She learned to cook, clean, and keep house—from clumsy to competent, from hesitant to assured, transforming in a short time into Shane's vision of the perfect partner.
It was a cockroach that changed the nature of their relationship.
One night, it crept, with evident malice, inside Mia's bath towel, frightening her out of her wits. When Shane shouldered the door open, the towel just happened to slip to the floor.
One look, and Shane forgot everything else...
4
Everything went smoothly.
Coral's resistance was like decoration on a cake—merely ornamental. Then she closed her eyes and, under Shane's enthusiastic ministrations, soared to new heights...
Her lashes were so long, her lips so sweet, like a beautiful, innocent angel. Shane felt certain that his devotion must have moved the heavens.
At the height of ecstasy, Coral murmured a name: Julian.
Shane froze solid.
Julian was Coral's boyfriend. Shane had seen his photo in the news—a valiant police officer with a healthy bronze complexion, like a young Aaron Kwok.
If Coral regained her memory, the consequences were predictable.
She would leave him in the blink of an eye and return to her old world, resuming her life as a big star...
And he would rot in prison, left to serve out his days behind bars.
His whole body went rigid, cold sweat breaking out across his skin.
But then Coral spoke again: "Julian? Why would I suddenly remember that name?"
"Uh, he's the police officer tasked with hunting you down. He's the reason you're on the run—so naturally, he left a deep impression on you," Shane ad-libbed.
Coral didn't question it. He exhaled quietly.
He hid the truth with extreme care, like protecting a beautiful, fragile dream.
5
After that night, Shane wanted to give Coral a wedding.
It wasn't so much about not shortchanging his goddess as about using this ritual to bind this woman to him forever.
Only with a wedding ceremony would they truly be husband and wife.
Coral agreed—in her mind, it was simply a natural expression of love.
She felt lucky to have met Shane when she was at her lowest ebb. Without him, who knows what would have become of her. She might still be wandering the streets, or perhaps she'd already been caught by the police...killing someone meant paying with one's life, didn't it?
The thought only made her more grateful.
"I'm a fugitive. How am I supposed to have a wedding?" she fretted.
"Don't worry," Shane said confidently. "I've already thought of something. We'll have a wedding for just the two of us."
He spent all his savings, bought Coral a ring and a wedding dress, then—without the bus company's knowledge—took the No. 9 bus out that night. He dressed Coral up, carried her onto the bus, and off they sped through the deserted streets...
Coral was so happy, her bell-like laughter trailing through every street and alley...
That night, the stars shone brighter than ever.
That night, he would remember for the rest of his life.
6
After Shane and Coral got together, he lived through a period of exceptional happiness. He felt that only now was he truly alive. How he wished he could watch over her like this until they grew old together...
But then someone's appearance plunged him into panic...
That nurse—Mia!
In truth, his injury had nothing to do with Mia. He'd lost his temper because those two hooligans had crossed his bottom line.
At the time, the bus's TV was playing an ad featuring Coral. They'd directed lewd comments at her, saying the most repellent things. His goddess had been desecrated—how could Shane possibly endure it? So rage had flooded his brain, and he'd ordered them off.
But Mia had misunderstood, thinking he'd done it for her.
That misunderstanding planted the seeds of disaster.
Ever since getting together with Coral, Shane had been extra cautious, terrified of revealing any flaw that might expose his secret. But then he noticed that the nurse had started acting strangely—she seemed to be watching him particularly closely, even following him...
The night market, the streets, the pedestrian mall—those dark, watchful eyes seemed to be everywhere, giving him chills.
And this evening, she'd trailed him all the way home...
All his secrets, laid bare before her!
So she had to die!
7
Shane clamped his hands around Mia's neck, tightening them slowly, squeezing every last breath from this wretched girl's throat...
Mia died like a rag doll with no soul, her limp body twisting into an enlarged "9."
Coral witnessed the entire scene.
She was terrified, cowering on the sofa, trembling.
"This woman found you—she would've gone to the police. I had to eliminate her. Only the dead can keep a secret." Shane walked over and gently stroked her hair. "Don't be afraid. I'll protect you. I won't let anyone near you, won't let anyone hurt you..."
As he spoke, Shane felt the floor seemed to have opened up a hole beneath him, and everything around him was slipping irretrievably downward...including himself.
One lie required ever more lies to support.
He, too, was becoming a prisoner of his own making!
[Julian]
Love Is but an Illusion, Perfect in Its Perfection
1
Julian had been on leave for a long time, but today a colleague called, telling him about a case he might want to look into.
So he gathered himself and went.
It was a dismemberment case. A resident in an urban village found their toilet blocked. When they called someone to clear it, a pile of rotting flesh and several partial human bones came out of the drain.
The upstairs tenant was named as the prime suspect. When the police kicked down the door and rushed in, they found the man asleep in bed, clutching a woman tightly...
Or rather, an inflatable doll that looked remarkably like the movie star Coral. The doll wore trendy women's clothing, a stylish wig, and clipped to the wig was a peach-colored celluloid hair clip.
When the officers rushed at him, the man panicked. He glared with bloodshot eyes, screaming hysterically: "Coral is mine! No one can take her from me!"
The officers exchanged bewildered glances.
Who knew whether he was truly mad or faking it.
They struggled to subdue him. After he was taken away, they conducted a thorough search of the apartment. Unsurprisingly, they found copious amounts of blood and implements used to destroy the remains...
