Tiefe Illusion

Kapitel 28

"Oh dear, it seems my charm is no match for that little girl from the Emei Sect! What a failure!" Tian Niang casually played with a small tuft of her hair, looking just like the little girl next door.

"Thank you for the drink, I'm leaving!" I didn't want to be seduced by her beauty and impulsively agree to some unreasonable demands, so the best option was to make a quick getaway. With that, I practically turned and rushed out of the bar, Tian Niang's strange request still echoing in my ears.

After fleeing the Black Forest bar, I wandered aimlessly through the streets. I didn't really believe in the suggestion that you could get a clue from an old man on the street—it required an incredible stroke of luck.

The pedestrians hurried by, and I stared at them, somewhat lost in thought. What is it that people in this world truly pursue? Perhaps it's money, perhaps power, or perhaps even the elixir of immortality like Yang Yi's? Then what is it that I want? Besides Fang Lei, what else do I desire? Thinking this, I grew even more listless and slowly strolled into a small park. The flowers and plants were still the same vibrant reds and greens, just as they had been ten thousand years ago; what had changed was the humanity that ruled this world. I sighed and sat down on a long bench. The afternoon sun felt warm and comforting on my skin, and I stretched lazily.

"Hey, you took my seat!" Just as I was about to doze off for a bit, a girl's voice rang out behind me. I looked up as high as I could, and in the backlight, a girl with snow-white skin, rosy cheeks, and jet-black hair tied in a high ponytail, large, mischievous eyes, and a small, delicate nose stood gracefully behind the bench. Looking further down, I saw a tall, slender, and well-built figure, especially her slim waist, full hips, and high breasts, creating a striking visual effect. She seemed to have a figure comparable to Tian Niang's, but her youthful face was a bit immature. However, given time, she would definitely grow into a stunningly beautiful woman!

"Is this seat marked as yours?" Even though my eyes were glued to the ice cream, I couldn't resist teasing her with my words.

"Why are you, a grown man, fighting with a girl like me?" the girl pouted, looking unhappy.

"Heh!" Are men destined to be subservient to women? Although I was a little unwilling, adhering to one of the basic principles of being a man—never arguing with a beautiful woman—I stood up and gestured for the girl to sit down. The girl raised her proud neck and sat down gracefully.

"Fine, since you're quite a gentleman, I'll let you sit next to me!" The girl patted the empty space next to her and waved to me.

I sat down without ceremony and asked, "What are you doing hogging this seat, little girl?"

"Hmph!" The girl snorted, "Can't I just rest and soak up some sun after working so hard? Besides, I've had my eye on this spot for a long time. You're just a little taller and faster than me!"

"Yes, yes!" I nodded vigorously like a chicken pecking at rice. Being able to joke around with a pretty girl at this time is a kind of relaxing activity!

"And you? Are you free? Shouldn't adults be very busy? Don't you have a job?" The girl looked at me with disdain, which made me both laugh and cry. Did sitting down for a moment mean I was considered unemployed?

"It's Sunday today, I don't have to go to work!" I kindly reminded her.

"Oh, it's Sunday! Look at me online!" The girl scratched her head sheepishly.

Surfing the internet? I frowned. I'd heard that students these days spend so much time online they forget about studying and lose track of time. Judging by her appearance, she's probably a college student at most, and definitely a total internet addict. She doesn't even know what day it is! Looks like I need to talk to her. A promising young person shouldn't be ruined by the internet!

Clearing my throat, I prepared for Third Sister—oh, no, Third Master—to instruct his son: "Little sister..."

"Don't call me little sister! You don't look much older than me!" The girl immediately interrupted me, saying, "I have a name, it's Abao!"

Abao? That's his name? I stared at Abao blankly for a moment, then asked awkwardly, "Are you a student? If you are, spending so much time online isn't good!"

"A student? I guess so!" Abao tilted his head and thought for a moment before saying, "My way of using the internet is different from others!"

"Different? How are they different?" I asked curiously.

"Ha! I'm a computer genius!" Abao waved her little fist at me, full of confidence, and said, "There's no information in the world that I can't find!"

Oh? I immediately perked up. Regardless of whether what she said was true or false, her boast that she could find all the information was very tempting. If possible, wouldn't we be able to avoid the embarrassment of asking around everywhere?

