Chapter 32
<Previous Chapter<Table of Contents>Next Chapter>
“No!!!”
Li Sanxin and the other two rushed to the bridge with all their might, but still watched helplessly as Lou Yan fell off the bridge and then saw the eerie red coffin sink into the river.
Lu Haoxiu’s face suddenly turned pale, subconsciously reaching out, “Brother Lou!”
Li Sanxin’s face looked ugly, his eyes red with anxiety. He took off his coat, watch, and phone, threw away the heavy objects on his body, and wanted to jump directly into the river to find the red coffin. But Duan Zege stopped him, “Don’t act recklessly.”
He stared at the river surface, his voice heavy, “With the red coffin in the river, the whole river will become very dangerous. If you go down now, it’s a dead end.”
“So, are we just going to watch here?” Li Sanxin roared, trying to shake off his hand, his neck veins bulging, “The air inside the coffin won’t last long, and water will flood into the coffin. If we don’t save him, Yanzi will die! Don’t stop me!”
Duan Zege suddenly raised his voice, “Are you only worried about Lou Yan?! Do you think you can save him by jumping down now? I’ve divined for him before. Even if he’s in danger tonight, he won’t die, but it’s not the same for you if you go down now!”
Li Sanxin gasped for breath, wiped his face, and looked sharply at Duan Zege, “Are you sure Lou Yan will be okay?”
Duan Zege didn’t speak but took out the tarot cards from his pocket and divined again. After seeing the cards, he looked at Li Sanxin and Lu Haoxiu, “I’m sure he’ll be fine.”
Lu Haoxiu sat down on the ground weakly, his eyes reddened, almost crying, “Wuu wuu, that’s a relief.”
Li Sanxin remained silent for a moment. He picked up his phone and called Lou Yan, but the phone rang for a while with no answer. Li Sanxin paced anxiously, took a deep breath to calm down, “When you led us here just now, you took a wrong turn, Duan Zege. Look into my eyes and tell me, did you really get lost or did you deliberately lead us the wrong way? Are you deliberately delaying time so we can’t save Lou Yan in time?”
Lu Haoxiu was stunned. When the three of them came out to find Lou Yan, Lou Yan and Cai Mo had already disappeared. They didn’t know the way, but Duan Zege said he did. Indeed, they had taken a wrong turn, but Lu Haoxiu thought it was simply because all the roads in Liushu Village looked the same. He never thought there might be something deliberate behind it.
“Brother Duan?” Lu Haoxiu looked at Duan Zege uneasily.
This time, Duan Zege fell silent.
The more he remained silent, the heavier the hearts of Li Sanxin and Lu Haoxiu became. Lu Haoxiu truly regarded Duan Zege as a trustworthy family member. He couldn’t believe it, staring at Duan Zege stubbornly, “Brother Duan!”
Duan Zege sighed and admitted, “Alright, I deliberately led us the wrong way.”
Without another word, Li Sanxin punched Duan Zege, “You d*mn—”
Duan Zege’s head was knocked to the side by the punch, and he spat out a mouthful of blood, still speaking calmly, “Do you know that tarot cards have upright and reversed meanings?”
“So what?” Li Sanxin grabbed Duan Zege’s collar, his eyes dark and intense, “Duan Zege, if you deliberately let Lou Yan be trapped in the red coffin because of your so-called ‘opportunity to achieve wishes’ in your divination, I will never let you off. Remember, fate and all that cr*p are unpredictable things. When it comes to predicting the future, things may change. I’ll temporarily believe in your divination that Lou Yan will be fine, but if you deliberately push Lou Yan to follow your divination, you d*mn well don’t belong by Lou Yan’s side! Don’t think that controlling the direction of the future means you can control others’ destiny. Don’t be too arrogant, Duan Zege.”
He was like a provoked tiger now, his furious aura ready to strike at any moment. He clenched his muscles tightly, his grip on Duan Zege’s arm tense and even trembling slightly with anger.
Lu Haoxiu watched with trepidation, afraid that Li Sanxin would get into a fight with Duan Zege.
