Ex-Girlfriend – Chapter 24
by Little PandaVolume 1: Breaking the Cage
Escape 24
Legal Hunting
Life isn’t a movie, there’s no need for too many heroic laments.
Shen Shuiyan had never been so clear-headed before; she hadn’t anticipated encountering such a situation.
True, she didn’t want to die, but time waits for no one. If Xin Lan remained deadlocked here with her, it wouldn’t end well either.
“Don’t even think about letting go. Don’t you trust me?”
Xin Lan said softly, bending down to steady her legs, keeping her waist still, while her other hand swiftly and precisely grabbed Shen Shuiyan’s collar.
She gripped it firmly, then slowly moved backward, veins bulging on her forehead.
Xu Deng, seeing this, released the hand she was holding to avoid causing Xin Lan any inconvenience.
Xin Lan’s face turned slightly red as she exerted a sudden force, pulling Shen Shuiyan up directly from below.
“Quick, run.”
Only two steps remained behind them; if they didn’t leave now, it would be too late.
Xu Deng led the way in front, with Xin Lan and Shen Shuiyan following behind.
Shen Shuiyan had no time to express her surging emotions, but her heart was beating intensely.
“Little Tiger was so cool just now!”
Shen Shuiyan tried to suppress the smile at the corners of her mouth but found she couldn’t control it at all.
Little Tiger had truly melted her heart; whenever she was around, she felt overwhelmingly secure.
In that moment when she was about to fall, her heart was indeed suspended in fear, but once she was grabbed, her heart settled.
Even if she had asked Little Tiger to let go at that moment, deep down she knew Little Tiger would never abandon her – it was a baseless belief that her Little Tiger would definitely pull her out.
Even in the worst-case scenario, being abandoned wouldn’t have mattered, especially since she saw the panic in Xin Lan’s eyes when she grabbed her.
Xin Lan was unaware of Shen Shuiyan’s internal thoughts beside her as she focused on running forward.
When she saw the light source ahead, she knew this path must have an end.
The three of them passed through the light source in succession, running a few steps inside due to momentum, and fell onto a pile of soft plush toys.
All three girls’ expressions were somewhat dazed due to the peculiarity of this room.
Speaking of peculiarity, it was really just because there were many plush toys.
It could be described as suffocating in quantity – whether on the shelves, ceiling, or floor, there were dolls everywhere.
“Even with my girlish sensibilities, this is frightening.” (“少女心”/girlish sensibilities: literally “maiden’s heart,” referring to feminine appreciation for cute things)
Xu Deng caught her breath while panting; the quantity was alarming, and these dolls gave her an unsettling feeling that made her hair stand on end.
The dolls varied in size and style.
There were expensive BJD (Ball-Jointed Doll) replicas, Japanese Fujo dolls that appear in horror stories, plush monster dolls, cats, and dogs.
Without exception, regardless of the type of doll, they all had upturned mouths.
When the three rushed in, they saw a room full of inanimate objects smiling at them, including those they accidentally pressed down on the floor, all staring and smiling at them.
The visual effect was extremely horrifying. Xin Lan and the others stood up, managing to push aside the dolls on the ground to clear a space to stand.
“Welcome to my doll world.”
A crisp child’s voice rang through the air, and Xin Lan scanned around but couldn’t determine the source.
“This is a game with rewards. If you find Anna, you’ll get thirty connected fragments. Isn’t that a nice reward?”
The unknown little loli let out a laugh that felt uncomfortable.
“I don’t think much of it. Even without playing this game, we can still get many fragments and leave.”
Xin Lan said coldly, implying they could just take them by force instead of going through this ordeal.
“Don’t you want to play my game?”
This time, Xin Lan and the others clearly saw who was speaking.
To be precise, it wasn’t a person.
It was a BJD doll on the shelf, wearing a black lace bonnet and black princess dress, its mouth opening and closing.
Its posture remained unchanged, but its expression carried a faint sadness.
Shen Shuiyan noticed that suddenly, all the smiling dolls’ expressions also turned sorrowful.
