Edited—

Zhou Jiayu heard Lin Zhushui’s words and vaguely felt something in his heart. He was just about to speak when someone beside him let out a groan. Looking carefully, it turned out Shen Yiqiong had also woken up.

“Who am I? Where am I?” Shen Yiqiong leaned against the wall, holding his head with his hand.

“Yiqiong, you’re awake.” Zhou Jiayu said, “What did you dream of?”

Shen Yiqiong’s eyes were full of confusion. Seeing Zhou Jiayu, he said, “How did you turn white again? Didn’t you get tanned as dark as me?”

Zhou Jiayu: “…” Shen Yiqiong, isn’t your dream a bit too much?

After observing the surroundings, Zhou Jiayu discovered they were still in the original tunnel. The previous kerosene lamps and dirt walls had all disappeared, and the surroundings exuded a modern atmosphere.

And not far from them was that crack the workers had forcibly squeezed themselves into. Zhou Jiayu said, “Sir, what kind of thing trapped us in a nightmare?” Xiao Zhi was in his arms, peering into that crack. Its body was originally flat; if it really wanted to squeeze in, it would be quite easy. But Zhou Jiayu was worried it would encounter danger inside the crack, so he didn’t plan to let it in.

“Mm.” Lin Zhushui said, “This tunnel wasn’t cleaned out properly. There’s a corpse pit right beneath our feet. After construction began, the aura from the corpse pit leaked out, causing people to hallucinate.”

Zhou Jiayu’s heart stirred. “Hallucinations? What kind of hallucinations?”

Lin Zhushui said, “Inside the hallucinations are the things you desire most. They lure people into that crack.”

Hearing these words, Zhou Jiayu reacted for two seconds, his eyes instantly widening. At this moment, he suddenly realized what hidden meaning was in Lin Zhushui’s words just now.

“Sir…” Zhou Jiayu was just about to say something, then remembered that the others around him were waking up one after another. Saying this here didn’t seem very appropriate.

After waking up, Lin Jue’s expression didn’t look relaxed at all; instead she seemed somewhat silent. She didn’t speak either, just quietly sat on the ground in a daze.

Yu Xiaomian and Yu He also woke up one after another. The moment Yu He woke up, he thanked Lin Zhushui, saying thank you Mr. Lin for your help.

Lin Zhushui shook his head and didn’t speak.

After hearing Yu He’s words, Zhou Jiayu discovered that each of them had a talisman paper stuck to their chests. It seemed to ensure that although they would enter the environment, they wouldn’t be tempted by the illusion and walk into that deep crack before them like the construction workers in the tunnel.

“Dig downward.” Lin Zhushui said. “Best to start work as soon as possible.”

Yu He nodded and said yes. He said he would tell the person in charge to start work tomorrow as soon as possible, and also asked if any preparations were needed when starting work.

“I’ll be present.” Lin Zhushui said. “The corpses should have undergone some changes.”

Yu He said okay.

This whole night it seemed they had gained nothing at all, only having a strange dream. But Lin Zhushui had said that what they saw in their dreams were the things they desired most. Zhou Jiayu’s heartbeat had been fast the whole time. One moment he felt that Lin Zhushui was hinting at something; the next moment he felt he was overthinking. If he rashly confessed his feelings and it turned out to be a misunderstanding, then he and Lin Zhushui might not even be able to remain master and disciple. His mind was simply a mess.

Among the others’ conditions, Shen Yiqiong’s was the best. He didn’t know what he had dreamed of either, but when he came out, his emotions were high, he was bouncing as he walked, and he was even humming a song.

Yu Xiaomian said, “Why are you so happy?”

Shen Yiqiong said, “Because I realized my dream.” But he wasn’t willing to tell others what exactly he had dreamed of.

Connecting it with what he had said before, Zhou Jiayu strongly suspected that in Shen Yiqiong’s dream, all of them had turned dark.

Lin Jue was very silent the whole way. She didn’t say a word when getting in the car. It wasn’t until they were almost at the hotel that the worry between her brows dissipated somewhat.

Everyone seeing her like this didn’t dare ask anything. When eating at the hotel, Zhou Jiayu finally found an opportunity to carefully ask her if she was okay.

“It’s fine.” Lin Jue said. “I just dreamed of an old acquaintance.”

With her expression, clearly the so-called old acquaintance in her mouth had an unusual relationship with her. But Zhou Jiayu couldn’t ask too much about this kind of private matter, so he could only change the topic.

