Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 35: Must Not Show Your Face

Night fell once again, and with it came the Blood Night. The passersby froze in place. Fireworks and the full moon were all swallowed by a dark red hue.

Blackish-red blood pattered onto the ground with a thick dripping sound. Once the drops landed, they vanished without a trace, presumably illusions. Yet the fishy smell they left behind was disturbingly real.

A raspy breathing emerged from the other end of the street. Dashun, with his head covered, couldn’t see a thing. He clung to the wall of the alley, breathing raggedly, as if suffering from some toxic shock.

“What do we do, what do we do…” he mumbled, drool seeping into the cloth that covered his face.

Fang Xiu placed a hand on his shoulder, calmly saying, “Move forward now.”

“N-no…no, I, I can’t…”

“Aren’t you just fine right now? I’m telling you, walk.”

Fang Xiu’s voice was extremely gentle. In the madness of this Blood Night, that very gentleness made it all the more chilling.

Overwhelmed by fear, Dashun found Fang Xiu’s voice like a tether, leaving him unable to think clearly.

…Right, when he listened to Fang Xiu’s instructions, nothing bad happened to him.

…Fang Xiu had always been kind to him, even shielding him from danger. Fang Xiu’s odd behavior must be due to the unusual situation… Killing him wouldn’t do Fang Xiu any good… Yes, that had to be it…

After repeated coaxing, Dashun stumbled forward, emerging from the alley. His covered head turned in vain, trying to see.

Fang Xiu gave a small smile and pressed a knuckle to his lips. “Dashun Ge, turn left. Trust me.”

“L-l-like this…”

Dashun sounded close to tears. He was now facing the direction of the breathing noise, which grew steadily closer. He didn’t dare move a muscle.

“That’s it,” Fang Xiu reassured gently. “Don’t move at all.”

The breathing was now near enough to be within that same “lethal range” they’d experienced before. Fang Xiu could hear it clearly.

That took care of half the test. Now it was time for action. He motioned Bai Shuangying to remain behind, then stepped out of the alley alone.

All the way, Fang Xiu kept his eyes on the ground. He halted behind Dashun, who stood 1.7 meters tall. “You’re doing great.”

Hearing Fang Xiu approach, Dashun relaxed a little. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he tried to speak, but before he could say anything, Fang Xiu kicked sharply behind his knees.

Dashun, caught off guard, dropped to them on the spot.

Using his weight advantage, Fang Xiu lunged forward, driving his knee fiercely into Dashun’s back. It nailed Dashun to the ground, pinned like a specimen under glass.

Dashun fell like a frog on all fours and started flailing desperately. “What…what are you doing?!”

Right after, Fang Xiu yanked a handful of Dashun’s hair, forcing his face upward.

At that moment, Dashun finally caught the scent of death.

“X-Xiao Fang…Xiao Fang, don’t do this.” His voice trembled wildly. “I’ll give you two million… four million! You said you liked this watch, right? I’ll give it to you. I’ll give you everything…”

Fang Xiu paused as though seriously weighing it.

Dashun quickly continued, “What else do you want? A house? A car? Beautiful women? Anything you want. Just let me go, please…”

“Great, thanks so much, Dashun Ge.”

Fang Xiu’s voice was as earnest and friendly as it had been a few days ago.

After a few seconds, he went on, sounding a bit bashful. “…I want your living soul, Fan Dashun.”

Dashun jerked violently, going rigid at once.

“Fan Dashun, age thirty-eight, originally from Mao Province. You’ve been working for ‘Boss Jin’ for nineteen years, tasked with recruiting lackeys. Due to failed drug trafficking and gang wars, you indirectly caused the deaths of one hundred and forty-five people.”

“In retaliation, rival gangs tortured your innocent twin brother, Fan Xiaoshun, and his entire family of four to death. But you didn’t care at all. You looked down on your brother, who had a regular job.”

Dashun panted like a bellows. “It-It had nothing to do with me… The recruits knew the risks… They took the money…”

Fang Xiu tugged on the cloth over Dashun’s face, peeling it down from the forehead slowly. “What about your brother? He only found out you were trafficking drugs when they came for him.”

