Chapter 71#
The People in the Story (Part 8)#
At this point in the conversation, the worker suddenly asked.
“What do you think happiness is?”
Ning Weichen: “Happiness?”
The worker nodded: “Yes, I haven’t experienced happiness until now.”
His strange voice echoed in the dark and cold underground maze, but the content made people involuntarily shudder.
Ning Weichen thought for a moment and smiled: “This question, I can answer it. I’m quite happy right now.”
The worker was incredulous: “You, right now?”
Ning Weichen nodded with a smile: “Yes.” He turned his head naturally, put his arm around Ye Sheng’s shoulder in an intimate but not overly ambiguous posture, and said gently: “Every minute and every second with Gege is happiness.”
Ye Sheng: “…” Ning Weichen, can you not include me when you speak?
The worker’s expression twisted for a moment in the darkness.
Ye Sheng twitched the corner of his mouth, looked down at the flashlight beam, and answered the worker’s question indifferently: “There is no standard for happiness. Being alive is happiness.”
The worker was silent for a long time, then laughed awkwardly: “Haha, it seems you all know what happiness is.”
Ye Sheng thought to himself, know my ass.
Might as well ask what misfortune is. His life from childhood to adulthood had been a perfect answer sheet.
*
The uninvited guests in the underground maze of the old gymnasium tonight were far more than just the three of them.
“Young Master Ning likes the innocent type, right?”
After taking a shower, Xie Wenci put on his pajamas and deliberately unbuttoned two buttons, revealing his pinkish-white skin and collarbone. He smiled at himself in the mirror, ensuring his eyes looked innocent and pure. Then, wearing slippers, he walked towards the lounge Ning Weichen had entered.
Xie Wenci hugged a pillow, pretending to be scared and hesitant, having prepared the perfect wording. But before he could speak.
As soon as his hand touched the door, it creaked open. The room was empty, not a soul in sight.
Xie Wenci was stunned. Not there?
Where did two single men go in the middle of the night?!
Xie Wenci’s face turned gloomy. He threw the pillow heavily on the ground, unwilling to give up, and started knocking on doors one by one.
Thump, thump, thump!
At this time, everyone was fast asleep, except for Xia Wenshi and Chen Can.
“Brother Xia, I recognize this watch of yours. It’s a Patek Philippe, right? My cousin has one too, hahahaha. Actually, my dad wanted to buy me one too, but I thought the color didn’t suit me, so I didn’t take it. Hahahaha.”
“…”
His watch was a Vacheron Constantin! Do you only know Patek Philippe?! If you don’t know, don’t talk nonsense!
Xia Wenshi regretted it so much now. He shouldn’t have shared a room with Chen Can. His ears had been tortured all night.
So the moment he heard the knock on the door, Xia Wenshi jumped up to open it with tears in his eyes, as if seeing a savior.
“I’m coming, I’m coming.”
But when he opened the door and saw it was Xie Wenci, his excitement cooled down.
Xia Wenshi really had no good feelings for this internet celebrity: “Xie Wenci, why are you knocking?”
Xie Wenci looked terrible and explained what had just happened in a few words.
Xia Wenshi’s eyes widened instantly: “What did you say! Xiao Ye and the others are missing?”
Xie Wenci was exasperated: “Yes.” He knew the mistress’s son wasn’t as aloof as he appeared on the surface!
Chen Can came over to join the fun: “What, what, missing?!”
Finally, the three decided to go look for them.
Xia Wenshi purely didn’t want to stay in the same room with Chen Can anymore.
Watching Chen Can puff himself up at his own cost, he felt more embarrassed than Chen Can.
Xie Wenci’s intentions were practically written on his face.
Chen Can was more open-minded. In his view, the circle you interact with determines your future height. He just liked hanging out with rich people. It wasn’t that he despised the poor and curried favor with the rich, but that he had high EQ and was building connections for himself in advance. So Chen Can happily followed along.
After all, Xia Wenshi was an outdoor paranormal streamer. He had sharp eyes and soon discovered the open storage room under the stairs.
“Damn, damn, damn, I remember the door here was closed before. Did Xiao Ye and the others go in for an adventure and get lost?”
The three of them stumbled into this “Father’s World” by mistake.
The stairs were narrow and low.
“Why is it so dark here?”
“So cold.”
Xia Wenshi used his phone’s flashlight for light. Holding the wall, he had just finished descending the stairs and arrived at the abandoned space under the old gymnasium when he heard a very angry voice.
“You guys, what are you doing, what are you doing?!”
