Love in Cthulhu

Chapter 36: Smash the Axle! (Bounty Offered for Further Reading)
"I'm fine, I'm fine! My feet are just numb, a little numb..." Before Zhou Nan could speak, Jian Xi quickly interrupted, "It's probably because I practiced too hard this afternoon, my muscles are so tense and stiff."

Zhou Nan stared at her for a few seconds. Feeling a little guilty, she didn't dare to look up and just kept her face down, pretending to be lame.

She was terrified that Zhou Nan would realize that the fact that the original Jian Xi was still alive would be too devastating for her. Once he realized that she actually cared about this, she might have nowhere to go.

"Are you still able to walk?" Zhou Nan asked.

"Um……"

"Help me up."

Since things had come to this, the only option was to pretend to be sick to the end. Jian Xi helped Zhou Nan with one hand and skipped along with him to sit on the stone bench next to them. Zhou Nan grabbed her leg and placed it on his thigh, slowly rolling up the bottom of her leggings to her knees, kneading her well-proportioned calves.

She wasn't sick, but she was indeed a bit tired. How could she not be tired after dancing for most of the day?

But as he massaged her, the soreness and fatigue in her muscles slowly receded like a tide, and her body felt so light that she felt weightless. She felt like she could jump on the ground and then stand on tiptoe and spin around for a long time. Zhou Nan was simply a gifted master in this regard.

In my memory, during the last year that Grandpa Zhou Nan was still alive, he always hunched over, using a stick to tap his spine and neck. His wife's departure made him depressed, and his back pain became more and more severe.

So Zhou Nan went to learn massage from a master outside. The master didn't charge him because he was a child, but just let him observe. When massaging acquaintances, the master would explain and let him try it himself. So Zhou Nan gradually learned how to use massage to relax people and then went home to massage his grandfather.

This custom was maintained even after his grandfather passed away, only it became a story between him and her.

Whenever their hard practice ended, they didn't need to rush home, even though they lived in the compound. They would massage each other on the mats. He would teach her how to do it, and she would imitate him, tickling him until he was ticklish. Their tense bodies would slowly relax, and they could then jump around with renewed energy.

This familiar physical intimacy didn't feel ambiguous at all. Jian Xi lowered her head, looking at his serious face, seemingly unaware that she was looking at him. She couldn't help but curl her toes, a slight ripple stirring in her heart.

No wonder they like it; this is the ultimate form of childhood sweethearts, isn't it? How many childhood sweethearts, as they grow older, inexplicably and suddenly stop seeing each other one day?

During a move, a group of people shouted for them to get together, and a teacher investigated the relationship because of suspicion. As a result, the seed that was quietly blossoming was cut short before it could grow.

If Jianxi were a girl who would have settled down during puberty, perhaps this relationship would have ended there, but unfortunately she wasn't.

Moreover, she was very afraid of being alone. She had so many friends, but only Zhou Nan was the one she could secretly open her window on those nights when she wanted someone to talk to, climb over the wall, and tell her stories under the covers.

On many rainy, slightly chilly nights, the lonely children would huddle together in the little girl's room, relying on each other and secretly using only the dim light of a single flashlight to illuminate their time together. The rain pattered against the slanted window, and time passed silently by. No one ever discovered their secret.

Miss Monster felt like she was the third child standing at the window, tiptoeing and peering inside. Although she hadn't actually experienced it, she was still in that beautiful story, listening to him gesticulate as he told stories from all over the world, watching her twirl in the dim light in her pretty little dress, and when they hummed songs, she would rest her chin on her hand in the corner, nodding and clapping along with them.

She couldn't bear to destroy the happiness that belonged to them, even if she herself didn't have happiness.

There are two kinds of unhappy people in this world: one kind wishes the whole world would suffer with them, and the other kind hopes the whole world would be happy, so that seeing so much happiness around them would make them feel warmer.

That's enough.

Jian Xi slowly reached out and tugged at Zhou Nan's sleeve, saying softly, "My leg doesn't hurt anymore. Let's continue talking about her. Isn't she still alive? What happened?"

She felt so much pain when she said these words; every word felt like a knife cutting into her heart. She had to use all her strength to keep her voice from sounding strange.

