Possession (2) Part 2

Cheng Yuliu walked up to Lin Banxia and Song Qingluo. She recognized Lin Banxia and said coldly, "It's you?"

Song Qingluo said, "No, it's me."

Suspicion showed in Cheng Yuliu's eyes. "Is what you said true?"

Song Qingluo crossed his hands and rested them on his knees, his attitude extremely cold. He said, "That depends on your sincerity first."

Cheng Yuliu narrowed her eyes, seemingly in thought. She stuck out her tongue and lightly licked her heavily made-up red lips, then actually smiled. "Come with me. It's not convenient here. Let's go to my place to talk in detail." Without waiting to see if Lin Banxia and Song Qingluo agreed, she turned and walked off on her own, clearly certain that the two would follow.

Lin Banxia and Song Qingluo exchanged a look, stood up in tacit understanding, and followed the woman out.

Lin Banxia finished the last bite of his sausage, threw the bamboo skewer into a trash can, and whispered to Song Qingluo, "Are we really going back with her?"

Song Qingluo said, "It won't hurt to take a look."

Lin Banxia: "But I have a bad feeling about this."

Song Qingluo glanced at him and handed him the half-finished Coke. Lin Banxia silently took it and had a sip. The sweet flavor filled his mouth, and the dopamine released by the sugar made him feel at ease. Lin Banxia said, "Much better."

Song Qingluo had a 'See, I was right' expression on his face.

The woman walked quickly, not saying a word the entire way. People around them were frightened by her appearance and quickly moved aside to avoid her, but she seemed completely oblivious. After leaving the park, the three of them walked for about ten minutes and arrived at the entrance of a high-end residential complex. The security guard at the gate clearly knew the woman; upon seeing her, he hurriedly opened the gate without daring to ask a single question.

Song Qingluo and Lin Banxia followed her into the complex.

Lin Banxia had some impression of this complex. It seemed to be a famous wealthy neighborhood, filled with large, single-floor apartments of several hundred square meters, with prices in the tens of millions. The people who could afford to live here were not ordinary.

The woman walked straight into one of the buildings and swiped her key card in the elevator.

Lin Banxia watched as the number eighteen lit up on the elevator display. The elevator then ascended slowly and, with a ding, arrived at the designated floor.

This was a layout where the elevator opened directly into the apartment. As soon as the elevator doors opened, they were inside the woman's home.

It was Lin Banxia's first time in such an expensive house, and he looked around curiously. Song Qingluo, on the other hand, showed little interest, following the woman inside without even changing his shoes. Fortunately, the woman didn't care about such things. The first thing she did upon arriving home was to light several candles.

Although it was daytime, all the windows were covered with thick curtains, making the room so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. Only the flickering candlelight provided a faint source of light for the spacious room.

The woman settled on the sofa, lit a long, slender cigarette with the candlelight, then picked up another pack and asked with a smile if they wanted one.

Both Lin Banxia and Song Qingluo declined.

Logically, since the woman had become so emaciated, any expression she made should have been terrifying. Yet, Lin Banxia detected a strange sort of seductive charm in the way she smoked, reminding him of the fox spirits from folklore. But no fox spirit would let herself become so wretched.

"You can bring the dead back to life?" Exhaling a cloud of swirling smoke, the woman narrowed her eyes and asked bluntly.

"I can," Song Qingluo said. "But you have to tell me what happened to Liu Xi."

The woman asked, "How much do you know?"

Song Qingluo said, "Some."

"So you don't know everything, then." The woman crossed her legs and smiled. "Then we can make a deal. You restore them to their original state, and I'll tell you what happened to Liu Xi."

Song Qingluo said, "That's possible, but..."

The woman asked, "But what?"

Song Qingluo said, "But, I have to hear your story first." He slowly took a pair of black gloves from his pocket and put them on, finger by finger, his eyes lowered. "I imagine it must be a very interesting story."

Cheng Yuliu said coldly, "My story is my sincerity. What about yours?"

Song Qingluo interlaced his fingers and gave a rare smile. "First, let out the thing you have locked in your refrigerator. I can show you a part of what I can do."

The woman licked her lips heavily and let out a hoarse laugh. She stood up and headed towards the kitchen. Lin Banxia whispered in confusion, "What's in the refrigerator?"

Song Qingluo said softly, "The thing that was thrown away."

