Invasion - Chapter 45
Chapter 45
Lin Yuan thought she would sleep soundly tonight. After all, everything that happened at the banquet had been good, and she had returned very late, her body already tired.
Unexpectedly, she fell into a strange dream again.
In the dream, she clearly knew that she was dreaming, but couldn't wake up.
She wasn’t human in the dream, but a giant monster crawling in the dark, with countless tentacles.
Lin Yuan found herself coiled within a dark, ancient castle, her huge, living tentacles slowly intertwining, wriggling, occupying the entire bottom of the castle.
Wrapped in the numerous tentacles, Lin Yuan felt a sense of security.
Safe, comfortable, as if there was no one else in the world, nothing else she needed to care about, she could sleep soundly, slumbering in this dark world that belonged solely to her.
Only, she always felt a little lonely. She seemed to have been sleeping here for a long time, she didn’t know whether it was a thousand years or ten thousand, time seemed to have frozen, forever imprisoning her, this giant monster, in this dark cage.
She didn’t know when, but moonlight shone in from the broken roof. A princess, paying a debt with her body, holding a rose, was forced to lie on a giant altar.
The moonlight shone on the altar, illuminating the person lying there. He was wearing neat trousers and a snow-white shirt, one hand hanging down from the altar, wearing a black glove.
Lin Yuan then realized, it wasn’t a princess, but a sentinel she knew.
She felt happy in her heart, the tentacles wriggling excitedly, climbing up the steps covered with red carpet, towards the high altar.
The sacrifice lay weakly on the magnificent altar, motionless, seemingly without any resistance.
A pointed tentacle reached the altar first, sliding into the black glove, slowly peeling it off.
A sweet scent began to fill the air, like a candy for the sacrifice, unwrapped, emitting a sweet fragrance.
Lin Yuan felt hungry, she liked sweet things.
The tentacles, with their smooth skin and living flesh, rejoiced, surging on the altar.
Under the moonlight, the chest in the white shirt began to heave rapidly. A hoarse voice echoed in the vast hall.
"Hold me."
So the monster, crawling out from the dark, damp cage underground, happily climbed onto the altar, tightly wrapping around the sacrifice in the moonlight.
A pair of human male arms extended from between the numerous tentacles, slowly wrapping around in the moonlight, returning the hug to those strange, sticky tentacles.
Lin Yuan suddenly opened her eyes.
She found herself lying in the attic of her home.
The sky outside the window had already turned a pale white, the morning air was cold, the world silent. She heard the sound of her own heart beating faster.
It was a dream, an absurd and strange dream.
Why was she having this kind of dream? Why had she been dreaming about that sentinel so often recently?
When she was awake during the day, Lin Yuan’s emotions were very light, she could hardly experience strong emotions. But every night, the world in her dreams was completely different.
Her dreams were always intense and anxious, filled with fire, ice and snow, death, separation, anger, and sadness…
Now, it seemed, there was a new scene.
Lin Yuan sat on the bed, carefully thinking about it for a moment, and decided it should probably be categorized as lust.
She had heard that after humans grew up, when their bodies reached maturity, they would all have this kind of emotion.
The reason she kept having these dreams was probably because she had grown up.
She wiped her face, sat up from the bed.
It was very cold, and a layer of frost covered the glass of the window by the bed. Through the frost, she saw an elderly man delivering milk, pushing a cart, struggling to walk up the road outside the manor.
In the room, all sorts of toys and dolls quietly looked at her from the cabinet, and an old wind chime with glass beads gently swayed by the window.
Lin Yuan took the orca doll with a small tear in it from the cabinet against the wall and played with it for a while.
The cabinet was crammed with all kinds of new and old toys. The orca doll, having been taken down, revealed what was placed behind it.
It was the wooden box that Lin Yuan had specially brought back from the shipwreck at the bottom of the sea when she went to the No. 5 Contaminated Zone.
It had once contained precious, ancient energy stones, objects of contention among the high-ranking nobles in the White Tower.
Now, the precious energy stones had been taken away. The old wooden box was just a forgotten decoration, inconspicuously mixed among the old toys.
