Chapter 142 He finally stumbled and hugged his tattered self from his previous life.
The blood was still slowly dripping.
The thick red liquid gathered in one place until it could no longer bear its own weight and suddenly crashed down at the boy's feet, merging with the already dark and filthy ground.
Pipa stared at that lifeless face.
That face was exactly the same as his own, except for the slightest differences.
For a fleeting moment, it was as if I saw myself dying tragically.
My throat tightened.
Pipa immediately looked away and closed her eyes while standing still.
After suppressing most of the discomfort that was permeating his body, he finally looked at the corpse hanging in mid-air.
It looks like it fell from a height and unfortunately got pierced by a metal ornament protruding from the building; it should have hit the ground directly instead.
It was just that it was partially blocked by the branches of the very lush trees next to it.
So it got stuck between the tree branch and the building in a twisted position, as if it was about to fall but couldn't.
At this moment, Pipa was positioned so that he could directly face the dead man's face.
— Strictly speaking, it's only half a face.
Half of his face was disfigured, seemingly due to the continuous impacts during the fall.
A small twig was inserted into the broken throat and emerged from the eye socket on the other side, directly squeezing the shattered eyeball out of its socket.
The body must have been hanging here for some time.
Otherwise, given the extent of the limb damage, the bleeding would definitely not be as little as we see now...
Therefore, the dark ground beneath our feet must be a pool of blood that has already dried.
Pipa roughly knew the cause of the other person's death.
—It was suicide.
Just as he had seen countless times in his childhood dreams.
The young man stood on the edge of the platform, facing the wind, and with a death wish, he jumped off.
Pipa pictured the scene in his mind, no longer adopting Yu Qingzhou's perspective. His heart was calm, as if he were observing the life and death of another person.
And that is indeed the case.
If Yu Qingzhou hadn't died, there wouldn't be the loquat we know today.
But Pipa and Yu Qingzhou are ultimately different.
Pipa doesn't believe that dying can solve all the problems.
The existence of loquat itself proves this point.
This world has reincarnation, and there are also non-human beings who can prolong their lives and retain their memories.
Under these two conditions, a person who dies easily will only find themselves in a passive situation of being completely unaware.
We want to break out of this predicament.
At this stage, there are only two possible solutions for loquat.
Running away is useless; it only led to his current predicament.
So either find a way to become one of them, or even if you can't overwhelm them with your strength, at least have the power to deal with and fight against them.
Or... leave this world you're in now and achieve a complete death.
The second method sounds absurd, even crazy.
But it was the choice that Pipa secretly preferred.
Firstly, given that Pipa is now just an ordinary human, let alone fighting those people, it's hard to say that she has much of a chance of winning against even a strong, ordinary adult.
Secondly, the latter is undoubtedly a more thorough solution.
Rather than continuing to struggle for years, decades, or even hundreds or thousands of years, loquat prefers to cut the Gordian knot and solve the problem once and for all.
But the question is, what should I do?
It was at this moment that the door in the pitch-black void suddenly reappeared in the boy's mind.
If his previous dreams have all been confirmed in reality, does that mean that the door connecting the world of flesh and blood with the void and darkness may very well actually exist?
So the question then becomes: how do we get to that place...?
--suicide?
Vivid examples are already before our eyes.
Not only did it fail, it also directly weakened its own strength and brought unexpected trouble.
Thinking about this, Pipa couldn't help but feel a surge of irritation.
At this moment, he couldn't care less about anything else. He stepped forward and came to the dead Yu Qingzhou, directly facing that horribly shattered face that was too terrifying to look at.
"You're the one who brought me into this dream, aren't you?"
"..."
"What was the purpose of showing me all this?"
"..."
"Why can't you just say it directly? Why show me how miserable you died in your past life? Are you trying to warn me to live a quiet and law-abiding life in this one and not to do anything rash?"
If so—
If so—
"Why not just come back to life on your own?!"
This was the first time in a long time that Pipa had expressed her emotions so openly.
No matter how furiously he questioned her, he couldn't get a mangled corpse to answer him.
In this suffocating silence, Pipa could only hear her own heavy breathing.
He gradually calmed down, softening his voice as if he were exhausted, and his tone became much calmer.
