The World Below Surface

A whisper ran through the town like a cold breeze. "Haunted... It's really haunted!"

The sky was a perpetual grey, casting a pall over the neighbourhood. The houses here were relics of a bygone era, their bricks faded and stained. A few of them had some plants in their yards, but they were all withered and brown. The only colour on the walls was a sickly orange that seeped into the cracks, making them look even more ancient.

Jiang Yu was one of the few young people who lived here, among a sea of old faces. As he made his way down the stairs that day, he caught a snippet of conversation from an old man named Wang. "It's no secret, you know. It always happens this time of year."

A woman at the card table, busy with her knitting, didn't even look up as she added, "But this year is worse than ever. It's never been this bad before."

"Have you heard about Lao Zhang? In his neighbourhood, everyone disappeared overnight," the old man said.

"Disappeared? Where did they go?" Jiang Yu asked, curious.

"They just vanished, like smoke in the wind. When he woke up in the morning, his neighbourhood was a ghost town, with only him left," the woman said.

"Well, he's lucky then," Jiang Yu said, half-joking.

He went to the neighbourhood clinic, where he worked as a nurse. He gave a glass of water to a child with a fever, while outside, under some old trees, a group of elders played mahjong and gossiped.

Spring was coming, but it brought no warmth or joy. Jiang Yu listened carefully to the chatter, then turned back to the front desk to look for some information.

It was true; the police had issued a notice, stating that more than five hundred residents had vanished from a specific neighbourhood.

More than five hundred souls gone in one night… How was that possible?

He spun around and caught sight of a young boy at the clinic's door. The boy wore layers of clothing that hinted at his poor origins and a thick scarf that covered most of his neck. His skin was ashen, and his eyes were fixed on the clinic's entrance.

He looked like he had been waiting there for quite a while.

“Hey, kid, are you sick?” Jiang Yu asked.

The boy nodded slowly.

The doctor who ran this place had a keen ear for trouble, and he perked up at once. He peeked from behind the counter, eyed the boy, and then inquired, “Where’s your family? Why didn’t your mom bring you here for a check-up?”

The boy shook his head and held out his hand, gripping a wrinkled one hundred yuan bill.

It didn’t look like a serious case; a hundred yuan should cover it. The doctor beckoned him over and motioned for him to come in.

As they crossed paths, Jiang Yu felt a surge of coldness down his spine, warning him of a deadly threat. This instinct, alerting him to impending danger, made him bolt without a second glance.

The attending doctor was about to berate him, but when he saw the child still there, he held his tongue, and instead filled a glass of water, offering it to him. “Kid, what’s the matter? Where does it hurt?”

The boy took the glass of water, still in a trance, and gulped it down. When he heard the doctor’s questions, he pointed to his throat.

“Is your throat bothering you? Can’t talk right, huh?”

The doctor noticed that his scarf was inexplicably damp around his neck. He said, "Your scarf is wet. You'll catch a cold. Take it off."

The little boy shook his head very slowly, indicating his unwillingness.

"Take it off, I'll dry it for you," the doctor persuaded him, at the same time, his hand resting on the boy's neck, coaxing him, "If you don't take it off, you'll get even sicker."

The scarf was wound several times around, he unwound it one loop at a time, suddenly feeling puzzled—strange, could a normal child's neck be this thin? How many loops were there exactly? Wouldn't it really suffocate him?

Distractedly, he finally removed the last loop—

And then, he froze.

Below his head, above his shoulders, there was no neck where it should be.

The boy's neck was gone! His head was hanging in the air!

He had just spent a long time talking to this child! And promised to treat him!

The doctor's face turned white instantly, he took two steps back, his whole body covered in goosebumps, he saw the head of the little boy hanging in the air with a serene smile on its face.

Then, the smile on that face grew wider and wider, the mouth almost stretching to both ears...

Jiang Yu, who was walking away, heard a loud and desperate scream.

In the distance, a few old men and women were still playing mahjong, not paying attention. He just felt a chill all over his body, and immediately left the neighbourhood with a few colleagues.

**

A truckload of discarded models awaited the recycling plant manager, who scrambled up the metal bed and dug through the heap of plastic flesh. He frowned as he examined the lifelike faces and limbs, barely worn or damaged. "Why are there so many of them? Are we burning through them faster than we can make them?" He jumped down and faced the young man who had delivered the cargo. The man's eyes were dull and his lips tight. He gave no answer, only a slight nod.

The manager rubbed his hands together, eager to seal the deal. "How many are there, exactly? You know what, never mind. I'll give you a bonus for such a large batch. Just stay put, I'll get someone to count them for you." He darted into the factory, afraid the man might change his mind or demand more money. But when he returned, the man was gone. He had left without a word, without a penny, without a glance at the hundreds of models he had abandoned. What kind of saint was he?

The manager shrugged, feeling a surge of luck. 'A fool and his money are soon parted,' he thought. 'Might as well make the most of it.' He shouted, "Little Chen, Little Li, come over here, we have a special delivery today!"

The two young workers obeyed, wheeling over a trolley. They worked in tandem, one tossing the models from the truck and the other catching them below.

"These are some fine specimens, aren't they?" Xiao Chen remarked, squeezing the cheek of a model and twisting its head. It moved with ease, as if it had a real spine. "They're all so different, too. Look at the hair, the skin, the eyes."

