Chapter 159: Illusory Dream?
Streams of light overflow with colors, chaotic and disordered, unclear whispers, enigmatic high songs… Is it an illusionary dream, or a real existing scenery?
The colors before her eyes are sorting themselves out, orderly lines gradually emerging from the chaotic scenery, colors becoming distinct, the maddening whispers and sharp high songs sinking into silence and dissipating.
“To actually meet here, what an unexpected surprise.” A friendly voice entered her ears. Chen Xiaolin lay on the land shaded by trees, smelling the scent of soil and the fragrance of flowers and grass. She recovered her strength in a daze and propped up her body from the ground.
“Can you still stand?” A hand with delicate skin reached out to her. Chen Xiaolin’s gaze focused from the hand to the appearance of its owner.
“season？Brother Season?” Chen Xiaolin felt her memory gradually reviving, her consciousness slowly clearing. She looked at the person before her and puzzledly called out his name. She didn’t understand why she was here or why she could see a man who wasn’t particularly familiar here. “Why am I here?”
Chen Xiaolin felt she was missing something, had forgotten something.
Soon, listening to the chirps of insects and calls of birds around her, looking at the misty forest on all sides, she had a guess about her earlier question. “Ah, I’m dreaming, right?”
“Yes, you’re dreaming.” Drake was momentarily stunned upon hearing this, then chuckled softly. He took the hand extended to him, helping her stand up from the ground.
“So I am dreaming.” Chen Xiaolin slowly recovered her strength. She thanked Drake for his support, stood steadily on her own, and curiously surveyed her surroundings. “But why would I dream this? I’ve never seen this scenery before, and… if it’s a dream, isn’t it a bit too real?”
Drake said to Chen Xiaolin, “Let’s go to the shop first. There’s a shop ahead. Perhaps once there, you’ll understand your current situation.” He pointed in a direction. The mist ahead seemed to thin a bit, revealing a lake, a few crooked and twisted willow trees, and an ancient wooden house hidden behind a veil of mist.
“Uh.” Chen Xiaolin had no clue about her situation but vaguely felt something was off. Upon first glimpsing that ancient wooden house, mystery and the unknown invaded her consciousness like a dark fragrance. She wanted to approach but also felt some fear, hesitating to move forward.
After hesitating for a moment, Chen Xiaolin’s reporter instinct to seek the truth overcame everything. She walked toward the ancient wooden house together with Drake.
Facing a pair of ghost masks carved on the facade, pushing open the redwood door that had been silent for who knows how many years, Chen Xiaolin followed Drake into the interior of the mysterious wooden house.
Faced with the “dazzling array” of goods displayed in the wooden house, Chen Xiaolin received a strong visual impact. Although she couldn’t identify every object on the shelves, she could sense from their eerie details that they were anomalous objects each carrying mysterious power.
At this moment, Chen Xiaolin felt her heart palpitating and her heartbeat about to burst out of her chest. She was almost certain she wasn’t dreaming but was in a real eerie anomaly event.
Suddenly, Chen Xiaolin felt her spirit invigorated, her brain aching. The events she experienced before fainting surged into her brain: venturing deep underground in the forest, witnessing the empty person and death scene, finally falling off the cliff and flowing into the Dark River.
“Li Duojin…” Chen Xiaolin’s breathing quickened. Looking at the “goods” around her, she felt enveloped by fear and darkness. She began to call out more and more flusteredly the name of the man who had fallen into the abyss with her.
Despite her panic, she didn’t dare shout loudly. The intense sense of oppression and fear made her voice timid too, merely repeating over and over the name of the young master who had given her protection.
“Guest, are you alright?” A cold hand gently patted her shoulder. That voice was full of vigor, carrying a sense of power.
The moment the large hand landed, Chen Xiaolin felt the chill all over her body seemingly patted away as well. She instinctively whipped her head around to look, seeing a man in red clothes standing behind her.
Red was a festive color, but on the pale-skinned man before her, it created a strong sense of conflicting contradiction. That contradictory temperament complemented everything around perfectly. Chen Xiaolin was completely certain that the man before her was an employee of this small shop.
“Guest, you seem like a new face. Is there anything I can help you with?” Wei Jiang asked with a smile.
Seeing the other’s kind smile, Chen Xiaolin regained some calm. “What exactly is this place?”
“This is Boss Lin’s Magical Wonderful House, a magical small shop that sells various consecrated magic tools, evil-exorcising props, and outsider knowledge to the outside world.” Wei Jiang explained. No one knew how many times he had given this explanation, but Wei Jiang showed no shame when mentioning the forest cabin’s shop name.
Chen Xiaolin fell silent for a moment upon hearing this unserious name.
“Brother Wei Jiang, we meet again.” Drake smiled and nodded in greeting upon seeing the man before him.
“Please head to the counter. If you have any needs, you can tell our boss.” Wei Jiang smiled and gestured forward, inviting them to continue toward the depths inside the shop.
Hearing Wei Jiang’s words, Drake’s eyes lit up. “You mean, the boss is in the shop today?”
“The boss is always here, but only during the daytime.” Wei Jiang explained, then added after thinking, “Only during the daytime here.”
“Heh heh, looks like my luck is pretty good today.” Drake was somewhat excited.
Chen Xiaolin was curious who the “boss” they mentioned was, imagining all sorts of bizarre non-human appearances in her mind. Though she hadn’t seen the real person, she had already secretly assumed that boss wasn’t human.
“Li Duojin… where exactly are you?” Chen Xiaolin whispered to herself as she walked out of the shelves area.
“Miss Chen?” Just as Chen Xiaolin was bewildered, another familiar voice came.
Hearing the voice, Chen Xiaolin excitedly looked up. The person showing a face full of shock was none other than Li Duojin himself.
She joyfully ran forward, her eyes slightly red, and punched his solid arm. “Where did you run off to, and why did you leave me behind?!”
“No, I didn’t expect you to come here either.” Li Duojin let her vent, scratched his face somewhat awkwardly, then cast a pleading look toward the young man sitting behind the counter, who smiled like a living Buddha.
Drake and Wei Jiang both bowed respectfully to the young man upon seeing him and called out “Boss.”
“Hehe, being able to come here is all due to fate.” Lin Ling said with a cheerful laugh. He held a white bone in his hand and tossed it into the fish tank behind him without looking back.
In the fish tank, an octopus with a somewhat strange appearance sensed an object falling into the water and pounced like a hungry wolf smelling a delicious lunch, wrapping the large white bone entirely and stuffing it into its body.
Seeing this scene, Chen Xiaolin stiffened all over, standing terrified in place.
If she wasn’t mistaken, the bone just thrown into the water was one from those eerie skeletons she had seen in the cave.
Matters of life and death are truly hard to predict. Today, seeing off the elder at home, my mood was very complex. I wasn’t that sad, but I had many reflections. People can be very strong, yet life is very vulnerable.
