"Hurry up! I'm late!" I shouted desperately. 

Despite my loud voice, the driver and the police officer seemed to hear me. Perhaps I was just shouting in my head. Just as I was about to despair, I suddenly caught sight of the Workers' Cultural Palace Square outside. Overjoyed, I was outside the car in a flash and sprinting. The driver and the police officer were still negotiating. They watched me run with a cold stare. No one called out to me or stopped me to pay. I finally arrived on time. 

What happened next is clear. My lover was standing under the Mao statue in front of the Workers' Cultural Palace. She didn't seem happy to see me. Perhaps I had made her wait too long, but she was fine in the blink of an eye. My lover was beautiful, plump, and gentle—in short, she had none of the qualities a lover or wife should possess. 

She said she wanted to walk, and we walked side by side. I couldn't stop looking at her face. She was lovely, and I couldn't get enough of her. I was blessed to have her as my lover. We began chatting, about trivial matters. We hadn't discussed marriage, perhaps our relationship wasn't ready for that stage yet. 

Suddenly, she stopped, squeezed my hand, and faced me. We were probably at a small roadside restaurant on Heping Avenue; it looked familiar. She looked at me with unusual tenderness, her eyes beautiful. "Do you love me?" she asked. 

Her voice was so beautiful. What else could I say? "Yes, of course I do." 

"How much do I love you?" she smiled. 

"More than you can imagine," I replied with a firm and powerful voice. 

"Does that include giving my life?" she asked, smiling. Although I couldn't see her face clearly, I couldn't make out her smile. 

"Of course, I'd die for you." 

"Give me your life now, okay?" 

Perhaps lovers often joke like this. "I'd love to," I replied, smiling. "But how are you going to take it? You don't have a scalpel?" 

"Never mind that. Just give me your life." The atmosphere suddenly changed, no longer the hypocritical, sentimental scene. Her voice changed, too, becoming thicker, less sweet, and her smile vanished. Her face became a blur. 

"Okay, come and get it," I said, smiling. I couldn't even take a joke. 

She suddenly burst into laughter, a sharp, unpleasant sound. She thrust forward, pressing against me. I could smell the pungent smell of blood. Her body was hard and cold, without any elasticity. A bright light shone from nowhere, illuminating her face. The first thing I saw was a pair of bloodshot eyes staring back at me. Then, I saw her pale face, pointed teeth, and scarlet lips. 

This face was very familiar to me. It wasn't the face of a living person, but that of the woman in the portrait! 

I woke with a scream. As soon as I opened my eyes, I found a dark figure standing over my bed. "Who is it?" I shouted, trying to bolster my courage. I reached for something to protect myself, but all I found was the sheets and a thin quilt. That wouldn't even kill a mouse. 

"Don't be afraid, it's me," Xiaoguo's voice rang out. 

I breathed a sigh of relief and collapsed onto the bed. I was drenched in sweat, my heart racing. A gust of night wind brought a chill. I saw the moonlight was blurry and eerie, and the shadows beyond it were dim and dark. It was around midnight, and Xiaoguo stood by the bed, a dark figure. 

"What happened?" Xiaoguo asked. 

"I had a nightmare." 

"What kind of dream was so terrifying? You screamed so loudly that the whole yard could hear you," Xiaoguo said. 

"I dreamed about that woman." 

"Even if I dreamed about her, it wouldn't scare me like this." 

"At first, I dreamed she was my lover..." I stopped talking. 

"Go on, keep telling me, what else can you hide from me?" 

"At first, I dreamed I had a lover. Then we were together. Then we stopped talking. Then we made a vow of eternal love, and then..." 

Although the room was dim, I noticed Xiaoguo had a half-smile on his face, looking at me strangely. I began to feel uneasy. "What are you laughing at?" I asked. 

"Nothing," Xiaoguo's face was serious. "Go on." 

"Later, I think I promised her to give her something, but I can't remember what it was." 

"It was my life." 

"What?" I suddenly felt very uneasy, as if something particularly strange was about to happen, or had already happened. 

"You promised to give her your life," Xiaoguo said calmly, but I was beginning to feel that this was no longer Xiaoguo. 

"How did you know?" My voice changed. 

Xiaoguo leaned over me, and I caught a whiff of something strange, as if some part of him reeked of something. Instinctively, I tried to turn my head, but I couldn't move my neck. I tried to shrink back into the bed, but my entire body was paralyzed and unresponsive. He stopped very close to me, but the distance between us wasn't Wong Kar-wai's 0.01 centimeter, but a few centimeters higher. Even so, I couldn't make out his face; it was a blur. Even scarier, I couldn't feel his breath. 

"Look at this," Xiaoguo said.