Si Teng (Rattan) – CH 008

Chapter 8

The TV was on, but no one was sitting on the sofa opposite. The sound of running water could be heard from the bathroom, and Qin Fang approached the sofa and sat down. On the coffee table sat a cup of instant noodles, the cover peeled off. He didn’t know how long it had been soaking, but half the cup had swelled up. The flavor was still fragrant, but the appearance was completely unappetizing.

She ate it in the morning, at noon, and at night. She must have gotten tired of it.

Qin Fang sat on the sofa, waiting for her, and organizing his conversation for later. Luolong Erjia’s words had him fuming with anger. He wanted to kick the door and overturn the table, but the door was ajar and no one was there. The first round of confrontation was aborted, and he had to hold back his simmering anger.

The bathroom door slammed, and Si Teng emerged.

She wore the hotel’s white terry bathrobe, the belt cinching her waistline to a razor-thin slit. Her hair, damp and long, reached to her waist, the black tips still dripping with water. As she wiped it with the towel, her neck tilted slightly, revealing her snow-white shoulders. It was a truly graceful sight.

What did it mean when enemies met, their eyes etched with enmity? Qin Fangteng stood up in a flash: “Si Teng…”

“Shh!”

Si Teng motioned him to be quiet, then came over to get the TV remote and turned up the volume.

Sichuan TV’s weather forecast for tourist attractions. The announcer’s voice cadenced: “Boundless scenery… a variety of weather conditions… welcome to the weather forecast for tourist attractions… Mount Emei, sunny to cloudy, -2 to 7 degrees Celsius… Leshan, cloudy, 4 to 8 degrees Celsius… Dujiangyan, sunny, 2 to 9 degrees Celsius…”

Qin Fang tried to speak several times, but Si Teng gestured to him, her upbringing having refrained from rude interruptions. He patiently listened as the announcer proudly reported the temperatures at the province’s tourist attractions until Si Teng turned off the TV and whispered, “The weather’s good.”

“Si Teng…”

“You’re back.”

Si Teng gestured for him to move aside, sat on the sofa, and wiped her hair. She casually pushed the cup of noodles into the nearby trash can. The sound of the noodles dropping was quite muffled. Qin Fang subconsciously asked, “Aren’t you eating?”

“I don’t need to eat.”

Qin Fang was stunned for a moment. “Aren’t you hungry?”

“No.”

“Then you…”

He pointed at the noodles in the trash can, not knowing what to say. “Then why did you buy cup after cup and even biscuits?”

Si Teng suddenly understood. “Well, wouldn’t it be even weirder to never eat? I’m surrounded by humans, so I have to make them think I’m human.”

She understood. She was just pretending to be hungry and thirsty, mimicking them so meticulously and perfectly. Over time, people would just treat her like one of their own. No one would stare at her and say, “Look, this monster doesn’t need to eat.”

There was no need to exchange pleasantries. Qin Fang asked the question he’d been wanting to ask: “Did you know I’d come back?”

“Yeah.”

“Then why didn’t you tell me?”

Si Teng tossed the towel she’d been using on her hair onto the coffee table and leaned against the sofa. She was clearly the one sitting, but her cold glance made the air pressure around them drop several degrees.

“Is there anything more impressive than experiencing it firsthand?”

Impressive?

Qin Fang could hardly believe his ears. How had he been spending the past few days? Trembling with fear, terrified like a stray dog, afraid to look up, afraid to approach anyone, hysterical like a madman, all just to make a lasting impression?

Qin Fang laughed heartily: “Impressive, of course I’m impressed, I’m damn impressed!”

He was going all out. All that respect for women, all that gentlemanly demeanor, all based on a conversation with a “human.” This person in front of him wasn’t even a human, so why was he being polite to her?

“Si Teng, don’t take yourself too seriously. Are you so great at being a monster? I tell you, even if the whole world fears you, I’m not afraid. Death is the end of the world, and I’ve died before. You’re having fun, aren’t you? Impressive, aren’t you? I’m really not going to serve you anymore!”

Qin Fang kicked the coffee table out of the way, glared at Si Teng angrily, and turned away. He’d finally made up for his earlier failure to break into the door. In a word, awful!

Si Teng clapped behind him. Clap, clap, clap, exactly three times.

She then added, “You’re quite courageous, but what I love most is breaking people’s bones.”

Qin Fang gritted his teeth. Damn, was this even human language?

“What’s your name?”

It took Qin Fang a full two seconds to realize Si Teng was talking to him. After all this time, he couldn’t even remember his name. Qin Fang laughed in anger. He wanted to say something harsh to her, but then he felt that human language was extremely inferior.

“Qin Fang.”

“Oh, Qin Fang. Well, let me tell you, if you still want to follow me, I’m going to set some rules for you.”

Qin Fang stared at her. Was this woman deaf? Didn’t she hear all the long, resounding words he had just spoken? Follow her? Who wanted to follow her?

“First, right now, it’s you who can’t live without me, not me.”

“It’s you who needs my demonic energy to keep you alive. Before you say you don’t want to follow me, think about whether I’m willing to let you follow. I’m keeping you alive; that’s my value to you. What’s your value to me? If I said you were worse than a dog, you’d get angry. But even a dog will wag its tail if you give it meat. At least, I won’t be offended by that.”

Qin Fang was about to say something, but Si Teng tapped her forehead with a finger. “I’ll give you five minutes to think about whether what I’m saying makes sense. Think about it, then continue.”

