Chapter 73#

The People in the Story (Part 10)#

“Few people remember the textbooks from their childhood, but the stories you heard when you were young always leave something in your life.” Ning Weichen thought for a moment, smiled gently, and said casually, “After all, education is inherently a subtle and imperceptible process.”

Ye Sheng looked up at the world of flesh and blood solidified by frost and snow, remaining silent.

Ning Weichen was right. In any era, the texts included in primary school textbooks must be stories carefully selected from the world’s library. Behind them, there must be a promotion of a virtue, a value.

The Story King used these four primary school texts as a blueprint to continue writing such a bizarre and absurd world, as if keeping them in his childhood. The greatest characteristic of children is imagination; they possess unconstrained and whimsical ideas.

After growing up, the Story King wrote about the Truth Verification Bridge concerning true love and lies, and the Night-Crawler who punished evil and promoted good, extreme and bloody, cold and cruel.

But what about when he was a child? A hundred years ago, in an era when education in China was still scarce, for a poor and thin boy, the first storybook he encountered might have been a Chinese textbook.

In the Chinese textbook, there were “The Crow Drinking Water,” “The Seven-Colored Deer,” and “The Little Match Girl.”

The journey of life began from there.

Ye Sheng said coldly, “If he had really taken these fairy tales to heart, he wouldn’t be like this now.” The Story King had none of the truth, kindness, and beauty he should have, but demanded a lot from others.

Ning Weichen was amused by him, his peach-blossom eyes curving as he said softly, “The Story King’s requirements for good and evil are extremely extreme, and he strongly believes in retribution for good and evil. I guess that perhaps after his childhood, his life never had any happy moments again. Maybe he hit walls everywhere in this life and only saw truth, kindness, and beauty in books.”

Ye Sheng was slightly stunned, thinking of the time in the haunted house when Huang Qiqi and Xia Wenshi discussed the script and talked about childhood. Some people use their childhood to heal their whole lives.

Few people remember the textbooks from their childhood, but the Story King remembered, even the lines were remembered clearly.

The smiling puppet, the three brothers looking for happiness.

“Smiling is a very important thing. Anyone who can’t smile can’t live a happy life.”

“Ten years later, she would meet us again by this well and tell us what happiness is.”

People who like to read stories are often sensitive and gloomy. He didn’t know what the Story King had experienced in his life to become the master of urban strange tales after death.

But at least at this moment, Ye Sheng had a clearer understanding of his character. The Story King was both a madman and a child. Everyone grows up, rushing about for trivial interpersonal relationships, rushing about for exhausting work and marriage. Learning to grow up is a compulsory course in life.

But he was trapped in time.

He seemed to understand why the Story King became the Seventh Sector Lord. Because all human emotions, those extreme loves and hates, ultimately boil down to two issues: life and death, and time.

“What are you waiting for?” Ye Sheng looked up and asked Ning Weichen.

Ning Weichen: “Waiting for the ice and snow to melt.”

Ye Sheng said expressionlessly: “Speak human language.”

Ning Weichen: “Alright. The temperature inside is tens of degrees below zero. Going there is suicide.”

Ye Sheng suddenly thought of something and said quickly: “Ning Weichen—when we jumped down from above, there was a sign by the well!”

Ning Weichen: “Hmm?”

Ye Sheng said: “The sign said ‘No Entry’.”

Ye Sheng’s eyes grew colder as he spoke: “Isn’t that the plot in ‘The Giant’s Garden’? The giant put up a ‘No Entry’ sign to prevent children from playing in the garden. From then on, there was no spring in the giant’s garden.” He looked up at the blood-red human wall frozen by frost and whispered, “So below the well is the garden.”

Ye Sheng’s brain spun rapidly. Finally, he turned on the flashlight on his phone, supported himself against the wall, and stood up. He said, “It will always be a harsh winter here. We might as well go find the giant directly. I think finding the giant is the key to leaving here.”

Ning Weichen gazed at him for a long time, then smiled: “Makes sense.”