Yu He quickly confirmed the work schedule, saying that tomorrow afternoon the machines could be sent in to continue digging, to dig out the corpses Lin Zhushui had mentioned from underground.

That night, Zhou Jiayu had insomnia. He tossed and turned in bed, his mind full of Lin Zhushui’s words “I also saw you.”

“Am I overthinking? Or does Sir really mean that?” There was no one around to talk to, so Zhou Jiayu could only chat with Jiba.

Jiba was lying on his turtle shell looking lazy and listless, with an appearance of low spirits: “Mm, do you still remember what I said to you when you first came?”

Zhou Jiayu said, “What words?”

Jiba said, “You actually really forgot. These words are very important, okay.” He tilted his head and said seriously, “You came to save Lin Zhushui’s life.”

Zhou Jiayu said, “Save?”

Jiba said, “Yes.”

Zhou Jiayu immediately became anxious upon hearing this: “What will happen to Sir?”

Jiba said, “It might happen, or it might not. With you and without you, Lin Zhushui’s fate is different.” He said, “Fate is full of variables. Perhaps if you get to know one more person, fate will change because of it. You and Lin Zhushui, one yin and one yang, are a match made in heaven.”

Hearing Jiba speak like this, Zhou Jiayu couldn’t help but feel a bit happy. He said, “You mean, if Sir and I are together, Sir might be able to avoid a calamity? Then does Sir like me?”

Jiba said, “Wow, you’re too scary. I’m just a bird that has never been in a relationship. How would I know what Lin Zhushui thinks? But don’t be too anxious about this matter either. If you misunderstand Lin Zhushui’s meaning, wouldn’t that be very awkward.”

Zhou Jiayu: “…” What Jiba said made quite a lot of sense. He deflated, lying on the bed and going limp like a dried salted fish.

Seeing him like this, Jiba opened his mouth to comfort him: “Don’t be too pessimistic either. Lin Zhushui has so many disciples. Look at which one he treats as specially as you.”

Zhou Jiayu thought to himself, are you trying to打击 me or encourage me? Should I confess or not? If the confession fails, will I be kicked out? If the confession succeeds, can I really be together with Lin Zhushui?

The more he thought, the more agitated he became. Zhou Jiayu really couldn’t sleep, so he simply got up and went to the balcony to smoke. As a result, when he got to the balcony, he discovered that Lin Jue, who was staying in the room next to his, also wasn’t asleep. She was also sitting on the balcony seeming to be drinking something. Seeing him come out, she even smiled and greeted him: “Yo, still not asleep?”

“Mm.” Zhou Jiayu said. “A bit unable to sleep.”

Lin Jue made an “mm” sound and didn’t ask him why he couldn’t sleep.

It was the first time Zhou Jiayu had seen that kind of weary expression on Lin Jue’s face. In his impression, Lin Jue had always been as brilliant as a sunflower. This appearance of hers was rarely seen, and thus was especially heart-aching.

“Shibo, in a bad mood?” Zhou Jiayu asked.

“Still okay.” Lin Jue said. “Want to have a drink together?”

Zhou Jiayu thought about it and agreed. He also had times when he was depressed. At times like this, having a couple of drinks with someone he knew could indeed alleviate the depression in his heart.

Beer was poured into a large cup more than half full, a small glass cup was filled with whiskey, and then the small cup was submerged into the large cup—this was the famous depth charge. Zhou Jiayu had been to bars before but had never tried this kind of drinking method. The purpose of this drinking method was clearly to get drunk. But looking at the bottles beside Lin Jue, she had clearly already drunk more than two or three cups.

Zhou Jiayu was a bit worried, but didn’t know how to开口 persuade her.

Lin Jue, however, saw his difficulty and smiled slightly. She said, “Actually, I’m thirty-five this year.”

Zhou Jiayu was slightly surprised: “Really? If I only looked at appearance, I might think Shibo is Sir’s younger sister.”

“Such a sweet mouth, truly cute.” Lin Jue smiled. She said, “When I was twenty-four, I went out to travel independently and met the love of my life. I was with him for six years, and then was abandoned.”

With a slight buzz, Lin Jue spoke of her own emotional history. She said, “Emotions are truly limited. If you spend too much on one person, there’s less left for others. Missing the one you loved most, every person after will be compared to them. This is unfair to them, and unfair to myself.”

Zhou Jiayu’s emotional experience was a complete blank. Regarding what Lin Jue spoke of, he couldn’t offer advice either, so he could only listen, lightly sipping the strong liquor before him.