This discovery sent chills down her spine; staring at the dolls’ eyes for too long, she could almost feel them moving.
Without Shen Shuiyan saying anything, Xin Lan noticed it too.
“If you don’t play my game, you’ll have to become dolls.”
This time, the speaker was a dog plush toy on the floor, its sewn mouth moving up and down, extremely terrifying.
Xin Lan determined that it must be the same person speaking, as the voice hadn’t changed; perhaps all the dolls in this room were just her vessels.
“Are you the one who brought us into this game? I mean the campus game with four hundred people.”
“Of course not, I don’t have that much power. Will you play my doll game or not?”
“We’ll play.”
If not playing meant becoming dolls, of course they’d play.
This was a forced game from the start, both then and now.
“Then I’ll be going. You need to find Anna before the hourglass runs out.”
An hourglass suddenly appeared on the wall, slowly letting sand trickle down.
Shen Shuiyan watched the hourglass, counting in her head.
“About four hours.”
Shen Shuiyan looked away and concluded.
“Who is Anna? Is it also a doll?”
Xu Deng looked at the room full of dolls – they weren’t even told who Anna was or what they looked like, just a name. How were they supposed to search in this room?
“Anna is a bad child.”
“Yes, yes, everyone hates it.”
“It ran away, we don’t know where it went, you must catch it!”
“Catch it!”
The chorus of voices erupting in the room startled Xin Lan, and watching the talking dolls gave her a headache.
Xu Deng, frightened, took a step closer to Xin Lan, staying close to her.
These dolls were alive?
Shen Shuiyan had sensed something was off about them earlier, so she was somewhat mentally prepared before they started speaking, but… She walked between Xu Deng and Xin Lan, and Xu Deng quickly made way.
“Where did it run to?”
Xin Lan asked.
“I don’t know, I didn’t see.”
“That day I saw it talking to the little rabbit.”
“Not me, not me, I didn’t talk to it!”
The white rabbit plush doll hastily shook its head.
“It told me that day it wanted to leave this place. I thought it was joking, but I don’t know where it went!”
The black rabbit mumbled hesitantly.
“There’s no exit here, how did it get out?”
Shen Shuiyan asked, looking around the doll-filled room that appeared completely sealed.
“There is one, the door is here.”
Three points of light floated in mid-air, flickering like fireflies.
“This is the door?”
“Yes.”
“Can all of you leave through here?”
“Of course.”
“Then why don’t you leave?”
“There are scary things inside. Only going through there leads to truly getting out. Why should we leave? We have many friends here.”
“Aren’t you curious?”
“There are terrifying monsters that will eat us.”
The white rabbit trembled in fear.
“Then why must Anna be found if it left?”
“Anna is a bad child who ran away. Bad children must be caught and punished!”
The little bear said with righteous indignation.
“What did Anna do wrong?”
“It hurt Jingjing’s eyes and hid one of Shanhu’s legs!”
Upon hearing this, Xin Lan looked at the shelf, where there was indeed a doll with only one leg – presumably Shanhu.
“What does Anna look like?”
All the dolls erupted into chatter at this question, whispering among themselves.
“Anna always says no but loves to cry oh, Anna looks pretty but loves to be jealous oh, Anna’s round eyes really make us want to dig them out oh, we’re so happy Anna can’t speak anymore, Anna kept crying about leaving and one day disappeared, where did it go, where did it go, bad child Anna ran away!”
All the dolls began singing, their faces showing the same smiles that Xin Lan saw when they first arrived.
Xin Lan watched with a stern face, listening until the dolls finished their song.
“You should hurry and find it.”
The little hamster urged.
“Are there monsters behind every door?”
“Yes.”
“Which door should we take?”
Shen Shuiyan looked toward Xin Lan.
“My luck has never been good, you choose.”
“Then the left one.”
The three held hands, and Xin Lan touched the light point on the left.
Before leaving, she could still hear the dolls singing that eerie rhyme about Anna.
The next moment, they appeared in a vast open space, surrounded by darkness, with only moonlight providing enough illumination to barely make out their surroundings.
