Whew! Feng Ye is chilling me to the bone . . . what will this installment of his backstory reveal about him? For one thing, we see how he and Yao Meng met and developed a relationship. Is there a similarity between Feng Ye and Lin Qingyan in this regard?
Let us know what you think of Feng Ye in the comments below, or join the Meraki Team on DISCORD (link on the sidebar to the right)! —
We are All Mortals
Feng Ye Short Story Part 1.2
I first noticed Yao Meng when I was in my first year of high school. It was not only because she was beautiful and did well in school, it was also because everyone kept pairing us up, calling us "The Golden Boy and the Jade Maiden", that is, a golden couple.(Note: the 'golden boy' (金童) and the 'jade maiden' (玉女) were the attendants of the Taoist immortals)
In truth, I also rather liked her. I was also a regular guy. Whenever I looked at her bosom and legs, I felt really good. When I saw her talking to other male students, I also felt unhappy. Moreover, when she looked at me, there was something inviting in her eyes, and I did not know what to make of it. However, whenever I looked into the horrified, panicked eyes of the person I was in the process of killing, I would always think of Yao Meng – and I would immediately became hard.
Our relationship started in the first semester of our junior year. One day at noon, I sat on the school lawn to eat my box of mixed rice, when she came along, also carrying a box of mixed rice.
"Feng Ye, you hide here everyday to eat?" Her voice was crisp and soft, and her beautiful face, in the sunlight, was like a flower.
"Uh-huh." I looked at her with a faint smile. "Were you looking for me?"
She seemed a bit embarrassed as she replied, "I was not looking for you!"
So deliberately unconventional, so affected, so adorable.
The two of us quietly ate our food. After a while, she blinked, and looked at the meat in my lunch box. "What kind of meat is that?" she asked.
"Red braised meat."
"I know that's red braised meat, la!" she said as she laughed. "Is it pork? It doesn't look like it."
I laughed too. "You're right, Madam, it's not pork, it's actually human flesh. Do you dare to try some? If you don't dare to, don't ask anymore." I speared a piece and offered it to her.
She glared at me. "What don't I dare to do? In future, I'm going to be a police officer."
I watched as she really ate that piece of meat.
She frowned as she said, "It's a bit hard to chew. What on earth is this meat?"
I put down the lunch box. "Stupid, it's camel meat. My dad's colleague brought it back from overseas and gave him some."
"You're the stupid one." She glared at me fiercely, then made as if to leave.
I grabbed her hand. Her body stiffened slightly, and her face immediately turned red.
My other hand cupped her soft face. Her big eyes, like two brimming pools of clear water, gazed at me as she asked, "You . . . what are you trying to do?"
I bent my head and kissed her. She struggled for a moment, then her hand fell on my chest and remained still.
I had never kissed before, so I was only able to base my actions on what I could figure out from television programmes. Thus, I kissed her forcefully, and sucked on her tongue hard. Her mouth had a faint taste of meat, as well as a kind of clean and fresh taste, all mixed together . . . I almost immediately became hard, very hard. Fortunately the uniform pants were very loose, and she did not notice.
I took in her slightly trembling eyelashes, her crimson cheeks. As I bit her lips, I thought, "She is more alluring than I imagined."
——
Thereafter, I did not kill anyone at all during the entire semester we were together.
It was a very strange feeling, as if the other part of my body had gained satisfaction, thus weakening the desire to kill. Every time I held her, caressed her, kissed her, disrobed her to radiant nakedness and placed her on the sofa in my family's living room so we could be intimate; or coaxed her to hold my lifeblood in her hands and allow me to shoot on her fair, sleek body . . . it was too provoking, too pleasurable. This feeling was not any less than when killing someone.
What a pity she steadfastly held to the final line she would not cross – she would not let me enter her. Even though I had already licked that area until it was clean and slippery, she was still unwilling.
"Feng Ye, this is my bottom line." She would say, in deadly earnest, "Don't think about it, don't even try to coax me. If you try and force me, before you know it, I will be reporting you for rape. So, get rid of that desire!"
F**k, ruthless, so ruthless. I still had to get into university. Moreover, I believed she would really do it.
However, many years later, I was able to make up for this regret. She was mine, in the end, she was mine, she could not escape.
After many days of being with Yao Meng, yet being unable to have sex, I once again started to get restless.
That day, the weather was not great, as gloomy as the face of a dead man. I wandered aimlessly around the streets, unable to find a suitable objective. I returned home in the evening depressed and frustrated. Upon entering the room, I saw Yao Meng rubbing her eyes and getting up from the sofa. "Why are you home so late? I've been waiting for you for a long time."
This scene was too perfect.
A room full of warm, yellow light. Yao Meng wearing a red dress, with her skin as white as snow. Her long, black hair shone like silk under the light.
I watched her approaching, and felt keenly the desire of my body growing uncontrollably like a crazy weed.
I was unable to tell what kind of desire it was.
Whichever kind was fine, it was all mine.
With one move I lifted her in a princess carry, and strode towards the bedroom: "Xiao* Meng, I will give you a night you will never forget."
*小 (xiao) – little, small; used as a term of endearment
Who knew, she pushed against me with an embarrassed face as she cried out, "Don't talk about that anymore!"
No sooner had she finished speaking than the sound of suppressed laughter could be heard from the bedroom. The door squeaked open, and I saw quite a number of schoolmates laughing heartily. One of them was holding a cream birthday cake decorated with lit candles.
Yao Meng was even more embarrassed. She buried her face in my chest and said, "I invited them here to celebrate your birthday . . . why are you talking nonsense!"
Ah, so it was like that.
Yao Meng pulled me along until I was seated in the middle of the group of schoolmates, and in front of the lighted birthday cake.
"Quick, make a wish!" Her bright, shining eyes gazed at me.
No one had ever celebrated my birthday before. My deaf-mute parents did not have the leisure or the inclination for such a thing. As for Yao Meng, who knew how she had discovered my birthday? Such a carefree girl had turned my life upside down, yet had also captured my heart.
I hugged her waist and said, "I want to be with Yao Meng forever."
Everyone hooted. Yao Meng's eyes were moist as she said, "You fool! If you say your wish aloud, it won't come true."
I lowered my head to kiss her. "No, it will come true."
I won't kill you. We can be together forever.
——
Our break-up occurred faster than expected, but it also seemed to be something entirely logical.
Perhaps it was because other girls' boyfriends had more money than I did, so they could take their girlfriends to the movies, buy chocolates for them, and even buy clothes, while I could only hold her hand and stroll with her around the park. Perhaps it was because she was a constant visitor to my home, and encountered my simple and unsophisticated deaf-mute parents, as well as the clear signs of poverty, which led to a slow accumulation of disgust. Or, it could have been the earnest admonishment of our form teacher, which became a stern reprimand, that caused Yao Meng to waver eventually . . .
In reality, I didn't really care either way. I told the form teacher, "I am serious about my relationship with Yao Meng, and it doesn't affect my results. I will not break up with her."
However, the form teacher said, "Yao Meng has already agreed to break up with you. This semester, her results have dropped alarmingly. If you don't want to think about yourself, then think about her."
When I returned to the classroom, I saw Yao Meng lying prostrate on her table, crying bitterly. Several girls were by her side, consoling her.
I walked over and sat on the table opposite hers. Everyone in the classroom was watching us.
"Don't cry anymore." I ruffled her hair, and said, "Xiao Meng, my love for you will never change. After a few years, when I have established my career, I will come and look for you again."
She cried even more bitterly, but made no attempt to persuade me otherwise.
I thought this was all very normal, this was how my Yao Meng would act. But, she probably did not really understand that I was extremely serious when I said those words. I had no patience to waste a few more years looking for a woman who so suited my taste.
——
Thereafter, my life changed completely.
After my parents frankly informed me that I was not their biological child, I became bored and restless in Lin City, and yet was unable to kill more people. I thought I might as well take the entrance examination for Hong Kong University, and, while I was at it, to search – to see what kind of parents would abandon their child.
And, the biggest mistake of my life was to become ensnared with this psychopath, Lin Qingyan.
This situation was a really laughable, freakish combination of factors. For no good rhyme or reason, I became a serial killer. I had even thought that the coast guard had fortuitously dredged up the bodies of my previous victims – I clearly remembered throwing them very far away from land. I could only keep moving, keep fleeing, until at last, it finally dawned on me that the bastard had laid another killer's work on my shoulders.
Later on, the evidence was already irrefutable. I called my best buddy, who was a lawyer, and he tactfully advised me, "I don't believe you did this, either. But . . . it will definitely be the death penalty."
I could only continue to flee. Afterwards, when I slowly thought through the situation and figured out how it all happened, I wanted to laugh.
F**king Hong Kong was really a land of good fortune, and Lin Qingyan and I had engaged in an unavoidable confrontation*. I reckoned he had no inkling that we were actually of the same kind.
* 狭路相逢 – lit. (of adversaries) to meet face to face on a narrow path
I hid in the deep mountains of Lin City for three years.
Translator: shl
TL Checker: Tranzgeek
Proofreader: Librismuse