Meeting

Ah, the familiar darkness, the familiar weight, and the familiar sensation of his consciousness constantly sinking. Yu Sheng's thoughts drifted in the depths of a chaotic darkness, and surging up alongside the pressure coming from all directions was an overwhelming helplessness and exhaustion. He had thought that before leaving that "foreign domain" there might still be many twists and turns, even considered that he might have to "die" more than once, but he had guessed the beginning and the end—just not this process. While drifting and sinking in the darkness, he couldn't help but recall the last scene he saw before losing consciousness: in that instant of blurry flash, those crimson-gold pupils that came into view, those magnificent fox tails blooming like fireworks in the night curtain… And that subsonic headbutt. So who exactly was that girl who had headbutted herself to death? Where had she come from? And why had she appeared in this foreign domain? And then… what was with the changes to his body while fighting that monster? The strength and agility that appeared out of nowhere, and that hunger impulse? What exactly had happened to him? Yu Sheng felt his chaotic, tangled thoughts whirl in his mind like a vortex, and without the restraint of flesh, these uncontrollable "thoughts" kept transforming before his "eyes" into all manner of strange and fantastical phantasms, mixed within which were countless memories rising from the depths—he saw the monster piled from countless limbs, and then the sudden "headbutt" girl with a fox tail and ears, but the next second he saw an oil painting, in which Irene lay torn apart around a chair, the doll's limbs connected by cobweb-like threads, and a strange shadow vaguely standing in the depths of the picture… Suddenly, Irene disappeared again, and new images surfaced in the depths of Yu Sheng's memories—crimson clouds and sky, sunlight flowing like water, staining the familiar old streets and alleys. Oh, that was the place where Yu Sheng was born and raised, his familiar "Jiecheng," an unremarkable small coastal city, and he had left it two months ago… but for some reason, when the images from the depths of memory surfaced, he felt as though they were from a very long time ago, so distant they seemed like someone else's memories, coldly presented before his eyes. All the images disappeared, and finally only gentle darkness enveloped the surroundings. Yu Sheng felt his thoughts grow somewhat clear, and after a moment's hesitation, he tried calling out in his heart: "Irene." In the darkness, there was no response. It seemed that in his state of "death," the connection with Irene would be severed. Next, Yu Sheng tried to turn his "gaze," searching for other objects in this darkness and confirming whether his limbs existed. He saw nothing; it was empty here, and he himself seemed to be only a drifting, rootless "thought," with no body at all. Yu Sheng silently tried more things. In his previous two "deaths," he had no experience at all and had almost muddled his way back to the "human world," but this time he began to consciously perceive this process, testing all sorts of guesses. He knew that during this period he had been muddled and confused: a strange world, eerie phenomena, mysteries about himself, coming back from the dead… too many things he couldn't understand were crammed together, leaving him without a clue. But since Irene told him about the concept of "foreign domain," he knew he had a goal again—he wanted to go back, to return to the "normal" side. When the holes of the foreign domain occasionally opened toward people, ordinary people, the instant they saw the scenes leaking from the holes, would cross the edge of reason and arrive at the other side beyond the normal. This process might be because they got off at the wrong stop while riding, because they took one extra step while going downstairs, even because they turned one extra page of a book and misread a character, and… opened the wrong door. But whatever the cause, the crucial thing was that this process was not irreversible. According to the intelligence Irene revealed, there were people in this world researching foreign domains, people who had summarized the laws of foreign domains, even experts specializing in solving foreign domain problems, and even ordinary people, after falling into a foreign domain, had a chance to return. This valley shrouded in night curtain was a foreign domain, and No. 66 Wutong Road where he now lived was a foreign domain, but Yu Sheng thought his first contact with a foreign domain was even before that—when he pushed open his home door two months ago, perhaps he had already fallen into a foreign domain centered on himself, called "Jiecheng." Now, he wanted to explore as much as possible, to figure out as much