Chapter 106: Turning Hostile
Page 1/3
Inside the TV room, the television was still on, but the program had changed.
Cheng Yao walked alone along the path beside the cemetery.
The camera followed him, capturing the occasional flashes of confusion and inner turmoil on his face.
A bright light appeared on the screen.
The camera lowered and looked up at Cheng Yao from a low angle, also capturing the building beside him.
It was merely a storefront, consisting only of a glass door and a neon sign above it, more like an advertisement board than a complete house.
Cheng Yao lowered his eyes and walked past the white light shining through the glass door, stepping back into the night.
The neon sign of the "Monster Clinic" flickered twice, then the word "Clinic" went dark.
The doctor's ten fingernails clamored noisily—disappointment, dissatisfaction, joy, and anticipation all mingled.
His deep blue eyes squinted as he leaned back on the brightly colored backrest of the artistic sofa, crossing his legs.
Under his legs appeared an oddly shaped footrest, mismatched with the artistic sofa and the low cabinet, yet sharing a similar “artistic” flavor—expensive but impractical.
The doctor adapted well to this ergonomically uncomfortable furniture, sitting leisurely, savoring the television screen.
The camera now rested behind Cheng Yao, lingering in the strong light cast by the Monster Clinic. Cheng Yao seemed to be walking into darkness.
Suddenly, the screen went black, switching to a new scene.
Inside a darkened room, only moonlight filtered through the window.
Bai Xiao was still sitting on the living room sofa.
Her transformed face had mostly healed; the flesh had regrown, but her skin still bore a strange bluish-black hue. Her eyes were bloodshot, the veins seeming almost alive, writhing within the sockets. Yet when focused upon, they remained fixed in place.
Bai Xiao cracked a smile, her interlaced fingers tensed. The diamond ring on her left ring finger cracked apart, shattered by her swollen knuckles.
She raised her hand; the fragments caught the moonlight like raindrops, falling onto her knees before she brushed them to the floor.
The tinkling sound was incessant.
The shards scattered on the floor, becoming scattered points of light that vanished as clouds drifted over the moon, swallowing them from view.
Bai Xiao also vanished from the scene.
When the moonlight reappeared, so did she in the frame.
Her face twisted into a grimace, then settled into calm; then a ruthless expression surfaced again, only to soften into a gentle smile the next moment.
Two contrasting expressions flickered across her face.
The TV screen split into two.
Cheng Yao’s slow, deliberate figure appeared on the left side, while Bai Xiao sat quietly on the right.
Their emotions seemed connected; when one shifted, the other followed.
The doctor suddenly tapped his fingers.
A pure black triangular speaker materialized in the room, matching the sofa in style and cost.
Classical music began to play—soft piano notes accompanied by violin, painting a scene of moonlit breeze, imbued with melancholy and sorrow.
The doctor’s deep blue eyes glinted intermittently.
The ten fingernails stopped their quarrel and instead merged into an eerie song of laughter and tears.
…
Cheng Yao walked for a long time before returning home from the Longevity Park.
He lingered at the door for a while before placing his finger on the fingerprint lock and opening it.
The room was pitch black—no lights, no moonlight, no sign of life.
He changed his shoes and, just as he stepped into the living room, felt something underfoot.
He looked down.
Snap!
A small lamp in the living room flickered on.
It was a paper lantern souvenir Bai Xiao had bought from a scenic spot. Its soft warm light cast intricate floral patterns on the rough paper.
On the floor, beneath a scattering of peach blossoms, stood a pavilion and tower, their edges dotted with glimmers of reflected light.
Cheng Yao noticed shards on the floor.
Following the trail of fragments, he looked toward Bai Xiao seated on the sofa.
On the coffee table lay half-finished dishes.
Bai Xiao wore casual home clothes, her expression vacant and listless.
Her eyes moved slightly toward Cheng Yao, tears suddenly spilling down her cheeks.
She curled her lips into a sorrowful smile. “Isn’t this good? I came back to life, and we live happily together, like a fairy tale… Isn’t that the happiness you wanted?”
Cheng Yao stared at her intently.
“If you want, we could even have a child.” Her hand rested on her belly. “A family of three… continuing the time that was once halted. No separation by life or death, not just you alone. I’m here with you. Isn’t that what you hoped for when you entered the clinic?”
Cheng Yao closed his eyes briefly, pain etching his face.
What he sought upon entering the clinic was release from death.
He spoke softly, “But you’re not Bai Xiao.”