Lin Yuan looked down, playing with the orca doll for a long time, before raising her head and reaching for the wooden box.
Her fair fingers caressed the old wood grain on the box's surface, the sunken holes left behind after the gems were pried off.
Outside the window, the elderly man delivering milk, pulling his cart, reached the gate outside the manor.
In the courtyard downstairs, a young woman in a maid uniform ran through the overgrown courtyard, going to open the door. She took the milk from the gap in the door, paid, and quickly ran back, her footsteps light, her mood joyful.
Lin Yuan watched for a while, then reached out and touched the wind chime hanging by the window.
That wind chime had been hanging here for a long time. Large and small glass beads hung from it, those glass imitation gems covered in a layer of grime, having lost their original luster.
It was just an old toy that belonged to a child, dark and inconspicuous.
Lin Yuan's fingers moved among the hanging glass beads, and from the numerous beads, she accurately found a square, blue gemstone and took it off.
The surface of the aquamarine square stone was covered in a thick layer of grime, looking dull in Lin Yuan's hand, as if it was no different from the other glass beads.
Only if you stared closely could you see that it wasn't ordinary glass, it had four standard, delicate cut corners, a captivating symmetrical pattern in its center. It was a real gemstone.
Staring intently, the blue in the gem's center seemed to be flowing, like a mysterious ocean world, slowly swirling, as if it could suck one's soul in.
Lin Yuan placed the square blue gem against a groove on the box, and the square aquamarine fit perfectly.
...
The moment the aquamarine was inserted, the old wooden box from the seabed shipwreck was enveloped in a hazy light.
A faint, unclear, mysterious whisper came from all directions, that voice softly murmuring, as if telling some ancient story.
On the wooden box, the blue gem shone with a dazzling light, and above it, a three-dimensional image of a shipwreck appeared.
The majestic hull, half-buried in sea sand, slowly rotated as a small phantom image above the gem. Looking closely, it was the Mary, from the No. 5 Contaminated Zone.
A faint blue light overflowed from the edges of the blue gem, flowing along the cracks on the wooden box’s surface.
The blue liquid light traveled through the map-like cracks, reaching the next gem-less groove.
The empty groove, filled with blue liquid light, began to shine.
A small golden tree appeared above the groove.
A golden trunk, golden leaves, the small phantom image incredibly lifelike, she could almost hear the crisp sound of those metal leaves in the air.
The mysterious whispers from all directions murmured for a moment, gradually dissipating.
The phantom images of the shipwreck and the golden tree also disappeared.
The wooden box in Lin Yuan’s hand was still that old, broken box, the light of the only blue gem embedded in it fading, returning to being that grime-covered glass bead.
Golden Tree.
Lin Yuan repeated this word, caressed the box for a moment, and put it back among the pile of toys.
She let the orca doll with the hole sit on top of the box, covering the wooden box.
"Keep an eye on it for me," Lin Yuan poked the orca's chubby head, got up, washed up, and prepared to go downstairs for breakfast.
In the dining room,
Lin Yuan sat at the dining table, yawning, holding a spoon, waiting for breakfast.
The lights in the kitchen were on, and clanging sounds came from inside.
"Miss, did something happen at the banquet yesterday? How come you didn’t come back until morning?" A young girl's voice came from the kitchen.
"Mm, nothing much, it had nothing to do with us," Lin Yuan replied absentmindedly, turning the spoon in her hand, seemingly thinking about something.
"Xiao Suo," she finally made up her mind, "I have a few friends coming over, get ready."
A chaotic clatter of pots and pans came from the kitchen.
"Co- coming over?" A girl with a bob haircut, wearing a maid uniform, timidly poked her head out from the kitchen.
Her hair was smooth and straight, just reaching her collarbone, her features delicate, her eyes lively, she was wearing a neat, dark long dress and a white apron. Her fluffy skirt was very long, dragging on the ground, completely covering her feet.
"Yes, guests, you’ll help me entertain them," Lin Yuan said.
The girl named Xiao Suo, her face flustered, moved sideways out of the kitchen. After thinking for a moment, she smoothed the wrinkles on her skirt with both hands and resumed normal walking.
