Chapter 316 Chang'an
Clues that could prove the small bowl is "Zhu Shi from his childhood" are increasing.
Perhaps after this matter is over, I should go back and ask Zhu Shi if she has many abandoned dolls, and whether her mother, Zhu Jiu, has collected them in the white box. Although I haven't formally asked yet, I've already mentally prepared myself for the answer to be "yes."
However, the little Zhu Shi in this dream seems to be different from the little bowl in my memory.
My impression of Xiaowan is that although she was only ten years old, she was quite mature on the inside. Beneath her seemingly timid first impression lay a calm, gentle, and tolerant personality.
But the little Zhu Shi in front of me seemed to fit his age perfectly. After digesting the shock of how exactly little Zhu Shi resembled little Wan, I couldn't help but focus on the details that didn't match. However, my understanding of little Zhu Shi was limited to the situations I had just witnessed; perhaps in other contexts, little Zhu Shi would behave similarly to the little Wan I remembered.
Moreover, Xiao Wan has lived through the post-apocalyptic era, so it's perfectly understandable that she might behave in ways inappropriate for her age. Even setting that aside, if Xiao Wan really is Zhu Shi who regressed to a child form due to an unknown accident, then she might inherit some of the adult Zhu Shi's personality traits—although I think the mature personality Xiao Wan displays is quite different from the real Zhu Shi.
In any case, the mysteries surrounding Zhu Shi and Xiao Wan probably won't be truly solved here. Everything will have to wait until I return to the real world. Right now, I should focus on Chang'an.
Xiao Chang'an looked at her younger sister tidying up her toys, her face growing even more somber. She said, "Even though Jiuxing undergoes rigorous training every day, I know nothing about it, and my mind is full of childish worries..."
"You mean nobody wants to believe what you're saying?"
I was still thinking about how to wake Chang'an up, hoping he would at least remember me: "But... it's not like no one believes in the existence of strange things. There must be people who actively investigate urban legends and want to see real strange things... You must have met such people, haven't you?"
After a moment of silence, he said, "...Yes, there are such people. In my old high school, there was a weirdo who loved investigating urban legends, named Zhuang Cheng..."
He started talking about things beyond his own background again. Even though he's in the position of an elementary school boy, he's talking about "the high school I used to attend"... Come to think of it, did he know me back in high school?
As they spoke, Xiao Chang'an walked on again. The surrounding scenery changed once more, now resembling that of a high school building. Many students were taking a break and strolling outside in the corridors, while others chatted idly in the classrooms. This place was very familiar to me; it was my old high school.
It seems Xiao Chang'an wasn't making things up; he really did attend the same high school as me. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to recreate the scenery of that high school so vividly and in detail in his mental world. Thinking of this, I suddenly understood what my earlier sense of unease was.
Right, if this is merely Chang'an's spiritual world, then in a dream, only what he himself knows should be presented. If that's the case, then what about the conversation between Old Master Zhu and Little Zhu Shi earlier, and the scene of Little Zhu Shi tidying up his toys in the room?
That must have happened after Chang'an's memories of the strange world were sealed away. It's impossible for him to know that Zhu Shi took his place in the demon hunter training after that, nor is it very likely that he witnessed Zhu Shi abandoning all his dolls. Even if he did see it, he probably wouldn't have understood Zhu Shi's true motives for doing so, and it wouldn't have left such a deep impression on him.
But if it's a memory he fabricated in his own mind, it seems too real, and it corresponds to some of the clues I have.
As I pondered the possible reasons, Xiao Chang'an arrived at the door of one of the classrooms and looked at one of the students.
He was an unremarkable-looking boy who sat in the middle of the classroom. He neither chatted with other students nor reviewed his lessons. He just propped his chin up and idly played with a suspicious feng shui ornament on his desk.
This was me during my high school years.
Back then, I was still exploring urban legends everywhere. Most of the time, I would travel by train to other places to investigate, because I had basically explored all the local legends of Xianshui City. Sometimes I would hear that feng shui experts or charlatans would come to Xianshui City to swindle people, and I would go to verify their claims. Invariably, it would turn into a scene of debunking their claims, and all my fervent hopes would be dashed.
