Зал астрологии с плотью и кровью

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I have a lover, family, and friends. I shouldn't still be so lonely. Where are they? Why aren't they here?

I looked around anxiously, but it seemed that "me" couldn't see me at all. He was just standing there, smoking incessantly, while I could only stand there dumbly, half-floating in the sky, staring at myself.

Just then, that "me" suddenly turned around, and I finally saw his whole face!

My right eye... was actually a vibrant green, as clear as jade, an effect that colored contact lenses could never replicate. It must be real, the color of my real eye.

What surprised me even more was that 'I' actually laughed in the direction where I was floating in the air. That laugh was so strange! 'I' could see myself!

"Who are you?" I blurted out involuntarily.

Looking around more closely, I saw only Tian Niang, who was also staring at me with a look of surprise on her face.

"This is the first time I've seen you turn around in my dream!" Tian Niang took a deep breath and said, "Was that you?"

Was it me? How would I know? That version of myself in someone else's dream was so bizarre. The emerald green right eye was terrifying, like the pupil of a demon in the dark. I felt a chill run through my body.

"That's not me!" I denied it outright. I didn't want to be so lonely and isolated.

"It's you, yet it's not you." Tian Niang chuckled lightly, saying, "Hehe, it seems I need to reconsider my choice of disciple!"

"I hope it wasn't me!" I stood up uneasily, feeling that the last smile of that 'me' was really strange.

"I...I'm leaving." Thinking of Fang Lei, who was still waiting for me at school, I knew I couldn't stay here any longer and just wanted to escape as soon as possible.

Whom are we fleeing from? Tian Niang?

Or perhaps...?

Am I escaping from that dream?

Regardless, I quickly left Mohu. This time, Tianniang did not try to stop me; perhaps she was also surprised by my appearance in that dream.

Walking down the street, it was already dark. There was no moon tonight, but the starlight was bright, shining on the faces of every passerby, painting them with a thin, pale silver glaze. Each face was lifeless, their eyes blank and unknowing. I don't know if there's something wrong with my eyes, but I felt as if tiny wisps of black energy were darting erratically up and down around the edges of each person's body.

I knew someone was behind me, but there wasn't a single footstep; it was eerily quiet. Even the cars on the road seemed strangely still. Only…only strange sounds emanating from countless people, like breathing, or perhaps groans. Were they the groans of souls?

That feeling, that ever-present feeling, is back again? Who's quietly following me? Her breath feels like it's hitting my back, sending chills down my spine. My hair stands on end.

Even though there were people all around me, I still felt a kind of fear, a fear that made me feel like I was the only living being. And who was behind me?

White Cloud? Is that you?

Or... Yin Xue?

I walked quickly, and was finally almost at school. I looked up and suddenly froze.

The school gates, and even the entire sky above the school, were shrouded in wisps of black mist. Then, upon closer inspection, it was all gone. The people, the sounds, even the colors—everything seemed to come alive again. The silver paint had disappeared from people's faces, and their expressions were no longer stiff. All the clamor and vibrant colors returned to me in an instant.

I squeezed my eyes shut. Was there something wrong with my eyes?

Just as I was about to enter the school, Fang Lei's voice suddenly came: "Lin Xiao!"

"Fang Lei, what brings you here?" I asked as Fang Lei walked quickly up to me.

"I was worried about you. I don't know where you ran off to!" Fang Lei grabbed my hand and dragged me into the school.

"Fang Lei," I asked slowly and deliberately, as if it were a casual question, "Have you ever heard of 'star-seeing' and 'dream-seeing'?"

"Those?" Fang Lei pursed her lips and said, "Those are all witchcraft. Why are you asking about that?"

"Oh, it's nothing!" I quickly shook my head and said, "Just asking."

"Really?" Fang Lei glanced at me and said, "Let's go back quickly, Li Yang and A Bao are waiting for us!"

"Oh, okay!" I nodded quickly and followed Fang Lei into the school.

The moment I stepped into the school, I looked back at what was behind me, but what did I see? I can't remember it at all; it's like a gap in my memory.

************

"You're finally back?" Li Yang's voice came before I even entered the door, only to find him already occupying my bed, lying there in a very unseemly position. Meanwhile, A Bao was sitting in a chair, idly counting his fingers.

"You really are a jinx! Wherever you go, someone dies!" Abao said to me rudely.

"Because I'm a forensic doctor, I make a living off the dead!" I patted Abao's head in annoyance. It seems good news doesn't travel far, but bad news spreads like wildfire.

"How does it feel to see someone fall right in front of you?" Li Yang teased.

"Not bad, I didn't faint on the spot!" I boasted to myself, nodding with considerable satisfaction.