Xie Wenci turned pale with fright. He was used to being pampered and no one had ever dared to speak to him so loudly. Looking up, he saw a dirty construction worker wearing a yellow hat. Xie Wenci immediately pinched his nose and took a step back in disgust.
Chen Can was also overwhelmed by the smell and stepped back.
Xia Wenshi stood alone in front, shocked: “Big brother, you guys are still working here so late.”
The worker had a fierce square face, holding a shovel in his hand, with mud on his trouser legs. He didn’t answer Xia Wenshi’s words but said angrily: “Is the construction site a place you students can enter casually? Outrageous!”
Xia Wenshi hurriedly explained: “No, no, no, big brother, you misunderstood. We are here to find friends. My friends are missing!”
The worker’s tone was strange: “Your friends?”
Xia Wenshi: “Yes, friends. Big brother, have you seen my friends? Two tall, handsome guys.”
The worker looked at him strangely, then said stiffly: “I haven’t seen them. But I can ask for you. My two younger brothers are also here. Follow me.”
Xia Wenshi was overjoyed: “Okay, thank you, big brother.”
He breathed a sigh of relief and took the initiative to get closer: “Big brother, you and your brothers are still working so late.”
The worker said: “Yes, this place needs to be renovated. Time is tight, we have to work overtime at night.”
Xia Wenshi: “Hard work, hard work.”
A trace of strangeness flashed across the worker’s square face: “What can we do about the hard work? The well in the village is broken and can’t produce water. We can’t go on living like that. We three brothers must come out to make a living.”
What could Xia Wenshi say? He could only smile awkwardly.
The worker’s tone was strange and low: “It’s just a pity that we three brothers all have strong bodies, but we still haven’t figured out what happiness is.”
Xia Wenshi: “???” Did he miss something? Why did the topic suddenly turn to such a magical angle?
He was confused and bewildered.
The word happiness was too magical. He had only seen this written word in fairy tales since he was a child, such as “And the prince and princess lived happily ever after.”
So Xia Wenshi could only bite the bullet and reply: “Contentment brings happiness. Being able to eat and drink enough and do what you want to do is happiness.”
The eldest brother said fiercely: “Shut up if you don’t know how to talk.”
“…Oh.” Xia Wenshi shut up.
*
In the underground maze, Su Wanluo followed the bird, feeling more and more eerie as she walked.
She didn’t know if it was her illusion, but she seemed to hear the sound of dripping water in her ears, as if some liquid was splashing on the ground drop by drop.
The little bird asked her to turn off the flashlight.
Su Wanluo suppressed her fear, turned off the flashlight, and followed the little bird with the extremely faint light.
The ground under her feet was soft and sinking, and the tip of her nose was filled with a strong smell of blood.
Su Wanluo asked with a trembling voice: “Excuse me, how much longer do we have to walk to find your tree friend?”
The little bird said: “We’re almost there.”
Su Wanluo took out a knife from her long sleeve and held it tightly in her hand in case of danger. She asked: “Shouldn’t trees grow in the forest? Why would it appear here?”
The little bird said: “It grew in the forest last year. But after I came back, only the roots were left there.”
Su Wanluo: “Roots?”
“Yes.” The little bird paused, its tone slightly strange, and said reluctantly: “I asked the roots where the tree went. The roots said the lumberjack cut it down and dragged it to the valley. I flew to the valley again. There was a big factory in the valley. I asked the gate of the factory where the tree was. The gate said the tree was cut into thin strips in the factory, made into matches, and sold to the city. After going around in a circle, I must find it.”
After listening, Su Wanluo’s face was as pale as paper.
She followed it forward.
Around her were sticky wind and gloomy blood. Every step was on something wet and soft, completely a living hell.
But in the little bird’s words. Spring, singing, last year’s tree, valley. At this moment, Su Wanluo felt that the world was fragmented.
She wasn’t in hell, but in a fairy tale world, surrounded by flowers and grass, with spring in the forest.
She was following a bird, crossing mountains and rivers, to find its friend.
Su Wanluo: “It has already been made into matches. Do you still want to find it?”
The little bird said: “Of course. We are good friends. I promised to come back and sing for it after winter. I haven’t sung for it yet.”
“…Oh.”
Drip, drip.
As Su Wanluo walked, not only did she smell the strong scent of blood, she said tremblingly: “Do you feel it’s getting colder and colder?”
A trace of smugness and malice flashed in the little bird’s turbid yellow eyes, but its mouth also wondered: “Yes, what’s going on? Why is it getting colder and colder? Isn’t it already spring? Why?”
The little bird said: “Why is this year’s spring so cold?”
*
The third brother of the three walked at the very front. Ye Sheng waited for the worker to walk far away, then quickly grabbed Ning Weichen’s hand and wrote five words in his palm. They were the keywords he caught in the pps.
