The Creatures That We Are

Chapter 54: Walled City of Ten Dragons

Late at night, two cars drove toward an ancient China-themed walking street in the Feiyang District. White Rabbit said that there was a great barbecue place in the neighborhood, and they offered spicy rabbit heads that were to die for.

“Don’t you call yourself White Rabbit?” Gao Yang asked in surprise.

“So I eat them,” she responded like it was obvious.

“Right...” Somehow, Gao Yang found the answer convincing.

During the drive, Gao Yang called his mother back first to explain why he hadn’t returned home for close to 48 hours and why his phone had been turned off. Again, he used Wang Zikai as an excuse.

His mother was in a good mood. His father had been doing better than expected after waking up. That was perhaps the reason she didn’t push. Instead, she simply told Gao Yang to return home earlier.

After hanging up, Gao Yang realized that the two girls were staring at him, which made him feel a little awkward.

“Aren’t you...going to call your family?”

“Why should I?” White Rabbit said in a derisive tone. “They’re all monsters.”

Gao Yang asked Qing Ling, “And you?”

“I don’t have a family anymore,” said Qing Ling.

It sounded like a long story, so Gao Yang didn’t press.

After half an hour, the patrol car stopped by the road. Officer Huang pulled out the car key and said, “We’re here.”

They filed out of the car and headed to the walking street. The buildings here were designed to replicate the styles of ancient China. All the wood architectures and red lanterns made it feel like they had been transported to the world of wuxia.

The street was crowded with people and colorful neon lights. The atmosphere was lively.

Against the crowd, they walked to the middle part of the walking street. Between the milk tea shop and the convenience store was a long, one-meter wide alleyway that led to a deep darkness.

White Rabbit headed in first, followed by the others.

She took several turns inside the winding alleyway and even made it across two residential buildings. Five minutes later, they found themselves in a completely new area.

It was a circular plaza the size of a soccer field, at the middle of which was an old dying tree. The empty branches were decorated with small colorful light bulbs. The twinkling light seemed to bring the tree new life.

Old, four and five story buildings surrounded the plaza, decorated with a variety of signboards with blinking neon light. The mismash of old and new, retro and modern technology, and all kinds of architecture styles made the area seem like one out of a cyberpunk film.

“Is this your base?” Gao Yang couldn’t help but ask after scanning around.

“This is the Walled City of Ten Dragons, a social hub for awakeners.” White Rabbit walked forward. “It’d attract attention for groups of awakeners to gather in other places, but we’re safe here.”

“There are only stable wanderers and awakeners here.” Wu Dahai put his hands in his pocket and added in a flippant tone, “Awakeners can chat at ease, trade at ease, and pursue girls at ease.”

“How?” asked Gao Yang.

“You really have a lot of questions. What are you, a three-year-old?” White Rabbit threw him a judging look. “Simply put, a very powerful awakener did something to this area, and only wanderers are able to find it and enter.”

“Who?” Qing Ling asked.

“The owner of this territory.” White Rabbit stretched out a finger. “Friendly reminder, he isn’t a member of our organization. So don’t start any trouble here, or we’ll leave you to take responsibility on your own.”

Gao Yang didn’t ask another question. Instead, he quickly sorted through the information he had gathered so far.

First, the awakeners in this city had come together to form a community, which was enough to help awakeners protect themselves. However, they weren’t strong enough to rival and topple the monsters’ dominance. That wasn’t surprising to Gao Yang. Given the ratio of humans to monsters, there should be at least 400 humans in this city. If half of them had awakened, that would be a formidable force.

Second, the Twelve Zodiac Signs wasn’t the only organization for awakeners.

Third, based on what White Rabbit said, the organizations seemed to keep a respective distance from each other. They were probably collaborating while keeping each other in check at the same time. This was a point he still needed to confirm.

