The Creatures That We Are

Chapter 11: Accident

Wang Zikai had a rope around his waist, tying him to the window of room 601 as he dangled upside down. The bullet had hit him in the chest squarely.

Qing Ling sprung to action, manipulating her dagger to cut the rope before catching Wang Zikai and dragging him into the room. She turned around and shouted at Gao Yang, “Snap back to it! Give me a hand!”

...

One minute ago.

After losing three ranked matches in room 601, Wang Zikai was hit with a sudden feeling of suspicion.

Gao Yang was famously terrible with girls! He had failed to win over his childhood friend Li Weiwei over the many years they had known each other, yet he was now getting together with Qing Ling, the goddess of their school, and came straight to a love hotel? That didn’t make any sense!

There must be something else going on between them!

Were they here to study?!

No, that wasn’t it. Qing Ling was a student athlete. Scores didn’t matter that much to her. She could still enter college through recommendation. On the other hand, Gao Yang did get decent scores, but he was never the competitive kind and wouldn’t study in secret.

Wang Zikai lay flat on the floor and pressed his ear to it for quite a while. It was too quiet downstairs. It didn’t sound like anything exciting was going on! And no one could do the do for the entire night. Gao Yang could’ve given him a call back after he’d had his fun.

That meant only one thing!

This fucker found a new ranking partner! He’s casting me away because he thinks I suck at the game! He must be playing an exciting match with Qing Ling right now!

Damn him!

Unforgivable!

That prick will never admit it if I just confront him, thought Wang Zikai, and a plan took shape in his mind. He used the bondage rope he found in the room to tie himself up. He was going to scale down from the sixth floor window and catch Gao Yang in the act!

He slowly lowered himself. Just when he was going to reach the window of room 501, the curtains parted slightly, and what looked like a gun barrel pushed out.

What the hell?

Wang Zikai didn’t have time to think about it before his foot slid off the condenser unit, and he fell. White hot pain hit his lungs the next second, and his vision went dark.

...

Wang Zikai lay on the carpet with blood gushing out of his chest. He had already lost consciousness.

“He’s losing a lot of blood!” said Qing Ling. “Get something to press it with!”

Gao Yang rushed into the bathroom and grabbed a thick towel. As soon as he covered Wang Zikai’s chest with it, his blood dyed the bottom of it red.

Taking a bullet from a sniper rifle at such close distance would’ve left a huge hole in a normal human’s chest, yet Wang Zikai seemed to have only suffered a regular shot.

He was a monster, no doubt.

“What do we do?” asked Gao Yang.

“I don’t know.” Qing Ling didn’t expect the idiot to barge in suddenly and throw a wrench in their plan.

“We have to save him,” Gao Yang said determinedly.

Qing Ling argued, “I’m not letting you get both of us killed.”

“Then what else can we do? Leave the body here? It’s on record that we booked this room. We’ll be found out sooner or later.” Gao Yang steadied his breathing to calm himself down. “He...is most likely a delusion monster.”

Delusion monsters, or wanderers, thought they were humans and might never realize the truth even until their death.

Qing Ling’s eyes flickered. She seemed to waver for a moment, but her gaze soon became icy again. She conjured a dagger in her hand. “No, we can’t take the risk. We’ll both die if he isn’t a wanderer.”

Her cousin died because he went soft on what he thought was a wanderer.

Gao Yang knew that he couldn’t convince her; he couldn’t even convince himself. Kindness to an enemy was cruelty to himself.

After a moment of silence, he clenched his teeth and looked away. “Do—”

Someone knocked.

Flinching, Gao Yang hurriedly grabbed the blanket on the water bed and covered the unconscious Wang Zikai with it.

Qing Ling shot to her feet and strode up to the door, opening it by a crack. “Who is it?”

It was the overweight man from the front desk.

With an agitated look on his face, he lowered his voice and said, “Let me in!”

“Why?” Qing Ling stared at him cautiously.

He looked around before lowering his voice further like he was telling a secret, “I know everything that happened in the room. I’m an awakener too... Let’s take this inside.”

Qing Ling took three seconds to weigh their options.

Between killing the man then and there and letting him into the room, she picked the latter.

...

The overweight man pressed both hands on Wang Zikai’s chest.

Qing Ling had already removed the bullet from his lungs. Green energy surrounded the overweight man’s hands. An endless stream of green particles entered Wang Zikai’s chest, stopping the bleeding and stitching back together the flesh torn apart by the bullet, slowly but surely.

