DTTM 33

Chapter 33: The Good Shepherd Lays Down His Life for the Flock

The next morning, as dazzling spots of light pierced through the glass door of the balcony and quietly jumped onto my eyelids, I frowned and struggled to wake up. Facing the luxurious decorations in the room that were both strange and familiar, I was momentarily disoriented and didn’t know what day it was.

Am I sixteen or twenty-five?

I wondered if it’s because I’d been in the metaverse for too long that I was experiencing some side effects on my brain. Sometimes I felt like I was living in a strange world, and I couldn’t tell if it was an illusion or reality.

I sat on the edge of the bed for a while, and as my mind gradually cleared and my sense of reality returned, I got up and went to the bathroom to wash up.

The race at Xuanpu Station came to a successful conclusion, and the team should be packing up to return to Baiyujing. However, perhaps because they were reluctant to part with this rare day of family reunion, I only learned before leaving that Zong Yanlei had decided to stay in Xuanpu for a few more days and would not be going back with us.

As I went downstairs, I could see the horse ranch from the corridor window. In the warm afternoon sun, Han Zhe was carefully leading the reins in front, while Zong Yinzhuo and his twin sister Chu Yi rode a pony together behind him, slowly strolling around the enclosure.

Chu Luo, holding an umbrella, stood side by side with Zong Yanlei, quietly watching the scene. There was no need to get close to hear what they were saying; just by looking at the picture, it wasn’t hard to imagine how happy they were.

Before long, Han Zhe stopped, and the pony also stopped in front of Zong Yanlei and the others. Zong Yanlei walked towards the two children, and Zong Yinzhuo obediently stretched out his arms, letting him lift him off the horse. But when it was Chu Yi’s turn, he encountered a little trouble.

Judging from his appearance alone, Zong Yanlei didn’t seem very approachable. Chu Yi lived with the princess in Xuanpu year-round and rarely saw him. Perhaps feeling unfamiliar with him, she pulled her hand away and shook her head vigorously whenever he approached, unwilling to be touched.

Zong Yanlei tried for a while, but finally had no choice but to lower his arm. He said something to Han Zhe, who laughed loudly and reached out to hug the little girl on the pony. This time, Chu Yi did not resist and was easily lifted off the pony.

My fingers rhythmically tapped on the windowsill, producing a faint “tap-tap” sound.

Zong Yanlei seemed to have noticed my spying and glanced at me from the side, but before he could catch my gaze, Chu Luo’s words took his attention away from me.

After standing for a while, my lower back started to ache. I forced myself to look away from Zong Yanlei’s smile, pursed my lips, and turned to walk towards the staircase.

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When I received A-Qi’s call, I was already in the VIP waiting room.

“They’re here again!” His voice was filled with anxiety. “They showed me a video of my sister and said they could take me to see her. I’m a little scared. Can…can you help me? If I grow up safely, I will…I will definitely repay you by doing anything for you!”

Upon hearing his last words, I straightened up, remained silent for a moment, and asked, “How is your grandfather?”

He took a trembling breath and choked back a sob, saying, “Yes, he had a good appetite, ate a lot, and just went to sleep.”

“What do you want me to do?” I asked again.

“I…I want someone to help me, anyone will do.” He sounded helpless and lost, like a small boat destined to capsize in a stormy sea.

With a sigh, I reassured him, “You did a great job. Don’t be afraid, I’ll be right there.”

After hanging up the phone, I got up and walked quickly outside the waiting room.

“Jiang Man, the train is about to leave. Where are you going?” Xu Chengye called out to me from behind.

I turned around, not stopping, and made up a lie: “An old friend just arrived in Xuanpu and invited me to dinner. I’m going back to Baiyujing tomorrow, so please take my luggage back for me.” After saying that, without waiting for Xu Chengye to say anything more, I opened the door and left without looking back.

The station was relatively close to the slum, but it was still a two-hour drive away. When I arrived at my destination in an unmanned taxi, it was already sunset. The entire slum was shrouded in twilight under the setting sun, and it was so quiet that there wasn’t a sound.

Standing at the entrance, I called Ye Shuer to ask if his dopamine brooch had a positioning function.

He immediately sensed something was wrong: “Yes, I can locate it even if it falls into the deep sea. Ge, what happened?”

