Chapter 32

Chapter 32: Tuck your teeth. Open wide.

Pei Shuo was right—this place was a maze.

The Abyssal Maw opened into a vast, endless cavern.

Endless wasn’t an exaggeration. Here, every direction faded into infinite darkness, making it impossible to tell which way was which.

“This place is basically a black hole, just piles of trash everywhere,” Pei Shuo said helplessly. “I tried to remember the way by the shape of the garbage heaps, but it’s useless. There’s just too much junk.”

He wasn’t wrong.

With a click, Lin Jianyuan flicked his lighter, lit a cigarette, then held it up to cast a faint light in the cave.

It looked just as it had at first—mountains of junk all around them. Food, pill bottles, daily necessities, stacks of documents, test papers, even laptops…

Wait—what was that?

Lin Jianyuan frowned and bent down to pick up a thin slip of paper.

Pei Shuo leaned in, startled. “Isn’t that a college entrance exam admission ticket? Why would there be one here?”

“No idea.” Lin Jianyuan turned it over in his hands, but nothing about it stood out.

Pei Shuo tried to comfort the air, “It’s fine. The exam’s over, this ticket doesn’t matter anymore.”

Lin Jianyuan shot him a look. “How do you know when its owner lost it?”

“Huh?”

“What if it got swallowed five minutes before they went into the exam room?”

Pei Shuo pictured it, his face scrunching up in sympathy.

“This Abyssal Maw is evil!” Pei Shuo fumed. “That’s the college entrance exam! How could it steal someone’s ticket? Even if they reprint it, that student would be a wreck!”

Lin Jianyuan paused, something clicking in his mind.

He frowned and started digging through the nearby piles of trash.

Pei Shuo hurried over. “What are you looking for? Did you lose something too? I’ll help.”

Lin Jianyuan described it briefly, and Pei Shuo nodded, heading to another heap to start searching.

True to his retriever instincts, Pei Shuo soon straightened up from the trash, beaming. “Got it! Over here!”

Lin Jianyuan took it and checked—sure enough, it was the file Su Zhiwei had spent all morning searching for.

Everything snapped into place for Lin Jianyuan, and anger surged through him.

“Damn it! I knew it!” Lin Jianyuan exploded. “This stupid Abyssal Maw isn’t eating trash—it’s stealing things just to drive people crazy, make them panic!”

Pei Shuo started, “But isn’t that just—”

Lin Jianyuan kept muttering, “The pebble too… the Eye Vine squish toy… Damn, I get it now. These Aberrants want to drive people mad! Human misery is what they feed on. That’s their food!”

The more Pei Shuo listened, the more terrified he looked. “Wait! Yuan-ge! What Aberrants? What pebble, what Eye Vines? What are you talking about?”

Lin Jianyuan took a deep breath, rolled his eyes to the ceiling. “Shit!”

Then he laughed, helpless.

Lin Jianyuan rubbed his forehead, giving a wry smile. “Look at me. Even my breakdowns have impeccable worldbuilding… Maybe I really should write webnovels.”

Pei Shuo was so rattled by his rambling that he sucked in a sharp breath, then rushed over and grabbed his arm, anxiously rummaging through his pockets.

“Did you bring your meds? Have you been taking them?”

“I did, but I don’t think they’re working too well,” Lin Jianyuan admitted.

Pei Shuo worried, “Should you see a different doctor?”

Lin Jianyuan shrugged. “Let’s get out of here first.”

Pei Shuo: “…Fair point.”

“Forget the meds for now. What I want to know is—are you real, or just another hallucination?” Lin Jianyuan eyed him suspiciously.

“Of course I’m real!” Pei Shuo looked like he might cry, shocked that Lin Jianyuan was doubting him. “Wait, let me think—there must be some way to prove it…”

“No need. If you’re my hallucination, any proof you come up with is just my imagination too.”

Pei Shuo was losing it. “How am I something you made up?! Come on, ge, cut me some slack! I’m real, I swear! Please, just believe me!”

