Chapter 21: Bai Can!
Tuesday early morning, 12:15 a.m.
Shinjuku, Xiang Shuishang’s Late-night Diner.
The L-shaped Bar Counter was packed, with even a few nosy Young Persons crowding the Doorway, a spectacle that would never happen on an ordinary day.
“Boss, any seats left?”
“Sorry, full.” Xiang Shuishang answered without looking up, his spatula flipping on the griddle as the aroma of Tamagoyaki filled the air.
Today’s customers were a bit strange.
Most of them were absent-minded, their eyes occasionally glancing at the old Television in the Corner, as if it hid some priceless treasure inside.
“Mr. Tanaka, no drinking today?” Akemi had changed into a simple Dress today, her makeup much lighter, as she took small bites of the Daikon Radish in the Oden, her eyes fixed on the Television just the same.
Tanaka grimaced, with a cup of Oolong Tea in front of him: “Don’t even mention it. After watching that 《Fu Nü》 last night, I turned our house upside down when I got home. My wife thought I’d gone mad and nearly called the police. Not a drop today; I need to stay sober, or if I get scared later, my heart might jump out and no one will save me.”
His words drew a round of empathetic bitter laughs.
“Tell me about it. Yesterday when I got home, I had to drag my neighbor’s sister over for courage before I dared to enter.”
“I’m worse off. In my Apartment building, someone actually posted a talisman on the first floor last night! No idea which jerk’s prank it was, but it scared me into hesitating two or three minutes before forcing myself to walk past!”
A college Student at the other end of the Bar Counter adjusted his Glasses and said in a deliberately calm academic tone: “This is the memetic effect. A cultural symbol with enough Impact spreads and replicates through the crowd like a virus. Last night’s 《An Shizhi》 was a perfect memetic contamination source.”
The crowd nodded as if they understood, but the fear on their faces grew even more intense.
They were like a group of children both expectant and afraid, knowing there was a tiger in the mountain yet heading straight for it, just to see how terrifying today’s new tiger would be!
……
Meanwhile, in Suzuki’s Classroom at the Tokyo Television Station, the atmosphere was a hundred times more Solemnity than in the Late-night Diner.
Everyone, including Kiyoto Suzuki, stared fixedly at the Monitor screen, even holding their breath.
Yesterday’s 1.75% Ratings weighed on them like a mountain.
Hiroshi Nohara’s words had given them hope, but whether that hope would become reality depended on tonight.
“Nohara-kun, you… really not Nervous?” Yō Kitagawa asked softly, looking at Hiroshi Nohara who remained calm as still water beside her.
Her own palms were already covered in cold sweat.
Hiroshi Nohara turned his head and gave her a toothy Smile, bright as Sunlight, utterly out of place in the tense late-night atmosphere: “Why be nervous? We’re the challengers now; the Pressure is on the defenders. We just need to show our Weapon to the Audience once more, and that’s enough.”
His calm and composed confidence seemed to have a magic power, slowly soothing Yō Kitagawa’s racing heart.
Including the others, everyone’s mood calmed down at this moment.
“Phew!” Kiyoto Suzuki saw all this and slowly Loosened his clenched fist.
Thinking back to the Video Tape they’d previewed in advance, about Bai Can in the second episode, that exquisite Story blending reality, they steadied themselves.
This really was a great Story.
……
12:20 a.m., time’s up.
The familiar nursery rhyme and “thump, thump, thump” drumbeats rang out right on time across countless glowing Screens in Tokyo.
That man wearing the eerie smiling mask appeared on the Image again, riding his old Bicycle.
“Passing by, don’t miss it—An Shizhi time… is here again.”
The Late-night Diner fell instantly silent.
Suzuki’s Classroom was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
The masked man drew back the Curtain, revealing the Story of the second episode.
【An Shizhi · Bai Can】
The Image still had that rough, yellowish Paper texture.
A well-dressed Young Person, due to a Job mistake, was sent by his Boss to a remote Mountain Village to apologize.
The Story’s beginning was ordinary, even a bit Boredom.
But when the Young Person fell on the mountain road and woke up to find himself in an old Hospital, the atmosphere shifted abruptly.
The Hospital was very quiet, eerily so.
The other patients in the Hospital Room all faced away from him, whispering among themselves. Whenever he tried to lean in to listen, the voices stopped abruptly.
The entire Hospital Room had only him as an “outsider.”
That feeling of isolation and being watched pierced through the Screen, precisely conveyed to every Audience member.
“What… what are these people saying…” In the Late-night Diner, Tanaka instinctively lowered his voice, as if afraid to disturb the people on the Image.
The Plot continued.
The Young Person was finally discharged. As he walked out the Hospital gate and looked back, his heart suddenly contracted.
There, at the second-floor windows of the Hospital, on the rooftop, were all those patients who had faced away from him before. Now, they all faced him with eerie Smiles, then… in unison, they bowed deeply, kneeling in worship.
The scene was less a farewell than a bizarre ritual!
The Young Person was puzzled, thinking it was just them seeing him off from the Hospital, so he hailed a Taxi by the roadside.
Seeing this, all the Audience breathed a sigh of relief.
He finally escaped.
However, when the Taxi driver glanced in the rearview mirror and saw the Hospital building behind the Young Person swarming with shadowy figures kneeling in send-off, the driver’s face turned whiter than Paper!
“Bai Can… this is Bai Can!” The driver let out a bloodcurdling scream, slammed on the brakes, and frantically tried to shove the Young Person out of the car.
“Get out! Get out now! You can’t leave this Village alive!!”
In that instant of the driver and Young Person struggling, the Image cut to the rear of the Taxi.
Against a blood-red background, those kneeling Shadowy Figures clung like maggots to the bone, closely following.
Then, a blinding beam of light flashed!
A massive Truck, like an out-of-control steel beast, roared deafeningly and smashed straight into the Taxis rear!
“Ah——!”
Akemi could no longer hold back and let out a scream that pierced the night sky!
The Image cut off abruptly!
Black screen.
The words “The End” appeared coldly.
……
“Bang!”
In the Late-night Diner, Tanaka’s Oolong Tea Cup slipped from his hand and shattered on the floor, but he was oblivious, mouth agape, eyes bulging, pupils filled with ultimate Terror.
The entire diner was like it had been paused.
Dead silence! More absolute than last night!
If the Terror of 《Fu Nü》 was insidious, the kind that makes you ponder in Fear after returning home,
Then the Terror of 《Bai Can》 was a head-on heavy blow! Directly pinning you down and showing you what Despair truly means!
Especially that final scene—the terrified driver, the despairing passenger, the oncoming Truck… For city dwellers living in this Steel Forest, the destructive Impact from such an everyday vehicle was all too relatable!
