Chapter 386

Every time he returned from a river-walking trip, Tan Wenbin would set aside one day to visit his relatives in Shigang Town. He would either go to see his grandparents or visit his maternal grandparents, and since establishing a relationship with Zhou Yunyun, he would also add a greeting to his prospective father-in-law and mother-in-law.

These three locations were visited in rotation, but no matter which family he went to, on his way back, he would always stop by Zheng Haiyang's grave to pull some weeds and talk for a while.

Tan Wenbin knew that even the best of classmates and brothers would, for the most part, become strangers after growing up; even if they still kept in touch or held reunions, the friendship would inevitably grow thin.

But the damnable thing was that while he, Tan Wenbin, could continue to grow and mature, Zheng Haiyang's life had been frozen forever at the time when their relationship was at its best.

That night, Tan Wenbin truly witnessed the horror of the other side of the world, and it was also that night that he swore to avenge Zheng Haiyang, chasing after them and boarding the tricycle ridden by Runsheng, where Brother Xiaoyuan was also present.

At this moment, he saw that turtle again, exactly the same as the one from that night.

When the gazes of man and turtle met, it was as if an invisible force had gripped Tan Wenbin's throat, leaving him unable to breathe; his heart felt as if it had been kicked hard, and his pupils gradually lost focus.

"Brother Bin, Brother Bin, it's me, Haiyang~"

"Brother Bin, hehe, after you stood up for me, that group of people really didn't dare to come and bully me again."

"Brother Bin, you got beaten by your dad again. Let me treat you to some fried skewers to make up for it; this time, you have to let me pay!"

By his ear, Zheng Haiyang's voice became clearer and clearer.

His soul felt as if it were being thrown into a quagmire, sinking continuously.

However, just before Tan Wenbin's gaze became completely dazed, a pair of snake eyes appeared.

The snake eyes began to lock gazes with the turtle.

In an instant, fresh blood flowed from Tan Wenbin's eye sockets, the snake eyes collapsed, but Tan Wenbin's pupils also regained their focus.

Earlier, when he had arrived at the entrance of the Nantong Hotel and called Brother Xiaoyuan back, Brother Xiaoyuan had reminded him to be careful and vigilant.

I have been staying alert and on guard the whole time.

But you still used this kind of trick, thinking you could trap me? Do you really think I've been eating for free while following Brother Xiaoyuan these past two years?

You dead turtle,

just how much do you look down on me!

Tan Wenbin's right hand instantly turned crimson, the Blood Ape power surging, as he grabbed toward the turtle on the headrest of the seat.

He grabbed the turtle's neck and instinctively squeezed with all his might.

"Snap!"

Not only the neck, but the limbs and the shell all exploded at this moment.

Tan Wenbin stood on his tiptoes, his body lunging forward, his crimson right hand habitually about to slap toward the woman sitting in the back row.

As it stood, if an ordinary person were to take his palm strike head-on, this Blood Ape force would be enough to smash their head like a watermelon!

Li Lan continued to sit in her seat, legs crossed, arms folded, her expression calm.

It wasn't that she hadn't had time to react, because the corners of her mouth were still curled into an arc of understanding.

Tan Wenbin's hand stopped abruptly, just a few inches from Li Lan's head.

He withdrew his hand, not because she was Brother Xiaoyuan's mother, but because Tan Wenbin knew very well that if the one sitting in the car right now were truly that giant turtle, he would have had no ability to resist, let alone counter-kill.

The only one who could make a decision on this situation was Brother Xiaoyuan; he could not act on his own authority in a fit of impulse.

"Auntie... there was a fly in the car, I just swatted it."

Li Lan nodded and said, "The car is indeed a bit dirty. Is it your own car?"

"Yes, it is. We used it for a long trip last time and didn't have time to clean it after we got back."

Tan Wenbin sat back down, pulled a tissue from the car's storage compartment, and wiped the bloodstains from the corner of his eye.

Li Lan: "There is a car wash ahead, you can get it washed."

Tan Wenbin looked up, watching Li Lan through the rearview mirror, and smiled: "Car washes there are so expensive. We usually drive the car to the riverside and wash it with river water."

"As far as I know, you aren't short of money, are you?"

"We aren't short of money, but we have many mules at home; we don't mind the extra work."

