When the rescued middle-aged woman saw that the one catching her was a snow-white skeleton, she pushed away Gu Qiqi with a scream and fainted. The next day, the first thing the woman did when she came to was to find several Taoist priests to perform rituals at her home for three days, and plastering talismans with the words "dispel evil spirits" all over her house. As for the man she rescued from the forest fire, after seeing her appearance clearly, the first thing he did was stab a self-defense dagger into her chest.
As a bone demon, Gu Qiqi had to reveal her true form for her powers to work on humans.
She was not an evil spirit, so the Taoist priests' talismans were just pieces of paper to her. She was just a skeleton, so the man's dagger couldn't hurt her at all. She was only a bit puzzled - she just revealed her true appearance and saved their lives, that's all.
"You're different from them!" This was what Gu Wuming shouted loudly after beating her. Different?!
Walking on the sunny streets, Gu Qiqi looked around in the crowd. These men and women, young and old, were nothing more than an extra layer of flesh and skin compared to herself. Besides, after they died, weren't they all also mere skeletons? In the final analysis, why should they be so afraid when they obviously looked just like her? Fearing her, isn't it just fearing themselves?
Humans are really interesting and peculiar creatures. On one hand, they cherish their bodies in every possible way, and on the other hand, they fear the skeletons that support their flesh and skin.
The deeper this contradiction, the more Gu Qiqi yearned to make friends with a human. Without a fixed abode coupled with the supervision of her older brother, she didn't have many friends. Of course, by "friends," she meant various kinds of demons, such as the little mushroom demon living in the mountains, the old scorpion demon in the Sahara, the fashionable flower demon in New York, and so on, excluding any human being.
Gu Wuming stated that no human would want to be friends with a bone demon. 'Unlike other demons who can endlessly transform into beautiful women and handsome men, we bone demons will never change into the pleasing skin bags[1] that humans like. From the beginning to the end, we are just the most genuine skeletons.'
Gu Qiqi was well aware of this point. A true bone demon, from birth to demise, cannot change its form. As for that cousin who was killed by the wild monkey, no matter how high her cultivation was, she could only forcibly put on a layer of human skin and impersonate a human, unable to truly transform into a human form.
But, so what if she couldn't turn into a beauty? What's wrong with her current appearance? Her mother once said she was the most beautiful girl in the Bone Demon clan. Therefore, Gu Qiqi still doesn't understand the fundamental reason why humans reject her. Is it merely a difference in aesthetics?
However, she still believes that there must be people who are different.
Regarding her "belief," Gu Wuming was as disdainful as ever, just as he disdained her act of looking in the mirror. He stated, "I'll bet with you. If there is indeed a human willing to truly be your friend, your future life will be yours to decide. I won't interfere in the slightest. The condition is that they really and truly see what you look like."
Deal! Gu Qiqi wanted to use this bet to completely break free from the shackle[2] of "obedience." However, this bet has been going on for decades, and there is still no sign of Gu Qiqi winning. So she thinks that perhaps every human who could potentially be her friend has been spooked out of their mind by her appearance.
She's a little discouraged but still holds onto hope.
***
"The other stores have all closed; why haven't you closed yours?"
Gu Qiqi squatted at the entrance of the small shop that sold goldfish, looking at the various pretty fish swimming in the tank. She then glanced at the boy sitting on the old chair at the store entrance and inquisitively asked him.
It was currently half past midnight, and this goldfish shop was located deep in the alley outside the neighborhood. The grocery store, printing shop, and so on near it had closed early, but this shop, illuminated by two crude light bulbs, continued to do business.
Gu Qiqi had noticed this goldfish shop and the boy minding it for quite a few days. They always opened late, and she had never seen them close. It was just a goldfish shop, not a 7-Eleven; did it really need to stay open all night? Quite strange.
"We don't close until dawn," said the boy, who appeared to be around fifteen or sixteen. He wore a baggy gray T-shirt that clearly didn't fit him, and his blue jeans had been washed to fading. He groped about sideways on the nearby shelf, grabbed a small bag of fish food, and carefully sprinkled it into the fish tank in front of him. "Enjoy a late-night snack!" he said with a big smile to the fish.
He should be blind, right? Gu Qiqi speculated from the dark glasses on his fair face. Who would wear Blind Man Abing-style[3] glasses in the middle of the night? Besides, there was his groping manner as well.
Gu Qiqi couldn't resist reaching out and waving her hand in front of his nose.
"Puh-leeze. I'm not blind." The boy stopped what he was doing and pushed Gu Qiqi's hand away, "It's just that I have an eye condition. I can't handle bright light so my vision is a bit poor is all."
Gu Qiqi coughed awkwardly a few times and muttered, "Then why were you groping around when you grabbed the fish food?"
"I wasn't groping. The weather has been humid lately and some of the fish food has caked. I was breaking it apart." The boy glanced at her speechlessly, "But you, covering yourself with so much including a mask on a hot day, you're likely to be mistaken for a queer aunt."
