Chapter 5: Bro, You Smell So Good
Startled, Ji Jue tensed up. “What the hell?”
A thief? That’s unlikely.
He was so poor that if a thief broke in, they would leave in tears. And if the thief had even a shred of conscience, they would probably put two hundred Fedra on the table and tell the kid to study hard and make something of himself before leaving.
North Mount District was located on the outskirts of Cliff City. It had no high-end developments to speak of, but when it came to filth, chaos, and decay, it topped all charts. It was full of illegal immigrants and gangs, while smuggling and even murder was an everyday occurrence. Amid all that disorder, the homicide rate had ranked number one among all the districts of Cliff City year after year. Even the governor wouldn’t dare clean up the illegal stuff in the district.
As for Ji Jue’s old house, calling it weather-beaten was already generous. It leaked when it rained, let in drafts in the summer, dripped water by day and lost power by night. It was a walking disaster that had never been properly fixed. At a glance, it became obvious the home owner wasn’t wealthy. Over the years, on the rare occasions petty thieves did wander in, they would take one look at the bare walls, apologize out of sympathy, and turn around to leave.
Ji Jue bent down and pulled a short rebar from under the bed. He made his way downstairs, carefully avoiding the creaking floorboards while glancing left and right. He felt even guiltier than the thief.
However, aside from the broken door handle and a trail of footprints that crossed the living room and disappeared into the kitchen, there was nothing amiss.
“Hey! Come out! Buddy, you’ve got the wrong place. I don’t have any money!”
All that’s here is a fragile[1] college student who eats, sleeps, and lazes around more than you.
Ji Jue peeked into the kitchen, where the fridge stood with both doors wide open, showing off its tragically pathetic leftovers. The light inside flickered weakly, barely functional, just like the thirty-year-old fridge itself.
Ji Jue froze as if he’d been struck by lightning; he was on the verge of tears.
Fine, the thief did not leave empty-handed, but how could they even steal the half plate of white cut chicken[2] he had brought back from Mrs. Lu’s place the day before yesterday? He had been saving that to enjoy on his birthday in a couple of days!
“This is too cruel, damn it!” Ji Jue wailed.
He stared at the black fingerprints left on the plate and cursed out loud, but looking at the empty kitchen and the street facing window left wide open, how could he not know the thief had long since bolted? Fury surged in his heart.
If he had known the forces of evil were after the white cut chicken in his fridge, he would have swung the rebar and fought the thief on the spot. He wouldn’t have spent so long shaking with fear! Now the fridge was wrecked, too!
The moment he touched the fridge door, the motor hummed like an old engine[3]. Out of nowhere, a voice said, “Watch your back.”
Ji Jue spun around, and in the foul wind rushing toward him, he saw a pair of crimson eyes staring at him ravenously.
Right above the kitchen entrance, a humanoid figure was hunched over on the wall like a spider, writhing as it crunched and gnawed on the last scraps of bone. Its terrifying sharp teeth gleamed like blades.
The moment Ji Jue saw the creature’s face clearly, he could not hold back and screamed, “You... you’re that old bastard from yesterday!”
Of course it was him. Ji Jue remembered that old man’s face perfectly.
It was the same geezer who had pedaled that tricycle like a maniac straight into him, nearly sending him through the whole reincarnation process on the spot. The situation had been too chaotic yesterday, so much so that no one had noticed when the guy slipped away. Ji Jue had not thought much of it, and he never imagined the man would dare break into his house.
Only now, the way he looked was far more bizarre than yesterday. He looked barely human.
What’s wrong with him?
“Oh, so you dare come back? You think you’ve got me cornered, huh?!” Ji Jue roared, furious. “You’re not leaving today without paying up! Get down from my wall right now!”
Very receptive to his advice, the old bastard did as he was told without hesitation.
The man flew at Ji Jue at an incredible speed, as if he was a spider or a mantis striking its prey in an instant.
A wave of foul stench invaded Ji Jue’s nostrils. He instinctively staggered back and used the refrigerator door as a shield, but the thick metal door of his good-for-nothing refrigerator was torn apart with a single swipe of the old man’s sharp nails. His razor-like nails scratchedJi Jue’s face, leaving behind a bloody gash.
