Empathy
"What are you staring at?" Liu Muzhe stared at him for a while, thinking he was scared, and then he comforted him, "Most evil spirits were pitiful people in their lives. Many times they just needed someone to pull them out of their resentment. Don't be afraid, let's go."
"Ghosts are pitiful?" Ye Jingan had always heard from his father and grandfather that evil spirits were harming people and that they should be eliminated. This was the first time he had heard of ghosts being pitiful and that evil spirits should be helped. Evil spirits were pitiful people, so what kind of person was Brother Liu?
Ye Jingan's thoughts were disturbed by a strong smell of blood.
He turned on the flashlight and discovered that the haunted house was completely different from the daytime environment, and the space was much smaller. It felt like a home, complete with a sofa, a TV, and other furniture. A photo of a family of three hung on the wall. The man in the photo, wearing a dark blue suit, held his daughter in one arm and his wife in the other, his smile a picture of happiness.
The room was decorated in a Nordic style, with a predominantly light palette and khaki furniture. Yin'er's toys were placed in the living room, creating a tranquil and cozy atmosphere. However, a layer of gray mist enveloped the furniture, creating a feeling of unreality, like a dream world.
There was a large pool of blood on the white floor of the living room, with small pieces of meat and internal organs scattered in the pool of blood. There was a spring-shaped bloodstain across the middle of the living room. The originally warm atmosphere was broken by this bloody scene.
"What's going on?" Ye Jingan felt sick to his stomach.
"This is the world created by that ghost, be careful." Liu Muzhe pulled Ye Jing'an to his side.
"Damn, it can create the world? I want to create one too!" Ye Jingan has already thought about what his world will look like.
Liu Muze was stunned. Why was this kid's mind so different from everyone else's? He looked at Ye Jing'an helplessly and said, "This is a conjuration of resentment. The larger the scope and the more details, the more resentment is required. It's not a good thing."
"Oh, then I'll just dream about it." Ye Jing'an swung the flashlight around to look at the surroundings, and it illuminated the head of a female corpse soaked in formalin. "My ancestor!"
Liu Muzhe looked in the direction of the flashlight. There was a wooden stand on the TV cabinet with a dead head on it. It was a woman with long hair. Coincidentally, her hairstyle was half-tied up, just like the one he had today.
"Is that dead head your ancestor?" Liu Muzhe clenched his fists and asked in a deep voice.
"Ah? That's not what I meant." Ye Jing'an explained, "My ancestor is an interjection, equivalent to my Lord of Heaven. To me, ancestor is heaven."
"Oh, what were you sighing about just now?" Liu Muzhe raised the corners of his mouth slightly.
"She just blinked!" Ye Jingan demonstrated to him how to blink.
Liu Muze walked over to look at the head. It was very finely crafted, with every detail of the face and skin clearly visible. This required a great deal of effort. Why was this head made, and why was it placed here?
"Brother Liu, this head seems to be the woman in the photo." Ye Jingan shone the flashlight on the family photo.
"Well, the blood on the ground should be hers." Liu Muzhe bent down to look at the head, "This resentment does not belong to her. There are other people who died here."
"Still dead..." Before he could finish his words, a little girl's laughter could be heard from upstairs in the haunted house. Ye Jing'an seemed to be frozen in time, only moving his eyes towards Liu Muze, and slowly finished the second half of his sentence, "...Who?"
"Let's go." Liu Muzhe grabbed Ye Jing'an's wrist tightly.
From time to time, a little girl's laughter could be heard in the haunted house, which would turn into crying after a while. The two followed the sound and found three dolls, two big and one small, leaning against the wall hand in hand. They looked like they were a family.
Ye Jingan was about to pick it up to have a look when Liu Muzhe stopped him: "That's human skin."
"Wow, peeling human skin to make dolls, how insane! People like this deserve to die!" Ye Jingan squatted on the ground and moved his feet to look at the dolls. These three dolls were made very delicately, probably using human skin. They looked like living children.
Ye Jing'an tugged at the skin of his hand, trying to gauge how painful it would be to be skinned. He felt a strange feeling in his heart: if he were to be skinned and made into a doll, he would surely become a ghost and go back for revenge.
He remembered Brother Liu saying that most evil spirits are pitiful people, and suddenly he felt that ghosts weren't that scary after all. He stretched out a finger and touched the little kid's face and said, "Hey, in your next life, I hope to be a little kid held in someone's hand!"
Ye Jing'an squatted on the ground and watched for a while, then stood up and asked Liu Muzhe to go to the front room to check, only to find that he was gone.
"Brother Liu, where have you been?" Ye Jing'an shouted twice but got no response. Just as he was about to go back to look for him, he heard Brother Liu's voice coming from a room in front.
Ye Jing'an's legs froze. This situation seemed similar to what Qiu Zimu had encountered. He immediately became alert and slowly walked towards the direction of the sound.
He gripped the doorknob and slowly pushed it down, opening it a crack. The room was covered in pink wallpaper and filled with dolls of all sizes. Liu Muze was sitting on the edge of the bed, gently stroking a piece of human skin.
