wanderer
The sound of rain was somewhat hypnotic, and Hassan fell asleep with his legs crossed with his back to Shi Youchen. When he woke up again, he found that the rain had stopped for a long time, but it was almost sunset.
"It's almost dark. It's not safe to go down the mountain now." Hassan stuck his head out of the tent, listening intently. After a moment, he turned to Shi Youchen and said, "He has a sullen expression, as if he's worried, or angry."
Under normal circumstances, Shi Youchen would have stayed overnight, waiting until dawn the next day to leave. But this was an illusion, and his true self was somewhere in the association's base, perfectly safe. So, Shi Youchen instinctively resisted Hassan's wishes.
"It's still some time before it gets completely dark. Please just take me to a place with signposts. I'll walk the rest of the way by myself." He wanted to leave this completely unfamiliar place as quickly as possible, so he reacted completely differently from usual.
Hassan was very straightforward. Even though he obviously didn't want Shi Youchen to go down the mountain now, he was still reluctant to lead Shi Youchen because he had said before that he would take everyone away after the rain stopped and the ground was dry.
"I will take you out as agreed, but you are still injured and it is getting dark, so you must listen to me and follow me, otherwise I will abandon you in the mountains!" He pretended to be fierce at the end, completely unaware of the contradiction in his words.
Shi Youchen nodded: "Okay." Then he pointed to his left wrist with his right hand and asked, "By the way, have you seen my bracelet? It was originally worn here."
Hassan's cheeks seemed to turn even redder. He stood up with a pout, muttering softly, "How would I know about that? I wouldn't touch you." He turned and opened a corner of the tent. "Let's go. Hurry up."
So Shi Youchen followed Hassan closely down the mountain, carefully observing the surrounding environment as he walked. Based on the traces on the ground and the vegetation along the way, he estimated that it should be around the beginning of winter.
Judging from the previous dozen or so illusions, maintaining cognition is not difficult. The difficult part is how to make the illusion disappear and return to the environment of a real health consultation center.
Because the only person around him who could pass on relevant experience - Yan Zhiyuan - is no longer around, and there is no topic about health consultation in the forum for people with special abilities, Shi Youchen entered the forum with no preparation at all.
For Lin Zhouze's safety, and more importantly for his own safety, Shi Youchen reminds himself every moment that this is not reality, and he must break the illusion to return to reality. Only by returning to reality can he know the truth.
However, maybe it was because I had been here for too long. Denying myself over and over again in such a depressed state of mind, facing and accepting the pain over and over again, was simply not something that ordinary people could do.
What's more, how many of those people with special abilities who come to the health consultation center are in normal condition? Aren't they all suffering serious blows during the mission, causing their mental and cognitive states to be different from usual?
"No wonder they are so scared." Shi Youchen thought about this and stepped on the dead branches on the ground, breaking them with a crisp "crack" sound.
Hassan suddenly stopped moving, and Shi Youchen's heart was filled with alarm. Could it be...
Before he could even think, Hassan spun around and swung his hand, knocking him to the ground. However, the other man didn't follow up with a follow-up attack, but instead fell to the ground himself, then covered both of their heads and faces with his large robe.
Shi Youchen didn't struggle because he heard a strange sound not far above him. It sounded like birdsong, or a sharp howl, piercing to the ears. Hassan's furry head was right next to his ear, and he could hear the sound of his breathing, very rapid and heavy, close at hand.
"What..." Shi Youchen's mouth was covered. He heard Hassan's angry voice, "Don't talk, bear with it for a while."
The next moment was filled with that strange sound. Only after the surroundings returned to silence did Hassan stand up and reach out to Shi Youchen. "This is a very aggressive bird in this mountainous area. A head-on collision with one will be very troublesome. The best way is to lie low and avoid them. I hope I didn't scare you."
Because he still had to pretend his left hand was injured, Shi Youchen hesitated for a moment, but finally took Hassan's outstretched hand. "It's okay, they... sound like there are quite a few of them."
Hassan looked around and said, "Well, that's why I don't want you to go down the mountain at this time. I don't know what this mountain area is called outside, but from my experience, the creatures here are generally very aggressive towards humans. It's very dangerous to travel alone."
Shi Youchen twisted his neck to glance at the mud on his back and asked uncomfortably, "Have you lived in this mountainous area for a long time?"
Hassan answered honestly, "Yes, I've been wandering around this area since I was fifteen. If I'm familiar with this place, I'm second to none."
"Really? Judging from your appearance, you have lived here for at least five or six years." Shi Youchen looked at Hassan's back with a somewhat gloomy look, recalling the equipment in the tent. Obviously, some of them were newer.
