Ex-Girlfriend – Chapter 24
by Little PandaBreaking the Cage
Escape 24
Legal Hunting
Life isn’t a movie; it doesn’t require too many grand, tragic songs.
Shen Shuiyan had never been so clearheaded. Before this, she had never imagined she would encounter such a situation.
It was true she didn’t want to die, but time waited for no one. If Xin Lan stayed in a deadlock with her here, it wouldn’t end well for either of them.
“Forget about letting go. Don’t you trust me?”
Xin Lan murmured. Bending her upper body, she planted her legs firmly to keep her waist stable, then caught Shen Shuiyan’s collar with her free hand with swift, steady precision.
She grabbed hold, then slowly leaned backward, veins bulging on her forehead.
Seeing this, Xu Deng let go of the hand she was holding to avoid getting in Xin Lan’s way.
Xin Lan’s face flushed slightly red. With a sudden surge of strength, she hauled Shen Shuiyan straight up from below.
“Run!”
Only two steps remained behind them. If they didn’t run now, it would be too late.
Xu Deng took the lead and ran ahead, with Xin Lan and Shen Shuiyan close behind.
Shen Shuiyan had no time to express the turbulent emotions surging within her, yet her heart pounded furiously.
The Little Tiger1 had been so cool just now!
Shen Shuiyan wanted to suppress the curl of her lips, only to find she couldn’t restrain it at all.
The Little Tiger was truly too sweet, melting her heart. No matter the situation, having her by her side always brought an overwhelming sense of security.
At the moment she was about to fall, her heart had indeed been in her throat. But the instant she was caught, absolute peace settled over her.
Even if she’d asked the Little Tiger to let go back then, she knew deep down that she wouldn’t be abandoned. It was a baseless conviction—she simply believed her Little Tiger would definitely pull her out.
Even in the worst-case scenario, even if she had been abandoned, it would’ve been fine. After all, the moment Xin Lan grabbed her, she had seen the sheer panic in those eyes.
Unaware of the mental activity of the girl beside her, Xin Lan focused entirely on running forward.
When she saw the light ahead, she knew this path must have an end.
One by one, the three of them burst through the light. Carried by momentum, they stumbled forward a few steps before crashing onto a soft heap of dolls.
All three girls stared blankly, taken aback by the sheer strangeness of the room.
To say it was unique was an understatement; there were simply too many dolls.
The quantity was almost suffocating. On the shelves, hanging from the ceiling, or piled on the floor—everywhere was covered in dolls.
“No matter how much of a girlish heart I have, seeing this is downright terrifying.”
Xu Deng panted, trying to steady her breathing. The sheer number was startling, and the dolls gave her an unsettling feeling that made her spine tingle.
The dolls came in all sizes and varieties.
There were expensive, lifelike BJD dolls2, Japanese traditional wisteria maiden dolls3 from horror stories, plush little monsters, cats, dogs, and more.
Without exception, regardless of what kind of doll they were, the corners of their mouths were all curled upward in a grin.
Rushing in, the three of them saw a room full of inanimate objects smiling at them. Even the ones they accidentally stepped on on the floor had their eyes fixed on them, smiling.
The visual effect was exceptionally terrifying. Xin Lan and the others stood up, barely pushing the dolls on the floor aside to clear a small patch of space to stand.
“Welcome to my Doll World.”
A crisp, young girl’s voice sounded in the air. Xin Lan scanned the area but couldn’t pinpoint where the sound was coming from.
“This is a game with rewards! As long as you find Annai, you will get thirty connected clue fragments. Isn’t that a wonderful prize?”
The unidentified young girl let out a giggle, but it made them feel uneasy.
“I don’t think much of it,” Xin Lan replied flatly. “Even if we don’t play this game, we can still get plenty of clue fragments to leave.”
They could just rob people outright—why did they have to go through this?
“You don’t want to play my game?”
This time, Xin Lan and the others clearly saw who was speaking.
To be precise, it was not a human.
Resting on a cabinet was a BJD doll wearing a black lace top hat and a black princess dress, its mouth snapping open and shut.
