The Stalker

"Impotence, premature ejaculation, and kidney deficiency."

The pretty doctor glanced at the young man's report.

She didn't quite understand.

The freshman before her looked fresh-faced and wore a faint smile. Why would he have problems like these?

It had only been a little over ten days since freshman military training ended.

Most students who came to the campus clinic had minor ailments like colds or fevers.

"Doc, is there any hope for me?"

Fang Xian narrowed his eyes as he asked.

His gaze also swept over the name badge pinned to the doctor's ample chest.

Yao Hui, campus doctor at Jiangzhou Normal University.

Yao Hui set down his file. "Do you have a girlfriend?"

Fang Xian looked a little shy. "Haven't had time to find one yet."

Yao Hui found that amusing. "At your age, kidney deficiency is very likely psychological. Changing your routine and getting into a better frame of mind should help."

"I'll prescribe you some medicine too. Relax, kid. You'll be fine."

Yao Hui had a soft spot for handsome college boys like him.

Though this one had erectile dysfunction, she had caught a glimpse of his muscles, abs included, during the ultrasound.

Not bad at all.

"Thank you, Doc," Fang Xian said earnestly.

"And... you're really pretty. Could I add you on WeChat?"

He took out his phone with his left hand and held it up.

Yao Hui's smile faded a little.

Oh, come on.

So he's that kind of guy.

Yao Hui had met plenty like him.

They thought their looks gave them license to be flippant about romance.

Asking for her WeChat the moment they met said enough. If he would ask her, he would ask any girl he laid eyes on.

Yao Hui knew exactly how to handle that.

She smiled. "Sorry, kid. I don't use WeChat."

Unexpectedly, Fang Xian showed no embarrassment or disappointment. He nodded and took the paperwork from her.

"Just take the medicine as directed and see if there are any... any signs of improvement. Come back in a week for a follow-up."

Yao Hui put down her pen and moved her right hand to the keyboard. "Next..."

"Pretty doctor."

Fang Xian stood up but didn't leave. "Have you run into anything strange lately? Anything eerie?"

Yao Hui frowned slightly.

Enough already.

Then she forced a smile. "No. Thank you for your concern. Please close the door on your way out."

Fang Xian seemed to miss the hint entirely. He looked Yao Hui up and down. "Think about it. Some little thing in your daily life that feels off, something you might not normally notice."

"There should be something."

"I'm sorry, but there really isn't," Yao Hui said firmly. "Please stop disrupting my work."

"I see," Fang Xian said thoughtfully. "Then I understand."

He helped himself to a pen from the holder on her desk, wrote a string of numbers on a piece of paper, and smiled. "This is my phone number. It's also my WeChat ID. If you run into any trouble later, you can contact me. I live in the Taoyuan Men's Dormitory."

Yao Hui gave him a perfunctory answer.

As soon as Fang Xian left, she tossed the note into the wastebasket.

Sorry, kid. Boys like you are exactly the type I can't stand.

The weather in Jiangzhou had been gloomy lately.

The air carried a strange, damp smell of decay.

After work, Yao Hui rode her electric scooter home.

Yao Hui was twenty-eight and worked as a campus doctor at Jiangzhou Normal University.

She was pretty, had a lovely figure, and knew how to dress. Black stockings, little leather shoes, and a doctor's coat were enough to appeal to a fair number of people.

She came from a well-off family, too, and had no shortage of suitors.

But Yao Hui was happy with her life and had no intention of letting anyone else into it.

"Mm-hmm-hmm..."

Yao Hui hummed as she twisted the throttle.

Amid the city traffic, she found herself remembering what that student had said earlier.

Something eerie?

Something that felt off?

Yao Hui's expression suddenly changed.

The truth was...

There was something.

The sky gradually darkened.

For the past month, Yao Hui had felt as though someone was watching her.

As though a pair of eyes were fixed on her back.

In secluded stairwells, beneath dark trees.

