Free Web NovelThe empty cave was pitch black, filled with constant whispers.
"Are you listening to their prayers?"
In the darkness, a childish, cold voice asked, sounding like a little girl who hadn't lost her child's voice. ƒrēewebnovel.com
Long silence.
"Yes, I think they are very pitiful, and I want to help them," a soft voice replied, seemingly that of a young girl.
"Help them? What ridiculous talk!"
The young girl didn't speak, simply listened to the waves of whispers, trying hard to make out the meaning they contained.
"I see you're beyond saving. We are gods, totems, symbols. We are born to be worshipped, but we don't need to answer the prayers of all believers."
"Trivial matters like blessing a newly married woman so her cooking doesn't burn tomorrow are not our concern, do you understand?"
The young girl ignored the little girl, just leaning forward in the chaotic, ignorant darkness. She felt she was about to hear the prayers of those humans, those subjects who worshipped them.
Just then, a sharp, stern shout exploded in her ear, destroying everything. The prayer that was about to become clear shattered and dissipated like a bubble in sunlight.
"Ju Meng! Your duty is to guard the Fusang Divine Tree, not pity those ignorant commoners!"
Finally, the young girl stopped listening and murmured to the little girl somewhere deep in the darkness, "Jumang's duty is to guard the Fusang Divine Tree..."
----
"Whew—!"
Late at night, Ju Meng woke up with a start on the bed in the old street pawn shop, looking at the ceiling and slowly exhaling a breath of stale air.
Recently, she always remembered past memories.
Those unhappy, rebellious "youthful" times, in a chaotic, ignorant darkness.
But those memories were too distant, long since blurred and no longer clear.
She turned her head to look out the window. The snow that had fallen for several days had stopped at some point. Moonlight sprinkled onto the snow-covered roofs of the old street, like a silver ocean.
Then, she murmured to herself, repeating what she had said in her dream.
"Jumang's duty is to guard the fuso..."
Finally, she added another sentence.
"I am not Jumang, and that is not the Fusang Divine Tree."
----
"Whew—! Finally finished reading it all. Now Professor shouldn't have so much to nag about!"
The first ray of faint light in the early morning, passing through the gap in the curtains, fell on Lu Yibei's desk. She stretched, her joints cracking slightly.
She stood {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} up and tidied the scattered A4 papers on the desk, deep in thought.
On the A4 paper, many strange symbols were drawn clumsily. Some looked like the sun, some like flying birds, some like large trees with intertwined roots and branches, and some were exactly like the mark on her hand, a peach tree with a perched Magpie.
If all these things are related to Smelly Girl... then doesn't she possess the Power of several types of mythical urban legend?
I originally thought my situation was already excessive, but now it seems she is even more so?
After so long, I thought I was very strong, and everyone else was gradually becoming trash. Who knew I was still the trash?
Lu Yibei thought, shook her head, and casually crumpled the A4 paper on the desk into a ball and threw it into the trash can.
Cunwu, Jumang, Fusang Divine Tree... these were all terms Lu Yibei looked up little by little from documents, corresponding to the symbols and patterns on the cultural relics.
It's unclear when it started, but whenever something related to myths or legends appeared, Lu Yibei's first reaction was to assume the related urban legend existed and start figuring out countermeasures.
Anyway, setting up hypothetical enemies won't hurt, at most it consumes a bit of mental effort. But if she really encounters urban legend born from legends, trying to come up with countermeasures on the spot would be a disaster.
Although Ju Meng is not in this category, while familiarizing herself with the information given by Professor Ma, for some reason, she felt a sense of pleasure in uncovering Ju Meng's dirty past little by little.
That feeling was as stimulating as peeking at the love and growth diary of the Older sister next door.
Yes, she was extremely stimulated that night, almost stimulated to the point of breaking down.
In fact, Lu Yibei originally planned to go back into the dream before setting off to discuss the mysteries of "Human Body Explosion Engineering" with the Ancestor.
However, after seeing the photos sent by Miao Miao Jiang, she couldn't sleep at all.
That figure leaning against the bed, supported by a weapon, that delicate face tinged with cherry blossom color, those long legs slightly pressed together due to shyness... In short, whenever she closed her eyes, all she saw was her figure.
This was the first stimulus Lu Yibei encountered. To prevent the plot from developing in a perverted and twisted direction, she decided to get up and study. Who would have thought that the study materials given by Professor Ma were also stimulating?
These two kinds of stimulation were not a matter of who came first. They were very special, superimposed, and had an outstanding effect, making Lu Yibei exclaim she couldn't take it.