Its posture didn’t change, but its expression carried a faint sadness.
Shen Shuiyan noticed that the smiling dolls’ expressions suddenly turned very sad as well.
This discovery sent a chill through her. Staring at the dolls’ eyes for too long, she could almost feel them rolling.
Even without Shen Shuiyan pointing it out, Xin Lan noticed it too.
“If you don’t play my game, you’ll turn into dolls.”
This time, the speaker was a plush dog on the floor. Its stitched mouth twitched as it spoke, looking incredibly creepy.
Xin Lan determined that it must be the same person speaking since the voice hadn’t changed. Perhaps the dolls in this room were merely her vessels.
“Are you the one who brought us into this game? I mean, the four-hundred-person campus game.”
“Of course not. I don’t have that kind of power. Are you going to play my doll game or not?”
“We’ll play.”
If they didn’t play, they’d turn into dolls. Of course they were going to play.
This was a forced game from the very beginning, whether it was the one at the start or this one now.
“Then I’m off! Make sure to find Annai before the hourglass runs out!”
An hourglass suddenly appeared on the wall, slowly trickling sand to the bottom.
Shen Shuiyan stared at the hourglass, her mouth moving as she began to count.
“About four hours,” Shen Shuiyan withdrew her gaze and concluded.
“Who is Annai? Is she a doll too?”
Xu Deng looked at the room full of dolls. That person hadn’t told them who Annai was or what she looked like—they only had a name. How were they supposed to find her in this room?
“Annai is a bad child.”
“Yeah, yeah, everyone hates her!”
“She ran away! No one knows where she went. You have to catch her and bring her back!”
“Bring her back!”
The clamor of voices echoing in the room startled Xin Lan. Looking at all those talking dolls gave her a bit of a headache.
Terrified, Xu Deng took a step closer, sticking close to Xin Lan.
Are these dolls actually alive?
Shen Shuiyan had long suspected they were abnormal, so she was somewhat prepared before they spoke. However… Shen Shuiyan walked right between Xu Deng and Xin Lan, and Xu Deng hastily moved aside.
“Where did she run off to?” Xin Lan asked.
“I don’t know, I didn’t see.”
“I saw her talking to the little rabbit that day.”
“Not me, not me! I didn’t talk to her,” the white rabbit doll quickly shook its head.
“She told me that day she wanted to leave this place,” the black rabbit mumbled. “I thought she was joking. But I don’t know where she went!”
“There are no exits here. How did she leave?” Shen Shuiyan asked, looking at this room full of dolls, which appeared completely enclosed.
“There are. The doors are here.”
Three points of light floated in mid-air, flickering like fireflies.
“These are the doors?”
“Yes.”
“Can all of you leave through them?”
“Of course!”
“Then why don’t you leave?”
“There are scary things inside. Only going out from there is truly going out. Why would we want to leave? We have so many friends here.”
“Aren’t you curious?”
“There are very scary monsters that will eat us,” the white rabbit shivered.
“Then if Annai went out, why do you have to find her?”
“Annai is a bad child who ran away! Bad children must be caught and punished!” the little bear declared righteously.
“What did Annai do wrong?”
“She hurt Jingjing’s eyes and hid one of Shanhu’s legs!”
Hearing this, Xin Lan looked at the shelves. Sure enough, there was a doll with only one leg, probably Shanhu.
“What does Annai look like?”
All the dolls erupted in excitement at this, whispering and murmuring to one another.
“Annai always says no but loves to cry,
Annai is beautiful but loves to be jealous.
Annai’s eyes are so round, I really want to gouge them out,
Annai can’t speak anymore, how wonderful!
Annai clamored to leave and vanished one day,
Where did she go? Where did she go?
Bad child Annai has run away!”
All the dolls began to sing, their faces once again wearing the smiles Xin Lan had seen when she first arrived.
Xin Lan listened with a dark expression as the dolls finished singing.
“Go find her quickly,” the little hamster urged.
“Does every door have a monster?”
“Yes.”
“Which door are we taking?” Shen Shuiyan looked at Xin Lan.