The feeling clung to her and refused to go away.

Jiangzhou City was the provincial capital, a major city.

But Jiangzhou Normal University wasn't downtown. The surrounding area was dotted with villages that had grown into urban enclaves.

That was where Yao Hui rented her apartment.

It was close to the university.

I'm just scaring myself.

Back at her building, Yao Hui looked into the dark basement garage and felt reluctant to ride her scooter inside.

But the damp air told her it would rain tonight. She couldn't leave her precious scooter out in the wind and rain just because she was scared.

Her resentment toward the student from earlier deepened.

Honestly. This is all his fault. He's got me frightened over nothing.

Under the yellowish lights,

the urban village's loudspeakers were broadcasting an announcement.

The words were a little indistinct. Yao Hui had never paid them any attention before, but now she found herself listening.

"Another killing has occurred on a rainy night in Jiangzhou."

"Residents of Jiangzhou, please be aware: this is the fourth murder in the past six months."

"Police are working to solve the case. Please report any suspicious individuals to the General Affairs Bureau."

"We also ask all Jiangzhou residents to avoid going out unless necessary."

Crackle, crackle. Crackle, crackle.

The signal kept cutting in and out in the rainy weather.

Yao Hui shivered, her ample chest trembling, though she was in no mood to notice.

It was summer, yet all she felt was a biting chill.

"What is this? Who listens to a broadcast with reception this bad nowadays?"

Yao Hui raised her voice to bolster her courage.

For some reason, there was no one else around in the neighborhood, though it was only a little after eight.

Usually, she would see a few older residents out and about.

Now only her shadow and her scooter's stretched across the ground.

Crackle, crackle.

The broadcast continued.

"We are all sinners. Wash away the dust of this mortal world."

Steeling herself, Yao Hui pushed her scooter into the building.

She found herself thinking about it.

Since the turn of the millennium, all sorts of strange groups had kept cropping up.

She parked her scooter and took out her keys.

Clatter.

Yao Hui jumped.

"Meow."

A black stray cat leaped onto a protruding ledge.

She quickly came to her senses.

The cat in the stairwell had knocked over a flowerpot.

Stop scaring yourself. You've had enough of that today.

Yao Hui took a deep breath.

She started up the stairs.

Naturally, a place like this had no elevator.

Yao Hui lived on the sixth floor. At least the climb was good exercise, she told herself.

Tap, tap.

Tap, tap.

Footsteps rang out.

The sound-activated light ahead of Yao Hui came on. She saw the peeling plaster on the wall, like an old person's shedding skin.

Tap, tap.

Tap, tap.

Yao Hui slowed her breathing.

Something's wrong.

It sounds like...

Someone's following me?!

The other footsteps fell in time with hers.

Is someone stalking me?

A chill ran down Yao Hui's spine.

Everything that had happened over the past month slowly came back to her.

Though she lived alone, the toiletries in her apartment were always slightly out of place.

At night, she kept hearing inexplicable noises while she slept.

And when she walked down the street, the feeling of being watched was so strong it threatened to overwhelm her.

No way.

No way.

Could there really be some creep following me?

Yao Hui clenched her teeth and quickened her pace.

At the same time, she took out her phone with her left hand.

"Hello?"

"Yeah, honey, I'm almost home."

"You're still working late? Oh, you're on your way home too? Okay. Mwah. I'll wait for you there."

Yao Hui spoke loudly, though she had already noticed that the signal here was inexplicably poor.

Damn it. Isn't it usually fine?

The footsteps merged with Yao Hui's own.

Like something hiding in her shadow.

Yao Hui gritted her teeth and walked faster.

She was almost running now.

The footsteps behind her quickened too.

This time, Yao Hui heard them clearly.

Someone really was following her!

Yao Hui sprinted to the sixth floor, got the door open with astonishing speed, and slammed it shut behind her.

Bang!

Yao Hui could tell the person behind her had caught up.

But too late.

