Chapter 532 - 473: Jin Xueli: The Ruined Carnival

Chapter 532: Chapter 473: Jin Xueli: The Ruined Carnival

The summer she turned nineteen, Jin Xueli found a part-time job at a traveling carnival. The carnival had just rolled into her small hometown, its grounds freshly set up in an empty lot on the outskirts.

The stage was cobbled together from scrap wood, and the handful of tents were yellowed with age.

Long strings of light bulbs, draped across the grounds, shouldered the heavy burden of manufacturing a joyous, dreamlike atmosphere—provided you didn’t trip over the wires snaking across the ground, and prayed they wouldn’t short out and start a fire.

Jin Xueli sometimes found it hard to believe that a traveling carnival could still survive in this day and age.

No, it wasn’t the carnival itself that was so astonishing. Rather, it was a faithful reflection of the town.

Only in a place like Shennan Town, a place that felt abandoned by the era and the world, slowly being buried under despair and dust, could such a carnival survive—and even become an event the whole town eagerly awaited.

"Why didn’t you leave?"

The middle-aged woman running the cotton-candy stall only needed one look at Jin Xueli before nodding her approval. "Why would a young person want to stay in a little place like this where you can’t even find work?"

It was true. Almost all of Jin Xueli’s old classmates and friends had left.

Some went to college, others started working right away. As long as they could find some way to get by, nobody wanted to stay in this town. Even during summer break, few of those away at school ever returned.

Jin Xueli didn’t answer. Mostly because she had nothing to say.

The part-time pay was settled daily. It wasn’t money, it was a joke—though holding it in her hand, she couldn’t bring herself to laugh. Still, it was better than nothing.

By the second day of work, Jin Xueli felt like her hair was crawling with cotton candy cobwebs. She was bagging sweets for a child when she suddenly heard someone call her name. "Jin Xueli?"

She looked up. It was a friend from high school.

"Why are you back?"

"Why are you still here?"

They spoke in unison, then stared at each other for a few seconds. Luna managed a weary smile. "I came home to see my grandmother."

"You’re in..."

"I was in Blackmoor City," Luna said.

She didn’t even have to elaborate on her life. The very words "Blackmoor City" made Jin Xueli ache with a bitter longing. "So, when are you heading back?"

Luna’s expression in that instant was difficult to describe—it was as if she was using every ounce of her strength not to scream at Jin Xueli.

"I’m not going back. I’m not going back."

She seemed to be forcing words that should have been a roar into a trembling whisper, a smile plastered on her face. "I’ve decided to stay and keep my grandmother company, to take care of her... I’m not leaving again."

Jin Xueli had to bite her tongue to keep from asking "Why?" Luna’s grandmother had her first child at nineteen and was only in her fifties now. She hardly needed a caretaker.

"Walk around with me?" Luna asked, glancing at the cotton candy stand. "Can you get time off?"

"It’s the kind of job you can walk away from at any time. It’s not like they’re paying into my social security."

Jin Xueli called out to the stall owner and grabbed a handful of candy on her way out. "Let’s go. I’m dying to hear all about life in Blackmoor City."

And yet, as they wandered for the next half hour, Luna said almost nothing about her life in Blackmoor City—other than that breakfast bagels cost a staggering eight dollars and that she shared a shoebox apartment with several roommates. Mostly, she wanted to talk about high school.

"Abelard, you remember him, right? Everyone used to be crazy about him. Where is he now?"

"Who knows," Jin Xueli said, waving a hand dismissively. "Besides, I bet all the most beautiful people in the world are in Blackmoor City, right? I saw pictures from Fashion Week online. There were endless lines of models on the street..."

It was like Luna had a switch in her brain. The moment you mentioned "Blackmoor City," she would automatically clam up.

’Did something bad happen to her?’

With that thought, Jin Xueli didn’t press the issue. They fell silent, watching people try their luck at the Strongman King high striker.

"This kind of quiet, simple life is pretty good, too," Luna said suddenly.

"Cow manure makes good fertilizer, too," Jin Xueli said, glancing at her, finally unable to hold back. "What the hell happened to you? Did Blackmoor City eat the Luna I used to know?"

It was just a joke, but Luna flinched, shooting Jin Xueli a venomous glare from the corner of her eye. Her face was a dark mask.

Jin Xueli froze, instantly regretting it. "I’m sorry," she said quietly. "If you don’t want to talk about it, we can talk about something else..."

Luna didn’t say anything.

She slowly tilted her head, staring at the clanging, red-flashing Strongman King game. After a moment, she said softly, "No, no, it’s nothing... Don’t apologize. Nothing happened."

She turned her head and smiled at Jin Xueli. "Nothing bad happened at all."

Jin Xueli took a step back.

Luna’s left eye seemed to have shifted slightly to the left, while her right eye drifted a bit to the right. A wide, distant blankness now separated them.

