Chapter 898: An embroidered shoe |
Just as Liu Xing and the others were about to carry Yin En and Ding Kun out for some fresh air, Yin En suddenly woke up.
"Cough cough." After coughing twice, Yin En grabbed Liu Xing and asked, "Did you see Liu Xuyu and Ii Naoyoshi?"
"Liu Xuyu? Ii Naoyoshi? How could they be here?" Liu Xing asked with a puzzled look.
Yin En shook his head and pointed to an open safe next to him, saying, "That safe is the one we were looking for. After we opened it, a portal appeared, and Ii Naoyoshi ran out of it, then Liu Xuyu suddenly appeared at the door."
After Yin En's narration, Liu Xing finally understood the whole story.
When Yin En and Ding Kun entered the underground vault and confirmed the target safe, they found an opportunity to act directly, knocking out the lobby manager and Yoshino Takayuki.
However, the moment Yin En and Ding Kun made their move, the alarm in the underground vault went off, and the security guards in the hall immediately rushed to the underground vault, while the guards in the underground vault also ran over.
So Yin En took out Brewster's two handguns and blocked the door, while Ding Kun used an unknown liquid to successfully open the safe.
As a result, when the safe was opened, Ding Kun was hit by a strong force and slammed into the opposite wall, passing out directly, which is why Ding Kun is still unconscious now.
At this moment, there were suddenly a few exclamations in the corridor, causing Yin En to look towards the corridor again.
He saw a Shoggoth rampaging through the corridor like a mad dog, easily taking down the members of the Public Faction and mythical creatures. As for the owner of the Shoggoth—Liu Xuyu had already returned to human form, holding a glass ball in his hand.
In this glass ball, Yin En saw constantly churning mist.
Before Yin En could say anything, Liu Xuyu directly smashed the glass ball, instantly enveloping the entire underground vault in thick fog. A few seconds later, Yin En suddenly felt a pain in his neck and passed out.
"So that's it, it seems we were used." Zhang Jingxu shook his head and said, "I didn't expect Liu Xuyu and Ii Naoyoshi to have planned all this long ago, and I didn't expect them to endure for so many years."
Liu Xing frowned and remained silent.
Because Liu Xing was still suspicious of Yin En.
At this moment, Shima Mitsuhiro spoke up, "The local police are about to arrive here, we should leave quickly to avoid any unnecessary trouble."
So, Liu Xing and the others left the underground vault with the still unconscious Yin En.
However, before leaving, Liu Xing did not forget to take a look at Ii Naoyoshi's safe and found that there were indeed a few items left inside, or perhaps Ii Naoyoshi and Liu Xuyu left in such a hurry that they didn't have time to take them.
A flintlock pistol that looked like it was a few hundred years old, a pair of jade bracelets, a snuff bottle, and an embroidered shoe.
Looking at this embroidered shoe, Liu Xing suddenly recalled his childhood nightmare—"A Pair of Embroidered Shoes."
Although "A Pair of Embroidered Shoes" is actually an anti-espionage film, for Liu Xing, who was still an elementary student at the time, it was definitely a horror film, so Liu Xing still remembers the embroidered shoes in "A Pair of Embroidered Shoes" vividly.
And the embroidered shoe in front of him was exactly the same as the one in "A Pair of Embroidered Shoes."
Liu Xing frowned. The embroidered shoe in the safe was obviously handmade, so shoes like this generally don't have a fixed pattern, especially the embroidery on the shoes.
Could it be that the Cthulhu Role-Playing Game Hall borrowed an embroidered shoe from the neighboring set?
Liu Xing couldn't help but reach out and pick up the embroidered shoe.
Then, Liu Xing was struck by lightning and lost consciousness.
Seeing Liu Xing suddenly fall to the ground, Zhang Jingxu and the others were all dumbfounded.
"What's wrong with Ryuusei?" Zhang Wenbing said, dumbfounded.
Zhang Jingxu, who was closest to Liu Xing, immediately ran over to check on Liu Xing's condition, "Liu Xing's vital signs are still normal, it seems he lost consciousness because of the embroidered shoe in his hand."
