When the lights first went out, Zheng Haiyang simply assumed a breaker had tripped or the power had failed—an ordinary occurrence in the countryside these days.
Tan Wenbin’s heart gave a sudden thump. The memory of having dinner at a dead-flipper’s house had left a lingering shadow deep in his mind, but aside from a slight tremor in his hand as he held his chopsticks, he still managed to convince himself that he was just being overly jumpy.
Runsheng held his chopsticks steadily in his right hand, his jaws still chewing when the lights died, but his left hand had already gripped the handle of the Yellow River shovel resting against the bench beneath him.
The instant the light flickered back on, Runsheng glanced at the ding on the table and immediately shifted his gaze to Li Zhuiyuan across from him.
At a single signal from Xiao Yuan, he would not hesitate to swing his shovel and crush the skulls of the two elderly people beside him.
In truth, Li Zhuiyuan had caught slight tremors and wavers in the old couple's voices the moment the darkness fell. The clatter when the large bowl of the head dish was set down had also struck him as off—what family used a vessel supported by long, pointed prongs at the base?
They were dining at home, not in a grand restaurant; there was no reason to prop up a metal frame with burning solid alcohol beneath it just to keep the dish warm.
If Li Zhuiyuan had not been tracking the exact positions of Zheng Haiyang’s grandfather and grandmother by their voices, he might have wondered whether the elderly couple's severed heads would be resting inside the newly served vessel when the light returned.
Since it was called the head dish, finding an actual human head inside wouldn't have been entirely unthinkable.
Having once been blind, his hearing was exceptionally keen.
Yet even though he had sensed something amiss in advance, he hadn't dared to act prematurely.
In an unfamiliar environment, he might have told Runsheng to flip the table before the lights even came back on.
Regardless of the circumstances, however, this was Zheng Haiyang's home. Zheng Haiyang was his classmate, Tan Wenbin's close friend, and a pitiful boy who had just lost both parents.
The instant the light revealed the ding, a fierce surge of revulsion rose within Li Zhuiyuan. What was the point of having such meaningless emotional attachments? It was utterly foolish!
Fortunately, Li Zhuiyuan came to his senses in time and suppressed the instinctive urge, preventing himself from having an episode at such a critical juncture.
The boy pinched the skin on the back of his left hand with his right fingers and twisted hard.
The pain was secondary; the terrifying truth was that it proved his surroundings were real—neither walking the yin path, nor a dream, nor hypnosis.
This was reality.
And that thrust the dilemma back before him. For Zheng Haiyang's grandparents to use a bronze ding as a serving bowl proved they were no longer normal.
One could wake from a dream, but when reality was altered, it rarely returned to how it was.
A familiar, agonizing predicament had resurfaced.
This time, however, Li Zhuiyuan did not hesitate. He lifted his gaze and shot a signal across the table to Brother Runsheng.
Runsheng raised his shovel at once.
Snap!
The lights died once more.
Throughout the entire house, from the bedroom doors to the courtyard, every pasted talisman turned black and drifted down.
It all happened too fast. What followed instantly was a personal warping and folding of spatial perception.
Li Zhuiyuan had not moved at all, still sitting firmly on his bench, yet he felt as if he were riding a roller coaster backward, his body hurtling rapidly to the rear.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
Three successive crashes of bodies hitting the floor.
The noises varied in volume—the closest was five meters away, the farthest over twenty meters.
Evidently, the other three had leapt up in shock, lost their balance, and tumbled to the ground.
Only Li Zhuiyuan, who had remained seated on his bench, managed to stay steady.
"Aaargh!"
It was Tan Wenbin's agonizing scream.
The cry started distant, rushed close, and then receded far away again, echoing as though across an empty valley.
The next moment, Li Zhuiyuan heard footsteps behind him. The newcomer wore cloth shoes, treading lightly.
Among the four of them, only Runsheng wore cloth shoes, but Runsheng was heavy-footed, and in an emergency like this, he would never tiptoe.
Li Zhuiyuan braced his hands against the bench and slid down.
Whoosh!
A sharp hiss of parted air cut directly above him. Was it a blade?
Though surrounded by pitch darkness where nothing could be seen, Li Zhuiyuan could picture an old man or woman standing behind him, slashing a kitchen cleaver horizontally across the space where he had just been sitting.
