TA •Chapter 28

Chapter 28

Cheng Ke did not remember when he had first watched *The Eye*, anyway it had been when he was pretty young. He and Cheng Yi had each invited their classmates over to play, and everyone watched it together.

Back then, everyone had been scared half to death. The girls had not even had the presence of mind to scream.

Aside from the fact that the movie was terrifying, Cheng Ke’s other impression was that Cheng Yi had stayed calm the entire time, not a trace of fear on his face. In fact, when he saw everyone else getting scared, he could not help laughing.

Cheng Ke did not know whether, over all these years, he had stubbornly kept this movie, pulling it out now and then to watch again, because of the unforgettable horror, or because of Cheng Yi’s mockery.

He had always felt that, deep down, he still minded Cheng Yi’s various taunts very much, and no matter who Cheng Yi was mocking, the sensitivity he himself could not detect would always end up connecting it to him.

And when he noticed that kind of state making him extremely unhappy, he still found it hard to control.

Maybe he wanted to try, one day, after watching this movie and no longer feeling afraid, whether he could truly step out from under Cheng Yi’s ridicule.

But of all the things that inspired fear, this was the only one. Every time he watched it, he was scared.

The fears from childhood were the real ones.

Thinking of that, Cheng Ke could not help glancing at Jiang Yuduo.

Jiang Yuduo had things he was afraid of, though Cheng Ke had never understood who “they” were, whether they were people, nothingness, or something else entirely. But the fear hidden beneath Jiang Yuduo’s arrogant exterior was real, and maybe it had something to do with his childhood experiences.

As for what exactly it was… he did not know.

A puppy.

Other puppies.

What kind of person would call a child a dog?

Cheng Ke did not like expending much mental energy on many things, but Jiang Yuduo was one of the people he had thought about the most, and right now, he found it exhausting. Thinking too hard made him tired.

Between people, even “friends,” it was still better not to dig too deeply.

It was tiring.

And if you got tired, it would not last.

“Were there not a few cushions on the sofa before?” Jiang Yuduo stared fixedly at the projection, looking completely absorbed.

“I kept lying on them, so I put them away,” Cheng Ke said. “Do you want one?”

“Bring one,” Jiang Yuduo still kept his eyes on the projection. “If I’m holding something, I won’t be as scared. I can’t exactly hold you, you know, you’re such a big guy.”

Cheng Ke got up and went into the bedroom. When he opened the cabinet to get a cushion, Jiang Yuduo called out from the living room again, “Hurry up!”

Cheng Ke took out one cushion, then hesitated and took out another.

Just in case he wanted to hold something too.

The two of them each held a cushion while sitting on the sofa watching an old, worn-out horror movie, and Cheng Ke found it strangely funny.

At first he had thought that if the two of them watched it together, he might not be so scared. Instead, he had ended up with Jiang Yuduo, who looked vicious enough to frighten children but was even more afraid of ghost movies than he was…

But Jiang Yuduo was a little different from him. If Cheng Ke got scared, he would look away and only glance at it from the corner of his eye, waiting until the scary shot passed before looking again. Jiang Yuduo, though, kept staring at the screen the whole time, his eyes even wide open.

He did not understand what kind of operation that was.

Because the lights were off, and it was snowing outside, the only bright spot in the room was the projection screen. Everything else was dark.

It was especially atmospheric.

At first Cheng Ke felt okay. Although Jiang Yuduo said he was scared, he sat steadily the whole time, not fidgeting or making any strange noises.

Because Cheng Ke remembered the plot, he could still hold up.

It was not until the heroine’s friend went to the restroom in the bar, with a long-haired ghost keeping one hand on her shoulder as it followed her, that Cheng Ke finally started to feel afraid.

Just this shot alone, he would always look around whenever he went to the restroom in a bar.

“Fuck,” Jiang Yuduo muttered softly beside him.

Cheng Ke felt startled and needed a sip of water to calm himself down. He put down the cushion and was just about to stand up when Jiang Yuduo grabbed his arm. “Where are you going?”

“To get some water,” Cheng Ke said.

“Me too,” Jiang Yuduo nodded. “I’m thirsty.”

“Mm.” Cheng Ke stood up and went into the kitchen. Even when he turned on the light, he did not dare look at the switch, always half afraid he would see another hand.