Furthermore, Hassan's communication with him was also very smooth, with none of the communication barriers that come from prolonged periods of inactivity. "Could these be the suspicious points of this illusion?" Shi Youchen wondered.
Hassan pushed aside the knee-high weeds and said, "It should be... six or seven years. I'm not sure, maybe eight or nine." Then he turned to Shi Youchen and asked, "How old do I look?"
Shi Youchen answered truthfully, "I can't tell." Hearing this, Hassan turned back somewhat frustrated and continued walking forward.
The environment has a huge impact on human growth. Living in such a mountainous area for a long time can easily blur the signs of age. When Shi Youchen saw Hassan for the first time, he thought he should be younger than himself.
"You look like... my uncle," Hassan said casually. "My impression of my uncle is that he's a little darker and stronger than you, but otherwise he's basically the same."
Shi Youchen didn't respond because he suddenly felt a pain in his right arm. The soft cry attracted Hassan, who was trying to find his way. He asked, "What's wrong?" and turned to look. "Don't move!" With that shout, Hassan grabbed the thing half a step away from Shi Youchen and pulled it up by the head.
"It's a venomous snake." He deftly grasped the snake's head and put it into his bag. He then took out a knife and lighter, disinfected them, and then held Shi Youchen's right wrist and cut two crosses on the wound. After squeezing out some of the poisonous blood, he tore off the hemostatic patch and said thankfully, "Thankfully, the poison isn't too strong. Now you can't move both of your hands."
Shi Youchen watched him perform these skillful movements and asked, "Do you carry all these things with you?"
Hassan paused. "Ah, just in case. Otherwise, how could I have saved you?"
It was hard to say how these tools ended up on a wanderer. Shi Youchen glanced at the sky and said, "It should be fine. Let's hurry on. I'll take care of it when I get back." Then he thought for a moment, "Can I take the snake with me later, just in case?"
Unexpectedly, Hassan was a little hesitant: "It's okay, it's just a common poisonous snake, it won't be dangerous...it won't be a surprise." His reluctance made Shi Youchen feel that something was wrong.
Hassan blinked twice and said, "Your hands are not working properly. We need to hurry. I'll carry you."
Shi Youchen didn't know what he was thinking about, so he agreed and climbed onto the other person's back: "You carry me for a while and I'll walk for a while. When you get tired, put me down."
Hassan nodded silently and continued on his way. Fortunately, there were no more accidents on the road ahead. As they stopped and walked, they came across an area with road signs.
"...Experimental...site?" The signpost looked very dilapidated in the moonlight. It was obvious that this place was rarely visited. Shi Youchen could only vaguely make out the few words left on it. Fortunately, this was indeed the territory of District 8.
Hassan seemed very interested: "What's 'di'? Does this word mean land?" He leaned under the signpost and looked up. Shi Youchen loosened his right hand and reached down, then quickly pulled it back.
"You can only speak but not write?"
Hassan chuckled and said, "Yeah, I haven't had much education." He said, "There should be a village about ten minutes ahead. You can ask the villagers how to get back to where you want to go." He gently put Shi Youchen down.
"I won't go any further, for fear of scaring the villagers." He smoothed his weed-like hair under his hood and said a little embarrassedly, "You should leave quickly before it gets too late."
Shi Youchen lowered his arms and looked at him deeply: "Thank you, Hassan. Be careful when you go back." After that, he walked in the direction indicated by the signpost.
About twenty minutes later, Shi Youchen saw a little light ahead. He looked around and made sure there was no one around. Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small burlap bag, the one Hassan used to hold the snake.
Shi Youchen opened a hole in the cloth bag and looked inside in the moonlight. He found that the snake had been dead for a long time and even emitted a pungent smell of decay.
What's going on? Is there some kind of potion on this bag? Just as Youchen was wondering, a beam of light flashed in front of him, accompanied by the sound of several footsteps. "Who are you?"
Shi Youchen loosened his grip, and the sack fell to the ground, breaking the snake inside into several pieces. "I am..." Before he could fabricate an identity, a cry of surprise came from the people in front of him, "Captain?!"
...
Shi Youchen was stunned. He was sitting in a modified car that he was very familiar with, listening to the chatter all the way.
"Captain, you have no idea how long we've been looking for you! We searched all the way along the previous mission route, and when we found your bracelet, we thought you'd been eaten by a wild beast."
"We were terrified. If the base hadn't sent us a message saying the bracelet was functioning normally and hadn't detected any abnormalities in your vital signs, we would have dug a grave for you right here."
This person who had been mumbling all the way, and the other three people around him, all wore bracelets on their hands. There was no doubt that they were all psychics from the association, but what was going on?
Shi Youchen looked at the unfamiliar face in the rearview mirror, with brown hair and thick eyebrows, it was not his own face at all.
"who I am?
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