Li Zhuiyuan spun around, planted his feet against the floor, dropped instinctively into a horse stance, and shoved the long bench violently forward with both hands.
Every day, he practiced the horse stance and breathing exercises Uncle Qin had taught him. Over time, the results had become striking; his lower base was solid, and his bursts of strength were both more powerful and enduring.
His age and underdeveloped frame still made him seem frail compared to ordinary high school seniors, but measured against normal peers his own age, he could have reigned supreme across an entire elementary school.
A solid impact shuddered through the bench. A blow to the knees easily ruined an opponent's balance, and the figure collapsed.
Before Li Zhuiyuan could follow up, a violent sense of spatial disorientation struck again. He shut his eyes immediately, hoping to minimize the disturbance by cutting off his visual input, only to realize that standing dumbly in place was far too dangerous.
He snapped his eyes open, reopening all his senses, and instantly lost all concept of up, down, left, and right. He fell and rolled frantically across the floor.
Because of that roll, he heard the repeated thuds of chopping blades—clearly, the elderly person he had knocked over was maniacally hacking at the spot where he had fallen.
Li Zhuiyuan could not help wondering: Were their reactions naturally sluggish, or were they blind to their surroundings as well?
Scritch!
Scritch!
Two little sparks flared into flame, one nearby and one far off.
Both Runsheng and Tan Wenbin carried matches, striking them to signal their companions.
Yet why had they struck their matches at the exact same moment?
Although they were eating inside, even with the power cut, there should have been moonlight outside. Right now, not a trace of external light seeped through.
Why, then, would this presence allow a flame to appear at this precise moment?
The match heads continued to burn.
Runsheng's voice called out, "Xiao Yuan! Xiao Yuan!"
It was undeniably Runsheng's voice, but because the pitch shifted between near and far, it was impossible to tell which light it came from.
"Brother Xiao Yuan! Brother Xiao Yuan!"
That was Tan Wenbin's voice, equally disorienting, impossible to tie to either flame.
Li Zhuiyuan scrambled up, bypassed the closer match flame, and sprinted toward the one in the distance.
One of the two flames was definitely a trap!
Even if Runsheng and Tan Wenbin had coincidentally struck their matches at the same moment, neither would stand stupidly still upon spotting the other's light.
To be precise, Runsheng might choose to stay put to signal and wait for him, but Tan Wenbin had screamed earlier and was likely injured; seeing Runsheng's flame, he would inevitably move toward him for protection.
Tan Wenbin knew better than anyone who possessed the real combat strength among them, and whose side offered the greatest safety.
Even if he had to crawl, he would crawl toward Runsheng.
Sure enough, after running for some distance, the distant flame sharpened in Li Zhuiyuan's vision. He saw Runsheng, with Tan Wenbin grimacing in pain beside him.
They had lit a match together and were waiting for him. The other match was the trap.
Suddenly, Li Zhuiyuan heard footsteps behind him—still the light tread of cloth shoes, though some distance away.
"Xiao Yuan, look out!"
Runsheng bellowed, swung his Yellow River shovel, and smashed it straight toward him.
The shovel was aimed directly at Li Zhuiyuan.
Runsheng had seen him, but his spatial perception was distorted. He had shouted for Li Zhuiyuan to watch out, which, combined with the footsteps Li Zhuiyuan heard, meant that in Runsheng's view, the danger was behind Li Zhuiyuan.
Runsheng was swinging at the pursuer behind him.
Yet in Li Zhuiyuan's perspective, the shovel was coming right at his own face.
It was like solving an exam problem: you had to anticipate the examiner's intent. The entity wanted him to be bludgeoned to death by Runsheng.
Dodging backward might throw him straight into the shovel's true path.
Of course, there was the possibility of a nested trap, anticipating his anticipation.
Yet while grasping the examiner's intent, one also had to gauge the examiner's skill. The earlier twin match flames showed the entity's traps were relatively straightforward.
There was no need to overthink it. Instead of dodging, Li Zhuiyuan charged straight toward Runsheng's shovel.
The shovel came crashing down, but before Li Zhuiyuan had run very far, he collided directly into Runsheng's chest.
His judgment had been correct.
