Paper Life 15

Shang Nan finished his shower and went out, picking up the little paper piece from the ground. The little paper piece was completely soaked, a thin sheet that light could pass through; it had obviously lost all its spiritual energy.

After thinking about it, Shang Nan carried it to the bathroom and dried it with a hairdryer. After drying, the paper piece became less smooth; it was dry and stiff, and some parts even bulged out.

"..." It seemed there was no saving it.

'On some level, would this count as a kind of killing?' Shang Nan muttered to himself.

[14: For this kind of little paper piece, however many you want, he can give you that many.]

"..."

Shang Nan was a light sleeper. The Shang Family home was so quiet, day or night, that it seemed as if no one lived there, so he could rest very well here.

However, today was an exception.

Dai Lili didn't return until two or three in the morning. Drunk, she was helped out of the back seat by the driver, a long fur coat draped over her shoulders. She walked unsteadily, swaying back and forth, her high heels twisting left and right, the sound of them stepping on the stone path completely irregular.

The car headlights shone directly into Shang Nan's room, and Shang Nan woke up almost immediately.

Listening to the commotion downstairs, Shang Nan guessed that Dai Lili must have already entered the house.

The auntie helped her take off her high heels and change into slippers, asking if she wanted sobriety soup.

Dai Lili's long jet-black hair fell loose as she grinned, "No need, thanks."

She shook off the auntie's hand, telling the auntie to go rest. Holding onto the stair railing herself, she seemed to wander aimlessly until she stood at Shang Nan's room.

Seeing the woman's long, thin, and slender back from downstairs, the auntie inwardly cursed, thinking something was wrong, and hurriedly chased after her.

Shang Nan was already half-asleep, until Dai Lili's footsteps appeared at his door and then stopped. Outside was bright, inside was dark; Dai Lili's shadow extended in through the narrow door crack, elongating.

The door was pushed open. Dai Lili stood against the light. She was too thin; standing in the doorway, the light outlined her like a human skeleton.

The moment she walked into the room, Shang Nan sat up and turned on the room lights. He was wearing pajamas, his eyes still holding the sleepy look of someone just waking up. "Mother?"

"Just coming to see you." Dai Lili's steps were weak. She had been drinking and reeked of alcohol. She sat on the edge of Shang Nan's bed and yawned, her five fingers shriveled and long like chicken claws.

Shang Nan felt something was wrong with her, whether it was her eyes or her movements.

[14: Not like a human.]

Just as 14's youthful, unbroken voice fell into Shang Nan's consciousness, Dai Lili suddenly lunged at Shang Nan. Caught off guard, the back of Shang Nan's head hit the solid wood headboard as he slid down. It felt like his skull had cracked, and his vision plunged into temporary darkness.

Dai Lili strangled Shang Nan's neck with both hands using force. Her eyeballs bulged out of their sockets, her cheekbones rose high, and she straddled Shang Nan's body, hair messy and facial features twisted and deformed.

Shang Nan tried to pry Dai Lili's hands open with both hands, but her strength pressed down like a mountain, and the available oxygen became increasingly thin.

"Mo... Mother?" Shang Nan spoke with difficulty, his face flushing red.

Dai Lili only looked confused for a few seconds before tears streamed down her face. She let out a scream that could almost pierce eardrums, "I am not your mother! You are a liar's son, you are a liar too! Just like him, you both deserve to die." She bent down, pressing against Shang Nan's ear, her exhaled breath icy and damp.

Shang Nan thought he was going to die in the first world.

"Oh my god, oh my god, Madam, what are you doing?!" The auntie chased up, panting heavily. Seeing Shang Nan being strangled, she hugged Dai Lili's waist from behind and pulled back, but Dai Lili was completely unaffected. The auntie cried and shouted anxiously, "Madam, he is Shang Nan! He is the Young Master, he is your son!"

She shouted herself hoarse, but Dai Lili didn't listen to a single word.

The auntie had watched Shang Nan grow up and naturally knew how Dai Lili had become crazier and crazier. She wailed, "Someone come! Help!" She even started biting Dai Lili, hoping Dai Lili would loosen her grip even just a tiny bit.

