Linbiangui Village-Infinite Streaming Chapter 36

Chemical Genius

Specks of light pierced through the heavy clouds, scattering onto the bluestone path. The winding alleyways resembled ink blots spreading across a wash painting. Looking down the narrow lane, the stone path in the back alley snaked like a black river under the moonlight, and the surrounding homes were silent.

The two walked back sharing an umbrella. The night wind was cool and the water cold. The umbrella surface was occasionally lifted into a dangerous arc by the night breeze, and Wu Zeng’s hand gripping the handle was frozen, his knuckles white. Although the umbrella was large enough, dense rain still slanted in from an awkward angle, lashing at their clothes. The silver-needle rain pricked Chen Jin’s shoulder and neck, making him shiver.

Chen Jin raised a hand to wipe away the cold moisture on his face. His wet hair stuck to his forehead and cheeks, and his glasses were fogged with fine mist, making him look somewhat disheveled. Wu Zeng, however, was in excellent condition. The rainwater clinging to his face looked crystal clear, adding a touch of fragile handsomeness to his appearance.

As they turned the corner of the alley, a faint smell of incense drifted over. Immediately after, several hunched figures came shuffling and arguing from the end of the path. They sounded like elderly people, their voices hoarse and aged, but their speech was very rapid.

“Old Man Wu was talking about setting up a statue just two days ago! Now his son won’t even let us take him to the temple! How can he rest in peace!” Granny Liu Feng’s face was like crumpled tree bark. She wore a light purple plastic raincoat, which was thoroughly soaked and made her look somewhat forlorn. She walked at the front of the group, occasionally turning back to join the discussion. Her cloudy eyes showed fatigue under the dim moonlight.

“Kai Ke was such a good kid when he was little, why is it that now he’s moved to the city, he won’t listen to anything!” Grandpa Zhang Liao, the lame man, spat, his tone full of indignation.

“Exactly! Exactly!” A chorus of agreement sounded, and the surroundings suddenly became noisy.

“He was so easy to talk to when he was eating the village’s food. Now he’s all successful!” Cloth shoes, stained with rain-soaked mud, crunched on the stone path.

The elderly people discussed the Wu family’s funeral arrangements behind their backs, their words seemingly devoid of much sadness for the passing of an old friend, focusing more on their dissatisfaction with his son and grandson.

Complaints and dissatisfaction, mixed with the sound of the rain, filled the narrow path, making it suffocating. As they spoke, the group encountered the two men. The village elders eyed the sudden appearance of strangers on the path with suspicion, their gazes fixed nakedly on the two without concealment.

The light on the path was not enough to clearly see faces, but Chen Jin instinctively recoiled slightly when faced with such an overwhelming scrutiny. After all, no one wanted to be openly stared at by strangers while in a state of embarrassment.

Wu Zeng tilted the umbrella down slightly, immediately blocking the elders’ prying eyes. He smiled and gestured for them to pass, politely saying, “Please, you first.”

“Are you friends of Kai Ke?” Grandpa Zhang Liao was the first to ask. Since Wu Kai Ke was unwilling to take Old Man Wu’s remains to the temple, the elders were hoping someone could persuade him.

Wu Zeng shook his head, offering no further explanation.

“If they’re not his friends, what are they doing walking on this path in the middle of the night!” A group of elders walked past the two with slight suspicion, their eyes practically burning holes into them.

Wu Zeng stepped slightly ahead of Chen Jin, still smiling as he watched the elders walk away, though there was little warmth in his eyes.

“Let’s go back.” Only when the raincoats of various colors disappeared at the end of the road did Wu Zeng suggest returning.

Back near the Guesthouse, the surroundings brightened up. It was then that Chen Jin suddenly realized Wu Zeng’s left shoulder was completely soaked, the dark blue fabric stained an inky black.

The next day, the sun came out, but the air remained damp.

Chen Jin scooped up a handful of water and splashed it on his face, instantly clearing his head. The humid weather intensified the fishy smell seeping from the tile gaps, like rust-scented moss rotting inside the walls. Chen Jin squinted his eyes, which were irritated by the water. The mirror was covered in a layer of white steam. He wiped the mist off the mirror, and water droplets slid down his finger marks, forming winding channels.