Runsheng was right in front of him; backing away from that swing would have been fatal.
"Xiao Yuan!"
Runsheng kept the shovel in his right hand and grabbed Li Zhuiyuan's arm with his left.
Once physical contact was made, the spatial distortion between the two of them ceased.
Li Zhuiyuan pulled upward, and Runsheng understood, hoisting the boy onto his back with a lift of his left arm. The boy locked his arms around Runsheng's neck.
"Brother Runsheng, close your eyes."
"Got it!"
Runsheng shut his eyes, handing over full command to the boy.
Li Zhuiyuan closed his eyes as well, focusing entirely on his hearing.
"Ten steps straight ahead."
Runsheng set off immediately.
Tan Wenbin gripped the back of Runsheng's undershirt, trailing close behind.
"Turn left."
Runsheng turned left.
"Twelve steps forward, then six steps right."
Runsheng obeyed without hesitation.
All around them, the scuff of cloth shoes sounded incessantly. The two cleaver-wielding elders were clearly frantic, yet they dared not pounce.
Guided by the boy, who only had to call out which direction a foe approached from, Runsheng could shatter their skulls with his shovel even with his eyes shut.
Those two elders held only a visual advantage; at their core, they were still just two old people.
"Straight ahead. Chop with the shovel—this is the kitchen door."
Runsheng raised the shovel and began hacking.
Ahead, no sound of chopping could be heard, deliberately shifted far, far away by the distortion.
After several heavy chops, Runsheng followed up with several kicks.
"Fifteen steps forward."
Runsheng advanced.
In the layout of Zheng Haiyang's house, the dining area and kitchen shared one space. Exiting the kitchen led to the living room, and through the living room was the only true way out.
It was a game of blind maze-running, but Li Zhuiyuan had lived that game during his days of blindness.
"Turn right. Twelve steps. It feels far away, but smash the door. The living room door has glass—be careful."
Runsheng moved to the position as instructed and began smashing through the door.
By Li Zhuiyuan's deduction, the abnormal space was likely confined to this house.
Even if it spanned slightly wider, it wouldn't matter. Once outside the house and down past the courtyard wall, the open terrain stretched far, and the neighbors lived distant from one another. If worse came to worst, he could have Runsheng sprint wildly across the fields; he refused to believe they couldn't run beyond its reach.
Tan Wenbin understood what Li Zhuiyuan intended. He wanted to remind them that one person was still missing, but he knew Xiao Yuan was far too clever to have forgotten Zheng Haiyang.
He could understand why Xiao Yuan chose not to search for him, prioritizing escaping danger to reach a safe zone first. More importantly, he was currently nothing more than a tagalong clinging to Runsheng; he had no right to make demands.
All he could do was get out first, then beg Xiao Yuan to find a way to save Haiyang.
"All right, that should do it. Brother Runsheng, let's go out—"
"Aaargh! Aaargh!"
Zheng Haiyang's shrieks drifted from not far behind.
"No, no, no! Save me! Save me!"
Tan Wenbin bit his lower lip so hard it bled, yet he said nothing, not even daring to tighten his grip on Runsheng's shirt.
The close friend he had always sheltered was in dire peril, yet he had to turn a blind eye.
It was not out of cowardice; if he were alone, even knowing the mortal danger of turning back, he would have dashed back without a second thought.
Right now, however, he feared doing so would drag Xiao Yuan down and compromise the boy's judgment.
Zheng Haiyang's scream did give Li Zhuiyuan pause, but only for a fraction of a second.
Then came his firm, steady command:
"Get out! Twenty big strides, then jump!"
Runsheng bolted, and Tan Wenbin ran with him.
Runsheng leaped. Though Tan Wenbin tried desperately to count Runsheng's paces, keeping up with his stride had already pushed him to his limit, and he leaped half a beat late.
A searing pain shot through his knees as he flipped over and slammed heavily onto the ground.
Opening his eyes, he saw stars in the night sky and the vegetable patches around him.
They were out!
Tan Wenbin looked ahead. Aside from the ramp leading up and down, the perimeter of Zheng Haiyang's courtyard was enclosed by a low concrete railing less than a meter high.
Xiao Yuan had calculated the distance earlier, which was why he had told Runsheng to jump. Tan Wenbin had failed to leap in time, slamming straight into the barrier and tumbling over.
