After Being Watched by My Paranoid and Gloomy Deceased Wife - Chapter 9

The standing water on the floor gradually turned from transparent to pale red, finally becoming the bright, rich red of bl00d.

If you ask me why I didn’t run away immediately?

Perhaps I’m having an episode? My hands and feet simply wouldn’t obey me. The soles of my feet were rooted in the water, unable to move.

I was already very dishevelled earlier. My back ached, and my legs were weak when I got off the bed. I almost collapsed and couldn’t exert much strength. Now it was worse; only my head could move.

The most despairing thing is that I know this probably, maybe, possibly has nothing to do with somatization.

After all, my mental state was indeed abnormal for a period after the car accident. I would experience overall weakness, numbness in my limbs, lack of strength to speak or act, and could only lie in bed waiting to recover.

I didn’t understand it at the time. I truly had no traumatic memory; the moment of the car accident was like a blackout, I had no impression of it, and the missing part of my memory showed no other abnormality.

Maybe people are just fragile, even without remembering.

The situation back then felt different from now, where I feel full of strength yet cannot move. If I had to find a precise description… it would be sleep paralysis.

The problem is, I’m not in bed!

It’s over. Did I fall asleep in the bathroom? Is that why I’m having this dream?

I couldn’t have passed out from low bl00d sugar and fallen asleep on the bathroom floor, could I?

If I sleep like this all night, I’ll definitely get a fever tomorrow. I don’t want IV drips and medication!!!

My thoughts raced at 180 miles per hour, and the scene before my eyes seemed to slow down.

The bl00d-red water slowly climbed upwards. The shower, which I had already pressed to stop, continued to pour, causing something in the bloody water to condense even faster.

First, exquisite feet that could be used as a foot model, then sleek, slender calves…

I felt too embarrassed to look further up and voluntarily closed my eyes.

See no evil, hear no evil.

Do not do unto others what you would not have them do unto you… Well, even if It isn’t a person, the same applies.

I couldn’t see anything until the metallic sweet scent approached me. Only then did I realize that the thick smell of fresh bl00d has such a terrifying, raw stench.

It really is bl00d. I was momentarily disoriented. Behind my closed eyes was bl00d so thick it covered my vision. Someone was crying… it sounded like me.

This fleeting delusion quickly vanished. I forcefully exhaled and opened my eyes.

I shouldn’t have opened my eyes.

Vibrant red occupied my entire vision. The bloody water flow condensed into a soft human shape. The bl00d-red face looked down at me.

Just like last time, She had no eyes; the sockets were empty voids. Her lips opened and closed, but no teeth were visible.

She is speaking, my brain told me.

But I couldn’t hear what she said. There was no sound in the bathroom besides the running water.

She extended her hand. I wanted to retreat, but I was motionless, only able to watch the bl00d-colored hand cup my face.

The smell of bl00d intensified.

I felt dizzy in this realization, yet I stubbornly didn’t pass out. This made me feel that my willpower was unusually strong.

I’m not fainting even from this?

How about I just faint? I tried to persuade myself.

In situations that defy logic, according to horror movies, either you faint and become a crispy little snack, or you don’t faint and become a crispy little snack.

Fainting seems like the better option—less pain.

I couldn’t move anyway, so passing out would be more practical. But my spirit was truly resilient. Despite all my self-persuasion, there was no sign of fainting.

I saw the bl00d-red lips open and close. What was she calling?

Almost all I could see was her opening and closing lips. My thoughts gradually became sluggish. I wondered, What is she saying?

I don’t understand lip reading.

She stared at me with stubborn persistence. Although I don’t know how she could look at me without eyes, it wasn’t important. After all, she wasn’t a person… Mmm, it’s a hallucination. Anything is normal in a hallucination.

I am dreaming.

She was saying—

“Lu Lu.”

My vision blurred for a moment. Only then did I realize I had been staring for too long, causing my eyes to dry and shed physiological tears.

She clearly made no sound while speaking, yet a voice, strange yet incredibly familiar, suddenly echoed in my mind.

Gentle and mature, precisely the type I’ve always liked, resonated in my head.

“Lu Lu.”

I couldn’t tell which was the hallucination anymore.

It should be normal for a hallucination to know my name, right?

I blinked. An inexplicable sadness struck me, so much so that even though my ability to move had returned, I still didn’t move.

My limbs were numb, and even my lips were trembling. I opened my mouth, wanting to ask her.

“Who are you? What are—”

The words were drowned out by the metallic sweet kiss. I tried to struggle. The bl00d-colored water streams bound my hands behind my back.

A new head appeared in the water flow, also with long hair reaching its waist and exquisite features. She opened her mouth, silently chanting my name.

“Lu Lu.”

I felt my whole body trembling, almost unable to stand steadily, not because of the bl00d-colored tongue stirring in my mouth, but because of this terrifying, cognitively dissonant scene.

The new head also materialized a new body. She embraced me from behind. They were connected through the bl00d-red water flowing on the floor.

The soft tongue was finally released. The bloody taste in my mouth was too heavy. I felt like vomiting but forgot how to move, staring blankly at the scene before me.

Are They many, or is She one?

Or perhaps, It?

The newly split human-shaped water flow only held my waist and clasped my hands. Water droplets fell from my body.

Transparent ones.

They were probably the water droplets clinging to me from the earlier shower.

They melted into the bl00d-colored water flow, increasing It’s size and volume. I watched with open eyes as the bl00d-red standing water on the ground rose higher and higher, almost exceeding the barrier of the shower door threshold.

The shower was still running. I finally mustered a little strength and forced myself to press the off-switch despite It’s restraint.

The violently bubbling water, which seemed about to give birth to something new, subsided to calmness.