“What kind of bizarre game is this? I thought being in the school was enough, but now we’re running for our lives and suddenly there’s another game.”
Xu Deng was overwhelmed (“头都大了”/overwhelmed: literally “head has grown big,” meaning to be extremely troubled), tonight’s scares coming one after another.
“Since we’re already here, let’s discuss what to do.”
Shen Shuiyan gazed at the moon in the sky, which had a reddish tint, making it particularly ominous.
Xin Lan: “The goal is to find Anna, and there’s only a one-third chance it’s here.”
Shen Shuiyan: “Anna should be a humanoid doll.”
Xu Deng: “This place is dangerous, with terrifying monsters.”
Shen Shuiyan: “The dolls hold great malice toward Anna, you can hear it in that song.”
Xu Deng: “Because Anna did something wrong? How did that song go again? I only remember the first line.”
“Anna always says no but loves to cry oh, Anna looks pretty but loves to be jealous oh, Anna’s round eyes really make us want to dig them out oh, we’re so happy Anna can’t speak anymore, Anna kept crying about leaving and one day disappeared, where did it go, where did it go, bad child Anna ran away.”
Shen Shuiyan recited emotionlessly, word by word, making Xu Deng’s skin crawl (“鸡皮疙瘩”/goosebumps: literally “chicken skin bumps”) and her heart grow cold.
“Wait, there’s a contradiction in these lyrics. If Anna can’t speak, how could it cry about leaving?”
“Maybe they exaggerated?”
“There might be exaggeration, but usually NPC hints don’t make such self-contradicting errors.”
“Anna should be a girl, since they used ‘pretty’ to describe them? But this reasoning isn’t solid either. Anna might not be human, but likely is, since it’s called a ‘child.’ Either way, we need to be careful whether it’s human or not.”
Shen Shuiyan frowned; the available clues were too limited, and with this place being so vast, how could they find Anna in just four hours?
“Anna likes to cry, likes to say ‘no,’ looks pretty, is jealous, has round eyes, can’t speak, maybe has a volatile temperament, and hid one of a doll’s legs.”
Xin Lan summarized, gathering some personality traits, with only round eyes as a physical characteristic.
“What did Anna do to make them hate it so much that they want to dig out its eyes and are happy about it becoming mute?”
Xu Deng clicked her tongue (“啧啧”/clicked her tongue: an expression of amazement or disapproval), couldn’t help but recite the rhyme she’d only heard twice.
Anna always says no but loves to cry oh, Anna looks pretty but loves to be jealous oh, Anna’s round eyes really make us want to dig them out oh, we’re so happy Anna can’t speak anymore, Anna kept crying about leaving and one day disappeared, where did it go…
Xu Deng shuddered involuntarily, forcing herself to stop reciting it, feeling like it was brainwashing.
The three walked forward for about a minute or two until they came upon a wooden door with red lanterns hanging on it and a signboard above.
“Ji something village?”
Xin Lan struggled to make out the characters.
Ling Jiu: Ji Rui Village.
“Ji Rui Village.”
Xin Lan readily accepted the correction.
“And they call this place ‘auspicious’?”
Xu Deng’s mouth twitched as she looked at the pitch-black interior, remembering the dolls’ warnings about terrifying monsters.
“There’s no light, how will we search?”
Shen Shuiyan worried.
There was only moonlight to guide them, but its effect was too limited – they couldn’t see what was inside at all. Who knew what dangers lurked if they went in blindly? But their time was limited; they couldn’t dawdle here forever.
“Let’s go in first. If it doesn’t work, we can go back out. We can’t waste time; we’re on a deadline.”
Xin Lan looked back; the light point was still flickering there, the door still present. If they couldn’t find anything here, they could just quickly retreat.
Xin Lan had Ling Jiu, which had night vision and scanning capabilities.
As long as there wasn’t any spatial distortion inside, Ling Jiu could basically guide their way.
