Chapter 72#
The People in the Story (Part 9)#
Ye Sheng: “…”
Ning Weichen, next time can you just get to the point? Why all the nonsense before that?
The worker revealed a satisfied smile, his tone eerie and greedy, muttering to himself behind them: “Great, after filling the well, the Daughter of Wisdom will appear.”
The light illuminated his dark, twisted face. A pair of large hands covered in mud and calluses were about to push Ye Sheng and the others down.
Ye Sheng touched the back of his neck, reacted quickly, raised his elbow, and struck back heavily.
The worker’s pupils constricted, he clutched his stomach and retreated, letting out a scream.
Then Ye Sheng turned around and kicked him viciously on the knee, simultaneously raising the flashlight in his hand and smashing it towards his forehead with fierce and sharp movements. Thump, as if chopping the skull with a knife. The worker’s shrill scream echoed in the remote dark room. Blood soon seeped out of the worker’s face, covering his entire face.
Ye Sheng grew up in Yinshan, and fighting was never about stopping at a point.
“You, you…” The worker’s eyes were splitting with anger, panting heavily, unable to say a complete sentence.
Ye Sheng leaned down slightly, grabbing the worker’s collar with his fingers. In the half-light and half-shadow, his almond eyes seemed stained with blood, his words cold.
“Who is the Daughter of Wisdom?”
After all, the worker was still human in the world of Heresies. The weakness of human nature is bullying the weak and fearing the strong. He was completely frightened by Ye Sheng’s murderous aura. Trembling, he fell to the ground and crawled backward: “Don’t kill me, don’t kill me.”
Ye Sheng said indifferently: “I won’t kill you. Tell me who the Daughter of Wisdom is.”
The worker cried out in pain: “The Daughter of Wisdom is the one who let us search for happiness.”
Ye Sheng: “…What exactly is going on with you three brothers?”
The worker was the most timid and fearful of trouble among the brothers. Being scared like this, he confessed everything, sobbing: “I’ll talk, I’ll talk. We three brothers were originally shepherds. One day, the spring in the forest was blocked, so we dredged the spring and built a well. At this time, a long-haired woman came. She asked us if she could drink the water in the well. We said yes, so she scooped up the water and drank three mouthfuls. She said we did a good deed, and she would grant us happiness on behalf of the entire forest. The second brother asked her, you grant us happiness, so what is happiness?”
“The woman said happiness requires us to figure it out ourselves. Ten years later, she would meet us again by this well. If we still didn’t know what happiness was by then, she would tell us.”
The worker’s eyes, nose, ears, and mouth were all full of blood, bleeding from all seven orifices, and he said tremblingly:
“But ten years later, we came to the well as agreed, but she was gone. We suspected it was because there was something wrong with the well, so we wanted to find someone to fill it.”
Ye Sheng didn’t speak.
Is this the fairy tale the three brothers are in?
Ning Weichen listened to this story quietly and chuckled softly with unclear meaning.
At this moment, an angry shout suddenly came: “Stop! What are you two doing to my third brother?”
The worker raised his head and, after seeing the person coming, shouted with joy and tears: “Second brother, second brother save me!”
Unlike the cowardly third brother, the second brother had a violent temper. Holding a large saw in his hand, he glared at them angrily, his fierce face full of bloody and bandit-like aura.
Ye Sheng: “…” Actually, in the rules of this world, he couldn’t do anything to these three brothers at all.
He couldn’t kill them, and he had to be chased and bitten. Ye Sheng was already satisfied to get these words out. He picked up the flashlight, shone the strong light directly into the second brother’s eyes, wiped the blood off his hands, turned his head, and whispered to Ning Weichen: “Jump down.”
After speaking, he stepped into the dark hole with both legs without hesitation.
Ning Weichen sighed and followed helplessly.
He had smashed too hard just now, and the flashlight was already a bit broken.
Ye Sheng threw it directly outside the well. After his vision went pitch black, when falling in mid-air, Ye Sheng smelled a strong stench, and he almost vomited in the air. Fortunately, he had strong adaptability. He held back the churning in his stomach and adjusted his posture so as not to break his legs when he reached the bottom of the well.
But he was worrying unnecessarily. Ye Sheng stepped on a soft mass.
Upon landing, apart from softness and dampness, there was no other feeling. Drip, drip, some liquid dripped from above.
