Un cœur pur dans un pot de jade

Chapitre 42

"Here!" Xu Yi approached from some eerie direction, grabbed my arm, and pulled me forward. "It bit me—!" I screamed, suddenly seeing a light in the distance. I turned to investigate, only to be met with a pair of young man's single-eyelid eyes at close range—

"They're alive!!" I snapped back to reality, staggering and running as I shouted, "Those men are all alive!"

As a result, Xu Yi, exhausted and weak, stumbled forward and knelt on the ground.

"Get up!" I pulled him. "Get up quickly, they're catching up!"

"No...no..." I felt like the doctor was an inflatable doll that was slowly deflated, with only a sliver of strength left to push my hand away. But I didn't give him a chance to speak, using his thought process—"Enough nonsense, I will never abandon you!"

As soon as he finished speaking, he saw three men rushing forward one after another behind him.

Wait—I realized, a sudden realization dawning on me, "Why are they wearing diamonds around their necks? What can cut a diamond these days—or is it fake?! Something's definitely wrong!!"

"Sun Qingshan, what are you doing?!"

With Xu Yi's desperate shout, I leaped forward, ripping off the dazzling gem from the leading man's clothes, and then—

I have never regretted anything so much in my life. I really regret it... I was powerless to go back, my legs went weak, my knees buckled, and I plopped down next to Xu Yi.

"Did you see, see, see—have you seen it?" I asked Xu Yi, my hands trembling and my teeth chattering.

"Yes..." Xu Yi only replied with one word, and I felt a chill run down my spine.

There were no men in front of us at all. The moment the (suspected) diamond necklace was ripped off, the monster completely reverted to its original form—a club-shaped fish head, beady eyes, two rows of sharp teeth, as tall as a person, spider claws, a scaly body, reeking of fish, and spewing a foul stench… But none of that was truly terrifying. What was most terrifying was that, in the dim light, with its hissing breaths, it moved closer and closer, followed by a string of delicate-looking men with bared fangs, their vampire-like sharp teeth closing in on me—

"No!!" I squeezed my eyes shut, then suddenly opened them again—

"Huh?" I froze. "Gone?! Where are the mutants?" I rubbed my eyes. "How could they be gone?!"

So I focused my light, staring intently ahead at the winding, narrow underground passage. A faint light illuminated the passage from afar behind me, but just a moment ago this place was teeming with ugly monsters of some unknown mutated race. Why did everything disappear in the blink of an eye?!

"Xu Yi! Xu Yi!" I remembered the person next to me and quickly crawled over to pull him away. "Did you see him? Did you see him? Did you see him?!"

"What do you see?" the miracle doctor asked, then suddenly coughed.

“Just now…” I pointed to the route the two had taken to escape, “The monsters over there!” I asked, “Where did they go? Did you notice how they disappeared? How did they just vanish so suddenly?!”

"Wh...cough cough...what monster?" The divine doctor covered his mouth with one hand, stopped coughing after a while, and turned to ask me.

I was stunned. There was concern in his eyes, and he was very serious.

"They're monsters that turn into men!" she cried, her voice trembling with impatience. "Several of them were chasing us just now!"

"What are you talking about?" Xu Yi finally spoke up, clutching his chest and straightening up. His eyes showed a hint of surprise as he frowned at me. "What monster? Sun Qingshan, there are only the two of us here. There have only been the two of us."

"How is this possible?!" I was stunned. "I just asked you if you saw it, and you said 'yes.' There really was a monster! Even if there wasn't a monster, we were just chased so badly, you must have seen those people, right?! Those men! They even bit me! You didn't see anything, did you?!"

"What man?" I wasn't surprised at all; he really did ask again. "There are only the two of us here. Who else could there be?"

"Okay..." I understand now. "It was just my hallucination. I ate a Forget-Dust Pill that expired hundreds of years ago, and now I'm even hallucinating... That's great... I'm hallucinating..."

"Sun Qingshan." Xu Yi interrupted me, but then looked away as if he felt guilty and stopped talking.

I felt even more helpless than him. I needed time to calm down. If what seemed so real just now was an illusion, then was I going crazy?

