Black Sky - Chapter 1

What kind of experience would lead a person to decide to end their life?

Bai Zi, who just turned twenty-five last month, could probably answer this question.

At this moment, she is standing on the top floor of a commercial building in Bei City—to be more precise, on the railing of the top floor.

The wind blows Bai Zi’s long gray cloak, causing it to flutter and reveal her slender, straight legs clad in dark blue jeans.

Because she is covered by a large black fisherman’s hat, the sunlight can only reach the edge of Bai Zi’s thin chin.

Looking only at Bai Zi’s right profile, she was more than just pretty. The combination of her bright almond eyes and shallow dimples gave her a playful and cute appearance.

But hidden under the shadow of the brim, the area around her left eye behind the wooden brown-framed glasses is covered with burn scars that have nothing to do with “pretty”, let alone playful and cute.

In the center of the left eye, surrounded by uneven skin, is a slightly dull black pupil.

Bai Zi’s left eye cannot see anything, and her right eye is highly myopic. Without her glasses, she was effectively blind.

At this moment, she is using her right eye to look down at the entire city under her feet: under the dazzling sunlight, there are towering buildings and heavy traffic, extremely lively but indifferent.

The direct reason why Bai Zi decided to end her life is very simple—the restaurant owner forgot to put cutlery in her takeout.

Yes, that’s all.

An hour ago, Bai Zi decided to splurge and selected “Need cutlery” on the ordering interface, for which she spent an extra yuan. But when the takeout was delivered, Bai Zi found that there were no chopsticks or forks in it. She had no choice but to sit on the side of the street and awkwardly suck the rice noodles directly from the bowl, and accidentally choked, spilling the entire bowl of noodles on the ground.

At that moment, Bai Zi decided to end her twenty-five-year-old life.

But in fact, Bai Zi could have not ordered takeout today.

She should have eaten the employee meal arranged by the company in the gym on the first floor of this building, which is both environmentally friendly and healthy.

But unfortunately, near noon, Bai Zi received a notice from the gym manager: she was fired. Bai Zi, who had rushed to lead the students to practice hard without even eating breakfast, had to endure the dizziness caused by hypoglycemia and ordered a bowl of Guilin rice noodles using the takeout APP.

To be more verbose, Bai Zi shouldn’t have been fired today—if a week ago, the male Taekwondo coach hadn’t falsely accused Bai Zi of sexually harassing a female student during extracurricular time.

Yes, “sexually harassing a female student”, even though Bai Zi herself is a woman.

If we were to explore endlessly, Bai Zi would never have run all the way to this small gym in Bei City to work as a martial arts coach assistant with a monthly salary of less than five thousand—but only if, when Bai Zi was sixteen years old, her parents hadn’t died in a fire, Bai Zi’s left eye hadn’t been burned and blinded, and she hadn’t fallen into the self-blame of killing her parents, which led to a complete reversal of her life trajectory.

Based on this calculation, the reason why Bai Zi wants to jump off a hundred-story building can be traced back to the moment when Pan Gu created the world.

(T/L: Pan Gu: A central figure in Chinese mythology, known as the creator god who brought the universe into existence.)

Her fate is as dark and suffocating as the abyss of purgatory.

At this time, the sky in Bei City is still clear and sunny.

Looking down at such a beautiful world, Bai Zi only feels out of place—this society cannot tolerate the weak, and Bai Zi is precisely the weakest of the weak, both psychologically and physically.

In Bai Zi’s second-hand Bluetooth headset, an old violin piece is playing. Although the sound quality is poor, the melody is light and uplifting.

The wind blew, and she faced the dazzling sun, removing her headphones and closing her eyes. Bai Zi suffered from severe skin allergies and couldn’t stay in the sun for long—but at this moment, she didn’t care.

Although Bai Zi has been weak and sick since she was a child, her sense of smell and hearing are extremely sensitive.

For Bai Zi, everything in the world has a special smell and sound, such as sunlight.

