Each one scares one to death, each pair scares one pair to death

 

All say that people with mental illness and drunk people have particularly strong bodies and are especially heavy. This statement is quite reasonable.

Bai Ke's unreliable father, Bai Zixu, despite his refined appearance and slender figure, was still quite a burden on Bai Ke's even more slender back when he fell.

But despite the weight, Bai Ke could still carry it steadily and even casually took the umbrella he had brought out with him. It could be seen that he had done this kind of thing quite often in the past, and his experience was quite rich.

Speaking of which, everyone who had met father and son said: simply judging by their faces, Bai Ke and Bai Zixu only shared about three points of resemblance. After all, Bai Ke had always had his eyes closed, and there were mysterious birthmarks around him, which had a significant impact on his appearance. However, if the two stood far away, their overall temperament was like they came out of the same mold...

The premise was that Bai Zixu did not speak, and it was not during stormy weather...

So Bai Ke, looking like his brother but behaving more like his son, returned to the old building with brisk steps.

The location of the old building where Bai Ke lived was a bit poor. Although the planning of this residential area was already chaotic, it still looked particularly abrupt, like a spot of ink accidentally dropped outside a large blot. It was located in the shadow of the entire community, standing alone in a row, with tall buildings in front and rows of houses behind, making sunlight an issue. The daily sunlight time was very short, and after four o'clock in the afternoon, it was almost impossible to see the light, making it seem particularly dilapidated and eerie.

Due to structural issues and weather effects, although it was just dinner time, the corridors of the old building were already dim enough to count the stairs to go up. It would be okay if it were just one person, with the steps clear and less prone to stumbling, but if carrying someone on one's back, inevitably there would be some faltering. Moreover, in the eyes of the neighbors around, Bai Ke was blind. It was difficult to imagine the difficulty of carrying a person upstairs.

But Bai Ke didn't have any intention of asking for help. He just frowned, stood still facing the stairs for a moment, and then nudged the unconscious person on his back upwards.

"Today, this darkness seems a bit off..."

He murmured extremely softly, thought for a moment, then looked up, and saw that the doors of other apartments were tightly closed, with no signs of people coming or going, probably all having dinner.

After a moment of silence, Bai Ke withdrew his gaze, sighed, as if making some significant decision, and opened the eyes that had been tightly closed for years.

Neighbors had once secretly speculated that Bai Ke's eyes had been tightly closed for so long, probably because his eyes hadn't been used for too long, and had gradually deformed during his growth, making them unable to open.

But the reality was not like that. These eyes that hadn't been opened for a long time were not shrunken or cloudy. On the contrary, they seemed to shine somewhat brightly in the dim corridor. However, if you took another look, you would find that these eyes were better suited to being closed. Because they had no whites at all; the entire eyes were a shining black.

This pure and thick blackness emitted light that seemed to be flowing. It seemed that what existed in Bai Ke's eye sockets was not normal eyes but more like two thick black and constantly flowing masses of water.

On such a stormy night with lightning and thunder, if someone passed by and saw Bai Ke's open eyes, coupled with the image of the father and son still dripping with water, it would definitely be a shocking sight.

*

These eyes were not originally like this; they were the same as those of ordinary people.

In Bai Ke's memory, the most common phrase he heard when he was young was, "Your eyes are quite beautiful, it's just a pity..."

A pity, because he couldn't see anything.

From the moment Bai Ke could remember, his world had been black, and he couldn't even feel a hint of light; he was completely blind. At that time, the usually unreliable Bai Zixu had curiously found him a place, along with a group of blind children, to learn to adapt to life under the guidance of a plump aunt, using their unique methods.

They always learned the same things a bit slower than normal people, so from the age of three or four to the teens, they were always taught by that plump aunt and her friends. It must be said that they taught really well; that group of children grew up healthy. They were positive and optimistic, and a few of them were particularly fond of laughing and playing tricks. Even Bai Ke almost became such a person.

And what led to his current personality was an incident when he was twelve years old.

He couldn't remember why he had passed out during class that day. He only remembered that when he woke up, all he could smell was the smell of disinfectant mixed with alcohol.

 

Because of his eyes, he was always very sensitive to the smell of hospitals.

At that time, he could hear the unique sharp voice of Aunt Pang (NT: fatty Aunt) shouting, "Hey?! He's awake! I saw his fingers move! Zongzi, go call the doctors and nurses!"

Subconsciously, Bai Ke turned his head in Aunt Pang's direction and felt something like a spot of light passing before his eyes that had not yet opened.

In fact, during those years, he felt that his eyes seemed to be developing in a positive direction, evidenced by those blurry human-shaped spots of light. He couldn't remember exactly when it started, but his vision was no longer just a monotonous and intense black. Instead, there were some extremely vague and barely noticeable spots of light.

As he slowly adapted, he found that these spots of light were actually one person after another appearing before him. These spots of light, as he grew older, gradually brightened at an extremely slow pace, becoming somewhat outlined, allowing people to distinguish them.

It was precisely because of the existence of these spots of light that Bai Ke's life became less difficult. The instances of bumping into people while walking or hitting walls due to dizziness gradually decreased, eventually disappearing from his daily life, to the point where he even began to appear somewhat normal in his movements.