After tidying the desk and organizing the personal items she needed for the trip, she glanced at the time and inwardly cried out, "Damn it."
Hurriedly grabbing the Coat, which she didn't know if it was sleeping but was wriggling at a very even rhythm anyway, she rushed outside like a whirlwind.
She had agreed to meet Professor at the school gate at eight o'clock, and it was already seven fifty-five.
I haven't eaten breakfast yet! Lu Yibei thought glumly.
Being late for Professor is acceptable, but not eating breakfast is not. Not eating breakfast is bad for one's health.
If she wants to live a long and healthy life, starting health preservation at nineteen is not too early.
----
Around eight in the morning, University City was between dawn and daylight, carrying a sense of "struggling to do sit-ups and forcing oneself to get up."
When Lu Yibei rushed to the entrance of Huacheng Institute of Technology, it was already two minutes past eight. She looked around but couldn't find Professor Ma.
So, feeling depressed about being stood up when she intended to stand someone up, she walked across the road with cheerful, slightly hopping steps to a noodle shop specializing in ginger duck noodles. She sat down, waved her hand grandly, and ordered a large bowl of dry-mixed ginger duck noodles, with less chili and more vegetables.
As soon as she finished speaking, she heard a warm, gentle voice from behind her.
"You must be Lu Yibei?"
"This young master is indeed!" Lu Yibei blurted out, then paused for a moment after speaking.
At this time, the noodle shop had just opened, and there were hardly any customers inside. She hadn't paid much attention when she came in. It wasn't until the voice came from behind that she noticed a man sitting at a table in the back corner.
A gentle demeanor like a spring breeze, bright eyes, and a handsome face with distinct features, displaying a healthy wheat complexion.
The man clearly looked young, but the roots of his hair already showed some streaks of white, adding a touch of melancholy to his refined handsomeness.
No, handsome guy, who are you?
Are you the tragic second male lead who ran out of some CEO romance novel?
Just as Lu Yibei didn't know how to strike up a conversation with this stranger, the man picked up his noodle bowl and sat down opposite her.
Then, without asking if she was willing, he started talking non-stop.
"I heard Professor Ma mention you. He said you are the most talented student he has seen in the past ten years."
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"Oh, by the way, I have read your paper. It's very insightful. It would be even better if it could go deeper."
"Oh, you are still a freshman, right? If a freshman can write a paper of that level, it's very impressive. Perhaps this is related to your family background?"
"..."
Family background? My family background is twenty-four Sichuan dishes and thirty-two snacks!
Facing the man's overly familiar remarks, Lu Yibei inwardly retorted and continued to bury herself in eating her noodles, eating very quickly.
Although she wasn't the female protagonist in a CEO romance novel, she, like the female protagonist, couldn't bring herself to like the man in front of her who looked like a second male lead.
This wasn't just because the man interrupted her meal, but also because when she first met the man's gaze, although she didn't detect any Spiritual Energy fluctuations on him, her eyes showed signs of heating up for a moment.
Although the possibility of a false "alarm" cannot be ruled out, the possibility of danger existing can even less be ruled out.
Simply put, she smelled a tiny bit of ominous aura on the man.
If not for this, she could have exchanged trash talk with this man in front of her and put on a stand-up comedy show.
Five minutes later, after finishing the last piece of vegetable leaf and leaving not even a single piece of green onion in the bowl, Lu Yibei wiped her lips, stood up, looked at the man who was about to say something to her, and said expressionlessly, "Your noodles are overcooked..."
After speaking, she hurriedly ran towards the small gate of Huacheng Institute of Technology.
----
Although Lu Yibei had agreed to meet Professor Ma at exactly eight o'clock, she only got into Professor Ma's car at eight-thirty.
The flight was booked for ten o'clock, and it would take about an hour to get to the airport. Seeing the risk of missing the boarding time, Professor Ma stepped on the gas pedal all the way and sped off.
Sitting in the car, Lu Yibei silently fastened her seatbelt and couldn't help but ask, "Professor, when you were young, did you participate in the Hua City Car God Championship or Spring Tea Mountain Downhill races?"
"No! Why do you ask?"
"I have a friend who is a taxi driver and calls himself the second Car God of Hua City. I think your speed is almost catching up to his," Lu Yibei said expressionlessly.
Professor Ma, "..."
"Speaking of which, Professor, why were you so late today? Aren't you usually very punctual?" Lu Yibei asked again.
"It's all your teacher's wife... " Professor Ma paused mid-sentence, was silent for two seconds, and sighed, "Ah, never mind! You wouldn't understand the hardships of adults."
