The crescent moon hung like a sharpened scythe, cutting through the vast, murky night sky.
Thud. Thud.
Beneath a manhole cover in City A's outskirts, violent banging reverberated. The cover rattled violently before finally being knocked open by something.
A blood-smeared severed arm crawled out.
Then another severed hand followed.
A calf. A thigh. A gutted torso. Scattered entrails…
They leapt one by one from the filthy, foul sewer.
Finally, a bloodied human head shot out like a cannonball. It struck the ground, rolled several times, and came to rest beside the severed arm.
"Where's my body? Where's my body?"
The head chanted madly as the arm slowly assembled the scattered limbs. Loose organs were haphazardly crammed into the gaping abdominal cavity—only to spill out again, forcing the corpse to clutch its belly with both hands.
"Must... stitch... body together,"
It mumbled with its head lolling sideways. The grotesque patchwork corpse shambled toward the city center.
***
At Bishui Residential Complex:
A drowsy security guard struggled to keep his eyes open. His bleary gaze caught a tattered figure lurching in the darkness—a vagrant, he assumed.
"Residents only!" he snapped.
The figure jerked its head sideways. Thump. Its skull hit the pavement.
The disembodied head grinned, blood-streaked teeth glinting as a shrill female voice screeched:
"Here... to see... my bestie."
"A talking head... Ghost! Demon—"
Overloaded, the guard's eyes rolled back as he crumpled.
The corpse retrieved its head, jammed it crookedly onto its neck, and lumbered into the compound.
Ding-dong—
The doorbell's shriek tore through the silent night.
After a long pause, shuffling footsteps approached. The door swung open to reveal Yun Jianyue in SpongeBob pajamas, blinking sleepily at the mutilated woman.
The corpse tilted its head. Fresh blood splattered the floor as it frantically clutched its abdomen—a crimson kidney dangling halfway out.
"Woke up too fierce... Zombie apocalypse already?"
SLAM!
Yun Jianyue hurled the door shut with such force that the corpse's head catapulted backward. Splat! It smacked against the wood and thudded to the ground.
With stiff movements, the corpse retrieved its head and socketed it back into place. A haunting moan seeped through the door:
"Yuun... Jiaan... Yuee..."
The door burst open.
"Lu Changxue!?"
Yun Jianyue squinted at the entity: matted hair plastered in blood, limbs bolted at wrong angles. The Frankensteined horror was unmistakably her best friend.
"You haunt me after dying? Some damn bestie you are!" She grabbed Lu Changxue's wrist. "Get inside—you'll traumatize the neighbors."
Squelch.
Yun Jianyue stared at the severed arm in her hand. Her jaw tightened.
"Roll yourself in."
Lu Changxue paused.
I'm a ghost, right? Why isn't she terrified? Why's she yelling at me!?
After an awkward silence, the corpse shuffled in.
Yun Jianyue sat rigidly on the sofa.
"Report. What happened?"
Lu Changxue stood like a scolded schoolgirl, fidgeting silently.
"Ghosts don't understand human speech?" Yun Jianyue's tone sharpened to a principal's snap.
Lu Changxue whimpered: "...Whimper."
"I'll shatter your skull if you whimper again!"
"...Already shattered," Lu Changxue whimpered. She plucked off her head to display the cracks—releasing her grip on her abdomen. Splash! Organs cascaded across the floor.
Yun Jianyue: "..."
Lu Changxue: "..."
"I mopped this floor today." Each word ground like broken glass.
Lu Changxue sniffled. "Stitch me up? Organs won't fall out..."
Yun Jianyue hauled out needle and thread. Pinning Lu Changxue to the floor, she sutured the seams with surgeon's precision. She even Superglued the neck joint.
"Try losing your head now," she declared, admiring her macabre handiwork.
Lu Changxue experimentally twisted her skull—it was welded in place. Before she could protest, Yun Jianyue kicked her toward the bathroom.
"Wash off that blood-stink! You reek!"
Thirty minutes later, Lu Changxue emerged scrubbed clean, drowning in Yun Jianyue's high-necked sweats. Only her corpse-pale skin betrayed the horror beneath.
"Now. Explain."
Lu Changxue's eyes welled crimson tears.
"That bastard... I caught him cheating. He beat me... to death. Panicked... chainsawed me..." Her voice hollowed as spectral winds howled through the room.
"Threw my pieces... into the sewer."
As she spoke, Lu Changxue's eyes burned infernal crimson, her body wreathed in tangible black miasma.
"Yuanyuan, it hurts... God, it hurts so much..."
Her bloodshot gaze locked onto Yun Jianyue. One moment seated on the sofa, the next—she materialized inches away. A corpse-pale hand reached out, murderous intent thickening the air.
Then—a mop was shoved into her grip.
Lu Changxue (Vengeful Ghost): ?
Yun Jianyue declared, chin raised: "You made the mess. You clean it."
"I'm a ghost! Have some respect!" Lu Changxue screeched like a boiling kettle—yet her hands betrayed her, obediently mopping as the dark miasma vanished into ether.
Yun Jianyue clicked her tongue against her molars. "I am respecting you. That's why I'll avenge you. Murder's illegal, so I'll report that scum. But your corpse is here—what if the police can't find your remains?"
After a beat, she drew a kitchen knife from the table.
Blade glinting like Arctic ice under the light.
She bared teeth in a grin. "How about I dismember you again, dump you back in the sewer, call the cops to 'discover' your body, and nail that bastard? Sound good?"
Lu Changxue froze.
Who was the real monster here? Was this human logic?
Before she could retort, Yun Jianyue set the knife down, muttering under her breath:
"Nah… I worked so hard stitching you together. Such a waste to cut you up. Better to dismember him for revenge."
Lu Changxue: ...
She was calling the police.
Dead serious.
Her best friend was a certifiable psychopath.