I felt a sharp sting in my heart, forcing a smile as I looked at Tunshe Nalin. I expected him to refuse without hesitation, but to my surprise, he raised his brows slightly and nodded without asking for my opinion.
My fingers tightened on my knees, clenching the fabric of my pants.
How could he agree? How could he say yes to this?
I stared at him in disbelief, but the surge of anger rising in my chest caught me off guard. A server just happened to hand me a cocktail, and I grabbed it, taking a sip. Yet Flavio didn’t seem to care about my reaction; he eagerly opened his sketchbook, as if he had just struck gold.
Tunshe Nalin’s lack of response only fueled my frustration. It was as if he was deliberately ignoring my feelings, sitting there quietly while Flavio’s pencil glided across the page. His indifference made the situation even worse, and I felt a strange, tight knot form in my chest.
I suddenly stood up, walked down the stairs, and entered the bathroom.
After closing the door heavily, I took a deep breath and opened the door a crack in despair. Seeing that Tunshe Nalin had followed me after all, I couldn’t help but smile and locked the door.
“Ranran? Are you angry?” He raised his voice slightly.
“I’m not.” I blurted out and was stunned. He did it on purpose, deliberately testing me?
I was indeed angry, and… very angry, to the point of losing my composure, unlike my usual self. In the past, when Ming Luo was my muse, there were others who asked him to model for them, but I never objected because I was confident that he loved me deeply, that he was wholly devoted to me. Others might paint him, but it was just a surface portrayal; only I could capture the essence of him, his true form. So, I never cared whether he was a model exclusive to me.
But when it comes to Tunshe Nalin, I…
It was as if a stone had been thrown into the lake of my heart, and suddenly, countless ripples surged within, throwing me into confusion.
“Don’t come in.” Seeing the doorknob wobble, I panicked. “Let me have some time alone, Tunshe Nalin. Even though we’re married, we still need some space from each other. Let me think for a moment.”
“What are you thinking of?”
“How… how we should get along in the future.”
The doorknob stopped moving.
It was as if the five fingers that had tightly gripped finally loosened just enough to allow me to sort out my feelings for him.
I walked to the sink, splashed cold water on my face, and looked at myself in the mirror. My almond-shaped eyes were slightly red, but beneath the previously dull and faded gaze, there was unmistakably a hint of spring.
My heart was struck suddenly, as if a door was slowly opening.
Could it be that my feelings for Tunshe Nalin are more than just…
With a creak, the door behind me suddenly opened, revealing a pale face. It was Qing Ze. He stared at me intently, and I furrowed my brows as I met his gaze through the mirror. But my attention was immediately drawn to something faintly glimmering on his chest, it was a Buddhist amulet.
When did he start believing in these Thai things?
I thought back to what he said earlier, that he didn’t need a muse and that his inspiration was endless, and his painting skills had improved drastically. A chill ran down my spine. Could he have invited a spirit amulet? The memory of what I saw on that rainy night last week surged back, and an ominous premonition filled me. Then I saw him push the door open a little more.
In that moment, I suddenly realized there was someone riding on his back…
That figure was completely pale and drenched, wrapped in black seaweed. Water dripped from his face, and his deep purple lips curled into a twisted smile, his eyes fixed on me with an unsettling intensity.
“Ah Ran… I’ve come to take you.”
—It was Ming Luo.
“Ahhh!” I screamed and rushed towards the door. The door opened wide at this moment. Tunshe Nalin was right in front of the door, but the ground under my feet suddenly softened, as if it had turned into a swamp, sucking my body downwards. A pair of hands grabbed my ankles and pulled me hard!
In an instant, I sank downwards, and at the same time I saw a figure above me falling into the arms of Tunshe Nalin, it was none other than myself. I was stunned for a moment before I realized that my soul… had been separated from my body. As this thought flashed through my mind, I lost consciousness.
“Plop”, cold water drips onto my face, and the salty and fishy taste seeps into my lips.
Rough and hard flaky objects swept across my lower abdomen, like fine scales.
“Ah Ran…”
The familiar voice woke me up. I opened my eyes. It seemed like I was in a dim cave, the ceiling damp and covered in moss. I tried to move my hands and feet, but my body wouldn’t budge. Looking down, I saw a pair of pale, slender legs, wearing dirty Oxford-style leather shoes. These should have been my legs but they didn’t look like mine at all. I shifted my gaze to my hands and saw that my nails were painted with a greenish-blue nail polish.
This is not my hand either.
Looking at my torso again, it was a man’s body, bare-chested with nipple piercings. What was going on? I was confused when a pair of yellow glowing eyes appeared in the darkness by my feet. “Ah Ran…”
That’s Ming Luo’s voice.
