A Short Story Collection with Non-Human Protagonists - Chapter 1

Chapter 1: The First Rainy Night

Tang Yanqing was dead drunk.

Tequila, gin, whisky.

All the alcohol blended together, scorching like wildfire, melting her brain into a vast, borderless cloud.

Her memories were fragmented. She might have vomited her stomach acid in a restroom, might have trekked through heavy rain, might have been extorted by someone, saved by someone, or fallen into someone’s arms.

That person’s chest was warm and soft. She smelled the sweet scent of night-blooming osmanthus.

“A-Qing, open your mouth. Be good.”

Warmth touched her lips; the edge of a metal spoon brushed the tip of her tongue. A woman held her, speaking in a soft, silky voice, coaxing her to drink half a cup of medicinal soup.

Tang Yanqing turned her head away, her eyebrows knitting together in a messy scowl. “…So bitter.”

The sound of glass clinking followed.

The woman placed a licorice candy on the tip of her tongue. The back of a finger stroked her cheek, as gentle as a spring breeze.

Tang Yanqing forced her eyelids open. The woman was about to rise and leave, the warm yellow light shining through her translucent earlobes.

She reached out and grabbed the woman’s wrist, her voice softened by the alcohol: “Mom… stay and sleep with me.”

The woman seemed to let out a small laugh before lying down beside her. A slender arm reached across, resting lightly on her shoulder.

“Go to sleep, A-Qing.”

The scent on the woman made her feel safe. Tang Yanqing closed her eyes and fell into a peaceful slumber.

For the first time in a long while, she had a beautiful dream.

The old wooden table in the ancestral house was slightly tilted, and the food steamed with heat.

“Little girl, have another one! Your favorite Longjing shrimp!”

Her grandfather was busy putting food in her bowl, and her mother wiped a grain of rice from the corner of her mouth. Her father was always stern: “Don’t dawdle. Finish quickly and go recite your books.”

She was a daughter, a granddaughter, the little girl of the Tang family. She would never be alone; she would never be homeless.

Until sunlight flooded through the window panes.

Tang Yanqing woke up in an unfamiliar room.

The valance of the canopy bed was intricately carved with osmanthus branches and locust leaves, looking like an ancient artifact from a museum. A familiar fragrance lingered on the pillow, and the back of her neck—where she had been tenderly stroked last night—still felt a faint, tingling numbness.

She rolled out of bed. The floor was made of gray bricks.

Tables, chairs, incense burners, Suzhou-embroided screens… this house seemed to have stopped a hundred years ago, everything frozen in time. A misty bronze mirror on the wall reflected Tang Yanqing’s dark circles and her messy, sleep-tousled hair.

…She couldn’t have actually time-traveled just because of a one-night hangover.

A morning breeze, carrying the scent of food, drifted through the small courtyard in the center of the residence. Tang Yanqing walked down the wooden stairs, and the scene before her finally overlapped with a place in her memory.

This was the inn run by Auntie Liu.

Liu Jin was leaning over, setting out bamboo chopsticks. The waistline of her crimson qipao accentuated a soft, graceful curve. At a glance, she looked like a beauty from an old calendar painting.

She was exceptionally fair, yet it wasn’t a sickly pallor—she was like mutton-fat jade meticulously polished with sandpaper, glowing with a gentle luster. Fine brushstrokes of light ink defined her elegant eyes, which always held a soft sense of detachment. A small brown mole sat on the tip of her nose, adding a touch of liveliness to her overly cool facial structure.

Tang Yanqing had grown from a stubborn, bratty kid into a dull academic workhorse, yet Liu Jin’s face seemed to have never changed. Time, as grand as its momentum might be, had failed to leave a single mark on this woman; she remained breathtakingly beautiful.

“A-Qing, you’re awake,” Liu Jin greeted her with a smile on her lips, pushing a celadon bowl toward her. Her amber eyes were translucent under the sunlight. “Come and have some porridge.”

Her head throbbed painfully. Tang Yanqing rubbed the Fengchi acupoint at the back of her neck. How did she end up barging in here?

“I’m so sorry, Auntie Liu… I drank too much last night and caused you trouble.” As casual as she usually was, she couldn’t help but feel guilty.

The woman extended a slender wrist, placing a peeled boiled egg in her bowl. An emerald jade bangle dangled on her wrist, making her skin look even more white and moist, like “sweet white” glazed porcelain.

