Since the pollution became rampant, Li Nian has lived in Shi'an Building most of the time.
On the surface, this pollution incident is like an old lady's foot wrap, smelly and long-lasting. But in terms of the severity of the matter, there is no need for safety awareness to be so vigilant.
The police have always been the ones who have a headache - under the influence of pollution, the crime rate in Sea Valley City has been rising. Panic is like a crack in porcelain. Once you experience it, you can never go back.
It is easy to spread panic, but it takes a long time to repair the damage. Today, the civilization and peace of the past have gone down the drain and turned into nothing.
The Sinking Society was determined this time, and the pollution source continued to spread. When the world is in chaos, there are naturally many more people praying to the gods and Buddhas. Many practitioners have a prosperous business, and they can't help but have evil thoughts. Even if the public security authorities repeatedly warn against it, various pollutants still flow into the market in various forms.
Some of them were deliberately spread by night walkers with ulterior motives.
At this point, it was no longer a simple pollution source control issue. Fu Xingchuan returned and acted vigorously, closing the night market against all odds. The situation improved, but it was still not completely resolved.
In the cities surrounding Haigu City, the Sinking Society is also quietly moving. Recently, even the nearby towns have gradually seen chaos. After the chaos appears, "Angel Arms" will definitely follow closely, with a buy one get one free offer.
However, whether it is the subtle urban atmosphere or the entertainment self-media that makes a fuss about "Angel Arms", it is not within the scope of Zhian to intervene directly. Fu Xingchuan was busy trying to find a way to deal with the pollution source, while Li Nian repeatedly checked the investigation report of the Coral Reef Group.
When Gao Mengyu's emergency notice arrived, he had just finished reading Coral Reef Group's financial report last year.
"The Meng Huai I know will definitely not believe that I joined Shi'an. Even if there is solid evidence that I became the minister, her first reaction when she sees me will definitely be to scold me to death."
Meng Huai smiled cheerfully: "Come on, stop pretending. Brother Li, with your personality, how could you be easily affected by hallucinations?"
"…Don't excite Ms. Gao. Speak slowly."
"Gao Mengyu's cat sent a message saying that they met some of the missing persons on the other side. The rest of the missing persons may also be alive. For safety reasons, it is best to prepare emergency rescue measures at the underground exit."
How true.
"Old Li!" Fu Xingchuan kicked the door open. "I rarely see you dialing an emergency number. You—"
He turned around and the hot tea splashed out, hitting the figure behind him—
"However, considering that Gao Mengyu's cat sent 'tablecloth writing', there is a possibility that smoke bombs will be dropped when the ship sinks." Li Nian's tone was still very calm, "It is enough for us to prepare medical resources in advance."
"There is a physical evil," he said. "The possibility of hallucination cannot be ruled out."
He hung up the phone without waiting for Fu Xingchuan's response. A wave of warm dizziness came over him, and Li Nian opened the thermos cup and drank two sips of tea - the tea was as thick as medicinal soup, and so bitter that Professor Li's tongue was numb.
"I'm talking to 'Angel Arms'." Li Nian looked two steps in front of him. "Meng Huai" was still standing there and playfully greeted Fu Xingchuan.
Meng Huai was standing there.
Li Nian went to grab the man's arm, but Meng Huai dodged just as he remembered. Her clothes were still wet and dripping with tea.
Meng Huai laughed so hard that his nose wrinkled a little: "Hahaha! As expected of you, you're the minister, but you still look so dead."
She was wearing the same red shirt she had been wearing when she disappeared, and her hair was tied up in a neat high ponytail. On her scarred wrists, the man wore a thin bracelet that didn't fit in with her, and the ring on her ring finger was exactly the same as his.
A laughing voice sounded in his ears.
Li Nian clenched the thermos cup tightly, his chest heaving violently. His other hand barely grasped the phone, and his fingers kept trembling. It took him a long time to put it firmly on the table.
The real touch is human body temperature.
At this point, her voice softened, becoming a little more gentle and melancholy.
As the saying goes, you dream about what you think about during the day, but Li Nian didn't fall asleep, and the voice came out of his dream.
