What Did She Look Like in Your Memories?

Hu Xingde wept with joy.

Thank goodness!

"Hey! Are you still conscious? Damn it!"

Ji Wu desperately tugged at his arm.

But Hu Xingde remained expressionless and kept walking forward without so much as a twitch. Only the emotions leaking from his eyes proved that he was still aware of himself.

"Ji Wu."

A strange voice, heavy with sorrow, called out to him. Ji Wu's body stiffened.

He guessed what might be happening, but he couldn't bring himself to believe it.

He was an orphan, abandoned in the slums and forced to survive by scavenging and fighting dogs for scraps.

He wouldn't have survived at all if the Humanity Protection Company hadn't regularly provided aid to orphans, especially children.

As far back as he could remember, he had lived in a cramped, bare little room with nothing but a bed frame and wooden boards. Adults dressed in white came and went, bringing him water and mushy food.

He must have been about three at the time.

He grew up under their care. They taught him to read and write, and gave him a few basic lessons on how to live. Then, when he turned ten, they kicked him out of that tiny room.

Once he was outside, he learned for the first time how brutal life could be. Smoke and radiation were everywhere, and rotting corpses littered the roads.

He went from an ignorant child to a rabid dog who would do anything to stay alive.

In his memories, his parents had always been absent. Any images of them were blurred beyond recognition.

Sometimes he wondered: had he even had parents?

"Ji Wu!"

Ji Wu closed his eyes for a moment, then laughed—a wild, hysterical laugh. "Hahahahahahahaha!"

He laughed until tears streamed down his face.

When he finally stopped, an unprecedented sense of boredom washed over him. He already knew what these so-called family members were.

"I mean..."

"Even if you weird things can read my memories, can't you at least read them properly?"

Ji Wu turned to look at the two monsters behind him. Their faces were a blur, their features impossible to make out.

"Honestly, show a little respect for my intelligence. You think looking like that could fool me?"

"Or is it because I don't know what my family members look like, so you can't take their forms to trick me?"

"And another thing: Ji Wu isn't my real name! It's just the codename I chose after joining the Aberration Association as a Supervisor. Even if you were my parents, you shouldn't be calling me that."

Ji Wu sighed. Was it really impossible to even fool himself?

Hu Xingde was close enough to hear him. Stunned, he realized that the person he'd seen wasn't his wife.

He'd thought she was lonely down below and wanted him to join her.

So that wasn't it at all!

Once he understood, his whole body relaxed. The feeling of being controlled and unable to move vanished.

He tried moving his fingers, and Ji Wu immediately pulled him out of the Funeral Procession.

The procession came to an abrupt halt, and the steady clanging of the gong stopped. The "people" turned their heads and stared silently at the two of them.

The Demon Masks on their faces changed, their features twisting into furious scowls, their eyes wide and mouths open as if ready to devour someone.

"Run!"

Ji Wu grabbed Hu Xingde and took off!

As they passed the shop where Xu Zhou was, he shouted, "Xu Zhou! We're leaving!"

Xu Zhou hurried out, his anxious-looking mother following behind him.

"What's wrong, Supervisor Ji?"

Then Xu Zhou's eyes widened as he watched a group of people wearing Demon Masks sprint past in pursuit of the two men.

"Did they commit some unspeakable crime?"

"Wait! Supervisor Ji... Mom, wait here for me. I'll come keep you company once I'm done with work."

"Silly boy, I know. Go on and do what you need to do!"

Xu Zhou glanced at his mother standing there, but in the end, he still ran after the Funeral Procession.

Those things kept chasing Ji Wu and Hu Xingde. They were fast and seemed tireless.

Hu Xingde was already gasping for breath. If Ji Wu hadn't been pulling him along, he would have stopped running ages ago.

"Le-let's rest! I-I really can't run anymore!"

Hu Xingde's legs were trembling. His feet felt like they were treading on clouds, and his legs were sore and numb. Worse still, he was panting so hard he could barely breathe.

Ji Wu glanced behind him. Those things really were relentless. They wouldn't stop until they caught up with them.

So Ji Wu drew the weapon at his waist and fired at the one in front.

Bang!

The bullet struck the one wearing the White Mourning Garment dead-on. Its body twisted, splattering black blood everywhere.

It kept running for a few steps, then suddenly fell apart. Its clothes fluttered empty, and the Soul-Guiding Banner in its hand dropped to the ground.

A pitch-black mass crawled out from inside the clothes. It looked around, then burrowed into the ground and disappeared.

When the others saw their leader go down, those at the front stopped immediately, unwilling to chase any farther. Those behind couldn't see what had happened and kept running, crashing into one another in a tangled mess.

They must have collided hard, because in no time they were all wrapped around each other, sprawled on the ground and nearly squashed into a meat pie.

Realizing they couldn't untangle themselves,

The black masses crawled sheepishly out from beneath the clothes and burrowed into the ground, disappearing.

Soon, all that remained scattered across the ground were mourning clothes, funeral batons, and Soul-Guiding Banners.

Xu Zhou finally caught up. Seeing all the junk on the ground, he looked surprised. "Supervisor Ji, did you do all this?"

Ji Wu rubbed his temples. If he'd known those things were so weak, why had he let them chase him into such a sorry state?

Hu Xingde could finally stop and rest. He dropped onto the ground without a shred of dignity.

Ji Wu told Xu Zhou what had happened to him after he encountered the Funeral Procession.

Xu Zhou couldn't believe it. "How is that possible? You said my mom was a monster in disguise? But she never hurt me, and she didn't change at all!"

"It was created based on the person in your memories. It looks exactly the way you remember her, which makes it incredibly convincing."

"If your senses deceive you, you'll probably end up like this man—unable to control your body and swept into the Funeral Procession."

Xu Zhou still wasn't convinced. "Then why am I fine?"

He'd spent so long with her, always believing she was his mother. Why hadn't anything happened to him?

Ji Wu looked at him helplessly. "You're a Contract Anomalist. Maybe it was wary of the anomaly bound inside you and didn't dare attack you."

Of course, it was more likely that it wanted to slowly erode Xu Zhou's sanity, one step at a time.

Xu Zhou didn't want to believe it, but he hadn't lost his reason. "I understand. Thanks for the warning. I know what to do now."