Chapter 1

Chapter 1

I am a personality living inside Zhan Yao’s body. My name is Zhan Zhu.

I emerge whenever Zhan Yao is in her greatest pain.

My first appearance was when she was eight years old. She had been kidnapped and stuffed into a cramped, suffocating car trunk.

It happened on the night one of the kidnappers threatened to slice her up and cook her in a hot pot if they didn’t receive the ransom soon.

I opened my eyes inside her body.

Unlike the timid, cowardly Zhan Yao who knew nothing but how to cry, I was calm, powerful, and cold-blooded.

I told the quietly sobbing Zhan Yao, “Don’t be afraid.”

Her whimpering stopped abruptly. Then, panic-stricken, she asked in her mind, “Who… who’s speaking?”

I told her gently, “It’s me. I’m inside your body. You can call me Zhan Zhu.”

During the time we spent waiting for the ransom, she spoke to me every day:

“Zhan Zhu, are you a personality I split into?”

“Are you someone I imagined?”

“Do you really exist?”

“I’m so glad you’re here with me, Zhan Zhu. With you around, I’m not afraid anymore.”

Later, I taught her how to fray the rope on her hands until it snapped. While the kidnappers weren’t looking, I showed her how to reach out of the trunk to leave clues.

A passerby called the police, and she was rescued and sent home.

I was supposed to disappear then.

But on the day she returned home, it seemed no one welcomed her.

Her father was preoccupied with a thousand things. For some reason, he hadn’t even noticed she’d been kidnapped for a week, and naturally, he never received any ransom demands from the kidnappers.

Her stepmother held her hand and wept, saying, “It’s good that you’re back. It’s good that you’re back safe.” Then, she turned her head and muttered, “Useless kidnappers. They should have just killed her sooner.”

Her stepbrother patted her head. His hand slid down her face, intentionally or not, passing over her chest before lingering on her waist. He gave it a squeeze and smirked. “My, Ah Yao, you’ve gotten thin after suffering these past few days.”

Zhan Yao’s body trembled uncontrollably. She pleaded with me in her heart:

“Don’t go, okay? Zhan Zhu, stay and keep me company, please? I’m scared.”

“I’m so scared. I’m begging you.”

So, I stayed. From then on, we shared her body.

When she was safe and happy, she held control of the body.

When things were dangerous or disgusting, it was me.

I was different from Zhan Yao.

When her two-faced stepmother spoke with a tongue of honey and a heart of gall, I would snap back without mercy.

When her disgusting stepbrother tried to peek at her while she showered, I took a sharp steel needle and whipped it past his temple, pinning it into the wooden doorframe behind him. I threatened him viciously: “If there’s a next time, this needle goes into your eye.”

When people at school bullied Zhan Yao, I would grab the lead girl by the hair and shove her face into a bathroom sink full of water. I’d only let go right before she suffocated, saying, “Bully me again, and I’ll drown you for real. Understand?”

Back then, Zhan Yao would always say to me from within, “Ah Zhu, I’m so lucky to have you. Let’s stay together forever, okay?”

I’ve read books. I know that multiple personalities in other people’s bodies usually try every means possible to erase one another to gain absolute control.

But Zhan Yao and I were different. We depended on each other, providing mutual companionship.

We couldn’t have been closer.

Back then, I would look in the mirror at our shared face and promise her, “Okay. We’ll be together forever.”

The face in the mirror would smile-a smile that belonged to Zhan Yao.

Like a pure white peony, trembling slightly as it bloomed on the branch; gentle, shy, clean, and innocent.

At that time, I thought to myself: I will protect her smile forever.

That was the reason I was split off. It was my only mission.

She only had me.