Paper Doll

"Rumble, rumble..."

A muffled peal of thunder rolled through the mountains. The weather changed in an instant, and flashes of lightning soon lit up the sky.

Two shadows appeared on the walls of the room.

"Rustle... rustle..."

The strange sound was like insects crawling all over your heart, leaving you with an indescribable feeling of unease.

Li Bo carefully cracked open the cabinet door and peered through the gap. He saw a pair of shoes step inside, one after the other.

The boots were strange, too. They were edged with trim, embroidered across the uppers with all kinds of patterns, and otherwise looked no different from ordinary shoes. But each had a horseshoe-shaped platform about ten centimeters tall beneath the sole. They looked like modern high-heeled boots, except the heels were much wider.

They were a bit like the shoes palace maids wore in TV dramas.

Li Bo followed the shoes upward. The figure wore red-and-green trousers and had a body like a cylinder. In each hand it held a paper baton patterned in black and white.

"Rumble, rumble..."

A flash of lightning streaked across the sky, turning the night to daylight for a moment. In the flickering light, Li Bo held his breath and glanced upward from the corner of his eye.

A pair of bright red circles had been painted across its blue-gray face. The rouge seemed to have soaked into its skin, like age spots, with dark patches here and lighter ones there.

The two pairs of glued-on eyeballs scanned the room. As though it had sensed something, the Paper Maiden on the left slowly turned its gaze toward Li Bo.

"Fuck!"

Li Bo hurriedly looked away. Please, don't let it notice me, he prayed. "Don't you fucking come over here! If you do, I'm fucking dead!"

But things often happened just when you feared they would. The footsteps outside drew closer, and with every step the paper figure took, the paper covering its body rustled.

Just hearing the sound made Li Bo's scalp prickle.

As for the piglet in his arms, it was so terrified its face had gone pale, and its teeth chattered uncontrollably. Li Bo clamped a hand over its snout, barely managing to keep it quiet.

After who knew how long, the sounds outside suddenly stopped.

"Did it leave?"

Suspicious, Li Bo strained to listen. There really wasn't a sound outside, so he cautiously pressed his face against the cabinet and peered through the crack.

All he saw was darkness. He couldn't make out the paper figures—or even the spot where Xu Tong was hiding.

"Why is it so dark?"

It had been dark before, but he could still see a little. Now there wasn't a speck of light, and he couldn't see what was happening outside at all.

After hesitating, Li Bo quietly braced his hand against the door and pushed it open.

The gap widened little by little, but the scene he had expected never appeared. Instead, as the door opened, a white edge gradually emerged from the darkness.

"What is that...?"

Li Bo's hand suddenly froze. Beads of sweat rolled down his forehead as he stared at the black-and-white object before him. At last, he realized what it was.

The shadow in front of him shifted away. Fighting down his overwhelming unease, Li Bo peered through the gap.

"Rumble, rumble..."

The thunder outside grew louder. On that blue-gray face smeared with rouge, the stark black-and-white eyes curved like crescents. Its blue-gray mouth stretched into an exaggerated grin.

It slowly raised an arm, lifting the black-and-white paper baton high above its head. Li Bo's heart skipped a beat, and a fear unlike anything he had ever felt surged through him.

"Hmph~"

At the crucial moment, the little pig in Li Bo's arms kicked wildly with its hind legs and leaped free. It rammed the door open and bolted outside.

That finally snapped Li Bo out of it. In his terror, he couldn't even spare the time to curse Zhang Hao for being such a disloyal bastard.

He spread his arms and, relying on sheer strength, lunged straight into the paper figure's embrace, locking his arms around its waist.

"I'll take you on, you bastard!"

Li Bo swung a fist into the paper figure's face. His punch caved in part of its face, making the already hideous figure look even more bizarre.

It casually swung its arm, and a tremendous force struck Li Bo. Before he could even struggle, he was sent flying.

Compared with the two cooks he had faced earlier, the strength of this thing was on an entirely different level.

Before Li Bo could get back up, he heard a rush of wind behind him. Another paper figure had somehow appeared at his back, and it brought its paper baton crashing down.

"Thud!" Li Bo's vision went black. The blow nearly knocked the wind out of him.

He scrambled to his feet, pain shooting through him, and clawed at his back with both hands, baring his teeth in agony.

It was as if the paper figures weren't holding paper batons at all, but red-hot tongs. Every strike burned across his back, searing his flesh.

Li Bo had always thought himself strong enough to have been a general in ancient times. He only regretted being born in the wrong era.

But since coming here, the zombies had already taught him a lesson, and now the paper figures had nearly sent him to his grave.

Just as the second blow was about to land, Xu Tong finally moved from behind the bed curtain. The short blade in his hand flashed fast and viciously as he aimed a chop at the back of one of the paper figures' heads.

If he had a choice, he wouldn't have cared whether Li Bo lived or died. But if Li Bo died now, Xu Tong would probably be discovered too. And if Li Bo ended up suffering, Xu Tong feared he wouldn't fare any better.

"Thwack~~~"

The blade came down, and something entirely unexpected happened. The short blade struck the top of the paper figure's head, sending sparks flying, but the paper figure was completely unharmed. Instead, the blade in Xu Tong's hand was knocked out of shape, a chunk broken from its edge.

This wasn't a paper figure. It was practically made of iron.

"Rustle, rustle..."

The paper figure's head turned around after the blow, its mouth pointing up and its eyelids pointing down. Its once-curved eyes now looked even more droopy and dejected.

But Xu Tong wasn't a blockhead like Li Bo. Seeing that his attack had no effect, he hurriedly slipped around the paper figure's broad, bulky body.

"Whoosh~~~"

As soon as he landed, the other paper figure swung its baton down hard.

Xu Tong raised his blade to block. "Clang!" The blade struck the paper baton, and the short sword snapped in two.

Not only had the sharp short blade failed to cut through the paper figure, but the paper figure's iron baton had easily snapped it.

Xu Tong furrowed his brow. The two paper figures had already given up on Li Bo. They raised their iron batons and charged straight at him.

These weren't two paper figures. They were two tanks. The crushing pressure of their massive bodies was enough to leave anyone breathless.

Xu Tong had no choice but to retreat, but the room was small. In moments, they had backed him into a corner.

Just then, a dark shape rushed in through the doorway and slammed into one paper figure's back.

"Bam!"

Sparks burst from the paper figure's back on impact. It jerked in place a few times, then fell straight to the floor.

The other paper figure sensed something was wrong and tried to escape, but the dark shape leaped onto it and rammed it hard.

Bam...

Tiny sparks burst across the paper figure's forehead. Its body went rigid, and it stood there motionless, as if its soul had left it.

Xu Tong took a closer look. The dark shape was none other than the little piglet Zhang Hao, who had bolted outside earlier.

Now Zhang Hao had a jade pendant dangling from his mouth. A closer look revealed that it was Wang Shaohui's jade pendant!

As Xu Tong watched in astonishment, Zhang Hao set the pendant down in front of him. Then something miraculous happened: tiny points of light flickered across the jade, and amid the countless glimmers, the figure of a little boy rose from its surface...