The Young Girl's Chronicles of Demon-Slaying

Chapter 3: The Recovery Site

No way! He’d barely lain down when Fang Heng suddenly sat up straight in his hospital bed. He couldn’t stay in the hospital like this any longer. He had to head back to that park while there wasn’t much time that had passed to check on the situation—perhaps he could find some clues as to why he’d turned into a little girl. A whole night had already passed; he didn’t know if there were any traces left. At the thought of this, he grew anxious. He immediately got out of bed, crept to the door of his hospital room, opened it, and poked his head out to look left and right down the hallway. It was quiet outside; there weren’t many people, but there were enough that, as long as he acted naturally, no one should notice him. He stepped out of the ward, closed the door behind him, and then, acting as natural as possible, walked down the hallway toward the elevator. He was still wearing his hospital gown, but even if someone spotted him, he could simply say he’d been feeling cooped up in the ward and had come out for a walk. Just as he’d expected, even when a nurse spotted him, she paid him no mind. He strolled leisurely to the elevator doors and was just about to press the button when he suddenly stopped. He remembered what the female nurse had said earlier—that the police would come to question him. They must be on their way by now, right? They’d surely take the elevator, so if he took it too, wouldn’t he run right into them? So, he couldn’t take the elevator. He glanced over—directly across from the elevator doors were the stairs. With an elevator available, no one would take the stairs—it must be perfectly safe. Without hesitation, he walked away from the elevator and headed down the stairs. Fortunately, he wasn’t on a very high floor—just the tenth—and he ran all the way down, hopping and skipping without stopping. By the time he reached the first floor, he couldn’t help but be a little surprised at how fit this little girl was; she’d run all the way down from such a height without breaking a sweat or even getting out of breath. Could this little girl be a professional athlete? Even in his former physical condition, running down from the tenth floor without stopping would have left him gasping for breath—yet now, he was only slightly out of breath. However, there was no time to dwell on such things. He reached the exit but didn’t go out immediately; instead, he peeked out cautiously. After just one glance, he quickly pulled his head back—two female police officers in uniform were standing right in front of the elevator doors, waiting for the elevator. This made him breathe a sigh of relief. Thank goodness he’d reacted quickly and come down early—otherwise, if he’d run into the police, how would he have explained his situation? That he’d seen a girl jump into the lake, jumped in to save her, only to discover she was a ghost, nearly lost his own life, and woke up as a little girl? If he said that out loud, people would probably think he was mentally ill! If they really sent him to a mental hospital and forced him to take medication, he’d end up with a mental illness even if he didn’t have one to begin with! He hid behind the door for a moment, then peeked out just as the elevator doors closed. He quickly stepped out of the stairwell and sprinted toward the hospital’s main entrance. Once he was outside the main gate, he realized the surroundings looked very familiar—wasn’t this the hospital near Azure Park? This hospital was less than 500 meters in a straight line from the company dormitory where he lived, and one kilometer in a straight line from Azure Park. The three locations were almost in a straight line, with the company dormitory sandwiched right between them. Being in a familiar place made things easier. Without slowing down for a moment—still in his slippers and wearing a hospital gown—he sprinted toward the park, drawing the attention of many passersby along the way. He wondered if they might suspect he was mentally unstable. No matter how the passersby looked at him, he didn’t care in the least; all he could think about was getting to the park as quickly as possible, where perhaps there were still clues as to why he had turned into a little girl. As he ran, he realized that this little girl’s physical condition was far superior to that of an ordinary person—even his own body, despite his regular exercise in the past, probably couldn’t match it. He ran nearly a kilometer at what was practically a sprint—he could already see the fence surrounding Azure Park—yet his breathing remained relatively steady. This was simply unbelievable! Could this little girl be Superman? Fang Heng thought to himself, but he didn’t give it much thought. Even if it really were a superhuman body, it wasn’t his own—his body was probably still lying at the bottom of the park’s artificial lake. As he ran, he turned his head to the left. Through the iron fence, he could see the scenery inside Azure Park. It was still just past 8:00 a. m. Logically, there shouldn’t be many people in the park at this hour. Yet now, through the gaps in the man-made grove, he could faintly make out a large crowd gathered by the lake. What were they looking at? Was there something worth gathering around? Curious and deeply suspicious that it might have something to do with him, he ran even faster, practically rushing through the park gates like a gust of wind, and continued toward the artificial lake. Before long, he arrived at the lake’s edge. Standing at the railing, I saw several kayaks bobbing on the surface of the lake, each with a person standing alone, gazing out at the water as if