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墨書 Inktalez
Ke Li regained consciousness to find herself in a desolate village. The yellowish fog obscured the sky, and every household had its doors and windows shut tight. The dirt walls were peeling, with dust that stung her eyes and throat. Weeds in the courtyard grew as high as two meters, making it easy to get lost. The decay was beyond description; the village was empty, seemingly devoid of life, even the grass was dead. The fields behind the village were filled with withered wheat seedlings, and as she looked further, the thick fog enveloped everything. It was too quiet here, a silence that felt suffocating.
No matter what kind of world this was, it seemed she was the only living being in it. The thought filled her with despair; she desperately wanted to find another person, even just a trace left by someone like her.
After searching for a long time, she finally saw someone!
As she approached, she noticed a crooked wooden door frame that looked ready to collapse. Hanging from the bottom of the frame was an old hemp rope tied to a man in his forties. His pant legs were rolled up high, and his frail figure suggested he had suffered from polio in life. It was clear that the man had been dead for quite some time.
She had encountered another being, but he was dead; she didn't know whether to feel sad or relieved.
Inside the door was a corridor that led to a shadow wall made of red bricks and earth. Compared to the broken walls around the village, it looked much better. Just as she was about to enter, a powerful force struck her from within, knocking her unconscious before she could comprehend what was happening.
When she awoke again, she found herself on bare ground, surrounded by a vast expanse of white with no sun or moon, and no trees to indicate direction—just an empty land stretching endlessly. She understood clearly that even if she spent her entire life trying, she could never reach the edge of this land because it had none.
But then… Ke Li suddenly realized that her existence also had no endpoint.
She was already dead; although she didn't know the exact cause of death or how her body had been dealt with, she was undeniably in a state of being deceased.
So where was this?
Nanfeng, where are you?
She sat cross-legged on the ground; there was no concept of day or night here, nor any wind or rain. Without a physical body, she couldn't feel heat or cold or any sensations of comfort or pain. She had stripped away all human characteristics and simply sat there—neither tired nor thirsty nor hungry.
She understood the situation clearly.
This place existed within Luo Tong's mind—a spiritual world where Nanfeng, before dying, had been most concerned about her safety. Thus, after death, her consciousness entered Luo Tong's brain to communicate with her and lead her toward the truth. But now that she was dead and her brain had ceased functioning, Nanfeng had vanished. Before dying, Nanfeng had harbored deep resentment toward Luo Tong, which is why after death she entered Luo Tong's mind.
From a psychological perspective, humans have consciousness, preconsciousness, and subconsciousness; entering Luo Tong's brain doesn't mean she could freely access his information. He possessed an instinctual self-defense mechanism—something everyone has—otherwise what would be blocking her from entering that small courtyard?
She had been thrown out by Luo Tong's self-defense instincts. However, she couldn't stay here forever; she decided to choose a direction and walk steadfastly until she got closer to Luo Tong's secrets.
She walked and walked without knowing how long it took. Without a sense of time, human feelings became even more unbearable. But there was no other choice; she continued walking… until she reached an open field. In her ignorance and unawareness, night fell around her. A figure dashed through the tall grass while another shadow chased behind at a distance. Suddenly, the person in front fell into an ambush as two figures jumped out from the grass and tackled him to the ground. The pursuer rushed over breathlessly and crouched down in front of the subdued person. She walked lightly over and recognized that it was Luo Tong. The two assisting him were among those she'd seen at the construction site earlier. Luo Tong pulled an axe from his lower back and struck it hard against the face of the man on the ground—who was none other than the leader responsible for killing Luo Muye, now only eighteen or nineteen years old!
"Not so tough now? Want to talk big again? Remember this: it's retribution for killing my brother!" Luo Muye stood up with his body bent at ninety degrees, gripping the axe tightly as he brought it down heavily…
She stood frozen in shock, unable to scream.
In an instant, she found herself at a construction site still shrouded in darkness. Luo Tong, dressed in worker's clothes, came out to meet a delivery person. There were too many items; he asked the delivery person to help him carry them inside. As they walked together with the delivery person trailing behind him chatting away, suddenly a large knife struck him at the back of his neck—stuck between bones so it couldn't be pulled out—and he collapsed to the ground as they began repeatedly beheading him.
The delivery person turned out to be one of those bullies from years ago; she recognized him.
In another blink of an eye, she found herself in an unfinished apartment where several workers were clanging away on the floor. A man who looked like the homeowner walked in first complaining about their slow work pace and criticizing their rough job before hurling insults at them and finally stating his purpose: deducting their pay. Before he finished speaking, Luo Tong smashed an iron clamp against the homeowner's temple; he didn't have time to struggle before collapsing sideways onto the ground—another massacre—another bully…
Then came scenes of disguised delivery personnel "providing services"…
Afterwards, there was a vehicle scrape in the underground parking lot. The car owner angrily went down but never came back up...
Luo Tong and his accomplices eliminated those people, but what about Lu Zhang? Lu Zhang was clearly also a victim of bullying.
In the past few days, Luo Tong actually began to dream about Ke Li. In his dreams, he repeatedly returned to the murder scene from years ago, with Ke Li by his side, dressed in a white dress, as pure as an angel.
For many years, Ke Li was like a deity to him. He briefly sat next to Wei Nanfeng in class, and during that time, whenever the break came, Ke Li would run over to play and joke with Wei Nanfeng. Occasionally, she would tease him a bit. She was bright, brave, cheerful, and good at math. Once, he mustered the courage to ask her about a math problem; she sat in Wei Nanfeng's seat and explained it step by step to him. "Do you understand this step?" she asked. He nodded, and she continued. If he didn't understand, she would patiently explain it over and over again. No one—neither teachers nor parents—had ever shown him such care.
What truly made him submit was her courage to stand up and expose those bullies even after knowing that Luo Muye had been killed. She was simply a warrior!
So when he learned of her news, he deliberately approached her.
In his dream, Ke Li gently said to him, "I understand you are avenging your friend, but I don't understand why you want Lu Zhang?"
Ke Li witnessed the entire process of Lu Zhang's murder. Luo Tong visited Lu Zhang as an old classmate; while Lu Zhang bent down to help him get his slippers, he strangled him with a metal wire at the entrance. He handed the body over to his accomplices for disposal, then changed into Lu Zhang's clothes, wore Lu Zhang's watch, styled his hair like Lu Zhang's, familiarized himself with Lu Zhang's habits, learned from him, imitated him, replaced him, becoming someone of high status.
"For money?"
Wearing a black suit belonging to Lu Zhang, Luo Tong shook his head. "Not just that; there's also fairness."
"Fairness?"
In middle school, those thugs bullied both Luo Muye and Luo Tong before they stopped Lu Zhang and dragged him into an alley for protection money.
"We're all victims of bullying; why should Luo Muye die? Why should I end up like this? Why should he, Lu Zhang, achieve success at such a young age? Is that fair?!"
Ke Li couldn't help but retort, "By your logic, every child who has been bullied should live their whole life in the shadows and cannot succeed or grow healthily? Should they all fall into depravity like you?"
Ke Li's words struck at Luo Tong's defenses; she was once again pushed back into that desolate place.
She finally understood why Nanfeng didn't tell her directly at first that Mi Liangbao had killed Lu Zhang—because at that time she wouldn't have believed it and might have unconsciously driven Nanfeng away.
It still needed to be gradual.
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