Don't provoke mentally ill people in the infinite flow genre!

The moment he realized he was being haunted by a ghost, Shen Yubai instinctively tried to use his skill to light incense and save himself.

But he quickly realized that he was underwater and his incense sticks could not be lit at all.

He was forcibly dragged to the bottom of the water by that force, his back slamming heavily against the hard pool wall, and a large amount of pool water with a strong disinfectant smell rushed into his throat.

A sharp, stabbing pain shot through his lungs. He turned around, trying to shake off the invisible hand, but his pupils suddenly contracted as he saw a woman's corpse lying at the bottom of the pool.

The corpse of a woman, her face swollen from being submerged in water, her eyes slightly open, her long hair flowing like seaweed.

It stared intently at him, the gruesome wound on its wrist, slashed open by a sharp weapon, still gushing blood until it spread rapidly, turning the entire deep pool a dark red.

His vision was completely covered in blood. Shen Yubai felt a sudden buzzing in his mind. In that instant, his consciousness was swallowed by the tide of memories, as if he had been swept back to the summer of his eighteenth year.

……

It was a damp, rainy day.

Having just finished the college entrance examination, he felt he had performed reasonably well and wanted to go home to tell his mother the good news.

Upon entering the gate, they found shattered wine bottles scattered on the floor and their father's body lying in the living room.

Further inside, there was the body of a mother who had committed suicide by cutting her wrists, soaking in the bathroom bathtub.

blood.

It's all blood.

The image of a vat overflowing with blood, and his mother's unseeing eyes, haunted his nightmares and never disappeared.

—My sweetheart, remember to learn perfumery from your aunt. Mom knows you like it, and Mom wants you to be happy too.

This is the last sentence Shen Yubai's mother left for him in his phone's drafts.

She had been enduring this for a long time. Since being laid off six years ago, her father had become addicted to gambling and drinking heavily, and would beat her and her son at the drop of a hat. There was no end in sight to this.

The mother had considered divorce, but after the father revealed his true nature, he became a completely insane rogue who would disturb all her relatives and threaten her with their son's future.

So she compromised and found a way to send Shen Yubai to a boarding school, bearing her husband's anger alone to ensure he would not hurt others again.

She knew that Shen Yubai liked perfumery, and that her younger sister was a renowned perfumer who had studied abroad and had long wanted to pass on her skills to her nephew.

But the man wouldn't allow it, angrily denouncing her family as no good, and threatening that Shen Yubai should go out to work after the college entrance examination to pay off his debts as soon as possible.

...In order not to affect her son's condition, she endured it until the end of the college entrance examination.

Then, on that utterly ordinary afternoon, she stabbed her drunken husband more than a dozen times before numbly ending her own life.

"My dear child, I'm sorry, Mommy has no other choice. This is the best decision Mommy can make for you."

"Have you been happy all these years? Have you learned any real skills from your aunt? Have you become a great perfumer and fulfilled your dreams?"

"But why are you here? Is it because you're tired, miss your mother, and want to be with her?"

"Mommy misses you too. Come here to Mommy."

Come to Mommy.

……

Shen Yubai sank to the bottom of the water, his entire body bound by that force, unable to move.

Amidst the blood-red landscape, the swollen face of the female corpse loomed larger and larger before his eyes, her lips parting as if she were speaking to him.

good.

Come to Mom's.

Come to Mom's.

It raised the dagger in its hand—the same dagger it used to cut its wrist years ago—and stepped forward, forcefully plunging it into his heart.

The pain was so real, it felt like it was tearing his internal organs apart. In an instant, Shen Yubai fell backward, almost losing the last bit of strength to struggle.

Regret, pain, remorse, and resentment.

A myriad of negative emotions intertwined, like heavy chains binding him tightly, swallowing up his last remaining rationality.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Mom.

He originally thought that as long as he studied hard and got into a big city to establish himself, he could take his mother away from that hellhole and leave that beast forever.

However, Mom didn't live to see that day.

He couldn't save his mother, nor could he fulfill her wish.

At the peak of his career, when he was about to compete for an international gold medal, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor, which rapidly deteriorated until it compressed his nerves and affected his senses.

On the night he was summoned into the game of doom, he closed his eyes in his hospital bed, and the last image that remained in his memory was his aunt's tear-streaked face.

What did he gain in his life? Whom should he love? Whom should he hate? And who did he live up to?

Shen Yubai's heart had almost stopped beating. He lay underwater just like his mother had done, his eyes slightly open, unable to look up at the beam of light above him.

……

Yes, it was that beam of light that came from who-knows-where.

The woman's pale, waterlogged hands, which were just half an inch away from embracing him, were suddenly obscured by the water at the crucial moment, becoming blurred and unrecognizable.

The beam of light penetrated the deep pool completely, causing the dark red blood in the pool to lighten. The next second, ripples suddenly parted to both sides.

Someone leaped into the deep water and swam forward, decisively approaching him.

Yi Zanglan dived to the bottom of the pool, grabbed Shen Yubai around the waist, and forcefully lifted him towards the surface.

The unconscious man was incredibly heavy, and it took her a great deal of effort to finally drag him ashore.

"...Old Shen!"

She clasped her hands together and began to perform CPR on him. However, after performing it over a hundred times, Shen Yubai remained lying quietly in the same spot, his face pale and his lips bloodless, as if he had fallen asleep.

His pulse in his neck was so weak it was almost undetectable; he was just one step away from death.

"Shen Yubai!" Yi Zanglan shouted sharply, "You can die now, but you should prefer to go back together with us, rather than sitting in the spectator area waiting for us!"

"Shen Yubai!"

"Shen Yubai!"

Her hands didn't stop moving, and the speed of her pressing gradually increased. She didn't know how long she pressed, until Shen Yubai's chest heaved violently for a moment, and he suddenly vomited a large amount of sewage while coughing.

He struggled to breathe for a long time before finally opening his eyes and meeting Yi Zanglan's gaze.

"Lan...Lanlan..."

The memory of despair still lingered in his mind. He was not yet fully conscious, but he recognized the gentle and familiar face on instinct.

Just when he himself had given up, she once again barged in regardless of everything and pulled him back from hell to earth.

...There are reasons to hold on a little longer, right?

The past is the past, but he still has responsibilities to bear in the future.

He is not without anything.

He was never penniless.

His lungs were still aching terribly, and Shen Yubai coughed, his voice choked with emotion before he could even speak.

Whether it was lingering water or warm tears at the corner of his eye, he subconsciously wanted to reach out to Yi Zanglan, but hesitated halfway and then slumped down.

...The next moment, his hand was caught by Yi Zanglan and held firmly in his palm.

Yi Zanglan didn't ask anything. She simply leaned down, calmly put her arm around his shoulder, and gently patted his back.

She said, "Don't be sad, it's okay."