Hua Yin

The school bell pierced the dusk.

Hua Yin carried a worn old backpack and squeezed out of the teaching building with the crowd.

Instead of heading for the bus stop or private cars outside the school gates like most of his classmates, he tightened his shoulder straps and turned into a quiet side street.

He had to go to the Cloudtop Garden restaurant.

A week ago, the woman he was supposed to call "Mom" had unusually sent him a message, asking him to dinner at seven tonight.

Hua Yin checked his phone—6:10.

He could make it by bus, but he hated to spend the two yuan. If he ran, it would probably take forty minutes. He took a deep breath of the cool autumn evening air and started jogging.

His backpack thumped against his back with every step. Besides his textbooks, it held a carefully wrapped hard-cover album.

It was not a book, but a handmade butterfly specimen album.

He had spent the entire summer carefully collecting, pressing, and mounting them one by one in the suburbs, parks, and even beneath the eaves of old houses.

Every page held butterflies of all kinds, each with a different form. But one type was especially distinctive: white, with wings so pale they were almost transparent.

He remembered how, long ago, his mother had looked at a White Butterfly's wings in the park and said enviously, "So clean, like moonlight that's never been stained."

He had never forgotten those words.

Giving her this gift today would also mark the complete end of his relationship with the mother who had long since remarried.

He ran past three blocks and turned into a familiar old alley.

The alley was long and narrow, with weathered old walls on both sides. At the end stood a pastry shop that had been open for decades. Its pastries were delicious, but its location was secluded, so few people knew of it.

Just as Hua Yin was about to speed up and run through the alley, a familiar figure pushed open the pastry shop's door.

"Hua Yin?"

It was a woman's voice, clear and carrying a hint of surprise.

Hua Yin turned to look. It was Lin Qingqiu, the class monitor.

She wore a clean light-blue school uniform jacket, her ponytail neatly tied, and carried an exquisite paper box that faintly gave off the sweet scent of cream.

Lin Qingqiu came from a wealthy family, was beautiful, and had consistently ranked first in class. Strangely, though, she had always shown an extra measure of gentleness and kindness toward this quiet, shabbily dressed classmate that no one else received.

"Class monitor."

Hua Yin stopped, breathing a little hard.

"What are you doing here?"

Lin Qingqiu approached. She noticed the thin sheen of sweat on his forehead and recalled the address he had once registered. "Running? Are you going somewhere far?"

"Yeah. Going to dinner."

Hua Yin answered simply, offering no further explanation.

"Cloudtop Garden?"

After thinking for a moment, Lin Qingqiu came up with the name of that restaurant, famous in the city for being expensive but not too far from here.

Seeing Hua Yin's slightly surprised expression, she smiled and gave the cake box in her hand a little shake. "My mom likes that restaurant's desserts too, but she says the best cakes are actually hidden in this alley. So I come buy them for her every week."

Her tone was natural, without showing off or probing. She was merely stating a fact.

Perhaps that was why Hua Yin did not mind talking to her.

"Oh."

Hua Yin nodded, not knowing what to say for a moment.

"It's still a fair distance in that direction. Are you planning to run there?"

Lin Qingqiu glanced in the direction he had come from. "My family's car is right at the mouth of the alley. It's on the way. Want a ride?"

Hua Yin hesitated for a second.

A free ride would save both time and effort. There was no reason to refuse.

Besides, he truly did not want to show up at a place like Cloudtop Garden drenched in sweat and looking miserable.

"Thanks."

"You're welcome."

Lin Qingqiu smiled and walked beside him toward the exit. "Your bag looks pretty full. Is there a gift inside?"

"Yeah."

Hua Yin answered vaguely, his fingers unconsciously brushing the backpack strap.

They chatted intermittently about school matters. Lin Qingqiu did most of the talking, while Hua Yin gave brief replies.

The alley was quiet, and the setting sun stretched their shadows long behind them.

Just as they were about to leave the long alley, with the wider entrance ahead where several cars were parked, a dull crash suddenly rang out from an even narrower, darker side alley beside them!

"Bang—!"

It sounded like a heavy iron cover being hurled away by tremendous force and smashing into a wall.

Then came a teeth-grating noise, like metal scraping together with the squelch of slime writhing.

Hua Yin and Lin Qingqiu stopped at the same time, staring in shock at the pitch-black mouth of the side alley.

The next second, something "squeezed" out of the shadows.

It was... an indescribable creature. About half a person tall, its main body was an unsettling oily green, its shell looking hard and slick.

It had the outline of an insect, but its proportions were grotesquely distorted. Most horrifying of all were the folded "forelimbs" at the front of its body—not jointed limbs, but two bone scythes with vicious curves and edges that flashed with an eerie jade-green chill!

The scythes swung casually, slicing a corner off the abandoned metal trash can beside it as easily as tofu. The cut was smooth.

"Ah—!" Lin Qingqiu let out a short scream, nearly dropping the cake box.

The bizarre mantis turned its head toward the sound, two points of scarlet light locking onto the two humans at the alley entrance.

"Fuck, an E-rank Jade-Bladed Mantis!!!"

"How the hell did this thing get into the city?!!"

Hua Yin recognized the damn thing!

It was one of the demonic beasts from their biology identification textbook!

He still remembered the note in the textbook! Extremely dangerous! Highly aggressive!

"Are those damn Special Affairs Bureau bastards all dead?!!!"

"They let this thing sneak into the city?!!!"

The E-rank Jade-Bladed Mantis did not pounce immediately. Instead, it "walked" toward them with slow, chilling steps, its scythes scraping against the ground with a piercing scrape, scrape.

Fear clenched around Hua Yin's heart in an instant.

"Run!"

Hua Yin practically roared it as he shoved the still-dazed Lin Qingqiu hard.

The two of them turned and sprinted toward the alley entrance, where there was light, cars, and people!

They ran with all their strength, while the scrape, scrape behind them continued, carrying the cruel rhythm unique to a predator.

Lin Qingqiu's shoes were not suited for running, and in her panic, her steps became even more unsteady.

When she was only a dozen meters or so from the light at the alley entrance, her foot caught on something.

With a cry of "Ah," she pitched forward. Her knees and palms scraped brutally across the rough concrete, while the cake box flew far away, its beautiful packaging smashed to pieces.

She tried to get up, but a piercing pain shot through her knee, leaving her unable to put any strength into it.

Hua Yin had already run several steps when he heard the sound and looked back. Lin Qingqiu had fallen, and the Jade-Bladed Mantis was about to emerge from the alley!

The scythes at its front had already extended past the alley entrance, glinting with an eerie light.

Time seemed to slow.

Hua Yin saw Lin Qingqiu's pale face, filled with despair.

He saw the figure gradually stepping out of the alley.

He saw the blurred silhouettes of cars and people outside the alley, yet they seemed impossibly far away.

His mind went blank. Only one thought exploded in his head: Fuck, what am I supposed to do?!