[14: She isn't having an episode. She dotted the eyes of the Paper Doll and was backlashed by the resentment. You are a member of the Shang Family, so the resentment naturally projects onto you.]

[14: I won't let anything happen to you.]

A figure that wasn't very tall appeared outside the door; the beautiful Paper Doll, covered in silver needles, had appeared at the doorway at some unknown time.

The Paper Doll was probably only as high as Shang Nan's knees; it was holding a bronze candlestick in its hands.

The first to fall was the auntie. The Paper Doll attacked indiscriminately, jumping onto the bed and knocking the auntie unconscious with the candlestick. Next was Dai Lili, but it didn't use the candlestick on her. It grabbed Dai Lili's hair from behind and yanked viciously. The woman's scream was high-pitched and manic as she finally loosened the hold on Shang Nan's neck, while the Paper Doll stared blankly at the handful of black hair it had torn off.

Shang Nan had been relying solely on the little bit of oxygen supplied by the System to maintain his breathing. After being saved, a large amount of air rushed into his trachea and throat, and Shang Nan slumped over the edge of the bed, coughing violently.

After recovering slightly, Shang Nan looked up only to see the Paper Doll strangling Dai Lili's neck with both hands. The Paper Doll's eyes were pitch-black and lifeless, its lips pressed into a tight line. Dai Lili's neck was nearly being snapped in its hands—Dai Lili's legs kicked on the ground, her face turning purple from lack of oxygen. Her fingers scratching at the floor gradually became weak, and her pupils began to dilate.

[14: If the monster kills a human in this world subjectively and not in self-defense, Nannan, your mission will fail, and you will be trapped in this world forever.]

[14: I can detach myself.]

Shang Nan hurriedly got off the bed and stumbled over. "Let her go."

The Paper Doll remained completely unmoved, even using more force. Shang Nan could almost hear the sound of bones being crushed out of shape.

Shang Nan lowered his eyes and said sternly, "Yu Zhibai!"

The Paper Doll tilted its head.

In that brief moment of distraction, Shang Nan immediately pulled Dai Lili out of the Paper Doll's grasp. Dai Lili lay on the ground, coughing and vomiting frantically. The Paper Doll stood up, raising its head to look at Shang Nan.

[14: Yes, Yu Zhibai said before that this Paper Doll is his.]

[14: However, Nannan, it is angry.]

The Paper Doll looked at Shang Nan, then jumped off the balcony without making a sound.

After a long while, the Paper Doll appeared on the road. Under the streetlights, its shadow grew from long to short and then long again, walking further and further away.

......

At four in the morning, the sky was still pitch black. Several suitcases stood in the living room. Li Houde and another driver were burning a large pile of things in the yard; they were all paper effigy items. They ignited at the touch of a lighter, flames shooting up rapidly. The face of the Paper Person, a one-to-one replica of the husband, became twisted and blurred in the firelight.

Li Houde felt his scalp tingle watching it. The other driver said, "Has the Madam turned over a new leaf?"

"I don't know."

They had been woken up in the middle of the night. Still in their dreams, the auntie, clutching the back of her head, told them all to get up. Li Houde had to drive the Young Master to another house in the middle of the night.

[14: Without the Paper Doll, Dai Lili will be fine.]

White gauze was wrapped around Shang Nan's neck, hiding a circle of purple bruises. "If anything happens, you can call me, and I'll send someone over."

Dai Lili clasped her hands over her knees, fingernails digging into her palms, but she maintained a smile on her face. "Be safe on the road."

"Okay, please take care of your health." Speaking of affection, Shang Nan was a newcomer and only felt pity for Dai Lili; her descent into madness was also expected. Shang Nan had no desire to invest time and energy intervening in other people's fates while saving the monster.

Dai Lili used the Paper Doll to curse Yu Zhibai. Yu Zhibai said she didn't mean it; it had been polite enough to Dai Lili.

Being backlashed, Yu Zhibai simply left it alone, allowing Dai Lili to go down the path of no return, eventually becoming so changed she didn't even recognize Shang Nan.

[14: If it weren't because Yu Zhibai treats you differently now, even if Dai Lili killed you tonight, it wouldn't have cared.]

