Serie de historias de fantasmas 10

Capítulo 2

He knew that although Saviel was rational, she was gentle and wouldn't go back alone. He thought of reciting another poem: "Willing to lightly drape my slender waist, willing to reflect my delicate face in the mirror." And finally, "Green are your robes, deep is my longing. For your sake, I have hesitated until now." He couldn't believe that "Little Dimples" wouldn't come and hug him tightly.

No matter how long he hesitated, nothing happened. Saviel did not offer her "slender waist".

...

Unable to bear it any longer, I looked back and saw that the night was deep and boundless.

The small dunes resembled the skulls of ghosts emerging from the ground. There was no trace of Saviour left.

Good heavens, she actually went back home alone in a huff!

She actually walked alone in the dark of night?

Some people in Xianyang say this area is haunted; she's really brave.

Is it truly heinous for him to recite poetry under the moon to express love?

What shocked him even more was that a six or seven-year-old child appeared in front of him, looking at him with bright, sparkling eyes.

Chu Xunfeng rubbed his eyes, thinking he was still "sleepwalking in Gaotang".

But the child stood clearly in front of him, all white, with a very classic little bow tie around his neck, looking at Chu Xunfeng with a strange gaze, as if Chu Xunfeng were a visitor from outer space.

A north wind picked up, and the moonlight was boundless. Chu Xunfeng shivered, chilled to the bone. In this vast desert, under the deep and distant sky, how did a child suddenly appear?

In this desolate wilderness, with no village or shop in sight, how could there possibly be a child?

The child's expression was cold and indifferent, exuding a sinister aura. Though his eyes were bright and expressive, they were chillingly cold!

He appeared silently, like a ghost, exuding an indescribable mystery.

Just as the rumors said, this place was indeed haunted. This was Chu Xunfeng's first impression, and his legs went weak, making him unable to move.

However, the child's fair skin, unlike the bluish-green little zombies in the movies, relieved him.

The child showed no signs of fatigue, thirst, or fear, nor did he seem lost in a vast, uninhabited desert. Instead, he appeared to be a mischievous child with nothing to do and no playmates.

Chu Xunfeng suddenly remembered the book "The Little Prince" he had read when he was a child. It was written by a French pilot, and it was in the desert that he met a little boy from outer space.

Could it be that he, too, came from another planet? Chu Xunfeng looked into the child's cold eyes, eyes that were piercing to the bone, and couldn't help but take two steps back.

Note:

①The Six Classics are a collective term for six classic works: the Book of Poetry, the Book of Documents, the Book of Rites, the Book of Music, the Book of Changes, and the Spring and Autumn Annals. Among them, the Book of Rites in the Han Dynasty referred to the Book of Etiquette, while after the Song Dynasty, the Book of Rites in the Five Classics generally referred to the Book of Rites.

②The tomb of Emperor Wu of Han (Liu Che) during the Xianfeng era, as well as the tombs of famous generals such as Huo Qubing, are also nearby. Hence this association.

③ Antoine desaiot-Exupery, the author of *The Little Prince*, was born in Lyon, France in 1900. He served in the French Air Force from 1921 to 1923, as a reserve pilot. He published *The Little Prince* in 1943. On the morning of July 31, 1944, he was killed in action while on a mission, at the age of 44.

Snow-white child (Part 1)

On a cold, frozen night on the edge of the western desert, a ghostly child appeared in the moonlight.

The little bow tie was tied very delicately and classically, as if it were for holding up the bride and groom's dresses.

"Could he be from another planet?" This was Chu Xunfeng's first thought. "I must not provoke him. Perhaps he has no ill intentions!" This reminded him of the widely circulated rumors of aliens invading Earth through Planet X.

He immediately extended his hands to show that he was not carrying any weapons. Then, he politely crossed his arms over his chest, a gesture of universal peace he had seen in the movie "Back to the Future Part V".

The child did not attack him; instead, he quietly appreciated his "peaceful" and "friendly" actions.

"Hello, I am Chu Xunfeng, an Earthling. Welcome to our planet." He tried to keep his voice steady, even though his legs were trembling.

