The Eleventh Year of Making Hate with My Lover - Chapter 5

Shen Wang dreamt that he was holding someone in his arms. The person felt as light as paper, covered in blood, with a complexion as white as their snow-colored hair.

“Don’t sleep…” Everything around him was chaotic. He didn’t know where he was supposed to take him, so he could only try to wake him up continuously. As he ran, the other person’s body began to shatter, the spiritual core within his chest cracking, scattering spiritual fragments all over the ground.

“Hah!”

Shen Wang woke up from the dream with a start. It was already broad daylight outside. He looked at the empty spot on the bed and then at his own palm.

What was I dreaming about just now? Why can’t I remember a single thing?

Shen Wang sat up in bed and saw Wu Que standing at the table, fussing over a bottle of pink flowers. Hearing the commotion, Wu Que spoke indifferently: “You slept quite soundly.”

“…What time is it?” He glanced at the time; it was already nine in the morning. Normally, he had never woken up this late.

After washing up, he saw Wu Que still fussing over the flowers and asked: “Where did those come from?”

“The flower rack at the door.”

“Oh.” There was indeed a small flower rack in front of every door, but he didn’t remember seeing flowers on them. “Why bring them inside?”

“The scent helps you sleep. I just had to take care of a few things on them first.”

Shen Wang realized that his long sleep was likely related to the flowers: “A sleeping drug?”

“Something like that.” Wu Que told him about someone breaking in last night.

Shen Wang’s eyelid twitched. I was truly careless yesterday, he thought to himself. “Why didn’t you catch him?”

He might have been able to ask something.

Wu Que paused in his movements, walked over, and pulled open the closet door. Inside, tied up in the empty closet, was a person wearing white robes, already unconscious.

“I accidentally went a bit too hard.”

“……How ‘a bit too hard’ are we talking about?”

“They’ll wake up tomorrow.”

“……”

By the time they were almost finished with breakfast, Lili and Suzawa walked in from the restaurant entrance, yawning.

“The bed was so soft; I slept like a log last night,” Suzawa said, chewing on a piece of toast, her speech muffled.

“I had a nightmare, though,” Lili replied, pouring a cup of coffee. Her gaze fell on her arm, puzzled by a small hole that looked like a needle prick.

“I didn’t. Was it a mosquito bite?” Suzawa looked at her hands.

“Oh? It’s Mr. Shen.” Suzawa spotted Shen Wang as she was looking for a seat and pulled Lili over to sit down: “We’re planning to stroll around town this afternoon. You…” She glanced at the calm and composed Wu Que beside him: “Do you and your friend want to come along?”

“Let’s go. We were planning on going out anyway.” Shen Wang nodded. Going out might yield some clues.

He had expected to have a confrontation with the guards at the door, but unexpectedly, no one stopped them. A guard held up his terminal, and Lin Xu’s voice came through, offering apologies on the other end. He feigned that the mayor was too busy lately, apologized for the poor hospitality, and told them to let him know if they needed anything.

“Nobody cares about your mayor,” Suzawa whispered, sticking out her tongue: “Better if he doesn’t come. These people are all weird.”

Shen Wang remembered something, pulled out Lang Xi’s photo, and held it up to the panel: “Mr. Lin, have you seen this person?”

Lin Xu leaned in to look carefully for a while: “No impression. Everyone who arrives is registered. I can help you check.”

Shen Wang nodded: “Sorry for the trouble.”

A moment later, Lin Xu replied with regret: “Sorry, Mr. Shen. I couldn’t find him; this person likely never came to the town. Are you… looking for someone? Do you need me to send someone to accompany you?”

“No need, thank you.”

Seeing that his expression didn’t show any sign of lying, Shen Wang wondered if this unlucky fellow hadn’t been eaten by a supernatural entity before he even entered the town.

The town was very lively during the day. Both sides of the bluestone road were packed with stalls, the scents of flowers and food mixing together.

Suzawa scurried everywhere with her ice cream, and soon, she was holding several flyers. She flipped through them and held one up: “This looks good. It’s White Sand Beach, a place we’ve always wanted to visit. It opens the day after tomorrow morning.”

“We’ll take lots of photos for our sketching assignment.” Both girls were photography students.

Shen Wang was handed the same flyer. He took a glance and had zero interest. “A must-visit for couples”? Ha, one look at it and its all just sand and water; what’s there to see?

“This sugar water shop looks delicious!” Suzawa waved at Shen Wang and his group: “Come quickly! A table just left upstairs; there’s just enough room!”

Sweet food? No thanks.

Shen Wang wanted to politely decline, but when he turned around, he saw Wu Que had already followed them, his footsteps so light that if he had turned back into a jellyfish, his ears would likely have been twitching.

Shen Wang: “…” Is now really the time to be eating?

The sugar water shop was decorated in a traditional style. Wu Que had bought a new set of clothes that afternoon  a set of navy blue, embroidered with silver-threaded patterns at the collar and cuffs, and draped with a layer of pale, smoky-gray tulle over his shoulders. He looked cold and noble, quite fitting for this room.

As they walked up the stairs, someone nearby pulled out a camera, likely mistaking them for little stars coming to film a scene.

The four of them sat at a window-side table, overlooking a stretch of the street and a bit of the scenery in the distance. Shen Wang noticed that the street began to look somewhat desolate as it went deeper, and the houses further away even appeared a bit dilapidated.

