Mom's Anniversary 19

The Ghost Infant had said to let "Mom" see the Buddha Jade at the right time.

But when exactly was that? It was already the day of the anniversary, and the relatives had arrived. Did that mean it was time?

As Lu Mi pondered this, he heard the piano music change drastically, though he had no idea when it had begun.

The elegant dance tune had given way to sinister semitones, punctuated by piercing high notes.

The playing grew faster and faster, reaching as many as eight notes per second. No ordinary amateur could have managed that.

Amid the chaotic music, he could faintly hear Ning Zhuangzhuang sobbing.

Lu Mi's heart clenched.

He wanted to turn and check on Ning Zhuangzhuang, but his neck was rigid and immovable. His mouth, still singing, was the only part of his body that could move.

But he soon realized that the lyrics coming out of his mouth were completely different from the ones in his mind. His voice was no longer that of a teenage boy, either. It sounded like...

The "uncle" beside him stopped singing and slowly turned his head, staring at Lu Mi's mouth as it opened and closed.

The voice coming from Lu Mi's mouth was the rough voice of a middle-aged man.

From where he stood, Lu Mi could see Xu Zhi dancing off to the right. He had originally been leading his partner, but now the aunt was forcefully controlling him.

Xu Zhi hung limply against the aunt like a puppet on strings. Lu Mi saw the agony on his face, his lips moving as he screamed something soundlessly.

Bones. He was screaming, My bones.

On the other side, Zhang Mei had her back to him and was scribbling furiously on the paper. The sharp nib punctured it again and again.

Part of the paper was shredded so thoroughly that it tore free and drifted to the floor in front of Lu Mi.

What was written on it was no longer classical poetry, but strings of wildly scrawled English-the very lyrics Lu Mi was singing:

"Caught in a landslide, no escape from reality"

(Trapped in a landslide, unable to escape the prison of reality)

"Mom" swirled her red wine, her eyes icy as she watched this blood-soaked performance.

I should have taken it out sooner.

Lu Mi thought bitterly. But regrets were useless now. All he could do was secretly struggle against the force controlling him. The moment it loosened its hold, he would take out the Buddha Jade.

Amid the jumble of sounds, he heard something dripping steadily.

The sound came from the piano beside him.

Lu Mi immediately pictured blood flowing from Ning Zhuangzhuang's fingertips, running down the keys and onto the floor at her feet.

Meanwhile, he kept singing without a moment's pause, his throat burning dry.

No. He stared straight into "Mom's" scarlet eyes as she sat on the sofa. The worse things get, the calmer I have to stay.

He still wasn't much of a singer. He still needed Ning Zhuangzhuang to teach him.

If I remember correctly, wasn't Ning Zhuangzhuang the first to show something wrong just now?

He recalled her bloodless face before lunch.

She had already been unwell then, but he had assumed she was groggy from napping too long and hadn't given it much thought.

Where did things go wrong? Lu Mi thought of that suspicious glass of water at breakfast.

But he had watched Ning Zhuangzhuang pour it away with his own eyes.

As Lu Mi frantically racked his brain, he heard a noise overhead.

It sounded as though something sticky was slowly crawling past.

Unable to move his head, he could only roll his eyes upward as far as they would go.

The sound drew closer.

One, two, then many brown branches curled into his field of vision.

A horrifying thought flashed through his mind, instantly making everything clear.

A rotten man's face, with fat white maggots endlessly wriggling through its eyes, ears, nostrils, and mouth, moved fully into Lu Mi's view, borne along by those branches.

Noticing Lu Mi's gaze, the man looked at him and slowly smiled-

Got it. The mirror.

Using the branches attached to its head as legs, the rotten head crawled across the ceiling like a spider.

Recalling the layout, Lu Mi determined that it was heading toward the kitchen.

While he had been repairing the Buddha Jade, Xu Zhi must have used some underhanded method to make Ning Zhuangzhuang reveal where the mirror was.

But someone as calculating as Xu Zhi wouldn't have taken the risk himself. He had most likely coaxed and tricked Zhang Mei into fetching the mirror for the man's head in the cabinet. That would explain why Zhang Mei had looked so frightened at lunch.

And perhaps the mirror was what had sealed the man inside the cabinet. Through it, he had also seen where his body was. Now that the seal was broken...

Lu Mi tasted blood rising in his throat. Just then, something seemed to topple over in the kitchen with an enormous crash.

Now that the seal was broken, the man was going to find his body.

"Mom" sprang up from the sofa.

The piano stopped abruptly. Zhang Mei slowly straightened from her writing, letting her right hand hang down, now attached to her arm by nothing but tendons. Xu Zhi collapsed to the floor-the bones in his legs had melted.

Without thinking, Lu Mi shouted in a hoarse voice, "Mom, A Jun's back!"

The instant he finished speaking, the wooden kitchen door was kicked open. A cleaver flew out, hurtling straight toward where "Mom" stood.

"Mom" barely dodged it, her movements sluggish.

A Jun's appearance had greatly suppressed her.

A stocky, naked man emerged from the kitchen, his face still crawling with maggots.

Behind him, the refrigerator lay on its side, its lower door wide open. The frozen meat inside had vanished.

More precisely, it had reassembled itself on the man's body.

"Lei, long time no see." The man stretched his limbs, a vicious grin spreading across his face.

"I saw through the mirror that every night at midnight, you chopped up my flesh and made soup with it. Unfortunately, it grew back every day at noon. Thanks for all your hard work."

"Now I'm here to celebrate our wedding anniversary."

"Mom" said nothing as she dodged A Jun's attacks, soon finding herself at a disadvantage.

"My hand! My hand!" Zhang Mei raised her right hand in ecstasy. "It's healing!"

Xu Zhi slowly propped himself up and stood, flashing Lu Mi a victor's smile. "Lu Mi, I told you. Being too stubborn will get everyone killed."

Lu Mi said nothing and went to help Ning Zhuangzhuang.

It was true. If A Jun hadn't appeared, there was no telling how long "Mom's" control over them would have lasted.

Ning Zhuangzhuang leaned weakly against his shoulder, her voice barely a breath. "Lu Mi..."

Lu Mi said, "Ning, did Xu Zhi do something to you this morning?"

A trace of confusion appeared in Ning Zhuangzhuang's eyes, as though she was struggling to remember something.

"This morning... I don't really remember. I think he called me into the stairwell, and then..."

"And then forced you to tell him where the mirror was?"

"Stop asking, Lu Mi. She can't remember," Xu Zhi said with a smile. "Hasn't she told you that the shop in the wristband interface sells all sorts of strange things?"

Lu Mi stared at him coldly. "What, you're not pretending anymore?"

Xu Zhi sat down on the sofa, ducked another cleaver A Jun sent flying, then leisurely crossed his legs. "Because Ning Zhuangzhuang isn't going to last much longer. There's no need to pretend anymore."