Fortunately, it was only bruised knees and scraped skin—nothing serious.
Runsheng turned around, looking back at the house courtyard they had just fled.
Li Zhuiyuan patted Runsheng's shoulder, and Runsheng supported the boy with one hand, helping him alight smoothly.
"Brother Runsheng, use your undershirt to bandage Brother Binbin."
"Right!"
Runsheng pulled off his undershirt, ripped it into strips, and wrapped Tan Wenbin's left arm, barely halting the bleeding.
In the pitch black earlier, Tan Wenbin's arm had taken a cleaver strike. Though it bled profusely, the wound was not fatal; after all, it hadn't been swung by someone of Runsheng's build.
Li Zhuiyuan and Runsheng, on the other hand, were entirely unscathed. Li Zhuiyuan had relied on his hearing to evade attacks, while Runsheng had swept his Yellow River shovel continuously, keeping the two elders at bay even while blinded.
Tan Wenbin had simply been lucky; striking his match in time had allowed him to reach Runsheng's side.
Originally, he should have been one of the two facing the greatest peril.
As for the other, he was likely still inside the house.
"Brother Runsheng, my luopan."
Tan Wenbin chimed in at once, "It's in the kit bag, still inside the house."
The gear bag had been at Runsheng's feet earlier. He had deliberately drawn the Yellow River shovel beforehand and leaned it within arm's reach, learning from the lesson of their dinner at Zhou Yong's house.
When total darkness struck, he had only had time to keep hold of the shovel, with no chance to grab the rest of the gear.
However, Runsheng reached into his trouser pocket and pulled out the purple luopan.
"Xiao Yuan's luopan—I always keep it on me."
Li Zhuiyuan took the compass and began deducing the geomantic pattern before them.
Very quickly, he discovered something.
"We haven't left its sphere of influence yet. We're still inside."
Runsheng bent his back immediately, ready to hoist the boy up again.
Tan Wenbin grew tense. Was everything they were seeing right now also an illusion?
"It's not a major issue. The area we're in now is blocked from the outside, not from within. People on the outside can't see the changes in our position. Though we're still inside, we've cleared the most dangerous zone."
Hearing that, Runsheng and Tan Wenbin both breathed a sigh of relief.
Tan Wenbin called out timidly, "Xiao Yuan..."
"I know."
Li Zhuiyuan kept his head down, continuing his deductions.
As long as he could map it out, the darkness within would be as clear as if a lightbulb had been rehung, and the danger would cease to be danger.
Li Zhuiyuan had initially considered sending Tan Wenbin running out to fetch Tan Yunlong.
Indeed, having come here tonight to salvage the artifact, how could he not have notified Tan Yunlong?
If he didn't tell Tan Yunlong, to whom would he hand the salvaged object over to the state?
In reality, Tan Yunlong had been monitoring the perimeter since afternoon, accompanied by four plainclothes officers.
When the four boys had come from the school, they hadn't stopped to greet them because their paths were different, and Tan Yunlong was going to keep watch through the night regardless.
Yet looking at the wound on Tan Wenbin, Li Zhuiyuan realized this presence was exceptionally vicious; the protective effect of the "plaque" might not suffice here.
Calling Tan Yunlong and his men in rashly would only endanger their lives.
"Aaargh!"
Just then, Zheng Haiyang came stumbling out through the shattered living room doors, covered in blood from multiple blade wounds.
He clutched a wooden stool, swinging it madly to ward off pursuers.
Behind him, his grandparents advanced step by step, brandishing dripping kitchen cleavers.
Tan Wenbin yelled at the top of his lungs, "Haiyang! Haiyang! Haiyang, over here!"
If he reached the edge of the courtyard and dropped down, he would be safe.
As long as they could see, Runsheng handling two elderly people would be effortless. Even without Runsheng, Tan Wenbin could manage it himself.
Li Zhuiyuan snapped, "Shut up!"
"What?"
Tan Wenbin didn't understand at first, but comprehension dawned on him quickly.
Sound propagation within this domain could also be manipulated.
Zheng Haiyang seemed to hear Tan Wenbin's voice, but the direction was distorted. Instead of drawing closer to the three of them, he was lured toward the diagonal rear, exposing his flank directly to his grandparents.