After gulping down one glass of water, he filled another one and hurried back to the living room.

Jiang Yuduo took the glass and drank a couple of mouthfuls before wiping his mouth. “Fuck, when you went into the kitchen just now, I kept looking at your back, afraid someone would touch your shoulder.”

“Get lost!” Cheng Ke instantly felt a chill run down his back and hurriedly threw himself hard into the sofa, only feeling a little steadier once his back was against it.

“If there’s anything scary later, give me a heads-up,” Jiang Yuduo said. “You’ve got to spoil it at times like this. If you don’t spoil it, you’re not human.”

“Oh.” Cheng Ke answered.

If he was going to warn Jiang Yuduo, then he had to pay attention to the content…

“Everyone in the village is dead,” Cheng Ke whispered, spoiling it for him. “The person on that memorial tablet is the ghost, Chu Renmei.”[[1]]

“Mm,” Jiang Yuduo whispered back. “Is the ghost coming out?”

“Coming! Behind him!” Cheng Ke quickly turned his eyes away.

When the ghost appeared behind Xiao Ming, Jiang Yuduo clenched his teeth and cursed, “Damn it! You scared me… Isn’t that a man?”

“A villager. Chu Renmei killed him,” Cheng Ke said.

“Oh.” Jiang Yuduo nodded.

In order to warn Jiang Yuduo ahead of time, Cheng Ke had to shift all his attention to the plot progression instead of the eerie scenes. Maybe because his focus had been diverted, he realized that he was actually not as scared as before.

“The toilet!” Cheng Ke said.

“The toilet how…” Jiang Yuduo had not even finished asking when hair suddenly rose up from the toilet bowl. He jerked toward Cheng Ke and shoved himself against him. “Damn it!”

Cheng Ke had been fairly calm, but after being squeezed like that, he suddenly regained his old sense of terror and immediately pressed back toward Jiang Yuduo.

The two of them pushed against each other hard, staring at the projection together.

“Let me ask you something,” Cheng Ke said, trying to ease the tension by changing the subject. “You’re this scared, so why do you keep staring at it?”

“Mm?” Jiang Yuduo glanced at him, then quickly turned back to the projection. “They said the more scared you are, the more you have to keep looking.”

Cheng Ke made no sound.

Jiang Yuduo’s answer inexplicably made his fear heavier.

But after that, because he had to keep warning Jiang Yuduo about the scary shots, his emotions gradually settled down. It was not until the end, when Li Zi made a ghost face in front of Wu Zhenyu, that this shot, which was actually not that scary anymore, must have been something Cheng Ke had not warned about fully enough. Jiang Yuduo still got startled.

“Fuck!” he shouted, wrapping one arm around Cheng Ke’s arm.

The scariest thing about watching a horror movie was getting your arm, hand, or foot grabbed by someone. Any grab like that would make you feel as if it was the ghost grabbing you.

Cheng Ke was so startled by that sudden hug that he shouted too, and reflexively clamped his other hand around Jiang Yuduo’s arm.

The two of them wound around each other’s arms like they were about to do some kind of dance, until the ghost face in the movie disappeared.

Only after hearing that line, “You really love her,” did Cheng Ke let go of Jiang Yuduo and lean back into the sofa.

“…Fuck,” Jiang Yuduo took a long time before also leaning back into the sofa. “This ending scene was clearly the least scary part. You could tell what it was going to do just by guessing, and the special effects were from thirty years ago.”

“Yeah,” Cheng Ke said. “Then why were you scared like that?”

“I don’t know either,” Jiang Yuduo said, waving a hand. “Hurry up, turn it off.”

Cheng Ke smiled and shut off the video. The projection switched to a TV program, and then he got up to turn on the living room light before he finally relaxed all at once.

“Want some water?” Cheng Ke picked up the cup and asked.

“…Will drinking water get me possessed?” Jiang Yuduo asked.

“Can you not be like this?” Cheng Ke turned and looked at him.

Jiang Yuduo laughed. “Drink.”

When Cheng Ke went into the kitchen to get water, he still could not help looking around. He had not even filled the cup before he ran back to the living room, and only when Jiang Yuduo held out a hand to take it did he start drinking.

