Mutated Tao

Li Huowang lowered his head and looked at his own shadow without knowing what to do after everything that had happened to Shangjing.

Ji Zai’s existence depended entirely on Li Huowang. His presence was unstable, and he would disappear every time Li Huowang thought that he wasn’t real.

Ji Zai controlled bewilderment, or perhaps it would be more accurate that he himself was an embodiment of bewilderment. He would appear and disappear from time to time. His existence all depended on the whims of a single person.

No wonder he kept telling me to carry on and not think about anything else.

“Are my thoughts right?” Li Huowang shouted to his shadow.

This time, Ji Zai did not answer him. His shadow remained as a shadow.

Li Huowang thought Ji Zai was off doing something else again, but this time he knew why. As Li Huowang was about to leave, he saw Shangguan Yuting floating out from the walls.

It was one of Xuan Pin’s illusions. The ruckus caused by Li Huowang had compelled her to come over and check what was happening.

Li Huowang looked at her and said, “I now know what you were talking about. You were actually trying to ensure that his existence wouldn’t get erased by me. No wonder you called him Unspeakable.”

“You were right. He really is Unspeakable.”

Li Huowang left after that.

He walked past the corpse-littered street and found a well. Looking down the well, he saw two corpses beside his reflection. He also saw half of the moon peeking out from the clouds through the reflection.

Li Huowang stared at his reflection before he closed his eyes and murmured a chant.

Everything around him twisted and changed. Stones became soft, strings became oil, even the grass beside his feet uprooted and ran away.

After chanting, Li Huowang opened his eyes and saw that the grass had grown on a brick somewhere else.

Li Huowang asked, “Are you the only Siming that’s so fragile, or are the others the same?”

“I don’t know. Maybe. Sometimes I remember certain things, but I cannot tell you about them. You just need to remember what I told you last time. I am you, and you are me. Without you, there is no me. Now tell me, who am I?”

“You are Ji Zai,” Li Huowang answered coldly.

Ji Zai replied, “How did I come into existence?”

“I don’t know how you came into existence, but I only know you are useless! You can’t be relied on when the situation calls for it! I would rather rely on myself! I won’t look for you anymore, and I will figure everything out myself!”

“Good. Carry on. You will protect yourself well, and you will always have help.”

Li Huowang glared at Ji Zai and turned to leave. Suddenly, Li Huowang felt something was staring at him.

He looked up into the night sky and extended his hand. He held onto the corner of the starry night and pulled it aside to reveal the scenery outside the window.

A short old lady with white hair and a ribbon on her sleeve was staring at him from the corner outside of his house. She tried to peek into Li Huowang’s room.

“What are you staring at?”

“Mom, there’s someone staring at our home,” Li Huowang said indignantly.

Sun Xiaoqin walked over and pulled on the dark blue curtain adorned with little stars. The room instantly lit up.

“Oh, it’s Madam Qi. She’s the president of the Neighborhood Office. She even held you when you were a baby.”

“Why is she staring at our house? Does she have nothing to do?”

Li Huowang’s tone was filled with a hint of hostility because Madam Qi kept staring at him.

He had always felt that someone had been staring at him for the past few days.

To think it was her.

“Oh, it’s probably nothing. I think the hospital informed her about your discharge. Look at how many people worried about you!”

“Is she really? I fear that she actually thinks I’m a crazy serial murderer.”

Li Huowang grabbed the curtains and pulled them shut.

He’d thought he would be free once he was discharged, but that was not the case. Everyone in the neighborhood avoided him like the plague, regardless of whether they were his neighbors or acquaintances.

There was also surveillance coming from Madam Qi. Even though Li Huowang was discharged, the others didn’t trust him and looked at him with apprehensiveness. Being in the neighborhood was worse than being in the mental hospital.

Li Huowang turned on his table lamp and started studying. He needed to learn fast because being accepted to Yang Na’s university would be extremely difficult. After going through so many harrowing experiences, he had forgotten almost everything in the book.

But Sun Xiaoqin was horrified when she saw that Li Huowang was studying. She immediately grabbed the book out of his hands.

She asked, “Why are you studying? I thought you were having a good time playing games?”

“Mom, since I’m cured, I need to continue studying so that I can enter university.”

Li Huowang tried to take the book back but Sun Xiaoqin stepped out of his reach with the book in her clutches. “No, you cannot have any stress right now. Going into university is the least of your worries.”

“Mom, but I’ve been held back for two years in my final year of high school. What should I be worried about other than getting into university?”

“You don’t need to do anything. You just need to play and enjoy yourself. Here, this is some pocket money for you.” Sun Xiaoqin stuffed several hundred yuan into Li Huowang’s pocket. “Play as much as you want. Buy whatever you want. Eat whatever you want! You still have some friends in school, right? Ask them to come and play with you! Go and eat barbecue, or visit the anime street, or maybe even stay overnight in a cyber cafe!”

Sun Xiaoqin stopped momentarily and then said, “If you do want to stay overnight in a cyber cafe, you need to let me know which one it is so that I can bring your medicine over.”

She had researched a lot for Li Huowang’s recovery. She learned that most teenagers suffered from mental illnesses due to how strict their households were, as well as having a lot of stress from their studies.

Her son finally came back after suffering through a lot. She was adamant about making sure he didn’t get hospitalized again.

“Mom, mom. Let me think about it. I need some time alone,” Li Huowang said, pushing her out of the room.

Even while being pushed, Sun Xiaoqin scrambled and grabbed all of Li Huowang’s textbooks from his room. She didn’t even leave a pen in there.

“Remember to play. Don’t study! Do you want to buy those VR… or 3D glasses? I don’t know what they are, but I think you would like them!”

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