Gao Ming closed the bathroom door and turned on the shower. The mist blurred the mirror. His body slowly disappeared into the mist. The warm shower washed away the grime on his skin. He allowed himself to enjoy the sensation and cleared his mind.
“Everything is predestined. Nothing can be done by humans to change it.” When his consciousness stopped suppressing his instinct, Gao Ming heard a wisp of a voice. It didn’t echo in his mind but was carved in his bones. “Gao Ming, we gave you this name for a special reason… Your parents left early in life. After your grandmother passed away, you would be on your own. You have to look after yourself. You need to look after yourself.”
A jolt of pain coursed through his heart. Gao Ming turned to the blurry mirror. Through the mirror, his reflection changed. He looked thin and alone. Every inch of his skin was covered in black characters. There were blessings and curses. These words were deeply carved into his skin because Gao Ming didn’t want to forget them. Gao Ming tried his best to read them, but he failed.
His breathing became urgent. The mist gained a palpable pressure. Gao Ming’s chest heaved up and down. He slowly suffocated as he tipped towards the mirror uncontrollably.
“Gao Ming? Gao Ming!” Liu Yi knocked on the door multiple times before kicking the fragile door down. She ignored Gao Ming’s state of undress and helped him up, “Is it too hot in here?”
“I’m fine.” Gao Ming’s face was pale. Shards of mirror were scattered on the small sink. The thick mist invoked fear in his body as if he was once fully swallowed by the mist. Liu Yi wrapped Gao Ming up in a towel and helped him to the bed. She dried his face and hair before going back to the bathroom to clean up the floor.
“You should change into your pyjama, or you’ll catch a cold.” Liu Yi poked her head out of the bathroom. Her face was etched with concern. Her beloved just escaped from death, but when he returned home, he felt like such a stranger to her.
Gao Ming’s trembling fingers slowly calmed down. Gao Ming had no idea why he was so scared of the mist. He tried to recall his reflection in the mirror. “Have I once tried to carve those things on my flesh?”
“Sorry that I can’t help you much.” The male pyjama smelled of detergent. Liu Yi had been waiting for Gao Ming to come back, so this put pressure on Gao Ming to do things for her.
“The fact that you’re back is already the greatest present for me.” Liu Yi took out the hairdryer and sat beside Gao Ming.
Gao Ming didn’t dwell on this. He picked up the hairdryer and helped dry Liu Yi’s hair.
Liu Yi closed her eyes. This was a common thing, but she had imagined it many times. “Isn’t this not so bad?”
The night darkened. The two lay in bed. Liu Yi looked at Gao Ming’s confused face, and she smiled, “I’ll place the blanket in the middle. Both of us should catch some sleep. Don’t focus on the unimportant things.”
The lights in Room 401 shut down. Gao Ming couldn’t sleep at all, but it was the opposite for Liu Yi. It was the best sleep she had ever had in a long time.
The clock hand moved around the circle again and again. Gao Ming heard the sound of sleep talking. Liu Yi lay beside him, fully unaware of her surroundings. Her face was as innocent as a child.
“Is this the real her?”
The alarm rang at 6.50 am. Liu Yi woke up and realised one of her legs pressed on Gao Ming’s tense back. The blanket between them had long since been kicked away by her. Gao Ming was forced into the corner of the bud.
Seeing how Gao Ming was still ‘asleep’, Liu Yi gingerly got up to wash her face and teeth. Then, she went to prepare breakfast. Her plan was to finish everything before 7.30 am. In her casual suit, she nudged Gao Ming lightly, “The rice is in the cooker. Remember to eat it. Don’t exert yourself before you recover.”
The door closed. Gao Ming’s eyes turned clear. He immediately sat up and opened his laptop. He cleaned himself up quickly. He was going to attend a few online interviews. After confirming his goals and simulating some interview sessions, Gao Ming waited until 9 am. The video was connected. Gao Ming’s first choice was Mo Tu Tech. The company offered normal benefits, but Gao Ming seemed to have encountered them in the nightmare before.
There were a few other interviewees in his batch. Everyone was given five minutes. Gao Ming focused on the direction of horror games. When it was his turn, he began with confidence.
“When the players are in a dangerous situation, and they don’t have the resources and abilities to handle the threat, the anxiety and helplessness will slowly corrupt them.
“Fear is an emotion that can grow on its own. We only need to trigger the players’ imagination, and we’ll be able to slowly twist the truth to make them feel fear both physically and mentally.”
Gao Ming straightened himself before the camera. Looking at the three interviewers, he noticed two of them had already started flipping through other people’s resumes. The third was sipping coffee.
“To create the top horror games, I’ve obtained a professional degree in psychiatry and deepened my research into the weakness of the human heart.”
Since no one had responded, Gao Ming took out his phone and clicked on a simple game icon: “This is a horror game program that I’ve made. It combines many different horror and supernatural events. I can forward it to you.”
The interviewer put down his coffee and looked at Gao Ming.
“Every horror story has its own special rules and solutions. It starts from an oppressive rental house and slowly progresses to a city of horrors. For the first scene, I designed a ghost mother. When the person closest to you becomes unfamiliar…” Gao Ming didn’t continue because he saw the interviewer didn’t accept his files. Instead, he picked up the nail cutter.
“I know your passion for horror games, but can you tell me how we can earn money from this game?” An interviewer asked seriously, “Where can our advertisers put their ads? What is the game’s payment structure? What is the system that will lure the players to want to drop money in this game?”
“Do we really need a cash shop in a horror game?” Gao Ming tried his best to sell a story, but the other party was only thinking about money.
“Does the crematorium burn bodies for free? Does the cemetery give away burial plots because of someone’s love for the macabre? Snap out of it. You even need to burn paper money during the Hungry Ghost Festival.”