Chapter 155

“Why do you get to have your dad and mom by your side, while I don’t?”

Zheng Haiyang’s voice came from the car radio.

Li Zhuiyuan reached out and turned the volume knob, trying to make it louder, but the static grew with it, blurring the original sound.

In the end, he could only settle on a middle point, keeping it as loud as possible while still clear enough to understand.

The little pickup’s front end was pressed against the bridge railing. Since it had only just gone onto the bridge and wasn’t moving fast, the accident was not too serious, even though the driver, Tan Wenbin, had suddenly slammed his head onto the steering wheel and passed out.

Yes, that was right. Tan Wenbin had simply fallen asleep.

And then Tan Wenbin’s voice started coming from the car radio.

Even though it was only his voice alone, it was enough to let everyone imagine what kind of scene he was going through.

Binbin had returned to a dream of the past.

A major difference between an illusion and a dream was that an illusion tempted you based on what was happening in front of you, while a dream could overwrite your established understanding.

A lot of college students dream that they are back in high school doing exam questions. They lower their heads and answer anxiously, hand in their papers with dread and despair, and only after waking up do they suddenly realize they already took the college entrance exam long ago, immediately feeling heartfelt relief.

You can still have that kind of dream after graduating college, after getting married and having children, even after growing old. Every time, you forget your current identity and situation and are thrown straight into the tense atmosphere of high school.

Still, Li Zhuiyuan could hear some irregularities. For example, how smoothly Binbin handled the fighting scenes, the way he flirted with Zhou Yunyun, and how calmly he dealt with his father’s funeral affairs...

Even when faced with the sudden emergency of his mother being rushed into the ER after drinking pesticide, the calmness in his bones was still there.

The current Binbin no longer fit the “dream” of his past.

Under normal circumstances, he should have noticed something was wrong long ago and awakened from the dream.

But from this dream, he could not wake up.

Li Zhuiyuan had once guessed at and imagined all sorts of wonderful and complicated methods the dream ghost might use, but when it really happened, he realized he had overthought it.

A heavy sword has no edge; the greatest skill appears simple. The terrifying part of the other side might simply be its ability to forcibly drag you into a dream.

And the prearranged formations and feng shui layout in Luo Xin Island Amusement Park could further amplify that ability of the dream ghost.

That alone was enough.

Drag you into a dream and keep you from getting out, and it was the same as throwing you into a pot with firewood burning underneath. If once didn’t work, then twice. If twice didn’t work, then three times... sooner or later, you would be boiled down to scraps.

The flow of time in dreams was obviously different from the outside world, because dreams could alter your perception of time. Sometimes you had a very long dream and woke to find only ten minutes had passed; sometimes you had a very short dream and woke to find half a day gone.

Right now, for example, Li Zhuiyuan was only sitting in the car listening to the radio, while several days of plot time had already passed for Tan Wenbin inside it.

Once even the perception of time could be blurred, then two times, three times, ten times, or even more were not really different from one time.

If Tan Wenbin’s understanding of the past was overwritten again and again, if he was forced to relive this cycle of dreams over and over, then all the thorns and incompatibilities in him would eventually be ground away.

In fact, the fact that Tan Wenbin could still remain relatively calm in this round, handle things with composure, and even joke about Tan Yunlong’s memorial photo was itself proof that his own qualities were stubbornly resisting the impact of the dream.

First pull out the thorns, turning him back into the Tan Wenbin of his second year of high school. Then soften him, gradually shifting his mindset toward timidity and fear. In the end... break him.

Once his self-awareness was broken, he would become the most obedient puppet. The dream ghost would only need to take on the simplest possible form and offer him the slightest bit of grace and warmth, and he would see it as a savior.

A puppet like that was even more reassuring than a ghost servant, because it was not controlled by outside force. It was a pure reshaping from within, making itself fit you.

Simple... and yet extremely effective.

But by the time he listened to the end, especially when Zheng Haiyang actually appeared in the hospital, and when even Zheng Haiyang’s final two lines came through the radio, Li Zhuiyuan sensed that something was wrong.