In the reflection, Chen Jin’s right hand was tucked into his pants pocket, yet—in reality, his hand was still resting on the mirror surface. As water droplets trickled down his cheek, the person in the mirror suddenly tilted their head and smiled. That casual demeanor was exactly like Wu Zeng leaning against the roadside waiting for someone.

“Are we going?” The person in the mirror spoke with Wu Zeng’s voice. Chen Jin distinctly felt a roaring start inside his chest. He took half a step back, slamming into the cold tiles. Water soaked his clothes, and a chill shot up his spine.

“Clang!” The showerhead behind him suddenly fell to the floor. The nozzle, which hadn’t produced water for ages, now began spraying wildly. The walls, the floor, the mirror, and even Chen Jin himself were drenched.

The sound of a bird flapping its wings suddenly came from outside the window, and the mirror surface rippled.

Chen Jin watched wide-eyed as the facial features of the person in the mirror began to shift. The brow bone gradually rose to Wu Zeng’s distinctive curve, the jawline sharpened like a knife, and even the slightly upturned corners of the lips became unusually seductive.

That wasn’t himself, it was… Wu Zeng? The anxiety and unease in his heart spread uncontrollably.

Chen Jin found his face was no longer under his control; his muscles seemed to be pulled upward automatically. His body was no longer his own. When the two faces, inside and outside the mirror, simultaneously curved into a smile, the light laughter of a strange man echoed in the damp air.

Red patterns suddenly spread across the dark green walls around him, curling and winding forward, then hanging down the wall like red blood, looking seductive and bizarre.

“Xiao Jin? Are you done yet?” Wu Zeng’s voice suddenly came from a distance, and the scene before him cracked like a shattered mirror.

Chen Jin’s clenched fist pressed against the mirror, his knuckles white. The area was a mess from the spraying showerhead. He replied through the door crack, his voice steady and normal, but the pupils of the person reflected in the mirror were contracted to pinpoints. “Almost!”

The retreating mist left behind slanted, bloody characters on the mirror. The vigorous handwriting slowly seeped blood-red, winding down the mirror surface—“If you want to leave, come find me.” Chen Jin quickly grabbed a towel to wipe it away, only to find that two buttons on his collar had somehow come undone, and there were still undried water droplets on his collarbone.

After taking a few deep breaths, Chen Jin calmed his mind and walked out of the bathroom without a word.

“What’s wrong?” Wu Zeng was quite perceptive in his observation of Chen Jin, but Chen Jin did not mention what he had just seen and heard, simply replying calmly, “Let’s go.”

Wu Zeng walked behind Chen Jin, his brow unconsciously furrowed.

The two went downstairs. The few steps felt incredibly long and suffocating due to the unexpected silence. Of course, Wu Zeng might not have felt it, as he still lingered close to Chen Jin, stubbornly sticking to him like a clingy mouse trap.

Just as they stepped off the last two steps, a shiny, oily head popped out from around the corner—it was Uncle A Dong, the owner. Half his body was draped over the stair railing, his reading glasses askew on the tip of his nose, and he grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth: “Oh, oh, oh! Isn’t this my dear Brother Zeng and Baby Jin!”

Perhaps Chen Jin was too accustomed to the original A Dong’s taciturn and aged demeanor from the previous world. Now that the Obsession Body Dong was back, Chen Jin didn’t react for a moment. After a pause, he finally said, “A Dong?”

Uncle A Dong flipped over the railing like a nimble koala. When he landed, his plump lower body wobbled exaggeratedly twice, but his spirit was inexplicably high. “What? This big staircase isn’t enough for you to walk on, you have to stick together?” He gestured back and forth between the two with his fingers. A string of irregularly shaped stone beads suddenly appeared on his wrist, jingling as he moved.

Wu Zeng raised his foot as if to kick him, but Uncle A Dong slipped behind Chen Jin like an eel, pulling out a small bottle filled with red liquid from his pocket. It seemed he had prepared it beforehand. “Baby Jin, take me with you, okay?”