Looking back now, it feels like a lifetime ago. Even though, in real time, the turning point in my escape from the unattainable world of the supernatural, thanks to Asahi's power, only happened a month ago.
“Zhuang Cheng… he’s different from me,” Xiao Chang’an said. “When I was in high school, I had already given up on proving the existence of strange things to others, and gradually resigned myself to the ordinary world and to my ordinary self.”
"But he relentlessly explored another world, never giving up no matter how many times he failed. To me, he was truly dazzling. So I only dared to observe him from afar and secretly inquire about all information related to him."
“I’ve fantasized many times about going up to him and talking to him, but I don’t know how to start a conversation. Maybe I’m afraid. Although I admire his courage, I don’t want to get involved in his exploration, because I know it will definitely fail in the end. I don’t want to be disappointed again…”
He continued forward, and the scenery around him changed once more. This time, he was on a university campus, surrounded by many young men and women in the prime of their lives.
I intentionally refrained from interrupting his narration. As his story unfolded, the timeline of this dream seemed to be progressing as well. Perhaps if I simply let him continue, pushing the timeline to a point synchronized with the real world, he would regain his self-awareness of reality.
However, he still looks like a boy in his early teens. Despite the changing time and background, he himself shows no signs of growth. This seems to suggest that his condition hasn't improved as I optimistically predicted.
"Later, you became friends with Zhuang Cheng—and me, didn't you?" I said.
“Yes…we became friends,” he said with emotion. “It was an accident. I was causing trouble outside and got caught in the wilderness with a sack over my head and beaten up. Just then, he stepped in and saved me.”
"He didn't know that we were actually high school classmates, and I knew that he didn't have any friends in college. So I took advantage of this opportunity and mustered up my courage to become his only friend in college."
I still remember that incident. I heard that someone had witnessed a ghost dressed in white in the wild, so I investigated it diligently in the vicinity. In the end, unsurprisingly, I discovered that the truth was just a piece of discarded white quilt cover hanging on a tree branch in the wild, swaying in the wind.
Then, on my way home, I happened to stumble upon a group of suspicious people beating up a young stranger. To vent my frustration at returning home in such a disappointing way, I beat up those suspicious people under the guise of rescuing them, and in doing so, I unexpectedly made friends with Chang'an.
After that, we went through a lot together. After learning he was a spoiled brat who occasionally did bad things, I almost broke off all contact with him. Even when he promised me he wouldn't do it again, I didn't believe him. But he was so persistent at the time that even though I didn't want to see it, I could only watch his changes little by little, and finally I believed that his true nature wasn't so bad after all.
Although he fell far short of my ideal friend, from another perspective, it could be considered a kind of ill-fated relationship. "Ill-fated relationship"—this is a word I really like, often appearing in surreal stories. Thinking this way, I gladly accepted this friendship.
After that, he often investigated strange events with me. With a "Watson" by my side who would occasionally shout and yell, my originally lonely journey of exploring strange tales became lively and interesting. Every time we returned disappointed, I had someone to share my frustration and resentment at being deceived.
During the day, we'd discuss what to do if we encountered monsters or ghosts. Back at night, we'd go to the night market for barbecue, complaining about how unreliable the ghost stories were and how the rumor-mongers were spreading falsehoods. Occasionally, we'd encounter danger in some remote, unsafe areas. In those situations, I'd use my superpowers to secretly resolve the problem and then pretend nothing had happened.
The reason I didn't tell him the truth about being a superpowered person was that at the time, I still viewed superpowers as an extremely suspicious force—"since they appear for no apparent reason, they might disappear for no apparent reason in the future." Now that I know my superpowers were awakened by the Vermilion Bird Seed of the Yin-Yang Mountain, it can be said that this confirms my long-held suspicions.
In short, I might not be as relentless as he imagined. From the beginning, I was on a different side from him—I always knew that the strange things were real, because I myself was proof, so of course I wouldn't give up so easily.
As we continued our journey through Xiao Chang'an, the surroundings changed constantly, and each new place we encountered was a scene from our past, a scene that evoked fond memories.
Finally, he arrived at a door.
That was the "haunted" room he used to rent on the fifteenth floor of Saltwater City.
(End of this chapter)
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