Earlier, the radio had been nothing but Tan Wenbin’s one-man show.

Now there was another voice in the scene.

Zheng Haiyang should not have appeared in that part of the story. It was too early.

Tan Wenbin should have had more time with Zheng Fang first, letting him watch with his own eyes as she recovered, then share mother-son warmth, and finally... fail rescue and pass away.

For Zheng Haiyang to appear at this moment felt abrupt, and the sudden distortion in Zheng Haiyang’s image made no sense either.

There was always a thorn in Tan Wenbin’s heart, and that was witnessing Zheng Haiyang’s death with his own eyes.

The dream ghost should not have given up such a useful thorn. In fact, it had indeed made use of it. The first thing Tan Wenbin did after entering the dream was try to save Zheng Haiyang.

But doing it like this was wrong. It was practically destroying the dream’s sense of immersion with its own hands.

The tragedy of Zheng Haiyang’s family was tied to that damned turtle at the bottom of the sea. If you made Zheng Haiyang behave like this in front of Tan Wenbin, then you were constantly provoking him psychologically, making him think of that turtle.

Li Zhuiyuan even suspected that in Tan Wenbin’s dream, he had already seen the “turtle.”

And it was that very night that Tan Wenbin had truly made up his mind, fully accepted the name Zhuangzhuang that Taigong had given him, joined Li Zhuiyuan and Runsheng’s team, and resolved to avenge Zheng Haiyang someday.

That meant Zheng Haiyang’s behavior would stimulate Tan Wenbin’s awakening step by step, making him think of the Corpse Retriever, the Dragon King... and Little Yuanhou.

And very clearly, the plot on the radio had already slowed down.

Tan Wenbin seemed to have seen something terrifying and started running.

Zheng Haiyang kept following behind him. No matter where Tan Wenbin hid, he would chase after him and find him, pouring out the grievances and unwillingness in his heart.

The two of them seemed to be using the hospital as a separate “amusement park,” playing a game of cat and mouse.

Li Zhuiyuan suspected that if it kept going, Tan Wenbin would be forced into an instinctive counterattack, and then he would remember even more memories that should not exist in the background of this dream.

Yin Meng asked, “What exactly is going on?”

Runsheng said, “Why does it feel like Zhuangzhuang’s dream has gotten strange?”

Lin Shuyou asked, “If Brother Bin keeps going like this, is he going to be in danger?”

The voices of the other three companions in the car sounded by Li Zhuiyuan’s ear.

Li Zhuiyuan remained silent, his face expressionless.

When Tan Wenbin had suddenly slumped asleep over the steering wheel, they had been anxious, but still within a normal frame of reaction.

But now, their behavior had started to warp.

From the moment Tan Wenbin fell asleep, Li Zhuiyuan had not said a single word. The radio had been playing all this time, and aside from reaching out once to adjust the volume, he had done absolutely nothing.

He had not even tried any method to wake Tan Wenbin.

Logically, his reaction should have kept everyone else quiet too, no matter how worried or anxious they were.

So now, they were asking on someone else’s behalf.

Li Zhuiyuan shifted sideways and rested his head against the car window.

So even you, dream ghost, do not know what change has happened?

That really was interesting.

Too bad he could not laugh out loud.

At the last meeting, Li Zhuiyuan had already said that he did not know whether the people present at the next meeting would still be themselves.

In fact, there had been no need to wait until the amusement park. From the moment they got into this yellow pickup and set out, Li Zhuiyuan had already assumed that everyone in the truck had been replaced.

Faced with their questions, there was no way he would explain his analysis.

Tan Wenbin was sleeping right in front of him, but in all likelihood, Li Zhuiyuan himself was also in a dream.

Runsheng, Yin Meng, and Lin Shuyou might each be enduring the exact same kind of impact in their own unique dreams.

Li Zhuiyuan even suspected that the dream environment he was currently in was not continuous, but had already been interrupted at some point.

Including this segment of Tan Wenbin on the radio, it was probably not the first run either.