But she still said it, because they had agreed to be best friends. If Zhou Nan still had reservations about her, he wouldn't have needed to tell her something so important. Of course, it's also possible that he hadn't even thought of it.

But no matter what, he has been so sincere, so why should I think about killing Jian Xi behind his back? He said that when Jian Xi was alive, her eyes had so much starlight in them, so should she be cruel enough to extinguish it?
"Are you really alright?" Zhou Nan didn't rush to change the subject.

"Hey, do you think I would lie to you about something like this?" Jian Xi straightened her leggings again, jumped down, and bounced around on her boots. "See, everything's fine now."

Zhou Nan was relieved and nodded. Jian Xi sat back down next to him, her fingers fiddling with the ends of her hair that hung down her thighs.

“The doctor’s surname is Dong, and his name is Dong Junwei. He works in the pathology department of the county hospital and also does forensic identification,” Zhou Nan said. “He said that Jian Xi’s body seemed to be frozen in a certain moment.”

"freeze?"

"Yes, she is heading towards death, but she will not die, nor will she wake up. All the cells in her body are in a state of time stop; they will not divide, nor will they die, nor will they decay. If forcibly destroyed, they will return to their original state. You could say that she is dying, constantly dying, but she has never reached true, biological death."

“Hmm… an unnatural death, dying but not quite dead.” Jian Xi played with her hair thoughtfully, her expression solemn and deep.

"Do you know something?" Zhou Nan could tell.

"I'm not sure, I can't give you a definite answer."

Jian Xi shook her head. "You know, before I became human, I had no memories of myself, only instincts. So I don't know how I encountered Jian Xi's corpse and ate her. I only know things that are related to me. For example, there is more than one thing like me."

"Then you mean..."

“Any supernatural phenomenon is related to the bizarre. Jianxi’s unnatural death is probably also related to some kind of strange phenomenon.”

"Don't all those who are attacked end up like Old Man Li, becoming a vegetable?"

“No.” Jian Xi held up a finger and shook it. “Only I am like this, you remember? I’m like a walking nuclear contaminant, I can affect the people around me and activate the potential power in their brains. The degree and ability are different for each person. Those supreme beings like me are the same. Their innate instincts are different, and they can also affect the people around them.”

This reminded Zhou Nan of Gan Tang. As a victim, she had indeed experienced a similar event, which was why she cared so much about him. That girl didn't want to see any more tragedies like her happen around her.

"In other words, Jian Xi may have been attacked by one of your own kind, and the power this thing possessed caused her death to be frozen," Zhou Nan said.

"That might be true, but thinking about it that way makes things seem really ridiculous."

"How to say?"

Jian Xi stretched out her legs and swung them back and forth in a playful fight: "Think about it, if that thing's power is absolute freezing, even freezing the state of life, isn't that redundant? Everyone it kills will be frozen, left in a state of near-death. If too many of these corpses appear, like you said, the police will easily notice something's wrong." "Or maybe Jian Xi is the first victim? Like when you eat her and become her," Zhou Nan said after thinking for a moment.

"That makes sense. Anyway, it's all speculation, unless we can see that thing with our own eyes."

"If you saw it, would you recognize it? Would it turn into a human like you?"

"I'm not sure, but it probably will. After all, becoming human relies on mimicry and imitation, which is determined by the nature of the body, not by ability. But even if it becomes human, I estimate that it will be quite different from me. It has no emotions or memories; it's just an empty shell that can move."

Zhou Nan's heart stirred. Thinking about it, Miss Monster was indeed quite special. Her ability was to devour souls, including emotions, memories, and other miscellaneous things, which was why she could act like a human.

As for others similar to her, if we extrapolate from this theory, then they are probably the real pseudo-humans.

Are there really such freaks living in this small county town? It's really scary to think about. Jian Xi isn't scary because she can communicate, but the others are impossible to communicate with.

“I say, haven’t you ever wondered what you really are?” Zhou Nan asked.

"Of course I was curious, but it's not important to me." Jian Xi shook her head, raised her head, and the camphor trees intertwined thickly above her head like shadows. "I live in the moment. Being able to breathe like this, to dance, and to talk to you makes me very happy. The New Year is coming soon, and this is my first New Year. After that, I can go back to school."

