The Creatures that We Are

“Here, have some!”

Wang Zikai came over with a small tin bucket filled with broken ice and a few bottles of drinks.

Placing the bucket on the tea table, he plopped himself down beside Gao Yang, opening a bottle of cola and tipping his head to have a large gulp.

“Ha…that feels good!” He let out a long sigh.

Then he picked up another piece of fish with his bone claw and was just about to pop it in his mouth when he paused, noticing the strange looks on Gao Yang’s and Fresh Snow’s faces.

“Hey, what’s going on? Why aren’t you eating the fish?”

Gao Yang pulled a long face like an adult scowling at a child, while Fresh Snow turned away with her face flushed like a child throwing a tantrum.

“You should eat, Wang Zikai.” Gao Yang sighed. “I have things to talk to Fresh Snow about. Be right back.”

“Huh?” Wang Zikai paused.

“Wait, the fish isn’t gonna be as good once it’s cold!” Wang Zikai lamented the effort he had put in. “Hey, it wasn’t easy for me to catch such a big fish!”

Gao Yang went to the room on the second floor with a brooding Fresh Snow in tow, locking the door behind them.

They sat cross-legged on the bed, facing each other in silence.

Gao Yang took a deep breath and softened his voice, saying seriously, “It was my bad, Fresh Snow. I shouldn’t have scolded you. I apologize.”

Fresh Snow glanced up at Gao Yang before lowering her head again, her lips still pursed.

“Good friends don’t fight, and they make up right after even if they do.”

Seemingly convinced, Fresh Snow nodded. “Yeah.”

Gao Yang gently coaxed, “Good friends don’t keep secrets from each other. I have something to tell you, and you have something to tell me.”

Fresh Snow nodded again.

“Would you tell me then why you fought with your sister?”

Fresh Snow said like she felt wronged, “Sister scolded me.”

“Why though? Did you do something to make her unhappy?”

“I didn’t!” Fresh Snow burst out before deflating, tugging at her hair anxiously. “She told me to eat people. I didn’t want to.”

Gao Yang felt a pang in his heart. “Because they taste bad?”

Fresh Snow nodded.

“But…” Gao Yang tried to see things from Fresh Snow’s perspective. “You can’t keep starving yourself.”

Fresh Snow lowered her head, looking a little dejected. “Sister said that if I kept refusing to eat, I would be stuck as a cat. And…”

“And?”

“And I’ll die soon.”

Gao Yang stared at her. “Really?”

Fresh Snow nodded. “I’ve been getting weaker and weaker, and I stay as a cat longer and longer.”

True, Fresh Snow was clearly much weaker today than the last time they met.

She looked up at Gao Yang. “Sister told me that as long as I eat you, I won’t have to worry about food for the next five years. I said I wouldn’t do it, that I wouldn’t eat you even if Sister grabbed you for me.”

Gao Yang was stunned speechless.

So that was why the sisters fought.

The only food Fresh Snow could stomach was Gao Yang, but she was unwilling to eat him.

The conflict between the sisters was one that couldn’t be resolved, and they fought.

Fuming, Fresh Snow left home and sought out Gao Yang, only to find out that he was going to Naldives. So she snuck onto the plane and hid in the cargo hold beneath the passenger cabin.

Her sister must be worried. She might be looking all over for her, actually. However, Fresh Snow had run away too far, and her sister couldn’t immediately find her.

“Don’t worry, Gao Yang.” Fresh Snow comforted him instead when he fell quiet. “I won’t eat you. Good friends don’t eat each other!”

Gao Yang didn’t know what to say. He picked himself up and smiled, ruffling Fresh Snow’s silver hair.

If Fresh Snow were a Vampire who needed Gao Yang’s blood to survive, he wouldn’t mind providing her with some regularly to sustain her.

With a sudden thought in mind, he said, “Didn’t you bite Fat Jun, Fresh Snow? And he didn’t die, did he?”

Fresh Snow’s crimson eyes shifted as she wondered what Gao Yang was getting at.

“I mean that I may not die even if you eat my energy. You just have to control yourself.”

“No, no, no, no!” Fresh Snow shouted vehemently and pushed him away.

Gao Yang didn’t understand. “Why?”

“I, I did bite Fat Jun, but I didn’t eat him,” Fresh Snow said hurriedly.

“I don’t get it.” In Gao Yang’s mind, biting someone was part of eating them; it was the first step of eating.

“Hm.” Fresh Snow frowned, trying to find the right words to explain. “I’m actually not picky. It’s just that when something tastes bad, I cannot eat it even if I try…”

“Sister thought I was just picky at first, and she forced me to eat. When I bit Fat Jun, though, I couldn’t eat him. It’s the same for everyone else.”

Gao Yang got it now.

For other Spectres, food comes in different quality, but even the worst-quality food was still food. They could eat any awakener.

Fresh Snow, however, was different. She couldn’t eat food she didn’t like, and it wasn’t about her willingness, but an objective truth.

When she bit Fat Jun and Jiang Hao, a member of the Hundred Rivers Union, she found that she couldn’t eat them, and she left behind a curse that was harmful to an extent.

For Fresh Snow, the only food she wanted to eat and could eat was Gao Yang.

So objectively speaking, Fresh Snow could eat Gao Yang, but she wasn’t willing to do so.

She continued, “When ghosts like us eat people, we cannot stop until they are dead. It’s not something we can control.”

Gao Yang broke out of his reverie. “Why?”

“I don’t know. It’s just how ghosts are.”

A baseless thought flashed through Gao Yang’s mind. Perhaps Fresh Snow isn’t like the other Spectres. Perhaps she can stop herself when she eats me.

It shocked him that he would think that way.

He didn’t say anything.

I’m sorry, Fresh Snow. I’m not so noble that I’ll risk my life. I have my family and friends. I still need to take revenge. I want to learn about the truth of the Mist World. There are too many reasons that I can’t die yet.

Fresh Snow seemed to have read his thoughts, and she slowly shifted to rub his arm with her head.

“Gao Yang, good friends will never, never eat each other.”

Gao Yang didn’t know what to say. He felt a deep helplessness rising in his chest.

For some reason, he was reminded of Li Weiwei and Wan Sisi at that moment.

If only he hadn’t awakened. Then Li Weiwei and Wan Sisi wouldn’t have died, and he couldn’t have been Fresh Snow’s food. They wouldn’t have become friends, and he wouldn’t have come to care about her.

Then Fresh Snow’s fate would have nothing to do with him. He wouldn’t be feeling regret and pain for her.

Officer Huang had said that while the world was fake, love was real.

But he neglected to add that it was exactly because of its realness that made losing it so cruel.

“Come on. Let’s go downstairs and play games with Wang Zikai.”

Gao Yang made himself brighten up. The only thing he could do now was to leave Fresh Snow with more happy memories.

“Yeah!”

Fresh Snow nodded vehemently, her eyes curved into a pair of bright crescent moons.

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