When nothing had happened earlier, the car felt oppressive; now that something had actually happened, the awkwardness and distance had instead vanished.

Li Zhuiyuan's figure appeared beside the car door and handed the wallet to Li Lan through the car window.

Tan Wenbin showed the blood-stained tissue in his hand to Brother Xiaoyuan for a glance.

Li Zhuiyuan walked around the car to the front passenger door and pulled it open.

Li Lan: "Son, aren't you going to sit with Mom?"

Li Zhuiyuan: "I'm used to sitting in the front; it's convenient for looking at the scenery."

Li Lan: "But you are the best scenery in Mom's eyes."

Li Zhuiyuan pushed the front passenger door shut, walked to the back, pulled open the rear door, and sat inside.

"Brother Binbin, sorry for the trouble of coming to pick us up."

"It's no trouble, it's only right."

The car started, circled halfway around the flower bed at the hotel entrance, and merged into the road.

Li Lan turned her head to look out the car window and sighed:

"It's been so many years since I've been back; Nantong has really changed a lot."

Li Zhuiyuan: "It hasn't reached the stage of rapid urbanization yet. The changes in the future will be even greater."

Li Lan: "The future... I don't know if I'll still be able to see it."

Li Zhuiyuan: "The future is something you chose yourself."

Li Lan nodded: "Yes, I've already chosen. Mom also once chose a future for you, but you, in the end, still made your own choice."

Li Zhuiyuan: "My being able to come to Nantong, isn't that your choice?"

Li Lan rested her hand on the car window glass, leaned her body to the side, brushed aside her hair, and looked at Li Zhuiyuan with interest:

"Son, the path you are walking now, is it really the one I chose for you?"

Li Zhuiyuan: "You should have come into contact with it long ago; why didn't you try to walk this path yourself?"

Li Lan: "I came into contact with it too late."

Li Zhuiyuan: "I don't believe that reason."

Li Lan: "That is one of the reasons. The main reason is that at the time, I thought that by not walking this path, I could instead skip over it faster and reach the end."

Li Zhuiyuan: "You were overconfident."

Li Lan reached out and gently patted her own face, then pinched a bit of her own skin. Although she was the mother of a teenager, when she performed this action, she could still reveal a hint of playfulness, but the meaning expressed by this action was cold and cruel:

"At that time, I had no more time."

Li Zhuiyuan: "Then, did you succeed in skipping this path?"

Li Lan: "When I jumped off the boat and dived into that sea area, I didn't know if I could succeed;

when I surfaced from the seabed and took a boat back to shore, I was also unsure if I could count it as a failure."

Li Zhuiyuan reminded her: "We haven't reached the village yet, and it hasn't been twenty-four hours."

Li Lan's hand rested on the teenager's face, her fingertips slowly stroking it.

"In this world, how many mothers can strictly adhere to rules in front of their children, saying one thing and meaning another?"

As she spoke, Li Lan looked at Tan Wenbin, who was driving:

"You specifically had him drive to pick us up, son; you are anxious."

Li Zhuiyuan: "I should naturally show a reasonable level of urgency."

Li Lan: "The same applies to me."

At a red light ahead, Tan Wenbin brought the car to a stop.

He had a vague premonition that he was about to hear some incredible information.

His palms were sweating nervously, dampening the steering wheel.

Li Lan shook the wallet in her hand: "You haven't checked it, have you?"

Li Zhuiyuan: "No."

Li Lan: "There is an interlayer inside."

Li Zhuiyuan: "I didn't know."

Li Lan: "Careless."

Li Zhuiyuan: "If you don't want me to know, I wouldn't be able to find it anyway."

Li Lan opened the wallet, unfolded the cleverly designed interlayer, and presented it to Li Zhuiyuan. Li Zhuiyuan took a look; it was empty.

"Son, take it; this is Mom's pocket money for you."

Li Lan pulled two banknotes from the thick stack of money in the wallet and handed them to Li Zhuiyuan.

"Xiaoyuan, is such a small amount a bit stingy if used as comparison money?"

"It can be used to refuel this car."

Li Zhuiyuan reached out and took them, his fingertips stroking them, and he observed them intently, but couldn't see anything unusual.

