Chapter 218: The Will to Die
Source: https://www.jjwxc.net/onebook.php?novelid=2188414
This translation was originally posted on https://love4baihe.blogspot.com please read it there. and check out other stories too.
This line of text was too terrifying. At that time, Jian Yuan's whole body turned stiff and cold. It took a long time before she slowly calmed down.
She forced herself to stay alert and looked again at the handwriting she knew too well. This time, she looked very carefully, reading it over and over many times. She also understood that the connection between the mycelium and her had clearly become closer and closer, and the various influences the mycelium had on her had also become deeper and deeper.
That item had probably already found her location. At this very moment, it was already near this village.
And this line of words had definitely been written under the control of that item when her consciousness was not very clear, using this method to talk to her.
Although Jian Yuan had been affected by various things before, she had never experienced this level of control. She suspected that the item was not only very close to her, but was also becoming increasingly powerful. When she first discovered the item's anomaly, it seemed to be growing, and perhaps it had now grown to a completely new stage.
Jian Yuan was already standing on the edge of an abyss, Now, all of this piling together seemed to form a hand, and with only one final light push left, Jian Yuan would fall down.
The most terrifying thing is that not only will she fall, but her family, her daughter Xi Mo, will also be doomed. From what she currently knows about the item, she knows that it really will target Xi Mo, and may even take pleasure in it.
So from this day on, Jian Yuan made a complete change in direction in her mind.
Jian Yuan's thoughts changed from “hoping to save herself” to “she wanted to kill this item, no matter what price she had to pay.”
But how could an ordinary person like her possibly kill an unknown, non-human being? Yet, once Jian Yuan made a decision, she would act without hesitation.
During her stay in the village, she conducted continuous investigations. This was the source of the item, and she really did find some clues here. She believed that this item was not without weaknesses, and she wanted to find that weakness.
She just was not sure if that item would control her again. She was even more worried that the other side would control her while talking to family and friends, saying deceptive things. If she was in a weaker state of willpower, she might be taken advantage of without knowing. So she adjusted the time of her daily calls and shortened the conversation content as much as possible. This could effectively lower the risk.
Jian Yuan didn't hide things from Yang Shirong. She told Yang Shirong about her condition and reminded him that because of the item's interference, what she said on the phone in the future might not be her true intention. She told Yang Shirong to pay attention and judge carefully. If he realized something was wrong with her, he had to cut off the call immediately.
As for Xi Ji, Jian Sun, Jian Youhai, and the others, Jian Yuan said her work was becoming busier and busier and that her call time was becoming limited. She gave them advance warning first, then slowly and carefully reduced the content of each phone call.
During this period, Jian Yuan also specially talked to Xi Ji about Jian Ye. At that time, it had not been long since Jian Yuan brought Jian Ye back. Jian Yuan had hired a nanny to take care of Jian Ye outside and had not brought her home yet. She was also worried that Xi Mo was still young and would not adjust well to suddenly having another person in the house.
But now Jian Yuan did not have much time left. So she indirectly asked Xi Ji whether, if the timing was suitable in the future, he would be willing to bring Jian Ye back to stay for a while and see if Xi Mo would play together with Jian Ye.
Xi Ji had always respected Jian Yuan's thoughts. He replied that they could find a chance to bring her back in the future and see Xi Mo's reaction.
Only then did Jian Yuan feel relieved.
She believed that if something happened to her, Xi Ji would definitely bring Jian Ye back home, and Jian Ye would not end up wandering again. So she appropriately talked with Xi Ji about Jian Ye's situation, such as Jian Ye's birthday, blood type, what she liked, what she hated, and what she was afraid of. Although Xi Ji did not say much while listening, Jian Yuan knew he remembered it.
In addition, Jian Yuan would also call the nanny who took care of Jian Ye and ask her to call Jian Ye over to talk, both to comfort her and to pave the way for Jian Ye's future.
As for the call time with Xi Mo, it did not decrease that obviously, but instead happened gradually. Xi Mo missed her too much. Jian Yuan couldn't bear to make Xi Mo sad, and those call times seemed to become the most precious encouragement for Jian Yuan.
Jian Yuan was terrified that she might never hear Xi Mo's voice again.
And so, during those hellish days, Jian Yuan persevered and completed almost every preparation she could think of.
Jian Yuan believed that everything in nature has its counterpart, and even the most terrifying beast in the wild has its natural enemies. Therefore, she thought that since the item came from the vicinity of this village, perhaps the way to kill it also existed here. So, based on the records she found, she often went into the mountains to search.
In the end, she actually really found that item’s weakness.