Ling Jiu: Scan complete. It’s a small village, no life forms detected. You can go straight ahead on a direct path with houses on both sides. I’ll alert you when there are intersections.
Xin Lan held Shen Shuiyan’s hand and moved forward. When she was about to invite Xu Deng to her other side, she noticed Shen Shuiyan had already grabbed Xu Deng to walk together.
It was too dark for Xin Lan to see that Shen Shuiyan was only holding Xu Deng’s sleeve.
Following Ling Jiu’s directions, Xin Lan walked for a few minutes and reached an intersection without discovering anything.
Ling Jiu: Left and right seem no different. Which way would you like to go, host?
Xin Lan chose left and turned that way.
Shen Shuiyan and Xu Deng didn’t know how Xin Lan was finding her way in this darkness, but it didn’t matter. To Shen Shuiyan, Little Tiger was first-rate (“一级棒”/first-rate: literally “first-class excellent”), and to Xu Deng, if this expert could torture people, finding a path was nothing.
The road was eerily quiet, like a dead village.
Suddenly, Ling Jiu shouted in Xin Lan’s mind.
Ling Jiu: Host, run quickly! A huge figure is coming toward you – it looks human-like but extremely tall. Even if it is human, it must be dead!
Xin Lan turned back without hesitation.
She wasn’t afraid, but one had to pick their battles (“对刚也要看情况”/pick their battles: literally “even confrontation needs to consider the situation”).
Xin Lan: Did you scan any small human-shaped objects inside?
Ling Jiu: No.
Xin Lan walked even faster.
Her two teammates followed her lead, with Xu Deng, having shorter legs than Xin Lan and Shen Shuiyan, having to jog to keep up.
Ling Jiu: Watch out!
Xin Lan also sensed the danger and pushed Shen Shuiyan aside. In that split second, something struck where Shen Shuiyan had just been standing, leaving the sound of a heavy impact.
Xin Lan looked up, making out their attacker in the moonlight.
It was a giant nearly two meters tall, holding a large wooden club, with a green face, protruding fangs, and crimson eyes.
“Run!”
This was no place to linger. With powers restricted in this mission world, Xin Lan had no desire to fight the monster.
Xin Lan took the lead in running, dragging one person in each hand with impressive strength, zipping to the village entrance.
The giant followed with its wooden club, but stopped and turned back when it saw Xin Lan’s group at the entrance.
Xu Deng and Shen Shuiyan were both panting, while Xin Lan wiped sweat from her forehead and directed them to walk back.
“We’re not going back in?”
“It shouldn’t be in there.”
“True, it’s so dark in there. If I were Anna, I wouldn’t like it either.”
Shen Shuiyan nodded.
In a world of pitch darkness without any light, the crying Anna might be too timid.
They exited through the door, returning to the world of dolls.
The dolls were motionless, completely quiet, wearing smiles, as if truly lifeless – unlike just a while ago when they were talking.
Shen Shuiyan looked at the hourglass; they hadn’t spent too long inside.
“About three hours and forty minutes left.”
“The middle one or the left one?”
Xin Lan tilted her head toward Shen Shuiyan.
“Middle.”
Shen Shuiyan didn’t hesitate.
The three entered the second door, and it was completely opposite to the first – they were nearly blinded by the light.
It was like a show recording venue, with someone singing and dancing on stage, lights flashing in coordination.
Of all things, the person was singing rock music, and standing so close, they were nearly blown away by the sound waves.
Xin Lan wanted to talk to Shen Shuiyan, but she’d have to scream to be heard, and even then, the other might not understand clearly.
Moreover, with the flashing lights that could blind someone, she couldn’t even see Shen Shuiyan’s facial expressions.
There were many people inside – besides those on stage, there were cameramen, lighting technicians, and others. When Xin Lan turned around, she could see audience members sitting far back.
Ling Jiu: Scan complete, no life forms detected.
Ling Jiu sounded timid saying this, as there was clearly someone on stage, several people walking around below, not to mention the audience in the back.
No life form characteristics meant these were all dead people.
