Chapter 509: She Has Always Been Watching Me

Lu Yibei slowly opened her more than two hundred eyes. As her eyes adjusted to the change in light, the scene before her gradually became clear.

This was a small room of about a dozen square meters. In the entire room, there was only a single bed, a desk, and an old-fashioned television in the corner. Everything within sight was shrouded in a gentle, white light tinged with a bit of yellow, giving one an unreal feeling as if in a dream.

After a brief daze, Lu Yibei suddenly came to her senses and realized where she was.

This was the very small house where she and Ms. Wang Meili had dinner not long ago.

Lu Yibei tried hard to recall why she had woken up in this small house. Her last memory was seeing that old photo drifting down with the wind and rain.

Then, that old photo seemed to suddenly explode, bursting with intense light, and her consciousness, enveloped by the strong light, fell into silence.

……

But why am I here?

Logically, this place should have disappeared along with Ms. Wang Meili, right?

Could it be that Ms. Wang Meili…

As she pondered, a bold guess gradually took shape in Lu Yibei’s heart, and her mood surged with excitement.

Although she had acted calm, even a bit indifferent, when having dinner with Ms. Wang Meili before, being able to meet Ms. Wang Meili face-to-face actually made her very happy. She just didn’t know what to do–no one had ever taught her.

Was she supposed to cry and throw herself into Ms. Wang Meili’s arms and act spoiled?

Don’t be ridiculous, how could she possibly do something like that?

Besides, what if Ms. Wang Meili didn’t like it?

Growing up without a mother’s company, she had no idea how to get along with Ms. Wang Meili, nor how to express her feelings. So, every word and action became distant and cautious.

After successfully fusing with Ms. Wang Meili’s remaining power, Lu Yibei had thought that if they hadn’t just met in a hurry and parted immediately, but had more time to get along, they might have become close, just like with her dad.

Now, this opportunity seemed to be right in front of her.

At this thought, Lu Yibei subconsciously opened her more than forty mouths and called out.

“@ä¼ æ嗷¥ 豪 …… “

In an instant, all kinds of different sounds burst out, converging into a shriek as if from hell, echoing throughout the small house.

Hearing the screeching noise like dozens of kettles boiling at once, Lu Yibei hurriedly shut her last mouth, and the shriek stopped abruptly.

……

She suddenly forgot that she was still in the form of a mental contamination source. She hadn’t expected that in this state, even saying a complete sentence was so difficult!

Damn it, if she really called Ms. Wang Meili over, wouldn’t this appearance scare her?

If that happened, and Ms. Wang Meili got upset, would she stuff her back into her belly and reset her to factory settings?

Thinking this, Lu Yibei felt as anxious as a child who had done something wrong and was afraid of being found out by her mother. Yet, for some reason, she also felt a faint sense of anticipation.

She looked forward to Ms. Wang Meili bursting in angrily and giving her a good beating.

Time passed slowly. The small house was quiet, with only the crackling of firewood burning in the fireplace.

Lu Yibei opened her more than two hundred eyes wide, staring at the tightly closed wooden door, waiting for a long time. She never heard any sound from the corridor outside. In the end, she finally realized that perhaps no one would come anymore.

……

Well, didn’t the PL girl say so? The Ms. Wang Meili here was just a projection, maintaining the operation of the special space.

Now that her mission was complete, it was only natural that she wouldn’t appear again.

She didn’t even know what she was expecting! Lu Yibei thought.

Her easygoing nature quickly dispelled the emptiness in her heart.

Creak–!

The wooden door of the small house opened without warning. Hearing the soft sound of the door hinge turning, Lu Yibei’s bloated, strange, and indescribable body suddenly shuddered as if electrocuted.

Immediately after, she heard music coming from outside the door–the same song Ms. Wang Meili had played before, “Our Farewell.”

“In my hands a legacy of memories~♪

I can hear you say my name~♪

I can almost see your smile~♪

……”

Damn it, didn’t she tell her to turn it off?

