Un cœur pur dans un pot de jade

Chapitre 41

Xu Yi glanced at the pond not far away, then looked at me, his expression still wooden, not much better than that group of monks wearing straw hats.

"The little girl is still crying," Xiao Chenchen suddenly reminded her.

"She's crying so pitifully," I exclaimed.

"It's still strange," Xu Yi said.

"What's strange about it?"

“If a child cries,” Xu Yi explained slowly, “it usually means they want comfort, so they will cry loudly, not just shed tears without making a sound.”

"You know so much about kids?" I raised an eyebrow at Xu Yi's bronze face. "How do you know how they should cry?"

The doctor turned back, his expression serious. "Because I had a daughter," he replied.

I choked on my breath. After all, I knew this person well and knew he wasn't referring to Xu Jinwan. Besides, this person never had a bright look in his eyes, and when he spoke, there was still a hint of emotion in his voice. Xiao Chenchen next to me looked at Xu Yi with some unease, and I knew I wasn't wrong. He was probably referring to his biological daughter.

“Yes, yes,” I quickly and clumsily changed the subject, “A little girl was crying so hard, how come so many adults were passing by and no one stopped to comfort her? Don’t they have eyes?”

"Aren't you an adult?" Xiao Chenchen tried to steer the conversation further. "You didn't go either, did you?"

"That's because the divine doctor was holding my hand the whole time!" I said smugly, deliberately raising my hand and Xu Yi's clasped together for Xiao Chenchen to see. Actually, Xu Yi had forgotten, but when he remembered, he withdrew his hand and said in a suffocating tone, "Excuse me."

Xiao Chenchen glared at me, and I waved my hand, saying, "The beautiful Xiao is jealous."

Xu Yi turned his head to look at Xiao Chenchen, and Xiao Chenchen blushed.

Then Xu Yi said, "I'll go and meet with an old friend. You all go and ask that child what really happened."

"Okay! I'll go with you!"

I glanced at Xiao Chenchen, and the beautiful woman muttered to herself, "I've never been popular with kids since I was little, I just don't want to cause trouble."

So the beautiful woman went with the miracle doctor, and I was quite confident that I could take on a little girl in broad daylight.

When I got to the person with the pigtails, I bent down, but they ignored me, wiped away their tears, rolled their eyes at me, and stood up and left.

I walked from one side of the paddy field to the other, and finally caught up with the little girl. "You dropped something!"

The child took the small handkerchief I handed her, looked up at me with a gloomy expression, and said, "You bumped into me five times."

I nodded. "I... actually, my husband's skills are better. I learned from him for a while, but I didn't amount to much. I still want to thank you for giving me the opportunity."

The little girl, with a sullen face, stuffed the handkerchief I had stolen from her after bumping into her five times into her bosom and asked, "What is it?"

"Where's your dad?" I bent down, putting on what I thought was a harmless smile.

The girl's face immediately turned green. "None of your business," she said and walked away.

"Wait a minute!" I chased after him. "Look at me, I don't look like a bad guy. Maybe I can help you."

"Little sister, please talk this out..."

"Don't walk so fast!"

"Wait for me, wait for me—ah!" I braked, and she stopped. I followed her gaze and looked, "A Buddhist shrine?"

"We went inside..."

"What?" I turned around and saw the child's eyes were brimming with tears.

"That's where my dad went..."

"No, no, no, don't cry...!" I knelt down and wiped her tears. "Tell me what's wrong, don't cry!"

“Daddy said it was a good place, sob... once you went in, you’d never have to worry about food or clothing for the rest of your life,” the little girl cried, tears streaming down her face. “But he went in and never came out, sob... Mommy said she was going to find him, but she never came back, sob... they said Mommy fell into the pond and drowned... sob sob sob…”

"Wait a minute," I stood up, "I'll go in and take a look for you."

