Chapter 5: Cosmos

The body plunged straight into the dark sea.

Sunlight scattered across the surface, dazzling and scorching.

Yu Zhu’s eyes ached from the sting, yet he still chased after the drifting beams of light.

He saw the pot of cosmos flowers on his own balcony.

That late summer day, a clear breeze swept through West Ring North 1.

The greens in the flowerbeds drooped under the sun.

Men bare-chested, clustered in the shade, played chess.

The match was fierce.

Onlookers spat commentary, cursing that they couldn’t shove the players aside and sit down themselves.

After greeting them, Yu Zhu slung his schoolbag and carried the watermelon with ease, passing the noisy battlefield.

When he reached the stairwell, bright sunlight fell across him.

Looking up, he saw his pot of cosmos in bloom.

Roots stretched across the soil.

Rosy petals crowned golden buds, swaying gently in the breeze—radiant beyond compare.

“Xiao Zhu?”

“You’re back? Is school on break?”

A faint fishy scent drifted from behind.

A sun hat dropped over his head.

Yu Zhu lifted the brim to see his father approaching, one hand holding a fishing rod, the other carrying his catch, smiling broadly.

“Jinghe has a tech exhibition tomorrow, so the school gave us three days off. Dad, you went fishing? Isn’t elementary school still in session today?”

Both his parents taught at the nearby Yucai Elementary School.

On a Thursday at three in the afternoon, they should have been in class.

“It rained last week. The school postponed the sports meet to this week. I had no class, so I went to the river. Your mom’s inside too. When she hears you’re home, she’ll be overjoyed.”

Father and son chatted as they walked into the stairwell.

Cool air flowed out from within, dispelling the heat clinging to their bodies.

“I was just saying how lucky I was today—caught plenty of fish. It’d be a pity if my son couldn’t eat them. But now you’re home, just in time for your mom to make us a full fish feast.”

“Dad…”

A pebble dropped into his heart, rippling outward.

Yu Zhu took the hat from his head, looked earnestly at his father.

“You won’t run off to another meeting later and leave me alone on the balcony with the fish, will you?”

“Brat, what are you thinking? Am I that kind of father? Relax. This time I’ll cook myself and show you my skills.”

Before them, the weathered brown-red wooden door opened inward.

Yu Zhu’s mother stood in the doorway, exam papers in hand.

When she saw him, her face lit up with surprise and joy.

Her mouth moved, chattering endlessly.

Saying something.

But standing outside the door, Yu Zhu heard nothing at all.

The light in his vision dimmed.

The golden sunlight vanished.

Against the backlight, his parents were shrouded in a heavy darkness.

He couldn’t see their faces.

Couldn’t hear their voices.

“Splash—”

The sea roared.

Foam surged white against the deep blue.

The light extinguished.

His body sank deeper into the gloom.

Yu Zhu’s hand emptied.

Above him, the faint glow of the sea’s surface flickered.

He struggled to swim upward.

There were still so many things to do.

He wanted to hear his mother’s gentle nagging.

He wanted to fulfill his promise with his father.

He still wanted to see the sun.

But just as his fingers neared the beam of light, countless slick tentacles emerged from the depths.

Alive, aware, one wound tight around his ankle.

In an instant, they coiled around his body.

The shimmering surface disappeared from sight.

Before he could resist, they dragged him mercilessly into the cold, lightless abyss.

Bone-deep cold spread through his veins.

Each step in the darkness, the tentacles yanked harder, pulling him downward, as if to nail him to the seabed.

Senses failed beneath the ocean.

He didn’t know his direction.

Didn’t know how far he’d gone.

Wasn’t even sure if he’d moved at all.

He kept walking forward.

Forward without end.

Until a faint glow lit up the seabed.

Forcing his eyes open, clumsy as a child learning to walk, he staggered toward it.

The light grew sharper, piercing the shadows in his eyes.

He stumbled closer.

Suddenly, the glow flared, flooding the ocean floor with brilliance.

Yu Zhu woke completely from the haze.

The stench of mildew clung to the basement.

Dim light barely lit the wooden bed beneath him.

Soiled cardboard lay scattered across the floor.

From the darkness came the click of high heels.

Tap.

Tap.

Like an insect drawn to sound, Yu Zhu raised his head.

Overlong bangs veiled his sight.

Faintly, a pair of scarlet lips emerged before him, alluring and poisonous.

Gu Wanting.

She wore a sleek black dress, elegant and cold.

Shoulder-length hair pinned loosely behind her ear.

No makeup, only a blaze of crimson lipstick.

Her face was too indifferent, too icy—like a beautiful, bloodstained demon from the abyss.

A handful of hair yanked his head back.

Yu Zhu groaned.

His gaze met her serpent’s eyes—cold, narrow, pitiless.

“What are you thinking, my little dog?”

The serpent’s tongue hissed.

Fear buried in his bones surged up.

Yu Zhu’s blurred eyes barely focused on her face.

Before he could react, her palm cracked across his cheek.

The force spun his head.

His ears rang.

A deep red mark bloomed, swelling his face visibly.

The taste of blood flooded his mouth.

Thick, metallic liquid rose in his throat.

Head turned, lashes trembling beneath the curtain of his hair, he tried to swallow it down unseen.

“Cough… cough…”

The act was minute, like a needle quivering in the wind.

But his emaciated frame magnified every tiny movement.

The swallowed blood writhed like a live insect, sliding down his throat, throbbing beneath thin flesh, before falling into the emptiness of his stomach.

“Smack—”

Another blow.

Gu Wanting hauled his head higher, grip so strong it seemed she’d suspend him by his hair alone.

“A few days apart, and the dog I’ve raised for two years dares to disobey.”

Her venom-laced words lashed across his face.

“Too much kindness spoils a dog. Even the master’s rules forgotten so easily.”

Her voice dripped with cruelty.

“In that case, I’ll have to retrain you myself.”

Her hand clamped his jaw.

Fingers pried at his teeth.

Her thumb pressed his chin until his lips and tongue couldn’t close.

“Mmm—cough…”

Blood streamed from the corner of his mouth.

Choked, his throat rattled hoarsely.

His shirt grew wet with the dark spill.

Black haze clouded his vision.

A fragile boat in a storm-tossed night, Yu Zhu swayed on the brink of capsizing.

The bloodthirsty demon flared her nostrils, savoring the scent.

She pulled out her hand, slick with his blood.

Slowly, she smeared it across his pale face.

A stray dog.

Abandoned, broken, cast into the filth.

Gu Wanting’s narrow eyes glowed crimson.

Her gaze devoured him, invasive and merciless.

Perfumed hair brushed his cheek.

A serpent’s tongue licked the blood from his skin.

“Your master gives you one chance, Zhu Zhu.

There won’t be another.”

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