Under One Person, the little witch only wants to collect elves

Chapter 353: Only when you dominate yourself can you be a human being, Chen Duo ends the relationship
The peregrine falcon flew over the mountains near Liupanshui and turned all the way down in the southwest direction.

After flying at low altitude for a while, Yan Huan withdrew and simply moved in the air using the golden escape light.

As we headed south, the summer heat became increasingly intense, with heat waves soaring that things on the ground looked a little deformed from a distance.

It was noon, in an unknown cemetery in Yuexiu District, Guangdong.

Due to the special nature of the fact that Liao Zhong was in charge of some affairs in the Phoenix Mountain bunker, the location of his grave is extremely hidden.

Yan Huan also asked around before finding this place.

The midday sunlight shines unrestrainedly into the cemetery, casting a layer of pale golden glow on this solemn and quiet place.

In front of a tombstone, white lilies and pale yellow chrysanthemums were placed in a staggered manner. Although they were dried and wilted due to being baked, they still emitted a faint fragrance.

A streak of light spread out, Yan Huan took one step and landed gently on the ground. His palm loosened, and the soul protected by "Judging the Soul and Sending the General" floated out slowly.

"here it is?"

Chen Duo looked around curiously and her eyes fell on the tombstone with the bouquet of flowers.

"Uncle Liao..."

Yan Huan picked up her clothes and pulled away the fabric that was sticking to her skin.

"Wow, I was bathed as soon as I landed. This is summer in Guangdong..."

Snapped!
Yan Huan snapped his fingers, and the soil behind the tombstone arched up slightly. A cypress tree grew in the blink of an eye, shining the scorching sunlight onto its dense branches and leaves.

If grass grows on the grave, the family will prosper; if there is a tree on the grave, there will be wealth and good fortune.

It doesn't ruin the feng shui of the cemetery.

"Come and stay under the shade of the tree." Yan Huan waved his hand.

The strong sunlight has an effect on ghosts, but Chen Duo seems to not care at all, his eyes still fixed on the big words on the tombstone.

Seeing that the spirit in the sky was motionless, Yan Huan carefully pulled Chen Duo down.

Then he sprinkled some water, and the shriveled bouquet came to life, with crystal dewdrops sparkling slightly, as if expressing silent grief like tears.

"Old Liao is your predecessor after all. If you go to his grave to pay respects, maybe something good will happen."

After hearing Yan Huan's words, Chen Duo just tilted his head in confusion.

"Worship?"

"I teach you."

Yan Huan clasped his hands together and bowed his head in silence for a moment. Chen Duo, who was standing beside him, also closed his eyes and imitated him.

After a while, smoke rose from the luxuriously decorated tombstone.

Chen Duo opened her eyes slightly, and her pupils suddenly shrank.

The smoke slowly condensed and gradually took on a human shape. It was a burly middle-aged man with a scary look, a big brown back hair, two sutured scars on the bridge of his nose, another scar on his right eye, two big golden front teeth, and an untidy, unkempt look.

"Uncle Liao...Uncle Liao!" Chen Duo shouted, but he didn't know where to put his hand that he had extended forward, so he stayed where he was.

Liao Zhong wiped the back of his head, revealing his two bright golden front teeth, and laughed: "Oh, Chen Duo, my mother ate up all the family pensions from the company, but I don't think I died in the end!"

"Young Master, didn't you say that you would tell me what happened after you brought Chen Duo here?"

Liao Zhong nodded and spoke respectfully to Yan Huan, but his eyes were always on Chen Duo.

In this state, Chen Duo is still dead...

There was an indescribable sadness on the laughing face, and even the cross-shaped scars seemed to be wrinkled with worry.

"I find it very strange too..." Yan Huan flicked his finger on Chen Duo's head, and the dazed Ling finally came back to his senses.

