Main Story Chapter 9-18: Enslaved Heart (被奴役的心) | Light and Night 光与夜之恋

Previously on Chapter 9-15... (read here)

You: I'm... saved?

I rubbed my eyes in disbelief, looking down from the cliff, but I can only see the waves surging.

It's too weird, everything is just too weird.

Why did the road turn into wilderness? Why would a driverless car suddenly crash towards the cliff? Who is the one controlling it?

I raised my head, looking at the skies with not a single impurity on it, and suddenly trembled.

Where is Evan and Zhou Yan? Do they know what happened just now? What exactly is the pink light that saved me?

Countless questions passes through my mind, yet I can't get a single answer.

Standing at the empty barren land, the overwhelming feelings of suffocation pounced towards me from all directions. I have to leave this place, I told myself to calm down, and walk back to the direction I came from.

The land here feels soft and cold when stepped on, as if the yellow sandstones are merely a fake layer of mask, and what lies under the mask is an ice cave that are thousands of miles deep.

I am also unable to feel the flow of time, the sun hanging high up in the skies is just like a perpetual instrument that someone has hung up there, there are not a single change in the rays of light.

Each leaf, each bit of soil and each gale, they aren't what they are, they are just called leaf, soil and wind, they are looking so artificial that I started to feel dizzy.

You: ... What is that?

I stopped my footsteps, and looking at the castle standing not far away.

It looks like a TV screen with unstable signal, it always appear and disappear.

You: What a weird castle...

But it seems to have a special kind of attraction, that made me subconsciously wanting to approach it.

Along the way, the air seemed like there are countless pairs of hands blocking me from approaching it, yet at the moment I stepped into the courtyard, the obstructions are gone.

Pushing the door open, what welcomes me are only gales of cold wind.

You: Anyone there?

What answered me were only the echoes.

The spiral staircase, wooden long table, and a flower field behind a half-opened door.

You: Is this... The Lu family's castle? But why does it look so old?

I walked along the long corridor, and both sides are all tightly-shut doors. There are nobody here, with a few mottled building blocks, looking a little aged.

The more I walk forward, the colder the air becomes.

You: It's clearly only early autumn, why does it feel like winter?

???: Help me--

You: Who is it?!

My heart throbbed suddenly, and there are a bunch of weird sounds stuffed in my head.

???: The child that even my traitor brother of mine didn't want, death is instead a wish granted for him.

???: But that child seems to have high amount of talents, the master have also noticed this point.

???: So what? There'll be nothing left if he dies.

???: He has gone missing for a week last time, and who even found out about it?

You: Whose voice is this? Why are they a little familiar...?

I walked towards the sound, and pushed that door hard.

A giant lake entered my view, a boy with his back facing me is pushed into the waters.

You: !

Plop-- The water splashes, yet the boy did not struggle for a single bit, seemingly very eager to embrace death.

It feels like I've seen this scene somewhere before.

But I couldn't think about anything, only to run towards there, yet my hand passes through the boy's body, and caught onto nothing.

You: How could this be?

???: ... Young master?!

A boy that is about the same age as him suddenly stood by my side, he yelled loudly in panic, trying to search for something.

I called him a couple of times, but he didn't respond to me.

You: Could he possibly can't see nor hear me?!

???: Someone, hurry! The young master is drowning!

The servants all rushed over, but only to look from afar, despite his efforts in yelling.

Until someone faintly nodded, that the servants hesitated to walk forward, and scooped the drowning boy back up.

Only then I saw that drenched face clearly, isn't he the boy I saved in the fountain at Lu family's water fountain?!

Servant: Zhou Yan, why is the young master here? Weren't you accompanying him by his side?

The boy addressed as Zhou Yan shook his head in fear.

Little Zhou Yan: It's my fault for not watching the young master well...

Boy: It's not his fault.

The boy is helped to stand up, and just when he was about to be sent to the hospital, a prestige-looking silhouette suddenly blocked before him.

???: Evan, this is the forbidden land of the Strains, are you clear about the consequences of breaking in?

You: Evan?!

Do they share the same name? Or... Is he Evan?

I mustered my courage and lifted my head, and after I see that person's face clearly, I had coosebumps all over me.

You: Lu Ting...

The boy beside him has stood up properly, slowly opening his eyes, that is a pair of blood-red pupils.

The long forgotten shards of memories are now pieced into a puzzle.

During that night of Warson's Grand Show, I already had a guess that Evan is perhaps a Strain.

My guess is now proven. But are everything here believable?

Where exactly is this place? Why am I seeing the things happening just now? And why can't they see me?

The scene before me started to twist, and with s slam, the door is now tightly shut before my eyes.

Standing in the corridor at a loss, there are just too much that I didn't understand.

Can I still make it if I leave now? I turned around, but only to find no room of maneuver behind me.

I can only keep moving forward.

A gust of wind that came from nowhere opened another door.

I saw the boy just now standing outside the castle with its main entrance tightly shut, holding a bunny doll as he tiptoed to look into the distant, seemingly waiting for someone.

In the pitch black night skies behind him, a bright moon slowly rose.

A little shadow drags on the ground, shaking as the wind blows.

Just when I was about to close the door, the bunny doll is suddenly thrown to the side of my feet.

???: I thought it's something else, so it's just a rabbit. Are you still waiting for your father's return?

???: I don't even understand why the master is still keeping you, you are clearly the son of a traitor. Do you know how much shame your father have brought upon the Lu family?

???: By the time you are banished when you are 12, I'll see how many days you can survive in the wilderness. Only the ones lived after being banished will be valued by the master.

A few teenagers stood before the boy, pointing fingers at him, and they all had the same pair of red eyes.

The boy kept silent all the way, drooping his gaze and looked towards a certain place on the floor.

Seeming have not receiving an expected response, the teenagers booed away.

Right then, the boy raised his head. The guard that disappeared in an instant made me suspect that he can actually see me.

I can't help myself but to extend an arm, wanting to pick the bunny up, despite knowing that this might be just an action in vain.

You: ...!

A soft touch have came through my finger. I held the bunny up in surprise, as if I'm held into a warm embrace.

That is an embrace that is filled with longingness yet filled with restrain.

I spent great efforts to suppress my urge to cry.

I gently patted off the dust, walked towards him, and gave him the rabbit back.

Boy: Thank you.

He does not seem to be surprised over my presence, still looking to the floor calmly, only to hold the bunny tightly into his arms.

The sky is turning bright in the east, it's about to be daytime. Will the person he's waiting for coming back?

I can't help but wanting to hug him, yet just when I was about to touch his fingertips, the scene twisted once again, and I returned to the dim corridor again.