Completely different from the luxury apartment where he lived, Lijing Apartments not only lacked a garden but was also a bare, solitary building. The lights in the lobby were broken, flickering intermittently.
The elevator was ancient, its interior plastered with all sorts of small advertisement stickers.
Lin Mo did not take the elevator.
He needed some time to calm his mind.
In truth, he didn’t even know what he was feeling right now. He just kept thinking over and over—’Is it really such a rare thing to have a partner with such an intense desire, who wants to possess me all day long?’
This thought was like a devil’s whisper, constantly telling him that this was a blessing he must have earned over eight lifetimes.
On the other side of the door, Su Ran had just finished her bath and was standing naked in front of her wardrobe.
This wardrobe was special; it contained a hidden compartment.
Inside hung many clothes that were not meant for public eyes.
Nurse outfits, police uniforms, flight attendant attire, maid outfits, office wear, stepmother dresses, bikinis, and swimsuits.
There were also many custom erotic sets, anime costumes, every school uniform she had worn since childhood, and many toys she thought he might enjoy playing with.
In a few years, these things might seem insignificant, but for someone her age, it was truly abnormal. The sheer quantity made it seem perverted.
Su Ran had been out of the bath for a long time, but her skin was still covered in a flush of pink.
Her cheeks, in particular, were so red that her blurred eyes emitted a hallucinatory, sickly light.
She couldn’t control her gaze, nor could she suppress the longing in her heart.
Looking at the carefully prepared gifts in the cabinet one by one, she couldn’t stop thinking about how she hoped Lin Mo would open her up in all sorts of rough ways.
The more she thought about it, the clearer the images became, and the stronger her desire grew. At the same time, her anxiety deepened.
‘What should I do… It will scare him… It will scare him, won’t it?’
‘Why…’
‘Why are you suddenly being so good to me… Baby…’
Suddenly, the sound of light footsteps reached her. They were far away, but Su Ran heard them clearly.
The soundproofing in the old apartment was not good. Especially since the building followed a layout of two units per floor, the elevator landing was terrifyingly silent, yet it wafted with an incredibly pleasant, fresh fragrance.
The stairwell, however, smelled foul. Every floor carried the stench of hoarded trash.
By contrast, stepping into the fifth-floor landing was like entering a completely different world. It seemed even this area had been cleaned until it was spotless, giving off a sense of meticulous obsession.
It had to be her.
This was also her way of expressing herself.
Lin Mo glanced over and noticed that the door to Room 502 was slightly ajar. There were no lights on inside.
It was like a trap—a trap laid out in plain sight.
It felt like a test, a way to see if he, the prey, was truly not afraid.
The answer was yes.
Lin Mo felt his legs grow heavy, but he still walked steadfastly to the door and pushed it open.
He did not hesitate, nor did he call out a greeting.
Since Su Ran had left the door open and the lights off on purpose, she probably didn’t want to hear him call out.
Walking through the foyer, he was met by the living room bathed in moonlight.
Faint light spilled through the window, highlighting an empty hall.
There was no furniture and no decorations. There was only the empty silence and gloom of an uninhabited space, which instantly hooked into Lin Mo’s mental strength, followed by a surging sense of eerie intuition.
There were two rooms on the right side of the living room. From the gap beneath one of the doors, a dark red light leaked out.
It looked like a darkroom for developing photos, creepy enough to make one’s heart race.
Lin Mo instinctively swallowed and walked over, incredibly nervous.
This time, he instinctively called out, “Su Ran?”
There was no response.
*Click—*
Lin Mo gently pushed the door open and peered through the widening gap.
He was cautious throughout the entire process, constantly reinforcing his mental resolve. But when his gaze swept into the room, he was still caught off guard and mentally frozen.
Su Ran wasn’t in the room.
There was no blunt object to the head.
No being tied up.
None of the yandere behavior he had imagined was present, yet the room was filled with the aura of an obsessed lover.
Lin Mo pushed the door wide open, staring blankly at everything inside.
The murals—they were of him.
The posters—he was the main character.
His photos—they covered the entire room.
The throw pillows on the bed—they depicted him while he was asleep.
The life-size doll by the bed—it was almost a perfect mold of him.
