Chapter 34: Proverb

Lu Mi wanted to observe, meticulously replaying the entire process of how he and Lyra and the others had “met,” until they arrived outside the Church of the Eternal Sun.

He confirmed preliminarily that these three outsiders truly no longer “knew” him and were completely unprepared for the “prank.”

Has time truly reversed…? Lu Mi felt momentarily dazed.

“We’ve been here before. No one answered.” Valentine gazed at the grand building half-dissolved into the night, reciting the “scripted” line.

Lu Mi steadied himself and abandoned the script.

He spoke directly:

“It’s because the parish priest doesn’t want to deal with you.”

He intended to leave these three suspected official Extranormalists with the impression of “a joker, but not a malicious one.”

Lyra considered several possibilities: “You mean the parish priest is inside the church, just ignoring the knocks due to some matter?”

Lu Mi smiled:

“Affairs in the church aren’t meant to be seen by others.”

After saying this, he instinctively muttered inwardly: Too bad, I won’t hear the classic line, “You’ve disrupted the Holy Church’s operation.”

Of course, after learning more about Madame Pauris, he felt that in some sense, the parish priest’s behavior wasn’t entirely unreasonable.

Why shouldn’t the parish priest be like Aurora’s undercover novel protagonist—willing to endure temporary humiliation, sacrifice his body, and infiltrate the evil force represented by Madame Pauris?

“An affair in the church?” Valentine’s cold demeanor shattered; he snapped back urgently.

Lu Mi spread his hands:

“What’s wrong with that? For the parish priest, it’s routine.”

“You don’t need to be so worked up— isn’t there a saying, ‘Through all ages, men always sneak around with women’?”

“But this is a church!” Valentine said sharply.

Lu Mi paused, then asked curiously:

“So you mean clergy can have affairs, as long as they don’t do it inside the church?”

“That’s blasphemy against God!” Valentine looked ready to explode.

Ryan patted his shoulder, signaling him to calm down.

Meanwhile, the most composed of the outsiders asked Lu Mi:

“Do you know who the parish priest is having an affair with tonight?”

Lu Mi shook his head:

“Too many possibilities. His mistresses—I know of at least—Madame Pauris, Ma Daina Ben, Philipe Guillaume, Sibyl Berry…”

“Ma Daina Ben shares the same surname as the parish priest?” Lyra caught this immediately.

Lu Mi nodded:

“She’s his cousin twice removed.”

“…,” Valentine stared for several seconds, then gritted his teeth: “Is Guillaume Ben a servant of God—or a servant of the Devil?”

Is that all you’ve got? You never even smashed his skull… Lu Mi deliberately defended the parish priest:

“It’s nothing unusual. In the Dali region, there’s a saying: ‘Distant cousins, sleep together if you like.’”

“Why do you know so many sayings?” Lyra laughed, the silver bells on her head tinkling.

Lu Mi spread his hands again:

“That’s just how it is in the countryside.”

At that moment, Ryan asked thoughtfully:

“How do you know we’re not from the Dali region?”

“Otherwise, you wouldn’t have said, ‘In the Dali region, there’s a saying.’”

You told me yourself… Lu Mi spoke too quickly, treating events from “before” as if they were already known.

He hastily fabricated an excuse:

“Your demeanor doesn’t match that of a local from Dali.”

He then pointed toward the road leading into the village:

“I’ve helped you find the parish priest. Now I need to go home.”

“I thought you’d come in with us,” Lyra said, glancing at him with a faint smile.

“I dare not offend the parish priest,” Lu Mi remarked casually. “The last villager who snitched has been missing a long time.”

Before Ryan and the others could respond, he waved and ran toward the other side of the square, shouting as he went:

“Remember to keep it secret, my cabbages!”

…………

The red moon was hidden behind clouds; Lu Mi walked along a country road scattered with starlight.

Hands in his pockets, he reflected on recent events.

Near home, Lu Mi stopped and looked up at the roof of the half-submerged two-story building.

As expected, Aurora sat there in a light blue long dress, hugging her knees, silently gazing at the stars.

In the night, her figure seemed lonely and distant.

It truly repeated… Could it be that the previous events were real, and now I’m dreaming? Lu Mi had a new hypothesis when he suddenly noticed two differences in March 29:

He hadn’t seen the woman who gave him the Wand card and taught him occult knowledge inside the old tavern today.

This made him unsure whether he was truly dreaming.

I’ll confirm tomorrow… Lu Mi gathered himself, reached his home, and pushed open the door.

As before, he climbed to the roof via the ladder on the second floor, walked lightly to Aurora’s side, and sat down.

“What’s so interesting about it?” Lu Mi said deliberately.

