Chapter 243: Chapter 205: The Collection Room
Yang Xiao saw the man take several deep breaths, his gaze suddenly turned fierce as if he had finally made some sort of decision. Squatting down, he gently touched the boy’s head and whispered, "Hongxuan, daddy is going to buy you a balloon. You be a good boy and wait here for daddy, okay?"
"Okay." The boy looked up, his handsome face with bright, large eyes sparkling, an unusual child full of spirit.
After hearing the little boy’s response, the man slowly got up and took a few more careful looks at the boy. He finally turned around reluctantly and walked away, picking up speed until he disappeared into the night.
Yang Xiao knew that the man was not coming back, the so-called trip to buy a balloon was just an excuse. He had left the boy behind, or more accurately, abandoned him.
Perhaps he couldn’t bear to see his child suffer by his side and hoped that among the coming and going crowds, a kind soul would appear.
As expected, the man never returned, and the boy continued to wait on the spot, gazing repeatedly in the direction in which the man had vanished, until the amusement park gradually emptied of people.
After an indeterminate amount of time, the night deepened and as one attraction after another shut down, the visitors dwindled. Under the night sky, the boy’s figure was so small and helpless.
Yang Xiao couldn’t help but look in the direction where the man had disappeared, not knowing what he was expecting, since he knew the man would not appear again.
As Yang Xiao’s hope was dashed once more and he withdrew his gaze, in the next second, he was stunned; the spot where the boy had been was empty.
The boy was gone.
Yang Xiao twisted his neck, searching left and right, but the boy was nowhere to be seen. In the blink of an eye, he had vanished.
"Drip."
"Drip, drip."
Suddenly, Yang Xiao tensed up, as the crisp sound of raindrops hitting a raincoat came from directly behind him. The person in the raincoat was extremely close, nearly pressing against his back.
Yang Xiao’s upper body stiffened, he didn’t dare to move an inch, and Lu Youdao, who had been leading him, seemed to sense something as well, his steps slowing markedly.
Soon, Yang Xiao’s left wrist was gripped by a small, icy cold hand. In that moment, he felt as if half his body had frozen stiff.
"Uncle, have you seen my father?" the tender child’s voice sounded from behind him. Yang Xiao clenched his teeth, not daring to make a sound.
"Uncle, I can’t find my father. He said he was going to buy me a balloon. Father hasn’t had a full stomach in a long time, because of me."
The boy’s childish voice cut through the night like a knife, and Yang Xiao almost lost control of his desire to turn around and give the boy a comforting embrace. Luckily, he held back and remained silent at the last moment.
"Uncle, do you think if I had a balloon, my father might come back?"
"Then... could you give me a balloon?"
The boy’s grip grew tighter, strength that couldn’t possibly come from a child. Yang Xiao felt as if his wrist was about to be crushed.
Thankfully, Lu Youdao ahead was reliable, steadily pulling him forward, and finally, the two of them reached the exit of the amusement park.
Lu Youdao stepped through the exit first, and Yang Xiao sharply noticed the ground outside was dry. There was no rain outside the amusement park!
He was right, this amusement park was none other than a ghostly world created by ghost children. As long as they stepped out and left, they would be safe!
But the ghost child still hadn’t given up. He kept repeating his request for a balloon to Yang Xiao, grasping his wrist tightly and trying to pull him back desperately.
Finally, Yang Xiao managed to move his left leg towards the exit with great difficulty, and Lu Youdao also helped him until Yang Xiao’s shoe hit something hard.
"Hmm?"
Yang Xiao found it strange that his foot, hanging in midair, actually stepped on a threshold.
Would the exit of an amusement park have a threshold?
In Yang Xiao’s estimation, this so-called exit should correspond to something in reality, such as the iron door leading out of the corridor.
But... but there was no threshold behind that iron door either.
As one question emerged, it seemed to trigger a domino effect, with more and more questions flooding into Yang Xiao’s mind. The most serious one concerned Yang Xiao’s eyes.
He remembered clearly that Lu Youdao had instructed him not to open his eyes and, to prevent accidents, even tore off strips of cloth to bind his eyes tightly.
If he hadn’t opened his eyes, then... then how could he see all this before him—the amusement park, the man, the little boy, and... and Lu Youdao right in front of him?
It was all fake, all of it!!
This exit was fake, Lu Youdao was fake, once he stepped through, he would never be able to return!
He had no other choice; Yang Xiao decisively retracted his left leg hanging in the air, took a deep breath, steeled his heart, and abruptly turned around. The next second, he was pulled away by the ghost child behind him.
"Whew—"
"Whew—"
As the light and shadows changed before his eyes, Yang Xiao stepped into thin air and fell to the ground. It was hard and somewhat cold—the floor beneath him was hard marble.
A hand ripped the cloth from his eyes, and as his vision gradually cleared, Yang Xiao saw the face before him: a horrifying ghost face.
Lu Youdao stared at him with a strange look in his eyes; the red balloon was gone. Yang Xiao slowly turned his head and saw the string tied to the middle finger of his right hand was still there, but the other end was caught in a door crack. Looking up slowly, he saw an unfamiliar wooden door in front of him.
And outside the door, there stood a high wooden threshold.
In that instant, Yang Xiao understood everything. He had been tricked by the ghost’s illusion, from the moment he started thinking, he had been ensnared and pulled into the amusement park under the rain curtain.
It was so close, he was nearly taken behind this door by the ghost, and here, surely, was where the Resentful Eye the ghost child had inhabited was stored.
As his mind cleared a bit, Yang Xiao leaned against the wall, struggling to stand up. He had too many questions to ask, but before he could speak, he was grabbed by a strong hand, lifted forcefully, and half-dragged towards the outside.
"Mr. Lu, you..."
Only when he reached the iron door did Yang Xiao suddenly realize that Lu Youdao’s expression was ferocious, his bloodshot eyes so red they seemed about to bleed.
Lu Youdao shook his wrist and pushed Yang Xiao out. In the struggle, Yang Xiao knocked over a rack on the inside of the door, scattering objects all over the floor.
Stumbling backwards, Yang Xiao was pushed out of the door, nearly falling, as Lu Youdao, without any explanation, slammed the iron door shut with a "bang."
Yang Xiao hadn’t recovered from the previous events, and he didn’t understand why Lu Youdao had become so irritable, but he could feel that both Lu Youdao’s emotions and his body were very wrong—as if he was exhausted.
Also, Yang Xiao inadvertently saw, behind the rack he had knocked over, a rusted metal plate.
On it, spotty and mottled, read the words "Collection Room."
