thefictionvixens Page 13
Page 13
Behind those dazzling neon-lit metropolises, behind the scenes of billionaires and impoverished communities, there exist forgotten corners, impoverished corners untouched by the sun, and the underprivileged struggling for meager wages.
Modern technology may be more advanced, but the instincts of human nature—to seek advantage and avoid harm, to be the strong preying on the weak, and the enormous chasm that result from them—seem to have never truly changed.
"There's really nothing new under the sun," Zhang Su muttered to himself, his tone carrying a hint of helplessness unique to transmigrators—a realization of a cruel cycle.
He stopped speaking and simply followed Mingyuan Qiu deeper into this dark alleyway, forgotten by the bustling city yet carrying countless shattered dreams.
The other side of Twilight Harbor, with its cold and real touch, reminds him that the world has always been this way.
After walking for only a few minutes through the dark alleyways filled with dampness, stench, and despair, Mingyuan Qiu stopped in front of a building that looked relatively "decent."
The building was right next to those dilapidated back walls, but it was clearly a stand-alone structure. It was about five stories high, with rough, dark gray brick walls and small, closely spaced windows fitted with sturdy iron bars.
Although it was also stained by the dampness and dust of the alley, the overall structure was intact and there was no obvious sense of dilapidation. Among the low and messy shacks and garbage heaps around it, it stood out like a crane among chickens.
"Your Excellency, we've arrived. This is our family's residence in Muyun Port." Mingyuan Qiu pointed to the building, his tone carrying a hint of pride that was barely perceptible, but it was quickly followed by shame. "The place is simple, I'm sorry to have troubled you. This building was bought with money that our family had saved up for decades, and the property rights belong to the family."
Zhang Su looked up and examined the five-story stone building, nodding sincerely: "Not bad, very good."
He genuinely thought it was good.
Five stories! Independent property rights! Although located in the dark and damp heart of this slum, in this world, especially in a port city where land is incredibly valuable, owning such a property is definitely a symbol of power.
He couldn't help but recall the world he had before he transmigrated, where he worked himself to the bone and earned only a little over six thousand a month. He felt the despair of facing housing prices that started at millions, emptying his parents' savings, and still having to shoulder a heavy mortgage for twenty or thirty years.
In comparison, it is truly remarkable that the Qiu family branch was able to accumulate such a building after decades of hard work in a foreign land.
“It’s just… the location is really not good,” Mingyuan Qiu said, his face showing both joy and deep apology upon hearing Zhang Su’s confirmation. “It’s a shame that you’ve had to come to such a place. If our family were richer, we could buy property in places like White Rock or Oak Slope, where there’s sunshine and clean streets, to properly entertain a distinguished guest like you.”
“It’s alright.” Zhang Su waved his hand, his tone indifferent. “I don’t mind these things.” But what he was thinking was, “Mind? What right do I have to mind? Let alone Baishi District, even the smallest room in this building would have been hard to afford before I transmigrated. Houses in urban villages are also very expensive, you know.”
Mingyuan Qiu said no more, took a few steps forward, and gently knocked three times on a sturdy wooden door covered with thick iron sheets.
Almost two seconds later, the door was pulled open a crack from the inside.
A girl who looked about fifteen or sixteen years old peeked out.
She was wearing a plain cotton dress, her hair in two braids, and her face still held a touch of childishness. Upon seeing Mingyuan Qiu, her round face immediately lit up with surprise: "Brother, why are you back so early? It's not even noon yet!"
Her voice was clear and bright, full of youthful energy, which was out of place in the dull and oppressive environment around her.
“We have distinguished guests! We must bring them back immediately to receive them!” Mingyuan Qiu’s voice carried an unquestionable solemnity. He stepped to the side, fully exposing Zhang Su behind him to the girl’s view.
The girl's gaze passed over her brother's shoulder and landed on Zhang Su.
At that moment, time seemed to freeze.
The girl's eyes widened suddenly, and her mouth opened instinctively, forming a small "O". Almost instinctively, she raised her hand and covered her mouth tightly to prevent the scream that was about to burst out.
Her gaze was fixed on Zhang Su's face with disbelief—his pure, night-like black hair, his deep black eyes that seemed to draw people in, and his handsome face with clear and smooth oriental features!
Shock, awe, disbelief... a variety of emotions flashed rapidly across her young face.