"Alright, all you do is fool around!" Fang Lei punched me in the back and said, "Su Qiao doesn't seem to be back either."

"She said she needed to make arrangements for her friend's funeral," I replied.

“But the murderer might be nearby; she’s in danger,” Fang Lei said, worried.

"Don't worry, with so many people together, the murderer won't have a chance to commit the crime," I reassured her.

"I hope so!" Fang Lei said.

"Oh, right!" Li Yang said to A Bao, "Didn't you say you were going to wait for Lin Xiao to come back and tell everyone a big clue?"

"Here's what happened!" Abao excitedly pulled a piece of paper from his large backpack and said, "As soon as the murder happened, I sneaked over to Ni Ming's place, pretending that I remembered what happened that night. Then I took the opportunity to look at that book, 'Learning to Cook,' and then I looked it up on the computer. Guess who wrote those notes in the book?"

"Who is it?" Li Yang asked curiously.

"Zhuo Peici!" Abao handed me the paper, which only had some photocopied words on it, seemingly a record of book lending information. But the words looked so familiar...

Isn't it just the handwriting in that book?

This record is...?

I looked closely and a name flashed through my mind. I doubted that anyone else would keep track of the book lending information except for the librarian, Zhuo Peici.

"There were so many of these loan documents from twenty years ago that the school library actually used a scanner to record them all. That's why her handwriting was preserved," Abao explained.

Zhuo Peici? Why? Why would the murderer target a lending list from a book in which Zhuo Peici had kept detailed notes? Did he hate her? Or...love her?

Did Zhuo Peici really die in a car accident back then? Her death was so sudden and swift. She didn't even leave behind a single word.

Today, a book containing her notes has become the indirect murder weapon. Perhaps, it contains things she wanted to leave behind but didn't say, things she wanted to tell others. Tell others who the murderer is?

Volume 3: Delicacies of Hell, Chapter 28: Underwater

Volume 3: Delicacies of Hell, Chapter 28: Underwater

At night, I lay awake staring intently at the ceiling, unable to fall asleep for some reason. Even counting sheep to the thousands couldn't lull me to sleep. Frustrated, I turned over and gazed at the moonlight streaming in through the window. Perhaps it was because the moon was so bright tonight, illuminating almost the entire room; I could see every corner.

It was very quiet around me, but as soon as I closed my eyes, it was as if I could hear a breathing sound beside me, not my own, yet it felt both close and far away. The scenery—why were the surrounding objects becoming so bright white? Was it the moonlight? The colors seemed to be tinted a bright white by the silvery moonlight, and my eyes felt sore. When I closed my eyes, it wasn't darkness, but a blood-red hue.

I sat up, feeling a little uneasy. I touched my face; I felt my mind was caught between excitement and exhaustion. My eyes were sore, but I didn't want to close them and go to sleep. This feeling made me pace restlessly back and forth in the room.

Standing by the window in the corridor, I gazed at the grove of trees. It seemed that even the brightest moonlight couldn't penetrate its depths; the light was shut out. And in that darkness, I suddenly saw a splash of bright red—a small figure. Who was it? Whose child was it? I looked closer, and even from this distance, even in the deepest darkness of the night, I could see that face clearly.

It was that little girl! Her face was still so pale, but her eyes no longer had black pupils; her white eyes, devoid of black pupils, were staring intently at me!

Who are you? I felt a cold sweat break out on my body, and the red stain vanished instantly. It was as if nothing had happened.

Suddenly, I felt a chill on my back. I wanted to turn around, but I didn't have the courage. I was afraid. Was she standing right behind me? But the increasingly cold chill on my back gave me goosebumps all over my body.

Lin Xiao, oh Lin Xiao! What are you afraid of? A little girl? I gave a self-deprecating laugh and, steeling myself, whirled around! Nothing there! Looks like I was overthinking it!

Stop overthinking and go to sleep! I lay back down on the bed, ready to fall asleep again.

Perhaps because of what I just witnessed, I slept very restlessly, feeling constantly cold; the chill in the air made me shiver uncontrollably. I was almost woken up by the cold. I slowly opened my eyes, only to find that the thin blanket that had been covering me was slowly sliding off my body and down to my feet.

I looked up slightly and saw a small red figure at the foot of my bed, pulling my blanket down! A strange smile appeared on her pale, withered face. But instead of the smooth skin of a child, there were incongruous wrinkles on her face, as if the skin and flesh had been wrung out.

It was her! I woke up instantly, sitting up, but there was no one there. The blanket seemed to have been kicked off the bed. I bent down to pick it up. Just as I bent down, a tiny, deathly pale hand shot out from under the bed. I didn't even have a chance to dodge; I only caught a glimpse of a small face, already riddled with holes from decay, and maggots wriggling inside. A stench worse than expired salted fish almost made me vomit.