The air was thick, carrying a stench that could not be concealed at all, the smell of human flesh and blood.
“…”
Ye Sheng didn’t even need to turn on his phone’s flashlight to guess the surrounding environment.
He calmed his emotions and took out his phone. Standing in this bloody world, he turned on the light and, as expected, illuminated a hell.
The ground was wet and soft with blood-red human flesh, interlaced with white, green, and purple tendons.
Overhead was the same flesh and blood tissue, dripping with blood, slowly wriggling and breathing, as if just skinned, functions not fully degenerated.
Overwhelming fat, fibers, bones, blood.
As walls, as sky, as earth.
Under the well was a world completely composed of “humans.”
Ye Sheng stood firm and looked around expressionlessly.
Ning Weichen approached from behind him, looked at the environment thoughtfully, and smiled: “So the Human Wall is really a human wall in the literal sense.”
Ye Sheng whispered: “Ning Weichen, do you feel the temperature here is wrong?”
Ning Weichen: “It seems a bit cold.”
Ye Sheng said: “It’s not just a bit cold anymore.” Ye Sheng used his phone to illuminate all directions. The Human Wall world had several passages, intricate and complex, more like a maze than the layer above. The light moved to the right, and Ye Sheng saw a particularly distinctive path. The flesh and blood at the entrance of that path were covered with a layer of faint white frost, just like the state of meat frosting in the refrigerator.
“The temperature here should be 4 to 5 degrees.” Ye Sheng walked towards the frozen road and said: “Let’s go here.”
Just as Ye Sheng finished speaking, a giggling voice suddenly came. The puppet said: “Where are you going?”
Ye Sheng’s eyes widened suddenly. He turned the light towards the source and saw the puppet dragging the axe had chased them down the well at some point.
The puppet’s body and face were covered with mold spots, but the smile created by chalk and carving knife remained on its face as an eternal mark. The puppet walked towards them giggling, carrying the blood-stained axe. At first, it walked slowly, its limbs stiff and twisted, but later it walked faster and faster, faster and faster, and the puppet suddenly started running.
With a ferocious look in its eyes, holding the axe high, combined with that big smiling face, it was terrifying enough to make one’s scalp numb.
“Hehehe, where are you going!”
Ye Sheng gritted his teeth and glanced at it. Without thinking, he pulled Ning Weichen and ran.
Ning Weichen was slightly stunned in the darkness, but still obediently followed him.
The puppet chased relentlessly, but Ye Sheng and Ning Weichen’s physical strength was not comparable to ordinary people, and they quickly shook off the puppet.
When walking into that blood path condensed with frost and ice, Ye Sheng shivered from the cold. If the temperature outside was 3 to 4 degrees, then it was already below zero here. The further inside they went, the colder it became, and a thin layer of ice formed on the human wall. Only when the giggling voice of the puppet could no longer be heard did Ye Sheng slow down. At this time, the ice layer became thicker and thicker, covering the flesh tissue. The world was snow-white, the cold wind was biting, as if in a vast winter.
There was another fork in the road ahead.
Ye Sheng stood in front of the fork and frowned.
Because this time he didn’t know where to go.
Ning Weichen said considerately: “Brother, are you cold?”
Ye Sheng: “Do you believe me if I say I’m not cold?”
Ning Weichen laughed out loud.
Ye Sheng raised his head, and the icy and snowy world made his expression look even more frosty. Ning Weichen stepped forward and grabbed his hand. Usually, Ning Weichen’s body temperature was cool, but now his fingertips seemed like a ball of fire.
Ye Sheng was stunned and tilted his head to look at him. Ning Weichen hooked his lips in a smile, his eyes rippling like peach blossoms blooming in frost and snow. He whispered: “Don’t go forward, let’s wait first.”
Ye Sheng: “Wait for what?”
Ning Weichen put his finger on his lips and “shushed.” Ye Sheng’s phone battery was draining fast, so he turned off the flashlight. Relying on the faint light of the ice and snow, he followed Ning Weichen to find a random place to sit.
“Can you tell me now? Did you discover something?” Ye Sheng asked.
Ning Weichen looked at him deeply, then said calmly: “Brother, have I ever told you that a hundred years ago was the ‘Year of Catastrophe’ recorded by Butterfly Island?”
Ye Sheng was slightly stunned and nodded: “Yes.”
