A Home of Nightmares, The Taotie's Delight

"Huang Tian" felt very happy. He had a steady job that paid at least seven thousand a month, if not ten thousand, which was more than enough for him. He had no particular vices or expensive hobbies—just playing video games as a free-to-play player. He didn't smoke, didn't drink, and wasn't dating anyone, so he had nowhere to spend his money. Watching the balance on his phone grow month after month gave him a deep sense of contentment. He thoroughly enjoyed seeing his savings pile up. On top of that, he had a warm, harmonious family: a genial father, a gentle mother, and an adorable younger sister. Aside from not having a girlfriend yet, his life felt practically complete. "Today is Xiaojia's birthday. I'll pick up a cake on my way back." After clocking out, he rode his electric scooter home. A ten-odd-minute ride brought him to the base of an older apartment building. He parked his scooter and walked into the bakery next door. "Proprietress, I'd like a cake, please. Something pretty," he said as he entered. The shopkeeper was a plump woman in her thirties who was well acquainted with "Huang Tian," since they lived on the same street. She teased, "For a girl? Little Huang has found himself a girlfriend!" He chuckled and shook his head. "Not for a girlfriend. It's my little sister's birthday. I'm buying it for her." "Your sister?" The woman blinked in surprise. *Isn't he an orphan?* The question sprang to mind, but she swallowed it down. Blurted out, such words could be hurtful. Besides, "Sister? Ah, I get it! I understand!" A knowing smile crept across her face. Young folks these days loved calling each other brother and sister. And that wasn't even the wildest thing they got up to; some were even... *Brrr~* Goosebumps prickled her skin. Clearing her throat, she said, "How about I make you a six-inch heart-shaped cream cake? Take a seat on the sofa over there and wait a bit. It'll take about twenty minutes." Her bakery primarily handled delivery orders. The sponge bases were baked ahead of time, the whipped cream was already beaten and chilled, and the fruit was pre-sliced and wrapped in plastic in the fridge. When an order came in, she could assemble it immediately. Simple designs took barely ten minutes, and even complicated ones took little more than half an hour. "Sounds good. No rush, just make it nice." "Huang Tian" walked over to the sofa, sat down, and quietly scrolled through short videos on his phone. Roughly twenty minutes slipped by. "Little Huang, it's done! Come see how you like it," the shopkeeper called out. He rose and walked over to the counter. Sitting on the table was a pink, heart-shaped cake adorned with delicate cream rose petals in the center, looking quite romantic and sweet. "Looks great!" he smiled. "As long as you like it! It's the best-selling style in my shop!" The woman boxed up the cake. "Guaranteed your girl—err, your sister will love it!" "Huang Tian" nodded and scanned the QR code to pay. Once the cake was packaged, he took the box, stepped outside, and headed toward his building. *Tap, tap, tap~* Crisp footsteps echoed through the stairwell. He reached Room 303, took out his key, unlocked the door, and went inside. The moment he crossed the threshold, total silence descended upon his ears. Out in the stairwell, he had still been able to hear car horns blaring from the street and the amplified chatter of roadside vendors. Yet inside the apartment, it felt like stepping from a sweltering summer day straight into a walk-in freezer. An oppressive, dead silence hung in the air—so quiet it sent a chill down the spine. Oblivious to the anomaly, he called out, "Dad? Mom? Xiaojia?" A girl's voice answered from the bathroom. "They both went out. They won't be back until later." "Oh, okay." He set the cake down on the round table in the living room. "Xiaojia, come see what I brought you!" As he spoke, he pulled out his phone, snapped several pictures of the neatly packaged cake, and posted them to his Moments with the caption: *Xiaojia, happy birthday!* After posting, he sat down and waited for a moment. Seeing that Xiaojia still hadn't come out, he glanced toward the bathroom. The door was shut tight, no light shone from within, and the gap beneath was pitch-black. Puzzled, he was about to call out again when his phone buzzed with an incoming call. Looking down, he saw it was from his good friend, Liang Ping. The moment he picked up, a gruff voice boomed through the receiver. "Huang Tian! Old Huang! The old iron tree finally blossomed—you actually got a girlfriend! What does this Xiaojia look like? How is she? Do you have a photo?" "Huang Tian" was at a loss for words. "What girlfriend? Did you forget? My little sister's name is Xiaojia—Huang Jia! Didn't the three of us go out for barbecue together back then?" The line fell dead silent. After a long pause, Liang Ping spoke slowly: "Are you... talking about your biological sister?" "Yeah, what of it?" "Bro, don't scare me..." Liang