"Really?" I pressed.

"Of course!" Abao put his hands on his hips, patted his chest, and looked as if he had the world in his hands.

"Okay, I just happen to want to look up some information but I don't know where to look it up. Can you help me?" I asked.

“Great!” Abao immediately jumped up from the stool, pulled me up as well, and said excitedly, “Come on, let’s go to my place, I’ll help you investigate!”

"To your house?" I hesitated. Didn't this little girl know that you shouldn't bring strangers home?

"What's wrong? Let's go!" Abao asked, pulling me along tightly.

"Oh, let's go!" Never mind, even if I'm going to suffer a loss, it won't be me. Let's try our luck!

"Oh! Great! Finally found something fun!" Abao immediately shouted with joy, almost ready to set off firecrackers to celebrate! But I immediately shrank back, feeling like I was being used.

Chapter Sixty: A Bolt from the Blue

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If someone told me that I was in a girl's room, I would definitely think they were lying. But in fact, this room, with all sorts of trash on the floor, clothes spread all over the bed, and instant noodle boxes piled up on the table so that you couldn't even see the tabletop, is indeed the room of the beautiful girl Abao. It's really an eye-opener for me!

I carefully followed behind Abao, struggling to walk over all sorts of garbage, and every now and then I was worried that I would step on a cockroach on the ground.

"Miss, you should tidy up your room!" I watched as Abao lightly leaped over the trash and hopped to a computer. The computer case was huge, about three times the size of a regular computer case.

"Oh, isn't this great? Why do we need to clean it up?" Abao turned on the computer without even looking up, ignoring my suggestion.

"Can you find him online?" I asked, placing the photo next to Abao.

"Just you wait!" Abao glanced at the photo, but her fingers flew across the keyboard. She then put the photo into the scanner, and soon the strange image appeared on the computer screen.

"Any clues?" I asked anxiously, watching Abao fiddling with the computer.

"Don't rush!" Abao tapped the keyboard, entered a search-like interface, and uploaded the image.

"How come I didn't know this existed online?" I couldn't help but ask.

“Of course!” Abao looked at me proudly and said, “I created this search website, and only I can access it! Oh! Okay!” Abao pointed to the screen, and an old-fashioned photo and a few lines of text popped up on the screen.

I quickly looked closer and saw a group of men in suits in the photo. It looked quite old, the photo was yellowed. In the center of the photo were two very striking men; the one on the left looked handsome and refined, while the one on the right looked arrogant and unruly. But what really caught my attention was the man behind these two men. He was very short, so half of his face was obscured by the people in front of him, but even that remaining half of his face was enough for me to recognize him as the real person in the photo, the mysterious man!

"How did you find it?" I asked Abao as I looked at it. I never imagined that all our hard work in searching was less efficient than a little girl typing a few keys!

"It's my treasure!" Abao touched the computer as if it were a precious gem, saying, "I'm a computer genius. This is a website I built by gathering all the available information. You can find anything here!"

"Really?" I said, but my eyes never left the computer screen. The few lines of text next to the photo caught my attention.

"A photo of Lin Junxian, Yang Yi, the founders of St. Mary's Hospital, and investor, the renowned philanthropist Mr. Song Tian!?" I looked at the two men in the photo again. Judging from their demeanor, the one on the left should be Lin Junxian, and the one on the right should be Yang Yi! So, is Song Tian the partner Yang Yi mentioned? Then why did he tell Yang Yi about the elixir of immortality? Could such a elixir really exist?

"How about it? I found out for you!" Abao boasted from the side. I nodded, but I felt even more at a loss. What should I do now that I know who he is? How can I break that Ten Thousand Souls Locking Spirit Array?

"Wait a minute, could you zoom in on the photo a little more?" I asked, pointing at the photo, because I noticed that Song Tian seemed to be wearing something on his hand.

"Sure!" Abao clicked the mouse a few times, and the photo was immediately enlarged. The thing on Song Tian's finger was also enlarged several times and appeared clearly on the screen!

"Hey, isn't this the same ring you have now?" Abao asked in surprise as I held my hand in front of my eyes.

I didn't speak, but simply turned the ring slightly. The same black color, the same floral engraving—it was almost certain that the ring's previous owner was Song Tian. That meant the skeleton in the sewer was Song Tian! Then, why did he die there? I'd witnessed the ring's power, but did Song Tian know about it? However, judging from his behavior by the Heart Lake last time, he seemed unaware! Could there be something strange about this ring? Thinking this, I asked A Bao again, "Can you help me investigate this ring?"

Abao frowned and said, "I'm not very confident, after all, it's just a ring, but I can try." With that, Abao used a graphics tool to crop the ring from the photo and enlarged and processed it. Soon, a 3D image of the ring appeared before my eyes. Then Abao uploaded it to her website, pressed enter, and a "Please wait" dialog box immediately popped up.

The hourglass, indicating the wait, kept spinning back and forth, just like my heart was in my throat. I nervously stared at the computer screen, and before I knew it, my palms were sweating.

"Found it!" Abao exclaimed in surprise, immediately clicking the screen with the mouse. An older-looking photo appeared, and the man in the photo was also wearing the same ring on his finger! Upon closer inspection, the man actually looked somewhat similar to Song Tian.

"He's a doctor from Unit 731, named Matsuda Tamanosuke!" Abao read out the caption under the photo.

Unit 731? This infamous Japanese unit that wrote an inhumane chapter in Chinese history with its live and bacterial experiments? Judging from the timeline, this person should be much older than Song Tian, probably around the same age as Song Tian's father.

Wait a minute, I suddenly remembered something Song Tian once said that puzzled me: "You Chinese are just stupid!" Also, Song Tian looks remarkably like Matsuda Tamanosuke. And what's more, isn't Song Tian's name just a transliteration of Matsuda? Perhaps Song Tian isn't Chinese at all, but Japanese, and possibly even a descendant of Matsuda Tamanosuke. Besides, Chinese and Japanese people often look quite similar; without explicit explanation, a Japanese person could easily claim to be Chinese.

Therefore, there's a reason why Song Tian would conduct live experiments! He was very likely continuing the heinous experiments his predecessors hadn't finished. Lin Junxian's sudden decision to stop in the later stages of the experiment likely stemmed from knowing Song Tian's true nature, and his conscience as a Chinese person led him to abandon any chance to save his daughter.

Is that really the case? If my reasoning is correct, then is Lin Junxian a good person or a bad person? He deeply loves his daughter, which is why he was willing to kill so many people for live vivisection experiments. Yet, he also possesses Chinese integrity, preferring to give up the chance for his beloved to survive rather than help a Japanese person continue to harm his compatriots. Is that possible? Is that possible? I keep asking myself these questions. The nature of humanity is complex; you never truly know how a person's good and evil are defined. Everyone has their own different standards of good and evil, and the debate over whether human nature is inherently good or evil has never been resolved.

"Hey, what are you thinking about?" Abao nudged me as I was deep in thought and asked.

"I'm wondering, is human nature good or evil?" I answered, lost in thought.

"Don't be so mysterious, okay?" Abao pouted unhappily and said, "Do you want to look up anything else?"

I smiled and shook my head. So far, I still don't know what to do next. It's like being stuck in a chess game; even if you know your opponent's hand, you don't know how to play. Half the truth has surfaced, but what's truly hidden beneath the surface is even more dangerous.

"I've helped you so much, you should know the saying 'repay kindness,' right?" Abao nudged me and asked happily.

"Miss, how do you want me to repay you? With my body?" I winked at her, teasing her.

"Go away!" Abao hit me in dissatisfaction and said, "This young lady has no interest in middle-aged and elderly people!"

What? A middle-aged or elderly person? Am I that old? I touched my face, both amused and exasperated. So, even I have a day when a young girl dislikes me!

"So what do you want? Uncle will buy you candy?" I asked with a smile. Good heavens, after hanging out with Li Yang for so long, I've started talking like him. He's the perfect guy to harass a respectable woman.

"Ha, I have plenty of money myself, I don't need you to buy it!" Abao gave me a disdainful look and said, "I just wanted to know why you wanted me to find this profile picture for you!"

"What do you want to know?" I looked at her with suspicion. Are all women so fond of prying into other people's privacy?

"Oh dear!" Abao said in a coquettish tone, hands on her hips, "I've been so bored lately. Your profile picture looks really funny, so you must have something special to tell me."