But Jian Yuan did not spread the news. She even tried hard to suppress this thought in her mind. Even she herself was keeping it secret from herself, afraid that the item would sense it. Later, when Yang Shirong looked back on everything and realized this point, the shocked Yang Shirong could never understand how Jian Yuan had managed to do this back then.
Jian Yuan told Yang Shirong that she wouldn't be calling for a while, as she was going deeper into the mountains and wouldn't be able to come out as quickly as she had during previous investigations. With the mycelium inside her body, she worried that the item knew about her conversation with Yang Shirong, so she didn't tell him any more crucial information. Yang Shirong guessed this but didn't ask further.
But Yang Shirong felt that Jian Yuan might have found some kind of method and wanted to perish together with that item. Yang Shirong felt heartbroken, but he knew he couldn't stop her determination to die. The only thing he could do was help her while keeping her secret, avoiding harm coming to her family.
Jian Yuan called the people she cared about and said she was especially busy these days, and the place she was going to had a poor signal, so she couldn't keep calling like before. After a few days, she would contact them again.
After giving the instructions, Jian Yuan went into the mountains.
She was going to end her life somewhere there.
The mountains are majestic, and her body appears so small in comparison, as small as an ant, as if she could be swallowed up by the enormous mountains in an instant.
But she still went in without hesitation.
….
“…Mom.” Upon hearing this, Xi Mo was overwhelmed by immense pain and shock. She bent over, barely able to breathe. Tears streamed down her face as she covered her mouth with her hand, silencing her broken sobs.
During those lonely and painful times that she was unaware of, her mother had done so much for her, far exceeding what humans can bear.
Ruan Yesheng embraced her, her eyes also filled with tears.
Jian Sun's eyes were red, and Jian Hui's eyes were wet. She said, “Xi Mo, you don't have to speak first. I know you definitely have a question. Why did Sister Yuan enter the mountain, but later die after being hit by a truck?”
Xi Mo indeed couldn't speak. She lowered her head and nodded.
Jian Hui said, “Actually, none of us know either. Yang Shirong did not know what happened in the mountains. But later he received a call from Sister Yuan. Sister Yuan told him she did it and successfully killed that item. But Sister Yuan sounded very weak at that time. She told Yang Shirong she had already left Guizhou. A kind villager helped send her onto a vehicle, and she wanted to sleep on the ride. After arriving in Shanghai, she would call him again and tell him exactly what happened. Yang Shirong was very anxious, but he felt she really had no strength to speak, so he waited to contact her again after she returned to Shanghai.”
“Was Mom injured?” Xi Mo hurriedly said through sobs. “I remember getting Mom's call that day. Mom's voice sounded like she was injured, weak and powerless. She told me she was still sick and had not recovered, but she promised me she would come to Auntie Lan's house to pick me up that day and told me to wait for her.”
“She was seriously injured,” Jian Hui said. “But she was so worried about you that she didn’t want to stay in Guizhou to recover for more than a few days. She wanted to go back to Shanghai as soon as possible to pick you up.”
When Xi Mo heard the news that Jian Yuan was going to take her home, she was very excited, but she didn't get to see her that day.
After arriving in Shanghai, Jian Yuan was involved in a car accident.
“Mom was worried that I would get infected. She said she would come to pick me up, which means she really dealt with that item. Otherwise, why would she come back with peace of mind?” Xi Mo said with tears in her eyes. “She was so cautious. She must have confirmed the death of that item. But why was she hit by a car on the day she came back to pick me up?”
Jian Sun's face became even paler. He said, “That item definitely used some method to trick Sister and made her think it was dead.”
Xi Mo trembled all over.
Jian Hui firmly said, “The method Sister Yuan found to kill the item definitely exists. Yang Shirong said he waited for Sister Yuan's call all day, but she never called. He felt very uneasy and asked around, only to find out Sister Yuan had gotten into a car accident. Yang Shirong felt things were not so simple, so he went to the village in Guizhou where Sister Yuan had stayed. Based on the information Sister Yuan had shared with him before, he found the house she had lived in and found the notebook Sister Yuan used to remind herself.”
Her eyes also turned cold. “Some pages in that notebook had been torn out. Yang Shirong believed those pages definitely recorded something harmful to that item, such as the method to kill it. So maybe that item controlled Sister Yuan's consciousness while she was weak and made her destroy those pages. And the fact that Sister Yuan forgot to bring the notebook back also proves that she still had not escaped from that item.”
"Where is Mom's notebook..." Xi Mo murmured.
“We got it back from Yang Shirong. Jian Sun made several copies. He kept one for himself, gave one to your father, and kept one with me.”