“But some things can’t have both.” Lin Jue said. “What did you dream of?”

Zhou Jiayu said, “I…” His voice lowered, hesitating whether to say the answer.

Seeing his state, Lin Jue actually giggled. Her eye sockets had actually turned red: “I know what you dreamed of. Truly nice, truly nice…” She drained the liquor before her in one gulp, “I dreamed that I got married, wearing that white wedding dress that was custom-made at the time. He asked me if I wanted to marry him, and I said yes.”

Zhou Jiayu’s heart was sore and astringent. He said, “Shibo…”

Lin Jue said, “But that was a dream.” She let out a long sigh, “It was a dream.”

Words were few, but what Zhou Jiayu saw in Lin Jue’s eyes was indescribable pain. She drank, telling her story, yet every word was like a bone-etched sharp blade, cutting open flesh and skin slice by slice.

“So.” Lin Jue said, “Some things shouldn’t be hesitated over so much. Be a bit braver. Heaven always prefers brave people.” Her face carried a smile, but her eye sockets were red.

Zhou Jiayu responded and said okay.

That night, Zhou Jiayu accompanied Lin Jue drinking for a long time. In the end, he didn’t even know how he got back.

When he got up the next day, his mind was even more completely blank. He sat on the bed for a good while before realizing someone was knocking on the door.

“Zhou Jiayu, Zhou Jiayu, are you still alive?” Outside the door was Shen Yiqiong’s voice. He was knocking on the door with a thud-thud sound, looking like he might break down the door and come in at any moment.

“I’m still alive.” Zhou Jiayu painfully held his head. The worst part of a hangover was the head. He felt like he was floating when he walked. He went to open the door. Shen Yiqiong was greatly startled when he saw his complexion: “Zhou Jiayu, what’s wrong with you? Your complexion is so bad?” His nose sniffed, “And you’re full of the smell of alcohol… wow, where did you go fooling around last night?”

Zhou Jiayu said, “With my constitution, where would I dare to go fooling around?”

“That’s true too.” Shen Yiqiong said, “With your constitution, if you went out for a midnight snack, your corpse would probably be cold by the next day. But if you didn’t go out fooling around, why is your whole body covered in the smell of alcohol?”

“It’s fine.” Zhou Jiayu thought of Lin Jue’s fragile appearance last night and decided to hide it for her, “Just casually found some alcohol to drink.”

“Then hurry up.” Shen Yiqiong said, “They’re all going to the site to watch the digging. We’re just waiting for you.”

Zhou Jiayu nodded.

He quickly finished washing up, but the dizzy feeling of the hangover still remained. Zhou Jiayu maintained that greenish complexion as he went downstairs, only to see Lin Jue standing at the doorway saying something to Lin Zhushui.

Some people’s alcohol tolerance was truly an unsolvable mystery. The amount Lin Jue had drunk last night was at least several times more than Zhou Jiayu’s, but today she was in high spirits. Who knew if she had put on makeup or what—her complexion was simply rosy and lustrous, as if several jin of goji berries had been added to the alcohol she drank.

“Yo, Guan’er.” She even greeted Zhou Jiayu, “Up?”

Zhou Jiayu said, “Mm…”

Lin Jue said, “Sigh, your alcohol tolerance is a bit of a problem. You’ll need to practice in the future.”

Shen Yiqiong heard the conversation between the two: “Huh, you drank together last night?”

Lin Jue said, “That’s right.”

Shen Yiqiong said, “Why didn’t you call me?”

Lin Jue said, “Didn’t want to drink with a child.”

Then Shen Yiqiong argued that he was already an adult, perfectly capable of drinking alcohol, and expressed that his heart was very mature, that he could handle smoking, drinking, perming hair, and tattoos.

The two bickered the whole way until they each got in the car. After getting in the car, Zhou Jiayu’s phone suddenly rang. He picked it up and looked, seeing that someone had sent a WeChat message.

Looking at the WeChat name, Zhou Jiayu thought sluggishly for a while before remembering who this person was—wasn’t this the security guy he had met at the airport before? Xiao Zhi had playfully touched him a couple of times at the time, causing him to misunderstand that Zhou Jiayu had other thoughts about him.

One had to admit that this person was also very sharp in certain aspects, seeing at a glance that Zhou Jiayu was a fellow traveler.

“Are you in C City right now?” The other side sent a message like this.

