Midnight Bookstore

Translated by XephiZ

Edited by Aelryinth

“You…you asshole!” A black flicker burst out of Zhou Ze’s eyes. He was extremely angry.

It was true that he had claimed the man’s body as his own.

So what!? Could the man stop him from living in his body?

Was he seriously trying to get his revenge by provoking Zhou Ze to force himself on his wife? Was that all he had?

Zhou Ze spread his right hand. The black fingernails were slowly growing out, circled by a black mist.

Many times, the position and stance one had was the solution to a problem.

From Zhou Ze’s perspective, there was simply no right and wrong. He wanted to live, thus every decision he made revolving around that idea was right. Otherwise, it would simply be meaningless.

Without a meaning, did it really matter whether something he did was right or wrong?

“I don’t care where you are hiding, I’m going to find you, even if… even if it’s inside this body!”

Zhou Ze’s face contorted. His nails were sinking into the flesh of his chest.

He gasped. His body was twitching in great pain. He fell to his knees on the ground.

He opened his mouth in astonishment. His face was blank.

-It…it’s not there!

-Why?-

He almost crushed his soul into pieces just to verify his speculation, but there was only his soul inside the body. Xu Le was not there!

Zhou Ze rose to his feet. He glanced into the broken mirror, which was again reflecting his face. There was nothing strange about the reflection, even though he stared at it for a long time.

Xu Le was long gone.

Did that mean what he did to Doctor Lin was actually driven by his own nature?

No, there was no way, that was impossible!

It was Zhou Ze’s first time sensing the reflection in the mirror to feel so unfamiliar. It was not because he had claimed someone else’s body, but his heart and his soul were different from what he assumed.

The body and the soul, which one was the real him?

Since ancient times, many poets and philosophers had given the same answer: the flesh might change and rot, but the soul would last forever!

It could be noble, it could be remembered, it could continue to shine brilliantly in the river of history!

Zhou Ze believed that he was still Zhou Ze, he was still who he was. His body had changed, but he believed he was still the same man.

But now, he began to panic. If Xu Le’s soul was already gone, wouldn’t that mean… he was the one that changed?

——

“Go to sleep, dear.”

“Mm, I’ll take our daughter to bed. You should finish off your work and rest too.”

“Alright, once I’m done writing down the treatment for the patient.”

Wang Ke twisted his neck and yawned. He was extremely tired, but he still had work to finish. His hair had started to gray even though he had just reached his thirties.

Men in his age would find themselves in an awkward position. They were still too young to enjoy their life in retirement, yet if they worked too hard, the condition of their bodies would start going downhill.

Knock knock knock…

Wang Ke frowned. A visitor at this time?

He went to the door and glanced at the man in a black jacket standing outside the door through the screen, “Hi, you are?”

“I’m here to see Wang Ke, my friend referred me.”

“I’m sorry, you will have to put in a reservation with my assistant, I normally don’t see…”

“Zhou Ze referred me,” the man outside the door said.

Wang Ke was stunned for a moment. He opened the door.

The man seemed quite young. He was probably in his twenties.

“Come in,” Wang Ke invited the man inside. He went and brewed the man a cup of tea.

Zhou Ze sat on the couch and looked at his old friend.

He was still the same, still working as hard as always. They had both grown up at the orphanage. They had been close to one another since they were young. According to the head of the orphanage, they were the most talented kids that had ever come out of the orphanage.

Zhou Ze became the vice head of his department at the hospital despite his age, while Wang Ke had opened his own psychology clinic. The clinic was not in a remote place, set up on a bustling main street in Tongcheng.

Not many people could afford the posh house that Wang Ke was staying in, either.

“You are a friend of Zhou Ze?” Wang Ke broke the silence.

“Yeah, he passed away half a year ago,” Zhou Ze replied. He picked the cup up and took a sip. The man was still a fan of Maojian Tea, as usual.

“Can I help you?”

“I’m sick.”

“Sick?” Wang Ke coughed. “You can make an appointment.”