Liao Zhong died during the Luotian Dajiao period. Considering the time Yan Huan spent in Hebei and the time he took care of the affairs of Biyou Village, the seventh day after Liao Zhong's death had already passed.

When a person dies, his Qi turns to wind and his flesh turns to mud. The soul leaves the body and disappears in the blink of an eye. There are only two ways in which Yan Huan is aware of that can allow the soul to temporarily exist.

One is to be like Zhang Huaiyi, who has cultivated his "life" to a strong enough level. Even if he has been dead for many years, his corpse will still contain a strong and powerful soul aura. This is why Lu Liang can extract memories from corpses.

The second method is to use magic methods such as "capturing the soul and sending the generals" or "Eight Directions Returning to the Origin Formation" to temporarily preserve the soul.

Obviously Liao Zhong does not meet any of these two conditions.

"Do you remember how you felt after you died?" Yan Huan asked.

Liao Zhong nodded and said, "Oh! My body dissipated like the mist, but something was pulling me... It wasn't obvious at first, but when I came to my senses, I was floating in the cemetery."

"Do you know what that is?"

"Hen~"

"Missing you." Yan Huan picked up a bunch of yellow chrysanthemums in front of the tombstone.

When inquiring about the location of the cemetery, Yan Huan had contact with Liao Zhong and his subordinates.

This man is full of foul language and extremely lustful, but at the same time he hates evil and has a kind heart. While working diligently, he is also very considerate of his subordinates and enjoys considerable prestige among his employees.

It was the memories gathered by these people that briefly held Liao Zhong back. Although this state could not last for a few days, fortunately, Liao Zhong met Yan Huan before his soul returned to heaven and earth.

Ghost means return.

Ancient people believed that after death, people would return to their ancestors’ totems and be reborn or have eternal life. The three major groups of Chinese gods, gods in heaven, gods on earth, and ghosts, are all equal and are perfect beings that transcend everything.

Nowadays, ghosts are portrayed as so terrifying in many film and television works, but in Chinese native philosophy, the word "ghost" has been full of romance since its birth.

Because of the longing for relatives and friends, there are "ghosts", "the first seven days", "the night of the return of the soul" and a series of concepts.

This is also the reason why Yan Huan was indignant when he saw the "Spirit Subduing Method". A ghost that was swallowed might not be the "returning" person that people in a place longed to see again.

After hearing Yan Huan's words, Liao Zhong was stunned for a long time, and finally said something calmly.

“These guys…”

Yan Huan handed the yellow chrysanthemum forward and said, "The owner of this flower is particularly homesick. You two should have had a happy marriage."

The owner of the flower was Liao Zhong's assistant and a researcher in the bunker. He often reported Liao Zhong for swearing and making dirty jokes, and beat him up.

Ever since Liao Zhong's death, she has been staring at the photos on her phone in a daze from time to time.

"Oh my god, I can't believe she has feelings for me. I thought she hated me!"

"Old Liao, don't be attracted by women's big breasts. Try to understand them instead." Yan Huan said speechlessly.

Liao Zhong on the opposite side looked serious and said, "But, young master..."

"Women are not meant to be understood, but to be loved."

"Your statement is a bit dangerous..."

···
What the two said confused Chen Duo, who was standing by, and her dark green eyes widened.

“I…I don’t understand…”

Yan Huan sat down cross-legged on the ground. The road in the cemetery was still hot from the sun and it burned his butt.

He pointed to the ground in front of him and said, "You two unlucky guys, sit down."

"Oh~"

Liao Zhong and Chen Duo responded at the same time, and the old and the young knelt down obediently in front of Yan Huan.

Yan Huan held his chin with one arm and looked closely at the two ghosts.

It’s really hard to tell whether these two guys are unlucky or lucky.

If these two people had happened to meet me during my one-year travel, perhaps the situation would have been different...
But precisely because Chen Duo did not meet Yan Huan, her life trajectory did not deviate in the slightest.