She likes the sound of sunlight very much. When she listens with all her heart, Bai Zi’s eardrums will have a soft feeling of being wrapped in warm water.

Soft.

When this word popped up, the figure of “that person” suddenly appeared in Bai Zi’s mind. Like the sound of sunlight, but softer and warmer, just imagining it, Bai Zi, standing on the handrail, feels that she has been gently wrapped in the other person’s breath.

It seems that in an instant, something slightly cold and hard melted.

So, when the wind stopped, Bai Zi gave up the idea of jumping off the building.

Perhaps it was to avoid harming innocent passersby, perhaps to avoid remaining a perpetually hungry ghost, perhaps the sound of sunlight gave Bai Zi the courage to continue living, but the most fundamental reason was Bai Zi’s worry about casting a shadow on “that person” who worked in this building.

“That person” is Bai Zi’s only reason for living after her parents died.

If “that person” would be afraid because someone died in this building, she should live on for the time being.

In a few days, I should find a deserted mountain and forest and hang myself casually.

Just as she was thinking this, the iron door not far behind Bai Zi opened.

Standing behind the iron door is “that person”—Meng Yilan, a woman who is five years older than Bai Zi, but whom Bai Zi has been thinking about for nearly ten years.

Leaving aside gender, just in terms of origin and status, Bai Zi may not even be qualified to “think about” Meng Yilan.

As the eldest daughter of Meng Fan, the chairman of China’s top enterprise “Hongya Group”, Meng Yilan is more precious than a phoenix on a branch, while Bai Zi, not to mention a toad, is no more than an earthworm in the mud.

However, this phoenix resolutely flew out of its golden nest many years ago, cut off contact with the family, entered the media industry, and plunged into the mud to work hard.

It can also be regarded as a talented daughter of a tiger father. Although she started as a grassroots social reporter, Meng Yilan has achieved remarkable results. The news events she has unearthed have all won the attention of the whole society, and she has also founded a personal studio dedicated to speaking out for the people.

But at that time, Meng Yilan’s senior and partner Lin Quwei was imprisoned for being involved in a shocking national corruption case. Subsequently, overnight, Meng Yilan’s self-media account was blocked, and the studio was forced to close.

Since then, Meng Yilan has disappeared and was quickly forgotten by everyone.

Only Bai Zi continued to search. Many years later, she discovered that Meng Yilan had become a content operation supervisor at an ordinary media company. There, it seemed that no one knew Meng Yilan’s background, and Meng Yilan had never told others about her affairs.

With her outstanding ability, Meng Yilan quickly stabilized her position in the new company.

In addition, she also has a cold and beautiful face that would make anyone’s heart flutter, but because of her aloof personality, the surrounding males only dare to watch from a distance and dare not make the slightest move.

It was such a woman who, coincidentally with Bai Zi, came to the rooftop of this building at the same time on the same day.

Today, Meng Yilan tied her often loose curly hair into a neat bun, revealing her snow-white and slender neck. The close-fitting black overalls added a bit of abstinence, and her lower body was tightly wrapped in a matching hip skirt. Further down, her slender legs, as white as condensed fat, stepped on a pair of high heels that could kill people.

She didn’t notice Bai Zi. After opening the door, she walked straight to the edge of the rooftop without looking sideways, her face as indifferent and cold as usual, and she was holding a freshly lit light purple ladies’ cigarette in her hand.

Bai Zi had never known Meng Yilan smoked. In her mind, Meng Yilan was a pure, untouchable goddess who abstained from cigarettes and alcohol. But now, before Bai Zi’s very eyes, the goddess she’d loved for nearly ten years expertly pursed the cigarette, then exhaled white smoke that the light wind on the hundred-meter-high building carried away.

So beautiful.

Bai Zi thought so, and jumped back to the rooftop from the handrail.