He suddenly realized that the other person might not understand Chinese, and wanted to repeat his friendliness in English, but in his haste he said in German: "Hallo, binichderMannderMasse, dubinwillkommen, zuunseremPlanetenzukommen."

He quickly repeated it in English: "Hello, I am the Man of the Earth, you are welcome to come to our planet."

The child simply stared at him silently, unresponsive to any of his "cosmic" commands. Fortunately, however, the child did not attack him.

"We are friendly, and the earth have never attacked others," Chu Xunfeng blushed slightly at his own words, but quickly reassured himself that lying a little to save his life and report to the Earth Federation was necessary. He suddenly remembered that aliens could immediately see through human lies, and a sense of unease crept into his heart!

The other party remained unresponsive to his actions, watching him intently as he changed gestures and language repeatedly, as if he were a monkey being performed.

Thinking that his lie might be exposed, Chu Xunfeng became somewhat embarrassed and angry. He emphasized his words: "If you are friendly, please nod."

The child simply stared with his bright eyes, as pure and cold as a snow lotus from the Tianshan Mountains.

"Hey, kid, are you a human or a ghost?" He raised his voice by five decibels, both to embolden himself and to show that he was not someone to be trifled with.

As he raised his voice, his hands were already clenched into "hollow fists." He had heard his grandmother say that hitting ghosts with solid fists wouldn't hurt; only "hollow fists" were effective.

The other party remained unmoved, seemingly confident and intending to wait and see.

"Where are your parents? Have you been separated from them?" He tried to keep his voice gentle and relaxed so as not to provoke the other person too much. He could feel that his hands, which were clenched into "hollow fists," were already wet.

"Excuse me, I'll have to go back and report to the Federal Secretary-General, and then we'll hold a grand ceremony to welcome you." He tried to turn around and find another way to go back, but his legs felt like lead.

"Please believe us, we have absolutely no ill intentions." He didn't dare turn around, remembering what his grandmother had said: Never turn around when you encounter a ghost, because if you do, the ghost might pounce on you from behind your shadow.

Chu Xunfeng took a step back in front of the child, and the child followed suit.

Seeing the child move, Chu Xunfeng's heart leaped into his throat. Fortunately, the child only followed for one step, otherwise he would have turned and run.

As soon as he stopped, the child stopped too.

He took another step back, and the child took another step forward.

Chu Xunfeng probed a few times, but the child was merely imitating and showed no intention of attacking. He retreated a few steps, and the child advanced a few steps in return.

His steps were not the leaping strides of a ghost, which emboldened Chu Xunfeng considerably. After all, aliens weren't as terrifying as ghosts; they might truly be "coming for peace."

They backed up a long way before finally reaching the direction of Xianyang city, and then faced the child and moved forward backwards.

The child followed closely behind, step by step, without making a sound.

After moving forward a short distance, Chu Xunfeng felt his leg stumble over something, but he didn't dare look down, only glancing at it out of the corner of his eye. "My God!" he almost cried out. In the dim moonlight, he saw it was a desiccated corpse! The round thing he had stepped on and pressed into the sand was definitely a skull.

"God help me, what day is it today?" No wonder the people of Xianyang say this place is haunted, and Chu Xunfeng is feeling quite uneasy.

Fortunately, the child just stared at him quietly and didn't lunge at him to choke him.

It took him a long time to calm down before he continued walking backwards towards Xianyang City. Good heavens! Has Hades opened the gates of Hell today?

They retreated for nearly 1,500 meters, saying a lot of "universal peace" every few steps, in order to prevent the other party from launching an attack rashly.

Seeing the light approaching the edge of the sandstorm, his heart calmed down a little: "It seems the other party is a peace-loving citizen of the universe. There is still hope if the aliens who are rumored to be invading Earth through Planet X can be saved." By the light, he could see that the child was a white-skinned European boy with extremely regular and delicate features. The bow tie around his neck was tied in a very classical style, like a popular style from the late Renaissance. His eyes were bright, his expression was peaceful, and his skin was dazzlingly white.

