Chapter 213: Can Space Be Polluted?

Chapter 213: Can Space Be Polluted?

[Act Two: Wild Roses, Begins.]

[Wandering aimlessly through the jungle, Matilda's skirt was suddenly caught by a thorn. She bent down and, to her surprise, discovered a lush and delicate cluster of wild roses. The petals, laden with night dew, swayed in the wind, whispering softly like murmurs.]

["Perhaps we know the direction your beloved has gone," the wild roses suggested. "Please pick a flower and place it in your golden, wheat-like bright hair, allowing us to guide you forward so that you do not lose your way in the darkness."]

The moment the black words appeared, Li Yin felt a force hook onto her skirt, preventing her from taking another step.

Under the shadowy canopy of the jungle, indeed, a small patch of rose bushes had appeared at some point, their vivid petals casting an unsettling, blood-dark hue under the dim light.

And the adjective "delicate" also needed to be questioned.

The petals of these wild roses unfolded in layers, spiraling dark red from the inside out, tightly enveloping the heart of the flower—deep within the tender heart, a black-and-white eye grew.

Lacking eyelids, eyelashes, or any other superfluous structures, these moist, slippery spherical objects could roll flexibly within the petals, their pupils scanning the surroundings as if searching for prey.

Finally, the arrival of the heroine prompted the wild roses to lift their calyxes, using the eyes hidden beneath the layered petals to gaze at Li Yin, greeting her with a playful laugh: "Good evening, Matilda... We meet again."

"Is tonight the night you reach your end? Which flower do you intend to take with you?"

Staring at countless eyes, Li Yin's skin prickled with goosebumps.

She casually plucked a wild rose from the edge of her skirt and reluctantly placed it in her hair.

"Oh, dear, how rough you are!"

The wild rose screamed, and Li Yin felt its cold petals press against and caress her hair, causing a shiver to run down her spine.

The wild rose shook its petals and sighed, "Never mind, who am I to refuse being your loyal companion? Let's move forward together!"

"Poor Matilda, I will help you find the path ahead..."

It chattered incessantly in her ear, hard to say if it served any real purpose as a guide.

But the rule of this space seemed to be that only the heroine, accompanied by the wild rose, could venture deeper into the forest.

Before long, the monotonous scenery of the trees began to change.

Not far away stood a small wooden cottage, with an old kerosene lamp hanging under the eaves, its glass shade covered in dust, allowing only a faint, flickering light to shine through.

The cottage exuded a musty, decaying odor, and the appearance of the light did little to instill a sense of security; instead, it resembled the glowing lure on a deep-sea anglerfish, drawing unsuspecting prey closer.

[Act Three: The Witch, begins...]

A narrow gap opened in the cottage window, and Li Yin could barely make out a figure slumped in a chair behind it.

"Pay the price, and I can tell you anything," the witch's voice was hoarse and aged, "What do you want to know?"

Li Yin handed over the single gold coin she had, reciting her lines, "I want to know where I can find my beloved."

Through the narrow gap, a stiff, pale hand reached out, letting the coin fall onto the palm held flat upward.

As Li Yin watched, she felt an unsettling strangeness about every movement the witch made, but couldn't pinpoint why until her gaze fell on the bend of the arm.

For a normal person, the elbow bends inward; but the witch's arm was stiffly bent outward.

It was as if everything below the witch's neck was facing backward toward Li Yin—sitting inside the cottage was clearly a corpse with its head and body attached in reverse!

The corpse folded its hands and slowly withdrew into the wooden hut with the gold coins: "...He is under the tree."

"Under a beautiful cherry tree, you will be reunited with him, never to part again."

As he spoke, the wizard’s throat emitted a low laugh, like a chilling breeze, carrying a malevolent and mocking smile.

Li Yin knew this was a hint that the protagonist had long been dead.

In the previous nights, Li Yin’s only interactions with the wizard were these few lines of dialogue; she was already intimately familiar with the script.

As the scene ended, just as Li Yin was about to turn and leave, the wizard unexpectedly called her back.

"This is the last night," the wizard murmured, "I can give you some warnings."

"Beware of rabbits dancing in the forest."

"Beware of danger from your own shadow."

"Beware of... the rose."

With his words, the window slammed shut, sealing the pervasive decay, the neck-broken corpse, and the cryptic warnings inside the cramped wooden hut.