"Why...why can't Yu Qingzhou handle all of this properly? Why do you have to make me, an outsider who knows nothing, take over this mess...Am I really that pathetic, that willing to get involved in all your grudges and grievances..."
No one answered.
A gentle breeze blew by, and amidst the swaying shadows of the trees, the loquat seemed to hear some strange, soft sound.
The boy looked in the direction of the sound and was surprised to find that the branch that had been wedging Yu Qingzhou's body had bent to its limit and was about to break at any moment.
Once the support is lost, Yu Qingzhou's body will naturally fall down.
In fact, while Pipa was checking the situation, Yu Qingzhou's arm had already drooped down.
Just then, a cracking sound was heard—
His mind went blank.
I never expected to react so quickly. Before I could think, my body reacted before my brain could.
Ignoring the possibility of being hit squarely, he stretched out his hands and opened them towards the figure falling from the sky.
As the arms and knees bent and sank uncontrollably downwards.
He finally stumbled and hugged his tattered self from his past life.
—He embraced the real Yu Qingzhou's... corpse.
Instead of passing straight through me like in my previous dream.
Because Yu Qingzhou is indeed dead.
Since they are two people from past lives to the present, how could they possibly meet again in life?
It's a very strange feeling...
The last time Pipa came into close contact with a corpse was at her mother's grave.
His dead mother looked like a crudely made wax figure; her cold, lifeless appearance made him feel a sense of unfamiliarity and intensified his sorrow.
Yet the feeling of holding Yu Qingzhou's inhuman corpse in my arms was so natural, even nostalgic.
It was as if, a long, long time ago, he had also reached out and embraced a body that had fallen from the sky, only this one seemed much smaller...
Like a child...
But when would that be?
When could that have been?
As this series of questions flashed through her mind, Pipa's head suddenly began to throb.
He had no choice but to refocus his attention on Yu Qingzhou's corpse.
Even compared to a child around ten years old, the body she was holding wasn't particularly heavy.
Perhaps it's because of the constant bleeding.
Pipa thought, but then made a new discovery.
The wounds on Yu Qingzhou's body, which had been pierced by the metal ornaments, were torn open again during the fall.
Exposing the stark white ribs covered in flesh and blood, and the dark, gaping chest cavity behind the broken ribs.
The spot where the heart should be located is empty.
—Yu Qingzhou's heart had disappeared.
Pipa examined the body again and again, but found nothing—neither the corpse itself, nor the surrounding ground, nor the spot where the branch had broken.
Pipa's mind was in turmoil, and more questions arose.
Who took the heart from the corpse?
Is it Li Nian, Lan, or someone he could never have imagined?
Most importantly, why did that person do this?
Taking the heart of a dead person...
heart……
A certain scene struck the boy like a bolt of black lightning.
Still in that darkness filled with nothingness, "he" was awakened by the knocking on the door. He looked down and saw a long chain extending from the doorway toward him, and the other end of the chain was connected to that heart that should have been dead long ago.
perhaps--
Pipa thought of a possibility.
Yu Qingzhou didn't use the wrong method entirely.
However, someone used special means—such as some kind of mysterious ritual—to prevent his complete death.
It is highly likely that Yu Qingzhou's heart was taken away by that person at that time, as a necessary medium for the ritual...
The thought of this possibility sent a shiver down Pipa's spine.
If the assumption is correct, then perhaps if I can find Yu Qingzhou's lost heart and destroy it, I might be able to disrupt the entire ceremony.
In that way, both Yu Qingzhou and herself as Pipa could be completely freed.
"...Is this what you really wanted to tell me?"
The loquat murmured softly.
The corpse in his arms remained completely dead.
However, as the boy asked the question, his head, which lacked cervical support, tilted slightly to the other side, as if he were expressing his approval of his future self.
"..."
"I see, I understand. Wait for me, wait until I find your heart, and maybe everything can end then."
Pipa spoke softly, the corners of her mouth unconsciously curving upwards.
The sky suddenly cleared up, and a gentle breeze rustled the leaves.
Pipa carefully held Yu Qingzhou's body, constantly on guard against any parts that might fall off along the way.
The time and space in dreams and reality do not completely overlap.
Just as he didn't know how he got to the princess's residence, he naturally didn't know how to return the way he came.
