Gu Qiqi loves to look in the mirror.
She always has a mirror in her backpack that can be folded to the size of half a palm. When unfolded, the mirror is as tall as a person. It was a gift from her mother, who said it was made of Narcissus's tears and shows the most beautiful reflection.
Gu Wuming, however, is disdainful of his younger sister's narcissistic behavior. No matter how many times she looks into the mirror, it's just a pile of bones. If one must describe it more beautifully, Gu Qiqi is an irregularly arranged but charming skeleton with graceful curves. The surface of her bones is much whiter and cleaner than ordinary bones, like the last snow in late spring.
Yet, no matter how beautiful, she's still just a skeleton. This is an unalterable fact.
There are not many bone demons left in the world, and after their parents passed away, Gu Qiqi and Gu Wuming have no relatives other than each other.
Gu Qiqi's mother mentioned that she used to have a cousin, but she was dissatisfied with a simple and secluded life. So, she went to Zhan Shan to establish herself as its ruler, and opened White Bone Cave in the mountain. Putting on the skin of a young girl, she would lure passing men and women into the cave to devour them. In the end, she was killed by a wild monkey that popped out of a rock, meeting a bad end.[1]
Gu Qiqi, of course, has never met this cousin and doesn't like her. This is because the cousin ate people. In Gu Qiqi's eyes, humans are meant to be observed. Every day, they wear different clothes, have various expressions, do different things, and change the world bit by bit with their own efforts. How interesting! Why would anyone want to eat them?
Moreover, she dislikes seeing blood. The scarlet red liquid flowing from the human body makes her dizzy, which is a rather unpleasant feeling. She can't fathom the scenes of that cousin tearing apart those human bodies. Besides, don't humans have delicious stuff like fruit tarts?
In fact, I really want to watch the spectacle of Gu Qiqi eating egg tarts. However, every time she just packs them and takes them away. I'm really curious about what a bone demon looks like when eating, and I even jokingly wonder if what they eat directly leaks out from between their bones.
The fact is that every time Gu Qiqi comes to buy fruit tarts, both Fatty and Skinny are scared to death by her. This is because she always comes in the middle of the night and, out of consideration not to disturb others, she walks silently like she is floating.
One day, Fatty, who got up in the middle of the night to cook a late-night snack, was walking outside while eating glutinous rice balls. He bumped into her unexpectedly, and a glutinous rice ball slipped down his throat. Fatty couldn't swallow or spit it out, and nearly died young.
I know she is a bone demon brimming with curiosity. She's endlessly fascinated by everything in the world. Even when buying egg tarts, she can't resist taking a tour around my yard. Curiosity killed the cat, and the bone demon's curiosity almost killed Fatty.
Fatty and Skinny have strong opinions about her, unanimously agreeing that she should put on a decent layer of human skin before coming out. Walking around with just a skeleton is too harsh on the eyes.
However, she's still the same and always appears in front of us in the most original and simple form. She says it's great this way — no need to perm hair, no need to put on makeup, and even no need to buy clothes. It's so relaxing and comfortable living a simple life like this, enjoying her favorite egg tarts.
She always comes to buy egg tarts on weekend nights. I know her schedule, so I always put the freshly baked egg tarts in a dedicated insulated box to ensure they are nice and warm when she picks them up. Because Fatty and Skinny absolutely refuse to bake egg tarts for a skeleton in the middle of the night.
However, Gu Qiqi hasn't come for almost a month. The egg tarts prepared for her have turned into our own breakfast several times in a row.
Today is another weekend, and the scorching heat of midsummer refuses to recede even at sunset. Early in the morning, Fatty and Skinny eagerly went to the newly opened bathing beach to check out the beauties. It's a good thing they left, or the unexpected arrival of Gu Wuming would have given them nightmares for three days. Yes, today it's not Gu Qiqi who came; it's her older brother — Gu Wuming[2].
This male bone demon, who has survived for hundreds of years, is quite different from his sister. His bones are pure black, as jet black as a spilled bottle of ink sealed for tens of thousands of years. Each rough bone carries tiny specks of light like scattered sand. A bone demon's power is defined by color. The darker the color, the more ferocious the demon.
In the places Gu Wuming passed, my verdant flowers and plants all listlessly lowered their heads. He barged in like a gust of wind. I smiled at him, "Buying egg tarts for your sister?"
"Come with me!" His voice is pleasant; if you close your eyes, a perfect man will emerge in your mind.
I continued to smile, "Eloping with a skeleton is not very romantic, so I refuse." He seemed to be angered, and he flipped the table between us with a slap. The teapot and teacups shattered on the floor, and the green tea spilled all over. He took a stride towards me, and I felt the chilling aura emanating from his bones, instantly changing the room temperature. I fell from summer into harsh winter.
He's a head taller than me, and I found that looking up at a furious black skeleton is much more uncomfortable than staring at that Golden Lion previously. Because he has no eyes, there's no gaze, and I can't discern anything or guess his thoughts.
"I want a breath of your true vitality, tree demon!" He unexpectedly grabbed my wrist. Being suddenly caught by that icy skeleton hand made me think for a moment that my hand was gone.
"I haven't fought in many years." Although he has no eyes, I still earnestly looked at the two deep black holes on his face and said this to him.
