Chapter 64 Heartbreak
Li Daming and I brought a basin of water from the bathroom and soaked the rag in it. When we got to the body, Li Daming wrung out the rag and was about to wipe it, but I stopped him and asked worriedly, "Are these pustules poisonous?"
Li Daming nodded: "No, they are all burns. It's better to be careful." He asked the nanny for two pairs of rubber gloves and handed me one.
I had no choice but to put it on and help him clean up the body, knowing that if I took the money I would have to pay a price.
It was really terrifying when you really started to apply it. The body was covered with burn pustules, not only on the face, but also on the chest and limbs, especially the hands, which were almost burned to pieces.
Li Daming seemed to be thinking about something and said to me, it seems that after we came out, something happened in the bardo again, and he wondered if Chen Meiyu could handle it alone.
We spent more than half an hour cleaning it, barely cleaning every spot we could reach, and we changed the water four or five times. The weirdest thing was that after we cleaned it, new pustules would grow not long after.
This situation was extremely strange. We were dealing with a corpse, and mushroom-shaped pustules kept growing on its body. The feeling was simply indescribable.
After cleaning for a long time, the situation did not improve. We realized that we could not clean it up at all, so we simply gave up. We carefully took off the dirty gloves, but the smell in the living room was unbearable.
It's not easy for a nanny either. She has to use an air purifier to exhaust the smell in the house, and the smell is enough to kill an elephant.
It was now bright outside. I was yawning continuously as I had not slept all night, and Li Daming could hardly even open his eyes.
The nanny asked us to rest in the guest room. We told her to be sure to inform us if Chen Meiyu came back to life.
After entering the room, I fell on the bed and fell into a deep sleep. I slept so soundly that when I woke up, it was already dark.
I washed my face and came out, and saw that the table in the living room on the second floor was already filled with food, and Li Daming was chatting with Wei Zhen.
I went over to ask if Chen Meiyu had returned.
"It's been a day and she still hasn't come back." Li Daming said helplessly.
Wei Zhen was very worried and asked us if we were okay. Then he asked us what happened last night.
I said, "Aunt Wei, do you know Lin Xiaohui?"
Li Daming glared at me fiercely, but I ignored his gaze.
Wei Zhen frowned, thought for a while and said he didn't know him, and asked what was wrong.
Only then did we realize that Wei Zhen was completely unaware of Lin Xiaohui's affair from beginning to end. Chen Jian was a very scheming man, hiding it from his wife to such an extent.
I am not a fool, so how could I tell Wei Zhen about Lin Xiaohui? Wei Zhen, like her daughter, lives in a fantasy that her husband or father is a hero. I guess she would not believe it even if we told her, and she is unwilling to burst that colorful bubble.
After dinner, Li Daming and I went to the first floor and stared at Chen Meiyu's body in a daze. This girl has been in there for a long time. What happened to her? Will she never be able to come back?
The sky gradually darkened. Wei Zhen looked worried, with tear marks all over his face. He kept asking how his daughter was.
It can be seen that although this woman grew up in a wealthy family, her mind is still very simple. Li Daming persuaded her that it was okay. I also joined in.
Wei Zhen sat on the chair and cried, "What sin have my family committed? We were a happy family of three, but something like this had to happen."
Peaceful and harmonious? I sneered secretly. Things in the world don't exist just because you don't know about them.
As for matters of retribution, God will keep a record of them.
At this moment, Chen Meiyu's body suddenly moved, she let out a painful sound, and slowly opened her eyes.
Wei Zhen burst out with a "wow", took a few quick steps, knelt in front of his daughter, and hugged her: "My daughter, how are you, what's wrong with you?"
Chen Meiyu also started crying and had to comfort her mother, saying that everything was okay.
The girl coaxed her mother to go back to sleep, and it took her a long time to come down from upstairs. Her face was very pale, without a trace of blood.
The three of us looked at each other and the atmosphere was a bit depressing. Li Daming asked her why it took her so long to come out and what she had experienced.
Chen Meiyu said softly, "The difficulty we solved together was my father's fifth level. After you left, I helped him to overcome the sixth level, which was very, very difficult. Dad, he has already..." Her tears fell, "He is almost completely broken."
Li Daming and I looked at each other. We saw it today when we were cleaning up Chen Jian’s body. Every time we cleaned up the abscesses on the body, new ones would appear, one after another. This proved the cruelty of the difficulties.