The corners of her eyebrows relaxed downward as Liu Jin smiled.

“It’s no big deal. When I was your age, I used to hold a wine jar every night, climb onto the roof, and sing Huangmei Opera.”

Though she knew Liu Jin was only comforting her, Tang Yanqing laughed along, feeling the guilt in her heart dissipate a little.

In Tang Yanqing’s world, Liu Jin had always been the gentlest person.

In the early winter of her sixteenth year, Tang Yanqing had fought with her father. She had huddled under the eaves, hugging her knees, refusing to go inside. Liu Jin, who had come to the clinic to get medicine, took off her own scarf and wrapped it around Tang Yanqing. The cashmere scarf covered half her face, burning with warmth.

In her freshman year, she skipped class and was forced to kneel in the pharmacy as punishment. Liu Jin stuffed a bag of roasted chestnuts into her hands with a note tucked inside—“The begonias in the south of the city are blooming. I’ll take you to ‘steal’ some flowers this weekend.”

In the end, no flowers were picked. Tang Yanqing rested her head on Liu Jin’s lap and slept through the entire afternoon. The cicadas buzzed deafeningly, and the shadow of a hair-pin swam across Tang Yanqing’s eyelids like a silver carp that couldn’t be caught.

Liu Jin never mocked her for her lack of composure.

The porridge, mixed with honey and medicinal herbs, soothed Tang Yanqing’s dull stomach ache. She knew she shouldn’t have drunk so much, but sometimes, she truly found it impossible to survive in this world while sober.

“A-Qing, stay here for a few more days,” Liu Jin said, nodding toward a corner. “I made a lot of plum wine this year. I happened to want you to taste it.”

Tang Yanqing shook her head while holding the bowl. “Thanks, Auntie Liu, but I have to get back to school.”

She was afraid of appearing before Liu Jin in such a disheveled state again. Liu Jin didn’t press further. After finishing the porridge with her, she got up to attend to the inn’s chores.

Just as Tang Yanqing was walking out of the Willow Shade Inn, a sudden commotion erupted behind her.

“Miss! Miss!” someone screamed.

Tang Yanqing turned and ran back. She saw Liu Jin collapsed by a display shelf, her face deathly pale, a tea set shattered across the floor. Grandmother Gu, who had cared for Liu Jin for years, was kneeling beside her, firmly pinching the philtrum of her lip. “Miss, wake up!”

Tang Yanqing lunged forward to check the pulse on her left wrist. The skin was terrifyingly cold, and the pulse was chaotic, like a tangled mess of earphone wires.

Tang Yanqing pulled out her phone and calmly dialed 120.

“Hello, this is 242 Locust Tree Lane, someone has fainted—”

Icy fingertips pressed against the back of her hand.

“No need… it’s just my old ailment acting up…” Liu Jin opened her eyes weakly. “A-Qing, there are your grandfather’s silver needles in the medicine cabinet… give me a few treatments.”

Holding the silver needles between two slender fingers, Tang Yanqing rotated them three times over an alcohol lamp.

She knew Liu Jin had been ill for many years. Based on the pulse diagnosis, it seemed to be cold toxin entering the marrow, causing blockages in the heart vessels. The medical books her grandfather had forced her to memorize as a child finally proved useful today.

She pushed aside the red string on Liu Jin’s ankle, pressed the needle tip against the Sanyinjiao point, and pierced the skin. Liu Jin bit her lower lip lightly. Her heel brushed against the hole in Tang Yanqing’s jeans, then hurriedly moved away.

The silver needle swayed slightly.

“Does it hurt?” Tang Yanqing asked, steadying her ankle.

“No… it doesn’t.” The end of Liu Jin’s sentence was shaky.

The Shanzhong point benefits the upper burner, expands the chest, and clears the meridians. Liu Jin unfastened the frog buttons on her chest, revealing the acupoint. The moon-white satin rose and fell beneath the needle tip, stained with damp patterns of sweat.

The final needle landed on the Yifeng point behind the ear.

As the needle entered the hair, Tang Yanqing’s breath brushed past the tip of Liu Jin’s ear, stirring a faint surge of floral fragrance. From Liu Jin’s body, there seemed to grow an entire grove of osmanthus trees after a rainstorm—rich and sweet.

Tang Yanqing’s heart hammered against her ribs; she felt like she was the soul-shaken patient instead. She closed her eyes, focusing her mind and calming her spirit, trying to cool herself down. She shouldn’t be like this.

