Chapter 137
The law enforcement officers took their seats in the hall.
Actually, they could just stand, since the confused spirits had no weight and couldn't feel tired, but Xie Xubai told them to find a place to sit.
The person who awakened them possessed a clean and austere aura, like a majestic mountain covered in snow for years, and the spirits believed his words.
Not all the theater's waiters were members of the criminal gang from years ago; some were unlucky souls who had stumbled upon the place. After death, they became vengeful spirits, enslaved by the theater. Out of professional duty, they mustered their courage and nervously served tea under the cold gaze of law enforcement officers.
The law enforcement officers, though seemingly dissimilar in temperament, appeared almost identical, as if they had been sculpted from the same mold. But at this moment, they displayed their differences.
Someone glanced at the tea, seemingly quite disgusted, and pushed the teacup away with a finger.
Someone picked up their teacup, raised it high, and looked it up and down, seemingly curious.
He looked around and, mimicking the way other audience members drank tea, tilted his teacup.
Unable to control his strength, the cup passed through the dark head, and with a "splash," the tea spilled all over the chair and floor tiles from the blurry, ethereal body.
The man stood up as if he had been electrocuted, and like a child who had done something wrong, he frantically pulled out papers from the table to wipe the chairs and the floor.
Xie Xubai withdrew his gaze and sat down again in the first row of the audience. He took out his ticket, his eyelashes drooping slightly, casting a fan-shaped shadow under the lights.
Title of the play: The Giant Shadow of the Wilderness River
Judging from the situation at the time, it seems that he had something to ask for, wanting to rescue Lü Xiangcai from the cycle, and unconsciously used his power, which is why he was able to grab the ticket.
But it is clearly Shengtian Group that is trapping Lü Xiangcai, so what does it have to do with this theater?
It wasn't that Xie Xubai wanted to favor that person. Given Lü Xiangcai's vengeful nature, if Yan Shuo was the mastermind behind the theater, then Lü Xiangcai couldn't possibly feel only fear and not hatred when mentioning him.
Lu Xiangcai had also told him that he couldn't leave Shengtian Group even for a moment. He didn't know the specific reason; the missing memories were like tangled threads, otherwise he wouldn't be suffering like this now.
But it's certain that it has nothing to do with Yan Shuo. Lü Xiangcai was trapped first, and Yan Shuo took office later. At that time, Shengtian Group was still a shell company on the verge of bankruptcy.
Xie Xubai did not believe that Lü Xiangcai would deceive him in such a place, nor did he have any reason to do so.
So, excluding Yan Shuo, who else could shake the rules and lure Lü Xiangcai out of Shengtian Group?
—If he and Lü Xiangcai cannot trust each other, and if Lü Xiangcai's desire to live outweighs everything else, would they still be as amicable as they are now?
An answer popped into Xie Xubai's mind, an answer that made him wary. He frowned and looked at the stage, his spiritual power spreading silently like flowing water.
Forced by Lü Xiangcai's power, the vocal group was powerless to resist and could only listlessly pick up their instruments to accompany him.
The hall was filled with law enforcement officers, while Pei Yuheng and others on the second floor were leisurely sipping tea. It could be said that the entire theater was under Xie Xubai's control.
The theater poses no threat.
but……
Xie Xubai's eyes flashed quickly. This eerie area wasn't just home to the Red Shadow Theater.
As if answering his guess, the shadows of the trees outside the window suddenly stopped moving.
In a place under normal circumstances, no matter how quiet it is, you can feel the air currents brushing against your skin, hear the chirping of insects and the faint calls of birds in the bushes, and hear the noise of car engines starting up from the road not far away.
Xie Xubai spread his spiritual power throughout Hongyin Ancient Town, but he couldn't sense anything. It was as if everything had become a lifeless, still object, and even Lü Xiangcai in front of him had become illusory and ethereal.
A strong sense of weariness surged up again, even more intensely than the first time I watched a play.
Inside the theater, the singing and dancing continued, creating a lively atmosphere, and Pei Yuheng and the others remained calm. This subtle and unusual behavior was almost imperceptible, seemingly directed only at him.
Xie Xubai reacted quickly, his eyes narrowed, and he focused his spiritual energy on the center of his forehead, adding a spiritual imprint to himself.
