Author: 颜凉雨 / Yan Liang Yu
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 137: Fake Books
Chi Zhuolin stood behind a withered tree, hidden among the yellow grass and plants. He said he had to return to school, but ultimately, he got lost in this abandoned garden, like a toy whose battery had run out.
Xu Wang kept telling himself it was fake, just a chaotic projection from a disturbed companion’s subconscious. But the eerie, thrilling sensation that spread from the bottom of his heart to his limbs still eroded him.
Feeling Xu Wang’s shivers, Wu Sheng gently put his arm around his shoulder.
“Why…” He couldn’t understand why such a brother, who doted on his younger brother, existed in Chi Yingxue’s mind like this.
Wu Sheng pondered for a moment and said, “Everyone has flaws, but a machine can perhaps achieve perfection…”
“Do you mean, in Xiao Xue’s heart, Chi Zhuolin… is perfect?”
Xu Wang looked at the motionless Chi Zhuolin—at his sunny eyebrows, his dashing equestrian attire. Even in such a bizarre moment, if one ignored the screen on his chest, he still appeared to be a well-mannered, exceptional youth.
No. Xu Wang shook his head. That’s not right.
“Wu Sheng,” he almost whispered. “If I had such a perfect person in my heart, I would imagine him as the embodiment of all that is good in the world, but definitely not… like this.”
“I wasn’t finished just now,” Wu Sheng interrupted softly. “A machine indeed can be perfect, but it has one fatal flaw…”
He turned his head slightly.
Xu Wang followed his gaze, looking at the screen on Chi Zhuolin’s chest.
Low battery.
Those red warning letters were strikingly intense.
What kind of brother is perfect for a child? Xu Wang thought. Besides being academically excellent, athletically outstanding, and well-rounded in moral, intellectual, and physical development, what else?
Perhaps.
Wouldn’t everyone want a brother who could stand up for them, shield them from the rain and wind?
So the brother should always be there to play with him, always there to protect him.
Always, would be best.
The night wind blew through the abandoned garden, rustling the dry grass without a single insect sound.
Xu Wang sniffed, noticing moisture in the wind.
A chill touched the tip of his nose.
Looking up, another cool drop fell on his eyelid.
It started to rain.
Wu Sheng also sensed the change in weather and was about to look up when suddenly, a frenzied, ferocious barking of dogs came from afar!
The barking was mad and menacing, as if it would tear apart and devour whatever it was facing at any second!
The two exchanged glances. Without a word, Wu Sheng picked up Xu Wang again, moving swiftly towards the sound!
Xu Wang hadn’t gotten over the aftereffects of being carried last time, and here it was happening again. Dangling from Wu Sheng’s shoulder, he felt nauseous. He didn’t get seasick, airsick, or carsick, but who the hell would have thought he’d be shoulder-sick one day!
But there was no time to complain. To maximize efficiency, he had to cooperate with Wu Sheng’s lightning speed!
The only comfort for Captain Xu was the speed. In the blink of an eye, they arrived. The dog’s bark, which had seemed far away just a second ago, now pierced his ears painfully.
He was set down.
They were in a secluded courtyard, not very large, with two or three rooms and moon gates on the north and south sides. The south gate led to the abandoned garden they had just come from. Where the north gate led was unknown.
There were large water-filled jars at each corner of the courtyard. In the center, a fierce battle was taking place.
A man in black clothes, black pants, and a black mask was struggling against a dog that was bigger than a wolf. It was biting his arm. If it weren’t for the dog’s bark just now, they would have really thought it was a wolf. His legs were also being clamped by a giant crab that was half the height of a person. The crab’s shell was shiny and green, and when it spread its legs out, it was about two meters wide!
There was no doubt, this person was the same person in black who was tracking and spying on them earlier. They had lost him in the depths of the abandoned garden, but now they encountered him again in this form!
The man in black was struggling to shake his arm, but the wolf dog’s bite was extremely fierce. After struggling for a long time, the only result was that the vicious dog’s fangs sank deeper, tearing the black sleeve on his arm to shreds. The area bitten by the dog was now a bloody mess!
