Chapter 40 - Fear (1)
After the group of people who looked like they were from a fairy palace went down, the mist soon changed colour from white to green. With a burst of ethereal music, a group of well-dressed Westerners came out, resembling merchants. There were men, women, and shuangers among them, and their appearance had clearly been carefully selected.
When they came on stage, each of them was holding a small animal in their hands. The fur of each animal was smooth and soft, showing that they had been well-raised and were easy to handle.
They held the animals and placed them on the desks of each young master, guiding them to make various pleasing poses.
On An Yun’s desk was a small, round, pink rabbit, which was carrying a small backpack.
When the Westerner placed it in front of him, the rabbit first stood up and looked at him. With a whistle from the Westerner, the rabbit performed several dog-like movements, which amused An Yun.
As An Yun stared at the rabbit, feeling incredulous, he saw the rabbit take off the backpack it was wearing, push it in front of him, and then blink its watery eyes at him.
An Yun’s eyes widened. He knew that cats and dogs could be tamed and could even perform some simple actions according to human instructions, but he had never imagined that rabbits could be trained like this. It was truly shocking.
The Westerner noticed An Yun’s surprised expression, then glanced at the person next to him, who was holding his chin, occasionally looking at the shuanger next to him, but most of the time appearing bored, not even giving the rabbit a second glance. A plan formed in the Westerner’s mind.
The Westerner’s heavily made-up eyes blinked, and then he showed a standard flattering smile, saying to An Yun, “It seems that this guest and this little thing are particularly destined, as even such a treasure has been given to you.”
Although An Yun knew that the rabbit’s behaviour was likely trained by humans, he still felt a little pleased when he heard this. He looked up at the Westerner and smiled at him.
The Westerner was dazzled by his smile and was momentarily stunned. He was also a little flattered, and a look of surprise appeared on his face. Then he noticed a piercing gaze. Following the gaze, he saw Zang Ya looking at him, his eyes full of pressure.
The Westerner’s previously casual demeanour immediately became serious. He then skipped the original process of asking An Yun to take out props from the backpack to interact with the rabbit. Instead, he took out the props himself and interacted with the rabbit, making it perform various funny actions, which made An Yun sigh in amazement.
When the distant drum sound came, the man bowed and took the rabbit back to the mist.
An Yun’s eyes followed the rabbit as it jumped onto the Westerner’s arm. Seeing it stay on the man’s arm obediently, his eyes were filled with joy.
When the man disappeared into the mist with the rabbit and his companions, An Yun continued to stare, looking a bit wistful.
“Want it?”
An Yun turned his head when he heard the question. He saw Zang Ya looking at him with a bit of indifference in his eyes, but the words he spoke seemed to suggest that if An Yun wanted it, Zang Ya would get it for him immediately.
An Yun felt a little embarrassed when he heard that, but he still whispered to Zang Ya, “No, I don’t want it. I just think that rabbit is really well-trained. I think it’s incredible. How did they do it?”
When An Yun said these words, he spoke casually, not expecting Zang Ya to have an answer.
But to his surprise, after An Yun asked this question, Zang Ya spoke up and bluntly said, “It’s just a small trick.”
An Yun turned his head to look at him.
Zang Ya continued, “These are all tricks of the Wandering Magicians, but the people here are more skilled at them. They’re not rare things.”
After listening to his explanation, An Yun felt that everything made sense, and suddenly realized it wasn’t something that amazing.
During the conversation between An Yun and Zang Ya, the mist changed colour again, this time gradually turning black, and the music took on a sense of ethereal horror.
Hearing this sound, An Yun had a bad premonition. When he saw the Yama King with the Black and White Judges emerging from the mist, his heart suddenly tightened.
In An Yun’s previous life, when he lived in an orphanage, it was only slightly better than wandering the streets. He had a place to sleep, and although the food wasn’t great, it kept him alive.
In such a place where merely growing up was considered fortunate, there were naturally bullies. Once, An Yun accidentally provoked the leader of another small group and was tricked into a warehouse in the middle of the night and locked up.
The room was very small, located in the orphanage’s storage area at the back of the mountain. The windows of the storage room faced a row of graves. Some of these graves belonged to orphans who had died of serious illness, and some were for people who had died unexpectedly without their families being found.
At that time, An Yun already knew about ghosts and deities, so naturally, he was terrified when he saw a place where he could only see graves.
But it was already late at night, and in four days, a philanthropist was scheduled to visit the orphanage to make a donation. Everyone in the yard was busy preparing for the performance for the philanthropist. In the chaos, no one noticed that one of the more than 100 orphans was suddenly missing.
It wasn’t until the third day, when the final preparations for the performance were underway, that they realized An Yun was missing.
When An Yun was finally found in the storage room, he had developed a high fever from fright and was already unconscious. The orphanage manager thought he wouldn’t survive, but fortunately, An Yun pulled through with his own perseverance.
However, since then, An Yun had developed a fear of ghosts.
Especially after he travelled through time, his fear of the supernatural grew. After all, if time travel was possible, wasn’t it even more plausible that ghosts might exist here?