Indeed, this impulse was no mere hallucination.
It was truly guiding her closer to them. Upon waking in the hospital, a cacophony of white noise had incessantly echoed in her mind. Initially, she had dismissed it as tinnitus, a sensation she’d experienced before during fevers—that same persistent hum.
However, she soon realized this was no common earache-induced ringing. This noise possessed a distinct ‘spatiality,’ as if emanating from a specific point in the external world.
Yet, Xiao Ye quickly determined that only she could perceive this sound. The awake security guards remained oblivious, and none of the sleeping patients stirred.
Crucially, there was no ‘overlap’ between the sounds. The various noises of the real world existed in parallel to the one reverberating within her mind, utterly devoid of any mixing effect.
Although she had never formally studied music theory, as a drummer, she had listened to and analyzed countless pieces, allowing her to discern whether music was performed live or synthesized from individual instrument tracks.
This peculiar phenomenon clearly resembled the latter. As she gently pushed open the door, the creaking sound and the internal noise seemed to be received in distinct areas of her brain.
A more unsettling reality was that this noise, despite not being any recognizable language, appeared to convey a message.
Just like a school bell, even without explicitly stating, ‘Class is starting, students,’ everyone would instinctively rush back to their classrooms.
At that moment, the noise, much like a bell, carried an urgent, tense emotion, akin to a distress signal.
A distress call? But from whom? The answer was self-evident. Her two companions were gone from the room.
—However, such deduction was unnecessary.
For this noise seemed to contain even more information.
Including… the identity of that person.
****
Running and stumbling, the two of them reached Keke’s building in under three minutes.
Using a key, they opened the iron gate on the ground floor, closing it immediately but leaving it unlocked.
Zombies, presumably, wouldn’t know how to pick a lock.
“Is this an apartment building?” the Doctor inquired.
“It was meant to be a guesthouse, complete with a restaurant, a clothing store, a teahouse, and a fishing tackle shop.”
“Did your cousin do all this?”
“How could that be? The house belongs to my great-uncle on my mother’s side. He gave my cousin a room to live in so she’d be closer to school. He’s very fond of us cousins, though; he funded our band. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have been able to afford it.”
The four-story brick house was nearly finished with renovations, save for a few empty rooms.
Keke’s room was on the fourth floor. Such a lively girl truly didn’t seem to mind the arduous climb.
The room was filled with various items, but a long case on the living room table immediately caught their eye.
Jing Lan opened the case, revealing, as expected, a black compound bow.
“Seventy pounds… She really thinks I can draw a bow with such a heavy draw weight. Does she want me to go hunting?”
“Now, you might actually need to hunt. Though the prey won’t be edible.” The Doctor was admiring the photos on the adjacent wall.
“By the way, who are these characters? Is this you and your sister cosplaying?”
“Ah, those are the champion skins from EDG’s victory in 2021. I’m Aphelios, and Keke is Zoe. That was at a comic convention at the end of the year…”
His voice suddenly trailed off. The Doctor turned around. “What’s wrong?”
“N-nothing. I just remembered that she made me promise that if LPL won the championship, I had to ‘come out’.”
“So, did you ‘come out’? You look quite happy in the photos.”
Jing Lan tested the bowstring, then, nocking a willow-leaf arrow, aimed at a target in the corner. “She’s a born leader; she always finds a way to make people follow her rhythm and get swept up in her emotions. Sometimes, I’m actually a little afraid of her… Her drive can be quite overwhelming.”
He released an arrow, not putting much force into it. Yet, it effortlessly pierced a water bottle.
“So you get along better with that white-haired girl?”
“What are you talking about? We’ve only just met.”
The Doctor chuckled softly. “Sometimes, divine will arrives quite suddenly.”
“…”
“You said that the moment you touched that stone, she could sense you. See? Isn’t that a miracle? She must be the partner promised to you by the gods, and that stone is a divine sign proving their intent, indicating that a supernatural force has already intervened in your destiny.”
Jing Lan lowered the compound bow, rubbing his temples.
“Please, I’m about to lose it. We have different ways of thinking; could we perhaps talk less about these mystical things?”
The Doctor waved a hand, a wry smile on their face. “Alright.”
In truth, a hint of panic stirred within Jing Lan at that moment.
He understood one thing clearly: the Doctor’s perspective was astute. The stone given to him by the Japanese teacher seemed to possess a truly bizarre power.
At the granary, it had driven a strange white-haired enemy warrior to madness.
And now, it seemingly allowed the white-haired girl to track his location.
While this couldn’t directly overturn the worldview of someone who was fundamentally a materialist—given that his scientist mother had recounted numerous tales of strange occurrences eventually explained by science since Jing Lan’s childhood—
For instance, the sudden appearance of goldfish in a pond overnight in a certain place had turned out to be the result of a tornado sweeping them in from another fish farm.
On the other hand, believing the unknown *could* be explained did not equate to having already conquered the terror of the unknown.
And it wasn’t just the unknown; even his familiar friends were…
“Furthermore, I forbid you from saying anything about a girl destined for me by heaven. She has every right to choose her own friends and partners—”
Before he could finish, Jing Lan noticed Xiao Ye standing at the doorway.