Lu Yibei complained inwardly. She subconsciously used a “hand” to prop herself up, trying to get out of bed, but in the next moment, she lost her balance, fell off the small bed, and crashed heavily to the floor.

Lu Yibei, “……”

So, those stories where the protagonist transmigrates to another world and turns into a monster, then immediately goes on a rampage, are completely unreliable.

Only after experiencing it herself did she realize that, in a short time, it was impossible to control all the extra, chaotic limbs on her body. Being able to control a thousand hands and a thousand eyes at once–that’s a bodhisattva!

Lu Yibei felt that these limbs were just like her mouths. Although they all grew on her body, most of the time, they simply wouldn’t obey her commands.

——–

After the wooden door of the cabin opened, Lu Yibei waited in place for a moment. Seeing that neither Ms. Wang Meili nor anyone else appeared outside, she struggled to get up.

After adjusting a bit to her twisted body, she staggered toward the direction from which the music was coming.

She passed through the dimly lit corridor and entered the dining room illuminated by candlelight, and her view suddenly opened up.

In the corner of the dining room, a tape recorder was playing, filling the air with singing.

On the walnut-colored long table, the tableware that once held king crab and various dishes had disappeared, replaced by exquisitely wrapped gift boxes, each with a label bearing a number from 1 to 19.

Nineteen gift boxes of varying sizes filled the entire table, even piling up on the floor.

Surrounded by those gift boxes, a small area at the very center of the table had been cleared, where several thick photo albums, both new and old, and an envelope sat quietly.

Lu Yibei, “……”

In the silence, as if realizing something, she twisted her body and climbed onto the chair in front of the long table. After hesitating for a while, she used one of her many hands to pick up the envelope on the table, gently tore it open, and took out the letter paper inside.

Unfolding the thin sheets of letter paper, she saw a page of delicate handwriting before her eyes.

[My child, seeing this letter is like seeing me:

I am now using this letter to say goodbye to you forever.

I believe that by the time you read this letter, you probably already know that I am only Lu Ming’s projection in this special space, beautified and embellished, and not your real mother.

However.

If you don’t mind, please think of me as Qi Nanzhu and finish reading this farewell letter that is nineteen years late.

……]

Seeing the words on the first page of the letter stop here, the hands with which Lu Yibei held the paper trembled, and she fell into a long silence.

“……”

Damn it! You call that being late? That’s clearly leaving early!

How can this woman still be so polite and cautious even when writing something like this?

Is it really necessary to explain and distinguish things so clearly? Lu Yibei thought.

Although Ms. Wang Meili in this special space was only Lu Ming’s projection,

she did indeed possess all of Qi Nanzhu’s memories, and she truly accompanied Lu Yibei’s projection in this special space through nineteen years.

Her existence might be false in some sense, but her love for Lu Yibei was undeniably real.

There was no doubt about it.

In the silence, Lu Yibei began to read the contents of the second page of the letter.

[Hmm, where should I start?

How about from the first time we met?

It was 8:07 a.m. on March 27th, nineteen years ago. That was the first time I felt your heartbeat. Overjoyed, I called your father. I clearly remember how your father, so cautious and tender yet utterly at a loss, gently stroked my belly.

Before that, I could hardly imagine that a man who once made The Midnight Watchers Society, the Eclipse Society, all sorts of psychics, and hauntings tremble with fear could show such an expression.

He said such a meaningful moment must be recorded, so we went to the entrance of Mudan Street and took a photo.

Who would have thought that would be the last family photo of the three of us.

Good times didn’t last. Three months and two days after meeting you for the first time, something completely unexpected happened.

That day, your father rushed home in a hurry and told me that someone didn’t want you to be born into this world, believing your existence would bring disaster, and had warned your father.

But what kind of parents would end their own child’s life because of some vague prophecy and baseless warning?

Our family certainly wouldn’t!

On this matter, your father and I were of one mind.

However, unfortunately, when it came to how to prevent you from bringing disaster to this world and ultimately meeting a tragic fate, we disagreed.

That was the first time your father and I had a serious disagreement.