When the two met, Chen Duo's choice to "die" had already taken root in her heart, and everything she experienced had nothing to do with Yan Huan's original story line.

In Yan Huan's opinion, it is difficult to tell right from wrong regarding the whole incident involving Chen Duo.

Liao Zhong is a very clumsy old father. He is so eager for his child to change and wants Chen Duo to adapt to this society better that he is willing to crush his rough man's heart and feed it to him.

But it is precisely because of this eagerness and expectation that Liao Zhong has fallen into a self-righteous state of "I'm doing this for your own good" to a certain extent.

Chen Duo was born out of human malice. As a "Gu" cultivated by the Medicine Fairy Society, she doesn't even have self-awareness. She cannot understand the "freedom" that Liao Zhong mentioned.

At the moment of death, Chen Duo still saw the children who were selected by the Medicine Fairy Society to be trained as "Gu". Perhaps in her heart, she and they were the same kind.

It is precisely because of this abnormality that she regards the "right to choose", which is insignificant in the eyes of ordinary people, as a supreme symbol of "freedom".

She has been trapped in the vortex of "what is a human" all her life. She is the "Gu Shen Sheng Tong" who is the assassination tool in the eyes of the evil cult Yao Xian Hui, a patient in the eyes of the researchers in the bunker, a daughter who must be protected in the eyes of Liao Zhong and Lao Meng, and a poor person persecuted by the company in the eyes of Ma Xianhong...
In Chen Duo's own eyes, whether it is the fact that he, as a "human", recognizes himself as a "gu", or the fact that he, as a "gu", passively accepts the information of normal society, no one knows and no one cares.

What about the company?
The company’s attitude is clear and simple. In order to maintain stability, they will not let a “time bomb” move around freely.

Yan Huan’s current idea is very simple. The two protagonists of the story are already here, so why not let them speak for themselves.

"Before that, I'll burn this for you first." Yan Huan shook a faded notebook in his hand.

Seeing this, Chen Duo screamed "Ahhh" and tried to snatch it with her hands waving wildly.

Yan Huan put his hand on her face and restrained her.

"What is this thing? Look how scared Chen Duo is." Liao Zhong laughed.

"journal."

"Who would write a diary if they were serious..."

Upon hearing this, Chen Duo stopped her anxious movements, knelt down on the spot with a look of disappointment, and lowered her head quietly.

"Old Liao, this is exactly what you are not good at...Your death does not deserve it." Yan Huan shook his head.

Yan Huan threw the dim yellow notebook over. It drew an arc in the air, flames surged, and the notebook burned to ashes, but fell safely into Liao Zhong's hands.

That was Chen Duo's diary. The diary recorded a few things that happened during her temporary work period, and some major psychological fluctuations that happened after she left Biyou Village.

[7 month 6 day]

I was dreaming.

I dreamed about the days in the old bunker... I tried not to think about the past, the more I thought about it, the more I felt it was full of unsolvable mistakes...
I'm starting to become fragile. Does this mean that I'm becoming more human?
[7 month 8 day]

Biyou Village is a good place. Apart from here, there may be no other place for me to go.

I asked Village Chief Ma what I could do, and he said there was nothing to do.

Chen Junyan and I wandered in the mountains, feeling like we belonged here, but also like we were just passing by in a hurry.

[7 month 9 day]

I saw the fish in the tank constantly jumping out, so I asked Fu Rong if she should just let it go if it really wanted to leave the tank.

Fu Rong said that if the fish is kept in the water tank, it can live for another two days.

I stared at the fish for a long time. It jumped out again and again, and then was put back into the tank. The fish that fell to the ground would gasp for air, and so would I.

Some indescribable feeling was blocking my body and I seemed to have difficulty breathing.

Fu Rong chopped off the fish head with one knife, and my indescribable feeling of suffocation disappeared.

What is the reason for this strange emotion?

It shouldn’t be for the fish, because the fish are dead when they leave the river.

