Chapter 143: 140 Wang Daye

Bypassing the museum with its carved beams and painted rafters in the amusement park, and walking through the horror house with its intricate designs, Wang Daye arrived at a deep, secluded path. Walking forward, the path was no longer paved with trivial greenery; stepping over the yellow mud trail worn down by footsteps, one could see the dilapidated prefab house hidden among the trees. That was Wang Daye's employee dormitory.

Colleagues had once lived in that place too, but they eventually could not bear the cold and dampness of the prefab house during the transition between spring and summer, nor the frequent harassment of snakes, insects, rats, and ants in the summer, and they all eventually moved away. Only Wang Daye remained willing to live there, simply because living in this place required no dormitory fees, and there were not even any expenses for water or electricity.

Wang Daye returned to the tin prefab house where he had worked and lived for ten years.

Opening the door, the light from outside seemed unable to penetrate, and the darkness inside was difficult to illuminate. His withered fingers gently pointed and flicked in the pitch-black room, and the electric light inside was turned on, illuminating his spotless, tidy dormitory, and at the same time illuminating a lonely, dark, and wrinkled old face.

He stood at the doorway, looking at the familiar surroundings, listening to the rustling sounds of insect activity hidden in the corners, and the corners of his eyes began to moisten, unable to help but shed tears for his impending farewell to this place.

The thing he worried about most had finally come. The amusement park supervisor had asked to speak with him this afternoon, directly announcing that his labor contract would expire at the end of the month and stating that it would not be renewed.

Yet the bitter truth that made his heart ache was that the reason the amusement park was not renewing the contract was not because business was going from bad to worse, but because his age had reached the point where no one was willing to hire an old man like him anymore.

Wang Daye picked up the mirror on the table by the window, looked into it, and saw that haggard, gloomy, rough old face covered in brown spots. His hands trembled slightly; he had not expected that he was already this old.

Age is a very mysterious number in this busy society; only when it is brought up do people realize how much they have lost.

Wang Daye was no exception. He lamented that his ten years of time had passed by so hurriedly, and he did not know what he should do on the road ahead.

His family still needed money; he could not be old yet.

Wang Daye put down the mirror, then took off his shoes and sat cross-legged on the bed. With red eyes, he looked at his ankle, which revealed a burn scar, and muttered, "Is it because of you that I have become so unlucky?"

He rubbed the scar, and the scab of the scar was like a stubborn leech tightly attached, firmly fixed on it.

He rubbed hard, rubbed vigorously, rubbed with all his might, rubbing until he gritted his teeth, the bed board vibrated, rubbing until it felt like the skin and flesh were about to separate... A smear of bright red stained the skin of the burn scar, and also coated his thumb, which was stained with skin fragments.

The pain brought Wang Daye back to his senses. He looked at the scar, which still revealed a mysterious symbol mark even after the skin had been rubbed raw, and the shock and anger in his heart slowly turned into pure fear.

"What on earth is this thing? What does this symbol mean? Why would it appear on my foot?" The doubt in Wang Daye's heart deepened his inner anxiety.

He could only recall that the madman who had committed murder with a knife that day had, before dying, used his blood-stained hand to grab the ankle where the mysterious scar had appeared, muttering about the passing of a mission and the inheritance of a task.

But this had no meaning; he would not do such a thing.

Wang Daye knew very well the meaning of the madman's last words, but those last words were like the whispers of a demon, appearing incessantly in his dreams and when he was lost in thought, urging and tempting him to walk toward an unknown depravity and fall into an irredeemable hell.

The pained Wang Daye subconsciously picked up the photo frame on the table again. In the photo inside the frame was a picture of a family of three. He clutched the photo of his younger self, his gentle wife, and his happy daughter, curled up at the head of the bed, letting the blood from his ankle drip onto the bedsheets, longing for his family to give him silent strength.

Ding-a-ling...

The vibration and warmth of the mobile phone in his pocket woke Wang Daye. He sat up in shock from the bed, looking at the desk, the bed, the lamp, and the wardrobe in the dormitory. The things in the dormitory had not changed at all, but the sky outside the window was already pitch black, and the cunning crescent moon was hiding behind thick clouds.

Wang Daye picked up his phone, looked at the caller ID and the clock displayed in the corner of the screen, and only then realized that he had slept for so long without knowing it.

Looking at the caller ID, Wang Daye dared not delay any longer and answered the phone.

"Hello." Wang Daye's tense, bitter face suddenly thawed, as if bathed in a spring breeze, revealing a peaceful and simple smile. "Nannan, what is it?"

"Dad, my summer vacation is almost here. Will you be going back?" His daughter's gentle and crisp voice made him feel as if he were holding a clear spring, sweet as nectar, and his brow smoothed out.

Wang Daye was silent for a long moment, then smiled and said, "I will. From now on, I will be home often."

Wang Daye's tone was relaxed, but his daughter seemed to be able to hear her father's broken heart. She asked somewhat nervously, "Dad, did something go wrong with your work? I saw that news..."

"It's nothing." Wang Daye interrupted his daughter's questioning, his deep intake of breath sounding like a sigh, and said, "How are things at university? There's only one year left until you graduate. How is your preparation for the postgraduate entrance exam?"

Hearing this, his daughter was silent for a moment, then said dryly, "Dad, I don't want to go to graduate school anymore."

"Don't worry about money. Dad still has some savings here; it's enough for you to study." Wang Daye's tone became serious. "Don't worry about my affairs. Although your dad doesn't have much ability, I can still afford your education."

"Then at least let me work and study at the same time, okay?" His daughter softened her attitude.

Wang Daye did not agree immediately, but he also knew that his daughter had inherited her mother's gentleness, but had also inherited no less of his stubbornness. Knowing that his own toughness might provoke an even tougher rebellion from his daughter, he took a step back after some thought and said, "As long as you can ensure that your studies can proceed smoothly, you can work and study at the same time."

"Okay, I promise." After hearing this, his daughter laughed happily. Listening to his daughter's hearty laughter, Wang Daye also felt genuine joy.

Without realizing it, they talked until late at night. Wang Daye urged his daughter to rest early, and he also had to wash up early, preparing to end this physically and mentally exhausting day with sleep.

After taking a shower and lying down on the bed, the exhausted Wang Daye soon entered dreamland.

That night, Wang Daye had a strange dream. He dreamed of the vast universe, the colorful and ever-changing dimensions of time and space. He was like a tiny speck of dust, floating uncontrollably in that vast and endless time and space. Those scenes that transcended common sense and were bizarre and inexplicable deeply stimulated his brain. In a trance, he heard the madman's whispers again, only this time the madman's whispers became exceptionally ethereal and deafening, like the vast and deafening sound of Buddhist chanting, striking directly at his heart.

When he woke up from the dream, Wang Daye was so frightened by the scene in the room that he lost all color in his face. He saw snakes, insects, rats, and ants all over the floor, all flipped over, exposing their bellies, dead in patches, everywhere. Their state of death... was as if they had been scared to death.