After five minutes, the emergency treatment was done.

The man plopped down on the floor with a groan, his body drenched in sweat like he had taken a bath. Panting heavily, he felt like he was half dead from the ordeal. “Good thing that he’s a monster. Were he a human, I wouldn’t be able to save him.”

He had introduced himself while he healed Wang Zikai.

His name was Han Yingjun, but everyone called him Fat Jun. Four years ago, he awakened with Talent: Healing, serial number 45.

His parents passed away when he was young, so he was raised by his aunt. After his aunt left him as well, he, a highschool graduate with no skills under his belt, inherited her inn and gave it a dramatic renovation, turning it into a love hotel.

Qing Ling crouched down to confirm Wang Zikai’s heartbeat before telling Gao Yang, “Clean up the mess. I have things to ask this damn fatty.”

“Haha, no need to be that friendly with me. Just call me Fat Jun.”

Qing Ling turned to him. “How do you know what happened?”

Fat Jun didn’t immediately answer. Then he put on a servile smile and said, “Hehe, actually...I’ve put cameras and bugs in the room...”

Swoosh! A blade pressed into the three folds of fat under his chin, cutting him off.

Fat Jun cried out, “Don’t kill me, miss! Let me explain!”

“I’ll give you ten seconds.”

“First, I swear I don’t have cameras in the bathroom! There’s lines I’m not gonna cross!” Fat Jun wiped the sweat off his face. “And I didn’t put cameras in the rooms for my own satisfaction. I’m beyond such lowly interest...”

“Get to the point.”

“Aren’t you curious?” He pushed the blade away from his neck a little with a trembling hand. “About how the monsters act in private.”

The Tang Dao disappeared from Qing Ling’s hand. “You’ve been observing monsters?”

“Yes. My awakening shattered what I thought I knew about the world. I even questioned who my mom was!” Fat Jun threw the unconscious monster at his feet—Wang Zikai—a look. “After coming to terms with reality, I’ve been thinking: do monsters actually play humans twenty-four seven?”

“It makes sense for wanderers. Those idiots have fooled even themselves. But what about the other types of monsters? They play house every day as well? Why would they do that?” Fat Jun looked at Gao Yang. “Aren’t you curious?”

“I awakened only three days ago,” Gao Yang responded as he wiped the floor clean of blood. “I haven’t put much thought to it.”

“I put cameras in the rooms because I want to see how the monsters act when they are by themselves...” Fat Jun’s expression turned disappointed. “But lo and behold, they keep up the act even in private, and they do the nasty like humans do.”

Gao Yang and Qing Ling fell into deep thought.

“At the same time, I’ve been looking for humans too.” Fat Jun sighed. “The friend who awakened me died. I’ve been alone, but finally, now I have you! I’m so excited, so happy...”

He opened his arms wide to give Qing Ling a hug, but under the dead threat of her glare, he turned and embraced Gao Yang instead.

“I’m soooo hwaaaappy. I thought I would be alone until I die...”

He was so overwhelmed with emotions that he cried actual tears. “It’s been so hard, bro... Every time I opened my eyes, I had to put on an act. Three years passed, followed by another three years. When would the end come, if ever...?”

Gao Yang didn’t know how to comfort people. He awkwardly patted Fat Jun on his thick shoulder. “Alright, alright. It’s okay. It’s okay now.”

Then came another knock on the door.

The room fell silent.

Gao Yang and Qing Ling turned to Fat Jun, who shook his head in confusion.

After exchanging a look with Gao Yang, Qing Ling quietly pulled out her Tang Dao.

With a nod, Gao Yang walked up to the door and called out, “Who is it?”

“Housekeeping,” said the voice of an older woman.

“Housekeeping?”

“Haven't the guests in 501 checked out?”

“No. You must be mistaken.”

“Mistaken? Let me check.”

Fat Jun approached the door and patted Gao Yang’s shoulder, whispering, “It’s okay. That’s Auntie Ho, a cleaner I hired. She isn’t the brightest tool in the shed.”

“Oh... I’m sorry, it should be 401. I saw it wrong. Hehe.” As he said, Auntie Ho apologized from the other side of the door.

“It’s alright.”

The moment Gao Yang uttered the word, he felt a shudder run down his spine.

He whirled around and tackled Fat Jun. “Watch out!”