The Creatures that We Are

Gao Yang and Wang Zikai exchanged a look and lightened their steps at the same time without the need to communicate, quietly making their way toward the figure while keeping a safe distance.

It was midnight. The street lamps had gone off. Gentle moonlight floated upon the calm lake as breezes rippled the water surface every now and then.

By the shimmering lake was a small pier. The suspicious figure walked to the edge of it, facing the lake.

Gao Yang and Wang Zikai hid behind a trash can not far away, holding their breath.

The figure took out a phone and spoke quietly into it, probably making a call.

“It must be Ghost Horse,” Wang Zikai whispered. “He’s contacting the spy.”

Truthfully, Gao Yang’s instinct was telling him that it wasn’t Ghost Horse. The man was a pro in avoiding detection. He wouldn’t have so easily exposed himself.

Unless it was on purpose.

Splash!

Just when Gao Yang was hesitating what to do, there was a splash coming from the lake, and the figure was gone.

Gao Yang and Wang Zikai looked at each other in shock before rushing toward the pier.

“The secret base must be hidden underwater!” Wang Zikai called out as he ran.

No sooner had they reached the pier than Wang Zikai started stripping. “I’m gonna get in and look for him!”

“Wait!” Gao Yang noticed a cellphone on the ground. It hadn’t been long enough for the phone to go into lockscreen.

He picked it up and played the recording that had just been made.

A boy said in a cracked voice, “Dad, mom, I’m sorry. I can’t go on any longer. I’m so afraid I’ll fail to get good grades once more. I’m so afraid of disappointing you. But I don’t want to retake the exams for another year…”

Gao Yang realized then that it was a highschooler attempting to take his own life!

“Jump!” Gao Yang called out.

“Huh?” Wang Zikai was confused. “Should I jump or not jump?”

Splash! The boy who had just jumped into the lake struggled to surface on his own, flailing around in the water. “Help! Help, I don’t wanna die anymore. Help me…”

“Get him out!” Gao Yang shouted.

Wang Zikai took off his undershirt and dove into the lake.

Five minutes later.

The tall, thin, nerdy-looking boy gasped for breaths, kneeling on the lawn. He was entirely drenched, and his face was drained of color.

Wang Zikai was all wet as well. Topless, he shook his hair dry on the side. “Shit! What were you thinking?!”

“Thank, thank you. Ack, ack… Thank you for saving me…” The boy sounded grateful yet self-pitying. “I’ve retaken the exams for two years straight, but I couldn’t get my grades high enough. I was so scared of facing my parents. Although they never said anything about it, their disappointed looks…I couldn’t take it…”

Gao Yang was going to take his entrance exams soon, and he understood the boy.

Before he could come up with words of comfort, Wang Zikai grabbed the boy by the collars. “And you killed yourself for that?! Are you a man or what?!”

“I…”

“If you died today, how heartbroken would your parents be? Do you think it was easy for them to raise you to this age?”

“But…”

“If you can’t get into a good college, give up! If you don’t want to study another year, don’t! Tell your parents about it!” Wang Zikai continued to shout. “Let me ask you this. Do you think everyone who fails to get into a good college should throw themselves into lakes?”

“And do you think everyone who gets into a good college will have a successful future?”

The boy gaped at Wang Zikai, speechless.

“For fuck’s sake!” Wang Zikai pushed the boy to the ground. “I don’t even have the chance to take the exams since I got suspended. Look at me, do I look like I’ve been wallowing in self-pity? No, I’ve been eating well and having the best time of my life!”

The boy’s gaze changed, looking touched and admiring.

Gao Yang couldn’t help but roll his eyes. Seriously, Wang Zikai, if he knows that you get to drive a sports car around and live in a luxurious villa even without getting into a college, he’ll jump back into the lake.

“Brothers.” The boy slowly rose to his feet and wiped away the tears on his face. “Thank you. I regretted jumping as soon as I did. I didn’t want to die. I just didn’t want to live the way I had lived before. I was trying to escape.”

