Chapter 14 - Lin Xiuzhu Returns

All of Yi Ling’s attention was on the drawing that depicted the incident from his childhood. By the time “Little Marble” registered as a keyword to him, Wu Yaya was nowhere to be seen in his office.

His door was open, and the corridor was empty. In the foyer, one of the elevators was still; the other was descending away.

The doctor pressed the elevator key impatiently, as if pressing it more times would beckon it to come faster. Sweat beading on a face that normally exuded calmness that now bore a ferocious expression, lips pursed tightly, and brows furrowed irritably.

The elevator was taking forever to come up, so he decided against waiting and dashed towards the stairs.

Yu Haowei was enjoying a smoke with several bodyguards in the stairwell. The man was shocked to see the door slam open, and out came an uncomposed Dr. Yi.

“What happened?” Several voices asked.

“Have you seen Lin Xiuzhu?” Yi Ling hurried down the stairs.

“No, what about her?” The bodyguards got nervous.

But the doctor was gone before he could answer the question.

He sped down the floors at top speed, only to find the elevator that was in motion had gone up again when he finally reached the lobby. Wu Yaya was still nowhere to be seen.

He ran to the reception desk and asked, “Has Miss Lin come down?”

“We didn’t see her.” Both of the receptionists shook their heads.

He ran out to the parking lot and continued searching.

Nothing. She was gone. There wasn’t any trace of her anywhere. Not even the security camera caught her leaving. It was as if she had grown wings and flown out a window.

Yi Ling returned to his office, spent. He held his forehead with one hand and sat in silence, waiting for his surging emotions to calm and for his reason to return. Only when his chest was no longer heaving did he release how tight his grip was on the drawing and laid it flat on the table, smoothing it out with his palms.

Flickers of light glided across the deep wells that were his eyes.

In the drawing, the largest object was the crow, followed by the tree. The warehouse with the boy was the smallest. For amateur artists who don’t know about descriptive geometry, perspective is usually expressed through the size of the objects. Depth is created by drawing whatever is closer to the drawer bigger, and those further away smaller. 

Thus, the drawer must have taken the perspective of the little crow.

She saw what the little crow saw. She wouldn’t have known the details of this incident if she hadn’t taken part in it herself. Out of all those involved, two were dead, one of them was Yi Ling, and the last one was a small animal.

But what does an animal have to do with a person…

Something trembled in his dark pupils at this point in his deductions. He couldn’t believe his conclusion, but that was all he had to believe. When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbably, must be the truth.

The doctor swept back his dishevelled hair and chuckled.

He recalled Wu Yaya’s unplaced familiarity with him, her obsession with “Little Marble,” and her various little quirks.

Now that he thought about it, didn’t all those quirks fit the nature of a crow? The image of her tilting her head cutely gradually overlapped that of the intelligent little crow all those years ago.

Yi Ling closed his eyes in self-mockery and murmured in a coarse voice, “I must be going mad.” His heart, however, pounded wildly at this realization.

In the urgency of his pursuit, he had taken off his cumbersome uniform jacket. The thin white shirt left on him was now drenched by the physical manifestation of his violently surging emotions.

The soaked shirt clung to his powerful physique, revealed in the inky tattoo etched across his back. A fierce, explosive aura exuded from its rearing talons and wings mid-flight. 

This was Yi Ling—a torrent of emotions underneath his calm exterior.

———

“Daddy, Daddy! I’m back!” A little crow flapped her wings straight into the curtain fig’s embrace.

“That was fast.” The curtain fig extended a leaf to rub the little crow’s head.

“I promised I would be back soon. I didn’t want you to get lonely.” She got on tip-claws to lean into the rubs.

As the rubs went on, an orb of light slipped out from her little head and was securely caught by the leaf.

The little crow hopped proudly left and right on the branch.

“Daddy, see how well I did this time. Look at it now!” She flapped her little wings, eager to be praised.

The leaf extracted the memories held in the orb with a gentle swipe. The human face that surfaced on the trunk was silent for a good minute before he gave a strained compliment, “Yaya, you did… really well this time.” 

She hadn’t made Yu Haowei actually eat Lin Xiuzhu’s uterus, nor did she actually kill an innocent person. She merely staged two clever stunts. This was good behaviour. Had he not droned on and on, and occasionally pulled out the whip of love, this little menace might’ve made the man go through the trial by blood for real.

The curtain fig wiped at the nonexistent sweat on his forehead and continued his praises, “You’ve grown, Yaya. You’re getting smarter and more capable by the day.”

“Thank you, Daddy. I will keep working hard! Kak kak kak…” The little crow puffed out her chest and let out a string of resounding laughter.

The tree harmonized with her in his own resonant chuckles. Then, he returned the glowing orb to the sleeping Lin Xiuzhu.

The little crow ceased her laughter and peered down at the woman.

Lin Xiuzhu woke up moments later, having sorted out the new memories flooding her brain. She understood that a deity had walked the mortal realms in her stead and granted her wish. Instead of asking for her soul, she just needed to surrender half her soul energy to the deity when her time comes.

