Chapter 34
After leaving the residential building, Si Chen realized that he was hungry.
It wasn’t the Eternal Life Abyss urging him to find food. Rather, it was normal human hunger.
According to his biological clock, it has now been 12 hours.
If they weren’t in a Space Fold, it would be daylight by now.
Si Chen took out the remaining half bottle of nutrient solution, inserted a straw and sipped.
He looked blank, thoughtful.
The Eternal Life Abyss was a little dispirited.
It felt like all the foods here were hard to chew and unpalatable.
In the Eternal Life Abyss’ heart, the House of the Mind’s Doctor wasn’t as good as the duck neck near at hand.
Seeing Si Chen start to eat, Yu Lian also felt a belated sense of hunger.
Because he’d been tossed about, his suit was now dirty and the crotch of his pants was split open, revealing his flowery underpants. He took out a box of self-heating meal from his bag, squatted on the side of the road and begun to eat like a beggar.
If one were so bold, one could directly remove the word “like”.
A self-heating meal is nutritional cream made into different flavored shapes with a few slices of genetically modified pork thrown in. It is twice as expensive as ordinary nutritional cream. Its ingredients are the same as ordinary nutrient fluid but the taste is better.
It costs 700 credits to make and sells for 4500. In the Serpent Staff Gene employee supermarket, this thing costs 500 credits a box.
Petty bourgeoisie Evolutionaries who pursue cheap luxuries are always seen by corporations as leeks to be cut down.
While eating, Yu Lian inexplicably felt a chill down his neck. Looking back, Si Chen was staring at him while drinking his nutrient solution.
He took out another box of self-heating meal from his mountaineering bag and offered it to Si Chen. “Do you want to eat?”
Si Chen shook his head. “I’m not hungry. I plan to go to the address written on the leaflet for the House of the Mind. But I checked and there’s no street called Li’an in Pinglin. It must have appeared with the Space Fold…”
A 10-kilometer radius Space Fold might not sound big but that equated to more than 30 square kilometers, almost equivalent to the area of a small county.
Finding an unknown street within this range was still somewhat difficult.
Just as Si Chen was pondering the matter, someone on a tricycle passed on the side of the road.
It was a red snack cart with two hot cauldrons behind it. Something was cooking and steam rose from the cauldrons.
It was still dark and a red lighted lamp provided illumination for the snack cart. It was a very strange sight on this deserted road.
The stall owner driving the snack cart was a grey-haired grandmother and she was slowly droving towards the two of them.
Halfway to them, the grandmother saw the iron chain in Si Chen’s hand and she immediately looked panicked.
She was tempted to turn around and run but this snack cart had a “stop when you meet a customer on the side of the road” property.
The snack cart was forced to stop in front of the two of them.
The two cauldrons in the cart held red bubbling viscous liquid, pieces of meat and chopped offal bobbed up and down the surface of the stew. Strings of unprocessed large intestines hung in the corner of the snack cart. Several large bowls of solidified duck blood were on the countertop.
This street stall sold Lou Mei and the price list was written on a red cloth pasted on with white adhesive tape.
Braised pig’s trotter: 1 hand for one piece
Braised pig’s eye: 1 eye for one bowl
Braised large intestine: 20cm of intestines (appendix not accepted) for one serving
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
…
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Si Chen raised the iron chain in his hand and with a sweet and amiable smile on his face, he said, “Don’t be nervous, we’re not from Urban Management.”
With that said, he squeezed into the driver’s seat.
Yu Lian was dumbfounded and the bowl he held in his hand fell to the ground with a thud.
The old woman had no lower body. Her body had been welded to the snack cart and smelled like a rotting corpse.
Fury bubbled up within her and she pulled out the kitchen knife tied her waist and swung unhesitatingly at Si Chen.
The blade was pitch black, with a biting chill.
Thinking quick, Si Chen blocked it with his arm.
This kitchen knife had certain psionic properties but when it struck Si Chen’s body, it was like cutting against a hard piece of iron, only a light white mark was drawn.
The coat Si Chen was wearing was cut by the knife. His exposed arm was covered with black scales.
He tied the iron chain around the old woman’s neck and pulled it tight.
The cart owner’s voice was mournful, “I am an honest and responsible businesswoman. You shouldn’t be extorting honest people! I have my phone with me. With one call, everyone in our village will come screaming for your death!”
Si Chen didn’t answer but simply pulled the iron chain tighter.
The stall owner was stronger than Si Chen expected. Like a bull, she struggled fiercely in his arms.