The skull he just stepped on was probably the remains of an explorer who got lost in the sandstorm and died there due to lack of water.

Feeling safe, Chu Xunfeng stopped overthinking: "This child is probably French. He got separated from his parents while playing outside, so he can't understand what I'm saying."

"Dispersiontoietdemamanetdepapa? (Have you separated from your parents?)" Chu Xunfeng's voice finally calmed down as he asked the child in French. But the child still ignored him, or perhaps he genuinely didn't understand. He had recited the entire "Eight-Nation Alliance" slang, yet the child still hadn't responded; what a very impolite child.

He retreated several hundred meters further, until he could see people and felt completely safe, before turning around. But the child didn't turn around like him. He continued to follow behind him. He took a few steps, and the child followed. It seemed the child was homeless, like a stray dog following someone else.

Chu Xunfeng began to find his own behavior laughable: "This child was just playing and got separated from his parents."

"Little one, have you gotten separated from your mom and dad?" he asked with a smile, cautiously approaching the child. The child wasn't afraid and instinctively stretched out his little hand.

"Are you starving? Come back with your uncle." Chu Xunfeng walked over and took the child's hand, which the child did not refuse. However, his hand was ice-cold, without any warmth. Chu Xunfeng was startled.

“It’s too late. You’ve been walking backwards for almost two hours now. It’s all your fault.” He was amused by his own behavior. “Uncle will take you to see your mom and dad tomorrow. Don’t be afraid.” He almost burst out laughing when he said “don’t be afraid.”

"I spent the whole day at the museum with that clueless half-German, half-Chinese woman. It seems like all my efforts were wasted. You know, she's a cold-blooded enchantress, the kind who's slender and has a very S-shaped figure..."

Half an hour later, the two returned to the hotel. Turning on the light, Chu Xunfeng saw that the child wasn't much different from other European or American children, except his skin was even whiter, as if he hadn't seen sunlight in a long time, glowing with a pure white luster. He seemed interested in everything, examining the various facilities in the room, touching this and that, but without saying a word. Chu Xunfeng thought, "Maybe he was born mute."

The child stared at his portable plasma computer. Chu Xunfeng turned on the computer and played a computer game called "Sisyphus" for him. After demonstrating it to the child, the child immediately started to explore the keyboard in a very professional manner. He was a natural "player".

After settling the child in, I tiptoed next door to "secretly investigate" whether Saviel was still raging. After sneaking around for a while, I discovered that Saviel had not returned.

This greatly surprised Chu Xunfeng. She got lost on the edge of the desert? But it wasn't far from the town, how could she have gotten lost? Did this German suddenly become so familiar with directions in China?

Chu Xunfeng blinked his single eyelids: This place was full of mystery, what if Saviel...? At that moment, he remembered the skull, and a chill ran down his spine. He rushed back to his room, threw on his clothes, and went out to look for Saviel. The child was engrossed in his "Sisyphus" game, ignoring his comings and goings. After he went out, he returned and locked the window and then the door, lest this "playful child" wander around and accidentally "fly" out the window.

Just then, he heard the door next door slam shut. It seemed Saviel had returned on her own. For Saviel, a student of "intelligence analysis," to be unable to even find her own home would be a huge disgrace.

He knocked on the door: "Princess, where have you been tonight? Did you go on a date with Pan An and Song Yu?"

“I’m furious that you left me in the desert. Don’t mess with me.” Xavier’s tone was extremely impatient, completely unlike her usual gentle and mild manner.

"You got lost on your own! How can you blame me? But you truly are a top student from the School of Information Science and Intelligence, managing to find your way home in such a bizarre and unpredictable place." Chu Xunfeng forced a smile through gritted teeth...

"I'm tired, don't bother me. I want to sleep, I'll get angry if you knock on the door again."

She was disoriented for several hours in the desert, and when she finally returned to the hotel, she was extremely dissatisfied with him, her "protector." Chu Xunfeng smiled wryly, thinking, "I just hope you came back alive. In China, I'm not afraid of not being able to handle you."