Fortunately, Pipa didn't necessarily want to go back; she just wanted to find a relatively clean place... Pipa was already feeling sleepy.
If he falls asleep in this dream, he will wake up in his own reality.
That's always been the case.
Therefore, Pipa wanted to find a place to lay Yu Qingzhou's body to rest before that happened.
He walked slowly forward, feeling drowsy.
The scenery changes along the way.
Desolate streets, opulent palaces, snow-capped mountains...
Finally, he saw the path he had come by, the winding path hidden deep in the dense forest.
Strangely, it was so quiet when I arrived that I could only hear my own footsteps.
If you walk back now, you can hear faint voices coming from the woods on both sides, but they are not clear and you cannot tell the specific direction from which the voices are coming.
There were men and women, old and young, all mixed together, but he could vaguely make out that they were all calling out... all of the same strange string of syllables.
That syllable stirred a strange emotion within the loquat's heart—familiar yet strange, joyful yet fearful, loving yet hateful.
He couldn't help but lower his head and hug the body in his arms, quickening his pace towards the end of the path.
Like fleeing a plague, they left all those chaotic sounds behind.
When I came to my senses, Pipa was already standing at the entrance of the fenced courtyard.
The road underfoot was a bumpy, uneven dirt road, and the air was thick with the smell of dust.
Pipa paused for a moment, then stepped into the small courtyard she hadn't returned to for who knows how many years.
Everything seemed just as it was before I left home.
Overturned farm tools, scattered stacks of firewood, an open storage room...
Pipa didn't linger; he was too tired and sleepy, and couldn't wait to find a place to rest.
Suddenly, he stopped in his tracks.
I saw the corner of the yard where the loquat tree grew.
This time, however, he wasn't looking at the tree, but at the woman sitting beside it.
Those clothes, that silhouette—it was clearly—
"Mother..."
He murmured something.
The woman turned around at the same time, her young face showing a hint of surprise, which then blossomed into a gentle smile.
“You’re back.”
Pipa paused for a moment, because the woman was referring to "you".
He then remembered that he was carrying a gruesome corpse and was momentarily at a loss.
--what to do?
If we just go like this, won't it scare Mother?
As Pipa thought about it, she suddenly became hesitant and timid, feeling like a child who had made a mistake.
While she was hesitating, the woman waved to the loquat again: "What are you still standing there for? You've been gone for so long, don't you recognize your mother?"
The woman was obviously joking.
Upon hearing this, Pipa smiled.
"How could that be? The person I want to see most, most, most in this world is my mother..."
—She is my living mother.
He silently swallowed the rest of his sentence.
He walked to his mother's side. His mother was not surprised to see the corpse he was holding. Instead, she invited them to sit down under the loquat tree.
The loquat tree seems to have grown taller, its glossy green leaves casting a large patch of shade.
"Mom, has this tree grown taller?" Pipa asked.
Mother smiled and replied, "You've all been gone for so long, of course you'll grow taller and bigger."
"Yes, it's been so long since we left." Pipa murmured softly, a sense of melancholy welling up inside him. He suddenly became serious and said, "Mother, now that we're back, let's not leave again, okay?"
Mother still smiled: "Silly child, when you grow up, you have to stand on your own. No one can stay by their mother's side forever. Aren't you afraid of being laughed at by others?"
Pipa sniffed: "I'm not afraid of anyone laughing at me."
His mother reached out and affectionately tapped his forehead: "What nonsense are you talking about?" She paused, then looked worried. "What's wrong? Could it be that someone outside is bullying you?"
—Yes, many people bully me, they bully my mother's child.
He thought to himself silently.
But she smiled and replied, "No, that's not true. My mother raised me so well, and I'm sensible and hardworking. Who would bully me for no reason?"
The boy spoke with particular seriousness.
The woman didn't notice anything amiss, so she smiled and patted their heads.
His, and Yu Qingzhou's.
"Go to sleep, my good child. You must be tired after walking such a long way."
--yes.
Pipa thought that he was indeed tired. If he could fall asleep peacefully beside his mother like this, it would be good, and he would be willing to do so.
Unfortunately... unfortunately, he knew he was about to wake up.
In the instant before his consciousness sank into darkness, he seemed to hear a woman humming softly, just like... all the sweet dreams of his childhood.
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