Evil God 43

An Zhe & Dream

Perhaps because they had worked together to build a grave mound for Captain Duan, the quack doctor’s attitude gradually began to improve.

Although he still couldn’t help but frown when looking at Chen Yu’s arm and would even lash out verbally at the restless Chen Yu and Xiao Huntun, at least he no longer glared with that look of pure hatred.

One day, the quack doctor brought someone along.

Chen Yu was momentarily stunned when he saw that familiar, college-student face.

“An Zhe? You didn’t die?”

“I was just in a coma!”

Chen Yu thought back; the quack doctor– or rather, Bai Zhen –had indeed mentioned something like that before.

When he noticed Chen Yu’s gaze, the quack doctor explained that An Zhe had remained in a deep slumber ever since emerging from the Twilight Ruins. He had only woken up a few days ago; upon hearing that Chen Yu was injured, he had insisted on coming to visit.

When An Zhe saw Chen Yu lying in bed and Xiao Huntun sitting at the bedside, his eyes lit up.

“Don’t tell me… is that the thing you gave birth to? The Twilight Ruins are truly amazing!”

As he spoke, An Zhe reached out and pinched the little evil god’s chubby [visit our site]cheek. Before Chen Yu could warn him that he had a nasty temper, An Zhe had already pulled Xiao Huntun’s face to the side.

“It really looks just like a human.”

“Could it be something in disguise?”

He hadn’t even finished speaking when half of his finger was bitten off. A scream rang out, and the young man stumbled backward. His face turned deathly pale as he fell onto the floor.

“Y-y-you…!!”

He pointed a trembling finger at the little evil god. The finger was severed; across from him, Xiao Huntun opened his mouth, revealing tiny, newly emerged white incisors stained with fresh blood, and then he spat the bitten-off finger right at An Zhe.

“He really likes to bite people…”

Chen Yu couldn’t help but frown, though he finished his sentence anyway. An Zhe looked at his bare finger, then at the evil infant opposite him, who wore an expression of pure innocence, and clutched his hand: “You could have mentioned that sooner!!!”

The quack doctor had witnessed the entire farce but stood by impassively, until he could no longer tolerate the man’s wailing.

“Quiet down! Stop shouting in the patient ward!”

With that, he roughly hauled An Zhe up, picked up the bloody severed finger, and pressed it back onto the stump.

Without paying any heed to An Zhe’s blood curdling screams, he performed a series of manipulations on the finger, accompanied by the occasional click-clack of mechanical parts. When Chen Yu, teeth aching at the sound, looked over again, the finger had actually been reattached.

Chen Yu’s eyes widened in shock.

When he met that gaze, the quack doctor explained with a hint of impatience: “It’s my trait. Simply put, I can take living things apart and put them back together.”

“That’s amazing?!”

“…I am a doctor.”

After saying that, the quack doctor frowned and turned toward An Zhe. An Zhe was staring at his reattached finger but remained immersed in the shock of that sudden pain. He sobbed with snot and tears streaming down his face.

“Learn to adapt to the rules of this world, and don’t be so reckless with your hands next time.”

After dropping this warning, Number 62 simply walked away.

“Are you okay?”

Seeing An Zhe’s dazed, vacant look, Chen Yu was a bit worried about his mental state.

It took a long while for An Zhe to recover. When he finally looked up and saw the little evil god being restrained by Chen Yu, he reflexively took a step back.

But soon, An Zhe began muttering to himself, saying things like “So it really is the Twilight Ruins,” and managed to calm himself down surprisingly quickly.

When he saw him pull himself together, Chen Yu felt a bit more relaxed. Afterward, An Zhe began grilling Chen Yu with questions. He was fascinated by what Chen Yu had experienced while he was asleep; he asked about everything with the curiosity of a newborn, showing keen interest even in a simple, weathered stone he had picked up.

Throughout this exchange, however, An Zhe kept a distance of about a meter from Xiao Huntun.

As Chen Yu answered his barrage of questions– skipping over the parts involving Fang Xun and the black-haired, golden-eyed man –he found himself thinking that this wasn’t a bad thing.

In the world of the Twilight Ruins, unbridled curiosity was not a virtue; this was a lesson for An Zhe, and for himself as well.

Two hours later, An Zhe finally stopped his ceaseless chatter.

Chen Yu was exhausted from listening and answering, but just before An Zhe left, he asked a question he had been meaning to pose.

“Did Bai Zhen invite you to join White/Turbidity?”

“Huh? Invite me?”

An Zhe’s reaction took Chen Yu by surprise, but before he could dwell on it, An Zhe continued, “Even if they had invited me, I wouldn’t have joined anyway.”

“Why?”

“Because I still have to travel the world. It’s been my dream since I was little. If I joined some organization, wouldn’t that just get in the way of chasing my dream?”

