Chapter 259: Prequel to Infinite Highway
"What does it mean that the way home is in heaven? The way to heaven?"
On the deck after the fireworks ended, A Guang just came out of the basement and was greatly confused about what Xiao Shitou said.
Annie rolled her eyes at him and said, "Let other people do this kind of brain work. You and I will go and put the floor together."
In order to avoid the white light, they could only use the remaining materials and barely piece together a "new ship" that would not fall apart. In fact, the floor was full of cracks.
At present, only the door of the basement cannot be opened freely. People can only leave but not come in. Fan Xi is still looking for information inside.
Doctor Wu and Aunt Huo were fiddling with the souls that were caught by the stones. The ground was covered with mushrooms and broken bones.
Li Yuan and Xiao Shitou were in the middle of the deck, dealing with the last trouble left by Qi Fan—
A straw made of a hollow tree stump was continuously trying to draw souls out from underwater. Fortunately, the outermost water outlet was blocked by a stone, otherwise it would have turned into a small fountain.
The outside of the tree trunk felt like a rough human skin. Apart from the medical worker Wu Hanyu, only Xiao Shitou and Li Yuan could study it without changing their expressions.
Little Stone quickly dismantled the mechanism Qi Fan had left on the tree stump, and even wanted to turn the tree stump area into a small circle on the ice for fishing: "I've seen the documentary on the ice shot by Guang, and that's how they fish!"
Ah Guang was howling in the distance: "But this is a deck, not real ice, and is that a fish under the water?!"
Little Stone yelled back: "If I say it's a fish, it's a fish!"
Li Yuan accepted her wild idea and gave her advice on how to find materials that could be used for fishing.
This water is indeed not ordinary water. No matter whether a person or an object falls into it, it will melt. Li Yuan is helping her test the speed at which different objects melt in the water.
Little Stone then threw something into the water while continuing what he was saying:
"The road to the human world should be in the sky. When I saw the fireworks light up, white light also came out. Usually at this time, the souls floating on the water will be disinfected, their memories will be cleared, and their skills will be reorganized before they enter reincarnation. At that time, the passage will be opened to send the souls at the end of the queue out."
Ah Guang, who was walking around with a bunch of materials, suddenly poked his head out again:
"So we really have to wait in line to be reincarnated?"
Little Stone thought for a moment and scratched his cheek: "Not necessarily. The soul is a very heavy thing. If it wants to fly outside, it needs to be disinfected first to evaporate all the memories in the body."
She even muttered quietly, "I am a stone without a soul, so I can't fly even if I want to."
Li Yuan's eyes moved but he didn't say anything.
Little Stone then made a Biu gesture towards Li Yuan's head next to him:
"After a person dies, his soul goes to the river. Don't you have the saying of drinking Meng Po soup? If you can remember everything after reincarnation, it will be a mess. Some people have a poor memory, so they can be disinfected by just shining in the sun and fly up to reincarnate. Some people have a good memory and can't bear to forget, so it may take a little longer."
"Because of obsession?" Li Yuan thought for a moment, "There is a saying in the world that before reincarnation, people must let go of their obsessions, otherwise they will wander somewhere for a long time and become earthbound spirits."
Little Stone hummed: "It should be about the same meaning. Some people don't get enough sun exposure before reincarnation, which may cause them to not forget everything from their previous life."
"But I heard that you humans also have the sun. Maybe if the baby gets more sun, he will forget it when he grows up. He may still remember a little when he is still young."
Li Yuan handed her the newly made fishing line. Little Stone took it and asked, "Are the earthbound spirits you mentioned ghosts? Do you humans have many categories for ghosts?"
Seeing that she was interested, Li Yuan began to talk about some human beliefs in ghosts and gods and novels about ghosts and the supernatural.
When A Guang came over to move the materials, he was curious about what the two of them were talking about, but as he listened he couldn't help laughing.
Li Yuan now looks like he is less than ten years old. When he tells stories to Xiao Shitou, he speaks with a child's accent. Whenever Xiao Shitou needs to do something big, Li Yuan will be forced to become smaller.
With a serious expression, he talked about everything from Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio to Journey to the West. Among them, Shitou's favorite was the story of Sun Wukong causing chaos in the underworld and drawing a book of life and death.
The girl in her early twenties was full of curiosity and listened with great interest: "Lifespan is actually written in a book, but I have been looking for this kind of book recording lifespan in the river for a long time and have not found it."
"This is fiction. It's made up. It's fabricated."
"Then you humans are really amazing. You can make up things and sometimes you can get something right."
A ten-year-old boy told a story to a girl who looked to be in her twenties, and the latter praised the former for being so great.
