Living together

I chose the former.

I pulled the door shut and tried my best to cover more of myself with the blanket. If I froze to death, so be it. At least it would be quicker than that.

Before long, the big guy came back, bringing that head with him. I blinked my somewhat dry eyes. He was holding a cloth, which was wet, and the head was a little damp too, with a thin layer of ice forming on its surface.

Wait, had he just taken that head to... uh, let's call it washing up for now.

And that apparently hadn't included himself.

I tried greeting him again.

"Hello?"

There was still no response. He ignored me and put the head back on the table, even thoughtfully tidying its hair.

I obligingly withdrew my hand and pretended nothing had happened. I could afford that much embarrassment. He had brought something else back from this outing too. From his bulging jacket pocket, he pulled out a handful of... probably some kind of nuts.

Had he raided a squirrel's hole? With the mountains sealed off by heavy snow, those things couldn't be easy to find now, could they?

He divided them into three portions, putting one on a little plate on the table, right in front of the human head. Then he tossed a few my way and shoved all the remaining ones into his mouth from beneath the sack.

Raw? Shells and all?

I picked one up. I'd guessed right: it was an acorn. And if I remembered correctly, humans couldn't eat those without preparing them first.

I looked around. This little cabin was probably his entire living space. From what I could see, the conditions here didn't currently allow him to cook anything, so all his food consisted of these acorns and the pastries he had swiped from me. What had he eaten before I came?

That sounded a little pitiful.

Jason was a little bewildered. Without exception, everyone who saw him for the first time either ran or screamed. This was probably the first person who had held out a hand and said hello to him. Right, this was the second time he had greeted me with "hello." That reaction was novel to Jason, yet he also felt that this was how he ought to behave. Jason had a good way of dealing with such complex, contradictory feelings: ignoring them.

I moved closer again. "Hello, I'm Luoyaer. You can call me Luo Ya."

His aimlessly wandering gaze seemed to shift onto me, but he still said nothing.

I swallowed. "If you don't want to talk, can I call you my friend?"

A friend?

Jason's understanding of friends was still rooted in the group who had pushed him into the pond together. They called one another friends, but what about him? That word hadn't left him with any good impressions. Its appearance was often accompanied by loneliness and bullying. Countless times, he had wanted to try making a friend, only to face insults and mockery. But if you asked Jason whether he wanted a friend?

Yes, Jason still wanted a friend.

Yes, I had a friend now.

"Hey, friend, it's really cold here. Want to come over to my place? I have a fireplace and spare rooms. Come rest at my place. How about it?"

Seeing that he remained unmoved, I kept adding weight to my side of the scales.

"How about baking an apple pie?" I asked cautiously. "And making a pot of hot soup? Or is there something else you'd like to eat?"

Jason agreed. Although he hadn't really moved, and the sack over his head made it even harder to see his expression, he had probably agreed. Was this some strange sort of intuition? I didn't understand it either. That voice had long since ruined my brain.

Jason led the way to the house. I immediately noticed the unfamiliar car and the two bodies beside it, bodies that had died horribly. Neither was intact.

One step farther, and there was another. I remembered these three all too well. They were the ones who had broken into my house last night to rob and kill me. But shouldn't the three of them have fled with their bags? What was going on?

My intuition told me it had something to do with my new friend. He was far too calm, even acting as though he didn't see them.

"Did you kill these three?" "Did you kill people yesterday?" Or, "Hey, friend, there are three bodies here." None of those questions seemed possible to get out, so I decided to skip the subject. I walked around the body, settled Jason on the couch, lit the fireplace, and started making pastries, doing everything I could to make this friend of mine feel at home. Ideally, he could stay here from now on.

Apple pie, lamb stew with plenty of pepper, and a large hunk of white bread.

The fragrant food went onto the table, and I sat down opposite him. He seemed conflicted, his rough fingers lingering on the hemp rope securing the sack around his neck, remaining motionless for ages. Thoughtful as I was, of course I understood.

I smiled politely at him. "I have some work to do. Go ahead and eat. Don't wait for me. I'm not very hungry anyway."

With that, I left my friend some time alone. I really did have work to do. I had to dispose of those three bodies no matter what. They deserved to die anyway.