It was obvious at first glance that this wasn't Brother Liu. Brother Liu had just stopped him from touching human skin, so how could he reach out and touch it now, and do so with such... genuine affection? Furthermore, Brother Liu's sitting posture was odd, even slightly teetering on his toes. He looked childish and rather awkward.
Ye Jing'an laughed inwardly. This was too fake. If Brother Liu knew his image had been ruined like this, he would be furious. But when he thought about it carefully, he didn't know what the thing with Brother Liu's skin was. It was quite scary. He quietly closed the door, not wanting to disturb the person inside, and planned to go back to find Liu Muze.
The moment the door closed, he felt dizzy and lost consciousness.
"Ye Jing'an!" Liu Muze supported him. From the doll, Liu Muze realized that Ye Jing'an was like a madman, and no matter how he called out, he would not respond. He saw him get up and walk to the front room. He stood at the door for a while, and then fainted on the ground when he came out.
"Ye Jing'an, wake up." Liu Muzhe failed to wake him up, so he immediately picked him up and walked downstairs.
"Don't leave here, please." Ye Jing'an suddenly grabbed Liu Muzhe's arm.
"Who are you? Come out." Liu Muzhe's tone was very cold.
Ye Jingan was still again, lying quietly in his arms.
"Do you think I can't do anything to you?" Liu Muzhe sneered, pulled out a talisman and threw it at the room Ye Jingan had just entered.
When the talisman took effect, Ye Jing'an's expression became painful.
"Ye Jing'an! I'm sorry..." Liu Muzhe took back the talisman, "Is this empathy?"
Liu Muze drew a new talisman, hoping to bring Ye Jingan back to consciousness. To Liu Muze's surprise, the talisman had no effect on him.
"Why is your empathy different from others?" Liu Muzhe didn't know what Ye Jing'an's current situation was, and he didn't dare to take action again, for fear of affecting his mind and trapping him in empathy forever. He had no choice but to wait by his side for his empathy to end and he would wake up.
As time passed, Ye Jing'an's expression became more and more frightened.
"Don't be afraid, it's okay as long as the empathy is over. I'm here." Liu Muzhe gently called Ye Jing'an's name, hoping that he would wake up soon.
“No!” Ye Jing’an yelled, curling up into a ball and shaking. His clothes were soaked with tears as he choked out, “Ahh… It hurts!”
"Don't be afraid, I'm here." Liu Muze hugged Ye Jing'an tighter, let his head rest on his chest, and wiped his tears. Although he didn't know what Ye Jing'an saw and experienced in empathy, it was definitely not a good thing to be in so much pain.
Liu Muzhe's life was exchanged for Ye Chenyi's. He gave up his ascension and stayed in the human world to protect Ye Chenyi's family. Generation after generation, he has already treated the Ye family as his relatives. How could he bear to watch his own children suffer such pain?
"I can't let you go on like this!" Liu Muze tried to pull Ye Jing'an back from his empathy, but as soon as he did so, Ye Jing'an became even more miserable. He didn't dare to try again and could only watch Ye Jing'an sink deeper and deeper.
Liu Muze knew that empathy meant truly experiencing someone else's experiences and clearly feeling their pain and despair. Ye Jing'an's pain was like a sharp dagger piercing deep into his heart, and the feeling of powerlessness he once had surged back.
He ascended to immortality, but couldn't save the people he cared about. Now, as a terrestrial immortal, he still couldn't pull the child safely back from the empathy illusion, and could only watch the child suffer pain that was not his own.
What is the purpose of gods and earthly immortals?
Let people live forever, with their scars revealed again and again?
Is this the gift from heaven?
Liu Muze gave a bitter smile. Ye Chenyi had told him to drink the Forget Worry Drink, but he didn't. It was his own choice, so who could he blame? But if he drank the Forget Worry Drink, he would forget Ye Chenyi...
What if I forget Ye Chenyi and become a carefree immortal?
Liu Muzhe clenched his fists so tightly that his nails dug into his flesh and blood oozed out.
Ye Jingan, who had entered the empathy stage, woke up to find himself in a completely unfamiliar environment and had turned into a little girl. Everything around him was pink and tender, with pictures of little girls hanging on the wallpaper, and cute little dolls on the table and bedside.
Ye Jingan felt that the layout here was very familiar. The fake Brother Liu seemed to be sitting beside this bed. It turned out that this was the little girl's room.
"Knock, knock, knock! Xinxin, open the door quickly, Mommy doesn't have the key."
"Mom is back!" Ye Jing'an felt very happy when he heard the hurried knock on the door.
What does it have to do with me if her mother comes back? Why should I be happy?
Ye Jingan uncontrollably took a small doll and went to open the door.
Standing outside the door was a young lady, wearing a long white dress, elegant and dignified. She looked flustered, clutching her dress tightly with both hands, her eyes moist, and her makeup smudged.
Ye Jing'an had seen her before; the head soaked in formalin was hers.
"Xinxin, come with your mother." The little girl's mother picked her up and ran towards the iron gate.
Their house is a large villa. There is a beautiful garden between the main gate and the iron gate. Beautiful swallowtail butterflies gently flutter their scaly wings on the cosmos flowers, and their tails sweep across the petals, bringing up a faint floral fragrance.
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