“It’s not like I killed him… He was just unlucky…”

Fang Xiu sighed. “You’re a pretty shitty big brother. No wonder Fan Xiaoshun doesn’t want to say a word to you.”

It was a strange way to phrase it, yet Dashun was in no condition to dwell on the oddity.

Fang Xiu ripped off half the covering, exposing Dashun’s eyes, allowing him a direct view of the source of that breathing.

In the instant Dashun saw it, he wet himself from terror. He screamed inhumanly and struggled frantically.

Although Fang Xiu was slender, he still stood over 1.8 meters tall, more than enough to subdue Dashun. Dashun’s hands clawed at the ground desperately, nails ripping from his fingers.

“Monster!” he screamed, “I’m begging you, please let me go, let me go, let me go—!”

Fang Xiu ignored him.

He continued, slow and systematic, pulling away the cloth that covered Dashun’s face. From exposing only the eyes to uncovering the cheekbones, then revealing the entire nose…

The moment Dashun’s lips were exposed, he let out a final shriek, and his flesh peeled away like scales on a fish.

Blood burst forth in a cloud, scattering across the ground like crimson fireworks. Wounds tore open down to the bone, steaming blood drenching Fang Xiu entirely.

Fang Xiu remained unmoved, left hand still gripping Dashun’s hair, forcing his head upright.

“Look.”

Fang Xiu’s voice brimmed with laughter. “You two brothers came into the world in blood, so it’s only fair you die together in blood, too.”

The cloth around Fang Xiu’s head was soaked in gore, turned a dark blackish red. But those eyes beneath it remained starkly, piercingly dark.

Blood drained rapidly from Dashun. His body, convulsing from agony, no longer had the strength for a full-throated scream. Only muffled sobs reverberated from him.

Within a few seconds, Dashun fell silent.

Not far away, maybe a dozen steps, the heavy breathing sounded. At last, Fang Xiu lifted his head. He studied that thing calmly for a moment before beckoning Bai Shuangying closer.

Bai Shuangying emerged from the shadows. He turned his featureless face toward the true shape of the second taboo…

It was a massive human face.

A grotesque visage blocked the sky above the street, as if viewed through the refraction of a glass bead. Its exaggerated features twisted together, identifiable only in general form.

Its nose alone spanned half the street’s width, those deformed eyes rolling back so only the whites showed, glaring maliciously down at the pair.

Its nose tip hovered less than two meters from Fang Xiu’s head, but it made no further move.

Everything was drowned in red. The entire street reeked of blood.

Fang Xiu, drenched in dark crimson, his head wrapped in a blood-soaked cloth, looked like a figure forged of blood and shadow.

He knelt on Dashun’s mangled body, waving repeatedly at Bai Shuangying, as if the corpse beneath him were no more than a cushion, and the monstrous face above him just a large festive lantern.

…It was as though this was Fang Xiu’s natural habitat.

Bai Shuangying found himself pausing to take in the sight.

It resembled the end of the world and was utterly…magnificent.

“All good. Come and eat,” Fang Xiu called, eyes smiling behind the torn cloth.

No other evil spirits roamed the street. Even without a drawn circle, Bai Shuangying could easily seize the living soul.

“What just happened?”

He sat atop Dashun’s remains, making the scene feel eerily like a picnic.

“From the first test, I noticed the evil spirits screamed in different sequences and died in different ways. That means the ‘death taboo’ has a specific trigger. It’s not something absolute like ‘anyone who stays outside dies’.”

“When that breathing reached a certain distance, the evil spirits died. So the trigger involves proximity and works from afar.”

The giant face above shifted around, focusing on Fang Xiu, but Fang Xiu kept his gaze on Bai Shuangying, or more precisely, on that tiny bright red mole on Bai Shuangying’s face.

“When an evil spirit was facing the breathing, it died quickly. If it had its back turned, it took a bit longer, but once it turned around, it died. The most likely triggers were ‘looking directly at it’ or ‘being seen by it’. So yesterday, Jia Xu and the others basically ran a test for me.”