None of the three had been scrawny. Each was heavier than the last, and after freezing overnight, their bodies were stiff. I couldn't move them at all.

I put on gloves and dragged for ages before barely managing to get the body by the door over to their car, but no matter what I did, I couldn't get it inside. My plan was to dump them all into the back seat, drive straight to the cliff, and, with no settlements anywhere nearby, they wouldn't be found again until next spring.

I decided to load the smaller woman first, but my hand slipped, and I toppled backward. There was snow, so the fall probably wouldn't hurt much, but an arm caught mine firmly. I instinctively looked back. It was Jason. His arm hadn't yielded even slightly, staying perfectly straight like a machine.

But that also showed that his strength was absurd.

I smiled. "Friend, would you do me a little favor?" I gestured for him. "Could you toss these three into the back seat?"

It took him no effort at all, as though he were tossing three light down pillows.

I watched him. He didn't seem to show any surprise, from seeing the bodies earlier to moving them now. Sure enough, I'd give it ninety percent: these three definitely had something to do with him.

He and I drove the car to a nearby cliff. He pushed it over the edge with one hand, sending it to the bottom, and I marveled at his strength again.

Back at my place, I ate a little and put on television for him. It took him hardly any time to figure out how to use the remote. Such a big guy, yet he loved cartoons, and children's cartoons at that.

I went upstairs to make up the beds. I was determined to get him to stay here, but Jason didn't seem very willing. As soon as it got dark, he stood up. I immediately caught one of his arms. It was icy and stiff, with a slightly unsettling feel.

"Friend, why don't you stay here tonight? Live with me. How about it? I live alone, and it gets pretty lonely. Besides, it's so dark outside already. I'd be really worried about you walking alone. What if you ran into bad people?"

"I'll worry about you. I'm scared to sleep alone at night too. I'll definitely toss and turn, unable to sleep. Those three yesterday scared me half to death. They nearly killed me. I'm so scared. Stay and keep me company."

Jason wavered a little, but he still resolutely headed outside. My mind raced. My place was so much better than that little cabin. What was there that drew him back?

That human head. And he didn't seem to think that person was dead. He got her food and even wiped her face. I gritted my teeth. One more try. At worst, I would go with him.

"Let Auntie come stay here too. It's so cold outside, and Auntie is a woman. It's bad for her health too. Just stay here together, all right?"

That seemed to work, because after Jason slipped outside, I instinctively tried to follow, only to find no trace of him. Then, just as I was anxiously pacing in circles, Jason suddenly appeared again. Was this teleportation?

Of course, he was holding that human head in his arms too. I wasn't even afraid of death anymore. What was there to fear about being around a human head? So what if the big guy could teleport? So what if he killed without blinking? I was fine with all of it.

But at least that proved my guess had been in the right direction. I even braced myself and greeted the head, then watched Jason try to feed it the leftover apple pie, to no avail. Of course it was to no avail.

I went upstairs and prepared another room.

"How about Auntie stays here?" Jason agreed, even solemnly tucking a blanket around the head's neck. If there hadn't been no rise at all beneath it, from a distance, it really would have looked like someone was lying there.

As for him, he didn't even take off his shoes. He simply flopped onto the bed and went silent.

I even kind of wanted to lie outside his door, but I was afraid he would think I was crazy, so I could only lie in my room with the door open, straining my ears to listen. But I was simply too sleepy. This brain of mine, which hadn't had any exercise in ages, seemed to have consumed an especially large amount of my energy. Sleepiness was like a sheet of toilet paper soaked in water, which then slapped itself onto my face.

But I still only slept a few hours. Just as I'd said, I was doing everything I could to make him feel at home, ideally treating himself as the owner of the house.

I went downstairs to make food, and at the same time, I began thinking, examining the essence of our relationship. The label of "friends" was merely a superficial definition and prettified packaging within the current paradigm of social interaction. He didn't seem entirely human, which gave me a little pathetic sense of belonging, but it also brought a sense of danger. That proved I couldn't use human ways of thinking to categorize his actions, much less restrict his behavior.

And our main conflict now was that I alone needed him. I needed him to help me drive that thing away, while he didn't need me. He didn't seem to mind living in a cold cabin and eating acorns. That made our relationship precarious, so what I needed to do now was make him need me just as much. The first step was to make myself irreplaceable.