Immediately, Li Zhuiyuan cast his gaze onto the wallet in Li Lan's hand.

Li Lan took out all the remaining banknotes inside and handed the wallet over.

"Here you go."

Li Zhuiyuan unfolded the interlayer in the wallet, first placed one of the banknotes he was holding inside, then held it up, letting the sunlight outside shine onto the outer skin of the wallet. A thin halo of light shone through, and traces of another layer gradually appeared on the banknote; it was a painting.

However, each angle of light could only present fragments of this painting, like a scattered jigsaw puzzle; one had to scan the whole thing after "getting it in hand" to piece it together.

Li Lan: "How does this design feel?"

Li Zhuiyuan replied calmly while staring at the changes in the banknote:

"Intentionally damaging Renminbi is illegal."

"Mom just attached a film to it; it can be peeled off."

This painting was not refined, which did not mean Li Lan's painting skills were lacking; on the contrary, Li Lan's foundation in this area had long been an expert among experts.

She was copying it, with the goal of achieving an authentic reproduction.

Finally, the painting on the banknote presented a full cycle before Li Zhuiyuan's eyes, and a complete painting immediately appeared in the teenager's mind.

The next moment,

the teenager's pupils shook violently.

This painting depicted a large ship anchored in the middle of a vast ocean.

On the deck stood many people.

A young man and a young woman stood together, shoulder to shoulder.

This pair of young man and woman was the center of the painting.

Beside them were many other men and women.

But even for this pair at the center, their facial features were blurred and not detailed, so the others on the ship could only be represented generally as "many people."

But even so, the layout and positioning details of this painting instantly impacted a memory in Li Zhuiyuan's mind.

He had had this dream!

It was during his third year of high school; Wu Xinhan, the principal of Shigang Middle School, had specifically looked after him and hung a curtain in his office, placing a spring bed inside for him to take naps.

That day, after he finished setting problems for the Olympiad math class, he went to the office, lay down to rest, and had the exact same dream as in this painting.

The moment he jumped into the sea, he woke up, and then he saw Wu Xinhan eating lunch with Zheng Haiyang outside the curtain. News had just arrived that Zheng Haiyang's parents, who were sailors, had met with an accident, and Wu Xinhan was counseling and comforting him.

At that time, Zheng Haiyang was still alive.

At first, this dream didn't seem very special to Li Zhuiyuan; after all, influenced by his great-grandfather's fortune-turning ritual, he often had even more bizarre dreams.

However, witnessing one person after another die bizarrely at the hands of the turtle, especially the scene of Zheng Haiyang's entire family being wiped out, gave this dream a very different significance for Li Zhuiyuan.

Perhaps it was a case of "thinking by day and dreaming by night," but it could also be some kind of divination hint.

After all, on that ship in the dream, beside him were A Li, Cuicui, Runsheng, and Tan Wenbin...

In the dream, he looked to be the age Tan Wenbin was at the time, that is, the age of a normal high school senior, just having reached adulthood.

Therefore, this dream could be understood as a kind of premonition or prophecy: one day in the future, after he reached adulthood, he would lead a group of people to that East Sea, jump off the ship, and enter the seabed.

At that time, he hadn't yet lit the lamp to walk the river; he was just a fledgling who had just entered the Xuanmen and caught a glimpse of the scenery, not knowing how vast this world was, nor how far this river stretched.

Now, ruminating on this dream, the "he" in the dream had already lived to adulthood.

The "he" who had "lived" to "adulthood."

Perhaps only he, his companions, and Zhao Yi and Chen Xiyuan could realize what it meant when both of these concepts were realized in himself...

And at that time, he went to the East Sea; who was he looking for? And who could he look for?

Right now, the biggest shock before him was:

His dream had actually been painted by Li Lan—no, copied by her.

If it were just a dream, no matter how much one analyzed it, it would be like duckweed without roots; but what if the dream fell into reality?

Li Zhuiyuan: "Where did this painting you copied come from?"

Li Lan: "Haven't you always wanted to know what Mom saw on that seabed?"

This painting came from that seabed.

Li Zhuiyuan silently took the first banknote out of the wallet interlayer and stuffed the second one in.

He didn't rush to hold the wallet up to the light to collect the "jigsaw puzzle" like before, but instead took a deep breath.

