C2 — Paper Life
by UntamedSShang Nan’s heartbeat was as heavy and urgent as the raindrops falling in the puddle.
Passing the umbrella in his hand to Yu Zhibai to hold, Yu Zhibai slightly tilted the umbrella to Shang Nan’s side, and Shang Nan’s hand carefully moved around the muddy ground.
Rotting fallen leaves, hard stones, and slippery mud passed through the crevices of his fingers.
Got it!
Shang Nan originally thought that the monster’s eyes might be different from human eyes, but when he caught Yu Zhibai’s eyeball in his palm, there was a bit of elasticity; it was like a small ball, and he instinctively confirmed that it was an eyeball.
“It’s dirty; I… I’ll help you wash it,” Shang Nan scooped up the eyeball while pretending to be calm.
After speaking, he took out the water cup from his backpack and unscrewed the bottle cap with some panic. His heart was pounding, his mouth was dry, and his cheeks were burning.
“Clatter.”
Shang Nan’s hand trembled, the water cup became unstable, and the entire cup of water poured out.
Its eyeball was a bit slippery, and he almost couldn’t hold it steady.
Shang Nan handed the eyeball to Yu Zhibai and said, “Alright.”
Yu Zhibai’s expression remained motionless, only the corners of his mouth curved. He raised his hand and took the eyeball from the palm of Shang Nan’s hand. This was his first smile to Shang Nan today. In Shang Nan’s memories, it was also the first time Yu Zhibai smiled at him since the two of them met.
Shang Nan was curious about what Yu Zhibai wanted to do with the eyeball.
He saw Yu Zhibai pinch the already washed eyeball between his fingers and examine them for a few seconds, then he pressed the still wet eyeball into his left eye socket.
After simply and roughly pressing it in, he lifted his eye, which was all white.
His eyes, one completely white and the other completely black, stared blankly at Shang Nan.
The umbrella cast a shadow on half of his face as he tilted his head and said, “Thank you, fellow student Shang Nan.”
“No… no.” Shang Nan felt his voice floating in midair, unsure of what to say. He could only reach out his hand to Yu Zhibai and say, “Can you give me the umbrella? I should go home now.”
Yu Zhibai handed the umbrella handle to Shang Nan and asked, “Aren’t you afraid?”
Shang Nan didn’t think there was a need to lie. “A little.”
Yu Zhibai echoed, “A little?”
Shang Nan looked at his expression and was very worried that the other person would pull out his eyes and press them in again. He quickly responded, “Very, very scared.”
“Okay, “Yu Zhibai waved his hand, “be careful on the way. See you tomorrow.”
Shang Nan turned around and left eagerly.
Walking out for a distance, he carried the umbrella and ran briskly, leaving Yu Zhibai far behind him.
[14: When you held the monster’s eye, I learned its true identity]
Shang Nan slowed down his pace and gasped for breath. ‘What is its true identity?’
[14: A paper figure.]
Shang Nan: “?”
Shang Nan was most afraid of ghosts; his face suddenly turned pale.
[14: It’s just a paper figure, not a ghost.]
After a moment of silence, Shang Nan retorted, “That doesn’t seem very different from ghosts.”
[14] Let’s get to the point, Nannan. The eyeball you just helped it pick up was made by itself. A layer of white leather was pasted on the outside of the eyeball model as the eye white, which is waterproof. Then, the eyeball and pupil were drawn on the white leather using special ink. This ink is the most realistic, but slightly less waterproof. If it gets too wet, it will dye the entire eyeball black. The eyeball you just picked up is snow white because the ink washed away.]
Shang Nan exclaimed in admiration, ‘It’s truly a monster.’
[14: Another good news is that the blackening value of the monster has decreased by 0.5, which is all thanks to you, Nannan. Keep up the good work.]
Saving monsters was his job, and progress had been made. While Shang Nan found the mission too thrilling, he was still a bit happy.
Yu Zhibai watched as Shang Nan ran away; his figure disappeared from a small point and finally disappeared completely into the rain curtain.
He didn’t have a good impression of Shang Nan, a rich second-generation who was clingy and foolish, but he was beautiful enough that he didn’t dislike him so much.
In fact, his nastiness was still within tolerable limits.
Yu Zhibai took out an umbrella from his backpack, and several small pieces of humanoid paper fell out along with it. With round heads, short and thick limbs, and no facial features, the shapes couldn’t be seen without careful examination.
The rain was too heavy; luckily, Yu Zhibai stood under the eaves, but the rainwater still occasionally blew in.
They were afraid of getting wet from the rain, so they crawled up to Yu Zhibai’s shoulders one by one along the umbrella surface and got to the back of his hand and arm, lying neatly in a row.
Yu Zhibai casually pulled one off his shoulder, used the pen in his backpack to mark his facial features, emphasized its eyes, and used the tip of his pen to mark the head of the paper figurine. “Just now, did you see that boy named Shang Nan clearly?”
The paper figurine nodded.
Yu Zhibai turned the little figure over, wrote a line of words on its back, and placed it on the ground. The paper figure stepped on the puddle with one foot and hurriedly ran towards Shang Nan’s direction, looking completely unafraid of water.
