The Creatures That We Are

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Inpatient Building, Shanqing Third Hospital. Ten o’clock in the evening.

Gao Yang sat on a bench in the hallway outside his father’s ward, enjoying a bowl of flavorful malatang. Officer Huang had brought him the late night snack. He heard that Gao Yang’s father was in the hospital after getting into a car accident, so he ‘swung by’ once his shift ended.

There was no one else in the hallway. With a half-burned cigarette in his mouth, Officer Huang asked, “How’s your dad doing?”

“He woke up for a while this afternoon. He said he was thirsty. Then he had some water and fell asleep.” Gao Yang bit into a beef ball. The splattering juice was so hot that his tongue involuntarily curled up.

“Alright, let’s get to business.” Officer Huang shook off some ash. “Someone from the organization went to you, right?”

“White Rabbit of the Twelve Zodiac SIgns. I was with Qing Ling,” Gao Yang said honestly. Then he explained what had happened in the karaoke earlier.

“The one who found me was called Heavenly Dog[1],” Officer Huang said calmly. “My test went similarly to yours. I was first told to kill a robber. He was a wanderer. I didn’t want to kill him. Then I was told to kill my wife. Of course I would refuse to do it. And I passed just like that.”

“Why didn’t you kill the robber?” Gao Yang was curious. Had Officer Huang realized that it was a trap just like him?

“Well, I would’ve killed him if he didn’t happen to be the nephew of my wife’s cousin. My wife is very close with her cousin, and they chatted on phones every day. Now that my wife’s pregnant, I don’t want something like that to put her in a bad mood. Who would’ve thought I would get to the right decision that way?”

So it’s the power of love. Gao Yang chuckled.

Officer Huang turned to him. “Heavenly Dog told me that you have the hint for the third test.”

“Yeah.” Gao Yang took out the brass key. “We were told to find the door for the key and go on a tour. Then we’ll pass the test. The door should be in the Shanqing District.”

Officer Huang took the key and pinched it between his thumb and forefinger to get a thorough look, his eyes glinting. “Shouldn't be hard. I’ll take care of it. Wait for me to contact you two.”

“Got it.”

After Officer Huang left, Gao Yang finished his malatang and returned to his father’s ward. He set up the foldable chair by his father’s bed and lay down with a blanket.

He closed his eyes, but sleep eluded him.

He accessed the system to check his Luck points.

As expected, meeting White Rabbit didn’t give him a bonus. It seemed that he had to undergo actual danger for that to happen, and the greater the danger, the greater the bonus. With danger came the risk of death, of course, which was a fair trade-off.

...

The next day at noon, his mother and sister came to the hospital to let him go home.

Gao Yang took a shower and had lunch before sleeping for a few hours. In the evening, he walked out of the gate of his community and immediately saw a familiar patrol car. Officer Huang was smoking by the road. He waved at Gao Yang when he saw him.

Gao Yang jogged up to him. “Officer Huang? Why are you here?”

“I found it,” said Officer Huang.

“Already?”

“Finding things is my forte.” Officer Huang tapped the car hood. “We’ll talk in the car.” 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝘯𝘰𝘷ℯ𝘭.𝑐𝘰𝑚

Gao Yang walked closer and realized that Qing Ling was riding shotgun. He then opened the door to the back and was surprised to find Wang Zikai and Fat Jun in the car.

“Miss me, bro?” Wang Zikai couldn’t be more excited. He reached out to drag Gao Yang into the car. “Let me tell you, bro, I’ve reached another breakthrough! I’ll show you a trick or two once we get somewhere without people. I’m the GOAT, I kid you not...”

Gao Yang’s head rang.

Once the car started, he asked Officer Huang, “Why are they here?”

“I’ve observed Fat Jun for a good while,” said Officer Huang. “His arm hasn’t transformed since that night.”

“That’s right. Not even once.” Fat Jun eagerly slapped on his fat chest. “Don’t worry, Brother Yang. I’m confident in my body right now!”

“What's there to be concerned about? Even if the fat guy goes crazy again, I can take care of him with only one arm!” It’d only been a few days since Gao Yang last saw Wang Zikai, but his confidence had ballooned dramatically; he was acting like the boss of the gang.