I gasped for breath, thinking, Great, at least I won’t flood Xi Rong’s bathroom, or having the whole washroom look like a crime scene would be too terrifying.

She extended one hand, and the other She also extended a hand. I lowered my head and found that their calves were only half-formed; the rest was connected by water currents that swayed like waves.

I see. So, it is It.

There is only one. Although It can split into two, it’s still better than being targeted by two such entities.

It became the sole ruler of this small space.

Ruler of the water, and of me.

I didn’t have time to worry about the sanitation of the water. My mind was blank with fear of the unknown.

It entered the depths.

To be precise, water did—those salty, fresh, red bl00d waters.

In Its tight embrace from the front and back, my body went limp, about to instantly follow gravity and fall. It was the It behind me that held me up.

The It in front of me leaned down, enveloping my trembling, loudly beating heart.

It seems I won’t become a crispy snack, but I’m being eaten in another sense.

Am I playing some kind of adult game?

Where is the exit button?

Thirty-seven years of purity. I never expected to encounter something so far beyond my acceptance range when I was nearing middle age.

No matter how many people say I look young, after thirty-seven years of tranquility, I always believed I was the setting sun.

I would always drift a little bit in the flat passage of time until I was completely swallowed by the eternal night.

The current situation is a bit too much for me.

The penetrating water flow was initially just a thread. Later, it gradually grew until I had to clench my lips tightly to avoid becoming too vulnerable in an uncontrollable situation.

It’s not over yet?

I lost all strength and could only lean on It.

The bl00d-colored water flowed gently toward me, lifting my leg, positioning me like a ballerina figurine on a revolving crystal stand, my right toe tense and touching the ground, as if about to leap.

I didn’t want to see myself in this state and could only close my eyes.

The washing machine made a slight noise. It was the clothes inside the drum spinning at high speed.

The sound of rushing water, the metallic sweet scent enveloped me. I thought I was soaking in a container of bl00d, yet my nose and mouth could clearly breathe freely.

Something was gently soothing me. I shivered, opened my eyes to look, and found a newborn bl00d-colored hand resting at an unfortunate spot.

I initially wanted to ask It if It could act like a person, but I timely remembered It was not a person.

A muffled rushing sound came from the washing machine drum. The bl00d water on the bathroom floor surged. Only one of my feet was still stepping in the bl00d water.

But soon, that foot was also forced to be suspended in the air.

I was lifted up. The exposed posture prevented me from feeling any sense of security.

Since I was already bathing, without the protection of clothes, this situation was inevitably humiliating.

Hallucination. I’m dreaming again.

It’s inevitable to have some interesting dreams when one has no night life and doesn’t relieve oneself, experiencing frustrated desire.

The actively boiling bl00d water changed from a rushing sound to a squelching sound. I don’t know if I’m more like I have a fever now than when I actually had one.

The strange reactions made me clench my lips, terrified that any slightest abnormality would be noticed by Xi Rong next door.

That would be too much social death. I might want to instantly start life over.

Xi Rong’s house has poor sound insulation. I remember this point, unlike my house, which has double sound insulation to ensure quiet. Never mind making this much noise, even if I were to yell and scream inside, the neighbors wouldn’t notice.

I suspect this design might very well be to make it convenient for me to howl and go crazy like a monkey at home without being discovered.

In any case, such an embarrassing thing cannot be discovered by Xi Rong.

Given her timidness, she would faint immediately if she saw it. And I’m also worried that although I haven’t become a crispy snack yet, I might become one after it’s over.

Some bloody and cruel movies or stories are like that.

The previously empty space gradually filled with the bl00d-colored water flow.

The metallic sweet bl00d smell filled my nostrils. My hands were released, but I had no strength left to change the situation.

My flat abdomen swelled slightly. I was so uncomfortable that I almost shed tears, but then I saw the clear water that flowed down and merged with the bl00d-colored water flow.

It was so uncomfortable. But aside from the overly full and unbearable feeling, the places the bl00d water traveled clearly delivered a spiritual shock that was difficult for me to adapt to.

The bl00d-colored water flow rushed and swayed in the narrow space. Some might have flowed out, but they quickly swam back, as if that was supposed to be their nest.

If this were a dance, I was clearly an unqualified actor, retreating step by step under It’s relentless pressure.

Under the grinding of the bl00d water, my tears surged out. I tried to curl up into a ball to resist the external intrusion.

This attempt was a failure. The bl00d-colored water flow held me up, allowing me no resistance.

For a moment, I couldn’t hear anything. My ears returned to blank silence. I didn’t think about anything, just stared blankly, shedding tears.

Did I make a sound, or did I not?

In that instant, all my senses stopped working, leaving only the touch beneath me so clear.

It wasn’t until the whooshing sound of water returned to my auditory world that I realized I was crying, quietly, sobbing as if I had endured endless grievances.

That was indeed very wrongful.

It embraced me, and I actually felt a sense of security in the heavy, bloody-smelling embrace.

There were no tiny gaps between us.

Water encompasses everything, naturally fitting me without any space in between.

It could easily do anything unimaginable. The intimacy was not just skin-deep; it also included…

The place where life is supposed to be nurtured.

I couldn’t grasp the water, but It could easily fill any place I left empty. My blank mind was also filled with the sensations It brought, and I could only whimper fruitlessly.

I said, “It’s not fair.”

“Wuwu, it’s not fair.” I weakly protested in the bl00d-colored tide, and the vast ocean carrying my small boat seemed ready to capsize me at any moment.

It reached out a beautiful hand, formed by the bl00d-colored water flow, with slender fingers, gently stroking my face.

It moved It’s lips and silently said, “Lu Lu.”

As if to soothe my fragile nerves, which had been tossed into near confusion.