The next second, his consciousness swayed as if he were drunk and fell into boundless darkness.
...
Lu Xiangcai's original name was Lu Jiu, which he used for a long time. But Lu Jiu was not his original name either; it was given to him by Luofutu after he took him in. The children in the theater all had pseudonyms, mostly humble names, to make them forget their origins, recognize their status, and give up any thought of going home.
Luo Futu was overthinking things; Lü Jiu had no attachment to that so-called home.
He was born in a remote, impoverished village surrounded by mountains, like a cramped cage. While big cities were bright and bustling, here there was no electricity or running water, the houses leaked, and to fetch water, one had to go to the river behind the mountain. Every winter, when the river froze over, several people would freeze to death.
What I remember most vividly is the dirt road leading to the market, full of potholes, making it easy to slip and fall at night. Some people liked to urinate and defecate anywhere by the roadside, leaving behind piles of excrement that emitted a stench and swarmed with flies more than stars.
Lu Jiu couldn't remember what his parents named him, but he vaguely remembered that it was his mother who gave him the name. It sounded very nice, and in his mother's words, it was catchy and poetic.
But like everyone else in the village, his father was illiterate and found the given name troublesome to pronounce, so he just called him "bastard" or "stinky brat." So after his mother died, Lü Jiu never heard anyone call him by his real name again, and gradually, his memory of it became blurred.
The only thing he remembered, and which was etched into his very bones, was his mother's dying wish that he run away, that he must leave his father and this cannibalistic village no matter what.
Lü Jiu listened to his mother's words.
His father was a barefoot doctor who sold fake medicine. His prescriptions were not legitimate and he couldn't tell what diseases they could cure, but everyone would buy them. Even if they tightened their belts, couldn't afford to eat, and became skin and bones, they would still fight to exchange their food for a dose of his father's medicine.
Whenever they managed to get their father to relent and reluctantly lower the price, those guys would beam with joy, their dry, chapped lips stretching to reveal a set of yellowed, blackened buck teeth, sunken eye sockets, and cloudy pupils, looking like a skeleton whose flesh and blood had been drained.
But his father wasn't satisfied with selling at such a low price, especially since the villagers didn't have much money. Although the village was remote, it wasn't isolated from the world. The village chief had an oxcart, the only one in the village, and he would regularly go out to buy daily necessities, such as salt and clothes. His father would go with him to sell medicine.
At the age of eight, Lü Jiu risked having his legs broken by his father, clinging to the oxcart with all his might and refusing to get off. As expected, he was punched and kicked, and was beaten until he vomited blood several times.
He was small and could hardly resist the adults' dragging, but he grabbed the ox by the neck. The harder the others hit him, the harder he gripped. He had a sharpened stone hidden in his sleeve, which he used to poke the ox's body. The ox went crazy in pain, bellowing wildly and pushing the driver away, becoming uncontrollable. This whole ordeal wasted a lot of time.
The village was remote, so one had to leave early, otherwise the mountain road back was very difficult to travel, and it was easy to have an accident in the dark. His father spat at him angrily, pulled his hair, grabbed his legs, and punched him in the back with a loud thud, making him dizzy. Finally, he led him out of the village, cursing and swearing.
Along the way, the oxcart bumped along, and his father kept staring at him with a sinister look, waiting for the little boy to lose his strength and loosen his grip so he could pull him off the ox's neck.
Lu Jiu didn't let go, her lips pursed, her fingers interlocked, her nails digging into the back of her hand until they bled.
When the boy gets angry, even a god can't mess with him. The village chief was afraid that his ox would really get hurt. When he saw blood on the ground, he realized that Lü Jiu was still holding a stone in his hand. He quickly persuaded his father to calm down, and only then did he stop.
The village chief didn't dare to pressure Lü Jiu because of some rumors circulating in the village. Perhaps inheriting his father's wicked nature, Lü Jiu was born a scoundrel. There was a lame old man in the village who claimed to be a fortune teller. He said that in the days following Lü Jiu's birth, he saw a shooting star streak across the sky and declared that this jinx was brought by Lü Jiu, that he was a cursed star who would one day bring death to his family.
His mother didn't believe it, but his father did.
The problem is that his father believed it.
