Chapter 910: Serial Dreams |
After testing, Zhang Wenbing nodded and said, "Done, this infrared alarm system is functioning properly."
Yin En, who was watching the commotion, came over and said, "By the way, how come this infrared is not visible at all? It's completely different from the infrared I bought at the school gate when I was a kid. Could it be that this infrared alarm system is broken, and you're just making excuses to save face, Zhang?"
Seeing the troublemaker Yin En, Zhang Wenbing said impatiently, "Yin En, don't stir up trouble for no reason. Don't you know that infrared light is invisible to the naked eye? As for the infrared toy you bought outside the school, it's just a red light pen, specifically designed to fool elementary school students like you."
As Zhang Wenbing spoke, he pressed a remote control, and a dense red network suddenly appeared in front of Liu Xing's door. "However, to help us identify the specific locations of these infrared beams, this alarm system also has a red light enhancement feature."
Yin En nodded and said with a smile, "I see. It seems I was too young back then. But Zhang, did you really need to set up the infrared beams so densely? I think unless Liu Xing tries to move himself out in batches, he won't be able to leave the room without triggering the alarm."
As Yin En said, Zhang Wenbing had set up twenty infrared beams outside a standard door about two meters high and nearly one meter wide, dividing the space into sections with the largest area being roughly the size of Liu Xing's head.
So unless Liu Xing could shrink his bones, the only way for him to leave the room without triggering the alarm would be to chop himself into dozens of pieces, throw them out one by one, and then reassemble himself...
As an ordinary person, Liu Xing didn't think he could do that.
At this moment, Ding Kun took out a folded piece of paper from his room and wedged it against the door as a test—the paper would fall immediately if the door opened.
"So unless the personalities inside Liu Xing have also heard what we're saying, they won't be able to get past this obstacle," Ding Kun added.
Liu Xing stroked his chin and shook his head. "In theory, if I really have Dissociative Identity Disorder, the other personalities inside me shouldn't know what I'm doing when I'm conscious. In cases like mine, the Primary Personality has absolute control when awake and can lock the other personalities in a dark room, preventing them from coming out. So they wouldn't know what I'm doing or who I've been in contact with, unless I intentionally left them a door, but that's not very realistic."
Liu Xing returned to his room with a bag of snacks. "Should I tie a rope around my foot?"
"Forget it," Zhang Wenbing scoffed. "This isn't sleepwalking. If your other personalities gain control of your body, they can easily untie the rope on your foot, so it's pointless."
Liu Xing shrugged, nodded, and entered the room. "Alright, you can activate the alarm system now."
After being locked in the room, Liu Xing couldn't help but sigh.
Although Liu Xing knew that anything could happen in the Cthulhu RPG game, he never expected to have the opportunity to experience Dissociative Identity Disorder, which was not good news.
As a medical professional, Liu Xing had heard of many mental patients who overthought things when they were healthy and ended up convincing themselves they were mentally ill, for the human body is truly wondrous.
Liu Xing shook his head, dismissing those strange thoughts from his mind, lest he really drove himself crazy.
Liu Xing followed his usual routine, playing games for a while, then taking out his mobile phone to browse the news, especially from the Hokkaido and Ryukyu regions, which were becoming more and more lively.
At around 10 p.m., Liu Xing prepared to sleep.
To be honest, Liu Xing felt a bit uneasy, worried that if he fell asleep, his body might be controlled by other personalities.
But then again, this might not necessarily be Dissociative Identity Disorder; perhaps he was just possessed by a ghost?
With these thoughts in mind, Liu Xing fell asleep.
Meanwhile, Yin En and the others gathered in one room, closely monitoring the situation in Liu Xing's room.
"Should we ask Shima Mitsuhiro to find an exorcist or a Yin Yang Master?" Yin En said seriously. "I suspect Liu Xing might be possessed by the demon from the embroidered shoe. Think about it carefully—that embroidered shoe should have left by now, but there's been no reaction at all. So I suspect it has targeted Liu Xing."
Zhang Jingxu nodded and said, "There is indeed something strange about that embroidered shoe. When I asked people from the China Dao Sect to decipher the canned food code, I also had them investigate the embroidered shoe. It turns out that the embroidered shoe actually originated from China and came to the Island Nation with Jianzhen during the Tang Dynasty."
"Oh? They had embroidered shoes in the Tang Dynasty?" Yin En, the nitpicker, chimed in.
Zhang Jingxu raised an eyebrow. "Since there are Yis People in this world, it wouldn't be surprising to find a nuclear reactor in an ancient human tribe, let alone embroidered shoes. Embroidered shoes aren't a very narrow category; any shoes with patterns embroidered on them could be called embroidered shoes."
Yin En immediately fell silent.
At this moment, Zhang Wenbing suddenly said, "Zhang Jingxu, you must be referring to that pair of embroidered shoes, right?"
"Exactly, that pair of embroidered shoes!" Zhang Jingxu said seriously. "These embroidered shoes were quite famous in ancient times. The earliest records claim they appeared during the late Eastern Han Dynasty when warlords were constantly fighting, and various disasters and plagues were rampant. By the time the Jin Dynasty unified the realm, the population had decreased tenfold, with nine out of ten households empty. The owner of these embroidered shoes was one of the deceased, a Holy Maiden of a secret cult."
"I believe you can all guess what happened next. On her deathbed, the owner of the embroidered shoes used a secret technique to curse them, making them sow discord among lovers in this world, just like the effect of that one embroidered shoe—causing a couple to fall in love with each of the shoes. Naturally, they would then want to obtain the other shoe, leading to the couple turning against each other, fighting to the death."