“...Can I take one back? It's Mom's belongings. I want to keep one.” Xi Mo pleaded.
Jian Hui nodded. “Jian Sun already prepared one for you.”
Xi Mo looked at Jian Sun. Jian Sun looked extremely gloomy and said, “No matter what happened that day, that Tai Sui definitely killed Sister. I will kill it.”
Jian Hui sighed and said, “After getting the notebook back from Yang Shirong, Jian Sun swore to find that Tai Sui. But we never knew what kind of Tai Sui it was. So as long as Jian Sun heard even the smallest bit of news related to Tai Sui, he would investigate it, no matter what kind it was. Until eleven years ago, Jian Sun heard news about a kind of gall Tai Sui in the rainforest of Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, and decided to go there, making many preparations beforehand.”
“This Gall Tai Sui was very strange. Jian Sun searched a lot of information and only then learned that its body hid underground and was very hard to find.” Jian Hui continued. “But gall Tai Sui would be attracted to child coffins buried in certain feng shui conditions. The ancient corpses inside these child coffins were very dangerous and could become corpse transformations, but Jian Sun still collected these child coffins everywhere.”
From this, it could be seen that Jian Sun had already gone crazy.
“There were too few ancient child coffin corpses that met the conditions. Jian Sun only collected four, but he felt it was better to prepare more. Because the gall Tai Sui's roots spread in huge directions, the more coffins buried in different locations, the more roots they could attract, making it easier to locate the gall Tai Sui. Until one day, he heard that a person named Huang Liang had a child coffin to sell. Jian Sun quickly contacted him to ask about it. Huang Liang and the people around him were tomb raiders. They brought that child coffin out from a place called Luoyan Mountain in Changsha. There was a huge tomb there. Jian Sun checked the feng shui and earth energy there and found it met the requirements, so he bought the child coffin from Huang Liang at a high price. But the child coffin couldn’t be opened, and Jian Sun couldn't personally confirm whether there really was an ancient corpse inside. He could only judge by shaking it. It indeed felt like a small corpse was lying inside.”
Xi Mo grew increasingly alarmed as she listened. Jian Hui continued, “So, Jian Sun brought these preparations and gathered a team to go to the rainforest in Xishuangbanna. He buried boxes in different directions in the rainforest, very deep, then placed the small coffins inside the boxes and set traps, waiting for the Gall Tai Sui's roots to come feed. When the time came, he would have the people he brought cut off the roots inside the boxes. This way, the ends of the Gall Tai Sui's roots would break and shrink back, but traces of the holes where the roots retreated would remain underground, and he would dig following those traces. Unexpectedly, an accident happened during this process.”
"What accident?" Xi Mo asked nervously.
Jian Hui said, "Several of Jian Sun's men were preparing to bury the child coffin from Luoyan Mountain in Changsha in a box to attract the evil spirits, but something went wrong with the child coffin. Jian Sun wasn't there at the time, and later they found those men lying on the ground. The child coffin was open, and the body inside had disappeared. There were torn clothes all over the ground. When those men woke up, they said they heard a noise from the coffin, like something was trying to come out, but after that they didn't remember anything."
She still looked shaken afterward. “Luckily, there were enough coffins brought there, so this did not affect locating the Gall Tai Sui's roots.”
"So what happened in the end?" Xi Mo asked in a low voice.
Source: https://www.jjwxc.net/onebook.php?novelid=2188414
This translation was originally posted on https://love4baihe.blogspot.com please read it there. and check out other stories too.
“I failed.” Regret and unwillingness showed in Jian Sun's eyes. “I chose the wrong direction again. The Gall Tai Sui was not the kind of Tai Sui I was looking for.”
In those years, he had tried too many wrong directions in response to various rumors about Tai Sui, and failed repeatedly, but he never gave up.
Jian Sun recalled, “At that time, there were other teams in the rainforest also looking for the Gall Tai Sui. They were from the Yu family in Changsha, and we had done business with them before. At first, I thought they had the same goal as me and were all after the Gall Tai Sui. Later, I realized that was not the case.”
This experience seemed to left a shadow on Jian Sun. He said, “They only wanted to use finding the Gall Tai Sui to search for something deeper behind it. I don't know what they were looking for, but the process was very terrifying. Almost all the Yu family teams died. Only a few adults and three middle school students survived, and one of them was the Yu family's Young Miss. My team also suffered heavy deaths and injuries. I almost died there. After I finally confirmed this was a wrong road with no return, and there was no point continuing because it had nothing to do with the Tai Sui that killed Sister, I immediately left that rainforest and came back to start searching for clues again.”
Author's Note:
Everything has been connected for everyone, the whole world.