[7 month 11 day]

A person named Feng Baobao came to see me. She asked me about my choice, and I thought of the fish with its head chopped off...
The only thing I can choose is probably the ending.

[7 month 12 day]

I figured it out. I missed Uncle Liao, I missed Chen Junyan and his companions in the bunker, and I missed those "kindred spirits".

I'm about to go back.

······
Liao Zhong held the diary in his hand for a long time in silence, his face covered by his rough, thick hands.

"Chen Duo... you use metaphors well. If you didn't have the poison and didn't work as a temporary worker, you might have a good chance of developing into a writer..."

There was a hint of intermittent sobs in the weathered and rough voice.

"Fish..."

"The freedom I promised you was too empty and pretentious... I wanted to give you the right education for life, but without the company of 'people of the same kind', you probably wouldn't be able to take this so-called normal education as your own human instinct..."

"In the end, I just taught you some irrelevant knowledge out of self-righteousness..."

Chen Duo stepped forward and held Lao Liao’s bearded face.

"Uncle Liao... I'm sorry... I don't understand anything..."

"I saw you before I died. You were from the Medicine Fairy Society... The hell you guys talk about is a place where I can easily blend in without having to deal with it awkwardly..."

"So I want to leave, I want to take you away, I want you to send me away..."

There was a determination in those dark green eyes that Liao Zhong had never seen before. Chen Duo's words touched his heart more than what was written in the diary.

After a long silence, Liao Zhongcai asked in his extremely hoarse voice: "If I had given you the controller of the collar on your neck and let you choose for yourself, I wonder what the situation would be like?"

"Hmm? I..."

Chen Duo, who had never shed a tear from the time Liao Zhong passed away to her own death, suddenly choked up while speaking.

She had never thought about the consequences of her choice at that time.

But she once fantasized that if Uncle Liao could respect her ideas and give her the right to choose, she would be satisfied.

"Uncle Liao... am I a little too willful?"

"No, not noticing the child's thoughts is a dereliction of duty as a parent." Liao Zhong stroked Chen Duo's head and smiled on his scarred face, which was a bit scary.

He couldn't describe how he felt at the moment.

The two of them were unable to say what they had said in their lifetime, but now that they had become ghosts and abandoned their positions, they could speak frankly to each other.

There are many regrets in this world that cannot be resolved. Compared with other people, I can say that I am extremely lucky.

"Young Master, I don't know how to thank you... There are many treasures from my life under my bed in my old home. You can go and get them."

Yan Huan could guess what Liao Zhong’s “treasures” were just by guessing with his knees.

"You're welcome. If you hadn't been compassionate to your subordinates and popular during your lifetime, even ten Yan Huans wouldn't be able to pull you back. So, do more good deeds. Who can guarantee that the accumulation of good deeds will not turn into good luck one day in the future?" Yan Huan said with a smile.

Liao Zhong was startled, smiled and closed his eyes, then nodded in understanding, bowed and said, "Master."

Yan Huan sat up straighter.

Now that things have come to this, it’s time to give the two spirits a result.

In the past, Wu Gensheng asked: What is a human being?

Zhang Chulan replied: Stand tall and upright.

Yan Huan also has his own answer to this question.

Only when you control yourself can you be a human being.

Is Chen Duo a human?
The answer is undoubtedly yes!

Before her death, she found her own world and her own position, made her own choices in life, and completed her fate by choosing "death", so in the end, Chen Duo will leave with a smile.

What Lao Meng and other outsiders saw as having no choice was her final choice.

Yan Huan sat cross-legged on the ground, with the incessant chirping of cicadas in his ears. Liao Zhong and Chen Duo held their breath and stared with wide eyes in anticipation, but after a long time, they realized that ghosts didn't need to breathe at all.

"Oh, people's emotions are so complicated. At first, I wanted to mold this girl into a spotted butterfly, so that she could go wherever she wanted..."

