T/N: This is my first foray into horror, you guys! I’m super excited. This one is short, only 37 chapters, and I really love it. It’s 1st person present tense, which is a bit different, but give it a chance! I have a feeling you’re going to enjoy it.

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I suspect that my husband is not who he is.

What I mean is, somebody is impersonating him.

And the thing impersonating him is probably not human.

I know that nobody in the 21st century believes in these beings anymore, but I’m not crazy. Really.

Of course, everyone except me thinks I’m crazy.

“A-Zhen, have you gone to Dr. Zhao for medicine recently? Oh, Mom doesn’t mean that. It’s just that Mom hasn’t accompanied you in a long time. How about Mom goes with you…..” My mother tries to persuade me as tactfully and gently as possible, her face full of caution for fear of agitating me a little.

You see, after telling my biological mother my conjecture, even she doesn’t believe me. She thinks I’m sick.

“Mom…..I think Brother’s illness seems to be much more serious. His eyes were so distracted just now…..”

I hear my sister-in-law say this to my mother when I slam the door angrily and leave my mother’s house.

Okay, let me just say that I was a little panicked a moment ago. I have a mental illness, but it is very mild. Just a little bit of schizophrenia.

I insist on taking medicine every day for my lover, and I am almost healed now. Even Dr. Zhao says that I will soon be like a normal person, so the problem is definitely not the schizophrenia. 

Even when I was at my worst, I didn’t suspect that Wen Mingcheng was not a human being!

He is the person I have loved for more than ten years, from childhood sweethearts to marriage. He saved me from schizophrenia and depression many times when I wanted to end my life. I once doubted I could suspect him either, ah!

Now, as he comes in and out of my home every day, the “Wen Mingcheng” who calls himself my husband is not really Mingcheng at all. Although they have the same appearance, the same body shape, the same personality, and the same habits, even in bed……damn, I can’t explain.

But please trust me!!

“I don’t believe it.” The man pushes up the glasses on the bridge of his nose and scans me from top to bottom with stern eyes.

I sit up straight reflexively, like a primary school student. After hearing this, I immediately retort: “Why don’t you believe it? Everything I said is true. He really isn’t him. You don’t know how panicked I feel every day when I see him. I don’t know if Mingcheng has been harmed by him…..”

Dr. Zhao raises his hand to interrupt me, then sighs deeply and pinches his brow with two fingers. From this angle, I can see the wrinkles in the corners of his eyes. 

He is only in his early thirties, but seems much older after seeing me. I probably really worry him.

I suddenly lose the strength to speak, but the pain of not being trusted still burns me. My hands hang weakly on my knees. “But I’m really not lying to you…..”

“I believe you.”

My eyes light up and I raise my head quickly, as if having glimpsed hope. Unfortunately, Dr. Zhao pours cold water on me in the next sentence.

“But have you taken any medicine during this time?”

“I…..”

My head is muddled, and I lower it with a guilty conscience.

The answer is already obvious.

Dr. Zhao doesn’t speak for a full minute. His jaw tightens and he looks angry. Then he stands up gruffly, takes out a few boxes of medicine from the medicine cabinet in the back, and pours a glass of water. He says calmly: “You think I can trust you?”

Dr. Zhao is the personal doctor Mingcheng found for me. Over the years, in order to treat me, he has always kept medicine in his office. He will also count the time I finished taking it, and sometimes knock on the door in the middle of the night to deliver medicine to me. 

I haven’t taken medicine for a long time, and I feel bad for his painstaking efforts.

But it’s not that I didn’t take it on purpose. 

I really didn’t mean to.

It’s just, who wouldn’t be scared if they found out their husband was replaced, ah?!

If you didn’t know who the person sleeping next to you every day was, would you not be afraid?!

A normal person would be scared crazy, okay? And what’s more, I still have a mental illness.

Unfortunately, Dr. Zhao no longer believes me. I put the medicine in my mouth and raise my head, opening my mouth to drink the water he gives me. I swallow the medicine.

Because I don’t take medicine well, the two people who believe in me the most in this world don’t trust me either.

Who else can I speak to? Nobody believes me anymore. Can I call the police and say that my new husband is being impersonated by a ghost?

The police will think I’m sick, and then gently send me back to that thing. Although I’m sick, I am not stupid.

I can only go home.

But I dare not go home, at least not before 5:25 p.m. on a weekday……

. . . . . . .

A few days ago.

Yuhua city is located near the sea. In early summer, the breeze is cool and humid. After the morning fog dissipates, the smell of flowers and plants gently enters the room with the wind, refreshing the body.