As Bai Shuangying leisurely shaped Dashun’s “mooncake”, he recalled the second experiment: the blind evil spirit had died anyway, while the blindfolded evil spirit survived longer and ran a good distance.

“…The blind one died, so ‘looking directly at it’ can be ruled out.”

“If the condition was simply ‘being seen’, the blindfolded evil spirit wouldn’t have lived as long. Plus, that almost ghost immortal wouldn’t risk wandering around at night if the taboo was so easily triggered.”

“So ‘being seen’ must have an extra condition… Like ‘no eye contact’ or ‘no exposing a certain area’. Something in that vein.”

At that, Fang Xiu lifted his hollow black gaze toward the passersby, who each had only the backs of their heads.

“I used Dashun to confirm. Now I’m 100% sure. The second taboo is: ‘You must not show your face’.”

While Bai Shuangying listened, he took a bite of the piping hot “living soul mooncake”. Dashun’s flavor was milder than that of “Yan Jing”, but the karmic aftertaste was much stronger, so delicious that he let out a drawn-out “Mmm.”

“Hehe, tasty, right?”

Behind the cloth’s torn opening, Fang Xiu’s eyes curved happily, their light restored.

Bai Shuangying nodded, feeling he’d contributed a lot. “You also deduced it wouldn’t chase you because that almost ghost immortal freely roams at night?”

“Yeah. The area is only so large. If this taboo meant actively pursuing, it would’ve gone after that evil spirit long ago.”

Fang Xiu reached out with blood stained fingers, as though wanting to brush Bai Shuangying’s sleeve, but paused halfway.

“Thanks. You saved me a lot of investigation time,” he whispered, withdrawing his hand in the end.

Bai Shuangying set down his mooncake, considered a moment, then reached over to peel the cloth away from Fang Xiu’s face.

Fang Xiu stiffened. “Eh?!”

Though startled, he didn’t resist. Bai Shuangying’s hand was already beneath the fabric, lightly brushing over Fang Xiu’s features.

That cool hand glided over Fang Xiu’s brows, eyes, cheeks, lips, giving him a strange sensation. He knew his features were still there yet also knew they’d “vanished.”

Now, like Bai Shuangying, his face appeared blank.

With a faint look of distaste, Bai Shuangying then tore the blood-soaked cloth completely away, lifted his sleeve, and thoroughly wiped the blood off Fang Xiu’s head.

Seeing that pristine sleeve about to get soiled, Fang Xiu panicked. “You’ll get it dirty…”

“A little blood can’t dirty me.” With his sleeve, Bai Shuangying vigorously rubbed Fang Xiu’s hair.

It was like a cool tongue had licked away the grime. The clotted blood vanished in an instant, leaving Fang Xiu’s hair clean and fluffy, looking rather soft to the touch.

This was much better. There was no cloth blocking the way, and Bai Shuangying could pat Fang Xiu’s head whenever he liked.

Satisfied, Bai Shuangying continued eating his “mooncake”.

Fang Xiu watched Bai Shuangying’s sleeve remain spotless, chuckling quietly as he sidled over to wipe off his own arms. Bai Shuangying, busy savoring his meal, let him do as he pleased.

That giant face still hovered right overhead, staring at them fiercely, but neither paid it any mind.

When Bai Shuangying finished his bite in one go, Fang Xiu finally rose to his feet. Though his face was blank, Bai Shuangying could tell he was smiling.

“It’s a rare chance. How about we take a nighttime stroll?” Fang Xiu asked excitedly.

Bai Shuangying licked the last scraps of “soul filling” from his fingers.

He sensed that half-step ghost immortal still lurking. It kept itself hidden and made no move to attack.

…How irritating.

So Bai Shuangying gathered his aura and cast an intimidating glance in the half-step ghost immortal’s direction. Instantly, the evil spirit withdrew its presence and fled.

After driving away that annoying creature, Bai Shuangying happily extended his sleeve.

“Let’s go,” he said.

……

Under the Blood Night, the passersby were frozen in place, making it more unsettling than it was in daylight.

They still had only the backs of their heads, remaining at their usual posts. Even the splashing foam from their beers was suspended in midair. The fireworks overhead were gone, the music had faded, and the neon lights no longer flashed.

