“All exits are sealed. Every window faces a wall. A bunch of ghosts roam the corridors… or rather, a bunch of people pretending to be ghosts,” Parrot sighed, sitting on the floor against the wall. She looked at Qi Ran, who was sitting on the wooden door panel. “How’s your leg feeling? I learned this from a book. Not sure if it’s the right way to treat a fracture.”
Qi Ran paused slightly, then realized Parrot was talking to her. She nodded. “Feels a bit better. Thanks.”
Parrot sat leaning against the wall, her gun placed flat by her right hand. In this storeroom, now without power, only she and Qi Ran remained. Paper Cutter, Hyena, and Dry Wood had gone out to search for a way to leave. In that girl Paper Cutter’s words, Parrot was responsible for watching Qi Ran. The moment Qi Ran showed any intention of escaping, she was to blow her head off with a single shot. Yet the reality was the complete opposite. Qi Ran felt she was more worried about leaving a “helpless Eldest Miss who can’t survive without her bodyguard” alone in such a dangerous place. That was why she left Parrot, who also lacked a combat-viable Syndrome, behind to look after her. She was truly too sharp-tongued and soft-hearted.
“It was nothing.”
Parrot smiled. Qi Ran still wasn’t quite used to her voice. This girl, who looked so gentle and quiet, sometimes sounded like an old woman over seventy. Other times, her voice was a crisp, childish young girl. The name Parrot really was fitting.
“Your voice… is it because of your ill… your Talent?” Qi Ran asked.
“Ah, don’t mind it. It’s my Syndrome,” Parrot waved her hand dismissively. “They always say Talent, Talent… but to me, it’s an illness. An inborn illness. I didn’t learn to speak until I was twelve. Accurately speaking, it wasn’t speaking either—it was mimicry. Some voices I’ve borrowed, some I’ve stolen… For instance, the voice I’m using to talk to you now is a voice I stole back in school. It was also the first voice I learned.”
“Weren’t you raised in that… Welfare Institute?” Qi Ran asked.
Parrot shook her head. “Did Greasepaint tell you that? I’m different from them. I wasn’t sent there. My mom ran off when I was very young. My dad raised me. He ran a small restaurant near that orphanage, so I got to know Green Spider and the others.”
Qi Ran was a bit curious. “So, you suddenly discovered your Syndrome at twelve?”
Parrot didn’t deny it, nodding openly. “When I was in elementary school, the girl who was my deskmate took good care of me. She was a very pretty girl, good grades, and her voice was pleasant too… Back then, everyone thought I was mute. They either found me very strange or very pitiful. I’d rather they thought I was strange than feel sorry for me. But that girl was different. She had a very kind and attentive nature. Everyone liked being around her… So I was a little jealous of her too.”
“When I was twelve, it was time to transition to middle school. She went to a different school from me. She went to a key middle school, while I went to a very ordinary one. I didn’t make any new friends there,” Parrot slowly recounted. “I thought, if I could speak, maybe things would be different. So I stood in front of the mirror, wanting to try to open my mouth and speak… and a miracle just happened. I really produced a voice. It was my favorite voice, that girl’s voice. But afterward, I started to panic. I was afraid someone else would hear it, so I still didn’t speak. I continued pretending to be a mute.”
“At that time, I thought I was special, different from everyone else. So I started paying attention to the pleasant voices around me, wanting to learn them. But very quickly, I discovered I couldn’t do it. Not a single sound would come out. Just as I was wondering why I couldn’t produce any sound, my dad took me to the hospital… It wasn’t me who was sick; it was my grandmother,” Parrot’s voice was very low. “Our family had no money, so naturally, we didn’t pursue treatment. I went to see my grandmother. She held my hand… She always liked to hold my hand and talk to me. Her whole body was wrinkled and tiny. It pained me to see her like that. About half a year later, she passed away.”
“After my grandmother left, I stood in front of the mirror again. This time, I tried to learn her voice. And it came out so naturally,” Parrot gave a self-deprecating smile. “It was only at that moment that I understood something. I can only steal the voices of people who love me… Only by using others’ trust can I learn their voices. Like a rat in a gutter. Others trust me and love me, while I’m scheming to steal what belongs to them… Pretty ridiculous.”
Qi Ran listened quietly, neither nodding nor shaking her head. Because words of comfort themselves were ultimately useless.
“Sorry, I accidentally said too much,” Parrot shook her head. “What about you? What’s your Syndrome?”
“I don’t have a Syndrome. Really,” Qi Ran said calmly. “But no one believes me. Now, even I’m starting to doubt it a bit. Maybe everyone else is right. I am sick, just that I don’t know it yet.”