“Isn’t this for our test?” asked Gao Yang.

“Doesn’t mean we can’t bring help.” Officer Huang gave him a pointed look through the mirror. “Wu Dahai came to me secretly and told me to bring help. He said this test was no joke. It’s possible...that not all of us would make it through.”

Gao Yang’s heart sank. White Rabbit had warned them too. The test must be truly dangerous. What would they encounter, he wondered. Although both Wang Zikai and Fat Jun brought unpredictable variables into the mix, one of them was a good fighter, while the other was a healer. All in all, they would do more good than harm.

After half an hour, the patrol car arrived at the southwest part of the Li Mountain.

The Li Mountain was located inside the Li City. It ran across the Shanqing District and the Dongyu District, but belonged to Shanqing in jurisdiction.

It was quite a popular tourist attraction with an altitude of about three hundred meters and an area of five thousand square meters. The mountain was home to a great variety of plants. The scenery was wonderful, and there was an observatory on top. Standing on the observatory would allow one to take in the entire Li City. The number of hikers peaked at dawn and evening every day, and the south and north entrances saw the most visitors with an endless stream of people going up the mountain.

Obviously, Officer Huang hadn’t taken them here to hike. Given there was no road into the Li Mountain on its southwest side, he parked the car on a rural path. Following Officer Huang, they got out of the car before walking across a field and entering a small forest.

“Where are we going?” Qing Ling asked.

Officer Huang took the lead. “We’ll get there soon. It’s right ahead.”

“That’s where the door is?” asked Gao Yang.

“Yeah.” Officer Huang continued to lead the way. “Judging by the design, the brass key White Rabbit gave you is likely a door key for an old house. There aren’t a lot of houses that old in Shanqing now. The retro walking street is one, but the doors of those houses actually all have modern locks installed despite the old school design of the buildings. The Lotus Street used to have a lot of old houses too, but they were all torn down last year for renewal...”

Officer Huang paused and took a breath. Out of habit, he unholstered his gun and checked the bullets before continuing his walk. “I was thinking about where else in Shanqing would we find old houses that use brass keys like this, and I could only think of one place...”

“Can it be...Gu Family’s Village?” Fat Jun had a lot of weight to carry with his body, so he had been lagging behind the group. The moment he uttered the village’s name, however, he hurried to catch up with Gao Yang. Then after thinking about it, his insecurity persisted, and he quickened his pace further to walk alongside Qing Ling, the strongest fighter among them.

“Oh?” Officer Huang was surprised. “I didn’t expect you to know. It’s been thirty years, I think.”

“The father of a highschool classmate of mine is a reporter, and he’s done an editorial about the incident. It’s creepy as hell. My classmate used to tell us about it every day like he was telling a ghost story.” Fat Jun nervously looked around.

“What’s the story?” Wang Zikai got curious. “You’re both being so cryptic about it.”

“It’s the brutal homicide of an entire family. There was a family of five in the Gu Family’s Village. They died overnight with their bodies cut into many pieces and scattered around different parts of the village.” Officer Huang added, “My mentor was in charge of the investigation, so I’ve heard him talk about it.”

“Has the case been closed?” asked Gao Yang.

Officer Huang shook his head. “No.”

“Why?”

“Less than a fortnight after the homicide, all fifty-three residents of the village disappeared.”

“They disappeared?”

“Yes. It was as if they had evaporated without leaving any trace. My mentor had done everything to search for them in the village short of digging three meters into the ground, yet he found nothing. It remains a cold case even after he retired.”

Everyone quietly waited for Officer Huang to continue. novelbuddy.c om

Dusk descended upon their surroundings, and the forest became dim. Chilling wind rustled the leaves every now and then. The atmosphere suddenly grew eerie.

Officer Huang took out the brass key and said in a low voice, “The door is somewhere inside the Gu Family’s Village.”

1. The Japanese mythical creature tengu. The name is written as 天狗 in both kanji and Chinese, which literally translated as Heavenly Dog or Sky Dog. Since dog is one of the twelve Chinese Zodiac Signs, I go with the literal translation to keep with the theme of the organization. ?