Chapter 78#

People in the Story (Part 15)#

“Senior Brother Luo?” Cheng Ze stared in astonishment, her red lips parted wide, looking at Luo Xingyan who had emerged from the giant’s belly covered in blood and filth.

According to the information given by Tianshu, this human wall at Huaian University was a B-rank anomaly.

——How did a B-rank anomaly make her Senior Brother Shackles look so wretched?!

Luo Xingyan: “…”

Luo Xingyan hadn’t expected to see Cheng Ze and the group from the Huaicheng Bureau of Supernatural Affairs the moment he came out.

He was young, aggressive, and cared about his image. Back at the First Military Academy, he was a show-off. He had never been this embarrassed in front of people in his life.

Luo Xingyan grabbed his red hair, grinding his teeth in secret, and nodded coolly at his junior sister.

Then he immediately looked around for Ning Weichen and Ye Sheng. He wasn’t worried about their safety; rather, he thought: Damn it, if we’re going to lose face, let’s lose it together.

He didn’t believe that those two could be any cleaner or more presentable after coming out of the same giant’s belly. Yes, he wanted to drag them down with him!

Luo Xingyan’s sharp eyes spotted two tall figures stepping down from the gymnasium and immediately shouted loudly: “Ye Sheng!”

Hearing his voice, Ye Sheng looked up coldly.

But Luo Xingyan’s malicious and mean thoughts were choked back in his throat when he saw Ye Sheng’s clean appearance.

“…”

“……”

Fuck!

Why? Is it just because these two are better at pretending than him?

Cheng Ze turned around and was also stunned as she watched the two men slowly walk out of the darkness.

Ye Sheng was wearing a black T-shirt, his skin appearing even paler under the moonlight. His brows and eyes were cold and suppressed, and he was surrounded by a faint aura of hostility. It looked like he was in a bad mood.

Ning Weichen had long legs. He took a few steps down the stairs, looked up and saw the group from the Bureau of Supernatural Affairs. He instantly adjusted his expression, revealing a smile. It was a smile Cheng Ze was familiar with: polite, elegant, charming, yet keeping people a thousand miles away.

Ning Weichen’s attitude towards the Bureau of Supernatural Affairs had always been poor.

But Cheng Ze knew clearly in her heart: the precious young master was monitored and investigated as a suspect all day long; it would be strange if his attitude was good.

Cheng Ze took the initiative to step forward and greeted with a smile: “Young Master Ning, Ye Sheng, why are you two here as well?”

She asked “you two,” but Cheng Ze knew that the one answering would definitely be Ning Weichen. Because after three encounters—the Yinshan Train, the Qin Family Villa, and the Luohu Mansion—Cheng Ze had discovered that Ye Sheng really didn’t like to talk or interact with people. Usually in this situation, Ye Sheng would just stand aside coldly looking down at his phone, leaving Ning Weichen to deal with them.

Heh… Cheng Ze had completely given up hope of getting any information out of them.

Ning Weichen was raised as the heir of the Ning family, his negotiation and conversation skills were perfected. Dealing with Ning Weichen meant you wouldn’t get any news he didn’t want you to know.

Cheng Ze sighed in her heart, planning her next sentence—“Haha, so that’s how it is. It’s good that you’re okay.”

But suddenly, Ye Sheng’s cold and indifferent voice rang in her ears.

“We were filming a promotional video inside the old gymnasium.”

Cheng Ze: “???” Whose voice did she just hear?!

Ning Weichen seemed a bit surprised as well, glancing thoughtfully at Ye Sheng.

Ye Sheng took a step forward, blocking him behind himself. In a posture that he might not have found strange but clearly looked “protective” to others, he said calmly: “Director Cheng, if you want to ask something, ask me.”

Cheng Ze: “…”

Luo Xingyan wiped the blood off his face and walked over with a dark expression. Before he could swallow his unhappiness and jealousy, he was immediately shoved a face full of dog food by this couple.

Luo Xingyan: “…” He was really angry inside. Damn it, is it necessary just for a question! Making it look like the Bureau of Supernatural Affairs is trying to break up a couple!

Luo Xingyan spoke up irritably: “Stop asking them, ask me!”

Cheng Ze: “Se-Senior Brother?”

Luo Xingyan held his chains and gave a fake smile: “Junior Sister, don’t disturb the Crown Prince and the Crown Princess. I was also a party involved tonight, just ask me.”

Cheng Ze said blankly: “…Oh, okay.”

Ye Sheng glanced at Luo Xingyan, ignored his sarcasm, and nodded smoothly: “En. You guys ask him.”

He wanted to take Ning Weichen and leave. A B-rank anomaly was something the Bureau of Supernatural Affairs could handle completely.

Ning Weichen had been injured by the Story King in the space. He just wanted to drag him home and throw him to Andrew for a check-up.

“If there’s nothing else, we’ll be going first.” Before leaving, Ye Sheng glanced at the people being dragged away by Cheng Fa and suddenly paused. He frowned and looked at Luo Xingyan: “Where is Su Wanluo?”

Remembering this, the smile vanished from Luo Xingyan’s face. He looked up, his vertical pupils gazing at the “giant” as massive as a mountain under the night sky, and whispered: “She chose to stay in the giant’s heart at the end.”

Ye Sheng was stunned for a few seconds, then nodded with a cold expression, saying nothing. When he met Su Wanluo in the corridor, he felt her state was a bit off. Su Wanluo’s face was pale, her eyes dazed. Although suppressed deeply, Ye Sheng was very sensitive to human emotions, especially hatred.

Su Wanluo had entered the underground space with a hatred bordering on madness. She must have deduced the murderer of her father long ago. Going to the basement was just to find evidence. But she didn’t expect to get involved in the bloody fairy tale written by the Story King, and stumbled into Su Jiande’s heart by mistake.

That abrupt house in the world of ice and snow must be the storage place for all of Su Jiande’s emotions from when he was alive, after he was written into the grotesque and became the cold, bloody “wall”.

He had long lost his reason and memory, but inside the beating heart, a memory was still hidden, in that dilapidated home from fifteen years ago.

Cheng Ze caught the keywords, her expression solemn: “Wait, you’re saying there’s still someone inside the gymnasium?”

“En.” Luo Xingyan’s face was gloomy. He picked up the iron chain in his hand, staring straight ahead: “Let’s see if killing the giant can save her.”

In an instant, the chain in his hand grew infinitely long and thick. Winding, twisting, with heavy shadows! It wove into an overwhelming net, binding the “giant”. The powerful pressure of an S-rank Executor firmly fixed the giant in place.

The black chains wrapped around its body circle by circle, turning heaven and earth into a cage.

In the truest sense, [Shackles].

Rocks rolled down, and amidst the roaring of the earth, Ye Sheng’s eyes were cold and serious as he observed Luo Xingyan.

This was the first time he had seen an S-rank Esper make a move.

The eleventh-ranked Executor on the leaderboard, strangling a B-rank anomaly without blowing away any dust.

He had actually never underestimated Luo Xingyan, but seeing this scene, his heart still sank.

Luo Xingyan was far more powerful than he imagined. Even in the illusion world created by the Story King, Luo Xingyan killed those fairy tale characters as if playing, moving through the wind and snow with ease. Rules could restrict him, but rules couldn’t kill him.

This was a first-tier Executor.

The giant’s irritable roars and struggles shook the ground. The cold wind entangled Ye Sheng’s line of sight. He lowered his eyelashes indifferently, hiding the thoughts in his eyes.

Luo Xingyan’s power made him realize even more how unfathomable the Forum was.

His current strength was completely like an ant trying to shake a tree in front of the Forum.

Ye Sheng hadn’t come into contact with many Executors.

One [Doctor] Andrew, one [Shackles] Luo Xingyan. Besides them, there was [Turing] whom he had heard of several times.

Turing specialized in network and digital anomalies of the Fourth Sector; Andrew was Ning Weichen’s private doctor; Luo Xingyan moved freely throughout the world.

Ye Sheng’s exploration of the esper world had remained at the tip of the iceberg. Leaving aside the other unknown top ten Executors on the leaderboard, just the folk “Bounty Hunters” and the “Bounty Guild” composed of espers that Cheng Ze mentioned told him how vast this world was.

Huaicheng was currently cordoned off by the Story King, so anomalies from other sectors couldn’t enter.

Ye Sheng didn’t know what price he would have to pay to investigate the Jeremiah Forum clearly, but… take it one step at a time.

“Brother.” Ning Weichen saw him zoning out and suddenly called out.

Ye Sheng turned his head back, looking at this “ex-boyfriend” not far away who was smiling at him, top-tier in appearance and status, and for a moment his mood was incredibly strange.

…So, in the background of espers fighting against anomalies, what kind of existence is the Ning family exactly?

Ning Weichen smiled: “You seem to have some questions to ask me?” He curled his lips and said: “I’m in a good mood right now, maybe I’ll answer whatever you ask.”

Ye Sheng looked away: “Let’s talk when we get back.”

Ning Weichen thought for a moment and said: “Are you worried about Su Wanluo?”

Ye Sheng: “…” Worried? Not really. After all, this was the choice Su Wanluo made herself.

Ning Weichen smiled: “No need to worry, fairy tales are written for children.”

His voice was light and cold: “The world that looks bloody and magical in our eyes might be a pure land regarding time in the eyes of the Story King.”

*

So cold, really so cold. Su Wanluo felt her teeth chattering. She slowly squatted down, hugging herself with her arms. Her skin was surprisingly hot. She had read in detective novels before that there is a term in forensics called “paradoxical undressing,” saying that every person freezing to death will feel very hot at the end.

So is she going to die?

Su Wanluo’s brain was groggy. For some reason, at the last moment of near-death, she suddenly thought of a sentence Ning Weichen said to her at the very beginning.

——“Senior Sister Su, your mental state doesn’t look very good. If necessary, you can close your eyes and sleep for a while.”

Close eyes, sleep for a while. Su Wanluo’s eyelashes trembled, and large, hot tears fell. She buried her face in her arms, closed her eyes in exhaustion, and fell into a pale sleep in this extremely familiar room.

When her consciousness completely dissipated, she seemed to hear a “click” sound, and the electric fan on the table started to rotate. Whir, whir, the fan blades blew the pages of the book, blew the wallpaper, blew the wind and snow outside. Like time turning a page.

In her daze, she seemed to hear footsteps, voices, people talking softly in a warm and bright afternoon.

“Where is Luoluo?”

“Taking a nap. Just put the gas canister here. I made pancakes in the pan, want to stay and eat?”

“Hahaha no thanks, still have to deliver to the next house.”

“Oh, oh, okay, thanks for your hard work.”

When Su Wanluo woke up, she found herself lying on the table. Before her eyes was her familiar home. Her hands and feet had become shorter; she had returned to her childhood. Su Wanluo was stunned. She turned her head and found the calendar on the table stopped at July 1st.

She met the eyes of the little boy wearing a transparent goldfish bowl on his head on the calendar.

At this moment, her brain stung, and her heart hurt as if it was about to explode! Su Wanluo disregarded everything and jumped off the chair.

Opening the door barefoot, she saw her father busy in the kitchen.

The setting sun and the smell of cooking rushed over her.

Dad had just finished changing the gas canister and slowly stood up. His back was broad, but because of years of labor at construction sites, his legs had some old ailments, and he swayed slightly when standing up.

All the surging, intense emotions were stuck in her throat at this moment. Her eyes red, she couldn’t say a word.

Childhood is the base color of a person’s life. But what is the color of childhood? It is the magnolia fragrance from the school gate to the teaching building in the elementary school campus. It is the various toys and green bean popsicles at the small shop at the end of the street.

It is the textbook illustrations read immediately every time new books are distributed. It is sitting on the back seat of Dad’s bicycle at dusk, blowing colorful bubbles at the setting sun.

People’s descriptions of childhood always cannot escape “carefree” and “innocent.” Because the years at that time were too slow. Going to school in the morning, going home to eat in the evening.

Spring, summer, autumn, winter, it seemed like one had to count on fingers to live the days.

At that time, she always thought she must grow up quickly. Because when she grew up, she wouldn’t be controlled by her father anymore, and could go wherever she wanted.

But when she really grew up, she found that the place she wanted to go to the most was actually the past.

“Awake?” Hearing the sound, Father turned around in surprise, revealing a gentle smile in the backlight. “Just in time, come eat.”

Eat.

Hearing these two words, the emotions receded like a massive tsunami. Su Wanluo was stunned. Like a wooden puppet, she walked over and quietly took the rice served by her father. Holding the chopsticks with her fingers, large drops of tears fell first.

Su Jiande was stunned, at a loss, and asked in a low voice: “What’s wrong, Luoluo? Did you have a nightmare?”

Su Wanluo’s teeth felt sour, unable to say a word, tears falling more and more, more and more.

Su Jiande panicked completely: “Luoluo?”

Su Wanluo felt so sad she could hardly breathe.

Actually, she had a naughty and active personality when she was a child. A clumsy father, a rebellious daughter, the two had never said any tender words. So until now, she couldn’t even say “Dad, I miss you so much.”

Su Jiande moved his dry lips, his eyes cautious: “Did you have a nightmare?”

Su Wanluo’s eyes were blurry with tears. She smiled trance-like. After a long time, she heard herself say hoarsely: “Yes, Dad. I had a nightmare. I dreamed of a talking bird.”

Su Jiande breathed a sigh of relief knowing the reason. He frowned: “A talking bird?”

Su Wanluo said: “En, a talking bird. It told me it was going to find its friend, the tree. But the tree was gone, the tree was cut down by people. So the bird searched from the tree stump to the factory, and from the factory to the oil lamp.”

Su Jiande comforted: “This isn’t a nightmare, don’t be afraid. In the story, the bird and the tree are good friends. It asked you questions to keep a promise, it won’t hurt you.”

Su Wanluo actually couldn’t hear clearly what he was saying, tears flowing non-stop: “I also dreamed of a wooden puppet. That puppet only knew how to smile and was bullied a lot.”

Su Jiande laughed: “Luoluo knows more than just smiling.”

Su Wanluo tasted the bitterness of her own tears: “En, but I don’t want to cry at all.”

Su Jiande said: “It doesn’t matter. Crying isn’t a big deal. Cry when you want to cry. You look like a child when you cry.”

Su Wanluo nodded with tears in her eyes: “I also dreamed of three brothers. They were looking everywhere for what happiness is.” Su Wanluo asked hoarsely with red eyes: “Dad, what do you say happiness is?”

“Happiness?” Su Jiande was stunned. He thought for a while before saying: “For Dad, happiness is watching you grow up safely.”

Su Wanluo looked at him and broke into a smile through her tears. After a long, long time, she whispered: “Me too, Dad.”

For me, happiness is having you by my side, accompanying me to grow up, year after year.

In the tearful light, everything turned into a phantom.

The bright and clean room, the steaming food, the orange sunset all vanished into the darkness.

She was still in that cold room, about to freeze to death.

Thump, thump, thump.

Suddenly the whole house was shaking violently!

Su Wanluo slowly woke up, raised her head, eyelashes shaking off frost and snow, and watched with red eyes as this house began to collapse and twist.

Ice and snow melted, walls split, rubble splashed.

——Like a heart so sad it swelled and broke.

Immediately after, something attacked aggressively from the outside.

Su Wanluo was smashed by the wind and snow hitting her face, and her body was dragged out by something.

And in the eyes of outsiders. The giant trapped by the shackles suddenly went mad again.

The giant’s expression was painful and ferocious, gasping for breath. Finally, it actually thrust its hand into its chest cavity, and in front of everyone, dug out that beating, bright red heart that caused it pain.

Just as Luo Xingyan was about to tighten the chains and deal the final fatal blow to the giant, he saw the giant smash that heart heavily onto the roof of the old gymnasium. There was a person inside the heart.

Luo Xingyan was stunned: “Su Wanluo?!”

The “heart” fell apart.

The splashing blood was like rain, pouring down.

Su Wanluo fell into the rain of blood, coughed violently several times, and her senses, numb from the cold, began to slowly recover.

Her face was pale. She looked up and saw the high sky and the entire bustling city at a glance. Her gaze moved up bit by bit, and finally saw a huge face lying across the building.

Perhaps it couldn’t be called a face; there were no facial features, just a blur of flesh and cement.

It was clearly a terrifying scene, but Su Wanluo’s heart was as quiet as the wind tonight. She lowered her head, supported herself on the ground, and struggled to stand up from the roof of the gymnasium. Su Wanluo’s arms and fingers were full of scars, and there were bloody cuts from ice shards on her ankles. The wind blew her blood-stained sleeves and trouser legs.

Her long hair fluttered, blending with the night.

The giant bound by shackles suddenly quieted down at this moment.

Su Wanluo looked at it without blinking, her eyes red, the corners of her lips moving slightly.

Luo Xingyan looked grim.

Cheng Ze on the ground also frowned tightly.

“Go save her quickly,” Cheng Ze turned her head and said to Cheng Fa.

Ye Sheng looked up and said coldly: “No need.”

Cheng Ze was stunned.

Su Wanluo walked forward step by step. The world was empty and silent, as if she was the only one left.

Her fingers touched that terrifying giant face. Her eyes, which she thought had long dried up, welled up with tears again at this moment.

“I remember now, Dad.”

Su Wanluo said softly.

“It turns out you told me all these stories when I was little.”

Her childhood storybooks all came from the bookstore owner’s gifts. That century-old bookstore had everything: magazines that were long out of print, and naturally textbooks that were long out of use.

The fairy tales heard in childhood always try to teach us something: promises, happiness, tears. Growing up slowly, maybe we don’t remember any plots. But keeping promises, searching for happiness, expressing sadness—these have long penetrated into memory, subtly influencing a person’s life.

“The Bird of Last Year”, “What is Happiness”, “The Story of the Little Wooden Puppet”.

It turned out she had heard them all.

The giant had no eyes, stiff in place. Drip, drip, huge drops of blood rolled down from its face. The blood drops fell on the roof, making a shattering sound.

So cold. Su Wanluo’s hand touched the giant’s face, like touching a block of frozen ice in the deep winter of October.

She smiled and whispered: “Dad, I’m twenty-two years old now.”

“I grew up safe and sound, got into Huaian University, and met very good friends. I also achieved everything you wanted to teach me back then.”

“I cry when I’m sad, I speak up when I’m wronged, I won’t force myself to hold back emotions. I will do what I promised others, and I’m no longer so willful and selfish. I have become a tolerant and kind person.”

Her fingertips trembled from the cold.

Su Wanluo smiled slightly and said: “Is it cold, Dad?”

Su Wanluo realized belatedly and said hoarsely: “Why is ‘The Giant’s Garden’ so cold?”

She was like the child who sneaked into the garden in the fairy tale. With red eyes, she leaned in and kissed the giant on the cheek.

“Dad, I miss you very much.”

The moment she closed her eyes, tears completely slid down her cheeks.

But the expected coldness did not strike; she seemed to have kissed a cloud. There was no rough cement, no scarlet cold flesh, no rotting bones. There were soft clouds, warm winds, and the scent of flowers and grass filling the sky in spring.

Su Wanluo opened her eyes and watched the giant’s figure slowly fading.

The human wall was already under attack by the shackles, only a moment away from being wiped out.

The moment it collapsed and destroyed, Su Wanluo seemed to be standing in a cluster of starlight.

The light was pure white and dazzling. In the light, she saw leaves and flowers blown by the spring breeze. So green, so colorful. In her ears were the sounds of valley streams, ding-dong pleasant to hear. Everything was thriving, full of spring.

She looked up and saw pages of fairy tale books flying into the air one by one. Black words on white paper recorded stories one by one, sailing away with her childhood whims.

The colorful pages were old textbook illustrations. Children playing on the giant’s knees; a bird singing to a candle lamp; a goddess in a white dress with golden hair blessing three brothers by the well; a little wooden puppet naively carrying a schoolbag walking onto the street.

Su Wanluo reached out, wanting to grab a green leaf or a piece of fairy tale, but touched only nothingness.

In the chaotic thoughts and blurred vision, the collapsing “human wall” in front of her gradually disappeared, seemingly turning into that red brick wall roasted by the scorching sun in her childhood.

July 1st, that sleepy afternoon, she was swept awake by someone using foxtail grass. She opened her eyes and saw a strange, thin boy.

The boy said: “I have a good place for hide-and-seek, absolutely no one will find it, do you want to come?”

“I want to!”

Why was I so bold when I was little? She happily climbed over the red brick wall with that boy and went on an exciting and wonderful adventure in the cave.

Although the boy’s magic show was scary, although the boy’s final look was fierce.

But when Dad’s voice rang out calling her name, everything seemed less terrifying again.

The ice and snow melted, spring arrived.

The eternal, insurmountable spring in the fairy tale arrived.

But she could never see her father again.

July 1st, the movie poster on the calendar that day was “Echoes of the Rainbow” (Time Thief).

Growing up steals the kindergarten, rationality steals the youth.

Vulgarity steals dreams, life steals the starry sky.

Fate steals relatives, society steals fairy tales.

Time does nothing, time steals all of this.

Time…

It turns out this story is about time.