"What are you daydreaming about!" Mingyuan Qiu quickly scolded his sister in a low voice when he saw her out of sorts, and lightly tapped her forehead. "Still not coming to your senses? Go and inform Grandpa that a noble esteemed member of our clan has come to pay a visit. Go now!"
The pain in her forehead jolted the girl back to her senses. She covered the spot where she had been hit, her face contorting slightly, but her eyes immediately cleared. She nodded vigorously, then gave Zhang Su a quick, respectful glance before turning and running like a startled deer toward the deep foyer, her footsteps thumping away as they disappeared toward the stairs.
"Your Excellency, please come in. Please forgive my sister's rudeness." Mingyuan Qiu quickly bowed, opened the door fully, and respectfully invited Zhang Su inside.
Inside the door was a not-so-spacious but clean and tidy foyer, with bluestone slabs paving the floor. A faint scent of herbs and a fragrance similar to sandalwood filled the air.
Mingyuan Qiu led Zhang Su directly up to the second floor.
Pushing open a carved wooden door, you are greeted by a rather spacious living room.
The living room's furnishings made Zhang Su pause slightly, his gaze becoming somewhat complicated.
The room's decor clearly bears a strong "Oriental" style, or rather, it is a collection of Western stereotypes about the "Orient" in Zhang Su's understanding.
The deep red hardwood tables and chairs, with their sharp, square lines, were carved with intricate patterns of auspicious clouds or mythical beasts he couldn't name. They looked heavy but lacked comfort.
Several beautifully framed scroll paintings hung on the wall, depicting landscapes or flowers and birds with blurred imagery. In the corner stood a huge blue-and-white porcelain vase, containing several peacock feathers.
The display shelf contained jade carvings, ivory carvings, and uniquely shaped bronze vessels.
The extensive use of deep red, gold, and dark green—colors considered "Oriental"—paired with dark wood, creates an overall atmosphere that is solemn, oppressive, and even a bit...overdone.
This style is very similar to the sets Zhang Su saw in those Hollywood movies before his time travel, which were deliberately piled up to create an "Oriental sense of mystery".
It is full of exoticism, but also full of a strange sense of rigidity, patchwork, and disharmony.
It is far removed from the understated elegance and emphasis on blank space and artistic conception that he remembered in true Eastern homes.
However, even though this "stereotypical oriental style" that blends exotic imagination and family aesthetics is so awkward, when Zhang Su's gaze swept over the deep red wood, the blue and white porcelain vases, and even the ceramic sculpture on the antique shelf that looked a bit ridiculous like a Pixiu, an indescribable feeling of bittersweetness, a mixture of familiarity and strangeness, still quietly welled up in his heart.
This is not home, and the furnishings here are definitely not what he is familiar with.
But the dark wood, the warm glaze of the porcelain, the intricate carvings... these elements themselves still evoked a vague halo of light from his distant hometown.
He silently walked to a grand master's chair covered with a thick embroidered cushion (the pattern being two golden dragons vying for a pearl) and sat down.
The chair was hard, and the sitting posture was not something he was used to.
Mingyuan Qiu deftly retrieved a set of exquisite white porcelain teaware from an equally intricately carved mahogany cabinet and began skillfully brewing a hot tea that exuded a delicate fragrance.
"Your Excellency, please have a seat. Your grandfather will be here shortly." Mingyuan Qiu respectfully placed a steaming cup of clear tea on the tea table beside Zhang Su, then stood respectfully to the side with his hands at his sides, his posture as humble as if awaiting judgment.
The only sounds in the living room were the soft rustling of tea being poured into a cup and the faint noise from the alley outside the window.
Zhang Su picked up the cup of warm tea, the rising steam blurring his vision.
He sat in this deliberately created "Oriental" living room, deep in the slums of another world, waiting for an elder from his "kind" whom he had never met before, his heart filled with mixed feelings.
Volume 1: Chapter 13: The Mysterious Grandfather, the Black Tai Sui
Zhang Su had just taken a sip of tea when slow, dragging footsteps with a strange rhythm came from outside the door.
The footsteps stopped outside the door, and a figure appeared in the doorway.
It was an old man.
His body was hunched over, wrapped in a large, faded, old-fashioned dark gray cloth robe, the edges of which were badly worn.
His hair was almost completely white, like withered reeds, tangled on his head; his face was loose, covered with deep wrinkles, and had a lifeless, waxy yellow color.
And those eyes... Zhang Su was startled the moment he saw them.