She always said that she had no soul and was a hard, heavy stone. She could not be like the other ghost faces in the water, which would one day fly up under the sun and go to the world of the living.
But Li Yuan, no, most other people may have realized that Xiao Shitou is purer than anyone else.
She had few words to praise people, but Shitou spoke too sincerely and stared at people too eagerly, which made Li Yuan, who looked like a ten-year-old boy, feel a little hot in his ears.
He changed the subject: "If there is any other story you want to hear, I will tell you."
Li Yuan studies games, novels, and the world view settings of various film and television works. He can say a little bit about whatever Shitou wants to hear.
In the past, people in the team would yawn after listening to him talk about world history, building world views, etc.
But Shitou listened very carefully.
Li Yuan, who has been accused of being nagging, feels that Xiao Shitou will definitely be a good student if he goes to school.
The age of the soul and the body are completely reversed. The ten-year-old boy keeps talking and the twenty-year-old girl keeps listening.
Ah Guang was working so hard moving things and wanted to join them to rest for a while, but Annie kicked him: "Do you understand what they are talking about? Hurry up and work, don't disturb them doing their experiments."
Xiao Shitou and Li Yuan were not just chatting for fun. They were looking for materials for a fishing experiment, and finally came to a conclusion: people will slowly melt after falling into the water, just like what they had seen with A Guang's camera before.
First the skin melted, then the bones, followed by the small glowing bags inside the body, and finally only a soul remained in the water, and those small bags would slowly melt as well.
"The contents of the bags are different, and they melt at different speeds. You see, the surgical thread and gauze that Dr. Wu gave me are one thicker and one thinner, but they melt at the same speed. The wool thread that Auntie Huo gave me melted immediately."
The light from the water surface was reflected in Little Stone's eyes. She stared at the ghost faces at the bottom of the boat through a straw-like passage. The originally ferocious faces actually turned their eyes away, not daring to look at her, and even not daring to climb up along the passage.
"I understand. Because Dr. Wu has been a doctor for many years, and Aunt Huo was not a lamb before, her animal abilities are raw materials obtained in the game, and they should be something from other players."
Li Yuan quickly followed her divergent thoughts: "You mean that the extra animal abilities that players with animal attributes in the previous game gained belonged to someone else from the beginning?"
Little Stone picked up some of the materials he had plundered from the others and began to stir the water. "Yes, I've said it before. Everyone will melt after entering the water. The melted things are not gone. They can be caught again. That's why I came here to fish."
She took the ball of wool given by Aunt Huo and suddenly put it to her nose and sniffed: "Is Aunt Huo injured? It smells a little bit of blood and tears."
Then, she seemed to remember something, her eyes suddenly lit up, and she grabbed A Guang who was completing the final repair work on the floor next to her.
"Guang, give me one of your cameras. I want to go fishing!"
A Guang muttered that what was the use of a camera for fishing, but he still bought her a bunch of sports cameras that were destined not to be returned.
Li Yuan discovered that Xiao Shitou seemed to understand more and more about human society compared to before.
She even knew to hang a camera on a hook and fish with the video on.
It is really a level that any fisherman would close his eyes and shout that it is a sin.
Li Yuan guessed her purpose: "What do you want to find in the water?"
"Looking for the kitten!"
Little Stone had no intention of hiding anything. "I have seen the souls of small animals in the water before, but they disappeared very quickly. Small animals are reincarnated much faster than humans. However, there must be a connection between melted things and their original owners. I just left the wool in the water for so long, and even though it has melted, it actually smells like a kitten!"
Originally, she wanted to test how quickly products derived from different people's skills would melt underwater, but who knew that there would be something in the water that would take the bait.
Little Stone was worried that the wool would dissolve too quickly again, so he rubbed his fingers together and sprinkled some stone powder on them.
With a heavy camera tied to it, the wool line quickly dropped to the bottom of the water. Little Stone quickly saw the various ghost faces crowded at the bottom of the water through the lens. Because of the stone powder, the ghost faces were obviously hesitant before coming up to bite the wool line.
Little Shitou imitated what was done in A Guang's documentary, pulling the pole left and right and swinging it back and forth to let all the smell of Aunt Huo on the wool thread spread out.
Soon, she pulled the person next to her in surprise and said, "Li Yuan, is this the kitten?"
Shitou had only seen cats in videos and in human memory. This was the first time he saw a kitten swimming along with the swinging fishing line.
Li Yuan had already opened his skill interface, and following the picture on the screen, he actually saw the outlines of several transparent, bubble-like kittens.
