Tricked 034: Night Talk

Why was there an extra person?

Was it the snake in the mirror?

Did it come out?

Yu Renwan was so frightened that her back went rigid. Her hand, about to wake Jiang Yan, hovered in midair. Half of Jiang Yan’s face sank into the pillow, and she looked to be sleeping very sweetly.

“Jiang Yan…”

For a long time, Yu Renwan dared not move. She leaned close to Jiang Yan’s ear and called out softly.

But Jiang Yan only furrowed her brows, turned over, and continued sleeping.

Yu Renwan grew anxious. She reached out and gently nudged Jiang Yan, but after just two or three pushes, a faint breeze brushed past the back of her neck.

Creak—

The bedroom door was slowly pushed open.

Yu Renwan swallowed unconsciously. She tried to fish out a talisman from her clothes pocket, but, most unfortunately, what she pulled out was either blank yellow paper or runes completely useless for this occasion.

Not until a wet, sticky thing licked her ear did Yu Renwan freeze. She sighed, hanging her head in dejection as she stared at the floor.

The snake seemed to greatly enjoy tormenting humans, slowly crawling up her trouser leg. Its scales rubbing against her clothes made a sound like tearing paper. It flicked its tongue, slithering up to her neck, and began to tighten around her.

“You’re trembling,” the snake spoke in a sharp woman’s voice.

Because it really was hard not to shake.

Yu Renwan’s heart beat frantically from suffocation; her eardrums thudded as if with drumsticks, her lips began to turn purple, and red veins spread across the whites of her eyes.

The snake probably grew bored, too. It suddenly twisted its body, intending to snap Yu Renwan’s neck, and it was at that moment that Yu Renwan, head tilted back, managed a smile.

A very inexplicable smile.

At the same time, the red wooden wardrobe behind the two crashed down with a loud bang, landing squarely on the snake’s half-exposed body. The snake opened its gaping mouth in pain, splattering saliva onto Yu Renwan’s face. She instinctively closed her eyes.

Several minutes later, the stink of blood spread across the floor. Yu Renwan shrugged the corpse coiled on her neck off as if removing clothes, carefully tossing it aside.

“You probably didn’t know.”

She crouched down, skillfully wiping blood from herself with tissues, and whispered to the corpse: “Getting this close to me is really bad luck.”

“See, you ended up dead, didn’t you?”

The sound of the wardrobe falling was quite loud. Jiang Yan opened her eyes just in time to hear Yu Renwan say this.

“What died?”

She squinted at Yu Renwan in the dark: “What are you doing?”

Yu Renwan hurriedly tossed the tissues away and stood up in panic: “Just, there was just now a snake, look over there…”

She turned on the bedroom light, pointing to the floor for Jiang Yan to see.

But the floor was spotless—besides clothes scattered by the fallen wardrobe, there was nothing else.

Even the tissue she used for wiping up blood was entirely white.

Yu Renwan froze, afraid Jiang Yan would think she was lying. She hastily gestured, “No, there really was a snake here just now, really long, the scales really scratched, see, look at my neck, aren’t there red marks? It was strangling me.”

Her voice grew quieter and quieter, because Jiang Yan’s expression revealed that her neck bore no marks at all.

A silence descended.

Jiang Yan said nothing, simply staring at the clothes on the floor.

Yu Renwan’s eyes suddenly reddened. Out of nowhere, she said, “I didn’t open the wardrobe. I wasn’t trying to steal your things.”

Jiang Yan frowned. “I never said I didn’t believe you.”

She got off the bed and retrieved a mostly broken scale from under the pile of clothes. “I was just seeing what this thing was.”

“All right, hold those tears back.”

Yu Renwan scrubbed her nose with her sleeve, nodding shyly.

Through Yu Renwan’s recollection, Jiang Yan understood what had just transpired while she was sleeping, but it made little sense. Although Jiang Yan slept well, her sense of danger was keen. If that snake was as dangerous as Yu Renwan described, she couldn’t possibly have slept through it.

Jiang Yan did not doubt her own alertness. So she said to Yu Renwan, “It must not have wanted to kill you, at least not just now.”

Yu Renwan froze: “Then it was…”

“Playing a prank to scare you?”

Yu Renwan looked existentially doubtful. At this moment, Jiang Yan’s phone vibrated, interrupting her. She unlocked it.

It was a message from Shen Huanhuan.

“Xiaoxiao saw a snake. How’s your side?”

Jiang Yan replied: “Yu Renwan ran into one too.”

Shen Huanhuan: “Let’s compare what happened just now. Xiaoxiao and I will come find you.”

After replying, Jiang Yan told Yu Renwan briefly. Yu Renwan quickly tidied up the clothes on the floor. When she finished, she glanced around, then hurried to the kitchen to fetch a broom and swept the living room, looking much like she was preparing to receive guests.

