As soon as I felt fear, the entire cave began to fill with thorns. But Old Chu was far more skilled than I; he was the God of Agriculture. He knew how to make the earth yield a harvest, and he knew just as well how to make it wither. My meager abilities were nothing in his eyes. Moreover, he was in a desperate rush this time, personally kicking aside several people as he lunged to seize me. My body had been pampered and lived in comfort; I was older now, and with my protruding belly, I was no match for his long-legged stride.
Just as Old Chu’s fingernails were about to graze me, the scenery before my eyes suddenly shifted rapidly, dissolving into streaks of light! I breathed a sigh of relief, thinking Jin Mu had finally pulled me back, but when my vision cleared, I found myself standing in a cornfield on the outskirts of Tenochtitlan. Above me hung the Milky Way, and the distant hills were about two kilometers away.
What happened? Did I teleport?
I actually teleported?!
I heard a terrifying roar echoing from the distant mountains and couldn't help but feel a surge of glee—could it be that Old Chu didn't know how to do this?
Aha! This was truly magnificent.
Having narrowly escaped death, I wasted no time returning to that room within the city’s pyramid and picked up the crystal skull.
This was its form from five hundred years ago; its interior was dim and lusterless.
I tried to recall how I had arrived here just now. It seemed I had been facing its two eye sockets, brandishing a hammer...
Seeing no one around, I sheepishly raised my hands again, making a motion as if to strike it.
This time, it was completely different. My vision was flooded with a kaleidoscope of bizarre scenes, all seen through my own eyes, shifting so rapidly they made my head spin.
I was walking on the deck of a ship crossing the English Channel, watching a young Hobbes standing at the bow gazing toward the European continent; I met Augustine of Hippo by the river in Carthage, where he spoke to me of the City of God he had seen with his own eyes; I participated in a sacrifice to Osiris in third-century Abydos and, at the invitation of the last Egyptian priest, interpreted the weathered characters on an obelisk; I heard an Athenian soldier during the Peloponnesian War tell the Melians: "Justice exists only between equals in power; justice is the right of the strong"; I took part in the voyage where the Pythagoreans murdered Hippasus because he discovered the square root of two; as I washed my linen robes by a pool, the blind Homer clutched his lyre and sang of heroes and gods by my side, the scent of sulfur smoke pungent on the fabric.
"Heroes and gods," I mused.
"They endure," Homer said. "All the stories of the mortal world already exist at the tips of my fingers as I pluck the lyre. Past, present, and future—a cycle that repeats. There is nothing new under the sun."
As he finished that sentence, I found myself lying against the roots of a tree, a wine cup in my hand, as if I had been drinking only a second before. Before me lay a vast wilderness, devoid of people.
I looked down. I was stark naked.
Fine, fine. As long as I could escape Old Chu, I didn't care if I was naked.
Only, whose body was I in this time?
I didn't know. I couldn't feel the original consciousness of this body. My form was relaxed, feeling incredibly light and slow; the high concentration of wine kept me in a state between dreaming and drunkenness. Perhaps the owner of this body was currently so blissful they weren't thinking of anything at all.
A man drove a chariot across the wilderness, a bow fastened at his waist. He was European, with a high bridge to his nose, very fair skin, and eyes the color of the deep blue Aegean Sea. I raised my cup to him. He saw me, stopped the chariot, and walked over.
"What is this?"
"Wine."
"This wine is different from any I have seen."
"Because it’s made from grapes."
"Grape wine?"
"Yes."
He gave a soft hum of affirmation and sat down beside me.
I asked him, "Who are you?"
He reflected for a moment. "I have many names. But my true name is shared with only one person."
"Has that person appeared?"
"He has. But he has forgotten everything, including my true name. When he mentions me, he has no idea he is summoning me."
Feeling tipsy, I sat up and looked at him. For a moment, a thought flickered in my mind, but my brain was too groggy. "I don't know. I don't even know who I am."
"Because you indulge in forgetting."
We sat there together, watching the sun traverse the wilderness from east to west.
As the sun began to set, the man said, "I must go."
"Alright."
"Have we reached a reconciliation?"
"Did we argue?"
"Conflict is our natural state."
"Why?"
He looked at me for a long time, finally saying quietly and slowly, "Because we are completely different."
The man boarded his chariot, and I watched him disappear into the wilderness before continuing to drink. I was completely lost in the moment, for my wine, surprisingly, had not run out. My cup was so small it seemed to hold only a shallow sip, yet it flowed forth unceasingly. It was miraculous, yet I found myself not the least bit surprised.
When night fell, someone was drawn over by the scent of the wine. He was driving a herd of cattle but sat upon the back of a sheep. He looked very young; I couldn't tell if he was a shepherd or a cowherd.
He asked me, "What is this?"
"Wine."
"This wine is different from any I have seen."
"Because it’s made from grapes."
"Grape wine?"
"Yes."
He sat down beside me.
I asked him, "And who are you?"
He giggled. "I am a thief."
Curious, I asked, "What are you going to steal?"
"I want to steal the things our King discarded. But he will not allow it. I do not understand."
I shrugged my shoulders. "That which is discarded still belongs to him. People have strange possessive streaks."
The youth’s expression suddenly turned solemn. "You do not understand. What was discarded was the inferior part. The King loathes his own baseness."
I shifted into a more comfortable position and continued drinking. I didn't understand, and I didn't want to think too much. Before I realized what was happening, the youth’s cold body pressed against mine. "You are drunk."
"But I don't want to have sex. Not now."
"Legend says you are lewd, arrogant, and mad. But all I see is a quiet drunkard. Why?"
Legend? Lewd? Arrogant? Mad?
He had heard of me? He knew me?
Who was I? I couldn't quite remember. And who was this person? Wasn't he just a passerby?
