Chapter 210: Encounter
“Spit, spit, spit… Hiss…” A man, soaking wet, had just crawled out of the water. He was shivering uncontrollably and spitting out the salty, fishy seawater.
It was already late autumn, and the sea wind was particularly strong. The man stood on the shore, his teeth chattering. He looked back in annoyance, only to see that the churning waves had completely destroyed the vortex that had brought him to shore, leaving only white foam from the waves crashing against the reef. The foam, like the white flowers on a posthumous portrait, surrounded the entire island.
There was one thing Wei Chengye’s secretary had guessed wrong from the start: He Jia’an was not in Shenzhou at all, but had gone abroad, to Sakura Island, which faced Shenzhou across the sea.
Sakura Island, along with most of the islands in the Circum-Pacific Region, formed its own area. However, most of this area was the sea, so it was called the Archipelago Region, or the Circum-Pacific Region. Sakura Island was a relatively developed and habitable place in this region’s civilization.
“I wasted a cigarette.” He Jia’an pulled out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, soaked through by the seawater. Upon opening it, he saw that even the cigarette butts were ruined. Speechless, he wanted to throw them away, but then he thought that he was penniless and definitely couldn’t afford to buy a new pack.
It was fine that the cigarettes were ruined; he didn’t smoke them anyway. It was just that when he had a craving, he always wanted something to hold in his mouth, and nothing was better to put in his mouth than a cigarette butt. Once dried, it could still be used.
A smoker’s mouth was already shaped like a cigarette holder.
He Jia’an looked back at the sea again, thinking with some indignation about the mixed-race merman who had pushed him all the way from Shenzhou. “This guy sent me to this place and didn’t even leave me any travel expenses? Sigh.”
With a long sigh, He Jia’an took off his shirt and walked barefoot towards the beach. He had been shivering uncontrollably earlier, but now he wasn’t that cold anymore.
Although it was autumn, there were fewer people on the beach, but this didn’t mean no one went swimming. Some “rough” men would even leave their clothes and valuables on the shore, which presented an opportunity for He Jia’an.
He quietly pocketed a set of a floral shirt and floral pants that didn’t match his style. Paired with his kind bald head, He Jia’an was an extremely conspicuous presence on the road.
During his stay in the mental sanatorium, he endured madness and chaotic illusions day and night, which inevitably led to a decline in his physical condition. His sallow complexion even detracted from his originally commendable appearance. Although he tried hard to appear harmless, it was like “Dong Shi imitating Xi Shi” – the harder he tried, the more out of place he seemed. Passersby would cautiously steer clear of him.
In response, He Jia’an sighed inwardly again. He reached into his pocket, where he felt the jingle of some loose change and a flat, red square. If he were to take it out, any Shenzhou person would immediately smile knowingly, because it was a red envelope.
The red envelope was something he had brought from Shenzhou. He kept it with him at all times, as precious as his waterlogged cigarettes.
He didn’t know if there was money inside the red envelope, and even if there was, he would never use a single cent of it, because he knew that without the red envelope, he would be harassed again by those ghostly anomalies.
From its birth, the red envelope was originally a kind of amulet, also called lucky money, calming money, or subjugation money. In Guangfu, it was also called “Li Shi,” all of which meant to suppress evil spirits, and secondarily to bring good fortune and joy.
According to folk legend, children, due to their high spiritual sensitivity and naivete, were easily targeted by evil spirits, especially during the New Year period when evil spirits were most numerous and violent. Therefore, elders would give red envelopes to their juniors during the New Year to help protect children from harm by evil spirits.
In the earliest days of the red envelope, it didn’t even contain real money but rather a collectible item not in circulation. It was only later that real currency began to be used as lucky money.
Thinking about the origin of his personal red envelope, He Jia’an felt a complex mix of emotions.
Red envelopes are typically things that elders give to juniors. However, his red envelope was taken from a forest shop owner who appeared to be a “junior,” and it wasn’t free; he had to pay for it.
A red envelope that requires payment to obtain… it sounds incredibly absurd no matter how you think about it.
On the night Yu Lianyun was reported to be in trouble, He Jia’an, who had been suffering from the side effects of forcibly reading the Book of Sand, suddenly felt much lighter. Among the illusions that had plagued him over the years, the eyes that seemed to be from the Shadow of All Things had inflicted the most damage. Those eyes had all disappeared that night, leaving only illusions that were far less threatening by comparison.
He Jia’an was also greatly bewildered by this, but during the illusions at that time, he suddenly heard a few calls directed at him. Those voices were deeply nostalgic for him. Despite their monstrous tones, they evoked a wide range of emotions in him, and he felt no fear.
“Captain He…”
He Jia’an turned his head at the sound and saw two graceful figures appearing in the hazy mist. One had long, flowing hair, and the other had short, neat hair. His heart skipped a beat, and his eyes welled up with emotion. “You… you’ve both… both come to see me?”
The two figures in the mist said nothing. One figure rapidly deformed in the mist, its hands turning into wings and its feet into claws. With a flap of its wings, wind arose without any breeze, but it vanished in an instant. The other figure retreated, its form seeming to dissolve, becoming shorter and shorter. Behind her, the figures of a man and a woman appeared, emitting low, guttural cries of “Uh—” They grabbed the shrinking figure and dragged her underground.
Seeing this, He Jia’an thought he had to catch them. But when he reached out and ran forward, he found himself bumping into a wall. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a wooden house.
He Jia’an always remembered Yu Lianyun mentioning this place frequently in the team. The first time she was affected by an extradimensional creature, she had gained a supernatural power called blessing here, which was even more powerful than the effects of the extradimensional creature. Later, she herself had almost died from the power of blessing.
Moreover, in the land of Shenzhou, legends about the forest cabin and the dream grocery store were becoming increasingly widespread, even reaching the point of being known by many. However, apart from a very small number of people in the world, almost no one had ever truly seen the forest cabin, and it seemed that no one in the world could accurately describe its appearance.
Yu Lianyun had also provided the specific location of the forest cabin. He and his former teammates had gone to search for it. But for some reason, they did find a lake, a few willow trees, and even a cabin on a mountain in Laitai City. However, there was no one inside, and it was so clean that there wasn’t even the slightest abnormal magnetic field fluctuation.
Because extensive human and material resources were expended without any result, the Mysterious Group’s leader, Wei Chengye, finally had to give up the search. However, everyone in the Mysterious Group knew that a forest cabin truly existed in this world, filled with various taboo items that could turn the world inside out thousands of times.
He Jia’an hadn’t expected that one day he would also come here. He felt a sense of emotion and walked inside, and then… he met Wei Jiang, who was working again after his death.
End of Volume Six