He said to Yu Lian, “Go and sit in the back.”
The driver’s seat was too small for three people.
Yu Lian hurried over and pushed things off the cart, causing them to crash to the ground. The hot broth splashed all over the place.
“My food! My meals!”
The stall owner grabbed the chain and howled unceasingly.
At this moment, the Eternal Life Abyss actually empathized with her a little.
While clearing out space in the back, Yu Lian couldn’t help exclaiming, “What the fuck—”
A normal itinerant cart would have things like fuel, seasonings and spare tables and chairs loaded underneath.
However, under this cart, half a person was stored.
This man had his arms cut off, his lower body was missing. There was an obvious slice on his throat and his whole body was dripping with blood.
He was dead but the power pump in his heart was still beating, powering the snack cart.
This was a mechanically transformed Evolutionary. It was obvious that he’d met an unexpected incident.
Si Chen withdrew his gaze and said, “Drive. Go to No. 13 Li’an Street.”
The stall owner said angrily. “In your dreams!”
Si Chen tightened the iron chain. Deep bloody marks appeared on the stall owner’s neck.
Her eyes rolled upwards. Foam dripped from her mouth. She scratched and tore at Si Chen’s arms, letting out “ho ho” sounds.
Si Chen loosened the chain slightly and said coldly, “Drive, No. 13 Li’an Street.”
The snack cart finally started up. The red incandescent lamp flickered on the front of the cart, like a guide for the dead.
The tricycle drove down roads and turned corners several times.
As time passed, their surroundings became more and more distorted. The black mist reappeared.
The illumination range of the red lamp was directly reduced from seven or eight meters to less than two meters.
Si Chen turned on the flashlight, only to find that the flashlight failed once again. Light could not penetrate the black mist.
Yu Lian, sitting in the back cart, rubbed his arms and sighed, “It’s cooling down again.”
The small snack cart finally stopped in front of a dilapidated hospital.
The hospital building wasn’t tall with only three floors. On the top floor, there was a row of red luminous characters: House of the Mind Rehabilitation Center.
The stall owner put her hands on the handlebars and said in a subservient tone, “Here we are.”
Si Chen said “Thank you” and then strangled and broke her neck with the iron chain.
He then took the kitchen knife and gave it to Yu Lian. He took out the mobile phone from the stall owner’s pocket and finally, he removed the lamp hanging from the snack cart.
Sure enough, the lamp remained on despite not being connected to any source of power; only that the light dimmed a little.
The stall owner was cleaned out of everything useless. Nothing was wasted.
Yu Lian jumped down from the back. “Should we just go in like this? Or do we need to find a few more people…?”
Si Chen replied, “I hadn’t seen anyone apart from you. Besides, I think we’re the only ones who’ve managed to find the House of the Mind.”
Like the “home” that the suicide ghost had taken them to; without its guidance, Si Chen himself wouldn’t have been able to encounter that room.
Of course, the most important thing was that when he saw, through the mirror, White Dress lying on his back, Si Chen knew that he probably no longer needed to worry about possibly dying.
He no longer remembered the scene when he saw White Dress for the first time.
But Si Chen remembered what White Dress had done when he’d encountered a supernatural disaster in the orphanage.
He had said, “I give you the power to destroy everything. It’s here.”
…
…
Si Chen was momentarily lost in a trance. He snapped out of it and said to Yu Lian, “Let’s go.”
There were street lights by the gate of the rehabilitation center and an old security booth.
There was no one in the security booth.
Si Chen pried open the door lock and walked in cautiously.
Yu Lian followed him in and said in a low voice, “It’s so messy.”
There must have been a riot here. The tables and chairs were missing arms and legs. Everything was strewn on the ground in disarray. Cups were shattered and their pieces scattered.
Newspaper clippings were taped to the floor and walls.
Si Chen raised the red lamp in his hand and swept over them one by one.
‘Daughter Committed Suicide, Single Father Feigns Sickness, Pays 350,000 Out of Pocket and Reveals Rehab Center Scam’
‘House of the Mind Discredited, Attending Physician Indicted For Alleged Abuse.’
‘Acquitted due to Lack of Evidence. Doctor Sues Father for Defamation!’
‘Patients’ Families Express Solidarity: Doctor is the Best Psychiatrist!’
…
…
Si Chen held his breath and read until the end.
‘Fugitive sets Center Ablaze! House of the Mind Rehab Center Burnt Down. No Survivors!’