At this moment, Shima Mitsuhiro, who had already reached the door, turned around and said in surprise, "An embroidered shoe? That cursed embroidered shoe is actually here?!"
Shima Mitsuhiro walked over, looked at the embroidered shoe in Liu Xing's hand, and took a deep breath, "Hiss~ I didn't expect there to really be this embroidered shoe, I thought it was just a legend."
"Shima Mitsuhiro, stop keeping us in suspense, tell us what's going on, Ryuusei won't be in danger, right?" Zhang Jingxu said anxiously.
Shima Mitsuhiro nodded and said, "Liu Xing should not be in danger because although this embroidered shoe carries an unknown curse, this curse will not be fatal. At most, it will cause Ryuusei to have nightmares for a few days... Although those who have experienced this nightmare will need ten days to half a month to fully recover because the nightmare is too real, and the dreamer is directly placed in the perspective of the person in the dream."
"As for the origin of this embroidered shoe, it is no longer traceable. The earliest record of this embroidered shoe was in Osaka Castle during the Tokugawa Shogunate period. A merchant's daughter found this embroidered shoe in her family's warehouse. Because the embroidered shoe was very beautiful, she asked the servants to find the other embroidered shoe to make a pair. However, no matter how hard they searched, they couldn't find the other embroidered shoe."
"As a result, the merchant's daughter became furious, her temper worsening day by day, constantly demanding the servants to find the other embroidered shoe. If they couldn't find it, they would be beaten and scolded. Eventually, she even threatened her parents with death, and her parents hired hundreds of people to dig up the entire house but still couldn't find the other embroidered shoe. So they had to hire a famous local shoemaker to make a replica of the other embroidered shoe."
"The merchant's daughter immediately saw that the embroidered shoe her father brought was fake, so she swallowed the fake embroidered shoe and died. After the merchant dealt with his daughter's funeral, he suddenly found that the original embroidered shoe was missing, even though he clearly remembered that the embroidered shoe should have been locked in his daughter's boudoir."
"Since then, sightings of this embroidered shoe have appeared all over the Island Nation. The first person to see this embroidered shoe would go to great lengths to obtain the other embroidered shoe, and these people were usually from wealthy families, causing a big stir in the local area. The end result was always that these people committed suicide in various ways, and the embroidered shoe disappeared."
"Although communication was very poor at the time, because the deceased were somewhat famous locally and the incidents caused a big stir, the story of this embroidered shoe quickly spread throughout the Island Nation, and many versions of the legend emerged. However, all versions of the legend believed that this embroidered shoe was a cursed item."
"Of course, this embroidered shoe also became something that many families and secret cults wanted to obtain because if they could control this embroidered shoe, it could do many things. However, when various forces began searching for this embroidered shoe, it never appeared again, and it has been over a hundred years since then."
"Therefore, many people believe that this embroidered shoe is likely to belong to a small secret cult, or even to an individual. So, when he or they discovered that many forces were looking for this embroidered shoe, they decided to hide it. As for why I am sure that Brother Ryuusei only has nightmares and does not want to obtain the other embroidered shoe like those who committed suicide, it is because Brother Liu Xing has now fainted directly."
"In those suicide incidents, only the first person who discovered the embroidered shoe would commit suicide because they couldn't find the other embroidered shoe. Others who touched this embroidered shoe would faint directly, and after sleeping for a few days, they would wake up naturally, claiming to have had a very realistic nightmare, but they couldn't recall the specific details of the dream. However, they were all sure that they dreamed of that pair of embroidered shoes."
Zhang Jingxu nodded thoughtfully and pointed at Liu Xing, saying, "So, who was the first person to discover this embroidered shoe? Was it Ii Naoyoshi? Or Liu Xuyu?"
Shima Mitsuhiro shook his head helplessly and said, "I don't know, because this embroidered shoe is too mysterious. I'm afraid no one in the entire Warrior Faction knows its specific situation. Alright, let's carry Liu Xing away together."
Thus, Liu Xing went from carrying people to being carried.
