Qingshan Wild Man Valley

Chapter 46

Sometimes, memories really need to be stimulated. Stimulation gives rise to details, and when these details are linked together, they form a recollection.

Back then, I copied my deskmate's answers during a quiz. I was caught by the teacher and taken to the corridor for a scolding. As a result, I was punished by having to copy that classical Chinese text of more than 300 characters twenty times. I protested, and the twenty times became fifty times.

It turns out that life is full of coincidences. I copied the name of an ancient person fifty times, and now I have met him. Not only him, but under the same roof, an alien is standing to one side, and behind me sits the instigator, Xu Yi.

Forget-Dust Pill...

Forget-Chen Pill...

With the beautiful Xiao Chenchen sandwiched in the middle, I naturally thought of a classic love triangle.

Xu Yi is Li Shun's brother-in-law.

Xiao Chenchen is in love with Xu Yi.

Li Shun, however, fell in love with Xiao Chenchen.

At that time, Xu Yi raised an uprising, and soon after, Li Shun took over all of his brother-in-law's rebel army. It is clear that when it comes to past events, this brother-in-law and sister-in-law could not possibly be just a case of mutual cooperation between relatives to resist tyranny, as described in ancient texts.

What I fear is that the person Xu Yi spoke of who wished he were dead, the one who gave him the Forget-Dust Pill, was none other than Li Shun.

"Chenchen, you've really been bewitched by him!" Li Shun cried out in anguish, grabbing Chenchen's wrist. "What's so good about him?! What's so good about him at all?! A good-for-nothing! Back then, he incited the farmers to rebel, one moment clinging to the leader's position out of vanity, the next hiding in the shadows for fear of the authorities, then using sweet words to marry my sister, then abandoning his wife and falling for you at first sight! All these years, how could you not see it? How could you not understand—"

"Nonsense!!" the beautiful Xiao Chenchen shouted, about to attack before she could finish speaking, but the other party gave her no chance. He stretched out two fingers and accurately pressed the pressure point, causing Xiao Chenchen to collapse. Li Shun caught her in time and handed her over to his subordinate. But when he glanced to the side, his expression changed drastically. The door of the small Buddhist hall had been overturned, and rubble was scattered all over the floor. The alien village chief was nowhere to be seen.

"Go after it!!" Li Shun roared. "Everyone out there, bring that monster back to me!!"

Chapter 57

Spacetime rift...

My name is Sun Qingshan. I believe that being abducted by aliens is no different from being sexually harassed by a lecherous boss. You should shout "No!"

"Let me go!!" I raised my hands to try and pry the spider's claws off, but I was so terrified that I was lucky not to collapse. I should really admire myself for having taken too many nutritional supplements.

"Listen to me—!" It was the village chief's voice, shouting in my ear, "Now, now you absolutely must not open your eyes!"

"Why?!" I shouted back. This village is in as much danger as it can be. Not being able to open my eyes is worse than committing suicide!

"Because of you—" the village chief began, then suddenly seemed to remember something and asked urgently, "Why did you come here? You don't belong to this era, why did you come here?!"

"Nonsense!!" My eyes were covered, and I heard screams coming from a small village not far away. I knew the monster had been unleashed. Men, women, and children were still frantically searching outside their crackling, burning houses, though most were fleeing towards the village entrance—fleeing towards the village entrance?! My heart sank. Wasn't that indirectly leading the monster towards me?!

"Don't let your imagination run wild!" The village chief's voice was unusually anxious. "Tell me quickly," he asked, "how did you get here?!"

"Time travel!" I exclaimed, but everyone said it was nonsense.

"Why did you time travel?!" The village chief, unwilling to accept it, covered my eyes tightly and asked again.

That's a good question. If you had asked me a moment earlier, I really wouldn't have been able to answer it, but thankfully he helped me remove the amnesia magnet—

“Because I fell asleep,” I replied, “and when I fell asleep I traveled to a valley.”

"Which valley?!"

"It's... a mountain nearby, probably because of your wormhole—"

"No!" To everyone's surprise, the village chief decisively denied it. "It's something else, connected to the wormhole—now listen to me, before you came to this era, did you encounter anything strange, anything beyond your imagination?!"

"For example," I prompted myself, "abducted by aliens? Or seeing a spaceship?!"

"I'm not joking with you!!" The village chief's voice became rough and distorted; he really wasn't joking.

But I didn't feel like laughing either. "...No," I replied.

“Impossible!” He was even more certain than I was. “Think about it,” he began, softening his voice to guide me, “when were you before you came, where did you go, what strange places did you visit—”

"Ah! I remember now!!" I shouted, "I've been there—I really have been there—Stonehenge!!"

“Stonehenge?!” The village chief was puzzled.