In a panic, Ji Jue lashed out with a kick, but the creature didn’t budge. Instead, the recoil sent Ji Jue stumbling back several steps. He hurriedly circled the dining table and, while the old bastard was busy yanking his hand free, he sprinted to the kitchen doorway.
Right before his eyes, that thing tore his refrigerator door to shreds. The hunched, ape-like old freak crouched atop the wreckage of the fridge, groping around inside. He even grabbed the porcelain plate Ji Jue had dropped earlier and stuffed it into his mouth, crunching and grinding it to pieces.
Those crimson eyeballs were filled with nothing but chaos.
“Eat... eat... eat... so hungry...”
He continued munching on the shards of porcelain no matter how much they tore his flesh apart. When blood flowed from his mouth, he slowly licked it with his long tongue. The old man lifted his head and stared straight at Ji Jue, drooling. “Smells good. You smell so good...”
“Alright, alright, when someone’s in trouble, others should lend a hand, right?” Ji Jue asked.
Without hesitation, he dug into his pocket and pulled out every last bit of cash he had—forty eight Fedra and nineteen cents—and slapped it onto the table.
“Sir, that’s all I’ve got. Take it and go get breakfast. I recommend the place north of Sixth Shop Street, their shumai[4] are cheap and filling...”
With a thunderous crash, the dining table was ripped apart by the old man’s shriek, along with the kitchen cabinet behind Ji Jue. Broken pots and bowls scattered across the floor, shattering alongside Ji Jue’s heart.
Crap. Does he not like shumai?
Ji Jue scrambled out of the kitchen, his mind completely blank.
If he doesn’t like shumai, their rice noodles[5] are good too!
No matter how confused Ji Jue was, he now understood that what this old bastard wanted was not shumai, pan fried dumplings, rice rolls, soup dumplings, or clay pot rice. He wanted to eat Ji Jue.
As the putrid stench hit him again, Ji Jue gritted his teeth, tightened his grip on the rebar, and swung with all his strength, aiming right for the old man’s forehead!
To hell with respecting the elderly!
A thunderous crash erupted, and the rebar flew from his hands. The recoil jarred him as if he had smashed it full force against a concrete pillar.
A blow strong enough to shatter several old men’s skulls left only a shallow gash on that thing’s forehead. Meanwhile, Ji Jue’s arm was left with two deep gashes, as if cut by a knife.
Blood sprayed out and splashed across the old man’s face, who licked it up with his long tongue as if it were fine wine.
The freak trembled all over with excitement as he shrieked, “Smells good! So good! You smell so good!!!”
“Get lost, motherfucker!”
Stumbling backward, Ji Jue snatched a thermos from the counter, flung it blindly, and darted for the door.
After tasting Ji Jue’s blood, the old bastard fell into a frenzy of ecstasy and scrambled after him on all fours, his whole body convulsing with excitement.
Just as they reached the stairs, Ji Jue stopped. He grabbed the decorative stair railing he had fixed a few days ago, ripped the sharp iron rod out of the barely patched-up concrete, spun around, and thrust it straight at the old man’s face.
The iron rod plunged into the old man’s eye socket, causing him to stumble. Then, Ji Jue launched a kick that sent him flying out the front door, and the old man tumbled like a rolling gourd into the muddy yard.
Before the old man could even get up, Ji Jue leapt forward, putting all his strength and weight to stomp on the thing’s neck.
Crack!
The crack sounded clear like thunder in Ji Jue’s ear.
But he didn’t even have time to breathe in relief. From beneath his foot came a piercing scream, like the death wail of some beast, or the furious roar of a starving creature.
The old bastard, with half a railing still embedded in his eye socket, thrashed and writhed wildly. He clawed and struggled, even flipping over an electric scooter nearby. Even with his neck snapped, that twisted face still glowed with terrifying crimson. The thing’s mouth opened and closed madly, trying to bite him.
The only thing Ji Jue could do was use every last bit of his strength, gripping the railing with all his might and pushing the old man’s head against the ground. However, he was already close to losing control. The old man was overwhelmingly strong!
It felt as though what he was restraining wasn’t a decrepit old man on the verge of death, but some kind of monster wrapped in human skin. The moment he let go, he would be torn to shreds in an instant.
He could sense the overpowering stench pouring from the old man’s eyes, ears, and mouth, even from deep within his body. A faint, ominous crimson glow emanated from the monster.