An Zhe’s words reminded Chen Yu of the first time he’d seen him on the plane. Back then, An Zhe had been carrying a hiking pack. Given his intense curiosity, traveling the world was exactly the sort of thing he would love.

Once An Zhe left, the noisy room fell instantly silent.

It was as if all vitality and sound had been drained away, transforming the space into a realm entirely different from stolen content the one it had been moments before.

Footprints marred the bloodstains left on the floor, and Xiao Huntun was babbling away. With no one there to help clean up the mess. Chen Yu stared speechlessly at the six-month-old infant. He tried to discern from that innocent mask whether biting off An Zhe’s finger had been a deliberate attempt to cause trouble; upon finding no conclusion after a moment’s scrutiny, he finally resigned himself to cleaning up the mess.

That night, Chen Yu once again dreamed of the man amidst the hurricane.

One stood within the gale while the other hovered high above; unlike their fleeting encounters in the real world, here–in a dreamscape of swirling debris and suffocating darkness–they faced one another directly. Their gazes pierced through every obstacle, each reflecting the other deep within their pupils.

Suddenly, the long-haired Godslayer appeared before Chen Yu as a three-meter-long, bladeless sword thrust through his chest.

Yet this time, the dream changed subtly.

When the blood-stained blade pierced through his back, Chen Yu felt no pain, only a sense of panic. Then, the little evil god sitting on his shoulder suddenly let out a wild shriek.

At a distance of less than ten centimeters, those golden pupils locked instantly onto the little evil god’s eyes, eyes that held the chaos of the cosmos.

The three-meter blade was slowly withdrawn from Chen Yu’s chest and aimed at the cackling child.

“Purge… initiated.”

A voice, cold and merciless as freezing ice, reverberated against his eardrums. Chen Yu jolted awake.

Just as before, the night was still and moonlit, the insects silent, and he was drenched in sweat.

It was still a long time until dawn.

Chen Yu lay in bed, trying to calm his pounding heart. In the darkness, he felt a piercing gaze fixed upon him from the ceiling. He looked up to find Xiao Huntun.

The six-month-old infant was clinging to the ceiling like a giant gecko, making a hissing sound.

Those restless eyes were identical to the ones he had seen in the dream. Chen Yu couldn’t help but frown. “Don’t tell me you invaded my dreams?”

“Hiss, hiss, hiss…”

Naturally, Chen Yu received no answer.

The next morning, Chen Yu ate the breakfast brought by the young nurse while sporting dark circles under his eyes. She looked at him with concern. “Did you not sleep well last night?”

It wasn’t just last night; he hadn’t slept well in ages.

Whenever he closed his eyes, Chen Yu would be transported back to that hurricane, seeing the man with black hair and golden eyes, only to be stabbed by him–over and over again–within the dream.

But Chen Yu simply smiled. “Xiao Huntun was just being a bit mischievous.”

The nurse nodded knowingly. “It’s fine. God-Eroded don’t really need sleep anyway; just make sure you eat plenty.”

“…Right.”

After the nurse left, Chen Yu lay back on the [stolen content]hospital bed and began to replay the dream in his mind.

The man in the dream was completely different from Fang Xun, different eye color, hair length, and clothing, yet Chen Yu perceived a subtle similarity between Godslayer and Fang Xun.

They both exuded an aloof, icy aura that kept others at a distance.

Being killed by that man repeatedly in his dreams gave Chen Yu a premonition that they would inevitably meet again someday; as he pondered this, he couldn’t help but feel a sense of anticipation.

As for why he was trapped in a recurring nightmare of his own death, or whether it was an ill omen… Chen Yu decided to put that question aside for the moment.

And so, Chen Yu spent a full two weeks at the White/Turbidity Asylum. Just as he felt his health had recovered enough for discharge, Zhao Youyu suddenly organized a group visit from the company.

Lu Jinwei had called ahead to let him know.

“They said you’ve been having a rough run of luck lately, so the colleagues chipped in to make a donation and show their support,” Lu Jinwei had explained over the phone.

“How did Baldy Zhao find out I was hospitalized?”

“Someone named Bai Zhen called to ask for leave on your behalf. Baldy Zhao was furious at first, but the caller said you were delirious, suffering from a potent poison, and in critical condition, basically on the verge of death if you didn’t get treated immediately.”

“…”

“You don’t think Baldy Zhao is using this as an excuse to check if I was lying, do you?”

“So, were you actually faking it?”

“No…”

“Are you seriously ill, then?”

The voice on the other end turned worried.

“No… so when are you guys planning to come?”

Chen Yu asked for the time to figure out a plan, like whether he should try to transfer to a regular hospital before they arrived.

“Right now; we’re already at the hospital entrance…”

“W-what?”

“White/Turbidity? That’s strange. Since when did District 18 build such a bizarre psychiatric hospital?”

Upon hearing this, Chen Yu was so startled he fell back onto his hospital bed.

Baldy Zhao and the others had actually tracked him down!