Lin Banxia froze for a moment, still wondering what 'thrown away thing' he meant, but Song Qingluo had already gotten up and followed the woman. Lin Banxia had no choice but to hurry after him.

As they approached the kitchen, Lin Banxia heard a strange sound—sticky, soft, like a lump of something squirming on the floor. He moved behind Song Qingluo and, by the faint candlelight, saw the source of the sound. In that instant, he finally understood what Song Qingluo meant by 'the thing that was thrown away'—he was talking about the body discarded by the funeral parlor.

Lin Banxia would probably never forget this scene for the rest of his life. The corpse, which should have been cremated long ago, was now slumped on the floor. But because its flesh and bones were so shattered, it was almost indescribable, to the point where it couldn't even be referred to as a human 'he'. He... no, it, was currently slumped against Cheng Yuliu's calf, greedily begging for food. Cheng Yuliu was holding a jar filled with something that looked like minced meat, and she was feeding the thing with a gentle expression on her face.

Who knew how long this thing had been here. The air in the kitchen was filled with a nauseating stench of decay. Even for someone like Lin Banxia, who worked in a special profession, it was becoming difficult to breathe.

Cheng Yuliu, however, seemed completely unaware. She bent down, gently stroking the lump of minced flesh, then looked at Song Qingluo and said, "Go on. Your sincerity."

Song Qingluo walked forward and took a small box out of the bag he was carrying. The box was just like the one Lin Banxia had seen before, only smaller. He took some time to open the lock and then took out a roll of something that looked like plastic wrap. No, it was plastic wrap, Lin Banxia was certain when Song Qingluo tore off a piece.

When Cheng Yuliu saw what was in Song Qingluo's hands, she was also stunned. Before she could even ask, she saw Song Qingluo pull off a length of plastic wrap and use it to cover a portion of the lump of flesh on the floor. The change was almost instantaneous. The part covered by the plastic wrap restored itself at an incredible speed. It appeared to be a section of an arm, and even the fingernails grew back.

Seeing this, Cheng Yuliu's eyes filled with ecstasy. She said, "I want that, give it to me!"

Song Qingluo straightened up, gave her a cold look, and put the plastic wrap back into the box.

Cheng Yuliu asked, "Your condition?"

Song Qingluo said, "Isn't the condition already clear?"

Cheng Yuliu thought for a moment, then suddenly asked, "Would you two like a cup of coffee?"

Song Qingluo shook his head, and Lin Banxia also said no.

"Then tea? Or wine?" Cheng Yuliu's attitude became very eager.

Song Qingluo asked, "Do you have any Coke?"

Cheng Yuliu was stunned for a moment, then repeated in disbelief, "Coke?"

"If not, then forget it." Song Qingluo raised his hand to look at his watch. "Time is precious. Let's start with your story."

The woman broke into a brilliant smile, which looked truly horrifying on her skin-and-bones face. She said, "This apartment cost fourteen million. I bought it in full." As she spoke, it was as if she had become a different person. She kicked the lump of flesh she had just been treating so gently aside, flitting about the spacious room like a light butterfly. The candlelight flickered, making her face appear even more ghostly.

"The renovations alone cost four million. This floor, this sofa, they're all made from the best materials," the woman said blissfully. "I also bought cars—a Ferrari, a Lamborghini, whatever was expensive, I bought it. I didn't take out a single loan, paid for everything in cash—"

Lin Banxia almost shed tears of envy listening to this. Song Qingluo silently handed him a tissue and whispered, "Don't cry. I'll buy you grilled sausages later."

Cheng Yuliu said, "But just three years ago, I was a dirt-poor wretch. I didn't dare take a taxi, and even my vegetables were the cheapest ones I could find. Sometimes, when things were too hard, I could only go to the market to pick up rotten vegetables that others had thrown away." Her voice grew cold. "Back then, even to eat a small 3.5 yuan piece of cake, I had to pinch every penny. I'd had enough—you should know what it feels like to be poor!!! Who would ever want to live like that again!!!"

Lin Banxia wanted to give a weak nod, but held back due to the warning look from Song Qingluo beside him.

"In just three years, guess how I became so rich?" The woman smiled. "This... is my secret."

Then, her smile slowly faded until it disappeared. "It's just that back then, I didn't know that all these things came with a price."

The author has something to say:

Lin Banxia: But Song Qingluo, what is the price of being rich?

Song Qingluo: A sore ass?

Lin Banxia: 0.0???