Strange game designer.

Chapter 835 Moriki and the Others

The night sky became the backdrop for the forest, the moonlight fell into the embrace of the trees, and starlight dotted the gaps in the branches. There was no fragrance of grass and trees, but it was peaceful and serene.

Dr. Gao parted the strands of black hair that were hanging down, and he couldn't quite tell whether the light in the distance was fireflies or open eyes.

"I always feel like someone is watching me."

"Spying on a horse?"

After going several dozen meters deeper, Dr. Gao discovered that all the "trees" were leaning in one direction, as if something was attracting them.

"Doctor, you need to close your eyes and feel with your heart." Old Ma used his hands and feet, his head peeking out from the tree branch next to Dr. Gao: "I think I heard the call too."

Muttering to himself, Old Ma really closed his eyes. He climbed over trees, through tangled limbs, soft black hair, and pushed aside the crowded heads, leading Dr. Gao to a small open space.

Moonlight spilled down, and a woman, indescribable in words, stood in the center of the forest, her pale arms outstretched, her fingertips growing with all her might, the lines of her skin blending with the moonlight.

She seemed to never age, her beauty beyond imagination. Her heart was connected to the roots of all the trees, and her eyes reflected the entire galaxy. She was the most special tree in this forest.

I don't know how many years she has existed, nor when she turned into a tree. She is full of vitality, forever beautiful, and forever growing.

Old Ma bent his arms and lay on the ground. Dr. Gao did not dare to make any rash moves. After seeing that extremely beautiful "tree", his heart felt like it was going to burst. It hurt so much, as if a baby was about to be born from his heart and he was about to be replaced by something.

"Mom..." Old Ma's legs seemed to grow roots as he crawled toward the open space, his head bathed in the moonlight.

"Old Ma!" Dr. Gao grabbed the old horse's reins, his free hand clutching his heart: "Don't go any further!"

"I saw my mother..." Old Ma's thoughts became confused as he couldn't distinguish between the tree rings and fingerprints. He spoke slower and slower, as if he wanted to fall asleep in the forest.

"You are a free spirit, you should gallop across the wilderness!" Despite the excruciating pain, Dr. Gao pulled a bottle of medicine from his pocket, swallowed a few pills himself, and then stuffed a handful into the old horse's mouth.

After swallowing the pill, Old Ma broke out in a cold sweat. Just as he was about to look up, Dr. Gao covered his eyes: "Step back, leave immediately!"

Without looking, without listening, without thinking, Dr. Gao forced Old Ma to turn around. After they were far away from that open space, the woman in the center of the moonlight twitched her eyelids slightly, and slowly opened her tightly closed eyes, seeing the backs of Dr. Gao and Old Ma.

The man and the horse ran for over a hundred meters before the old horse fully recovered.

"What just happened? My hooves felt like they were rooted to the ground, and my internal organs sprouted branches and leaves. This should have been terrifying, but I felt very comfortable. It was as if I was my true self at that moment, and that was true freedom."

"Hallucination! A highly contagious syndrome has appeared in the forest. That special tree has broken through all restrictions and is evolving into a disaster!" Dr. Gao gasped for breath. After getting away from the special tree, his heart finally stopped hurting so much: "We must report this to the relevant departments as soon as possible, otherwise the forest will engulf the city."

"Now I understand why those people who went into the forest out of curiosity never came out again; they all turned into trees." Old Ma only realized how dangerous it had been after hearing Dr. Gao's explanation. "Wait a minute, Dr. Gao, how did you stay conscious? Didn't you also see that tree in the moonlight?"

Clutching his chest, Dr. Gao didn't mention that he had a heart problem, only that he had taken his medication beforehand.

Not daring to approach the heart of the forest, Dr. Gao and Old Ma lingered on the outskirts until late at night before finally finding Dr. Gao's mother in a corner. She was crouching against a wall on the forest's edge, her headscarf missing, replaced by a brightly colored supermarket advertisement leaflet, quietly gazing at the moon through the gaps in the tree branches.

"Mom, please don't go out again, it's not safe in the forest." Dr. Gao carried his mother on his back. His mother didn't resist and didn't move. When he was about to leave, the sharp-eyed Old Ma noticed something in the place where his mother had just been.

"Doctor, look what this is!"

The silver-white metal vessel emitted a faint medicinal fragrance, and upon opening it, one could see the unused medicinal liquid inside.

"It seems to be some kind of inducement device. Was my mother tricked into coming here?" Dr. Gao put away the metal container and carried his mother back to the neighborhood where she was strangled.

The trees behind them were still growing under the moonlight, but Dr. Gao and Old Ma dared not look back anymore.

When they arrived home, Dr. Gao didn't say much this time. He simply led Lao Ma into the living room. Compared to his own family, Lao Ma seemed to be more reliable.

"Nephew, you're finally back! Our house has been burgled!" The uncle saw Dr. Gao and ran out of the bathroom with a kitchen knife in his hand.

After placing his mother on the sofa and covering her with a light blanket, Dr. Gao frowned and stared at his uncle: "With you at home, how could a thief possibly get in?"

Although my younger uncle is very unreliable, my older uncle is truly capable of killing people.

"I argued with your two other uncles until midnight, and finally decided to go find your maternal grandfather first..."

"did you find it?"

“No.” The uncle pointed to Grandpa’s room, where Grandpa was fast asleep on the bed and looked more normal than anyone else. “I went to several places and finally came back home. I saw your grandpa lying in the room, but your room was ransacked.”

Before his uncle could finish speaking, Dr. Gao rushed into his bedroom. The door lock was forcibly broken, books fell to the ground, and some medicines were missing. Fortunately, he had burned all the documents beforehand.

“There must have been more than one thief. It was a gang with a clear division of labor. Someone kidnapped your grandfather, and someone else took the opportunity to break into the house and steal things.” The uncle ran to Dr. Gao’s side and said, “But nothing of value was stolen. The main problem is that your house was badly damaged.”

"Who could it be?" Several names flashed through Dr. Gao's mind: "Officer Xue can see the color of souls. He might investigate me, but he shouldn't resort to such brutal methods. The police have a lot of power. If it's an investigation, I have to cooperate. Could it be Dr. Bu from the ethics supervision team? He owes his current position to my treatment. Is he worried that his past misdeeds will be discovered? Or are they my other patients, worried that I'll testify against them like I did against the gardener?"

"Why don't you ask your dad? He was home when the thief broke in." The uncle nudged Dr. Gao with his elbow.

After a moment's hesitation, Dr. Gao walked to his father's bedroom door and gently knocked: "Dad, a thief broke into the house. Are you alright?"

After a while, the sound of a wine bottle being knocked over was heard inside the room, but no wine spilled.

The door was opened a crack, and an arm covered in bloody tattoos threw an empty wine bottle out, which landed in the empty wooden frame.

There were no wounds on that arm, but the long, slender fingers were covered in blood.

(End of this chapter)