Later, Lü Jiu heard about this from somewhere. At the age of seven, he slaughtered the only two chickens left in the old man's house. Chicken blood was spilled all over the house, and the chicken heads were hung under the eaves.
The old man with the sloping leg had hearing problems and was also awakened by the noise outside. There was no light in the house, so he followed the moonlight and groped his way outside, only to find a chicken head hanging in the air with its eyes wide open in death.
The murky, white eyes stared at him, and the old man fainted on the spot from fright.
When the old man slowly woke up, he heard the clinking sound of a knife being sharpened. When he looked up, he saw Lü Jiu sitting beside him, holding a knife with the tip pointing down. His clear black and white eyes were staring at him quietly, and he didn't know how long he had been staring at him.
Lu Jiu didn't kill him, but the lame old man was so frightened that he almost lost his soul. In the following days, he developed a high fever, talked nonsense, and didn't dare to go out for a long time. He also dared not say anything when he encountered any strange phenomena.
By this time, Lü Jiu's mother had already died. She was casually wrapped in an old bed sheet and buried in a random spot on the back hill.
The grave was small, and ink and paper were expensive. His father was impatient to carve a tombstone and couldn't write, and as for Lü Jiu, he was even less able to. All that remained was an unmarked, lonely grave. The flesh of the corpse had probably long since been eaten away by insects in the ground, leaving not a trace.
Lu Jiu's reputation spread far and wide. Even the bravest person would be intimidated by his eerie aura upon hearing about this incident. The villagers regarded him as a monstrous threat, suspecting that he was some kind of evil star reincarnated.
If it weren't for the fact that Lü Jiu's father sold medicine and was quite famous in the village, he probably would have been arrested and beaten to death.
There was only one reason why his father hadn't handed Lü Jiu over. In recent years, the man's health had deteriorated drastically for some reason, and despite having several women, none of them had conceived.
There were no proper doctors in the village, so his father went out to see one. After hearing the doctor's diagnosis, he came back with a pale and gloomy face, as if it were going to rain.
From then on, whenever Lü Jiu's father punched and kicked him, he would hold back, afraid of killing his only son.
Lü Jiu was able to survive.
This wretched little life, if it could completely leave that cramped and oppressive deep mountain, shrouded in mist year-round, might shine with a different kind of brilliance.
However, as Lü Jiu held onto the ox's neck and looked ahead expectantly, he discovered that when the oxcart reached a fork in the road, it did not head towards the wide main road. Instead, the village chief pulled it with the rope, the ox's head turned to the side, and the wheels rolled over the muddy dirt road, splashing up yellow mud, and slowly drove into a narrow path.
At the end of the path was a village in an even more remote location. Calling it a village isn't quite accurate; the roads were free of manure, the houses were clean and sturdy, one after another, with black tiles and white walls. Some houses even had additional cement poured on the courtyards in front of their doors.
It's important to know that cement, an imported commodity, was a scarce resource in an era when production capacity was relatively low. It was generally only used in large cities for building houses and roads, and beautifying the cityscape.
His father and the village chief seemed to visit this village often, but they were equally reserved. The village chief tied the oxcart to a secluded grove outside the town and sternly warned him not to run around, as if he were afraid that he would bump into someone.
The naive and inexperienced Lü Jiu was completely disoriented and had no idea where he was. He was clinging to the cow's neck, unsure whether he should let go.
No one expected that before the village chief could finish speaking, a group of men walked over. They looked fierce and menacing, with knives hanging from their waists. Some of the knife wounds were still dripping blood. Based on Lü Jiu's years of experience of being beaten and vomiting blood, that was definitely not the blood of animals!
Logically speaking, a kid like him shouldn't be worth the attention of these "big shots." His father quickly stepped forward, respectfully explained the matter, answered the leader's questions, and handed over a bulging purse.
As the conversation progressed, the topic shifted to him.
A man with a mustache asked who Lü Jiu was, and his father bowed and answered honestly.
The man with the mustache remarked that Lü Jiu had excellent bone structure and was even more handsome, and then inquired about his mother's background.
His father looked back at Lü Jiu's sallow and thin appearance and couldn't see anything good about him.
But when the man with the mustache asked him a question, he dared not not answer, though he gave stammering replies, as if he himself did not know who Lü Jiu's mother was.
"It seems to be Huaizhou..."
Nine years ago, there was a ferry bound for Shanghai...
