Love in Cthulhu

Chapter 21 Returning to the Scene of Death
"Why didn't you come?"

"fraud."

"big liar."

"Zhou Nan, you're a big liar."

"I hate you to death."

The first thing Zhou Nan saw when he checked his phone in the morning was a flood of friendly greetings from Gan Tang on QQ.

Insults and attacks are a profound art. For example, Prime Minister Zhuge Liang could call someone a "white-haired scoundrel" and a "gray-bearded old thief" while riding in a tricycle. I have never seen such a shameless person. He made the shameful Wang Lang so angry that he vomited blood, fell off his horse, and died.

The literature girl's anger, on the other hand, was completely devoid of aggression. I wonder if she ever regretted being so virtuous at such times, that even her cursing sounded like she was being coquettish.

But since the goal has been achieved, let the scolding be.

Zhou Nan gave him an annoying grin, grabbed his coat, and got up to leave.

It hasn't rained for the past two days, but the snow from a while ago hasn't melted yet. In the damp and dry weather, Zhou Nan and Jian Xi rode their bicycles off the provincial highway and onto a side road.

This place is located on the edge of a river valley. The cement road in the mountains is built along the mountainside and is only wide enough for a small car to pass. When they came, they happened to encounter two cars going in opposite directions. The one with better driving skills had to detour around the slightly protruding cliff edge, and the front of the car was already sticking out. It was a terrifying sight.

They parked their bicycles at the entrance to the mountain path and started climbing on foot. The mud was still slippery and difficult to walk on, so Zhou Nan always went up first to clear the way and then came back to give Jian Xi his hand to help her. Jian Xi picked up a branch about the thickness of her wrist from somewhere and used it as a walking stick.

A unique, cool fragrance permeated the air, a few solitary wintersweet bushes were in full bloom, and half-yellow, half-green weeds spread along the hillside.

Looking back across the valley, the mountains and fields are covered with tombstones weathered by wind and rain. That side is the county cemetery, and this side is the so-called back mountain, which also has some tombstones, but far fewer.

From here, heading northwest, one mountain range after another stretches out, getting higher and higher. The main part of the county town is just a crescent-shaped area near the riverbank, separated by a narrow strip of water. Here, there are only scattered farmhouses along the road at the foot of the mountains, and the population is dwindling. Many dilapidated houses are empty.

Before even reaching the top of the small hill, Jian Xi was already panting heavily.

She was physically strong and had been learning dance from a master in the compound since she was a child. When she was seven or eight years old, she could also practice singing Henan opera. She was a real troublemaker who could run and fight.

But climbing mountains was an insurmountable obstacle for her. Her variant asthma was already very sensitive to stimulation, and in such cold sub-zero temperatures, especially around the valley, every breath felt like inhaling air coated with ice particles. She began to cough incessantly, and it got worse and worse. After a while, it felt like she was about to expel her lungs.

"Take a break," Zhou Nan suggested, seeing that Jian Xi was really tired.

Jian Xi nodded, bent over with her hands supporting her thighs, and coughed up phlegm while exhaling large breaths of air.

"Speaking of which, I'm a little curious. Did your body just replicate all your previous illnesses? Can't you find a way to cure them directly and make it perfect? ​​Like how you treated me before."

“First of all, you’ve got one thing wrong. Back then, it was more accurate to call my work a repair rather than a cure,” Jian Xi said, breathing heavily. “It just made it seem like I was the one who cured you.”

"Repair? Am I a piece of cloth?"

"Yes, I used a part of my body to patch your wound, which is equivalent to sewing it up directly."

Jianxi said, "But this won't work for me. My copy is perfect, so it naturally preserves her previous physical condition, including her stamina, internal organs, blood vessels, and strength. Just think of me as piloting a Gundam. The body is the Gundam, and I am the pilot. Although we are integrated, the pilot can heal himself, but he can't repair the Gundam."

“But you, as the pilot, can unleash your full power and tear apart a Gundam with your bare hands,” Zhou Nan said seriously.

"Come on, I'm just an ordinary girl now."

"Understood." Zhou Nan nodded. Actually, her idea of ​​wanting to be a normal girl was not bad. As long as he didn't deliberately think about it, he would feel that Jian Xi was still by his side.

After resting, they spent another hour climbing to the summit. Jian Xi was exhausted and, not caring whether the ground was dirty or not, she plopped down on her backpack. Zhou Nan also caught his breath and took out his binoculars to look around.