Duan Zege inexplicably chuckled. Just as Li Sanxin was about to throw another punch, he sighed again, “You’re quite right, Li Sanxin. I hope you remember what you said to me today.”
Li Sanxin’s face cold, “I’ll remember what I said.”
Duan Zege pushed away the hand gripping his collar and turned to look at Lu Haoxiu instead, “Little Lu, you’re a student, so you should be familiar with tarot cards, right?”
Lu Haoxiu nodded complicatedly. He didn’t want to look at Duan Zege, so he kept his head down, staring at the dark river surface, feeling as uncomfortable as the murky river, “I’ve played with tarot cards before. Each card has upright and reversed meanings, like different interpretations when the cards are flipped.”
“Exactly,” Duan Zege said, “Actually, my divination today also has two possible outcomes.”
Lu Haoxiu and Li Sanxin looked at Duan Zege suddenly. Lu Haoxiu quickly asked, “What do you mean? Will something happen to Brother Lou?!”
Duan Zege: “As I said, he won’t have any trouble…”
He walked to the railing, looking down at the river, and said flatly, “But in the other future, although he’s fine, you two will not be.”
Lu Haoxiu was stunned, and Li Sanxin frowned, “Us?”
Duan Zege nodded affirmatively, then pointed at Lu Haoxiu, “You’ll die.”
Lu Haoxiu’s heart skipped a beat, and he stared blankly, pointing at himself, at a loss.
Then Duan Zege pointed at Li Sanxin, “You’ll be severely injured.”
Li Sanxin’s face turned extremely ugly, shocked by Duan Zege’s words.
He would be severely injured, and Lu Haoxiu would die? Was this real?! How could it be?!
Duan Zege stared directly at Li Sanxin and said, “Although you won’t die, your fate won’t be pleasant either. The skin of the Raincoat Woman on your body will grow at an accelerated rate due to some anomaly stimulation. You’ll encounter something extremely terrifying that you’ve never seen before in your life. You’ll have a narrow escape, and this experience will become your shadow, the source of your terror. It will make you less brave, start to avoid danger, and fear the anomaly.”
“How is that possible!” Li Sanxin said instinctively.
“Nothing is impossible,” Duan Zege’s eyes were hidden in the tangled hair and shadow of his hat, but Li Sanxin could feel the heavy and firm power in his eyes, as if he had already seen such a future, “Li Sanxin, nothing is impossible.”
Li Sanxin breathed heavily, his heart in turmoil. He didn’t know whether to believe Duan Zege’s words, but his instincts had already believed them. Li Sanxin closed his eyes, “Lu Haoxiu will die?”
Duan Zege said, “Yes, he will die, and it will be a gruesome death.”
Lu Haoxiu couldn’t help asking, “How gruesome?”
Duan Zege fell silent for a few seconds, shook his head, and said nothing.
Lu Haoxiu guessed that his death would be very gruesome.
He scratched his cheek, feeling a bit scared, but after all, this was something that hadn’t happened yet. Lu Haoxiu quickly recovered and asked worriedly, “Then what about you, Brother Duan? Will you be okay?”
Duan Zege rubbed his head and smiled, “Me? I have a strong destiny, I’ll be fine.”
Lu Haoxiu breathed a sigh of relief for them.
Duan Zege said, “So, if we arrive in time, not only will we not be able to save Lou Yan, but we will also end up getting into the red coffin with him. You now know what your fate will be. Lou Yan will be fine, but we will become his burden… In this situation, it’s good for him and good for us.”
Li Sanxin wanted to smoke to calm down, but there were no cigarettes around, “…You have to promise me that everything you said tonight is true.”
Duan Zege didn’t hesitate, “I can promise that.”
Li Sanxin said slowly, “Duan Zege, I’ve been with you for so long, I believe in your character. I believe what you said.”
After a pause, Li Sanxin continued, “But we can’t just sit here and wait, can we? What can we do now?”
Duan Zege looked towards the distant willow forest, squinting his eyes, “With Lou Yan dealing with the red coffin, it doesn’t mean we’re useless. There are other things in this village waiting for us to solve. If we can handle them well, it will also be a relief for Lou Yan.”
