Daomu Biji: A Thousand Faces

Ah Tou and Liang Yanyan walked over to the window and saw that it was hazy outside. The sunny day had instantaneously turned foggy. Ah Tou touched the mist in the air but felt nothing. It was as if the mist was just a layer of gray color.

"What’s going on?

"It started early," Liang Yanyan said. "Listen."

It was particularly quiet outside. The sounds of the birds, cars in the distance, and voices from next door had all disappeared. It had never been this quiet before.

Ah Tou immediately realized that something was wrong with her surroundings. She was no longer in her factory. Where am I? Although she was familiar with everything around her, her instincts told her that everything was different. 

"Where are we?”

"We're in your house but not in your house." Liang Yanyan looked at the second floor and suddenly saw a shadow flash by. As she pushed Ah Tou back, they both heard a cat’s meow coming from the second floor. 

Ah Tou was stunned because she recognized the voice—it was Tintin. Then, a cat seemed to appear behind the railing on the second floor. But this time, Ah Tou didn’t move at all. She wasn’t some brainless protagonist from a horror movie. She clearly knew that this wasn’t normal. 

"You said the ‘thing’ will affect our brains and start with the things closest to us.”

"Yes."

"Did you hear the cat meowing?"

Liang Yanyan nodded.

“Tintin was burned, right?”

"Yes."

"Then this is a hallucination, right?” Ah Tou asked.

"I don’t know. I’m not sure how this thing affects us,” Liang Yanyan said. At this time, she saw their reflection in the full-body mirror in front of them. Liang Yanyan was standing in front of Ah Tou, protecting her, while the window was behind Ah Tou.

In the mirror’s reflection, Liang Yanyan saw a man standing outside the window. She didn’t know when he had appeared there, but only half of his face was exposed. The other half was blocked by Ah Tou.

She immediately turned around and pulled Ah Tou over, but there was nothing outside of the window. 

“What's wrong?” Ah Tou was shocked.

Liang Yanyan didn’t answer her, but immediately closed the window and took out her phone. After seeing that the signal was at full bars, she called Xie Yuchen. The other party soon answered, but it wasn’t Xie Yuchen’s voice on the line. An old man picked up the call, but Ah Tou couldn’t understand him at all. He seemed to be cursing in the Chaoshan dialect.

The old man was talking non-stop on the phone. Liang Yanyan tried to end the call multiple times but wasn’t able to hang up. She turned the phone over and stuck it under the sofa’s seat cushion to muffle the noise before looking at Ah Tou, “I have bad news. It looks like this thing is going to kill you."

"Why? I was just helping Boss Xie draw someone. Those beams aren’t in my house and I don’t even own the house! Why does this thing want to kill me?” Ah Tou felt that it was very unfair.

"That’s what the man on the phone was saying in the Chaoshan dialect," Liang Yanyan said. She suddenly frowned, "Draw someone?"

Liang Yanyan picked up Ah Tou’s drawings from the coffee table by the sofa and looked at Ah Tou. The way she stared at Ah Tou was a little frightening. “I think it has to do with these drawings. If I ask you to draw it again, can you still do it?” Liang Yanyan asked. 

When Ah Tou nodded, Liang Yanyan immediately lit the drawings on fire. The paper burned extremely fast and the drawings were soon engulfed in flames. Liang Yanyan threw the drawings into the garbage can and then poured tea over them. 

When the fire was out, the drawings were almost completely gone.

But at this time, the sky became even darker and it literally turned into night. Ah Tou turned on the lights and looked out the window, only to find that there were no lights outside of the factory and the whole neighbourhood was completely dark. But there was a light shining on the second floor, which meant that there were lights on in the building next door. Liang Yanyan put on her coat, grabbed Ah Tou's hand, and headed next door. Through the window, she saw Black Glasses on the second floor. She immediately picked up a rock and threw it at the window. 

But Black Glasses didn't seem able to hear anything.

At that time, they saw a strangely long man sticking his upper body out of Ah Tou’s second-floor window and crawling into Black Glasses’ window. His upper body was lying between the two buildings like a bridge.