Both grandparents raised their cleavers and hacked down.
The grandfather's blade was faster, landing a hit. Zheng Haiyang screamed, immediately dropping to the ground and rolling—a raw animal instinct fighting for survival.
Fortunately, that rapid roll allowed him to evade his grandmother's slash.
Yet by the time he struggled back to his feet, he was drenched in blood from head to toe, his steps unsteady.
That very roll, however, brought him closer to the courtyard edge, almost within arm's reach.
Zheng Haiyang backed up two slow steps, his body coming within a mere decimeter of the low concrete wall.
Then he halted. He did not step backward anymore; instead, he began shifting toward the left. Still gripping his stool with white knuckles, he shook his head repeatedly—a sign that severe blood loss was blurring his consciousness.
His grandparents pressed forward with their blades, closing the distance.
At that moment, Li Zhuiyuan raised his head and turned the luopan facedown.
Tan Wenbin was overjoyed, assuming Xiao Yuan had completed the calculations.
He stared at the boy, waiting for him to speak.
Yet the boy remained silent, merely gazing ahead with calm detachment.
Tan Wenbin made as if to reach out his right hand. He didn't extend it completely, still keeping some distance from the railing; all it would take was a single nod from the boy, and he would seize Zheng Haiyang and haul him into safe territory.
Li Zhuiyuan patted Runsheng's arm, and Runsheng raised his hand at once, slapping Tan Wenbin's reaching arm away.
Tan Wenbin's eyes went wide. He dared not look at Li Zhuiyuan, sinking softly to his knees, his face etched with agony and inner turmoil.
Zheng Haiyang's grandparents continued to close in, while Zheng Haiyang had lost all capacity to react, merely holding up an empty posture.
Li Zhuiyuan began backing away step by step. As he retreated, he glanced down at Tan Wenbin kneeling on the ground.
Runsheng backed away as well, reaching out to grasp Tan Wenbin's clothes.
Tan Wenbin lay slumped on the ground, dragged along.
Fearing that making any noise would disrupt Zheng Haiyang, Tan Wenbin suppressed his emotions, though tears and snot had already spilled down his face.
After retreating a certain distance, Li Zhuiyuan stopped, stepped behind Runsheng, and peeked out to keep watching the courtyard.
Runsheng pulled Tan Wenbin back as well, letting him lean against him.
Tan Wenbin drew a deep breath, struggled to his feet, and waved his hand at Runsheng to signal he was fine. Then he looked at Li Zhuiyuan and nodded firmly.
His gaze turned resolute again. Though pain was still visible, the hesitation and struggle had vanished.
This surprised Li Zhuiyuan, yet it felt natural in a way.
Perhaps this was simply Tan Wenbin's nature: like ordinary people, he could be frail, but after that moment of weakness, he could quickly adjust and regain his fortitude.
While professing love for what one secretly feared was usually a flaw, having the courage to face that fear again and again was its own virtue.
Zheng Haiyang's grandparents finally reached him.
Yet the dazed look in Zheng Haiyang's eyes abruptly hardened into chilling resolve. He reached out, took the cleaver from his grandmother, turned toward the courtyard perimeter, and hurled it straight at Li Zhuiyuan and the others.
Runsheng swung his Yellow River shovel. With a loud clang, the cleaver was batted away.
Zheng Haiyang's grandfather raised his cleaver and threw it as well. Unfortunately, being old and frail, his blade clattered to the dirt a meter short of the trio.
Then, Zheng Haiyang and his grandparents stood side by side against the low wall, staring coldly down at the three outside.
In the evening breeze, the bodies of the two elders and the youth swayed gently with the gusts.
Water seeped continuously from their eyes, ears, noses, and mouths, thoroughly soaking their clothes.
Tan Wenbin was stunned. Though he had suspected as much when Xiao Yuan retreated, facing the brutal reality still proved hard to swallow.
His close friend had been possessed as well?
Zheng Haiyang standing so close to the railing earlier—hadn't that just been bait to lure him into reaching out?
And if he had truly reached out to pull him to safety, what would his fate have been?
No—if Runsheng hadn't slapped his reaching arm away, with the distance between them, Zheng Haiyang could have turned and cleaved him down on the spot.