Liao Zhong took over the conversation: "What about now? Is it because I made you change your mind?"

"How big of a figure do you think you are?" Yan Huan picked up a bunch of golden tulips in front of the tombstone.

"The thoughts carried in this bouquet far exceed those of other flowers... and as a shaman, I just happened to hear her prayers to the heaven..."

Liao Zhong sighed and lowered his head heavily.

Yan Huan raised his right index finger and drew silver-white patterns in the air, and imperial decrees appeared in the air.

"Master, what is this?"

"Great forbidden technique."

Yan Huan turned his head and looked at Chen Duo. "As the 'Holy Child of Gu Body', you have already died. From the Medicine Fairy Association to the Dark Bunker, and from the Dark Bunker to the Biyou Village, you have lost your chance to live twice. Now you have a third chance. Make your choice?"

"Eh!? Eh!!!!" Liao Zhong was so shocked that he didn't know what to do. He waved his arms like a convulsion. "You mean... not... can humans do this?"

"But Master, that's what you mean, right?!"

"Chen Duo, this is a great opportunity, you just..." Before he finished speaking, Liao Zhong suddenly realized something and suppressed his extremely restless heart.

He placed his hand on Chen Duo's head: "It's okay, take your time. Just choose again..."

"If you think this world is hard to deal with, go back. If you think there is still hope, stay. The choice is yours."

"I..." Chen Duo stared at the "Great Restriction Technique" that delineated the contract.

At this time, there was a sound of extremely dragging footsteps not far away, and a white-haired old woman came over tremblingly with a cane. She seemed to be an ordinary person. She could not see the spirit in front of her. Her eyes fell on Yan Huan, and from time to time she looked at the tree behind the tombstone.

"When did the tree grow so big?"

"The growth of trees on the graves indicates that the earth's energy is strong and the descendants will also prosper. It's a good thing." Yan Huan replied with a smile.

The old woman smiled bitterly and shook her head. "He didn't even leave any children, so how can he have many descendants? By the way, young comrade, why are you here again?"

"Come and have a look, what about you?"

"It's noon now. I'm afraid he's hungry down there, so I brought some lunch. I guess the little comrade hasn't eaten yet. Let's eat together after I finish serving him."

Yan Huan stood up and helped the old woman to the grave, "Then wait until grandma is done."

Some hunched bodies passed straight through Liao Zhong's spirit body. Old Liao raised his hands, but could not touch anything.

The decree of the Great Forbidden Spell was still suspended in the air. Liao Zhong covered his ferocious and terrifying face with his big hands. "How did you get here at this critical moment? Mom!"

Bean-sized tears rolled to the ground, and as they fell and splashed, they dissipated into wisps of black gas.

Yan Huan glanced behind him without saying much. As a witch and an extraordinary person, he had not forgotten his duty as a human being. The scene before him was the separation of yin and yang for ordinary people.

Chen Duo stared blankly at Liao Zhong who was crying with his face covered, and her eyes stopped on the old woman's back and the imperial edict.

After thinking for a while, she suddenly clenched her fists.

"Uncle Liao, I want to watch a movie, I want to go swimming, I want to travel to crowded places... I want to meet Chen Junyan, and that weird uncle... and that weird female doctor..."

“I want to eat ice cream one more time…”

"I want to spend money, I want thunder, if I have thunder, I won't die!"

···
"But..." Chen Duo choked up, pointed to her forehead, and shouted at Yan Huan, "I have a problem here, and I can't handle it alone!"

As she spoke, she lost confidence and said, "If someone could teach me again... maybe I could..."

Yan Huan didn't look back, and helped the old woman to spread out the dishes and dumplings in the rice basket one by one. When the yellow paper burned, some ashes fell into the food.

Chen Duo pursed her lips, suddenly grabbed Liao Zhong's hand, and pulled him to press towards the pattern of the "Great Prohibition Technique".

(End of this chapter)