Xia Lian didn’t know how he was able to survive his whole work shift. Perhaps it was due to his complexion which seemed worse than usual, but his co-worker beside him couldn’t help but ask about his health. Xia Lian waved his hand dismissively, saying he was fine, and assured them that he caught a cold from the low AC temperature. This answer satisfied his co-workers and they didn’t ask anything more.
The end of work shifts was a time everyone looked forward to, but it now had him conflicted. Pulling open his work drawer, he stared at the incense box and the censer inside. Unwittingly, the grandma’s over-enthusiastic marketing led him to reluctantly fish out his money and buy those items. Although only fate knows whether he was scammed or not, his money was still recklessly spent. Normally, he was smart with his expenses, but in this crucial moment he was unable to be frugal.
Taking a deep breath, Xia Lian hugged the pile of wallpapers he bought at the stationary store with a nervous heart. After repeatedly wiping off his sweaty palms on his pants did he finally muster up the courage to take out his house key and unlock the door.
The interior of the house was just as messy as when he escaped. From the living room to his bedroom, the floor was littered with ripped up wallpaper while human-shaped mold still surrounded him as he walked into the bedroom.
After putting down the thing in his hands, Xia Lian immediately opened the wooden box, took out a vermillion incense stick and lit it up. This lit incense stick was inserted into the silver censer, the white smoke burning out through a horizontal opening on the box. The soft and subtle scent smells floral, nothing that would annoy you and it wasn’t too cloying. On the contrary, the scent made him feel more tranquil. Xia Lian originally thought it would have a more traditional sandalwood smell, surprised to be proven wrong.
Xia Lian gained a little confidence after lighting the incense, so he spread out the thick roll of wallpaper on the ground, intending to use that to cover up the walls again. Otherwise, he would be too frightened to sleep with all the mold people exposed on the walls around him.
It wasn’t as if he hadn’t thought about staying in a hotel, or at a friend’s. But the friends he knew all lived outside of town, it would be too much trouble to knock on their door and bother them. As for a hotel room, temporarily living in one made him heartbroken as he thought about his money, especially after he spent nearly 500 in the incense sticks. It was better for him to try out the effects first. If it doesn’t work, he’ll think of something else tomorrow.
The thick wallpaper he brought was able to neatly cover the walls of the bedroom, though it took so long to finish setting it up that Xia Lian barely had any time to make dinner. So he took a shower and scarfed down a few bites of some bread he had gotten from the convenience store to pad his stomach. Afterwards, Xia Lian decided to close his eyes and rest, this time keeping the bedroom lights on, not daring to turn them off. He quickly falls asleep, exhausted from the constant tenseness.
‘Bam!’
‘Bam!’ ‘Bam!’
‘Bam!’ ‘Bam!’ ‘Bam!’
Hurried, continuous, repetitive knocking on the door sounded. This led the still sleepy Xia Lian to jolt up from his incoming dark nightmare and completely sober up. He blinked slowly and sluggishly, as he stared up at the overhead lights, his mind still not connecting for a while. He sat up groggily and got dressed, walking towards the front door without even thinking to look at the time.
“Who?” Xia Lian asked out loud as he yawned, mind spinning. Knocking on his door late at night, was it because he didn't turn off his bedroom lights?
“Me, ah~”
“!” Hearing the reply from the voice outside of his door, Xia Lian forced himself to stop mid-yawn. This is definitely a voice he’s familiar with, he knows for sure who exactly it was.
“Huang Hao?”
“Yep! That would be me~”
Peering through the peephole, indeed it was his friend he hadn’t seen since graduating on the other side of the door. His good friend, Huang Hao. Xia Lian unlocked the door and swung it open, “Why did you come suddenly? This late at night?”
“You had me worried after our phone call last time, so I specially asked for leave and rushed here. How would I care about the time, let me in now.”
Xia Lian moved sideways and let Huang Hao into the living room, his mind still muddled as he looked on how Huang Hao was naturally walking around the area, surveying and studying his rental house.
“What’s wrong? Saw a ghost, ma?”
“Don’t bring that up, I don’t even know what I saw myself. You wouldn’t even believe what I’ll say.” Xia Lian replied to Huang Hao’s inquiry as he raised his hand to rub his aching forehead.
“Believe? How could I not ah? I’m your good bro- wait wait, what happened to your hand?” Huang Hao asked, just then he noticed something quite abnormal about Xia Lian’s hand.