"Ah!" I cried out in alarm as that hand slashed hard across my neck! It hurt so much! It felt like being scraped by a piece of hot iron; I saw stars flash before my eyes. The pain made my whole body tremble.

I practically jumped out of bed, clutching my neck as I hopped off. Looking at my hands, there was no blood, but the pain was still very real. The hand was gone from under the bed, but I heard a sharp, piercing laugh, like metal scraping against metal, or the sound of fingernails scratching a blackboard. Instinctively, I covered my ears, but it was no use! The sound seemed to have seeped into my brain. I felt every hair on my body stand on end!

Suddenly, the previously solid floor became incredibly soft, as if I were stepping into a puddle of mud, and I felt my feet sinking deeper and deeper. It was as if all the air had been sucked away, and I found it difficult to breathe.

The once bright moonlight suddenly dimmed, and the moonlight that should have been streaming in through the window beside me was now refracting down from above. Moreover, I could even feel it undulating, rippling, and swaying...

this……

Was I underwater? I looked up at the way the light refracted in the water, it was as beautiful as the aurora borealis. I could feel water flowing over my exposed skin. But when I reached out my hand, there was nothing there.

Is it an illusion? Or a dream?

Looking up again, everything had changed. There was no bed, no window; it was as if I were underwater, with something swaying in front of me. Like a balloon? A clump of something, held together by only a thick string, was gently, slowly, quietly swaying in the water.

Gradually, the light shone on it, and I finally saw it clearly! It was the little girl, her red dress quietly entwined by green water plants, her body firmly tethered to the bottom of the water. The water plants seemed to have become shackles, fixing her to the bottom.

Her eyes were still open, but her skin had turned pale and swollen from being submerged in water, though her lips remained bright red, like her clothes. Her small hands hung limply, her nails black.

I held my breath; she was dead! But the slowly rippling water made her hands slowly rise, slowly rise...

She slowly stretched out her arms to me! Did she need my embrace? Or was she asking me for something? I don't know, all I know is that it's so cold, so cold...

I can't move my body, it seems...

It felt as if my body was entangled in countless seaweeds, binding me and making it hard to breathe. Yet, my body still had buoyancy, and I felt myself drifting in the water.

I blinked, and the little girl seemed to have vanished. I began to struggle, trying to break free from the seaweed. Gradually, I felt my body slowly rise to the surface. I struggled to remove the seaweed tangled around my feet, and looking ahead, my head was already above the water. Ahead lay the dark shore.

There were two figures there, one bright red, one snow white. It was the little girl's body, lying there quietly. Looking closer, the one in white was actually me, my younger self.

I didn't speak or cry; I just quietly squatted beside the little girl. I wanted to go closer, but the water plants seemed determined to get to me. I felt my feet getting tangled in the plants again, slowly pulling me down. I tried to speak, but the words got stuck in my throat.

Suddenly, the "I" on the shore reached out and cupped the little girl's head. With a gentle pull, I even heard a snap, like a fruit being twisted from a tree, the little girl's head was ripped off by "I". There seemed to be a piece of skin and flesh torn off from the neck and throat, as well as the cervical vertebrae.

I saw "me" slowly straighten up, cradling the severed head in my arms as if it were a cherished toy. At that moment, I felt the water plants beneath my feet tighten their grip, pulling me deeper into the water no matter how much I struggled. In an instant, the water turned blood red. I saw countless "me"s floating around me, each holding the little girl's head. Similarly, countless "me"s, their feet entangled in water plants, were released like balloons into a pool of blood…

struggle……

I feel a pain in my chest...

With a thud, I fell to the floor. I opened my eyes, and everything was back to normal! Was it all just a dream? I panted, touched my neck, and looked under the bed. My neck didn't hurt, and there were no little hands under the bed. Was it really just a nightmare? I chuckled wryly and got up from under the bed. It seems my sleeping posture has become restless lately. I actually fell off the bed?

Climbing back into bed, I realized my body was drenched in cold sweat, my hair clinging to my forehead. I lay back heavily; the dream had been so real. The suffocating feeling, the images—it seemed even more vivid than a movie.

"Knock knock"—it was the sound of knocking on the door. Who could it be so late?

I got up and opened the door, only to find Fang Lei standing there in her pajamas. This surprised me greatly, and I asked, "What's wrong? So late!"

"I just heard a loud bang when I passed by your room on my way to the bathroom. What happened?" Fang Lei asked with concern.

"Oh, this?" I smiled a little embarrassedly and said, "I was sleeping restlessly and fell off the bed!"