Ping said tentatively. "Are you messing with me, or are you serious?" "Why would I be joking? I even bought a cake. I'm just waiting for my parents to get back so we can eat it together." A sharp intake of breath hissed through the receiver. "You... you... Old Huang, you haven't... lost your mind or something, have you?" Liang Ping hesitated before pressing on. "If I remember right, aren't you an orphan? You grew up in the municipal orphanage! I even visited that place with you! Where did you get parents from? Or did you track down the biological parents who abandoned you? That can't be right—would you really keep something that huge from me?" "Huang Tian" grew irritated. "Old Liang, what kind of nonsense is that? When was I ever an orphan? My parents raised me for so many years and treated me wonderfully! How could they have abandoned me?!" A chill seized Liang Ping's heart. *Crap! Did Old Huang develop schizophrenia? Hallucinating parents and a sister out of nowhere?!* Just as he opened his mouth to say something, a dial tone buzzed in his ear—the call had been abruptly terminated. He hurriedly dialed back, but the phone rang endlessly with no answer. "What is going on?" Liang Ping frowned deeply. "Did something happen to Old Huang?... I'll try again in a few minutes. If he still doesn't pick up, I'm going over there!" Meanwhile, in Room 303. "Huh? Liang Ping hung up?" "Huang Tian" put his phone down with a scowl. "Old Liang is talking completely out of his mind. Hanging up just because I pushed back at him... Sigh!" Just as the sigh left his lips, the bathroom door clicked open, and a frail, emaciated girl stepped out. She wore a white dress that hung loosely around her, as though draped over a bare skeleton. Her skin was deathly pale, as if it had not seen sunlight in ages. Pitch-black hair fell straight down to her waist. Her facial features were faint, her pupils clouded and whitish, staring without a single blink. Her lips lacked the slightest trace of color. Barefoot, with spindly ankles, she walked without making a sound, the hem of her dress fluttering faintly. "Brother, what's wrong?" Her voice was whispery and delicate. "Huang Tian" turned around and saw his sister, Huang Jia, already standing beside him, an inscrutable expression on her face. "Nothing. Liang Ping called and spouted nonsense about me being an orphan. I chewed him out a bit, and he hung up in a huff." "Huang Tian" waved a hand and smiled. "Today is your birthday, so let's not worry about him. Come on, let's unwrap the cake first..." As he spoke, an inexplicable sense of dread crept into his heart. Out of the corner of his eye, he glanced at Huang Jia. She didn't say a word, merely staring fixedly at him with an expressionless face, her hollow eyes like those of a corpse. Terror struck him. His heart pounded wildly, and a thunderclap seemed to detonate inside his mind, as though some binding seal had shattered. *Qingyang Orphanage... I'm an orphan... No, I'm not... No, I am!!* "Aaargh! I can't tell! I can't tell anymore!!" He grabbed his head and screamed in agony. Huang Jia leaned in gently, her fingers brushing against his neck. An icy chill washed over him, causing him to quiet down gradually. "Brother, you're family to us. Family forever..." "Huang Tian" stared blankly at Huang Jia. The words Liang Ping had just spoken flashed across his mind. With a sudden burst of panic, he violently shoved her away—yet it felt like shoving through mist. He stumbled backward, gasping, "What are you? What kind of monster are you?! There was never any Huang Jia in this world!!" Huang Jia drifted forward weightlessly. In the blink of an eye, she threw herself into his embrace, her freezing fingers stroking his neck once more. He tried desperately to push her off, but could not budge her in the slightest. "You are my brother. Why did you have to wake up?" Huang Jia's pale face crumpled like soggy paper, something squirming beneath the surface. Her bloodless lips pulled outward toward both sides, splitting into a thin, elongated gash that tore open all the way to the base of her ears. Staring at the horrific face before him, "Huang Tian" was paralyzed with terror. He tried with all his might to break away, but a single slender hand clamped onto his shoulder, pinning him so firmly he couldn't even twitch. Instantly, a bone-deep cold seeped through Huang Jia's fingers and flooded his body. *Thump~* His heart shuddered and seized. "Huang Tian's" pupils dilated, and within seconds, every sign of life vanished. "Brother..." Slender fingers stroked the face that was still frozen in sheer terror. Huang Jia's mouth stretched wider and wider until half of her entire face was a gaping maw filled with razor-sharp, serrated teeth. *Smack!