This has been the routine before every business trip for over thirty years. Who told this old man he was born with a handsome face? Professor Ma muttered inwardly.
Lu Yibei glanced sideways at Professor Ma's face, which was full of exhaustion, and was momentarily speechless.
"..."
Although I "don't understand," I think I understand.
----
Fifty minutes later, after Professor Ma's Fast and Furious drive, the two of them actually arrived early at Gate A018 of Huacheng Airport.
Standing in front of the boarding gate, Lu Yibei looked through the glass at the monks on the tarmac chanting scriptures around the plane, accompanied by the sound of conch shells. Faint Spiritual Energy fluctuations were also faintly coming through. Her gaze gradually became complex.
"Professor, what the heck is this? Blessing the plane?"
Professor Ma took a sip of hot water, took a breath, and said casually, "Lu Yibei, you haven't been out for a long time, have you?"
"Yes, about two years," Lu Yibei replied.
Since that car accident... she muttered inwardly, a momentary dimness flashed in her eyes.
"Two years?" Professor Ma nodded. "That's about right. This has only started in the past year, and only two or three airlines are doing it. They say it's to avoid being attacked by urban legend during the flight and ensure flight safety."
Hearing this, Lu Yibei seemed to suddenly remember something and tilted her head. "This, is it because of the widely spread airplane urban legend incident on the internet before?"
"It seems to be because of that," Professor Ma said. He was also a bit unsure.
Lu Yibei nodded, deep in thought.
Although she couldn't see anything at that time, she could hear. Using a blind phone to browse Weibo, check Zhihu, and listen to headlines were basic operations, so she had also heard about that incident.
More than a year ago, a flight had an accident during its journey, resulting in the plane being destroyed and everyone on board dying. Afterward, it was discovered that the left engine had shut down.
Although it was a low-probability event at the time, it was still within the reasonable scope of understanding for aircraft mechanical failure.
However, ever since a bizarre recording, suspected to be from the phone of a victim, was uploaded online, the public opinion gradually began to deviate.
In the end, it was even spread that terrifying urban legend had attacked the plane, which was utterly ridiculous!
"If you ask me, this whole thing is to blame on those people online who stirred up trouble, creating all these issues and completely disrespecting the deceased. I don't believe any of that!"
When Lu Yibei heard this, she was about to remind Professor Ma that it's better to believe it might exist, but then she heard him continue, "When I left this morning, I used copper coins to divine it. Our trip will be smooth!"
Lu Yibei rubbed her forehead. "It's better if you don't completely trust the results of the copper coin divination, old man. What if something happens to us?"
After the social beatings and counter-beatings at Dream City Entertainment City, she is no longer so superstitious about the results of copper coin divination.
That thing can be interfered with.
Hearing Lu Yibei's words, Professor Ma repeatedly said, "Bah, bah, bah! Stop saying such inauspicious things. With you here, how could something happen?"
It's precisely because I'm here that things are likely to happen! Lu Yibei self-mockingly muttered in her heart, and echoed Professor Ma, "Alright! As long as you're happy, old man!"
As she spoke, she turned around to look towards the waiting hall. Her gaze pierced through the crowd, and suddenly she saw a figure. Her face immediately sank.
Twenty meters ahead, a certain "tragic second male lead" would reach the boarding gate in thirty seconds.
Just then, Professor Ma was seen walking towards the "tragic second male lead" and enthusiastically shaking his hand.
Lu Yibei was stunned.
Professor, what are you doing, Professor? Let go quickly, that thing is dirty!
"Lu Yibei, hurry, let me introduce you. This is our school's youngest visiting Professor, Hu Yue. He is also a famous antique collector in Yue City and is going to Tang City with us this time."
"..." Lu Yibei opened her mouth, just about to say something, when she heard a scream from diagonally behind her.
"Security, where's security! Help, someone's hitting people!"
Hearing that familiar scream, Lu Yibei's heart tightened. She suddenly turned around to look and saw Liu Banxian being grabbed, scratched, and having his hair pulled by three middle-aged women, chased and beaten all the way, finally escaping into Gate A018.
Lu Yibei, "???"
Good heavens, they're all acquaintances!
The man with a hint of ominous aura, Liu Banxian who is always getting beaten up, and me... could we all be on the same flight?
What kind of twisted combination is this?
Isn't this likely a death flight?
Thinking of this, Lu Yibei took out her phone, found Jiang... uh, Miao Miao Jiang's photo, and clasped her hands together against her chest.
Miao Miao Jiang bless me, Amen...