The dream ghost had deliberately created this setting for him, including the “plot” playing on the radio. Its purpose was to get some information out of him.

If that was the case, then it only proved one thing more... it was not just panicking. It was afraid.

That was also why it had changed its style without hesitation and opened a private show just for him.

His current position really did feel a bit like a commentary guest on a TV variety show.

He really, really wanted to laugh.

This feeling was exactly the original reason he had decided to walk this path in the first place. He had chosen it to find this kind of amusement.

So had he been “picked out” of the dream originally prepared for him and placed into this new set?

The boy was very curious what he had encountered in that original dream.

By all logic, it should have been the thing he feared most in his heart, the thing he least wanted to face.

At that thought, Li Zhuiyuan frowned.

He knew the answer now.

Even just thinking about that answer made him feel physically and mentally uncomfortable.

At that moment, Runsheng, Lin Shuyou, and Yin Meng all turned their eyes toward the boy.

They, or rather the dream ghost behind them, had misunderstood his expression.

The boy was not worried about Tan Wenbin at all.

Li Zhuiyuan raised a hand and gently stroked his own brow, imagining the feeling of Ah Li smoothing out his frown last time. Right now, he truly needed to drive a few more nails into the human skin on his face.

Suddenly, Runsheng, Yin Meng, and Lin Shuyou all spoke at once in the exact same tone:

“What exactly happened?”

It had completely dropped the act.

Though it was the true master of the current environment, it had chosen to violate its own pride and speak with him in such a clumsy, exposed way.

Li Zhuiyuan believed that if he answered now, there should still be room to negotiate terms.

The dream ghost was definitely not a creature raised by the hand behind the scenes. The karmic implications would be too great for that. So the dream ghost itself had a strong degree of autonomy. It might simply have accepted this arrangement because it could gain certain benefits from it.

In theory, there really was a possibility for the two sides to turn enemies into friends. As long as it felt that its losses and gains were out of proportion, it might choose to leave the table.

But why should he?

Come when you want, leave when you want. Where in this world was there such a cheap bargain?

He was a river walker who could not light the lamp a second time and admit defeat. In real-world terms, he was a gambler whose eyes had gone red, someone who had staked his life completely.

It was only because none of his emotions could show on his face. In truth, he ought to have been the kind of person who would fight anyone who provoked him, even if it meant dying together.

Seeing that Li Zhuiyuan still refused to answer, the three of them spoke again in unison:

“Let’s talk.”

Li Zhuiyuan remained silent. There was nothing to talk about.

In truth, he himself could not control the situation either, and what was even more delightful was that the dream ghost probably could not control it either.

A dream was an extremely special environment, one that could infinitely magnify even the slightest thing from reality.

The line of karma was likewise infinitely magnified within this dreamscape.

It felt very much like when Li Zhuiyuan had been ignorant as a child and tried to calculate his own fate, only to get a nosebleed and pass out on the spot.

This was a masterful formation environment that no formation master, no matter how skilled, could ever have constructed.

Even if given enough time and resources, Li Zhuiyuan still could not have created a setup like this, because it was fundamentally impossible.

Once the river water had been drawn into this place, the spread of events was no longer subject to human control.

Put simply,

the dream ghost

had dragged that big turtle at the bottom of the sea into the dream as well.

That was also why Li Zhuiyuan had been holding back laughter this whole time, because it really was too funny.

The three of them spoke again:

“I can withdraw.”

Li Zhuiyuan still did not respond.

But in his heart he was thinking:

Don’t.

Don’t rush.

Wait a little longer.

I still want to see The Great Emperor of Fengdu.

Li Zhuiyuan lowered his head and forcibly held his breath.

Ever since he had been old enough to remember, he had only ever forced smiles onto his face, or, when not pretending, squeezed out the tiniest scraps of one with difficulty. He had never truly held back laughter before.

Now, he understood what it felt like.

It was just like Taigong’s mocking saying whenever he sneered at someone:

“You might as well go home and sleep. In your dreams, you can have everything!”

...

On a small river, a man nearing fifty was poling along in a little boat.

