Atlas Studios

  Atlas Studios

  The moment Fang Yuanyuan came back, she collapsed onto the sofa and began to order her elder cousin around, not moving even a finger.

  “Sis, hurry and get me a cup of water, I’m dying of thirst!”


  At that moment, Xiang Wan had an apron on and was making dinner in the kitchen. When she heard Yuanyuan’s voice as if she was ordering a maid around, she wished she could kick her to the outer space.

  “There’s no young missy in my house! Don’t order me around when you get home!”


  “Oh, you sure this is your house to begin with? Will you help me or not?”


  “Fine!”


  Xiang Wan snorted and placed the water on the coffee table.

  “Drink up, young missy!”


  “Heheh! Thank you.” Fang Yuanyuan picked up the glass of water and drank more than half of the water before puffing a sigh of satisfaction. “You’re still the best! You’re the nicest to me! You’re not my cousin, you’re totally my real sister.”


  No matter what happened or how awkward Xiang Wan could be at times, she would still help her ultimately. This was the reason why Fang Yuanyuan loved to hang out with Xiang Wan—she was honest, straightforward, and loyal. Xiang Wan handled things in a way that could make one comfortable. She was someone who knew when to stop.

  The kitchen lights were on.

  Fang Yuanyuan saw the lights and closed her eyes. She relaxed herself by lying flat on the sofa, relieving her work stress accumulated during the day.

  “It smells so nice. Sis, what kind of delicious food are you making me today?”


  “Who’s making you delicious food? I want to eat them myself too.”


  “Haha! Don’t say such hurtful things?” Fang Yuanyuan sighed and suddenly talked about life. “Why do you think women need a man in their lives? We are able to earn and spend our own money. We buy our own bags, lipsticks; we even cook our own meals and fix the toilet bowls. We depend on ourselves for everything. By finding a man, we actually restrain ourselves, we get heartbroken and worry all the time, isn’t that self-torture?”


  “Hurhur!”


  Xiang Wan lifted the lid of a cooking pot and filled a bowl of soup for Fang Yuanyuan.

  “Wait for it to cool a little before you drink.”


  “Wow! It’s my favorite beauty and slimming tonic soup? Sis, I love you, I love you so much.”


  “What happened to you today?”


  “Nothing?” Fang Yuanyuan stroked the soup bowl with a finger, but it was so hot she immediately touched her ear lobe. “A girl at the editorial department fell out of love and cried the whole day. I felt vexed and suddenly realized that I loved you the most.”


  “Nah, cut it out, you always say this whenever you’re out of love. If you have time to say you love me, why not prove it with your actions? Hurry and help me setup the table for dinner.”


  Fang Yuanyuan pouted and got up lazily from the sofa.

  “Geez, there’s really nothing much to talk to a female otaku like you.”


  “What? Who’s the female otaku?” Flames of anger shot from Xiang Wan’s eyes. “Don’t eat what I’ve cooked tonight!”


  “I’m wrong, sis.” Fang Yuanyuan giggled and slapped her mouth lightly. “How could I say my cousin who’s as pretty as a fairy is a female otaku? It should be old virgin!”


  “Fang, Yuan, Yuan! I’m going to kill you!”


  “Help! Detective Bai……”


  Xiang Wan felt surprised and dismayed at the same time.

  “What’s this got to do with him?”


  “Hahaha!”


  Both of them joked around, and soon enough, the table was cleared.

  In principle, Xiang Wan liked to cook but she did not like to clean up the kitchen. The kitchen was in such a mess because of her sudden urge to whip up a good meal. At the moment, it was hard to find a place to walk. All the “battle marks” in the kitchen made Fang Yuanyuan felt numb all over.

  “Sis, I beg of you, don’t ever cook again in future.”


  “You’re responsible for washing the dishes and cleaning up the kitchen anyway. Why shouldn’t I cook? This is perfect! Sumptuous! Let’s eat!”


  Xiang Wan removed the apron, ignoring Yuanyuan. She sat down, grinning as she filled her bowl with rice.

  Fang Yuanyuan gave her a stare when she turned her head suddenly. “Which family’s kid is crying?”


  Xiang Wan listened carefully as she heard the familiar voice of the little boy who was crying at the top of his voice.

  “It’s the fourth floor kid, I met them when I came back. His mom is at home, we need not worry about it.”


  She thought that since the boy’s mother was at home and it was dinner time, there was no need for her to meddle with their affairs.

  Both of them filled their bowls of rice and ate their meal. Xiang Wan talked about her plot with Fang Yuanyuan.

  Around 10 or more minutes later, the kid gradually stopped crying.