Sunlight shone through the car window onto the teenager's face, and the tip of Li Zhuiyuan's nose was already beaded with a hint of crystal.

Tan Wenbin, who was driving, didn't know the content of the painting, but he was very surprised: was this heavy breathing really coming from the usually calm Brother Xiaoyuan?

Li Lan: "Do you know, although the figures in this painting, especially their faces, aren't refined, the first time I saw it, I 'recognized' who the person at the very center was.

Xiaoyuan, I am indeed not a qualified mother.

But I should be one of the mothers in this world who understands her son best.

Because,

even if you tore off all the human skin on your body, Mom would still recognize you."

Li Zhuiyuan: "I only intended to erase the role of mother from my life, but I never thought about killing you."

Li Lan leaned back against the seat and said to Tan Wenbin, who was driving: "Little classmate, you smell like smoke; give me a cigarette."

"Okay, Auntie."

Tan Wenbin held the steering wheel with one hand, and with the other, he took out a lighter and a cigarette case from his pocket and handed them over.

Li Lan took out a cigarette with practiced ease, lit it, and exhaled a smoke ring.

Li Zhuiyuan: "I thought that between us, we only hoped for the other's mental destruction. So, my mother really hopes for me to die."

Li Zhuiyuan, you make me feel disgusted.

Li Zhuiyuan, why haven't you gone to die yet?

That day at the entrance of Auntie Zhang's shop, the boy had his ear pressed tightly against the receiver, listening to these words coming from the other end while showing a warm, obedient smile to his grandfather, grandmother, Hu Zi, Shitou, and the others in front of him.

In the car, Li Zhuiyuan closed his eyes in pain.

The illness had flared up again.

The human skin seemed to be cracking again.

He thought he had done well enough, had controlled and improved to a certain degree, and had the confidence to face this woman.

But sure enough, the woman before him was the existence in this world most skilled at peeling off his human skin.

The teenager clenched his hands, letting his fingernails dig into his palms, instinctively wanting to use physical pain to offset and vent a little bit of the mental tearing.

But his fingernails touched the faint mark A Li had left on his palm that morning.

When he was still feeling good about himself, only those who truly cared about him would worry about the worst-case scenario.

She didn't want him to hurt himself; she hadn't even been willing to break the skin on his palm.

Li Zhuiyuan struggled to unclench his hands, his knuckles turning white.

The teenager's face remained pale, cold sweat constantly oozing out; he pursed his lips, struggling hard against this flare-up of his illness.

This was the most severe flare-up he had had since he started falling into the inner demon; even in the past, it had never been this intense.

The main body must have felt it.

At this moment, it was actually the best time for the main body to launch an offensive against the "inner demon," swallow and dissolve it, completely take control of this body, and become the "Li Zhuiyuan."

Because at this moment, Li Zhuiyuan had no power to resist at all.

He had built a flood dam for himself, but when the dam collapsed, the surging flood would only be more terrifying.

But the main body didn't make a single move.

He didn't kick him while he was down, nor did he take advantage of the situation; he was very quiet.

Not only that, the main body seemed to be practicing self-restraint, effectively helping Li Zhuiyuan suppress this flare-up, resisting the fusion with Li Zhuiyuan at this time.

Because the main body knew clearly that it wasn't the right time yet; what he sought was not that kind of "taking his place" at any cost, only to enjoy it for a moment.

He knew very well that the Dragon King courtyards of the two families that had no spirits, and this Li Zhuiyuan outside who had a little bit of emotion and acted according to the style of the righteous Jianghu, were the key to maintaining the fragile balance with the Heavenly Dao.

Li Lan saw the mark on the teenager's palm; it wasn't caused just now, nor was it caused by her son's fingernails—that nail mark was clearly from a little girl.

"Son, are you in puppy love?"

Li Zhuiyuan closed his eyes, tilted his head back, and took a deep breath.

Li Lan: "Is it the girl who was standing shoulder to shoulder with you in the painting?"

She took a puff of the cigarette, opened her mouth, let the smoke swirl and circulate in her mouth, and then exhaled it gently.

Li Lan moved the hand holding the cigarette outside the window and flicked the ash.

"Mom is really curious, what kind of girl could be close enough to you to reach this extent?

