The Tale Never Ends

Shaking off my confusion and puzzlement, I hastily acknowledged and said, “Heh heh heh, it’s been a long time, Instructor Cao.”

“Oh, a long time indeed, Murong Shiyan,” Cao Xuedong replied, turning to face me with that unsettling smile of his. What’s happening!? I gasped to myself quietly, Has Time been reversed when we were trapped in the dark? Is this even possible?!

“Huang Li told me about your visit. I have been expecting you. Come on in,” he said and he pivoted around just like he did earlier, once again plunging into the dark interior of the villa. Lin Feng shot me a look that seemed to say: This is completely the same as just now?! There’s no way this is an enchantment! Two persons cannot have the same hallucination at the same time!

“Am I mistaken in thinking that we are reliving what we experienced just now all over again?” Lin Feng stammered in a shaking, doubting what he had just seen and wondering if he was going mad. I grabbed at his shoulder and shook it. “Now listen here, Lin Feng. We had passed through this door just now and we came out just now. For reasons yet unknown, we are experiencing it again. This is very real and I’m sure this is no illusion. So you’re not going mad and you’re not seeing things!”

Lin Feng stared right back at me. This time he looked more sanguine. At least he knew that he was not seeing things. But I could hardly blame him; anyone in our predicament would think they are going insane.

Lin Feng beheld the pitch blackness inside the villa and lighted himself a cigarette. “So, onward, brother?” I set alit a cigarette of my own and stood for a second, hesitating, then I agreed. “Yes. Onward!” And I dove headfirst into the dark, mysterious dimension that awaited us. Dragging Chongxi with him, Lin Feng padded close behind. But as soon as they stepped into the opening, the door clicked shut again and darkness swallowed even the last slivers of the moonlight from outside.

I felt the edges of my eyes twitching restlessly. I flicked my cigarette at the direction of the door and it disappeared as if being swallowed whole by some invisible monster. There was no sign of it hitting the door and no fiery sparks tossed up by any miniature fireworks when the cigarette hit the ground. Visibility was only down to one meter around me and Lin Feng’s facial expression going tense with consternation was the best that I could make out. “What now, Shiyan?” Lin Feng’s voice came. But I could only shake my head; I was really at a complete loss this time.

He might have not seen me shaking my head. But getting no response from me, even after waiting for several beats in the dark, he began to understand that I had yet to discover a solution. A weary sigh came from his direction. “Let’s try our luck and see where it leads us then!” He said suddenly, “We can try backpedaling at the direction we came from! I refuse to believe that this space can be as huge as a park!” With a grunt, he pulled up Chongxi and began walking back.

Despite being dragged on his haunches, Chongxi was still sleeping like a dead horse, completely oblivious to what had been happening. Lin Feng was already walking back in the direction we came from and there was nothing else I could do but follow him. I had withdrawn my spirit wolves before coming back into this space, knowing that they could be of no use except only to serve as a distraction.

We barely walked for a few meters when I noticed Lin Feng’s footfalls stopping and he called, “Come here, Shiyan! Look!” I backtracked to him and saw a little red glow on the ground, still burning blazingly in the dark. I stooped down and saw it was the cigarette stub I had just tossed away.

We looked at each other and Lin Feng’s was a convoluted look of befuddlement. But I chuckled, for the first time with a glimmer of hope. “I see. So this dimension is not without vector. Much of the confusion is caused by the darkness. I daresay I have given Cao Xuedong too much credit.”

The discovery of my cigarette stub behind us was proof enough that the dark void we entered did not confuse one’s direction. Whether this was a pocket dimension or not, this was only a space filled with complete darkness and not a completely empty one.

Lin Feng mulled on what I said, but he failed to figure out what I just said. “So, should we go on?” he asked and I nodded. “Let’s go. At least we can be sure now that this dimension is not boundless. By the discovery of this cigarette butt after backtracking, I am now sure that this place is big, but we’ll reach the end eventually. Let’s go on for now.” Lin Feng nodded as if he understood me and he heaved up Chongxi and walked on.

Before long, a door—one that looked identical to the one we saw just now, with two glowing lamps perched on either side—loomed before us. Even the flickers of the luminescence radiating from inside looked the same from before. Lin Feng threw a look at me and I returned an approving nod and I went forth to twist the knob and opened the door.

A blast of cold wind whistled through the door as it opened and we found ourselves outside once again. “Oh, dear! So here we are all over again!” Lin Feng grumbled. But I however had made our single most shocking discovery. “No, wait! Lin Feng, check your time!” Lin Feng immediately rummaged in his pocket and took out his phone. Lo and behold, he drew a long breath incredulously, unable to believe what he had just seen. The time on our cell phones was still showing half past midnight!

My eyes narrowed as I raked my mind for ideas even though I could not quite make out what was happening. I thought the time was still passing like normal and I did not notice anything wrong when I checked the time earlier. Although it was not quite so; no matter how long time passed inside, it would be reset back to half-past midnight when we came back out.

When did the time turn back? Was it when we walked out the door? It could be. That would explain how we had to knock on the door again to replay the loop.

With my ruminations still ongoing, I walked to the door and knocked again. Three times. Nothing. Another three times and the door opened, just like before and there was Cao Xuedong all over again. I kept the conversation to the same, only this time, Lin Feng did not say a word. He merely looked on quietly. We waited until Cao Xuedong disappeared into the darkness of the house and he asked, “Why are you keeping to the same script, Shiyan? Maybe you can try changing it. Something different might yield…”

“No,” I cut him off, shaking my head and said, “The contents of what we’re saying won’t matter much. The conclusion would be the same even if I try to say something else. We would still be walking into whatever dimension that now constitutes the inside of the villa.” “I see. So what if we refuse to go in?”

It was something I had not thought of. I was stunned for a moment. Indeed, the thought had not occurred to me in the slightest. My gaze wandered to Lin Feng. Whatever enchantment or spell is this, the infinite time loop has kept us trapped; not only physically, but mentally too! What if we turn now? I wondered. What would happen? Would the spell be broken just like that?

I signaled a nod at Lin Feng and I walked out of the compound of Unit 104, heading across the road to Unit 105. But as soon as I stepped on the tarmac, I felt a strange sensation, stirring and yet inexplicable, running down me for an instant and it was until I stepped onto the strip of green verge in front of Unit 105 only I realized why.

The gates of the villa in front of me was ajar, I noticed. But instead of seeing Unit 105, the number on the plaque at the gate was showing “104”! So that was the indescribable feeling! Unit 105 and Unit 104 were facing each other with the road in between, the former on the east and the latter on the west. So instead of walking towards east back to Unit 105, I had been walking westbound and back to Unit 104!

Gods in Heaven, I grimaced, The enchantment of this infinite bounded field is no simple feat! Whoever is behind this, how did they pull off a trick like this!?

I looked at Lin Feng. His forehead was peppered with cold beads of perspiration. He craned his back and groaned. “D*mmit! Can’t we even walk out of this compound!” I took out my cell and peered at the time. Thirty-five past midnight. Five minutes had passed. Somehow, unlike the dimension inside the house, any movements here would not alter the time. Still, the problem remained: no matter what we do, we cannot extricate ourselves from this infinite loop.

The door of Unit 104 was left open since Cao Xuedong had walked in and inside was an unknown pocket dimension that looked eerily similar to a black hole; a deep black pit that seemed to swallow any light. “So, go in now?” Lin Feng croaked. Pausing a beat to think, I replied, “In.”