Chapter 30 : I Miss You

It was clearly her own voice, yet it wasn’t coming from her own mouth, and that sent a chill crawling over Hua Qian’an’s entire body.

What was this thing?

Why was it speaking with her voice?

Where was Chen Zhiyan?

Those icy hands began to tighten their grip, forcefully bending Hua Qian’an’s head backward.

Her eyes darted down, catching a clear view of the hands clutching her neck.

Long and pale, with nails tinged black at the edges.

She keenly noticed a small mole on the Hegu acupoint of one hand.

That was so familiar.

Hua Qian’an saw those hands every day.

They unmistakably belonged to her.

But why…

Was it reversed?

Her mole was on the left hand, yet now she saw it on the right hand of the person behind her.

Her body involuntarily turned with her head, revealing the face belonging to those hands.

That cold, delicate facial features, that slender figure—it was clearly her own face.

Only now, that face was looking at her with a strange smile.

【…An An】

Though smiling, the voice held no emotion at all.

It sounded like a pre-recorded machine reciting emotionless words.

Yet the tone was unmistakably Hua Qian’an’s.

【…I knew you wouldn’t forget me】

Looking at that overwhelmingly familiar face, a wave of dread rose in Hua Qian’an’s heart.

Though the face was exactly the same, the pale, almost bluish skin radiated an ominous aura.

Those ink-black eyes now resembled a murky fog, unfocused and vacant.

Why couldn’t she understand what it was saying…

Forget her?

Who was she?

Did she even know her?

The icy hands slid up along Hua Qian’an’s neck and touched her face.

A chilling yet ticklish sensation ran rampant across her skin.

【…I knew you wouldn’t forget me】

The same words echoed once again.

Hua Qian’an felt a shiver run down her spine.

But the situation was clearly grim.

She noticed that everyone else in the classroom had suddenly vanished.

In their seats, one red dressing mirror after another had taken their place.

Neatly arranged on the desks, reflecting Hua Qian’an’s pale face.

Only the two of them remained in the classroom.

“Yeah, I haven’t forgotten you…”

Hua Qian’an lifted her hand to rest on the hand caressing her cheek.

Her own body temperature was usually cool, but this hand she touched was still colder.

That had to be something with a temperature even lower than hers.

No sooner had she spoken than she felt the trembling of the hands on her cheek.

Seems like it worked.

“…I miss you.”

Hua Qian’an smiled faintly at the face that was her own and blinked.

“So, can you show me what you originally looked like?”

Who was this?

The scenes unfolding since just now were far too different from what Hua Qian’an believed to be reality.

So she guessed she was having another nightmare.

Once she accepted that it was just a nightmare, she calmed herself and began to review everything that had happened in the classroom.

The more she thought, the clearer her mind became.

Why had she been having these nightmares over the past two days, full of phrases like “You forgot me” and “You didn’t forget me”…

Naturally, Hua Qian’an recalled the nightmare she’d had after fainting in the haunted house.

She felt the current situation bore a strange resemblance to that one.

The similarity was that she still didn’t know who this person was.

The difference was that in the previous dream, the figure was only a humanoid shape with indistinct features, making it impossible for Hua Qian’an to guess who it was.

But now, the person before her was using her own face.

Yet this person clearly couldn’t be herself.

“It’s been so long since we last met, I want to take a good look at you too.”

Hua Qian’an began searching through her mind for possible candidates.

She had ranked among the top in high school, and Hangyang University was one of the best schools.

So she had a vague impression of people from her high school with similar scores.

When the college entrance exam results were released, the school posted a big board at the gate for public display.

Hua Qian’an had seen it when she returned to school to collect her graduation certificate.

But the problem was, in their year, she was the only one who got into Hangyang University.

Then who on earth was this?

Even though her mind was in chaos, Hua Qian’an kept smiling, trying to soothe the other’s emotions.

【You love me too…?】

But the other’s logic was obviously beyond what Hua Qian’an could anticipate.

After Hua Qian’an’s words, the other seemed to interpret it as her also liking her.

“Yeah, exactly because I love you, I want to see your face again.”

Suppressing the embarrassing feeling deep in her chest, though the expression on the face before her remained unchanged, she could clearly feel the trembling of the hand touching her.

“I missed you.”

The cold, slender hand suddenly slid off Hua Qian’an’s cheek, following the natural curve downward and smoothly resting on her shoulder.

Then she was drawn into a temperatureless embrace.

The rustling of fabric sounded unusually loud in the silence.

Her heartbeat seemed to echo right in her ears.

Her cheek pressed against something soft.

Hua Qian’an’s ears flushed involuntarily.

Her hands hadn’t reacted in time and pressed firmly onto the desk in front of her.

The pressure was so strong that her fingertips turned white.

【Qi An… An An… Xiao An…】

The low murmur in her own voice gradually changed pitch, becoming sharper and sharper… revealing a piercing desperation beneath the tone.

A strange sense of familiarity began to overwhelm Hua Qian’an.

Why… did she feel like she’d heard this voice somewhere before?

Her mind was already a mess.

Even this close, she still couldn’t hear the other’s breathing, not even a heartbeat…

What was this thing?

The cold sensation around the back of her head began to wander along her skin again.

Finally, it returned to Hua Qian’an’s neck.

At that moment, both thumbs pressed against her throat.

Realizing what was about to happen, Hua Qian’an’s breath caught.

【Come keep me company?】

The distorted, pitch-shifted voice sounded as if directly inside Hua Qian’an’s mind.

Before she could even process the meaning of those words, the person’s actions made it clear.

“Ugh—!”

Hua Qian’an let out a short cry.

A tremendous force pressed down on her throat, and the fingers digging in tightened suddenly.

Her breath was strangled; an alien object stuck in her throat.

A crushing lack of oxygen surged toward her brain.

She immediately clawed at the hands strangling her neck.

Losing the support of her own hands, her unbalanced body toppled forward.

Those hands were surprisingly strong; her own strength was no match, unable to budge them even slightly.

“Hah—”

Hua Qian’an struggled to open her mouth to gasp fresh air.

The world around her began to darken.

She realized that if she didn’t find a way soon, she would truly be strangled to death.

Even if this might be a dream, the danger signals coming from her body were completely real.

But what could she do?

The hands gripping her neck suddenly weakened.

She felt her whole body go limp.

Just as she was about to lose consciousness to the looming darkness, the hands strangling her suddenly loosened.

Hua Qian’an’s body reacted faster than her mind; with all her strength, she toppled backward and actually broke free.

Gasping heavily, her awareness began to waver, wrapped in a half-real, half-illusory sensation.

She finally breathed a sigh of relief.

At the same time, she noticed that the person who had just tried to strangle her now lowered their head, motionless, staring at their own hands.

【…】

The once pale, slender hands were now covered and entangled by writhing, alien creatures, restraining their movements.

A familiar salty, damp smell began to fill the air.

At the same time, the mirrors arranged in the back row began to crack along their seams.

Sensing something was wrong, Hua Qian’an looked down in surprise, noticing that water had begun rising inside the classroom.

It was already ankle-deep.

The figure across from her remained frozen, head bowed as if trapped.

Her body was wrapped in twisting, writhing, ribbon-like tendrils.

The scene before Hua Qian’an blurred; she could no longer see what was happening clearly.

But faintly, she heard two voices…

The distorted, pitch-shifted, cruel and ruthless voice, intertwined with the wet, resentful sound as if crawling up from the endless depths of water… as if they were locked in a struggle.