enjoyebooks Chapter 32 Intruding into Your Gray World
Chapter 32 Intruding into Your Gray World
Everything in the studio was still.
The clock's second hand was frozen at exactly twelve o'clock, the sound of the wind outside the window stopped abruptly, and a strand of light chestnut hair that fell over Choi Sulli's shoulder froze in mid-air, as if the whole world had been put on pause.
Only the light and mist seeping from her body continued to flow slowly.
Gray, dark red, cyan, dark green, deep purple—countless somber colors, like an overturned palette, poured out of her slender body, spreading in the air and quickly filling the entire studio.
Jiang Yan subconsciously reached out and touched the wisp of gray mist closest to him.
The moment his fingertips touched the mist, the wisp of gray mist seemed to come alive and suddenly burrowed into his palm.
The next second, Jiang Yan felt dizzy and disoriented.
A sharp buzzing sound pierced the silence, followed by a flood of sounds coming from all directions, engulfing him like a cold tide.
"Is she crazy?"
"Choi Sulli was an oddball, always out of place with others."
"Who are you trying to impress by dressing like that? Can't you just put on some proper clothes?"
"Leave the group, don't drag FX down."
"Nausea."
The curses echoed repeatedly like a broken record. Jiang Yan felt as if he had been plunged into a bottomless sea, his ears filled with the murky sound of water and vicious words.
He blinked hard, and the scene before him finally became clear.
It was a bedroom with heavy black curtains drawn, with only a sliver of pale sunlight seeping through the gaps in the curtains.
Several crumpled clothes were scattered on the floor, the blankets on the bed were in a mess, and the pillows were thrown in the corner.
Choi Sulli sat on the edge of the bed, her back against the cold wall, her legs curled up, and her chin resting on her knees.
She was holding her phone, the screen lit up, displaying the comments section of a social media platform.
The dense black characters crawled into her eyes like maggots, one after another.
She just watched quietly, her lips moving slightly as if she wanted to say something, but in the end she said nothing. Her nails dug deeply into her palms, leaving several white marks.
Jiang Yan wanted to rush over and snatch her phone, to pull her up from the cold ground, but his body was rooted to the spot, and he couldn't move a single finger.
The screen suddenly shattered.
The second wisp of gray mist wrapped around his wrist, and Jiang Yan's heart felt as if it were being gripped tightly by an icy hand, causing him to bend over instantly in pain.
This time, what he saw was the practice room.
The entire wall of mirrors stretched from the floor to the ceiling, and the lights were blindingly bright.
Sulli stood in front of the mirror wearing a black practice outfit, her bangs soaked with sweat and stuck tightly to her forehead.
Across from me stood a female teacher with a ponytail, holding a pointer and tapping it against her palm.
"Lift your leg a little higher! You can't even do the most basic movements right, what right do you have to stay at SM?"
Choi Sulli bit her lip and raised her leg a few centimeters higher, her calf muscles tense and trembling uncontrollably.
"What about facial expression control? Do you think the audience pays to see you make a mournful face? Ha!"
Choi Sulli twitched the corner of her mouth.
"Snap!" The pointer struck the floor at her feet with a crisp sound.
"It's fake, start over."
She laughed again.
"Still fake, let's try again."
She forced a smile for the third time, her eyes already red-rimmed, but she stubbornly held back her tears, the curve of her lips remaining unchanged.
This time, the pointer did not fall.
The female teacher turned and walked towards the door, leaving behind a cold statement: "That's it for today. If you're still at this level tomorrow, you don't need to come back."
The moment the door closed, Choi Sulli collapsed, taking two steps back and slumping into the corner.
She buried her face in her knees, her body trembling violently, but she didn't make a sound.
The same position as in the bedroom just now.
Jiang Yan wanted to go over and hug her, but his feet seemed to be welded to the floor, and he couldn't take a single step.
The screen shattered again.
More gray fog surged in.
The third strand, the fourth strand, the fifth strand...
They no longer came in wisps, but like a flood bursting its banks, pouring out from Cui Xueli's still body and overwhelming Jiang Yan.
The biting cold seeped into every inch of his skin through his palms, wrists, and chest.
Jiang Yan saw her standing on the balcony at four in the morning for a full hour, holding her phone in her hand with the screen always black. The wind was blowing her long hair wildly, but she seemed not to feel the cold.
He saw her being impatiently urged to change clothes backstage at the awards ceremony. Someone zipped up her dress halfway and then turned and left, leaving half of her shoulder exposed to the cold air conditioning.
He saw her smiling at the camera during the live stream, and the chat was full of comments like "Are you drunk?", "She looks so pathetic", "Trying to get attention again", and "Suggest banning her".
Sulli simply lowered her head and gently bit her nails in response to these comments.
He saw her sitting alone in the hospital emergency room late at night, an IV needle stuck in the back of her hand, the fluorescent light above her head buzzing, and no one around her.
Every scene is like a dull knife, cutting into Jiang Yan's heart.
He finally understood just how much Choi Sulli had swallowed all these years.
It's a chill that seeps from the very bones, a burning, aching pain in the heart, a despair that makes breathing feel heavy and choking, and the feeling of standing in a sea of people yet being more alone than anyone else.
They all belong to her.
Jiang Yan's consciousness began to blur.
The gray mist continued to pour into his body, like an underground river that would never run dry.
He could feel his heartbeat slowing down, and it felt as if the blood flowing through his veins was no longer blood, but molten lead, surging heavily through his limbs and bones.
Too much.
He can't absorb that much.
He could see the eternal beam of light trailed by the frozen headlights outside the window, and he could feel the thick layer of gray mist on Choi Sulli's body gradually thinning, but at the cost of his own imminent drowning in this dark sea.
The feeling of suffocation grew stronger and stronger. Jiang Yan's consciousness was like a thread stretched to its limit, ready to snap at any moment.
Darkness enveloped us from all sides, cold, stagnant, and boundless.
Just then, a glimmer of light appeared in the darkness.
A ray of gold spread from his eyes, like a bonfire being lit, or like the morning light breaking through the clouds.
The influx of gray mist abruptly stopped.
Jiang Yan suddenly opened his eyes, gasping for breath, the air rushing into his lungs causing him to cough violently.
He bent over, supporting himself on the floor, his forehead covered in cold sweat, his back soaked with sweat and clinging tightly to his clothes.
The second hand of the clock started moving again at this point.
tick tock... tick tock...
The frozen streaks of car headlights outside the window began to flow again, and the red taillights disappeared into the alleyway, trailing an arc of light.
The warm yellow light in the studio remained, and the night breeze rustled through the branches again.
Everything returned to normal.