"The China Dao Sect had already been established at that time, so some predecessors learned about the existence of these embroidered shoes and tried to destroy them. However, the shoes had already developed sentience, becoming demonic. One of the shoes sacrificed itself to let the other escape, and since then, that remaining embroidered shoe has been missing, with only rumors claiming it followed Jianzhen's ship and left China."
After listening to Zhang Jingxu's account, Yin En stroked his chin and said, "I see. No wonder there's only one embroidered shoe left. But why is it haunting Liu Xing? Could it be because Liu Xing's previous life wronged the owner of these embroidered shoes?"
Yin En's mention of a previous life referred to the dream Liu Xing had.
Zhang Jingxu pondered for a moment and nodded. "That's a possibility. Although we can't confirm if the concept of reincarnation exists in this world, I can assure you that some powerful sorcerers can be reborn with memories of their previous lives. Additionally, people who died in special ways can also achieve this, but they need special means to awaken their past memories... However, from the current situation, Liu Xing's problem doesn't seem that simple."
As soon as Zhang Jingxu's voice fell, they heard the sound of footsteps.
While installing the infrared alarm device, Zhang Wenbing also smuggled in some private goods and installed a wiretap on Liu Xing's door.
"Everyone get ready," Yin En said in a low voice.
At that moment, the footsteps went back again.
"Phew, it seems Liu Xing just got up to go to the bathroom," Zhang Jingxu stretched lazily and then said, "Then let's proceed according to the original plan. Yin En, don't doze off. If anything happens, you need to notify us immediately."
Zhang Wenbing and Ding Kun also stood up with Zhang Jingxu, randomly found a place in the room, laid a blanket, and prepared to sleep, while Yin En put on headphones and stared intently at the screen—Yin En and the others had obtained control of the corridor's surveillance cameras from Shima Mitsuhiro.
Nothing happened at midnight.
Zhang Jingxu was on the last shift, and when he saw that it was already eight o'clock in the morning and Liu Xing still hadn't come out of his room, he was about to wake up Yin En and the others to have breakfast.
However, at that moment, a "damn" came from Liu Xing's room, followed by the sound of something heavy falling to the ground.
Zhang Jingxu didn't hesitate and went straight out, using the spare key to open Liu Xing's room.
Then Zhang Jingxu was also stunned by the scene before him.
At this time, the awakened Yin En and the others also ran into Liu Xing's room.
"Damn, what kind of ghost is this?"
Yin En blurted out, pointing to the messy patterns on the wall.
Among the many patterns on the wall, the most eye-catching was a furious Vajra, and this furious Vajra was facing Liu Xing's bedhead, so it was no wonder that Liu Xing was scared and fell out of bed when he woke up.
Yin En walked up to the wall and touched the patterns, saying, "These patterns must have been drawn with lipstick, so now the question is, does Liu Xing have a cross-dressing fetish?"
"Shut up," Liu Xing said angrily, "It seems I sleepwalked again last night."
Zhang Jingxu was about to nod when he turned to ask Ding Kun and the others, "I didn't hear any big commotion when I was on night duty last night, did you?"
Ding Kun and the others shook their heads, indicating that they didn't hear any big commotion either.
"That shouldn't be the case. Judging from the position of these patterns, the commotion Liu Xing caused should not have been small," Zhang Wenbing said with a frown.
As for Liu Xing at this moment, he couldn't help but recall what happened after he fell asleep last night.
After falling asleep, Liu Xing found himself appearing on that strange building again from the first-person perspective of "Liu Xing," but this time Liu Xing couldn't control "Liu Xing's" body.
So Liu Xing watched helplessly as "Liu Xing" came to the railing and looked down.
The height of hundreds of meters made Liu Xing, who was somewhat afraid of heights, gasp and unconsciously want to retreat... Unfortunately, Liu Xing couldn't control "Liu Xing" to retreat.
Just as Liu Xing was about to close his eyes and rest, he suddenly saw a group of people running towards them with weapons in the distance.
Although they were too far away for Liu Xing to see their faces clearly, Liu Xing sensed acutely that there was an acquaintance among this group of people.
However, at that moment, "Liu Xing" suddenly climbed over the railing!
Then, Liu Xing experienced the feeling of flying...
But just as "Liu Xing" was only a few meters away from the ground, Liu Xing finally saw the appearance of the group of people in the distance, and there was indeed an acquaintance... Yin En.
The next second, Liu Xing suddenly blacked out.
When Liu Xing could see clearly again, he found himself in a small room, with stationery on the small table in front of him.
Across from Liu Xing, a man in his thirties, dressed in ancient Chinese clothing, was sitting with his eyes closed in meditation.
Seeing this situation, the two words "imperial examination" appeared in Liu Xing's mind.
Soon, someone began handing out the exam papers, and when Liu Xing saw the familiar yet unfamiliar traditional Chinese characters on the exam paper, he was certain that "he" was taking the imperial examination.
Fortunately, Liu Xing still didn't have control over the body, so he didn't need to write the answers himself.
Of course, Liu Xing also knew that he was currently in the dream created by the embroidered shoe.
It seemed that his identity in the dream was a scholar, but he didn't know if he could pass the imperial examination.
Just as Liu Xing was thinking about this, in the blink of an eye, the "map" changed again—R'lyeh Ancient City.
This time, Liu Xing could finally control his body.
However, Liu Xing could hear the footsteps and cries of many Deep Ones behind him.
Clearly, he was being chased by a group of Deep Ones!
Faced with this situation, Liu Xing could only choose to run.
However, when Liu Xing turned a corner, a bottomless abyss appeared in front of him.
More importantly, Liu Xing couldn't stop his feet anymore...
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