If Xiao Yuan hadn't opened up distance in time, dodging those two thrown cleavers wouldn't have been easy either.
Tan Wenbin suddenly recalled what Zheng Haiyang had told him the night before: he had said he felt no sorrow over his parents' deaths.
Tan Wenbin had comforted him at the time, but looking back, Zheng Haiyang might already have been compromised back then.
"Brother Xiao Yuan... did you realize it all along?"
Of the two matches, one had been struck by Runsheng and Tan Wenbin. Who had struck the other match that tried to lure him in?
Just as they were about to breach the living room door to escape, Zheng Haiyang's screams had sounded at the perfect moment, tempting them to turn back and save him.
Once they fled outside and left the darkness behind, Zheng Haiyang had also managed to burst through the living room door onto the courtyard.
Who was that performance meant for?
The examiner was not particularly skilled, and its intent was not hard to deduce.
Yet all of that had merely been Li Zhuiyuan's intuition and conjecture; he had possessed no definitive proof that Zheng Haiyang had already been taken over.
The real reason he had refused to intervene was simply that he was unwilling to gamble.
His relationship with Zheng Haiyang was not that close, nor their bond that deep; there was no reason to run such grave risks to save him.
He and Runsheng had taken risks before and nearly come to ruin, but those had been situations he actively chose to experience, which was fundamentally different from being dragged in against his will.
However, this reasoning was not something he could tell Tan Wenbin; it would only make him hurt more.
So Li Zhuiyuan simply offered a calm reply:
"Mm."
Tan Wenbin gritted his teeth, pointed toward the courtyard ahead, and asked, "Brother Xiao Yuan, is there... any saving them?"
Li Zhuiyuan's gaze swept over the courtyard corners and the doorframes of the house; his talismans were nowhere to be found.
"I don't know what sustains the darkness inside, but it shouldn't last very long. At the very least, by daylight, this place will return to normal."
Tan Wenbin murmured in anguish, "So... there's no hope?"
Zheng Haiyang had only just lost his parents. Now he was losing his grandparents as well—no, even he himself was...
Li Zhuiyuan shook his head.
Whether there was any way to save them, he did not know, but he certainly lacked the power to do so.
Furthermore, across all the volumes Wei Zhengdao had written, there had never been any mention of a human turning back after becoming such a thing.
If such a method existed, the one buried beneath the peach tree would have used it on him long ago.
Li Zhuiyuan could attempt to walk the yin path right now and use the methods from the black-bound ledger to puppet one of the three, but there was no meaning in doing so.
Tan Wenbin scrubbed his face hard, his jaw clamped tight.
In his ears echoed the words Zheng Haiyang had blurted out that day after school, when water had suddenly gushed from his body before he collapsed unconscious:
"A sea turtle lies beneath the brine;
Disturb its rest and lose your line!"
What on earth lay beneath that seabed to be so ruthless?
It truly spared no one, bent on wiping out the entire bloodline!
Suddenly, Li Zhuiyuan's ears twitched.
Runsheng spun around instinctively, shielding the boy behind him.
A figure was sprinting toward them at high speed.
He moved with incredible swiftness, like a hunting leopard.
However, he was running toward the courtyard from a different direction, not crossing paths with the three of them.
"Xiao Yuan?"
Li Zhuiyuan did not reply. He saw no reason to have Runsheng intercept this sudden arrival.
In fact, given where the three of them stood, ordinary outsiders couldn't easily enter; otherwise, Tan Yunlong and his men would have noticed something wrong and rushed over long ago.
At that moment, the sprinting man turned his head and looked their way.
One side of his face was severely swollen with edema, his eyeball apparently popped out long ago, leaving only a dark, hollow socket.
Yet he seemed to be smiling.
His single good eye fixed intently on Li Zhuiyuan among the three.
Li Zhuiyuan did not recognize him, but the man's gaze suggested he recognized Li Zhuiyuan.
An answer regarding his identity surfaced in the boy's mind.
Zhu Changyong!
The man who had descended into that undersea realm alongside Zheng Haiyang's parents and returned alive.
The very man Xu Wen was searching for so desperately.
Though he was still agile, he scarcely resembled a human being anymore.
Yet why had he appeared now?
