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ITTMB 143

Look at Me

“This was what was recorded last night.” Madam Qin placed a video camera on the table, she then played the video for Wen Yu.

In the video, the alarm clock by the bed showed that it was three in the morning, two people were sleeping on the bed. The man was snoring thunderously, Madam Qin who was beside him flipped over.

Visible to the naked eye, the bedsheet by Madam Qin’s side suddenly had a dent, as if a person had sat down beside her.


“Doctor Wen, do you think…” Madam Qin folded her arms as she asked Wen Yu, “…that that could have been my husband coming back to visit me?”

“Your husband?” Wen Yu gazed at her.

“My husband passed away five years ago, yesterday was his death anniversary.” Madam Qin leaned on the chair, saying with a tone full of reminiscence, “He was five years younger than me. He was a little timid, he would be terrified at the slightest sound, just like a rabbit. That’s why I had always been the breadwinner while he took care of the house, I made the decisions for every single thing.”

She sighed and continued, “After he passed away, I did not go looking around, other men cannot stand my bossy temper.”

Wen Yu listened to her quietly. Not everyone who visited the clinic was a patient. More often than not, they were customers, customers wouldn’t visit to cure themselves of illness, they just wanted to divulge their secrets to a psychiatrist who would not spill them out—or one could say, a wooden pillar that could not speak—pouring out their heart.


“Now…I have finally found a man who could accept me.” Madam Qin leaned forward and stared at Wen Yu as she asked, “He came back to send me his blessings, right? ”

Wen Yu knew what kind of answer she wanted to hear, he was happy to give it to her.

“That’s right,” Wen Yu said with a smile, “he came back to send you his blessings.”

Madam Qin cracked a smile of relief.

“…That’s great. I knew it, he would definitely send me his blessings.” She reached out and touched the video camera on the table, then looked up and smiled at Wen Yu. “Thank you, Doctor Wen. If there’s nothing else, I will go back now.”

Madam Qin slung the video camera over her back and walked out, another pair of legs trailed behind her.


“Dear,” the man wearing the rabbit mask followed behind her, stammering, “I have not died yet.”

“I was trapped in the movie theater in the past. Now that I have gotten out, we can continue to be together.”

“Dear, don’t abandon me.”

“I beg you, turn back and look at me, I am right here!”


The door opened, the two of them rubbed shoulders with another customer. The customer closed the door on their way in, then sat in front of Wen Yu, it was the video editor from the previous day. He seemed to have not slept well the night before as well, the eyebags under his eyes were even darker.

“This is what I recorded at the set yesterday, take a look.” He took out his phone, tapped it a few times and handed it over to Wen Yu, it was currently playing a video.

It was obviously a video that had been taken in secret, the camera was avoiding detection. The main character of the video was Ning Ning.

“Ever since the previous incident, I have been paying close attention to her.” The editor stared at the video. “She’s definitely not normal!”


Wen Yu looked at Ning Ning in the video, he did not feel that there was anything abnormal with her.

She was sitting quietly on a chair as she looked down and used her phone continuously, she was no different from the smartphone zombie nowadays.

…Hold on. Why did she look to her side every few minutes? There was no one beside her.

“One minute thirty second.” The editor pointed out.


At a minute and thirty, Ning Ning suddenly put down her phone and shouted in a direction, “Hey…that person over there, can you bring me a bottle of water?”

She didn’t seem to be thirsty. Once she took the bottle of water, she only took a sip for the sake of doing it before casting her gaze in a direction.

Her vision followed an unregulated line, going in a circle around the crew. It sometimes stopped on the lead actor, other times it stopped at the director beside him.

The camera followed where she was looking at. In the end, Wen Yu saw something inconceivable.

A veteran actor was catching a wink while huddled up on a chair in the corner of the room. Due to the fact that he was not an important character—on top of his position in the room—no one took any notice of him.


“If Ning Ning was not looking at him, I would not have been able to catch what was about to happen.” The editor forced out a laughter.

Wen Yu watched the screen closely.

On the screen, the veteran actor had his hands in his sleeves, his head was tilted up, leaning on the chair as he slept soundly.

His beard suddenly moved in an unnatural way.

Under the watchful eyes of Wen Yu and the editor, an invisible hand had braided up the veteran actor’s white beard.

The video ended, the two of them looked at each other.


“Doctor Wen,” The editor looked at Wen Yu with his panda eyes, “would you say that—that something dirty had gotten mixed into the crew? Also, Ning Ning…does she have yin yang eyes?”

What Ning Ning had was not yin yang eyes.

It was the special privilege of being a “customer”.

From when she had taken the first ticket, she was able to see the masked people, the masked people were also able to see her. She seemed to have eliminated the boundaries between them through the ticket in her hands.


In a hospital, Director Shi was lying on a bed with a stomach that looked like it was ten months pregnant. He looked at Ning Ning with a smile. “Ah, why are you here alone today? Did Little Yu not accompany you?”

“Am I not welcomed if I come alone?” Ning Ning said with a smile as she glanced at Shi Zhong Tang beside her.

“Ask him something for me,” Shi Zhong Tang touched Director Shi’s stomach, “whose child is this?”

How could Ning Ning ask Director Shi something like that? She asked euphemistically, “Director Shi, why does it feel like…compared to the last time I was here…you look more portly?”

Director Shi looked at his surroundings cautiously, then signaled for Ning Ning to come closer. He told her quietly, “Don’t tell anyone…I ordered takeout secretly, caramel pudding is so delicious hehehehe!”


