Su Bai bounced back. He surely didn"t see that coming.
Nona sat up straight slowly. She seemed to sit on the stretcher and slightly turn her head around to look at Su Bai; her eyes were all white, emotionless and cold.
Was her corpse coming back to life?
Su Bai looked Nona up and down but saw no long white hair or other signs of a zombie; but she also had no breath. She was not a living person, but she could still move around.
This person was dead, as dead as dead could be.
Nona just sat there while Su Bai just stood there. A man and a dead body, facing each other.
Luckily, the door of the mortuary was just behind Su Bai, so he could walk away if he wanted. As for whether Nona would bring any danger to anyone else, that was not Su Bai"s consideration. And he was not that capable of saving everyone in the story world.
Nona sat there for a while. Then Su Bai decided to turn around and leave. After he walked out of the door, he seemed to have picked up some sound from the mortuary. So he stepped back and looked into the mortuary again.
The stretcher was still there, but the dead girl who was sitting there…
She was gone.
The corridor outside the mortuary was suddenly filled with unusual shadows, as if something lifeless was hiding in the darkness; it was quiet, but real.
Anyway…
Su Bai licked his lips and decided to keep going.
It was not until he was out in the suns.h.i.+ne again did he let down his guard a little.
He had found what he needed. But he had no idea why Nona had turned into something like that. According to w.a.n.g Hongsheng, the four people were all in illegal business, but what kind of illegal business was Nona in?
His instincts told him that what happened just now must have something to do with who Nona was before she died.
The funeral parlor was quiet and desolate. When Su Bai walked to the gate, he found no trace of that old guard he saw when he had walked in. He cast a glance into the room when he pa.s.sed by… The old guard was bending over the desk as if he was sleeping.
Su Bai stretched out his hand and touched him. He was sleeping, but it was kind of inappropriate at this time. And his posture seemed a little odd— he was lying with both hands on the desk, with his face clinging to the desktop. When Su Bai pushed him away, he saw a dark shadow between the old guard"s eyebrows.
Then, Su Bai looked behind the old guard and saw a pair of watery footprints. Su Bai immediately thought of Nona who had been lying in an ice locker. Her body was frozen, so when she stepped into the heat outside, her body would be covered with water drops, like a bottle of iced coca-cola would be covered with water drops after being taken out of a refrigerator.
Nona was out?
That was the first time Su Bai felt a little confused. He was kind of used to being chased, but now there was a zombie that was not after him. That was new.
Su Bai took a taxi back to the police station, went to the dormitory and came directly to w.a.n.g Hongsheng"s door. The door suddenly opened before he could knock.
It was Fat Dong. He was holding a big pot of roast chicken leftovers with a toothpick in his mouth. Seeing Su Bai in front of him, Fat Dong was a little surprised, then he smiled with a little embarra.s.sment.
"Hey, bro. Sorry I ate up all…"
"I"m full already."
"Okay. Come on in."
Fat Dong walked out to dump the leftovers.
Su Bai walked in. w.a.n.g Hongsheng was sitting on the couch; he had just finished his meal, his face looked greasy, and he seemed to be recovering very well. Su Bai suddenly wished to learn some martial arts; he had some training before, but only exercise such as kickboxing, not systematic practice. He should find himself a good teacher and start training after this story ended; of course, he had to survive this story first.
"What? Something wrong?" w.a.n.g Hongsheng asked.
Su Bai nodded. He didn"t sit down; he just took out his cigarettes, threw one to w.a.n.g Hongsheng, then lit one for himself and blew out a smoke ring.
"What did Nona do for a living?"
That question amazed w.a.n.g Hongsheng. He looked at Su Bai with confusion.
"Why? There"s no point in that since she"s already dead."
Su Bai suddenly felt so absurd and so funny. What w.a.n.g Hongsheng said was like a line in some comedy show on CCTV[1]; it would always make people laugh.