The girl was covered in bloodstains, breathing heavily.
However, she didn’t let the awkward silence linger, offering a faint smile and a nod.
****
Time was pressing, so the trio had no intention of resting. Jing Lan quickly adjusted the compound bow, fitted the arrowheads, and fine-tuned the fall-away arrow rest.
“What’s that?”
Xiao Ye leaned closer, pointing to a small mechanism in the middle of the bow riser. “What’s that?”
“It’s a fall-away arrow rest, made by joining two magnets at their like poles. The repulsive force keeps the rest taut. The moment an arrow is shot, the force erupts, causing the magnets to drop away. By the time the arrow leaves, the rest has already fallen, eliminating friction and significantly improving accuracy.”
“That’s amazing.” The girl gently touched the arrow rest, and indeed, it dropped slightly with a soft ‘thunk’.
“Actually, your close-combat abilities are far more incredible, aren’t they? I genuinely can’t imagine any martial arts teacher willingly instructing a small, albino individual, let alone successfully teaching them.”
The girl let out a soft snort of laughter. “That’s so mean! You make it sound like I have no talent. No teacher would bother if I had no talent.”
Silently observing her friend, Xiao Ye finally spoke again.
“Oh, by the way, there’s something I need to tell you—something you might find hard to believe—”
“You can sense my location.” Jing Lan interjected mercilessly.
“!”
Taking the stone from his pocket, Jing Lan briefly recounted the entire situation.
“Keke said it was topaz, right…”
“Never mind that for now. I think what’s truly important is—”
Something cold flickered in Jing Lan’s gaze.
“Do you truly not know what’s going on with your white hair?”
Of course, Xiao Ye genuinely didn’t know.
A small stone, summoning white hair?
What kind of ‘Chinese people’s happy stone’ was this?
It was utterly ridiculous!
“I don’t believe it, senior. Pick it up again and see if I react.”
Jing Lan clenched the stone, holding it before him.
“Well? Do you feel anything?”
Xiao Ye tried to ‘sense’ something.
“Nothing at all.”
The Doctor, standing nearby, clapped their hands softly.
“My dear two, if you haven’t forgotten the purpose of this trip, I suggest we make haste.”
Indeed, they wouldn’t discover anything significant in such a short amount of time.
They quickly gathered the bows and arrows, along with some medicines collected from the rooms.
The trio also stumbled upon a few other treasures.
A recurve bow.
“This is Keke’s. She doesn’t like compound bows. Let’s take it for her.”
A short, one-point-two-meter Miao Dao, its blade slender and razor-sharp, honed to a chilling gleam, bore twelve Cuan script characters inscribed upon it:
‘Law without Dao Ming, a blade sharp as waves, a gift to fellow disciples’
“What does it mean?” Xiao Ye asked.
“It seems this belongs to Keke as well. Dao Ming Jushi is Keke’s and my senior martial brother; he’s a blacksmith, but he studies Buddhist teachings instead of martial arts. The characters are in Cuan script, created by the Cuan family during the late Han and Three Kingdoms period. Their ancestor, Cuan Xi, was a general under Zhuge Liang. My mother and Keke share the surname Cun, a simplified form descended from the Cuan family. Using Cuan script for this inscription is quite ingenious.”
As he spoke, he handed the blade to Xiao Ye. “You can take a look, but be careful; it has some weight to it.”
The moment he finished speaking, Xiao Ye took the blade, her hands reflexively shifting to a two-handed grip as she adopted a stance.
Jing Lan froze.
“Uh, did your master teach you swordplay?”
“This…”
Xiao Ye suddenly realized.
“Yes! They did teach me.”
“Your ready stance is frighteningly precise. Keep this blade; it might prove invaluable later.”
With their gear secured, the group descended to the ground floor.
Conveniently, there were clothes prepared for the clothing store. They each changed into a fresh outfit. Jing Lan and the Doctor opted for black quick-dry jackets, while Xiao Ye changed into a hooded plaid jacket—finally shedding the strange and already soiled cosplay attire.
Xiao Ye also took the opportunity to change her shoes at the fishing tackle shop. There happened to be Hunter rain boots, but upon putting them on, she found herself suddenly even shorter, causing the girl to frantically clutch her hair in dismay.
“Oh my god… How did I become so tiny?”
However, the fishing tackle shop also stocked classic chunky-heeled Hunter rain boots. Slipping into the high-heeled ankle boots, her height finally returned to a reassuring level.
“Are you sure you won’t trip wearing ten-centimeter heels?” Jing Lan asked.
“Have you ever seen me trip?”
****
In a corner beneath the stairs on the ground floor sat a motorcycle.
Jing Lan took the driver’s seat, while the Doctor sat behind them.
As for the white-haired girl… she had to squeeze into his embrace.
“I’m truly sorry about this. If I happen to touch any sensitive areas later, please accept my apologies in advance.”
Tucked into Jing Lan’s embrace, Xiao Ye felt a peculiar sensation.
A mental inertia still held sway: ‘I’m a boy, so it doesn’t matter if I’m pressed against another boy.’
