“Stop pretending. I know you're not dead, and you're not the real Xiao Ya.”
As his words fell, “Xiao Ya”'s corpse remained motionless.
Unexpectedly, Mrs. Li's sobbing abruptly ceased. She abruptly lifted her head, and through her tear-filled eyes, a glimmer of unbelievable hope burst forth. She stared intently at Yue Shi, as if his words were her only life-saving straw.
Yue Shi paid no mind to Mrs. Li's reaction. His gaze remained fixed on the “corpse,” while the five fingers of his right hand subtly curled, their tips emitting an ominous, faint glow that seemed capable of corroding all. His Decaying Talons were ready to strike.
He slowly extended his hand, nearing “Xiao Ya”'s delicate neck. With just a light swipe, the decaying curse would spread, causing this skin to completely rot away.
Just as Yue Shi's pitch-black fingertip was about to touch “Xiao Ya”'s skin—
The “corpse” on the bed, which should have been utterly dead, suddenly twitched!
Immediately after, under everyone's horrified gazes, “Xiao Ya” dodged Yue Shi's outstretched hand in a way that completely defied human physiological structure, and then “stood” upright on the bed!
She stood on the bed, her figure still small, but an invisible, heart-palpitating sense of oppression emanated from her. Her small face, purplish and distorted from suffocation, was now expressionless, save for a pair of cold eyes that regarded Yue Shi with a hint of amusement.
Witnessing this, Mrs. Li and the assistant investigator were frozen stiff as if by ice, as though facing a natural predator. They were so terrified by a primal fear that they dared not even breathe.
Yue Shi confronted her, his expression unwavering.
“Xiao Ya's” lips stretched into an unnaturally wide grin, and the same childish voice spoke, but its tone was so sinister it made one's scalp crawl: “I'm truly curious... how exactly did you figure it out?”
Yue Shi's gaze was as if he were looking at a foolish idiot: “The abnormalities and sense of dissonance you displayed were too obvious. Not only could I see them, but others could too. Otherwise, why would your 'mother' have reported it to the Investigation Bureau?”
“Xiao Ya” pouted, her movements and demeanor still those of a little girl, yet it only made her seem more grotesque: “But you had no evidence. Weren't you afraid of accidentally harming an innocent or killing a good person by acting so rashly?”
Yue Shi shrugged indifferently: “If I killed the wrong person, I killed the wrong person. It's not like I'm the one who died.” — This both reflected his inherent disregard for life and served to conceal the existence of his Insight.
“Xiao Ya's” face showed exaggerated surprise: “Wow, I didn't expect the Investigation Bureau to have trash like you! How corrupt, that any old rubbish can worm its way into the system~”
Yue Shi snorted coldly, not bothering to reply.
“Xiao Ya” sighed, a hint of regret in her tone: “I originally planned to play for a few more days. Actually, all those abnormal behaviors I displayed earlier were deliberate flaws I revealed, intending to make this 'mother' of mine suspicious and scared, so she would eventually report it.”
“Once you investigators arrived, I'd pretend to be a normal child again, implying that all my abnormalities were caused by this mother's private abuse and gaslighting, tricking you into leaving. Then... I would slowly reveal my 'true self' and gradually drive her insane... Just thinking about it felt amusing.”
She tilted her head, her gaze refocusing on Yue Shi's face, greed almost solidifying: “Unfortunately, now that you've arrived, this game no longer needs to continue. Because... I've found a better prey.”
Her gaze was like sticky tentacles, wrapping around Yue Shi's face and body inch by inch, openly revealing her desire for this skin.
The next second, she made a move that shocked everyone present.
She raised her small hands, placing them slowly and precisely on the back of her head, then grabbed her scalp and yanked her fingers forcefully outwards—
“SCHLURP!!!”
A teeth-grinding sound, like thick rubber or wet leather being forcibly torn, echoed.
There was no scene of gore. That layer of “Xiao Ya”'s skin, along with the cute clothes she wore, was brutally ripped open with a huge seam right down the center, like an overly tight bodysuit.
The edges of the tear were remarkably smooth, devoid of blood or muscle tissue; it appeared to be merely a dull, skin-like garment that had lost all vitality.
The “thing” inside nimbly pushed open the slit, its head emerging first, followed by its shoulders, torso, and legs... like a tall person wriggling out of an extremely cramped doll costume.
“Thump.”
That complete skin, belonging to an eight-year-old girl, with its hair and delicate features still attached, was carelessly tossed onto the messy bed like trash, where it lay in a limp heap, its empty eye sockets staring at the ceiling.
And emerging from this skin was a male, about 1.7 meters tall, dressed in an ordinary summer t-shirt and shorts!
He didn't look old, resembling a handsome middle school student, his youthful, tender face radiating a sunny charm. He even stretched, loosening his limbs.
“Hiss—”
The assistant investigator gasped, not from fear, but from an inability to comprehend how a male of nearly adult stature could have crammed himself into the skin of an eight-year-old child. It completely defied the laws of physics!
Mrs. Li stared blankly, her eyes fixed on the soft, familiar skin piled on the bed, her lips trembling as she murmured in a dreamlike voice: “Where's Xiao Ya? My... my daughter?”
No one answered her.
The assistant investigator looked away, extreme reluctance on his face. He had already grasped the cruelest truth—the real Xiao Ya had likely been murdered long ago, her skin even cruelly peeled off by the killer.
The young male who emerged from Xiao Ya's skin stared intensely at Yue Shi, openly displaying admiration and greed.
Ordinarily, he preferred collecting the skins of good-looking underage humans. Disguising himself as a child made it easier to blend into human society, gain adult sympathy and care, and changes in a child's personality were often overlooked. Even in cases of serious crimes, adults rarely suspected children.
Furthermore, the skin of minors, especially pre-pubescent humans, hadn't been ravaged by hormones, so it wouldn't have acne scars, pigmentation, or unruly hair...
However, when faced with top-tier looks like Yue Shi's, the minor imperfections of an adult were completely negligible.
He licked his lips, his smile brilliant yet chilling, “Such beautiful skin, wasted on trash like you. Why don't you give it to me? I'll maximize its value.”
Yue Shi calmly watched the other party, not angered by the offensive words. His hair concealed the golden vertical mark on his brow. In his Insight vision, the information appearing over this sunny and handsome 'middle school student' was still—
【A Human Skin】
Rate on N.U.