of these strange things as possible, to understand knowledge related to foreign domains, and then… leave this wrong world. So, he opened his eyes. Cold night wind blew through the large hole in the wall; outside the half-collapsed roof was a turbid sky canopy. He sat in a corner of the ruined temple, but did not immediately get up; instead, he remained motionless in the posture of just waking, cautiously perceiving everything around him, while trying to seize the memories and "impressions" rapidly slipping away from his thoughts. He was trying to recall the feeling of the instant he woke, to determine the boundary where he returned from the darkness to the "present world." He felt this might be the key to understanding his "coming back from the dead" process. At least, this could bring him a little closer to the truth of these mysteries. Vaguely, he began to recall certain scenes he had "seen" in the instant before waking; he recalled rising from the darkness, crossing a hazy boundary, then sinking toward reality… but after that? Between "sinking toward reality" and "opening his eyes"? In that brief instant, what happened? He seemed to have seen several fleeting images, quickly, very blurry, among which several were relatively clear… including the small road near his home, the front gate of No. 66 Wutong Road, and… this corner in the depths of the ruined temple. Yu Sheng's eyelids drooped slightly, thoughts gradually calming in his mind; some guesses arose, but he temporarily set those notions aside, and then he softly exhaled and began to move his hands and feet in small movements. This body was pure and robust; he could even feel the majestic power flowing in his blood vessels. He heard clearly, saw far, his limbs full of strength—despite not long ago being struck by a subsonic headbutt that severed everything below his neck, but now he was completely hale and hearty again. He stood up from the corner, preparing to call Irene. But in the next second, he forcibly stopped his own movement. Because rustling sounds came from outside the wall. Hearing this sound, Yu Sheng's first reaction was—that monster that smelled pretty good had actually followed him into the ruined temple?! But soon he felt something was wrong, because that monster's commotion was always earth-shattering, not cautious like this. Taking a light breath, Yu Sheng, moving with caution, slowly approached the broken hole in the wall and looked out through the opening. The night curtain was deep, but his eyes could see very clearly. He saw a girl carefully walking among the temple ruins. The girl wore a tattered robe-dress that seemed to have once been a beautiful dress, now only dirty rags remained; her long white hair, long uncombed, hung messy, covering most of her face, and atop the girl's head… was a pair of pointed fox ears. But compared to those furry ears, Yu Sheng's gaze fell more on what was behind the girl—those tails. Fox tails, more than one, but Yu Sheng from his angle couldn't count clearly how many tails there were—moreover, since the girl looked truly miserable, he even suspected it was one big tail that had become matted from too long without grooming… By now Yu Sheng of course recognized her. She was that subsonic headbutt. But the headbutt seemed not to notice Yu Sheng nearby; she was just cautiously skulking among the temple ruins, twitching her nose from time to time as if distinguishing and searching; after a while, she seemed to find something, her eyes lit up and she quickly ran toward somewhere. The sound of rustling a plastic bag came through the night. Yu Sheng widened his eyes. That was the bag of kitchen waste he had brought with him when he was previously "thrown" into this valley, which he had casually tossed into the ruins. Inside were vegetable leaves and eggshells thrown away from cooking at night, and leftover rice and dishes previously cleaned out from the refrigerator. He clung to the wall, saw the fox-tailed girl excitedly but clumsily tearing at the plastic bag, accidentally spilling everything out, then saw her without hesitation grab a clump of leftovers and shove it into her mouth without a care— as if she had been hungry for many, many years. Yu Sheng suddenly felt a sense of suffocation. He didn't know why, but he felt very uncomfortable; he felt… people shouldn't be starved like this. Even if she didn't look very much like a "human." Even if she had once given him a headbutt—but back then she had wanted to save him. And just then, the girl seemed to finally sense the breath of a "living person" in the ruined temple. She squatted on the ground, a rotten vegetable leaf in her mouth, turning her head in shock and nervousness. Yu Sheng stood at the collapsed corner of the ruined temple, separated by the ruins, locking eyes with her across the rubble.