Then the man with the mustache started to laugh.
He walked over, grabbed Lü Jiu's chin, and forced him to raise his head and look him up and down.
His eyes were cold and menacing, like a sticky, venomous snake hissing and flicking its red tongue, making Lü Jiu break out in a cold sweat.
After looking at it, the man with the mustache stroked his mustache, seemingly unsure whether he was satisfied or not. He told the man not to hold the cow and to get off the cart so he could take a closer look.
Lu Jiu kept his head down and remained silent, when he heard the man with the mustache laugh again. When he looked up, the man suddenly drew his subordinate's knife and, without warning, slashed it straight down at Lu Jiu's head.
The blade whistled through the air, and in an instant, Lü Jiu's mind went blank, his adrenaline surged, and he released his grip as quickly as possible.
The gleaming blade grazed his fingers, then slashed at the cow's neck, wedging itself into the bone. Blood splattered, and the cow let out a heart-wrenching scream of pain.
Before he could even go berserk like before and push people away, he was shot in the head by one of the mustachioed men.
Lu Jiu collapsed to the ground. Hearing the gunshot at such close range, his ears almost rang. His ears were ringing, and it took him a long time to hear human voices again. His heart pounded violently in his chest, so violently it felt like it would jump out of his chest, and he braced himself on the ground with his elbows, which were weak.
Surviving the ordeal brought him no joy, only an indescribable fear, a chill running down his spine and into his brain.
He looked up, his vision blurry, and saw the man with the mustache rubbing his ear, seemingly shaken by the gunshot. The man smiled at him, patted his face with the blood-stained blade of his knife, and said slowly, "Good boy, be good."
Be obedient.
His chest heaved rapidly, and Lü Jiu could not hear his own breathing; his teeth chattered uncontrollably.
Something warm and wet touched his fingertips, and he stiffly turned his head to look at the cow lying on the ground.
Half of the cow's head was blown off, exposing charred bones. Red and white substances flowed out from the gap and spread outwards, covering the ground.
Some people work diligently their whole lives, careful in their words and deeds, for fear of making a mistake and falling into ruin. But some people are born into hell.
...
Xie Xubai got into character. Practice makes perfect, and he didn't remain unconscious for long before his consciousness quickly returned.
At the same time, a new memory appeared in his mind.
The character he possessed this time seemed to be a pampered young master who saw a poor beggar on the roadside and, out of kindness, gave him his pocket watch.
The next day, the beggar returned the pocket watch, saying that the poor are not poor in spirit.
The young master's parents took a liking to the beggar boy, who was so young yet possessed such integrity, and adopted him. Little did they know that they were inviting a wolf into their home, which would bring utter disaster to their family.
Xie Xubai quickly discovered the problem.
At this time, the young master had not yet met the beggar, so why did he have memories of his relatives being murdered?
He frowned slightly, and when he looked up, he caught sight of a resentful ghost floating in mid-air.
The ghost stared at him silently, blood gushing from its dark, pupil-less eyes, its body radiating an uncontrollable aura of malevolence, yet it did not attack him.
Xie Xubai had just received the memories when he inexplicably felt that the other person's appearance was very familiar. Scanning his surroundings, he found himself in a bedroom, and judging from the various luxurious furnishings, it seemed to be a wealthy family's home.
He strode to a full-length mirror, which reflected a handsome young face. He was dressed in expensive clothes, his hair was meticulously styled, and he had a refined, scholarly air about him.
Most importantly, Xie Xubai stared at the human face in the mirror, then looked at the ghostly spirits floating in mid-air, and found that they looked exactly the same!
That vengeful spirit was actually the original owner of this body. It was a resentful soul that had died with its eyes wide open and had been reborn.
The vengeful spirit looked at Xie Xubai and finally spoke, tears of blood streaming down its face as it spoke. Its hoarse voice seemed to contain endless hatred and pain: "I am willing to offer my soul to you, but I want all those who harmed my family to die a horrible death!"
Xie Xubai's body stiffened.
He recognized the faces of his enemies in the young master's memories: the familiar mustachioed Luo Futu and his men, as well as the servants he had bribed.
Besides that, there was also the beggar. His name was Lü Jiu.
Author's Note:
Happy New Year! [Sprinkling flowers]
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