Xiao Xiao didn't even tell me you were coming. The house is such a mess..."
"Auntie, there's no need to be so formal. I'm fine with just having some water..."
"..."
Xiao Xiao stood almost dumbfounded as Yang Jia and Mom entered the house, like a genuine old classmate who had come to visit.
Mom now acted nothing like the demon she was supposed to be. She warmly invited Yang Jia to sit down, then went back to change out of her work clothes. She even seemed to fix her hair. After chatting for a while, she enthusiastically invited Yang Jia to stay for dinner. Xiao Xiao watched as she happily pushed him inside to keep Yang Jia company, then went out to buy groceries. The contrast was so extreme that it felt unreal.
"Xiao's Mom, you're going grocery shopping?"
"That's right. My child's classmate came over, so I'm going to make her something delicious."
"Oh my, is she here to see Xiao Xiao? What a pretty girl..."
"That's right, she's Xiao Xiao's high school classmate. This child never tells me when a female classmate is coming over. I didn't have anything prepared."
"..."
Far outside the courtyard, Mom's voice drifted over as she exchanged greetings with the neighbors. Sitting on the sofa, Xiao Xiao felt that everything was absurd.
"What is she doing?"
"..."
"What parent doesn't care about their child's romantic prospects?"
Yang Jia's smile was somewhat mysterious as she sat quietly on the sofa and said softly, "Especially since you don't seem to have many friends?"
Xiao Xiao found it absurd. "But..."
"I told you already. They're just like normal people in their daily lives. Before their malice strikes, they always faithfully play their roles."
Yang Jia smiled at Xiao Xiao. "Learning how to interact with them is also your first lesson. We have to learn to find the truth between us, while also learning to adapt to this world's falsehoods."
"Otherwise, you'll suffer terribly."
"There was once one of our people who couldn't endure this kind of falsehood and chose to destroy himself. I don't want you to follow the same old path."
"..."
Xiao Xiao fell silent. He still couldn't understand it all, but he committed those words to memory for now.
"Also..."
Yang Jia suddenly seemed curious as well. Her gaze gently settled on Xiao Xiao. "I actually want to know too—if I hadn't appeared in time just now, what would you have done?"
"What would I have done?"
Xiao Xiao thought of the scene at the courtyard gate, where he had faced "Mom" alone, and quietly met Yang Jia's eyes.
Only after a long while did he say in a low voice, "Of course I would've turned around and run..."
"Oh?"
Yang Jia raised her brows. "But she was about to turn into a monster that would devour you..."
"But she still looked like my mom..."
Xiao Xiao didn't know why Yang Jia was asking these questions. He merely rubbed his tired face and said, "What else could I do besides run?"
Yang Jia didn't answer, but her expression seemed to relax considerably.
Xiao Xiao had originally thought that when he saw Yang Jia again, he would finally be able to ask all the questions in his heart.
But unexpectedly, this time she really stayed for a meal, just like she was visiting an old classmate. Mom prepared a lavish spread, including braised pork and dry-fried fish. She even mysteriously took a bottle of supposedly high-end red wine from her cabinet. Yang Jia politely and gently chatted with her, patiently handling Mom's roundabout probing about her family background going back eighteen generations...
He himself had ended up looking like an outsider.
Still, Xiao Xiao hadn't eaten all day and was genuinely hungry. Seeing that Yang Jia could eat without worry, he also began eating without holding back.
Come to think of it, he had been eating like this for so many years. If there had been a problem, it would have appeared long ago. His not eating that day was merely an aftereffect of the fright he had suffered the day before.
After the meal, Yang Jia chatted with Mom for a while longer before politely saying that she should head home and asking Xiao Xiao to see her off.
"Go."
Mom pointed outside, looking as though she wanted to say that not only should he go, but he had better not come back that night either. "Take Xiao Yang home. It isn't safe at night."
Yang Jia could only say awkwardly, "Just call me Jia-Jia."
Under the chilly streetlights, Xiao Xiao instinctively pulled his hood over his head again. The two of them cast long shadows.