Then he suddenly lowered his voice and leaned close to Chen Jin’s ear, saying meaningfully, “I can give you all the room keys. You can sleep with whoever you want…”

“Slap!” Chen Jin expressionlessly kicked him, and Uncle A Dong’s plump body fell to the floor.

Chen Jin was genuinely happy about A Dong’s appearance.

“Don’t be mad, don’t be mad! My mouth just runs off! I’m just talking nonsense!” Uncle A Dong rubbed his old waist, begging for mercy, while swearing that he really had some useful information for them. “This world is different. Before, I could choose which new world I wanted to go to, and even if it wasn’t good, it was my choice. But in this world, I had no right to choose. It felt more like I was directly dragged in. You two need to be extra careful.”

“And as soon as I entered this world, I had no choice. It was like I was forced to witness the development of certain events. Even if I didn’t want to investigate, that information would reach me in unexpected ways.” Uncle A Dong paused, his expression somewhat strange. “The most unusual thing is that two people died in the village in one day: Old Lady Chang Lin at the head of the village and Old Man Wu from the Wu family. Guess how I knew about these two funerals after only half a day of being here without even leaving the house?”

“Tell me,” Chen Jin raised his chin, signaling him to continue—The Wu family, was this the same Old Man Wu the elders mentioned last night?

“The Wu family’s youngest son sent someone to buy funeral supplies and ran straight to my Guesthouse to ask. Isn’t that strange?” Without stopping, Uncle A Dong continued, “And Old Lady Chang Lin from the head of the village, her body is being sent to the Mountain God Temple. Midway, the pallbearers insisted they were thirsty. Instead of going to a proper store, they insisted on asking for water here. Isn’t that bizarre?”

Based on Chen Jin’s observations over the past two days, Uncle A Dong’s words were not without reason, but he didn’t show much reaction.

Seeing that the two didn’t respond, Uncle A Dong quickly waved his hands and kicked his feet, afraid they wouldn’t take him along. “I’ll tell you one more thing! It’s definitely useful!”

Wu Zeng even had a somewhat affectionate look in his eyes. After all, this neither old nor fat Uncle A Dong was as pleasing as a small pet when he talked. “Go on.”

“And those two people just happened to be the main people responsible for the completion of the Mountain God Temple. Isn’t that a coincidence?!”

“What is the Wu family son’s name?”

“Wu Kai Ke.”

“How much do you know about him?”

Uncle A Dong scratched the back of his head and grinned. “Hehe, I haven’t checked too much. I’m afraid of getting myself kicked out.”

“You think too highly of yourself,” Wu Zeng raised an eyebrow. “When we come back this afternoon, remember to cook noodles.”

With that, Wu Zeng pulled Chen Jin out the door.

“My name! Baby Jin, Brother Jin, Boss Jin!” Uncle A Dong chased after them, shouting hoarsely.

Chen Jin waved his hand without turning around. In the sunlight, the three characters “Cha Ming Dong” on the web of his hand were exceptionally vivid.

At the Old Street Pea Noodles shop.

“Two bowls of pea noodles.” Chen Jin watched the proprietress slice the noodles. The knife edge was sharply ground, and the cold light drew fine silver lines with each movement.

When the proprietress served the porcelain bowls, Wu Zeng’s index finger idly traced a few lines on the tabletop, his gaze drawn to the “Mei Jin Niang” shrine on the table. “I heard there’s a college student from our area who made a name for himself?”

“That Wu family kid, he was smart since he was little! He’s making big money in the province!” The proprietress squeezed her rag and wiped the adjacent table. Grease instantly spread across the surface. Then she lowered her voice, cautiously glancing around before continuing, “It’s just a pity, his father passed away this time when he came back… Sigh.”

Chen Jin scrolled through his phone screen, where the entry clearly read: Wu Kai Ke—Director of Yongguang Chemical, a top student from Tsinghua University, awarded one of the province’s top ten emerging entrepreneurs in 2022. “He came back for the funeral?”

“He didn’t come back for the funeral, he came back to see the old man, and then the old man suddenly passed away!”