After My Death, I Became a Heartless Madman - Chapter 16

“What are you thinking about? Still the same as when you were little, focus on walking.”

The motorcycle sped away as Lan Chi chided lightly, her vivid expression making Song Shizhou’s face flush inexplicably.

Just like in childhood, she carried that warm, grassy fragrance. Song Shizhou wanted to ask why she was here, how she had recognized her, and how she had been all these years. But Boss Lan naturally took her hand from behind, and all those words died in Song Shizhou’s throat.

After stumbling along for what felt like ages, they finally made it back to the gallery. The girl from earlier was startled when she saw Lan Chi dragging someone in.

Lan Chi set Song Shizhou down and turned to speak to the girl. Boss Lan lit a cigarette, and only then did Song Shizhou get a clear look at her outfit, a loose-fitting dark green knit sweater that accentuated her tall frame, paired with straight-cut smoke-gray trousers. Her chestnut-brown hair was casually pinned up with a claw clip.

At least, it wasn’t white.

For some reason, Song Shizhou was reminded of the sorrowful water lilies in that small gallery painting.

The girl chatted with Lan Chi for a while, her tone teasing. “Alright, I get it now.”

Lan Chi rubbed her temples. “Oh, what exactly do you get?”

Song Shizhou stood there, dumbfounded.

The claw clip had left her hair slightly disheveled. Lan Chi removed it and tied her hair up haphazardly with a hairband, revealing the messy, unevenly cut ends almost chaotic, as if she didn’t care at all.

After fussing with it to no avail, Lan Chi went to fix her hair properly, pulling out a stool for Song Shizhou to wait at the counter.

It was just like when she was little and visited her sister’s house her sister would give her a stool to sit on while eating popsicles, sparing her from going home to scoldings or endless chores.

Pang Hu woke from his nap, yawning wide. The big, territorial cat immediately bristled at the sight of a stranger, hissing fiercely.

Song Shizhou flinched, cooing softly to soothe him. Before Lan Chi could even finish fixing her hair, she stepped out from the backroom and rapped the cat’s head lightly with the back of her comb.

The cat was so fierce—though Lan Chi hadn’t hit hard, there was a risk it might lash out. Song Shizhou wanted to tell her to stop, but instead, the cat seemed to enjoy it, rubbing against Lan Chi’s legs.

“Honestly, this cat…”

“Be good. Quiet. No hissing.”

Miraculously, the Three-word incantation worked. The once-ferocious fat cat settled down immediately. After a couple of light smacks, Pang Hu clung to Boss Lan’s wrist, mewling pitifully his earlier growls like pliers, now soft as a hairclip.

Boss Lan tried to push the mountain of flesh away but failed.

Lan Chi clicked her tongue.

The fat cat scurried off, shooting Song Shizhou one last glance before disappearing.

Silence returned to the room. Lan Chi gathered her hair over her shoulder, loose strands framing her profile with a touch of melancholy. The resemblance was uncanny, she and Bai Ruowei shared at least eighty percent similarity in features, but their auras were worlds apart, making them easy to distinguish.

Lan Chi’s expression was subdued, yet unlike Miss Bai’s haughty aloofness. Hers was more like a quiet weariness, as if she had seen through the world’s futility.

Boss Lan’s hair took a long time to finally be styled into a bird’s nest. Without saying a word, she walked up to Song Shizhou and took her hand.

Shizhou didn’t know whether to accept or refuse. Dazedly, she followed her upstairs. When they were younger, Lan Chi would often hold her hand like this maybe she’d even carried her before. Shizhou awkwardly rubbed her nose.

The second floor of the studio was Lan Chi’s home. The compact space was neatly divided into a bedroom, living room, and bathroom. Lan Chi led her into the bedroom. The window was made of bamboo, and the sight of Lan Chi pushing it open looked like a painting.

She took out a floral-patterned shirt from the wardrobe, made of soft cotton-linen fabric.

“Take off your wet clothes. Wearing them might make you catch a cold.”