The world was covered in ice and snow, the flesh crimson, like walking in a cold storage for corpses. Walking further in, there was gradually light. Faint cold light seeped from the depths of the cave, reflected by ice prisms, and the vision gradually became brighter. To save power, Ye Sheng was about to turn off the flashlight when his gaze suddenly fell on two people walking towards them from the front.

—Luo Xingyan and Su Wanluo??

Su Wanluo’s constitution should be the worst among everyone. Her lips were pale, her eyes red, and she hugged her arms, shivering without saying a word.

After saving her, Luo Xingyan couldn’t be bothered with her. Biting a lollipop, he looked around vigilantly. He initially judged that this was a ‘space’ created by a B-grade Heresy. But there was a terrifying S-grade aura in the space, raising the danger here dozens of times.

“Ye Sheng?” Su Wanluo was the first to see them.

Hearing the voice, Luo Xingyan turned his head and saw Ye Sheng and Ning Weichen. He widened his eyes in disbelief, took out the lollipop, and looked strange: “Why are you guys here too?” You know, Ning Weichen had never been interested in Heresies, and was even extremely perfunctory about the tasks given by the Bureau of Unnatural Affairs. Thinking of this, Luo Xingyan chuckled sarcastically: “Am I dreaming? To actually see the Crown Prince here, it’s rare.”

Ning Weichen was graceful, his tone smiling: “Not rare. It’s not like you haven’t seen me and Gege on a date.”

Luo Xingyan: “…” Damn it, you two came here for a date?!

“You talk too much nonsense.” Ye Sheng looked at Luo Xingyan with impatience and said lightly: “What’s going on.”

Luo Xingyan had just been choked by Ning Weichen, and now being retorted by Ye Sheng, he gritted his teeth and reluctantly stuffed the lollipop back into his mouth, not wanting to pay attention to this dog couple.

It was Su Wanluo who spoke.

“I’ll explain.” There was still fear and lingering panic in her eyes. She said tremblingly with red eyes: “Ye Sheng, after we separated, I walked west and saw a bird in a room. That bird could talk. It said it could take me to find my father, but the condition was to help it find its friend, the tree, first. I followed it, and it brought me here.”

Thinking of what happened later, Su Wanluo’s face turned pale. Everything encountered today was already beyond the limit for an ordinary person.

She tried her best to suppress her fearful tone: “I walked into a world of ice and snow, and my feet were frozen by frost. There were also white ice crystals on my skin. They drilled into my body like small insects. At that moment, I couldn’t move at all. At this time, the little bird suddenly stopped, revealed its true colors, opened its mouth, and bit my arm.”

She raised her hand. The bird’s beak was deep and sharp. When they first met, it had bitten her fingertip to the bone. After confirming the prey was caught, it was even more unceremonious. The long sleeve of Su Wanluo’s right hand was completely soaked in blood. Her face was pale now not only from the cold but also from the pain.

Ye Sheng whispered: “‘Last Year’s Tree’.”

Su Wanluo was stunned: “Yes, it was indeed looking for last year’s tree. Did you see it too?”

Luo Xingyan took out the lollipop at this time and couldn’t help rolling his eyes: “See my ass, that bird was crushed to death by me personally.”

Ye Sheng said: “Crushed to death?”

Luo Xingyan didn’t take a broken bird in a B-grade world seriously at all and nodded: “Yeah.”

Ye Sheng: “Then what’s behind you?”

Luo Xingyan: “?”

Luo Xingyan and Su Wanluo turned their heads.

Behind them, a pair of turbid yellow bird eyes, bloodshot with resentment, were staring at them angrily!

The bird that he had clearly strangled to death with an iron chain came back to life, and had followed them at some point. The bright space illuminated the full appearance of this bird. The bird’s feathers should have been indigo, with a long tail feather. But now it looked like it had crawled out of a pool of blood. Its feathers were dyed blood-black, and its claws, eyes, and beak were covered in mud-like flesh and blood everywhere.

Su Wanluo held back the urge to scream and took a step back.

Luo Xingyan cursed, picked up the iron chain in his hand, and was about to kill this strange bird again. However, his iron chain went straight through the bird’s body this time.

The strange bird let out a hoarse scream, panting: “You disgusting humans all deserve to die! Die! Die!”