“Call the police!” Shi Zhong Tang said coldly, “I spoke too quickly. Quickly report it to the doctors and nurses, let them take a look at this fellow, it would be best if they tape his mouth up, only take the tape off when it’s meal time.”

…How could Ning Ning suggest such a thing to the doctors! She said euphemistically, “Director Shi, this won’t do. Why don’t I share with you a vegetarian restaurant I cherish? This store uses vegetables to make all sorts of desserts. Not only are they delicious, they are not detrimental to the body.”

“Sure, send it to me.” Director Shi said, “That’s right, when are you getting married to Little Yu?”

Both Ning Ning and Shi Zhong Tang choked.


“Hey, hey, old man.” Shi Zhong Tang immediately knelt in front of him like a husky that had its food taken away from him, saying pitifully, “How can you do this? You are actually helping Little Yu poach her from me? I am your son too! You can’t favour him over me, sob sob!”

Due to the fact that she had pretended to be a couple with Wen Yu last time, this time Nng Ning could only say very awkwardly, “W—we aren’t at that stage yet…”

“What stage are you at?” Director Shi took out his phone. “Forget it, it’s not appropriate for me to ask you that, I will ask Little Yu directly.”

Don’t! Ning Ning shouted in her heart.


In the psychologist clinic, the phone on the table rang. Wen Yu picked it up, took a look and was surprised.

[Ning Ning called me Father-in-law, should I answer to that?]

…Ning Ning, what are you trying to do?! Wen Yu covered the phone and looked at the editor in front of him. “Apologies, I have an emergency to attend to, I need to go out and make a call.”

After he got the approval of the editor, he quickly rushed to the bathroom then gave Ning Ning a quick call. The phone rang for a long time before it finally connected. He said in a low voice, “Ning Ning, where are you now?”

Outside the ward, Ning Ning answered him as she walked, “I’m at the hospital.”

“Why…did you call my father ‘father-in-law’?”

“I didn’t! I swear to God, I didn’t!”


Once both of them hung up the call, Ning Ning’s forehead was full of sweat. As she wiped it, she saw Shi Zhong Tang bent over while laughing at the corner of her eyes. She got a little angry in the moment. “What are you laughing about!”

“You must be seeing things, I didn’t laugh.” Shi Zhong Tang was serious for a second, then, “Pfff—”

Ning Ning wanted to hit him, but she was afraid of attracting the attention of others, so she could only step on his feet repeatedly.

Shi Zhong Tang had experience dealing with the angry girl. He wrapped his arms around Ning Ning’s neck and brought her into his chest, he lowered his face that was covered with a jade mask. His lowered voice sounded even more attractive. “Such a good person like my little brother, why would you not choose him? …Is it because of me?”

“…You’re overthinking it.” Ning Ning broke free from him. She took a few steps away from him before looking back at him.

Shi Zhong Tang followed her with a smile, the two of them walked into the stairs access door one after another.


The hospital had both escalators and elevators, there was almost no one taking the stairs. Ning Ning slowly walked down the stairs. She did not turn her head as if she was talking to herself, asking, “Do you want your father and Wen Yu to be able to see you?”

“Hmm…” Shi Zhong Tang tilted his head and thought about it before he laughed. “Better not.”

Ning Ning stopped in her tracks, turning her head around to look at him.

“Because the price to be able to see me is too steep.” Shi Zhong Tang walked down the steps one by one. “Despair, paranoia, unreconciliation and having delusions of wanting to change their own fate…I don’t want them to feel any of those.”

A pair of hands reached over and hugged Ning Ning. He put his head by her ear and said, “…Having you is enough for me.”


There was rain this evening, fine rain was pattering the window, the air was quite cool, but maybe it was because of that that the body in his arms felt especially warm, like a bonfire on a rainy night, like the only warmth in the world.

“Mmn.” Ning Ning’s hand slowly climbed up his back, like a gentle dodder flower. “I will always look at you.”

People differed from one another, their mindsets were different. Shi Zhong Tang had his, others had their own.


“Boom!”

Thunder cracked outside the window, a flash of white light illuminated the photo frame in the wardrobe for an instant.

Madam Qin shuddered from the thunder. She turned her head to look at the man and woman in couple’s clothes in the photo frame.

“…It’s done!” The man on the telescopic ladder twisted the lightbulb. “Turn on the light and test it out.”

Madam Qin pressed the light switch a few times, but the light was still dark.


“This crappy lightbulb doesn’t work either.” The man got off the telescopic ladder, walking over and hoisting her up in a princess carry. “Forget it. In the darkness, it’s better for us to go on about our business.”

Madam Qin pretended to struggle a couple of times, she laughed and hammered his chest. “Seeing you like this, I knew nothing good would come of it.”

On the bed, the affairs between a man and a woman were happening.

The two of them were so engrossed that neither of them noticed a figure in front of the photo frame was slowly walking over, the rabbit mask was reflected on the photo frame—a snow white rabbit head, a pair of red eyes.


“Boom—”

Another crack of thunder, Madam Qin’s eyes widened, she looked over the man’s shoulder.

The flash of white light in that instant illuminated the dark room.

…It also illuminated the hammer that was floating behind the man’s back.

“Ah!!”

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4 thoughts on “ITTMB 143”

  1. I always think, the biggest bullshit in the world is the word “he must be happy for you”, “you should move on, I’m sure that’s what she want, she want you to be happy”

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