Lin Jianyuan gave him a long look and sighed. “Either way, you’re right about one thing. We shouldn’t wander around. We should just stay put and wait for rescue.”

Pei Shuo felt like he couldn’t keep up with Lin Jianyuan’s mental leaps. “...Why?”

“Because if this is all a hallucination, then in the real world I’m probably standing at the top of a staircase. If I wander around, I might fall down. Better to stay put.”

Pei Shuo: “What if it’s not?”

Lin Jianyuan looked at him, surprised. “If it’s not a hallucination, then all the more reason to just wait and die.”

Pei Shuo: “…”

It almost made sense, but something felt off.

With his golden retriever brain, Pei Shuo gave up trying to figure it out. He scratched his head and decided to stop thinking.

The two of them sat down together amid the trash heaps.

Even though the cave was packed with garbage, it didn’t stink like a real landfill.

Time seemed frozen here. Food never rotted, documents stayed crisp and flat, not even a crease in sight.

Clearly, the Abyssal Maw opened wide when it swallowed things.

Lin Jianyuan pulled out his phone—no signal, of course, but at least he had Candy Crush.

Too bad he hadn’t brought his squish toy. That would’ve killed time and soothed his nerves.

As he was regretting it, his stomach growled.

…He thought of his roommate.

Lin Jianyuan found it funny. Pei Shuo heard his stomach and came over, “Are you hungry, ge?”

“Yeah.”

“You didn’t eat breakfast? Me neither. Oh, is it lunchtime already?” Pei Shuo suddenly remembered and jumped up, rummaging through a nearby trash pile.

The golden retriever found treasure in no time, eyes shining as he ran back with a bag.

“Ge! Look what I found!”

The bag wasn’t even open, but Lin Jianyuan already caught the familiar scent of something savory.

It was sauce pancake!

Lin Jianyuan froze for a moment. Pei Shuo handed him the pancake, stuck two skewers in, and said, “Good thing it didn’t fall out. It’s cold, but it still smells amazing!”

It did smell good. Lin Jianyuan was swayed by the food.

He took the bag, about to eat, when the whole cavern began to shake.

“What’s happening?!” Pei Shuo yelped.

Before Lin Jianyuan could answer, the world spun around him.

“Ugh—”

As darkness swallowed his vision, something squeezed him tight.

Then—thud.

Lin Jianyuan toppled face-first onto the ground.

“See! I was right!”

A low, bubbling voice sounded behind him, full of terror and disbelief. “He really has the mark! This human has Xie Yu’s mark!”

At the same time, an angelic eyeball with three pairs of wings hovered in front of Lin Jianyuan, squinting as it examined him.

The giant eyeball nearly pressed against his face. Its cold, slimy surface touched his own eyes, while snowy angel wings fluttered, stirring a chill breeze.

Lin Jianyuan slowly turned his head, his gaze landing on the flattened pancake bag nearby.

The pancakes had all spilled out, scattered across the floor.

Even the skewers were scattered.

“So it really is Xie Yu…” the angel eyeball finished its inspection, slowly fluttering away. “But why would Xie Yu leave his mark on such an ordinary human…”

Before it could finish, smack!

Lin Jianyuan raised his hand and slapped the eyeball hard across the face.

“?!”

The eyeball spun to the side from the blow.

Angel Eyeball: “???”

Abyssal Maw: “???”

The angel eyeball touched itself with a wing, looking utterly stunned—even with only one eye, disbelief was written all over its face.

It flapped its wings and drifted closer again.

This time, Lin Jianyuan didn’t hold back. He grabbed the base of its wing and slammed it to the ground.

Bang!

The eyeball hit the ground with a heavy thud.

“Wait, what…” the Abyssal Maw stammered. “Shadow Devourer, what are you doing? Stop standing there—attack him!”

“I did! I’ve erased his memory a hundred times already!” the angel eyeball snapped.

Muttering curses, the angel eyeball struggled upright—only to be overshadowed again.