“Hand?” Xia Lian looked at his own hands in confusion. It was unknown when it started, but his ten fingerprints had a layer of light grey to it, just like the imprint on his leg that was caught. How could this have happened? Was it because he accidentally touched those human shaped mold when he was tearing down the wallpaper, and got infected then?
Trying to wipe it off only seems to imprint the light grey colour even more on his flesh, clearly it was impossible to wash it off. Didn’t he light the incense? Why did the situation become worse? So he really was scammed, the incense sticks fundamentally cannot help his current situation.
“Come, let me see.” Huang Hao stepped closer to Xia Lian’s side, taking Xia Lian’s hands and raising it closer to his eye level to observe. “What a shame, for it all to be stained with the Black Filth.”
“Filth?” His hands were still closely held by Huang Hao who stood right in front of him. With the living room lights behind him, Huang Hao’s eyes glowed red in the still dimly lit room. Not to mention the weird reply from him…
Xia Lian immediately tried to pull back his hands. “Who are you?”
“Me? I’m Huang Hao ah~ You confused bro?” Huang Hao replied, cocking his head and smiling at Xia Lian.
“No, you’re not.” He pulled his hands away with force, finally freeing himself from the grip. Xia Lian backed up a few steps until his back hit the wall, but he vigilantly kept his gaze at Huang Hao. “Who are you, really?”
He shouldn’t have carelessly opened the door. This guy in front of him wasn’t Huang Hao. Since the beginning, it seemed strange already. It was impossible for Huang Hao to just drop everything and rush here when he clearly had his own life, work, and girlfriend. Not to mention the strangely late time at night he arrived… What thing did he let inside exactly?
“Then, you take a guess… Who am I, hm?” Huang Hao’s normal voice distorted into a hoarse cackle, devolving into an abnormally slow, ear-grating sound. His neck first slowly bobbed up and down, until clicking noises sounded out of his neck and his whole head quickly spinned 180 degrees backwards.
“!” The sight of this familiar friend’s head suddenly moving in a humanly impossible angle had Xia Lian’s breath stuck in his throat.
He could only look at the back of Huang Hao’s head, continuing to sway unstably. As it moved faster, a seam started to appear on the back of his head. Suddenly a palm reached out, and then another. Two hands grabbed each side of the seam and forcefully ripped it open.
Blood sprayed out uncontrollably, spurting, gurgling like from a butchered pig as it flowed out of the head cavity and down the body, pooling on the living room floor. The owner of the hands climbed out of the skull cavity, with extremely long arms and unknown black fluid dripping off its small skull. Lying severely bow-legged on the floor, it looked like a giant abomination of a locust with human limbs.
But their numbers didn’t stop at one. From the seam of the still standing empty human-shaped husk, a few more of these long, spindly limbed humanoid freaks climbed out and perched on the ground. Although they looked nothing like a normal human, their voice, even the way they laugh, was exactly like that of a human.
“Xia Lian, we are Huang Hao ah~ Could you not recognise us, hm?”
“Hiihee… Hiiheehiii…”
“Do not be scared ah~”
Staring at these incomprehensible creatures crawling closer towards him, Xia Lian turned around and wanted to flee out the door. But looking in the direction out of the living room, his gaze met the body with the cracked head that still stood upright, unclear if it was a corpse or not. It stood right at the center of the doorframe, blocking any of his chances of escaping.
He could only turn around and retreat from the side. Seeing these unknown creatures surrounding him everywhere made his head spin like crazy. His feet stepped onto the thick pool of blood and slipped, immediately blacking out the moment he fell.
“Hm? Hmm? Did he faint?” Looking at Xia Lian still and no longer responding, those chaotic, blood-drenched, crawling horrors instantly vanished into thin air.
The originally bleeding man with the exposed scalp shed its skin, the outer disguise peeling off cleanly to become a tall pole-like man. He squatted beside Xia Lian, shaking his shoulders to confirm that there really wasn’t any response. Reaching out, he pinched Xia Lian’s lower jaw and moved it side to side when he realised Xia Lian’s ears were burning bright crimson. This situation… it seems the Black Filth has infected him to this state, causing the fever and coma.
“How annoying.” The man stared at Xia Lian lying prone on the ground for a good while before finally choosing to pick up Xia Lian. He turned around and walked into the bedroom, easily throwing him on the bed.
1. 吗? ma: can be a verbal tic to end questions, literal meaning can also be 'is it?' ↑
TN Notes:
This chapter was fun to translate and edit!!!
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