Xin Lan slightly furrowed her brow. If Anna was a living person, it would be easy to find, but Anna was also an inanimate object without life characteristics, making it impossible for Ling Jiu to scan.
Xin Lan: Did you detect any relatively small objects?
Ling Jiu: Not in this space at least.
Xin Lan was getting a headache from the rock singer on stage. If they knew who their target was, things would be much easier, but this situation of not knowing where the person was truly left them confused.
The person on stage was a female rocker with wavy curls, sexy tanned skin, full of wild beauty.
All eyes were focused on her, and Xin Lan instinctively felt she might have some clues.
Xin Lan carefully recalled that rhyme again.
Anna always says no but loves to cry oh, Anna looks pretty but loves to be jealous oh, Anna’s round eyes really make us want to dig them out oh, we’re so happy Anna can’t speak anymore, Anna kept crying about leaving and one day disappeared, where did it go, where did it go, bad child Anna ran away.
If Anna couldn’t speak anymore, then they couldn’t identify it by its habit of saying “no” (“口头禅”/habitual phrase: literally “mouth mantra”).
This rhyme was full of malice, making Xin Lan somewhat suspicious.
But suspicions aside, she still remembered what the key to this game was.
The female rocker on stage finished her song, put down her guitar, and the accompanying band also stopped playing.
The audience erupted in waves of screams and applause (“此起彼伏”/waves: literally “rising here and falling there”), leaving Xin Lan’s group with ringing ears again.
“Sister Lan, what should we do now?”
Xu Deng was confused; they might want to leave, but the lights were still flashing, and they couldn’t see where the exit was.
Before Xin Lan could speak, they felt a beam of light, and the three of them were caught in a spotlight, prompting another round of cheers from the audience.
“Let’s wait and see what happens.” (“静观其变”/wait and see: literally “quietly observe the changes”)
“Oh look, our three lucky audience members! Congratulations, you’ve won the chance to sing together. Come up to the stage!”
The female rocker waved at them, flashing a brilliant smile.
Xu Deng looked at the other two, unsure whether to go up or not.
“What’s wrong, aren’t you my fans?”
The female rocker straightened up, her smile gradually fading as she narrowed her eyes.
A strange, eerie feeling suddenly enveloped them, and their bodies under the spotlight began to involuntarily grow cold, as if powerful air conditioning was blowing directly at them.
Xin Lan thought this person might be the monster of this door.
She gave a knowing look, and the three of them walked up.
“Now, I’ll bring you 《We Will Rock You》. If you like it, don’t forget to scream loudly!”
The audience below shook and shouted frantically.
“Anna! Anna! Anna!”
The three were startled – this person was Anna?
But wasn’t Anna supposed to be unable to speak? This one could sing, and was likely the monster of this door. Probably not the Anna they were looking for, but there might be some connection.
“We’re causing utter devastation, when we steppin’ to the place…” (Originally in English)
The singer was performing enthusiastically when suddenly the light shifted to Shen Shuiyan.
“And here we go again, hit with the flow again, kick it up the second time around…” (Originally in English)
The singer whistled, and the light returned to her.
“Pretty quick reaction, and you sing quite well.”
Xin Lan gave praise, making Shen Shuiyan’s mouth curl up involuntarily.
“Fortunately, it’s a classic I’ve heard before.”
The singer reached the climax, igniting the audience’s enthusiasm.
It looked impressive, but when Xin Lan remembered these were all dead people, there was nothing impressive about it anymore.
The light suddenly shone on Xu Deng, illuminating her damaged glasses and her face that looked ready to cry but couldn’t (“欲哭无泪”/wanting to cry but having no tears: expressing extreme frustration).
“I don’t know how to sing!”
Why isn’t running and being scared enough for this game – why do we have to sing too?!
“Xu Deng, dodge!”
Xin Lan sensed something and shouted. Without thinking, Xu Deng immediately moved from her spot.
The chandelier crashed to the ground with a bang, glass scattering everywhere.
Xu Deng couldn’t help feeling terrified in retrospect – if that light had hit her head, it would have probably split her skull (“脑袋开花”/split her skull: literally “head blooming like a flower”).