They were like fish in the water, slowly approaching. The closer they were to the fishing line, the stronger the smell of blood and tears became. The shapes of the kittens became more and more obvious, and finally they even gently rubbed the ball of yarn with their tails.
Little Shitou was ready for the battle. He didn't know where he learned the pulling rod technique. At first he just clumsily imitated the movements in the documentary, but in the end he became very proficient.
The ball of yarn with a camera underneath swayed gently, and under the watchful eyes of a group of ghosts, finally, a kitten's paw got caught on the ball of yarn.
Xiao Shitou picked up the root and pulled it upwards. A Guang who was passing by screamed in the flying water and was almost splashed with water. If he had been splashed, he would have been dead.
The unlucky child was about to complain to Li Yuan when he saw Little Stone happily holding up a furry creature in his hand, as if he was holding up Simba, the Lion King: "Look! It's a kitten!"
What the hell, a live cat was fished out of a river full of ghosts?
A Guang was speechless now. He slapped his forehead and quickly went to call Aunt Huo.
Annie, who was standing next to her, also realized belatedly: "Is this Aunt Huo's cat?"
They have been working with Aunt Huo for a long time and know that she has had many cats in the past. Some of them were stray cats that were neutered in the wild and had a mark cut on their ears.
"I don't know either. I put Aunt Huo's wool line in the water and fished for a long time, and then I caught them."
Most of the soul attachments belonging to humans will melt in water, but the soul that is almost disappeared in the water will become visible because the wool thread has melted.
Li Yuan looked at these kittens, who were gradually becoming more and more lively from their stiff reactions, and suddenly realized that these cats might have already...
Little Stone touched the kitten's head. The kitten looked around in confusion, then lowered its head and licked her finger. Little Stone was a little confused, so he turned around and said to Li Yuan, "The kitten's belly is so soft and furry."
Then, she saw Aunt Huo who was not brave enough to approach her from a distance.
Huo Siran had actually been nearby for a while. She saw Xiao Shitou hanging up one, two, or three cats one by one. The moment she saw the cats, all kinds of incredible and sour emotions filled her mind.
She was a little hesitant for a moment.
When they remembered that they were now on the river of life and death, it seemed natural.
Until a certain kitten finally came back to life. The orange kitten with a scar on its eye and a slightly lame hind leg jumped over lightly. The few short steps seemed to have taken several years. It began to rub against Aunt Huo affectionately and use its head to butt her trembling palm.
Amid the meowing sounds, Huo Siran's tears suddenly fell.
This is the kitten she once raised but is no longer alive.
It was the furry child who had accompanied her in the real world but left her first.
The encounter between humans and another species is like drawing an inequality sign on life. After the shared time is up, they will be separated one after another.
But fortunately, they met again in the world of death.
Huo Siran squatted down, and was overwhelmed by the kittens that jumped over one after another from a distance. Her tears were licked away bit by bit by the kittens. Although she had crawled out of the icy river of life and death, the kittens made her feel warmer and warmer. They shared their body temperature and became warm together, just like they once shared a bed.
These are the humans they have been looking for and waiting for in the river for countless years.
Annie wiped her tears beside her: "That's great. So the kittens have been waiting for Aunt Huo in this river?"
Little Stone hummed: "The kittens are reincarnated very quickly. They must have been hiding in deep water, not wanting to be taken away by the white light."
Soaking in the coldest river water, I wanted to see Aunt Huo again, so I kept waiting for her.
But when she came, she got angry again.
There was a lion-like cat that looked very large. After rubbing against Aunt Huo, it began to circle around her and meow in different tones.
It seems to be saying, why did you come so early? Didn’t you take good care of yourself? You are such a human that makes me worry.
Annie couldn't stand it anymore and could only blow her nose on Guang's clothes: "Wow, I miss my brother too."
"Isn't your brother still in the mall?"
"He is also my little pet. I brought him up. When he was born, he was like an ignorant mouse. I was worried that he would not be able to pass the game, but I was also angry that he was always deceived by others."
A Guang, the bully of the team, dared not say anything but brought her some tissue paper and sighed, "Then can I see my deceased grandma? I miss her a lot."
Little Shitou looked at Aunt Huo, who was popular with cats, with some envy, and found that he was also rubbed by a slow little black cat.
The kitten's body was frozen hard, so Xiao Shitou quickly rubbed it.
The power of the stone powder quickly rubbed away the remaining river water on the cat's hair.
The kitten became fluffy and came alive, but did not go to Aunt Huo immediately. It still stood next to Xiao Shitou and meowed to say thank you.
In fact, it was afraid that Aunt Huo would forget it.
But Aunt Huo remembers every cat she has ever fed.