The fresh air unique to small towns rushed in. Shizhou responded with a hum, inexplicably blushing.

After a long pause, she finally managed to say,

“I have clothes.”

“My luggage is still at the train station. Maybe I should go back and get it now.”

Lan Chi replied,

“No.”

“It’s too late now.”

“Then tonight…”

“Stay here for now.”

With that, Lan Chi skillfully began making the bed. There was only a single bed in the bedroom, barely one and a half meters wide, hardly enough for two people. Shizhou stammered,

“Sis, if I sleep here, where will you sleep?”

“The floor.”

Lan Chi smiled.

“That won’t do… It’s too much trouble for you. I’ll sleep on the floor…”

“It’s fine.”

She rubbed her back.

“Getting older, sleeping on something hard is better for the waist.”

Shizhou hesitated a while longer. Lan Chi brought in two cups of hot tea from outside.

“You’ll need to boil water in advance if you want to bathe. Let me know if you need anything. Tomorrow, I’ll go with you to get your luggage.”

“Sis—”

Lan Chi raised an eyebrow at her.

“What now?”

Shizhou fumbled nervously.

“I’ve differentiated into an Enigma. What’s your secondary gender? Would it be… inconvenient?”

At the mention of “Enigma,” Lan Chi’s body stiffened slightly.

“What does that matter? I don’t care about those things.”

She patted Shizhou’s shoulder, holding the tea.

“What, afraid I’ll eat you?”

Shizhou thought to herself, I’m the one who differentiated into an Enigma, if anyone’s eating anyone, it’d be me eating you… But she didn’t say it out loud. Many people harbored resistance toward secondary gender characteristics, and she worried Lan Chi might be one of them, so she stayed silent.

Lan Chi patted her shoulder again.

“Alright, I won’t tease you anymore.”

A quiet silence settled between them. They hadn’t really caught up much. Lan Chi seemed on the verge of falling asleep again. That faint herbal scent made Shizhou feel at ease, yet inexplicably lonely and melancholic. Lan Chi had always been someone who spoke and asked little, so for once, it was Shizhou who grew restless.

“Lan Chi… sis.”

Back in the Song household, Song Fengyu was her nominal older sister, though they were actually the same age. She rarely called Fengyu “sis”, at most, it was “Fengyu-jie.” Bai Ruowei was also two years older, but in daily interactions, she acted much younger, so Shizhou had never called her “sis” either.

Lan Chi’s ears twitched. Just the word “sis” alone was enough to make Shizhou blush.

“What is it?”

“Aren’t you curious… why I came here?”

Lan Chi snapped out of her thoughts and smiled.

“I am.”

“But I think when you’re ready to talk, you’ll say it yourself.”

She seemed to believe everyone was as enigmatic as she was, shrouded in countless mysteries that invited others to speculate, to wonder, to question whether she was just a beautiful lie.

Or perhaps she had sensed Song Shizhou’s distress. If peeling back the wound hurt so much, why speak of it? Why dig into the scars?

Half of a light tea had been sipped away this tea had a calming effect, and Song Shizhou was already feeling drowsy. Lan Chi took the cup away and naturally gazed out the window.

Her figure somewhat resembled Bai Ruowei’s both tall and slender. Standing by the window in a long gray cardigan, she exuded a comforting, secure presence.

A layer of hazy mist hung in the air. Flying Bird Town was remote, and the night fog seemed to conceal endless secrets.

“This town may be small, but don’t wander around carelessly.”

Lan Chi’s voice was magnetic, like a river flowing quietly through the night, moonlight rippling softly across its surface…

After that, not much else was said. The faint herbal scent lulled Shizhou into drowsiness, and in her haze, she vaguely remembered adding Lan Chi on WeChat.

Boss Lan’s WeChat Moments were eerily sparse even more so than Song Shizhou’s, a fugitive on the run.

Late at night, unable to sleep, Shizhou scrolled through her phone and suddenly noticed Lan Chi had updated her Moments.

The only post was a photo of a very dark, starry sky, captioned simply:

“Hi.”

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