As for Liu Xing at this moment, he found himself standing in a garden.
"Congratulations player Liu Xing for unlocking the Special Module - How Much Do You Know About Falling Flowers in Dreams. Now I will..."
A female voice suddenly sounded in Liu Xing's ear, but her voice became smaller and smaller.
Then, who am I?
Liu Xing touched his head and remembered that he should go back to continue studying.
Because in half a month, the first imperial examination of the Great Ming will begin.
He must work hard to get his name on the golden list.
Time flies, and fifty years passed in a flash.
The elderly Liu Xing held a cup of hot tea, looked at the falling flowers outside the window, and slowly closed his eyes...
"Liu Xing, you finally woke up."
Liu Xing?
Liu Xing opened his eyes and looked at the somewhat unfamiliar young man in front of him and couldn't help but say, "Who are you?"
"I am Zhang Jingxu. Liu Xing, did you sleep so much that you got confused?" the young man said with a surprised look.
Zhang Jingxu?
Liu Xing couldn't help but feel a headache, and some long-sealed memories surged like a tidal wave, instantly washing away all the memories of the past fifty years.
"Oh, I remember now." Liu Xing shook his head and said with a smile, "It seems I really got confused from sleeping too much and took everything in the dream as reality."
Just as Liu Xing was about to get up, he found that he was a bit unable to move... because he was tied to the bed with several ropes.
"Liu Xing, you were not sleeping well these past few days and often fell to the ground, so we had no choice but to tie you to the bed." Zhang Jingxu said while untying Liu Xing.
Liu Xing nodded and said with some confusion, "By the way, Zhang Jingxu, you said I slept for several days. What's going on? I remember we carried Brother Ding out of the vault and then returned to Osaka directly, didn't we?"
Zhang Jingxu frowned and shook his head, saying, "It seems your memory is still a bit off, Liu Xing. You even forgot about the embroidered shoe."
"Embroidered shoe? What embroidered shoe? I saw a lot of embroidered shoes in my dream because I seemed to dream that I became an official in the early Ming Dynasty." Liu Xing said with a frown.
At this moment, Yin En and others, who heard the commotion, also came to the room, and Liu Xing noticed that Alice and others had also returned.
After being untied, Liu Xing took the hot porridge handed over by Juri Sonoda and listened to Zhang Jingxu explain the cause and effect.
"So that's it. I was wondering why my dream hadn't ended for so long, and the time span was as long as fifty years. But now that I think about it, I really can't remember how I spent those fifty years. I only know that I took the imperial examination and became an official in the early Ming Dynasty." Liu Xing said while drinking the hot porridge.
At this moment, Yin En took out a mobile phone and played a video.
In the video, Liu Xing, who was sleeping, would suddenly say a sentence every few minutes, but even Liu Xing couldn't understand what he was saying because his sleep talk sounded like some kind of dialect.
"We have already sent your sleep talk to the China Dao Sect for translation, and they found that you might be speaking a lost local dialect." Zhang Wenbing said, "But Liu Xing, do you really not remember that embroidered shoe?"
Liu Xing nodded and said firmly, "I really can't remember the embroidered shoe you mentioned. In my dream, I could see embroidered shoes everywhere, but I didn't think those embroidered shoes were special."
Since Liu Xing said so, Yin En and others did not continue to dwell on this issue but talked about what happened after Liu Xing fainted.
After Yin En and others carried the fainted Liu Xing and Ding Kun out of the underground vault, they drove to the seaside of Tokushima City, took a speedboat arranged by Shimazu Nakano, and left the Shikoku area, returning directly to Osaka. Ding Kun also woke up halfway.
After returning to Osaka, Zhang Jingxu and others went directly to the headquarters of the Warrior Faction to report and were questioned together with Shima Mitsuhiro and Mutou Masao. After all, the "casualties" this time were too severe, with seven out of ten teams lost.
After being interrogated for two days, Zhang Jingxu and others were finally "released without charge."
[Thanks for reading at Patreon.com/maxnkoga , if you supporting this novel, a heartfelt thankyou, enjoy the content!]