The Creatures That We Are

Chapter 154: Possibility

“Fresh Snow, won’t your sister worry?” Gao Yang asked again.

“Sister sleeps, sometimes for a long time. She won’t notice that I sneak out for fun.” Fresh Snow responded without thinking too much about it since her attention was on the game.

Gao Yang fell into thought.

“Huh? Huuuuuh?! How?!” Wang Zikai started yelling again. “This doesn’t count! It doesn’t count at all! My controller stopped working for a moment there!”

“Hahahaha you lost again!” Fresh Snow jumped around on the sofa happily. “You dummy! Big dummy!”

“Dang it! Again!” Wang Zikai seethed. He had never been humiliated like this.

“Why don’t you give it a break?” Gao Yang turned to Wang Zikai.

“No!” Wang Zikai insisted. “Another round!”

Gao Yang said, “I’m hungry. Is there any food?”

“Oh, yeah, there is.” Wang Zikai threw the controller away and turned to walk into the kitchen, but not before calling out over his shoulder, “Just you wait, Fresh Snow! I’m gonna wipe the floor with you!”

A few minutes later, Wang Zikai emerged from the kitchen with three cans of chilled soda and a plate of microwaved fried chicken wings.

Gao Yang opened a can of coke and took a sip. Then he turned to Fresh Snow. “You wanna try?”

He wanted to know how a Spectre differed from awakeners, such as if they ate human food.

Fresh Snow looked at the can of cola and hesitated before nodding.

“I wanna try.”

Gao Yang was just about to grab a can for her when she reached out to take Gao Yang’s and took a careful sip.

And promptly broke into a coughing fit.

“You alright?” Gao Yang was surprised.

After coughing, Fresh Snow looked up at Gao Yang with glinting eyes and beamed. “It’s so good!”

Both Wang Zikai and Gao Yang gaped.

“Girl, you haven’t had cola at this age?” Wang Zikai’s expression was a mix of sympathy and shock.

Fresh Snow ignored him and took another sip, holding the can of cola with both hands. This time, she didn’t cough.

Eyes slightly narrowed, she smiled contently. “This is the best.”

“You have never had it?” Gao Yang repeated the question.

Fresh Snow shook her head. “Sister didn’t let me have human food.”

“Why?”

“It weakens us,” said Fresh Snow. “Sister said that ghosts must not get weak, or we’ll be hurt.”

Wang Zikai asked, “Ghosts? What ghosts?”

“A special title. Kinda like your ID online.” Gao Yang made up lies carelessly. “Wang Zikai, do you have instant noodles at home? Mind making some for me? And it’d be great if you fry two pieces of spam on top of that.”

“I do have some. Give me a moment.” Wang Zikai got back into the kitchen.

Once Wang Zikai was out of earshot, Gao Yang asked Fresh Snow, “What do you usually eat then?”

“People,” Fresh Snow said simply.

Gao Yang suppressed a jump. “People?”

“Yeah.” Fresh Snow’s big eyes blinked. “We don’t need food, but we have to feed on people. It makes us stronger and live longer.”

It was eerie to hear such terrifying words from a pretty girl like her.

Ghosts ate people. They got stronger and could live longer. Did that make them some kind of vampires? Did Spectres kill awakeners for food?

“Do you eat them as in eating their bodies?” Gao Yang asked.

“No.” Fresh Snow shook her head. “We eat their energy.”

Fuck! I knew it!

Spectres were awakeners too, after all, only a special breed of awakeners. They didn’t eat people like monsters did, but sucked them dry instead!

Gao Yang kept a straight face and continued, “Do the people you feed on die?”

“Yeah.”

Fresh Snow stared at the cola in her hand. It seemed that she wanted to drink more, but in the end, she reluctantly put it on the tea table while muttering to herself, “I can’t drink more. Sister will notice.”

“Fresh Snow,” Gao Yang made himself ask. “Have you eaten anyone?”

Fresh Snow grinned. “I haven’t.”

“Why?”

“Because they taste terrible.” Fresh Snow sounded a little disappointed. “Those I’ve bitten tasted terrible. I didn’t want to eat them.”

She suddenly approached Gao Yang and nuzzled his face with her nose. “You smell good. You must be tasty. Sister said that she would give you to me to feed on once you get stronger.”

Gao Yang’s heart sank. Shit! So they are going to fatten me up before killing me!

“Are you going to eat me in the future, Fresh Snow?” Gao Yang did his best to lighten his tone like they were making small talk.

“No!” Fresh Snow didn’t even hesitate.

“Why?”

“Because we’re good friends,” Fresh Snow said seriously. “Good friends don’t eat each other.”

“Yes! Good friends don’t eat each other!” Gao Yang was so happy he could cry. Although they got here on a strange path, at least he was out of the danger zone for now.

Then he realized something and added, “Good friends don’t let other people eat their friends either!”

“Yeah!”

Fresh Snow nodded. Suddenly, she stretched with a yawn and blinked blearily. Then she buried her face into Gao Yang’s chest. “I’m tired. I’m gonna sleep.”

Wait, what?

Is she crashing out?

“Fresh Snow? Fresh Snow?” Gao Yang called out to her softly. The girl didn’t answer. Her eyelashes fluttered as she breathed steadily, her face seemingly glowing. She had fallen asleep.

“The instant noodles are done!”

Wang Zikai walked over barefooted with each hand holding a bowl of instant noodles and two pairs of packaged disposable chopsticks between his teeth.

“Shh.”

Gao Yang put a finger to his mouth and pointed at the girl in his arms.

“Shit, asleep already? I was gonna get my revenge.” Wang Zikai sounded disappointed, but he did lower his voice.

“I’ll play with you.” Gao Yang slightly bent down to grab the controller.

“Hm.”

Fresh Snow curled into herself and rested her head on Gao Yang’s thigh.

Gao Yang played two matches with Wang Zikai. He didn’t play a lot of games, and thus lost to Wang Zikai pretty one-sidedly.

Wang Zikai found the lack of challenge boring.

“I’m done.”

Wang Zikai threw away the controller and picked up his bowl of instant noodles to inhale two mouthfuls.

Then he turned to Gao Yang like he had remembered something. “Oh, right. I had a dream two days ago, bro.”

“What dream?”

Wang Zikai frowned. “It’s weird... Forget it. There’s no reason to say it.”

“Come on. I can help you decipher it.” Gao Yang’s curiosity was piqued.

“Alright. Here goes.”

Gao Yang pricked up his ears.

Wang Zikai drew a tissue to wipe his mouth and nose. “I dreamed that I ate you.”

Gao Yang’s heart skipped.

He didn’t say anything, and he couldn’t get a good look at Wang Zikai’s face.

Head lowered, Wang Zikai said in a slightly depressed voice, “Also Qing Ling, Officer Huang, that damn fatty, and the people from the Twelve Zodiac Signs. I ate all of you and cried the whole time like a psycho.”

“Wang Zikai.” Gao Yang put on a forced smile despite the sweat covering his palms. “Don’t think too much of it. It’s just a dream. I’ve had a similar one where I turned into a zombie and went around biting people.”

“Really?” Wang Zikai looked up at him and tugged at the corner of his mouth worriedly. “But I keep thinking about it the past two days. Hey, do you think that maybe, and I do mean maybe...”

“Maybe what?” Gao Yang asked in a trembling voice.

Wang Zikai stared straight at Gao Yang, his eyes flashing with a dim light.

“Maybe I’m not human.”