Arc 1: Chapter 36
When Huo Huai An sent someone to go to Huo Chen’s villa, Lin Yuan was playing games on the sofa in the living room.
Housekeeper Yuan stopped the person outside before coming back in and said solemnly: “Young master, Master Huai sent someone to relay that Mr. Huo had gone to the Huo house. And he sent people to take you over.”
If it was about any other matter, Housekeeper Yuan would directly send those people away and not tell Lin Yuan. But now Sir went back to Huo’s house, and Sir would never go back unless Elder Huo had ordered him to go or something drastic happened.
Housekeeper Yuan also tried to call Huo Chen. The call went through, but no one picked up. He was worried and decided to let the young master know and then accompany the young master to Huo’s house.
When Lin Yuan heard this he immediately jumped up from the sofa: “He went to Huo’s house? Why didn’t he tell me?”
Inside that villa was an abyss that encompassed up all of Huo Chen’s pain and scars. In the end of the plot, Huo Chen set fire to the villa and resolutely ended it all.
Housekeeper Yuan shook his head: “My phone calls to Sir weren’t answered.”
Lin Yuan was anxious to death and put on his shoes and rushed outside.
Housekeeper Yuan quickly followed. Fortunately he was always health-conscious and wasn’t left behind by Lin Yuan. He got into the car before the driver started the car and left.
Lin Yuan urged the driver to drive faster. 521 felt that he was a mess of anxiety and quickly comforted him: “Senior, don’t worry. The blackening value of the mission target hasn’t fluctuated, nothing will happen.”
The blackening value was still 20%. From the numbers, Huo Chen should be fine, but Lin Yuan was still worried. His heart was clenched by an invisible hand, and his body seemed to be crushed under some pressure. It hurt so much, and it felt empty.
Huo Chen……
⋅ ˚ ₊ ‧ ୨୧ ‧ ₊ ˚ ⋅ ˚ ₊ ‧ ୨୧ ‧ ₊ ˚ ⋅ ˚ ₊ ‧
Some memories don’t fade, instead they deepen over time.
From the moment Huo Chen entered the room, the dusty sheets suddenly disappeared and the room regressed 20 years. Everything was like how it used to be, like nothing had ever changed.
He didn’t know how he entered the room. He could’ve walked in on his two legs or crawled through with his hands and feet, he didn’t know at all. When a little bit of consciousness came back to him, he was already sitting on the ground at the edge of the bed.
His black pants and his white sweater were covered with dust. The dust was like gray fog that couldn’t disperse.
Huo Chen leaned back against the bed, his chest panted heavily, short and rapid. The dull pain made it so that it took a long time for him to faintly remember that the clothes he was wearing were what Lin Yuan bought for him. His wife looked for a long time before happily giving them to him.
No-- --
He couldn’t stain the clothes that Lin Yuan gave him. Lin Yuan was so bright and clean, how could he be covered by dust?
Can’t-- --
Absolutely cannot!!
Huo Chen raised his hand and desperately patted his pants. Fortunately, they were quickly clean.
But when he tried to brush away the layer of dust on his sweater, he found that it couldn’t be cleaned. It only got dirtier and dirtier, as if the gray dust had self-awareness and reproduced itself constantly, swallowing the soft white little by little.
Why can’t he clean it-- --
Huo Chen moved faster and fiercer. His eyes were dark and paranoid, and his handsome face only contained madness.
The gray dust spread more and more. Huo Chen’s whole body seemed to be shrouded in darkness, the darkness that had been accumulating for 20 years.
Huo Chen rubbed his clothes crazily and only one thought was left in his heart. He must clean it, he must clean it! He…… had to be clean!!
“Really dirty……”
The woman’s voice suddenly sounded behind his ear, and the sound of her breathing could be heard.
Huo Chen’s body turned cold and stiff, like a corpse or a broken body that was struggling to live. His hands stopped moving and from his fingertips to his eyes, they were all shaking violently.
It was the middle of winter, and the sun was bright and warm and soft, as if purifying the white snow. A large area of sunlight fell through the window and landed on Huo Chen’s face and in his eyes.
Huo Chen didn’t look back. He couldn’t look back and shouldn’t look back. He should look forward, look to where Lin Yuan was.
“So dirty……”
The woman’s voice sounded again, dripping with sarcasm.
Huo Chen felt that the other party was breathing straight into his ear. His Adam's apple bobbed, his throat was blocking too many things, but he couldn’t spit out a single word. He could only listen the other talk.