Ning Weichen: “The Year of Catastrophe is the origin of all Heresies, so the environment, education, current politics, and large and small abnormal movements of that year have always been the focus of the Bureau of Unnatural Affairs’ research. I know a little about the education of a hundred years ago. When you told me about the puppet, I felt a little familiar. When you asked about the story of the three brothers, I was sure.”
He blinked and smiled: “Brother, we are indeed in a fairy tale world, and it’s a fairy tale that everyone in Huai City read back then.”
Ye Sheng was incredulous: “A fairy tale that everyone read?”
How is that possible…
He had never heard of this smiling puppet and the so-called Daughter of Wisdom. If talking about fairy tales that everyone read, it should be Andersen, Grimm, or One Thousand and One Nights.
Ning Weichen smiled and said: “Why is it impossible? You have to know, they were all texts in the primary school textbooks of Huai City back then.”
Textbooks?!
Ye Sheng’s pupils shrank slightly, and he fell completely silent.
“If I remember correctly. The story of this puppet is that the old carpenter thought smiling was the most important thing, so he only gave it the expression of ‘smile’. Then the puppet was slandered and bullied all the way because of this.”
Ning Weichen smiled thoughtfully and said lightly: “Besides the puppet and the three brothers, there should be a bird here.”
“What is Happiness, Last Year’s Tree, The Story of the Little Puppet…”
Ning Weichen had a smile on his lips, but his eyes turned cold.
“Brother, do you believe me now? I said the Story King is an adult trapped in childhood.”
The world piled with blood and bones was covered in frost and snow, but at this moment, Ye Sheng not only felt cold on his skin, but his soul also seemed to tremble. In the moment of brain stinging, he recalled the emaciated boy in the corner of the bookstore in his dream.
The dusty shadow, the shriveled body, the dim years like a pale torrent, setting off those eyes that were quiet to the extreme, as if looking towards the end of the story.
He originally thought the Story King was a child.
But those mean and gloomy postscripts, absurd and bloody ghost stories, and absurd and crazy urban legends could not have come from the mouth of a child.
The profile of the Seventh Sector Lord had always been vague and uncertain.
Such an S-rank human Sector Lord. Gloomy, strange, silent, dusty, yet innocent, crazy, cruel, and possessing an endless desire to confide.
[Childhood is a journey with no return.]
So the Story King is an adult trapped in childhood.
Ye Sheng pursed his lips, hiding the hostility in his eyes, and said: “Ning Weichen, what is the fourth story?”
Ning Weichen: “Hmm?”
Ye Sheng: “The compilation of Chinese textbooks has one theme per unit. The fairy tale theme cannot have only three texts.”
Ning Weichen thought for a moment and laughed: “Oh, there is indeed a fourth one.”
“The fourth one is called The Giant’s Garden.”
*
It was so cold. Su Wanluo felt that the white breath she exhaled was about to condense into frost in the air. She was actually a bit nearsighted. Without turning on the flashlight, walking in a pitch-black environment, she couldn’t see the road clearly at all.
The little bird was drooling, afraid that she would discover something wrong with the surroundings, so it quickly chatted to distract her: “You are looking for your father. What kind of person is your father?”
Su Wanluo was stunned and whispered: “A pretty good person.”
She rarely talked about her family with others. Her father disappeared when she was in the second grade. They moved from Lianggang County to Huai City, with no relatives or friends. She was later raised by the grandfather in the bookstore next door.
“I’m from a single-parent family, but I had a happy childhood.”
The little bird sucked back its drool: “Don’t you have a mother?”
Su Wanluo: “Mm. My mother passed away when I was very young.”
The little bird said hypocritically: “How pitiful.”
Su Wanluo forced a smile. The surrounding environment was getting colder and colder. She felt that the knife she held in her hand for defense was about to freeze. Su Wanluo asked: “Excuse me, how much longer…” Suddenly her words stopped. Because she wanted to take a step forward, but her feet and the ground were solidified together. It was ice—fixing her completely in place.
She felt a chill spreading from her feet. Transparent, fragile, beautiful ice crystals fell on her skin and completely merged with her skin.
Those ice crystals seeped into her body, the temperature undiminished, freezing her blood in her blood vessels!
Su Wanluo felt a sharp pain and suddenly widened her eyes.
The little bird turned its head, and a pair of strange and greedy turbid yellow eyes met hers. It opened its mouth wide and laughed, its expression ferocious, its dense teeth covered with shreds of meat.