Inside a fully transparent wall cabinet, hundreds upon hundreds of items were displayed. Most of them were dolls and figurines made in his likeness, along with some strange, miscellaneous things.
Textbooks, homework assignments, notes, and the various martial arts manuals that had mysteriously gone missing.
They were all his.
Dazed, Lin Mo opened the cabinet and took out a small wooden stick.
It was the stick left over from an ice cream bar.
Next to it were sports wristbands, receipts, broken water bottles, old clothes, and various items he had discarded, filling one cubby after another.
Lin Mo looked up in shock, his gaze sweeping around aimlessly. For a long while, he couldn’t pull himself away from the staggering revelation.
What was all this?
Discarded items were one thing, but why were things from his home here as well…
Those martial arts manuals—he had thought the cleaning lady had taken them. In both his past and present lives, he had been too embarrassed to ask for them back. He had even guarded against the cleaners all day, changing them several times.
Lin Mo felt like his brain was about to short-circuit. He subconsciously picked up a manual, and suddenly his mind snapped back to reality like it had been kicked. He thought about his self-reward session from the night before.
‘She saw everything!?’
‘There’s been a witness every single time for these three years!?’
This thought was like a bolt from the blue, freezing Lin Mo in place. He suddenly felt a slight urge to just die on the spot.
At that moment, there was a soft *click*. He spun around by reflex.
Su Ran had appeared suddenly, like a ghost.
“Are you afraid?”
She closed the door, and the temperature in the entire room suddenly became very strange.
It felt both very hot and very chilly.
Lin Mo instinctively widened his eyes, genuinely startled.
Su Ran gripped the hem of her dress tightly with her right hand while her left hand crossed over her chest in a protective stance. She looked to be in a state of extreme unease, yet her eyes were fixed on Lin Mo, watching his reaction.
The two of them stared at each other. Lin Mo couldn’t react, nor did he know what to say.
Finally, Su Ran was the first to lower her left hand and move her right hand behind her back. She squeezed her fingers with all her might, her breathing uncontrollably rapid.
“You…”
Lin Mo started to speak but stopped. His wide eyes remained fixed, but his gaze began to drift.
Su Ran was wearing a silk camisole dress that didn’t quite suit her age.
The cream-colored fabric was so thin it was as if it weren’t there. Her beautiful, firm lines were clearly visible, and aside from her long legs in stockings without shoes, there was nothing else.
Su Ran was losing it.
After a whole day of mental tearing, the sound of Lin Mo’s footsteps had become a fatal ultimatum.
It didn’t just urge her to come over; it urged her to take a stand.
In her moment of ultimate chaos and panic, she chose the most direct method.
Like this room in Apartment 501, like the things in the cabinet, she presented everything about herself without reservation. It was as if she were making the first and last great gamble of her life.
Because of this, her hands behind her back were scratching the door panel, and her eyes were filled with a plea.
It was as if she were saying: *Please don’t be afraid of me, or I don’t know what I’ll do.*
Lin Mo understood her gaze. Although he only understood the first part, it was enough.
He calmed down amidst the prolonged shock and walked quickly toward Su Ran. At the same time, he took off his jacket and draped it over her, pulling it tight to cover the scenery at her chest. “What are you doing?”
Su Ran’s eyes suddenly went empty—it was the dead silence of being rejected.
She didn’t speak. Only the fingers behind her back continued to exert force, making a faint scratching sound on the wooden door.
Lin Mo’s attention was entirely on her face. Seeing her death-like gaze, he said anxiously, “Don’t misunderstand. I’m not afraid, and I don’t mean to blame you. I like this gift you prepared. I really like it!”
Su Ran’s eyes remained hollow, devoid of any reaction.
Looking at the shimmer of tears in her eyes, Lin Mo quickly emphasized his liking several more times.
Yes, he really did like this gift.
Su Ran couldn’t express her emotions. He knew that. He also knew that for her to watch over him for ten years, her feelings no longer needed words to be conveyed.
But he had never known why. In his previous life, he couldn’t understand even up until his death. It was only now, seeing this room full of things, that he understood.
She used her own way to let ‘him’ accompany her through every spring, summer, autumn, and winter.
Originally, this was all just a fake companionship.
In her previous life, she only ever had that fake companionship until the day she died.
That was why she had never revealed it.
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