“Fuck.” Jiang Yuduo held up his arm and looked at him.

“Wait a second.” Cheng Ke finished the water and ran back into the kitchen, quickly filled half a cup, and ran back to the living room.

“I’ll do it myself,” Jiang Yuduo said, standing up. “You’re not even less scared than I am. You’ve watched it this many times and you’re still like this?”

“The point of horror movies is to scare yourself,” Cheng Ke said. “The only person who can scare you is yourself.”

By the time Jiang Yuduo reached the kitchen doorway, he stopped again after hearing that and turned back to look at him. “Is that so?”

“Mm, the things we’re afraid of are mostly…” Cheng Ke pointed to his own head. “From here.”

“What about experiences? Are those imaginary too?” Jiang Yuduo asked.

“The more terrifying the experience, the more it gets processed,” Cheng Ke said, then smiled. “I’m just saying whatever. Anyway, that’s how I think it is.”

Jiang Yuduo said nothing and turned into the kitchen.

Whether it was to prove he was more daring or not, he insisted on finishing his water in the kitchen before coming back out.

“Let’s watch a while of the righteous and upright CCTV-7,” Cheng Ke said, changing the channel with the remote. “Then we can sleep.”

“Isn’t this the agriculture channel?” Jiang Yuduo looked at it. “What’s righteous about it?”

“Agriculture, military,” Cheng Ke pointed at the screen. “See? *Army Life*. Very righteous. After watching a ghost movie, you’ve got to watch some masculine, manly stuff to calm down.”

“…Oh.” Jiang Yuduo glanced at the screen too, then turned back to look at him.

After a while, Cheng Ke noticed Jiang Yuduo still had not moved, so he looked over and saw a hard-to-describe expression all over Jiang Yuduo’s face.

He immediately understood and sighed. “When I watch this kind of program, I have no stray thoughts. Don’t go filling your head with indecent garbage.”

“I think this is just like me watching a beauty pageant,” Jiang Yuduo sat down. “I’m full of stray thoughts the whole time.”

“That’s you,” Cheng Ke clicked his tongue, then thought about it and found it a little unexpected. “You even know what ‘without a single stray thought’ means? I always thought you never went to school.”

“I didn’t,” Jiang Yuduo said, lighting a cigarette. “But… anyway, I can read, and I’ve read a lot of books.”

“That’s pretty good too. If you’ve got books to read, that’s nice. I loved reading when I was little.” For some reason, Cheng Ke suddenly felt a little relieved. If Jiang Yuduo could still read as a child, then his childhood probably had not been too terrible?

“Not like you.” Jiang Yuduo said.

“How so?” Cheng Ke asked.

“I got beaten for reading books,” Jiang Yuduo said.

Cheng Ke fell silent.

After saying that, Jiang Yuduo kept watching TV and did not make another sound, not even glancing once in Cheng Ke’s direction.

Forced into that speechless state, Cheng Ke also ended up carefully watching *Army Life* all the way through for the first time.

After the commercials, another program started that reported back to the motherland. Jiang Yuduo yawned, and Cheng Ke, as if infected, yawned too.

“Sleepy,” Jiang Yuduo said, rubbing his eyes.

“Take a shower?” Cheng Ke asked. “I’ll get you a towel.”

Jiang Yuduo hesitated a moment, then nodded. “Okay.”

Cheng Ke felt like his question might have sounded a little off, as if he was implying Jiang Yuduo was dirty and had to wash before he could get into bed, so he added, “It’s fine if you don’t want to wash.”

But that made it seem even more obvious.

Fortunately, Jiang Yuduo did not seem to mind. “I’ll wash. Sleeping feels better after a shower.”

Cheng Ke found him a set of his own pajamas, a brand-new pair of underwear, plus a clean towel and toothbrush.

“Wow, so complete,” Jiang Yuduo said as he took them, sounding impressed. “Mine’s not like that. I only have one of everything.”

“I bought a bunch.” Cheng Ke smiled.

He did not know how Jiang Yuduo was going to shower with the injury on his hand, but anyway, it took quite a while. By the time he came out of the bathroom, Cheng Ke was sitting on the sofa and almost asleep.

“I thought you were going to shower until tomorrow,” Cheng Ke said as he stood up.

