Blood Neon-Chapter 20

Chapter 20
Communication
...
“So, you really came from another world?”
The small, adorable girl in front of him nodded.
“Mm.”
Zhang Qiming couldn't help but swallow a mouthful of saliva and licked his already dried lips.
What could he say.
A lingering sense of unreality still hovered in his mind.
Sure, he was the type who enjoyed watching all kinds of anime and reading light novels, and often imagined himself as a slightly chuunibyou boy with special powers. After all, in most neighboring creative works, male high school students were always depicted as some special hero class of the human race capable of saving the world.
But being fascinated by stories about aliens, time travelers, and superpowered individuals was one thing, and fantasizing about waking up one day to be abducted by an alien girl who had her eye on his microwave in a romantic comedy was another... Rationally, he had never actually believed that supernatural beings existed in the real world.
Fortunately, the girl in front of him didn’t show any hostility at the moment—she just sat quietly on the sofa. Now that the inexplicable fear from earlier had faded, his mood had mostly relaxed, and he wasn't feeling as tense.
“Well, anyway, let’s take a break first. Want something to drink?”
The moment he stood up, a wave of pain coursed through his body, making him clench his teeth. Still, he forced out a relaxed expression and asked the girl.
Since she was just here to talk, he figured he should at least show some basic hospitality. Besides, it had been a long night, and the last time he drank anything was back at school. He was genuinely thirsty now.
“Anything's fine,” Lin Ying replied casually. “Whatever you're having.”
“Then, please sit and wait a moment.”
After walking over to the fridge, he first took a big gulp of cold water, then skillfully pulled out a large bottle of honey tea from the refrigerator. With two cups in hand, he poured each of them a generous serving.
As his brain started to unwind, Zhang Qiming also began to process the overwhelming amount of information he had just received.
The principles he thought he knew about this world from his brief decade or so of life—the common sense of this ordinary and unremarkable world, his still-developing worldview—had all been shaken to their core by just a few minutes of conversation.
Supernatural beings… let’s just call them that for now—actually existed.
Right now, in his very own living room.
This creature who, no matter how you looked at her, was a galactic-level, ultra-cute girl—wasn't even human.
She didn’t even belong to this Earth.
At least, according to what she had just said, she came from another "Earth," and was once a normal human being herself, until she woke up in this place, completely clueless.
This was just too damn fantastical—completely unscientific.
Zhang Qiming couldn’t help but sigh in his heart.
Carrying the two drinks back into the living room, Zhang Qiming saw that the girl was still sitting obediently, quietly staring out the window in a daze.
So cute. That was Zhang Qiming's first thought.
Shaking his head, he placed one of the cups in front of Lin Ying, then sat down on the other end of the sofa.
“Thanks.”
After thanking him, the girl picked up the cup with both hands, took two sips, and then looked toward Zhang Qiming.
“You like honey tea too?”
The boy, who had been racking his brain over what to say, hadn’t expected her to start the conversation first.
“Yeah, I actually really like the taste. I buy it pretty often.”
“Really? I like it a lot too. It’s not too sweet, and not too bland.”
The girl smiled.
The boy staring at her was momentarily stunned, and couldn’t help but feel a wave of heat rise in his cheeks.
“Did... your original world have this too?”
A bit embarrassed, Zhang Qiming turned his eyes away slightly and asked.
“Yeah. Actually, even the brand is the same. It’s pretty strange.”
“Then how did you know you're in another world?” Zhang Qiming asked curiously.
“It’s simple. Place names, and some other things, they’re not the same.”
Lin Ying took another sip of tea. “For example, earlier I heard some people chatting on the street. They said you all have twelve years of compulsory education?”
“Yeah.”
“We don’t. Where I come from, it’s nine years of compulsory education.”
Lin Ying recalled her slightly incomplete memories.
The history of this world must be different from the one she knew—like in small details like that. If she ever got the chance to look through a history book or something, it would probably be pretty interesting.
“Then, how long have you been here?”
“About nine days, if we’re counting from what I can remember. After all, when I came to, I was already on the outskirts of this city.” After a brief moment of thought, Lin Ying formed the number nine with her hands. “And I’ve just been wandering around since...”
Right—she’d mentioned before that she usually had to “hunt,” and that she ate people.
“Then this next question might be a little offensive. You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to,” Zhang Qiming said, a bit uneasy, but the words had already left his mouth. “In all these days… how many people have you… eaten?”