The sugar water was served, and the eyes of the three others were shining. Shen Wang looked at the sticky, glutinous rice balls and felt his teeth ache, so he pushed his portion over to Wu Que. The latter took a spoonful and ate it, squinting his eyes like a satisfied cat.

Patiently waiting for him to finish, Shen Wang settled the bill first and leaned against the stairs, waiting.

Wu Que didn’t disturb the girls still taking photos, walking with Shen Wang toward the visibly desolate road.

The further they walked, the more they could see the original state of the town. The wooden houses on both sides were draped with faded fishing nets, and the smell of fish hung everywhere. An old woman in a blue cloth shirt was sitting on a stool at her door washing clothes. When she saw them, she spat on the ground: “Wicked. You couldn’t find anywhere else to go, you had to come here.”

An old man selling aquatic products nearby surveyed them with turbid eyes, his expression gloomy.

They clearly didn’t welcome tourists here. Shen Wang stepped forward, pulled one of the coins Lin Xu had given him from his pocket, and placed it on the table: “Sir, could I ask you about something?”

The old man ignored them. He didn’t even look at the silver coin before getting up and returning inside the house. The old woman did the same, packing up her clothes, carrying her basin, and closing the wooden door behind her.

Shen Wang wasn’t annoyed by the cold shoulder: “The people on this street don’t seem to like outsiders.”

“That family hates this town enough as it is! They hate visitors even more,” a woman shelling rice in the house next door leaned out to say.

Shen Wang approached and placed a silver coin on her table: “Ma’am, do you know what happened?”

The woman wiped the water off her hands and looked at the house next door, whispering: “It’s a long story…”

“That family used to have a child. Seven years ago, he was drowned in the sea by the town…”

“Do you think they are raising supernatural entities in the town?” Shen Wang was still pondering the woman’s words on the way back.

Wu Que gave an “Mn”: “According to what she said, for the town to be upgraded to an A-level scenic area, they must be hiding something dark.”

The woman said that Fish-Leaping Town used to be a backward border fishing village. Seven years ago, a group of researchers arrived and released a giant sea snake into the sea, claiming it was the incarnation of the Sea God. The snake was covered in spikes, copper, and iron, and was over ten meters long when coiled.

“That group in white coats said that as long as they sacrificed unique items to the sea snake every three months, they could guarantee smooth voyages and full hauls of fish for the village!”

“The villagers didn’t believe it at first, but then they thought of the neighbor’s… well, the child from that family. He was a bit different from ordinary people since he was young. Perhaps he was the ‘special sacrifice’ the researchers mentioned.”

“They didn’t like that strange child anyway. After explaining the situation to the white-coated group, they tried it out and drowned the child…” The woman clicked her tongue: “And you wouldn’t believe it—after that, everyone started finding plenty of treasures every time they went to sea, especially rare species of fish. Lots of rich people started coming here to pick them out.”

The woman swept the silver coin into her apron pocket: “I don’t know the specifics. Later, the mayor seemed to be in constant contact with those white-coated people. Our fishing village developed into a vacation town in just one year, and it has been upgrading year after year. More and more tourists have been coming.”

……

The wind picked up, and darkness crept in without them noticing. Seeing that it was getting late, they returned to the inn. Passing the room next door, Wu Que took the flowers from the rack and set up a barrier at the door.

Shen Wang saw him throw the flowers into the trash can: “Helping them?”

“Just felt like it.”

At night, the wind outside blew fiercely. Shen Wang woke up startled, and as he regained his senses, he realized he was holding Wu Que tightly in his arms.

“……”

He quickly let go, but fortunately, Wu Que didn’t react.

He had just turned over and closed his eyes when a shrill, piercing scream suddenly rang out from the room next door, followed by someone pounding on their door in a panic.

“Help…” It was Suzawa’s voice.

Shen Wang opened the door, and Suzawa stumbled in, grabbing the hem of Shen Wang’s clothes, sobbing: “Help… help… save Lili…”

“A person in white robes took her…”

“Person in white robes?” Wu Que frowned, opened the closet, and threw out the man who was still unconscious: “Dressed like this?”

Suzawa shrank back: “Yes… that’s the outfit… There was a strange sound in the room at night. I turned on the light, and I saw him standing at the foot of the bed.”

She had never seen such a scene before and had been scared out of her wits. The person had simply grabbed Lili and vanished.

There wasn’t even a trace of a struggle in the room; if she hadn’t seen it, she wouldn’t even have known someone was missing.

“A spatial ability.” Shen Wang turned back and kicked the white-robed man lying on the ground: “Our only clue. How do we wake him up?”

Wu Que thought for a moment, electrical sparks flickering on his hand: “Shock him, but I’m not responsible if he doesn’t survive.”

The white-robed man convulsed and woke up under the shock. Under Shen Wang’s coercion, he stuttered: “I… I’m just responsible for blood collection.”

“What are you collecting blood for, and where is it sent?”

“I don’t know. The boss has us draw blood from specific people to measure, and we send it to the lab on the third underground floor. That’s all I really know.”

Shen Wang picked him up: “Lead the way.”

The hotel corridor was deathly quiet; the sleeping scent in the flowers seemed very potent, as everyone staying there was in an abnormally deep sleep.

The group stepped into the elevator and began to descend to the first floor, but before they could reach the bottom, the white-robed man coughed up blood and collapsed to the floor. Shen Wang peeled back his eyelid and let out a cold laugh: “Very loyal.”

“Ding—” The door opened. At two in the morning, someone was actually waiting for the elevator outside.