He deliberately laughed and said, "See? Your mom really does love you. And your family's circumstances seem pretty good too. The houses around here are expensive."
"And you're still discussing housing prices at a time like this?"
Xiao Xiao was somewhat helpless. After a long silence, he finally said in a low voice, "I spent the whole day outside today. I wanted to verify whether this world was real..."
"After all, I hadn't gone out in a long time..."
"..."
Hearing this, Yang Jia laughed. Her beautiful eyes studied Xiao Xiao. "You're still wondering whether you're the one who has a problem?"
Xiao Xiao fell silent.
Yes. Compared to the world having gone mad, it was more reasonable that he was the one who had gone mad...
"Believe in yourself, kid."
Seeing him frown in deep thought, Yang Jia couldn't help laughing. She patted him on the shoulder and said, "Instinctively doubting yourself is also a reasonable and common reaction."
"But after I take you to meet 'him,' you won't think that way anymore."
"Him?"
Xiao Xiao abruptly raised his head. "Who is he?"
Yang Jia merely raised one finger to her lips and shushed him lightly, indicating that he shouldn't ask further. Then she turned her head toward a certain place.
Only then did Xiao Xiao realize that he had been walking with Yang Jia for a long time, yet he hadn't seen her car parked at the intersection. Instead, they were walking toward a subway station.
No trains would stop at the subway station anymore, but many homeless people still huddled in the corners.
The sharp stench of urine and a foul odor of unknown origin filled the place.
Xiao Xiao had come here during the day. He had even sighed that, even in the world after death, so many people still needed to squeeze onto the subway to get to work. It was truly horrifying.
But now that he had followed Yang Jia here again, he discovered that the lights were glaring and pale, flickering from time to time because of unstable voltage. Whenever a subway train sped past them, the reflections in its windows always made people feel as though their bodies were being twisted or stretched.
The surrounding crowd was listless and dazed. Everyone carried the zombielike stupor and blankness of the undead.
Xiao Xiao instinctively stayed close to Yang Jia. He saw her gaze sweep over the various people inside, as if she were admiring some scenery.
They eventually arrived beside a homeless man who was sleeping with his head completely covered and stopped.
Looking at the man who radiated a pungent odor, she smiled and said, "Hello."
After a while, the homeless man slowly pulled down the blanket covering his head. Its color was impossible to make out. Only a pair of eyes was exposed as he stared blankly at Yang Jia's stunning face.
"Who are you?"
He asked in a low voice. His tone was shrill, almost like a child's.
"Someone who gets paid to do a job."
Yang Jia smiled as she answered, "Someone paid me to come here and take care of a rat."
The person beneath the blanket remained silent for a long while. Then he suddenly sat up, and the filthy blanket slipped from his body. He stared blankly at Yang Jia. "Who's the rat?"
Xiao Xiao instinctively took a step back, filled with wariness.
It was only then that he clearly saw the person beneath the blanket. He wasn't some kind of monster, merely an ordinary homeless man one could find anywhere. His body was thin, with only his belly slightly protruding. His limbs were spindly, and his skin was grayish brown from years of malnutrition. Several liquor bottles lay scattered beside him. Perhaps because of Yang Jia's sudden arrival, he trembled nervously and instinctively shrank toward the corner.
The smile on Yang Jia's face deepened. She seemed to carefully examine the homeless man before her, then gently nodded.
She opened her shoulder bag, took out a firearm with an intensely frigid presence, casually shoved it into Xiao Xiao's hands, and said, "Kill him."
"Kill him?"
Feeling the cold firearm against his palm, Xiao Xiao was genuinely stunned.
Yang Jia gently nodded, as if it were nothing more than a trivial matter.
Xiao Xiao turned to look at the homeless man, who seemed to have heard their conversation and was now fearfully shrinking toward the corner.
His face still wore an expression of disbelief, yet he suddenly raised the gun, aimed it at the homeless man's chest, and pulled the trigger repeatedly.
"Bang." "Bang." "Bang." "Bang." "Bang."
Yang Jia: "?"
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