“When I was standing there washing up,” Jiang Yuduo said a little awkwardly, clearing his throat, “I accidentally fell asleep.”

Cheng Ke stared. “Are you a horse? You can sleep standing up?”

“Mm.” Jiang Yuduo nodded. “If you stand for a whole day and night without sleeping in between, how are you supposed to hold up?”

Cheng Ke did not understand what that meant. Just as he was about to ask again, Jiang Yuduo had already gone into the bedroom and flopped onto the bed without moving.

He was pretty self-aware, at least. Told to sleep in the bed, he slept in the bed, not even pretending to refuse once.

Cheng Ke went into the bathroom. When he turned on the shower and let the water run, he braced one hand against the wall and tried to see whether he could fall asleep standing up.

But he failed.

He did not know what kind of miraculous skill that was, or what kind of state it took to master it.

When he came out of the bathroom, Cheng Ke glanced toward the bedroom. Jiang Yuduo had not closed the door, so he could see that he was still lying in the same position as before, not even covered by the blanket.

Cheng Ke went into the bedroom, carried a blanket out, and lay down on the sofa.

He was very sleepy, the kind of sleepy that let you fall asleep the moment you closed your eyes, so even though the lights were off and the instant he shut his eyes the blue-clad female ghost appeared in his mind, he still fell asleep after only a few seconds of fear.

But the consequence of falling asleep that quickly was probably that all the things he had not had time to be properly frightened by would show up in his dream.

And because it was a dream, they became especially real, complete from every angle, with fully realistic audiovisual effects.

When Cheng Ke was finally scared awake, he could still hear himself panting, and if anyone did not know better, they would think he had done something.

The sky outside was getting a little bright. Cheng Ke reached for his phone and looked at it. Six o’clock.

Had he had nightmares all night?

He was even a little thirsty from all that panting.

He sat up, picked up the cup from the coffee table, and went to the kitchen. After gulping down a glass of water, he felt much better.

When he returned to the living room, he glanced into the bedroom and froze abruptly.

There was no one on the bed.

“Lao San?” he called softly. “Jiang Yuduo? Are you up?”

No one answered.

Had he left?

Cheng Ke walked toward the bedroom. In the balcony?

He entered the bedroom, pulled back the curtain, and through the floor-to-ceiling window could see that there was no one on the balcony either.

“Fuck?” He was a little confused and was about to go back to the living room to call Jiang Yuduo.

The moment he turned around, he suddenly saw someone standing between the wardrobe and the corner of the wall.

The shock made him step back twice before stopping. His heart was beating so hard he could hear it.

Fortunately, he reacted immediately. That was Jiang Yuduo.

“Why are you here?” Cheng Ke asked. “You scared me.”

Jiang Yuduo said nothing, but slowly lifted his head.

The room light had not been turned on, and Cheng Ke could not see the expression on his face clearly. He only felt that something was off, and it reminded him of the look Jiang Yuduo had had when he flipped Cheng Ke onto the floor while putting on the duvet cover.

“Are you awake?” Cheng Ke asked again, walking toward the bedside. There were two light switches in this room, one by the door and one by the bed.

Jiang Yuduo still said nothing.

That state made Cheng Ke feel uneasy. He quickened his steps, wanting to get there faster and turn on the light.

But as he passed Jiang Yuduo, Jiang Yuduo suddenly stood up.

Cheng Ke instinctively raised his arm to block the punch Jiang Yuduo swung straight at his face, and he viciously cursed in his head.

But he did not say it out loud, because Jiang Yuduo followed it with another punch.

This one aimed at his stomach.

Cheng Ke’s arm dropped quickly, pressing down on Jiang Yuduo’s wrist and pulling it aside. The punch grazed past his waist.

“Jiang Yuduo!” Cheng Ke roared. He could only be thankful he had already been awake for a few minutes, otherwise he definitely would not have dodged that punch.

Jiang Yuduo did not pause. He lunged straight at him and forced him down onto the bed, then threw a punch at his face.

Because his shoulders were pinned and he could not move, and his arm had not come up in time, he took the punch squarely to the face.

It was a hard hit, and it sent stars flashing across his vision.

The force behind Jiang Yuduo’s strike filled Cheng Ke with terror, far more terrifying than *The Eye* by ten thousand times, because he could clearly feel it. Jiang Yuduo was serious.