The Bai Xiao he saw in Longevity Park was not her.
That was not Bai Xiao’s grave.
The ashes he dug up were not hers.
He did not carry Bai Xiao’s corpse or ghost.
The one resurrected was naturally not Bai Xiao either.
The “Bai Xiao” said decisively, “I am the Bai Xiao in your heart.”
Page 2/3
Cheng Yao shook his head, lowering it as he whispered, “You’re just playing the Bai Xiao of my memories.” Then he looked up, “And now you can’t even play her well.”
Bai Xiao wouldn’t so desperately want to adopt a patient from the clinic; she wouldn’t so desperately want to kill the other patients; she wouldn’t selectively forget her friends Yu Yu and Hui Hui; she wouldn’t reject or prevent me from associating with others; she wouldn’t be so calm about the deaths of both our parents…
Bai Xiao, even at the brink of life and death, still worried about him.
She wouldn’t want to be a hindrance in his life.
She loved him so much…
Just like he loved her…
The smile on “Bai Xiao’s” face twisted grotesquely. “How do you know she wouldn’t? She died so suddenly. If she had died differently…”
Cheng Yao’s gaze sharpened.
At the instant his expression changed, “Bai Xiao” vanished from where she stood and suddenly appeared before him, reaching out to clutch his face, pressing close to his ear. “The survival instinct of living beings is ugly. You think I’m hideous, that I insult your Bai Xiao, but your Bai Xiao was definitely like this!”
Her form abruptly shifted—skin turned bluish-black, veins densely covering her face, almost obscuring it entirely. Her fingers swelled and grew powerful.
Cheng Yao punched out, striking her abdomen.
She recoiled in pain but refused to let go, slashing five bloodied lines across his face.
Her flying body knocked over the coffee table and sofa.
She rose on all fours, her hair now long, flowing like silk on the floor, moving eerily as if something stirred beneath the thick strands.
Her hair surged upward, blotting out the sky, covering Cheng Yao.
He tilted his face back; the bloodied lines on his face had already healed.
Underneath that hair, he saw countless faces.
Faces with distorted brows and eyes, faintly recognizable as Bai Xiao’s.
Each face was pleading, eyes wide with hope.
Cheng Yao was instantly surrounded.
He clenched his fists but could not bring himself to strike Bai Xiao’s face.
The dense hair split open.
The monster’s now formless head drooped to its chest; two eyeballs popped out, hanging like chandeliers from its spine.
Though its head and eyes swung wildly, the threat came from its lightning-fast hands.
Its hands were enormous, ballooned, yet encased in hard bones.
Caught off guard, Cheng Yao felt immense pressure in his palm, as if his organs were being squeezed and bones crushed.
The faces within the hair changed expression, bursting into wild laughter, features grotesquely distorted, devoid of Bai Xiao’s semblance.
The floating head approached Cheng Yao, its jaw dislocated and falling open wider.
Its saliva-filled mouth was toothless, but wide enough to swallow his head whole.
Cheng Yao’s arms trembled.
The monster’s balloon-like hands suddenly burst, spilling blood and rotten flesh, revealing its hard bones.
But even those bones did not last.
Cheng Yao grabbed the monster’s hands, snapped its bones, then stabbed them back into its giant mouth.
The monster howled in pain and fell backward.
Its long hair flowed like a receding tide, sweeping away the twisted faces.
The monster staggered, nearly crashing into the low cabinet beside the sofa.
Cheng Yao’s face darkened; he grabbed the monster’s hair, pulling its body back.
Its swaying head still struck the wall.
The cabinet trembled, as did the wedding photo and paper lantern atop it.
Cheng Yao wound his hands several times around the monster’s hair, pulling it close.
He freed one hand to grasp the bone he had stabbed into the monster’s mouth.
The monster violently shook its head, spitting out the bone, which swung like a meteor hammer toward Cheng Yao.
He bent his arm to block.
His grip tightened.
The hair transformed into thick pythons, coiling tightly around one of his arms.
Other strands turned into snakes, lunging at him.
It truly was a monster…
A strange feeling arose within Cheng Yao.
Liu Yu, Mao Mao, Zheng Yichao, the infant, Fang Xi… and himself.
After receiving the doctor’s treatment, they all became monsters, hosts of this “thing.”
The difference was some retained themselves, others were replaced.
Had they been reborn through the doctor, fulfilling their wishes, or was something else born into the world through them?
In an instant, countless pythons bound Cheng Yao’s body.
He looked up at the approaching monster’s head.
