The Creatures That We Are
Chapter 1293: Darkness

Chapter 1293: Darkness

The black hole devoured all. Everyone and everything elongated into distorted, frozen light and shadow in an instant, swept infinitely close to the event horizon without actually entering.

“Ah!”

Gao Yang shouted and woke up in a classroom, sitting at a desk with his companions around him, all dressed in high school uniforms. Outside, the sun blazed and the cicadas chirped in a rumbustious chorus, marking the season as summer. On the blackboard was a vivid black hole, as if the blackboard had become a display window into the universe.

Dressed in an elegant outfit and wearing gold-framed glasses, Vermilion Bird pointed and tapped at the black hole on the blackboard with a pointer.

“Always falling asleep in astronomy classes! Do you not have a dream beyond your academic pursuit? This is the black hole! One of the most mysterious phenomena in the universe.”

Angrily, she snapped, “Gao Yang, stand in the corridor!”

“Okay.” Gao Yang rose to his feet and walked toward the door. When he passed the desks at the front row, he found Nana sleeping in her seat, her drool pooling on the desk.

“Ms. Xia,” he called out immediately, “Nana’s asleep, too. Why didn’t you punish her?”

“Who told you I’m not?”

Vermilion Bird picked up a half-used white chalk and flicked it, shattering it into white particles that coalesced into lines and wrote countless esoteric formulas in the air. They intertwined and burned with holy radiance before turning into a white shooting star of truth, rushing to the only desk in the universe and the high school student sitting at it.

Finally, Nana woke up. She yawned, bleary-eyed.

She noticed the shooting star falling her way. Under her nonchalant gaze, it slowed, cooled, and shrank, transforming into a milk candy.

She swallowed it.

Chewing twice, she suddenly gaped with eyes widened in shock, as if she had just eaten the most repulsive food in the world. Hands clutching onto her neck, she retched dramatically, throwing up countless black words.

“War, famine, disaster, disease, decline, violence, hatred, barrier, vanity, fraud, damage, exploitation, enslavement, corruption, filth, sorrow, fear, loneliness, death, destruction, void...”

Inexplicably, the words unfurled into the countless tragic realities playing out in countless parallel worlds, flooding everyone.

...

Chen Ying slumped on the ground, covered in blood. She held a boy who had stopped breathing tightly in her arms.

Her numb, broken gaze took in the bombardment wrecking her homeland. Amid thick smoke in the ruins flooded with a sea of flames, blood was shed, and lives were lost. All she could hear were cries, screams, sobs, roars...

...

Late at night, Lovely Lamb curled into herself in a cold, dark corner, wearing a dirty, threadbare cotton jacket. She was obviously suffering from malnutrition. Her lips were chapped, and frostbite covered her face and ears. Her fingers were swollen and cracked, like carrots smashed by a cleaver.

She held a bowl, on the verge of death from hunger and the cold. Indifferent pedestrians passed her by.

“Please... take pity on me... please...” Finally, she lost the last of her strength. The bowl in her hands fell to the ground with a clack. Her head drooped as she plunged into an eternal dream of warmth.

...

An earthquake reduced a city to rubble. Dust rose, accompanied by piercing police sirens and gut-wrenching cries.

In a toppled house the rescue team hadn’t found, Qing Ling, covered in blood and grime, lay prone on the ground, two-thirds of her body buried under rebars and concrete. The impact had crushed her legs, the pride she had just won a sprinting championship with. Similarly broken was the bright future that should’ve awaited her.

Face pale, she parted her lips but couldn’t say anything. A sob of despair escaped her.

...

Late night found a brightly lit hospital suddenly flooded with patients coming in from a sudden outbreak of an epidemic. The doctors and other medical personnel, answering an emergency summons, had been working shifts for several days.

Vermilion Bird’s white coat had turned grey. She stalked along a corridor in a mask, her eyes bloodshot and her complexion sickly. Having run out of wards, the corridor was crammed with beds. Some patients even had to sleep on the floor.

“Doctor... I feel terrible... Save me... I don’t want to die...”

The patients groaned in pain, reaching out when they saw her. But Vermilion Bird couldn’t do anything for them. She had another emergency patient to take care of. She had to be there as soon as she could.

“Don’t worry... It’ll be okay... It’ll be...” Muttering platitudes, she picked up her pace.

...

“Here. Cheers, sir!”

Hong Xiaoxiao had lost count of the drinking functions she had attended this month. For a job she hated but had to take on, she went from a non-drinker to a heavy-drinker who never got drunk in half a year.

“Nice, girl! I like you! Don’t worry, I’ll give you the best discount for this order!” A middle-aged man sporting a beer belly with greasy skin put an arm around her waist and groped her rear.

Disgust flashed through her face, but she said, “Here, cheers!”

...

“Ah...aaaaah...”