But except for the three of them, everyone else continued as if they hadn’t seen the accident – the drummers kept drumming, the singer kept singing.
Xu Deng stood in another spot, occasionally looking up at the ceiling, afraid something else might fall.
“If I’d known there’d be a day when not knowing how to sing could kill me, I would have properly memorized lyrics.”
Xu Deng said, looking worried.
Xin Lan didn’t know this song either – it didn’t exist in her interstellar times, and memories from each world had been somewhat diluted. She could only find the general tune in the original host’s memories, but couldn’t remember the lyrics.
But it wasn’t a big problem – she still had her system.
Ling Jiu had already pulled up the song, projecting the lyrics before her eyes.
When the light shone on her, she sang without any panic.
It seemed calm on the surface, but dangers lurked everywhere (“危机四伏”/dangers lurked everywhere: literally “crisis crouching in all four directions”), as evident from Xu Deng’s experiences.
After the chandelier incident, she who couldn’t sing also encountered a high-pressure water gun spraying blood. She dodged too late, and half her body was splashed with blood.
After the water gun incident, knives suddenly appeared from the ground. Xin Lan, quick-eyed and quick-handed, lifted her up like a chicken chick, avoiding her fate of being stabbed through.
Xu Deng was already pale-faced and glassy-eyed (“双眼无神”/glassy-eyed: literally “eyes without spirit”).
After all this torment, the song finally ended.
The audience left through suddenly appearing doors, and Anna wiped sweat from her face and put down her instrument.
“Please wait, are you Anna?”
Shen Shuiyan stepped forward, blocking the female rocker’s path.
“You actually don’t know my name, so you’re really not my fans.”
The female rocker looked unhappy, appearing somewhat fierce.
Xin Lan noticed that her eyes were indeed round.
“Have you seen a doll called Anna?”
“I am Anna, not some doll.”
Anna emphasized.
“Anna always says yes and loves to laugh oh, Anna looks ugly and doesn’t like to be jealous oh, Anna’s narrow eyes we really don’t want to dig out oh, Anna can speak again how sad it is oh, Anna didn’t want to leave so one day she came back…”
Shen Shuiyan sang this rhyme, noticing An Nai’s face change color.
“No, that’s not right.”
Anna interrupted Shen Shuiyan’s soft singing, her expression somewhat gloomy.
“Anna always says no but loves to cry oh, Anna looks pretty but loves to be jealous oh, Anna’s round eyes really make us want to dig them out oh, we’re so happy Anna can’t speak anymore, Anna kept crying about leaving and one day disappeared, where did it go, where did it go, it’s in my heart.”
Anna’s round eyes were wide open, her face wearing an eerie smile. Her voice wasn’t loud and clear like when she sang rock, but thin and sharp, like singing suddenly heard on an empty street, carrying a creepy sweetness. Especially when singing the last line, her eyes slightly closed, completely entranced.
“It’s in my heart.”
It sounded both mournful and like a sigh.
“We need to find it.”
“It’s here with me, it’s mine now, I am Anna, Anna is me.”
Anna giggled, and in that instant, through the light, Xin Lan saw another face overlapping with hers.
Struggling, helpless, and pleading, looking in her direction.
It was a beautiful face with round eyes, tears hanging from them.
“If we take her away, would that complete this game?”
Xin Lan pointed at her, asking Shen Shuiyan.
Shen Shuiyan thought about it – it wasn’t impossible.
She nodded at Xin Lan, leaving it to her.
What followed would be Xin Lan’s show (“秀场”/show: literally “performance arena”).
Xu Deng and Shen Shuiyan stepped back to avoid getting caught in the crossfire (“被波及”/caught in the crossfire: literally “affected by the ripples”) and becoming a hindrance.
Xin Lan took off her coat and threw it into Shen Shuiyan’s arms.
She brushed her long hair, smoothing her ponytail.
“Since you’re Anna, we can take you with us.”
Anna shrugged, trying to walk past her.