At that time, for some unknown reason, Bai Ke didn't tell anyone about these changes, and the people around him seemed not to notice anything different about him, except for one time when Aunt Pang seemingly casually said, "Xiao Ke (NT: little Ke) seems to be stumbling less lately." Then she tried testing his sensitivity to light.

However, at that time, these spots of light could only be seen when he had his eyes open.

So, when he saw the two human-shaped spots of light symbolizing Aunt Pang and Zongzi in the hospital with his eyes closed but much clearer than before, Bai Ke was stunned.

He used to think that he could see these because his eyes were slowly returning to normal. So now, being able to see them with his eyes closed made Bai Ke feel that things weren't so simple—

Even for someone with no eye problems, they would never see such clear images with their eyes closed; at most, they could sense light.

Within a few seconds, he discovered something even more astonishing—he could not only see people but even the outlines of objects around him, although compared to people, they were extremely unclear and dim, almost blending into the black background...

But so what?!

This didn't affect his emotions at the time—he could see!

Regardless of how unusual the method was, at least he could see!

If he could see so many things with his eyes closed, then what about when he opened them—

At that time, Bai Ke cautiously opened his eyes, filled with a complex mix of surprise, panic, and anticipation...

Sure enough! Compared to when his eyes were closed, the clarity of all people and objects directly improved by one level. But— the changes didn't stop there...

Bai Ke widened his eyes, looking at the two expressionless figures and some scattered light dots that inexplicably appeared in the ward, at a loss for how to react.

By then, Zongzi had already gone out to call the nurses, and Aunt Pang had walked to the door of the ward to meet them. No one noticed that Bai Ke had opened his eyes and looked bewildered.

The little nurse led the way in, saying "The doctor will be here soon," as she walked to Bai Ke's bedside, bent down... then, as if she had seen something extremely frightening, she screamed and stepped back suddenly.

Aunt Pang and Zongzi rushed to support the little nurse, then stepped forward and looked at Bai Ke lying on the bed.

After that, it was chaos... So chaotic that many years later, when Bai Ke tried to recall, he couldn't remember the specific scene.

 

He only remembered the terrified little nurse, who seemed to have gone crazy, wanting to run out of the ward, muttering something like "eyes... monster..." Meanwhile, the short Zongzi almost jumped up, rushed over to close the door, and then helped Aunt Pang restrain the struggling little nurse.

At the moment when Bai Ke was watching the chaos before him, Aunt Pang turned around and shouted at Bai Ke, "Close your eyes, Xiao Ke! Close your eyes!"

Due to his blindness, Bai Ke was naturally lacking in a sense of security. He rarely fully trusted anyone, but Aunt Pang happened to be one of the few. Almost as soon as he heard Aunt Pang speak, he reflexively closed his eyes. Then the surroundings returned to the way they were when he first woke up—those two expressionless strangers standing in the ward silently disappeared, just as they had appeared, without a sound.

Bai Ke didn't remember what Aunt Pang and Zongzi said to the little nurse, he only knew that in the afternoon, when the little nurse entered the ward again, her tone was normal and warm, which was completely different from the person in the morning. Aunt Pang and Zongzi were initially surprised, but quickly returned to normal, only asking Bai Ke a few questions carefully.

Bai Ke told them about the changes in his eyes in recent years, but deliberately omitted the appearance of the two expressionless people who had appeared out of nowhere.

That incident was like a stone thrown into a pond, after a few ripples, it never stirred again. Aunt Pang and Zongzi, who witnessed the whole thing, treated Bai Ke the same afterward. However, occasionally, in private, they would ask about Bai Ke's eye condition.

Since then, Bai Ke had never opened his eyes in front of others.

Yet, not opening his eyes in front of others didn't mean he wouldn't open them when he was alone. In the following two or three years, Bai Ke often opened his eyes when he was alone or unnoticed. Then he would see a completely different world—

All inanimate objects had dim outlines, but they were brighter than when his eyes were closed.

All living things, including people, always had varying brightness. For example, Aunt Pang, Zongzi, and some of her other friends were clearly brighter than the people around them, not only with strong outlines but even clear facial features; Bai Ke's eccentric father was much dimmer than Aunt Pang and the others but slightly brighter than most people; Bai Ke had also seen some people similar to his father, but most people only had outlines, dimmer than old trees but clearer than tables and chairs.

However, apart from these, Bai Ke also saw a special kind—

Like Aunt Pang, they also had faint facial features, some of which Bai Ke could even recognize their expressions, but most of them were abnormally dim, even dimmer than many people, just like the two he saw in the hospital.

At first, Bai Ke only felt that they were special, but he didn't know who they were exactly. As he grew older and heard more things, Bai Ke had some vague guesses in his heart. Until one day, Bai Ke saw Granny Chen, who had passed away two days ago, under the residential building, staring at him with hollow eyes, hesitantly raising her trembling hand to wave at him, then he vaguely heard an almost inaudible voice, "Xiao Ke, come to Granny Chen's place, Granny Chen has something to say..."

He faltered for a moment, but still walked over. However, just as he lowered his head in front of her, he heard a "hehe" gasp, and then Granny Chen stood in front of him, her expression so painful it was almost ferocious, then she seemed to be smashed into countless paper-like ashes and disappeared. That visual impact caused him to have nightmares for many days.

Since then, until now, for nearly three or four years, even when he was alone or unnoticed, Bai Ke rarely opened his eyes again.

 

Translator : DarNan