"You..." Gu Qiqi almost choked to death at his words, but he was right. In order to talk to this boy from the goldfish shop and not scare him away, she had taken special care when dressing up tonight. High-necked sportswear, boots, gloves, a wig, a large straw hat, with sunglasses and a mask on her face. In short, not showing even an inch of her body.
"If I didn't hear your voice, I would have thought you were a queer uncle," the boy said very honestly.
"I have a cold, okay?" Gu Qiqi covered up, her face full of black lines[4], "Besides, since when do queer uncles have such a good figure?"
"Haha, you're really arrogant." The boy laughed heartily, revealing teeth as bright and white as seashells, and his laughter sounded crisp, like fish joyfully swimming in the water.
"Who buys goldfish at this time? Taking them home for a midnight snack?" Gu Qiqi deliberately sneered at the rude kid. She looked around to emphasize that both ends of the alley were submerged in darkness and silence. Not even a ghost, let alone people, could be seen.
The mosquito repellent lamp hanging in the corner of the shop made a popping sound, which was the loudest sound at the moment.
"You'd better go home, Queer Aunt." The boy moved slightly, leaned out, turned his head toward the end of the alley, and his bloodless lips opened and closed as he muttered something under his breath. At this moment, he looked like a hawker waiting for a customer. Even though his eyes were completely covered by sunglasses, his expression revealed enough anticipation.
"My name is Gu Qiqi, not Queer Aunt! I'm still young!" Gu Qiqi really wanted to take off her mask to give this joker a midnight surprise with her real face. Bone Demons also wish to appear beautiful and dislike being called Aunt instead of Big Sister. So what if she's already hundreds of years old!
"Alright, Queer Sister. Are you sure you want to stay?" He continued to gaze at the end of the alley as if nothing had happened.
"You're really quick-witted!" Gu Qiqi smiled through gritted teeth but found this imp a bit amusing in her heart. "Hey, what's your name? Do you live nearby?"
"I'm Ah-Sheng[5]," he replied cheerfully, "I also have an English name, Live. You can call me either one, whichever you like."
"Live? This English name is really weird..." Gu Qiqi muttered, but it was actually quite a match for this kid who didn't seem to be anywhere near normal. He was a sharp-tongued odd boy who minded the goldfish shop all night.
"You're not so normal either, Miss Gu Qiqi." He changed his address for her several times within a few minutes, seemingly enjoying it. "It's almost 1 a.m. but you still don't seem to want to go to bed. Women who stay up late age easily."
"I just couldn't sleep today." Gu Qiqi deliberately laughed exaggeratedly, "So I decided to stay and accompany you, this lonely little devil."
"Suit yourself." Ah-Sheng flashed a charming smile, then shook his head and said, "There are really more and more senseless people nowadays. Watching someone sell goldfish instead of sleeping at night."
"I'm not as senseless as you, and your store is senseless too." Gu Qiqi simply sat on the steps next to the fish tank and pointed to the end of the alley, "I'll make a bet with you. If you can sell a goldfish tonight, I'll fulfill one of your wishes."
"You're not Santa Claus." He didn't even glance at her and continued to gaze into the distance.
"If you lose..." Gu Qiqi deliberately adopted a ruffian attitude, "you have to obediently say to me, 'Beautiful sister, I was wrong.'"
"Fine, you're the one who chose to stay." He turned his head, causing the image of Gu Qiqi's face, wrapped as tightly as a rice dumpling, on his ink-black lenses to sway, "I won't lose."
As soon as he finished speaking, he smiled, "Business is here..." There was a slight sound in Gu Qiqi's ears, like the barely perceptible rustle of flower petals falling on the soil by the blowing wind.
Rustle, rustle. The sound was getting closer. A dark shadow less than half a person's height drifted from the other end of the alley. A layer of earthy yellow mist enveloped its vague outline.
It wasn't until this thing floated in front of them that Gu Qiqi saw it clearly. Surprisingly, it was a white-bearded old man who was so fat that his neck and waist simply couldn't be made out. His height didn't even reach Gu Qiqi's hip. If it weren't for the clearly defined facial features on his plump face, you could easily call him Grandpa Winter Melon.
Footnotes:
[1] Gu Wuming uses 皮囊, perhaps to convey humanity's shallowness in focusing on the physical over spiritual.
[2] 緊箍咒: “band-tightening spell” recited by the monk Tang Sanzang in the novel Journey to the West, which causes the headband worn by Sun Wukong to contract to give Sun Wukong unbearable pain. Figuratively, something used to control or restrain another.
[3] Abing was a blind Chinese musician specializing in the erhu and pipa. People used to call him Blind Man Abing, or Blind Bing.
[4] An exaggerated expression used in anime to convey speechlessness.
[5] 生: Sheng means life.
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