After leaving the Response Department, Lu Xiu didn’t take me home. Instead, he led me toward a certain scenic spot—a mountain temple, famous here for its Blessing Rituals.
“What are we doing here?”
I asked, puzzled.
“To receive a blessing, of course.” He stared at me with his dead-fish eyes. “I don’t want to die young.”
“What’s a Blessing Ritual?”
“First, you can’t eat anything.” He held up a finger. “Second, it doesn’t matter what it is. It’s not for you. Just follow me and behave. When we’re done, I’ll buy you a cup of Ku Yan Huo Village.”
“Yay!”
I raised both hands in approval, mostly because of the second part.
From the foot of the mountain upward, there were nine hundred and ninety-nine stone steps. The ancient steps were covered in moss, etched with the erosion of time.
At first, I could hop up them energetically, but not even halfway, I started to get tired.
“Lu Xiu, I don’t want to climb anymore.”
I lagged behind and shouted ahead.
“Endure it. Treat this as exercise.”
He said, not even out of breath.
“Can I climb the mountain with my big mouth?”
“If you want to get stuffed back into the [Black Box], go ahead and try.”
“Fine. But I really can’t go any further.”
Without food as motivation, I felt like every moment I was burning through my life force, about to turn into a mummy.
“…Sigh, why are you so troublesome.” He grumbled as he sat down. “Let’s rest a while.”
I immediately sprawled on the ground and started dozing.
On the steps, I could see tiny ants. I grabbed one and popped it in my mouth—no taste at all.
The moss wasn’t tasty either, just bitter.
I looked over at Lu Xiu. He was resting his head on his arm, staring at the sky, lost in thought. I had no idea what he was thinking.
I stared at him, lost in a daze.
I didn’t even notice the drool trickling down the corner of my mouth.
“What’s wrong with you? Why do you look so dumb?”
“Slurp… Nothing… I was just wondering what you taste like.”
“Haven’t you already bitten me?”
“That was your hand. The taste of your hand isn’t the same as other parts.” I propped myself up and started a lengthy monologue.
“Because your hands are always moving, the muscles are firmer, so they’re not as soft to bite. But other parts are different. For example, your legs aren’t developed, so they’re kind of mushy. I could take a big bite out of them in one go, and as for…”
“Stop, stop, stop! I’m not in the mood to hear how you’d cook me into a dish.”
I shut my mouth.
“Lu Xiu.”
“What?”
“Is the Nirvana Society bad?”
“…It’s the Nirvana Society.” He sighed. “How should I put it… Didn’t I tell you before that the Calamity would destroy all delicacies?”
I nodded.
“Well, the Nirvana Society is a bunch of lunatics who are bent on bringing the Calamity down. They can’t stand their own lives, think the world’s meaningless, so they want to drag everyone into hell.”
“You can’t reason with them. They’re trapped in their own mental worlds. To them, even death is a form of ascension. Enemies who aren’t afraid to die are the scariest, because you never know if they’ll go berserk and blow themselves up right next to you in the next second.”
“That sounds terrifying.”
“That’s why they’re the Response Department’s number one enemy. Unfortunately, after every roundup, some remnants always survive. You can’t burn them all out, because their roots have already sunk deep into the soil of this society.” His gaze became distant, reflecting the sky.
“The high pressure of our fast-paced society, the gray areas brought by the internet’s growth, the violent spread of rumors… People’s hearts are wrapped layer after layer by the byproducts of social development.”
“All this filth is the favorite food of Aberrations and Demons, and it’s also the hotbed of these extreme ideologies.”
“There’s nothing we can do, no way to change society all at once. It’s like a tree—you know it’s started to rot, but you can’t just chop it down with an axe, because there are millions of innocent people living on that tree.”
“All you can do is prune it with scissors, spray some pesticide… But that only solves the rot on the outside. When a person’s heart goes bad, they go mad; when the heart of a tree rots, the tree collapses…”
“Ha ha… Hearing you say all that, it almost sounds like you’re disillusioned with the world.”
“Don’t understand.”
As always, I answered.
“It’s good you don’t understand. If you don’t, you won’t be troubled by these things. Sometimes I envy you. As long as you have food, just a little is enough to make you happy all day. At my age, I’ve almost forgotten what pure happiness tastes like.”
A ball.
“It must be sweet, right?”
“Mhm.”
He closed his eyes and began to nap.
I closed my eyes too. The wind rustled the leaves, scattering away the noise of summer. In the distance, nearby, there were the sounds of tourists—laughter, chatter, all blending together.
And we lay there on the stone steps.
As if separated from the world by a barrier.
When the sun slanted, we finally climbed the last step.
“Ah… I can’t go on. I’m dying. Seaweed Ball, I want Ku Yan Huo Village…”
I flopped to the ground, dazed, with nothing but my pure obsession for Ku Yan Huo Village in my heart.
“…There’s no milk tea shop at the top of this mountain… I’ll buy you one when we go back down.”
“We have to climb down too?!” My voice cracked with shock.
My head shook like a rattle drum, the twin ponytails behind me swinging and smacking my cheeks, tickling them.
“I don’t want to I don’t want to I don’t want to I don’t want to I don’t want to I don’t want to I don’t want to I don’t want to I don’t want to I don’t want to—”
“Of course you don’t have to walk down. There’s a cable car. We’ll take the cable car down.”
He pointed at the round pod gliding not far away.
“Then why didn’t we ride it up here?”
“Because it’s a Blessing Ritual. Sincerity is everything. Never mind, there’s no way you’d get it.” He reached out, pulled me up from the ground, and dragged me inside the vermillion-painted doors.
Inside, the smell was bizarre—a mix of smoke, sandalwood, and a faint trace of mildew.
And for some reason, I felt scared, like this was some dragon’s lair or tiger’s den. The golden Sacred Statue in the center of the temple made me even more uneasy, like I wanted to flee.
“Lu Xiu, I don’t want to stay here. I feel like someone’s watching me.”
“This place is under the protection of the Innate Spirit. The only one who could be watching you is probably Them.”
“Innate Spirit?”
“Can’t eat it.”
I hadn’t even opened my mouth yet.
“You can think of Innate Spirits this way—they’re born from mythology, worshipped by people as gods of heaven and earth. Unlike Demons and Aberrations, They’re born of human culture, guardians that watch over humanity. They’re among the few we can safely communicate or cooperate with.”
“So, are They good people?”
“No.” Lu Xiu said right in front of the Sacred Statue, “At best, They’re neutral beings. They aren’t as cunning or chaotic as Demons, nor as ignorant and foolish as Aberrations.”
“So there are no good people in this world.”
I pouted.
“As long as you know. So don’t just follow someone around because they gave you candy, only to end up counting money for them after they’ve sold you.”
“I’m not that stupid!”
“I wouldn’t dare to agree.”
What does that mean?
He ignored me and fetched three sticks of incense. Bowing low, he paid his respects, placed the incense in the burner, pressed his hands together, and closed his eyes in a Blessing Ritual.
A moment later, he opened his eyes and headed for the door.
“That’s it?”
“Of course. What, you want me to stay here all night?”
“Seems like you don’t care at all.”
“How could that be? I care about my life very much.”
Bickering as we went, we made our way down the mountain, from the peaceful forest back to the noisy, bustling city.
Until dusk faded into the starlit night.
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