The Creatures That We Are

Chapter 390: Prank

The atmosphere in the ward was a little awkward.

Wang Zikai was still holding onto Gao Yang’s shoulders with tears running down his face, and the heartbroken look on his face froze little by little.

The sudden turn of events had left his not so intelligent brain short-circuiting.

“Wang Zikai, Gao Xinxin told me to play dead when I woke up. It’s...it’s a prank...” Gao Yang smiled with his pale face. “It seems that I play a good corpse. Ha, haha...”

“Hahahaha!” Covering her face with both hands, Gao Xinxin lost it and broke into loud laughter. “I can’t, I can’t. It’s so hard to stop myself from laughing. Hahaha!”

Wang Zikai didn’t laugh. He let go of Gao Yang’s shoulders and took a staggering step back, letting out a sigh of relief.

Then he slowly turned away and didn’t say anything.

Shit, Gao Yang thought. We’ve crossed a line.

He had disagreed, but Gao Xinxin insisted on pranking Wang Zikai. It was partly a revenge out of suppressed anger. She blamed Wang Zikai a little for what happened to her brother. If Wang Zikai hadn’t had Gao Yang stay the night at his place, perhaps Gao Yang would’ve been fine. Wang Zikai was partly to blame for what happened—that was what she thought.

Of course, her anger was wholly misplaced.

“Wang Zikai, I’m sorry...” Gao Yang immediately apologized.

“What the hell is wrong with you two?!” Wang Zikai suddenly turned back and shouted at Gao Yang and Gao Xinxin. The siblings were stunned. Even those walking past the room outside jumped in surprise.

“Is this something you should joke about?” Wang Zikai wiped his tears away. “Did you get water into your brains? No, did you get fucking poop in your head?!”

“It’s just a prank. There’s no need to be so angry...” Gao Xinxin knew she had crossed the line, and she lowered her head guiltily, but reflexively, she retorted.

“There is a need!” Wang Zikai felt wronged, and he shouted at her, “Gao Xinxin, I’ve stayed with your brother every day for just as long as you have! I want your brother to wake up even more!”

“I’m not scared of anything in the world, and I’ve never been a believer of gods and ghosts. But I was the fool who prayed to the bodhisattva. I knelt for three fucking hours, praying for bodhisattva to bless Gao Yang...”

Face flushed with anger, Wang Zikai fished out a wooden lucky charm from a pocket of his jeans. “Like a damn idiot, I had your fortune told and got this...”

He threw the lucky charm at Gao Yang. “And you! The first thing you did when you woke up was lie to me with your sister!”

He pounded on his chest and stomped his foot. “Are you fucking kidding me?! Is this how you treat your best friend?!”

Gao Yang picked up the lucky charm on the blanket. It was a rectangular sandalwood pendant with ‘Gao Yang’ etched on one side and ‘safety’ on the other side.

His fingers pinching the lucky charm trembled slightly, and he sniffled.

He had always known that Wang Zikai was a good friend, but he never expected Wang Zikai to go to such lengths.

On the other hand, he owed Wang Zikai too much.

Gao Yang felt a heavy pang of guilt, and at the risk of sounding sentimental, he said seriously, “I’m sorry, Wang Zikai, truly. You’re so worried about me, yet I lied to you to pull a prank. I...I’m the worst.”

“Thank you for taking care of me and Xinxin the past few months. I’ll surely repay you for what you’ve done for us.”

Wang Zikai scowled, seemingly still fuming.

After five to six seconds, though, he slapped his thigh suddenly and barked out laughing. “Hahaha you’ve been played! Hahaha...”

It was Gao Yang and Gao Xinxin’s turn to gape.

“I got this lucky charm after having ten cups of milk tea!” Wang Zikai was still laughing. “Hahaha, look at you being all fidgety, hahaha...”

Gao Yang snorted. Wang Zikai, you vengeful bastard.

After a good while, when Wang Zikai had laughed for long enough, he turned back to Gao Yang with pure joy on his face and a childlike sparkle in his eyes. “Hey, did you mean it?”

“Mean what?” Gao Yang played dumb.

“That you’d repay me!” Wang Zikai said vehemently. “You’re not getting yourself out of it! I heard you!”

Gao Yang smiled resignedly. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’ll do whatever as long as I can do it.”

Wang Zikai grinned. “Then play games with me for a week!”

“That’s it?” Gao Yang thought he had heard wrong.

“Yeah!” Wang Zikai sounded pleased with himself. “It’s not as easy as you think. All seven days, you must come to play with me whenever I call. No abandoning me outside of special circumstances. Understand?”

“Yes, sir!” Gao Yang pumped himself up.