Before long, there was a knock at the door.

Yu Renwan scooped up the sound-asleep little crow and dashed to a corner of the living room. Jiang Yan gave her two glances, thinking Yu Renwan was quite amusing—a person oscillating between total defeat and frantic action.

After opening the door, Shen Xiaoxiao walked in with a tear-streaked face. “Jiang Yan-jie—”

She spread her arms, wanting to give Jiang Yan a loving hug.

Jiang Yan coldly evaded.

Shen Xiaoxiao: “Wuwu!”

“Your place is so clean,” Shen Huanhuan looked around for a bit and then noticed Yu Renwan huddled in the corner. “Hey, don’t just stand, come sit on the sofa.”

Yu Renwan lowered her head: “I prefer standing.”

Shen Huanhuan smiled, took a folding chair out of her backpack, handed it to Jiang Yan, and had her pass it over to Yu Renwan.

“If you don’t want to stand anymore, you can sit and rest for a while.”

【Pfft, who carries a chair around with them?】

【Just saw Shen Huanhuan’s perspective—she guessed before leaving that Yu Renwan would hide in a corner, so she brought it on purpose.】

【QAQ I want to be friends with Huanhuan too.】

Taking the chair from Jiang Yan, Yu Renwan was so moved that her emotions almost overflowed. Jiang Yan was practically creeped out by her expression, rubbed the goosebumps on her arms, turned back to the sofa, and asked Shen Xiaoxiao what had happened.

Shen Xiaoxiao grew serious: “About half an hour ago, I saw a gray snake in our room.”

Jiang Yan: “Gray?” She took out the mostly broken snake scale. “The one Yu Renwan saw was black.”

“Are you sure you didn’t mistake it?”

Shen Xiaoxiao shook her head: “There was light at the time—the snake’s body was yellow-gray, more gray than yellow, definitely not mistaken.”

“So at least two snakes,” Jiang Yan mused for a bit, then asked Shen Xiaoxiao, “How did you see it?”

Shen Xiaoxiao’s face turned pale.

She had always been scared of such soft-bellied creatures. Remembering the earlier scene made her whole body itch uncontrollably. She took a deep breath, suppressed her fear, and said: “I really didn’t want to see it, but I was woken up.”

Thinking back, Shen Xiaoxiao shivered with lingering fear.

She had slept earlier than her sister last night. When she fell asleep, Shen Huanhuan was still in the living room watching late-night news, so she drifted off amid intermittent voices.

At three a.m., she was suddenly awakened by a cacophony of voices.

At first, she thought it was the neighbours upstairs or downstairs quarrelling, so she rolled over with the covers over her head, trying to sleep again, but the sound grew louder. Half-awake, she realized it wasn’t fighting she was hearing, but a show.

“Late night is the loneliness of the crowd, and loneliness is a solitary midnight. Welcome to Night Talk, I am your old friend Xiao Guan.”

“Tonight, we are connecting three lucky callers to our direct line. Let’s step into their lives and listen to their stories.”

“First up is a call from Ms. Wang in City A.”

“Hello, is this Ms. Wang?”

Shen Xiaoxiao heard the host ask thus.

“Mm, yes,” the woman’s voice was as beautiful as singing, “Hello Xiao Guan, I’ve listened to your show for a long time, my whole family are your loyal fans.”

“My, that’s such an honour. What would you like to share with us tonight?”

“I’m here for help.”

“Oh? What do you need help with?”

“I don’t know where I am now.” The woman’s lovely voice sounded urgent. “I’ve remembered some things recently, but when I ask my parents, they remember nothing. I’m scared. I want to get them to leave this home, but they refuse.”

The host said gently, “You’re not making total sense, but I get the gist. You think where you’re living now isn’t your home?”

The woman quickly replied, “Yes, yes!”

The host sounded troubled, “That sounds really bad—if you’re inexplicably living in someone else’s house, that’s dangerous.”

“Yes…” The woman said. “That’s what I think. I feel my memories were altered by bad people; my whole family’s memories were changed. But things are slowly coming back to me. I think I’d better escape before the bad guys notice. This place is too small. I can’t stand living here.”

Slowly, she said, “I remember I used to be very rich.”

The host drew a sharp breath. Shen Xiaoxiao heard the sound of fingernails tapping the desk, da, da, da. After a while, the host suddenly laughed, “Ms. Wang, I think I might know where you are now.”

The woman sounded delighted, “Oh, really? That’s great!”

The host smiled, “Would you mind turning on your camera?”

“Not at all, not at all.”

Because Shen Xiaoxiao was only half-listening to the show, she had no idea what the woman’s video showed, but she did hear the host suddenly burst out laughing, almost breathless with it.

“Ms. Wang, how could you forget even this!”

The host laughed: “You’re in a coffin, Ms. Wang, how could you forget? Your memory is really terrible!”

