"Yiyi."
"Yiyi."
A faint voice called out, waking the little girl from her slumber.
In the dark of night, in a small square room, a girl with long black hair lay on a yellow wooden bed.
A gray-white quilt covered her shoulders, faintly revealing a light wash of her little sleeping dress adorned with lotus flower lace.
She looked to be around seven or eight years old, with a delicate face, a slightly high nose bridge, and two red spots emerging on her chin—indicative of a child just beginning to understand the world around her.
As she heard the voice, she slowly opened her eyes, sat up, and looked around.
The room was enveloped in darkness, save for a hint of moonlight filtering through the window, casting a hazy glow at the foot of the bed.
There, at the foot of the bed, stood a shadowy figure.
The upper body of this figure was shrouded in darkness, its face indistinct.
But one could sense it was quietly observing the little girl.
“Mom?” the girl asked cautiously.
She gripped the quilt tightly, her expression tense as she felt an unsettling atmosphere around her.
Silence surrounded her, and her voice rang loud and clear, echoing slightly in the stillness.
“Remember, Yiyi, no matter what sounds you hear, you must hide in the secret chamber. Don’t come out until the white stone turns black.”
The shadow spoke softly.
"Absolutely."
“Don’t come out.”
Having said this, it slowly turned to walk silently toward the door.
The wooden door creaked open without a sound, revealing darkness outside that seemed to greet the figure, quickly swallowing it whole.
"Mommy!" The little girl sensed something was wrong and threw off the quilt, rising to chase after the shadow.
Bang!!!
A loud noise echoed, accompanied by a fierce vibration by her ear.
Hiss!!!
The girl abruptly opened her eyes, arching her chest off the bed as she took a deep breath.
It had all been a dream.
Her eyes were filled with terror, pupils dilated, slowly waking from the heavy fog of sleep.
Bang!!
Another loud sound.
The entire room seemed to tremble violently.
The wooden door shook ominously, each bang echoing like a fierce beast ramming against it.
Bang! Bang! Bang!!
The tremendous impacts felt like they could shatter the door to pieces.
Faint cracks began to appear on the surface of the door, slowly spreading.
The little girl snapped back to reality, recalling the voice she had heard in her dream.
“Mom.” For some reason, tears welled up in her eyes, a surge of indescribable pain swelling in her heart.
Hearing the loud crashes and remembering the urgent warning, she threw off the quilt and jumped out of bed to see what was happening at the door.
Crack!
Suddenly, a chunk of the door broke apart, splintered wood flying inward and scattering on the brown earthen floor.
The girl felt a shiver run through her body; her heart raced as her face turned pale.
She quickly bent down and crawled under the bed.
She crawled a few steps beneath the bed until she found a hidden black mud board, grabbed the pull ring, and pulled it up with difficulty.
Beneath the mud board was a small square space just big enough for her to curl up in.
Inside the space, the walls were embedded with white stones of varying sizes.
These stones took on various shapes but shared one common feature: all had intricate red symbols carved on their surfaces.
The little girl quickly squeezed into the tiny space, covering her head with the mud board as darkness enveloped her.
Trembling, she curled up tightly, listening to the noises outside.
Strangely, once she hid inside, the crashing sounds faded away completely.
It was as if everything she had heard earlier had been an illusion.
Quiet.
Utter silence.
Around her, only her own breathing broke the stillness.
She pressed her hands tightly over her mouth, fearing that the sound of her breath might give her away to whatever lurked outside.
The overwhelming fear and tension began to wear her out, slowly weighing down her small body.
As time passed, the girl gradually fell into a deep sleep.
She had no idea how long had gone by.
One hour? Maybe two?
“Yiyi.” The familiar voice called out, waking the girl from her dream.
She stirred slightly, trying to make herself more comfortable.
“Yiyi?”
“Yiyi, where are you? Mommy is back.”
The voice floated in again, warm and familiar.
The girl’s fear seemed to lessen after a good sleep.
Hearing the sound, she quickly moved, wanting to go out.
But then she suddenly remembered something; glancing at the white stones embedded in the wall, she noticed that they hadn’t turned black.
According to her mother, it was only safe to come out when the white stones turned black.
The girl’s desire to leave instantly halted.
“Yiyi, the sun is up outside. It’s safe now; you can come out.”
The voice rang out once more.
“Don’t worry. As long as there’s light, those things won’t dare to come in. Mommy is here; you can come out.”
The girl calculated the time; typically, her mother would be back around this hour.
Every time she hid in this little space, she would emerge after a nap to find her mother waiting.
This time felt no different, or at least it shouldn’t be.
As for the white stones embedded in the wall, perhaps they remained unaffected simply due to the passage of time—white during the day, as they always were.
The little girl pondered for a moment.
Then she lifted her head, looking through the mud board's ventilating hole to the outside.
She discovered there was indeed a faint white light.
It was daybreak.
At that moment, she finally felt a sense of relief. “I’m coming!”
She answered back.
“Mommy, I’m here.”
She began to move, reaching her small hands up to lift the mud board.
Soon, she managed to push aside the board, struggling to lift her head out of her little hiding place and back under the bed.
Then she peered out into the room.
“!!??”
Outside, it was still engulfed in darkness.
Wasn’t it supposed to be bright?
The girl’s scalp tingled with fear.
She immediately realized something was wrong, gritted her teeth, and quickly squatted down, trying to retreat back into her hiding spot.
Clop.
Clop.
