Ksitigarbha Legend - Chapter 13
“What about you? I want to be with you!” Xiao Ru said.
“I’ll keep looking for my little brother! Professor Xiao doesn’t know the virus has mutated yet, you need to go back and inform him!” Mirror patted Xiao Ru on the shoulder. “Remember, be brave! Stay alive!”
With tears in her eyes, Xiao Ru said, "You too!" She bit her lip, wanting to ask Jingzi if he had ever liked her, even for a second, even just a second ago. Just a second ago, she felt that he liked her.
She bit her lip until it bled, but ultimately didn't ask the question.
If she doesn't greet him and he says no, how heartbroken she would be. If she asks him and he says he once loved her, she would be even more heartbroken, because they loved each other, yet they might be separated by death.
Pshaw! Pshaw! You're such a jinx!
I won't ask how you are, I won't ask. I have something to worry about in my heart. If I have something to worry about, I won't die.
"I'll count to three. I'll go out first and lure this group of infected people away. Then you can come out, understand?" Mirror gripped her shoulders with both hands. This was the first time they had ever had such intimate physical contact, and it was at a critical moment of life and death.
Xiao Ru nodded.
"1, 2, 3—" Mirror quickly pulled open the car door and rushed out. Sliding smoothly, effortlessly, and amazingly well on the protective suit!
If I don't go to hell, who will?!
The mirror, like a black eel, burst out of the crowd.
The mirror is like a long-distance runner leading the way, followed by a group of swiftly moving adversaries.
Run, run, run! From the moment humans began to walk upright, "running" has been a basic survival skill.
Xiao Ru looked around. There were no more infected people around the car, but a few were wandering around the streets. She couldn't let her guard down.
She opened the car door and looked around when someone suddenly grabbed her from behind. A foul stench filled her nostrils, and she screamed as she broke free. It was the bespectacled man from before. He had seen that there were other people in the car, and he was wearing glasses.
Xiao Ru broke free and ran frantically toward the laboratory. The monsters on the roadside finally saw fresh food and toys again and gathered from all directions.
Run! Xiao Ru gritted her teeth. I can't die, I can't die! I haven't even asked him if he ever liked me. I still want to ask him if he hates me for breaking up our relationship. I still want to ask him...
I have so many questions for him...
So, even if it means risking their reputation, they'll still run.
The two leaders ran in opposite directions across the city.
Gunshots rang out over the city, helicopters buzzed, and the army didn't care about anything else; anyone running in the streets was shot in the head.
41.
The helicopter was humming.
"Report, squad leader! There's a woman in black clothes and a group of infected people running down there!" (Fully armed soldiers)
"I saw it!" the squad leader said.
"Report, squad leader! That woman doesn't seem to be infected!"
"We see them! Shoot them from behind!" the squad leader ordered, but the soldiers hesitated. Reinforcements had not yet arrived, and the troops had suffered heavy losses at first due to a lack of understanding. Now that they had found the trick to hunting, they were short of manpower and had to send in even the new recruits.
"Execute the order!" The squad leader saw that the group of monsters were about to catch up with the woman in black.
"Sergeant, I'm afraid I might miss and kill an innocent bystander!" the soldier reported.
"Idiot!" The squad leader pushed the soldier back, picked up his submachine gun, and saw the woman run to a building, but then stop for some reason.
Xiao Ru ran and ran, telling herself, "I can't die, I still have things to worry about, I can't die!"
The laboratory was right in front of her, but Xiao Ru stopped.
Dad is researching the antidote. The mirror said there's a magnetic field barrier, and no one can get in. If Xiao Ru wants to go in, she must first throw out the pills she's carrying to break the magnetic field. After the magnetic field is broken, it will take 30 seconds to recover. In those 30 seconds, who knows how many monsters will sneak in.
Dad can't be disturbed, Dad can't die!
Xiao Ru stopped, took out her knife, and shouted, "Mirror! Mirror—" After shouting, she brandished the knife, and with an unknown amount of strength, her beautiful head rolled off her neck, dying with her eyes wide open.
Xiao Ru sighed in the air, her eyes wide open in death: "If only I had asked just now, I could have died in peace."
But if she had actually asked, she might have said: "If only I hadn't asked, I would have had something to worry about, and if I had something to worry about, I wouldn't have died."
Life is full of contradictions, but everyone has to die eventually.
At that moment, machine gun fire rang out in the air. This story was turned into a cliché TV drama by Xiao Yao, where the police always arrive only after the good guys have died. Love is the same; sometimes it's like late-stage cancer—by the time you realize it, it's too late.
The mirror kept running, and as it ran, its heart suddenly ached violently. But it didn't care! It kept running.
The infected person's head was smashed open. Without a head, the corpse became useless. The evil spirits were forced out of the corpse, and when they saw the sunlight, they turned to ashes.
Fear not, fear not! Heroes have fallen one after another, and so have the demons in the Avici Hell. For a moment of freedom, they are not afraid of being reduced to ashes. Tongtong, holding the Ruyi Treasure Life Pearl, stood at the entrance to the Avici Hell: "Go play! Go play! The princess has granted amnesty to the world, you are free!"
Life is precious.
Love is more valuable.
If it is for the sake of freedom,
Both can be discarded.
The evil spirits cheered and jumped for joy. Some of them were so overjoyed that they vanished into thin air as soon as they went out, while others were more cautious and found a shady spot to escape.
Go out, my darlings, and build a new Great Wall with our flesh and blood.
Mirror kept running. The entrance to the Dida Community was just ahead, which was also the source of the infection. It seemed like a grand meeting was being held by a large number of monsters.
