The Fractured Su Mo

The person that had come was no stranger, but was the originally thought to be dead Dai Xingzhang!

Earlier, when they were in the winding corridor on the first floor, Chai Gang had seen with his own eyes, Tan Le pulling Dai Xingzhang’s dead body. So how is it that he is suddenly alive?

“Dai Dage^[1]大哥 the way to politely address someone around your age how is it that you’ve come back? Weren’t you already….”

“Su Mo saved me!”

Dai Xingzhang interrupted Chai Gang, “I’ll explain in a bit, so come with me quickly!”

One could no longer see Lu Lanlan by the place that the rats had first flooded to, and the rats had now begun to branch off and surge towards the direction of Chai Gang and Dai Xingzhang. Dai Xingzhang quickly dragged the dazed Chai Gang, running out of the room and hurriedly closing the door behind them.

pang! pang! pang!

The rats were ramming against the wooden door in a frenzy, and looking at the impact to the door, they were afraid it wouldn’t be able to keep them out for long.

Even though Chai Gang had many doubts in his heart, he had to hold them back while his life was in danger. Him and Dai Xingzhang then sprinted towards the direction of the main hall.

Having arrived at the main hall, the first thing the two of them see is Mark, who is preparing to carry Tan Le on his back upstairs!

“Eh? Little Richy is also alive?!”

Mark was disgusted by seemingly being called by a dog’s name, but this wasn’t the time to make a fuss over it. Having no choice but to answer, he responded venomously, “Is it not because of you? If it weren’t for you…. Humph!”

Chai Gang started at Mark blankly. He was completely dumbfounded as to why he was being scolded.

“What are you doing standing there stupidly? Hurry up here!”

A familiar voice of a girl came from the top of the stairs. Who could it be beside Xiao Ya?

Now it was Mark’s turn to be thoroughly confused, as he was then grabbed by Dai Xingzhang and hauled into a room somewhere on the first floor before he was even able to recover from the shock.

This room was familiar to him, him and Su Mo had been there before. Looking at the overall layout of the room, it was clear that it was a girls room. Within this former residence, there were only two females and He Bei’s room was on the floor below… so one only had to think for a short moment before they would know who the owner of this room was.

“Guys, Su Mo is dead. He was killed by that bitch Lu Lanlan!”

Chai Gang that had finally gotten over his shock now had his face drawn with remorse and guilt, “It’s all my fault, were it not for me….”

“Don’t worry, he’s still alive!”

Stopping him from continuing, Xiao Ya for some reason rummaged through Tan Le’s bag and took out a lollipop.

“Huh? This lollipop… what does it have to do with Su Mo?” Chai Gang face was full of confusion.

“I never thought you’d be this stupid!” Mark sneered at him from the side.

“Fuck! Are you looking to get cut?”

Mark was looking at him with disdain as his fist trembled while holding himself back.

“Okay that’s enough, knock it off!”

Xiao Ya explained, “None of us actually died, so Su Mo also wouldn’t have died… This is actually just Tan Le’s mischievous prank.”

Although these ‘pranks’ were quite horrifying. Having died once before, Xiao Ya could still feel the lingering fear from it.

“I was killed by Lu Lanlan.”

Dai Xingzhang sighed helplessly, “At that time we couldn’t see Mark and Xiao Ya, so Lu Lanlan and I were looking for them and accidently entered He Bei’s room.”

After Lu Lanlan discovered the secret behind the oil painting, she killed Dai Xingzhang on the spot. Only problem is, she didn’t know about the special features of this space. Not only did Dai Xingzhang not die, but she was even turned into a lollipop by Tan Le.

Dai Xingzhang, Xiao Ya and Mark were all saved by Su Mo, or rather Chu Han.

As for why Tan Le didn’t kill them, but instead turned them into lollipops. Of the three, they still couldn’t figure it out. All they could do now was wait for Su Mo to regain consciousness and then they would surely get their answers.

Seeing first-hand as the lollipop turned into a living person, Chai Gang eyes gleamed with pleasant surprise, “If we were to continue to stay here, wouldn’t we live forever unable to die?”

“You are thinking too much.”

Xiao Ya replied feeling frustrated, “In about half an hour we won’t even be able to escape and we will have no option but to die.”

