I didn't know whether he saw me. The moment his eyes swept across, a wave of dread crashed over me—as if my heart skipped a beat.
This boy seemed different from the one I had seen before. His face was ghostly pale, a faint shadow of darkness hung between his brows, and his eyes brimmed with a haunting sorrow I had never encountered.
The girl behind me clamped her hand over my mouth and nose. I couldn't breathe—my face flushed deep red, and a suffocating discomfort overwhelmed me. Yet I dared not struggle, afraid that any movement would betray my presence to the boy.
Thankfully, the girl realized I was on the verge of passing out. She pulled something green and herb-like from her pocket and shoved it into my mouth. In a low, urgent whisper, she said, "Hold it in. If you want to live, don't you dare spit it out."
The bitterness in my mouth was unbearable—far beyond what any human should endure. If not for her chilling words, I might have spat it out on instinct.
The boy's mournful gaze lingered on me. Then, he smiled—a slow, unnerving smile—and turned to walk into the pharmacy. At that moment, a shiver rippled through my entire body.
Earlier, on the cliff, Zhang Kun had also smiled at me like that, just before I nearly plunged to my death with no remains left to bury.
Instinctively, I looked at the girl beside me. Her brows were tightly knit, and beads of sweat had begun to form on her forehead. It was clear this boy troubled her greatly.
Why had he entered the pharmacy again? What did he want? I glanced at the time—exactly 3:00. Suddenly, it struck me: the boy always entered the pharmacy at this exact hour.
"Uncle, I want five qian of honeysuckle," came a soft, curious voice from inside.
I was stunned. Wasn't the pharmacy empty? Who was he talking to? Was he... talking to himself?
"Little one, why are you out so late?" a man's voice replied.
I froze. That voice—it was unmistakably mine.
As if possessed, I crept toward the door and peeked inside. In the center of the room, a man dressed in a white shirt and black slacks lounged on a red chair, yawning lazily.
My mind went blank. The man looked exactly like me. What was I still doing inside?
"Eh? Why haven't you left yet?" the man inside asked, puzzled by the boy's unmoving stance at the counter.
"You still owe me something..." the boy said in a low, gravelly voice, head bowed.
No. He's here for revenge!
"What is it?" asked the other me.
"Your life."
What happened next confirmed my worst fears. The boy lunged forward, seizing the man by the throat. His eyeballs bulged and dropped to the floor. The boy's eye sockets were hollow voids, dark fluids seeping from within.
"Why did you kill me?! Why?!" His shrieks echoed through the pharmacy, and thick black smoke billowed from his limbs, enveloping the space with a stench of rot.
Though he wasn't choking me, my own neck throbbed with a phantom pain. The next thing I heard was my own agonized, hysterical screams. They went on for minutes—until at last, through the smoke, I saw my "body" sprawled on the ground. Half of it... had already been devoured.
As the black smoke grew denser, the boy's form began to fade. He writhed and twisted before finally dissolving into a dark mist and vanishing.
A cold wind swept through, carrying a bitter, acrid scent, like that of burning heartbreak grass.
"Heartbreak Grass," the girl murmured, brows furrowed. She turned to me with a serious look and said, "Come inside. Now."
Still shaken, I hesitated for a few seconds before finally moving at her second call.
Inside, the girl crouched beside the half-eaten corpse, studying it carefully.
To my surprise, the air was not filled with the stench of blood, but rather the mingled scents of two herbs—Heartbreak Grass... and ginseng?
"Look at this," the girl said, pointing.
I followed her gaze—and gasped. The mutilated body had transformed into a half-consumed ginseng root.
What... what is this?
Staring in disbelief, I slapped myself twice. The pain was real. This wasn't a dream.
The girl gave me a strange look. "Are you mentally ill?" she asked bluntly.
I didn't know how to respond.
Seeing my embarrassment, she ignored me and picked up the ginseng before walking toward the medicine cabinet. "You're Ye Cheng, right? I'm Xu Nuo," she said.
I approached her. "Miss Xu Nuo, what exactly just happened?"
Smack! Before I could finish, she slapped me across the face. "Miss? Is that what your master's disciples are taught to say? I'm your senior sister—call me Senior Sister Xu!"
"Wait, who's your master? When did I ever become his disciple?" I asked, both angry and confused. What man could stand being slapped like that?
Xu Nuo stepped closer, the silver ornaments on her Miao outfit chiming gently, mesmerizing in their sound.
"Do you work here at this pharmacy?" she asked.
"Yes."
"Is the owner named Hong Gang?"
"Yes."
"Did you sign a contract with him?"
She stared at me meaningfully and said nothing more.
Confused, I explained, "I'm just here for part-time work... how am I suddenly someone's disciple?"
"Go check your contract," she said, wandering off.
Back in my room, I dug out the contract and read it line by line. At the very end, in minuscule print, I found a line: Party A agrees to pay Party B 30,000 yuan and voluntarily becomes Party B's disciple...
"This is fraud!!" I shouted.
"Oh, give me a break. You got a sweet deal. Do you know how many people would kill to be accepted by Master Hong? A millionaire named Xu offered half a million just for his son to be taken in—and your master still turned him down," Xu Nuo said, now behind me.
"Damn it! I was tricked! I don't care who wants to be his disciple. I'm done with this haunted pharmacy!" I shouted, throwing my things into a bag.
"If you're so eager to die, go ahead and leave," Xu Nuo said calmly, dropping her luggage onto my bed. "I live here now. You're moving to the medicine hall."
"You... What do you mean by 'eager to die'? What happens if I leave?" I demanded.
She looked at me with an eerie calm. "Try it and find out."
4o