No trace of Bai Xiao remained on it.
Its drooping eyeballs revealed greed and excitement, but that expression instantly turned to fury and shock.
Its gaping mouth emitted inhuman wails.
Black blood splattered, then seemed suspended midair, frozen for a moment before flying toward Cheng Yao’s body.
The pythons binding Cheng Yao snapped into pieces.
A row of reversed pincers sprouted from his body.
With their sharp edges facing outward, these organs sliced through the snakes as they burst forth.
Additionally, several cavities appeared on Cheng Yao’s body, like a whale’s mouth, inhaling continuously, sucking in the flying blood and flesh.
The pincers were then absorbed back into his body.
Moreover, the filthy substance previously oozed by the monster was completely cleansed by Cheng Yao.
He reached down, grasped the monster writhing on the floor, and lifted it by the spine.
The monster was clearly weaker than Zheng Yichao or Fang Xi—or perhaps Cheng Yao had grown stronger, making it easy to kill this creature.
Page 3/3
“The Sword’s Arrival”
A suction force erupted from Cheng Yao’s palm.
The monster twisted its broken body, struggling.
Its dangling head and eyeballs swayed, but it could not escape his grasp.
Its dislocated mouth remained open, emitting relentless hissing sounds.
The voice gradually weakened.
Knock knock!
Knock knock knock!
The knocking made Cheng Yao tense.
“Is anyone there?”
“Is this the place?”
“This must be it. I could hear sounds just a moment ago…”
Knock knock knock!
“Open the door! We’re your neighbors. What’s going on in your house?”
“Maybe we should call the police. Don’t want anyone to get hurt.”
Outside, four people knocked and shouted while discussing among themselves.
Suddenly, Cheng Yao felt the bone in his hand change shape, growing muscles and soft skin.
The dangling head and eyeballs restored to their original positions.
In the moment Cheng Yao was distracted, the monster shifted its form.
Its face was not fully restored; the skin was still bluish-black and purple, but it now looked human.
Cheng Yao glanced at it and released his grip.
The monster collapsed to the ground, limp, its legs bent unnaturally as if broken.
It crawled obediently like a dying animal, powerless to resist.
Cheng Yao walked to the entrance and opened the door.
Those outside startled and looked at him.
“Is something wrong? Sorry, was the TV too loud just now?” Cheng Yao smiled and asked.
Outside stood two men and two women, apparently not all family.
A young man stood in front, craning his neck to peer inside.
A middle-aged woman beside him said, “You should turn down the TV volume.”
Behind them, a couple in matching pajamas chimed in and prepared to leave.
“I heard things breaking and some shouting…” the young man still seemed uneasy.
“That was just the TV, all that screaming and howling,” a man behind said, pulling a woman away.
The middle-aged woman gave Cheng Yao a suspicious look, studied his face, then left as well.
The young man was left alone and reluctantly gave up.
Cheng Yao saw the neighbors off and closed the door.
As the door shut, a gust of wind blew in from behind.
He turned his head and found the monster’s mouth pressed against his.
He kneeled up, driving his knee into the monster’s chin, which was dragged down to his chest.
He raised his hand to meet the monster’s swinging palm, then clasped its hand with his fingers.
The monster’s hand was smooth and delicate—like a young woman’s.
On its left ring finger was a raised bone ring, resembling a wedding band.
Cheng Yao’s expression hardened, eyes flashing with hostility.
He squeezed, breaking the monster’s finger.
His chest suddenly split open, revealing ribs protecting his internal organs, which also clamped down on the monster’s mouth, silencing it.
He had become more monster than monster.
The monster recoiled in fear, eyes wide, bloodthirsty gaze fixed on Cheng Yao.
It pushed him hard against the door panel.
The door rattled lightly.
Cheng Yao heard breathing and footsteps outside.
The young man had not given up; he had hidden around the corridor corner and now returned at the sound.
Cheng Yao pressed the monster; its cut hair regrew, converging into a human mouth that grinned wickedly, ready to scream.
A beam of light appeared behind Cheng Yao.
The strong light made the monster squint.
Cheng Yao planted his foot, leaned back, and crashed through the glass door, falling into the Monster Clinic.
Soft music played from inside, seeming almost like a hallucination, vanishing along with the light.
Cheng Yao’s back hit the ground—not a tiled floor, but cement.
He lay back, the monster on top of him but not blocking his view.
He saw a building he hadn’t seen in a long time.
It was the iconic teaching building from his university.