The spider crab on his leg was no less relentless. With its pincers, it clamped, stung, and tore, mercilessly turning the man’s leg into a bloodied state!
“What are you dawdling for? Save me—!” The black-clothed man yelled at Xu Wang and Wu Sheng, who were frozen at the moon gate.
Xu Wang and Wu Sheng hesitated. In this unpredictable world, it was impossible to tell what to do, what not to do, who was good, who was evil!
Seeing their hesitation, the man grew desperate, shouting as if he was giving it his all. “Don’t you want to find Chi Yingxue? I’ll take you to him!”
The rain in the courtyard suddenly intensified. As he shouted Chi Yingxue’s name, raindrops splashed into the jars, creating dense ripples!
Wu Sheng made a split-second decision and acted!
Xu Wang didn’t move but kept his eyes on the battlefield, ready to adapt their plan for combat!
A large net fell from the sky, first landing on the black-clothed man’s head. But the net seemed not to feel him, passing right through, continuing downward, and finally covering only the vicious dog still biting him and the crab still clamping his leg!
The inescapable net of heaven, indiscriminate, releasing what must be released, catching what must be caught!
Wu Sheng stepped forward swiftly, gathering the edges of the net, and with a strong pull to the side, the dog and crab were forcibly torn from the black-clothed man!
The ferocious teeth of the wolf dog nearly ripped off a piece of flesh from the arm of the man in black, and the crab’s pincers, in the final moment before being forced to let go, sliced another deep, bone-visible wound on the man’s leg!
Yet, the man in black didn’t make a sound, as if he wasn’t the one who was injured.
Wu Sheng, using the momentum of pulling apart the two beasts, threw the net fiercely to the ground and quickly tied the opening with a dead knot!
The wolf dog let out a low growl, leaped up from the ground, and fiercely tore at the net with its sharp claws and teeth. Its eyes were like those of a starving wolf, viciously glowing green. However, no matter how wildly it struggled, the net remained immovable.
The crab inside the net, struggling with its clumsy body, slowly stood up, standing on its six legs. The two large pincers in front stretched slowly towards the net, and with force, they snapped shut.
“Snap!”
The net was cut at the sound.
Wu Sheng was caught off guard. The crab’s pincers had serrated edges, not knife blades. Even if it wanted to cut, it shouldn’t have been so clean and precise! The sound was more like scissors than crab pincers!
Scissors?
Wu Sheng steadied his mind and took a closer look at the large crab pincers. By this time, the crab had already confidently crawled out of the cut net. The thing’s pincers that were in front of it were green and shiny like its body, but they weren’t crab pincers at all, but a pair of pruning shears!
Even Wu Sheng, upon seeing this scene, felt goosebumps rise on his skin.
Xu Wang saw it too. From the outskirts of the battlefield, not only did he see the crab pincers turn into pruning shears, but he also noticed the dog tag hanging on the neck of the ferocious dog. It wasn’t a dog tag at all, but car keys!
The dense raindrops had made their clothes almost completely soaked, but they were oblivious to it.
Suddenly, the giant crab charged towards Wu Sheng, moving as fast as a centipede!
Wu Sheng dodged backward, but unexpectedly, the ferocious dog also crawled out of the hole in the net and leaped towards his face!
Wu Sheng dodged to the side, avoiding the dog and jumping away from the crab, but his clothes were still hooked by the crab’s pincer. With a forceful pull, a ripping sound followed. The pocket of his clothes tore, and the letter that Chi Zhuolin had entrusted to him was pierced and hung on the pincer’s tip!
Wu Sheng reached out to snatch it back, but the crab sidestepped and ran away!
He could have chased it with his speed, but Xu Wang, who was blocking the retaliating dog for him, was already struggling.
“Forget about me. Get the letter!” Xu Wang shouted.
“It doesn’t matter.” Wu Sheng grabbed the back of the dog’s neck and yanked it off Xu Wang, throwing it far away. “It’s just numbers. I can write another one.”