A fatal, grievous injury seemed to mean nothing to the old man. In fact, he was still brimming with vitality.
Even his cervical vertebrae, which should have been shattered, were rapidly reconnecting. Ignoring the iron rod that had pierced straight through his eye socket, he crept forward bit by bit...
Yet for a fleeting instant, the old creature’s strength waned, but he grew even more frenzied. Amid the relentless tearing and biting, only thick, sticky blood sprayed from its mouth, splattering onto Ji Jue’s hands.
So cold. Even as he thought this, a message rose abruptly from the depths of Ji Jue’s soul and consciousness; it was the voice of the wristwatch.
[External active aberrant spirit matter detected. Absorb?]
Ecstasy surged through him, and afraid the watch might not understand, he screamed with everything he had, “Yes! Yes! Yes! YES! YES!! YES!!!”
Before the words had even fully left his mouth, and before he could even begin to smile, a distinct sound rang out from within the watch.
Tick!
A faint glow emerged from the dial, flowing along Ji Jue’s palm and fingers to sketch out an intricate circuit. It looked like a numerical totem and reminded him of a matrix, and it extended all the way to his fingertips, then flowed down the iron rod.
In that moment, his flesh was no longer flesh, and his hand was no longer a hand. It had undergone a transformation, becoming something even Ji Jue himself could not control.
Through the crack above the eye socket, it plunged straight into the old man’s skull.
Invisible gears began to turn, and a horrifying gravitational pull, like that of a black hole, spread outward. A siphoning force capable of suppressing all aberrant spirit matter had appeared.
The shrill scream cut off abruptly. In its place came a screech, like a kettle screaming atop a raging fire. Dense blood-red light burst from the old bastard’s eye socket, flowing along the matrix and pouring into the wristwatch.
The old man, once writhing and convulsing, rapidly shriveled. Only his viscous crimson fluid continued to squirm and struggle, like mad worms. The watch absorbed it out of his body in one swift gulp.
The numbers on the dial skyrocketed, reaching 59. In just a few seconds, it nearly matched the spirit matter reserves Ji Jue had accumulated over many years.
At last, the twitching creature collapsed face-down onto the ground, utterly unable to move. No, rather than collapsing, it was as if he had been returned to his original state. With that eerie power gone, he lay on the brink of death.
His eyes, once filled with chaos and hunger, now sparkled with a trace of clarity. As though awakening from a long, terrible nightmare, he stared at the world before him in confusion. After a long while, it seemed he recalled something. His lips moved slightly, as though murmuring a name.
Cloudy tears slid from the corners of his eyes and fell into the mud. And just like that, he crumbled, turning into ash.
Nothing remained, except a set of tattered, worn-out clothes.
1. 脆皮大学生, literally ‘crispy college student,’ refers to a university student who is easily hurt or, often for no clear reason, easily falls ill. The term comes from online gaming, where it originally described characters with low defense and low health. It was later adapted to describe modern college students who are physically or mentally delicate and prone to getting ‘knocked out’ by stress or minor illnesses. ☜
2. White cut chicken or white sliced chicken (白切鸡) is a type of siu mei. Unlike most other meats in the siu mei category, this particular dish is not roasted, but poached. The dish is common to the cultures of Southern China, including Guangdong, Fujian and Hong Kong. In Hawaii, this well-known dish is called cold ginger chicken.
I’ve attached a picture here for your reference. It’s actually a very common dish here in Malaysia, and one of my favorite foods to order at a food court. ^^ ☜
3. The raw actually writes “如老牛一般的嗡嗡”, which translates literally to “buzz like an old ox”, which obviously sounds super weird and wouldn’t make sense in English. Hence I’ve changed it to “hummed like an old engine.” ☜
4. Shumai is a type of traditional Chinese dumpling meat made of ground pork. In Cantonese cuisine, it is usually served as a dim sum snack with an additional serving of soy sauce. Here is a picture for your reference. ☜
5. “腌粉” usually refers to the Hainan specialty snack called “Hainan noodles.” It’s a dish made primarily from rice noodles, either mixed dry or served with a savory sauce. The name comes from the way the noodles are tossed with a variety of seasonings and sauce. The noodles are soft and slightly sticky, topped with generous ingredients, and have a tangy, sweet, and aromatic flavor. It’s recognized as an intangible cultural heritage of Hainan Province. ☜