It wasn’t convenient to say too much over the phone, so I only gave him a name.

“Wuxi Chen”.

With Ye Shuer’s intelligence, he immediately understood my meaning without me having to say much.

“Are you using it or is someone else using it?” he asked hastily.

“There’s a 60% chance I’ll use it.”

There was a moment of silence on the other end, and then he spoke again: “I understand. Be careful then. I’ll notify Yu Xuan to come and support you.” He disapproved of me taking risks, yet he knew he couldn’t dissuade me.

“Hmm, also, have him prepare a corpse.” I looked around at the bleak winter scenery, my tone so casual as if I had simply mispronounced the word.“A… corpse of a Penglai person.”

Ye Shuer sounded like he really wanted to ask why, but he held back in the end.

“…Understood.”

After hanging up the phone, I slowly walked towards the group of buildings in front of me, which looked like they had been abandoned by the light.

After the human-hunt incident was exposed, according to Yu Xuan’s information, Wuxi Chen was severely reprimanded by his father, Wuxi Kunpeng, and then exiled to the Wuxi clan’s ancestral home—Qunyu Mountain.

It was a place some distance from Baiyujing, but relatively close to Xuanpu. Originally, the intention was for Wuxi Chen to retreat to the mountains to reflect on his mistakes, cultivate his character, and avoid the limelight. Unexpectedly, after only four months of silence, his mind grew restless again.

But perhaps this was for the best. Fortune and misfortune were intertwined; was it fortune or misfortune? One side might bring fortune, the other misfortune. Whether it was fortune or misfortune depended on one’s own fate.

Walking through the dimly lit alley, I followed the directions in my memory and found A-Qi’s crooked blue tin house.

Looking at the dim candlelight in the room, I smirked. The probability that I had initially thought was 60% had now risen to 90%.

If people were struggling to get enough to eat, who would waste precious candles on such an ordinary night?

I took out the silver brooch from my pocket, stepped forward and knocked on the door: “A-Qi, it’s me.” After saying that, I put the entire brooch under my tongue and pushed the door open.

A-Qi’s grandfather was still curled up on the worn-out mattress, just like yesterday, his breath so weak that his body barely moved. A-Qi stood in front of the mattress, and when he saw me come in, his face showed no joy, but rather was full of guilt and fear.

I smiled at him.

“I…” His gaze fell behind me, and his expression suddenly changed. “Watch out!”

As he finished speaking, something cold suddenly pressed against the side of my neck. The next instant, a tingling electric current shot from my neck to my shoulders and back, and then spread rapidly down my spine.

My muscles felt like they were being forcibly pulled, and I couldn’t breathe properly. In just a few seconds, I lost my balance and convulsed as I fell to the ground.

“Please don’t hurt my grandfather, he’s too sick to get up, he won’t tell anyone, please…” The last thing I heard was A-Qi’s desperate plea.

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When I woke up again, I was in a dimly lit, smelly cell. My hands and feet were shackled with chains, my communication devices were taken away, and I was dressed in a thin white shirt with a large number “1” visible on my chest.

“You’re awake…”

I paused and looked toward the source of the sound. A-Qi’s tiny figure was huddled in the corner, also dressed in white; I wouldn’t have noticed him if he hadn’t made a sound.

“I’m so sorry,” A-Qi hugged his knees, crying softly. “They said they could take me to my sister, but I felt something was wrong, so I told them I knew you and wanted to expose them… You’re the most powerful person I know, I just wanted to scare them so they wouldn’t dare touch me… I never expected… I never expected that as soon as they heard your name, they would make me call you and trick you into coming here… I refused, and they said they would kill my grandfather… I tried my best to warn you, but you didn’t understand…”

I spat out the brooch, pulled down my waistband, and tucked it into the inner layer of my pants. Then I lowered the hem of my shirt and tried it out; it covered the brooch perfectly.

“I knew,” I said as I rubbed my neck, which was still sore from the electric shock. “I walked into the trap myself; it has nothing to do with you.”

“Why…why are you helping me? We…we’ve only met once and exchanged a few words.”

“I’m not helping you.” I stood up from the cold ground, feeling my way along the uneven stone wall. After a while, I found a metal door. I pressed my ear against it, but couldn’t hear anything from outside.

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the flock.”

“What…?”

