"Sip~"
In the commercial vehicle, Liu Yuan took a sip from a carton of milk.
Beside her, Lu Yuan had reclined his seat and pulled the clothes covering him, looking like he was preparing to nap for a bit longer.
Liu Yuan glanced at the empty driver's seat, then out at the foggy wilderness outside the window.
She cleared her throat and said, "Ahem, Boss, it looks like...our driver ran away."
Having just woken from a nap, Lu Yuan lazily said, "Let him go play for a bit, experiencing things like this more will be good for the person who's going to be driving the ambulance for us in the future."
In Liu Yuan's hand was an IPD displaying a series of physiological monitoring indexes.
"Boss, it looks like Huang Ming's vital signs are infinitely close to the edge between life and death, it's just a matter of one breath now."
Lu Yuan didn't even twitch his closed eyelids, airily asking, "What about his brain?"
Liu Yuan glanced at the IPD and said, "Other than some fatigue, there are no major issues."
"Then there's no problem. As long as his brain tissue is intact, even if he really dies I can still bring him back within a day," Lu Yuan casually said.
After speaking, Lu Yuan changed into a more comfortable position and gently started snoring.
"Sip~"
Liu Yuan took another sip of her milk.
"Be quieter when you drink that. Don't slurp so loudly," Lu Yuan said.
"Oh..."
About fifteen minutes prior.
That was when Xiao Chen had just parked the vehicle.
Lu Yuan and Liu Yuan had sat silently in the back, yet Xiao Chen went ahead and parked anyway.
What's more, he muttered to himself in a business-like manner, "Alright, Dr. Lu."
Then Xiao Chen opened the door himself, took an umbrella, and ran off into the rain, with Lu Yuan and Liu Yuan never leaving the vehicle. The entire time it was just Xiao Chen enthusiastically putting on a solo performance.
Originally on the drive over Lu Yuan had still been excited and passionate, but the instant Xiao Chen exited the car his interest instantly vanished.
"It's just a straw man capable of peeking into hearts and forming a contaminated domain. The ones manipulating it from behind aren't even here."
"With courage this lacking yet still daring to come provoke us, I can only say..."
"Child, the life ahead of you is going to become very interesting."
After saying this, Lu Yuan laid back in the seat and entered a dozing state.
He didn't so much as twitch until suddenly taking a deep breath and opening his eyes three hours later.
Aside from those few sentences exchanged with Liu Yuan in the middle there, Lu Yuan slept deeply and sweetly the entire time.
Upon waking, Lu Yuan ripped open the car door. The light rain outside was still falling, the entire sky and earth shrouded in dampness.
Seeing the straw covering the ground outside, a disdainful smile appeared on Lu Yuan's face.
He first put on a leather glove before squatting and fiercely yanking at something under the chassis of the commercial vehicle!
"Roar!!"
A piercing shriek sounded out as Lu Yuan actually pulled a straw man out from under the commercial vehicle!
No, not a straw man, but a long-rotted corpse wrapped in straw!
Simultaneous with Lu Yuan's actions, Liu Yuan also exited the other side of the car. Compared to Lu Yuan, Liu Yuan's actions were much bloodier─Pfft! Pfft!
Two muffled booms rang out, loud enough to make even Lu Yuan uncomfortable.
Clearly, the first sound was a steel pipe piercing the skull, while the second sound was ruthlessly stabbing even deeper after piercing through.
Having accomplished this series of actions with one hand, Liu Yuan didn't forget to also take out a carton of milk, freshly jammed with a straw, gently sipping some.
Lu Yuan had wanted to admonish Liu Yuan to be gentler in the future and not so gory.
But he saw Liu Yuan's hand clutching the steel pipe slightly trembling. Her sweet and beautiful face revealed boundless struggling in her eyes as she gazed at the tip of the steel pipe.
Lu Yuan silently sighed, exerting a bit of strength with his hand to completely crush the skull of the straw man he held.
Casually tossing both corpses to the roadside, Lu Yuan picked up the scattered straw on the ground and lightly blew. Even in this rainy weather, the straw still ignited into flames.
Afterward, the two straw men corpses burned amidst the rain.
Standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Lu Yuan, Liu Yuan watched the wilderness stretching out before them together.
Amidst the fog in the wilderness, Liu Yuan frowned habitually with milk still in her mouth. "Boss, why is there such a lush wheat field here?"
Looking at the weed-filled, muddy wasteland before them, Lu Yuan laughed and said, "Indeed, such a thriving aura ah. If I were you, I'd rush into that wheat field right now and take a deep breath of the great outdoors."
As the only nurse able to stand by Lu Yuan's side, Liu Yuan naturally wasn't that stupid.
"Since you put it like that, then what you're seeing probably isn't a wheat field and likely isn't anything good either."
So saying, Liu Yuan reached out to hug Lu Yuan's arm when─Pa!
Lu Yuan slapped away the indecent, briny hand trying to take advantage of him, sternly saying "We're here to save people, be serious!"