The mirror gritted its teeth—Charge!
Besieged on all sides, the mirror was surrounded by nineteen layers, more than one layer of hell, making it impossible to move an inch.
Gunshots rang out in the air, followed by a burst of fire. The monsters on the perimeter fell, and the ground shook violently.
Is it another earthquake? A natural disaster or a man-made one! The mirror monsters are pinned to the ground.
A massive tree root burst through the asphalt road, lifted up a mirror, and held it high in the air. The helicopter pilot was terrified by this spectacle, and his hand trembled. The helicopter veered and crashed into a building. Luckily, he managed to swerve in time, otherwise, pilot number 007 would have been calling the United Nations headquarters again: "Plane crashed into building—if he were still alive."
The tree roots lifted the mirror into the air and carried it into a hospital ward. The window of the ward was covered with roots, forming a protective net.
When the mirror reached the window, its roots automatically unfurled. With a flick of the roots that had been wrapped around the mirror, the mirror fell to the ground, causing a sore bottom.
It even knows its butt hurts, how lucky!
The old locust tree spirit smiled ingratiatingly: "Divine Beast Di Ting, can you make amends this time?"
Big M hummed softly and lay motionless in Mao Mao's arms.
Liu Wei said bitterly, "Old tree spirit, you've really done something terribly wrong this time!"
Mao Mao remained silent and ignored him.
It's not out of spite; I genuinely have lost all feeling. Some say it only takes a second to fall in love, but a lifetime to forget someone.
Don't believe it, forgetting someone only takes a second; the world is balanced.
Moreover, this is not a time for personal feelings.
Little Lu, carrying her doll, lay sullenly in the corner. The doll hid in the corner, staring intently at Mao Mao, who, with her mortal eyes, could not see her.
Uncle Fu hung his head and closed his glasses, while A-Ming stared intently at Old Li, who was bound hand and foot. Old Li's expression was full of anger; he was nothing but a walking corpse.
People say that it's good to have a big tree to lean on for shade, but trees are actually the most unreliable thing.
Tongtong returned to the cave and found herself all alone, which enraged her.
As darkness fell, to paraphrase a line from Lao Zhou's song "The Door": the sky grew dark, unstoppable.
46.
Everyone stood motionless in the ward, while the infected patients walked back and forth with empty eyes.
"What's the next step?" the mirror asked.
“I have no way to control the virus,” Big M sighed.
"I wonder if Xiao Ru has managed to get back in time to inform Professor Xiao, and I wonder how Professor Xiao's research on the antidote is going..." Jingzi's eyes gazed into the distance.
"Xiao Ru is dead," Big M said calmly.
"Impossible!" the mirror exclaimed. "How did you know?!" The mirror immediately regretted asking the question. How did it know? It was Di Ting (a mythical beast), of course it knew.
Mirror felt a sudden emptiness in her heart. She remembered the look in her eyes when they parted. He didn't love her. If he didn't love her, why did her heart ache as if it were being cut by a knife?
Didn't you say you didn't love me?
Liu Wei stood behind Mao Mao, protecting her. Mao Mao hugged the tattered doll. She didn't know that the child's spirit was beside her. All she knew was that inside the body of this tattered doll was a piece of her most sensitive and easily touched heart.
For the first time, a light appeared in the eyes of the doll's vengeful spirit.
Big M turned around, glanced at the doll's vengeful spirit, and said, "There is a way, little infant spirit, but I don't know if you dare to do it." The doll was stunned; she didn't know it could actually be of use.
"What...what can I do?" Her original self was now being held in Mao Mao's arms, feeling a happiness and warmth she had never experienced before. She didn't want to go anywhere, and she didn't want to do anything.
"Sneak into the empty body of the infected, just like the evil spirit did during the day, then blend into the infected and go find Professor Xiao!" Big M looked at the doll, whose eyes flashed with fear, and she looked helplessly at Momo.
Anyone who comes to their mother's side will become as clueless as a child, of course, she is a child after all.
“She can’t see you, and she can’t hear you! Little infant spirit, you have no gender, no appearance, so you can’t be reincarnated. Since you came into the world, you have been feeding on human souls and you have committed the sin of killing your mother. This is a good opportunity for you to show your true colors.”
"But...but..." The doll looked at Mao Mao again, biting her lip. She hated Mao Mao, simply because Mao Mao chose to completely forget her, not only throwing her body into a corner of the trash, but also choosing to seal away her memories.
Now that Mao Mao remembers her, she no longer hates him; in fact, she feels guilty. If you truly love someone, don't let them recall painful memories. If those painful memories happen to involve you, don't appear before them in any way.
When love reaches its peak, as long as he is happy, even if he is forgotten, it is still happiness.
By the time the doll realized this, it was too late.
The doll bit her lip and said, "Okay."
After saying that, it crawled into a woman's body. The doll tried to move its arms and stretch its legs—so this is what it feels like to have a body, heavy yet light, free yet not free.
The mirror glanced at the woman, a subtle feeling stirring within him. He took two beads from his pocket and handed them to her: "The red bead can temporarily open the barrier, and the green bead is a flight bead that can temporarily grant the body the ability to fly. Don't use them unless absolutely necessary!"
The doll took it, glanced at herself in the mirror, then turned to look at Mao Mao and said, "Can we hug each other?"
"What?"
"Mom and Dad, let's hug each other..." Tears streamed down the woman's face, her eyes filled with pitiful innocence.
Big M sighed and turned his head away.
Both Mao Mao and the mirror looked surprised and confused.