I really don't want to fight. Everything in Unceasing - the tables, chairs, cups - was bought with money. It’ll be a shame to break them!
Gu Wuming coldly snorted and tightened his grip on me even more…
***
It was not the fifteenth, yet the moon was full that night, casting a dazzling golden glow across the whole sky. It almost seemed like the sun had mistaken the time.
Wangchuan[3], a city with little renown, was sleeping under this moonlight. Without the reality of steel and concrete, it had gained an otherworldly, dreamlike quality.
The brightest beam of moonlight spilled onto the back alley of a restaurant, where several greedy stray cats leaped on the trash cans, reluctantly rummaging for food. High temperature is the favorite of various odors.
A crack opened in the air in the center of the alley, emitting layers of white mist. It resembled the steam rising from a steamed bun shop in the early morning, except it lacked any warmth, freezing people to the bone.
Two men emerged from the crack, their blurry figures gradually becoming clear in the white mist. They wore the most common summer attire — T-shirts, jeans, and sneakers. One had black hair cut short; the other had waist-length red hair. Both were good-looking, devoid of smiles on their faces but with a sharpness in their eyes.
"Can't you open the exit of the Underworld to a cleaner place?" In the darkness next to the trash cans, a slender figure of a young man appeared. His side-swept bangs were messily beautiful in the night breeze. Although his features retained a hint of youthful innocence, it was preliminarily inferred that he had the potential to grow into a handsome man. His red short-sleeved shirt was more vivid than flames, and a black backpack was slung over his buttocks, with the zipper of the bag carelessly left open.
The stray cats meowed in confusion, scattering in all directions. One of them stepped on a trash bag, causing a heap of spoiled noodles to fall on the ground. The splattered sauce landed on the young man's spotless sneakers.
The young man lifted his foot, frowned, and said, "You owe me a new pair of shoes, no, make it two! Just send the bill to my aunt[4]."
"The king didn't send us out to buy shoes for you." The redhead approached the young man and said grumpily, "If this mission fails, all of us will have a hard time, including you, Zhong Xiaokui[5]."
"What does it have to do with me?" Zhong Xiaokui widened his eyes, innocently pointing at himself. "You guys lost something from the Underworld, I didn't steal it! I'm only responsible for providing you guys with food and accommodation in the human world, nothing more."
"Your task is more than just food and accommodation; the king specifically instructed us," said the black-haired man, walking over. He exchanged a glance with his companion, and without hesitation, they each grabbed one of Zhong Xiaokui's arms and lifted him up. Ignoring his protests, they walked out of the alley.
There were three people in the moonlight, but only one shadow.
***
Gu Qiqi moved into this neighborhood just a week ago, and her excitement was still evident. Her previous "home" was in a corner of the Sahara Desert, where the sun blazed fiercely. The "home" before that was on an iceberg in Antarctica, where she could see a group of penguins as soon as she stepped outside. Before that, was it a village outside Cape Town? Or Fifth Avenue in New York? In short, she and her brother relocated every year, and had been doing so for centuries. There were hardly any places on the planet where she hadn't set foot.
This year, she came to China, to a city called Wangchuan. However, this time, she was alone. Taking advantage of the opportunity when Gu Wuming went far away for business, she ran away from a luxurious villa in some foreign place.
If she remembered it correctly, this was her first solo trip in her life.
Gu Wuming was her big brother, her nanny, her instructor, and her jailer. The only requirement he had for his only sister was: obedience.
Obedience meant absolutely no appearing in front of humans and no making friends with them.
Obedience meant not believing in any creature that lived under a skin.
Obedience meant only eating vegetarian food, not meat, let alone touching junk food like chips or anything of the sort.
Perhaps her brother just loved her too much. But regardless of whether his actions stemmed from a patriarchal sense of authority or genuine concern for family, she was truly tired of this restrictive life. She wanted to live her own life.
Many people lived in this ordinary neighborhood, including high school students, salesmen promoting razors, retired old men and women with gray hair, and even a columnist. It was a diverse mix of people.
Gu Qiqi would come and go from these people's homes every day, observing them and listening to their conversations. Such mundane life and the trivialities of the human world were things she could never experience in the desert, Antarctica, or even luxurious mansions.
However, due to her "friendly neighbor" interactions with humans, Gu Wuming had harshly confronted her twice. Once because she intervened to save a middle-aged woman who jumped off a building late at night, and another time because she carried a young man with a leg injury out of a burning forest.
She thought she was doing good deeds, but in her brother's eyes, these were unforgivable offenses.
Footnotes:
[1] The author is referring to Baigujing(demoness) and Sun Wukong(monkey) from the novel Journey to the West. Zhan Shan can mean Divine/Occupied/Observation Mountain. It's located in Sichuan Province.
[2] 顾无名: Gu(surname), the word gu means to look after; to attend to. Wuming means nameless; obscure. Qiqi is 七(seven) repeated. Probably a cutesy name.
[3] River of Forgetfulness. Like River Lethe in Greek mythology. Seems an odd name for a city, so I left it in Pinyin.
[4] 姑姑 is paternal aunt.
[5] 钟小魁: Zhong(surname), the word zhong can mean time; goblet; concentrate. Kuí means chief; head. So Xiaokui can be read as Young Chief.
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