"Who are you talking to?" Fu Xingchuan's expression changed from anxious to confused. He looked left and right, and even sniffed. "Is there anything wrong?"
Li Nian stared with bloodshot eyes. He hesitated for a moment, stretched out his hand, and slowly placed it on Meng Huai's shoulder.
"As expected of Minister Li, he called for help right away."
"Xiao Li, stay up late all day or you won't grow taller."
Meng Huai's smile was a little distorted. She crossed her arms and calmly replied, "There is no such situation in your memory. What makes you so sure?"
His voice gradually became colder.
After ending the call, Li Nian quickly dialed Fu Xingchuan's cell phone.
"Why bother?"
The tea splashed onto her, leaving a large stain in front of her body, like blood. The scent of tea leaves floated in the office, and the tea flowed down the fabric and dripped onto the ground.
Li Nian said nothing.
Meng Huai was splashed with a cup of tea, but she was not annoyed. She stood in the corner of the office and looked over with a smile.
"All this time, I've been—"
Meng Huai put his arm on his shoulder and his voice became closer.
"Illusion." Li Nian said in a deep voice, "You are not her."
In the past three days, has he slept for eight hours in total
Li Nian pressed his temples vigorously and couldn't help looking out the window. It was early morning, and the city outside the window was shrouded in hazy shadows... His position should have belonged to Meng Huai. If that man hadn't disappeared, he might still be the director of the Emergency Management Department.
After listening for a few minutes, his expression not only did not show shock, but instead gradually became gloomy.
Meng Huai made a face at him: "You guessed it right, this is spiritual perception - it is thanks to Yin Ren's communication that I can barely project it from the other side. Anyway, whether you believe it or not, I will accompany you from now on."
"I understand. Tomorrow's arrangements will not be changed for the time being. I will accompany you to investigate the matter of Angel Arms on the spot." He said, "Fu Xingchuan will follow up on the issue you mentioned."
"That's enough." Li Nian showed a sullen look on his face and interrupted the person in front of him, "You are not her!"
"You must be something very powerful and dangerous to be able to affect me."
Fu Xingchuan's expression fluctuated several times, and finally settled on alert: "Even you..."
Meng Huai clapped his hands and laughed a few times. In an instant, its figure flashed, and its warm arms came around again, like a lover's embrace. On its ring finger, the wedding ring shone brightly.
"What a pity—" It blew into Li Nian's ear, "You shouldn't have talked to me from the beginning."
The next morning, Dr. Sun was discharged from the hospital. However, she did not go home but changed her clothes and went to work.
Officer Sun specially brought a thermos of stewed chicken soup and waited near his daughter's office early in the morning: "Hey, my daughter, Daddy specially stewed the chicken last night - you have to eat it carefully, it's still a little hot."
"Where's my mother?" Doctor Sun took the thermos with both hands.
"The bureau is busy lately, and I can find someone to take her place. She can't leave for the time being." Officer Sun's smile was a little awkward. "She said yesterday that she could rest in two days and would definitely come to the hospital to see you."
"She is thoughtful." Sun Qi'an smiled gently, "Actually, my problem is not serious. The tumor in my brain is also very stable. The boss said that as long as it is not bumped too hard, maybe I can live in harmony with it until the end of my life."
Officer Sun moved his lips and hesitated for a moment: "My dear, please don't think too much. Your mother..."
"My mother cares about me very much. She didn't come this time not because I'm not her biological child." Sun Qi'an smiled and pushed Officer Sun. "Come on, it's been so many years. I'm not a primary school student anymore."
Officer Sun laughed dryly and said, "Yeah, the darling has grown up."
After bidding farewell to her father, Sun Qi'an glanced at her phone. It was the call arranged by Shi'an. It seemed to be nine o'clock in the morning, so she still had time to finish her soup. Officer Sun also specially prepared soft cakes. If they were left for too long, the cakes would be spoiled by the steamed water.
