“…Are you a vampire from some early European story? I need to give you permission to come over?”
Wen Zhi had been delighted and surprised to meet someone familiar in an unfamiliar place, but the girl’s strange request threw him off.
The words he’d been about to say caught in his throat.
But thinking of her usual behavior, he decided it wasn’t surprising that she’d say something like that.
After all, Wei Wei was a problem child who’d given up a life of luxury, run away from home, and gone off alone to the mountains to try hardcore survivalism.
Though she wasn’t part of the group of students Wen Zhi was actually responsible for, she was still one of his unofficial students.
“That’s different. I’m a principled survival expert, unlike someone who trespassed in my base without permission back then.”
“I always get permission before entering someone else’s territory.”
The wheat-skinned girl blinked and replied with righteous conviction.
Wei Wei’s logic was as erratic as ever, which left Wen Zhi amused and exasperated.
He stopped bantering with her, rubbed his forehead, and sighed.
“All right, all right. You win. I give you permission to come over…”
“Ding (O.O;)!”
Ghost was nearly frantic.
Just now, it had watched Wen Zhi talking to that eerie, ominous figure, and it had made Ghost uneasy.
As far as Ghost could tell, Wen Zhi seemed to know this thing.
At first, Ghost had wondered if Wen Zhi knew some other kind of abnormal creature.
But when it gritted its teeth and chose to probe Wen Zhi’s thoughts, it discovered that from Wen Zhi’s perspective, he was just chatting with another human.
And this thing, which seemed capable of altering people’s perceptions, was trying to coax Wen Zhi into telling it to “come in.”
Though its memories were incomplete, Ghost had an extensive store of occult knowledge.
In its Impression, many malevolent, metaphysical entities needed some kind of “permission” from their victims before they could harm them.
This thing’s behavior seemed to fit that pattern.
That terrified Ghost, so it hurried to warn Wen Zhi.
Wen Zhi turned his head and looked at Ghost, who’d interrupted him, with some surprise.
For some reason, he noticed that Ghost’s emoticon looked especially frightened.
Besides that, Ghost kept drifting toward the Diary, as if it wanted Wen Zhi to open it immediately.
At the same time, the Diary tied to Wen Zhi’s waist had grown unusually hot.
‘Does it have something really important to tell me?’
His thoughts flashed by like lightning as Wen Zhi considered Ghost’s intentions.
Without realizing it, he placed a hand on the Diary.
“Teacher, what are you looking at?”
The girl’s youthful, lively voice, slightly husky and pleasant, sounded beside him.
Wen Zhi whipped around, his pupils widening in alarm.
He realized that Wei Wei, who’d been 10 meters away just a moment ago, was now right beside him, almost face-to-face.
The sweet breath unique to a girl brushed his neck, raising goose bumps all over.
How had she walked over without making a sound?
A faint sense of unease took root in Wen Zhi’s heart.
Perhaps because she was so close, her pretty face looked distorted and unreal from his perspective.
The flickering firelight blurred the details of her features, making her face hazy and strange.
It even seemed as though it might peel away and melt at any moment.
Wen Zhi’s unease grew stronger, until it became an involuntary suspicion—
‘Was that really a human face?’
Wen Zhi felt dazed, but the next moment, every unsettling sensation disappeared.
His pupils refocused, and the girl’s strange face became familiar and warm again.
It seemed the feeling he’d just had was only an illusion.
From Wen Zhi’s perspective, Wei Wei was simply tilting her head and following his gaze with curiosity.
But she couldn’t see anything.
She scratched her head in confusion and asked,
“Teacher, is your visual hallucination problem getting worse again?”
“I’ve told you, if you’re sick, you should go to a psychiatric hospital…”
“Oww!”
Wen Zhi scowled as he withdrew the finger he’d flicked against the girl’s forehead.
Ignoring her teary-eyed expression, he sighed.
“Is that any way to talk to your teacher?”
While pretending to scold Wei Wei as though everything were normal, Wen Zhi was thinking about something else.
When Wei Wei had looked over, Ghost had still been floating in the same spot, but she seemed not to have seen anything.
So was he the only one who could see the little thing?
And what had that feeling he’d just sensed been?
Wen Zhi looked at the girl, who was puffing out her cheeks and rubbing her forehead as she glared at him.
Her mischievous appearance was unmistakable.
No matter how he looked at her, she seemed like the person he knew, not some strange thing in disguise.
Hopefully, that really had just been an illusion.
“Come on, stop acting pitiful. I didn’t flick you that hard.”
“Tch.”
The girl returned to her normal expression and stuck out her tongue at Wen Zhi.
“Wei Wei.”