The girl's crimson eyes turned to him, sending a chill down Zhang Qiming's spine—though he wasn’t sure if it was just his imagination.
“…Three.”
“What?”
“I’ve only eaten… three people.”
Lin Ying held up three fingers.
Her pristine white fingers, flawless like pieces of fine art—if ○Liang○Ying were here, he would probably ascend to heaven on the spot.
But the three lives represented behind those three fingers weighed heavily on Zhang Qiming once he grasped the meaning.
“No need to be nervous. The ones I consumed were all guilty people.”
The girl curled down one of her fingers.
“One was a drunk driver who killed someone.”
The second finger slowly bent.
“One was a knife-wielding robber high out of his mind.”
Her hand closed into a fist.
“And one… a rapist who didn’t care about consent or order.”
She opened her palm again.
“See? All bad people.” She smiled.
Sister, that's just too damn tragic...
Zhang Qiming couldn’t help but grumble inwardly.
A regular person wouldn’t even encounter one of those in their lifetime, yet somehow you’ve managed to meet one every three days? Sure, this city wasn’t exactly great, but the crime rate couldn’t be that insane, right?
Casting a sympathetic glance at the girl in front of him, he immediately realized the answer to the mystery.
She’s cute. They wanted to…
Zhang Qiming quickly shook his head, tossing the inappropriate thought from his mind.
.
“I want to confirm something. Since you already know my real body is those hidden tentacles, then—when you saw them earlier, what exactly did you ‘see’?”
Now that the conversation had finally returned to the main topic, the girl raised a more detailed question.
“I can’t quite remember,” Zhang Qiming frowned. “It’s like… a dream. After I woke up, I forgot most of it.”
“I see…”
Lin Ying took a sip of tea with a hint of disappointment. The room suddenly fell into silence again.
“Can I ask another question?”
“Go ahead.” She nodded.
Even though he knew she had once been human, Zhang Qiming still hesitated slightly before asking this one. He took a moment to find the right words and continued.
“You mentioned earlier that your true body is those monsters, yet you can move around in the form of a complete, independent human being.” He paused to organize his thoughts. “So… is your perspective based on this human side? Or is it from the other side? What does your sense of self feel like?”
“Hmm… In terms of perspective, I actually have both,” Lin Ying thought for a moment. “Most of the time, it feels like the two are one. There's no clear boundary between them—kind of like the way your hands and legs are both part of your body?”
She lightly wiggled her fingers rhythmically.
“Then why do you say the other side is your true body?”
Thinking that constantly calling it a “monster” might be a little offensive, Zhang Qiming decided to use “the other side” instead.
“Hard to say.”
Her answer was unexpected, but at the same time, made perfect sense.
“It’s just… a feeling, I guess. You know, you wouldn’t say your hand or your leg is your real self either, right?”
“That’s true.”
Zhang Qiming nodded in agreement.
“So where are they usually hidden?”
The question slipped out casually, but he immediately realized it might have been a little invasive, so he quickly added, “Of course, if it’s not something you want to talk about, that’s totally fine.”
“Ah, I think you might be misunderstanding a bit.”
Lin Ying’s expression didn’t change.
“They’re not physically attached to me in the usual sense.”
As she said this, one of the tentacles extended straight up from the floor beneath them.
The instant Zhang Qiming saw it, a chill shot up his spine. He couldn't help but let his mind run wild—had he asked the wrong question and made her angry?
But the feeling wasn’t as overwhelming as it had been before. His heartbeat and breathing stayed steady, and that made him wonder: had he developed some kind of mental resistance?
The tentacle steadily curled around the cup and lifted it to Lin Ying’s lips, allowing her to take a sip.
After setting the cup down, it retracted back into the floor just as smoothly as it had appeared.
Zhang Qiming looked at the floor. Just regular ceramic tiles—no damage, not even a trace.
“See that? They can appear from any ‘shadow’ within a certain range around this body.”
“Certain range? Can they appear in mid-air too?”
Zhang Qiming immediately thought—if they could manifest from thin air, that would be insanely powerful and mysterious.
“Uh, not in mid-air. Only from physical surfaces, like the ground, or my body. Also, when I say ‘shadow,’ it’s more of a concept. It doesn’t have to be a literal shadow cast by light. Just the area directly beneath me counts too.”
Lin Ying hadn’t expected his first reaction to be “mid-air.” Was there ambiguity in how she explained it? She thought normal people would associate “shadow” with something on the ground.
