DA chapter 17

 

Feeling the cat nudge his palm, Lin Jia stopped pressing the cat down and accepted its reminder.

From the corner of his eye, he noticed the others’ expectant expressions.

Revealing the Soup Base to the Fishman was also dangerous inside Fish Belly. If the stated Soup Base was incorrect, the Fishman would kill the one who told it while the others remained inside Fish Belly to continue searching for the complete Soup Base.

Lin Jia had long understood this. If a mistake in the Soup Base statement would wipe everyone out, Shi Luo would not have waved a knife and tried to die with him back then.

“Should I just say it directly?”

This was Lin Jia’s first time experiencing this, but the Fishman did not answer. It stared at him expressionlessly, its protruding gray eyes carrying a strong sense of threat.

It looked like that was it.

Lin Jia opened his mouth and began stating the Soup Base, neither hurried nor slowly.

Xiao Mei[mfn]小妹 (xiǎomèi) = little sister / young lady/ miss[/mfn] moved into Yile Apartment. She lived in Room 303, the sunniest room in the building. She cleaned the room until it was spotless and placed a pot of a spider plants where the sunlight was strongest.

She also placed a full-length mirror beside it. Every day, she carefully tidied herself up before going out.

Xiao Mei was a girl who loved beauty. She wore delicate makeup and pretty clothes. This had originally been normal for her in her bright youth.

But they became the beginning of her nightmare.

Slowly, she noticed that her neighbors were looking at her differently. Men gave her frightening gazes, elders gave her complicated, incomprehending looks, and people of the same sex gave her contemptuous disdain…

Perhaps in Yile Apartments, there was no freedom of dress, and one had to appear plain.

Xiao Mei had heard all kinds of malicious gossip about herself. Some called her a slut who lured men on purpose. Others said she had an indecent job and called her a “public bus.”[mfn]公交车 (public bus) , it is a very insulting slang term, implying: she has many sexual partners, she is “public” or “available to everyone”[/mfn]

Therefore, during the Fishman questioning, the question was whether the dead had ever been hurt by words.

The Fishman answered yes.

Question: Was it because of her clothing?

The Fishman answered yes.

Xiao Mei gradually became sensitive. Even though she no longer dared to wear beautiful clothes, she felt the whispers behind her were cursing her. Sometimes, when pushed too far, Xiao Mei would suddenly turn around and ask them, “What were you saying just now?”

Those who were questioned would either remain silent or snap back, “What’s it to you?”

Xiao Mei had considered leaving, but idle gossip existed everywhere. Wherever there were people, there were voices. Xiao Mei had become so paranoid that she thought every sound was about her.

She continued to stay in Room 303 of the Yile Apartments.

That evening, it rained, and the apartment lost power. With nothing else to do, the neighbors gathered in the lobby to chat and gossip. Naturally, the conversation turned to Xiao Mei in Room 303. The discussion grew increasingly crude, and their voices rose louder and louder—so loud that Xiao Mei could hear them from inside her room.

Even her beautiful clothes, sealed in the wardrobe, could not stop the spread of rumors.

Xiao Mei broke down.

She cut her finger and smeared all her old photos with blood as if to vent, as if doing so could cover up the fact that she had once loved beauty.

By chance, she caught sight of herself in the mirror, her face twisted hideously. She froze, then thought carefully. What had she done wrong? Everyone loves beauty. There was no sin in dressing up her youth. Those complicated gazes and ill-intentioned thoughts were the ones at fault.

Her finger touched her reflection in the mirror, leaving a bloodstain on the frame’s edge.

Xiao Mei buried her favorite photo beneath the spider plant as if burying herself.

She rolled down the stairwell from the third floor to the first-floor lobby, her lifeless eyes facing the people gossiping below.

The neighbors screamed and scattered.

Perhaps it was because a death had occurred; whether they felt it was unlucky or their conscience was uneasy was hard to say. They burned sacrificial items in the stairwell where Xiao Mei died and muttered: “We burned the skirt you liked for you, so don’t trouble us anymore—”

The smoke from the burning item twisted strangely in the wind, and the neighbors trembled in fear—Xiao Mei did not accept it.

Therefore, the Fishman questions: Was the white shadow a mist form? Was the white shadow the mist formed after the sacrificial items were burned? Before blogger Xiao Wu moved in, had there already been a death at Yile Apartments?