“That’s normal,” Parrot nodded. “What kind of person you are is never decided by you. It’s decided by the labels on you—just as I don’t believe you don’t have a Syndrome right now either. The truth doesn’t matter. What matters is your identity. You are an Executor, so I don’t believe you lack a Syndrome. It’s that simple.”
Her tone was very candid and straightforward. Qi Ran felt she was starting to like this girl’s personality.
“A friend of mine once said something similar,” she smiled soundlessly. “Your personalities are quite alike too… Maybe you two could become friends.”
“Words like that can only be said after we get out,” Parrot sighed. Qi Ran noticed this girl often acted weary and world-weary beyond her years. “That kind of flag feels like bad luck.”
Just as Qi Ran was about to say something, the door was suddenly pushed open.
“Speak of the devil,” Parrot, standing by the doorframe, pressed her gun against the lower back of the young man who had pushed it open. Her voice was very low. “Hands up. Or I’ll shoot—”
“First check whether the safety is on,” the young man sighed and reminded her. “Left side. See it? On the gun’s belly there. Pull it. Yes, good.”
Parrot’s cheeks flushed slightly. She readjusted the gun and continued in a lowered voice, “What are you here for?”
The young man leaned forward slightly, placing his wallet on the ground. Parrot stepped on it, bent over slightly to pick it up, the gun muzzle pointed at the young man the entire time.
Opening the wallet with one hand, her pupils contracted slightly. She fell silent for a moment, then placed the gun on the ground and raised her hands.
“Very smart,” the young man smiled and praised her. He bent down, picked up the gun and wallet together, disengaged the safety, and handed the gun back to Parrot. “For the sake of you helping that girl, keep the gun for now. Hand it in voluntarily once you’re out.”
Qi Ran stared fixedly at the young man standing at the door, mentally matching him against the names Qi Xin had mentioned before. But she couldn’t find one that fit this somewhat frivolous young man.
“As the Leader of Pingjiang Division 1, aren’t you a bit too young?” It was Parrot who broke the silence. Qi Ran maintained her act as Qi Xin, quietly listening to the ensuing exchange. “Yue Yun… qiu? Is that character read ‘qiu’ or ‘di’?”
“Yue Yunqiu. ‘Qiu’ sounds the same as ‘autumn’. The character you mentioned is ‘di’, which has the ‘dog’ radical. ‘Qiu’ has the ‘grass’ radical on top with ‘autumn’ underneath,” the young man’s voice came from outside the door. “Hey, give me a hand and move these guys inside— Besides, aren’t you all equally young and capable? I read your file. It’s not something a seventeen-year-old minor should be doing.”
“What a strange name,” Parrot said, standing up. Once she got to the corridor, she was immediately stunned. “What did you do?”
In the long, narrow corridor, at least a dozen people lay sprawled on the ground. All of them appeared to be knocked out. Keen-eyed Parrot spotted Dry Wood, Hyena, and Paper Cutter among them. The bodies were piled together; the sight was terrifying.
“Do you know how exhausting it was for me to carry so many people alone?” Yue Yunqiu said flatly. “If these guys could just behave, stop their childish troublemaking, they’d actually be contributing to society. Move them all inside. Just pile them somewhere.”
“Just what are you here for?” Parrot was completely confused. She dragged an unconscious man into the room. The sensation was bizarre, like being an accomplice to a serial killer.
This young man named Yue Yunqiu was unlike any Executor she had imagined. He wasn’t stern, nor did he seem like the type who liked to set strict rules. If she hadn’t seen that ID earlier, she truly couldn’t believe this person was the Leader of Pingjiang Execution Team One.
“I came looking for the girl you rescued,” Yue Yunqiu sighed. He said to Qi Ran, who was sitting on the wooden plank inside the room, “Those guys who attacked this place—I caught one earlier and interrogated him. They came for you. So you’d better stick close to me from now on. Understood?”
“Are you sure he wasn’t lying?” Parrot shook her head, stepping back into the corridor, intending to move the next person. “I don’t really think…”
Her words cut off abruptly. Replaced by fragmented, terrified stammering—overcome by fear, she forgot for a moment to speak through her Syndrome and let out her original voice.
Yue Yunqiu poked his head out from the room. His gaze fell upon a spherical object that had rolled from Parrot’s hands as she slumped against the wall. Parrot, nearly trembling, collapsed onto the floor, pressing herself as far back into the corner as she could. In that split second, she had clearly seen what she’d just been holding. It was a woman’s head. Judging by the contorted, despairing expression, it had certainly not been a comfortable death.
“Don’t be scared. I’m not some deranged serial killer… At least, not to people like you,” Yue Yunqiu smiled soundlessly. “I usually kill them using the methods they like to use to kill others. It’s called reciprocity. You don’t kill people, so I won’t kill you either. It’s that simple.”