* A sharp crack rang out. A hand clamped around her slender wrist like an iron vise. Stunned, she looked up, meeting a pair of eyes as tranquil and bottomless as a dark pool. "Hrrk?" A low, puzzled growl rumbled in Huang Jia's throat, as if utterly baffled by how someone who had already died could suddenly return to life. In the next instant, dazzling lightning erupted from Huang Tian's palm! Huang Jia convulsed violently, her face twisting in agony. With a furious screech, she severed her own trapped right arm to escape, whipping up a blast of wind as she fled toward the bathroom. Yet the moment she took to the air, her right leg was seized in a crushing grip. The world spun upside down as she was dragged violently back out of midair and slammed hard onto the floor with a heavy thud! Immediately after, a fist wreathed in blazing flames crashed down upon her head like a collapsing mountain! "Aaaagh!!" A shrill shriek was cut short. Her head burst like a water balloon with a wet pop, splattering ink-black pus and foul blood across the floor! *Whoosh~* The moment she perished, the freezing, dead silence receded like the tide, and a cacophony of ambient noises flooded back into his ears. "Huge sale! Huge sale! All clothing starting at fifty percent off! Fifty percent off!" "Steamed buns, meat buns, two for one yuan! Two for one yuan!" *Honk! Honk!* "Stop honking! The road's blocked up ahead—it's not like I don't want to move!" "Recycling scrap! Buying old phones, old computers, old washing machines!" "..." Inside the apartment, Huang Tian stood tall and straight. At his feet lay a faded, worn bracelet. With a beckoning motion, the bracelet flew into his palm. Probing it slightly, he could feel a dense wave of malice and killing intent emanating from it. "Do those Dream Expellers coexist with this sort of thing, borrowing the power of nightmares to fight against other nightmares?" Pondering the thought, a burst of flame flared from his hand, reducing the bracelet to ash. Instantly, a surge of exceptionally pure energy poured into his body. A moment later, he gave a slight nod. "This strand of consciousness crossed the boundary carrying power roughly equivalent to early-stage Qi Refinement. But after absorbing this spiritual energy, which rivals a heavenly treasure, I've instantly reached middle-stage Qi Refinement, only a hair's breadth away from the late stage. Not bad at all." With his true realm of comprehension, his middle-stage Qi Refinement cultivation combined with his various divine abilities and Daoist arts made confronting even a Dao Foundation cultivator manageable, to say nothing of easily suppressing an ordinary spirit-grade nightmare. "Every nightmare is like a heavenly treasure to me. I can absorb as many as come without ever having too much. After all, for me, no bottlenecks exist before the Soul realm." *Buzz, buzz~* The phone that had fallen to the floor vibrated continuously. Huang Tian knew it was Liang Ping. With a flick of his hand, he drew it into his grasp and answered. "Old Huang, are you... are you okay right now? Do you want me to come over and take you to the hospital?" Hearing the call connect, Liang Ping let out a breath of relief and blurted out anxiously. Faced with Liang Ping's worry and confusion, Huang Tian offered no elaborate explanations. He casually deflected with a few careless excuses, then hung up. Sitting down on the sofa, he opened a search engine on the phone and quickly looked up the world's history, culture, technological progress, philosophies, and strange occurrences. "...This world is called Ancient Star. Its overall technological development is roughly on par with Blue Star, each with its own strengths. For instance, Ancient Star is further ahead in aerospace and biomedicine. The reason... perhaps the influence of nightmares?" With the world shrouded under the shadow of nightmares, and nightmares growing increasingly formidable, humanity's leadership would naturally pour immense investments into aerospace to avoid total annihilation, hoping that one day they might migrate to outer space. Up to now, however, interstellar migration remained impossible. As for biomedicine, genetic technology stood out prominently. Ancient Star's genetic technology had progressed far faster than Blue Star's, demonstrating remarkable efficacy against major diseases. Even so, the technology was primarily applied to medical treatment; things like genetically modified super-soldiers had not emerged. That was hardly surprising. Using gene therapy to cure illnesses versus rewiring genetics to rebuild the human body into gene-enhanced warriors were separated by an insurmountable gulf. Having formed a broad grasp of Ancient Star's cutting-edge science, history, and culture, Huang Tian's expression stirred, and he turned toward the closed front door. *Whoosh~* The outside sounds vanished once more, and the light inside the room dimmed considerably. *Click~* The front door swung open, and an ordinary-looking middle-aged couple walked in. Yet the moment they stepped inside, their bodies froze stiff. They could not sense Huang Jia's aura. At the same time, Huang Tian rose from the sofa and offered them a faint smile, his eyes gleaming with the light of a Taotie sizing up its food. "Welcome home!"