Shang Nan arrived at the doorstep.
The villa had a wide building surface, and the regularly distributed night lights illuminated the green plants in the garden like a backdrop in a dark movie, with water droplets rolling down the leaves.
It was 11 o’clock at night, so Shang Nan gently opened the door with a key. The room was pitch black, and he groped for the light switch. However, he was startled by the white-clothed woman sitting on the sofa with her back to him.
Her long hair reached her waist, silky and auburn; her couch was snow-white and her five fingers rested gracefully on her kneecaps, but it was so pale that he could even make out the veins that littered the skin beneath, and the ring on her ring finger occasionally refracted starbursts of blinding light.
Upon hearing the sound of the door opening, Dai Lili turned her head and lifted a few strands of hair that had fallen to her cheeks behind her ear. She stood up and turned on the light. “What took you so long to come back?”
“There was a classmate who didn’t have an umbrella, so I walked with him.” Shang Nan handed the umbrella to the aunt, who came out of her room with a sleepy expression on her face. She asked Shang Nan if he wanted to eat something, but he refused.
After Dai Lili stood up, Shang Nan realized that the other was very thin, with thin torso and limbs, and the soft home clothes swayed with Dai Lili’s footsteps.
Dai Lili’s cheeks were thin, but it wasn’t difficult to glimpse the stunning beauty of her youth. There was a hint of elegance between her eyebrows and eyes, similar to that of Shang Nan, but there was a sense of nonchalance and detachment.
“Go to bed early.” It seemed Dai Lili sat in the living room, seemingly just waiting for Shang Nan to come home.
She walked up the stairs, her back shoulder blades bulging like two juxtaposed hills.
[14: Dai Lili is your mother; her husband, who is also your father, loved someone else deeply. After your father passed away, Dai Lili realized that she was just a tool used by your father to deal with the elders of the family. Dai Lili now suffers from serious psychological and mental illnesses, and all expenses in your family are now sorted by the dividends from the shares left to you by your father. Now, these are all managed by your father’s special assistant and lawyers.]
On this side of the house, Yu Zhibai also entered his community at midnight.
This was an old residential area where the lights in the hallway were constantly on and off, controlled by voice commands. On rainy nights, they went out like fireflies.
The residential building had been in disrepair for a long time, and its sides were covered with moss and vines.
Yu Zhibai lived on the sixth floor; there was no lift, and the sixth floor was the top floor.
The iron gate on the first floor was opened from the inside by a little girl with pigtails. She was crouched down, her face flushed like a rosy glow, and her pupils were like needle tips, making it impossible to see without careful attention.
“Xiao Bai, were you beaten again?” Yu Xiaoyu saw the blue color on the corner of Yu Zhibai’s mouth at a glance, and she looked behind him again. “The little dog hasn’t come back; I really miss him.”
She held a torch in her hand to illuminate the corridor for Yu Zhibai.
Yu Xiaoyu knew how to use the voice-controlled lights, but her screams were too loud and sharp. The first few times, although the lights came on, rumors of ghosts in Building 11 of Xingfu Community slowly spread. Since then, Yu Zhibai has asked her to use a flashlight and stop shouting.
“I’m pretty much the same as a ghost.” Yu Xiaoyu bounced up the stairs.
Granny Yu was listening to the radio at home. She was getting old and hunched over on the sofa, covered with a thick blanket. Her hair was covered in silver streaks, and wrinkles extended from her forehead to her neck and back of her hands.
Upon hearing the sound of the door opening and closing, Granny Yu moved and straightened up, and the blanket slipped from her shoulders to her legs.
When she was young, she didn’t live in the Xingfu Community in HuiNanFang; she lived in the countryside with Yu Zhibai’s mother. At that time, Yu Zhibai’s mother was known as a goddess, and she did all sorts of jobs, helping the living to call the dead and the dead to call the living. Later, all these skills were passed on to Yu Zhibai, but her own body collapsed, becoming more and more unhealthy, and she couldn’t even walk a few steps. Those who knew about it said that she had offended the gods and was being punished.
“Are you back?” Granny Yu’s voice sounded like a rusty kitchen knife scraping against the edge of a pot. “It’s raining; are your eyes okay?”
Yu Zhibai sat down on the sofa, and Yu Xiaoyu bounced up and down in front of him, holding a box. She turned around and answered Granny Yu’s words, “Grandma, Xiao Bai’s eyes are wet and can’t be used anymore. They need to be replaced.” Yu Zhibai wasn’t always at home, so Yu Xiaoyu stayed at home to chat with Granny Yu and pass the time.
The box with an ordinary appearance was opened, and inside was a stack of cut white paper. The dirty outer layer of the eyeball was removed and thrown away, and new white paper was pasted around the eyeball mold, which was just the right size.
“Here.” Yu Xiaoyu handed the ink pen to Yu Zhibai.
Yu Zhibai pursed his lips and completed the final step. At this point, the paper in his hand that pricked his eyeball could be mistaken for the real thing, but there were no bloo-d vessels or nerves connecting to the brain.