Half a minute later, "Let me help you." I reached out my hand to Xu Yi. What's the use of thinking so much? Going crazy always starts with overthinking. I comforted myself, then looked at my hand—and froze again.

So, if—initially—all of what I saw was an illusion—then what is this diamond necklace in my hand? What is this necklace that I tore off some pretty boy?!

"Miracle doctor," I probed, "you must have seen this by now, right?!"

The diamonds were sparkling, and I loosened my grip, letting the chain dangle right in front of Xu Yi. "Don't tell me you can't see this either?!"

“I see it.” Xu Yi nodded. The diamond refracted a faint light in the darkness, and even the usually pale pupils of the divine physician became bright because of this light.

"I saw it!" I finally breathed a sigh of relief. Thank goodness I wasn't crazy.

Xu Yi then asked, "Is this chain yours? It's very beautiful."

"Ha, ha ha ha!" I burst out laughing, pressing my hand to Xu Yi's mouth. "I know what you want to say, but you don't have to. I understand—there has to be a madman between us—it's either you or me!"

As expected, these words were met with a gaze from Xu Yi filled with boundless sorrow, extreme sorrow, sympathy, and even greater sympathy...

underground tunnels

My name is Sun Qingshan. What I'm about to say might be true, or it might just be a part of my chaotic imagination.

Now I am walking with a frail, sickly doctor in a dimly lit, winding underground passage—our goal is a tiny glimmer of light that seems impossible to reach even one day.

As for why I didn't turn back, it's because I firmly believe that not long ago, I was chased by a group of monsters disguised as handsome men on that road.

If I need evidence, I suddenly thought of a diamond necklace that could not possibly exist in this era and that I absolutely could not afford, as well as a row of irregular teeth marks on my hand that have been gradually fading away.

The row of teeth marks made my entire palm stiff. I pinned my hopes on Western vampire theories, hoping that I wouldn't accidentally become someone else's vampire just from a random bite.

The road was long, the space was suffocating, the air was damp and cold, the light was dim, and time was meaningless.

"Miracle doctor..." I finally couldn't help but speak, and then I saw the person in front of me stop walking.

I want to ask you a question.

Xu Yi stood still. In truth, he was sharp-eyed and quick-witted; his dullness was not feigned. However, he knew better than anyone how slow-witted he was.

"Don't you think this is going too far?" I asked. "Just because you think there's something wrong with the medicine that caused my amnesia, you brought me all this way here, to this strange place?! Xu Yi, tell me the truth, what are you really up to?!"

Silence.

After a long pause, he replied, "...I didn't mean it." His blank, irrelevant answer startled me.

"Xu Yi?" I knew something was wrong, so I stepped forward and grabbed him.

He turned to the side, but it was too dark for me to see his face clearly. I had overestimated him. He took my hand and stepped back. I supported him with one hand and pressed the other against the damp stone wall beside us. The doctor's body went limp and his limbs stiffened and could not bend. He really could not even stand. So his previous desperate run was undoubtedly an act of endurance beyond his physical limits.

When one is weak, one's will also become weak. "I didn't mean to hurt you..." He turned his gaze to me, the only visible light in his eyes was dazed and unfocused.

"Take a rest first," I reassured him. "We can talk after you've rested."

"I was bewitched..." he said.

I instinctively felt he was too weak and was afraid he wouldn't be able to hold on. "I told you not to talk!"

"Sun Qingshan..." he called out again.

"Xu Yi, do you like me?" To shut him up, she used a strong drug, which worked; he immediately shut up.

But after only ten seconds of silence, he pressed, "You've already guessed it?"

"..." I remained silent, only thinking of one possibility.

The real cause of this whole thing... was actually just a pill that caused memory loss.

But in reality, it's impossible for a savage to think about how to keep me by his side when his memory is in complete disarray. Even if he knew he couldn't lose me, he wouldn't have thought that anyone in the world could make an amnesia drug. Besides, that drug is just a legend. Even Xu Yi obtained the Forget-Dust Pill from someone else. How could a savage have the idea of making me lose my memory for no reason?