Li Sanxin and Lu Haoxiu were energized, “What things?”
Duan Zege led them to the willow forest, and after a few turns, they ended up under a sturdy willow tree.
“Little girl,” Duan Zege looked up at the tree, trying to soften his voice, but his broken vocal cords still sounded hoarse and frightening, “We’re here to help you.”
F*ck, there’s someone on the tree?
Lu Haoxiu quickly looked down and indeed saw a little girl hiding in the tree, “D*mn, bro, isn’t this the girl that Cai Mo brought with them?”
“It’s her.” After Duan Zege finished speaking, he patted Lu Haoxiu’s shoulder, “I’m not good with kids, so you’re responsible for getting her down.”
Lu Haoxiu hadn’t agreed yet, but Duan Zege and Li Sanxin, two single men, stepped back several steps to give him space on the stage. Lu Haoxiu racked his brains to coax the child, praising how cute she was and even scaring her with the big bad wolf to get her down from the tree. But the child didn’t react at all. In the end, it was only when Lu Haoxiu touched his own body and found two candies that he was able to coax the little girl down from the tree.
As soon as he held the little girl, Lu Haoxiu exclaimed, “So light!”
The little girl held onto the candies with one hand and tightly clung to Lu Haoxiu’s neck with the other. Lu Haoxiu’s heart softened, holding the little girl while asking Li Sanxin for help in unwrapping the candies to feed her.
Li Sanxin complied, and the little girl stuffed the candies into her mouth with an “ah” sound. Li Sanxin patted her head and smiled, “Such a cute little princess, why were you hiding in the tree?”
The little girl shook her head without speaking.
Duan Zege suddenly interjected, “She can’t speak.”
As Lu Haoxiu was happily trying to talk to the little girl, he suddenly stopped, and Li Sanxin frowned, asking in a serious tone, “Was it those cultists who did this?”
The little girl understood the question and shook her head, gesturing with her hand. Duan Zege translated, “She says she hasn’t been able to speak for a long time.”
Seeing that Duan Zege understood her, the little girl’s eyes suddenly brightened.
Li Sanxin asked in surprise, “You know sign language too?”
Duan Zege smiled, “When you wander around, it’s normal to pick up a little bit of everything.”
He didn’t say much more and approached the little girl, asking, “Little girl, what’s your name?”
The little girl used sign language to tell him her name, and Duan Zege nodded, then turned to the other two who were staring at him, “She says her name is Little Yu.”
“Little Yu, what a lovely name,” Lu Haoxiu grinned foolishly and kissed the little girl on the head, “It’s raining today, so fitting!”
Duan Zege continued, “Little Yu, was it a tall and good-looking uncle who put you in the tree just now? He was dressed in black and had many weapons on him. We’re his friends, please believe we mean no harm.”
Little Yu looked at him with big eyes, her face slightly nodded at first, then shook her head, and then gestured again.
Duan Zege couldn’t help but smile, “Oh, you mean it wasn’t an uncle who put you in the tree, it was a brother?”
Little Yu nodded.
Li Sanxin and Lu Haoxiu also wanted to laugh a bit. Li Sanxin ruffled Little Yu’s head, “Yanzi will be happy to hear that.”
Seeing them laughing, Little Yu tilted her head, looking puzzled.
Duan Zege suppressed his smile, “Little Yu, I know you have some special abilities, and I also know that there’s something strange in the Liushu Village tonight. Can you lead us to find that anomaly?”
Little Yu stared at him for a while, then nodded, pointing to the east.
Duan Zege looked to the east, where the willow trees swayed in the drizzling night, their movements like ghosts in the dim light. He squinted and led the way to the east, “Let’s go.”
Can’t wait until next week to see more? Want to show your support? Come to my Patreon where you can get up to 5 more chapters of Monster Resurgence right away ! Or go donate at Paypal or Ko-fi to show your appreciation! :)
<Previous Chapter<Table of Contents>Next Chapter>