She leaned against the door, kept clear of the peephole, and glanced through it from the side.

The sound-activated light outside had gone dark.

Then she opened it again.

Yao Hui nearly stopped breathing.

She saw it.

Something seemed to be blocking the peephole from outside.

No. Someone was looking into her apartment through the peephole!

"No! I have to call the police!"

Clutching her phone, Yao Hui was about to dial when she saw that she had no signal at all.

What was going on?

Yao Hui did not dare turn on the lights. She could only keep leaning against the door.

Even when the light outside went dark again, she did not dare move.

All she could feel was a faint vibration coming through the door.

It was as though the person outside was gently stroking the wall.

The silence was deathly.

Yao Hui could barely breathe as she pressed her slender body against the door.

Twenty minutes passed like that.

Outside, everything seemed to have gone completely quiet.

Only then did Yao Hui tentatively stand up.

She patted her chest, gulping down air.

Her face was deathly pale.

"Someone really is following me!"

"This is terrifying!"

"No. I have to call the police. I have to!"

Yao Hui checked her phone again.

Still no signal.

Wait.

It was not just the signal.

The Wi-Fi was gone too.

Her Little Bunny Yaoyao Wi-Fi network had disappeared?

Yao Hui instinctively looked toward the study.

The router was not the problem.

Was it... the breaker?

Someone had switched off the breaker.

In an old apartment complex like this, the breakers were all outside.

Yao Hui felt as though she was suffocating.

What is going on? Why does everything have to happen to Huihui?

Bang!

Bang!

Yao Hui jolted.

Someone was pounding hard on the front door!

No, they were practically hammering it!

It was the person who had followed her!

That person said nothing, just kept slamming against the door!

Where were the neighbors?

Neighbors, please help me!

Yao Hui trembled. By now, she knew something was terribly wrong.

She did not dare put too much faith in the door holding. Her gaze shifted to the window.

Six floors up. If she climbed out...

Her eyes swept past the computer in the study.

Wait.

Yao Hui suddenly noticed something horrifying.

She remembered shutting down the computer before leaving for work that morning.

But now its screen cast a dim glow through the darkness.

Yao Hui took a deep breath. With the pounding still going on, she slipped into the bathroom and looked at her toothbrush.

It had moved.

Someone really had entered her apartment while she was out!

Now Yao Hui truly regretted it.

She suddenly remembered the young man from earlier that day.

The door was still being battered.

And whoever was outside had stepped it up, apparently striking the door with some kind of tool.

The dreadful, grating noise sounded like a killer breaking in during a Western horror movie.

Yao Hui forced herself to calm down.

She made up her mind to get into the bedroom.

The bedroom door could at least hold the stalker off for a while.

And she might be able to climb out through the bedroom window.

With that decided, Yao Hui acted at once.

She rolled up her sleeves.

She ran to the kitchen.

She grabbed a kitchen knife.

Then she headed for the bedroom.

By now, a strange feeling had pushed past the limits of what Yao Hui could bear.

Something was very wrong.

Something really was...

Suddenly,

Yao Hui froze.

Her whole body went rigid.

An icy chill shot straight through her skull.

She had seen the top of a deathly pale head beneath her bed.

It was only a glimpse.

But Yao Hui had seen it!

In the darkness, the person under the bed seemed uncomfortable.

The body below shifted position.

It slowly rubbed back and forth against the floor.

From a normal angle, Yao Hui would never have seen it.

Yao Hui's pupils widened. Her body shook.

She took a quiet step back.

Her pretty face was now white as a sheet.

Just as she was about to retreat,

a faint voice spoke.

"So you found me."

The greasy voice of a middle-aged man echoed through the dark room.

A middle-aged man crawled out from beneath the bed she slept in every night like a pig, a sickly smile on his face.

He bared his yellow teeth in a grotesque grin.

"I like you so much, Miss Yao."

"I like the way you smell."

"I like your stockings, your lipstick, your voice."