There was a shovel, a rolled-up net, and a large bamboo basket on the boat, but he was not here to fish or dig for crabs.

The old man sniffed and looked around warily.

He had already been searching for a long time, yet still had not found it.

He was starting to regret a little that he had not called along that fellow staying with Shi Nan. With him around, things always seemed to be found faster.

The reason he had not gone to get him was that whenever that person was around, he himself tended to have bad luck, while the other man always looked perfectly fine.

Crack... crunch...

Lu Shan heard the sound.

He slowed the boat and used his bamboo pole to gently part the reeds ahead.

He saw a hole about the size of a washbasin. The grinding noise, like an animal gnawing its teeth, was coming from inside.

Lu Shan swallowed, brought the boat to shore, then grabbed his things and got off. He first set the net around the mouth of the hole in a simple trap, then picked up the shovel and began to dig.

Each spadeful of earth he turned over made his breathing hitch, because he had no idea when the thing inside might suddenly spring out.

Just then, the mud beneath Lu Shan’s feet began to cave in.

He immediately leaped away from the area.

A thick aura of a Dead Sinker rose up, and a female Dead Sinker appeared in front of Lu Shan, her hair disheveled, her whole body caked in rotten mud.

Clinging to her back was a baby boy, not even one year old.

The baby’s eyes were closed. While tightly hugging the female Dead Sinker with both arms, he was also chewing on her neck. That crack-crunch noise from earlier had come from his gnawing.

Gripping the Yellow River Spade in his hand, Lu Shan stared in shock.

“A Dead Sinker giving birth?”

But very soon, he noticed something else was wrong. The Dead Sinker kept stretching out her arms, trying to claw at the baby boy on her back, frenzied and enraged.

Only, it seemed that nails had once been driven into the joints of both her arms, so her limbs could not properly extend. She truly had no way to deal with the baby on her back.

But the fact was, that baby boy had remained attached even after being dragged into a muddy underground hole, never once being shaken off, and had kept chewing the whole time. That alone showed he was far from ordinary.

The Dead Sinker saw Lu Shan and lunged at him, as if wanting to vent the fury she was suffering on another person.

Lu Shan did not meet it head-on. He chose to circle and deal with it carefully.

In the end, he found an opening and splashed a bag of pure yang black dog’s blood onto the Dead Sinker. It let out a shriek, its body trembling.

The baby boy on its back cried out as well. He opened his eyes, and both irises were gray.

It seemed the black dog’s blood had only awakened the baby’s innate savagery. He bit down even more frantically on the Dead Sinker’s neck.

Pop.

The Dead Sinker’s neck split open.

Lu Shan seized the chance, stepped forward, and slashed hard at the neck.

Crack!

The Dead Sinker’s head fell off completely. Its body collapsed as well, beginning to dissolve into pus.

The baby boy fell too, rolling to Lu Shan’s feet.

Lu Shan lowered his head and looked at the baby. The child seemed full now and put his right thumb into his mouth, sucking on it obediently.

And the gray color in the baby’s eyes was slowly fading, revealing the eyes of a normal person.

He saw Lu Shan, kept sucking his thumb, and curled his lips into a smile.

Grandpa... Grandpa... Grandpa...

Lu Shan expressionlessly raised the shovel and pointed it at the baby at his feet.

“You freak. I can’t let you live.”

Runsheng watched with his own eyes as the shovel came crashing down. Then he heard the crisp sound of his own skull being smashed open.

“Hah...”

Runsheng suddenly woke with a start. He found himself sitting behind the stove, where the fire was still burning.

So it had just been a dream. How could Grandpa possibly kill him?

Out of habit, Runsheng added a little more firewood to the stove. The water was boiling now, so it was time to put in the meat. Actually, it should have gone in much earlier. He had not expected to doze off while tending the stove.

He stood, picked up the ladle, lifted the lid, and added a little more water to the pot.

Since childhood, meat had been a rare thing in his household. Going hungry was even more common.