On this newspaper, there was a photo of the fugitive arsonist.
The arsonist was named as John Doe in the clipping. The black and white photo looked like a coffin portrait.
Yu Lian leaned in beside him and whispered, “Why does this photo look familiar?”
Si Chen replied, “According to genetics, daughters are more likely to take after their father in terms of looks. He looks very similar to the girl whose portrait was hanging in the living room before.”
The newspaper clippings were cut to pieces so that they couldn’t even find a single complete article.
Si Chen read it word for word. He found out that John Doe and his wife had divorced long ago. Before he feigned illness, he ran an unsuccessful children’s toy store near a kindergarten. He lost money year after year.
Not long after his daughter jumped off the building, his ex-wife also chose to hang herself, ending her own life.
“It’s so pitiful.” Yu Lian couldn’t bear it.
Si Chen frowned slightly. “It’s a bit strange.”
He still remembered the nurse who’d come to hunt him down and kill him, the children of the orphanage and the ghost who hunted Yu Lian. They were all different sorts of dolls.
It was for this reason that Si Chen even speculated that he’d find Doctor hiding in a toy store.
But they were now in the Rehabilitation Center.
Once he finds Doctor, he will also have his answers.
The two walked out of the security booth. The air smelled of burning sulfur. The poisonous mist made people uncomfortable.
Looking closer, the walls of this rehabilitation center did have serious burn marks and several windows were blackened by smoke.
Yu Lian, kitchen knife in hand, stuck to Si Chen’s side, “Father, can I hold you. I’m afraid.”
Si Chen: “No.”
He was allergic to the skin of living people.
With tears in Yu Lian’s eyes, “Huhuhu, Dad, am I not your best eldest son?”
Si Chen made no comment but the Eternal Life Abyss inside him was already screaming, very dissatisfied with this stray who came out of nowhere to fight for favor.
Si Chen: “According to how horror movies go, when you hold hands with someone, you later find that they’ve been replaced by something else. Isn’t that more terrifying?”
Yu Lian froze: “…”
Si Chen raised the red lamp to his face and said quietly. “Look carefully, who am I?”
Yu Lian’s heart stopped suddenly from fright. The scream lodged in his throat. His eyes rolled to the back of his head and he passed out.
Si Chen put down the lamp. He pinched the other person’s philtrum, rescuing this unlucky thing from semi-unconsciousness.
Yu Lian complained tearfully, “You know I’m afraid of ghosts…”
“Supernatural type High-Dimensional Creatures are not considered ghosts.” Si Chen corrected rigorously, “Ghosts do not exist in this world. Believe in science. Be careful of what you say.”
Saying so, he stood up and said, “Okay, let’s go.”
In front of the iron gate of the rehabilitation center is a painted notice board: ” □ Persons are Not Allow to Enter.”
The red paint on the first character had been peeled off. Judging from the context, it probably said “Unauthorized”.
Yu Lian stretched out his arm, put it through the gap in the iron door and opened the gate from the inside.
As the two walked in, the iron gate that was originally opened was blown shut by the wind, gently closing with a “creak”.
On the notice board at the gate, a large blood-red word slowly appeared in the blank space.
‘Living Persons are Not Allowed to Enter.’
Second: the dolls seem to be related to the toy store owner, while the doctor is manipulating the mind, so that might be the reason for the dissonance Si Chen felt.
Third: …with White Dress on his back, how ‘alive’ is Si Chen, really?
Also, Yu Lian reminds me repeatedly that apart from being somewhat stronger than a normal human, he is still a normal human, not one of those poor people who’ve been sucked into an Unlimited Flow Horror Instance Game that produces abnormal mentalities. Just, an ordinary dude who’s also scared of many things.
Thank you for the chapter!
Borrowing the bike, omg! Hahahah! Thanks for the update 🤣❤️🤣❤️🤣
They are not a normal human, they are Evolutionary
Thank you for your translation 💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝
I’m really curious how this arc will turn out. It’s like a puzzle compared to other space folds. A little creepy…
Thanks for the chapter 🌹
I’m so lost in this novel, like how could the ghost with legs over her shoulders (the girl that did suicide) walk Si Chen around? Was she floating or walking on the floor? But the later wouldn’t make sense because she’s holding Si Chen’s hand 😭 and the bicycle ride, my brain worked hard into trying to picture where Si Chen and the other boy were seating with the two weird ghost bodies around 😹 am i the only one having trouble picturing everything? i’m doing acrobatic thinking ig, but the story’s still fun!