Chapter 9: Dad, I'm Hungry
“Or maybe that ‘Calamity’ was just too weak… one axe blow and it was dead for good.” Li Xiuchun offered another possibility.
Chen Tan didn’t answer. He stared at the figure in the pool of blood for a long while, then turned and pulled a kitchen cleaver from the drawer.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m going to cut open his chest and see if the heart’s still there,” Chen Tan said, his voice hoarse. “At the very least, I need to know… whether I killed a monster, or killed the salvation God sent us.”
He knelt beside Chen Ling’s corpse and worked the blade through the chest with difficulty. Li Xiuchun, face drained of color, turned and rushed into the kitchen, where she vomited violently.
A few minutes later, Chen Tan slowly rose to his feet.
“How is it?” Li Xiuchun asked.
“Empty.” Chen Tan stared at the hollow inner wall of the chest, and something like relief crossed his face. “He doesn’t have a heart.”
“No heart? Then how did he…”
“I don’t know.”
Chen Tan paused. “Whatever it was… it’s dead now.”
“What do we do with the body?”
“Hide it in the cellar… Enforcers are all over the streets. We can’t get it out.”
Chen Tan dragged the table away from the corner and lifted the heavy floorboards, revealing a dark, cramped space beneath.
In an age without refrigerators, the cellar’s natural insulation was the best way to keep food from spoiling. He was about to drop Chen Ling in when the mangled wound at the neck made him stop.
“Go get A-Yan’s opera costume,” Chen Tan said. “Whatever it is, this is A-Ling’s shell… We can’t give him a coffin, but at least we can dress him decently.”
At the mention of the costume, Li Xiuchun gave a small shudder.
“But last night… he came home wearing that very outfit…”
“It’s just a piece of clothing.” Chen Tan was about to argue, but the memory of Chen Ling’s horrifying return last night stopped him. “Forget it. Leave him as he is.”
Chen Tan dropped Chen Ling’s body into the cellar, replaced the boards, and pushed the table back over them. Only then was it done.
Next, Li Xiuchun began cleaning the blood from the house. The sight turned her stomach without fail, but she pinched her nose and kept at it.
Knock, knock, knock—
A frantic knocking suddenly rang out.
Li Xiuchun’s heart skipped a beat. She whipped around to look at Chen Tan.
“Someone’s here?”
“Ignore it. Pretend no one’s home.”
Li Xiuchun nodded. The two of them held their breath in the living room, the only sound the dull, repeated knocking.
But the knocking didn’t stop. It grew harder, more insistent—then a low voice came from the doorway:
“Enforcer inquiry! Open the door immediately!”
At the word Enforcer, both their faces went white. Chen Tan hesitated, shot Li Xiuchun a look, threw on a shirt with the buttons half done, and walked to the door.
Creeeak—
The door opened a crack.
Chen Tan slipped out sideways and pulled the door shut behind him. “Enforcer, sir—is something the matter?”
A fine drizzle fell from the leaden sky. Two figures in black-and-red uniforms stood outside, their expressions dark.
“We knocked for that long. Why didn’t you open?”
“I was asleep. Took a bit to get dressed.” He gave a sheepish smile.
The two Enforcers glanced at his half-buttoned shirt and relaxed a little. “Is this Chen Ling’s home?”
“…Yes.”
“Where is he?”
“He left this morning. Hasn’t come back.”
“When he returns, give him this notice.” One Enforcer drew a document from his coat. “Districts Two and Three are under full lockdown. All reserve Enforcers who passed the written exam are being temporarily called up. He’s on the list.
Report to the District Three Enforcer Headquarters at seven tomorrow morning. No-show means he forfeits his place.”
Chen Tan’s heart lurched, but his face didn’t change as he took the notice and nodded.
“Understood. I’ll make sure he gets it.”
The two Enforcers turned and left. Chen Tan breathed a silent sigh of relief.
He pushed the door open and stepped inside.
Screech— screech—
The moment he entered, a harsh metallic scraping reached his ears, like sharp nails dragged across a blackboard. Chen Tan’s hair stood on end.
Li Xiuchun was pressed into the corner of the room, shaking all over.
When she saw Chen Tan come back, her nearly shattered eyes finally lifted. Slowly, she raised a hand and pointed toward the kitchen…
There, a crimson figure stood with its back to them, head bowed, as if chewing on something.
At the sight of that silhouette, Chen Tan’s mind went blank.
It was the boy whose neck had been all but severed. The raw red flesh was visibly knitting itself back together. In his left hand he held a kitchen cleaver; in his right, a bloodstained axe. He was shoving both into his mouth…
As if sensing Chen Tan’s return, the figure in the great red opera robe slowly turned around.
It was Chen Ling. Chen Ling, heartless, nearly decapitated.
His cheeks bulged as he chewed with effort through the splinters of metal and wood. His unfocused eyes were like a beast’s—eerie, and utterly cold.
“Dad.”
A voice sounded from behind him. “I’m hungry…”
…
Chen Ling dreamed.
It was an afternoon under a sky choked with dark clouds.
As usual, he’d finished training at the suburban martial grounds, soaked in sweat, and pushed open the front door.
It wasn’t his birthday, yet a cream cake sat on the dining table… Orange candlelight flickered through the dim living room. Two figures sat at the table, their eyes rimmed red.
A cream cake cost two hundred copper coins—an expense their family could never normally afford.
Puzzled, he asked what day it was.
His parents told him it was the eve of his younger brother A-Yan’s surgery.
He was overjoyed. His brother’s congenital heart disease had been the nightmare hanging over their family. To cure him, his parents and he had run everywhere, begging for help, but every clinic had been helpless.
A few days ago, his parents said they’d found a hospital in District Two and sent his brother there. They were confident it could be cured.
At the good news, he happily finished the cake. But soon his mind began to swim, and he slumped onto the table. The last thing he saw was his mother, Li Xiuchun, covering her mouth, sobbing.
“I’m sorry… I’m so sorry.” He heard his father’s whisper. “A-Yan’s illness needs a heart… You’d be willing, wouldn’t you?”
He opened his mouth, as if to answer, but the darkness took him first.
Then he felt himself stuffed into a bag. Rain pattered hard against the surface. After a long time, he was lifted onto some table.
He felt his chest cut open, and something taken out.
After that, someone dressed him in a garment and moved him through the pouring rain to somewhere else. Heavy soil gradually buried his body, and everything around him sank into darkness and silence…
…
In the dark, Chen Ling’s eyes snapped open.
Overhead, spotlights flared to life one after another, illuminating the red-robed figure lying at the center of the stage. After a moment of disorientation, Chen Ling braced his hands against the floor and staggered to his feet.
“Damn it… how did I end up back here?”
Chen Ling’s face was pale. His gaze instinctively fell on the screen at the center of the stage, and his pupils contracted.
[Audience Expectation +1]
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[Actor Connection Lost. Performance Interrupted.]
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[Warning! Warning!]
[Audience Has Begun to Intervene in the Performance!]