Zhou Jiayu hadn’t expected him to know his location and replied with an “Mm.”

“Do you have time to come out for a cup of tea tonight?” This was clearly a special invitation. Although Zhou Jiayu hadn’t eaten pork, he had seen pigs run—he was an adult after all, and he understood these kinds of matters.

“Sorry, I have someone I like.” Zhou Jiayu cleanly and neatly refused, not planning to entangle with him further.

“Are you two together?” The other side asked again.

Zhou Jiayu didn’t reply.

“Not yet, right?” His silence instead gave that person some kind of signal, “Since you’re not together yet, that means it’s unrequited love. I also have a chance.”

Zhou Jiayu was a bit helpless. He once again felt that his level in the emotional aspect was truly too low. Anyone with slightly higher skills, and he had no way to deal with them. Since he couldn’t reply, he might as well delete him. Anyway, the two had met by chance; without WeChat, it equaled cutting off all contact.

Thinking this, Zhou Jiayu’s finger swiped, preparing to delete this person’s WeChat.

Who knew that the other side instantly sent another message. This message was a photo. The person in the photo had lifted his clothes, revealing beautiful eight-pack abs and long thighs. This person’s lower body was only wearing a pair of briefs. His skin was a beautiful wheat color, looking full of temptation.

Zhou Jiayu was so startled by this photo that his hand trembled, and his phone directly fell to the ground. As luck would have it, Lin Jue was sitting right beside him. Before Zhou Jiayu could speak, she had already picked up Zhou Jiayu’s phone, and then glanced at a certain photo on the phone.

Zhou Jiayu: “…”

Lin Jue: “…”

The air instantly quieted. Beads of cold sweat appeared on Zhou Jiayu’s forehead.

Lin Jue handed the phone back to Zhou Jiayu and said meaningfully, “This guy’s abs are quite pretty. When did you meet him?”

Zhou Jiayu: “…” His hand holding the phone broke out in a layer of sweat. He forced a smile, “Met him at the airport. I was going through security at the time, and Xiao Zhi touched him, so…” As he spoke, his eyes glanced toward Lin Zhushui sitting in the front passenger seat, but Lin Zhushui had his back to them, and Zhou Jiayu couldn’t clearly see his expression.

Lin Jue said, “Oh.”

Zhou Jiayu explained in a small voice, “I was originally planning to delete him, but my hand slipped.”

Lin Jue said, “Mm.”

Zhou Jiayu’s voice grew smaller and smaller, inexplicably showing a dejected expression.

“Alright.” Seeing him like this, Lin Jue instead laughed. She said, “We still don’t know what kind of personality you have? Besides, you’re single right now. Love is inherently free. Meeting someone suitable and wanting to be with them is a normal thing.” Her tone suddenly rose, “Good things are always snatched up by everyone. If you’re slow to act, you have to take the blame yourself.”

Zhou Jiayu hung his head, not noticing that when Lin Jue finished speaking these words, Lin Zhushui, who had originally been slightly leaning against the seat, slowly sat up straight. Generally, when Lin Zhushui maintained this kind of sitting posture, he was thinking about some very important question…

For the rest of the journey, the car was very quiet.

After getting out of the car and entering the tunnel, Shen Yiqiong saw Zhou Jiayu in this state and found it a bit strange, saying that when they left he had been fine, so how did he wilt along the way.

“It’s fine.” Zhou Jiayu lied, “Head hurts from drinking.”

Hearing this, Shen Yiqiong didn’t investigate further. After all, they all knew quite well about Zhou Jiayu’s terrible alcohol tolerance.

Machines had already entered inside the tunnel and were beginning to dig in the direction Lin Zhushui indicated. Layer after layer of dirt was dug open. About several tens of minutes later, someone shouted: “Dug something up!”

Zhou Jiayu went to look in that direction and discovered that in the dirt layer beneath the machine, a withered skeleton hidden within was revealed. The bones were quite intact when dug out. From the clothing on the body, one could judge that this skeleton should have lived during the Republican era. But these weren’t the most eye-catching aspects. The place that made people unable to look away was that the bones were covered with large patches of purple things that at first glance looked somewhat like mold.

“What is this thing?” It was the first time Zhou Jiayu had seen this kind of purple thing.

“It seems to be a kind of carnivorous mold.” Lin Jue seemed to have seen this thing somewhere before, showing a thoughtful expression. “This thing can emit hallucinogens that attract prey. I remember this thing doesn’t live alone; it should be a symbiotic organism without the ability to hunt on its own.”