The answer was yes.

Room 303 became vacant, and the neighbors refused to talk about it. Soon after, a video blogger moved into Yile Apartments and Room 303.

Xiao Wu did not know the story of Room 303. He worried every day about what to film and whether anyone would watch his videos. One day, he planned to film ants moving house and accidentally captured a white shadow on camera.

After repeatedly watching the footage, he smelled an opportunity.

He cut the beginning and end off the video and uploaded it online. As expected, the video attracted many viewers and became more popular than any of his previous videos.

The number of comments increased at an astonishing rate. Some believed it; some questioned it.

He titled his video ‘White Shadow Documentary’ and never directly responded to comments or affirmed those who believed him. Blogger Xiao Wu understood how to generate hype—only through clashes of viewpoints and arguments could popularity be achieved.

He continued filming the ‘White Shadow Documentary’ series. Afraid of exposing the truth, he did not film much of the white shadow and instead turned the camera toward the neighbors.

He aimed the lens at these former wrongdoers and plainly asked them about the white shadow. Naturally, the neighbors could not show him a good face.

This was exactly what blogger Xiao Wu wanted. The mysterious white shadow and strange neighbors were attractions of the ‘White Shadow Documentary.’

Xiao Wu quickly became the platform’s most popular blogger. However, after filming the neighbors’ reactions, he didn’t know how to continue the widely watched White Shadow Documentary series.

For the first time, unusual opinion appeared in the comment section because of his long silence—doubt, reports, insults…

At that moment, Xiao Wu was bitten by public opinion. He watched the popularity of ‘White Shadow Documentary’ decrease day by day while reports accusing him of faking things increased.

He didn’t care what the white shadow really was. For traffic, he even covered up the truth about the neighbors. No one wanted to know that the white shadow they had followed for over ten episodes was just smoke. Netizens were waiting for the answer they wanted.

So, Xiao Wu conceived a wicked idea.

He first killed the old man in Room 302. Then, through editing and performance, he misled the netizens into thinking that the old man had been retaliated against by the white shadow.

The events that took place in Yile Apartments became the central mystery of the ‘White Shadow Documentary’, and the neighbors’ disappearance one by one became its most explosive attraction.

Therefore, the Fishman question: During his tracking of the white shadow, did blogger Xiao Wu learn that the dead had been hurt by words? Were all the neighbors killed by Xiao Wu?

The Fishman’s answer was yes.

The neighbors could not have imagined that their malicious comments about others would foreshadow their own deaths. After the neighbors died at the hands of blogger Xiao Wu one by one, and Yile Apartment became empty, blogger Xiao Wu once again became anxious about having no filming material.

He began acting as if he were being watched, but his popularity still did not rise because netizens truly wanted to see the white shadow kill blogger Xiao Wu. Netizens were waiting for the day he disappeared.

Therefore, the Fishman question was: Was the one watching the surveillance blogger Xiao Wu?

The answer is yes.

The one being ‘monitored’ was him, and the one watching the surveillance was still him.

Blogger Xiao Wu arrogantly thought he could control public opinion, but no one can truly do so, and he underestimated its power. Comments on the ‘White Shadow Documentary’ series had already slipped out of Xiao Wu’s control.

[When will it be the blogger’s turn to disappear?]

[Blogger, disappear without worry; we’ll call the police for you. Stop talking, start eating.]

[If the White Shadow comes to your door, remember to livestream it. Let’s see if the White Shadow is human or a ghost, male or female.]

[Still putting on a show, speechless.]

[If all this is real, I hope it’s fake. If it’s fake, I hope it’s real.]

[Why hasn’t the white shadow appeared yet, waiting is so annoying…]

[If the white shadow won’t deal with the blogger, how about we form a group to help the white shadow deal with him?]

In the end, blogger Xiao Wu released a clarification video. He was panicked by the vicious comments, and while recording the video, he repeatedly shifted his gaze outside the camera frame.

Therefore, the Fishman question: Was the clarification video voluntarily released? Was there something outside the frame?

It was voluntarily released, and there was nothing outside the frame.