“Ming Luo?” I shivered, trying to escape, but this body that wasn’t mine wouldn’t respond to my commands. All I could do was watch as those yellow, glowing eyes drew closer. Suddenly, I could see clearly, it wasn’t Ming Luo, it wasn’t human; it was… a crocodile.
“Ah Ran…”
—But its voice, however, was Ming Luo’s.
“Don’t come closer…” I shouted in fear, reaching the peak of my terror.
“Don’t be afraid…”
In the blink of an eye, the crocodile had crawled closer, reaching “my” legs.
“My physical body has been destroyed, and my soul has no place to rest, so I can only reside in this crocodile.” The crocodile slowly opened its jaws, and a pale face appeared from between its sharp teeth. Then, Ming Luo’s entire upper body emerged from the crocodile’s throat, pressing down on me.
“Ah Ran, I died, died so tragically, and you don’t feel sorry for me at all, don’t you miss me?” He gently stroked ‘my’ face. “Do you know, actually, that night of the plane crash, I didn’t die? The wreckage pierced into my abdomen, and I was seriously injured… with my obsession to see you, I held on to life and made it to the hospital. Before entering the operating room, I asked the doctor to call you, but you didn’t answer. If you had answered, if I could have heard your voice, maybe I could have held on, maybe I could have survived.”
I was stunned.
“Why didn’t you answer the phone?” Ming Luo stared at me, his gaze dark and filled with resentment. “I was about to die, and yet you didn’t answer my call. Ah Ran, you’re truly cold-hearted.”
“I…”
I never imagined that the call from Ming Luo in the middle of the night, which I hung up on because I was too tired, was the last call of his life, his last lifeline. I thought it wouldn’t matter if I returned the call the next morning, but little did I know that missing that call meant a separation between life and death.
It was I who, with my own hands, extinguished his will to survive. How is this any different from killing him?
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know… If I had known, I would have answered.”
“It doesn’t matter anymore, Ah Ran. I used to resent you, but not anymore.” He smiled. “It doesn’t matter that you missed that call, because now, you will forever belong to me. We’ll never be apart again. Wasn’t it you who asked me to save you back then? I did it. That evil god will never haunt you again.”
My heart jolted as I recalled the scene before I lost consciousness.
My soul had separated from my body. Did Tunshe Nalin notice? He must have noticed.
“What exactly have you done to me…?”
“I just took advantage of a quick-tempered fool who had a grudge against you. He treated me like a Kuman Tong (A Kuman Thong is a type of artifact from Thai folk religion, often a miniature effigy or statue, believed to bring good luck and fortune to its owner if revered properly.), so naturally he was willing to do anything. The stuff he added to that glass of wine is enough to make you fake your death and lose your soul. The evil god only bound your body, but I have captured your soul. It’s a pity for you, but you are just staying with this corpse temporarily. Dad promised me that he would find a suitable body for us and a way to bring us back to life. As long as we are together, it doesn’t matter whether we are in our original appearance or not, don’t you think?”
I was startled and suddenly understood.
Tunshe Nalin is the Corpse God Lord and has the ability to control corpse slaves, meaning that he has the ability to make the dead rise and move. This is why Ming Luo’s father wanted to find that village: “So, your father was in southern Jiangsu at that time, and when he was looking for me, he was also looking for a way to bring you back to life?”
Ming Luo did not deny it, gazing at me. “I told you before, I wandered outside when I was young because I was an illegitimate child. My mother was an illegal immigrant who was smuggled into Thailand. She was a prostitute. I was the product of my father’s drunken affair. He took me home after my mother died of illness. Later I learned that it was the first madam of the Ming family who spoke up for me to have a place in the family. I didn’t want to live like a stray dog that was picked up, under a roof that didn’t belong to me, so I ran away from home. But it wasn’t until after I died that I realized my father truly loved me. My stepmother was also kind. They were willing to help me… help me find you, be with you, and give me the chance to love you.”
“But they can’t help you! I’ve seen people in that village who could move after death. They have no thoughts, they’re puppets under control. Ming Luo, the way to bring the dead back to life doesn’t exist,” I tried to explain, hoping to break his delusion. “You were there too, you saw what the corpse slaves looked like, didn’t you? Do you really want to live like them? Ming Luo, I know I wronged you, and I’m sorry, but the result you want won’t happen. Staying in this world like this will bring you no good. You’d be better off… moving on.”
“The Corpse God is an exception, isn’t he? He has a perfect appearance, doesn’t get injured, doesn’t die, and can think and act freely. You’re even so obsessed with him. Isn’t that great?”
I was stunned, looking at Ming Luo, and suddenly realized another thing.
“Ming Luo…you captured my soul not only to trap me but also for other purposes, right?”