"Don't go!" The little girl suddenly grabbed my arm, then peeked at the Buddhist shrine behind me. "Not this one," she said. "I don't know which one it is... You mustn't go, there are monsters..."

"A monster?" I suddenly had a bad feeling. "Those monks from earlier...?"

“Their faces were very white,” the little girl murmured, “and they had teeth in their mouths…”

"Pale face?" I pondered. "Does she have teeth?"

The little girl sobbed.

"vampire?!"

She was still sobbing.

"Could it be—a vampire?!"

With a loud "waaaah," the little girl burst into tears.

small temple in village

My name is Sun Qingshan. I have come to a foreign land, a place more than a thousand years away from the era I lived in.

I came here without realizing it. Recently, someone told me that I had taken some kind of amnesia drug, and that the drug has side effects, the specific clinical manifestations of which are unknown.

I, along with a doctor and a beautiful woman, traversed through towering mountains to reach the nameless village, the origin of the amnesia drug, hoping to find the cause of the strange symptoms I was experiencing.

Obvious symptoms include: incomplete amnesia, memory decline, depression, talkativeness, and seeing ghosts.

My recent romantic relationships have been quite complicated. To put it simply, I was dumped by my boyfriend without warning. Therefore, the symptoms mentioned above may be a combination of post-breakup syndrome.

Returning to the topic of the quiet village deep in the mountains, the village is lush with vegetation, dotted with ponds, has sturdy houses, and a normal male-to-female ratio... On the surface, there is nothing suspicious about it.

However, there are an unusually large number of Buddhist temples and monasteries, and several strange cases of adult men entering temples and disappearing without a trace. The hardworking and simple villagers are used to it and no one is panicked or raises any questions.

I'm now randomly standing in front of an ancient temple, and a little girl with a pigtail behind me warns me: "Don't go in, or they will punish you."

"who are they?"

"have no idea."

So I walked forward, and as the sun set, the temple closed for the day and locked its doors.

But the gatekeeper at the temple opened the door for me, saying, "Female benefactor, please come in."

"Can I go in?" I asked in surprise.

“Amitabha,” the other party replied, “a woman may enter only after she has reached the age of virginity.”

"Is that so?" I stepped across the threshold, and the door behind me immediately slammed shut.

The Buddhist hall was small, and it was brightly lit with more than ten candles on each of the two side walls.

As I walked further in, in front of the Thousand-Hand Guanyin statue, which was no different from any other temple, the only thing I could see and touch was a piece of white paper with a row of words written on it placed on the table.

Now I pick up this ordinary piece of paper, on which is written:

Everyone who enters the Buddhist hall has the opportunity to make a choice; please go behind the Buddha statue.

I raised an eyebrow, took a few steps, and unsurprisingly discovered a small black wooden box hidden behind the Buddha statue.

The box was covered in dust, about half a finger joint thick.

Now I hold the box in my hand, open the lid, and inside there is another piece of paper, a Buddhist scripture, and a jade medicine bottle that is not commonly seen.

Pick up the white paper first, in order; it has words on it:

The Buddhist scriptures contain a secret concerning the survival of our village that has existed for hundreds of years. Please open the scriptures or leave the temple immediately.

The text isn't finished yet; continue below:

If you read Buddhist scriptures, there are two ways to escape this place: First, eat the elixir in the jade bottle and forget everything written in the scriptures; second, activate the mechanism on the right foot of the Buddha statue. If you are reborn, you can spread the word widely.

“The second one is clearly meant to kill someone…” I murmured, casually flipping open a Buddhist scripture, and then a white light flashed before my eyes.

...

My head hurts so much. I sat on the floor with my legs straight and suddenly a sentence came to mind: a headache is more unbearable than a toothache.

Next, I need to figure out what exactly happened. Looking around, I know this is a Buddhist hall. I remember I was about to open the Buddhist scripture behind the Buddha statue when I sat down here. Looking down, I saw a piece of paper lying next to me. I picked it up and looked at it, and it was my handwriting!

