Artifact Report

Chapter 273: Chai Si: Saving and Being Saving
Chai Si couldn't remember his own aesthetic preferences in women, nor could he remember what people generally considered to be beautiful.

But he thought that the person squatting in the darkness nearby would not be called "good-looking" by anyone.

He had to recall it over and over again, constantly suppressing this thought to prevent it from escaping from his body - Su Beihua had just said when talking about Han Liuyue, "She was such a beautiful person."

Chai Si couldn't help but glance at the old woman squatting in the dark.

The person Suo Beihua described must be another person.

Chai Si thought to himself that he must remember this point and the conclusion that followed: the person next to him did not seem to be Han Liuyue.

...And, is that person really next to me?

The woman named Mai Minghe said that the place where she was seemed to be a black abyss separating the nest and the human world.

Chai Si still remembered that "Han Liuyue" knew the nest very well and had been leading the way for him in front, but no matter how he walked, he could not get close to the other party.

Is it because "Han Liuyue" is not actually in the Black Abyss Belt?
He followed the real Han Liuyue into the Black Abyss. If the old woman squatting on the ground was not actually in the Black Abyss, then the other person must not be Han Liuyue.

Chai Si now had a guess as to why he could see and talk to her even though the other party was not in the Black Abyss Belt.

When he first came in, he seemed very close to the world.

He had seen the Kai family mansion from the Black Abyss Belt, and had even reached out his hand, touched Mai Minghe's shoulder, and thrown out a vase... He also remembered that a man in a restaurant seemed to have seen him and was so scared that he knocked over the cutlery.

Chai Si had indeed come a long way, and he had not seen the human world for a long time.

He seemed closer to the nest now.

"Han Liuyue" should be in the nest.

Chai Si repeatedly reminded himself that the person squatting in the dark and screaming angrily was not "Han Liuyue" - he should be a resident.

It was in the nest and couldn't get in, so it couldn't get through either.

Chai Si's thoughts drifted randomly, like ashes being swept outward by waves of black ocean; but he still tried to gather his mind with his hands - sometimes, he had to repeat a thought several times before he could move on to the next one.

Thinking and analyzing, which used to be as natural as breathing to him, now seemed like walking in a quagmire and quicksand, and the next step was like carrying a heavy load.

What's more, Chai Si had to repeat these memories and thoughts over and over again in order to tie them tightly to himself and prevent them from dispersing and drifting away - this is what happens when people get distracted while reading. They have to read the previous sentence ten times before they can read the next one.

Yes... yes, that resident had seen him for some reason and arranged a "path" for Chai Si, telling him that as long as he followed that "path", he could eliminate Mai Minghe, the biggest threat to the Kai family...

Han Liuyue said that they could change the opponent's transformation into a wooden door mirror, and also increase the difficulty of the trap, giving Chai Si a chance. Not long after, a tiny hole, like a needle prick, suddenly appeared in the endless, incomprehensible darkness, letting in a drop of hazy color.

Chai Si remembered that he strode towards it, the colors became brighter and brighter, jumping and expanding in the light, his breathing flickered, and gradually dispelled the darkness before his eyes; for a moment, he even forgot the real reason why he ran towards it.

A soul may be born like this, thinking that it is running towards hope and that darkness will always be left behind.

Mai Minghe reacted quickly.

She escaped from that area of ​​colors and light and shadow, her figure becoming smaller and smaller until she completely disappeared from the range of light and shadow. But what Chai Si didn't expect was that after a while, not only did Mai Minghe come back again, she also brought someone who looked very familiar to her.

It’s a hunter from the Kai family, there’s no doubt about it.

Su...Su Beihua?

"You recognized it, didn't you?" Mai Minghe's voice rang out from the darkness. "Don't do anything yet... Just listen to me."

While she was talking to Suo Beihua, "Han Liuyue" howled shrilly, as if trying to drown her out with her howling—"What a great opportunity! What are you standing there for? Hurry up, rush out from her face. If you rush out, her head will shatter, and you can enter the nest too. Isn't this what you've always longed for?"

Why is it so obsessed with killing the people who acted with the Kai family hunters?
Mai Minghe said that she might become his signpost, leading him out of the "Black Abyss Belt"... Suo Beihua seemed willing to believe her temporarily.

"...If we keep standing in this stairwell and can't get out, no one can save us..."

On that small, foggy screen, the two seemed to be still trapped in the same stairwell, imprisoned in the solid gray of cement.

He had to get Suo Beihua and Mai Minghe away from that place.

