"C'mon Feng'er, oranges help calm the stomach, and I know you always feel motion sickness while riding the train, so try some!"
Lou said while cheerily asking an annoyed maiden behind a train window. That maiden was Feng Hanying, who was disgusted at the very sight of oranges.
Since they didn't have enough money for bus, they just bought train tickets. It'd be a while before the train would leave, so Lou figured he'd waste time.
Shi Xiaofei suddenly descended the train and waved at Lou. He ran towards him with a calm expression and started talking.
"Lou, stay here. There's still time before the train leaves, so I'll go and catch a breath of fresh air."
Lou nodded and watched as Shi Xiaofei left the brightly-lit subway. He returned his gaze to the window and discovered an apprehensive Feng Hanying.
" Lou'gege, don't mind me saying this but...do you really think we should trust Shi Xiaofei? "
" Huh, waddya mean?" Lou frowned, but continued munching on an orange.
"I mean, isn't he really suspicious? He's really, really calm and acts like he knows everything. We don't even know him that well! He's just someone you and I are acquainted with because we live in the same village."
"In my eyes, his conduct and the way he behaves is reckless. Just like he slapped Ling Dasheng and invited trouble, he'll do the same in the future and trouble us. So it's better that we cut ties with him as early as we can..."
Each word seemed to have enraged Lou further and further as he bit his lips and continued listening. Of course, from the other side, Feng Hanying couldn't see everything clearly, otherwise she would've stopped talking.
Feng Hanying looked innocent on the surface, but was in fact, very cunning and shrewd. Lou saw this side of hers from the very beginning...
"Oh well, but I don't think you'd be willing, would you? You've always had a spot spot for him...hmph."
Feng Hanying sneered disdainfully.
"If you're gonna taunt my friend like this before we're even married, I don't think we'll last long enough! Do you even know anything you're saying...! Ugh..."
Lou shook his head in rage and tried to calm himself.
"Hmph."
...
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...
The lights lit on the tea stalls beside the main road flickered as a hunched figure drifted in and out of the lights.
Beside the road behind the train station was a small desolated forest where mostly no one sets foot in, mainly due to the laughable ghost stories spread throughout the village. As usual, it was quiet and dark; but since it was evening, some light still remained.
The figure flipped the bag on his back and reached for something. After fiddling around he pulled out his phone and aimed it at a certain part of the forest.
Suddenly, just when he aimed his phone, an entourage of cars speeded inside the forest through an off-road link and stopped. The car's lights were so bright they illuminated the whole forest, except the tree where the formerly dark figure was hiding behind.
Judging the brand logos fitted on their hoods and backs, the cars were from luxury brands. However they weren't very showy or flashy; instead they looked just like normal cars if one didn't look at their logos.
The figure, or in other words Shi Xiaofei, smirked as he looked at the cars.
"Turn off the lights goddammit, this isn't a new year's festival!" A Russian-accented voice yelled in English from one of the cars, following which, every single car had its lights turned off.
A Russian in these isolated parts of China? Even a dumb stoner would be suspicious of this!
Few moments later, a few people exited their cars and switched on a few small-distance torchlights. Shi Xiaofei's camera from the distance captured their faces and whatever they were doing perfectly!
Acting swiftly, the men dressed in plain civilian clothes exchanged a few bags and returned to their cars. Some of them were Chinese while some of them were Caucasians and Russian. It would've looked like a cultural exchange if not for the threatening looks on their faces.
"Now get out of here before anyone notices! We don't want the town to make up a new ubran legend now, do we?" The Russian-accented man spoke again and mockingly laughed.
Shi Xiaofei meanwhile sneaked away in the dark...
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...
A haggard and sweaty Shi Xiaofei strained his neck and sat on his rightful seat in the train. The compartment he was in was shut close; leaving only him and Lou. While Feng Hanying was in the lady section of the train.
The double seats were uncomfortable and rock-solid, but that at least assured they had the durability to support the small beds above them. When Shi Xiaofei sat on his seat, a head popped from above him with a goofy smile. It was Lou.
"Hey brother Shi! I was just wondering where you went. Wait, it isn't even that hot out there, so why are you sweating so much?"
