I think I've fallen in love with someone. Important note: it's not Li Duidui.
Here's what happened.
On that rainy night, after Li Duidui gave me the umbrella and told me to go home, I didn't take his words to heart. I thought he was just being his usual snarky self.
So, the next day, I drew the manuscript overnight. When the images of grilled rice cakes, roasted pig brains, grilled chives, and grilled meat skewers suddenly appeared in my mind, I hesitated for a moment, but finally decided to spend some money to treat myself.
I put down my drawing pen, grabbed my keys, and went out in my coral fleece pajamas to buy barbecue.
That's the good thing about living alone: you can do whatever you want without asking for anyone's permission.
Li Duidui's building is really in a remote location. No one delivers takeout there. It's about a half-hour walk to the nearest barbecue restaurant, and it's all small paths between buildings, layer upon layer, step by step. Buying barbecue is like climbing two small mountains.
I still had my unfinished manuscript on my mind, so I hopped down the steps while mentally piecing together layouts and plotlines.
Suddenly, I heard a "creaking" sound from the corner ahead. I turned the corner and saw an old, dilapidated streetlight hanging on the power line, swaying. The light it cast drew clear boundaries of light and darkness on the ground.
Between the alternating light and shadow, a child was standing quietly facing the old wall. His shadow was like an old clock pendulum, swinging back and forth on the ground as the streetlight swayed.
I'm a comic artist who isn't very imaginative, but I'm still an artist. The moment I saw the child, I had automatically imagined ten thousand ghost stories, scaring myself into a cold sweat.
I listened to the creaking sound of the swaying streetlight and made countless mental struggles. When I saw the small school badge reflected on his school uniform, I finally calmed down a little. He was a student from a nearby elementary school.
The reality forcibly stopped my imagination train that was going further and further away.
That's right, I've lived in a non-human gathering area for so long. I've seen all kinds of non-humans, but I've never heard them mention illusory ghosts or anything like that.
I'm thinking too much.
"Little friend, what are you doing here? Why aren't you home yet, so late?"
I took a step closer to him and reached out to pat him, but before I could touch his shoulder, he turned his head.
It was a blue-purple face, with closed eyes, and heavy black circles under his eyes, no different from the eerie little ghosts in horror movies.
I gasped and stumbled back, only to land on something soft. I’d stepped on someone’s foot! Off balance, I twisted my ankle and toppled sideways. As I struggled to stand, in the shifting light, I saw a figure looming behind me.
A woman, staring at me with wide eyes!
Her skin was dry and shriveled, blue-black, and black blood vessels were crawling from her temples into her eyeballs, and her eyeballs were extremely protruding, as if they would fall out at the slightest touch.
"Crap!" I shuddered, adrenaline secreted rapidly. After spending so much time with non-humans, especially with Li Duidui, when I was frightened, my first reaction wasn't to run, but to roast her. "You scared the hell out of me!"
We stared at each other in silence.
Damn it, something's wrong. This guy isn't human, and she's different from the non-humans I know. She... she has the rotting stench of corpses on her.
A zombie.
The corpse drivers from Xiangxi lost a few zombies.
Li Peipei's words drilled out from the depths of my brain. I stared at her, listening to the sound of the swaying streetlight and the wind blowing between the buildings... I pulled out a twenty-yuan bill I was holding in my hand, and slapped it hard on her forehead, then turned around and ran.
If you ask me why I stuck twenty yuan on her, it's because that's the closest color to a yellow talisman that RMB has!
But I hadn't run two steps when the zombie seemed to have come back to her senses. I only saw the shadow cast by the streetlight on the ground flicker between light and dark, and the zombie had already pounced on me!
She shoved my shoulders hard. I tripped on a protruding brick and face-planted into the pavement, adding the weight of the woman zombie pressing down on me from behind.
I felt like my knees and nose bridge were almost broken. My nose was bleeding profusely, but I couldn't care about the pain at this time. I wiped away the blood, supported myself, and crawled forward two steps. The zombie behind me wouldn't let go. She hugged me tightly and actually climbed onto me along my legs.
She hugged my waist, and I couldn't run away. I had to turn around and desperately resist her head with both hands. She opened her mouth, wanting to bite my neck, let me bleed, let me suffocate, and then tear my flesh to eat.
I kicked my legs, but besides wasting my strength, there was no effect of resistance. I could only lie on the ground, supporting myself with my elbows, and resisting her chin with my palms, fighting desperately. The rain last night made the steps very muddy. My clothes were soaked in mud, piercingly cold, and from my muscles to my joints, everything was stiff. If I continued to stalemate, I would definitely be eaten by her.
"Zombie sister, let's make a deal." I tried to communicate with her. "I stay up all night every day, my liver isn't good, and my body is full of toxins. Don't eat me. I'll point you in a direction. Follow this road up the mountain, and there's a building there. The building there is full of fresh food!"
She ignored me, as if she couldn't understand what I was saying at all. Communication failed, so I could only call for help. As soon as I opened my mouth to shout, the zombie suddenly turned her head and bit my palm. Her teeth were so strong that they directly broke my skin and flesh. Blood seeped out from between her teeth. I wailed in pain, screaming for help.
But after shouting for a long time, in this old area waiting for demolition, there wasn't even a dog to help me bark.
That's the bad thing about living alone... if something happens to you, no one knows...
"I'll never eat barbecue again..." I choked a little. People in movies who are bitten by zombies turn into zombies. I thought my life was going to end here, and I felt very wronged. "I haven't even finished drawing my manuscript..."
"Heh."
In the silence of the night, a man’s soft chuckle drifted over.
The voice was so pleasant I thought I was imagining it. I glanced at the kid with his eyes still shut, confused. Then suddenly, I felt a golden light flash, and the weight on my body suddenly lightened.