Jiang Yuduo was using everything he had to beat him.

“Jiang Yuduo! You fucking…” Cheng Ke yelled again, louder this time, crossing both arms through the middle of his body and brutally prying Jiang Yuduo’s arms apart. “Sleepwalking?”

That was the only explanation he could think of at this moment.

Sleepwalking.

Otherwise, he could not understand why Jiang Yuduo would suddenly do this.

Once Jiang Yuduo lost the support of his arms, he fell onto Cheng Ke. Just as Cheng Ke was about to throw him off, a searing pain shot through his shoulder.

The pain made him unable even to cry out.

Jiang Yuduo bit hard into his shoulder, then followed it with another punch below his ribs.

In that instant, only one thought flashed through Cheng Ke’s mind.

There was absolutely something wrong with Jiang Yuduo’s mental state.

He clenched his teeth and forced himself to calm down, grabbed Jiang Yuduo’s wrist, and twisted hard.

He used all his strength for that twist. A normal person would have hurt so badly they would have immediately rolled over with the force.

But Jiang Yuduo seemed not to feel anything. His other hand pressed onto Cheng Ke’s shoulder and did not ease up.

Cheng Ke felt that the next second, that hand would move to his neck, so he hardened his resolve and kept twisting his wrist backward.

One second later, Cheng Ke heard a crack.

Jiang Yuduo lost his balance and fell. Taking the chance, Cheng Ke rolled over violently and drove a knee hard into Jiang Yuduo’s stomach.

But the mattress was too soft, and the leg supporting his body wobbled.

If Jiang Yuduo counterattacked in that instant, Cheng Ke would be kicked straight off the bed and slammed to the floor. With Jiang Yuduo’s fighting ability, if that happened, Cheng Ke would basically have no chance of winning.

Amitabha.

Cheng Ke did not know why, in a moment like this, the only thing in his head was not a countermeasure but a useless phrase like that.

But he was not knocked off the bed. Jiang Yuduo’s raised hand suddenly froze in midair, then slammed hard into the mattress.

Cheng Ke did not have time to think it through. He grabbed the bedsheet and suddenly twisted Jiang Yuduo’s body, rolling him over with the sheet and all, a full 360 degrees. Jiang Yuduo was wrapped up in the bedsheet.

In that position, Jiang Yuduo could not use any strength.

“Have you come to your senses or not!” Cheng Ke had a knee in his stomach and a hand clamped around his neck.

Jiang Yuduo looked at him. With the light filtering in from outside, Cheng Ke finally got a clear look at Jiang Yuduo’s face.

He did not know what expression Jiang Yuduo had had before, but right now, Jiang Yuduo was looking at him with nothing but grief in his eyes.

“Jiang Yuduo!” Cheng Ke shouted again.

Jiang Yuduo made no sound and closed his eyes.

If he had been raging before, then now Cheng Ke could feel it. He should have been clear-headed.

“Your wrist might be dislocated,” Cheng Ke said. “Don’t move around.”

Jiang Yuduo kept his eyes closed, saying nothing and not moving.

Cheng Ke carefully let go of him and got off the bed.

After staring for a while at Jiang Yuduo, who still had not moved, he turned on the light.

There was a small strip of wet, glistening light at the corner of Jiang Yuduo’s eye.

Cheng Ke stared at him, walked to the bedside, and picked up his phone. “I’ll call Chen Qing over.”

Jiang Yuduo was still silent.

Cheng Ke found Chen Qing’s number and dialed it.

“Third Brother?” Chen Qing answered quickly.

“It’s Cheng Ke,” Cheng Ke said, looking at Jiang Yuduo. “Come to my place right now, Jiang Yuduo he…”

“What happened to him?” Chen Qing asked immediately. “He fainted?”

“No,” Cheng Ke did not know how to say it. Jiang Yuduo was still lying there, and if he said the wrong thing… So he chose a more neutral explanation. “I fought with him.”

“He’s the one who hit you, right?” Chen Qing asked.

Cheng Ke froze.

“He mistook someone else for you… He hasn’t mistaken anyone like that in years,” Chen Qing’s voice was full of worry. “I’m coming right now.”