Li Yin stood there in a daze for a moment, and the wild rose broke the silence first: "What an evil wizard!"

"You should trust me, how could a rose deceive you?"

Li Yin did not respond.

In fact, she neither trusted the eerie wizard nor the incessantly chattering rose.

She could not trust anything in this jungle.

"…Let’s go."

Faced with Wild Rose’s urgent self-justification, Li Yin changed the subject and continued walking forward.

The jungle tonight seemed even more lush than before. The overlapping tree shadows stretched endlessly, and long vines hung from the branches, occasionally brushing against Li Yin’s shoulders and the back of her neck, like cold, rough fingers lightly grazing her skin.

Suddenly, Li Yin paused, looking puzzled toward the depths of the grass.

In the dim shadows, two red dots of light appeared, and above them, the vague outline of a pair of long ears emerged, as if a rabbit were crouching in the grass, its erect ears swaying with the wild grass.

But how could there be a wild rabbit here?

This was a situation that had never occurred before!

Li Yin was instantly stunned, the wizard’s words echoing in her ears, making her hair stand on end.

At that moment, the red eyes’ glowing dots suddenly shot up, revealing the full form of the “rabbit”—

It was a monstrous creature with a rabbit’s head, half-human and half-beast.

Human and rabbit features were crudely fused on its body, covered in white fur, parts of which were matted together, seemingly stained with spots of blood.

Its deformed limbs were strong and muscular, the hind legs capable of supporting its body in a half-squat, allowing it to stand upright like a human. When it stood up, the “rabbit” was nearly as tall as the treetops, casting a terrifying shadow.

With red eyes glowing, the “rabbit” twitched its long ears, as if carefully identifying the source of a sound, then turned its head directly toward Li Yin…

"Run!!"

The wild rose let out a shrill scream.

Startled for a moment, Li Yin quickly regained her senses and ran as fast as she could, her face filled with fear.

— The wizard calls this the "dancing rabbit"??

...

On the other side, Yi Fengchu and Number One entered the jungle.

The massive shadow of the serpent gradually shrank, condensing into a deep black silhouette of a boy.

Yi Fengchu was curious how this space would handle the “bug” when his form conflicted with his role.

The moment the boy’s shadow touched the ground, the surrounding jungle seemed to freeze for an instant, as if puzzled by the “gentleman’s” age.

In the next moment, a short cane and an elegant small top hat appeared before Yi Fengchu.

This was probably the jungle’s final line in the script.

The Shadow Bird also shrank, transforming into a chick the size of a palm, its round body fluttering up and down in the air like a tumbleweed dancing in the wind.

"Yay, we’re in!"

Number One cheered and flew off in a certain direction but was stopped by an invisible barrier, even flattening its head a bit.

"Huh?"

Using one wing to rub its head, the little bird looked up and saw the black words above.

[Epilogue, not yet activated.]

[Please stay tuned.]

Yi Fengchu seemed lost in thought. "So, characters can only appear when the script reaches a specific stage?"

"Sir, this should be the fundamental rule of this space—everything must follow the script," No. 1 said. "So we are at the end of the story now? What about the source of contamination we're looking for?"

"It should be on the heroine."

"Where is the heroine then?"

Yi Fengchu recalled the script: "Before the epilogue, she had already wrapped up her scenes."

"..."

Under the dappled shadows of the Bodhi tree, the boy and the little bird stared at each other.

They both realized the same problem:

How could they save the protagonist when the story had already ended?

—Perhaps, this was precisely the sinister intent behind the contamination source choosing this play as the blueprint for the shadow realm.

It wanted to isolate Li Yin, leaving her no choice but to walk step by step into the shadow of death.

Therefore, they absolutely could not follow the script's arrangement.

Yi Fengchu raised his eyes, gazing at the vast, boundless forest, as if deep in thought.

"Under the erosion of divine contamination, the souls and consciousness of living beings are distorted and altered, deviating from their original paths. So—"

Amidst the surrounding trees, the boy's figure appeared frail and vulnerable, as if he could be swallowed by the shifting shadows at any moment. But his voice resonated steadily through the forest, like the brewing of a storm that would sweep across, causing the branches to bow heavily and the leaves to rustle.

Yi Fengchu whispered, "So, can the rules of this space be contaminated?"