A Familiar Stranger

Di Li almost stopped breathing.

As he suffocated, he suddenly remembered something ——— He now remembered where he had seen this fluorescent man!

It was in a photo.

The reason why he didn't have a strong impression of this gentlemen wasn't because of his bad memory or because the other party didn't do much. It was because he had only seen him in a photo.

It was during the first stage of the exam, in Shirley's house.

There was a cardboard box in the glass cabinet in the study that was filled with miscellaneous items; broken gadgets, dials, tennis balls, curled post-t notes as well as a bunch of photo albums and photo frames.

Most of them were old things left behind by Shirley's parents and had little to do with the problem they had to solve at the time, so most examinees didn't look at them very closely.

But Di Li was different.

This little classmate had a problem unique to science stream high school students ——- After working through so many questions, he had developed a habit of double-checking everything word by word to avoid overlooking anything.

When he explored Shirley's house, he was like a search dog. Every single thing must be reviewed by him regardless of whether it was important or not. In any case, he wanted to have everything mapped out in his mind.

It was a group photo. In the photo was the Shirley family and the fluorescent couple and it was taken in Shirley's backyard.

They are the neighbours.

There should be some words written on the back, but Di Li couldn't remember it right now.

At that time, he had used his phone to take photos of everything just in case.

He just needed to take his phone out to check but....

The fluorescent man's finger had already pulled open the window slightly and the tight lock binding it shut had become slightly deformed. It wasn't going to be enough to keep him out.

He was about to come in!

Di Li jumped up and rushed over.

He grabbed the arm that was reaching in and smashed it against the sliding window.

The other party who could neither enter nor leave could only hang onto the window on the fourth floor struggling with him.

The fluorescent man didn't seem to be annoyed. Separated by the window, he slowly revealed a wide grin. Di Li could see clearly that his teeth were thin and densely filled with sharp teeth.

Fuck.

In an instant, he was filled with goosebumps.

Di Li screamed with the loudest volume ever in his life, "BROTHERRR——-Mirror Human!!! Alive!!!"

Boom——-

The moment he shouted; the door was knocked open.

So fast?!

Everything was a blur for Di Li. All he saw was two figures flash past.

The smile on the fluorescent man's face froze in place.

He wanted to retreat but it was too late.

The next second, his arm was grabbed by a greater force and yanked inwards.

Bang!

He was slammed against the window so forcefully; his face was deformed.

The fluorescent man glared in the room and was met with You Huo's expressionless face. He struggled again.

Bang!

Another slam.

Fluorescent man: "...…"

Whenever he struggled, he would be slammed against the window! His head was dizzy, and his anger was also slammed away.

That damned window was finally completely open, and the fluorescent man was forcible dragged into the room. Fuck....he's even stronger than him!

He turned and shouted out the window, "Don't worry about me! Run!"

Qin Jiu looked out and saw another fluorescent figure pressed tightly against the wall between the third and fourth floor.

"Run!!! What are you doing?! Do you think he'll be able to climb the wall?!" The fluorescent man stretched his neck and once again yelled at his wife.

After that shout, he saw Qin Jiu jump out.

Fluorescent man: "...…"

You Huo looked back and snorted, "He really can climb the wall."

The fluorescent man's face flushed red with anger.

Soon afterwards, he and his wife were reunited.

The two were tied tightly together and left in the middle of the projection room. They were surrounded by a circle of people who each held an arrow.

It was as if they would be pierced into a hedgehog the moment they say the wrong thing.

Everyone's face were tense and would occasionally glance at the door.

After a while, the door opened.

Chu Yue entered and said: "I brought them back. The three of them are alive. Lost some blood but it isn't too much so it should be fine treating the wound."

After that she turned to help You Huo and Qin Jiu.

Not long afterwards, the three unlucky students from next door were lying down in the corner of the room.

Wu Li came in with a first aid box and dealt with their wounds together with Yang Shu.

Di Li said, "It might not be good lying on the carpet? There is a bed in the lounge next door, or a sofa would be good."

"Just do it here." Qin Jiu walked over to the window and pushed the curtain aside to look outside, "The blood on those three brats is too strong. There's a chance that something may have been attracted along the way. Perhaps they'll climb over through the window again."