“Right!” Chai Gang instantly plopped down with a ‘thud’ , anxiously continued, “Then why are we standing around not doing anything, let’s quickly go!”

“Go? Go where?”

Mark once more sneered at him, “The Main doors were locked shut earlier, we can’t even get out!”

Dai Xingzhang and the other three had revived when Chai Gang had fainted in fright from the ‘Bloody butterfly’. During the time when Su Mo and Lu Lanlan were confronting each other, the three of them had already gone through the house inside and out, but they were unable to find a way to leave. Otherwise why would they have had any reason to return to the first floor.

“Then what are we going to do?”

Chai Gang’s face went white with worry, “Don’t tell me, that if in a half an hour, if we still haven’t figured out how to leave, we will all become rat food!”

Even though they were all on the first floor, everyone could still feel the chaos that was ensuing on the ground floor through the floor.

Xiao Ya anxiously asked, “Isn’t Lu Lanlan the guide? Didn’t she give you any useful leads?”

Chai Gang anxiously told the three people everything that Lu Lanlan had told him.

“Darkness is before dawn, as death is before new life?”

Pondering on it for a short while, Xiao Ya felt exasperated, “I have no idea what to make of that. Seems we can just wait for Su Mo now.”

Three people out of the four were reserve players, yet at this time having to rely on a new player… it really made them feel like they were losing face. (Ie. feeling embarrassed)

The singular brain-celled Chai Gang hadn’t thought that far, but instead gnashed his teeth feeling vexed, “That bitch is so dumb, who know whether she was lying or not…”

“It’s true.”

Within these two words, one could feel a tinge of coldness, however, after hearing this voice, Chai Gang inexplicably found himself feeling incredibly relieved.

“Su Ge?”^[2]Ge = term of address for guys, like hyung/oppa You’re awake!”

The very embodiment of a lackey, Chai Gang ran to Su Mo like a dog would when greeting it’s owner, and quickly went to support him with his arm. “How do you feel? Are you feeling sore anywhere?”

It’s a good and a bad thing that he was a seasoned player that had already passed two scenarios as his putting on airs caused everyone to look at him with disdain.

Su Mo didn’t say anything but rather covered the left side of his chest with a dazed look on his face.

“This… is what death feels like?”

His heart had been stabbed through, but he didn’t even feel the slightest bit of pain.

He did feel something, but it was like the infinite void;

Was he scared?

Of course he wasn’t scared; Rather, this type of feeling was quite queer, that he couldn’t explain whether it was good or bad. Even if he had to sit and think for a long time, he still wouldn’t be able to think of a suitable adjective to describe what he felt.

Su Mo wasn’t a normal person. One would need only to witness his indifferent behaviour after ‘returning to life from being dead’, to certify it.

Xiao Ya and the two others had also all died previously. After having been saved by Su Mo, they all felt all sorts of emotions, fear, pleasant surprise, shock… their feelings were as complicated as they could get, but Su Mo? Beside the indifference, there was just more indifference, almost as if… as if it didn’t even matter to him if he had actually died.

“Su Mo, just now you said that the information that Lu Lanlan had given us was legit?”

After the brief moment of being out of sorts Xiao Ya quickly drew their attentions back to the main topic.

“Right. It’s just that I haven’t figured out exactly what it means yet.”

Su Mo was very intelligent, he was more intelligent than Chai Gang and the other three people put together, this had been proven many times previously. Yet even Su Mo couldn’t solve the meaning behind the phrase, so how could the other four people not panic?

“We don’t have much time, any little bit will do!” Even Dai Xingzhang who was always a steady and calm person had begun to panic.

Su Mo didn’t respond but rather took out the photograph from his chest —— Actually, the photo had been with Su Mo the whole time.

He had already figured out quite early that the photograph was the actual ‘key’ to succeeding, so he made sure to hint in a way that made Lu Lanlan want the diary. Of course, if Lu Lanlan had insisted on having the photograph then Su Mo still had other strategies on how to respond —— For his worst case scenario, neither of them would have survived.

Su Mo’s face didn’t reveal even the slightest bit of impatience as he slowly got up, his eyes sizing up the room they were in.