  Xiang Wan furrowed her eyebrows. She suddenly felt out of sorts as she kept recalling the images of the expressionless face of her fourth floor neighbor.

  After dinner, Fang Yuanyuan washed the dishes while Xiang Wan sat in front of her laptop.

  As if under the influence of the creepy thoughts, she made a bold move by making her female protagonist link up the “Case of the Fountain Goddess” together with the earlier murder case of “Charming Tycoon Killed by His Car”.……

  “Recently, Rong Xiaonuan had been having the same dreams every night. In the dream, the path that she always took was filled with deep, black holes that no one knew how deep it was. A soul of a dead person was hidden in every such hole. Every time she walked past a hole, a case would be unlocked. She seemed to be related to the development of the events but was unable to control it. She could only look on as each black hole gets activated and the soul within slowly appeared, growling and bawling ghastly in the dark night, saying, ‘there is no justice in the world’, ‘the order of the world is brutal’, and ‘the ugliest is the human nature’.……”


  “Rong Xiaonuan was alarmed, terrified and helpless. She treaded carefully along the path as she stepped on the barren land of darkness, trying her best not to step on the black holes. But the black holes keep appearing in front of her, relentlessly. She got extremely tired but was unable to stop anything. As if guided by destiny, she could only search for the cause of the reason why the black holes were activated……”


  She elevated her story.

  To that of where conspiracy and darkness pervaded.

  A simple murder case and a suicide case turned into a conspiracy which was made up with numerous corpses.

  As she wrote her story, she got completely absorbed in it. She was progressing toward the direction of the conspiracy as though she followed the smell of it. Gradually, she seemed to be in a trance, unable to ascertain between her story and the reality.

  She was writing her story; in her story, the female protagonist, Rong Xiaonuan, was also writing her story. In Rong Xiaonuan’s story, her female lead was also writing the same story……

  It kept repeating and repeating.

  The case within the novel, the novel within the case.

  There was a story within her novel, and a novel within the story.

  All of Xiang Wan’s senses, including her sixth sense, were at work. Her nerves were tense, and the sounds of the keyboard continued to fill the room. It was as if she had entered another dimension of her own as she failed to notice when Fang Yuanyuan entered the bedroom.

  “Sis?” Fang Yuanyuan called her.

  Xiang Wan did not respond. The light emitting from the laptop screen made her seem as if having an ashen face.

  Fang Yuanyuan took a look at her and placed a plate of fruits on the table. Then she got onto the bed and played with her mobile phone.

  Subsequently, Fang Yuanyuan did a lot of things.

  She bathed, blow dried her hair, and watched television shows, but Xiang Wan still did not respond……

  Xiang Wan wrote that chapter till 11:00 p.m.

  The long hours were like trekking, and she was completely caught up in her story.

  When she turned around, Fang Yuanyuan had already fallen asleep.

  The plate of cut fruits on the computer table were totally untouched.

  Xiang Wan was a bit lost. She felt an unusual sense of strangeness to what happened in reality as if she had never experienced this before.

  Writing a book really required a great amount of brain power.

  No wonder there were writers who suffered from mental illness and seeked psychiatric help……

  After Xiang Wan uploaded her chapter, she would check out her reviews and comments page as per usual.

  The recent chapters for the past two days were catered to the female audience, and her readers were especially active in leaving comments.

  “When will we see holding hands and kissing scenes?”


  “Does Detective Fang really like Rong Xiaonuan? I feel like he is so proud, arrogant, unreasonable, and doesn’t know how to treat others nicely. I’m worried for Nuannuan.”


  “You may feel good to act aloof, but it’s going to be a hell lot of difficulty to win her heart back. I’m dedicating this sentence to Detective Fang Yelan.”


  “Gu Yusheng obviously likes Rong Xiaonuan more. Why did she want to make her life difficult to go near someone who treats her neither hot nor cold? I don’t like the female lead. She’s not capable and likes to create drama……”


  “I feel that this Gu Yusheng is not so simple? Could he be the big boss behind the whole thing?”


  The comments section were lively as readers posted all kinds of comments. As Xiang Wan read these comments, she was grinning and laughing in front of her laptop like a moron.

  This could probably be the happiest moment of being an author.

  Writing a book was similar to a process of looking for the same kind of people like her. For Xiang Wan, she would treat those who liked her story as her confidants.

  “Be wild and aggressive, bring out your inner demons as though you’re crazy! Turn the world in your novel into purgatory…… Hahaha……!”


  Xiang Wan felt as though she was struck by lightning!

  The unique style of the comment locked Xiang Wan’s nerves.

  The ID whose appearances could never be predicted and would always show up suddenly to train her nerves.

  Was this really just an ordinary reader who was discontent with life and venting online as what Bai Muchuan had said?