When he was done, he picked up a chair and sat down together with You Huo in a corner of the room far away from them.

Just as Di Li was puzzled, he heard the clatter of chairs. Apart from those two doctors, everyone else had also consciously moved away.

"Why are you doing this?" Di Li asked.

Yu Wen pinched his nose, "There is the smell of blood over there. If we smell it for too long, we will get hungry. Moving away to avoid losing control."

Di Li: "Oh..."

Just as he said this, the fluorescent man began to excitedly cry out.

"What are you trying to say?"

You Huo leaned forward and pulled out the gloves from inside his mouth, "Speak."

The fluorescent man spat out a thread from his mouth and said, "You're also Mirror Humans??? Then why are you doing this to me?"

It was a classic case of hitting one's sore spot.

You Huo stuffed the gloves back in again.

Fluorescent man: "...…."

Di Li patted his head and pulled out his phone, "Almost forgot. These two were originally the townsmen here and later became Mirror Humans. They're not examinees. They're Shirley's neighbours. I remember Shirley's parents mentioning them in their diary and there was a group photo. I took a picture. Let me find it..."

He walked over to You Huo and Qin Jiu as his thumb quickly flicked through his photos.

The others also came over. Yu Wen pointed at his phone and couldn't help but comment, "My god, why did you even take photos of the socks under the bed?"

Di Li answered as if it was obvious, "I took photos of everything including how things are placed and the order of them just in case and I would take a few more for those that I felt may be important. If I don't take everything into consideration, how do you think I was able to survive until now? By guessing?"

Yu Wen who had managed to guess his way through eighteen years of his life felt ashamed.

"Lawn....lawn..." Di Li muttered. His eyes then lit up, "Found it."

It was indeed a group photo. Shirley's family stood on the left while the fluorescent couple stood on the right. The background was the lawn and the small building.

The moment he saw this photo, You Huo's brows furrowed.

The fluorescent couple in the photo were not dressed as casually as they were now. They wore white coats like the ones doctors and scientists would wear.

Perhaps he was just being overly sensitive, he suddenly remembered his mother.

Di Li let out an 'ah': "I remember why I specifically took a photo of this."

"Why?" Yu Wen asked.

Di Li: "It's was because the two of them are the only ones with traits that stood out."

Yu Wen: "?"

"I looked through all of their photos. Both the useful ones and the useless ones, I looked through them all." Di Li explained, "The others would always wear sweaters, t-shirts, jeans, dresses….Anyway, they would wear clothes like that and after looking at so many photos, my memory of them all became a blur. Do you know what I mean? Is that why you're nodding?"

Yu Wen scratched his head, "Uh….Please continue."

"Let me put it this way. Those townsmen are irrelevant NPC. If Shirley's diary says that Zhang No. 3 is a carpenter, Zhang No. 3 is a carpenter. If it says that Li No. 4 is a teacher, Li No. 4 is a teacher. All the information you get are from Shirley and her parents and without it, they are indistinguishable. Non-important characters. Understand?" Di Li continued.

"But this couple wore white coats which places a restriction on their identity. This was different from the other townsmen so its unusual." Di Li mumbled, "I thought they were key figures at the time but in the end it wasn't tested."

His initial focus was the white coat and had ignored their appearance.

That was why he didn't immediately recognise them when they later appeared wearing fluorescent clothes.

He swiped back and pulled out another photo.

On the back of it were words written by Shirley's parents. It wrote that this photo was taken with Lee and his wife.

"They recently finished their work and came here for a vacation. Lee seems to be something on his mind and is always down. Perhaps it's work-related matters that's causing him to be worried or unhappy? But they are very friendly."

"Lee?"

The fluorescent man let out a few muffled cries.

You Huo took out the gloves gagging him allowing the fluorescent man to gasp for air.

There were still traces of blood at the corner of his lips but besides that, it was very hard for him to be associated with this inhuman looking Mirror Humans. Just as Di Li had said, this couple was completely unlike the other Mirror Humans and didn't seem to fit in with this town. It was the kind of disparity one would feel when a real human is thrown into a cartoon.

"Are you from here?" You Huo asked.

Lee's eyes were blank for a moment, "Here?"

Qin Jiu added a name, "Brandon Town."

Lee was stunned for a moment before he nodded, "Oh, yes. Kelly and I moved here. We're taking a vacation."