Chu Xunfeng pondered, but something seemed amiss. Saviel had never been this angry before, like an enraged bull! No, a cow. Could something have happened on the road? Saviel was gentle and mild-mannered by nature, and rarely got angry. They had been a couple for three years, and Chu Xunfeng understood her temperament.

They had always been happy together. The only thing that worried them was that her father disapproved of Chu Xunfeng's background in the humanities and did not approve of the marriage. Nie Longping was a master in the field of mathematics and physics and did not like this son-in-law who always boasted, "My body dies but my spirit lives on, my soul becomes a heroic ghost." So every time Chu Xunfeng met his future father-in-law, he had to stay up all night to cram for "Fermat's Last Theorem" and "Goldbach's Conjecture," but most of the time he was still stumped by the questions.

The fact that the two of them received Professor Nie's permission was an unexpected surprise. Chu Xunfeng and Saviel were filled with thoughts of flying away together, or even consummating their relationship in their homeland. However, Saviel felt no joy at the prospect of being able to be with Chu Xunfeng; on the contrary, there was an endless melancholy in her eyes.

Could it be that he was bullied by some damned "Ximen Qing"? Impossible, Chu Xunfeng thought. The Tibetan mastiffs kept here looked incredibly docile. If he really provoked Saviel, who had learned "Ladies' Fighting Techniques," wouldn't that be a perfect opportunity for her to stretch her muscles?

Saviel may look frail and delicate, but if a fight breaks out, his single eyelids will be beaten into double eyelids.

Part 3

The Stolen Book of Changes (Part 1)

Unable to figure out why, Chu Xunfeng returned to his room alone. The child was engrossed in playing, and when he went over to look, he was dumbfounded. Good heavens, the little guy had actually reached level 32! He slapped his forehead hard, afraid that his "old eyes were failing him."

The computer game "Sisyphus" has a total of 49 levels, with the option to progress through each level in turn. The game's name comes from a well-known legend: Sisyphus offended the gods, and as punishment, they ordered him to push a giant boulder up a mountain. However, because the boulder was too heavy, it would roll back down before reaching the top, and Sisyphus had to repeat this task endlessly—the gods believed there was no more severe punishment than performing such futile and hopeless labor.

This game is an upgraded version of "Sokoban"①, written in ASP.NET 3. It contains some deadlocks in set theory②, making it extremely difficult. For many gamers, if their IQ is below 150, completing the game is like Sisyphus pushing a boulder, which is basically hopeless. This is also the origin of the game's name.

Chu Xunfeng, who considered himself a master gamer, had only managed to pass 24 levels at most, and that took him a whole day. He even understood some of the tricks of the game after using C++ to automate the solution for level 24. This six- or seven-year-old child passing 32 levels in an hour is absolutely a peerless genius on Earth.

MY GOD! Chu Xunfeng was completely bewildered, thinking he had lost his mind. This kid was truly a reincarnation of Guan Yu, able to "ride a fine steed and gallop through five passes and defeat six generals." He sat at the computer, full of suspicion, to see exactly how the kid "cheated."

In level 37, the computer set a total of 224 moves, and the child used 75 moves.

In level 38, the computer set a total of 225 moves, and the child used 89 moves.

In level 39, the computer set a total of 237 steps, and the child used 78 steps.

In level 40, the computer set a total of 241 steps, and the child used 81 steps.

In level 41, the computer set a total of 237 moves, and the child used 71 moves.

He cleared all the levels without ever backtracking, and every step he took seemed thoughtful and confident. Such strong calculation ability was unheard of, as if he had designed the entire program himself.

At this moment, Chu Xunfeng was filled with surprise and admiration, and completely forgot about the child's origins.

If he were to master Go, Lee Chang-ho would have no chance of becoming the "world's number one Go player." Chu Xunfeng thought he was dreaming; the events of this day were truly bizarre. If he didn't look exactly like a Western European child, he would have mistaken him for an "alien visitor."

The kid, who had been up all night, wasn't sleepy at all. He played the game until level 49, without even taking a breath. He just tidied his little bow tie neatly, looking quite pleased with himself. He'd finally had a good time playing!