The handwriting on the paper was messy and smeared with incense ash. It was so ugly that it lacked any personality. It read: "Sun Qingshan, this place is no fun. Leave quickly, leave now, and never come back." It was followed by a series of exclamation marks.

Suddenly the front door of the Buddhist hall opened wide, and the glow of the setting sun shone through.

I squinted. Standing outside the door was Xu Yi, dressed in a red robe and skirt, looking like a beautiful celestial being descended to earth. Beside him was Xiao Chenchen, who was wielding a sword and playing a ping-pong game with the gatekeeper monk.

"What's going on?" Xu Yi hurriedly walked into the Buddhist hall, and I went up to him to ask. For no reason, he grabbed my hand.

Judging from the plot development of a thriller, I guess Xu Yi's next line will be: "Don't ask any questions, just come with me right now!"

But he actually pulled me up, and said with a trembling voice, "I'm sorry, Sun Qingshan... but no matter what, I will definitely find a way to cure you!"

I frowned, feeling that some of his obsessions were rather unusual.

The doctor pulled me toward the Buddha statue, then turned and snatched the paper from my hand. On the back of the paper were instructions that I had two choices: take the Forget-Dust Pill or trigger a mechanism. "Ah!" I cried out as I realized what was happening. I saw Xu Yi glance at the instructions and touch the circular mechanism at the right foot of the Buddha statue. "Don't let it be a dead end!" I exclaimed in horror.

At the same time, the doctor forcefully turned the protrusion, triggering the mechanism with a soft "click." The flip panel on the ground then opened with a "snap," and suddenly there was no space beneath my feet. Accompanied by my screams—"Ahhhhhh!" Xu Yi grabbed my hand tightly, and like riding a double slide in a water park, in complete darkness, Xu Yi and I uncontrollably slid down towards the bottom of the Buddhist hall.

...

"Miracle doctor! Miracle doctor!" I exclaimed.

"Here it is," the other party replied.

"Is that the end?" I asked.

"Perhaps," Xu Yi replied.

"Luckily I had the foresight to bring a small flashlight—ah!" I said helplessly, "Please, Doctor, don't stand face to face with me next time, it's scary."

"Alright." The divine physician stepped back and nodded slowly in the blue-white light.

"Let me take a look first..." The flashlight's dim light swept across the distance, and I focused. "This is a stone house, quite clean, with cabinets, tables, stools... and beds, and on the beds... there are people, a row of beds, quite a few people... all men, awake... their faces are very pale, their eyes glow, they're yawning, their mouths are open, they have teeth... they're... looking at me... looking at me... Doctor, um, don't you think that, given the current situation, perhaps we should—run!!!" I shouted, grabbed Xu Yi's hand, and ran.

I immediately heard a sound behind me. In my panic, I didn't know what it was, but I heard howls, which proved that they were catching up. They were getting closer and closer, with the speed of wild beasts, their claws slicing across the ground. They were clearly men, so why did I instinctively feel that they were extremely ferocious?

"Vampires!" I concluded breathlessly, gripping Xu Yi's hand tightly in the long, dark corridor. "They're definitely vampires, believe me, those teeth in their mouths are simply—"

With a bang, I wasn't looking where I was going and crashed straight into the wall.

"This way!!" Xu Yi pulled me to change direction.

"Watch out!" I yelled as I rounded the corner. A handsome, deathly pale man, taking advantage of the dim light of the flashlight, suddenly darted out from behind Xu Yi, his head snapping back and his mouth agape—"Ah—!" I screamed, forcefully shoving the flashlight into the man's drooling, thin lips.

"Go away, go away, go away!!" she cried, grabbing Xu Yi's hand in a twitching fit. "Ah! Something bit me!!"

I shook my hands violently and kicked with all my might, wishing I was wearing 15-centimeter high heels.

"It bit me! It bit me!" I yelled. "I'm turning into a zombie! What do I do?! Where are you, Doctor?!"