Linbiangui Village-Infinite Streaming Chapter 11
byUncle Dong’s Strange Tale
Aunt Jiu stumbled, nearly falling, and the direction she was heading was exactly where Chen Jin was squatting.
Chen Jin quickly reached out to catch her, but Wu Zeng was a step faster, steadying Aunt Jiu in mid-air.
“Crippled old hag!” The spirited young man sneered, threw the photo on the ground, and walked away.
The surrounding villagers who had been secretly watching withdrew their gazes, pretending nothing had happened, and continued minding their own business—chatting or watering plants. No one was scrolling on their phones.
Aunt Jiu pushed Wu Zeng away with a look of dejection, whispered “thank you,” and then limped toward the photo on the ground. It seemed she had twisted her ankle.
Wu Zeng reached out, picked up the photo, and placed it back in Aunt Jiu’s hand. The aunt was stunned; perhaps she hadn’t expected anyone to help her at this moment.
Before she could react, however, the two of them stood up and walked away.
Aunt Jiu silently watched their retreating figures. She finally remembered—these two were the outsiders who had attended the pig slaughter yesterday. For some reason, her memory had been very poor lately.
Back at the Guesthouse, Uncle A Dong, the owner, had finally returned. Chen Jin was practically moved to tears.
Uncle A Dong was still sitting at the table, scrolling through short videos on his phone. He ignored his reading glasses, which were slipping down his nose, completely engrossed. His fingers moved quickly and skillfully.
The video was playing out loud, the volume low, but they could faintly hear some rhythmic sounds.
“?” The two realized something was wrong. This phone and these short videos were not products of 2010. Had they gotten something wrong?
“Boss, we left our key in the room. Could you please use the spare key to open the door for us? Thank you,” Chen Jin said to the owner, his eyes unconsciously drifting toward the screen.
Wu Zeng curled his lip but said nothing.
The owner grunted, put down his phone, and slowly pulled a key from a heavily worn drawer. “Let’s go.”
The phone video didn’t stop playing. It was showing a news report: “The battle against poverty has achieved complete victory.”
Chen Jin could finally return to his room. Everything inside was exactly as it had been when they arrived yesterday. In just two days, Chen Jin had developed a great affection for this room; finally, he didn’t have to share a room with anyone else!
After a morning of repeated back-and-forth, it was only two in the afternoon. Although the sunlight outside was bright, the room felt chilly.
The bathroom was still dripping water, the sound loud and abrupt.
Chen Jin stepped into the bathroom. The room’s pervasive green color gave him the creeps. He reached out and turned on the faucet, closing his eyes and splashing a handful of water onto his face, giving it a quick wash.
When he opened his eyes again, Chen Jin felt much clearer-headed. His hair was slightly damp, sticking up on his forehead after being wet. Without the obstruction of glasses, his eyes were bright and spirited—he looked radiant and refreshed.
Everything was perfect, except for the scruffy old man with yellow teeth and reading glasses standing behind him.
Uncle A Dong, the owner, had entered Chen Jin’s room without a sound and was now standing quietly behind him. His glasses were still perched on his nose, his eyes vacant, his mouth slightly open. He stood silently in the center of the green room, looking distinctly too strange.
Chen Jin jumped in surprise, but outwardly remained calm, secretly gripping the bottle of mint shower gel—the same brand Wu Zeng used—in his hand.
Suddenly, Uncle A Dong slowly reached forward, seemingly holding something.
Chen Jin didn’t have time to identify it. He slammed the shower gel bottle onto Uncle A Dong’s head, then kicked him just above the knee. Uncle A Dong cried out in pain and staggered back two steps. A red welt immediately appeared on his forehead, and a wig fell to the floor, exposing his bald spot to the light of day.
He tightly covered his forehead with his hand, either because of the severe pain or to hide his baldness.
The shower gel bottle was almost full, so its weight was quite damaging, and the sound it made was loud.
With a bang, Chen Jin’s door was kicked open, the metal plate connecting the door frame falling to the floor. The person who entered was Wu Zeng.
Wu Zeng rushed into the room, his expression grave. Without a word, he delivered another kick to Uncle A Dong’s back, sending him sprawling onto the floor.
Wu Zeng then pulled Chen Jin behind him. They both stared intently at Uncle A Dong, afraid he might make another move.
“Ouch…” Uncle A Dong clutched his waist and struggled to stand up, unable to utter a complete sentence for a while. “I…”
Truthfully, Chen Jin and Wu Zeng looked far more threatening than Uncle A Dong, but they were extremely nervous. What if this old man could sprout tentacles? What if he was a Predator?
“What were you trying to do, sneaking in here?” Chen Jin asked sternly, his face sinking.
“You… you dropped something.” Uncle A Dong tremblingly held out a small booklet—it was Chen Jin’s student ID, which he kept in the side pocket of his backpack. It looked like it had fallen yesterday.
“Why didn’t you just say so instead of sneaking in!” Wu Zeng snatched the student ID, his face grim.
“If I hadn’t come in…” Uncle A Dong lowered his head, looking like a pathetic old man in his twilight years. “How would I have known you were so afraid of me, ha ha ha ha ha!”