Your father was already the most suitable and excellent one Mom could choose at the time.

I admit, when I was first with your father, I did have a little bit of feeling.

But soon, I couldn't help but start to reject him, to be repulsed by him from the bottom of my heart... even though I knew I shouldn't be like this, couldn't be like this, I couldn't control myself.

Heh,

the person sleeping beside you, his inadvertent words and actions, will make you feel that he is really... *puff*...

At that time, I realized that so-called love, men and women, couldn't stop the speed at which the human skin on my face was dissolving; all my hope could only be pinned on my belly that had just begun to show.

Son, tell Mom, when you are with her, don't you have similar feelings?"

Li Zhuiyuan's expression finally returned to calm; he had suppressed the flare-up.

Teenager: "Brother Binbin, water."

"Here, Brother Xiaoyuan."

Taking the water Tan Wenbin handed over, he twisted off the cap, Li Zhuiyuan took a sip, and replied:

"Li Lan, in my eyes, you are just a fool."

Li Lan laughed.

Li Zhuiyuan twisted the cap back on and, in the same posture as Li Lan now, leaned his back against the seat:

"Among us, the stupidest, the most ridiculous one, is you."

Li Lan: "There is one more painting you haven't looked at."

Li Zhuiyuan: "I've already guessed the content of the painting."

Li Lan: "Then tell me, let me hear if you're right."

Li Zhuiyuan: "It lost."

Li Lan: "So confident?"

Li Zhuiyuan: "As long as the first painting holds true, the result of the second painting is the only one."

The "he" who had lived to adulthood, regardless of the purpose for going to the East Sea.

That giant turtle had no possibility of winning.

This had nothing to do with confidence; this was a fact, an inevitability.

In that wave of the Dream Ghost, although the one who truly issued the decree in the end was the Great Emperor, there had been a three-legged standoff.

This meant that those three were existences of the same level.

There was just one problem here, and that was Wei Zhengdao, who appeared in the dream... Li Zhuiyuan couldn't determine which period of Wei Zhengdao he was.

The teenager believed that Wei Zhengdao became more powerful the further along he went.

The reason was simple: existences like the Great Emperor of Fengdu were still pursuing, at any cost, longevity and continued existence.

Wei Zhengdao, on the other hand, was constantly trying to invent various suicide methods, suffering and furious because he couldn't succeed in killing himself.

What existences like the Great Emperor desperately sought was exactly what Wei Zhengdao despised and loathed most.

The Heavenly Dao was currently plotting to use him and then kill him; if he could break through this destiny of Heaven's will, smash open these shackles, and live to adulthood, then his achievements would only be higher than Wei Zhengdao's.

Because he awakened earlier than Wei Zhengdao, and his development period was countless times more difficult than Wei Zhengdao's.

"Hehehehe..."

Li Lan let out a laugh, covering her mouth with one hand, laughing a bit exaggeratedly.

Li Zhuiyuan put the second banknote into the wallet interlayer, held up the wallet, and kept rotating the angle, starting to collect the "jigsaw puzzle."

Li Lan: "What, still can't help but want to take a look?"

Li Zhuiyuan: "I want to see how it dies."

After collecting a full cycle, the second painting appeared in Li Zhuiyuan's mind.

The moment he "read" this painting, Li Zhuiyuan also laughed.

In the second painting, it depicted a broken, dying giant turtle that had already lost.

More specific details about the giant turtle weren't shown in the painting; it only depicted this "state," or what could be called the "result."

This wasn't an intentional roughness due to limited space; a large part of the reason was that beside the giant turtle in the painting, on its limbs, and on its shell, stood densely packed young men.

This young man... represented Li Zhuiyuan at that time.

Li Zhuiyuan laughed because there was no earth-shattering battle, no thrilling Dharma combat, and certainly no rivers of blood or heavy costs.

In the painting, he won very cleanly.

Regardless of whether it was the giant turtle's own initiative or it was passively influenced by him, in short, the giant turtle had replicated a vast number of "Li Zhuiyuans."

Many people had already suffered from the unfathomable cooperation between himself as an inner demon and the main body.

Under absolute rationality, only the development of the situation that best fits the interests will be born.

That was that all the "Li Zhuiyuans" would not kill each other, but would collectively join forces to suppress and kill the giant turtle.

