Artifact Report

Chapter 401 Fu Tai Lan Hazelnut

Looking back now, my seventeenth year was a complete nightmare.

Hey, that sounds so old-fashioned, like he's really old now—actually, he was only seventeen two years ago.

However, when Fu Tailan recalls his short life, he sometimes finds it hard to believe that after experiencing so many nightmares, life and death, betrayals and reconciliations, he is only nineteen years old.

...It's as if his life can only truly begin after he has endured torment that others could never bear in a lifetime.

Although Fu Tailan sometimes felt a sense of bewilderment: had his life truly begun?
It was almost as if... almost as if someone was lying to him.

After 2026, he will give up hunting.

Fu Han was saved from the brink of death, and there was no way to force him to continue entering the lair; it's hard to imagine that he would have words he was too embarrassed to say again.

Because of the aftermath of the murder case, he dared not continue living in Blackmore City and simply moved to an island that was known as a vacation paradise. He said that he would manage Fu Tai Lan's property in the future, invest it well, and multiply his son's money several times over.

Fu Tailan was able to log into that bank account at first, but for the past two months, it has been showing that his password is incorrect.

Fu Tailan didn't even ask.

He never harbored the naive fantasy that "things might not turn out this way," so he was not surprised at all. He still had a small amount of savings that he kept separately, enough to live on.

Knowing that Fu Han exists in a faraway corner of the world, has money, and no one wants to kill him—this in itself is like a dream.

He was afraid that if he contacted his father a few more times, he would bring Fu Han back into his life—no, Fu Tai Lan didn't even dare to think about it; he was afraid that even thinking too much would cause Fu Han to reappear.

This doesn't mean that Fu Tailan is doing very well now.

It's not that it's bad, though.

Every day when he opens his eyes, he lies in bed and stares blankly for a while.

Every day, it doesn't matter where he goes, what he doesn't go, what he does, or what he eats. It has no impact whatsoever.

No one in the world will look at their watch, call him, and scold him for being late; no one will remind him that he has a promise to keep... and no one will think about taking revenge on him or thanking him for his small favor.

There is so much time in a day.

How he chooses to live is none of the world's business.

Fu Tailan thought that after he stopped being a hunter, a kind of strange, ordinary, and interesting daily life would unfold before him—but he didn't expect to see the desolation and emptiness of his small apartment every day after he sat up in bed.

No need to make money anymore, no need to enter the lair, no need to numb my senses with cigarettes...

He was bewildered and at a loss.

Fu Tailan stood up from the bedside and took off her pajamas.

He originally wanted to change into a T-shirt, but suddenly realized that he had nowhere to go and changing clothes was pointless.

He wandered shirtless to the television; twenty minutes later, he realized the television was still off.

Fu Tailan closed her eyes and listened quietly to her own breathing and heartbeat for a while.

To say that his life is now completely disconnected from the world is not entirely accurate—every two or three days, his doorbell rings long like it does now.

"Hello, this is HelloFresh—"

The first time I chose the grocery delivery service, when I opened the door, a girl who looked like she was working part-time greeted me in a formulaic way. She didn't even look up, put down the grocery box, adjusted her hat, said "Please leave a good review," and then disappeared.

Fu Tailan tried cooking once; cooking is not difficult. As long as a person with normal intelligence follows the recipe, the final result will always be similar.

But what's amazing is that an hour just disappears when I'm cooking a meal.

Encouraged by this, he decided to cook once a day from now on—thus, the 24 hours were reduced a little more, and the blank space was reduced a little more.

That might sound a bit narcissistic, but after using the grocery delivery service four times in a row, Fu Tailan began to wonder when the girl delivering the groceries would finally get a clear look at his face.

The answer is, I couldn't see it clearly even after sending it twenty-nine times.

Is it that she's not interested in his type? Doesn't she like younger men? Is she not interested in men at all? Is she too tired from being a delivery driver to pay attention to customers?
It's not like I have to do anything... but that hat is really in the way. Can't I take it off? If I didn't have that hat, I probably would have seen it already.

Even just once, Fu Tailan wanted to be truly seen by someone she met so frequently.

"Hello, is this Hello—"

The girl was about to hand over the cardboard box containing the vegetables when she suddenly paused.

Only then did Fu Tailan realize that he had forgotten to put on his shirt. Ah, could this be—

"Fresh. Please leave a positive review."

...Is it really not a robot?
Just as she turned to leave, Fu Tailan finally called out to her, "Wait."

She turned around and glanced at his upper body first, her expression seemingly wary—warned about what? He wasn't carrying any weapons—Fu Tai Lan, holding the vegetable box, felt she was being foolish, because this whole thing was pointless at the moment.

He stammered, "Where...where do I leave a good review?"

That was the first time he and Hazelnut made eye contact.

Even if Fu Tailan thought about it a hundred times, he wouldn't dare say that someone was staring at him in a daze.

If we don't call her, she might stay there indefinitely.

It's true that he's good-looking, but... he's not as beautiful as a hypnotic pendulum, is he?

A dozen seconds later, Hazel, who had finally come to her senses, took the phone and professionally demonstrated to him how to use the app and where to leave a positive review—as if Fu Tai Lan couldn't have discovered it on her own—and incidentally left herself a long list of positive reviews.