So she found a lounge, pulled out a soft white chair, and wiped the warm tabletop that felt like human skin. The window was slightly open, and the rows of arms beside the bed swayed in the wind, casting soft shadows.
Sun Qi'an rolled up her sleeves carefully, tore open the bread, and ate it bit by bit with the chicken soup. Halfway through, she wanted to drink some water, and her hand stopped at her side. The warm water in the cup was just the right temperature.
The cup felt quite warm, though the walls were a bit thick. Fortunately, the fingernails that formed the rim of the cup were neatly trimmed and had a healthy red color.
After finishing her chicken soup, she packed up her thermos and stretched out in the sun.
It was a nice day outside, and you could see many translucent arms moving in the air, soft as jellyfish tentacles. Another peaceful day, she thought.
On the dial with blood vessels, the beautifully shaped thumb, middle finger and little finger rotated leisurely. Sun Qi'an looked up at the time, and at this moment, she suddenly felt a vague sense of strangeness.
Something is wrong.
What's wrong
Forget it, is it possible that the weather is so good? Sun Qi'an patted his aching head and felt very happy.
When the finger needle reached eight fifty, Sun Qi straightened his collar and walked out the door.
"It's a question from the safety department." She clenched her hands, "We have to take it seriously."
"Yes." Her mother—her real mother, who had long since passed away—wrapped her arms around her shoulders and whispered softly in her ear, "You have to take this seriously."
Sun Qi'an tied her hair up skillfully and walked forward with her head held high. Opposite her, Li Nian followed Gao Mengyu who lowered her head slightly, and the two met face to face.
Sun Qi'an blinked.
There was also a beautiful arm resting on Li Nian's shoulder.
Sure enough, her worries were unnecessary. The world was still functioning normally, and nothing was wrong.
“I feel pretty good actually.”
After sitting down, Sun Qi'an smiled gently and beautifully, as always.
"Well, I haven't encountered any strange things, and I haven't seen any abnormal arms... Or, why don't you go ask someone else?"
At this moment, the Ghost King was still "satisfying" the suffering in his body. If there was a video camera on the other side, Yin Ren guessed that he must be like a mint candy thrown into a carbonated drink. He was almost being tortured to death by these damn bubbles.
Q: It’s freezing cold and snowy, and knives are falling from all directions and there’s no way to hide. What should I do
Answer: Squat on the ground with your head in your hands.
After regaining consciousness, Yin Ren did not grow taller and bigger as Qi Xin had expected. Instead, he curled up tighter than a frightened clam. Unfortunately, even though he had reduced his contact with the bubbles, the pain still came endlessly.
too painful.
The old man dreams of continuous artillery fire, the stray dog dreams of waving swords; the child dreams of chasing after the parents who abandoned him, the young man dreams of hugging the body of the lover. From the big things like being displaced to the small things like the death of a loved one. The dark emotions stew into a pot of porridge, and every burst bubble is a cry of sorrow.
So happy.
Patients dream of a day of recovery, birds dream of the warm south, parents dream of their deceased children, and middle-aged people dream of adventures that are detached from reality... countless satisfactions come one after another.
It was like ice and fire, the two tortured each other alternately. Emotional bombs exploded one after another on Yin Ren's body, blowing him to pieces.
He had lived in the human world for hundreds of years, but here he was like a baby, forced to travel between young and old souls. Hundreds of billions of emotions were chaotic and intense, and he was about to be drowned and crushed by countless souls.
To withstand all this, there are solutions before - either abandon all emotions like Zhong Chengshuo did a thousand years ago, or use scientific will to protect yourself like Zhong Chengshuo did a thousand years later.
The second path, he couldn't take, but to abandon his emotions...
Indeed, not being able to understand and not caring may be the only solution to this chaos. Just like being born as a human, you don't care about the joys and sorrows of cockroaches. It's also like tender meat is rotting all over, and growing thick old cocoons, so you won't be easily provoked.
Yin Ren supported his shattered consciousness and suddenly felt a little sad.
Evil creatures, great masters, fierce demons... Fear cubs. Peeling off the layers of outer shells, he is just a mortal with flesh and blood. And his opponent is the emotional chaos that has accumulated on the other side for hundreds of millions of years.