The sound of landing attracted Meng Yilan’s attention. When she found Bai Zi, her whole body shook, revealing an extremely uneasy and disgusted expression. She seemed to want to hide the cigarette immediately, but felt it was unnecessary, so she raised her hand holding the cigarette again: “It’s you again?”

Meng Yilan is ten centimeters taller than Bai Zi, who is one meter sixty-five. Coupled with her high heels, she is now looking down at Bai Zi with a condescending posture: “If you keep following me like this, I won’t be polite.”

Bai Zi closed her eyes like she was appreciating a symphony, and showed a satisfied smile. She felt that Meng Yilan’s voice was more beautiful than any song in the world.

What is she laughing at? Is she really a lunatic—thinking this, Meng Yilan took a step back warily.

Bai Zi regards Meng Yilan as a goddess, while Meng Yilan regards Bai Zi as a lunatic.

Being disgusted by the person she cherishes the most is one of the reasons why Bai Zi decided to end her life.

“Smoking.., is, ..harmful, ..to, ..your, health.” In just six words, Bai Zi, who suffers from severe stuttering, took about four seconds to finish speaking.

Yes, this is another life problem for Bai Zi—speaking.

If she didn’t have the problem of stuttering, Bai Zi believed that she would be an annoying chatterbox, because every minute and every second, Bai Zi would have a lot of thoughts about external things, but in the end, because of physiological reasons, all her words were crushed in her stomach.

Bai Zi opened her eyes and turned up the corners of her mouth towards Meng Yilan, revealing shallow dimples. Bai Zi rarely smiled in front of others, and few realized that beneath the horrifying scars, her smile was actually quite cute. Unfortunately, at this moment, Meng Yilan, like most others, only found the smile marred by burns to be extremely awkward.

While Meng Yilan was stunned, Bai Zi had already turned around and walked towards the iron door, leaving the rooftop.

Looking at the thin back, Meng Yilan frowned, and remembered what the other person had just said—smoking is harmful to my health?

“…Heh” Meng Yilan took a hard puff of the cigarette as if in retaliation, but choked herself and coughed a few times.

Meng Yilan turned to look at the distant high-rise buildings, trying to suppress the surge of disgust in her heart. A few months ago, she decided that she would no longer have any contact with Bai Zi, and the “thing” that the other person had done would never be forgiven by her—perhaps, she should move away from this city to get rid of such a lunatic.

Suddenly, there was another movement from the iron door.

Meng Yilan turned her head irritably, intending to reprimand, but found that the person who came was not Bai Zi, but a very strange man.

Very strange, because this person’s face made Meng Yilan shudder—his eyeballs were facing upwards, revealing bloodshot whites, his mouth was half-open, his entire face was grayish-white, his head was tilted close to his left shoulder, his body was hunched like a shrimp, his hands were raised, his ten fingers were twisted like bird claws, and his legs were bent as he stood by the iron door.

Meng Yilan’s mind went blank in an instant, and the cigarette in her hand fell to the ground. At this moment, she saw the man staggering towards her with his feet in an inward-eight posture.

…

Bai Zi, who had just left, was unaware of this.

At this time, she was standing in front of the elevator door, her head slightly raised, staring blankly at the constantly changing numbers in the elevator’s floor display.

Although she was treated coldly by Meng Yilan, Bai Zi did not feel sad. Perhaps, the chemicals in her brain that affect emotions suddenly became unbalanced, causing her to be unable to distinguish between the seven emotions and six desires. She had also experienced this state when her parents had just passed away when she was sixteen years old. At this time, her mind was empty, and she didn’t think about anything.

Until the elevator door opened.

In front of Bai Zi, three people were standing in the narrow elevator, two women and one man. They were all lowering their heads, facing different directions, with no intention of going out—even though this was already the top floor of the building.

Bai Zi stood in place, narrowing her eyes warily.

Suddenly, the phone in her pocket vibrated. Bai Zi knew without looking that it was a clarification SMS message from the government—urging the public not to believe the rumors of a “zombie virus outbreak” that had been spreading wildly online recently.

