Chapter 1: Are You From The Underworld? (1/2)
There was a bright moon in the dark sky, shining through the thin clouds to the forest below.
There was a stone square in the forest, but it was broken by age.
I didn't know why, but I was hiding in the corner of this ruined wall, as if I was waiting for something or escaping from something.
”Bring that person here!” I heard a voice behind the broken wall, ”Pick another animal and just pick a sika deer! ”
”It's them!” Startled, I turned around quietly and leaned on the broken wall. I turned my head to the side and looked slowly over the side, only using one of my eyes to watch them, making sure they couldn't see me.
There were seven or eight black clothed men, while two of them were pressing down on a young man. This young man's clothes were fashionable, and his skin seemed whiter than the others'. Due to the moonlight, I could clearly see his face. Isn't he that popular young star? Why were these men in black pressing down on him?
”I heard you are disobedient?” One man in black said. ”Someone asked us to help you.”
That young star was stubborn. He stared at the man and said, ”It's not that I'm disobedient, but I just don't want to be in cahoots with them.”
”Oh?” The black clothed man sneered, ”You have your own way of thinking, don't you? I'm so sorry! We are only taking money from others to help them get rid of the scum. ”
With that, the man turned his head and said, ”Let's begin.”
After this person finished speaking, I saw another man in black pulling a sika deer over. The man extended his hands and grabbed at the young star and then the sika deer. At that time, from each of their body, he caught some light. In the night, I could see inside the light was also a man and a deer, and the figure in one ball of light was exactly as the same as the young star.
The man in black grabbed the two balls of light and said to the young star, ”Since your soul doesn't listen to you, then exchange your soul for this deer's!”
I got to know that these two balls of light were the souls of the deer and the star!
After saying that, the man in black crossed his arms. The soul of this deer entered the body of the young star, while the soul of the young star entered the body of the deer.
”The soul in your body that is the deer's should be more obedient.” The black-clothed man laughed, pointing towards the young star and spoke to the surrounding people, ”From now on, this person will have a deer's soul, so his name is Lu Han!”(Note: Lu in Chinese is 鹿, which means a deer. )
”Lu Han?” The other man in black asked, ”Which character is the Han? Is it the Han that means inclusion, or that contains a Chinese characters radical 日?” (Note: 日 is a Chinese characters radical, meaning the sun.)
”Look at the moonlight!” The black clothed man pointed at the pitch black sky, ”Since we make it in the dark night, how can we find any sunlight? Moreover — ”The man looked at the young star and said, ”The Han that contains a Chinese characters radical 日 refers to dawn break, and it's a sign of hope. Do you think that he needs hope? Just call it Lu Han (Note: the Han here is that Han which means inclusion)! ”
”Alright!” The other black-clothed man took out something unknown and wrote two words on the young man's forehead. Although I was very far away from them, I could still see it clearly, and the two words were Lu Han. After the two glowing words were finished, they quickly entered between the young man's eyebrows, and at this moment, this young man seemed to be in extreme pain.
As the young star kneeled on the ground, he saw me standing behind the wall with only half my head exposed. He looked at me and struggled to say, ”Help …me …”
His eyes were full of pain, struggle, and misery, but he seemed to be looking for hope.
Just as I was looking at this young star, my neck tightens and I was lifted up by a black-clothed person. The other person was holding a little white rabbit, smiling coldly at me. He pointed at the rabbit, then pointed at me, ”Your soul will be changed to the soul of this obedient rabbit, ok?”
”No!”
I let out a scream and rolled off the desk onto the floor. When I opened my eyes, I saw that I had actually fallen asleep at my colleague's house! And made a dream!
My colleague Zhou Yuan who was at the side had a book in his hands as he read expressionlessly, as if he did not care about my disrespectful actions just now.
I looked at Zhou Yuan with mixed feelings. This was already the seventh time I had had such a dream in this week.
”Hao Ning, come here,” auntie Zhou looked at Zhou Yuan who was sitting on a chair with a book in hand but had a lifeless look in his eyes, quietly pulled me out of the door, and asked me in a low voice, ”What happened to Xiao Yuan?”
”What?” I braced myself to ask.
”For the past few days, I've been feeling like Xiao Yuan's mind has been wandering around and he's not eating much. After eating two bites, he'll go back and lie on the bed, and he won't talk to me.” Auntie Zhou sneakily glanced at Zhou Yuan who didn't care what we said at all.