“How did someone with your intelligence get into Ming University, junior?” Uncle A Dong burst into loud laughter, his entire face contorted with madness and distortion, as if he hadn’t been the one just beaten. “Let’s make a deal.”
Wu Zeng kicked him again, interrupting his theatrics. “Spit it out.”
“Kuso!” Uncle A Dong adjusted his glasses and let out an angry roar.
Oh no, a shut-in. A shut-in this old—that’s a long-lasting hobby.
Chen Jin pursed his lips in exasperation, wondering what kind of monsters and weirdos he kept running into.
“If you don’t talk, I’m throwing you out the window.” Wu Zeng grabbed his collar, making a move to push him toward the windowsill.
“No, no, no.” Uncle A Dong quickly grabbed the door frame, afraid of being dragged away by Wu Zeng.
Chen Jin, meanwhile, pulled up a stool and sat down in front of him, watching him expectantly to see what shocking revelation he would make.
“Do you know the situation you’re in right now?” Uncle A Dong asked mysteriously.
The two remained silent, simply gesturing for him to continue.
“Oh, it seems you do know.” Uncle A Dong patted the dust off himself and continued, “Then you must also know what a Spirit Entity Luo is?”
This, they genuinely did not know.
“Alright, I can see you only have a partial understanding. Since we’re alumni, I’ll explain it for free. I forgot to mention, I was a Ming University student in the 2010 class, five, six, seven, or eight classes ahead of you.”
You don’t look like a middle-aged man in his thirties. This mid-life crisis is too much of a crisis.
“Get to the point.”
“Okay, okay. Human spiritual power is very strong. Intense emotions like resentment, obsession, or happiness can form a ‘Spirit Entity.’ If multiple similar Spirit Entities gather in one place, they form an ‘Infinite World’ in that area. The strongest Spirit Entity can control the form of this world. People with weak spiritual power will be drawn into it. Those drawn into an Infinite World must solve the world’s puzzle to leave, otherwise, they will be trapped forever and disappear from the real world.” Uncle A Dong patted his chest, looking slightly proud. “And I, well, I am an entity of obsession formed by my deep love for my wife. The deeper the love, the stronger the form. My profound affection allows me to travel between various Infinite Worlds.”
Got it. A waifu enthusiast.
“How do we break the world?” Even with all the background information, Chen Jin still felt confused.
“Perhaps you need to resolve the Spirit Entity’s obsession, but I’m not entirely sure about that.”
“Why are you looking for us?” Chen Jin’s confusion remained unanswered.
“It’s like this: if you directly break the situation, my little Spirit Entity will disappear along with this world.” Uncle A Dong paused, then said somewhat flatteringly, “Unless you excellent, wise, decisive, and clever people who have been drawn in write my name on yourselves before breaking the situation, then I can travel to the next world.”
“So you want us to write your name on ourselves?”
“That’s exactly right.”
“How can we trust you? What if writing your name is a curse?”
“Oh dear, why do children of the new era still believe in curses!”
Chen Jin thought, I’m a materialist, but I’m also looking at a ghostly thing like you!
Uncle A Dong grew anxious. He stood up, made a cut on his finger, squeezed out a drop of blood, and said with a serious expression, “I’ll give you my blood. If I’m lying, you can use it to draw a five-pointed star, and it will directly cause me agonizing pain until death.”
Uncle A Dong looked ready to die, pointing his finger at the two of them and forcefully squeezing out a drop of blood.
Wu Zeng took a tissue, grabbed two opposite corners, and moved them left and right. A five-pointed star instantly appeared on the paper.
The moment the pattern appeared, Uncle A Dong’s head swelled red, his lips turned purple, and large beads of sweat seeped from his bald head. He seemed to be enduring immense pain. He struggled to reach out, his trembling finger pointing toward the tissue.
Wu Zeng understood. He quickly tore the tissue to shreds. With the destruction of the five-pointed star, Uncle A Dong gradually returned to normal.
Gasping for breath on the floor, Uncle A Dong asked intermittently, “How was that?”
“We’ll tentatively believe you,” Wu Zeng stretched his back and continued, “Do you really have to rely on us? Can’t you solve it yourself?”
“It’s not relying! It’s cooperation!” Uncle A Dong emphasized, exasperated. “Whoever solves the puzzle can leave the Infinite World, but I don’t want to leave! I just want to stay here! Going wherever I want, possessing whomever I want—isn’t that much more enjoyable than the real world?”
“So, this body you’re in right now isn’t yours?”
“I told you I was a student from the 2010 class; I shouldn’t be this old!”
“It’s been many years since 2010. Middle-aged weight gain and baldness are normal.” Wu Zeng shook his head, seemingly casually running a hand through his own thick hair.
“You!”
“Then what can you tell us?”
“I’ve been here for a long time. Although I don’t bother thinking about what needs to be solved, I have heard things about what has happened in the village. There are some interesting local tales you won’t find online, you know.” Uncle A Dong sounded smug, making his bald head look even brighter.
This point resonated with Chen Jin. For instance, the local legend of the alligator turtle—if they hadn’t heard the pea flour vendor’s account, they wouldn’t have found it online either.