Li Zhuiyuan turned his gaze back to the courtyard, and it hit him—they had gotten the hostile relationship wrong.
Zhu Changyong leaped onto the courtyard, plunging into the darkness.
His arms groped about, seemingly struggling to adjust at first, but soon he let out a laugh—a bizarre sound, his vocal cords clearly mangled.
Right now, he was like a walking slab of decaying meat.
Zheng Haiyang and his grandparents turned to face him simultaneously.
Zhu Changyong pounced. The darkness held no power over him.
He charged Zheng Haiyang's grandfather, flooring him with a single punch. When Zheng Haiyang's grandmother and Zheng Haiyang himself leaped forward to claw and bite, he tossed them aside with brutal efficiency.
His combat skills were formidable. If he had been the one attacking the three of them inside the house earlier, they would never have made it out alive.
On the courtyard, it looked like four rabid beasts tearing at one another, but the alpha was effortlessly suppressing the other three.
Zhu Changyong pried open Zheng Haiyang's jaws and shoved his hand directly down his throat. Moments later, when he withdrew his hand, his fingers clutched a tiny, writhing creature.
Squelch!
Zhu Changyong yanked it out and snapped it in two.
Then he turned on the grandparents. Terrified, the two elders tried madly to flee, only to be tackled to the ground once more.
From the grandmother's mouth, Zhu Changyong hauled out another wriggling thing and snapped it just the same.
Finally, the grandfather straightened, his neck stretching rigid as a fleshy lump rose in his throat.
Because of the height and angle, Li Zhuiyuan and the others could see clearly even from a distance: the thing crawling out of the mouth on its own was a hatchling turtle.
Unlike ordinary hatchlings, its shell was a muted grayish-purple, reflecting eerie markings in the moonlight.
The instant the hatchling emerged, Zhu Changyong leaped forward and seized it. As he landed, he grabbed its head and pulled it from the shell, stretching the neck long until, with a wet squelch, he tore it off!
Immediately after, Zhu Changyong dashed into the house, emerging moments later clutching the bronze ding.
He raised the ding high and slammed it violently against the sharp concrete corner of the courtyard railing.
Crash! Crash! Crash!
Under the repeated, savage impacts, the ding shattered.
A turtle the size of a large soup bowl flew out, latching directly onto Zhu Changyong's chest.
His clothes tore open instantly, and his chest visibly caved inward.
Zhu Changyong reached up several times to rip it free, but his efforts were futile. The turtle seemed to know the fate awaiting it once detached, clinging to his chest like a suction cup.
"Aaaargh!"
Zhu Changyong spread his arms wide, threw his head back, and let out a furious roar like a wild wolf, the skin across his entire body splitting into fissures.
Yet he immediately lowered his head, leaped down from the courtyard, and broke into a dead sprint.
He retraced his original path almost exactly.
As he passed their previous vantage point, he turned his head once more, glancing at the boy.
"Brother Runsheng, after him!"
"Right!"
Runsheng bent down, and Li Zhuiyuan hopped onto his back.
Runsheng began to run.
Yet even though Runsheng ran with all his might, his pumping shoulder blades knocking painfully against Li Zhuiyuan with every stride, he still could not catch Zhu Changyong. Instead, the gap between them widened.
Zhu Changyong's running posture was no longer human.
No normal person could twist and hinge their joints in such a distorted fashion.
Just then, Li Zhuiyuan heard the roar of a motorcycle engine. Glancing back, he saw Tan Yunlong.
Despite thorough preliminary investigations, the turn of events remained beyond belief.
It brought to mind what Tan Yunlong had told him yesterday: investigating cases always involved bizarre twists and turns, and what brought about the strangeness was never the case itself, but the people entangled within it.
Yet in the end, along the closing threads, events always steered back onto their ordained track.
Tan Yunlong had finally encountered the Zhu Changyong he was looking for.
However, Zhu Changyong was not running along the road. He took an odd path, plunging straight into the woods. Li Zhuiyuan peered ahead—he was heading for the river!
Tan Yunlong's motorcycle soon became useless. He abandoned it by the roadside and gave chase on foot.
Yet Zhu Changyong did not slow in the woods; if anything, he moved faster. By the time Li Zhuiyuan, Runsheng, and Tan Yunlong broke out of the trees, the figure had already appeared in the sand quarry down by the riverbank.