As for how all those "selves" would wrap things up afterward, that had nothing to do with the giant turtle, because it would no longer exist.

As a giant under the East Sea, to die and lose in such a ridiculous way.

But the problem was, that was him after adulthood; as for his current self, it was hard to say whether he could even successfully live to adulthood; the success rate was very low.

An even bigger problem was that although Li Zhuiyuan didn't yet know why the dream he had had would present itself in reality, one point had already been proven:

Li Lan had seen these two murals in that area of the seabed, kept them in her mind, and copied them.

Then this meant:

The giant turtle also knew this outcome.

It,

what would it do?

Actually, if it were any normal person, they would make the same choice.

He was waiting for adulthood,

and it,

how could it possibly give him the chance to reach adulthood?

It would only be more urgent than the Heavenly Dao in hoping he would die young, and unlike the Heavenly Dao, which still wanted to use him as a knife, from its standpoint, the weaker he was when killed, the higher its safety, and the lower the cost it would need to pay.

Looking at it this way, were Zheng Haiyang's parents' initial dive into that sea area really just purely driven by benefits in the literal sense?

The night Zheng Haiyang's family met with the accident, he, Tan Wenbin, and Runsheng were all eating at Zheng Haiyang's house; his grandparents had made a lot of delicious food.

His family had wanted to kill him, but they didn't succeed; after he became familiar with that darkness, he took Runsheng and Tan Wenbin and escaped.

From his perspective at the time, that was an accident where he ran into something unclean.

But thinking back now... could this have been a causal line deliberately pushed forward?

The fact was, that giant turtle had started looking for him a long time ago?

But it seemed to be under some kind of restriction; it had always been unable to confirm who he was.

Before Zhu Changyong jumped into the mixer and perished together with the turtle inside his body, he had shouted a sentence:

"Must go there... get it!"

What was "it"? He didn't know.

But it definitely couldn't be referring to that giant turtle.

The Great Emperor of Fengdu suppressing himself in hell was his restriction; that giant turtle must also have its restrictions.

It was like a terrifying trapped beast, as if blind, knowing only that "there is a person" who could threaten it and end it in the future, but even when standing face-to-face with that person, it still couldn't see the other's "true face" clearly.

Just like what was presented in this painting.

In that wave of the Dream Ghost, after he woke from the dream, he and his companions, even the Bai He Tongzi, had lost the memory of that dream; did this mean it was a form of protection?

Is it possible that the remnant of Wei Zhengdao had sensed something at the time?

It's just that thinking about these things now seems to have no meaning.

Li Zhuiyuan looked at Li Lan.

Mother and son, their gazes met.

Li Lan,

his own mother,

she had brought that giant turtle and found him!

At first, it was speculation and suspicion, but the trigger for Li Zhuiyuan's true flare-up just now was... he had confirmed it.

In this, perhaps there was a tiny, insignificant disappointment in Li Lan as a mother.

Essentially, it was like a sense of sorrow for a fellow creature that had fallen so low, and even a denial of himself.

Li Lan: "Now, I am it, and it is me.

Son, thanks to you, thanks to the fact that in this world, only I could recognize you through that painting; otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to obtain such good conditions in my negotiations with it.

Xiaoyuan, you really are Mom's good son.

It's really good,

I wasn't wrong to choose to give birth to you back then.

You really,

helped Mom cure her illness."

Li Zhuiyuan was silent.

Li Lan: "Son, it's come to this, don't you intend to kill me yet?

When we left the hotel, those two were requested by me to stay at the hotel.

When your little classmate started driving, he deliberately stuck something like a talisman paper in the car; his lane changes and turns in the city earlier successfully shook off the third person who had been secretly following and protecting me.

As for Yu Shu, he isn't here to protect me, and his power lies in organizing and gathering people, not in himself.

Actually, even if that big guy had left, just this little classmate alone would be enough to deal with those few, not to mention that you, son, are here.

You want to kill me now, it's very simple.

When we first got in the car, I tested it; Mom can't even control this little classmate, hehe.

Or are you thinking that killing me now won't be a clean kill, and I'll just crawl out of the sea again, so you feel there's no point in killing me?"

Li Zhuiyuan: "Brother Binbin."