Artifact Report

Chapter 438 Fu Tai Lan - A Fulfilled Wish

As he pushed the door open for the fourth time, he lowered his gaze, watching his right foot step through the door, followed by his left.

My feet were on a pale yellow tile floor; the tiles were faintly visible with watermarks left by a mop.

Fu Tailan collapsed to the ground.

There was no sound of a door opening behind me, because there was no door behind me.

He stared blankly at his hand, which had been ripped off by Carter's teeth; the blood had stained his entire hand red and dried, like a blood-stained glove.

For the first time in his life, Fu Tailan felt no pain without even taking a single puff of cigarette.

Emotions are such weighty things, heavy and intense, that they can only arise from the bodies of flesh and blood.

He's just a wisp of smoke; he'll dissipate as soon as you close your eyes. He doesn't deserve it.

Fu Tai Lan closed her eyes and slowly slumped to the ground.

Fu Han no longer remembers.

That was... back in March of this year, right?

At that time, Fu Tailan had not yet entered the Morgan family. That day was just a hazy, desolate winter day. He sat in the school classroom, gazing at the withered branches outside the window, and the day passed.

When Fu Han came to pick him up from school, he knew that Fu Han must have something to talk to him about—it was on that day, in the car on the way home, that his father persuaded him to accept the position and contract offered by the Morgan family.

Fu Tailan sat in the back seat, the cool air of March snow seeping into the cracks of the window in gusts.

"How can I be at ease watching my child go into such dangerous places time and time again?" Fu Han said from the bottom of his heart, "When you were in the nest, I couldn't sleep well for a single day. I was in so much agony that I wished I could go in your place."

Fu Tailan remained silent for a moment; then, he gently raised his eyelids towards his father's back in the driver's seat.

is it?

Do you wish you could go in my place?
He knew perfectly well that expectations were a debt, which either had to be repaid by the outside world or by himself.

He knew it, yet he still felt a slight, tingling tremor, like a frozen hand just touching warm water.

But Fu Tailan didn't ask any more questions, as if he hadn't heard them, and just continued to discuss the contract with the Morgan family—because he knew Fu Han too well.

Language is the most skillful thing; it is itself a master of lies.

When she wanted an answer, Fu Tailan naturally wouldn't ask with her mouth.

The most truthful answer is the choice a person makes when cornered.

For a long time, Fu Tailan didn't know how to hear the truth; there was no way to enter Fu Han's territory. Even if there were, what logical reason did he have to get in? After all, Fu Tailan was the experienced one who had survived.

All that Fu Tailan had to say was a few words from Fu Han.

He would occasionally think of his father again when he was having dinner with him or when he saw his father retrieve the dry-cleaned clothes for him—sometimes he didn't know whether it was a comfort or a shackle.

But the world has been good to him, hasn't it?
In the end, I gave him what he wanted.

Step by step, the clouds and mist gradually dissipated, and Fu Tailan saw an opportunity, a path leading to the answer.

I don't need you to go for me, I just want to know one thing.

If you were forced to, would you go in yourself?
He used everything he had, meticulously planning every step of the way, and now the answer has finally been revealed to him.

After all that effort and risk, it only confirmed an ending he had vaguely guessed long ago.

There are no more shackles.

There was no more comfort.

Fu Tailan lay on the ground, pressing her arms to cover her eyes, ignoring the sounds coming from the dim corner beside her.

The last time he was injured in the apartment, he was lying on the ground like this. Back then, his nest dissociation symptoms were much more severe than they are now, and a man named Fudan was sitting next to him the whole time.

Later, at some point, Fu Han's dough doll was replaced by the real Fu Han. Fu Han called an ambulance for him, and while waiting for the ambulance, he stayed by his side, whispering words of comfort, telling him that everything would be alright.

Fu Tailan suddenly let out a sob.

Anything is fine, any illusion is fine, Fu Hantuan, Xiaoyan, Vulture, anyone is fine, just can someone sit down next to him again and comfort him that everything will be alright—Fu Tailan suddenly became afraid. He was afraid that he would never be able to open his eyes again, he was afraid that he would continue to sink in this pain, sinking deeper and deeper, and no matter how much he struggled, he would never be able to swim to the surface.

Can a person be numb at the same time as suffering?

He felt as if he were being gripped in a giant hand. Fu Tailan didn't want to cry at all, but every time that giant hand tightened its grip on his body, a painful cry would be squeezed out from within him.

Crying became a mechanical action; he gasped for breath, his throat agape, his body curled up, kicking his legs in a daze—he had always been precocious, already seventeen years old, yet now he resembled an angry infant.

Anyone is fine, please, even hallucinations from dissociative identity disorder are fine, even dough from Fuhan is fine—

“You’re already in the nest, how could you possibly still have symptoms of nest dissociation?”