Environmental protection had not yet received much attention in those days, and sand quarries were everywhere and bustling; even at night, the machinery ran continuously.
Zhu Changyong stood by the machine's intake sluice, turned around, and looked back at the three pursuers.
He showed no intention of running farther; he had deliberately waited here.
By now, the turtle that had refused to let go of his chest grew terrified and tried to pull away, but Zhu Changyong locked his arms around his own torso, pinning it forcibly against him.
"You must... you must..."
He strained to produce sound, like a hoarse wail piercing the night.
His single eye stared fixedly at Li Zhuiyuan, fighting to shout, fighting to make himself understood.
At first, Li Zhuiyuan thought the man wanted to issue a warning, urging them never to set foot in that undersea realm again.
Yet what Zhu Changyong cried out was:
"You must... you must go there... and take it!"
With that, he hurled himself down into the churning sluice below.
In an instant, an explosion of minced flesh and gore sprayed outward.
Even with his vast investigative experience, Tan Yunlong was shaken to the core. His instincts told him that the man had come here intentionally, choosing precisely this way to die!
In all his years of chasing suspects, he had never witnessed anything like this.
Two quarry workers, alerted by the commotion, came hurrying over. Tan Yunlong barked at them to shut the machinery down at once.
The engine ground to a halt, but the man had already been scattered everywhere.
Li Zhuiyuan and Runsheng returned to Zheng Haiyang's house and walked up to the courtyard.
Tan Wenbin was kneeling there, staring blankly at Zheng Haiyang's corpse before him.
Hearing footsteps, Tan Wenbin looked back, then pointed toward the three corpses lying on the ground ahead.
"Brother Xiao Yuan, he's dead."
He had eaten boiled shrimp, but he had never seen the creatures skinned alive.
He had seen dead-flippers, and corpses in the river, but he had never watched such a gory ordeal unfold right before his eyes—let alone to his close friend.
"Brother Binbin, this is the other side of the world you wanted to see. It isn't nearly as fun or interesting as you imagined."
"Yeah..."
"It's still not too late for you to walk away."
Tan Wenbin fell silent.
"Brother Runsheng, go retrieve our gear and gather the talismans."
Tan Yunlong walked up then, looking down at his kneeling son, heartache evident in his eyes. Yet he restrained the urge to comfort him, turning instead to Li Zhuiyuan.
"Xiao Yuan, tell me. What on earth happened here?"
"Uncle Tan, if I don't say anything, how will you file your report?"
"I can only report what I saw: that Zhu Changyong committed suicide while fleeing after a murder."
"Report it just like that, Uncle Tan. But don't mention us."
"That isn't the truth, though, is it?"
"Uncle Tan, once you file that report, a different group of people will come to ask you for the truth. When that happens, you can share your suspicions with them."
Tan Yunlong immediately thought of Yu Shu, who had appeared not long ago. Last time, Tan Yunlong and his men had accompanied him to several sites, and the man was clearly not there for ordinary criminal investigations.
"Xiao Yuan, will they really come?"
"They will. As long as you submit Zhu Changyong's name and tell them the words he screamed before he died. Aside from the three of us, you don't need to hide anything from them, Uncle Tan."
"I understand."
Tan Yunlong grasped the point. Sometimes, knowing the truth beforehand only made it harder to withstand questioning during an investigation.
The boy wasn't trying to keep secrets from him; he was looking out for him.
Li Zhuiyuan walked up behind Tan Wenbin and patted his back.
"Brother Binbin, we're heading home now."
Runsheng had loaded their belongings onto the tricycle and was already waiting. Li Zhuiyuan climbed aboard.
The tricycle had only rolled a short distance before it came to a halt.
Someone was holding on to the back.
Li Zhuiyuan turned and saw Tan Wenbin, who had chased after them. In his eyes was a stubborn resolve, as if he had made up his mind; he knew that whatever had truly killed Zheng Haiyang came from that seabed.
For the first time, Tan Wenbin brought up the nickname Li Sanjiang had given him without any trace of his usual cheekiness. With utter sincerity, he said:
"Why didn't you wait for me? Zhuangzhuang wants to go home, too."
Chapter 55