After withdrawing the needles, she heard Liu Jin speak from the bed. “Thank you, A-Qing.”

Tang Yanqing didn’t dare turn around.

“It’s nothing, Auntie Liu. Get some rest.”

She hurried downstairs. Grandmother Gu was brewing medicine in the kitchen. Just as Tang Yanqing was about to mention some dietary restrictions, Grandmother Gu lifted her apron to wipe the sweat from her forehead and pointed to the many yellowed sticky notes on the wall.

“A-Qing, your grandfather said it long ago. No crabs, no mutton, and no… what was it? Coffee and milk tea!”

The medicinal soup bubbled on the stove. Tang Yanqing stared at the faded peonies in the courtyard and didn’t respond.

Grandmother Gu continued to ramble. “Your mother also said she needs gentle tonics—more ginseng, red dates, deer antler… Sigh, your whole family were such good doctors. It’s truly a shame.”

“Find another doctor to take a look,” Tang Yanqing said flatly.

One cannot expect dead people to come back.

Leaving the inn for the second time, Tang Yanqing discovered her phone screen was flooded with missed calls. She called back, and Li Mingyi’s voice was ice-cold: “Get to school.”

As summer vacation approached, the campus was nearly deserted.

In the office of the Folklore Department at Moqiao University, the room was piled with Nuo masks collected from various regions. Three blue-faced, fanged, and ferocious Nuo masks stared directly at the spot where Tang Yanqing sat.

Department Chair Li Mingyi wore her usual black shirt, her hair pinned back perfectly. When she sat still, she looked like a freshly molded tomb-guardian warrior figurine.

“Sorry, Boss, I had an emergency earlier,” Tang Yanqing explained sincerely.

Li Mingyi threw a stack of documents at her.

“The Municipal Tourism Bureau is bidding for a project to organize local legends. I signed up for the Fox Immortal topic. Take the first-year grad student, Lu Xiaokui, and do field research over the summer. Submit a C-Journal level paper before school starts in September.”

Tang Yanqing didn’t pick up the papers, suppressing a small surge of anger. “Boss, there might not be enough time. Even liver cells take 180 days to renew once.”

Li Mingyi’s nails tapped the desk, her cold smile a million times more frightening than the Nuo masks.

“You can apply for a graduation extension anytime. I have no objection.”

…This woman was truly a viper.

To avoid inheriting the family medical business, Tang Yanqing had randomly filled out “Folklore” as her major on her college application—it might have been the biggest mistake of her life.

She spent the entire afternoon in the university library. Near closing time, she finally received a call from her junior, Lu Xiaokui.

“Senior, I-I’m so sorry, I might not be able to come for the next two days…” Lu Xiaokui spoke with a sobbing tone.

“What happened?” Tang Yanqing asked.

Lu Xiaokui let out a wail. “…My-my dorm… it’s flooded with sewage!”

After questioning her for a while, Tang Yanqing finally pieced together the story. Lu Xiaokui had skipped class to travel last week. When she returned this week, she found the drainage pipes had been broken for a week; half her room was soaked in wastewater. It was a stroke of pure, unadulterated bad luck.

The school had repaired and cleaned it immediately, but the room still retained a stench that a ton of disinfectant couldn’t cover. Lu Xiaokui was miserable and planned to rent a small place to move out temporarily.

“But I’m scared of that ‘Rainy Night Killer’ outside…” Lu Xiaokui’s voice trembled. “If I live alone, it will definitely be dangerous…”

“What Rainy Night Killer?”

“Senior, you don’t know? There’s a terrifying criminal in Moqiao City lately. He always appears on rainy nights and specifically targets women living alone…”

Rainy night… robbery… shattered images flashed through Tang Yanqing’s mind.

Raindrops sliding down a broken wall.

The sound of ragged breathing, a chaotic struggle, her elbow scraping against a brick, a sharp sting.

The man had made eye contact with something, his gaze terrified; he splashed through the rain and fled in a panic…

Tang Yanqing looked down at her elbow. There was indeed a scabbed wound. But last night…

“Senior? Are you listening?” Lu Xiaokui interrupted her memory.

Tang Yanqing snapped back to reality. “I thought of a safe place. You can stay there for a while.”

“Where?”

“An auntie I know very well… she runs a guesthouse.”