Chapter 4: Together Forever… Just kidding!

Hua Qi’an’s hand moved faster than her thoughts, twisting the faucet shut.

She then whipped around to look behind her.

Nothing there.

No anomalies.

At the same time, the white frame on the camera settled down.

Hua Qi’an looked helplessly at her old phone, which she’d been using for four or five years now…

“Scaring myself.”

She lowered her gaze to the crimson-tinged water that had gushed from the sink moments ago.

It now pooled in the basin.

Hua Qi’an picked up her phone and aimed it at the water in the sink for a shot.

“Blood water?”

When she reached out and twisted the faucet open again, the water that flowed out was the same color as before.

Not an illusion.

A salty, damp smell wafted up through the air once more, and Hua Qi’an’s brows instinctively furrowed.

“It seems the pipes are old and rusted, and the flow is carrying iron oxide, turning the water red…”

Her words cut off abruptly.

Her eyes locked tightly on the faucet.

There, a dark shadow was writhing…

Thump… thump… thump…

The surroundings were so quiet that Hua Qi’an could hear the faint beating of her own heart.

A long, black, ribbon-like thing slowly dangled down from the faucet’s mouth.

Mixed with the crimson water, the ribbon looked utterly eerie.

Her lashes trembled faintly.

A suffocating sensation, like drowning, surged into her chest.

Hua Qi’an reached out and shut off the faucet.

As the water ceased, the ribbon-like thing drooped further.

Then, cautiously, Hua Qi’an touched the dangling thing…

The slender black ribbon, somehow, coiled around her finger, carrying with it a swirling salty-fishy odor…

“Waterweed…”

But her mind went blank, completely forgetting to shake it off.

A wave of nausea suddenly rose in her throat.

Urgh…

She felt like vomiting.

The nightmare from last night…

The scene at the window…

The waterweed wrapped around her hand suddenly twisted into something grotesque and terrifying.

This was too weird, wasn’t it?

Why…

Was there so much waterweed…?

She hadn’t even been fishing…

“…Fishing?”

Murmuring those two words.

In a daze, a memory blurred by time flooded into her mind.

For some reason, the bathroom scene before her began to distort.

…

[Late Return, look!]

The girl’s voice carried an irrepressible laugh.

Her gaze fell on a fish that had bitten the hook and been yanked into an environment not its own.

Deprived of water, it still thrashed desperately.

It seemed… like she was the one speaking?

The girl’s voice clearly spilled uncontrolled from her own throat.

Hua Qi’an stared blankly at the scenes unfolding before her like an autoplaying film—“memories.”

Strange.

Wasn’t she still recording the video?

How could…

[Ah, why is there so much waterweed…]

Looking at the fish tangled in waterweed in her hand, the voice’s owner—that is, herself—sounded at a loss.

Then, the person called “Late Return” appeared in her view.

But Hua Qi’an somehow couldn’t make out her face clearly.

Was it because time had blurred the memory?

But why, even without seeing her face clearly, did a wave of… sorrow still well up in her heart?

[Hehehehe… Well, Qi’an did suddenly snatch the little fish out of the water, after all…]

A livelier, more playful voice, different from the girl’s, rang in her ear…

[If this little fish were you, Qi’an, I’d definitely cling to you just as tightly as this waterweed, refusing to let go…]

Though the words sounded a bit odd, the body’s owner at the time hadn’t paid it any mind.

[Eh? Don’t worry, Late Return—I won’t let anyone steal me away.]

[Let’s be best friends for life!]

She must have been smiling so brightly back then.

…

The scene before her suddenly froze.

Pulling back.

The memory shattered at some point.

Snapping back to reality, Hua Qi’an realized she was still staring dazedly at the vibrant waterweed coiled around her hand.

“…”

Instead of flinging it off, she gripped it gently, pressing her palm to her chest.

For some reason, she felt a twinge of guilt.

Sorry, Late Return.

She had lied, after all.

She’d already known back then that she was leaving.

She’d only said those words to cheer her up.

Forever and all that—it was just kid stuff, a joke to take lightly.

By now, she’d probably made new friends and forgotten all about her.

Maybe it was an illusion.

But she felt like the waterweed in her palm twitched.

As if it meant to snap her finger.

But what could a frail strand of waterweed do?

Hua Qi’an chalked it up to her recent poor rest causing another hallucination.

She frowned slightly, then brushed the waterweed to the floor like trash.

The floor was thick with dust.

The moment it landed, the waterweed picked up grime.

But Hua Qi’an no longer spared it a glance.

She’d just gotten sentimental out of nowhere.

The scene here had nothing to do with her memory, really.

She washed her hands and arm with the clean water now flowing from the faucet.

The icy liquid flowed over her skin, and Hua Qi’an’s thoughts drifted once more to that year by the river, touching the water…

Though she wondered how Late Return was doing these days…

Two years older than her, she’d probably graduated by now and found a decent job back home.

Her abilities were so strong, after all.

It was a shame they’d been kids then and hadn’t exchanged contact info.

Hua Qi’an picked up her phone and checked the time.

Less than three minutes had passed.

So her sudden plunge into memory hadn’t disrupted reality much.

The camera’s white frame was a built-in system feature; it wouldn’t show up in the final edit.

She couldn’t review the footage to confirm if what happened earlier was real.

To an unknowing observer, she must have looked utterly neurotic just now.

Perhaps it was the earlier incident souring her mood.

An inexplicable irritability stirred in Hua Qi’an’s heart.

She glanced at the recording time—it was long enough already.

After a moment’s thought, she’d covered all the wanderable spots inside the house.

She reached out and hit pause on the recording.

She’d film a few more clips of other areas later and hand them all off for editing.

Looking up, she happened to glance in the mirror.

“Gah!”

Her pupils contracted sharply.

Hua Qi’an sucked in a sharp breath; her heart rate must have spiked past 180.

Her body froze in place, unable to move.

Her gaze locked rigidly on one corner of the mirror.

A woman whose face couldn’t be made out had, at some point, appeared silently behind her.

Was she wearing red clothes?

Hua Qi’an’s vision blurred.

Why did the base color seem to carry a hint of white?

Her mind began to blank out.

Lips pressed tight, even after the jolt of fear, Hua Qi’an stared expressionlessly at her own equally expressionless face in the mirror.

As if trying to ignore the “second presence” in the room.

But her breathing had already grown erratic, coming in labored gasps.

Exhaling, Hua Qi’an stepped back and slowly closed her eyes.

Closing her eyes wasn’t to calm her nerves, though…

“Thud!”

A muffled thump echoed through the room.

The figure that had been standing there collapsed in place.

The world plunged into darkness.