Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Ah Tou lay there trembling under the covers. Although she couldn't see it, she had a strong feeling that something had entered her house. Read latest chapters at nov(e)lbin.com Only

She was relatively confident in her intuition, which she believed had come from the subtle changes in an environment she was familiar with. These changes were hard to spot directly, but were capable of making a person feel unconformable. If she was feeling so uneasy right now, then there had to be something wrong.

She was also very familiar with her cat, so if she was acting like that, then something mustve followed her through the door and into the room.

She dug out her phone and tried to find a nearby friend to help, but she couldnt find anyone. For the first time, she felt alone and helpless. She scrolled through her contacts twice, but there were only delivery and take-out numbers.

Dont tell me I have to order take-out to get help? Eh, why not.

Tintin was very uncomfortable being trapped under the covers and ran away while she was ordering take-out. Ah Tou wasnt fast enough to catch her, but she didnt want to get out from under the covers either. She curled up even tighter as the cat landed on the carpet and started scratching it.

Fuck, this carpet is over three thousand yuan! If it werent for this ghost, youd so be dead!

Ah Tou forced herself to calm down by concentrating on her breathing. Although her duvet cover was soft and nothing was touching it, she felt extremely insecure and wanted to have a turtle shell on her back instead. She started wondering if this was the right way to deal with the situation. Would she have to stay in this position all night?

But she soon found that something wasn't right. She felt Tintin jump onto the bed again and start moving around, but the scratching on the carpet didnt stop.

Ah Tou broke out in a cold sweat. This time, she was completely covered in a cold sweat.

As the cat wandered around her occasionally, the scratching sound sporadically appeared under the bed. Which ones the cat? Whats the other one?

Ah Tou froze on the spot. The woman had her hair tied up and was wearing a short trench coat over a white shirt and pencil skirt. If it had been any other time, Ah Tou wouldve easily discovered that this woman was wearing the same outfit as the first party. But right now, Ah Tou was too frightened to notice. The woman pushed her way in and glanced around the room before turning to look at Ah Tous tattoo-covered arms. She seemed somewhat nostalgic.

"Who are you? Youre not the take-out?" Ah Tou asked incoherently.

Do you think you can afford take-out like me? The woman took off her heels and coat by the first-floor sofa, Im Liang Yanyan. Xie Yuchen called me over to save you.

Just as Ah Tou wanted to speak, Liang Yanyan motioned for her to stay silent, Dont move, dont look back.

With that said, she undid a few buttons on her shirt. As the shirt loosened, Ah Tou saw that Liang Yanyan also had a tattoo on her back. Only a portion of it was exposed, but it looked a lot like the one on her arm.

"Do you have faith?"

"No.

"Then find it now."

****

Yvettes note on timeline clarification: Logically, the story of A Thousand Faces began before Ah Tou helped Wu Xie put on Uncle Threes human face mask, which was mid-2004. Its unclear whether theres a connection between the reporter/journalist Liang Yanyan that Ah Tou first met in 2007 (Part I Introduction I) and the Liang Yanyan in this chapter. Regardless of the year, the food ordering/delivery platform wasnt popularized in the 2000s and I dont think flip phones or slide phones in the 2000s had the flashlight function (Chapter 2), except for the flash when taking photos. Anyway, the author has to debug this. Also note that currently, readers only have access to the first draft of A Thousand Faces which the author posted on WeChat. He definitely has to come back to this story and fix things up before making an official publication. A Thousand Faces was written in 2020, so you may consider the technologies in the story to be concurrent with that year. But do keep in mind that the timeline should be around mid-2000s. Thank you all for liking my translations and thank you Merebear for editing!

Merebear note: Yvette's being all sweet and logical trying to figure out timeline stuff while I'm over here yelling at Ah Tou like: