CHAPTER 5

So dark.

It's so quiet.

I wish I could stay asleep forever.

It was that familiar, cold, sticky smell again.

Yet, it also carries a touch of warmth and gentleness, like sunshine spreading throughout the body.

Sheng Qing felt as if she were floating in the boundless universe. The moment she opened her eyes, her body suddenly touched the solid ground. The small pebbles poked her skin slightly, but gave her a sense of security.

Where is this place? Sheng Qing stood up and looked around. In the dim light, everything appeared indistinct and unclear.

Looking up, directly in front of me stood an object that seemed to soar into the sky, silently watching down below.

A powerful pressure reached Sheng Qing's brow, causing his legs to tremble involuntarily, and he almost fell over.

With a hand to his forehead, Sheng Qing squinted. It seemed to be a huge statue of a god. Upon closer inspection, he could see strange objects wrapped around the statue, densely packed and crooked. Sheng Qing couldn't help but shudder.

Struggling to shift his gaze away from the colossal statue, Sheng Qing, whose eyes had adjusted to the dim environment, could finally see clearly the snake-bodied, human-headed goddess statues encircling the base of the main statue. He counted five such statues in total.

As Sheng Qing approached, he noticed subtle differences in the symbols atop the heads of the five statues. In order, five symbols floated in the air: crossed swords, stacked ovals, flowing water ripples, burning flames, and protruding mountain peaks.

"Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth," Sheng Qing said aloud. "What does this mean?"

With a thought, a flame lit up in Sheng Qing's eyes.

Is magic back?

"Who are you?" A majestic and solemn voice rushed into Sheng Qing's ears and brain from all directions, causing his brain to shut down instantly and his body to become immobile.

"Is it you?" The dignified and solemn voice rang out again.

Sheng Qing listened quietly, his body seemingly bound by an invisible force, unable to move an inch.

After a long while, the invisible force finally dissipated. Sheng Qing felt her body go limp, and finally collapsed to the ground with a sense of relief.

Before Sheng Qing could even celebrate his narrow escape, he was pulled into a vortex that suddenly appeared behind him by a powerful suction force.

It felt as if my body was being cut into countless tiny fragments, crushed into mud by an invisible weight, and then reshaped after being hammered and refined.

Perhaps only a second has passed, or perhaps a lifetime has gone by.

Sheng Qing finally regained consciousness and opened her eyes.

However, the excessively wide and boundless view made Sheng Qing very uncomfortable.

"Thump thump thump!" A clumsy, slow-moving body appeared, its bizarre and disgusting appearance constantly assaulting the retina, and Sheng Qing couldn't help but let out a dry sigh.

Was that a giant mirror? Was that me, with that strange, stiff, grinning face reflected in it?

Something's wrong! Sheng Qing suddenly realized that something was wrong with this body.

Wanting to get a closer look, my gaze followed my body and moved toward a glowing object.

How can one's own mind not control the actions of the body? It's like a character in a cultivation novel who fails to possess another body and is trapped in that body, in a special state where they can neither merge with it nor escape.

What am I doing?

I watched helplessly as my unruly body sat down at a stone table, the tabletop shrouded in white mist.

I touched something with my hand, and the white mist on the table disappeared from time to time, revealing that it was covered with countless tiny, wriggling figures.

Sheng Qing suddenly felt a sense of foreboding.

Sure enough, in Sheng Qing's view, "I" slowly stretched out a right hand, but it seemed that I had not mastered the technique. The meat strip at the index finger position stretched out and fell to the ground, dangling. Sheng Qing could even feel the friction of the meat strip dragging on the ground.

My body suddenly emitted strange, gurgling sounds, and I felt very annoyed. I then raised my right hand high, waving the meat strip in front of my eyes, and after a few rounds, it finally fell into my mouth.

With a soft "smack," the strip of meat was torn apart. Then came the sound of chewing, and the cut finally looked clean and even, finally resembling a human hand.

I was quite satisfied with this and let out a strange, croaking laugh.

A flash of white light appeared on the desktop, and more little figures joined in. At the same time, my stomach rumbled; it was time to eat.

I don't know where I pulled out a pair of black chopsticks, and with an awkward grip, I reached out shakily towards the little figure on the table.

They were so funny to watch them run away! I stared at them blankly for a while, then randomly targeted a little person, pressed it down, picked it up, glanced at it, and then slowly put it into my mouth.

marvelous!

The way it struggled in its mouth looked like it was dancing; was it excited about where it was about to go?

One more, please. The same delicious taste must be served in double portions to satisfy.

"Huh?" This aura seems familiar, so I took a closer look.

Where is it?

The tiny figures scurried about frantically, how naughty! How could they not have the self-awareness of being food? Proper food should lie quietly on the table, waiting to be enjoyed.

I was a little angry and had to teach them a lesson. I didn't care whether it was in accordance with human dining etiquette, so I threw my chopsticks aside and started picking at them with my hands.

Why is it so concerned about human dining etiquette, and what strange purpose does that piece of meat that has been gnawed away have?

Sheng Qing suppressed her nausea, and a question popped into her mind.

From "my" perspective, Sheng Qing saw that familiar yet unfamiliar male neighbor, Xiang Wan's male companion, struggling to fall into his mouth through his fingers.

The candy bounced and twitched between my lips and tongue, like a piece of candy I had eaten a long, long, long time ago. I couldn't help but let out a satisfied sigh. How I missed it!

"Huh?" Why does that familiar aura still linger?

How dare I! At this moment, "I" was extremely angry, and I swept my hands haphazardly across the table. How could I disturb others while they were eating? It was so impolite.

I suddenly erupted and overturned the entire table.

The scene was so cruel and bizarre that Sheng Qing tried to escape by closing her eyes. But it was all in vain. She watched, felt, and struggled in agony until her brain was forcibly shut down.

Hot liquid dripped onto her face, and Sheng Qing's eyelids trembled slightly. After two or three seconds, she successfully opened her eyes.

Have you regained control of your body?

Sheng Qing stared in disbelief at Meng Yunxi, who was weeping, and at the familiar ceiling above her head.

"Qingqing, you scared me to death." Meng Yunxi's voice choked with emotion.

Sheng Qing didn't care why Meng Yunxi looked so lifeless. Compared to the cold and sarcastic man he was at night, he was too strange. He just excitedly checked his own body.

Apart from a slight pain caused by brain overload, everything was normal. Sheng Qing, satisfied, strolled around the room before turning her gaze back to Meng Yunxi.

"I'm fine, you don't need to worry." Sheng Qing felt that he should comfort Meng Yunxi, after all, he still needed this most powerful boss to survive that night.

Sheng Qing did not reject Meng Yunxi's embrace, but turned her head slightly away when he was about to kiss her.

Although she didn't know if he had any memories of the daytime, Sheng Qing didn't want to appear too abrupt as his wife and cause a chain reaction; on the other hand, she didn't want to be too attentive and annoy him at night, lest he stop playing with her.

Carefully, maintaining a delicate balance.

After all, he's at least a kind of NPC character in the daytime storyline. Let's see if we can get any information out of him.

"Do you remember our male neighbor?" Sheng Qing asked, thinking of this.

"What male neighbor?" Meng Yunxi touched Sheng Qing's forehead. "Did he really lose his memory after the accident?"

"So, Xiang Wan has always been alone?" Sheng Qing wasn't giving up; did she still want to find out more?

"That's right." He answered with absolute certainty.

"So what did we do this morning?" Sheng Qing stared intently into Meng Yunxi's eyes, not intending to miss any details.

“We went to the place where Jiajia had the accident, and then we went to see Jiajia’s home.” Meng Yunxi carefully chose her words, afraid that she might use the wrong word and upset the person in front of her.

It was completely different from what I had seen and heard.

Meng Yunxi's sincere gaze and calm tone made Sheng Qing wonder if he was really hallucinating.

Sheng Qing desperately wanted to agree with his explanation, but what he had seen could not possibly be a mere illusion.

"Shall we go to Xiang Wan's house together? Maybe we can find some clues there."

Meng Yunxi led Sheng Qing to stop in front of the 22-3 gate.

"Knock knock knock!" Sheng Qing knocked on the door three times, then waited quietly.

A short while later, the sound of rustling footsteps could be heard from inside the house.

The door opened a crack, revealing half of Xiang Wan's face.

"I've run out of soy sauce at home, can I borrow some from you?" Sheng Qing said without changing his expression, giving an excuse he had already prepared.

"No problem. Qingqing, you and Mr. Meng wait for me a moment." With that, Xiang Wan prepared to close the door again.

"Can we come in and wait?" Sheng Qing slightly blocked the door from closing.

"Uh, it's not very convenient." Xiang Wan looked troubled. "The house is too messy."

"Actually, I'm planning to renovate my house and would like to take a look at your renovation. You know about Jiajia's situation..." Sheng Qing paused, a hint of sadness flashing in her eyes.

"Qingqing, don't be too sad." Xiang Wan's expression changed slightly. She glanced back, but didn't let go of the door. "I'll tidy up first, and you can come back tomorrow."

“Okay, then we’ll wait for you outside.” Sheng Qing conceded.

Having probed this far, one can already vaguely guess the truth of the matter.

So, did Xiang Wan deliberately keep quiet about what she knew, or was she truly deceived?

Back home, Meng Yunxi actually took the soy sauce into the kitchen, and then took out vegetables and meat from the refrigerator, skillfully starting to prepare dinner.

Sheng Qing stood at the kitchen doorway, momentarily lost in thought as she watched his busy figure. Was he, unintentionally or intentionally, hiding something?

The seemingly still white mist outside the window was tinged with gloom; it was getting dark again.