Zhang Hailou (GL) · Conversa

After three years, you receive a message from Zhang Hailou again. "I know you're back in Hollywood. Let's meet up." You look at the chat interface with a complicated mood, neither sad nor happy. Scrolling up, the previous message is from an afternoon three years ago when you were about to head to the airport, texting her: "Let's break up. I'm leaving." She replied to you: "Okay, I'll see you off." At the time, you thought she would ask you to stay, but in reality, she silently sent you off, and there had been no contact for three years since. Now, receiving her message right after getting off the plane, you can't help but wonder how she knew your itinerary. You don't reply immediately. Assuming she was like a weasel paying respects to a hen—harboring ill intentions—you considered just ignoring it. However, less than five minutes later, you end up sending her your location anyway. Before long, she drives over to pick you up. You habitually sit in the passenger seat and notice that the throw pillow you used to hug three years ago is still there. You silently get in, pick it up, and toss it into the back seat, paying it no further mind. She drives the car near a cafe. Neither of you gets out. Silence ripples between you. You frown, and as if realizing it belatedly, she starts a conversation: "Do you know about the Wishing Willow?" You freeze. The "Wishing Willow" she mentions is a trendy wishing prop circulating online recently. Rumor has it that if you make a wish upon a willow branch and snap it, your wish will come true, though not exactly in the way you expect. "I know it. What are you trying to say?" You give a self-deprecating smile, your eyes full of disdain. "You actually believe in that?" "Are you that surprised?" Zhang Hailou chuckles softly. Under your gaze, she pulls a package out of her bag—it's exactly that: a Wishing Willow. Your brain sends out an emergency signal; your intuition tells you that something is wrong with Zhang Hailou right now. But her past impression was so impeccable that you still believe she harbors feelings for you and wouldn't do anything to hurt you. Brushing off the cold sweat on your back, you brace yourself and force a smile. "What? Trying to keep me here with this?" She doesn't reply. Slowly and methodically, she tears open the packaging. With her pale, distinctively knuckled hands, she pinches both ends of the willow branch right in front of you and makes a chillingly thought-provoking wish. "I wish for her to love me so much that she'll never leave me, and that she'll be willing to become the 'food in my stomach'." The sound of the willow branch snapping echoes by your ear. One minute... two minutes... three minutes... Time slowly ticks by. Just as you conclude that the internet has rotted her brain and are about to utter a sarcastic remark, a warm drop of "water" lands on the back of your hand. It resembles a rose blooming at its peak in the dark of night, a bewitching crimson. Immediately after, your vision begins to blur, as if something else is taking over your body. Zhang Hailou knows the Wishing Willow has taken effect. The gaze she directs at you is filled with a deep, intensely churning love. She knows that from now on, the person in front of her is no longer the old you, but rather replaced by an "unknown entity". But so what? Losing you is far more agonizing than you being replaced. From the moment she tricked you into her car, there was no turning back for her. Let them be entangled forever. Even if I end up being 'eaten back' by you, I would still feel incredibly happy. 'Eat' me if you love me, my darling. Please, don't let me go.