“My luck has always been terrible. You choose.”
“Left, then.”
The three of them held hands, and Xin Lan touched the glowing point on the left.
Before leaving, she could still hear the dolls singing that creepy nursery rhyme about Annai.
The next moment, they appeared in a wide, empty area. The surroundings were pitch black, with only a sliver of moonlight offering barely enough light to make out their surroundings.
“What kind of ghost game is this? I thought staying in the school was bad enough, but now we’re running for our lives and getting dragged into another game out of nowhere.”
Xu Deng felt her head throbbing. Tonight’s scares were truly coming one wave after another.
“Since we’re already here, let’s discuss what to do first.”
Shen Shuiyan gazed up at the moon in the sky. The moon had a faint tint of red, exceptionally eerie.
“Our goal is to find Annai, and we might not necessarily find her here. It’s a one-in-three chance,” Xin Lan said.
“Annai should be a humanoid doll,” Shen Shuiyan said.
“It’s very dangerous here; there are terrifying monsters,” Xu Deng said.
“The dolls harbor immense malice toward Annai. You can tell from that song,” Shen Shuiyan noted.
“Because Annai did something wrong? How did that song go again? I only remember the first line,” Xu Deng asked.
“Annai always says no but loves to cry,
Annai is beautiful but loves to be jealous.
Annai’s eyes are so round, I really want to gouge them out,
Annai can’t speak anymore, how wonderful!
Annai clamored to leave and vanished one day,
Where did she go? Where did she go?
Bad child Annai has run away.”
Shen Shuiyan recited the words flatly, one by one, causing goosebumps to break out all over Xu Deng as a chill settled in her heart.
“Wait a minute. There’s a contradiction in these lyrics. If Annai can’t speak anymore, how did she clamor to leave?”
“Maybe they exaggerated the situation?”
“Although they might have exaggerated, generally speaking, clues given by NPCs wouldn’t contain such self-contradictory errors.”
“Annai should be a girl, since she’s described as beautiful? But that basis is also shaky. There’s a possibility she isn’t human, but she most likely is since she’s called a ‘child’. In any case, whether she’s human or not, we must be careful.”
Shen Shuiyan frowned. The clues they could gather were simply too limited, and this place looked so huge. How were they supposed to find Annai when they only had four hours?
“Annai likes to cry, likes to say ‘no’, is good-looking, is prone to jealousy, has round eyes, and can’t speak. Maybe she has a bit of a temper and hid one of a doll’s legs,” Xin Lan summarized, gathering a few personality traits. As for her appearance, they could only get “round eyes.”
“Just how many things did Annai do to make them hate her so much? They actually want to gouge out her eyes, and they’re so happy she went mute.”
Xu Deng clicked her tongue, unable to help chanting the nursery rhyme she had only heard twice.
Annai always says no but loves to cry, Annai is beautiful but loves to be jealous. Annai’s eyes are so round, I really want to gouge them out, Annai can’t speak anymore, how wonderful! Annai clamored to leave and vanished one day, where did she go…
Xu Deng couldn’t help but shiver, forcing herself to stop chanting. It felt like brainwashing.
The three of them walked forward. After about a minute or two, a wooden gate appeared. Red lanterns hung on the wooden gate, and there was a plaque at the top of the gate.
“Ji-something Village?” Xin Lan barely made it out; she couldn’t see clearly.
Zero Nine: “Jirui Village.”
“Jirui Village,” Xin Lan followed smoothly.
“This place is actually called Jirui4?”
Staring into the pitch-black village and remembering what the dolls said about terrifying monsters, Xu Deng’s lips twitched.
“There are no lights. How are we going to search?” Shen Shuiyan said, somewhat worried.
Only a little moonlight lit their way, but its effect was far too limited. They couldn’t see what the situation inside was like at all. Who knew what kind of danger they would face by rashly going in like this? However, their time was limited, and they couldn’t afford to waste time here forever.
“Let’s go in first. If it doesn’t work, we’ll come back out. We can’t delay, time is limited.”
Xin Lan looked back; that point of light was still flashing there, the door was still there. If they couldn’t find her here, they could just quickly retreat.