"Is it the little fellow who ate sausage in the backyard that winter when the sanatorium was first built?"
It had snowed heavily at that time, earlier than in previous winters. Most of the cats in Aunt Huo's community were brought to the cat house, but some still died in the sudden cold wave.
When she found him, the little one was snuggling next to the sewer pipe where they first met.
"Have you been waiting for me here?"
The kitten meowed as if to say yes.
Aunt Huo touched the kitten with a little sob.
How could they soak in such a cold river for so long just for a piece of sausage? How could they be willing to soak in a cold river in a world full of ghosts, waiting for that one glowing soul to come and pick them up, just for a bite or two of cat food and a small nest and yard?
Tears fell one by one, and the horns on Aunt Huo's head began to grow again in a spiral shape. This time, the kittens around her were also glowing.
Then one by one they turned back to their healthiest state in the human world. At the same time, small glowing balls of light appeared on Aunt Huo's body. The balls of light grew bigger and bigger, and finally turned into a cat house.
The cats walked into the cabin, and Aunt Huo felt as if a missing piece in her heart was filled. She knew that even death could not separate them now.
Everyone was watching this scene, not knowing what it meant yet. Only Little Stone understood the essence of the situation: "Aunt Huo has awakened a new skill."
Li Yuan opened the computer game log. He had been running the map script to monitor the situation in various areas of the ship.
He saw a sentence in the background that sounded like a system prompt.
[Congratulations to Huo Siran for awakening the "Cat House" ability. You once gave them a home to support them to survive. Now they put their home in you and continue to live with you in this world. ]
Li Yuan remembered that Aunt Huo had told her something about her real life. Her family fell apart, and it was all thanks to the cat that helped her get through the most difficult time in her life.
The kittens are the most important motivation that keeps her alive. Aunt Huo wants to return to the real world, but she can't let go of the cats that are still alive in the world.
But Aunt Huo’s previous professional skill was a cleaning company, and all she summoned were lifeless rubber men.
Her original skills had been taken away by Qi Fan, and her current abilities were the exchange for Fang Jinyu's surrender.
Li Yuan seemed to understand: "So, the obsession that supports one's survival, or the ability that supports one's survival in the real world, will become a skill in the game?"
Aunt Huo regained her original obsession, and the kittens crawled into their nest.
Li Yuan didn't have time to think too much, because Xiao Shitou started to pull at his clothes again: "There are cats under the water, Li Yuan, help me roll the line, I want to catch more!"
The kittens with the closest relationship to Aunt Huo came ashore faster. Later, many of them were tiny kittens. They did not have many memories, but they were able to realize that the most delicious cat food and the most tasty egg yolk they had ever eaten in their short cat lives were fed by the person in front of them.
The cats haven't even been given names yet.
"You come up with the names. They like you, too."
Aunt Huo wiped the corners of her eyes, knowing that if it weren't for Little Stone, she would probably never see these cats again.
At most, after death, when you have completely melted and are about to be reincarnated and transformed into white light and fly away, you will briefly feel something furry rubbing against you, instead of being able to snuggle together and feel each other's body temperature like we do now.
Little Shitou is super happy. Although she hasn’t thought of a name for herself yet, she can give one to the kittens first.
"This one is called Xiaohua! There's a flower on its belly, so pretty!"
"This one is called Xiao Hei, so cute!"
"This one is called Xiaobai. Oh no, there's already a Xiaobai. That one is called Xiaoxue!"
Ah Guang was shocked by her poor naming ability: "Isn't it a bit weird to name it directly according to the color? Usually, shouldn't we name it something like Cotton Candy? Puff? Sweetie?"
Li Yuan glanced at A Guang without leaving a trace.
Little Stone soon became curious: "Marshmallow puffs are desserts, right? But I haven't eaten them yet. Are they as soft and fragrant as kittens?"
A Guang suddenly felt that he deserved to die. Giving an ordinary name did not mean that it was a perfunctory love.
He immediately took out various videos that he had kept in his closet and explained to Xiao Shitou all the fun ways of eating, drinking and having fun in the world.
From junk food to Michelin three stars, the little stone without taste just thought: "It's great, it turns out that being alive is such a happy thing."
There are so many delicious foods, so many warm souls, beautiful snow-capped mountains, and bustling cities. There are all kinds of transportation. Even if you don’t have wings, you can go to any place you want with legs or without legs. It seems that as long as you are alive, even a stone will have countless new possibilities.
"I really want to live again."
She propped up her head and looked at the people and things on the tablet screen. It was a completely different world from the River of Life and Death.
That was a life she had never experienced.
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