Adept Horse broke down right in the lobby of a bank. He had been in urgent need of money, and falling for an internet investment scheme, he lost a hundred thousand yuan. When he realized it, it was already too late for him to get the money back.

“That’s for my mom’s medical bill! What do I do... oh, god...”

...

In a booth, a drunk man slapped White Dew in the face, sending her falling to the floor. The other escorts panicked, too afraid to say anything.

“Fuck, do you think I’m a pushover just because I show you respect? Why, does an escort like you actually fancy yourself a superstar?”

He shot to his feet and slammed White Dew’s head with a wad of money he picked up from the tea table. “You just want more, don’t you, bitch? Name your price. I’ll have you tonight one way or another!”

White Dew slumped and gazed silently at the paper bills on the floor for a few seconds. She smiled, picking a new bill to wipe the blood on her lips.

She stood up and downed a glass of liquor.

The man laughed. “This is more like it!”

The next second, she smashed his head in with the glass.

...

Zhang Wei stood outside the watercooler room in his company. He was about to open the door when he heard a roar of laughter.

“What a joke. He, pursuing me? It’s not too much for me to call it a toad trying to win over a swan, right?”

“Haha, then why did you lead him on?”

“Why shouldn’t I? Let me tell you. People like Zhang Wei love being a lapdog. Give him a little hope, and he’ll chase after you to the end of the world, haha...”

“You’re evil.”

“Don’t men like a bad girl? Eh, let’s not talk about him. What do you think about this rich boy? I asked him out to a bar tonight. You should come, too.”

“I would like to, but I have to work overtime.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll ask Zhang Wei to do it. He’s been doing my work. He can take on yours, too.”

Zhang Wei kicked the door open and slapped the woman in the face before she could react, snarling, “Bitch!”

...Well, he imagined himself doing it. In reality, he simply turned away and pretended not to have heard anything.

...

Like a madman, Dr. Jia stood at the front gate of an academic institute and shouted, “I wrote that paper! That bastard stole it from me!”

“You have no proof! Bring it!” The crowd hackled.

“Parrot! My parrot can testify for me!” Dr. Jia looked at the parrot on his shoulder. “Come on! Tell them!”

“Plagiarize! Plagiarize! Plagiarize!” The parrot cawked loudly.

“Hahaha, psycho. The parrot’s smart, though.”

“Jealousy is ugly.”

“You should seek help for your delusion.”

...

Late at night, Heavenly Dog listened to a sad, depressing song. His nightstand was filled with empty bottles of antidepressants. With a box cutter, he left cut after cut on his arm.

He held onto the pain to fight the all-consuming feeling of emptiness. That was the only way he could feel alive.

...

Bam! Bam, bam!

A woman shouted while slamming a door. “Open up! I’ve had enough! Why can’t you just be like a normal boy? Why must you be a freak? What have I done wrong in my past life to deserve this...”

Hiding away in his dim room, Raven Shark drew all kinds of fish with crayons. His mother’s voice was merely noise, coming from the world on the other side of the door.

The world was neither wonderful nor beautiful. There were only jeers, alienation, hostility, and hurt.

This little room was the safest and warmest. Here, he could be with his friends forever. He didn’t feel lonely at all.

...

In a nightclub pulsing with neon lights of different colors, young people crowded the dance floor, moving with abandon amid the overwhelming music and beat, their desires overflowing.

A blond young man sat in a booth seat. He had paid for the drinks for everyone tonight. Nursing his glass, he swiped away on his phone.

A voluptuous young woman with thick makeup returned from the dance floor, sitting down beside him. She took out her phone and asked, “Is the necklace pretty, Brother Kai?”

“Yeah.” Wang Zikai didn’t even glance her way.

She leaned into him and said coquettishly, “I want this to go with the dress you bought me. I’ll only show it to you. Okay?”

“Okay.” He tilted his head to dodge her kiss tiredly. “Get it if you like it.”

“Thank you, Brother Kai!” She picked up her glass. “Happy birthday!”

“I’m happy as long as you have fun.” He raised his glass. “Go dance.”

The woman left with a smile.

Wang Zikai checked his phone again. It was past midnight. In the end, his parents never gave him their blessings; they didn’t even send a simple message. He looked up at the packed dance floor with a twist of his lips. It wasn’t quite a smile.

Waves of desire crashed into him, receding right after submerging his heels.

His heart was empty.

So noisy.

...

Beep, beep, beep—

Lying on a hospital bed, Gregor, wasting away with sickness and old age, was connected to numerous tubes like a yellowed and rotten piece of Styrofoam. His mind was hazy, and his breathing was faint. He was already meeting the grim reaper to arrange for his trip to the netherworld.

By his bed, another old, frail elderly person sat: Nana.

She gently took his hand and said in a hoarse yet gentle voice, “Dear, I’ll be right behind you. Do you have any regrets in this life?”