She seemed to be looking at Jin Xueli, yet at the same time, her gaze was lost and unfocused.

’...A stroke? Did she have a stroke at her age?’

"Do you remember a little habit I used to have?" Luna’s speech was clear, not at all like someone who’d had a stroke. "I used to love picking a piece of vine and weaving it into a little heart, or a flower, and hanging them all over..."

"Yeah, it was cute," Jin Xueli said, taking another step back.

Luna immediately closed the distance, her body now almost pressing against Jin Xueli’s chest. Even between friends, it was uncomfortably close.

"When I first got to Blackmoor City, I was working two jobs, so exhausted I could barely breathe. I didn’t make any for a long time. Then, about two or three months ago, I saw some vines and my hands just got itchy, so I picked a piece. But I was so out of practice... it didn’t turn out like a heart. It was just a ring..."

’What on earth is she talking about?’

’Why is she suddenly so obsessed with these vines?’

Jin Xueli stammered, "Your eyes... what’s wrong with them?"

Luna paused. She raised a hand, placed the pad of her index finger on her eyeball, and rolled it around twice.

The eyeball moved with her finger, rolling slightly in its socket. When Luna let go, it didn’t return to its original position, but seemed to slide even further toward the corner of her eye.

Jin Xueli desperately wanted to look away, but for some reason, she didn’t dare.

"A little dry," Luna said. "The wind is a bit strong strong strong strong. I’ll just blink one two three four times and it’ll be fine."

’...What?’

Jin Xueli darted a glance with her peripheral vision and realized that as she had been backing away, Luna had been following her. Step by step, they had reached the edge of the carnival grounds.

Behind them lay a patch of dark, gloomy woods. The nearest dim light hung limply from a wooden pole a dozen paces away.

"So I just casually put it on a mailbox," Luna said.

It took Jin Xueli a couple of seconds to realize she was still talking about the ring woven from vines.

"The kind you see on the street, really common, so common common common, it’s so un-un-un-unfair, don’t you think..."

’Something is wrong with Luna.’

"I have to get back," Jin Xueli said, cold sweat trickling down her back. She tried to muster an apologetic smile. "I am on the clock, after all. I can’t be gone for too long..."

Surprisingly, perhaps, Luna didn’t try to stop her. She didn’t press the issue.

She just stood there, watching Jin Xueli hurry away. Jin Xueli walked for a good while before looking back, only to find Luna still standing in the exact same spot, her gaze seemingly fixed on her.

Jin Xueli didn’t see Luna again, not even as the carnival and her cotton candy stand were packing up for the night.

’She must be sick,’ Jin Xueli thought.

’Whether it’s mental or physical, I can’t say.’

She tossed her backpack into the basket of her bicycle, swung her leg over, and pedaled off into the town’s darkness. Many of the streetlights were out, and no one ever bothered to replace the bulbs. The town had too many broken things to fix them all.

’If she wasn’t sick, if she couldn’t handle it anymore, who would ever give up Blackmoor City to come back here?’

Just as she was thinking this, Jin Xueli glanced down and belatedly realized—there was a ring woven from vines looped over her bicycle’s handlebar.

’It’s just a vine—’

But logic couldn’t dispel the terror of that instant. Jin Xueli shuddered, her foot slipped off the pedal, and she nearly crashed, bike and all. Thankfully, her reflexes were quick enough to catch herself.

She stood there, catching her breath, and glanced around.

Under the dark night sky, on the cracked road, she was all alone.

"It’s nothing. Scaring yourself is the worst part," Jin Xueli told herself, getting back on the bike. "Just get home, and everything will be fine."

"Have you noticed anything different about me, now that I’m back?" Luna asked from the back seat.

’When we were walking around, Luna asked if I was any different. Maybe she knows she’s changed since she got sick...’

"I’m no doctor, and keeping her company won’t accomplish anything,"

In the silent, empty night, Jin Xueli continued to reassure herself out loud. "I feel bad for just leaving her like that, but I really have to get home."

A hand slipped into her jacket pocket, fumbled around for a moment, and pulled something out.

’That didn’t feel right.’

But Jin Xueli was too preoccupied with steeling her nerves to process it. "Good thing the carnival’s closed tomorrow anyway..."

The rustle of a candy wrapper being opened came from the back seat.

’For some reason, the bike feels so much heavier to pedal.’

"Just gotta save a little more money, then I can leave too..."

The wet sound of a tongue licking something.

A hand reached around from behind, holding a glistening, wet chocolate up to Jin Xueli’s mouth.

The smell of chocolate, saliva, and sugar, mixed with a powerful stench of mold, shot straight up her nose.

"I thought I could get away I left Blackmoor City I’m so far away why is it still still still still here you have to play the game you have to eat it eat eat eat eat you take it you take it away take it away take it away don’t blame me you find someone else to take it it’s hot potato hot potato just like hot potato the deadline is December 31st this year come on and eat it"

Jin Xueli opened her mouth.