“It’s urgent,” Zhou Ze looked Wang Ke in the eyes. “Very urgent.”

Wang Ke fell silent, before he nodded with a smile and said, “Come with me to the study.”

Regardless of how inappropriate and rude it was for the man to visit him out of nowhere, if the man was Zhou Ze’s friend, Wang Ke had no reason to reject his request.

Zhou Ze waited inside the study for a while as Wang Ke proceeded to change, a way of treating his patient professionally.

“Tell me about your condition,” Wang Ke spun a dark golden pen in his hand. It stood out under the light in the study.

Zhou Ze slowly shook his head. “Don’t hypnotize me, even if it’s shallow.”

Wang Ke nodded and put his pen down.

“I think I am suffering from… dissociative disorders,” Zhou Ze tried to organize his thoughts.

“Can you be more specific?” Wang Ke asked.

“It feels like there’s another person inside me. To be more precise, the other personality will influence my decisions. I can clearly tell that it’s not something that I would do. I have always…always been self-disciplined.”

“Symptoms of dissociative disorders, indeed,” Wang Ke squinted, “How long has it been?”

“It only happened recently.”

“Now, draw the second personality on this paper, just follow your mind and try to draw his appearance, even if you have never seen him before.”

Wang Ke placed a piece of paper and the pen in front of Zhou Ze.

“The second personality?” Zhou Ze asked.

“Yes,” Wang Ke nodded.

“But… strictly speaking, I am the second personality,” Zhou Ze pointed at himself. “The character that keeps troubling me is the original personality of this body.”

Wang Ke’s eyes glittered. He began to reevaluate Zhou Ze.

“You’re telling me that you are the second personality?”

“Based on how you’re describing it, I believe so,” Zhou Ze replied.

The owner of the body was Xu Le, and Zhou Ze was an outsider. As such, Zhou Ze was the second personality.

“So you killed him?” Wang Ke asked curiously. He seemed… quite excited.

“I guess so. I strongly believe he no longer exists,” Zhou Ze answered.

“That’s actually considered murder,” Wang Ke reminded him. “Even though the laws are unable to judge and punish you, I still have the obligation to condemn you.”

“So, what’s next?”

“You have come to see me because you want to completely get rid of the influence of the first personality on you?”

“Yes.”

Wang Ke started spinning the pen again, but this time, he was not hypnotizing the man. He was pondering.

“I don’t know if I should help you, as from my perspective, you have killed someone that initially existed. If I help you, I’m helping you to get rid of the traces. I am your accomplice.”

“Help me,” Zhou Ze said.

“I’ll need some time to think about it,” Wang Ke said.

“There’s no need for that, help me,” Zhou Ze urged. He then said, “Brother Erdan.”

Wang Ke’s expression shifted when he heard the name. He blurted out in surprise, “Zhou Ze even told you that?”

Zhou Ze nodded.

Wang Ke raised his head. He seemed to be struggling, but he still clenched his teeth and started writing on the paper.

“I’ll give you some medicine, but it’s only supplementary. It will soothe your thoughts and help with your sleep.”

“That won’t be necessary,” Zhou Ze said.

“The most important thing is, you need to change your environment,” Wang Ke ignored Zhou Ze’s words. He added after he finished writing on the paper, “You will have to stay away from the environment and life of the first personality. You need to find your own place in society.

“Many people think a person’s thoughts are stored in their spirit, even though it is still unknown whether spirits are real.

However, that speculation isn’t reliable. It turns out that our body, our flesh, our eyes, and other organs have the ability to store a person’s ‘spirit’, and the ‘spirit’ here is different than the spirit that we normally refer to.

“It is like the muscle memory that athletes gain from repetitive training, or a psychological suggestion. You could think of it as a force of habit.

“You are the second personality that has replaced the first personality, but the first personality has been controlling the body for too long. The body has its own habits, its own memory. At times, you will be surprised by some of the things you do after you have done them, making you feel like the first personality is still messing with you.