Her steps were elegant, the fluffy skirt completely covering her legs, not revealing her feet at all.
"I, I have to entertain them too?" Her hands clasped in front of her, her fair fingers nervously fidgeting. "Miss, but I…"
"It’s okay," Lin Yuan said. "You shouldn’t hide in your room all the time, you have to get used to seeing outsiders, me too."
"But, what if they find out?"
"I think they'll like you," Lin Yuan reached out and stroked Xiao Suo's smooth hair by her cheek. "If they don't like my home, I'll just tell them to get lost."
Xiao Suo lowered her head. "If that happens, I’ll only cause more trouble for miss. Miss already has very few friends."
"Don’t think too much," Lin Yuan put away her rare display of gentleness, returning to her signature expressionless face, knocking on the bowl. "I’m hungry, hurry up and bring me food."
Breakfast was very sumptuous, hot milk and toast, a soft-boiled egg, and a plate of lettuce with sesame sauce.
Lin Yuan ate happily.
"Ah, what should I do? This is my first time entertaining guests. What should I prepare? Yes, yes, yes, I should clean first."
Xiao Suo in the house was very flustered, scurrying around, and once again moved sideways.
The girl, holding cleaning tools in both hands, moved around the spacious living room far away from the dining room at an incredible speed, even easily walking vertically along the walls.
Her movements were so fast that her skirt flew up, revealing several arthropod legs beneath her white petticoat. They were hard, shelled legs, completely unlike a human's.
Xiao Suo's full name was Guo Suo, and she was a mutated creature.
Lin Yuan didn't know how she had come to her house.
Since her parents had passed away, and Lin Yuan had been sent to the White Tower to live, the servants in this manor had gradually dispersed. The large courtyard remained unoccupied for a long time, the gates locked.
Only after becoming an adult was Lin Yuan allowed to leave the White Tower and return home.
The first time she entered the house, the gates were rusty, the courtyard overgrown with weeds. The five-story main building and the smaller auxiliary building in the courtyard were dark, like a haunted house.
But when she actually entered the building, it wasn’t as dusty or cobweb-filled as she had imagined.
On the contrary, many corners seemed to have been cleaned regularly, with faint traces of life.
Lin Yuan, alone, carrying her luggage, walked upstairs in the dark, looking at the rooms one by one.
She was too young when she left, and had suffered a great emotional shock, she could no longer remember what it had been like living here in her childhood.
Walking step by step, the sound of her footsteps echoed in the long corridor, on both sides of which were dark rooms.
Everything was quiet, no one there, no living beings, no sounds, not even a breath of life.
She couldn’t find any of her memories here.
Everyone had a home, and Lin Yuan had always thought she did too.
So this empty building and desolate courtyard were her "home", the home she had longed for for so many years in the White Tower.
The long corridor, the spiraling staircase, her parents’ master bedroom, the study, the gym, the screening room, and a small attic that belonged to a little girl.
Many photos hung on the walls, and the young couple and the little girl in the photos, their faces full of smiles, looked very unfamiliar to Lin Yuan.
Strangely, several main rooms in this building were all kept strangely clean.
No one had touched the furniture inside, the tables and chairs, and the photo frames on the walls had all been dusted, neatly arranged, as if the owners hadn't been gone for too long.
Lin Yuan walked through the dark rooms, floor by floor, finally seeing rummaged clothes and some traces of life in the auxiliary building where the maids lived.
"Come out," Lin Yuan stopped at a staircase.
The house was very big, the courtyard very spacious, but the tentacles were everywhere, quickly finding the "ghost" hidden in the building.
"Get out," Lin Yuan stood in the darkness, her voice cold.
A little girl's timid head emerged from the shadows under the stairs.
"I’m sorry," she bit her handkerchief, tears welling up. "Please don’t be angry, I’ll come out right now."
Xiao Suo was a mutated creature. She had the upper body of a human girl and the lower body of an arthropod, supported by countless legs.
She couldn’t remember where she came from, only vaguely remembering that at first, she had lived a muddle-headed existence in a contaminated zone.