His eye sockets were two black holes, even the beam of electric light above his head could shine in. Yu Zhibai replaced it with a new pair of eyeballs and adjusted their position more accurately. After confirming that there were no problems, his eyes with a faint smile in them and he began to tidy up the things on the coffee table. The pair of useless eyeballs were thrown into the trash can.
Yu Xiaoyu squatted on the ground, tilted her head, and looked at Yu Zhibai vigorously. “Xiao Bai, your eyes are smiling today. You know how to draw; I also want to do the same.” The little girl’s eyes were too small, the size of sesame seeds, and they were lifeless and dull, which was completely inconsistent with her lively and lively tone.
Granny Yu let out a sound, and Yu Xiaoyu turned her head and looked over. “Grandma, Xiao Bai was beaten again today.”
“Grandma is asleep.” Yu Zhibai raised his index finger to his mouth and whispered, “Shh we need to speak softly.”
Yu Zhibai turned off several lights in the small living room, leaving only a small table lamp next to the sofa, allowing his grandmother to sleep soundly.
The lamp light was weak and could only illuminate a small area. In such a dim yellow aperture, Yu Xiaoyu’s face was as pale as white paper, and her lips and cheeks were crimson. Compared to a little girl, she looked more like a paper doll at this moment.
Yu Zhibai lowered his eyes, his long eyelashes creating a dark shadow under his eyes. After changing his eyeballs again, his facial features became clear, and his gaze appeared soft and peaceful under the lamp. The redness of his lips faded into pink, and his previous aggressiveness and strangeness had been hidden.
In the early morning, there was no sound in the room overlooking the south.
The boy on the bed seemed to be sleeping heavily, but according to the host database displayed on Number 14’s side, its new host was a very insecure person, and he slept lightly. It was just that the host’s brain blocked his memory, and he didn’t remember anything, so he wouldn’t know why.
The French window that was closed before going to bed was quietly pried open.
[14: Nannan.]
As expected by 14, it just gave a light call, and Shang Nan immediately woke up, but not completely. He made a vague “hmm” sound, not knowing why 14 woke him up, and his eyelids were about to close again.
[14: “Someone” has arrived.]
Shang Nan closed his eyes tightly; there was no sound around him. He knew that the “person” mentioned by 14 was definitely not human.
After a long silence, Shang Nan’s curiosity finally defeated his fear. He carefully opened one eye and met the small paper person who was about to stick itself on his face.
Perhaps it was an illusion, but Shang Nan noticed a hint of embarrassment on its face.
“What do you want to do?” Shang Nan couldn’t be scared of such a round-headed piece of paper. It was only the size of a palm, with eyes that were as black as two longan seeds and limbs that were thick and short.
“Did Yu Zhibai ask you to come?” The little Paper Man and Yu Zhibai, were both paper figures. Shang Nan concluded it was sent by Yu Zhibai. He wanted to assassinate him?
Upon being discovered, the small piece of paper simply laid down and pretended to be dead, becoming a real piece of paper.
Seeing the situation, Shang Nan reached out to pick it up and turned on the light.
It was a very ordinary piece of white paper, without any peculiarities. The facial features were drawn very roughly, and there were mud stars on the two short legs of the paper figure, it probably got stained on its way.
[14: It should be here to erase your memory.]
Shang Nan saw a line of handwriting behind the small paper figurine, which was sloppy but had a strong sense of character: he knows nothing; he doesn’t remember anything.
Shang Nan sat cross-legged on the bed, wearing a thin blue-striped nightgown; his neck was like white jade, and the back of his head had been rolling on the bed for the whole night, so his hair was extended and messy. The halo of the desk lamp light fell on his nose bridge, and his breath was soft and gentle.
He was still studying The Little Paper Man, with question marks all over his mind. ‘Why would Yu Zhibai be beaten and scolded when he is so powerful?’
[14: I’m not sure, but those people’s punches and kicks don’t hurt him at all… Nannan, you have had too little contact with him, and a lot of information about him is still locked.]
“Okay, let’s go to sleep then.” Shang Nan grabbed the paper figurine, turned off the light, and covered himself with a blanket.
The small paper figure was tightly held in his palm.
The rain outside subsided again, and Shang Nan had fallen asleep again. The small piece of paper in his palm had never shown any abnormalities, and it remained motionless until a long, long time passed. It raised its head, its limbs desperately pushed and shoved the object that pressed down on it, and after a long time of work, it finally gave up, put down its head, and sighed.
Shang Nan slowly lifted his eyes and spoke in a hoarse and soft voice, “Good boy, I’ll take you to see your master tomorrow.”
Behind the rusty iron gate of No. 603 in Xingfu Community, Yu Zhibai, sitting on the sofa, closed his workbook and looked straight ahead at a certain place. “Has it been discovered?”
Yu Xiaoyu stood by the armrest of the sofa, her sesame-sized eyes rolling. “So, will Xiao Bai take care of it himself? Or should I go instead?”
Yu Zhibai pondered for a few seconds then hesitantly responded, “You’ll scare him.”
TN:
Updates will be everyday until I change my mind
So see ya tomorrow ✌️
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