This season is perfect for sleeping in. I don’t get up until after nine in the morning, and because I slept well, my body seems much lighter.

Like most young people nowadays, my mobile phone is my best friend, and the first thing I do after waking up is check my messages.

“Shocking! A famous director cheated with his godson!”

“Scary! A type of new swine fever is spreading in the United States!”

“Shocking! There has been a serious traffic accident. The traffic police warn you…..”

I delete all of these shocking comments with an expressionless face and click into the chat software.

Mingcheng: Breakfast is in the kitchen, it must be heated up before eating. If you have a bad stomach, don’t drink milk. And if you feel uncomfortable, call me. Remember to lock the door…..

I look at the time. Seven thirty-five.

I was still sleeping at that time, but Mingcheng had already personally prepared breakfast for me.

Wen Mingcheng. My first love, my lover, my new husband.

He is handsome, tall, and of noble birth, and is always gentle and considerate of me. No matter how squeamish, willful, fragile, and unhealthy I am, he remains as gentle as ever.

I have never seen negative emotions in him. He seems to have endless patience and love for me, from elementary school to high school, from falling in love to getting married. 

I receive his love and love him back.

I want to be with him forever.

I’m imagining it happily, when at this moment, my phone suddenly buzzes.

Mingyi: The art exhibition is scheduled for next month. Are you sure you can do it before my brother’s birthday? How many paintings do you have left?

This is Wen Mingyi, Mingcheng’s sister, and my sister-in-law. The three of us went to school together. I often bullied her when she was a child, but who would have thought that when she grew up, she would become a sports student? She still practices boxing, and her strength is superior to that of a weak man like me. The tables have really turned…..

Mingyi: Hey, looking at the replies, you haven’t gotten up yet, have you, kid?

I quickly reply to her: I got up and was painting. I promise to finish it, and…..there are only two paintings left to complete.

Mingyi: Only two paintings left? Looks like you’re sensible, kid.

Laughing to death. There are more than twenty left.

But I dare to lie to a woman like this who practices boxing, and I don’t panic at all.

Because the rest are the ones I want to save for the end to paint seriously, including my favorite, a portrait of Mingcheng, which I am an expert at.

His face and body are so deeply ingrained in my mind that I can naturally imagine them without him standing as a model.

In fact, I have been drawing him since I was a boy. Standing on the playground, playing cello in the classroom, secretly dozing off in class with his face propped up, at the graduation party.

Each one is radiant, beautiful, and charming.

During adolescence, other boys were discussing which girl was the prettiest, but I was secretly drawing him in my notebook.

His image was imprinted in my mind, painted on paper, and hidden in my heart.

It wasn’t until the summer after high school graduation that he was playing at my house and unintentionally found out what was on my mind.

Wen Mingcheng’s portraits were scattered everywhere. I stood at the door in humiliation, unable to speak. Tears fell almost instantly. I never cried, and had no idea I could cry so quickly.

And he looked straight at me.

The young man’s eyes were so scorching hot that they seemed to be able to pry out my soul. He came to me, still holding the pictures I had drawn in one hand.

He was very popular. Many people liked him, and almost all the girls in school had sent him love letters. I…..I, a homosexual, was ashamed of myself.

But in the next moment, he embraced me and pressed his lips to mine.

“Don’t worry. You like me, A-Zhen, and I like you too…..”

I was endlessly astounded.

And I am also endlessly astounded at present, because when I open the door, I find that Mingcheng, who is supposed to be at work, is actually in the living room.

He is still wearing a suit and matte leather shoes. On his left wrist he wears the sapphire Rolex I bought for him, and his right hand is carrying a men’s handbag. I know that his laptop and pen are inside. The tall bridge of his nose can be seen from his handsome side profile, and his skin is cold and white, like a white jade statue.

He just stands in the middle of the living room, motionless.

I’m stunned for more than ten seconds, and look at the clock on the wall and on the screen of my mobile phone several times.

9:59.

“Ding, ding, ding, it’s ten o’clock, brother, time to finish painting!”

My alarm suddenly rings, startling me.

Great, it’s ten o’clock now, and Mingcheng usually leaves for work before eight o’clock.

And right now he is as motionless as a puppet.

Fortunately, the sound of the alarm seems to disturb him. I see him pause and slowly turn around.

Mingcheng is very good-looking. Even though we have been together for more than ten years, I’m always stunned by his appearance.

The man standing in the middle of the living room has deep brows, a straight nose, and a natural upward tilt to his lips. Even if he isn’t smiling, there are three points of a smile on his face. His hair is like ink, and his skin is like snow. It’s the time of year where spring flowers are blooming outside, but the spring scenery in the small courtyard is outshined by him.

