Chapter 75: Ghost"s Wife (11)
The blood red coin fell to the ground and rolled around for a while before finally revealing the devil side.
In an instant, Cheng Zhi Chu"s heart stopped. He instinctively thought that his misfortune was going to worsen and, with "Winter Branch" holding onto him, he was afraid that he was going to die right then and there.
But at this moment, Cheng Zhi Chu suddenly felt strong shaking coming from below his feet. He was surprised for a moment before realising that it wasn"t his imagination and that the ground really was shaking. Even the houses on both sides of the street shook along. The doors flapped open and close, and even the trees in the yard started to sway.
This is………an earthquake?!
Cheng Zhi Chu widened his eyes and had an incredulous look on his face. He almost didn"t have the chance to catch his breath.
How bad must his luck be for him to encounter something like this in an instance? He wouldn"t be surprised if he threw the coin a few more times and a stone suddenly fell from the sky killing him in the process.
"Creaak———"
Because it was very old, the iron fence door nearby couldn"t withstand the earthquake. Along with the sound of metal breaking, the door panel broke away from the door shaft and collapsed onto the ground with a "bang". In an instant, it crushed the severed black hand that held the coin.
The coin flew up in a shape of an arc, bounced on Cheng Zhi Chu"s body and slowly rolled down his body.
The earthquake only lasted for a few seconds but many of the door panels and debris hanging from the roof had fallen, crushing the heads and bodies on the street in the process. The corpses that managed to survive this began to panic. As if they had lost their sense of direction, they uneasily wandered around in circles.
Seeing this scene, Cheng Zhi Chu suddenly realised that the coin was thrown by the severed hand earlier, not him. And thus, the bad luck brought along by the devil"s face belonged to the corpses. To him, it was a favourable situation.
The coin that had jumped back to him slowly descended down his body. Cheng Zhi Chu quickly pulled out his hand and caught the coin. Holding it tightly in his palms, he let out a sigh of relief and silently thanked the demon Chelman.
"Zhi Chu!"
The street was chaotic. From time to time, he would hear the sound of cries coming from the severed heads and dark, thick blood scattering across the ground. The groom that was led away earlier had returned down this street and was calling out Cheng Zhi Chu"s name. His voice sounded very anxious.
A group of dead bodies followed behind the groom and cleaned up the remaining bodies on the street. They seemed to have surrendered to the groom and had become his underlings.
"Mm! Mmm———"
Cheng Zhi Chu wanted to cry out to get the grooms attention but "Winter Branch" had done something to him and had completely taken away his voice. He grabbed his wrist and slowly dragged him back.
No!
His heart tightened. He knew that he shouldn"t let "Winter Branch" take him away. He quickly tossed the coin.
This time he didn"t throw high. The coin fell quickly, and it fell to the clown"s side after landing back in his palm.
Thank goodn——–
Seeing the blood red coin reveal this face, Cheng Zhi Chu was about to let out a sigh of relief but the manhole that he was standing on suddenly broke causing him to fall through.
"Thud!"
Cheng Zhi Chu fell through the manhole and fell onto the ground. His whole body was in pain and he had a few scratches on his body from the fall. Some were even oozing blood.
After falling onto the ground, his five senses were all in turmoil. Inside, he couldn"t help but be confused ——— He clearly threw the lucky side but why did he suddenly fall down a manhole?!
But he then realised that he is no longer under the control of "Winter Branch". The latter seemed to have once again disappeared somewhere.
What was even more strange was that there were no strange smells despite being in a underground sewerage pipe. There was only a faintly cold sensation. The place was very wide and s.p.a.cious, and his body wasn"t wet. He found himself standing on a dry concrete floor.
This place is………..
Cheng Zhi Chu endured the pain in his body and climbed up from the ground. He took out his flashlight and turned it on. He a.s.sessed the dark surroundings and realised that the manhole above was just a disguise. This wasn"t an underground sewerage pipe. It was a wide and s.p.a.cious room.
The room here was very large. The walls and floors were very rough, like a room that had not been renovated yet. It was surrounded by numerous pa.s.sages that extend into different directions. At the very end of each pa.s.sage was darkness. Like an ant"s cave, it was very complex.
Several tattered furniture and miscellaneous items laid scattered around. They appeared to be placed randomly in the room. Because of the earthquake from earlier, the room was a mess and it was even covered in a thick layer of dirt. Fortunately, the building appears to be quite strong and it didn"t suffer any serious damages.
He thought back to the words that the coin demon had said. Those heads were buried under Mr. Mu"s place of residence. He didn"t know whether or not it is related to these underground pa.s.sages. Cheng Zhi Chu took out the coin that he held tightly in his hands and tried to communicate with the demon.
[Is this place connected to the underground of Mr. Mu"s residence?]
[Yes.]
