The night was deep. Crows dominated the entire night. A series of unpleasant cries, with a glass-like sharpness, stimulated human eardrums. The mud by the road, mixed with a faint floral fragrance due to the rain, seemed to have a bit of the smell of blood, somewhat pungent.
Lulu was a timid girl who usually dared not go home alone after school. She regretted it now, wishing she hadn't attended that party. Flutter! In the quiet night, there was suddenly a wide sound.
Lulu's delicate shoulders trembled slightly as her deeply fearful eyes looked up. It was 9 o'clock. It turned out to be just a crow. Lulu sighed in relief.
Suddenly, a girl caught Lulu's attention. The girl was wearing only a thin long skirt, with her hair tied up. Lulu was a little scared but saw the girl's face under the moonlight. The girl had tear-streaked face and red-rimmed eyes sitting by the street. Mud clung to her skirt, and an eerie floral fragrance surrounded her.
"Why are you crying?" Lulu kindly stood beside the girl and asked with concern. The girl coldly raised her head and glanced at Lulu. "You wouldn't understand, a girl like you living in happiness."
Lulu looked at the girl in bewilderment and said: "Can we be friends?"
"Would you regret it? Even if I look uglier than I do now." The girl remained cold but seemed to have a hint of warmth. Lulu didn't think much about it and nodded in agreement. The girl said her name was Xi Chu. Xi Chu sent Lulu back home at 9 o'clock and said goodnight to her.
Lulu thought about that friend every day and saw Xi Chu waiting for her at the school gate when she got out of school. Lulu didn't know how Xi Chu knew she was in this school and didn't ask much. Xi Chu came to pick her up because she was afraid of going home alone.
"Xi Chu, you're so nice," Lulu said emotionally on the Nth time Xi Chu picked her up.
"Ho ho, will we always be friends?" Xi Chu stared coldly at Lulu.
Lulu trembled slightly, feeling a familiar sensation from that dark night when she first met Xi Chu.
"Speak!!" Xi Chu seemed a bit angry, looking at Lulu angrily. She didn't understand why she treated Lulu so well, yet Lulu was unwilling to make such a small commitment.
"I'm not unwilling, but... but..." Lulu choked up. She didn't know why, but she felt Xi Chu was really good to her, though it was somehow mechanical.
Seeing Lulu like this, Xi Chu wanted to cry but was angrier.
Lulu looked at Xi Chu. Maybe they could really be lifelong best friends; maybe that mechanical kindness was just her illusion.
Lulu suddenly hugged Xi Chu's cold, slim body and smiled, saying: "Yes."
"Lulu, really?" Xi Chu looked at Lulu with surprise, although she looked happy, her face didn't turn red.
"Yeah, really," Lulu smiled childishly.
"No matter what I look like or what identity I am, you would still be willing?" Xi Chu became more excited as she spoke, trembling as if groaning, as if begging.
"Of course," Lulu wanted to laugh, being too serious.
"I believe you," Xi Chu smiled faintly.
Suddenly, Xi Chu disappeared. Only a strange, terrifying woman stood in front of Lulu. No, she shouldn't be called a person, rather a corpse! As if without life!
"You, who are you! Xi Chu, where are you?" Lulu shouted with all her might. This woman was so scary!
"It's me, Lulu," the terrifying woman laughed.
What kind of face was this! A skull-like face, skin tightly wrapped around bones, slightly bluish-green, two horrifying big eyes protruding from the eye sockets, empty like two endless black holes. Bright red lips were foolishly open, and every time she smiled, some murky red liquid flowed out.
It was still that white long dress covered in mud. Standing barefoot in front of Lulu, her bony fingers held the birthday present prepared for Lulu next week.
"Lulu," the woman laughed disgustingly, those disgusting things flowing out, white maggots crawling around in her hair.
Lulu didn't feel fear, but more disgust.
"So disgusting!" Lulu shouted loudly, throwing the gift Xi Chu handed over to the ground.
"Lulu, you said..." Xi Chu looked at Lulu in shock, then looked at the gift on the ground.
"Xi Chu, what are you?! How can you be so disgusting?!" Lulu couldn't help shouting, it was so disgusting, she wanted to vomit!
"I am... incorporeal." Xi Chu said coldly, hah, another liar, Lulu!
"Incorporeal?! Incorporeal?! You, you're a dead person?!!" Lulu went crazy.
"Yes." Xi Chu said.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!" Lulu screamed wildly, why! So scary, where is this! Who is she?! And who am I?!
Lulu ran while screaming, but she was just a puppet manipulated by someone, moving back and forth in a deception.
Xi Chu glared fiercely at Lulu's retreating figure. Didn't you promise to be my friend forever? Didn't you say no matter how ugly I am, whoever I am, we would be friends?
Xi Chu hated it intensely! Hadn't I been living in Lulu's deception all along?! Like a puppet!!
I must kill her! I must let her die! Crush her bones! Grind her meat into powder!
At Lulu's house.
After washing up, Lulu went to bed early. Because it was winter, Lulu was afraid of the cold, so she covered herself with two quilts.
After sleeping for a while, Lulu felt a bit hot and a bit suffocated, but she didn't pay much attention. She just slept quietly.
In the darkness, a pair of resentful eyes, a ferocious mouth corner, the skeleton-like eyes flashing cold light, the blood at the corners of the mouth uncontrollably flowing out again.
Grinning cruelly. She kept grinning cruelly.
The next day.
"Lulu, get up! It's time for school!" Lulu's mother shouted while busy in the kitchen. This child was always very self-disciplined. What happened today?
Lulu's mother pushed open Lulu's door. She pushed the tightly wrapped Lulu covered with two quilts.
No movement at all.
"Lulu!" Lulu's mother moved the quilt covering Lulu and saw Lulu lying there peacefully.
Why was there no heartbeat?
Lulu's mother was greatly shocked. How could it be, her body temperature was still warm.
Lulu's mother quickly called Officer Cary from the police station.
After Cary arrived and checked Lulu's condition, Lulu's mother cried and said: "Officer, what's going on? What happened to my Lulu?"
"Dead." Cary said calmly.
"Impossible, she still has body heat!" Lulu's mother screamed.
"Indeed, she still has body heat, but it's not her own body heat. It's the residual warmth from being wrapped in the quilt for too long."
"How did she die?" Lulu's mother tried to stay calm.
"Excessive blood loss."
"Blood loss?" Lulu's mother didn't quite understand, there were no wounds.
"I don't know either."
Seven days later.
On Lulu's bed.
A few fresh red words:
Your blood is so sweet.