Chapter 693: The Beginning of My Fear
“What…?” The uncle’s scent became hesitant.
“Pull me up right now, or we all die together,” I said. “Anyway, I don’t even know any of you…”
“That’s right! That’s the way!” My sister’s muffled voice shouted from a distance. “Little brother, don’t let them have their way!”
She smelled angry.
The uncle thought it over for a moment and finally decided to have everyone pull me up first.
To stay alive, I also used my hands and feet. The palms I’d scraped raw earlier were now wet, stinging terribly, but I couldn’t cry out or I’d get scolded.
When I finally managed to climb out of the well, I had no strength left. My hands and legs were weak and shaky.
That uncle, reeking of stench, walked over, fished the key out of my pocket, and immediately ran to the door.
I saw my sister being held down by a few aunties, and someone was trying to cover her mouth. When she saw me climb out, she broke free with a strong shove and came over to me.
“Little brother, are you okay?” She looked at me with some concern.
“I’m fine, sister…”
My sister still smelled so good. Her scent was clean.
“It’s open! It’s open!”
One of the aunties shouted.
Everyone turned back excitedly to look at the machine in the room, only to find that the countdown hadn’t stopped.
“What does this mean?” the leading uncle asked. “Can we go?”
Everyone stared at the ticking countdown, their bodies exuding scents of confusion.
The door was clearly open now, but the countdown hadn’t ended. They should be able to just run out, right?
My sister noticed that my knees were also scraped raw. She quickly picked me up from the ground and looked at the masked figures with the same confusion.
“Of course, you’ve passed the game,” the Rabbit-head nodded. “Go. The losers will automatically accept their punishment.”
Losers…?
I could clearly smell the confusion wafting from my sister.
After saying that, he turned to look at the Dog-head and Tiger-head behind him. The three of them started discussing in low voices.
“Who wants to go out?” Rabbit-head asked. “If you still have things to deal with on the ‘Train,’ you can go first. I’ll stay and die.”
“It’s fine,” Dog-head shook his head. “I can die first too. Everything’s been handled. What about Tiger?”
“How about I live?” Tiger-head scratched his head. “Nah, not much fun. I’ll die first this time. Let Rabbit go.”
The three of them talked about death so casually. I smelled neither fear nor dread from them. They only had a stench.
It was a strange, foul odor I had never encountered before.
The masked people didn’t stop us. We all fled out of the room. Outside was a long corridor lined with doors on both sides.
After the uncles and aunties came out, they couldn’t tell whether to go left or right, so they just stood there dumbfounded.
My sister was the last to carry me out of the room.
Even at the very end, she was still confused—until she saw the countdown finish and the huge machine behind us really start emitting yellow-green gas. Only then did her scent of confusion turn into panic.
In my sister’s arms, I looked back and saw the gas engulf the masked figures. Only Rabbit-head waved his hand to disperse the toxic gas in front of him before following us out.
He closed the door from the outside, trapping the other two masked figures and the gas inside the room. Then he stood beside us.
“What does this mean…?” the uncle asked. “Are we done? Can we leave?”
“Yeah, go ahead,” Rabbit replied.
“Aren’t there ‘rewards’…?” an auntie asked. “You dragged all of us here to play games. Do the winners get money?”
“Right… even though we all survived, we should get some money, shouldn’t we?” an uncle asked.
Rabbit was silent for a moment after hearing this, then replied, “Every time you wake up, it’s all about money. I’m tired of explaining. Go die out there. You all lived and still want rewards?”
Only later did I learn that we had woken up in that room many times before.
But there were still so many things I couldn’t understand… Why didn’t I remember any of those previous awakenings?
Why didn’t anyone else remember either?
When I woke up before, did I also smell all these strange scents?
I often thought that if I could really foresee what would happen later—if I could foresee my sister’s future and the future of “Jade City”—I would rather never have left that room.
I would rather the toxic gas killed me outright. I wanted to forget all of this, just like everyone else.
But I could never forget.
From the moment I started smelling these scents, I could never forget.
We followed Rabbit-head’s instructions and walked down the corridor. At the end, someone wearing a monster mask was waiting for us. He handed us a large handful of small green stones and told us this thing was called “Jade.” If we could gather 57,600 of these “Jades” within ten days, everything could be saved.
That monster-masked figure also stank. In fact, he smelled even worse than the other masked ones.
When he opened a strange door and led us into this city, my nose finally felt a little better.
It wasn’t as stinky out here.
But when I looked back, I saw the other eight people covering their noses. The smell outside seemed unbearable to them, but I felt it was okay.
Things were getting stranger. They could accept the stench inside the room, but not the air outside?
If you ask me, the masked people inside stank way worse than anything out here.
From that day on, carrying memories that could never be erased, I officially set foot on this land.
“Little brother, what’s your name?” the sister beside me asked.
“My name is Zheng Yingxiong,” I replied.
“Yingxiong?” My sister laughed at my name.
“No, no, no, I’m not ‘Yingxiong’ [hero]. It’s ‘Yingxiong’ [responsive hero], fourth tone.”
I waved my hands nervously. I was a petty thief destined for jail; I couldn’t possibly live up to the name “Hero.”
I suddenly thought of Yue Fei.
Only someone like Yue Fei could be called a “hero.” Whoever was a hero, it certainly wasn’t me.
“Zheng… Ying… Xiong?” She thought about it for a few seconds, then laughed again. “That’s a really strange name. Sounds so old-fashioned, like something only my father’s generation would use.”
My sister said my name was old-fashioned, but I thought it was fine—at least it sounded better than “Xu Jiahua.”
“Jiahua” was super common; “Yingxiong” was rarely used.
“What’s your name, sister?” I took her hand and asked.
“My name is Li Siwei.” She reached out and patted my head. “You’re such a little baby. Why do you have such an old-fashioned name? It sounds so mismatched.”
“I’m… such a little baby?” I asked, puzzled. “I’m already in second grade… I’m almost eight.”
“Okay, okay.” She nodded. “You’re not a baby. You’re a real ‘Yingxiong’ after all.”
“Huh?” I looked at her in confusion. “Why?”
“Because thanks to you just now, we all survived,” she said. “If you hadn’t gone down into that well to get the key for us, we might have died in that room.”