“Thank you, God. From now on, I will be your devotee. I will come to pay my respects regularly. Thank you.” The young lady knelt at the tree roots and sincerely lowered her head to the ground.

When she straightened herself back up, the tree canopy overhead that had been blocking the sun was gone. Before her lay an open lawn dotted with a few evergreens. Next to her was the public restroom. Only the vivid memories in her head and the lack of pain in her hollowed abdomen told her it wasn’t just some fever dream.

She glanced around before prostrating again.

She repeated the motion twice more. Only then did she take out her phone and check the notifications as she walked out of the park.

———

Meanwhile, Lin Xiusong was on the phone with Yi Ling. “We haven’t found her yet. I don’t know where she went. Alright, I’ll take her to see you as soon as she’s ba—”

The sound of the front door opening stopped Lin Xiusong mid-sentence. She looked over to see her sister entering with a dazed expression. The dress on her wasn’t the one she wore this morning.

Yu Haowei, who had been sitting idly in the living room, stood up immediately. He feigned worry, “Xiao Zhu, where did you go?”

“Mr. Yi, she’s back. I’ll talk to you later.” The older woman hung up the phone in a hurry and rushed to her sister.

Lin Xiuzhu stared at her blankly. A light haze was forming in her eyes, swirling with all of her sorrow and longing. She had only been in a slumber for a little while, but it felt like an eternity.

“Sister, I’m back,” she let out a sorrowful cry.

The eyes that spoke of fragility, the melancholic expression—who was this other than the real Lin Xiuzhu? Her primary ego really had returned! It only took the older woman a moment before pulling the young lady into a bear hug.

“Xiao Zhu, welcome back.”

The sisters had forgone years of miscommunication and accepted each other wholeheartedly. Whoever was inside her sister, it was great to have her back.

Yu Haowei watched the scene unfold, standing in silence. He tightened his fist repeatedly. His jaw was starting to get sore from how hard he was clenching it. These weren’t reactions of worry or being touched, but an overwhelming surge of excitement. He had asked around over the past few days and confirmed that Lin Xiuzhu suffered from dissociative identity disorder.

That madwoman who killed without batting an eye wasn’t Lin Xiuzhu at all. It was her alter ego.

What did it mean to him now that the alter ego was done and the primary ego was back?

It meant freedom; it meant control; it meant the days of doing as he pleased were back! He knew which angles would get him the best blood splatter from her nose. He knew what to say to her to get her to cry her heart out.

Lin Xiuzhu was his bitch! And now, that bitch had finally come home!

The man who had been pushed to his limit by Wu Yaya lowered his head and revealed a subtle wicked grin.

After the heartfelt embrace with her sister, the young lady turned her attention to her boyfriend. No, he was already her fiancé.

He lifted his head at the same time, staring at this frail woman with heated eyes. He approached while maintaining a predatory eye contact.

Sensing something amiss, Lin Xiusong snapped at the man, “What do you want?” It just came to her that the primary ego didn’t have it in her to deal with this scum.

Lin Xiuzhu, however, stepped out from behind her sister and ran toward him.

Yu Haowei welcomed her with wide-open arms and a triumphant smile. He wouldn’t mind letting her hand a brief hug before punching her hard. He was about to get back at Lin Xiuzhu the pain Wu Yaya caused him a hundredfold!

Just then, the young lady in his arm sank her teeth into his neck, tearing at the soft flesh like a beast.

The man let out a chilling shriek. Blood soon covered his neck and half of his body.

Lin Xiusong was shocked.

What the older woman didn’t know was that Wu Yaya left Lin Xiuzhu with one last piece of advice before returning her memories, “Go and reunite with your love. Hug him with the strength that promises no tomorrow. Restrain him with all abandon. Give him all the undying devotion he craves. Devour his flesh and bones. Remain entangled like this for all eternity. Live as one, die as one. This is the love you seek.”

The young lady, who didn’t know how to please Yu Haowei to receive his love, saw from the memories Wu Yaya bestowed on her a tender and caring side to the man.

Unaware that all his tenderness and care were a facade, she took Wu Yayaya's teachings as gospel truth.

It turned out that she was using the wrong method. She should love like her God had done—more direct, more fierce, and more crazed. That was how to get Yu Haowei to treat her like he did in her new memories.

So, she obeyed Wu Yaya’s advice.

She clamped onto his body with all her strength and ripped out a chunk of flesh from his neck, chewing it voraciously before swallowing it. Her eyes locked on him with a crazed obsession. “Haowei, I love you. We’ll be together even in death,” was her profession of love.

Yu Haowei only wanted to writhe around on the ground in pain. He felt his life had been plunged into a colder, deeper well.

The newly returned Lin Xiuzhu had gone mad, too.

No, she was even crazier than the Wu Yaya from before. At least, Wu Yaya wouldn’t bite off his flesh and swallow it.

It was that moment that Yu Haowei’s hope of regaining his superiority was nipped in the bud by the realization that he had no escape. No matter who was in this body. Not for the rest of his life.