It rushed over, screaming, pecking at Luo Xingyan’s eyeballs.

Luo Xingyan, an S-grade Executor, wouldn’t be afraid of it. He raised his hand casually and crushed the bird to death in the air with just one hand.

“Lingering spirit.” Luo Xingyan’s eyes were full of contempt.

The little bird’s eyes bulged, its body stiffened, and it fell heavily to the ground. Its breath disappeared, dead as a doornail. But suddenly a faint white light appeared around it. The specks of light actually made the bird’s wings tremble. It woke up again, coming back from the dead, and this time the resentment in the bird’s eyes was deeper.

Luo Xingyan: “…”

The little bird let out a strange cry, the sharp high-decibel sound seeming to pierce the eardrums, and rushed straight over.

Luo Xingyan bit his lollipop and raised his hand in annoyance.

However, this time, his hand couldn’t touch the bird at all.

Ye Sheng finally couldn’t stand it anymore: “Luo Xingyan, in the rules of this space, the bird won’t die. Every time you kill it, the rules will grant it a new ability of immortality. If you keep killing it, you will only create an invincible monster.”

Luo Xingyan: “…Damn.” As soon as the word “rules” came out, he knew that this was no longer as simple as a B-grade Heresy.

Their real enemy here was the Story King.

After all, he was someone who had dealt with S-grade Heresies. His eyes became dangerous and solemn. He dodged the bird’s attack and walked forward to avoid the fight.

This bird now hated Luo Xingyan so much that it wanted to swallow him alive, following closely.

Su Wanluo looked at her benefactor with concern and was about to follow. Ye Sheng stopped her: “Don’t worry about him, come with us.”

Su Wanluo was stunned, nodded, and looked at Ye Sheng’s expressionless face. Her anxious heart strangely calmed down. she kind of understood why Xia Wenshi trusted Ye Sheng so much in the Luo Lake Mansion. Ye Sheng really had a reassuring power about him.

Ye Sheng led her towards the coldest path. The flesh and blood maze was intricate, and he had to concentrate all his attention not to get lost. Going deeper, separated by a wall, Ye Sheng suddenly heard Xia Wenshi’s scream.

Ye Sheng: “…” It’s really lively.

Su Wanluo also heard it: “Xia Wenshi? Why is he here?”

Ye Sheng also wanted to ask this question.

Ye Sheng found a fork in the road and walked towards the source of the sound.

In a pitch-black dark room, Xia Wenshi and the others were kneeling on the ground, shivering like lambs waiting to be slaughtered. The square-faced worker held a large piece of wood in his hand. Next to him were his third brother, who was still crying, and his second brother, who looked irritable.

“You three are in cahoots with those two people, right?” The eldest brother said gloomily.

Xia Wenshi wanted to cry but had no tears. Xiao Ye, you’ve got your brother in big trouble, do you know that?

Xie Wenci couldn’t figure out the situation at all. He had been pampered since childhood and held in high esteem. When had he ever suffered such grievances? He immediately couldn’t bear it anymore and said: “Do you know who I am? If you dare to kidnap me and hurt a single finger of mine, I will make you suffer the consequences in Huai City!”

The eldest brother smiled strangely, and the wood in his hand hit Xie Wenci’s shoulder straight and heavy.

Ah.

Xie Wenci screamed, and fear finally appeared in his eyes.

“Xie Wenci!” Xia Wenshi shouted.

Although he didn’t look up to this socialite at all, he was still his junior. He was the oldest among the three and the most experienced in dealing with danger.

Xia Wenshi felt he should stand up!

Xia Wenshi glared and shouted: “Stop, this is inside Huai’an University. You dare to hurt students, you…”

Later, the justice and anger in Xia Wenshi’s throat were all swallowed back when he saw the second brother dragging a blood-stained saw step by step forward.

Fucking chainsaw massacre ahhhhh.

The second brother provoked fiercely: “We what?”

“…”

Xia Wenshi swallowed hard, revealed a weak and pale smile, and whispered ingratiatingly: “You… if you hit him, you can’t hit me, okay?”