Chapter 202 - Confession
It took a whole day to realize that these bears were imitating humans in every way. This place is called the Bear Garden, and it's dozens of miles in radius, far away from the mundane world, and it doesn't interfere with the mortal world. The man who built the Bear Garden has long since passed away, but these bears still remember the old man's kindness and imitate him every day.
Sun Bairen was secretly amazed. No wonder the painting "Hundred Bears" was so lifelike. It must be because the artist had visited this bear garden.
As the only human in the bear sanctuary, Sun Bairen was beloved by the bears, treated as a distinguished guest. While appearing to be friendly with them, Sun Bairen was constantly pondering the matter: if he could bring the human bear to the mortal world and sell it to a noble, it would be worth a fortune. This human bear possessed a spiritual mind, mimicking human behavior, a rare sight in the world.
The bears had no idea what Sun Bairen was thinking, so they just presented the fruits and melons they had picked to him respectfully every day, treating him as a distinguished guest.
About a year passed.
Sun Bairen had already found out how to get out of the bear garden. Outside the garden lay the Cloudy and Misty Mountains. With a single leap, he could return to the human world. Because the human bears were large, he decided to take the two little bear cubs. These cubs were not much bigger than human babies, and had been weaned recently. Coincidentally, they were a male and a female.
Lately, he's been discussing human affairs with the two little bears, boasting that the mortal world is a paradise of flowers and flowers. The little bears seem to understand, but they spend the entire night eating, drinking, and defecating with him. Sun Bairen waits for his opportunity.
Late that night, I found an opportunity and, holding the pair of little bears in each hand, I arrived at the bear farm without stopping. A sea of clouds surged beneath my feet, and the two little bears, one male and one female, were extremely excited, shouting, "Go down, go down."
Sun Bairen chuckled, then burst into tears of joy. For a whole year, he'd endured humiliation, living with these beasts like a prisoner, and now, finally, he was returning to the mortal world. He hugged the bear tightly and leaped, the wind whistling in his ears. He didn't know how long it had been before his feet touched the ground.
Looking up, he found himself in his bedroom, his back to the painting "A Hundred Bears." It felt as if he were in a dream, a pair of bear cubs in his arms, fast asleep. The sky was just getting light in the east, his wife was still asleep on the couch, and outside the window was a scene of rain and dew.
He suddenly realized that he was trapped in the "Hundred Bears Picture" on a night of lightning and thunder. A year in the Bear Garden was just one night in the mortal world. He counted the bears in the painting again and found that two were missing.
"It's time for me to get rich." Looking at the two bears in his arms, Sun Bairen couldn't hide his ecstasy. This pair of bears, one male and one female, will give birth to pups in due time... Each bear cub can be sold for less than a thousand taels of silver. My name, Sun Bairen, is written backwards.
After that, the pair of bear cubs were kept in a cage.
At first, his wife and children were quite curious about the bears and spent the whole day circling around them. But after a few days, they became bored and said that the bears were stupid and foolish.
Sun Bairen said, "A yellow-faced woman and a yellow-mouthed child, what do you know? They can actually speak human language." He tried to tease the bears, but they seemed to have lost their spirit. They just stared, howling and sniffing at the food in the bowl, refusing to eat at all.
Sun Bairen slapped his head, suddenly realizing, "Ah, these animals have been living in the bear farm, eating fruits and mountain springs, and haven't been exposed to the polluted air of grains. They've naturally adapted to the local climate." He didn't dare neglect them. After all, these bears were the undisputed gods of wealth to him.
So, I went to the market to buy fresh fruits to feed the bear cub.
Their family was already modest, with limited financial resources. As the bear cub grew, its appetite became astonishing, and it couldn't last long before Sun Bairen was stretched to the limit. His wife cried and raged all day, saying he was possessed by a demon and treated the beast better than his own father. Sun Bairen scolded her for being ignorant and insisted that the bear cub could speak human language.
No one in the surrounding neighborhood believed Sun Bairen.
After enduring this for half a year, the bear cub had grown to the size of a pig. Sun Bairen spoke to them daily, but strangely enough, since arriving in the mortal world, the bear cub had never spoken a single human word.
That day, Sun Bairen was furious. He whipped the two bears, cursing, "You stupid, dumb beasts! All you do is eat and sleep, never saying a word. What's the point of keeping you?" He wasn't paying attention, and one of the bears bit the back of his hand, biting it so deeply that the bone was visible. Even after applying medicine, the pain didn't improve, and his entire arm turned black and purple, a sign of a poisonous attack on his heart.
Sun Bairen racked his brains but still couldn't understand why this beast acted like a human being in Xiongyuan, but became as stupid as a pig and a dog after coming to the mortal world?
One day, his son returned from the village school. Sun Bairen was lying on his deathbed, nearly dead. He asked his son what the teacher had taught him today.
The son said, "The teacher told me a story about oranges growing south of the Huai River and tangerines growing north of the Huai River."