He paused and added, "A very long vacation. It was too tiring before that."

"Then what did you do before?"

"Before...." Lee got stuck. He turned to look at his wife, "Can you take that thing out from her mouth? We are not in the same group as the other Mirror Humans. We are harmless."

"Harmless? What about those three?" Yu Wen pointed at the three students in the corner of the room.

Lee said in a small voice, "We were too hungry. Too, too hungry. But we really didn't want to hurt anyone. We just wanted to drink a little."

DI Li said, "Then why did you climb up my window?"

"Because it wasn't enough." Lee said, "Haven't you seen the other Mirror Humans? They go crazy and suck a whole person dry. We can restrain ourselves, but we need to have enough. If we are hungry for too long, we can lose control."

He looked at everyone in the room and swallowed, "I originally thought that with so many people, I could just get a little from each of you. It would be enough to last us for a day and you will also all be fine. But I didn't think that..."

Didn't think that he would run into the gods of misfortunes here.

Qin Jiu suddenly asked him, "Why don't you want to hurt anyone?"

Lee seemed to have thought of something and he had a look of disgust, "Because we are different from the people here."

His face was pale and sickly but he spoke very coherently, "When we first became like this, Kelly and I drank each other's blood. It was because…..how should I put it, we just felt that this was actually a very private matter. But the result was worse. It helped on the day of drinking but the next day, the hunger would be several times more intense. At that time, I was about to go mad! It was so uncomfortable; I couldn't bear it so I could only find an ordinary resident."

He glanced at the three students and said regretfully, "This is already the best method we could think of. Eating less but more frequently.

What damned eating less but more frequently?

Everyone was speechless.

You Huo's expression wasn't very good. Based on Lee's words, he would suffer more tomorrow.

"Eating less but more frequently wouldn't be a long-term solution." Shu Xue said.

"Of course, it isn't. But it would at least maintain our sanity until we become ordinary humans."

"You can change back???"

Everyone's excitement startled Lee.

"Yes." Lee said, "There is a mirror in this town that is a little special. It allows you to change back."

You Huo wasn't convinced, "Are you sure?"

"I am." Lee said, "But the location of the mirror is always changing."

"Does the mirror have any special characteristics?"

"There is a six-pointed star carved on it. I don't know the specifics though because I haven't seen it but I heard that it is special and you will recognise it the moment you see it." Lee said.

The ability to change back was good news. Everyone was relieved.

You Huo again asked him a few more things about the past and noticed that he seemed very confused.

He didn't know if it was how the exam had set it or....Perhaps they were like the invigilators and had gradually forgotten after staying in here under the influence of the system for so long.

Everyone quietly discussed with each other before returning back to their rooms. They got ready to search for that special mirror.

You Huo however didn't move.

As if he was possessed by something, he pulled up a photo on his phone and showed it to Lee and Kelly, "Do you know her?"

In the photo, his mother sat on the hospital bed with a very sickly appearance.

Lee froze.

He wriggled his bound body and asked You Huo, "Do you know her? Who is she? I…I seem to have worked with her but I don't remember….."

"I don't remember...…" Lee repeated this blankly before suddenly shouting, "My wallet! Yes, help me get my wallet!"

"Where?"

"In the pocket. In my shirt pocket."

As he spoke, Qin Jiu had already reached down his shirt and pulled out a brown wallet from his inner pocket.

There was a picture hidden in the wallet. It was a very old picture. From the time written, it seemed to have been taken years ago.

"How old are you two actually?" Qin Jiu asked this as he passed the photo over to You Huo.

Lee said: "F——-forty I guess."

He couldn't even remember how old he was and he had never realised it until now because no one in this town seemed to ask these question.

If it wasn't for running into these young people, if he hadn't been interrogated, he would probably have to continue loitering around in this place drinking blood to live and then finding the mirror after god knows how long.

You Huo looked down at the photo in his hand. That photo was of a row of people wearing the familiar white coat.

In addition to Lee and Kelly, he saw another two familiar faces.

One was his mother, and the other was his attending physician Doctor Wu from when he recuperated overseas ——- Wu Li's uncle.

All the blood in You Huo's body turned cold.

KK has something to say:

Looks like Mum has something to do with this!!!