Without a doubt, one would know that the most important person to Tan Le would definitely be his mother, Tan Qing.

Therefore, Su Mo had thought all along that the location of the key would be inside Tan Qing’s room, so he was going to tell the three others that if they couldn’t find the way out, that they should come back here. But after getting Lu Lanlan’s prompt, he couldn’t help but to wonder whether he was mistaken or not.

“The confined evil has already been set free, the key is within Pandora’s grasp; The most devout followers, walk forward through the dark night….”

“The darkness before the dawn, as death is as new life…”

Looking around, Su Mo slowly made his way to standing in front of the window as he continued to recall all that had happened since they had entered this scenario, all of the unusual places.

The disordered timeline, the mother’s legs that had turned into bone, the older sister who had changed beyond recognition, the continuously changing diary and photograph, the dad who was blind in both eyes, He Wanli that was behind the letter, “The Scream” that was in the living room, Tan Le loving to eat lollipops, the baffling medical report, the crucified girl….

All of these details seemed to be connected even though they seemed unrelated;

When at the corner of his eye he caught a glimpse of some colour. It was the blooming carnations in the flower garden.

“Carnations?”

Su Mo’s eyes lit up as he once more took out the photograph.

In the photo, the mother was holding her son with a look of affection and the boy that had a lollipop in his mouth was also so happy….. What a harmonious image.

The corner of Su Mo’s mouth twitched up in a confident smile, “I know how to leave this place.”

The four people in the living room who were still feeling worried were stunned, which then changed to a feeling of rejoice… ….

After an hour the five people jumped out from the windowsill, landing in the flower garden;

“Su Ge~a^[3]Adding the “~a” at the end makes it almost endearing, are you not confused?”

Looking at the ground that was full of Carnations, Chai Gang continued to chatter away, “There’s nothing here besides these flowers, how could they help us leave?”

“Shut up and listen to what Su Mo says!”

Shooting a glare towards Chai Gang, Xiao Ya fixed her line of site on Su Mo.

Su Mo walked in a neither hurried nor slow pace up to where the Carnations were being contained. Lifting his head to look towards the sky, the moonlight having long since disappeared.

Indifferently plucking a bundle of the Carnations, Su Mo asked, “I don’t need to tell you, at this point shouldn’t you guys also be conscious of what is abnormal here?”

Beside Chai Gang, the three other people all nodded their heads.

“In reality, the timeline is even messier than I had originally thought.”

Su Mo explained further, “When we had first gotten into the van, I had already realised this problem.”

“First thing we can determine is that the time outside of the abandoned residence is 16 May 1969. He Bei was then killed by us, five years later, when it is then 17 May 1974. Coincidently, that day is the actual day that she had died.”

“Huh? Why is today 16 May?”

Chai Gang’s stupid question made everyone once more look down on him.

Su Mo ignored his question and continued explaining, “The biggest bug that appeared here is that within this small town, in a two-story western building, the mother’s legs are broken!”

Ignoring the fact of the bones, the date that the Mother’s bones were actually broken is on the 20 May 1973. If Tan Le is 10 years old, then the mother has yet to be married into the He Wanzhou family, never mind her legs being broken.

He figured this out in the van, which is why he raised the question of the timeline. Only, he had just wanted to explain, when he was interrupted by the appearance of the older sister.

“Ignoring the ghost walls, after we had entered the old residence, the timeline here became equally as confusing. From the letters from He Wanli, we know that the place that the stepfather was in, was going along the same time period as outside, but in the main hall it was different… or should I say, that within the main hall and the first floor there is no timeline to speak of. Have you guys ever wondered why that is?” Su Mo posed this question in a calm and collected manner.

The three people took the time to ponder upon this, unlike Chai Gang who irritably yelled out, “Fuck it, the stupid timeline thing doesn’t matter! Su Ge, Su Yeye^[4]Yeye meaning paternal grandfather, and therefore an even more polite way to address someone, could you please save us? Quickly take us away from here, the rats are about to break free!”

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TL: I’m just curious how Chai Gang had managed to clear two other scenarios when by all accounts, he seems too stupid to have been able to do it.
Perhaps it was by sheer dumb luck? (shrug)