“What is it, Teacher?”
“Go find a place by the campfire to sit. There’s a lot I want to talk to you about.”
Wen Zhi spoke seriously.
“Okay.”
Wei Wei didn’t talk back or fool around again.
She obediently turned and walked toward an empty spot beside the campfire.
Taking the opportunity, Wen Zhi pulled out the Diary.
He glanced at Ghost, which had curled up near his neck, seemingly uneasy because Wei Wei had come closer.
He hesitated, but finally opened the Diary.
Two pictures appeared on its pages.
One showed a man in a straw raincoat, looking delighted as he gazed at a pitch-black silhouette with a human shape.
The second showed him chatting and laughing with the humanoid shadow.
The drawings were still crude, but they had an absurd, eerie quality.
After looking at the two pictures, Wen Zhi closed the Diary without showing a reaction and tied it back to his waist.
He rubbed Ghost at his neck, signaling for it to stay quiet for a little while, then slowly walked over to where Wei Wei was sitting.
“Teacher.”
“What is it?”
“I’m really happy right now. I’m happy I got to see you here one last time.”
The girl’s voice was soft, her tone a dreamy murmur.
“…If I could choose, I wouldn’t want to meet you here.”
Wen Zhi sighed and walked up behind the girl.
The firelight fell on them, casting two shadows, one large and one small.
The larger shadow belonged to Wei Wei, and the smaller one belonged to Wen Zhi.
As the firelight flickered, the large, clawing shadow swallowed the small one.
“Teacher, do you remember when we first met?”
“You were filthy, your clothes were torn, and you were covered in blood.”
“I almost thought you were some kind of monster.”
“You weren’t any better. You were a wild woman through and through.”
“Looking at us now, our situations have switched. You look like a wild man, Teacher.”
“…”
Wen Zhi didn’t respond.
There was something strange and unsettling in the things the girl said, something that made him think twice.
But Wen Zhi didn’t want to think about it.
Some part of him still clung to hope.
Even though Wen Zhi didn’t respond, the girl kept talking to herself.
“Teacher… Those three months I spent living with you were the happiest time of my life.”
“Back then, I really thought I could live like that forever.”
“But I never expected you to betray me first.”
“You were still young… I couldn’t let you live as a wild woman for the rest of your life.”
Wen Zhi remembered that Wei Wei had held a grudge against him for a long time after that, but in the end, she’d forgiven the great liar who was so good at sweet-talking kids.
“Is that so? In the end, someone didn’t even say they were sorry.”
“I’m sorry.”
Wei Wei froze for a moment, then broke into a bright smile.
She was always optimistic and cheerful, with a sunlike charm when she smiled.
“Then I forgive you.”
The girl seemed to be in a much better mood, as if some regret had been resolved.
But suddenly, she turned her head at an unnatural angle to look at Wen Zhi behind her and asked a strange question.
“Teacher… If there were a being that could take on the form of someone it had killed, and while it was doing so, it had all of that person’s memories, feelings, and consciousness, would you say that being was that person?”
“…I think it depends on how it sees itself and how the people around it see it.”
“If it believes it’s that person, and the people around it believe it’s that person, then it is that person.”
This was practically a confession, but Wen Zhi remained calm and answered without rushing.
“And what if… that thing only took on that person’s form to cause suffering and death?”
“How would you see such a being, Teacher?”
“…At least until she reveals what she really is, I’ll still see her as that person.”
‘…So what state is she in right now?’
‘If she’s really just some kind of abnormal imitation, why is she saying all this to me?’
‘And if she isn’t, does she still have a self and a consciousness?’
The realization that his once-cheerful student seemed to have turned into a dangerous girl gave Wen Zhi a headache.
If she still thought she was herself, but simply had a tendency toward killing, Wen Zhi did have a way to handle it.
If all else failed, he could let her kill him.
It wasn’t like he could die anyway.
He’d never cared about that.
“Teacher… You’re going to get yourself into serious trouble one day.”
After hearing Wen Zhi’s answer, the girl fell silent.
Wen Zhi hesitated, then gently sat down beside Wei Wei.
As soon as Wen Zhi sat down, the girl, who had her arms wrapped around her legs, suddenly leaned against him.
Her expression was blank and dazed as she stared at the flames leaping from the logs and vanishing into sparks.
When his student suddenly leaned against him like that, Wen Zhi’s body stiffened.
But he couldn’t push Wei Wei away, and seeing her suddenly so downhearted, he found himself unable to say any of the many things he’d wanted to.
He rarely saw this cheerful girl like this.
And until he had solid proof, Wen Zhi could still… only treat the person in front of him as the one he knew.