The entire street lay silent as if sealed in amber.

Only two faceless figures wandered down the street, a giant face floating above them like a balloon.

Fang Xiu showed no sign of unease. On the contrary, he roamed about in curiosity, prodding here and there, faintly excited.

“This is so bizarre. It’s nothing like daytime!”

He studied both sides of the street, mentally comparing it to how it had been when everything was in motion.

Bai Shuangying, for his part, felt it was a pity that the advertisements weren’t blinking and the cotton candy machine had stopped spinning. Daytime was more entertaining. But the “Dashun mooncake” had been extremely tasty, and that alone was enough to mollify him for now.

Passing the base, Fang Xiu let out a mischievous laugh or two, directing some rude gestures at Lao Jin’s group.

Finished with that, he bounded back over to Bai Shuangying, still covered in blood, draping an arm around his ghost’s shoulders. “This is great.”

Bai Shuangying scowled slightly at the enormous face still trailing them. “What’s so great?”

“You’re here. It’s more fun with a friend.”

Fang Xiu slung an arm around Bai Shuangying’s shoulders. “If my contract weren’t ‘summoning a ghost’, I’d have to handle all this on my own.”

While speaking, he opened a can of Wangzai soda right in front of that second taboo, chugging the whole thing. Then Fang Xiu even took care to toss the empty can in a trash bin.

But when he noticed the nearby barbecue stall, Fang Xiu made a puzzled “huh” sound.

He’d passed by the stall twice earlier, vaguely sensing something off, and now, getting a closer look, realization struck him…

A person seemed to be missing.

At the stall sat seven young men happily eating skewers and drinking beer. One had an arm draped in a friendly way around… empty air.

During daytime, when those faceless people had been in motion, it looked like the stall just had some free space. Now that everything was frozen in place, that empty gap was obvious.

Fang Xiu thought for a moment, then grabbed a faceless little boy standing nearby. Indeed, each illusion had a consistent texture, light like foam; even Fang Xiu could lift him with no problem.

So Fang Xiu simply wedged the child under his arm, carrying him horizontally away.

Bai Shuangying, rooted in place, couldn’t fathom why.

“They’re just illusions. I’m going to move him somewhere else to see what happens in the daytime.”

Fang Xiu pointed at the cheery barbecue stall. “They’re missing someone there. I need to figure out what’s going on.”

Bai Shuangying stepped up, pulled the child from under Fang Xiu’s arm, and said mildly, “When morning comes, illusions will stay where you placed them. But the next Blood Night, they’ll revert to their original spots.”

Fang Xiu was taken aback. “You can tell all that just by looking?”

He truly marveled at how knowledgeable his ghost was, both with magic weapons and general spellcraft. This “support” was downright priceless.

“It’s all the ‘E’ at work, illusions driven by yin energy,” Bai Shuangying said, tapping the little child’s blank head. “I’ve watched them enough in both daylight and Blood Night to be sure.”

“Could these illusions ever come to life on their own?”

Like stumbling on new territory, Fang Xiu circled Bai Shuangying in excitement.

“Absolutely impossible,” Bai Shuangying replied.

“In that case…can I hug you?”

Fang Xiu was moved. A professional ghost was really something else.

Bai Shuangying had planned to refuse, but Dashun’s mooncake still tingled on his taste buds, so he nodded graciously.

Fang Xiu opened his arms and pulled his ghost into a tight embrace, rubbing his face against Bai Shuangying’s neck. “Wow, I would have had to test all these things by myself. You’ve been an enormous help…”

Bai Shuangying took advantage of the moment to pat Fang Xiu’s head, habitually saying, “We are friends.”

The seal remained silent. Bai Shuangying was unsurprised.

But Fang Xiu was delighted, hugging him tightly. The human’s body radiated heat, as hot as a fresh soul.

“For four days, the seat here has always been empty.”

Half a minute later, Fang Xiu finally released him. “That means each Blood Night, something removes the illusion that was here.”

“Mm,” Bai Shuangying agreed. He couldn’t think of any other explanation.