The dog fell into a pile of dry grass, whimpered, and ran away dejectedly.
The man in black, who had been quietly retreating under the cover of the rain, was now being cleansed of blood from his wounds by the rain. However, as soon as it was washed away, new blood seeped out again. Diluted by the rain, the fresh red blood seemed to turn a pale pink.
He reached the moon gate to the north and decisively turned and ran!
As soon as he stepped out of the moon gate, a voice rang in the man’s ear—
[Owl: Someone has used [(Offense) Voodoo Doll] on you~~]
With the elongated sound, the man in black felt a sudden piercing pain in his chest, like being stabbed with a needle!
He gasped for breath, stopped in his tracks, and instinctively clutched his chest.
This pain was different from external injuries. It was a nerve pain, almost unbearable.
“Try taking one more step forward!” Behind him, Xu Wang held a small straw doll in one hand and a small steel needle in the other, standing tall and proud in a handsome posture.
He had anticipated the need for a tactical patch! If not for being distracted by the pruning shears and car keys, he wouldn’t have let the man in black escape to the moon gate!
Wu Sheng cast an approving glance at him.
Xu Wang, full of pride, said, “Take this—” and gave the little straw doll another needle in the elbow. It wasn’t deep, but it was somewhat painful.
The man in black sucked in a breath of cold air in anger. “I didn’t fucking move, and you’re still stabbing me!”
“Cough, just reinforcing the warning,” Captain Xu replied with a valid reason.
The man in black felt like choking on his blood. Seeing that Xu Wang had no intention of “reinforcing” further, he still dared not take them lightly. While keeping an eye on them, he also glanced around on the ground.
“Don’t bother looking. They’ve run off.” Xu Wang knew he was searching for the two creatures.
The man in black finally relaxed, seemingly more wary of the creatures than of Xu Wang and Wu Sheng.
“Why did they attack you?” Xu Wang asked.
“This isn’t where I belong. They are loyal guardians of this place. Naturally, they would bite me upon seeing me.” The man in black chuckled with a hint of disdain.
“They… What exactly…” Xu Wang wanted to ask what exactly they were, but it was too absurd. He couldn’t bring himself to ask.
The man in black answered without hesitation. “A driver and a gardener.”
“Why is this place not where you should be?” Wu Sheng suddenly asked.
The man in black raised an eyebrow and gave them a cryptic smile. “You ask too many questions.”
Wu Sheng wiped the rain off his face and took two steps forward.
This startled the man in black, who stepped back warily. “What are you doing?”
Wu Sheng shrugged. “Helping you take off your mask.”
“No need.” The man in black refused decisively.
Xu Wang raised the steel needle, threatening to prick.
The man in black: “…I’ll do it myself.”
He gritted his teeth as he spoke, but he actually did it with no hesitation in his movements.
“Satisfied?” With his face exposed, the man in black looked up defiantly at the two men.
It was the face of a young man with healthy, wheat-colored skin, full of vitality and energy. His features weren’t as sharply handsome as Chi Zhuolin’s, but he had a certain charm. There was a hint of defiance in his brow and a determined look in his eyes. He exuded a vibrant, wild strength.
Xu Wang and Wu Sheng stared at him for several seconds, unable to match this face with anyone in their memory.
“Had enough?” The young man clearly lacked patience.
Xu Wang stepped beside Wu Sheng, negotiating calmly. “We saved you. Now it’s your turn to keep your promise.”
“You want to find Chi Yingxue, right? I’ll take you to him!” The young man obviously remembered his promise. But times had changed, and he sized up Xu Wang and Wu Sheng. “You have to tell me who you really are and why you’re so determined to find that guy.”
“We didn’t suspect you, but you’re being defensive first?” Xu Wang was speechless.
“Don’t trust anyone.” The young man laughed, his voice gentle and slow. “In this world, you can’t even trust yourself.”
Xu Wang narrowed his eyes slightly. Just now, for a moment, a familiar feeling flashed by, but it was too fleeting to grasp.