Xin Lan grabbed her arm, and Anna stopped, meeting her gaze.
Five seconds later, Xin Lan bent down, dodging flying knives while simultaneously sweeping Anna’s legs out from under her. She grabbed Anna’s collar, when suddenly all the instruments floated in mid-air, hurtling toward her.
Xin Lan ruthlessly used Anna as a human shield (“肉盾”/human shield: literally “meat shield”), tilting her head back to dodge attacks while changing her grip to restrain Anna’s arm.
A slight sound reached her ears, and while Xin Lan was dealing with the floating objects, she found Anna had escaped her hold – leaving an arm in her grip while the escaped Anna became one-armed.
The arm had no blood, reminding Xin Lan of detachable dolls.
Shen Shuiyan threw the coat toward Xu Deng and rushed to grab Anna’s other hand the moment she escaped from Xin Lan.
Anna was very strong, dragging Shen Shuiyan several steps, but she didn’t let go.
Xin Lan threw away the arm in her hand and moved to strike Anna’s head from behind, but Anna suddenly turned her head.
Not a normal turn – her head rotated 180 degrees, directly opposing her body.
Anna grinned at her, and just as Xin Lan’s fist was about to land, she spoke.
“Do you know what bullying is?”
Xin Lan’s fist stopped abruptly, just millimeters from her nose.
“Two people bullying one person, that’s called bullying.”
Anna looked at Xin Lan, the severed arm flew back and reattached to her body, though backwards – one arm pointing forward, one backward, looking bizarre.
“A hundred people bullying one person is also called bullying.”
“But do you know what it’s called when a thousand or ten thousand people bully one person?”
Anna giggled, her eyes gleaming with deep darkness.
Xin Lan saw that struggling face again, tearful and helpless.
“It’s called justice.”
Anna’s smile grew wider, her laughter louder, but tinged with mockery.
“Ask it – does it want to go back? Little Anna, do you want to go back to being bullied?”
Anna whispered, yet her eyes were silently crying.
“See, it doesn’t want to.”
Anna wiped the tears from her face, gazing at the droplet before letting it vanish from her fingertip.
Xin Lan suddenly smiled, looking into Anna’s eyes with disdain.
“Let me add something you didn’t mention – one person bullying another is also bullying.”
Anna’s expression became distorted, as if hearing an absurd tale (“天方夜谭”/absurd tale: literally “Arabian Nights,” meaning an unbelievable story), or as if someone had touched a sore spot (“踩到痛脚”/touched a sore spot: literally “stepped on a painful foot”).
“That’s called love.”
“Rather than letting it be bullied by so many people, better let me love it. She’s the one who entered this door.”
“Your so-called love means stealing its body?”
The face Xin Lan saw was identical to Anna’s, or rather was Anna’s face – round eyes, somewhat mixed-race features, filled with wild, sculpted beauty.
Xin Lan knew that perhaps the truth wasn’t as the dolls had said, but for them, what the truth was didn’t matter.
The dollhouse owner’s game task was to find Anna and bring her back – only then could they return to the campus.
“What do you understand? You understand nothing!”
Anna’s facial expression began to distort, emanating an eerie, horrifying feeling.
It was as if the radiant person singing on stage earlier wasn’t her, just an illusion – this was the real her, ugly and pitiful.
Shen Shuiyan’s eyes hurt from looking – the Anna she was holding had her body facing her, but the head faced Xin Lan, one arm normal and one backward, appearing especially spine-chilling (“毛骨悚然”/spine-chilling: literally “hair and bones trembling”). Though after looking long enough, it seemed fine, like some abstract art.
Xin Lan stopped wasting words about understanding or not – this wasn’t some melodramatic love story (“狗血爱情剧”/melodramatic: literally “dog blood love drama”), this was a survival game.
So without hesitation, she grabbed her hair – no choice, as all other joints could move freely, grabbing the head was best.
When Xin Lan grabbed her to drag her away, Shen Shuiyan released her grip to avoid hindering movement.
But Xin Lan hadn’t expected that while dragging her toward the light at the door, only the head would remain in her hand.