"I want to... be with you forever."

"Right here in this room."

The middle-aged man was short, barely five foot three, but he moved with startling speed and strength.

He lunged, snatched the knife from Yao Hui, and pinned her to the floor.

Yao Hui was too frightened to speak.

The sight of her black stockings excited the middle-aged man even more. His mouth, reeking of cigarettes, closed in on her face. "Now... you're mine, Doctor Yao..."

Help me.

Help me.

Someone... someone, please... help me.

Pinned helplessly to the floor, Yao Hui burst into tears.

I'm still young.

I'm so pretty.

I have so much to look forward to.

Help...

Help...

BANG!!!!

At that moment,

the front door gave a metallic groan.

The entire metal door crashed down.

A man appeared in the doorway.

"I was shouting my head off. Could you really not hear me, doctor?"

Fang Xian sounded a little helpless.

Warm light from the hallway spilled into the dark apartment.

It fell across Yao Hui's face.

"Fang..."

"Fang Xian?"

Yao Hui stared at him, stunned.

Was Fang Xian the stalker?

No!

Yao Hui looked at Fang Xian's hand.

In his right hand was a conspicuous metal Fire Axe.

He charged forward and slammed the Fire Axe into the back of the middle-aged man's head.

The blow landed with such force it sounded as though it might knock his brains out.

Most unbelievable of all, Yao Hui saw the middle-aged man take the full blow to the back of his head, only for his head to wobble a little.

Is this fucker even human?

Fang Xian seemed just as surprised. He paused briefly, then struck again.

This time, with his phone in his left hand, he called out to the balding middle-aged man, "Don't bother resisting!"

"I've already called the police."

"They'll be here any moment."

"You can't escape!"

"Give yourself up!"

Fang Xian strode forward with the air of a righteous hero, his Fire Axe whistling through the air.

Hearing that the police were coming, the man with the sickly smile seemed to regain some clarity. He bared his stained yellow teeth. "I... no... I'm..."

BANG!!!

Fang Xian swung the Fire Axe again.

Yao Hui watched in shock.

The flat of the Fire Axe struck the balding man square in the face.

Teeth and bloody spittle flew.

The balding man went flying.

At the same time, Fang Xian glanced at his phone.

[The Stalker — Complete]

[Urban Legend Level: Lingering Dread]

[Urban Legend Type: Anomalous Human]

[Doctor Yao Hui of the campus hospital had recently experienced some strange things. She probably had not noticed the pair of eyes watching her from the shadows, at every hour, even as she slept soundly at night.]

[On this day, her stalker and landlord, Liu Changgui, could no longer restrain his desire. He longed to possess this beautiful woman. After all, he had done this many times before. That was why he had slipped early beneath Yao Hui's bed, where he had hidden so many times already.]

[Rules Horror Projection Trait: Stalking—When you follow someone of the opposite sex, your chances of being noticed decrease slightly.]

It worked!

Fang Xian smiled.

He had finally succeeded for once.

"That was... way too hard."

Fang Xian muttered to himself and slipped the Fire Axe into the backpack on his back.

Yao Hui clutched her clothes, still seeming too stunned to react.

Downstairs.

Police sirens were already wailing.

Fang Xian pursed his lips. "Miss Doctor, the police are here. I'll go with you to give a statement. You have to back me up—I'm a good guy."

Yao Hui hesitated. "Was that... you following me earlier?"

Fang Xian said, "Who else? I kept calling out to you from behind, but you just ran faster."

Yao Hui wanted to ask something else, but Fang Xian had already headed out the door with the Fire Axe on his back, ready to meet the police.

Yao Hui suddenly thought the young man was handsome.

"Uh... Fang Xian... want to add me on WeChat?"

Yao Hui collected herself and held up her phone.

Fang Xian turned back and said gravely, "Sorry, but I... don't use WeChat."

Yao Hui was left speechless.

The silence grew awkward.

All she could do was kick the unconscious stalker.