"Do you think this is a game?" I patted Abao on the head like an older brother and said irritably, "Kids shouldn't get involved in such dangerous things."

"Danger?" Abao's eyes immediately lit up, looking on with longing. Oh no! It's definitely another prankster! I pressed my temples; what kind of weird things have I been running into lately?! Just as I was racking my brains for a way to get rid of this curious little devil's demands, my phone rang!

"I need to take this call!" I said to Abao, took out my phone, and immediately frowned. It was Xiao Ren calling. Usually, his calls at this time wouldn't be just to ask how my day off was. My heart pounded, and my eyes inexplicably started twitching. A familiar sense of dread washed over me. My eyes glanced at the profile picture, and I saw a mocking and smug smile on the face of the person in the photo.

"Hello, what's up?" I realized my voice was trembling, and although I was holding the phone, it was trembling so much that it was about to slip from my hand at any moment.

"Lin Xiao..." Xiao Ren's voice was also trembling. I could feel his trembling and fear on the other end of the phone, and this fear was coming to me from the other end of the phone, making me feel dizzy and weak.

"Speak!" I swallowed hard. What's meant to happen will happen; there's no stopping it.

"We...we found Cao Ying's body!" Xiao Ren's words struck me like a bolt from the blue, knocking me unconscious on the spot. I almost collapsed into a chair, gasping for breath. Was all of this really true?

"Hello...Hello...Lin Xiao! Are you there?" Xiao Ren's anxious voice came through the phone. I stared at my phone for a while before answering it again.

"I'm here!" My voice was hoarse and weak. I thought I had almost resolved the situation, that I had the situation under control, that I was capable of protecting those around me. But now? Now? I've never felt such intense self-loathing. Cao Ying just vanished before my eyes? She was so young. She said she was going back to America to continue her studies. She happily told me she would come back and work with me after she finished her studies! How could she just disappear like that? Although we hadn't known each other for long, our experience working on cases together had made me consider her a friend, a younger sister, especially since she was Old Cao's adopted daughter!

“If, if you find it difficult to handle…” Xiao Ren paused, then said, “We can have someone else perform the autopsy!”

"No, no need!" I immediately answered loudly, gripping the phone tightly. The desire to help Cao Ying perform an autopsy filled my entire body. If anyone should be examined, it should be my friend.

"I'm coming right away. Where are you now?" I stood up and unbuttoned my collar, but the suffocating feeling didn't go away.

“We’re at Heart Lake!” Xiao Ren replied.

Heart Lake? Heart Lake again? I should have guessed it sooner, shouldn't I? Staring at the profile picture, I wanted nothing more than to tear it to shreds right now, but reason told me that doing so would be pointless. Taking a deep breath, I forced myself to calm down, and in the instant before hanging up, I suddenly hesitated about something: How should I tell Fang Lei and the others?

"Is something wrong?" Abao asked me cautiously from the side, clearly noticing that my expression must be terrible.

"I have work to do now, thank you for your help." I forced a smile, though I knew it looked worse than crying.

"Are you going to work? But you look terrible!" Abao asked worriedly.

"It's nothing!" I shook my head, stuffed the photo of my face into my pocket, and walked towards the door.

"Hey, I don't even know your name!" Abao called out from behind me.

I stopped and replied, "My name is Lin Xiao, Lin as in double wood, and Xiao as in carefree."

"Alright, Lin Xiao!" A Bao ran up and said, "Although I don't know what happened to you, but..." A Bao took out a pack of tissues from his pocket, handed it to me, and said, "If you have tears, please let them flow!"

※ ※ ※

So, you're supposed to let your tears flow freely? But why do I feel nothing right now? I just feel a tightness in my chest, as if something is pressing down on my heart. My grip on the steering wheel tightens involuntarily. I look around at the empty highway on both sides, and something bright flashes before my eyes, as if there's something there.

I accelerated, and the forest by the lake came into view. But to me, this dense and lush forest became a true hell.

"Screech!" The car screeched as it braked, the sound like a knife cutting into my heart. I jumped out of the car and saw Xiao Ren walking towards me, while the faces of my colleagues around me were extremely solemn and sorrowful.

"You're here?" Xiao Ren asked, almost choking back tears.

I nodded and looked up at the tall forest. The dense leaves blocked out most of the sky. So, God, are you blinded by this?