They walked to a weathered tube-shaped building[1] on the west side of the plaza. The corridor on the first floor seemed to have crumbled in the past and was now sealed with cement and bricks. Next to it was a big metal cage hung with small light bulbs. It was as big as a freight lift.

White Rabbit tipped her chin to point at the cage. They got in.

“I don’t like going into the cage, so I usually jump up by myself.” White Rabbit closed the door for them and reached up to grab a rope on the cage, pulling it thrice.

Ring, ring, ring. The bell above the cage rang thrice.

Clink.

Once the iron cage reached the fifth floor, the metal door opened on the inside, leading to the long corridor of the tube-shaped building. White Rabbit had jumped up on her own already, and she flipped down from the top of the iron cage before waving at them. “Come on.”

They followed her to a storefront with a wooden sign that simply said ‘barbecue’. There was no door, only a tassel curtain.

White Rabbit parted the curtain and walked in. All the rooms on this side had been renovated into a single open space with an industrial style interior. At a glance, there seemed to be more than twenty tables.

White Rabbit walked up to the front desk. Behind it sat a stunningly beautiful woman with an alluring sensuality to her. With pronounced makeup on, she was dressed in a red qipao that accentuated her curves, and her ethereal white hair was put up with a black hairpin. A few white strands fell on her fair shoulders, making her look seductive yet reserved.

She sat on a high stool with her long, fair legs crossed, smoking a shisha with a lazy look in her eyes. Seeing patrons coming into her restaurant, she put down the finely crafted violet shisha bag and looked up, scanning all of them with her captivating upcurved eyes that were shaped like the petals of peach blossoms.

Gao Yang, Officer Huang, Wang Zikai, and Fat Jun stared, their hearts skipping a beat. It wasn’t the kind of attraction that happened naturally, but something forceful and irresistible, and it seized the mind and soul.

White Rabbit snapped her fingers.

The men jerked back to their senses.

“Please stop using your feminine wiles on our new blood, ma’am.” White Rabbit was smiling, but her words were meant as a warning.

“Oh, you funny girl. These handsome young men have no interest in an old hag like me.” The restaurant owner smiled. “Would you like a booth seat or a room?”

“Booth seat, near the window.”

“Number 19 is available. Go on.” She rang the call bell on the desk. “I’ll have it prepared for you.”

White Rabbit led them through lines of tables surrounded with steam and chatters, stopping at the booth seat near the window at the far side of the restaurant.

Well, it wasn’t exactly a window but a hole in the wall. Night breeze swept into the interior without a glass to stop it. This seemed like the aftermath of a demolition ball attempting to knock the building down no matter how one looked at it.

Officer Huang, Wang Zikai, and Fat Jun sat on one side, while Gao Yang, Qing Ling, and White Rabbit sat across from them. Wu Dahai sat in the middle.

Gao Yang was going to sit with the boys, but somehow, there seemed to be an intangible magnetic force pulling some of them together and keeping some of them apart. And their seemingly casual seating arrangement turned out this way.

“That restaurant owner.” Fat Jun was still thinking about the woman, his eyes hazy. “She’s out of this world. She isn’t the kind of woman I like, yet the moment I laid my eyes on her, I had difficulty breathing and could feel my blood pumping, my head filled with all sorts of dirty thoughts.”

“Same for me,” Officer Huang said in a defeated tone while smoking. “This can’t be. I’m loyal to my wife. Can it really be...the seven-year itch?”

“Pfft—” Wu Dahai burst out laughing.

“You aren’t to blame. The restaurant owner is an awakener. Talent: Seduction, serial number 61, Psyche-type.” White Rabbit unfolded the menu. Then she looked up like she just remembered something and said, “Oh, for your information, it’s not she, but he.”

1. Tongzi lou, tube-shaped building, is a type of apartment building in China. A long corridor runs through the center of the floor with rooms on both sides. It’s common for several families to crowd the limited space, sharing public bathrooms, kitchens, and living rooms like dorms. It’s designed to save space and lower cost. ?