บท 52: The Replacement
บรรณาธิการ: TheSloth
Luo Qiu didn’t expect that Tu Jiaqing came to the club again so quickly. She arrived around the time he intended to head home.
Tu Jiaqing looked much worse than before… This could be seen from her smeared eye shadow which left streaks across her face due to wiping her tears.
Luo Qiu asked You Ye to pour half glass of the leftover cocktail she made for the customer instead of the usual scented tea.
Tu Jiaqing didn’t say a word. After the brown cocktail was served to her, she raised the glass and drank it all in one go.
“Who are you guys?”
Luo Qiu answered in a soft voice, “We may not be good guys but are the ones that can satisfy your desires.”
Tu Jiaqing looked at Luo Qiu, then moved her eyes over to You Ye, then looked around the club. She drew out a black card and said, “I’ve thrown it away, but it appeared before me again. I left… however it returned to my pocket. Therefore… you guys should not be ordinary people.”
“Are you feeling better?” Luo Qiu asked.
Tu Jiaqing was stunned.
She recalled that she couldn’t stop shivering until drinking the alcohol. The cocktail gave her a warm feeling in her stomach. Hence, she nodded subconsciously.
Because of the strange events happened tonight, she stood in awe of this mysterious power hiding in the darkness. This place seemed to be a machine that could magnify human desires infinitely.
“Can you make me become my sister… Tu Jiaya?” She tentatively spoke her thoughts.
Since the customer had said what she wanted, the transaction process officially started.
Her desire was a surprise to Luo Qiu. He tapped his finger on the table and a few patterned cards floated over the table.
Despite the club policy of allowing the customers to have the right to evaluate the price themselves, not everyone could give a correct estimate. Therefore, the bargaining process had been omitted due to the customer's’ ignorance concerning the value of their transaction fee.
“What’s this?” Tu Jiaqing gazed at these patterned cards, which emerged from nowhere a little nervously.
Luo Qiu said, “Every card represents for an item you posses that can be exchanged for this commodity. Dear customer, what you need cannot be appraised simply by money, hence it can't be purchased by money either.”
Luo Qiu swept these cards in front of Tu Jiaqing’s eyes, yet he did not open them because he was curious if a different result compared to previously would happen.
Tu Jiaqing frowned, turning over the middle one abruptly, which showed a simple word: Talent.
She looked at Luo Qiu in puzzlement.
Luo Qiu said without expression, “It means, you could get what you want using your talent as the transaction fee.”
Tu Jiaqing frowned. “What happens if I lose my talent?”
Luo Qiu said, “You should know what it means. Let’s skip the unnecessary questions, OK?”
Tu Jiaqing’s hand trembled. She let go of the card and said in fright, “I can’t lose my talent!”
Next, she picked up another one: 30 years.
This probably meant she had to pay her lifespan---30 years of lifespan equaled to almost half an ordinary mortal’s life.
Luo Qiu said softly to the hesitant Tu Jiaqing, “Tu Jiaya spent 8 years to achieve her everything she has now, so we start with 8 years. However you don’t have such excellent opportunities like your sister; furthermore, times have changed, hence you have to pay more for the chances that should not have belonged to you… After all, if you managed to become your sister, you would obtain everything she has gained till now.”
‘Furthermore… I have got to earn something as well.’
Tu Jiaqing hesitated for awhile, before opening up the other 3 cards respectively.
They were: Happiness, Soul and 25 years of doing good.
Luo Qiu explained one by one, “Happiness means you exchange your entire life’s happiness for it. You will no longer feel romantic love, familial love or delight, etc. As for the soul, the commodity you desire is the long-term type, so we’ll get it before your death. It’s a standing agreement. The last one is doing good for 25 years, which means you have to keep doing good deeds. You absolutely cannot do anything evil for 25 years… whether directly or indirectly. Of course this can be considered a long term contract as well.”
Tu Jiaqing asked hesitantly, “…indirectly? What will happen if I did something bad indirectly?”
Luo Qiu answered patiently, “It’s the same as breaking the contract. Since we shall give you what you need first… If you break the contract, we’ll collect compensation for the breach of contract, such as taking back your commodity forcibly and retrieving something as payment according to the situation… perhaps your lifespan or talent. They will be the compensation for the time you used the good.”
Tu Jiaqing was silent for a very long time, then said carefully, “Then what I happen, if I choose to exchange my soul?”
“Customer, that matter will be known after your death.”
“Take my soul,” Tu Jiaqing said firmly. “I can’t abandon my talent, because I want to create more works. And I need time… I can’t lose 30 years. Furthermore, if I forfeit my happiness, everything I do will be meaningless… As for doing good? That’s too unstable, whether directly or indirectly.”
Once she replied in such a firm tone, a roll of goatskin paper unfolded in front of her eyes.
Tu Jiaya pressed her shivering hand on top of the goatskin scroll.
In this moment, she became entered into a daze. Everything disappeared… Then she found out she had returned to the deluxe apartment where she and her sister lived.
In front of the full-length mirror, Tu Jiaqing looked at herself while touching her face with both hands in disbelief.
She felt that the world had become unfamiliar.
“Looks exactly the same… the same!! I…I’m Tu Jiaya… I’m the elder sister… I… It came true!! Haha… Hahahaha… Hahahaha!!!”
While she was laughing, the door to her room was knocked suddenly.
“Jiaqing? Is that you, Jiaqing? You came back?”
That was… the really Tu Jiaya.
What to do?
Tu Jiaqing opened her eyes wide… ‘What am I going to do? I’ve become her… but the real one is still out there.’
All of a sudden, Tu Jiaqing muttered to herself, “The company… only needs one Tu Jiaya. That’s what you said… you said it… it’s you… it’s you!”
She opened the bedroom door slowly.
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