Xin Lan had Zero Nine, and Zero Nine had a scanning and night-vision function.
As long as there was no spatial extension inside, Zero Nine could basically guide them.
Zero Nine: “Scan complete. It’s a small village with no living lifeforms. You can walk straight; it’s a straight path with houses on both sides. I’ll remind you when there’s a fork.”
Xin Lan took Shen Shuiyan’s hand and walked forward. Just as she was about to have Xu Deng take her other side, she realized Shen Shuiyan had already grabbed Xu Deng, and the two were walking forward together.
It was too dark for Xin Lan to notice that Shen Shuiyan was only holding onto Xu Deng’s sleeve.
Following Zero Nine’s guidance, Xin Lan walked for a few minutes and reached a fork in the road without finding anything.
Zero Nine: “Left and right don’t seem to have any difference. Host, which way do you want to go?”
Xin Lan chose left and turned to the left.
Shen Shuiyan and Xu Deng didn’t know how Xin Lan was finding the way in this pitch darkness, but it wasn’t important. To Shen Shuiyan, her Little Tiger was simply top-tier; to Xu Deng, this boss had even tortured people before, so what was finding a path?
The road was surprisingly quiet; it was like a dead village.
Suddenly, Zero Nine screamed in Xin Lan’s mind.
Zero Nine: “Host, run! There’s a very large object coming toward you. It looks like a person, but it’s extremely tall. Even if it’s a person, it’s definitely a dead one!”
Xin Lan turned back without even thinking.
She wasn’t afraid, but facing it head-on depended on the situation.
Did you scan any small humanoid objects inside? Xin Lan asked.
Zero Nine: “None.”
Xin Lan walked even faster.
Her two teammates were dragged along by her. Xu Deng’s legs were shorter than Xin Lan’s and Shen Shuiyan’s, so she could only jog to keep up.
Zero Nine: “Watch out!”
Xin Lan also sensed danger and shoved Shen Shuiyan to the side. In just that fraction of a second, something chopped down on the spot where Shen Shuiyan had been standing, leaving a heavy striking sound.
Xin Lan looked up and, with the help of the moonlight, clearly saw the attacker.
It was a giant nearly two meters tall, holding a large wooden club, with a blue-skinned, fanged face and crimson eyes.
“Run!”
This place wasn’t suitable for lingering. Her strength was limited in this mission world, and Xin Lan didn’t want to fight the monster.
Xin Lan was the main runner. Grabbing one girl in each hand with fierce strength, she sprinted back to the village entrance in a flash.
The giant chased after them with its club, but when it saw them at the entrance, it stopped and started walking back.
Xu Deng and Shen Shuiyan were both panting. Xin Lan wiped the sweat from her forehead and told them to go back.
“We’re not going back inside?”
“She shouldn’t be inside.”
“That’s true. It’s so dark here; if I were Annai, I wouldn’t like it either,” Shen Shuiyan said, nodding.
In a pitch-black world with not a single shred of light, the tearful Annai might be very timid.
They went out of the door and returned to the world full of dolls.
Those dolls were completely motionless and silent, their faces wearing grins as if they were truly lifeless. Yet not long ago, they were still talking.
Shen Shuiyan looked at the hourglass; they hadn’t delayed for too long just now.
“There are about three hours and forty minutes left.”
“The middle one or the right one?” Xin Lan tilted her head to look at Shen Shuiyan.
“Middle,” Shen Shuiyan said without hesitation.
The three of them went into the second door. This place was the complete opposite of the first door, nearly blinding them with light.
This place looked like a live recording studio. Someone was singing and dancing on stage, the lights flashing in sync with the beat.
To make things worse, that person was singing rock music. Standing extremely close, Xin Lan and the others were nearly blasted away by the sound waves.
Xin Lan wanted to speak to Shen Shuiyan, but she guessed she could only shout, and even then the other might not be able to hear clearly.
Besides, the flashing lights were blinding; she couldn’t see the expression on Shen Shuiyan’s face either.
