Old Domain Bizarre

Chapter 41 Rules
After walking with Song Jianguo in this strange world for a few minutes, Zhang Wenda stopped looking at the scenery around him and started looking at himself. He felt that he had become different as well.

He remembered very clearly that before he came out, he had specially worn a blue and white school uniform because he was afraid of getting cold at night, but at this moment he was wearing a black T-shirt and a jacket.

Not only his clothes, but his body had changed too. He touched his buzz cut and looked at his legs. His height and size had changed as well. He was clearly no longer a child; he was at least 18.

"It doesn't seem too bad." Zhang Wenda stroked his chin and muttered to himself as he looked around.

Thinking about this, he thought he would be happy, but Zhang Wenda found that he couldn't be happy. It seemed that he could no longer feel joy as an adult.

"Does becoming an adult mean I can no longer be happy?" Zhang Wenda continued to try, but no matter how he tried to cheer himself up, he couldn't, not even by forcing a smile.

Furthermore, when Zhang Wenda looked down, he discovered that there was a shackle on his left leg at some unknown time, the same shackles worn by those strange, fake people.

"Damn it, where did this thing come from!" He struggled violently, trying to break free of the shackles, but found that the more he struggled, the tighter the shackles became, causing him excruciating pain.

At this moment, Zhang Wenda finally understood what the rabbit meant by "I'm doing this for your own good." Growing up brought about various changes with a significant side effect.

"Meow! Meow!" Hearing the cat's meow, Zhang Wenda quickly looked up and saw a little girl holding Song Jianguo by the tail and hanging her upside down. He couldn't accept the loss of even a little bit of emotion.

Upon seeing this, Zhang Wenda was immediately alarmed and rushed over, forgetting his shackles. "Little boy, you can't grab a kitten like that!"

He carefully lifted Song Jianguo into his hands and quickly left the unruly child who was rolling on the ground crying.

He wasn't afraid of the child; he was afraid of the mother scolding the child and the father watching the show from the sidelines. Heaven knows what they really were from another perspective.

After all, someone who can lift Song Jianguo's things with one hand must be quite large.

After walking a few steps, Zhang Wenda put Song Jianguo down again and nudged her once more, saying, "Let's go. If you get out, head home. Let me know when you get there."

"Meow meow meow!" Zhang Wenda saw that the other party was not leaving and was meowing loudly at him, as if it was angry about what had just happened.

"Hurry up, don't be stubborn, I don't have time." Zhang Wenda gave the little black cat a gentle push, causing it to stumble.

After the black cat barked at Zhang Wenda again, it grinned and walked forward angrily.

Zhang Wenda glanced down at the shackles again, then followed the black cat forward. Gradually, he came to a road paved with prefabricated figures.

Looking at the neatly arranged backs, Zhang Wenda felt a little uncomfortable, but seeing Song Jianguo walk up to them, he eventually stepped on them as well.

The sensation underfoot was indistinguishable from that of a real person, causing Zhang Wenda to get goosebumps as he walked.

However, no one else seemed to feel any discomfort like Zhang Wenda, and cars sped along the road.

In the adult world, cars don't have tires; instead, they're made of large, pre-fabricated human fingers.

Fingers as thick as telephone poles took over the function of tires, gliding swiftly along the road with afterimages, dragging the trailer past at breakneck speed. However, Zhang Wenda was no longer as surprised as before; whatever happened in this world, he found it all quite normal.

"Oh right, where's my backpack? And where's my lollipop? I remember bringing them." Zhang Wenda rummaged in his pocket again and finally pulled out a leather wallet, a laser pointer about the size of a thumb, and a cigarette case with only one cigarette left.

Zhang Wenda stared blankly at the lollipop that had turned into a cigarette, as if everything had changed with age. He shook his head and quickly followed.
After walking along the pedestrian path for two minutes, Song Jianguo began to deviate from the main road and gradually entered the side path.

"Hey, watch the time. Are we out yet?" Zhang Wenda asked Song Jianguo while looking at the numbers on his mechanical watch.

Song Jianguo did not answer, but kept jumping forward with the fluffy black cat's head buried in his hands.

With only one minute left, Song Jianguo stopped in front of a welcoming tree laden with oranges.

Reaching out to part the leaves, Zhang Wenda's face immediately lit up with understanding when he saw the small bird's nest in the tree. "It seems they really have come out; they've returned to Song Jianguo's nest."

"Not bad, Jianguo. He's quite useful in crucial moments." Feeling relieved, Zhang Wenda grabbed the cat and vigorously rubbed its head.

Song Jianguo clearly disliked Zhang Wenda's behavior and bit his hand hard again.

"Alright, alright, stop fooling around." Zhang Wenda put the agitated black cat down. "I'm about to turn back, so please keep an eye on me."

Time passed second by second, and as the yellow number 1 gradually changed towards 0, Zhang Wenda began to feel that everything around him was becoming unstable.

Just as Zhang Wenda saw that there were only a few dozen seconds left before he was about to revert to his original state, he suddenly remembered something: "Will I be punished by the rules in this state?"

With the time running out, he decided to test the waters. If he wasn't punished now, it meant that his age was the key factor in the rule's punishment.

Time ticked by, and Zhang Wenda looked around before grabbing Song Jianguo and demanding, "Hey! How old are you? Where did you get those cat ears? Where did you learn to read?"

After asking the question, Zhang Wenda waited anxiously, but he quickly realized, "No! This won't work. Song Jianguo is the cat now! Asking her won't trigger the rules at all!"

As the number “109” grew smaller and smaller, Zhang Wenda threw the cat aside, quickly scanned the area, and then ran towards the pedestrians in the distance.

"654!" Zhang Wenda rushed up to the man and shouted, "What's your name? How old are you?"

The moment he asked that question, intense pain shot through him, and a bloody, mangled wound appeared on his cheek. All the bizarre and fantastical things around him vanished like smoke in that instant.

At that very moment, he saw it; he finally saw the rules that were hurting him!

Zhang Wenda saw a monster that had appeared on his left at some unknown time. It was a twisted monster that was three or four meters tall, covered with holes and with deformed joints.

At this moment, it was rapidly dissipating along with everything around it. In its final moments, the last thing Zhang Wenda saw was the blood on the monster's left-hand scythe! All the rules and punishments had been its own doing!
(End of this chapter)