While the coin is in use, Chelman cannot freely appear so he could only stay inside the coin and answer Cheng Zhi Chu. Unlike the tender, childlike voice of his, the voice that came out from the coin was cold and wispy.
[…….But it"s useless finding the place that directly correlates to the location of his house.]
[Because this entire district now is his home, the head that you"re looking for isn"t necessarily under his house.]
What?
Cheng Zhi Chu was shocked. He wasn"t able to completely register the meaning behind Chelman"s words when he heard him continuing.
[When I was still by his side, he had already invested large sums of money to purchase all the houses around him and he built this underground infrastructure. I didn"t expect that after three or four years he had managed to expand this area even more.]
[I think that street that you came from was also purchased by him. As long as he pays for it and it is connected to his house, it is all included in the "residence" category.]
[The heads that he had stolen would also be buried randomly in this place to avoid being dug out by others.]
To be able to buy all the houses in this place………How much would it have costed………
Cheng Zhi Chu quietly took a deep breath. He now understood why the shops were empty. It was probably because Mr. Mu had purchased them all and had set up some traps inside. Maybe there were still corpses hiding inside and preventing others from arbitrarily entering.
[You can throw me again to determine the direction that you should be going in.] The coin said.
Cheng Zhi Chu nodded but he didn"t immediately make a wish. He wanted to climb back out to find the groom first so that they could find the heads together. He didn"t know what traps may be awaiting them and when "Winter Branch" would suddenly appear again so it was to dangerous for him to continue alone.
Thinking this, he looked up at the pa.s.sage that he had fallen from. It was about three metres high and there weren"t any ladders around to use. Climbing it would be impossible.
With the coin in his hand, Cheng Zhi Chu naturally used it without hesitation. He quietly made a wish for him to safely reunite with the groom and then threw the coin.
This time it was the clown"s face. Cheng Zhi Chu felt relieved. He tried to shout out through the manhole opening a few times to try and get the grooms attention.
But this method didn"t go well. Although his voice had recovered after "Winter Branch" had disappeared, the underground s.p.a.ce was too large, so his voice was dispersed as a result. It was also very noisy outside. He waited for a while and didn"t get a response from the groom. It looked like the groom probably hadn"t heard it.
In that case, he should try something else……..
Cheng Zhi Chu"s eyes moved over to the furniture and miscellaneous items placed along the wall. He intended to stack the furniture up to allow him to climb up through the hole.
He a.s.sessed them and found a desk that appeared rather suitable. He raised the flashlight and walked over. Just as he was about to push the desk across, his eyes inadvertently fell to one side and he saw a broken mirror.
The flashlight caused it to reflect a dim light. The mirror covered in spider web-like cracks reflected Cheng Zhi Chu"s image.
Seeing himself wearing a wedding dress through the mirror, especially where the dress was torn to reveal a large portion of his thighs, Cheng Zhi Chu"s eyes twitched slightly. He suddenly felt extremely ashamed. When he was about to remove his eye from the mirror, he suddenly noticed that the image reflected in the mirror had changed.
Like ripples in water, the image started to become blurry and unclear. It then calmed back down.
At this moment, Cheng Zhi Chu felt his hair rise. The image of himself that was reflected in the mirror was currently smirking slightly but he himself definitely wasn"t smiling. Their postures were also completely different, and "he" was slowly extending "his" hand out towards him!
What is this?!
Cheng Zhi Chu took a few steps back. His expression changed. At the same time, he heard the coin say belatedly:
[Earlier you got the devil"s face so you would lose something.]
[I can"t decide what you will lose but now it seems like……….you had lost your own good luck and had returned back to your original state.]
Why is it such a scam?!
Cheng Zhi Chu almost spat out a bit of blood. He immediately wanted to toss the coin again but the hand moved faster. It travelled through the mirror and gripped tightly onto Cheng Zhi Chu"s hand. It then pulled him completely into the mirror!
As he pa.s.sed through the mirror, Cheng Zhi Chu felt as if he had pa.s.sed through a wall of cold water and was surrounded by bitter coldness. After going through it, he found himself falling into a warm embrace. A pair of strong, firm arms looped around to his back.
"Don"t be scared, Zhi Chu."
A low-pitched male voice could be heard above his head as he comforted the young man in his arms with a hint of a smile in his voice. He gently patted his pack and allowed him to lean on his shoulder.
……….Bai Yi?
Cheng Zhi Chu could immediately tell who this voice belonged to. He had a stunned look as he blankly raised his head and saw the man"s familiar handsome face. He had a tear mole next to his right eye that made him look both gentle and charming, pale upturned lips and bright eyes. The man noticed his gaze and proceeded to touch his cheeks and then gently plant a kiss onto his forehead.
"I"m here."
It"s really Bai Yi…….But why would he be here? Also-Also, he kissed him…….