When she talked about her school days, her face lit up with a bright, sunny smile that even attracted the attention of passing girls.

Even if she hadn't turned into this, she would still be a born demon, because only demons could be so beautiful; otherwise, she wouldn't have been able to seduce Tang Sanzang.

He stared blankly at her carefree smile.

The person next to her suddenly fell silent. Jian Xi turned around and saw his silly gaze, which made her laugh. The little devil in her heart started to stir again, and she pressed against him at lightning speed: "What, are you mesmerized by me? Do you want me to give you a kiss? That way you can be secretly happy for days."

"No."

Zhou Nan was already used to her flirting, and besides, the person here wasn't Jian Xi, but his good friend. Good-looking as she was, there was no reason for any ambiguous thoughts.

“I was just thinking…you and her are actually different in some ways.”

Her eyes lit up immediately: "Where? Where?"

“She didn’t like going to school. In her words, ‘It’s a great sin to lock young girls in the cage of school. A girl’s youth is precious and only comes once!’ But you liked it.”

"That's it?" She pouted and sat up straight again. "I like it because I haven't experienced it myself."

"You've already gone through ten years."

“But those belong to Jian Xi. Just like you said, remembering doesn’t mean I experienced them. So I want to do all the things Jian Xi did, so that they will truly be mine.”

Zhou Nan's heart skipped a beat. She remembered every single word he said, which he had only intended to hurt her, and she still cared about it so much.

Jian Xi is also such a thoughtful person. She remembers what he likes to eat and his hobbies. She will patiently play games with him that only boys like to play. When they were little, they played Contra together. She was a noob and always dragged the board, causing everyone to die. When she lost her life, she would try to borrow his life.

She immediately felt a little guilty. Actually, Miss Monster was also a very simple girl. She was just as genuine as Jian Xi. If you temporarily forgot about her and removed the monster filter, you couldn't tell the difference between the two of them at all.

After a moment of silence, he said, "Shall I help you do them all later? There are still a lot of things to do here."

He couldn't tell if it was selfishness in looking for a meal replacement or a genuine desire to make her happy; it was just too hard to tell.

"Okay, okay."

Jian Xi tilted her head, her black hair flowing like water. "But we haven't finished our business yet, have we? Now that Jian Xi's side has the results of the examination, and we know that her cause of death is not normal, are we just going to leave her there? If we do, she will be cremated, and the funeral home will eventually bypass you and notify Mom and Dad, and then everything will be over."

"Don't worry about that. Dr. Dong said he has a junior colleague and a teacher at Taihe Hospital who are researching this area. Since Jian Xi is still alive, he can't issue a death certificate, and the funeral home can't cremate her. He can help transfer Jian Xi to Taihe Hospital, where she will have a special ward for care. They want to publish a paper and do some research."

"The city hospitals? They're a bit too far from us. While they might make it safer and fewer people would know about it, they wouldn't be able to find any results because this isn't a problem that medicine can solve."

“I know, but if I want you to live well here, there’s no harm in doing this.”

When do they plan to transfer to another hospital?

"If nothing unexpected happens, it will be tomorrow afternoon."

"I have a suggestion, I don't know if you'd like to hear it." Jian Xi's eyes darted around.

Whenever she made that expression, Zhou Nan knew she had some mischievous idea, so he nodded and said, "Go ahead."

"While they're taking Jianxi out of the funeral home, we can smash the axle and snatch Jianxi back."

　A reward is offered for further reading.

　　This book is currently at a very crucial stage. There's still a week left on the new book list. Apart from two top competitors, the rest are all fanfiction, so there's a high chance it will reach the top three in the rankings next week. It's worth keeping up with the reading.

　　Therefore, we're offering a reward. The current target is 1300 reads. After that, until the book is successfully published on Sanjiang, for every additional 100 reads, we'll add 3000 more words, with no upper limit.

　　Additionally, you can use your monthly pass to boost your chances during the final push on the 17th, which is next Monday.

　　Please help Miss Monster and that ill-fated couple, okay? If you haven't read this far, wow...

　　
　
(End of this chapter)