No wonder he always felt powerless before. This time, he completely cleared the fog and realized that he was like a gnat trying to shake a tree or a mantis trying to stop a chariot. To deal with an enemy far superior to humans, he had to become something far superior to humans. How fair.
But he couldn't make up his mind.
Countless dreams passed by, very beautiful. But if Sheshi could understand their eyes, in his eyes, they might be no different from the dirty foam overflowing from the sewer. From now on, whether it was the life and death of the nine groups, or the subtle emotions on Zhong Chengshuo's face, they would all turn into dust and would no longer affect him at all.
Yin Ren didn't like that.
Should we give up? Should we go back in disgrace, leaving everything to fate, and muddle through with a sense of powerlessness
Or should he accept it all? If he kept enduring this pain, he would lose interest in life in less than a day, let alone a year.
It was terrible. When he first came to this era, he just wanted to get some fresh food and live one day at a time.
"I'm not used to thinking about this..." Yin Ren groaned bitterly in his mind.
If Zhong Cheng was here, he might be able to give some weird ideas from a metaphysical perspective. No, that's not right, that guy himself doesn't really know how to handle his emotions...
Thinking of this, Yin Ren was suddenly stunned for a moment.
When was the first time you encountered this problem
[I am only used to thinking about how “I” can get out of this unscathed… This is the first time I have tried to think about “us”.]
This is what Zhong Cheng said when he was wrapped in layers of "attachment" elements inside the corpse cage.
[Yin Ren, I will come up with a more appropriate solution.]
A more appropriate solution.
Yin Ren's curled up body relaxed slightly.
At that time, they first alleviated their out-of-control symptoms through fighting, and then resolved the "attachment". There should be something in this, he seemed to have grasped something...
Either give up your humanity, give up becoming stronger, or endure the pain until you drive yourself crazy.
Why is there no fourth way
[… Fighting is the best way to vent…] Fragments of memory kept whispering in his ears.
The elements have little empathy for humans, so there is a natural barrier. "Satisfaction" and "fear" have no brains, so naturally they can't think of this level of problem.
What would happen if he gave up resisting the emotions that were exploding in his head, the emotions he had been trying to deny, to control, to manipulate
Anyway, there is no other way out, so try everything you can. If the situation is not going well, the worst that can happen is to call Qi Xin for help!
Yin Ren held his breath mentally, then suddenly stretched out his whole body.
The old man dreamed of continuous artillery fire, the stray dog dreamed of waving swords, he squatted beside them, sobbing with them; the child dreamed of chasing after his parents who abandoned him, the young man dreamed of hugging the body of his lover, Yin Ren stood nearby, crying louder than them.
When a patient dreams of a day of recovery, when a bird dreams of the warm south, he also smiles; when parents dream of their deceased children, when the middle-aged dream of a colorful adventure that is detached from reality, he records this moment of time for them.
Yin Ren no longer had his guard up. He passed through the disordered consciousnesses one by one, not hiding his fear and satisfaction. It was indeed a training, a great opportunity to train his spirit. He even began to actively face those dreams and feel the various emotions of the dream owners.
At first, it was painful.
As a powerful elemental being, a terrifying evil spirit, or a great master respected by all, he really shouldn't be affected by these messy emotions. A strong person should flatten the thorns with his bare feet and make a bloody path.
But as a mortal, Yin Ren allowed himself to be defeated, tortured, and drowned by the countless ups and downs of the world. He cried when he was sad and laughed when he was happy. Anyway, he was very thick-skinned - what was wrong with immersing himself in love, hate, sorrow, joy, separation and reunion
He insisted on enduring it.
Gradually, Yin Ren's once crazy high dam gradually collapsed, and the water flow was no longer turbid and violent, but gradually rushed through and dispersed into several clear rivers. I don't know how long it took, but the pain brought by those great joys and sorrows was no longer so unbearable.
