Starting as a Manga Editor

Chapter 12: What Kind of Twist Is This?!

While thinking about how to gently talk Tang Yao out of her delusions, Li Xue pulled out the manuscript.

There was no cover on the manga inside the folder.

The first page—right at the start of the manga.

With a critical eye, Li Xue looked down at the first page.

Knock knock knock.

Someone was knocking on a window.

On the page, a girl was curled up in the corner of her room, trembling.

Cold sweat dripped down her face, full of fear. It was clearly just an ordinary knock on the window, but to her, it sounded like some kind of death summons.

In the next panel, the girl was sitting with her arms around her knees, leaning against a cabinet. From outside the window came another sound—not knocking this time, but a voice exactly like hers. It sounded like both a coaxing plea and an eerie temptation:"Come out, open the window. Come on, Ko, come out and eat something. If you don’t eat, you’ll starve to death."

The girl named Ko listened to the knocking and the voice calling from outside. Hiding beside the desk, she looked worn out and numb. Because this situation had been going on for a week… she’d been locked inside her house for almost a full week.

All her food was gone.

Ko didn’t know what the thing outside was. She just hoped that if this was a nightmare, she’d wake up soon.

…

After finishing the first page, Li Xue was surprised.

Unexpectedly, this wasn’t something an amateur could draw… Although she mainly worked on shoujo manga, that didn’t mean she wasn’t interested in other genres.

Quite the opposite—she was very interested, and her ability to appreciate good work was strong.

And just from this first page, the quality of the manga in her hands was unquestionably high. Leaving plot aside, the artwork alone was excellent!

Even more surprising was that Tang Yao hadn’t used the popular moe art style that currently dominated the industry—the kind Li Xue was most familiar with.

Instead, she’d boldly gone for a realistic style. The facial features, hair, expressions, movements, and poses of the characters were all meticulously drawn. The characters’ calm, everyday appearances gave off the impression that they were just regular people from the real world.

This kind of style wasn’t easy to pull off—why would she choose it? Especially when she herself looked so cute?

And that voice that sounded exactly like the girl’s own… is this a fantasy story?

So bold? How is she planning to develop this short story?

Full of questions, Li Xue glanced up at Tang Yao.

Tang Yao blinked at her playfully.

Li Xue forced herself to push the questions aside and turned to the next page.

Next page.

The story continued.

The girl named Ko fell into a memory.

The reason she ended up in this bizarre situation had started a month ago—with the death of a female celebrity.

A celebrity named Himei had committed suicide in her apartment—by hanging herself. But the death was odd. She was found hanging outside the second-floor window, with the rope around her neck tangled in electric wires. It looked like she had climbed out of her window to kill herself.

Due to the weight of her body and the fact that her feet had no support, when the rope and wires were eventually taken down, it looked like her neck had nearly been torn from her body.

Her death was horrifically gruesome.

The incident caused a huge stir. Reporters, fans, and curious onlookers swarmed around the apartment to see what had happened.

Ko was deeply affected, because she and the celebrity had not only been classmates but also very close friends.

But she had no idea why Himei had taken her own life.

Not long after—

Himei’s family held a large memorial service, and tons of fans poured in.

Ko went too.

After leaving the service, Ko and a few friends were walking when they ran into a fellow classmate, Shiraishi.

He was Himei’s boyfriend and had come to attend the memorial—but was now being mobbed by a group of die-hard fans, accusing him of being responsible for her death and beating him up.

Ko rushed over and threatened to call the police. Only then did the self-proclaimed fans reluctantly back off. Ko then tried to comfort Shiraishi, but given the heavy mood, he just cried in guilt, convinced that Himei’s suicide was all his fault. Without saying anything, he turned and left.

“……”

The celebrity had died.

The fans couldn’t accept it, so her boyfriend became their scapegoat.

Was this related to the voice outside the window…?

Li Xue paused her flipping.

Something felt off. This didn’t seem like a fantasy plot…

What’s more, Tang Yao didn’t shy away from drawing the hanging scene—it was fully depicted.

This was not right. Not at all.

But this time, Li Xue didn’t look at Tang Yao. She hesitated for a moment and flipped to the next page.