There were many people inside. Aside from the one on stage, there were also camera operators, lighting technicians, and so on. Turning around, Xin Lan could also see the audience sitting far away.
Zero Nine: “Scan complete. No living lifeforms.”
Zero Nine was also quite cowardly when she said this. There was clearly a person on the stage, several people walking back and forth below, and not to mention the audience in the back.
No life signs meant these were all dead people.
Xin Lan frowned slightly. If Annai were a living person, she would be easy to find, but she was a lifeless doll, so Zero Nine couldn’t scan her.
Did you scan any relatively small objects? Xin Lan asked.
Zero Nine: “At least not in this space.”
The rock singer on stage was giving Xin Lan a bit of a headache. If they knew who their opponent was, things would be much simpler, but this complete lack of direction left them utterly bewildered.
On stage stood a female rocker with wavy hair and a sexy, sun-kissed complexion, radiating a wild beauty.
The eyes of the entire audience were focused on her. Xin Lan instinctively felt that she must have some clues.
Xin Lan carefully recalled the nursery rhyme once more.
Annai always says no but loves to cry, Annai is beautiful but loves to be jealous. Annai’s eyes are so round, I really want to gouge them out, Annai can’t speak anymore, how wonderful! Annai clamored to leave and vanished one day, where did she go? Where did she go? Bad child Annai has run away.
If Annai couldn’t speak anymore, then they couldn’t identify her identity through a catchphrase like “no.”
This nursery rhyme was full of malice, making Xin Lan a bit suspicious.
But doubts aside, she still remembered what the key to this game was.
The female rocker on stage finished a song and put down her guitar, and the accompaniment team beside her also stopped playing.
Deafening screams and applause rose from the audience, causing another wave of ringing in Xin Lan and the others’ ears.
“Lan-jie, what should we do now?”
Xu Deng was very lost; should they leave from here? But the lights were still flashing a bit, and they didn’t see where the exit to leave was.
Before Xin Lan could speak, a beam of light descended, trapping the three of them in a spotlight. The audience let out another cheer.
“Wait and see,” Xin Lan murmured.
“Oh, look at our three lucky audience members! Congratulations on winning a chance to sing along. Quick, come up to the stage!”
The female rocker waved at Xin Lan and the others, showing them a bright smile.
Xu Deng looked at the two beside her, wondering whether to go up or not.
“What, are you not my fans?”
The female rocker straightened up, her smile gradually disappearing as she narrowed her eyes.
A creepy and eerie feeling suddenly enveloped them. Their bodies under the spotlight started to grow cold involuntarily, as if a powerful cold air conditioner was blowing directly on them.
Xin Lan thought that maybe this person was the monster of this door.
She gave them a look, and the three of them walked up.
“Now, I’m bringing everyone 《We Will Rock You》. If you like it, remember not to forget to scream loudly!”
The audience below shook and shouted desperately.
“Annai! Annai! Annai!”
The three of them were startled. This person was named Annai?
But wasn’t Annai supposed to be unable to speak? This one could even sing, and she was highly likely the monster in this door. She probably wasn’t the Annai they were looking for, but maybe there was some kind of connection.
“We’re causing utter devastation, when we’re stepping to the place…”
The singer was performing with high energy, suddenly directing the spotlight onto Shen Shuiyan.
“And here we go again, hit with the flow again, kick it up the second time around…”
The singer blew a whistle, and the light hit back onto her.
“Quick reflexes, and she actually sings quite well,” Xin Lan praised.
Shen Shuiyan couldn’t help but curl her lips up.
“Fortunately, it’s a classic I’ve heard before,” Shen Shuiyan said.
The singer reached the chorus, driving the crowd into a frenzy.
It looked visually impressive, but once Xin Lan remembered they were all dead, the spectacle lost its impact.
The light suddenly hit Xu Deng, illuminating her broken glasses and her face, which looked as if she wanted to cry but had no tears.
“I don’t know the words!”
Why was running and being scared not enough in this game, and they even had to sing?!
“Xu Deng, get out of the way!”
Sensing something, Xin Lan shouted loudly. Without even thinking, Xu Deng immediately moved away from where she was standing.