Even though Fu Tailan was in this state, his instincts as a hunter, honed over many years, remained. He quickly rolled in another direction, flipped over and jumped up, but forgot that he had just lost blood. Suddenly, everything went black, and he lost his footing, crashing into a long dining chair.

"What's wrong with humans? Why do they always play the 'Lord Ye who loved dragons but was terrified of them' kind of thing?"

Fu Tailan lifted his swollen eyelids and, through a blur of tears and dim light, could barely make out that a figure had appeared where he had been lying.

In the empty, unlit restaurant, only the faint light from the streetlamp filtering through the shop window illuminated a mere outline of the resident. "Weren't you just thinking that anyone would do, as long as there was someone nearby?"

It knelt on the ground, tilting its head towards Fu Tai Lan, one hand on its ear as if listening to something. "Your desire was so strong, so loud just now. I was just passing by, but I couldn't help but be drawn in. Ta-Da, you have someone with you now. Are you happy?"

“You,” Fu Tailan began, but then realized his voice was hoarse and unpleasant. He cleared his throat and asked, “Can you know what humans are thinking?”

The resident put down his hand and slowly nodded.

“As long as the thought reaches a certain intensity, I can hear it. You see, you can not only have emotions, but they are so strong that I can hear them.”

Fu Tailan looked at it, then, supporting herself on the back of the dining chair, slid in little by little and sat down.

He had nowhere to go at this point, and it seemed there was no point in struggling to survive anymore; besides, he didn't even have the strength.

Fu Tailan looked at the resident in the dim light and said, "...Thank you."

There is indeed another person by my side now—a resident is also an option.

"You're a really good child, very polite."

The resident paused for several seconds after saying this.

It sighed. "My resident instincts made me want to add, 'Your father raised you well.' But I held back. I know it was my resident instincts that wanted to hurt you, and I'm also born knowing how to cause pain."

...That's probably why they have the ability to hear the thoughts of humans.

Even if you say you held back, didn't you just say it in a different way?

But it doesn't really matter.

Fu Tailan sat there blankly, returning to that foggy state; he even felt that the person who had just cried was not actually himself.

"So?" he asked softly.

"So you see, this is what a den is. In a den, there are illusions that make you rich, illusions that make you young, illusions that can eliminate your enemies... but you can never find an illusion that can truly make you forget your pain without bringing about devastating consequences."

At this point, the resident shrugged and said, "That would go against the nature of the nest."

"What do you want to say?" Fu Tailan asked, but he already understood.

This resident's ability to listen to people's hearts was truly remarkable. He himself was unaware of it; it wasn't until the resident spoke of illusions that Fu Tailan realized he could no longer bear it.

He wanted to forget, he wanted to stop feeling pain.

He wanted to cut away the thing that had just been churning from his body, something that made him cry out, and never let it have a chance to come near him again—just as he had cut off and abandoned Fu Han.

To achieve this, one would do anything; just as a person on the verge of suffocation is willing to pay any price.

"The nest is now gradually entering the world, and we all have very complicated feelings. On the one hand, we are quite happy, for reasons I don't need to explain; but on the other hand, we are also more worried."

The residents rubbed the hems of their clothes with their hands, like clumsy actors, to express their worry.

“In the past, those who won the game could only rule the nest. Now, those who win can rule the nest and the world. Doesn’t that give you players even greater motivation? Oh, you’re not a player anymore.”

It paused for a few seconds, then said, "Oh dear, I'm sorry. I couldn't help myself just now."

Fu Tailan leaned her head back in her chair and smiled silently.

“I don’t care,” he said softly. “I don’t care anymore.”

The resident smiled. "That won't do, you still have to care."

Fu Tailan looked at it without saying a word.

“Because this is the only way you can avoid pain,” the resident said softly. “From half an hour ago, you became the most suitable candidate.”

Fu Tailan asked numbly, "Why?"

“For the past half hour, you have had no attachments in this world. This world has lost its meaning, and the nest is your only home. If there has to be a winner, we certainly hope it is you.”

Fu Tailan was unable to respond with anything other than a smile; though he couldn't even utter a laugh.

“Let’s go,” the resident suddenly stood up. Its body was normal, maintaining the structure of a human female; from the neck down, it was practically a normal woman.

"Where?"

"Part of the lair was pulled into the sky above Blackmore City. From there, you can see the host."

The resident even bent down and dusted himself off. His hands were human hands, with smooth skin, much more normal than Fu Tailan's bloodied and mangled hands.

When it stood up straight and raised its head, it revealed a face drawn with scribbled lines.

Two black dots for eyes, a red arc for mouth—it looks like a simple line drawing on paper, but the biggest difference is that there's no paper under the scribbled lines. Through its "face," you can see the restaurant tables and chairs behind it.

"You don't have a single objective illusion, do you? I'll take you to see the most powerful illusion in this Nest Domination game."

It paused, then changed its words.

“The second most powerful illusion,” it laughed, “is because the most powerful one has not yet been born.”

(End of this chapter)