After that, she ignored him and went back to the bathroom to twirl her hair. The buzzing of the small appliance sounded like tiny wings flapping in her head. Qin Fang stood there, stunned, and suddenly felt that Si Teng had a point.

Now it seemed that his inability to leave Si Teng wasn’t a result of Si Teng’s manipulation but rather a fait accompli following his resurrection. Back then, his blood and Si Teng’s demonic energy interacted, contributing to their respective resurrections. But times have changed, and now, he truly was worthless to Si Teng.

Qin Fang felt a faint chill run down his spine. When Si Teng emerged, for some reason, he looked away.

“Have you figured it out? Okay, let me continue.”

“Second, you have two choices: follow me, or don’t.”

“If you want to follow me, you must obey my orders. I have a bad temper and prefer people to be respectful and polite to me. I need you to know what to do at a glance. When I want you to smile, you smile; when I don’t, you don’t. For example, if I want you to kneel, whether you truly want to or are forced to kneel by a knife, as long as you kneel, I’m satisfied. Got it?”

Got it? Why not? Qin Fang smiled instead of getting angry. He pointed at a spot on the carpet: “So I have to kneel down now?”

Si Teng’s expression was expressionless: “That’s just an analogy.”

Qin Fang suppressed his anger: “What will happen if I don’t follow?”

“If you don’t follow, go out now and walk in any direction. If you can’t walk anymore, dig a hole and lie down in it. Let’s part ways amicably. I have a lot to do, so I won’t go to burn incense for you.”

Great, that funny joke he saw many years ago finally came in handy. Qin Fang silently replied in his heart, “No need for you to burn incense. You’re dirtying my reincarnation path.”

“The third one is…”

“I haven’t decided on the second one yet,” Qin Fang interrupted rudely. “Didn’t I just give you five minutes?”

It wasn’t that he hadn’t decided on it yet, but who was she? But since there’s a third one, let him hear it all together. It wasn’t too late to get angry later.

“Use honorifics. I’m thinking ‘Miss Si Teng,’ but I haven’t thought it through yet. Please give me five more minutes.”

Qin Fang stared at Si Teng for a full minute. One shouldn’t stare like that; one should close their eyes and rest. But Si Teng, on the other hand, was like a wax figure, motionless, unblinking, staring straight into his eyes.

If he continued staring at her, he’d probably go blind. Qin Fang covered his eyes and sighed, “Miss Si Teng, please continue.”

Si Teng held out her hand: “Give me a cigarette.”

“I don’t smoke.”

Si Teng continued to look at him, her hand showing no sign of falling. Qin Fang remembered the saying, “One glance and you know what to do.” Okay, a true man should be capable of bending and stretching. There was no need to rush.

“Miss Si Teng, excuse me, I’ll go buy some right away.”

The cigarettes were a no-name brand, some Qinghai Yuntian, something he’d never heard of. Since Si Teng smoked and mentioned Shanghai back then, it was probably foreign cigarettes and cigars. He’d expected her to be picky, but she took it, looked at it, and said, “I can’t smoke.”

Qin Fang flicked the lighter: “No? Then why did you make me buy it?”

Si Teng gave him a cryptic smile. She brought the cigarette butt closer to him, lit it, stared at it for a moment, then brought it to her lips and took a deep breath.

Qin Fang stared at her for a moment, but as he did, his expression gradually changed.

Si Teng’s body was ablaze, flames dancing against her skin, her hair, her eyes, and her hands. In the end, only her outline could be seen through the flames. The carpet gradually scorched, and a pungent smell of burning spread. The edges of the furniture began to blacken, and the crackling of branches and leaves began to rise. Qin Fang was forced to step back several steps, shouting, “Stop! This will start a fire!”

There was no response. Flames suddenly erupted, engulfing the curtains, the sofa, and the wooden furniture. The window burst with a bang, and panicked voices echoed in the hallway. Qin Fang coughed and choked as he moved towards the door. The doorknob was so hot that he flinched in pain as soon as his hand touched it. Qin Fang covered his mouth and nose with his collar and kicked the door hard several times. Someone outside was shouting. “There’s someone inside, someone else!”

There was a hissing sound, probably from water being poured over. In a panic, the door was kicked open, and Qin Fang stumbled out. Thick smoke practically billowed out with him, forcing the firefighters outside to retreat several steps and cough uncontrollably. Through the thick smoke, Luolong Erjia could be vaguely seen rushing towards them with a fire extinguisher, opening the nozzle and unleashing a furious blast, while shouting at the top of his lungs, “Is there anyone upstairs? Get down! Get down!”

Everyone retreated downstairs. The fire burned unabated, intensifying, like a dragon licking and coiling around the building’s perimeter. The fire truck finally arrived, and a crowd of onlookers gathered in three layers. Amidst the shouting and screaming, two jets of water pressed down on the flames in the night.

Only then did Qin Fang feel his hands and feet weaken. Wearily, he retreated to the outer edge amid the pushing and shoving, looking up and suddenly seeing Si Teng standing in a dark corner not far away.

Qin Fang’s mind exploded. He practically rushed over, lowering his voice to her and seething, “You’ve gone too far! You burned down someone’s house! This could kill someone!”

“Third…”

Qin Fang couldn’t believe it. At this moment, she was still mentioning the third?

“Third, please remember, I’m a demon, unconstrained by any moral codes or laws.” A sneer slowly crept into Si Teng’s lips. “Is it excessive? Is it unacceptable? This is what demons do. Demons are meant to be feared, hated, and reviled. I don’t need people to like, love, or respect me. Just fear me, be terrified of me… that’s all.”