Regaining his composure, he stood his ground. “You want to know our identities, fine, but you’ll have to exchange with yours.”
He never made a losing deal. The other party wanted to probe their background, and they wanted to probe his as well.
“My identity?” The young man laughed as if he was hearing a joke. “Then you’re going to be disappointed. I have no household registration, no ID card, no temporary residence permit—I’m just an undocumented person here.”
Wu Sheng silently pursed his lips.
Xu Wang was even more confused but asked the most direct question. “Name. You must have a name.”
“Oh, that I have.” The young man grabbed his drenched black shirt, flicking it. “My name is Yan Wang.”
Xu Wang and Wu Sheng were stunned, facing the stranger’s face, they momentarily forgot to speak.
The rain eased, but the courtyard was enveloped in a misty fog, like a dream scene in a play. In the faint mist, everything seemed both real and illusory, both dream and reality.
……
Kuang Jinxin chased the child to the end of the corridor, where a wall suddenly appeared with a small door on it. The door was extremely low, reaching only up to his waist.
The wall and door seemed abruptly placed, as if someone had inserted the wall into the continuous corridor, cutting it off and blocking the path of passersby.
Kuang Jinxin smelled the scent of orange soda again.
The scent was faint, like an invisible force drawing him towards the unknown.
Holding his breath, Kuang Jinxin pushed the small door.
The door creaked open, revealing no light inside.
He bent down, turned on his phone, and shone the light inside. The light occasionally swept across some book spines, but they were too far away to see clearly.
After thinking about it, he crawled in.
The space inside was much larger than it appeared from outside. Kuang Jinxin straightened up and looked around with his phone’s flashlight. It was a study.
The room, about twenty square meters, was surrounded by bookshelves filled with thick hardcover books, their spines embossed with gold lettering.
Aside from the books and shelves, there was nothing else, not even decorations. The walls and floor were dusty.
Kuang Jinxin approached a bookshelf and randomly picked a book. As soon as he lifted it, he froze; the book was extremely light, like an empty shell.
He hastily pulled out the book, confirming it was indeed a fake, used for decoration.
Many cafes and restaurants, as well as private homes, use such fake books for decoration to spruce up the appearance. But why were these fake books placed here in this simple and secluded study not meant for entertaining guests?
If these fake books weren’t for show, what purpose did they serve?
Had they encountered anything book-related on their journey?
Kuang Jinxin racked his brains, wishing he had the mind of their advisor…
Wait a minute!
Books?
A coded message!
The original source!
Kuang Jinxin was startled by his own wild thoughts. Reason told him it couldn’t be such a coincidence, but his intuition told him, in this world, not to believe what should be believed nor doubt what should be doubted.
No longer wasting time in thought, Kuang Jinxin began pulling out the fake books from the shelves, examining each one.
After checking each book, he placed it on the ground beside him. After emptying a shelf, he thoroughly searched it.
Continuing in this manner, soon the floor was covered with fake books, leaving hardly any space to step.
The battery of his phone was also rapidly draining from the constant use of the flashlight.
Only one shelf remained. Kuang Jinxin, standing on the fake books, continued his search.
Finally, when he touched a dark red book, he paused.
The book had weight.
Kuang Jinxin eagerly pulled out the book. The cold light of the phone illuminated the words on the cover—”Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes”.
He knew it. He just knew it!
Kuang Jinxin was ecstatic, wanting to announce to the world that his deduction was correct!
But then he thought better of it. It wasn’t confirmed yet. Only if the coded message matched, would it prove he was right.
The code, the code… What were those four sets of numbers again?
Kuang Jinxin, holding the “suspected original source”, belatedly found himself lost in a desert of memory.
The coded message was with their advisor, and he had only glanced at the letter a few times.
120… 36… 8…
Kuang Jinxin racked his brain, nearly pulling his hair out, but could only remember a few vague numbers.
Even if just for a second, he wished he could borrow Sheng Ge’s memory!
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