  Xiang Wan looked at the time on her laptop out of reflex.

  00:00……

  Her eyelid twitched.

  It was midnight at 12 o’clock sharp.

  , Xiang Wan told herself.

  She turned off her laptop and went for a bath.

  The mirror in the bathroom reflected an exhausted face—there were two big eyebags under her bloodshot eyes…… She was scared silly by that image of herself and covered the mirror with a towel.

  She seemed to lack vitality these days, and even the osmanthus sachets were not able to be of help.

  , she thought.

  After a good bath, Xiang Wan was about to hop onto her bed when a sharp police siren was heard coming from outside the window.

  It was late at night in the city, so a sound like that would undoubtedly cause some anxiety to those who heard it.

  Xiang Wan opened her window to take a look outside with her damp hair hanging loose.

  She saw police cars and ambulance driving into the alley, directly coming toward the residential block where Xiang Wan was staying.

  Xiang Wan could no longer sleep upon seeing that sight. Standing by the window, she pricked up her ears.

  Soon enough, there was a commotion coming from downstairs.

  Neighbors who were awakened opened their windows and started to talk loudly, some of them even shouted.

  Immediately after that, she heard a series of flurried footsteps climbing up the stairs of her residential block.

  The police knocked on the door then picked the lock.

  Xiang Wan plucked up enough courage to open the door and walked down to stairs so that she could join the crowd to find out what happened……

  A group of uniformed police officers and medical personnel were at the fourth floor outside a particular unit.

  They had already opened the door, and the medical personnel carried two people out of the apartment—an adult and a child.

  “Quick! Get them to the ambulance.”


  “Open the windows! Check the safety of the natural gas valve and controls.”


  “This is so out of the blue. Why did she burn charcoal at home together with her kid?”


  “Who knows? She seldom socialized with anyone, no one’s familiar with her.”


  “Luckily, their neighbor next to them smelt something weird and reported to the police. Otherwise, things could be worse……”


  “Their current situation doesn’t seem any better, either. They seem to be dead already.”


  Xiang Wan listened to the conversations of the neighbors staying downstairs. A sudden chill filled her heart, as if it had fallen into an ice cellar.

  During dinner time, both herself and Fang Yuanyuan heard the crying sounds of the child. That meant something must have happened then.

  However, she had chosen not to go down.

  If something were to happen to that child……

  Xiang Wan suddenly dared not to think of the times the kid had called her big sister.

  Why would there be a mother who could bring herself to kill her own child?

  Xiang Wan’s head was in a chaotic mess, and the image of the woman’s cold face suddenly came to mind.

  She huffed a breath and looked up at the greyish skies.

  The police cars and ambulance soon went away, and the neighborhood gradually quietened down.

  Xiang Wan was standing on the dark stairway. When the wind blew into the stairway, it seemed to add a glimmer of fear for the night that seemed to be stained with blood……

  Xiang Wan had a heavy heart and was preparing to go back upstairs when a hand appeared on her shoulder.

  Gently, the hand patted on her shoulder.

  “Ah!” Xiang Wan gave a scream and turned around.

  “Ah!” Fang Yuanyuan screamed as well as she was frightened by her.

  The two of them looked at each other for a few seconds before they finally calmed down.

  “Sis, what are you doing? It’s in the middle of the night, and you screamed so suddenly as if you’ve seen a ghost or something……”


  “Why do you sneak up behind me then?”


  “I came out to see what happened as I didn’t see you when I got awakened by the commotion.”


  “Let’s go, there’s nothing more to see. Go back!”


  Xiang Wan held Fang Yuanyuan’s arm and they went back up together.

  Step by step, they climbed up the stairs as if they were stepping on black holes in the dark night. At that instant, she thought of the plot that she had updated earlier—Rong Xiaonuan’s dream.

  At this moment, she was exactly like Rong Xiaonuan.

  The black holes were being activated. The same thing kept happening, and she was powerless to stop it from happening……

  If something were to happen to the mother and son from the fourth floor, wasn’t it another case that involved deaths?

  “Do I really have the ‘Conan effect’?”


  Xiang Wan sighed helplessly while Fang Yuanyuan stopped suddenly to look at her in a peculiar manner.

  “Conan, something bad happened.”


  “What happened?” She was actually frightened now.

  “Did you bring the keys out earlier?” Fang Yuanyuan asked with a bitter face.

  “.……”


  Nope.

  When Xiang Wan came out of her apartment just now, the thought of bringing the keys out had never crossed her mind.

  “We’re finished. I didn’t bring it out as well. What should we do?”


  Two women in their pajamas was standing in a corridor looking at the tightly shut door of their apartment. Both of them glanced at each other helplessly……