Yin Ren covered the old man's eyes, took the child's hand, and touched the soft fur of the animals. Life is full of different forms, and all living things are just like this. I have seen a lot, understood it thoroughly, and allowed myself to express my joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness, as if it was no big deal.
Negative emotions can still flow in his heart, but he can accept satisfaction more calmly.
Thousands of illusions passed by, and finally Yin Ren found himself immersed in bubbles. They only left him with tiny, tiny pains, just like the hug with Zhong Chengshuo.
Those emotions were still pouring in, but they no longer engaged in a tug-of-war with him. Instead, they quickly passed through him and flowed away, like a gust of wind from an unknown source.
Win.
He didn't know if this counted as passing, but he knew that he had definitely grown a lot.
Yin Ren proudly stretched out his body, horizontally and vertically "satisfying" such a big one, he didn't want to stretch it as much as possible? He didn't know if Qi Xin was watching, hoping to anger her.
He kept stretching, even though he was afraid and cautious, he still had the self-righteousness of a newborn bull who was not afraid of a tiger. He felt as if he had been released from a vacuum package and could expand to the horizon.
Finally, Satisfaction seemed to realize something.
Just like any creature with indigestion, countless bubbles separated and countless vortices merged to form a hole with great suction. Before Yin Ren could react, he was brutally vomited out.
He lay on the ground in the tunnel on the other side, flapping his wings in dissatisfaction. At this moment, the wings had turned black, with dark and complex patterns swimming in them, just like Zhong Chengshuo's eyes.
Yin Ren grew an eyeball and looked at himself seriously for a while.
New, good.
Unfortunately, Ms. Qi Xin's ideas were clearly contrary to his.
Qi Xin had probably followed him throughout the entire process. Now she was floating above the wriggling Yin Ren on the ground, with her face longer than the arm of "Love".
Before Yin Ren could speak, Qi Xin slowly landed and held up two wings with both hands, her movements as simple as a customer buying cabbage at the market. She looked at the soft wings fluttering on the ground, her eyes emitting extreme disbelief - normally, this big Yuanwu rarely had such intense emotions.
She first went straight into a wave of sadness.
Yin Ren accepted it smoothly. He let the little wings nestled at the bottom layer shed tears, but his face remained expressionless. Now he was a mature being with "joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness passing through his intestines, but rationality remaining in his heart", and he would not be shaken by such tricks.
Seeing that Yin Ren did not struggle and collapse, Qi Xin quickly plucked off a small piece of wing and threw it into his mouth to chew.
Yin Ren: “?”
Why are they eating it? Do you really think they won’t fight
"No."
Qi Xin grabbed her hair with her ten fingers, and the originally neat bun was messed up.
"No, no, no! There is no smell of fear. Why is there no smell of fear?"
Qi Xin indeed witnessed the whole process.
At first, she was delighted to see Yin Ren spread out his body - this guy finally figured it out. As the saying goes, the strong prey on the weak, and if you want to protect yourself, strength is the most precious thing.
But Yin Ren's reaction gradually became a little strange.
During those long days and nights, he began to roll around in the bubbles, diving wherever he wanted. In the end, the black pool swayed in the bubbles, even revealing a sense of contentment.
The "fear" she knew was not as loud as this!
"Fear" should be quieter and colder, just like the night in the human world. Long ago, when she discovered that Yin Ren had the power to destroy the original things, Qi Xin was sure that he was the "Fear" cub she was looking for.
Even if the way it was born is a little problematic, its shape is strange, even if it has too much human nature... a cub is a cub, just train it. Anyway, no one knows what old Fear was like when he was a child, and when the cub grows up, everything will return to normal.
But now she wasn't sure.
Yin Ren's state was indeed equivalent to that of a Yuanwu. He stretched out his body, emitting an unfathomable aura, but his appearance did not resemble "fear" at all.
The fear was once pure black. It had no fluttering black wings, and no thin red veil floating gently on its wings, so beautiful that it was a little annoying. It danced gracefully, without stopping, and its wings fluttered gently.
Swish, swish.
The "original object" in front of me is undoubtedly warm.
"…Yin Ren, who on earth are you?"
(End of this chapter)