Love Me if You Dare: Pristine Darkness

This animation park, located to the west of Beijing, spanned a wide area. The high curved roof of the main stadium was like a white dove with its wings outstretched, giving the building a spacious and lofty feeling. A jumble of buildings of various heights surrounded it in a disorderly fashion. Further afield were the farmlands and woods of suburban Beijing, an expanse of tranquil green.

There were quite a few cars parked outside the stadium, but today’s visitor numbers were middling. According to An Yan, the animation convention would be held over several days.

Jian Yao had never been to such an event before. She held Bo Jinyan’s arm as they made their way down the small white path to the main stadium. On the way, they met many students and cosplayers who were dressed as giant hammer-wielding armoured warriors, pink-eared rabbit maidens, court ladies in fluttering white period costumes . . .

“When you were in university, did you ever dress up like that?” Bo Jinyan asked with great interest.

“Of course not,” Jian Yao replied. “How would I have the nerve to do so?”

A hint of laughter rose in Bo Jinyan’s eyes. “You’re too smart and adorable.”

Jian Yao looked up at him. “Are you praising me or expressing regret?”

“This is the person I dote on.”

Jian Yao was speechless.

An eye-opening experience awaited them inside the stadium. Space fighter models, intricately detailed VR games with monstrously huge landscapes, song and dance performances full of antique flavour . . . Jian Yao held Bo Jinyan’s hand as they wandered around, trying this, looking at that. Bo Jinyan had arrived with little interest, but, his interest was gradually aroused, and he started trying out the various attractions with her. Even though they were shamefully slaughtered in a game by an opponent who looked as if he was in middle school, they walked away from it having enjoyed a fresh, new experience.

Bo Jinyan’s austere demeanour, coupled with his tall and slender appearance, caused him to stand out from the crowd. Sure enough, girls also noticed him. Jian Yao heard a girl whisper as she passed them, “So handsome.” “He looks like the Black Butler* . . .”

*T/N 黑执事 (hei zhi shi) – Black Butler, a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yana Toboso. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Butler

Jian Yao stole a glance at him.

His gaze was firmly fixed at what was in front of him, so he had heard nothing.

However, the more time they spent in the stadium, the more Jian Yao gradually discovered . . . ahem, there were a considerable number of female cosplayers in revealing clothing. Many of them were wearing game costumes which half-exposed their bosoms, showed off their seductively long legs, and were accented by their delicately made-up, big eyes. They would encounter a number of these every few paces they took, followed joyfully by otaku who were possibly pleading with them to take a group photo.

A group in front of them was in the process of taking such a photo. Bo Jinyan and Jian Yao halted a short distance away and waited.

Jian Yao asked, “Hey, do you want to take a photo with them as well?”

Bo Jinyan shot her a look. “Do you take me for an idiot who wants to stand next to a bimbo with untidy clothes, pleading for a group photograph?”

Jian Yao paused for a moment before saying, “I was only joking.”

After walking around for two to three hours, the two of them exited the venue and sat down to rest at an open-air cafe.

“Are you satisfied with today’s date?” Bo Jinyan asked.

Jian Yao smiled slightly. “Satisfied.”

Bo Jinyan laughed lightly, and said no more.

Jian Yao asked, “Are you still thinking about Ziyu’s situation?”

“Yeah.”

Jian Yao tilted her head to look at the sky, the clouds and the trees in the distance. Sometimes, the truth was just like what we could see in front of us, so clear, and yet so far away.

Her gaze was drawn to two cosplayers not too far away. The two of them were standing at the corner of a low building. No one else was in the vicinity.

Jian Yao admitted that her previous understanding of cosplay was extremely shallow. From what she had seen on television news reports, they had seemed to be a group of bizarrely dressed people. However, today, she had seen no small number of cosplayers who had vividly brought to life anime or game characters, and with great class. That court lady in the period costume standing over there with her head bowed was as vivid as a picture. That armoured soldier, stained with blood, standing there quietly with lowered head, seemed to express that this entire clamour-filled stadium was, to him, nothing but a vicious battlefield.

All this caused Jian Yao to have deep respect for these people.

Such was the case with the two boys Jian Yao had noticed.

A young man had his side profile towards them, with his head down and silver hair flying in the wind. The traditional robe he wore was also silver.

Another boy had hair softer and more supple than Jian Yao’s, and a red dot between his eyebrows. Pretty and delicate, with a slim body entirely clothed in black. Half-kneeling in front of the silver-robed boy, he slowly raised his head, and a single tear fell from his eyes.

The same extraordinary manner and picturesque arrangement. The two of them simply faced each other in silence, and it felt as if an air of great sorrow permeated the surroundings.

Jian Yao was transfixed as she watched them.

What were they doing?

Suddenly, the expression on the face of the half-kneeling boy in black changed to one of agony and fear. He held his hand to his chest while a trail of fresh blood dripped out of the corner of his mouth. With his other hand, he pointed at the person in front of him and gasped, “You . . . you . . .”

The silver-robed boy’s face took on an extremely cold and indifferent expression.

The boy in black collapsed on the ground and started crawling forward slowly with painful breaths. He grabbed the other boy’s boots and said, “How could you . . .”

The silver-robed boy placed one foot firmly on the boy’s chest, his face hard and fierce.

No one nearby had noticed what was going on.

Jian Yao almost couldn’t believe what she was seeing and shot up immediately. Bo Jinyan noticed her movement and turned his head to look.

It was then that the boy in black looked up and laughed heartily as he sprang up from the ground, using his tongue to lick away the trail of ‘blood’. The silver-robed boy’s evil visage vanished, and he laughed lazily as well. The two of them slung their arms around each other’s shoulders and walked back to the main stadium.

Jian Yao heaved a sigh of relief, and couldn’t help laughing.

“It’s okay,” she said. “I was over-sensitive.”

After finishing their coffee, the two of them walked towards the exit of the animation park, passing by several buildings on the way. From time to time, they saw the signs proclaiming ‘XX Animation Studio’, ‘XX Manga Company’, and ‘XX Animation Society’. Probably, quite a few small and medium-sized companies related to the animation industry were all located here.

Ordinarily, there was nothing unusual about this place. Passing through the buildings, they would reach the car park, and then head for home.

However, when they were in the midst of the buildings, with very few people around, Bo Jinyan abruptly stopped and looked into the distance.

“What is it?” Jian Yao asked.

“Why is he here?” Bo Jinyan muttered, half to himself, and strode forward with big steps. Jian Yao had also noticed the indistinct figure which had flashed into sight at the corner of the wall and then disappeared again, closely following behind someone or something else.

Both of them ran the rest of the way.

The sun was setting, and the slanted rays of light bathed the area behind the buildings in a golden glow, accentuating the green of the hills. Before long, Bo Jinyan had caught up with that familiar figure in a corner and stopped him.

As Fu Ziyu turned and recognised them, his face took on an expression of relief. Then, he immediately looked around in all directions, but there was no one at all around the scattered buildings or on the roads.

He sighed heavily.

Bo Jinyan stared at him. “Was it her?”

Jian Yao’s heart tightened.

Fu Ziyu looked both annoyed and excited. “Yes! I was just strolling around the streets, and I saw her again! I saw her again, and she got into a taxi, so I ran to get my car and followed her all the way here. But, once we neared the animation park, I lost her . . .”