“Forget about the tip,” Hazelnut said.

Fu Tailan was feigning ignorance, not genuinely naive. Upon hearing this, he immediately opened the order form, preparing to give a tip. "No," Hazel suddenly covered his phone screen, saying, "I'm serious, really, forget it. It's okay, no need to give anything. I just wanted to ask you something..."

"What?" Fu Tailan was a little surprised by how things had turned out.

"Um, you should have social media accounts, right?"

When she asked that question, it was hard to find the right words to describe her expression; it was very strange.

All Fu Tailan could say was that after he gave her his Instagram account, her face clearly showed disappointment.

"Can't you?"

It felt like answering a test on questions I didn't know the answers to.

"Ah, no, it's not impossible..." Hazel looked at his account, her disappointment turning into utter frustration. "No link? You didn't post anything... It's nothing, I didn't mean anything by it. See you next time!"

After that, Hazelnut brought him vegetables several more times; gradually, they started chatting more.

Fu Tai Lan's own life was unremarkable, so he would always ask Zhen Zi about her life, whether her studies were difficult, and what happened to that annoying roommate from last time... As the two became familiar with each other, Fu Tai Lan felt embarrassed to just wait at home, so he would always open the door in advance and go to the elevator to meet her.

"Would you like to come in and have a drink of water?" One day, the weather was unusually hot, and noticing the sweat on Hazel's forehead, he asked, "I've made a lot of cold drinks..."

A look of wariness flashed across Hazel's face again—what exactly was she always wary of? Fu Tailan really didn't understand—but after thinking about it, she suddenly became enthusiastic again and stepped into the room.

Holding a glass of iced drink, Hazel stood next to the kitchen counter of the small apartment, able to take in the entire apartment that no outsider had ever seen before.

For some reason, she hesitated a little.

"Um... actually, I don't use Instagram that much..." She buried her face in the cup, her voice muffled. "Don't you use other apps?"

Fu Tailan sensed that she was implying something else. "For example?"

"Well... among my classmates, several... have opened Only...Onlyfans."

This is a term that means nothing to him. Is it a new social media platform?

"Are you up there?" Fu Tailan asked.

"No, no, no, I wasn't there, I didn't!" Hazel seemed startled. "If I had opened it, would I still be delivering vegetables? — I mean, if you had opened it, I would never criticize you — on the contrary, I would completely understand —"

She paused, watching as Fu Tailan lowered her head and opened Google.

A few seconds later, when Fu Tailan finally finished searching and figured out what Onlyfans was, she looked up at Hazel, whose face was a mess: "Um... I, I thought you would definitely... After all, that, ah... well, never mind, to be honest, it's me who wants to see it."

Even Fu Tailan didn't know what words to use to describe her—who would say such a thing to someone's face? Wouldn't that be considered harassment?

Does she lack even more social common sense than I do?

When he came to his senses, he found himself laughing; not only laughing, but also exchanging words with the furious Hazel, engaging in a lively back-and-forth conversation—and as he laughed, Fu Tailan even became somewhat dazed.

This scene... is it a dream?
He wiped away his tears, smiled, and asked, "Shall I open one for you?"

"No need... okay."

They agreed way too quickly.

“The cup is empty,” Fu Tailan reminded her.

For the past half day, Hazel hadn't dared to look at him, holding the glass in both hands and using both her hands and the glass to cover her face; although she said she wanted to see Fu Tai Lan's Onlyfans, her eyes were only on the ice cubes at the bottom of the glass. Seeing that she had even chewed up the ice cubes, Fu Tai Lan had no choice but to say, "Put the glass back, don't chew my glass."

Hazelnut's head was clearly already overheated; he shouldn't have said "put it back."

Following the instructions, Hazel turned around blankly and opened the refrigerator—after all, the cold drinks did come from there, so putting them back there seemed to make sense—and she put the empty glass she had just finished drinking back into the refrigerator.

Hazelnut couldn't close the refrigerator door.

When Fu Tailan's heart suddenly clenched, she jumped up from the sofa and rushed into the small kitchen, only to find it already empty.

The refrigerator door was half-open, and a soft, white light shimmered gently; a glass sat steadily inside.

The vegetables she delivered had just been stuffed into Fu Tai Lan's house.

...If I were to touch the refrigerator door handle now, I wonder if I could still feel her body temperature.

He stood there for a few seconds, then turned and walked back to the bedroom, pulling a large cardboard box from under the bed. All his actions were so natural, as if this was the only reason he had been waiting for so long.

Fu Tailan took a semi-automatic machine gun out of the cardboard box, walked to the bedroom door, and grasped the doorknob.

Open, close. Open, close. Open—

Fu Tai Lan stopped on the third opening and closing.

Hazelnut has fallen into the nest; she's bound to be in danger.

He doesn't need to save Hazelnut.

Fu Tailan lowered her head and gently touched her face; it was wet and cold.

That's understandable... because it's raining.

Hazelnut will be in danger, but he doesn't need to save her.

...because hazelnuts do not exist.

"Get out here,"

Fu Tailan heard her own voice, hoarse and indistinct, as if she were still half-asleep. "What are you? Drop the illusion and get out here."

(End of this chapter)