“Do you know what I’m talking about?” The woman laughed innocently, but in the next second, her tone took a turn and carried extreme malice and hatred: “I’m talking about you, Huo Chen……”
“You’re really dirty……”
“So dirty……”
“There’s no one else as dirty as you are, as disgusting as you are. The blood of the mother who gave birth to you runs in your body but you actually want to forget this, you want to clean the blood stains that your mother left on your body and live happily with others. How can you deserve happiness? You don’t deserve it!”
Huo Chen lowered his head and curled up uncontrollably. He tightly clasped his knees with his hands. His slender body seemed to be squeezed by something heavy, squeezing his flesh and bones such that every inch of his body was in pain.
Little by little, he went from being an adult man, to being squeezed by that woman into another body, until he finally became his child self.
The woman’s words continued to be vicious and cursing, like a knife. She wanted to cut off the flesh from Huo Chen’s thin body and leave him as an empty shell.
“Huo Chen, in your body runs your mother’s blood, dirty and full of garbage. Why do you want to clean yourself? Isn’t it good to be dirty like this? You can be dirty and someone who really loves you won’t care about this. Who are you lying to when you pretend to be clean? Are you deceiving him, or yourself……”
“Huo Chen, do you believe that when you’re clean, you can finally be happy and loved?”
“You’re mother was in so much pain, she could only use death to relieve herself. You are her son. She was in so much pain she died, how dare you be happy? You don’t have the right to be happy……”
“Huo Chen, don’t forget, you’re a madman. No one will love a madman. It’s all fake, all fake! Your love and your happiness are all fake!! Fake!!!”
The woman’s voice was sinister at the start, but ended in sadness. The woman was pestering him desperately trying to drag him into the abyss and to death together.
Huo Chen listened to her, and his eyes were sore and hot liquid slowly flowed down his face. He tried his best to recall Lin Yuan’s eyes, Lin Yuan’s smile, his arms, and the temperature of his body.
As if he lived and died and was reborn, Huo Chen clenched his own wrist and used all of his strength to say: “......You…… You aren’t her……”
The sinister voice behind him suddenly stopped, and the room became quiet and strange.
Huo Chen’s voice was still trembling: “She……died a long time ago, I…… I saw with my own eyes that she died. You aren’t her……”
“You are…..”
Huo Chen’s voice became lower and lower, and it was was mixed with the smell of blood: “You are me……”
“You are…… Huo Chen……”
Nightmares had haunted him night after night for 20 years. From the start when Huo Chen was trapped in this room, he was forced to forget to struggle and wished to die. The woman’s death and fresh blood from that day continuously drowned him, until he met Lin Yuan.
“You are me…..”
Huo Chen raised his head from his knees and turned around slowly, difficultly, but firmly. There was no woman behind him, only a scarred, thin boy.
They had the same eyes, the same lips, and the same scars. They were just a man and a boy……
At the same time, Lin Yuan arrived at Huo’s house and rushed in. He didn’t hear a word of what the elderly housekeeper said.
Huo Huai An heard movement, and he got up from the sofa and stopped Lin Yuan, who was about to run up the stairs.
“Auntie, Uncle is just cleaning up the room. He’ll be done quickly, you can just sit downstairs and wait for him.”
Lin Yuan looked at him skeptically: “He came back just to clean?”
There was no flaw in Huo Huai An’s expression: “Uncle said that he forgot something there, so he came back to clean up a bit. Uncle also said that he would go to a restaurant with Auntie in the evening, so he asked me to send someone to pick up Auntie. Wait until he’s done cleaning and then you can go straight to the restaurant.”
Lin Yuan was easily tricked and seeing that the blackening value didn’t move, he believed in Huo Huai An’s words: “I see, I know.”
After saying that, he started walking up the stairs. He hadn’t seen his husband in three hours and he wanted kisses.
Huo Huai An had thought that the foolish and simple-minded Lin Yuan would sit down and wait for Huo Chen, who knew that Lin Yuan didn’t act as expected.
“Auntie!” Huo Huai An blocked him again: “Uncle asked you to wait for him downstairs.”
Lin Yuan was puzzled: “I heard you, you don’t need to repeat it again.”
Huo Huai An: “Auntie, just wait here.”
He felt that Lin Yuan’s thought process was different from normal people, and he immediately clicked to play the horror movie.
Lin Yuan looked over at the TV that was playing, and the visuals were completely different from the crude ghost film that he watched before. The horrific atmosphere of this film was excellent.
As soon as the ghost came out, Lin Yuan was scared to tears and his whole body started shaking.
Husband!!! There’s a ghost!!!!
Lin Yuan turned into a small cannonball and directly rushed upstairs. In a blink of an eye, not even a shadow could be seen.
Huo Huai An, who was ready with his arms open: “......”
This fool, he still recognized people?