Simply because they weren't normal eyes.
The whites of his eyes were cloudy, like dusty, low-quality glass beads, while his pupils appeared as a diffuse, unfocused grayish-white, as if covered by a thick white film, making it almost impossible to distinguish the boundary between the whites of his eyes and his pupils.
They stared blankly ahead, like the eyes of dead fish, devoid of any sign of life.
The moment the old man stepped into the living room, an indescribable odor wafted out.
It was an extremely faint yet incredibly persistent smell—a mixture of the musty smell of an old cellar, the rotten smell of old books and paper, and… an extremely faint, but absolutely unmistakable, stench like that of a dead rat rotting in a crack in a wall for days.
The aura of death, cold and sticky, instantly overwhelmed the original herbal and sandalwood scents in the living room, causing Zhang Su's stomach to convulse reflexively, and a chill to run down his back.
What's even stranger is the old man's posture...
When he walked in, Zhang Su's first impression was that he seemed to be walking on tiptoe, his head tilted back slightly in an extremely stiff posture, and his neck taut and straight.
This posture is filled with an inhuman stiffness, like a puppet being pulled along by invisible threads.
Or to be more precise—like a 'zombie'!
Upon closer inspection, however, both of his feet were flat on the ground, and his head was not tilted back, remaining at a normal angle.
That moment seemed to be just his illusion.
In this situation, Zhang Su had no choice but to suppress his shock and discomfort, quickly put down his teacup, stand up, and prepare to step forward to pay his respects.
The most important thing right now is to stay calm, pretend everything is normal, and think about how to escape if danger occurs.
A gentle smile spread across his face as he strode toward the old man, extending his right hand and speaking in as steady and clear a voice as possible: “Greetings, sir! I am Zhang Su, a member of a branch of the Zhang family. I was passing through Muyun Port when I happened to meet Brother Mingyuan. Upon learning that there were elders of the same clan here, I felt a deep sense of kinship and took the liberty of coming to pay my respects. I hope I have not disturbed your peaceful cultivation.”
His speech was fluent and natural. He replaced "tourism" with the more ambiguous and safer "passing through," emphasized "family" and "friendship," and adopted a humble attitude to avoid upsetting the other party.
However, the old man did not respond to his words or his outstretched hand.
He stood stiffly about three steps away from Zhang Su, his gray-white pupils, as murky and lifeless as a dead fish, staring blankly at Zhang Su's face.
Time seemed to freeze, leaving only Zhang Su's awkward outstretched arm and Ming Yuan Qiu's tense, breathless breathing in the living room.
The five or six seconds of silence felt like an eternity.
Just as Zhang Su's hand was about to freeze, not knowing what to do with it, the old man finally reacted.
His sallow, sagging face twitched suddenly, and a hoarse, piercing gasp, like an old bellows being forcibly pulled open, escaped his throat—"Hah...hah..."
Immediately afterwards, as if he had choked on the air he had inhaled, he took two small steps back, his movements still carrying that stiff and strange feeling.
His once lifeless gray-white pupils suddenly regained a touch of brown, and came back to life.
Like a dusty gemstone that has been briefly wiped clean.
"Cough cough cough!! Ugh—cough cough cough—!!"
Then, a violent, heart-wrenching cough suddenly erupted! The old man hunched over in pain, covering his mouth tightly with his withered, age-spotted hand, his whole body trembling violently, as if he were coughing up his internal organs.
The cough was muffled and heavy, a terrible sound of thick liquid churning in his chest cavity, each burst causing his thin body to shake violently.
"grandfather!"
"Grandpa, what's wrong?!"
Mingyuan Qiu and her sister, who had just heard the coughing and rushed over, exclaimed in surprise at the same time. They strode forward and supported the old man's trembling body on either side.
Mingyuan skillfully patted the old man's back quickly and forcefully with his palm, his voice filled with anxiety and worry: "Grandpa! Grandpa! Take a break! Why are you coughing so badly all of a sudden? Didn't you give Grandpa his medicine today?"
He took pictures while anxiously glancing at his sister.
The younger sister said nervously, "I already gave him the medicine this morning, but Grandpa thought it wasn't enough and asked me to boil another pot... The new medicine is simmering on the fire, I'll go get it right now!"
She glanced hastily at her grandfather, who was coughing violently, and Zhang Su, who stood awkwardly to the side, then turned and rushed out again.