"There are seven levels in total, so there is only one level left." Li Daming said.
Chen Meiyu cried and shook her head, tears falling to the floor: "I really can't stand it anymore, I can't stand it anymore, please help me."
Li Daming came to her side, slowly pulled the girl into his arms, and patted her back gently.
I said, "We are taking money from you to help you get rid of your misfortune. Since we have received your money, we will naturally help you fulfill your wish."
Li Daming glared at me, meaning that I was too blunt.
Chen Meiyu wiped her tears, looked up at Li Daming, then looked at me. She gently broke free from his embrace, straightened her clothes, wiped her tears, and said softly, "The last level is extremely difficult. It's not about the ingenuity of the mechanism, nor the complexity of the puzzle, but it goes straight to the heart of the matter. It's my father's last obstacle!"
We gasped. The Lin Xiaohui incident was torture enough, but I didn't expect it wasn't the last hurdle.
What is the last level like? Killing people also requires destroying their hearts? !
Chen Meiyu's eyes were rotten with tears: "I don't want to go to the last level. I'm afraid of seeing another side of my father. I can't bear it."
Li Daming and I looked at each other, and Li Daming said, "Okay, take us in."
"Is this okay?" I quickly interrupted, "Meiyu, you go in too, but don't follow us. We will help your father get through."
Chen Meiyu was silent: "Without me, the situation inside will be even more unpredictable. I know what you mean. If you leave your physical bodies outside, you are afraid of what will happen to me, right? Okay, I will go with you."
"Why are you going?" Li Daming said, "Just stay outside and wait quietly. We'll go. Is that ok, Lao Lin?"
I looked at them. What else could I say? I felt that Chen Meiyu would never harm us. I nodded and said yes.
Chen Meiyu said: "I will send you two to the underworld, and when you get there you can directly enter father's bardo realm. Please, there is one last level, you must help him pass it!" She bowed deeply.
Li Daming did not boast, he just said we will try our best.
Then the ritual was arranged. Li Daming and I sat in front of the corpse again, slowly closed our eyes, and the sound of Chen Meiyu's chanting rang in our ears.
I felt like I fell into a body of water, slowly sinking, feeling indescribably cool and comfortable. After a long time, I could no longer hear the girl's spell, so I opened my eyes. When I opened them, I found myself in a tent.
The tent was not big. Besides me, Li Daming was there, as well as a teenager. The child was wearing a green cotton coat, leaning against a corner, reading a book with a flashlight, like a little adult.
There was a stove in the tent, but it didn't provide much warmth.
Just as I was about to talk to Li Daming, the child suddenly raised his head and looked in my direction. I was shocked. He turned out to be Chen Jian!
In the fifth level, Snow Village, he was a middle-aged man, but now he has turned into a child with a furry mustache on his upper lip.
"Why are you looking at me like an idiot?" Chen Jian said to Li Daming in a very adult tone.
"Oh, it's okay...it's cold enough tonight." Li Daming changed the subject.
At this point, we have reached the last level and I don’t know whether the puzzle has been unlocked or not.
I couldn't get a word in for the moment, so I just watched their conversation.
Chen Jian smiled and said, "I wonder what secret mission the leader has conveyed to us this time when we enter the mountains." He paused, frowned and asked Li Daming, "Why are you so strange today? What's wrong?"
Li Daming looked at him in a trance, then retracted his gaze: "Oh, it's nothing, I just feel something is wrong, our mission came too suddenly."
"Yes, I feel the same way," said Chen Jian.
Listening to their conversation, my heart skipped a beat and I noticed something strange. These two people seemed very familiar, and their conversation was not unfamiliar. Could it be that before I came in, Li Daming and Chen Jian had already had an experience?
As the two were talking, an urgent whistle sounded outside the tent, piercing the sky.
Li Daming sat at the entrance of the tent and unzipped it. It was dark outside, with endless mountains and stars in the sky. They were in a deep forest.
All I could see was a huge valley with many tents dotted around. With the sound of the emergency whistle, the tents were unzipped and many people ran out.
They were wearing the same uniform, all dark green cotton coats, so you can imagine the temperature must be very low.
Looking at these people, I had a very strange feeling.
When I was very young, my father brought back a documentary about their work, which was about the exploration team discovering a copper mine in Inner Mongolia. The location in the film was deep in the mountains, and there were exploration personnel in uniform, also wearing green cotton clothes. The scene on the screen was very similar to the present.