The chandelier crashed onto the stage with a bang, glass shattering in all directions.
Xu Deng broke out in a cold sweat of lingering fear. If that light had landed on her head, her skull would have split open.
But except for the three of them, everyone else acted as if nothing had happened. The drummer continued to drum, and the singer continued to sing.
Xu Deng stood in another spot, occasionally looking up at the ceiling, terrified that something else would drop.
“If I’d known not knowing how to sing would literally kill me, I would’ve memorized more lyrics,” Xu Deng lamented, her face full of worry.
Xin Lan didn’t know the song either. It certainly didn’t exist in her interstellar era. Furthermore, her memories grew slightly hazy with each world she visited; she could only dig up the general tune of this song from the original host’s memory, but she couldn’t remember the lyrics either.
But it wasn’t a major issue; she still had her System.
Zero Nine had already pulled up the song, and the lyrics were projected in front of her eyes at the same time.
When the spotlight fell on her, she sang along without a shred of panic.
Though seemingly calm, danger lurked everywhere, as evidenced by Student Xu Deng’s experience.
Following the chandelier incident, the lyric-challenged Xu Deng faced a high-pressure water gun that sprayed blood. Reacting a fraction of a second too late, she ended up drenched in blood on one side of her body.
Following the water gun, blades suddenly shot up from the stage floor. Xin Lan reacted instantly, hoisting her up like a little chick to save her from being stabbed straight through.
By now, Xu Deng’s face was completely pale, her eyes hollow.
After all this torment, the song finally ended.
The audience filed out through a suddenly appearing exit, and the rocker wiped the sweat from her face, setting down her instrument.
“Please wait. Are you Annai?”
Shen Shuiyan took a step forward, blocking the female rocker’s way.
“You actually don’t know my name; it seems you really aren’t my fans.”
The female rocker scowled, looking rather fierce.
Xin Lan noticed that her eyes were indeed very round.
“Then have you seen a doll named Annai?”
“I am Annai. I am not some doll.”
“Annai always says yes and loves to laugh,
Annai is ugly and doesn’t love to be jealous.
Annai’s eyes are so narrow, I really don’t want to gouge them out,
Annai can speak again, how sad.
Annai didn’t want to leave, so she returned one day…”
As Shen Shuiyan sang the reverse lyrics, she caught the strange shift in the rocker’s expression.
“No, it’s not like that.”
The rocker interrupted Shen Shuiyan’s soft singing, her expression somewhat somber.
“Annai always says no but loves to cry,
Annai is beautiful but loves to be jealous.
Annai’s eyes are so round, I really want to gouge them out,
Annai can’t speak anymore, how wonderful!
Annai clamored to leave and vanished one day,
Where did she go? Where did she go?
She is in my heart.”
The rocker’s round eyes remained wide, a bizarre smile on her face. Her voice was no longer the loud, powerful belt of a rock singer; instead, it was thin and high-pitched, like a song abruptly breaking the silence of an empty street, laced with a chilling sweetness. Especially when she sang the final line, she closed her eyes slightly, looking utterly intoxicated.
“She’s in my heart.”
It sounded like a lament, yet also like a sigh.
“We need to find her,” Xin Lan said.
“She is with me, so she is mine. I am Annai, and Annai is me.”
The rocker giggled. At that moment, under the stage lights, Xin Lan caught a glimpse of another face superimposed onto the rocker’s.
It was pleading, struggling, and helpless, staring in her direction for assistance.
It was a beautiful face with round eyes, stained with tears.
“So if we take her with us, that counts as completing this game, right?” Xin Lan pointed at her and asked Shen Shuiyan.
Shen Shuiyan thought about it; it wasn’t impossible.
She nodded to Xin Lan. “Over to you.”
What followed was Xin Lan’s show.
Xu Deng and Shen Shuiyan stepped back to avoid getting caught in the crossfire or getting in the way.
Xin Lan took off her coat, tossing it into Shen Shuiyan’s arms.
She swept back her long hair and adjusted her ponytail.
“Since you’re Annai, we can take you away.”