As unsettling as it was, she was now completely hooked on the story.

In the manga—

The story continued.

After Himei’s death, more young people started committing suicide in the same way—by hanging themselves. There was even a group suicide by fans.

On top of that, rumors began to spread that Himei’s ghost had been seen.

Reporters interviewed several people who claimed to have seen her ghost. They all said that around midnight a week ago, they saw a huge floating face above a tall tree. It then drifted northward and vanished.

Experts brushed off the reports, saying they were hallucinations brought on by unstable mental states. No one took it seriously.

But not long after, a photo was broadcast on TV—captured by a witness. It showed an eerie, spine-chilling image: a massive head floating in the sky.

Seeing that giant floating head on the page, Li Xue’s hands froze and her heart skipped a beat.

The entire manga had a clean, refined feel. The hand-drawn backgrounds and realistic style made it feel like a perfectly ordinary world.

And because of that realism—paired with disturbing imagery like the suicide, the obsessive fans, and now this ghostly floating head—the whole first section carried an oppressive, storm-is-coming kind of atmosphere.

That was why Li Xue felt something was off.

And now… it was really off!

No way… right?

There’s no way.

Tang Yao’s so cute—how could she draw something this messed up?

Yeah…

Li Xue hesitated, barely convincing herself to turn another page.

The floating head of the celebrity caused a stir at school too. But most students didn’t believe it—they thought it had to be a doctored photo.

Ko didn’t believe it either.

At school, she ran into Shiraishi again. She figured he wouldn’t buy into such nonsense.

But to her surprise, Shiraishi did believe it. He even claimed the celebrity’s head often floated into his backyard and just stared at him—soulless eyes locked on him, calling to him.

Ko didn’t believe it. She thought he was hallucinating from stress.

Shiraishi didn’t argue. He simply said coldly, “Come to my house next time and see for yourself,” and walked away.

That night, Ko got a call from Shiraishi… He said Himei’s “balloon” had appeared again and was drifting north. He told her to come see it now.

Ko hesitated—but in the end, she snuck out of the house.

And then, in the woods, she saw it—the celebrity’s head…

Himei’s enormous head, really floating in the dim night sky… just like a balloon. And hanging from it, a rope—just like the thin colored strings on a helium balloon.

Ko stared in horror, then instinctively chased after it.

She followed the head-balloon into the forest—and then she saw Shiraishi, clinging to a tree, shouting desperately up at the floating head, begging Himei to forgive him and stop staring at him with those dead eyes.

And then, as if in response to his voice—or for some other reason—the giant head began slowly drifting closer to Shiraishi.

That’s when Ko noticed—the “string” hanging from the bottom of the head wasn’t some colorful ribbon.

It was a noose.

And as the balloon-head floated closer, the noose swung back and forth, inching toward Shiraishi’s neck—almost like it was waiting for him to slip it on.

Ko was terrified. She tried to warn him—but it was too late. Overcome with emotion, Shiraishi leaned forward from the tree, his head unconsciously reaching out—and then…

He slipped it right into the loop.

Next panel—

Shiraishi’s feet left the tree.

His neck was caught in the noose. He stopped moving, no struggle.

Ko screamed in horror and turned to run for help—only to see Shiraishi’s body rise into the air…

He floated up, suspended by the rope. And above him—

Another head balloon began to rise.

At that moment—

A wave of pure terror exploded in Ko’s heart.

Because that balloon looked exactly like Shiraishi!

Another head balloon had appeared!

And then—

In the dim forest,

Under the dark, clouded sky,

Two head balloons—once a couple in life—drifted toward each other. And then… their lips slowly met, carrying those same dead, lifeless stares.

Below them, Shiraishi’s headless body dangled from the rope, like a puppet in the wind…

Ko saw the nightmare unfold before her eyes and let out a scream of total panic.

!!!!!!

Seeing that final panel, Li Xue’s right hand clenched the halfway-open manuscript in a death grip—and she lost it too.

Heads!Balloons!Kissing!

WHAT THE H*LL IS THIS TWIST?!WHAT THE H*LL IS THIS TWIST?!WHAT THE H*LL IS THIS TWIST?!

Who the h*ll comes up with something like this?!?!