Chocolate

The weight of the satchel slamming against his face, the pain in Yang Na’s scream—Li Huowang felt it all in his own chest.

Suffering the same agony, he reached out and wrapped his arms around the girl in front of him.

“Nana! Don’t. Please!”

Feeling the long-missed embrace, the frantic Yang Na gradually stilled. She rested her head against Li Huowang’s shoulder and wept silently.

In that moment, they were back on the school rooftop from years ago, holding each other stupidly like that until dawn.

Time passed, minute by minute. Yang Na leaned against Li Huowang, reluctant to let go. She just wanted this moment to last a little longer.

But soon she felt his hands press against her waist, starting to push her away.

She tried to hold on tighter, refusing to be separated.

She wasn’t strong enough. In the end, he pushed her back.

Li Huowang looked at her red-rimmed eyes. He opened his mouth, then stopped, his face twisted with difficulty.

After a long deliberation, he finally spoke, his voice flat. “Nana, promise me something, okay? If one day I’m not here anymore… you have to live well.”

“No.” Her answer was steel.

“You don’t get to decide my choices. My thoughts are my own! What I choose has nothing to do with you!”

“If you never wake up, I’ll wait forever!”

She grabbed her backpack, spun around, and stormed toward the door.

Just as she reached the threshold, her thin figure stopped.

She hesitated for a few seconds, then turned back. Her footsteps tapped across the floor to his bedside. She reached into her satchel, pulled out a small bag of chocolate, and shoved it at him, her face cold.

Li Huowang looked at the delicate bag, then at her. “What’s the date today? Why are you giving me chocolate?”

Her eyelashes still wet with tears, Yang Na clearly didn’t want to answer. She tore open the packaging with furious determination.

She fished out a single liqueur chocolate, pinched his cheeks with zero gentleness—not at all ladylike—and jammed it into his mouth.

The sweetness spread across his tongue. Li Huowang smiled. “Nana… what are you doing?”

He didn’t try to argue anymore. If this was all an illusion, then arguing was pointless anyway.

After all, once he crossed over, he couldn’t choose anything about what happened on that side anymore.

That smile of his broke the tension in the ward. The atmosphere eased.

“Stop smiling! You’re not allowed to smile!” Yang Na slung her satchel onto his shoulder.

“Ow! Easy! That hurts!” Li Huowang winced, clutching his shoulder.

“Tch. You can’t take a little bump, but you didn’t feel a thing when you took a bullet to the face? Take a look at yourself now. What do you look like?”

She pulled a small mirror from her bag—the kind for contact lenses—and shoved it in front of his face with obvious distaste.

It was the first time Li Huowang had seen his own face here.

In the hallucination, he was still that inexperienced young man, but a scar split his youthful face in two.

The vicious scar ran from the upper left to the lower right, cutting across his entire face. It had completely changed the air about him.

Li Huowang reached up and touched it. The rough texture of scar tissue under his fingers.

He knew where this scar came from. It was from that day in the kindergarten. The sniper round had grazed him.

Heh. This hallucination is pretty logical, he thought to himself.

The little mirror was pulled back. Yang Na frowned slightly at him.

“What are you thinking? That I’m disgusted by your face? I’m not even disgusted by a mental patient. You think I care about this?”

Li Huowang shook his head with a faint smile. He reached for the chocolate bag on the white bedsheet, pulled one out, and popped it into his mouth.

Then he fished out another and held it out to her. “Have one. I remember you used to love snacks.”

Yang Na shook her head. “You eat them. I can buy more anytime I want outside. You… in here, it’s not so easy to get something like this.”

Li Huowang nodded. He took another liqueur chocolate, bit down gently. The instant sweetness wrapped around his tongue.

“Yeah… I haven’t tasted this in so long. So long…” Deep longing flickered in his eyes.

He couldn’t go back. Not ever. All he had was this false hallucination to ease his homesickness.

Yang Na’s face softened with pity. She reached out and took his hand. “If you want them, I’ll bring you some every day. I’m in university now—my dad gives me plenty of spending money. Two thousand five hundred! And I do part-time work during breaks.”

“I can buy you any chocolate you want. But I just don’t know… next time I bring chocolate, will you still be awake…”

Her words chilled the room again. The fragile warmth shattered.

Li Huowang swallowed the chocolate in his mouth. He looked at her, opened his mouth to say something—and then started coughing for no reason.

“Aiya, slow down! I told you back in elementary school: don’t talk with food in your mouth. See? Choked? I’ll go get you some water from the boiler room.”

Yang Na picked up the cup from the bedside table and headed for the door.

“Cough! Cough!” The coughing turned violent. A burning, searing pain ripped from his stomach all the way up his throat.

No. Something’s wrong. Something’s definitely wrong on the other side!

Li Huowang’s head snapped up. His eyes went cold and fixed on Yang Na’s retreating back.

“Who are you?! What did you just give me?!”

“Ahh!” A piercing, drilling pain exploded in his stomach. He felt like a live hedgehog was thrashing around inside him, ramming his insides.

Under the sheer agony, everything around him began to destabilize. The warm sunlight, the bright hospital room—it all started to drain of color.

When Li Huowang felt himself back in the cave, the first thing he saw was blood. His own blood. Vomit.

His face was purple, veins bulging. He grabbed his own throat, doubled over on his knees, his whole body curled like a shrimp.

“Ughhhh—!” A massive flood of matter heaved out of him.

In the blood mixed with flecks of black were small chunks of flesh, broken bits of thin black tentacles, and a few rusty iron nails.