"If you won't do anything, there's no point in keeping this broken mirror," the resident muttered, turning his back, not knowing what he was doing. "We need to change the shape of the Mai Ming River... change it..."

He wanted to sound the alarm; this was an opportunity.

But Mai Minghe seems unable to see his lip movements clearly, what should he do?
"...Huh? Eh? What did you do?"

Chai Si was startled and found himself in a trance for a while again.

The resident was howling repeatedly, "What have you done? You're a pile of future debris whose brain, personality, body, and ego are about to melt away. What on earth have you done to harm me? What did you show her?"

It suddenly stopped mid-speech.

It lowered its head, slid its hand from its eyes, covered its mouth, and aimed its eyeballs at Chase's hand.

"You...your body should be almost melted," it seemed to have encountered a problem that it couldn't figure out, and muttered: "What's going on? Where did your hands come from? Where did the cell phone come from?" Chai Si lowered his head, but all he could see was darkness.

He had long lost the ability to see his own body and his own hands, let alone external possessions like a cell phone?
In the abyss, the first things to dissipate and drift away seemed to be flesh and blood; when the outer shell of matter was almost scattered, his memories and mind came next.

"Shirt, belt, ring, watch and a silver chain..."

"What?" asked the old woman.

"And the cell phone." Chai Si said in a low voice.

It was very difficult for him to recall what he had on him when he came in.

It was with the help of Suo Beihua's description that Chai Si remembered the scene when he entered the human-shaped black hole; on this basis, his repeated thinking seemed to become a kind of call, and finally he slowly summoned back the lost memories.

"At first, I was using my cell phone to light up..." Chai Si muttered.

As long as you keep thinking about it, you can summon back the lost thoughts and memories.

If he keeps thinking about an object, can he summon the object itself back?

He recalled his own hands, hands that seemed too large for everyday objects; the length of his fingers, the width of his knuckles, the white scars on the backs of his hands. He used his mind to call out to the darkness again and again, calling out for his own flesh and blood and... his cell phone.

Chai Si didn't even know whether he had summoned his hands and cell phone back.

He just imagined it over and over again: he raised his phone, typed on the screen, and showed it to Mai Minghe.

But that seemed so long ago.

He didn't know whether Mai Minghe had seen the hint; that little piece of color and light had long since disappeared, and he was thrown back into the layers of tangled and rolling darkness. When he came to his senses, he found that even the old woman was nowhere to be found.

…It seemed that they saw that Chai Si was useless, so they abandoned him alone.

He stood alone in the darkness again.

No, it is not right to say that he is alone, because there is only one thing that will never disappear even in the Black Abyss, and that is the guilt that has accompanied him throughout his life.

What to do now?

After repeating, reciting and recalling again, Chai Si grasped his remaining flesh and blood and mind, standing blankly in the darkness.

Now that everything seems to be back to normal, let's move on.

"...Han Liuyue?" he shouted, "Where are you?"

This shout, somehow, suddenly brought back a fragment of memory for him; he thought about it and found that it seemed to be Mai Minghe's voice, and he didn't know when she had said it.

"Fate is so unpredictable."

All he could recall was Mai Minghe's voice, like a dream drifting in the darkness while half asleep. "...If Han Liuyue had..."

What happened to Han Liuyue?
"If Han Liuyue hadn't decided to take the risk, she wouldn't have entered the Black Abyss. If she hadn't entered the Black Abyss, Chai Si wouldn't have followed her in..."

Mai Minghe sighed to someone and said, "Chai Si followed me in and became my 'landmark'. Otherwise, I might have been trapped in the stairwell forever..."

Han Liuyue's decision indirectly saved my life, and Mai Minghe's voice continued. So I also wanted to save her and Chae Si.

Chai Si stood still in the darkness.

Was this his imagination, or did it really happen?
He came to save people, but it seemed that only now did he suddenly realize that he had become the one who needed to be saved.

He received help, but he never seemed to find salvation.

Chai Si wondered at a loss, how could he be saved? Was there any chance of him being saved?

Where will salvation come from?

He repeated this long memory over and over in his mind, lost in thought as to how much time had passed. Then a voice slowly emerged from the darkness. The voice was carried on the dark waves, drifting far away and vague. For a moment, Chai Si could not find where it came from.

It’s just... very familiar, so familiar that it makes him want to cry.

He followed the sound and took another step.

“…I myself never imagined that a chance trip to Los Angeles would lead to me having the son I am most proud of in my life.

"The year I met you, you were only five years old, crying in the middle of the night."

It’s Uncle Kai.

(End of this chapter)