He looks straight at me, and after a long while, calls my name. As if he doesn’t recognize me, he even ends with a question mark: “A-Zhen?”

I don’t think there was anything wrong with his tone at this time. I just think his eyes are strange, as if there is a dark light flowing through them, sharp and obscure, like a beast in the deep forest.

As soon as I come into contact with them, my scalp goes numb and there is a chill down my spine.

I later realize that it was my biological survival instinct, but at this time, I only think it is Mingcheng. So I don’t take it to heart, and stupidly think that I have been blown by the cool wind.

“Mingcheng?” I walk up to him and raise my hands to hold his handsome face very intimately. “Why haven’t you gone to work? Isn’t it ten o’clock now? Why are you standing in the living room dressed up?”

He seems stunned by my three consecutive questions. He looks down at me, and his eyes move slightly. Then he throws his handbag on the sofa, hugs my waist, and buries his face in my neck.

I can’t see his eyes anymore.

“I don’t want to go to work this morning, can I cook for you? Have you eaten this morning?” His hands are very big as he rubs them on my back. I feel that his fingers are cold, his fingertips and nails gently sliding on my skin.

I feel uncomfortable for no reason, and goosebumps appear wherever they touch me.

But he is Wen Mingcheng, ah! What is wrong with him touching me? We have done the most intimate things.

I dismiss the strange feeling in my heart, smile, and hug him back. “Didn’t you bake banana chips for me? Of course I have something to eat.”

The hands rubbing my back pause abruptly.

It only takes a second for him to return to his normal state. Wen Mingcheng’s voice is still gentle and charming: “That’s right, ah, I just forgot.”

But I can’t laugh.

I don’t know why I called the sandwich banana chips, but he didn’t catch it……

At eleven o’clock in the morning, Wen Mingcheng makes soup in the kitchen.

The chicken soup is mellow and sweet, wafting from the kitchen to my nose to seduce me.

He still likes stewed chicken and grilled shrimp. When baking bread, he breaks off the crispiest parts for me to eat, and still rolls up his left sleeve but not the right.

He still has the habit of watching me drink a bowl of soup before a meal.

I lower my head and slowly drink the bowl of chicken soup he feeds me. He likes to feed me a bowl of soup or a cup of water with his own hands.

Sure enough, it is Mingcheng. I had actually thought he was strange just now, but I am the strange one. Could it be that my illness has recurred?

I’m actually still going over the banana chips and sandwich thing in my mind, but this is the conclusion I come to:

After eating, I must take medicine to treat my mental illness.

With this in mind, I eat faster than usual. I finish half a bowl of food in less than ten minutes, and also eat a lot of vegetables. I’m in poor health and take medicine all the time, so I actually have no appetite.

But as I eat, I discover that Mingcheng seemed to have even less of an appetite today. His chopsticks move to the food a few times, and it seems that he has only taken two bites in the past ten minutes. And his expression is obviously not very good when he eats it. His profile is tense, his slender brows slightly furrowed, and his lips are even faintly purple, as if he can’t breathe.

He looks a bit miserable like this, which makes me recall a choking child on TV, or that…..Heimlich maneuver?

Oh my god!

I stand up immediately and say: “Mingcheng, are you okay? Are you holding your breath, ah? You…..huh? Why are you still wearing a suit, ah, your tie is too tight. Take it off quickly…..”

I am impatient, and can do things faster with my hands than with my brain. Seeing that my favorite Mingcheng is uncomfortable, I can’t bear it for a second and hurry to remove his suit and tie.

The tie is fastened outside the collar of his shirt, and my movements inevitably open part of his collar.

……

………

One second, two seconds, ten seconds pass.

I stay where I am, staring blankly at my hands.

My pale hands are covered in blood. A hideous wound is bleeding on Mingcheng’s neck under his shirt, and the moment I opened his collar, bright red blood spurted out.

Like a fountain, I think to myself.

The blood breaks through the old crusted blood and spreads to half his body at a speed visible to the naked eye. It flows down from his dark suit pants and dyes the warm carpet red.

But Wen Mingcheng actually sits there calmly. He reaches up to his fountain-like neck and elegantly ties his tie. His voice overflows from his broken throat, and blood spurts out with every word. “You just hurt me, A-Zhen.”

He even has a gentle, coquettish tone.

I turn to look, and see his thick eyelashes.

There are no black pupils in the eyes underneath.

I hear myself let out the sharpest scream of my life.

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