2
In the holding cell, Julian met the man.
He was handcuffed to a chair, his mind foggy. The interrogation record was entirely blank, because he could only say one thing over and over: "Coral is mine! No one can take her from me!"
His name was Shane, a driver at the city bus company. After a psychiatric evaluation, he was diagnosed with severe schizophrenia.
Out of curiosity, Julian went to see the inflatable doll. If he hadn't just come from the hospital, he really might have thought it was Coral. They looked remarkably alike, especially the way she lay there, motionless.
Coral had been in a coma for a long time, ever since a car accident. No one knew when she would wake up—perhaps she'd spend the rest of her life in that bed.
Coral had always loved the number 9, so Julian, clutching at hope, had moved her from the VIP ward to Room 9, Bed 9. He prayed she might sense his prayers and wake from her slumber.
That nurse named Mia was really kind—she'd been taking care of Coral with meticulous devotion. But a few days ago, Mia had suddenly vanished. He hoped she had nothing to do with that pile of minced flesh in the drain.
Julian lit a cigarette and glanced out the window. The sky was leaden, mirroring his mood. Since Coral's coma, the sun hadn't shone for him once.
His phone rang. It was the hospital: "She's awake—Coral is finally awake!"
The news was so sudden, he could barely believe it. "What did you say? Say that again?"
"The patient Coral, who has been in a coma for a long time, has just regained consciousness!"
[Coral]
Life Is a Dream
1
I had a very long, very strange dream. In it, I was with a man who drove a bus.
We lived in a shabby apartment, living a very modest life. Doing the laundry, cooking, tidying up—I filled my days and found them fulfilling.
I could feel how much that bearded man loved me. He bought me fashionable clothes, cute dolls, pretty hair clips. They were cheap things, but I was happy.
He even threw me a wedding—one of a kind.
That night, he drove the bus with me in it, racing through the empty streets. The wind playfully lifted my veil, and I laughed so loud...
In that moment, I felt truly, utterly happy.
How I wished that road had no end, that he'd just keep driving me and driving me, all the way until we grew old...
He wasn't handsome, and he had no money, but he was willing to give me one hundred percent of his love. He even killed to protect me...
2
The above is what Coral told Julian after waking up.
A bus driver? Killed someone? Julian found this increasingly unsettling.
"What did this man look like?" he asked.
"Dark-skinned, strong. Bearded."
"And the person he killed—what did she look like?"
"A young woman with a mole on her chin."
Julian pulled out photos of Shane and Mia. Coral pointed, saying, "Those are them! That man strangled that woman, then dismembered her body and flushed the pieces down the toilet..."
Every detail she described matched the dismemberment case perfectly, as though she'd been at the scene. Yet she'd been lying in a hospital bed for months!
No one could explain how this was possible.
3
At Coral's insistence, Julian took her to see Shane in custody. The moment she saw him, Coral cried out excitedly, "The man in my dream—that's him!"
Although Julian reminded her that this man was dangerous, she felt no fear. An inexplicable sense of closeness drew her toward him...
The previously restless Shane immediately calmed down when he saw her.
He looked at her, the hostility in his eyes slowly dissolving, replaced by a bashful tenderness akin to a young girl's.
He reached out with his rough hand, gently stroking her long hair: "Where's that peach-colored hair clip I gave you? How come you're not wearing it today?"
His face, his expression, his tone—everything about him felt familiar to Coral. She even had the illusion that everything they'd experienced together had actually happened, not just been a dream.
Unconsciously, tears streamed down her face.
She fainted the moment they left. When the test results came back, they clearly showed one word: positive.
She was pregnant!
4
A woman who'd lain in a hospital bed for months—pregnant!
By whom? The man in the dream? That was too fantastical...
Julian was silent for a long time, then sighed. "Coral, whatever you decide about this child, I'll respect and support it. Please give me a chance to prove to you: I'll love you with my whole heart, just as Shane did—one hundred percent!"
Coral looked at him, laughed bitterly, and then murmured:
"Tell me—could you be my next dream?"
(End of Story 3)
*
"So how did Coral get pregnant? It couldn't really have been that man, could it?"
"There's a legend about an emperor's mother dreaming the sun into her womb, but that's just a myth!"
"Well, it's simple enough—just have the baby, do a DNA test, and we'll know."
"Stan, what happened in the end?"
Stan's story provoked a chorus of curious questions.
"I'm not sure what happened afterward," Stan shook his head. "I only know that the movie star retired from the industry and was never heard from again."
"You don't think she went into hiding to raise the child, do you?"
"Maybe."
"In that dream, she was really happy. Shane may have been a rough guy, but he loved her with all his heart."
"That wedding on the bus was so romantic. Such beautiful love—maybe it can only exist in dreams."
Everyone chimed in.
"Isn't anyone thinking about how innocent that nurse was?" Cindy interrupted. "Their romance was built on someone else's suffering."
Everyone fell silent.
"I once did the same thing as Mia—I followed a man, too," Cindy said. "That man had secrets of his own."
"Haha, let me guess—he wasn't another lunatic, was he?" Luke teased.
"Of course not!" Cindy rolled her eyes at him. "He was the most handsome and mysterious man I've ever met."
"Sounds like there's a story there. Spill!"
"His name is Seth, and he's a mortician," Cindy said. "Every day, his work is dealing with ice-cold corpses..."