Noticing the thoughtful look on Zhang Qiming’s face, Lin Ying raised her eyebrows slightly.
“You thinking of something?”
After all, one of her reasons for staying and talking to him was to study this supernatural body. If they could figure out some ability triggers or skill mechanics, it would be a huge help in her future survival.
“Not yet. Just thinking about the possibilities and such.”
“About me?”
“Yeah, it's... uh,” Zhang Qiming answered reflexively, then immediately felt like it might sound wrong.
“Uh, it is about you, but not like that. I mean, I was thinking about your body—no, I mean, about your form—”
He fumbled around for words, and the more he explained, the deeper the hole he seemed to dig.
Good grief, are all teenagers this sensitive? They just start blushing halfway through a sentence?
Lin Ying couldn’t help but roast him in her head. Sure, she hadn’t forgotten what being young was like, but this kind of hormonal fumbling felt pretty distant now—hard to empathize with from experience. Still… teasing him did seem kind of fun...
She gave her head a light shake and tossed out the odd thoughts.
—In truth, while it was normal for teenage boys and girls to be sensitive and prone to overthinking, a lot of Zhang Qiming’s awkwardness and embarrassment came down to the simple fact that a hardcore straight guy had suddenly found himself alone in a room with a gorgeous girl. If he didn’t feel flustered, now that would’ve been strange… Monster girl or not, a pretty girl was still a pretty girl. Hormones didn’t care about the rest of the details.
.
“I was thinking... if those tentacles aren’t strictly connected to your body, and you say they exist within shadows, and that the ‘other side’ is your real form, and your outer body doesn't even carry full emotion...”
Zhang Qiming, cheeks still slightly red, finally managed to sort out his thoughts.
“Then, is it possible that we’ve got it backwards?”
“?” Lin Ying tilted her head slightly.
“You think they’re hiding in the conceptual shadows cast by your human form—but what if it’s actually the opposite?”
Zhang Qiming extended a hand, blocking some of the overhead light and casting a thin shadow on the table.
“Going back to what you said before, about being able to pull people into the shadows—what if the ‘person-shadow’ relationship is reversed? What if this outer human body is the projection… and the real body is the one on the other side?”
Zhang Qiming felt like he had hit on something important. The more he explained, the more the logic made sense, and this line of thinking even seemed to clarify certain phenomena.
After all, they were dealing with supernatural events—so it only made sense that their reasoning needed to go beyond conventional logic. That was right up his alley. Ever since starting high school, he’d read a ton of novels, and drawing connections from those gave him plenty of ideas.
First comes the body, then comes the shadow—that’s how it worked for humans. But Lin Ying’s case seemed reversed. The shadowy tentacles that could appear independently from her body supported this hypothesis. It made sense.
Zhang Qiming nodded with satisfaction, praising himself inwardly. Not bad, me.
Meanwhile, Lin Ying sat beside him, genuinely dumbfounded.
The only thought in her mind was, “Wait, that actually makes sense?”
But thinking it over carefully… it really did sound logical. She had even sensed traces of that explanation in her own experiences.
If her human form was merely a “projection,” then a lot of things started to fall into place.
The absence of full emotional range and lack of physical feedback—well, if her true body was a monster, then where would a human nervous system even come from?
Getting stabbed or hit with bricks didn’t really affect her. Even if she bled all over the place, she could still move around like nothing happened—because this flesh body was just a “projection,” right? What did that make it? A sort of account logged into this world by a tentacled being from another dimension? Or maybe an organic humanoid user interface?
She didn’t know the exact principles behind it—but still, this explanation… made sense!
She immediately began pitching her own thoughts and new interpretations. After just a few exchanges, she and Zhang Qiming quickly reached a consensus.
.
And the moment the two of them came to that agreement—
A strange sensation stirred in Lin Ying’s heart.
Suddenly, the connection she felt with the world—the feeling of existing in and interacting with this reality—became much more vivid.
She hadn’t noticed it before because she had nothing to compare it to. But now, compared to how things were moments ago, it was like being cured of years-long nearsightedness—like taking off glasses for the first time and seeing the world clearly.
Lin Ying looked up and met Zhang Qiming’s gaze.
Concern. Curiosity. And a hint of... longing?
Feelings she couldn’t clearly perceive before now flowed into her, real and unmistakable.
In that instant, Lin Ying felt like she had grasped something crucial.