Mingyuan Qiu watched his grandfather's heart-wrenching cough, his face turning deathly pale, cold sweat instantly beading on his forehead. Suddenly remembering something, his face filled with immense terror and remorse, he turned to Zhang Su, his voice trembling:
"Your Excellency! I am so sorry! My grandfather absolutely did not mean to neglect you. It's just that his illness is too serious and he can't control it at all, especially this year..." He patted his grandfather's back anxiously while explaining in a panic, "It's all my fault for being negligent. In order to prevent... in case anything bad infects you, I will go and get the 'Cleansing Talisman' to disinfect your whole body!"
After saying that, he didn't care about anything else. Like his sister, he turned around and rushed out of the living room. His footsteps disappeared into the corridor. He was obviously going to get the "disinfecting" talisman he mentioned.
In the huge living room, only Zhang Su and the old man who was still coughing violently and looked like he might fall apart at any moment were left.
Zhang Su stood there, still holding the cup of tea that had long since gone cold, his expression completely frozen, with only one thought in his mind: "Damn, these two siblings are too flustered! Leaving their grandfather, who is clearly having a severe attack, and a 'distinguished stranger' who is visiting for the first time, alone in the living room, what kind of divine hospitality is this?"
At that moment, he felt as if he had been thrown into the set of a bizarre horror movie.
The noise of the alley outside the window seemed to be shut out, and only the old man's panting, like a broken bellows, and his suppressed cough, which was accompanied by a gurgling sound of mucus, could be heard in the living room.
The stench, a mixture of mold and decay, was even more intense and pungent in the enclosed space.
A chill ran down Zhang Su's spine. As he looked at the old man's hunched and trembling figure, images from various zombie movies flashed uncontrollably through his mind.
I wondered if the old man would suddenly stop coughing, raise his head, reveal a pair of completely gray eyes without pupils, and then roar as he lunged at me?
Almost instinctively, he moved backward with extremely light steps, trying to increase the distance between himself and the old man, his eyes fixed on the other man's every move, his whole body tense, ready to deal with any sudden situation.
Just as Zhang Su retreated, Yuan Shu's warning rang in his mind:
[Detection indicates that the individual before you, the elderly man surnamed Qiu, has been parasitized by an unknown supernatural being. The parasite is continuously draining the host's life force and 'psychic energy.' The target's current vital signs are extremely weak and on the verge of exhaustion. This is the reason for his physical decline.]
Zhang Su was startled, then thought to himself, "So that's it! No wonder he had this deathly aura about him; it turns out there was a bloodsucking worm living inside him. Now that makes sense!"
"Yuan Shu, what should I do now? Should I run away? If I run away, won't he pounce on me the next second?"
As he said this, every muscle in his body was taut like a fully drawn bowstring, ready to spring backward at any moment.
Each violent cough from the old man, accompanied by the churning sound of phlegm, was like the final roar of a dying beast, stimulating his nerves.
[Preliminary Behavioral Pattern Analysis: The parasite has not shown clear hostility towards the observer, i.e., you. Its current core behavioral pattern is 'maintaining its parasitic state' and 'absorbing energy,' which can be considered as fulfilling its basic survival responsibilities. The probability of aggressive behavior is less than 1%. Recommendation: Maintain distance and continue to observe.]
Yuan Shu's response was like a stabilizing force; though cold, it calmed the tense Zhang Su.
He then asked, "Yuan Shu, since it's not hostile yet, can I contain this parasite? If I can get it out, will it save the old man's life? And while I'm at it, will it add another anomalous object to my collection?"
Even though he was terrified, he hadn't forgotten his main mission: to collect the anomalies.
Yuan Shu replied: [Insufficient information. Currently, relying solely on external scanning of the host is insufficient to obtain in-depth information. A direct physical contact link needs to be established for deep, invasive exploration to obtain crucial data such as the type of parasite, its depth of infestation, and its fusion status with the host, thereby assessing the feasibility of containment and the possibility of treating the host.]
“Ah…and physical contact is also required.” Zhang Su’s gaze fell on the old man’s slightly trembling, withered shoulders wrapped in a tattered gray robe.
Beneath the robe, the skin was sallow and loose, covered with deep wrinkles and dark brown age spots. Just imagining what it would feel like to touch it sent a chill down my spine.
There's a life-sucking monster lurking down there. What if it suddenly bursts out like an alien larva?