In his memory, there were usually only two times when he could really eat meat to his heart’s content. One was after he and Grandpa had just finished a job and collected corpse retrieval money. That night Grandpa would go and buy meat for him, rewarding the two of them properly, but only for that one night. The next day Grandpa would head to the gambling table and lose it all.

The other was when they were about to visit Li Daye’s house. Each time, the two of them would count the days and start eating less two days ahead, making sure their stomachs were completely empty before going, so they could gorge themselves there.

Every time, Li Daye would curse that the two of them must have been starved ghosts in a previous life, while still continuing to bring out more food and letting them eat their fill.

So whenever they were going to Li Daye’s place, Runsheng would start feeling happy days in advance, even more excited than waiting for New Year, because during New Year more people were gambling, which meant more people for his own grandfather to “donate money” to.

Meat, meat, where was the meat?

Runsheng smacked his forehead. He remembered now. He had already prepared the meat and left it on the door plank in the yard.

Oh no, napping really did ruin things. He could not let a passerby steal it or let cats and dogs drag it off.

Runsheng hurried out the door into the courtyard.

There was a huge pile of meat, cut very neatly. A fine piece of work by his own hands.

“Heh heh.”

Runsheng could not help laughing.

There were also three incense sticks stuck into the door plank, already burned halfway down. He vaguely remembered that when he had been cutting the meat, he had gotten greedy, so he had lit incense and sniffed it first to satisfy his craving a little.

Raw meat was not exactly impossible to eat, but Grandpa was not back yet, and he could not take the first bite himself.

Only... why was Grandpa still not back?

At this hour, he should have already lost all his money and left the table.

Runsheng walked over to the door plank and suddenly noticed the bloodstained clothes piled underneath it. They were his grandfather’s clothes.

Damn it. He must not have noticed while cutting the meat and had gotten Grandpa’s clothes dirty.

The two of them only had, roughly speaking, two sets of clothes each that could be worn outside. The rest barely covered what they needed to, fine for lying around the house in, but if worn outside it would be indecent exposure.

Runsheng was about to bend down to pick up the clothes when he noticed there was something round on the door plank.

Had he bought back a pig or a sheep?

It seemed the employer from the last job had paid quite a lot. On the way home, Grandpa’s mouth had nearly split from grinning.

Runsheng blinked. Grandpa always said he was slow in the head and easy to fool. That was true enough. He was still this young, and already his memory was getting this bad.

He reached out, grabbed the round object, and turned it around.

It had been processed, even roasted and scraped clean, but the moment it faced him, Runsheng recognized it at a glance.

It was his grandfather’s head!

Runsheng’s eyes went wide. Blood vessels rapidly spread through them, thickening so fast it looked as if blood might start dripping out.

He clutched his own face with both hands, staring at everything in disbelief, while memory after memory of himself handling this pile of meat surfaced in his mind.

“Ahhh!!!”

...

“Ah You, the temple is not a place you can come to.”

“Master...”

“Don’t call me Master. You may be my master’s grandson, but you are not qualified. You are not worthy to become one of the Officers of the Command Banner, and I will not take you as my disciple.”

Lin Shuyou knelt on the steps before the temple gate, looking pleadingly toward the old man standing nearby.

But his usually kind grandfather was stern and furious now as he shouted:

“I never thought the Lin family would produce something like you, a born evil seed. Other people fail to become spirit mediums because they cannot sense the Great Ones, but you... you can actually make the Great Ones angry!

You are not my grandson. What exactly are you? Get out!”

Lin Shuyou left the temple gate in a daze.

Becoming one of the Officers of the Command Banner had been his dream ever since childhood. Now that dream had shattered, and his sky had collapsed with it.

And so he wandered through the old streets, stopping and starting, like a walking corpse, until night had fallen. He could not go on anymore and crouched down by a wall corner.

His mouth kept murmuring the names of various yin gods, and his hands kept imitating the postures and movements used during spirit parades.

“Fire! Fire! Fire!”

Someone started shouting.

Lin Shuyou did not react at all. He remained there in a daze.

“The temple is on fire!”

“The temple is on fire!”

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