A normal person should be well aware that they cannot manipulate other people's memories, and therefore would not think of manipulating other people's memories.

Therefore, there is only one possibility: the instigator, the one who asked the savage to give me the Forget-Dust Pill and instigated everything behind the scenes, is Xu Yi.

“You can ask me now,” he said weakly, “why I’m so sure there’s something wrong with the medicine.”

“Okay,” I asked, just as he wanted to, “Why are you so sure there’s something wrong with the medicine?”

The doctor smiled, resting the back of his head against the rock wall. "Because the person who gave me the medicine... he wanted me to suffer a fate worse than death." He then closed his eyes.

The implication is—

"Now ask me again," the divine physician spoke again with his eyes closed, "why I instigated Shao Yanhe to drug you."

I held my breath—"Ask away!" Xu Yi suddenly shouted.

The loud noise resulted in him panting heavily. I glared at him, reached out to pat his back to help him catch his breath, and then asked, "Why did you instigate that savage to drug me?"

“Because I wish you were dead,” he replied.

My premonition was confirmed. I saw him open his eyes, and for a moment, there was emptiness in them.

The emptiness of a missing soul, or rather, the soul of this person is itself a huge void.

It can easily swallow even the light that shines into its eyes.

“You made me lose the last family member in my life…” he gasped, “you and Shao Yanhe.”

I understand that he was referring to the time in Dujiangyan. The wild man had told me that my self-righteous actions had caused others to lose even their wives.

“Xu Yi…”

“Many years ago,” he lowered his eyes, “someone gave me two Forget-Dust Pills, one of which I used on Shen Zhuo…”

"Shen Zhuo? Your wife?"

He remained motionless, only his eyelashes blinked slightly, but the frequency was somewhat strange.

“The medicine is very effective,” he said. “It can make people forget everything, but it will quickly cause hallucinations and even damage their internal organs…”

"Ah!" I cried out softly.

“I’ve tried many methods, and although I finally managed to expel the pills from her body a year later, her body was ruined… completely ruined…”

"Xu Yi...?"

"The person who gave me the Forget-Dust Pill, that's the one I went to see just now. He was very surprised, he didn't expect that I was still alive..."

"Xu Yi!!"

"But he still wouldn't tell me how to save you..."

"Xu Yi!!"

“I’m sorry… this is the only way I can think of. I know there are many secrets in this village…”

"Xu Yi!!" Finally unable to hold back, she pushed him, finally interrupting his self-centered mutterings.

The doctor raised his eyes, looking somewhat dazed and confused.

I understand that he had a glorious past, which inevitably came with many more tragic events. After all, uprisings are about using human lives to build banners, so the number of people he caused to lose their families and hate him so much that they couldn't bear to see him die is naturally greater than the stars in the sky. But who would be so cruel as to give him something like this, making him personally harm his own wife? Moreover, he is a renowned healer. To let a renowned healer watch his loved ones succumb to exhaustion day and night while being helpless makes my unintentional mistake seem like a minor one in comparison.

"Didn't you want me dead?" I asked. "So you should be happy that I've gotten what I deserved. Why did you bring me here? Wouldn't it have been better to just watch me die?!"

He was stunned. Actually, the answer was obvious. If he really wanted to harm me, he wouldn't have gone through all that trouble to bring me here. I think he was holding back a lot of resentment with nowhere to vent it. I think he was just bewitched...

"I was bewitched..." I never expected that the divine doctor would have a telepathic connection with me. He looked up at me, then suddenly looked away. "It was all my fault. Shen Zhuo didn't want to see me, that's why he died. It has nothing to do with you... But I wanted you to suffer for me. I was bewitched..."

"Xu Yi!" I shouted immediately, sensing that he was about to have another outburst, to bring him back to his senses.

He shuddered, and his forehead throbbed with cold sweat.

"Xu Yi, listen to me—" I was about to touch him when he suddenly yelled and slapped my hand away.

"What are you afraid of?!" I was completely furious. "I'm not having an attack, are you afraid I'll cook you?!"