He obediently leaned down and kissed my chest. "Now, I am going to steal something... You are drunk; you shouldn't be able to feel it."
I looked into his eyes and suddenly remembered. Holy crap, I’m Ye Xiao! The Ye Xiao who gets chased every day by people wanting to cut out his heart! Could this guy be trying to carve me up too?! I jumped up, shoved him away, and ran. But I couldn't move; my legs felt as though they were filled with lead, or as if I were stepping on cotton. With one step, I collapsed toward the ground.
Someone caught me.
It was the man who had spent the entire day with me.
He said to the youth behind us, "Stay away from Ye Xiao."
Holy crap, he said Ye Xiao!
And his voice, the feeling he gave off...
Liu Wukong! My boyfriend! I really was wasted!
Just as I leaned toward him in my daze, he vanished. The wilderness around me vanished. I was standing in Jin Mu’s apartment, clutching the crystal skull. Jin Mu was sitting behind me.
"My god!" was all I managed to say. Was that really not just a dream? Traveling through time—actual, literal time travel! I didn't dare look directly into those sunken eye sockets again; they were portals connecting countless worlds.
"You're awake," the Jin Mu behind me said.
I jolted, clutching the crystal skull as I pressed myself into the corner of the wall.
"You're not Jin Mu. You're Jin Mu’s god?" I stared at the smile playing on his lips. "Zhang Litian, were you also that little shepherd I met?"
He neither confirmed nor denied it, sitting elegantly in the chair with his legs crossed. He reached a hand out toward me. "Can you return what you're holding to its rightful owner now?"
"I'm not giving it to you. And I should remind you, my roommate has been by my side this whole time. He didn't go back to the Abyss."
As if to echo my words, a pounding sound erupted from the door outside.
I raised an eyebrow. "You're dead meat."
He looked down and chuckled. "Then why don't you go open the door for him?"
Open the door for my roommate? My roommate is so powerful, why would he need me to open the door?! But seeing the deepening mockery in his eyes, I cursed inwardly—could it be that he can't get in here?! Why! I suddenly thought of the runes covering the entire room. I looked up and scanned them. So, Jin Mu and Old Chu painted these things to keep my roommate out! Dammit, I thought Jin Mu was trying to keep Zhang Litian out! Wait, maybe Zhang Litian was the one who painted them using Jin Mu’s body!
Zhang Litian saw through my thoughts and stood up. "Before he finds a way in, we have plenty of time to finish our business."
I tried to stall for time. "What do you want to do?"
"First, I should congratulate you on being 'with child.' It’s just a pity your little darlings are so utterly useless."
"Fine, I was thinking of getting rid of them anyway... Do you have a way?"
Zhang Litian spread his hands in a friendly gesture. "I would be delighted."
Me: "But I'll go find another doctor. They won't want my heart."
Zhang Litian: "You probably don't understand yet. You don't need a heart at all. That part doesn't belong to you."
Me: "Even if it's not mine, having it gouged out hurts. Since you're so familiar with me, you should know I'm afraid of pain."
Zhang Litian: "Then I must ask you to bear with it."
"Wait!" I made a gesture for him not to come closer. "My heart doesn't belong to you either."
Zhang Litian blinked. "I am a thief. You will be my greatest trophy."
"And the second greatest?!"
Zhang Litian actually stopped in his tracks, falling into deep thought. After a moment, he gave another bright smile. "The sun."
Bullshit! What arrogance! You can't even beat my husband on Earth, and you dare claim you stole the sun! I don't believe a word of it.
"I've wasted enough breath on you." Zhang Litian carefully pulled a pair of rubber gloves from his pocket and put them on. "Shall we begin?"
"You dare!" my roommate roared, slamming against the door. For the first time, I realized that when he was angry, his voice didn't sound human at all; it was murky, like a sound echoing from hell.
Zhang Litian smiled. "Let's be quick. Look, he's about to go mad. Tsk, tsk. Shuffling away like a coward won't help you, Lord Ye Xiao."
I tilted my head and held up my index finger. I hadn't cut my nails in a while; they were quite long. "I have a question. You can rip open my chest with your fingers, but what do you think of the way I've grown this nail? Could it achieve the same effect?"
Zhang Litian looked at me suspiciously. It was clear he was a very paranoid person, but he still said, "Your little tricks are useless."
"Really?"
Slowly, I used my fingernail to draw a line through the octagram pattern on the wall beside me.
A broken octagram.
Zhang Litian’s expression changed instantly.
In that moment, the door was suddenly blown off its hinges. A massive wave of black mist, carrying a cacophony of roars, surged into the room. I had never heard such a terrifying sound; it was as if a thousand demons from hell were screaming directly into my ears. My ears and eyes began to bleed, and my chest felt so tight it was about to burst. Within seconds, I could hear and see nothing at all, falling into a near-death state.
***
| Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 特诺奇蒂特兰 | Tenochtitlan | The ancient Aztec capital. |
| 霍布斯 | Hobbes | Likely referring to Thomas Hobbes, the philosopher. |
| 希坡的奥古斯丁 | Augustine of Hippo | The Christian theologian and philosopher. |
| 阿拜多斯 | Abydos | One of the oldest cities of ancient Egypt. |
| 奥西里斯 | Osiris | The Egyptian god of the afterlife and rebirth. |
| 毕达哥拉斯学派 | Pythagoreans | The school of philosophy and mathematics founded by Pythagoras. |
| 希帕索斯 | Hippasus | A Pythagorean philosopher credited with discovering irrational numbers. |
| 荷马 | Homer | The legendary blind Greek poet. |
| 八芒星 | Octagram | An eight-pointed star, often used as a magical seal or symbol. |
| 章立天 | Zhang Litian | The name of the god/entity possessing Jin Mu. |