The Paper Doll lay quietly in Dai Lili's room, listening to a tragic comedy titled "Mother Strangles Biological Son." When Dai Lili sobered up, she would possess a stiff corpse, which, along with her own and the surrounding people's absurd expressions, would compose a thrilling and nonsensical nightmare.

This was the default setting, the predestined ending when Shang Nan was just an irrelevant person to it.

But tonight, it almost snapped Dai Lili's neck.

Now there were no Paper Dolls or Paper People in the house. The resentment dissipated along with the burnt Paper People, and Dai Lili regained her clarity, but Shang Nan would not stay any longer.

One reason was that if he stayed here, the Paper Doll might come back; the second was that seeing him, Dai Lili would inevitably think of his father again and repeat the same mistakes.

"Actually, you can try to find someone who truly loves you." Shang Nan finished changing his shoes and opened the door. The cold wind howled outside. He turned to look at the haggard woman sitting on the sofa.

Li Houde moved the suitcases onto the car one by one. The auntie was helping too; she planned to resign after tonight to go home and take care of her grandchildren. The Madam was becoming more and more neurotic; she really should be sent to a mental hospital.

A long time after Shang Nan left, Dai Lili suddenly sneezed, and tears immediately followed.

Like peeling a cocoon, her mind began to clear. She started to remember her feelings when Shang Nan called her "Mom" for the first time, and her feelings of anxiety at home when Shang Nan went to school for the first time. After Shang Nan's father died, she discovered that he had only treated her as a tool for marriage and reproduction. To deal with his parents, he dated her, married her, and had children with her. Thus, she started to feel disgusted when looking at Shang Nan. Why would she loathe even her own child?

......

The apartment in the city center was actually closer to the school. Although no one had lived there for a long time, the furniture was covered with dust cloths, and water and electricity were supplied normally; everything would run normally after face authentication.

After Li Houde helped move everything into the house, he also helped tidy up briefly. Seeing him sweating profusely from the work, Shang Nan said, "I'll take a taxi to school myself later. You should take the day off today."

"Alright." Li Houde had been woken up in the middle of the night and was incredibly sleepy. The Young Master treated people kindly, so he agreed immediately.

The apartment was large, a flat with one unit per floor. Standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows, one could overlook the entire city center.

After Li Houde left, Shang Nan was the only one left here. Shang Nan hung all his clothes in the closet and took out other daily necessities.

After a hasty clean-up, Shang Nan checked the time; it was not yet six o'clock, he could still sleep for an hour.

The sky wasn't bright yet. The entire city was quiet and soundless, soaked in the endless night, with the occasional long whistle coming from afar.

Shang Nan lay on the bed, his pajamas thin. He thought of the lonely and dejected back of that Paper Doll walking on the road. Although it was just a Paper Doll, it still made Shang Nan immediately associate it with Yu Zhibai.

Was the one feeling dejected the Paper Doll, or Yu Zhibai?

Just as Shang Nan was thinking, he heard a "click" from outside the room, and immediately after, all the lights in the house went out, instantly plunging it into darkness where he couldn't even see his hand in front of his face.

Perhaps because no one had lived there for a long time, there was a problem with the wiring, Shang Nan thought. But since it was almost dawn anyway, he didn't need to worry about it.

He rolled over, facing the window.

—A blurry, thin human figure appeared there.

Shang Nan was so scared he almost screamed on the spot.

After getting used to this darkness, he found that the current brightness still allowed him to barely make out some things.

The figure gradually approached Shang Nan's bed. Shang Nan saw the person clearly; it was Yu Zhibai.

The other party's face was deathly pale, lips bright red, wearing a thin black sweater. His aura was gloomy and damp, giving a heavy impression of being inhuman.

He squatted down in front of Shang Nan's bed.

Shang Nan sat up and subconsciously retreated backward. "How did you get in?"

Yu Zhibai directly grabbed Shang Nan's wrist and dragged him back. He pinched Shang Nan's wrist so hard it hurt. Before Shang Nan could cry out in pain, he saw Yu Zhibai look up, purse his lips, and ask in a low voice, "Why were you fierce to me tonight?"