Back then, we were both young and impulsive, unwilling to back down. When we reached an impasse, we parted ways, each acting according to our own ideas, but that also gave ill-intentioned people an opportunity to take advantage.

However.

My child, I’m telling you this not because I want you to seek revenge, but because I want you to know that I love you very much, and it was never my intention to be absent from your life.

In fact, I deeply regret the decision I made back then.

Not only because it hurt your father, but even more because I lost the chance to be with you as you grew up, to witness your growth.

I couldn’t personally take you to school on your first day, couldn’t stand up for you when you were bullied, couldn’t watch you find the one you love and walk into the hall of marriage with her, couldn’t see you holding your own child, cheering with joy.

One absence led to absence after absence.

As for the details of those past events, I won’t go into them. I don’t want you to live in hatred because of this, to let your future be shadowed by it. All I wish is for you to live well, to live as you truly wish…

That’s about all I’ll write. If I write too much, you might get annoyed.

About your conception, your birth, about the love and blessings your father and I have for you–there’s so much more, how could it all fit in a few words or a single letter?

If you’re willing to finish reading this pile of complaints left by your irresponsible mother, I’m very glad.

My child, being your mother is the luckiest thing that’s ever happened to me.

I love you very much, and it’s this love for you that gave me the courage to face the fate of disappearance.

Although I’ve always known there’s no next life in this world–even if a haunting revives from legend, it will no longer be the same haunting as before–but I still want to say, if there is a next life, I’d still want to be your mother.

Being a mother for the first time in this life, I made many mistakes, because I didn’t know what was right. If there’s a next life, I’ll do my best to be a barely qualified mother.

(I’ve left you some gifts. They’re things your father and I imagined giving you for your birthdays before you were even born. I noticed he seemed to have forgotten, so I took the liberty of preparing them for you. Also, those photo albums contain projections recording your growth–they might be helpful to you.)

Yours,

Your loving mother, Qi Nanzhu.

After reading the letter left by Ms. Wang Meili, Lu Yibei sat in her chair, holding the letter paper in both hands, dazed for a long time.

She suddenly realized that even if Ms. Wang Meili was just a projection of her father, a mother and a father were ultimately not the same.

After a long while.

Lu Yibei gathered her thoughts, shifted her body, and lay down on the long table, opening the first photo album. On the first page was only one photo–the very one Qi Nanzhu mentioned in the letter.

Below the photo was a line of small characters: [2008.3.27 First photo together]

She stared deeply at that photo for a long, long time before turning to the second page.

The second page had seven or eight photos, probably recording scenes of Qi Nanzhu traveling around the world, collecting materials for constructing special spaces.

However, when she saw the last photo on the second page, she suddenly froze.

That photo was of Qi Nanzhu and a young woman. Below it was written: [2008.7.2 She’s a good girl]

The girl looked somewhat familiar. After a closer look, Lu Yibei realized she bore at least an eighty or ninety percent resemblance to Xing Yuan–most likely the same person.

But this doesn’t make sense!

Mom actually had contact with Godmother?

According to Shui-Ge, they shouldn’t have known each other!

Lu Yibei thought in confusion, continuing to flip through a few more pages, hoping to find the answer she wanted in those photos.

However, in all the photos up until before her birth, Xing Yuan never appeared again.

Turning to the eighth page, Lu Yibei saw a photo of herself still in swaddling clothes and paused, unable to help but laugh out loud.

A sliver of morning light fell on her cradle, her soft curls glimmered with a faint golden hue in the sunlight, her little face was pink and round, and her big, shiny black eyes seemed curious about everything. Her little arms were like two tender lotus roots, so white they shone.

[2008.12.07 First meeting, please take care of me]

……

Looking at her baby photos, Lu Yibei hesitated for a long time before finally mustering the courage to keep turning the pages.

She knew that from this page on, there would probably only be projections left, and no more personal involvement from Ms. Wang Meili.

[2009.1.8 One hundred days]

……

[2010.2.17 Finally called “Dad”!

Seems a bit late, is she not very smart?]

……

[2013.8.31 First time being punished.

Reason: Didn’t want to go to kindergarten.