The rocker shrugged, attempting to walk past her.
Xin Lan caught her by the arm. The rocker stopped, meeting her gaze.
Five seconds later, Xin Lan bent down, dodging a flying knife, while simultaneously sweeping her leg to trip the rocker to the ground. She grabbed the woman’s collar. Suddenly, the instruments floated into the air, hurtling toward them.
Without a shred of mercy, Xin Lan used the woman in her grasp as a human shield. Leaning her neck back to dodge the incoming clutter, her grip shifted to pin the rocker’s arms.
A slight sound reached her ears. As Xin Lan swatted away the floating objects, she realized the woman had actually slipped out of her grip, leaving a detached arm in Xin Lan’s hand. The escaped rocker was now one-armed.
No blood dripped from the empty socket, which immediately reminded Xin Lan of a detachable doll.
Shen Shuiyan threw the coat to Xu Deng. The instant the rocker broke free from Xin Lan, she rushed over and grabbed her other hand.
The rocker possessed immense strength, dragging Shen Shuiyan forward a few steps, but the latter still refused to let go.
Tossing the detached arm aside, Xin Lan aimed a blow at the back of the rocker’s head, but the rocker suddenly turned her face.
It was not a normal head turn; her head spun a full one hundred and eighty degrees, completely backward.
She grinned at Xin Lan. Just as Xin Lan’s fist was about to connect, she spoke.
“Do you know what bullying is?”
Xin Lan’s fist halted, mere millimeters from the woman’s nose.
“Two people picking on one person is called bullying.”
She stared at Xin Lan. Her severed arm flew back, reattaching itself to her torso—though it was backwards. With one arm pointing forward and the other pointing backward, she looked incredibly grotesque.
“A hundred people picking on one person is also called bullying.”
“But do you know what it’s called when a thousand or ten thousand people pick on one person?”
The rocker giggled, her eyes glinting with a deep, dark light.
Once again, Xin Lan saw that struggling, tearful, and utterly helpless face.
“It’s called justice.”
The rocker’s grin widened, and her laughter grew louder, dripping with mockery.
“Ask her. Does she want to go back? Little Annai, do you want to go back to being bullied?”
The rocker whispered, yet tears silently streamed from her eyes.
“See? She doesn’t want to.”
She wiped away the tears, staring at the droplet before letting it vanish from her fingertip.
Xin Lan, however, chuckled. Looking into the rocker’s eyes, her own were filled with disdain.
“Let me add one scenario you left out: one person bullying another is also called bullying.”
The rocker’s expression warped, as if she had heard a preposterous joke, or perhaps because her sore spot had been poked.
“That’s called love!”
“Instead of letting her get bullied by so many people, it’s better for me to love her. She was the one who stumbled into this door.”
“And your idea of ‘loving her’ is stealing her body?”
The struggling face Xin Lan saw was identical to the rocker’s—or rather, it was the true Annai’s face. She possessed round eyes and somewhat mixed-race features, holding a wild, sculpted beauty.
Xin Lan understood that the truth might not be as the dolls claimed. However, what the truth actually was did not matter to them.
The quest given to them by the owner of the doll room was to find Annai and bring her back. Only then could they return to the school campus.
“What do you know? You know absolutely nothing!”
The rocker’s expression began to distort, radiating a sinister, horrifying aura.
It was as if the dazzling, star-like performer on stage had been nothing but a mirage, and this hideous, pathetic creature was her true self.
The sight made Shen Shuiyan’s eyes strain. She was holding a torso that faced her, while the head was turned toward Xin Lan, and one arm was front-facing while the other was backwards. It was profoundly creepy, though staring at it long enough made it look like a piece of abstract art.
Xin Lan didn’t waste any more words arguing. This wasn’t some cheesy romance drama; this was a survival game.
Without hesitation, Xin Lan grabbed the woman’s hair. Since the other joints were too detachable, the head was the most secure point of control.
As Xin Lan gripped the hair to drag her away, Shen Shuiyan released her hold to avoid hindering the movement.