“And you!” Wang Zikai glared at Gao Xinxin. “You’re calling me Brother Kai from now on and treat me with respect. You hear me?”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Gao Xinxin stuck her tongue out at him.

Her phone rang then. She picked up and made a few sounds of assent before hanging up and turning to Wang Zikai.

“Wang...Brother Kai, my dad and mom are going to be at the entrance of the hospital soon. You know Dad needs help with his wheelchair. Would you go downstairs and give them a hand?”

“Hmph, you’ve just pranked me, and you dare to order me around?” Wang Zikai pretended to be angry and crossed his arms.

“Alright, Brother Kai, I’m sorry.” Gao Xinxin spoke in a cutesy voice and phoned it in. “I know Brother Kai is the best and takes the best care of me...”

“Stop, stop already, don’t do that to me. I’m getting goosebumps.” Wang Zikai shot her a disgusted look and strode out of the room.

Once the door was closed, the siblings were left alone.

After a brief moment of silence, Gao Xinxin looked at Gao Yang and held his gaze seriously. “You’ve just woken up, Brother, and I didn’t want to tell you and hurt you, but after thinking about it, I believe I should tell you first thing.”

Gao Yang was silent. He knew what Gao Xinxin was going to say.

“Granny...passed away.” Although it had been three months, Gao Xinxin still couldn’t talk about their grandmother without choking up, her eyes reddening again.

Gao Yang pretended to be surprised, but what followed was true heartbreak.

While coming to terms with the pain, he listened to Gao Xinxin talk about the disaster that had killed hundreds: the road had sunk down and triggered a natural gas explosion, leading to a pile-up and fire.

Gao Yang was both shocked and befuddled. Who was the one cleaning up the mess?

All awakeners had blacked out from the Poison of Hell and wouldn’t have woken up until the day broke. They didn’t have the time or the power to do a cover job of this scale and complexity.

Putting all things aside, the act of bringing all the dead elite monsters across Li City to one street alone would be an impossible task.

Yet all elite monsters and awakeners who had been killed at the last night of the Crimson Tide had been arranged to be victims of a large-scale accident. All traces left of the multiple battles were erased, fooling the slumbering wanderers.

Who could’ve done that?

Gao Yang could only think of one possibility: the Heavenly Way.

Just like the Gu Family’s Village, which had been brought underground overnight, replaced by a perfect replica, the places where serious fights had taken place must have been repaired anew with Heavenly Way’s impressive replicating power. As a result, it seemed like nothing had happened. And the road where the final battle with Lilia had taken place was disguised as the site where the ground had sunk down and a natural gas explosion had happened.

Of course, there was someone else who could’ve done that—Sir Jiang.

He was the only surviving pride monster. As an observer, he had refrained from making an appearance till the very end.

Still, Gao Yang believed the Heavenly Way was the more likely answer.

With the Crimson Tide coming to an end, the Heavenly Way’s ruling and governing power would have regained the upperhand, and it was the Heavenly Way’s purpose to maintain the order of the surface world.

“Brother?” Gao Xinxin called out when she noticed Gao Yang losing himself in his head. “Are you...are you alright?”

Gao Yang didn’t hide his confusion, but instead played along and pretended to think back to the past. “I remember staying outside at an internet cafe with Wang Zikai overnight before going home in the early morning. As soon as I entered our gated community, I ran into Granny. Then...then I remember nothing after...”

He held onto his head. “Ugh, my head hurts...”

“Brother,” Gao Xinxin said nervously. “Don’t push yourself. What happened happened. Remembering it isn’t going to change anything.”

Gao Yang nodded quietly.

At that moment, the door to the ward opened, and his mother, wheelchaired father, and Wang Zikai, who was pushing the wheelchair, appeared outside.

“Yang Yang, you’ve woken up!”

His mother had her hair pinned up and wore light makeup, dressed in the red uniform and red high heels required for a salesperson at the gold jewelry shop that employed her. On her chest was a glinting gilded name plaque.

As soon as she saw Gao Yang, she strode up to the bed, reaching out to hold him, but decided at the last second to grab his hands tightly instead, afraid of hurting him. She opened and closed her mouth, her eyes red.

“Mom, Granny’s gone. Sister told me,” Gao Yang started the conversation.

His mother couldn’t bear it any longer and started sobbing while muffling her mouth.

Gao Xinxin broke into quiet sobs as well, while his father wiped at his eyes silently.

Wang Zikai paused before pushing the wheelchair to Gao Yang’s bedside.

“I...I have something else to take care of. Later.” That was all he said before fleeing the room and closing the door behind him.

He hadn’t actually left, though. He stood outside and listened to the family of four crying and conversing, their sorrow and joy projecting through the door. His eyes reddened too.

Sniffing, he wiped tears from the corners of his eyes. For the first time since forever, he thought of his parents.

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