Shi Xiaofei touched the luculent train windows. A deep evocative mountain behind the trees conjured years of memories within Shi Xiaofei. Brooding over the past wasn't productive, but it did help repel loneliness.
That small mountain was a recollection of his childhood; it held lush visages, but also someone important to him.
"Brother Shi? Brother shi? Are you okay?"
After hearing Lou's shout, stability returned to his mind as he climbed up and lied down on his bed; a bed just few feet away from Lou.
"Y-yeah. I'm okay; it's just that the...moon outside is dazzling. Anyway, we'll talk more tomorrow, I'm tired."
"Okay brother Shi, good night. We'll find someplace to rent tomorrow."
Sleep came to Shi Xiaofei instantly. And as soon as he did the train started; leaving the old village he spent most of his youth behind.
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..
Malvonent breezes of air swept the dark, empty void as a swirling mass of meat and wriggling maggots roared. This was a dream. A very, very bad dream brought solely due to sleeping in an unfamiliar bed — at least that was what Shi Xiaofei assumed.
The scaly rotten flesh of the beast throbbed; its trembling was worryingly synchronous with his heart. Down the middle of the beast, a few orbs swirled around. Occasionally, whispers of insanity would escape from those orbs.
"Finally...you have come...face to face with me. The world famous...fraud."
Shi Xiaofei silently closed his eyes. He tried but he couldn't speak.
"You're commendable, really. You can fool the world, but not me. How sad that...someone like you has fallen to such depths; unable to come out. Shi Xiaofei — you were a conveyor of justice; when none could've helped, you tried your best. But I know you, you aren't that man. You're just a foolish man masquerading as him. You're not a good man, you just find pleasure in seeing other people bow to you. "
" You're not different from what you hate, Shi Xiaofei. You are what you hate, so I wanted you...to travel back in time and help yourself. But who knew, you're chasing after the thing that killed you? "
The same voice cackled monotonously. As if it was laughing at Shi Xiaofei for everything he had done in his life.
" But that is fine with me. I can give you everything you want. Gold to buy cities, men to overthrow nations and women to pleasure you; fate and laws can all be broken. I want nothing, but everything belonging to you."
"At the end of this journey, everything you have will belong to me. The journey is yours to keep mortal! This is the price of rebirth!!"
Shi Xiaofei's soul briefly shuddered as he opened his eyes and found himself in a hospital room. He stood up and yet again, found himself in another room; a well-lit room in a small house.
The house was blindingly familiar to him.
" N-no no... Shi'er, nothing happened to me. It's just a...cough, a really bad fever. Don't worry about mother, okay? Go to sleep, you have school in the morning..."
Far at the end of the room, a lady was sleeping — or at least, trying to sleep. Beside her was a kneeling boy, who was crying while holding one of her fair hands.
The woman looked young; in fact, too young to be someone's mother. Her elegant voice and eloquent way of speech was a sign that she was well-educated.
Shi Xiaofei, the invisible specter, frowned. Why was the demon showing him...memories of the past?
"B-but mother, you look pale a-and my father's saying that you'll have to go to the doctor soon!"
"Oh...don't listen to him, Shi'er. What does your father know? I'm going to be fine...cough cough, could you please bring a glass of water?"
The boy nodded and ran to bring a glass of water to his mother. In an instant, the woman in the bed vanished.
Shi Xiaofei spoke to the dark specter behind him, "What's the point in showing me this?"
"I want to rub salt on scabbing wounds."
He turned back to the bed, and discovered the boy there; looking for his mother in confusion.
Some say she died was buried in the mountain so that her son wouldn't find out, while some said she ran away with one of her lovers. No one forgot to shame Shi Xiaofei's father either way. Why did he marry such a young, and high-class woman? They said it was bound to happen, as ladies like that didn't value love or their children much.
Shi Xiaofei grew up with a mother, but lost her without any explanation. Before he died, he didn't even find a clue related to her. It was as if she vanished into thin air, just like now.
"I can help you find her," the spectral demon spoke, as if he was mocking Shi Xiaofei's decades of determination to find his mother.