Like some kind of switch, the three people in the elevator turned their heads to look at Bai Zi at the same time as the phone vibrated. Then, their limbs seemed to be controlled by invisible ropes, and they pounced on Bai Zi like beasts.

Perhaps Bai Zi should have stayed and fought with them, after all, she was a “martial arts assistant”, that is, a “martial arts coach assistant”. But unfortunately, Bai Zi was only a “martial arts coach assistant”. Although she was proficient in theory, it was difficult for her to put it into practice.

It’s not that she “didn’t want” to practice, but her naturally weak physique made her “unable” to practice—if it wasn’t for the martial arts coach being a good person and insisting on hiring her, she might not even be able to find a job in Bei City.

Bai Zi, who was very self-aware, immediately dodged to the side the moment the three people pounced on her, turned around and ran towards the fire escape.

But just as she pushed open the door, she found that a dozen equally strange “people” were slowly coming from downstairs. Bai Zi gritted her teeth and strode back towards the rooftop.

But she didn’t know that the rooftop was not a safe place at this time.

At least Meng Yilan had a deep understanding of this—she had never been so scared, even when she was a young reporter many years ago, when she almost lost her life at the hands of criminals in order to investigate the truth of the news, she was much calmer than now.

When the man who could no longer be described as a “person” was getting closer and closer to her, Meng Yilan suddenly remembered some small videos that had been constantly appearing on the Internet recently with titles such as “people eating people” and “real-life zombies”.

Although they caused a certain sensation on the Internet, these videos were quickly deleted, and the people who uploaded the videos were blocked by the government on the grounds of “spreading rumors”.

Regardless of whether those videos were real or fake, Meng Yilan was too scared at this time to move at all, and could only close her eyes.

When Meng Yilan was knocked to the ground, the beast-like low roar had already reached her ears, and even the heat from the other person’s mouth was surrounding her neck, the sound of the iron door being slammed shut suddenly rang out not far away, followed by a clear breath descending from the sky. At the same time, the weight on her body disappeared instantly.

Meng Yilan opened her eyes and saw that Bai Zi, who should have left long ago, was pressing the man on the ground with her right knee, while taking off her black windbreaker and using the sleeves to tie up the constantly struggling and roaring man.

Under the sunlight, a round emerald necklace hanging around Bai Zi’s neck shone brightly, and Meng Yilan squinted her eyes at the light.

For some reason, she felt that the jade looked a little familiar.

At this time, Bai Zi was already sweating profusely. She was panting, her face was pale, and she seemed to be about to faint on the ground in the next moment—it could be seen that she had just used all her strength to subdue the man under her.

If it were normal, Bai Zi was very sure that she didn’t even have the strength to pull this man up, but for some reason, when she saw Meng Yilan lying under the man, a strange force surged out from the deepest part of her body. When she came back to her senses, she found that the man was already pressed under her.

Bai Zi didn’t continue to delve into this strange experience. After tying up the man, she turned to look at Meng Yilan.

Meng Yilan, who was still lying on the ground with a dazed expression, found that the “lunatic” who had saved her life was showing extremely worried and gentle emotions in her eyes. This look made Meng Yilan suddenly exhale, and then began to cough violently.

Bai Zi was about to speak, but suddenly a strange gust of wind blew, and her fisherman’s hat flew away with the wind, and her ink-black long hair spread out like a fan.

Dull rumbling thunder sounded in the air. The two of them looked up and found that the blue sky that had been clear just now was covered with dense dark clouds at some point. What was even stranger was that only the sun was not covered by the dark clouds, and the dazzling sunlight still made it impossible for the two of them to open their eyes.

But in the next moment, the strangest scene happened.

The sun, surrounded by dark clouds, was like an oil lamp that was being extinguished. The darkness slowly expanded from the very center of the sun to the outermost edge, and the surroundings gradually dimmed. Finally, the light completely disappeared, and the entire sky and even the world fell into darkness.