“Therefore, you have to cut off your current social network and establish your own circle. You have to let the body adapt to you and get rid of the force of habit it has. You will be able to solve your problem.

“As a matter of fact, your condition isn’t that serious. Your thoughts are very clear. It’s only a matter of time until you overcome it,” Wang Ke smiled.

There was a knock on the door. “Honey, are you seeing a patient?”

“Yes, can you pour us two cups of coffee?”

“Sure.”

Zhou Ze immediately thought about Doctor Lin, his parents-in-law, and his sister-in-law.

It was true that he had been repelled by the man’s relationships since the very first day. He kept thinking of severing the connections.

However, without him even knowing it, the thought of his wife not being willing to sleep with him had eventually turned into an obsession.

“How long will it take?” Zhou Ze asked.

“Not long,” Wang Ke shrugged casually, “I have been observing you from the first moment you came in. How should I describe it? You might be the second personality, but I believe it’s the first time I have seen a second personality able to erase the first personality so thoroughly.

“It’s like… a person has been reincarnated in someone else’s body, like the tales in an old book. It’s straightforward and clean, I even have the urge to say that it’s perfectly executed.

“Right now, you can think of it as some side-effects after taking some drugs. Your immune system can easily overcome the side-effects, so it’s only going to take a few months.

“After that, you can easily pick up old relationships again without any problem.”

Zhou Ze nodded, “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

“The coffee is ready.”

The door was pushed open. A woman came in with two cups of coffee. She placed the cups on the table.

Zhou Ze looked at the woman, who was looking back at him.

Zhou Ze’s heart skipped a beat. The woman seemed surprised, too.

“What is it? You two know each other?” Wang Ke asked.

“Yeah, he’s Doctor Lin’s husband, Xu Le,” the woman said.

“Huh?” Wang Ke rose to his feet in surprise. He immediately went over and shook Zhou Ze’s hand to express his gratitude.

The man was a patient that his childhood buddy had recommended, but now, he had suddenly become his daughter’s lifesaver.

Meanwhile, Zhou Ze was wondering if he should remind his old friend who had been focusing too much on his work that his wife had been indulging in some secret ‘hair service’ lately.

After a second thought, he decided to remind the man anonymously, instead. The two were well aware of each other’s personalities of placing work first, thus they rarely interfered in one another’s life.

Their friendship was still the same, yet they did not have the habit of hanging out at all. As a matter of fact, if it was not for the nature of the problem he was facing, he would not have come to visit Wang Ke, either.

Zhou Ze never knew Wang Ke had married, let alone had a kid. Zhou Ze also did not expect that the man would not hesitate to help him at the mention of his name.

Both Wang Ke and his wife sent Zhou Ze to the entrance. Zhou Ze rejected Wang Ke’s kind offer of driving him home.

“Honey, why is he here?”

“He’s here to seek advice,” Wang Ke said. “Did you say that he owns a bookstore?”

“Yeah, a bookstore that feels like a good place to hang out.”

“I should visit him sometime.”

——

Zhou Ze had just walked out of the gate when he sensed something. He halted in his tracks and turned around.

A little girl stood on the balcony, her white doll in her hand. She was wearing red sleepwear, enjoying the night breeze.

Her hair was drifting in the wind while her dress was swaying slightly, but she remained still.

Her eyes were fixed on Zhou Ze.

Zhou Ze immediately put on a stern face. He tensed slightly.

However, the nervousness started to dissipate. The pressure he was feeling from Xu Le had gone after the conversation he had with Wang Ke. Zhou Ze felt relaxed.

Meanwhile, he was quite troubled too. It turned out that not only did he need to warn his old friend about his wife, it seemed like he had to warn him about his daughter, too.

Somehow, Zhou Ze felt sorry for his old friend. What sins had he committed in his previous life to deserve such a ‘blissful’ family?

Zhou Ze let out a wry smile. He raised his hand facing the little girl on the balcony and waved at her…