Aurora turned her head, sighed, and was about to speak when Lu Mi added:

“I mean—what does stargazing truly mean to you?”

Aurora studied him from head to toe:

“So direct today?”

She turned back to the stars, her voice soft and distant:

You know I'm not from Kerdou, nor from Dali.

“I don’t know if you’ve heard this saying: ‘The place you can’t return to is your homeland…’”

Lu Mi didn’t joke—he looked up at the stars too.

After Aurora flew into her bedroom to write to her pen pal, Lu Mi, still concealing his status as an Extranormalist, returned via the same route to the second floor and spoke with his sister about the pen pal.

Then he closed her door and walked back to his own bedroom.

Gazing at the bed with its white four-piece bedding, Lu Mi suddenly felt a tug—he walked over, lifted the pillow.

Beneath it lay a card—the Tarot Minor Arcana card representing “Seven of Wands”!

Staring at the man on the card—resolute-faced, dressed in green, wielding a wand against attackers—Lu Mi recalled the woman’s interpretation:

“Crisis, challenge, resistance, courage…”

The more he thought, the more those four words seemed to perfectly reveal his current situation.

Before drawing the card, he had almost certainly already been in crisis, facing a challenge!

What he needed to do next was muster courage and confront the problem? Wait—hasn’t time already reversed? I haven’t even met that woman yet, haven’t drawn the card—why is it here? Lu Mi’s heart lurched; his earlier hypothesis now felt uncertain.

Thoughts and deductions surged through his mind like bubbles boiling up in water.

It gave him a pounding headache, a feeling he was about to go mad.

In the end, he temporarily labeled the woman and her gifts as “exceptions,” preventing his thoughts from exploding.

Given the woman’s mystery and uniqueness, her immunity to time’s reversal was still a plausible outcome!

If I find her tomorrow and she still recognizes me, then my deduction is correct… Lu Mi exhaled, feeling a deep mental exhaustion.

He washed up briefly in the bathroom and climbed into bed early.

…………

In the familiar, faint gray mist, Lu Mi awoke, rolled over, and sat up—seeing the wooden desk and slanted chair by the window.

He had entered this peculiar dream again.

Seeing the Wand card still present, he knew he could still enter.

Lu Mi instinctively reached into his inner pocket—his expression froze.

The coins were gone!

All the coins were gone!

Lu Mi leapt from the bed, patted himself down, searched the spot where he’d lain—still no trace of the hard-earned money.

Not even a single copper Copé!

“Has time reversed here too?” Lu Mi suddenly had this suspicion.

He looked around—no hunting rifle, axe, or pitchfork where they should be.

Lu Mi calmed himself, left the bedroom, passed through the hallway, and reached the first floor.

The nearly two-meter pitchfork and iron-black hand axe rested undamaged in their original places, just as they had during his first exploration of the dream ruins.

Likewise, the barrel of corn oil had not yet been moved beside the stove.

As for the hunting rifle, Lu Mi searched everywhere but found nothing.

He grew increasingly convinced that time had reversed here too.

“Go to the ruins—see if those two monsters are still there…” Lu Mi muttered silently, picked up the axe, and stepped out the door.

Not long after, he crossed a barren wasteland riddled with cracks and devoid of weeds, reaching the edge of the ruins.

Unlike his first exploration, as a “Hunter,” he merely glanced around and immediately spotted numerous traces left by living creatures.

When he focused his mind, he further discerned that two beings frequently roamed here; one of them left faint footprints that curved behind a half-collapsed house scorched by fire.

If I’d had such supernatural abilities back then, how could I have nearly been ambushed during my first exploration? Lu Mi raised his axe and entered the building.

He headed straight for his “destination,” arriving before the shattered clay jar.

A glimmer of gold shone from within.

Lu Mi leaned down, picked up the gold louis.

Its luster was identical to the moment he first picked it up.

Indeed, time had reversed; except for a few rare exceptions, everything had returned to its “original” state… Lu Mi sighed.

Suddenly, he took two quick steps forward, twisted his waist, and half-turned his body to the right.

With that motion, he swung the axe in his hand.

The skinless, blood-red monster had just leapt from the roof when it lost sight of its target—and met a swinging axe.

Plop!

Its head flew off; the headless body crashed heavily onto the ground amid splattered blood droplets and pus.

PS: Revised two points. When writing the last cycle, I had only a vague date in mind, so I vaguely wrote “early April.” Now that I’ve confirmed the exact date, I felt March 29th had more aesthetic appeal—no, anyway, there was a slight discrepancy, so I added “late March” alongside “early April.” Honestly, I could fabricate a reasonable justification to reconcile it, but there’s no need.

(End of Chapter)