Excuse: When eating dragon fruit, the teacher wouldn’t let her pick out the seeds.]

……

[2018.10.8 First time parents were called to school.

The teacher asked them to write about a day at the school sports meet. She wrote about the colored flags drooping around the playground.

The teacher told her to revise it, but she refused, saying that there was no wind at school that day, so the flags couldn’t possibly flutter.]

……

[2018.10.9 Second time parents were called, didn’t expect it to happen so soon.

In the end, she gave in to the teacher’s pressure and revised her essay.

In the very first sentence, she wrote: “Strangely enough, there was clearly no wind on the day of the sports meet, yet the colored flags around the playground fluttered in the breeze…”]

……

Lu Yibei flipped through the photos left by Ms. Wang Meili using the projection of a special space. These photos recorded almost her entire growth, and now, as she looked at them, the images brought forth a flood of memories.

Ms. Wang Meili’s photos documented every event in great detail: the first time she saw snow, her first tooth after losing her baby teeth, the first time her parents were called to school, the first time she learned to cook with her dad, the first time a female classmate liked her, tricking that girl out of snacks for a whole semester, then telling her, “You’re a good classmate!”

Many details she herself had already forgotten were meticulously recorded, some surprising, some embarrassing, some bringing a knowing smile.

Immersed in these memories, her body, which had become strange from overthinking, began to change without her noticing.

Just like spring rain nourishing everything silently, the true reshaping of her body began quietly and without a sound.

When Lu Yibei finished looking through the four photo albums and her body was quietly changing, the timeline in the albums reached the most critical moment–the summer after the college entrance exam.

That was also the year she went on a graduation trip with her dad.

“……”

The earlier photos were all so detailed, could it be…

If that’s the case, wouldn’t I be able to know what happened the night of the car accident?

Lu Yibei thought, unable to wait as she opened the last album.

However, the result greatly disappointed her.

One page of the album showed her lying alone in the hospital room, but everything that happened before she was sent there was skipped over, not mentioned at all.

Lu Yibei, “……” Well, that’s right, I was asking too much. The car accident didn’t happen in Hua City, so it wasn’t recorded by the projection. That’s only natural.

As she pondered, she continued flipping through the albums and suddenly understood why there were only four albums for more than ten years, but two albums for just the past two or three years.

Originally, photos were only taken for special events, but after she was hospitalized, it became once every two or three days, and after she met Ms. Rabbit, the frequency increased to once a day, once every half day, even once an hour.

Photo after photo, meticulously recording her being taken by Ms. Rabbit as a sacrifice, swallowing The Witch’s Egg as a human and becoming a haunting, then her first haunting hunt, her first familiar, her first appearance in Hua City as a witch type, then drawing Spirit Pattern, obtaining the Pure Lotus Sword, organizing the Night Parade of a Hundred Ghosts…

Through those photos, Lu Yibei could feel Ms. Wang Meili’s emotions as she watched and recorded through the projection–sometimes anxious, sometimes relieved, sometimes cheering with joy.

“So, she’s always been watching over me?” Lu Yibei murmured. Looking at these photos, she inexplicably felt as if her mother had always been by her side, accompanying her as she grew up.

After saying this, her body stiffened for a moment, suddenly realizing that the monstrous howls she’d made not long ago had returned to normal.

Although this so-called normal was just her post-haunting transformation voice, far from what she hoped for, it was still countless times better than the mentally polluting shrieks from before.

When her attention left the albums, Lu Yibei felt her heartbeat, felt blood flowing through her veins, felt air filling her lungs with each breath, felt her hands, felt her feet, felt her whole body.

For a moment, Lu Yibei heard the sound of her body shattering, as if lumps of flesh and blood were bursting open on her body.

It was as if she had been given life again, as if she was reborn from her mother’s meticulous records and memories filled with love.

She lowered her head and saw her fair little hands tinged with a faint blush. She turned to look at the window in the dining room; outside was darkness, and the glass reflected the slender silhouette of a young girl.

At this moment, Lu Yibei realized her body’s reshaping was complete.