”Well, maybe,” I said, scratching my head, not knowing how to say it. ”Well, Auntie, I have to get back to work. It's urgent.”
”Overtime?” Auntie Zhou was even more surprised when she heard it, ”Isn't today Sunday?”
”Yes,” I smiled awkwardly. ”I have something to do …”
After saying that, I ran back to my home as if I was running for my life. I was the only one in my house. I got a large cup of ice water and gulped it down. My body immediately turned cold, but my heart was in turmoil.
”He's still like that?” A sound came from the mirror beside the TV.
”That's right,” I said, looking into the mirror. The mirror was facing me, but in the mirror, besides me, there was another man. His handsome face was devoid of any color. I looked around me. It was empty. I was alone on the couch.
”You're still in the mirror,” I said to the man in the mirror. ”Can't you come out yet?”
”I can't …” That man looked at me and ruffled my hair in the mirror. I subconsciously hid myself, and that man involuntarily smiled, ”What are you hiding from? What can you hide from?”
If it were a week ago, I would have gone mad with fear if I found someone in the mirror, but now I didn't even have the strength to go mad.
A week ago.
It was Friday afternoon.
”Hao Ning,” As I was organizing the documents, the designer Zhou Yuan suddenly asked me, ”How do you plan to spend this weekend?”
My name was Hao Ning, and I was an Internet practitioner. I was mainly involved in product planning. This title might sound grand, but it was actually a bitter one, the one who had been scolded by his boss and hated by his colleagues.
Zhou Yuan, who asked me a question just now, was a picture designer in our company. People said that the eyes were the windows of the soul, and the most distinctive feature of his face was his pair of unusually large eyes. However, those extraordinarily large eyes were mostly used for nothing, and there were always quite a few problems with the patterns created by the pair of eyes. The strangest thing was that even as Zhou Yuan was a designer, his eyes could not tell whether the drawing he made was pretty or not. As a result, the director always ridiculed him for his work.
The most frustrating thing was that sometimes, after the director ridiculed him a lot, he would criticize me along the way. Hao Ning, as a product planner, you don't care about the works of the designers? How could he take out such a result? and so on…
However, I also admired Zhou Yuan's mental state. Also, he had a specialty, which was that he liked to eat. He knew all the good food in the city, and every weekend, his job was to eat all kinds of food. So when he asked me how I was going to spend my weekends, I knew there would be something good to happen.
”What else can I do?” I took a glance at him. Because of his ”work product,” I was criticized by the director just now, and was now furious, so I sarcastically said to him, ”The boss just said that I have no feelings for design and can't guide the work of a designer. I plan to go to Nanshan Book City on the weekend and choose a few books on design to improve myself.”
”Hey, don't say it like that. I think your aesthetic feeling is good. Besides, there's still me. I'll help you!” I rubbed my forehead, helplessly listening to him continue, ”But speaking of the aesthetic feeling, we are just planning to go to Heaven Eye Lake. The scenery there is especially good, and there is also a hot spring that can not only relax one's body and mind, but also give one the chance to enjoy the scenery as well as cultivate one's taste. You have been under a lot of pressure recently, why don't you come with us to play. There are plenty of wild game, and we will.....”
”We will eat wild game?” I looked at him with disdain, ”With your eyesight? Or with your big eyes and your big face that was as much as a basin? If you draw a picture, you can match the colors wrong. Hey, don't beat me up – I didn't say that, it's the director who just said this – so how can you hunt wild game?”
”Of course I can't, but we can get local people to help us hunt — whose face is as big as a basin? You know? No matter how much I eat, I won't be fat!” He argued that he had completely ignored my statement that he was doing the wrong thing.
Anyway, I felt that it was a good idea. I was under great pressure in these days, especially after that strange dreams I had a while ago, where some unknown devil, Heavenly Book, and Divine Seal had come out. It seemed that I needed to study less ancient legends, so I agreed to go with them.
Heaven Eye Lake is two hours away from S City. Zhou Yuan drove us there. He was also with our colleague and good friend, Liu Shuai.
Liu Shuai was a bookworm. Even though he was in the biomedical department and knew a lot about the growth of human hair, he was still unable to stop his hair from falling off before graduation. His typical theory couldn't guide his practice.