Chapter 2

Suddenly, a creak came from the kitchen.

A cupboard door swung ajar.

I turned toward the sound, and the blood drained from my face.

A pair of bloodless hands hung limply out of the cupboard.

On one finger was a black mole I knew all too well.

They were my mother's hands.

My eyes burned. Trembling all over, I approached the cupboard one step at a time.

The hands were utterly cold, already tinged with blue.

They didn't look like the hands of a living person.

Mom wasn't missing. She'd been murdered.

These two had killed her and hidden her here.

My first instinct was to run.

But when I turned, the man was walking toward me with a smile.

He glanced at the hands protruding from the cupboard, then looked straight at me.

“Momo, what are you doing here? Your eyes are so red. Have you been crying?”

His voice was full of concern, but I saw him take a sharp paring knife from the rack beside him.

He approached with the knife in his hand. Then, without warning, he raised it and thrust it at my eye.

The point stopped exactly a centimeter away.

A desperate instinct to survive took over. I could think of only one thing.

I couldn't let them know I could see.

I didn't so much as blink, as though I couldn't see the knife in front of my face. Only then did he slowly lower it.

“Momo, your mother says Ji Yan's coming. I'll make his favorite braised pork.”

Smiling, he set the knife down and opened the cupboard.

Mom's head rolled out, stopping in front of me, her bulging eyes fixed on mine.

05

I almost screamed.

But I had to pretend I couldn't see a thing. I smiled at him.

“Okay, Dad.”

What happened next filled me with even greater horror and rage.

He pulled the cupboard door open, and Mom's body tumbled out.

He picked it up and flung it onto the counter as though it were an animal carcass.

“I've got my hands on some top-quality black pork. Ji Yan's in for a treat tonight.”

I could only watch as he gave me a malicious smile, raised a cleaver, and brought it down.

My stomach churned. Grief and despair surged through me.

I tried to leave, but he called me back.

“Momo, give me a hand. This meat's a bit tough to cut. Hold it steady for me.”

Was he really that cruel, or was he trying to test my reaction?

There was no way I could watch him cut up my mother's body without betraying myself.

“Dad, I'm a little tired. I'd like to lie down.” I steadied my breathing and smiled.

“Go and rest, then. I'll take care of this,” he said, smiling too.

Once I was back in my room, I couldn't hold it in anymore. I broke down sobbing.

The mother I loved so much was dead, and I'd just watched her body being dismembered.

Dad might well have been killed too.

I took a deep breath and called the police.

I told them what had happened and gave them the villa's address.

They told me to lock my bedroom door and stay inside. They would be here within half an hour.

As soon as I hung up, I locked the door.

My phone suddenly rang.

Ji Yan.

“Momo, are you all right?”

“I'm fine.”

The moment I heard his voice, I fell apart.

“But I saw my mother's body.”

He was silent for a moment. “Momo, try to stay calm. I know you're devastated, but the most important thing right now is to keep yourself safe.”

He was right. This wasn't the time to grieve.

The police wouldn't arrive for another half hour. I had to stay alive until then.

Suddenly, I heard footsteps coming upstairs.

The man's voice came from outside my door. “Momo, the braised pork's ready. Come down and taste it for me. See if I've seasoned it right.”

Rage blazed through me.

I stared at the door.

“I'm not very hungry right now, Dad.”

Then the woman's voice joined his.

“Momo, come out and let me massage your eyes. The doctor said we should do it more often to help your circulation.”

“Mom, I'd like to be alone for a while,” I said tensely.

A key slid into the lock.

She'd had a spare key to my room made.

As the handle turned, I scrambled under the bed.

Someone had covered the bed boards with lines of writing in black ink.

Before I could make them out, the door creaked open.

“Momo, where are you? Aren't you a little old to be playing hide-and-seek with Mom and Dad?” Her voice sounded horribly strange.

I clamped a hand over my mouth and held my breath, not daring to make a sound.

The wardrobe opened.

So did the bathroom door.

I curled up in the corner, desperately praying they wouldn't find me.

My prayers did no good.

Two expressionless faces appeared under the bed. Together, they broke into eerie smiles.

06

“Found you, Momo.”

I fought to swallow the scream rising in my throat.

“Mom, remember how we used to play hide-and-seek when I was little? I missed those days, so I thought I'd play with you and Dad.” I smiled as I felt my way out.

She looked at me and suddenly sighed.

“Oh, you. I still remember the time you hid in the pigsty. You were filthy when I found you.”

I was stunned.

That really had happened when I was a child.

How did she know?

After Mom found me in the pigsty, I'd run a fever for a whole day and night. She'd carried me on her back to the hospital in town.

“You came down with a fever afterward. We were poor back then and didn't have a car. Your father was away on business, so I had to carry you to the hospital in town. You threw up all down my back.” She chuckled, her eyes nostalgic.

My nails dug into my palms.

She had every last detail right.

When I said nothing, she came over and stroked my head.

“Momo, Ji Yan really went too far this time. You're the only reason I've been civil to him. But your father and I both hope you'll divorce him.”

“Our daughter is such a good girl. How could a scoundrel like Ji Yan deserve you?”

I stared at her. “Ji Yan? What did he do?”

The woman and the man exchanged a glance.

“Momo,” she asked cautiously, “have you forgotten what happened before the accident? You went to the airport to see Ji Yan and saw him coming out with a flight attendant in his arms. You were so upset that you ran out, and then you were hit by a car.”

“You were so strange when you woke up. You didn't seem to remember any of it. We were afraid of upsetting you, so we never brought it up. We just pretended we didn't know.”

My legs gave way, and I sank onto the bed.

Was that why I'd had the accident?

No. I couldn't believe them.

They were the ones who had murdered my parents.

“You're not my parents. I saw everything,” I said coldly.

I was done pretending.

Joy flooded the woman's face. She rushed over and took my face in her hands. “You can see? Oh, sweetheart, that's wonderful. I'm so happy!”

I shoved her away. “Stop pretending to be my mother! You killed her! You even used her body to make braised pork!”

The man stared at me in bewilderment. “Momo, what are you talking about? Your mother's right here. What body? That's a terrible thing to say.”

“You're still going to pretend?”

I rushed downstairs and into the kitchen.

But it was spotless. Not a trace of blood.

Mom's head wasn't on the floor either. In its place lay a huge pig's head.

“I had this pig brought in from the countryside yesterday. It's to help build your strength back up,” the man said helplessly.

I tore open every cupboard in the kitchen, frantic.

Mom's head had simply vanished.

07

The woman suddenly burst into tears.

“The doctor warned us you might have lingering problems after the accident, but we didn't take it seriously. What's happened to you? We're right here!”

I turned and stared numbly at those two unfamiliar faces.

“What proof do you have that you're my parents?”

She wiped her eyes and took out her phone with trembling hands.

I noticed that she, too, had a black mole on her finger, exactly like Mom's.

She showed me the pictures on her phone.

In them, I was leaning close to the two of them, smiling happily.

The dates were from three months ago, before I lost my sight.

I went pale and backed away, unable to believe what I was seeing.

“This is all Ji Yan's fault! If it weren't for him, our daughter would never have ended up like this!” Veins stood out on the man's forehead as he raged.

I stared at them blankly.

Was I really ill?

Were they my real parents? Had I been hallucinating, convincing myself they weren't?

“Mom, Dad, I need to go to my room and clear my head.”

I had to find out the truth.

This time, they didn't try to stop me.

The man nodded heavily.

In a daze, I went upstairs.