Yes, the voice in her mind, even now, remained a boy’s.
‘Heavens, what exactly am I?’
The motorcycle roared to life, carrying the trio into the depths of the fading night.
‘What if Senior… falls for me?’
She had never truly considered this question before.
Was it because she was so accustomed to being good friends with him that she hadn’t promptly considered their altered relationship?
Or perhaps, did she genuinely believe she was an entirely new person, disconnected from the former ‘Ling Yechen’?
What was so wrong with simply forgetting her past and living as a girl?
And being able to grow closer to her most important friend…
“Careful, there seems to be a Night Demon ahead.”
No sooner had the Doctor’s warning left their lips than Jing Lan brought the motorcycle to a halt.
“Aren’t we just going to charge through?” the Doctor asked.
“Too risky. We’re very close to the parking lot; we’ll walk the rest of the way!”
Xiao Ye drew Keke’s blade. “Then I’ll lead the way!”
The flashlight beam swept around, revealing zombies rapidly converging from all directions.
“The Night Demon is over there!” the Doctor pointed, guiding them. Jing Lan drew the compound bow to its maximum—a key advantage of compound bows is that a full draw doesn’t require additional pulling force—then released an arrow towards the Night Demon’s abdomen.
This time, he used an expandable mechanical broadhead; upon entering the target’s body, several razor-sharp blades instantly sprang forth from the arrow, mutilating the target’s flesh into a bloody mess.
Some vital organs in the Night Demon’s upper abdomen were likely shredded by the broadhead, as black blood gushed from the wound.
Judging by the sheer destruction to its flesh, the broadhead was almost more potent than an M43 bullet.
Clutching the Miao Dao, Xiao Ye charged towards the common zombies, attempting to recall how to wield the blade, but no memory surfaced.
Yet, the moment her hand moved, it was as if an automatic combat mode had engaged. A set of exceptionally fierce and precise sword techniques flowed forth seamlessly, akin to a skilled butcher carving an ox; she avoided clashing with the bones still within the zombies, instead precisely slitting their throats, draining their blood, and causing them to fall silent on the ground.
Slashing and fighting their way through, the group quickly neared the parking lot.
Survivors, alerted by the commotion, also sprang into action. Keke had already climbed onto a stone pillar beside the main gate, providing covering fire for the trio with her P22 pistol. With suppressive fire, things became significantly simpler. The three swiftly entered the parking lot through the large iron gate, which immediately swung shut behind them.
“Well done.” Keke playfully saluted, touching two fingers to her temple. “That person is still alive, but a part of them died.”
Xiao Ye flicked the blood from her blade, then slid the knife back into its sheath.
“Wave-Clearer! Oh my goodness, you brought it too.”
Keke delightedly took her blade, drew the keen edge to inspect it, then sheathed it once more and tucked it back into Xiao Ye’s arms.
“But it seems to have found a more suitable master.”
“Huh? This blade, for me?” Xiao Ye asked, surprised.
“Keep it.” Jing Lan was preparing to guide Doctor Gu to treat the injured. “Having the blade with you now will maximize our combat effectiveness.”
Saying so, he handed the recurve bow to Keke.
“Hey, I like this one. So, do you like your special weapon, dearest brother?”
“Next time, something automatic would be better.” Jing Lan replied without looking back.
“Tsk.”
****
Keke seemed eager to grow closer to Xiao Ye. They were both girls, after all. And Keke knew Xiao Ye and Ling Yechen were classmates, perhaps wanting to mourn her deceased friend.
But Xiao Ye claimed she wanted to rest and walked away alone.
The moon had already dipped below the horizon, and the sky was unusually dark. Dawn had not yet arrived, and the air grew colder.
Xiao Ye sat alone in a corner of the parking lot, on a seat originally designated for the toll collector.
A recently confirmed fact, one she couldn’t evade.
‘Just as Junior Lan confirmed upstairs at the farmhouse before I became a girl, I attract zombies to constantly approach me.’
‘Even after becoming a girl, this constitution doesn’t seem to have changed.’
During the previous zombie surge in the parking lot, why had some zombies stopped downstairs, as if sensing something upstairs?
After leaving the hospital, she had even noticed zombies seemingly congregating around her unconsciously.
‘Being with me only brings misfortune. I once almost got Junior Lan bitten. It served me right to die. I never thought that even after dying and becoming someone else, I’d still be like this.’
A familiar sensation.
‘Still the same.’ ‘Nothing can change.’ ‘I might as well…’
‘…just die.’
The voices that used to echo in her mind during depressive episodes.
The difference was, now, these voices no longer clamored aimlessly; they seemed to have found a direction, intending to offer a strategy for action.
‘I can’t let Junior Lan and Keke know who I am. I also can’t let them fall for me.’
‘They would risk life and limb for someone they believe is important. But I am absolutely not worth it.’
Her hand, gripping the blade, slowly tightened.
‘I will protect my companions, but I will not burden them.’
‘I will face all of this alone, and I will not let you toy with my will!’
The white-haired girl trembled slightly as she stood, gazing into the depths of the night.
As if an enemy named ‘Fate’ resided there.