Liu Yuan glanced back at the commercial vehicle behind them, grumbling "Mm, saving people, how about you go back and sleep another three hours?"
Lu Yuan rolled his eyes and ignored her. He gazed up at the rain falling from the sky and took a step forward.
Liu Yuan stood rooted in place. "Boss, from my eyes you've already entered that wheat field."
Lu Yuan nodded. He lowered his head to look at his hand before continuing to walk into the wilderness.
Before long, Liu Yuan could still see Lu Yuan advancing into the wheat field, but Lu Yuan could no longer see Liu Yuan.
Lu Yuan was surrounded by whiteness and fog on all sides within fifty meters.
The raindrops landing on Lu Yuan were chillingly cool. Suddenly, he removed the glove from his hand.
He watched as the hand that had precisely wielded scalpels to slice open and examine the insides of countless people started rotting bit by bit.
Seeing this, a trace of interest finally rose in Lu Yuan's eyes.
"This straw man is interesting...worthy of becoming a knickknack in my clinic."
"I'm rather curious what power is behind this."
Lu Yuan didn't continue forward. He sat down on the spot and started observing the changes happening to his hand.
Every so often he would also close his eyes to ponder deeply for a period.
As time passed, the rotting area on Lu Yuan's arm grew larger and larger, but the smile on his face became deeper and deeper.
After a while longer Liu Yuan also entered the wheat field, coming to stand by Lu Yuan's side. "Boss, what are you doing?"
Lu Yuan saw the rotting speed on his arm quicken.
Without even lifting his head he said, "Liu Yuan, do you think you could...not care so much about me?"
A completely baffled Liu Yuan reached out and felt Lu Yuan's forehead. "Boss, are you confused? Or did that straw man trick you?"
The instant Liu Yuan's hand touched Lu Yuan's forehead, the rotting speed on his arm grew even faster.
Lu Yuan shook his head helplessly, his complex expression showing him at a loss whether to laugh or cry. "Liu Yuan, contaminated domains all have their own unique domain rules. You know this right?"
Drinking some milk, Liu Yuan said, "I know. What, did you discover this wheat field's domain rules?"
Lu Yuan nodded and said, "Yes. You watched Huang Ming's footage from his hand ring earlier right? Think carefully."
"When Huang Ming thought he discovered a wheat field, he ended up receiving a text message claiming it wasn't a wheat field, from me, an identity he absolutely trusts."
"When Huang Ming believed the black shadow looming over his phone was his own shadow, that black shadow instead moved away on its own."
"When Huang Ming felt the person texting him couldn't possibly be me, the later texts were enough to make Huang Ming unable to determine whether it really was me or not."
"Also consider Xiao Chen─just now you saw him frantically running around amidst this fog. I'll bet he definitely saw the two of us, and in more than one direction."
"So for Xiao Chen to survive he has no choice but to chase the visions of us that he sees. But whenever Xiao Chen believes one of the visions of us to be real, he always discovers in the end that he is mistaken. No matter which direction of you and me Xiao Chen chases, by the end it's always fake."
"Additionally, think about the existence rationale behind straw men."
"To make crop-ravaging birds believe there are people in the field watching when in fact there is no one."
"A so-called straw man is a kind of cognitive deception formed through psychological and visual impact."
"But because a pollution domain has formed here, there is the presence of polluted spiritual energy, so the original deception has become real."
"I've said so much, do you understand the domain rules here?"
Liu Yuan was confused. As she scratched her head with her hand, she wanted to say something but didn't know how to articulate it.
However, Lu Yuan also understood her. Lu Yuan said himself: "Alright, stop guessing blindly. I know you're stupid, so I'll just tell you directly. Listen."
"The domain rules of this pollution domain are that the things you hope will happen won't happen. The things you don't want to happen, the things you're worried about happening, will result in happening."
"So, Liu Yuan, don't keep worrying that something bad might happen to me. If you keep worrying like this, something really might happen to me..."
"Although this is not a big deal, it's still a negative impact."
As Lu Yuan spoke, he raised his hand that was continuously decaying towards Liu Yuan.
Liu Yuan didn't understand Lu Yuan's previous words, but she understood these words.
Liu Yuan blinked, seemingly wanting to try out Lu Yuan's words, but...
"Boss, I...I can't do it..."
Lu Yuan: "..."
Liu Yuan glanced at Lu Yuan and asked, "Boss, then, what are you worried about?"
As she spoke, Liu Yuan also secretly glanced over her whole body, but the result clearly made her a little disappointed.
Lu Yuan smiled bitterly and stood up from his original spot, "In my eyes, this is just an ordinary barren land, with nothing."
Liu Yuan was confused, "Then why is that?"
Lu Yuan spread his hands helplessly and said, "Because that scarecrow ran away, and ran away damn fast too, so fast I couldn't even catch up."
"The thing I was most worried about happened as well."
Liu Yuan: "..."