“But as far as I’ve seen, only one evil spirit moves around at night,” Fang Xiu reflected. “I was going to nickname that almost ghost immortal ‘Half-Immortal¹’, but now I’m calling it ‘Half-Mountain¹’.”

Bai Shuangying: “?”

Fang Xiu said, “The ‘Person¹’ got removed by it.”

¹Clarity: Half-Immortal is (半仙). The immortal part is a combination of person (人) and mountain (山). Fan Xiu removed the radical person from it, making it Half-Mountain (半山). This is a joke on how the half-immortal supposedly removed that missing person in the BBQ stall.

Bai Shuangying: “…”

He suddenly recalled the exasperation of wanting to ignore a human. He hadn’t felt that in a while.

“If Half-Mountain is doing that, it means the person missing from here must hold some clue to breaking the E,” Fang Xiu continued, suddenly serious.

Bai Shuangying: “…So we need to find the person who vanished?”

Fang Xiu glanced at the barbecue stall again, eyes flickering briefly. “No, I can guess the gist of it.”

Bai Shuangying stared at the stall for a good while, failing to see anything special. Fang Xiu, however, wore a mysterious look. “I’ve got some ideas about that missing taboo. And as for the two remaining drug dealers, I know how to use them now.”

“Tell me.”

“Let’s keep it a surprise. Watching the ‘cooking process’ is part of the fun of a good meal,” Fang Xiu muttered. “Besides, if I turn out to be wrong, that’d be embarrassing.”

Bai Shuangying found that reasonable enough and didn’t ask any more questions.

……

After that, Fang Xiu confirmed where the remaining evil spirits were hiding, then, leaning on Bai Shuangying, caught a short nap at the police booth. When he woke again, less than an hour remained before the Blood Night would end.

The giant face still lingered over them, showing signs of fatigue.

With “daybreak” near, Fang Xiu took Bai Shuangying to a small electronics store.

The young clerk inside was frozen, mid-swipe on his phone. Fang Xiu left the rest of his money at the counter and rented a Polaroid camera.

It was Bai Shuangying’s first time seeing such a curious little box. He inspected it closely from all sides.

“It’s rare that we can walk around together, so let’s snap a photo for a keepsake,” Fang Xiu said merrily.

“Photo?”

“Yeah, it’ll produce a little picture that shows how we look right now.”

Bai Shuangying touched his own faceless cheek, then Fang Xiu’s also faceless face, then glanced at the giant face looming above: “?”

Fang Xiu: “……”

Fang Xiu: “…We might as well try. Maybe nothing will show up!”

But it turned out the Polaroid was perfectly functional.

Fang Xiu hooked an arm around Bai Shuangying’s neck, both of them facing away from the street. They snapped a proper selfie. After a few seconds, the film developed, accurately capturing everything…

A red-clad figure and a white-clad figure, both featureless, crammed together in frame, blood-red surroundings, and the sky dominated by that giant face rolling its eyes.

Bai Shuangying: “……”

Fang Xiu: “……”

Fang Xiu couldn’t help but comment, “This is basically a perfect horror movie shot.”

Even so, he carefully slipped the photo into his innermost pocket, wary of it getting stained.

“Let’s head back.” Just thinking about seeing Bai Shuangying’s real face again put Fang Xiu in a great mood.

Reluctantly, Bai Shuangying put down the Polaroid, then left the store with Fang Xiu.

As the two of them walked away, a sigh suddenly sounded in that little shop.

The faceless clerk tucked his phone away and rose in a lazy stretch, sauntering over to the counter.

“They overpaid. Don’t even want their change.”

He counted the coins Fang Xiu had left, muttering carelessly, “After all these years, this is the first time I’ve seen someone treat this place like a tourist spot.”

As he spoke, the back of his head twisted, faint outlines of facial features surfacing. In the next instant, his “face” perfectly reverted to the usual back-of-the-head appearance.

Outside, the Blood Night continued.

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The author has something to say:

It feels like no matter what those two do, it turns into a date… They even took their first commemorative date photo. 

Xiao Fang has already guessed three taboos, but he’s not saying anything (?

Anyway, let’s collect all of Bai Shuangying’s mooncake gift boxes first!

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