The Real Awakening - Book 1: Chapter 0: prologue

It was a late autumn evening. The sky was quickly darkening. There was a drizzle sprinkling down intermittently in the grey misty twilight, mixed together with a cold wind that blew straight into one’s face to give a little chill.

He held a black umbrella and wore a black windbreaker with his collar pulled up. With his head lowered, he hurriedly walked through the crowd, making two turns before entering a Western-cuisine restaurant.

“Ah Shuo, over here, over here.” The girl sitting in the spot next to the window happily waved her hand at him.

He closed his umbrella and placed it inside the plastic bag the waiter handed over. He then smiled back [to the girl] as he walked over.

“Why so late? I’ve been waiting so long that I’m about to die of hunger!” The girl pouted cutely in complaint and hastily opened the menu on the table as she said, “What do you want to eat? I already decided earlier.”

He stared at his own menu in front of him and did not move as he replied, “It’s fine if you just order. I can eat anything.”

The girl abruptly paused from flipping through the menu and raised her head to stare at him with furrowed brows. “Ah Shuo, have you not been eating properly recently? You got a lot skinnier all of a sudden, and your complexion is poor too. What’s going on?”

“Ah? Is that so?” He reflexively touched his sunken cheeks and smiled to cover it up as he answered, “Might be because work has been too busy recently, so I’m a bit exhausted.”

“Sigh, you…work is obviously important, but don’t forget to rest too. What will I do if you get sick and collapse?”

The girl grinned at him and shot him a charming wink before calling over the waiter and pointing at a large amount of items on the menu that was enough food for at least four people. She then added, “I got my salary today, so it’ll be my treat for once. You just need to eat up.”

He gave a dry smile and remained silent.

Soon, plate after plate of delicacies were served, assailing their senses with rich aromas. There was fresh salad, roasted steak, potato gratin, spaghetti with tomato sauce, New Orleans wings, honeyed beef balls, in addition to a large pile of bacon-wrapped toast rolls. The entire table was basically filled, and it was enough to make everyone crave the delicious food.

However, he couldn’t keep his face from paling at the sight. As if escaping from something disgusting, he unconsciously frowned and leaned away in his chair as he said, “Didn’t you order a bit too much? It’s just the two of us; there’s no way we’ll finish.”

The girl chuckled and, as if to prove him wrong, picked up her own knife and fork to eat with relish.

However, he still did not move, rigidly remaining in his seat and struggling to restrain wave after wave of nausea as he watched her eat heartily across from him.

“Ah Shuo, what’s wrong? Why aren’t you eating?”

The girl swallowed a piece of extremely juicy steak as she glanced at him in confusion.

It took all his effort to gulp and grin back while agreeing vaguely, “Oh, yes, I’ll eat, I’ll eat.”

As he spoke, he slowly lifted his knife and fork to pick up one of the fragrant beef balls from the dish. Just as he was about to place it into his mouth, his hand instead froze in mid-air, unable to move no matter what.

He knew that his heart was opposing—opposing delicacies, opposing food, opposing anything edible.

“Ah Shuo, are you alright?” The girl asked in doubt. “Don’t tell me you’re not hungry?”

He started, his expression shifting in a subtle manner.

How could he not be hungry? He had already gone nearly two entire days without eating, sustaining himself just by drinking water. His stomach was clearly empty, growling from hunger. Yet he did not have any appetite when he saw food, even feeling disgust instead.

How had things come to this point? Since when had he started being unable to eat anything? He recalled that at the beginning, he had just been a bit off-put by food, not wanting to eat this or that and feeling nauseous upon seeing some things. He had assumed it was caused by work exhaustion, believing that it would slowly improve after a while. However, as time continued to move, his symptoms had grown more and more severe, to the point where seeing any food made him want to throw up.

He had gone to see a doctor too; the doctor had said it was anorexia.

However, he knew deep inside that it was not anorexia at all. What he wanted to eat was not any of the delicious food dishes on the table. He knew exactly what it was that his inner heart desired.

He was afraid, yet did not dare to tell anyone.

“Ah Shuo,” the girl across from him called out. “What’s the matter? Are you ill?”

He returned to his senses and shook his head as he responded with a wan smile. “It-it’s nothing.”

After saying this, he steeled his nerves and stuffed the beef ball he was holding up into his mouth, mechanically and forcefully chewing a few times like he was eating a vile maggot. Finally, with a gulp, he swallowed it down.

“How is it, this restaurant I recommended is pretty good, isn’t it?” The girl beamed at him.

“Mn, not bad, not bad, urgh…” Before he could finish speaking, he suddenly felt the urge to throw up. He hurriedly covered his mouth and stood up to race towards the bathroom.

The girl’s alarmed cry rang out from behind him.

“Ah Shuo, what’s wrong?”

Yet he did not even look back, charging into the bathroom to reach the edge of the sink. He immediately vomited out the beef ball he had just swallowed, along with stomach acid.

After throwing everything up, the disgusting waves of nausea finally faded. He slowly took deep breaths, weakly supporting himself on the edges of the sink. He stared at the sticky and chunky filth inside and turned on the faucet to rinse it down [the drain] bit by bit.

At this moment, a grumbling sound sharply entered his ears. The sound was not that loud, he heard it loud and clear. It was a pained wail from his stomach that had been starved to a truly unbearable point.

So hungry. He tried swallowing his saliva, but it was not long before his hungered stomach made another series of grumbling noises in protest.

He could not endure it any longer. He really wanted to eat something, to happily eat his fill. Otherwise if he continued on like this, he might actually starve to death.

He slowly lifted his head, his eyes staring blankly at the mirror where there was a face so haggard that it didn’t look human anymore, with bones jutting out and two caved-in cheeks.

So hungry, I’m really so hungry…

He swallowed hard again. A sliver of immense pain appeared in his sunken eye sockets.

I can’t, I’m really going to starve to death…I really want to eat…I really want to eat, ah…

His vision gradually shifted downwards to stare dumbly at his own right hand which he lifted up bit by bit.

He was frightened, but could not conceal his urgent expression from the extreme hunger. He kept swallowing his saliva, his gaze locked unmovingly onto his own hand.

A male finger that was thick with distinct joints. It honestly did not have much flesh. However, he—

With a crunch, his teeth bit down. The noise from the bone snapping shot through his brain like a clap of thunder.

He jolted with a start to look blankly at the man in the mirror. The man’s face was filled with blood, currently chewing his own finger with a satisfied expression, as if he was chewing fresh, plump pig trotters.

No! No! He shook his head as he convulsed with fear, retreating backwards step after step. Yet he was unable to stop, because he was truly too hungry. Now that he had finally managed to eat his beloved delicacy, how could he possibly stop?

After swallowing the finger, he bit down hard on his own thumb, as if completely unable to sense pain. As he chewed it in his mouth that was dripping with blood, it made brittle crackling sounds. Crimson blood flowed down from the corners of his pale lips, like the fragrant juices of a rich food.

No! Don’t! Stop! Stop!

He cried in despair, the tears mixing together with blood before dripping down. However, he still had no way of stopping his intense craving and urge to devour. Just like this, he bit off every single one of his ten fingers mouthful after mouthful, chewing each one eagerly and swallowing them…