Chapter 2

Chapter 2

*Buzz!* My scalp instantly tightened!

“You’re… joking again.”

I tried my best to keep the awkwardness off my face. I thought she would be just as gleeful as before about scaring me.

But…

A few seconds later, I realized something was wrong. Cousin was still staring at me with a cold, eerie gaze!

This was a far cry from her usual personality!

Speechless, my body tensed up; my only thought was to escape this room.

At that moment, Cousin looked like she had been possessed by some unknown creature, or like a psychopath-as if her personality for the past twenty-plus years had been a mere disguise, and her true self was finally exposed.

With a sudden swoosh, she shot up and leaned her face even closer to mine.

“Hey!”

Startled by the sudden outburst, my entire body jolted.

Her face got closer and closer to mine until, finally, she burst into a fit of giggles.

“You silly little brother, I can’t believe you got scared again.”

She turned around and sat back down in her chair. Her expression returned to the familiar look I knew, now tinged with the slyness of a successful scheme.

“Phew…” I let out a long breath, casually tossed a throw pillow at her, and shouted:

“Lin Yu! Is there something wrong with your head?!”

“Hahahaha!” Seeing me like this only made Cousin feel even more smug.

“Just you wait. One of these days, I’m going to scare you back!” I said helplessly.

Cousin packed her laptop into her backpack and told me, “I was just doing a little experiment, and answering your question.”

“What question?”

“Didn’t you ask me why humans inexplicably feel fear toward a Humanoid? I think that experiment just now explains it a bit.”

Recalling how she looked just a minute ago, I suddenly realized, “I get it. You mean that when someone incredibly familiar suddenly becomes strange and eerie, that’s also a form of the Uncanny Valley, right?”

“Exactly!” Cousin snapped her fingers. “Suppose I were a Humanoid and you hadn’t spotted my flaw. Just now, you still felt scared. That’s because my abnormal behavior presented an unknown, which triggered your fear.”

I couldn’t help but nod, agreeing with her logic.

“So, have you figured out how to write the story about the Ape-man and the Humanoid?”

Cousin slung her backpack over her shoulder and sighed.

“Not yet. I need to really think about what a Humanoid’s flaw actually is.”

“Alright. Good luck coming up with a brilliant flaw. Make sure you tell me the moment you figure it out.”

“We’ll see.” Cousin waved her hand dismissively and walked out of the room.

She unlocked the door and took a single step out before abruptly stopping. Then, she asked me a question in an eerie, faint voice:

“Lin Yan, do you remember a certain line from my novel just now?”

“Which line?”

Without looking back, Cousin said, “The Humanoid said that not even God knows of its existence. So, tell me, where did it come from?”

*Bang!* She shut the door tightly behind her.

For some reason, even though it was high noon, a chill ran through my entire body. Cousin’s last words… I didn’t dare dwell on them…