“Good for you to figure that out.” Gao Yang patted him on the shoulder. “No matter the result of the exams, you are the one making decisions for yourself in life. You don’t have to get into a good college to be successful.”

“Yes! You’re right!” The boy’s face lit up with renewed hope. He bowed deeply at the two of them. “Thank you! I will keep your words in mind!”

The boy turned to leave. Gao Yang and Wang Zikai watched him disappear into the night.

Gao Yang praised, “You did well.”

Wang Zikai looked down at his drenched pants and shoes. “Ugh, fuck! My underpants are all sticky. It’s so uncomfortable! Why don’t we go home? I wanna take a shower and get changed.”

“No! There’s one other spot we have to go to.” Gao Yang was going to check out all three locations tonight.

“But…”

Gao Yang urged, “This is the second mission of the 94 Duo. We will not fail. What’s getting your underpants a little wet?”

Pumped, Wang Zikai said, “Okay, okay, okay! Let’s go!”

…

An hour later, Wang Zikai and Gao Yang rushed to the Apple Island.

It was located in the Dongyu District, the district where they had found the box truck, downstream of Li River. The island was a little far from that place, though.

Well, it wasn’t exactly an island, and there were no apple trees around. It was simply a plot of wasteland.

On the map, it was surrounded by a lake and a stream going into the Li River; its shape resembled an apple, hence the name.

And the lake bordering the Apple Island was the one Gao Yang was looking for.

He and Wang Zikai parked by the remote asphalt road, lined intermittently by a number of short residential buildings waiting to be torn down for renewal. They got off the motorcycle. Ahead of them was a clearing of nothing but shrubs.

They headed toward the lake. After ten minutes, Gao Yang stopped.

“What’s wrong?”

Gao Yang pointed at the ground. The earth in this area was relatively soft and moist, allowing tire tracks to be left, albeit faint.

“Dang!” Wang Zikai noticed the tracks too, which excited him. “Is this the moving truck?”

Gao Yang crouched down and took a picture of the tire tracks. WIth the box truck blown up, though, they couldn’t really make a comparison.

He followed the tire tracks for a few more minutes. Then he stopped again.

Wang Zikai looked down at the ground. There were no tracks here.

“Crouch down,” Gao Yang said.

“Huh?”

“Come on.”

Wang Zikai obliged. Gao Yang swung his leg to mount Wang Zikai’s shoulders. “Stand up.”

“Shit, are you messing with me?”

“This is serious.”

“It better be!” Wang Zikai cursed, but stood up all the same. Gao Yang looked ahead while sitting on his shoulders.

Hm, this should be about the eye level Chen Ying was at while she used Psychometry.

The driver was in the driver’s compartment of the box truck, driving along a bumpy road. The surroundings seemed desolate, and the lake ahead shimmered… Everything matched!

This should be the place.

Gao Yang scanned around and spotted a chemical plant by the river on his three. Awash in shadows, the structure was about two kilometers away from the lake ahead.

“Alright, let me down.”

Wang Zikai did as he said.

The lake is too open for hiding, and it’s unlikely for the hideout to be underwater.

The chemical plant on my three is the most likely hiding place.

Gao Yang turned to make his way to the chemical plant.

Once they were five hundred meters away from it, they lay down on a gentle slope. Looking through the tactical binoculars, Gao Yang surveyed the chemical plant that seemed to have been abandoned for years.

Crisscrossing pipes and a scattering of reactors combined to create a forest of steel, adorned with thin, frail smokestacks and metal towers. On one side were factories and shop floors of archaic designs.

Gao Yang noticed that one of the metal doors in the front of the chemical plant was askew, and another had toppled to the ground—like a vehicle had smashed through it.

“We’ll go forward another two hundred meters,” Gao Yang whispered.

Houseau3's Thoughts

Getting into a good college is like, THE thing for students in many East Asian countries. You study hard to get into a good highschool, and you get into a good highschool to get into a good college.

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