I turned my head and saw a person wrapped in a big black robe standing beside me.
He was covered from head to toe, not even a strand of hair was exposed.
What he was holding in his hand at this moment was the zombie who had bitten me just now. The zombie was like a toy in his hand, with no ability to resist at all. "Get lost."
He threw the zombie away casually. The zombie rolled down the steps. Having regained her life, the female zombie didn't rush to escape. She stared at the man for a while, and then leaped onto the steps like a ghost. I thought she was going to bite me again, but she didn't.
She jumped to the child's side, put her arm around him, and hugged him tightly into her arms, then fled the place with the child.
The man in the black robe just watched quietly from beginning to end, without interfering with the zombie's departure.
I also stared at him blankly.
At this time, my body began to tremble involuntarily. I didn't know if it was because of fear, or because of the bone-chilling cold brought by these wet clothes, or perhaps…
It was because of the inexplicable tremor that this person brought to me as he walked towards me step by step.
He stopped beside me.
I can probably imagine how embarrassed I look right now.
A coral fleece pajama covered in mud, a face full of tears and snot mixed with blood, disheveled hair, and still in shock, hugging my bitten hand.
I definitely don't look good.
He squatted down. There seemed to be a magical black mist inside the big black robe, so that even though I was so close to him, I couldn't see his face.
He reached out his hand, even his hands were wearing black leather gloves, covered tightly from the inside out. I didn't know who he was, but I only felt that his hand falling on my head now was extremely gentle, as if he was stroking a reassembled porcelain, so carefully.
So gentle…
His hand followed my hair, stroked my face, and then used his thumb to wipe the blood under my nose.
He didn't say a word, but I couldn't help it.
"Big brother, who are you?"
So he laughed again.
The voice was so nice that I was at a loss for words to describe it. He let go of me, stood up, and took a step back. As the wind passed, his black robe fluttered in front of me, just like the heroes in those comics, novels, and TV series.
As a comic artist who, although doesn't have much imagination, is still addicted to the 2D world, I suddenly heard the sound of my heart beating.
A sudden thump.
Out of nowhere.
I always thought that no one could touch my indestructible "dimensional wall," not even those strange non-humans, but maybe that’s the magic of life…
You never know when you’ll run into a miracle around the corner.
"So, did he finally say who he was?" Li Peipei asked me while eating an apple. Meimei and Xiao Lang next to her nodded in agreement. "Who was it? Someone in our building? What kind of creature?"
I was about to answer when the roof door was kicked open again. "It's the love she can't believe in." Li Duidui stood at the door with his arms crossed. "Aren't you going to earn money? Are you slacking off again?"
"We also need to rest. We haven't delayed our work recently." Li Peipei received her salary, so she was more confident when she spoke. "Don't make a fuss. Let us hear Xiaoxin finish."
I coughed under the gazes of their three curious babies. “He did say something like that.”
"What?"
"I am yours, a love you're too afraid to believe in."
A sentence that sounded very heartwarming yesterday, was said by Li Duidui like this, and when I repeated it, the artistic conception was instantly gone. When I said it, I even felt a little goosebumps, and rubbed my arms. I glared at Li Duidui. "What are you doing here again!"
A piece of paper was slapped in front of me with a "whoosh." Li Duidui's expression was only uglier than mine. "Remember to send yesterday's medical expenses to the old witch on the sixth floor."
Yes, it was because of Li Duidui's appearance yesterday that I quickly ended my golden encounter with that man in the black robe.
The moment Li Duidui came, the figure of the man in the black robe disappeared like smoke into the mist of the mountain city. I sat there blankly, still reminiscing about his sentence, "A love you're too afraid to believe in," still guessing if this person also fell in love with me at first sight, when Li Duidui's face appeared in my sight.
"Su Xiaoxin." He called my name, very seriously.
That was the first time I saw Li Duidui look at me like that, frowning, with his lips slightly tightened. "Say something to me."
"Say... what?"
"Say you're okay."
"I... I'm okay." I replied foolishly, and then slowly woke up. "Li Duidui, I think I met my destined hero just now."
Yes, just like the Purple Fairy's overused words, although the man in the black robe wasn't wearing armor, wasn't stepping on colorful clouds, and wasn't the center of attention, just now, he was like a peerless hero who appeared in my life.
"I think I've fallen in love with him." I covered my chest and looked at Li Duidui. "Do you believe in love at first sight?"
Li Duidui looked at me in a long silence.
“…I believe pies don’t fall from the sky. And someone as dumb as you has no right to expect love sparked by lust at first sight,” he said. “Snap out of it and go treat your wounds.”
Then he dragged me back to the apartment. He found the wizard on the sixth floor... yes, he was a wizard, but because he was a bit effeminate, Li Duidui always called him an old witch.
The wizard was wearing a green mask when Li Duidui knocked him out to open the door, looking unhappy. He cleaned my wound with great force, grumbling about the treatment fee being expensive, but none of that was important. I was immersed in the memories of that man in the black robe, unable to extricate myself.
Even now, I'm still a little dazed.
I took the medical bill and put it in my pocket. "I know, you don't need to remind me." I looked at Li Duidui, and just as I was about to ask how he found me yesterday, I saw him leave the roof without looking back after delivering the bill, not saying a few more words to anyone else.
"So..." Li Peipei opened her mouth, drawing my attention back. "You fell in love at first sight with a person whose origin you don't know, whose name you don't know, and whose appearance you don't know?"
Li Peipei summarized my experience yesterday.
I tasted her words and then nodded solemnly. "Yes, I fell in love at first sight with that kind of person."
I even knew that such a person was not a human for sure.