waiting for something. “What’s going on here?” There were many onlookers around, and one of them—who, like Fang Heng, had arrived later—was puzzled by the scene and began asking the people nearby. “You don’t know?” “No, I don’t. Did something happen?” “A little girl was rescued from this lake yesterday.” “I heard about that. Wasn’t she taken to the hospital?” “Yeah! But a lot of people are saying that it wasn’t just the little girl who jumped into the lake yesterday—there were also a man and a woman.” “Didn’t they recover them yesterday?” “They searched yesterday, but didn’t find them, so they’re continuing the search today.” “Oh!” After hearing this explanation, the man nodded in realization, having finally understood. Not only did the other person understand, but Fang Heng understood as well. He realized that when they spoke of “a man and a woman,” the man was him, and the woman was the female ghost who had jumped into the lake. In fact, many people had seen him and the girl jump into the lake yesterday, yet the two young people pulled from the water at the scene were actually a thirteen-year-old girl. Such a strange occurrence immediately sparked a flurry of speculation among the onlookers. When the police arrived to investigate, many people swore to the officers that they had indeed seen a man and a woman jump into the lake with their own eyes—yet no one had noticed the little girl when she fell into the water. If only one or two people had said this, it could have been dismissed as a false report or a rumor, but at least twenty-odd people made the same claim—and every single one of them insisted they had seen it with their own eyes. After all, the fence surrounding the artificial lake was barely waist-high, so it couldn’t have blocked anyone’s view; many people had seen the incident from a distance. Even though relatively few people saw the girl jump into the lake first, many witnessed the boy jumping in. The police found the situation somewhat peculiar, so they called in a professional search-and-rescue team, leading to the search operations conducted yesterday and today. However, yesterday’s search around the site of the jump turned up nothing. Today, the search is expanding outward from the center of the site. If no body is recovered today, it will essentially be concluded that the incident never happened. This is probably the most unfair situation the onlookers have ever faced, isn’t it? After all, a man and a woman did indeed jump into the lake one after the other—only they didn’t know that the woman was a ghost, and the man had already been rescued, though not only had his body shrunk, but his gender had also changed from male to female. No one would believe such a fantastical story if it were told. Fang Heng stood among the crowd, watching silently. The scene of the recovery operation wasn’t a pretty sight, but the onlookers were all thoroughly engrossed; no one paid any attention to the sadness of a little girl in a hospital gown and flip-flops. He stood watching for a moment, then sat down on a stone bench along the lakeside path, determined to wait there. No matter what, he wanted an answer—to see if they would actually recover his body. If they did, it might prove that he had taken over someone else’s body. If not, then the situation would be somewhat complicated. It was perfectly normal that the female ghost’s body hadn’t been recovered, but why hadn’t his been found either? Perhaps there was no body of his to begin with—and the little girl’s body he was currently inhabiting had actually been transformed from his original male form? But regardless of the situation, perhaps once the prayer beads in his hand regained their power, he could transform back again? Fang Heng sat on a stone bench, staring blankly into the distance, unsure whether he was looking at the lake or at the people on the raft in the water. The crowd of onlookers watching the recovery efforts was constantly shifting. Some had been watching for a long time; seeing no progress, they grew bored and left, while others had just heard the news and rushed over, eagerly joining the crowd as they asked those around them what was happening. Some noticed the little girl sitting on the stone bench, dressed in a distinctive way. Some gave her a few extra glances; others glanced at her briefly before looking away; some kept staring; and still others would look for a few moments, turn away, and then turn back to look again after a while. However, regardless of whether these people paid attention to him or what expressions their gazes revealed, he paid them no mind whatsoever. He simply sat there blankly, staring—from morning until noon, and then from noon until afternoon. It wasn’t until the Sun was about to set—the search party had come up empty-handed and begun to wrap up their work, and the park was filling with more people out for walks and exercise—that Fang Heng seemed to snap out of it. With a blank expression, he got off the stone bench and left the park the way he had come. It seemed there was no hope of returning to normal. Was he really going to live like this for the rest of his life? He didn’t know how long he’d been walking, but the sky gradually darkened, streetlights came on, and colorful neon signs spun with shifting lights. When he suddenly snapped back to reality, he realized he had inadvertently ended up at the small Square near the company dormitory. Every day on their commute, those living in the company dorms had to pass through this small Square—it was a necessary route. He hesitated for a moment, but eventually sat down under a tree in the Square, watching the passersby on the street. He looked lost, unsure of what to do.