A single word awakened Sun Bairen from his dream. His head buzzed, and a chill ran down his spine. He couldn't help but mutter to himself, "Oranges from the south turn sour in the north, oranges from the south turn sour in the north..." Suddenly, he spat out a mouthful of blood and died.
That day, the two bears in the cage escaped.
The widow remarried, and the painting "A Hundred Bears" was originally going to be burned, but it happened to be seen by a local squire, who fell in love with it and asked how much he wanted to sell it for. The woman was furious and asked for 1,000 taels of silver, which the squire actually agreed to.
Later, someone with a curious mind counted the number of bears in the painting, and it was exactly one hundred, not more, not less."
After hearing this story, Shi Feiye was silent for a moment: "You didn't search for a story and then read it?"
Qin Buzhu said calmly: "Have you heard of it?"
Shi Feiye admitted very frankly: "I haven't heard of it."
But normally, when telling stories to girls, shouldn't you tell sweet love stories or funny stories? Why is the boss telling these supernatural stories?
In fact, Qin Buzhu can't really be blamed for this. After all, her future mother-in-law loved to hear this.
For the sake of the boss's self-esteem, Shi Feiye also gave him some compliments against his will: "You read it with great emotion, very good."
On the other end of the phone, Qin Buzhu couldn't hide the smile in his eyes. Didn't he know what he was saying? But as my dad once said, if someone is willing to coax you, not to get something from you, isn't that worth being happy about?
"How about I tell you a story? It's a little scary at the beginning, a little funny in the middle, and a little sad at the end."
Qin Buzhu was really curious: "What's the story?"
"Once upon a time, there was a ghost..." Shi Feiye deliberately lowered his voice to sound eerie, then changed the subject, "One day, he farted."
Shi Feiye's tone turned sad again: "In the end, he died."
Qin Buyu: "..."
"Haha, did you hear that? This is just a cold joke." Shi Feiye finally couldn't help laughing.
Listening to Shi Feiye's happy whisper on the other end of the phone, Qin Buzhu raised the corners of his lips and said, "It's really funny. Writers are good at telling stories."
If Zou Lianxun were here, he would definitely roll his eyes speechlessly. Qin Bulu was so considerate to Shi Feiye, even praising him implicitly. He had never been so kind to him before.
This morning, he finally managed to get a day off from his eldest brother, but before he could even drive out for some fun, he got a call from his second brother, asking him to help look up some information.
A good vacation was snatched away for half a day. Just when he wanted to protest, he was threatened by his second brother and could only go to work obediently. He didn't think there was anything wrong with eating dog food before, but now he just wants to say, "Dating is great, having a wife is great."
"I'm so ashamed. I can't tell stories, I can only write them."
"That's great too. Has your previous novel been adapted?" Qin Bulu guessed that Shi Feiye had written some good works before.
"Almost. I've adapted it, and I'm the screenwriter. But compared to Hai's screenwriter, I'm still a long way behind, so I have to work hard to learn."
Speaking of novels, Shi Feiye had been hesitating whether or not to tell Qin Bulu that the world they lived in was a novel. Anyone who knew that the world they lived in was a novel would probably not feel very good.
But if I don’t say it, it doesn’t seem good either.
The most important thing is that the story has already ended, and telling it out loud doesn't seem to be of much use, so Shi Feiye is very conflicted about whether to tell it or not.
After struggling for a while, Shi Feiye decided to speak out: "I have something I want to tell you."
"What's the matter?" Qin Bulu sat up straight involuntarily upon hearing the hesitation and caution in Chu Shi Feiye's tone.
"If I tell you that the world we live in now is a novel, that is, if we live in a book, do you think it is possible?" Shi Feiye cautiously tested.
"Why not?" Qin Buyu relaxed and leaned back on the chair.
"No one can truly explain what the world is like. Perhaps we are all living in a dream, and everything we see is an illusion. This is all possible. Isn't there the story of Zhuangzi dreaming of a butterfly?"
However, Qin Buzhu's eyes deepened. Shi Feiye rarely spoke in such a tone. Perhaps her claim that their world was a fiction was based on facts.
Qin Buzhu didn't have any strong reaction to these, and was in the mood to ask Master Feiye:
"Are you trying to say that I was originally a character in a novel? Have you ever seen my life?"
Shi Feiye was surprised: "Don't you mind?"
"If you don't mind, would you mind telling me what you saw?"
"Actually, I didn't expect to travel into a novel at first, but the novel was already finished when I came here. You are the villain in this novel. Do you know what a villain is?"
"You know, I'm a villain?" Even though he was mentally prepared, Qin Bulu didn't expect that he would be a villain. In his impression, villains were always those stupid people who talked too much, had no ability, and had antisocial personalities.
He is a world away from people like this, and they should have nothing in common.
Shi Feiye knew that the villain he understood was a traditional villain, so he quickly explained:
"Of course, you're a special villain. You didn't do anything bad. You simply entered into a business competition with the hero. And your ultimate failure wasn't your fault. It was because the heroine foresaw your decisions."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