Cheng Zhi Chu"s heartbeat raced. He was both happy and shy. His cheeks were dyed bright red.
He knew that he couldn"t hide the shame in his expression so he couldn"t help but bow his head to avoid the man"s eyes. Unfortunately, the other party used his slender fingers to lift his chin forcing him to once again look up.
"Bai Yi? Why are you here? Aren"t you……." Cheng Zhi Chu asked in a small voice. He then suddenly realised that something wasn"t right. Bai Yi shouldn"t be able to appear in reality, let alone suddenly come out from within a mirror.
His breathing stopped and his words stopped along with it. He looked up at the other party only to see that the smile on the man"s face had become several more degrees colder, like those of a ghost. No matter how gentle that look is, it would be very difficult to hide the coldness within.
"What"s wrong?"
The man rubbed Cheng Zhi Chu"s head, but it only made his hair stand up. He quickly pushed the man"s hand away and took a few steps back.
"After finally letting you see my true appearance, you"re not happy about it?" The handsome man raised his eyebrow. Although he was still smiling, there was a hint of gloom in his eyes. "Or do you prefer that man up there?"
"Sure enough………It"s not enough just becoming one with you. I need to let you thoroughly sense my presence."
Cheng Zhi Chu"s expression changed. He said with fear: "You are "Winter Branch"?!"
"If you want to call me that, I don"t mind." The man answered gently, "You can also call me "Bai Yi" if you want."
"You"re not Bai Yi. You"re also not the real Winter Branch. You are just a ghost of unknown origin."
Cheng Zhi Chu felt a chill run down his back. His heart was filled with fear and his voice trembled, but he didn"t want to see "Winter Branch" use Bai Yi"s face and voice.
"Can"t you reveal your true appearance? Why do you have to take up a fake appearance using Bai Yi"s face and voice?"
"Fake?"
As if he had heard something funny, the man let out a low laugh. His chest shook slightly and there was a hint of amus.e.m.e.nt in his eyes.
"I don"t know which "Bai Yi" you"re referring to but……How do you know that that "Bai Yi" is real and I"m fake?"
"I can tell you with certainty, Zhi Chu, this is my true appearance."
The man strongly grabbed Cheng Zhi Chu"s hand and brought it over to his face. It was as if he was asking him to confirm it personally.
"I am me. I am not pretending to be anyone."
He placed Cheng Zhi Chu"s fingertips onto his lips and gently kissed it. With dark and deep eyes, he stared straight at Cheng Zhi Chu before slowly speaking up again.
"Zhi Chu, do you want to deny my existence that much?"
"I will be very upset."
The man with an appearance that was exactly the same as Bai Yi gave him too much of a shock. Although Cheng Zhi Chu didn"t believe anything the man had said and also knew that he is not Bai Yi, he still couldn"t help but blush and feel his heart racing. Even his reaction had slowed down by half a second.
While his mind was in confusion, the handsome man"s lips hooked up slightly and he revealed a charming smile. Seemingly knowing that he couldn"t resist this face, he continued to take advantage of his weakness. Holding him in his arms for a while, he then pushed him down onto the ground.
The world in the mirror was exactly the same as the world outside, but it was also a little different. Cheng Zhi Chu fell to the ground, but he didn"t feel the slightest pain. His body had also completely softened, and he couldn"t exert any energy. Lying helplessly on the ground, he could only watch with wide eyes the other man approaching him.
Shrouded by a shadow, the man pressed one hand beside his head and smiled at him. With the other hand, he began to unb.u.t.ton his shirt to slowly reveal his firm chest.
He leaned over to Cheng Zhi Chu"s ear and said softly.
"Come and feel me properly."
"I"ll leave it up to you to confirm whether or not I am the real "Bai Yi"."
Bai Yi"s Diary (Part 75)
I have also thought about whether or not I am the original me.
My soul had broken into many pieces and I am just a shard of it, but I just happened to be made up of most of the soul pieces. There were still another half that wasn"t there. I also retained my original "player" status, so I claimed that I am "Bai Yi".
As for the other "me""s, the majority of them had gained a new ident.i.ty and appearance. Some had lost the original memories belonging to "me", had forgotten about themselves and thought of themselves as another person. Others still retained "my" memory but, because they had changed so much, they lost the name "Bai Yi".
But if they insist that they themselves are "Bai Yi", I don"t think I can deny it. In essence, I am no different from them; we are all "Bai Yi" but also not the real "Bai Yi".
If one day I was to retrieve all my soul fragments and merge them all together to complete my soul, would I still be "me"? I don"t know.
Perhaps, at worse, I would lose everything, leaving behind only my love for Zhi Chu.
But even so, I would still have my everything.
Because he is my everything.
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KK has something to say:
The true appearance of “Winter Branch” is revealed!