SES Chapter 127 Part 2

Luo Ren pushed the plunger all the way down.

At first, nothing happened. Xiang Silan’s face even seemed to mock them, her eyes darting with vicious fury.

Then her injected arm jerked violently.

The spasms didn’t stop—they spread to her shoulder, then down her torso.

Earlier, Luo Ren had said her heart wasn’t exposed—it was covered by a thin, transparent layer of skin. Now, they could see it clearly: countless hair-thin red threads spread like a web across the surface of her heart.

Her expression twisted, her body thrashing uncontrollably as her heart began to pound furiously. The red threads thickened into a mist of blood.

Mu Dai thought that if she kept watching, her heart might burst apart.

She turned away, exhaling deeply. With a crash, Xiang Silan’s chair toppled as she fell to the floor.

Then Luo Ren’s calm voice broke through the chaos: “It’s done.”

The cursed slip was out.

From the corner of her eye, Mu Dai saw Cao Yanhua’s bucket trembling—the water rippling, faint streaks of red slowly spreading across the surface.

Wan San suddenly shouted, “Look at her chest!”

On the floor, Xiang Silan’s body convulsed violently, but the deep cavity at her sternum was slowly flattening.

Cao Yanhua hurried the bucket to the far side of the room, afraid she might kick it over in her spasms.

Luo Ren’s earlier warning had been right. Even with the cloth stuffed in her mouth, Mu Dai could hear the muffled, heart-wrenching cries forcing their way out.

When the cursed slip had taken hold, her organs had been altered over long, gradual years. But now, as her body restored itself, everything reversed in seconds—crude and brutal. Bones twisted back into place. Displaced organs fought to reclaim their space.

It was like something out of a myth—like Sun Wukong thrashing inside Princess Iron Fan’s belly, punching and kicking from within. The pain must have been unimaginable.

Luo Ren gave Yan Hongsha a look. She understood and pulled Mu Dai’s hand. “Let’s go outside.”

They stepped out. The air outside was fresher, but through the broken windows, the muffled groans still reached them.

Yan Hongsha led her to the electric tricycle parked by the wall. They sat down.

“You okay?” she asked softly.

Mu Dai smiled faintly, pointing toward the house. “That’s my mother in there.”

“Hongsha,” she asked, “do you remember your mother? Do you miss her?”

Yan Hongsha shook her head. “My parents died in a car crash when I was little. When I was a kid and got bullied, I used to miss them. Later… I just got used to it.”

Then she glanced at Mu Dai again. “If she really is your mother, what will you do? Will you stay and live with her?”

Mu Dai blinked, startled. She hadn’t even considered the possibility.

Yan Hongsha went on, rambling nervously, “If you stay, I guess it’ll be hard for me to visit you again. Or… maybe you’ll take her to Lijiang?”

“Why would I?” Mu Dai asked quietly. “Why should I take her to Lijiang?”

“She’s your mother,” Yan Hongsha said. “Isn’t she your responsibility?”

Just then, Luo Ren came out and saw them sitting shoulder to shoulder on the tricycle.

Mu Dai suddenly burst out, “Why should she be my responsibility? She didn’t want me! I’ve never lived with her—not for a single day!”

Startled, Yan Hongsha raised her hands. “Hey, calm down! I was just asking.”

Mu Dai’s expression softened again, and she gave a small, apologetic smile. “Sorry. I just… got worked up.”

Luo Ren watched her profile, his brows tightening slightly before he coughed heavily to draw their attention.

Yan Hongsha turned toward him.

“Come back inside,” Luo Ren said.

Xiang Silan was now lying on the bed, unconscious, drenched in sweat, her hair soaked through.

They said she’d fainted from the pain halfway through.

There was still some of their mixed blood left in the bottle. Luo Ren said, “Considering what happened last time, if we pour this blood into the water holding the cursed slip, we might see an image form on the surface.”

Mu Dai smiled. “Don’t tell me it’s another water vision involving a dog again?”

They had learned from experience by now—the first vision that appeared in the basin was always related to a dog. The real image that hinted at the next cursed slip’s traits only emerged much later, and when it did, it was always so obscure that it was nearly impossible to interpret.

Whether it was dog-related or not, they’d soon find out.

Luo Ren tilted the mouth of the disinfectant bottle, letting the remaining blood drip into the basin.

The water turned a murky red at first, but soon the color thinned, forming countless hairlike filaments of blood that wove and drifted through the water.

Unlike the last time, when the blood had only formed lines and shapes across the water’s surface, this time the filaments moved within the water itself—crossing, twisting, interlacing, rising from the bottom, sometimes vertical, sometimes diagonal, sometimes horizontal.

Wan San was the first to notice something unusual. “It’s… three-dimensional?”

Luo Ren replied, “Doesn’t matter if it is or not—as long as we can see it.”

Fair enough.

Gradually, the image sharpened, rippling through the water, vivid and lifelike, just within reach.

It was a wedding procession—musicians playing, the red bridal sedan carried along the road, and the houses standing nearby.

The houses were old-fashioned, the same architectural style as the ones they’d seen before, probably built over a century ago.

On either side of the street were onlookers, children scrambling to collect the scraps of firecrackers. A typical wedding scene in traditional Chinese custom.

But at the end of the procession—

Mu Dai drew in a quiet breath. “Do you see it?” she asked Luo Ren.

He did. There was a dog, crouched low, its gaze fixed unwaveringly on the departing bridal sedan.

In the image, every person faced toward the sedan, swept up in joy and bustle. Only that dog remained apart from the crowd, surrounded by a strange emptiness—a lonely, hollow space around it.

Then, suddenly, the dog’s eyes shifted slightly to the side.

End of “Whirlwind Dust.”