"It's the giant stone circle that's supposedly connected to a group of aliens," I explained. "Actually, I didn't want to go, but my classmate came to visit and insisted on dragging me there. It's freezing cold, and we can't even get close. It's like when people come to Beijing and insist on dragging me to climb the Great Wall. They just want to take me to Stonehenge whenever someone comes along. It's so unoriginal!"

After I finished speaking, the other person fell silent. Of course, I didn't think he was encouraging me to continue. I knew he was probably thinking about whether he should just throw me away because I was such a talkative person who couldn't get to the point.

“Stonehenge…” the village chief finally spoke, but he still wouldn’t let go of my eyes. He pressed his palm tightly against my eyelids, making my vision spin and see lots of little stars. “Did you see anything strange there?” he asked again.

"Yes," I replied, guessing as I spoke that the last survivor on this XX planet in the universe was probably already at his wit's end with my panting.

“A crack,” I added, “actually, I saw a crack in the sky. Have you ever played Skyfall? It’s like that little crack in Skyfall… But I think it’s unlikely. I didn’t sleep for three nights in a row that day. I’m more inclined to believe that I was just seeing things…”

"Shut up!!" the village chief snapped. He always thought I talked too much, but I found it hilarious. I wasn't talking nonsense at all; I was trying my best to tell him everything I knew, even the smallest details, because I believed he must have discovered something, something very important that I had overlooked for a long time.

"The crack..." the village chief suddenly asked, "You've been watching it closely?"

"Of course I looked," I said helplessly. "How could I know there was a crack in the sky if I didn't look?"

“Then listen to me,” the village chief said, then hesitated, “Just now…did you notice that some people suddenly disappeared?”

"You noticed it too?" I asked back.

“Have you ever experienced this,” he asked again, “when suddenly some people disappear from your sight, but the people around you think that person never existed?”

"Yes, yes!!" I recalled my underground experience with Xu Yi, and the time Li Shun asked who killed the beautiful Xiao Chenchen. At first, I thought he was just going crazy from grief.

"Is that really the case...?" the alien village chief pondered.

I felt something was off. I used to think those were hallucinations caused by the Forgetfulness Pill, but now that I think about it, it doesn't seem like that—"Oh, right, there's one more thing!" I added, "I've seen corpses come back to life; the corpses can change their movements in the blink of an eye—"

"A spacetime rift," the village chief uttered those four words.

"What?!"

"A spacetime rift!" the village chief said in a deep voice. "The rift you once saw in the sky was a spacetime rift, and you..."

What's wrong with me?

"The spacetime rift is not a physical object; rather, it exists in images—or rather, anything that carries an image of a spacetime rift exists itself as a spacetime rift..."

"What..." I frowned in the darkness, "...meaning?"

“It means,” the village chief replied, “that crack is now right in your eyes.”

"Whhhhh...what?!"

“But for some reason,” the alien village chief laughed at this moment, “that rift also seems to mutate in your eyes, only when… when you are frightened, or affected by certain external factors, such as the bioelectric radiation generated by a magnet… only at these times will the spacetime rift in your eyes appear…”

"Once a spacetime rift opens, it will begin to devour all objects with energy around it. Of course, the rift can connect to any spacetime, or even a dead end... So when a rift appears in your eyes, the person in front of you will be absorbed by the rift as energy replenishment. If this is the case, for those remaining in this space, the person sucked into the rift will completely disappear, never having existed, never having come into this world at all..."

"Impossible!" I shook my head with my eyes closed. "Then why wasn't I devoured?!"

"Because when you see the crack, it may be devouring other, more powerful energies, and the crack's capacity has reached its limit... So everything has its advantages and disadvantages, and this principle will not change. Under normal circumstances, it is impossible for anyone to have time to see that crack, which is what you call the Crack in the Sky."

“Then why do I remember those who disappeared?” I asked. “Why do you remember them too?”

“Because,” the village chief replied, “we all came from time and space, so we are complex individuals of time and space, and our understanding of the concept of the universe has been completely changed. Perhaps people like us should have a name. You can also define a name for yourself, for example, time travelers?”

“Extraordinary,” I frowned, thought for a moment, and then asked, “What about zombie transformation?”

The village chief remained silent for a moment before answering, "I think it's not a zombie transformation, but rather that you encountered a substance that can absorb the energy from the cracks in your eyes. After obtaining the energy, the substance can reverse its life state, but it cannot contend with the energy of the cracks in your eyes. Therefore, it must have a form of disguise to protect itself... And the loss of energy will cause the spacetime cracks in your eyes to expand. So I guess you have been traveling through time for quite some time, but you only recently started encountering strange things... right?"

"Tch..." I scoffed. "You've said everything, making me sound like I'm some kind of apocalyptic disaster. How am I supposed to open my eyes then? Am I supposed to live with my eyes closed for the rest of my life?! And what does the spacetime rift have to do with me? Why can I travel through time? And why haven't I disappeared yet?"

"Because you yourself are a rift!" The other party's tone completely judged that we Earthlings had low intelligence. "...So, when you, under certain circumstances, your brainwaves cause a rift to appear, and the rift connects to a wormhole with the closest energy nearby, you end up here."

"So..." a question suddenly occurred to me, "that wormhole in the valley, it can't actually be used to travel through time and space?!"

"Of course not," the village chief answered with certainty. "You apes are too fragile and bulky. First of all, that wormhole cannot accommodate creatures like you humans. Secondly, even if it were possible, the other end of the wormhole would never lead to any corner of the earth."

“I understand…” I nodded in the darkness.

My nose stung, and I suddenly felt like crying… I finally understand. I finally understand why the savage had been digging in the Savage Valley for so many years without accidentally ending up in my bed. I finally understand why he could so readily deny my idea of trying, of me searching for that tiny hole that could be used as a time machine—because he must have tried it himself. The savage must have tried it thousands and thousands of times, and no one in this world knows that place better than him. He must have known all along that time travel could only happen to me, and only to that one specific point, which is why he was always so afraid, so wary… unwilling to let go, afraid to let me leave easily…

"Are you ready?" the village chief suddenly asked me after a brief silence.

I was shocked. "What?!"

"Now there is an opportunity," the village chief said, enunciating each word clearly. "If you are willing, you can temporarily seal the spacetime rift in your eyes, escape safely and make a clean getaway, and even stop those in the village... those who have turned red-eyed... my companions..." At this point, the village chief's voice trembled slightly, but he calmed down and asked slowly, "All of this awaits your response, so... are you willing?"

Like fleeting clouds...

"Your son?!"

"Three years old?!"

"Wait—three and a half years old?!"

“What should I do…” I turned to look at Doctor Xu, who was having a pleasant time with his grandson.

"That's great..." the doctor chuckled, replying in a moment.

Chengdu, the dealer.

"You copied the fireworks shop exactly?" I peeked into Xu Yi's bedroom, which was exactly the same.

“I’m waiting… for Godfather… to come back…” Xu Jinwan’s eyes were red and her voice was hoarse.

After being apart for half a month, she became more prone to sentimentality.

"Four years have passed since we last met..." she sobbed, "Godfather, where have you gone?!"

"Who is that person?" Xu Yi had all his bad habits; he never listened to what people were saying. He turned his head and saw a painting hanging on the wall not far away. He pointed to the person in the painting, paused for a moment, straightened up to look at the painting, and asked hesitantly.

"I don't recognize it." Xu Jinwan's voice was muffled. "I found it under your bed, Godfather. Don't you recognize it either?"

Xu Yi shook his head, looked away from the painting, and bent down to hug his little grandson with a smile.

"If you don't recognize it, why hang it on the wall and provoke people!" I went over to take the painting down, but accidentally, I felt a single eyelash get into my eye...

"Don't touch my godfather's things!" Xu Jinwan came over to stop me, her temper as foul as ever.

"You don't even know her!" I took the painting apart, rolled it up in twos and threes and put it in my arms, and asked Xu Yi from afar, "Give this painting to me?"

Xu Yi ignored me, so I called out again, "Divine Doctor Xu!"

"Take it." He didn't even look up.

I was smug and quickly tucked the portrait into my pocket, imagining how Xu Yi had carried it out of the calligraphy and painting shop. I could only imagine how tightly he had held it, as if he were holding a woman he could never reach in his life.

“You’re really unfortunate, beautiful lady…” I smiled bitterly, watching as Xu Yi simply sat on the ground, stretched out both hands to pinch his grandson’s cheeks, pinching hard and without feeling anything, making the little boy scream loudly.

I suddenly remembered that this man had threatened to slit his own throat with a sword just a few days ago, which had terrified me. The contrast was so stark and intense. It's like how I still can't accept that a short trip to the mountains of just over ten days has turned into four years of someone else's life.

Now that the divine doctor's grandson is three years old, Xu Yibai has gained the grandson, but he himself has gained four more years, and has not gone from being an uncle to an old man.

Judging solely from appearances, when I sat side-by-side with Xu Yi looking in the mirror, I felt like I was on drugs, and even overdosed, while he looked like he had just been released from a prison, barely resembling a human.

As for the death of the beautiful woman, the person involved, Doctor Xu, had long since lost all feeling, as if that person had never existed. Yet I am filled with guilt, fear, and confusion... a mixture of emotions that keeps me having nightmares every night.