“The shepherd.” Unable to find a breakthrough, I sat down next to A-Qi, snuggling up with him for warmth. “From the Gospel of John.”

I had no idea if he understood or not, but he just said “oh”.

A-Qi said his treatment was a little better than mine; he was only blindfolded when he arrived, and wasn’t shocked with electricity. Those people drove for an hour or two before stopping; I estimated it was roughly the distance from the slums to Qunyu Mountain.

It seemed that Wuxi Chen’s new hunting ground was located in Qunyu Mountain.

Given that A-Qi’s clothes had the number “3”, I had reason to believe that there were other people in the cells numbered “2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8”, or even more. I told A-Qi to stick close to me no matter what happened, and if we got separated, to find a safe place to hide.

A-Qi said “Oh” again, and after a long pause, he asked me cautiously, “Will we…die?”

“We’ll die.” I smacked the child on the head, feeling him stiffen noticeably, then rubbed his bird’s nest-like head and continued, “But not today.”

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The absolute silence and unchanging light dulled my body’s perception of time. It might have been three or four hours, or even longer, before finally, a sound came from outside the cell.

“Tap, tap, tap!” It was the sound of boots clashing on the stone slabs.

“No! Let me go! Where are you taking me? Weren’t I supposed to be a servant? Why are you locking me up…”

Soon, the voice that sounded like it belonged to a twelve or thirteen-year-old gradually faded into the distance.

About ten minutes later, the footsteps returned, another door opened, and a new sound rang out.

“What are you doing? I want to go home… I don’t want to earn money anymore, please take me home! My younger siblings are waiting for me…”

About an hour passed, and after six groups of about eight people had left, the heavy footsteps finally stopped in front of my and A-Qi’s cell.

“Remember what I said.” I reminded A-Qi again before the door opened.

The iron door opened, and four men dressed in matching clown costumes and wearing clown masks walked in carrying lanterns. They pointed at me and A-Qi, telling us to get up and go out with them.

I didn’t struggle; I obediently got up and, led by them, walked out of the cell.

Outside was a narrow corridor, with only a few lights shining from a distance overhead, so dim that they could barely illuminate the ground beneath our feet. Iron doors on both sides of the corridor were tightly shut, and walking past them made no sound, leaving me unable to determine whether any living creature remained inside.

As we walked up from the underground, the surrounding decorations became increasingly luxurious. The floor was covered with intricately patterned handmade carpets, and overhead were crystal chandeliers that looked valuable. If it weren’t for the fact that all the windows on the other side of the corridor were sealed off with iron plates, preventing any outside air from getting in, this place would have been just an ordinary aristocratic mansion.

When we reached a carved wooden door, two clowns opened it, and two others pulled us inside by the chains on my and A-Qi’s hands.

Except for one area that was brightly lit, which resembled a “stage”, the rest of the room was dark.

The dazzling lights overhead shone directly into my eyes, almost blinding me. However, I could still see through the gaps that quite a few people were seated in the “audience.” They were dressed in elegant attire and wore pure white electronic masks, each one like a hungry beast, their eyes fixed on their prey on the stage, eager to pounce on them.

“Now, let me proudly introduce tonight’s number one star prey—Jiang Man!” A man dressed in a red velvet tuxedo and wearing a white electronic mask appeared on stage and enthusiastically introduced me to the audience, “Whoever can hunt him down will win the grand prize in the prize pool!”

“It’s the same as before, whoever catches him gets him, and can do whatever they want to him, right?” An electronic male voice rang out, his lecherous tone still radiated from the background despite being altered by a voice changer.

“Of course!” the figure in the red velvet dress exclaimed. “Torture him, rape him, kill him, or… eat him, whatever you please.”

Without a doubt, this level of perversion must belong to Wuxi Chen.

With my eyes downcast, I let those malicious gazes scrutinize me from head to toe. Just then, a sudden sound of shattering glass rang out from the audience.

Wuxi Chen paused, and looked over with everyone else.

It was a tall man dressed in a white tuxedo, sitting in the corner.

“Sorry…” His voice, filtered through the voice changer, sounded cold and mechanical. “I was too excited.” With that, he released his grip, and shards of glass fell like ice crystals from between his gloves.

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Author’s Note

The “Good Shepherd” refers to Jesus Christ, and the flock of sheep represents his followers.