One day, a group of sentinels had barged in, taking her, who had almost no combat ability, out of the contaminated zone. Like a gift, she was sent into the home of a nobleman who liked to collect mutated creatures.
She called that nobleman Mr. Guo, living in a giant ecological tank in the basement. Her only task every day was to wait hungrily for Mr. Guo to feed her.
She was asked to learn human language in that fish tank, to imitate human behavior.
She struggled to learn, only when she satisfied Mr. Guo, could she get a little bit of food, not even enough to fill her stomach.
Until one day, she had miraculously escaped from that cramped, giant fish tank.
That day, she had climbed over many walls, courtyards, roads, and gardens, hiding in sewers. Panicked and terrified along the way, she had attracted many screams and beatings.
But she was very lucky. In the end, she hid in this abandoned courtyard, and wasn't found by those chasing her.
This courtyard had been silent for years. Here, no one beat or scolded her, no one forced her to do anything, her days were very happy.
She secretly observed the humans around her, imitating their behavior, living like this for many years.
Xiao Suo was very grateful to the owner of this courtyard in her heart.
Every day, she carefully did the things she had learned, trying her best to keep the house clean, trying not to break anything inside.
Hoping that when the owner of this house returned one day, they wouldn’t be too angry with her.
If, that owner, could also let her continue living here, that would be even better.
This was just a dream of hers. She knew she was a monster, humans hated monsters like her. When they saw her, they would either scream or beat and kill her. It was very difficult for her to live under the sun.
Finally, she waited for the owner of the house to return.
That night, powerful mental bodies, everywhere, made her have nowhere to hide.
"Get out," the young lady, wearing a white dress and carrying a backpack, stood at the staircase, her face expressionless, her eyes cold in the darkness.
Xiao Suo thought she was done for.
Perhaps she would be beaten, perhaps dissected, maybe even put in a pot and steamed into red cooked food.
She bit her handkerchief, tears streaming down her face, slowly moving out from the shadows.
Desperately trying to hide her strange legs under her skirt.
She knew it was useless.
This young lady’s mental body was exceptionally powerful, so powerful that it could see through everything, easily find her,
So powerful that she almost wanted to curl up and hide her head, too afraid to even run away.
That cold-faced young lady looked at her for a while and put away her scattered mental bodies.
"Did you clean the house?"
Xiao Suo, her tears flowing, biting her handkerchief, nodded.
"What do you usually eat when living here?"
"Fruits from the trees in the courtyard, and…" Xiao Suo nervously fidgeted with her fair fingers. "I secretly took some from the neighbors nearby, and cooked them."
"You can cook?"
"Yes, a little."
"Okay, from now on, I’ll bring back food, and you’ll cook," Miss Lin Yuan just decided things like that.
She didn't drive her away, didn’t abuse or beat her, she let her live in her original room, living like she had before.
The young lady said that she was also a monster, she didn't mind living with a mutated creature like her, as long as she could be responsible for the three meals a day and basic cleaning.
From then on, her anxious heart finally calmed down, she no longer needed to hide, no longer needed to live in fear.
As a maid, she formally lived in this courtyard she liked very much.
Her only worry was that she would occasionally scare away the gardeners who came to help manage the courtyard, and the cleaning ladies who came to help with shopping and garbage disposal.
But the young lady never blamed her once.
Guo Suo was very happy. She liked her young lady very much, and hoped that Miss Lin Yuan could also live happily.
...
Lin Yuan, holding a warm piece of toast in her mouth at the dining table, also felt a little troubled. "I don’t know what to prepare when inviting guests over.”
If only there was someone she could ask. She thought.
Lin Yuan opened her personal terminal.
A personal terminal was an expensive communication device, and could only be purchased at a high price, or obtained in a contaminated zone, not everyone had one.
She had only added a few people on her terminal.
Lin Yuan scrolled through the list and saw a few names, Roy, Shen Fei, Ni Ji, Nicole…
Who should she ask?
She thought for a moment, and clicked on a name she felt she had a relatively close relationship with.
The profile picture for that name was a small orca.
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