Lin Jianyuan flexed his wrist, looming over it, coldly. “So you’re ‘Shadow Devourer’?”

The eyeball was confused. “Do you know me?”

Lin Jianyuan suddenly lunged, grabbed its wing, and slammed it down again.

“You call yourself Shadow Devourer?!”

Wham!

“You still—fucking—call yourself Shadow Devourer?!”

Wham! Wham!

“You’re nothing but a flapping giant eyeball!”

Wham! Wham! Wham!

Lin Jianyuan kept slamming it until the eyeball was spinning, its eye pressure through the roof.

“How can you… how can you…” The flapping eyeball summoned its last strength and beat its wings furiously at Lin Jianyuan.

Whoosh!

A blast of wind swept past.

But aside from his bangs lifting, Lin Jianyuan was completely unfazed.

He just kept slamming the eyeball by its wing.

The flapping eyeball was so furious it nearly coughed up blood. “Why are you immune?!”

The Abyssal Maw watched in terror, clutching itself. “I knew it—a human marked by Xie Yu is no ordinary person. Good thing I didn’t mess with him—”

Before it could finish, a cold glare shot its way.

“Yikes!” The Abyssal Maw snapped its mouth shut in fright.

Lin Jianyuan stalked over, face dark. “Open up.”

“Uh—what?” The Abyssal Maw opened wide in shock.

Lin Jianyuan shoved his arm inside without hesitation and started rummaging around.

He pulled out a tablet. Nope. Tossed it aside.

A charger. Nope. Tossed.

The Abyssal Maw stood frozen in terror, no clue what this human was up to.

Lin Jianyuan kept pulling things out, glancing at each, tossing them aside. Soon, a pile of junk grew at his feet.

After a while, he remembered something. He braced the Mouth open with both hands, shoved his upper body inside like it was a giant trash bag, and shouted into the darkness:

“Pei Shuo! Get out here! Can you see my hand? Grab it and come out!”

Abyssal Maw: “??”

“Yuan-ge?!”

Pei Shuo’s delighted voice echoed from deep in the trash.

The Abyssal Maw thought this was the weirdest thing it had ever seen.

A human, not only unafraid, but sticking half his body inside its mouth, rummaging around like it was an SUV trunk.

And now he was about to pull another person out!

Even as an Aberrant, this was too much.

What the hell!

Who’s the real monster here?

The Abyssal Maw was on the verge of tears, but didn’t dare resist. It just kept its mouth open.

Was it afraid of this human?

No—it feared the mark on this human.

That was His mark! That was—

“You’re one wicked big mouth, but at least you listen.”

Lin Jianyuan’s words snapped the Abyssal Maw back to reality.

Wicked big mouth?

Wicked big mouth?!

The Abyssal Maw was completely stunned.

Pei Shuo was crawling out, holding Lin Jianyuan’s hand, when he turned and saw the black trash bag lined with shark teeth. His jaw dropped. “Holy crap! What is that?!”

“Hurry up,” Lin Jianyuan said. “Big Mouth’s been holding its jaw open so long it’s probably getting a cramp.”

“Oh, right!” Pei Shuo scrambled faster.

This human was oddly considerate.

The Abyssal Maw was almost touched—until Lin Jianyuan’s tone turned cold. “Tuck your teeth. Open wide.”

Abyssal Maw: “…!”

It hurriedly tucked its teeth away and opened its mouth as wide as it could.

With the Mouth’s cooperation, Pei Shuo crawled out much more easily.

Lin Jianyuan switched from dragging to lifting, sliding his arms under Pei Shuo’s armpits to haul him out.

Just then, a voice behind them ground out through clenched teeth.

“So what if it’s Xie Yu! What’s there to be afraid of! At worst—”

A glint of cold light flashed in the dim corridor.

The eyeball spread its three pairs of wings and shook its feathers. Every feather turned into a razor blade, slicing through the air toward Lin Jianyuan’s back!

A moment later, a lazy voice drifted out from the darkness.