Yet, for some reason, even though it should have been a moment of joy, two sparkling lines quietly traced down her cheeks…

After a while, Lu Yibei finally emerged from that empty feeling inside, temporarily tidied up her emotions, and began to examine her current state.

She searched around the small house for a while and found the bathroom. She paused in front of the mirror, starting to scrutinize the reflection of the young girl in the glass.

The girl in the mirror had a slender figure, about one meter fifty-six tall. Her build wasn’t particularly eye-catching, and though her slightly rounded chest didn’t amount to much, she was definitely graceful and upright.

Beneath long hair tinged with silver and a hint of pink, her oval face had a slightly raised chin. Her features resembled those of Wang Meili in the photos, but lacked her heroic vigor; instead, her almond-shaped eyes carried a trace of charming allure.

The overall impression was like a girl next door just coming of age–one who appeared pitifully delicate, but actually knew more than you did, a neighbor girl who, once you cut beneath the surface, was both yellow and dark.

Lu Yibei, “……”

Not bad, really. Better figure than the boss, but still far behind Gu Qianqian…

It seemed to be a haunting transformation state where the powers of mythical type and witch type were relatively balanced, just as she remembered, but maybe a bit taller, as if she’d aged a year or two.

What the heck!?

Either be a bit older, full of allure and chaos, or a bit younger, cute and clueless to get by–stuck awkwardly right between big sister and little sister… Wait!

Lu Yibei secretly grumbled, then suddenly, as if she’d seen something terrifying, her pupils contracted sharply.

She wasn’t sure if it was because she’d just thought about being a bit smaller, but the reflection in the mirror actually changed slightly along with her thoughts.

“……”

What’s going on? Did she get smaller?

Was it an illusion? Or was her body just not stabilized yet after being reshaped?

Or maybe…

Lu Yibei’s gaze sharpened as she thought of this, and with a mental shift, she imagined herself with a taller, hotter figure.

The next moment, she felt the flesh beneath her skin gently squirm, and after a few breaths, she blushed and looked away from herself.

Let me clarify, I really don’t have any weird interests in myself.

It’s just… “she” is way too sexy!

Grumbling as she adjusted her appearance in her mind, Lu Yibei looked back at the mirror.

Just as she expected, the girl in the mirror matched her imagined figure and looks almost exactly. Then, with another shift of thought and a surge of psychic energy consumption, the girl’s body in the mirror became plump and rounded.

“……”

After a brief silence, Lu Yibei tried twice more, stopping only when a wave of weakness from psychic energy depletion hit her. She gazed at the girl in the mirror, and a faint realization began to dawn in her heart.

She wasn’t sure if it was because she’d used the Beast of Inheritance’s flesh to reshape her body, or because she’d imagined too many templates during the process.

This time, the body reshaping had actually granted her some ability to alter her appearance.

Although this ability was limited to changes in height and build, it could still be considered a powerful disguise.

Combined with the Face-Changing spell formation, solidified mask, and coat, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call her a person of a thousand faces, ever-changing.

For now, the only drawback was the enormous psychic energy consumption–after about five consecutive changes, her psychic energy would be nearly depleted.

Lu Yibei pinched her cheek in the mirror, murmuring thoughtfully, “Is this an unexpected surprise?”

Although the heavy psychic energy consumption was a big problem, and she didn’t know if reckless use would bring any bad side effects,

In certain situations, just a slight change in appearance could easily help her avoid danger.

Even if they looked similar, you couldn’t point at a seductive big sister and a petite, cute little loli and say they were the same person, right? Lu Yibei thought.

This could be considered an alternative way to save her life, though it couldn’t be used often.

First, the psychic energy consumption was huge, and using it in battle might affect her combat ability.

Second, aside from the heavy psychic energy drain, other side effects were unknown.

It was possible that after using Wang Yingying’s flesh to reshape her body, her physical structure hadn’t stabilized yet, and reckless use of the ability might turn her back into that ghostly form.

This wasn’t cowardice.

She simply always held a sense of awe toward unknown, unstable powers.