"Quit gawking, we don't have all day. There are more than five hundred of them, we need to hurry." Xiao Li snapped, impatient.

They loaded the trolley with dozens of naked, pallid models. When it was full, they pushed it into the warehouse. With a swift tilt, they dumped the models on the floor, creating a mountain of plastic bodies, higher than a man, a sea of white, with tangled hair and rigid limbs.

Little Li's nostrils flared as he handled the plastic limbs. "What's that stench?" he wondered aloud.

Little Chen stopped and inhaled deeply. "What stench? It smells normal to me. Hurry up, we don't have all day."

They faced a daunting and dull chore: clothing, mending, and moulding the load of mannequins that had been dumped on them that morning. They prayed there wouldn't be too many blemishes or imperfections to fix. The work would be less tedious then.

They stuffed the warehouse with the five hundred mannequins, squeezing them into every corner. They finished before their shift ended and left early, relieved to be out.

The mannequins stayed in the warehouse, motionless and mute, except for the spiders that descended from the ceiling and scuttled over their faces.

Then, suddenly, the skin of one of them ripped open.

A cascade of shards followed, and soon, the rest of the mannequins started to crack and peel as well.

A putrid smell of decaying flesh wafted in the air.

**

Jin Fu Gui felt ashamed for fleeing when the new recruits were learning the song. When he came back, he found two of his five recruits sprawled on the floor, unconscious and bound.

"What did you do to them?" he asked Jiang Bai, his voice quivering.

Lin Chu replied, "They changed while they were listening. We had to knock them out and tie them up. We also sprinkled some glutinous rice around."

Lin Chu shuddered. She had sensed something wrong too, when she was listening. A weird restlessness, a loss of self. She barely had time to calm down when the two recruits turned violent. She would have been injured if Qiu Zhi hadn't restrained one of them.

Jin Fu Gui tutted in disbelief.

The song for the dead was not meant for the ears of the living, but Jin Fu Gui had no idea of the consequences. He wondered, with a sudden jolt of suspicion, how they had acquired the glutinous rice so soon after moving in. He wanted to question Jiang Bai, but the young man had already left the room in a hurry. Jin Fu Gui sighed and turned to the others, hoping they had made some progress. Could they perform the song at the cultural festival?

Only Lin Chu had mastered it, but she kept it to herself. She pretended to be as clueless as the rest, shaking her head with a feigned expression of confusion.

The sun was setting, painting the sky with crimson streaks. In the distance, the silhouettes of cities and mountains loomed, and beyond them, a glimmer of the sea.

"Jiang Bai, what are you looking at?" Lin Chu asked, as she noticed Lu Yan's gaze fixed on the horizon. She took a spoonful of rice from her bowl and joined him on the balcony.

Lu Yan shrugged. "Nothing."

But Lin Chu sensed there was more to it. She followed his eyes, trying to see what he saw.

"The scenery here is quite nice," she remarked, with genuine admiration.

So nice that it reminded her of her best friend, who had dead in that eerie village. A pang of sadness gripped her heart.

He had died in this strange otherworld, without a proper burial or a farewell.

Wait... otherworld?

She looked again at the horizon.

Why... did she recognize that shape of coastline?

No, no, geographically speaking, this town being on the east side near the sea isn't entirely impossible. Seeing the coastline isn't such a big deal... maybe?

She gazed at it with a vacant expression, trying to make sense of it.

Jin Fu Gui proposed a walk after dinner.

"Another neighbourhood disappeared a few days ago. We can't stay here forever. It's better to get some fresh air," he said.

Lu Yan didn't put up much resistance. He tagged along, and so did the others. Soon, they were joined by more people from the town.

The town had lost its charm long ago. Ruins and rubble were everywhere, and the people who passed by looked nervous and suspicious. Most of the shops on the street were shut down.

It was like a war zone.

"Things have been much quieter since they took that bastard Lu Yan away," Jin Fu Gui said, with a sigh of relief. "Whoever did it, they deserve a medal!"

The other Lu Yan kept his mouth shut, and gave a faint nod of approval.

They walked on, breaking the silence of the street with their footsteps. Then, they heard another sound, coming from the other end of the road. They saw several shapes moving towards them. They looked human, but they couldn't be sure.

"Brother Jiang? Is that you?" Lin Chu asked, with a hint of surprise.

Jiang Yu answered, "We encountered some ghosts, had to flee."

Jin Fu Gui gasped, "Ghosts? Where are there ghosts? Don't frighten me like that!"

Jiang Yu shook his head. "When the clinic was attacked, I had no choice but to run for my life."

"Your clinic, wasn't it in a residential compound?" Jiang Bai asked, with a sudden edge in his voice.

Jiang Yu nodded. "Yes, why do you ask?"

He felt that the other man was accusing him of abandoning the remaining residents.

When they had left Jiang Bai at the school, he must have felt betrayed and furious.

However, escaping from the school was a challenging task that required resourcefulness and bravery.

Jiang Yu set his guilt aside and promptly responded, "I did everything possible; there was no time to waste."

He barely finished his sentence, when his eyes widened in horror. "There... behind you! Watch out!"

The others on his side of the street also saw the danger. Lin Chu gasped, pointing behind them, "Behind you! Run, now!"

They all spun around, at the same moment, and faced the threat.

On both ends of the road, figures were closing in.

They had Jiang Bai's face!

The only open shop on the street beckoned them, and without hesitation, they all dashed inside.