What Xin Lan didn’t expect was that as she dragged her toward the glowing exit portal, she was suddenly left holding only a head.
The strands of hair in her grasp felt real, and the eyes in the severed head rolled around.
A short distance away, the headless woman spun her body with eerie agility, popping her other arm back into place with a series of sharp clicks.
She said Annai is in her heart.
Xin Lan didn’t believe that had been a mere romantic sentiment. The rocker was clearly utilizing Annai; there was no real love to speak of. Since the entity hadn’t refuted her accusations, it was highly probable that the true Annai was hidden inside her chest cavity.
Xin Lan shoved the severed head into the arms of the nearest person and dashed after the fleeing torso.
Xu Deng stared in absolute bewilderment at the head in her arms. The head even flashed her a cold smile, nearly scaring her soul right out of her body.
This was far too stimulating; her heart could barely take it.
The headless torso dashed through a small side door and sprinted forward.
Despite lacking a head, the torso ran surprisingly fast, even if its movements were slightly clumsy.
Xin Lan chased it into a corridor lined with marble tiles, flanked by black doors on both sides.
The torso bolted ahead, with Xin Lan hot on its heels.
Fortunately, she had shed her coat earlier; otherwise, her movements would have been restricted.
Accelerating into a sprint, Xin Lan lunged and grabbed the fleeing torso.
Yet the moment she made contact, the torso exploded like dynamite in the air, leaving behind a cloud of thick smoke.
Xin Lan’s expression shifted. A diversion?!
She spun around. Sure enough, the door they had entered through had vanished.
She called out to Zero Nine in her mind. The System was already frantically running data analysis.
Back in the recording studio, the moment Shen Shuiyan saw the headless torso reappear without any sign of Xin Lan, she knew they had been tricked.
The instant the torso showed up, the head in Xu Deng’s arms began to thrash, fighting to fly back to its body.
Xu Deng struggled to hold onto the head, which felt as though it were being drawn by a massive gravitational force. Her body was slowly dragged forward. Tossing Xin Lan’s coat aside, Shen Shuiyan rushed over to help, pinning the head under her arm while grasping a handful of hair.
Unable to maintain her grip, one of Xu Deng’s hands slipped, pulling away a clump of hair. She looked down and realized she had accidentally ripped a bald patch onto the head.
Shen Shuiyan’s arm covered the head’s eyes, but its mouth was snapping open and shut, hurling curses at Xu Deng for tearing out her hair.
Xu Deng felt entirely innocent. If the head had not struggled so violently, she wouldn’t have ripped out a bald patch.
“If you keep moving, I will shave you bald. It must be hard for your hair to grow back, right? Imagine how hideous you’d look with a bald head.”
Shen Shuiyan yanked hard on Annai’s hair. Hearing this, the head stopped struggling as violently, but the torso still lurched toward them.
In a flash of inspiration, Shen Shuiyan yelled for Xu Deng to let go. Squatting down, she snapped up one of the razor blades the rocker had used to attack them earlier, holding it against her face.
“If you take another step, I’ll carve up your face!”
No girl was indifferent to her face, and even the monstrous rocker was susceptible to such a threat. The torso froze a short distance away, facing the head from afar.
“Where did you put her?”
“Take a guess,” the head smirked.
Shen Shuiyan’s face remained cold, the tip of the blade resting against the rocker’s lips.
“Do you want to guess if I’m going to guess?”
Though the words were playful, her tone was ice-cold.
“Annai can’t speak. If you don’t bring our friend back, we won’t leave either. I’ll cut out your tongue first, then slash your face. How is a big rock star going to sing without a tongue, or take the stage without a face?”
“Isn’t that right, Miss Annai?”
Xu Deng shivered. The person by the powerhouse’s side was, without a doubt, another ruthless soul.
Footnotes
- Xiao Laohu, literally meaning little tiger in Chinese.
- BJD stands for Ball-Jointed Doll, a type of highly customizable articulated resin doll.
- Teng Niang, or Wisteria Maiden, is a traditional Japanese doll motif that often features in horror stories.
- Jirui means auspicious, lucky, or propitious in Chinese.
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