Suddenly, a pair of pale feet in worn cloth shoes stopped right by her under the bed.
“Yiyi, my good daughter, where are you?” The gentle and familiar voice called again.
The little girl dared not make a sound; she covered her mouth tightly as tears streamed down her cheeks.
Yet she didn’t dare to move; being so close, any slight movement on her part would create noise in the quiet surroundings, immediately drawing attention.
Suddenly, it flashed in her mind that her mother wouldn’t be unaware of her hidden space beneath the bed.
So her mother could never genuinely ask her where she was.
At that moment, she realized she might have been tricked.
Clop.
Clop.
Before long, with no response, perhaps the girl’s muted reply had gone unheard.
Those pale feet slowly moved away from the bed, leaving quietly to go somewhere else.
They walked softly, soon fading away with a faint sound of a door closing, vanishing into the quiet.
The silence enveloped everything once more.
The little girl held her breath, enduring the silence.
Time passed, and without hearing anything, she gradually exhaled, allowing herself to relax and retreat further back into her space.
The long-held tension drained her strength, leaving her body weak, her ears buzzing faintly and her vision shimmering.
At that moment, she could no longer hold on, leaning against the inner wall of her hiding spot, gasping for breath.
Feeling the danger pass, she waited a bit longer, confirming there was no sound at all before she struggled to crawl out of her small space, inching towards the exit beneath the bed.
Poof.
Suddenly, something brushed against her shoulder.
The little girl froze, an anxious feeling swelling inside her.
Gingerly, she lifted her head and looked up to the right.
A woman in a tattered white dress with long hair sat quietly on her wooden bed, her left leg dangling casually over her right shoulder.
The woman's hair obscured her face, but she looked down at the girl beneath her.
A single beam of moonlight illuminated her pale, decaying lips.
Whoosh!!
The woman's decaying face lunged closer, magnifying in her vision.
*
*
*
“This time, you didn’t die.”
A blurred voice echoed through the darkness.
It seemed to belong to a woman.
“Still alive, yes, you’re just hurt, very weak. I’m not saying it’s your fault. You always bring back people from the forest; we barely have enough to eat here. You can’t carry the burden of a sick person all on your own,” the woman scolded.
“D-don’t worry, m-mom, t-tell me,” a stuttering young girl’s voice followed.
“Enough about your mother. Just talking to you exhausts me. Alright, the wound has been stitched up. Just avoid water and keep it clean. I’m leaving now.” The woman seemed to be rummaging through things.
“Th-thank you,” the stuttering girl let out a silly laugh, sounding like she was trying to inhale.
“Don’t thank me. If it comes to it, remember to drag him outside and leave him there. By morning, he will be gone,” the woman replied resignedly.
“I really appreciate it,” the stuttering girl said with gratitude.
“This world is like that; everyone has their struggles. No one has the energy to care for others. Only you would bother, anyone else would have thrown him back into the wild by now,” the woman remarked.
Yu Hong slowly gathered his strength in the darkness, forcing his eyes open.
He saw a dirty little girl with messy black hair speaking with a middle-aged woman with yellowish skin.
The woman wore glasses and dressed in a gray-white long-sleeve top, which was stained with various residual marks.
He vaguely remembered working hard, coming home, and collapsing into bed, only to be jolted awake by a noisy sound in the middle of the night followed by a sharp pain in his forehead that led him to black out.
“This is….” He tried to speak, but his throat felt as if it had been sliced, making it impossible to produce sound, only groans escaped him.
At the same time, he realized his forehead felt hot, his body warm, and his eyes were sticky with dried tear crusts.
It must be an inflammation; somewhere in his body was likely inflamed—perhaps his throat.
“Medicine,” the girl's voice came again.
After a clear sound of a door closing, everything fell silent.
The grimy girl struggled her way over, retrieving a blackened metal box from the corner of the room.
“Taking medicine will help you get better,” she said as she approached Yu Hong with the box.
With a click, she opened the lid to reveal many pieces of blackened charcoal inside.
Among them were wrapped in paper three pale yellow capsules.
However, these three pills had developed faint mold spots, with a hint of green fuzz sprouting on them.
“That medicine can’t be eaten,” Yu Hong’s expression stiffened as he looked at her.
Now fully awake, his throat felt significantly better and speaking was smoother, though it still hurt.
“Also, what kind of medicine is this? How did I get sick? You want to give me medicine for an illness you have no idea about? This won’t do.”
“First, tell me who you are, where am I? What’s going on right now?”
The girl holding the medicine looked slightly confused.
She opened her mouth, trying to speak but only managed to make some incomprehensible sounds.
As she drew closer, Yu Hong could see her features more clearly.
Her skin was blackened, plastered with dark yellow stains, and she wore a collection of clothes from several different seasons piled together, the collar grimy and greasy, and the air thick with a pungent smell of sweat.
She was nothing short of a beggar.
In fact, perhaps many beggars looked cleaner than her.
From afar, she appeared merely as a moving black clothing bundle.
But now close up, he noted something was off about her body; one of her legs was deformed, and a large tumor bulged on her right shoulder, clear even through her clothing.
She stood less than five feet tall, short and dirty, moving slowly.
Yet her eyes shone like clear gems, virtually untainted.
Finally, the story begins.
As usual, updates will be around five in the afternoon; any delays are not my concern~~ ha ha.
This time it’s a tale set in a terrifying and brutal world; I hope everyone enjoys it.
(End of Chapter)