Looking back now, what happened before was quite strange, because this area behind the mountain was not exactly deserted. Although it was indeed very large, there was a cemetery across the valley, and many people came to burn incense and pay respects to their ancestors around the end of the year. Occasionally, people would also come up from the foot of the mountain.

When they were searching for Jian Xi, they did not call the police. The main force was Uncle Wang from the foot of the mountain and some villagers from the vicinity that he led.

Given their familiarity with the area, they could easily pinpoint the dangers and potential pitfalls, and indeed, the incident occurred near an air-raid shelter, leading them to speculate that it was likely caused by an accident.

However, the monster Jianxi he found was not in a very secluded place. He just climbed the mountain from here, and went to whichever side had denser forests and taller bushes. That's how he happened to run into it.

There are many coincidences in the world, but there are also many things that are disguised as coincidences. This feeling of luck is not like he found her, but rather like she wanted to be found by him.

The idea was a bit creepy, but it was just that this strange thought suddenly popped into his head.

"Do you remember why you came here in the first place?" Zhou Nan asked.

“Hmm…” Jian Xi closed her eyes and thought seriously for a while, “I think I bought some things before I came here.”

"what?"

"Incense burning? And a small incense burner?"

"Why didn't you tell me something so important sooner!" Zhou Nan said, a little annoyed.

"You didn't ask earlier either," Jian Xi pouted.

He was momentarily speechless. Indeed, only four days had passed since her return, and for those four days he had been struggling with whether to accept her or not. He had only asked about her memories at the very beginning.

But at that time, no one had revealed their true intentions yet, so she pretended not to know and answered that she didn't know. As a result, the replay of Jian Xi's death before her death became an unopened archive, which remained with her. All she knew was that she saw someone before she collapsed.

"Alright, let's sort this out now." Zhou Nan calmed down. "What did you buy all those things for? If they're for people to pay respects at the cemetery here, aren't your grandparents buried in your hometown in Henan?"

Yes, strictly speaking, Jian Xi is a girl from Henan, but she grew up in Hubei. The local dialect combines some Henan characteristics with unique regional features. She can't speak Chinese, she can only say "er lian".

"That's the key point I just can't remember." Jian Xi frowned, somewhat troubled. "Could it be that I came here to burn incense and pray to Buddha?" "Can't you remember what you were thinking back then?"

"Only knowledge and emotions are enough to infer behavior, but a person's thoughts can change at any time. For example, one second they might be talking to you nicely, and the next second they might suddenly turn on you and jump up to punch you. How could I possibly remember the thoughts of every single second of 24 hours?"

"Just get to the point, don't mix in narration and personal attacks." Zhou Nan gave her a chop to the hand, and she retaliated by grimacing and pinching the back of her hand.

"Let's get back to the main topic," Zhou Nan continued. "Think back to whether your family has any traditions or anything like that."

"What do you mean?" Jian Xi didn't understand.

“That day you only told me that you were going to the back mountain, and you didn’t invite me. This means you were definitely planning to do something behind my back.”

"Don't make it sound like I'm doing something shameful, okay?" Jian Xi rolled her eyes at him. "And you're saying I'm doing it behind your back!"

"Because usually, except for things like going to the women's restroom, you'll call me for everything."

Zhou Nan remained calm and continued, "You know that some locals are superstitious. I've heard of folk tales in western Hunan about raising ghost children to curse business rivals and bring them ruin."

"Hey, hey, hey! There's something fishy about what you're saying." Jian Xi was practically jumping up and yelling, "My parents went to another city to do business. Do you expect me to stay in our hometown and burn incense to curse their rivals to death? You're making it sound like I'm some kind of Miao holy maiden, or that my family has a tradition of making voodoo dolls!"

"It's not that I doubt you, but isn't your very existence already quite fantastical?" Zhou Nan stared into Jian Xi's eyes.

Jian Xi was stunned for a moment. She suddenly realized that he seemed to be right. Because she was the main character, a great monster. When considering things, she didn't think about herself at all. Others could say that this was feudal superstition and unacceptable, but she herself was the opposite example of the rule that no one was allowed to become a spirit after the founding of the People's Republic of China.

Zhou Nan turned on his phone. In preparation for coming to the back mountain today, he had used his phone to go online last night and researched a lot of local historical information.

According to the county annals, during the Chenghua period of the Ming Dynasty, in order to deal with the increasing number of displaced people, the imperial court established the Yunyang Fuzhi Huguang Regional Military Commission in the area, which covered six counties spanning Hubei, Chongqing, Sichuan and Shaanxi.