Father’s World.
When Ning Weichen’s fingers were actively held by him, his body stiffened, and he narrowed his eyes dangerously. But he soon relaxed his fingers and let Ye Sheng write in his palm.
After he finished writing, Ning Weichen smiled and whispered: “Don’t worry, he can’t hear our voices from this far away.”
Ye Sheng nodded and quickly told Ning Weichen his analysis: “The Human Wall’s ability is space, which can create a completely new world. We should be in the world created by the Human Wall now. I tried, we can’t kill the characters in his world. The world has its own rules.”
“Rules?” Ning Weichen laughed, his eyes deep: “Brother, it’s impossible for a B-grade Heresy to create rules in a space. It can at most trap us and create monsters to kill us. The only one who can create rules here is the Story King.”
Ye Sheng was stunned, a little surprised at Ning Weichen’s understanding of abilities. But he didn’t deny it, because this was indeed the Story King’s doing.
Now this was Father’s World, a world with the rule that “original characters do not die.” They couldn’t kill the puppet or this worker, and they had to avoid being killed by them.
The only way out was to find the Human Wall, destroy it, and leave this space.
Ye Sheng pursed his lips and analyzed: “After you left, that puppet came alive. It said a very strange sentence to me.”
Smiling is a very important thing. Anyone who can’t smile can’t live a happy life.
“The word order and content are both strange. Compared to daily chat, it sounds more like a line from a script.” Ye Sheng said: “Combined with the question from that worker just now. He asked us what happiness is. What is happiness… Ning Weichen, I suspect these people all walked out of books.”
Ning Weichen smiled: “Mm, Brother thinks the same as me.”
Ye Sheng raised the flashlight, his eyes coldly looking at the worker in front of him.
Ning Weichen suddenly said: “Doesn’t it look like a fairy tale?”
Ye Sheng was stunned: “What?”
Ning Weichen said: “In all stories, only fairy tales openly discuss happiness and let puppets talk.”
Ye Sheng was silent. He thought of the last few sentences in the pps.
[Childhood is a journey with no return.
What you read first, what you see first, will become part of your future life.]
Fairy tales.
Ye Sheng lowered his eyes and pondered: “Even if it’s the Story King’s continuation. The space is built based on the Human Wall, and this world must contain Su Jiande’s will. Father’s World, what exactly does it want to show?”
Ning Weichen: “Baby, you’ve got the priorities wrong. The ‘Father’s World’ that the Story King thinks is a continuation, its main goal is to kill us.”
Ye Sheng: “…” Alright.
The worker led them around and around, arriving at a corner piled with discarded steel. The worker scratched his head in confusion: “That’s not right. I remember my eldest and second brothers were working in this place.”
Ye Sheng shone the flashlight around, illuminating a dark hole in the corner.
The worker screamed in horror: “Ah, what is that? Can you help go over and take a look?”
Ye Sheng really wanted to say: Can your acting be any faker? But thinking of his own acting skills, he swallowed the words back.
Forget it, he had no right to speak.
He took a step forward with the flashlight, and the tip of his nose smelled a strong scent of blood.
Ye Sheng was stunned, a trace of coldness passing through his almond eyes. He turned his head and extended his hand to Ning Weichen: “Come here.”
Ning Weichen hooked his lips in a smile and gladly held his hand.
Ye Sheng pulled Ning Weichen closer, holding the flashlight, illuminating a… well?!
The well was very large, looking like it had just been dug.
Next to the well, a sign was crookedly erected, saying “No Entry.”
This well was so deep that the bottom couldn’t be seen at all. He remembered Xia Wenshi mentioning once—the underground space of the old gymnasium was originally planned to be built with two floors. So there was still space below.
He was observing the well, while Ning Weichen was observing him, the smile on his lips as gentle as water, the fragmented light in his peach-blossom eyes like a whole galaxy.
Ning Weichen asked softly: “Did you discover something and reach out to protect me?”
Ye Sheng said: “There is still space under the well.”
Ning Weichen hooked his lips and said: “Brother, I’m very happy.”
Ye Sheng was talking past him, frowning seriously: “I think we need to go down.”
Ning Weichen finally woke up from his “love brain,” slowly interlaced his fingers with Ye Sheng’s, leaned over, and smiled: “Don’t worry, baby. Even if we don’t go down, someone will help us.”
Ye Sheng: “?”
Before he could react, he felt a low pressure approaching from behind.
The peripheral light of the flashlight shone behind them, revealing the worker’s twisted and malicious smiling face. He raised his hands, in a posture completely ready to push them down.