Although this thing caused hallucinations, it couldn’t kill people. It generally coexisted with another kind of poisonous plant.

“Continue digging.” Lin Zhushui casually used fire to ignite these molds and instructed in a slow voice.

So they continued digging downward. Soon, a massive burial site appeared before everyone. Dense layers of skeletons were stacked together. One could see that the burial method was extremely crude. At the time, it seemed they had only dug a large pit, thrown all the corpses inside, and directly buried them, not even performing the most basic disinfection measures.

And on these corpses, almost every single one was covered with that kind of purple mold. At first glance, it looked very horrifying.

After all the corpses were dug out, Lin Zhushui had the workers present sprinkle a special kind of powder on top. It seemed to be made from lime mixed with other things. The moment it was sprinkled on, that purple mold rapidly began to turn black and dissolve.

Yu He looked at so many bones, his mouth continuously muttering about how sinful it was.

They kept digging downward very deeply before no more bones were found. Zhou Jiayu roughly counted and discovered that these corpses numbered at least in the thousands. Most of them should have been civilians who died from suffocation during the tunnel tragedy back then.

“These people went too far.” Yu Xiaomian said, “They actually just buried them inside the tunnel, and no one discovered it?”

“No one discovering it is too normal.” Lin Jue sighed. “After this tunnel had such an incident, who would still be willing to come in? Everyone stayed far away.”

That did make sense. If the subway hadn’t needed to pass through here, these bones probably really wouldn’t have been discovered by anyone.

After all the bones were dug out, Lin Zhushui had people dig open the wall beside the crack. But this time he specifically instructed not to use machines—manual labor was fine, and with each shovel, don’t dig too deep, just lightly scrape outward.

Zhou Jiayu had always been very curious about what was inside the crack. Now he could finally see. The workers slowly scraped at the dirt, and soon, the things inside the crack gradually came into view.

In the dirt layer not far from the crack, several living people were actually embedded. Their bodies were completely buried in the soil, with only their faces exposed outside. Their bodies were covered in a kind of red little flower. From their clothing, one could recognize that these few people were the workers who had disappeared after working in the tunnel.

After they were dug out, everyone discovered that these red little flowers had actually grown out from inside their bodies, directly breaking through flesh and blood and blooming on their skin.

Lin Zhushui examined their physical conditions and confirmed they were all still alive.

Yu He let out a long breath of relief, saying it was good that no major disaster had been caused, and asked how they should be awakened.

“Find a hospital and first pick out the flowers one by one. The roots haven’t burrowed too deep yet. After the surgery, they should be fine if they drink medicine every day.” Lin Zhushui said this.

“Do these flowers have predatory abilities?” Thinking of what Lin Jue had said before, Zhou Jiayu raised a question.

“Mm.” Lin Zhushui said, “These flowers can break down nutrients from flesh, then nourish the fungi in the soil.”

Zhou Jiayu said, “But why are there flowers like this in this kind of place?”

“Who knows.” Lin Jue said casually, “Maybe they were accidentally brought in, or maybe…” Her tone was careless, but the content she spoke was horrifying, “They were deliberately planted by someone.”

The moment these words came out, everyone fell silent.

“Go to the hospital first. We’ll talk about other matters later.” Lin Zhushui reached this conclusion.

All six workers who had disappeared within half a month were found. Among them, the one in the most serious condition didn’t look too good. But fortunately, these flowers would maintain the host’s life to seek more nutrients, so at least there was no life-threatening danger.

After the little flowers were taken away, the remaining purple mold in the soil began dying at a speed visible to the naked eye. The entire pit burying the human bones displayed a kind of unpleasant black.

“Rebury all these bones in another place.” Lin Zhushui said his final words, “If possible, it would be best for the subway to still detour around this section.”

Hearing this, Yu He nodded and said okay, but his expression revealed helplessness. Clearly he felt that the higher-ups wouldn’t change their minds.

Sure enough, one year later this subway line was completed as scheduled. Only in urban legends, there was a new rumor. It was said that on a certain subway line in a certain city, if you took the last train, you would sometimes discover that in the subway carriage, there were a few extra people wearing old Republican-era clothes…

__

Author’s Note:

Zhou Jiayu: Sir, I’m not, I didn’t…

Lin Zhushui: Come here.

Zhou Jiayu walked over to Lin Zhushui aggrievedly.

Lin Zhushui bit him: Making a mark, so you won’t be taken away by someone else.