With a large population, a city naturally had to be built, and thus the ancient city came into being, with seventy-one crisscrossing alleys and lanes, bustling with activity for hundreds of years.

However, with the construction of the Dankou Reservoir in the last century, this area became a backwater zone, and the residents had to be relocated. The ancient city, which is over 400 years old, was submerged underwater, and many valuable artifacts could not be excavated in time.

The large bronze bell from the ancient city's bell and drum tower was removed and is now the one that rings every day on the main entrance of the rebuilt cultural center.

Since then, there have been local earth god temples everywhere in the mountains and countryside. Strangely, although they are called earth gods, you can't see the kind old man with a big beard as you would in the traditional impression. Instead, there is often just a rough stone statue that is hard to recognize.

Some say that it is the True Martial Emperor, after all, the local area is right next to Wudang Mountain.

Some say it's a monster from Longyuan. There's a cave next door called Longyuan, look at the horns on its head.

Some say this is a human spirit transformed from a creature that doesn't resemble a horse, with a face like a horse's and a very thin tail.

In short, there's no definitive conclusion. Zhou Nan thought about it carefully and realized that when he was a child, he could still see some old people burning incense and putting two steamed buns on that thing. Now, it's been exposed to wind and rain, and no one cares if it collapses. It's been a long time since he's seen one that's still intact.

"Could you be some kind of local earth god or mountain deity?" Zhou Nan looked up and asked, looking into her eyes.

“Tang Xuanzang didn’t pass through here when he went on his pilgrimage to India,” Jian Xi said seriously.

"I'm not kidding you."

As he spoke, he retrieved the browser history he had browsed the previous night and showed her page by page the ones he had specifically marked.

"Do you remember? There used to be a temple like this in the cultural center," Zhou Nan said.

"Really? I really can't think of it." Jian Xi tilted her head. "I can't remember everything. If I can't dig out the deepest parts of her memory, I can't either."

"You kicked it down."

"…………" Jian Xi looked up at the sky and pretended to be innocent.

She genuinely doesn't remember. Children who are mischievous as kids often don't have much recollection of the mistakes they made, unless they happen to be caught and beaten up afterward.

That dilapidated temple, made of stone and wood, was generally ignored. Kids are just at that age where they act recklessly. When they see a few square stones standing there, they want to kick them. Jian Xi, who hadn't even finished elementary school, kicked one of them and it rolled into the ditch. If it weren't for finding this information, Zhou Nan wouldn't have been able to recall such a distant memory.

“Let’s go see something higher.” Zhou Nan stood up and looked at a higher hill next to him. “This wasn’t the place I found you before, nor was it the place Uncle Wang and the others. It’s amazing that you were able to go that far back then.”

"Still walking? I can't walk anymore, I'm exhausted!" Jian Xi immediately complained, pointing to her shoes, "Look, the mud on the soles is so thick, every step I take feels like I have sandbags strapped to my legs!"

Zhou Nan was silent for a few seconds, then took off his backpack from behind and handed it to her: "Hold this for me."

Jian Xi was furious: "Do you have any humanity? I'm exhausted! Is this how you treat your girlfriend? Do you even care about me? I kindly came here with you and you treat me like a laborer!"

Zhou Nan felt a little helpless, pressed his forehead and sighed softly: "What I mean is, if you don't want to walk, I can carry you, but if I carry your bag, do you think you'll still be comfortable lying down?"

After a long silence, Jian Xi shrank back, too embarrassed to speak. Actually, she wasn't always that thick-skinned. It was okay to have a fit, but when she had a fit in the wrong direction, she just wanted to find a hole to crawl into.

"Do you still want me to carry it?" Zhou Nan waved his hand. "If you don't want to, you can wait here for me. I'll go take a look by myself."

"How can that be? I'm afraid you'll get lost in this deep mountain forest and start crying and calling for your sister." Jian Xi jumped up, grabbed her backpack, and hopped onto him.

Zhou Nan was taken aback, but he still opened his arms and gave her a big hug. Jian Xi jumped down behind him, put her hands on his shoulders and pushed him forward: "Let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go!"

"Didn't you say you couldn't walk anymore?"

"Haven't you heard? The magic of love can conquer all!"

A slight tremor ran through Zhou Nan's heart. He lowered his eyelids and walked slowly, carrying his bag.

If only she really said that!
(End of this chapter)