If Nona just remained dead without moving a muscle, like any other player who walked off the arena, he would never bother to mess with her c.r.a.p! But now that her dead body was missing from the funeral parlor, it couldn"t be left unattended!
Su Bai had fought with the Silver serial killer. That guy was good and well-equipped, but he was not invincible; he was a human, not a ghost.
Human wouldn"t be too terrible.
In fact, if Su Bai wasn"t that careful, or if he didn"t trap w.a.n.g Hongsheng, the killer might well have been caught if they had worked together.
But now, Nona was no longer human. In a story of Dreadful Radio, inhuman beings were the most dangerous!
Su Bai flicked the ashes from his cigarette and stared at w.a.n.g Hongsheng:
"I went to the funeral parlor."
w.a.n.g Hongsheng frowned, "Why did you go there, bro? To see your little girlfriend? You"re so dedicated to your role."
He was making fun of Su Bai. In fact, while he was joking with Su Bai, his eyebrows were already knitted; apparently, he was concerned about something.
"I checked Nona." Su Bai said.
w.a.n.g Hongsheng"s eyes narrowed.
"Then, Nona disappeared." Su Bai continued.
w.a.n.g Hongsheng"s hands suddenly shook. He took a deep breath and asked a question in reply:
"She"s gone?"
"I"m not blind." Su Bai raised his voice. "So tell me now, what did Nona do for a living? Why did others remain dead but she turned after death?"
"Nona?"
Just then, Fat Dong"s voice came from outside the door. The big pot was still in his hands but the casual look on his face was no more. He put away the pot and walked to Su Bai:
"Nona"s really missing?"
"Right under my watch. Just disappeared."
Fat Dong smacked his lips and mumbled: "That"s bad, that"s so bad. We"d better find Zhou. d.a.m.n it! We"ve gone too far, we all did!"
Su Bai"s patience wore out. Apparently, those five all had a strong sense of community; w.a.n.g Hongsheng and Fat Dong knew who Nona was in the reality, but they were deliberately hiding that from Su Bai.
Su Bai nodded, "So, you"re not gonna tell me? Fine, let"s not play together."
He was ready to walk away.
"Wait! You can"t be serious." Fat Dong grabbed Su Bai"s shoulder with his chubby hands, "Of course we"re gonna tell you. It"s just… we"re kind of concerned that what happened to Nona might make this story world even more complicated."
w.a.n.g Hongsheng must have said something to the other members about Su Bai"s capability. Therefore, Fat Dong knew clearly that they needed Su Bai by their side after they had lost one of them.
Su Bai stopped and waited for Fat Dong to continue.
"Nona used to be a tomb raider."
After Fat Dong"s answer, the room started to feel somewhat colder.
A tomb raider？
w.a.n.g Hongsheng suddenly stood up leaning on his stick. "Go find Zhou, now! We have to find Zhou now! Nona must have left the funeral parlor for a purpose!"
Su Bai noticed an obvious shake of Fat Dong"s hands.
"No matter what, we should go meet Zhou first and ask him for advice. I"m worried that if Nona is really coming to the police station or if she causes some big trouble outside, this story world would turn from a murder case into a horrible story… In that case, whether low-level audiences or experiencers like us…
"…in the end…
"…there won"t be many survivors."
Fat Dong supported w.a.n.g Hongsheng by his arm while Su Bai walked in the front. The three of them went to see Director Zhou together.
The director"s office was in the middle of the fourth floor. When they got to the office, they found that the door was locked, all the windows were closed and even the curtains were shut.
"What, Zhou"s not here?" w.a.n.g Hongsheng doubted.
"He"s there. He must be in there. Perhaps he hates the hot weather, so he closed the windows and the door and turned the AC on. But Zhou"s really vigorous; at such a venerable age, he"s still so strong! The AC"s been set to such a low temperature that water drops are showing up on the windows. He"s not at all afraid of catching a cold!"
Translator"s ThoughtsCatCyan
FOOTNOTES:
[1] CCTV: short for China Central Television, the predominant state television broadcaster in the People"s Republic of China.