Chapter 33: Lucky
Gathering his courage, Li Jiahong stepped into the house that seemed to have been uninhabited for a long time, searching for potentially useful clues in the space covered in cobwebs and piled with dust like soil.
The things in the room had basically all been moved out, leaving only some large or damaged furniture that hadn’t been removed, so Li Jiahong didn’t need much time to just search through that furniture.
From the bedroom to the kitchen, finally Li Jiahong found what seemed to be the storage room.
The storage room wasn’t large, about ten square meters, with four shelving units placed around the walls.
And it was right here that Li Jiahong’s discovery finally made a breakthrough.
Probably due to years of disrepair or the glue having expired, Li Jiahong noticed that the third-layer plywood on the shelving unit directly opposite the door had an unusual protrusion in the middle with a hollowed-out section; this plywood was actually made by gluing two thin boards together.
Tearing open the two layers of boards that could no longer stick together, Li Jiahong found a yellowed letter paper inside.
The letter paper read:
I don’t know who the person reading this letter is. When you see this letter, no matter how you discovered it, I hope you only stay at the level of curiosity. After reading this sentence, please do not continue reading further. I suggest you burn the letter directly; even selfishly discarding it casually is better than losing the confidence and courage to live on due to learning the cruel truth next.
If you came for the secret on my body, perhaps you have already been entangled by those detestable rats, then please read on boldly. I hope the content I recorded here can help you find the answers you want…
Li Jiahong continued reading. The first half described the author’s life in Huo Gu’s lair. People captured by Huo Gu spent most of their time soaking in a “water tank,” with only some left to manage those in dormant state in the “water tank.” Even during dormancy, they didn’t live peacefully; many found after closing and opening their eyes that their organs and physiological structures had undergone earth-shattering changes.
Children raised by Huo Gu rarely awakened like the author, because most children brought to the Huo Gu lair had undergone brain emotion regulation removal surgery from the start, and the author was no exception. But he was lucky to suddenly recover his lost emotions one day due to a special opportunity, gradually regain his reason, and begin wanting to escape from Huo Gu’s side.
It was also during one of the missions assigned by Huo Gu that he seized the chance to escape, staying far away from the lair, leaving his companions at the time, and remaining on Earth.
But at that time, due to a moment of negligence, he had long ceased to have the appearance of a normal human. The posture he showed when suddenly bursting into the busy street was like a ferocious evil beast crawling out from hell, immediately causing panic screams from the local people.
Only then did he finally understand that from the day he retrieved his memory, he had already become an outsider in both worlds; there was no living space for him in the vast universe.
Afterward, while accepting the all-out but insignificant help from a human organization called the Mysterious Group to confront the “children” sent by Huo Gu to terminate him in the human world and barely survive, he also hoped that before his life withered away, he could find the belonging of his former life, find his parents, and at least leave them a letter no matter what.
Unfortunately, he ultimately didn’t wait until that time; his life slowly came to an end due to the lack of medicine to maintain the vitality of his modified body.
Before dying, he recorded in the letter the method he used back then to escape through the cross-dimensional node and some secrets of the Huo Gu race. He hoped that unrelated people who saw this letter could keep silent until buried in the grave, that escapees in the same situation as him back then could live well, and that for parents searching for children captured by Huo Gu, he did not support them continuing to search for the child, but hoped they could find a new half and live a normal person’s life.
After finishing the letter, Li Jiahong fell into a long silence. From those twisted strokes of text, he could feel the image of a child longing for love and redemption. Although he occasionally sensed the other’s deformed worldview from certain remarks in the author’s letter due to non-human upbringing, once putting himself in the other’s role and thinking that his own child might now be the same as the author back then, he fully understood such changes and felt deep pity for this unfamiliar child.
“The shadow under Huo Gu’s feet connects to another world.” Li Jiahong memorized this most important key information in his mind, believing it would come in handy someday.
Turning to the back of the letter, it recorded several secrets about Huo Gu.
1. Huo Gu were not originally Huo Gu; they were transformed from new children.
2. Because Huo Gu are very timid and afraid of getting hurt, their civilization has therefore stagnated.
3. Huo Gu can only find a sense of security at night and dare to act only when the children are all around.
4. Earth was once also Huo Gu’s graveyard; perhaps other entrances can be found.
Seeing these four succinctly summarized profound secrets, while feeling a massive amount of information in his brain, Li Jiahong also couldn’t help but feel a surge of excitement.
“There are actually other passages in and out of the Huo Gu lair.” Li Jiahong clenched his fist, swearing that if Huo Gu’s shadow was truly a cross-dimensional node, then he must find Huo Gu’s corpse on Earth.
He quickly put away the letter, then hurriedly left this abandoned house in the woods, rushing back to the hospital in his Shenzhou hometown before eight in the evening.
Returning to his wife’s side and handing over with his wife’s parents, finally having a chance to be alone with his wife, he eagerly shared his discovery with her. He tightly gripped his wife’s hand and said excitedly: “We will soon have a chance to get Xiao Qing back. These fifteen years of hardship were not in vain.”
“I’m also very happy.” Jiang Gu was also tearful, then she shared a new piece of good news with Li Jiahong.
In front of her husband, she slowly got off the bed. Under Li Jiahong’s gaze of worry turning to shock, Jiang Gu, who had been bedridden for many years with almost atrophied limbs, actually wobbled and barely stood up.
“It won’t be long before I can walk… I can go with you to find the child.” Jiang Gu, as if having done something remarkable, panted heavily while blushing and laughing with a thick neck.
Li Jiahong immediately hugged his wife excitedly, as if feeling the awakening vitality in that gradually firming soft body.
Everything was developing in a good direction; was the bad luck that had lingered for fifteen years finally starting to reverse?
With happy events coming one after another, Li Jiahong and his wife both seemed overly happy and soon felt exhausted from energy depletion after calming down, both lying on the bed and falling asleep in an embrace.
This night was a rare peaceful sleep for Li Jiahong. Although in tonight’s dream, he dreamed of that strange female bird again, and absurdly embraced that weird female bird in his arms…
The next day upon waking, Li Jiahong looked at his wife sleeping soundly in his arm bend, glanced at the mobile phone on the bedside, and made a bold decision.
He opened his WeChat and posted a gathering message in a group chat.
Me: I have something to say face-to-face about the child matter. If you all have time, this afternoon at three, I’ll be waiting for you at the New Tea House restaurant in Shenzhou.
Begging for collections, votes, etc.~~~~ Everyone who hasn’t invested, welcome to invest in this book enthusiastically. It’s already signed, guaranteed to profit without loss!