The feeling of real hair in her hand, and the head’s eyes rolling around.
Not far away was the headless woman, and even without a head, the torso moved freely, snapping its other arm back into place.
She said Anna was in her heart.
Xin Lan didn’t think she was merely speaking romantically, and her relationship with Anna was more about exploitation than any nonsense love (“狗屁爱情”/nonsense love: literally “dog fart love”). Moreover, she hadn’t denied what was just said, so Anna might really be in her heart.
Xin Lan shoved the head into someone else’s arms and hurried to chase the escaping torso.
Xu Deng looked completely bewildered at the head in her arms, which gave her a cold smile, nearly frightening her soul out of her body.
This was too stimulating; her heart couldn’t take it.
The torso ran through a small door, rushing forward.
Though headless, the torso’s movements were stumbling but still quite fast.
Xin Lan chased her into a corridor with marble tiles below and black doors on both sides.
The torso ran ahead while Xin Lan pursued relentlessly (“紧追不舍”/pursued relentlessly: literally “closely following without letting go”).
Fortunately, she’d removed her coat earlier, otherwise movement would have been inconvenient.
Xin Lan suddenly sprinted faster and grabbed the torso ahead.
But when she touched it, the torso exploded like some explosive in the air, leaving behind a cloud of smoke.
Xin Lan’s expression changed – a diversionary tactic (“调虎离山”/diversionary tactic: literally “luring the tiger away from the mountain”)?!
She turned back, and sure enough, the door they’d entered through was gone.
She mentally called out to Ling Jiu, who was rapidly conducting data analysis.
On Shen Shuiyan’s side, when she saw the torso reappear before them while Xin Lan was nowhere to be found, she knew they had fallen for the trap (“中计”/fallen for the trap: literally “caught in a strategy”).
The moment the torso appeared, the head in Xu Deng’s hands began to move strangely, constantly pulling toward the torso’s direction, as if trying to fly back.
Xu Deng struggled to hold onto the floating head, feeling some kind of enormous suction force, her body gradually moving forward. Shen Shuiyan put Xin Lan’s clothes aside and went to help, clamping the head with her arm while grabbing the hair with one hand.
One of Xu Deng’s hands gave way, leaving her with handful of hair strands – sure enough, she had pulled a bald patch in the head’s hair.
Shen Shuiyan’s arm was covering the head’s eyes, while its mouth kept moving, cursing at Xu Deng who had pulled out its hair.
Xu Deng was innocent too – if the head hadn’t been struggling so hard, she wouldn’t have pulled out a patch of hair.
“If you keep moving that way, I’ll cut off all your hair. It must be hard to grow back, right? How ugly you’d look bald.”
Shen Shuiyan firmly gripped Anna’s hair. Hearing this, Anna’s struggles lessened, but her head suddenly lunged forward.
In the urgent situation, Shen Shuiyan had Xu Deng let go while she crouched down to pick up a blade – the same one Anna had used earlier to attack Xu Deng and Xin Lan – and held it against her face.
“Come any closer and I’ll slash your face to ruins!”
No girl doesn’t care about her face, and even monster Anna feared such threats. Anna’s torso froze not far away, facing off with Anna’s head (“遥遥相对”/facing off: literally “facing each other from afar”).
“Where did you take her?”
“Why don’t you guess?”
Shen Shuiyan’s face was cold as she pressed the blade tip against Anna’s lips.
“Want to guess whether I’ll guess?”
Though the words were joking, the tone was ice-cold.
“Anna can’t speak. If you don’t bring her back, we won’t leave either. I’ll cut out your tongue first, then slash your face. How will a great singer sing without a tongue? How will a big star perform on stage without a face?”
“Don’t you agree, Miss Anna?”
Xu Deng shuddered (“打冷颤”/shuddered: literally “struck by a cold shiver”) – indeed, someone who stands beside a boss is also fierce.
LP: Re-translated on November 24, 2024
… I thought of dividing this chapter but ┐(￣∀￣)┌
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