“But in fact, the voluntary clarification video was released out of helplessness, and vicious words were everywhere beyond the empty frame.” Lin Jia finished the long explanation without emotion. “That is the complete Soup Base.”

The Fishman stared at him.

Expressionless.

Lin Jia lowered his eyes to check the time. This speech had taken five minutes.

He was a little thirsty.

The others nervously watched the confrontation between Lin Jia and the Fishman. It did not last long, ending when blogger Xiao Wu turned into a puddle of foul-smelling water.

Buzzcut’s voice suddenly rose sharply. “It’s the Soup Base! It’s the Soup Base! This is the Soup Base!”

The Fishman no longer mutated. The scales on its body fell to the ground, making a “pat, pat” sound.

Like highly corrosive sulfuric acid, white shadows emerged from the ground where the fish scales had touched it. Very quickly, the Fishman completely melted into water. The water splashed onto the floor, causing cracks to form, and then the entire building began to shake violently.

The unprepared Lin Jia took a step back before steadying himself.

A dazzling white light flashed past, and the scene before his eyes changed completely.

The three-story building was gone. Endless whiteness surrounded him, and a milky-white door stood before him.

The door was tightly shut and covered with complicated, fish-like patterns. Lin Jia certainly wouldn’t be so naive as to think that the door connected to the real world he lived in. Most likely, it was the “Underwater Wold” these people spoke of.

Then, something flashing near his feet drew Lin Jia’s attention. He bent down and picked up the glowing crystal stone.

The translucent crystal stone made his fingers look like jade.

“This is a fish spirit,” Buzzcut said behind him. “Pretty lucky this time. The quality of this fish spirit is good, and it’s a complete piece.”

Lin Jia turned around and saw that everyone was looking at him.

The cat was also watching him from afar.

Earlier, the cat had asked him, ‘Do you believe Buzzcut will really hand over the fish spirit to you?’

Of course not.

Seeing Buzzcut’s intention to break the agreement, Lin Jia took off his coat and casually threw it on the ground.

“Come at me together.” He slowly undid his metal cufflinks, rolled up his sleeves to reveal his firm forearms, and raised his head to look at the group. “Let’s not waste each other’s time.”

Liu Ying was immediately overwhelmed by Lin Jia’s momentum. Sister Fang laughed awkwardly and said, “We went through hardships together. How about we talk properly?”

Lin Jia looked at Buzzcut and asked, “What about you? What do you think?”

Considering that Lin Jia had led them out of Fish Belly, Buzzcut gritted his teeth and said, “Lin Jia, I’m very grateful to you. But I don’t want to break the agreement. If we return empty-handed after entering Fish Belly, we won’t be able to explain ourselves. How about an eighty-twenty split?”

“There is no such option.” Lin Jia refused outright. “I take all of it.”

Negotiations failed.

Buzzcut said, “Then sorry about this.”

He took a knife out of his pocket. Before he could unfold the switchblade, Lin Jia kicked him hard in the face.

He never expected Lin Jia to move so fast. Buzzcut had no time to defend himself and crashed down, warm blood spurting from his nose.

Lin Jia walked closer, squatted down, and pinched one corner of Buzzcut’s clothes between his index finger and thumb with disgust. Through the cloth, he pressed hard on the knife wound across Buzzcut’s palm.

Buzzcut immediately screamed: “Ah—!”

After several days in Fish Belly, the wound had not healed at all. In fact, it had become inflamed and was festering due to improper treatment. With Lin Jia pressing down like this and making things worse, Buzzcut completely lost his ability to fight.

Lin Jia easily took the knife from Buzzcut’s hand. With his back to Liu Ying and Sister Fang, who were staring blankly at each other, he said, “He’s still breathing. Aren’t you taking him along?”

Liu Ying and Sister Fang hurried over and pulled Buzzcut up. He had been knocked down by Lin Jia’s kick. They hastily opened the door leading to the Underwater Wold.

Everything became quiet.

Lin Jia raised his eyes toward the cat hiding far away.

Cat: “…”

The cat gave an awkward laugh. “So you’re actually this good at fighting.”

“Learned a few moves for self-defense.” Lin Jia played with the switchblade in his hand, folding and unfolding it, and spoke softly. “Why are you standing so far away from me?”

Lin Jia smiled without warmth: “Hm?”

“Toast?”

 

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