The woman started laughing too—a muffled laugh behind her hand. “My gosh, right! Look at me, what a head I have!”

“Thank you, Xiao Guan, I remember now. Our whole family was killed by a burglar last month, hahahahaha.”

At this, any sleepiness Shen Xiaoxiao had disappeared. She shook her head, got out of bed in disbelief, and yawned her way to the living room.

The living room lights were off, but the TV was on.

Shen Xiaoxiao didn’t think much of it, just assumed her sister forgot to turn the TV off before bed.

She sat on the sofa, wanting to see what more this prank show could pull.

The second caller was surnamed Bai, a female student.

She eagerly turned on her camera, showing her red school uniform.

“Hello, Miss Bai,” said the host.

“Hi Xiao Guan, it took me so long to call in.”

“Why hesitate?” Xiao Guan feigned a hurt tone. “I’m so adorable!”

“Oh, I didn’t mean it that way. Maybe it’s because I know you. The way you died was so frightening. I’m a little scared.”

Xiao Guan joked: “Ah, you’re digging up my dark past! Did you watch my suicide livestream?”

“Sure did, I even gave it a like and left a comment. You always found new ways to die. You even sacrificed yourself for your ideals in the end. I admire you.”

Xiao Guan laughed: “Ah, I wish all the girls could hear you. Their deaths were works of art. My favourite was when I hid behind the curtains for a livestream. Did you see that one?”

The girl’s face brightened with memory: “Of course! That girl’s screams were so loud. She kept begging for mercy—her voice was even sweeter than an oriole’s.”

Xiao Guan nodded in satisfaction: “Yes, her mother’s cries were lovely too, her father’s were mediocre, but still passable.”

“Ah…”

Xiao Guan suddenly stopped the conversation: “We keep talking about me. Did you have something to share today?”

“No, no, just wanted to say I really like you. I’ll always adore you!”

“I’ve received your affection. Then, goodbye?”

“Goodbye!”

Shen Xiaoxiao looked at the smiling male host on the TV and felt herself silently roasting inside.

Shows nowadays will make up anything for the sake of being bizarre.

Who would believe this?

No one would ever buy it!

Shen Xiaoxiao rolled her eyes and got up, intending to turn off the TV. But staring at the host’s face on screen, she frowned, feeling she’d seen that face somewhere before.

…Where?

After racking her brain, Shen Xiaoxiao suddenly remembered a social news piece from half a month ago—about a serial killer who shot himself during his arrest.

She immediately searched the keywords, and, as if possessed, typed “Xiao Guan.”

Several minutes later, Shen Xiaoxiao stared in shock, comparing the face on TV with the heavily pixelated killer’s mugshot on her phone. The expression on her face grew more and more incredulous.

By now, the host had begun taking a third call.

Unlike the first two, this caller said nothing, just kept panting violently.

The host didn’t rush—he calmly introduced:

“Tonight’s Night Talk broadcast is nearing its end. This call is from Ms. Shen of Changxia City.”

“Ah… she seems frightened.”

Xiao Guan smiled:

“That’s all right. Let’s see what she’s up to.”

Then Shen Xiaoxiao saw the TV screen suddenly go black. After some rustling noises, it slowly lit up.

She saw her own sleeping self.

On screen, she looked annoyed at being disturbed and hid her head under the covers, but after a few minutes, she climbed out of bed with a bewildered look.

The screen sped through everything she just experienced—from being awakened, to sitting on the couch, to nervously searching the news on her phone—every detail was clearly displayed.

It was like having a bucket of cold water dumped over her. Shen Xiaoxiao trembled all over. Xiao Guan solicitously asked how she felt, but no words would come.

The TV display was about to catch up with her current actions, and Shen Xiaoxiao had a strange hunch—if it did, something bad would happen. She forced herself out of her fear, strode over to grab the remote, and pressed the power button.

But the TV kept playing.

She jabbed it several more times. Suddenly, Xiao Guan pressed his face to the screen, his features distorted and oozing outward.

“It’s useless, Ms. Shen.”

Shen Xiaoxiao screamed and flung the remote away.

Xiao Guan’s eyeballs squeezed to the edge of the screen, staring at her, grinning ceaselessly.

Shen Xiaoxiao was out of options. Only one way remained to turn the TV off. Gritting her teeth, she ran behind the set, grabbed the cord, and yanked it hard!

Everything went silent instantly.

It was as though a pause button had been pressed. The echo of laughter still hung in the room, but no new sound came.

Shen Xiaoxiao stood frozen, eyes squeezed shut. After a long moment, her shoulders finally relaxed a little. She bent down, letting out a breath as if after a narrow escape.

She was just about to tell her sister about what happened.

Before leaving, Shen Xiaoxiao unconsciously squeezed the TV cord in her hand.

It was as slick as human skin.

The cord gently wriggled in her hand.