And so, a man, a woman… and a ghost fell into a strange silence as they gazed at the burning campfire.
No one knew what the others were thinking.
Soon, dusk passed.
The eerie night descended again.
As Wen Zhi had expected, fire was indeed the right answer.
Darkness couldn’t invade the area within a 5-meter radius of the campfire.
Seeing the darkness driven back, Wen Zhi felt a weight lift from his heart.
For a moment, as he looked at the darkness in the distance, solid as a physical thing, at the light and warmth before him, and at his student leaning against him, he remembered the days they’d spent in the mountains.
He felt a vague sense of nostalgia.
Back then, the two of them had sat around a fire like this too.
If not for the thorn that had always lodged in Wen Zhi’s heart, the scene might even have seemed a little warm.
“Teacher… I kind of miss home.”
Not long after dark, Wei Wei, who’d been staring blankly at the firelight, suddenly spoke.
“That doesn’t sound like you. You weren’t like this when you were in the mountains.”
The man’s voice was gentle and warm.
“…Back then, I only wanted to escape all the rules they imposed on me.”
“But now that I’ve come to a place where they might never find me in their whole lives, I regret it.”
“I see… Do you want to go home?”
“…Yes.”
The girl buried her face between her knees.
“Then I’ll take you home.”
The answer was simple, decisive, and firm.
But in the man’s words, the girl heard a resolute confidence, as if he would definitely do it.
Wei Wei’s body stiffened.
She looked at Wen Zhi, a strange light flashing in her eyes, but then she lowered her gaze.
“…You must have guessed, Teacher. We aren’t anywhere we’ve ever known.”
“So what? You should know that when I promise something, I always deliver.”
“Pfft.”
The girl suddenly started laughing.
She held her stomach and laughed with delight.
Wen Zhi rarely saw her laugh so happily, but there was a sad glint of tears in her eyes.
Wei Wei’s laughter left Wen Zhi confused.
Was he really that unreliable in her eyes?
He’d kept every promise he’d made to her back in the mountains.
It was true that Wen Zhi had no idea how to get out of this place yet.
But if his student wanted to go home, he’d do whatever it took to make that wish come true.
That was how he had always been.
After a long while, Wei Wei stopped laughing.
Her expression turned lonely and sorrowful.
“It’s too late, Teacher… It’s too late.”
Wei Wei’s words had taken on a strange tone.
An ominous premonition rose in Wen Zhi’s heart.
“It’s not too late.”
Wen Zhi sharpened his senses and stayed on guard.
He comforted the girl with his words while tensing his muscles in case something unexpected happened.
‘…So it really is the worst-case scenario…’
“Teacher, it’s far too late… I wish I’d met you sooner.”
“I’m sorry… I’m sorry… I shouldn’t have sent you that game.”
“Otherwise, you wouldn’t have ended up in this hellhole with me.”
“No, you can’t blame yourself. If anyone’s to blame, it’s that stupid [bleep] game.”
“Pfft… I just wish I’d met you sooner.”
“I wish I’d met you before I died…”
The girl murmured, but her voice grew quieter and quieter.
Her features began to melt and distort as a black substance seeped out of her body, spread, and merged with the shadow beneath her feet.
An indescribable malice erupted from within her, and it had only one target.
The fire that symbolized light.
Wen Zhi wasn’t frightened by the unexpected sight.
Though a faint sadness and pain spread through his heart, they didn’t affect his actions.
Strength surged through his blood and into his muscles, and his already-tensed body burst into motion!
Before the shadow could reach the firelight, he charged toward Wei Wei, trying to get close enough to stop her.
“Whoosh.”
But the shadows gave Wen Zhi no chance.
A mass of winding, tangled shadows swept over his body, slicing him into 17 pieces of different sizes like a hot knife through butter.
The pieces scattered across the ground.
The difference in their strength was overwhelming.
From the moment Wen Zhi chose to answer “Wei Wei,” the outcome had already been decided.
“Thump.”
Beneath Wen Zhi’s head, his heart formed again and began to beat.
Then came his bones and muscles.
His body rebuilt itself almost instantly, and he fought to do something, anything.
As long as he could reach Wei Wei, he still had a chance.
But, just as Wei Wei had said, it was too late.
The girl’s form had completely changed.
Her pretty face had almost entirely melted away and peeled off.
Black, oil-like matter dripped from it nonstop, but the only thing left on her face, her mouth, kept opening and closing as if she were saying something to Wen Zhi.
—s…o…r…r…y
The next moment, the girl shattered completely, turning into countless chaotic shadows that snuffed out the flames.
Darkness descended once more.
Wen Zhi closed his eyes in exhaustion.