# Chapter 47 ### Chapter 47: My Name is Bone Sonata Whatever’s lurking in the dark, the first step is to throw something at it. Three little toys arced through the air. The narrow, gloomy hallway flickered with unsteady light. From the far end of the darkness, a voice rose—old and brittle as withered fingers: “My name is Bone Sonata...” —Creak. The old, brittle voice cut off mid-sentence. Because the squish toy hit it square on. By chance, the lights froze on their brightest setting at that exact moment. The whole corridor flooded with light, and every trace of horror vanished. All that remained was a massive harp, standing silent in the center of the hallway. ...What the hell? A harp? How did a harp end up in the middle of a perfectly normal basement corridor? Lin Jianyuan thought his eyes were playing tricks on him. He rubbed his eyes and stepped closer, only to see—it really was a giant harp. The kind you’d picture in the hands of a Greek forest goddess. The harp soared up, almost touching the ceiling. Lin Jianyuan walked over and realized its top was higher than his head. But the strangest thing was its color—bone-white, and made entirely of bones. Thanks to his recent crash course in human anatomy, Lin Jianyuan recognized them at once—not pig or cow bones, but human spines. He immediately thought of the vertebra he’d found in the asylum’s flowerbed. It all clicked: Oh, right, I’m hallucinating again. But a second later, doubt crept in. He’d just finished punching the heavy bag. His mind felt clear. So why was he hallucinating now? Lin Jianyuan frowned, uneasy. Just then, the three toys on the floor started talking, breaking his train of thought. “Heh heh, see how awesome I am?” The squish toy wiggled over, smug. “Lin Jianyuan, I’m telling you, I’m the most useful one. You really lucked out with me.” Little Rock: “True. Lord Time Thief is perfect for combat. Next time, just toss the snail by itself.” Squish toy: “?” Angel Eyeball: “Lin Jianyuan, my ability doesn’t require physical contact.” Lin Jianyuan eyed the fuzzy eyeball suspiciously. “You can talk? Since when can you talk?” The three toys: “?” “Ahem.” Angel Eyeball coughed awkwardly. “Actually—” “Oh, got it.” Lin Jianyuan skipped the dialogue. “Definitely another episode. Hallucination plus one.” Angel Eyeball: “?” Squish toy & Little Rock: “...” Now that he’d diagnosed himself, there was no point worrying. After all, he’d insisted on being discharged. He hadn’t actually gotten any better. If the hallucinations came and went, that was on him. No one else to blame. But what could he do? Life was hard. If he didn’t come back to work, he couldn’t afford to support his wife. Lin Jianyuan sighed and shuffled toward the elevator, every step heavy with office-worker fatigue. He’d barely taken a step when he stopped short. He couldn’t go. For a simple reason. The harp was blocking his way. Lin Jianyuan: “?” He tried to shove it aside, but the giant bone harp wouldn’t budge. It was heavy as hell. It looked like it had been carved from real human spines. The joints were all there, clear as day. The feel of it was disturbingly real. Lin Jianyuan stepped back and sized it up. The damn thing was so big and wide, it completely blocked the passage. If he didn’t move it, he’d have to squeeze through the strings. But the strings—how to put it? They looked all wrong. They weren’t nylon or fiber. Under the cold fluorescent lights, they gleamed with a strange, unnatural sheen. They should have been lifeless, but somehow, they seemed to breathe. Lin Jianyuan stared for a long time before he realized what was so wrong. The strings looked like spinal cords. A human spinal cord is a bundle of nerves. The harp’s strings looked like those nerves, unraveled and strung up, one by one. It was grotesque beyond words. Especially in this stifling, windowless corridor. “Your instincts are good,” Angel Eyeball said gravely. “Don’t touch the nerves. They’re poisonous.” “Then what do we do?” Little Rock fretted. “We can’t push it, we can’t squeeze past—are we just going to die in here?” Squish toy hesitated. “Should I unfreeze its time and have it move out of the way for us?” Angel Eyeball: “.” Little Rock: “.” Squish toy bristled. “What? Why are you all looking at me like that? I’m just trying to help!” Little Rock: “I don’t have eyes.” Angel Eyeball: “I’m not looking at you... Lin Jianyuan, what’s that in your hand?” Squish toy perked up, snail antennae twitching. And saw Lin Jianyuan pull out a gun from who-knows-where. A massage gun. Expressionless, Lin Jianyuan cranked the massage gun to max. It buzzed like a power drill. He jammed it straight at the bone harp. The bone harp shuddered. It trembled from top to bottom. The joints rattled. Bone scraped against bone. The connections loosened. The harp started to fall apart. The whole thing collapsed. With a crash, the giant harp fell to pieces. Bones tumbled everywhere, piling up in a heap. Squish toy: “...” Little Rock: “...” Angel Eyeball: “...” Angel Eyeball was stunned. It took two seconds before it could gasp, “Is this how he usually deals with Aberrants?!” Little Rock: “N-no, he’s not usually this violent...” Squish toy, shocked: “He’s not?!” Little Rock wiped imaginary sweat and forced a smile. “Yeah, he’s usually pretty nice to us. Don’t you think?” Squish toy, catching on: “Right! Right, he’s super nice to us! Lin Jianyuan’s a great guy!” Angel Eyeball: “………………” “All right, enough.” Lin Jianyuan, the world’s greatest guy, put away the massage gun and ran a hand through his hair. “Back to work.” Just then, the squish toy’s time-freezing limit ran out. Time resumed for the bone harp. “O mortal who has heard my name... huh??” The bone harp stared at its own body in shock. No, it didn’t have a body anymore. Its body had fallen apart! “What’s happening? Ah! What’s happening?!” The bone harp tried to clutch its head in despair—except it had no head. No strings. It couldn’t even clutch anything anymore. Bone Harp: “Aaaahhh!” The pile of bones bounced and clattered, shrieking in panic. Zero people cared. Zero Aberrants cared. Lunch break was over, and Lin Jianyuan was muttering curses as he headed back to work. A pink mass—someone’s digestive system—suddenly appeared in his line of sight. Lin Jianyuan blinked, rubbed his eyes, then broke into a grin. “Honey? What are you doing here?” Human joy and sorrow never truly connect. And between humans and Aberrants, the gap is even wider. The three little toys squeezed tight, curling up and shivering on the floor. The digestive system “glanced” at them, lips curling into a gentle smile terrifying enough to kill an Aberrant. It was about to speak, then spotted the pile of bones on the floor. The smile froze. Digestive System asked, surprised, “What’s this?” “Uh, that’s...” Lin Jianyuan froze. His roommate could see it? His roommate could actually see it?! So—that harp wasn’t just a hallucination? It was actually real?! He was doomed. His roommate would find out he’d just violently destroyed an innocent harp during a psychotic episode! Lin Jianyuan blurted, “It’s Lego.” Roommate: “Huh?” Lin Jianyuan bent down, picked up a bone, and lied with a straight face. “It’s, uh, a sample from a company that makes Lego knockoffs. Human skeleton, med student finals limited edition. Uh, Lego.” Roommate: “?” The pale vertebra was still wailing in existential despair. A length of intestine reached over and gently scooped it up. The pink mucosa brushed against Lin Jianyuan’s palm. Lin Jianyuan: “\~” Wahoo, wifey\~ Lin Jianyuan was utterly charmed. Xie Yu took the vertebra and smiled sweetly. “If you say it’s Lego, then it’s Lego.” Bone Sonata: “???” Wait, who agreed to this? I’m asking you, who said you could do this?! Who! But Bone Sonata didn’t dare act up in front of Xie Yu. No way. That was Xie Yu, an S-class Aberrant. So Bone Sonata could only scream silently inside. And so, pitifully, it let Xie Yu—well, Xie Yu’s intestines—turn it into Lego. Bone Sonata: “QAQ!!!” Squish toy: “...We’ve all been through this, I guess...” Little Rock: “...But seeing it up close again...” Angel Eyeball shed manly tears. “It’s too scary! Too violent! Too anti-Aberrant! How could it do that! Boo hoo!” Zero people cared. Zero S-class Aberrants cared. Lin Jianyuan was tuning out all the hallucinations and voices. All he could think about was how to show off his dazzlingly gorgeous wife to his coworkers. Heh heh heh. Meanwhile, somewhere else— “How did it disappear again?!” The subordinate was in disbelief, waving a detector around. “That shouldn’t happen! Bone Sonata’s mark is on record—how could it vanish? By all rights...” “Stop looking!” Shi Shaoning, masked and dressed in black, snapped. “You think you’re searching for WiFi? If it’s gone, it’s gone! Pack it up!” “We’re just going back?” The subordinate hesitated, glancing at his watch. “But it’s only 1:45...” His tone all but said, “Wow, we get off work this early?” Shi Shaoning wanted to roll his eyes. But he couldn’t—he had an image to maintain. So he just said coldly, “Pack it up,” and got into his black, custom car. The subordinate couldn’t hide his glee and was about to follow, when Shi Shaoning got out again. The subordinate jumped aside, thinking another emergency had cropped up. But Shi Shaoning just waved him on, face full of irritation, telling him to get in first. Then, clutching his phone, he walked off, voice low and urgent as he spoke into it: “Yeah, yeah, I’m on my way back... Five minutes! I said I just went downstairs for Starbucks! I’m wearing a mask and a cap, I’m not stupid—what, should I wear a Monkey King mask next time?! Damn it! How was I supposed to know the director would change the schedule and make me shoot early?! Yeah, yeah, I get it! Stop rushing me! The more you rush, the slower I go! Five minutes! If I’m late, I’ll chop my head off for you, okay?!” Subordinate: “...” So that’s it. Captain Shi wasn’t in a hurry to get off work. He was rushing to his other job.