Global Ghost Stories: I'm Investigating Ghosts in My Nightmare!

Chapter 73, Act Three: Life is Like a Dream

“Amazing… truly amazing willpower.”

Qin Yixuan's voice echoed in the endless darkness, no longer gentle as before, but with a coldness and sharpness like the friction of metal.

“I admit, I underestimated you, Mr. Bai. Neither the regretful ‘brokenness’ nor the irreplaceable ‘happiness’ seems to be a true shackle binding you. You are like a piece of cold iron that has been tempered a thousand times, harder than I imagined.”

She paused, a dangerous smile curving her lips: "However, the more you act this way, the more I want to have you. What a pity it would be if a perfect work of art could not be completely possessed by its 'soul'."

Bai Yu stood in the void, warily surveying her surroundings. This deadly game was far from over. Twice shattering her opponent's dreams hadn't deterred her; instead, it had fueled her possessiveness even more intensely. And now, she would no longer test the waters; she would unleash her full power.

“Since the ‘past’ cannot be your prison, then let me offer you my final gift.” Qin Yixuan’s voice was like a divine pronouncement, carrying a grand, creation-like magnificence, “I will offer you a world… without a ‘past’ or a ‘future’, only an eternal and real world.”

“I will give you a real ‘home’.”

As her voice fell, a mysterious and twisted power of rules erupted like the singularity at the beginning of creation!

This force is no longer the alluring spiritual impact of the past, but has transformed into a "reshaping" that strikes at the very source.

Bai Yu felt as if his consciousness had been forcibly pulled out of his soul by an invisible giant hand and then thrown into a huge vortex composed of countless high-speed rotating light bands.

His memories, all his experiences as the investigator "White Language", the bonds between him and his teammates, the contradictory symbiotic relationship between him and Black Language, even the "Vortex Eye" mark on the back of his hand...

Everything was ground to dust bit by bit under the churning of this enormous vortex.

He wanted to resist, but his proud willpower seemed so small and powerless at this moment. He was like a drowning man, only able to watch helplessly as he was completely swallowed up by the cold and dark depths of the sea.

"Farewell, Mr. Bai." Qin Yixuan's light laughter, full of victorious air, became the last words he heard before his consciousness completely faded away. "Enjoy your ordinary yet happy life. Until you completely forget who you are and willingly become a part of me."

Darkness descended completely.

……

It may be just a moment, or it may be eternity.

In the chaotic mix of warmth and darkness, a faint consciousness, like a tender sprout struggling to break through the soil in the dead of winter, slowly awakened.

He felt as if he were enveloped in a warm ocean, surrounded by rhythmic pulsations, like a soothing lullaby. He was so tired that he didn't even have the strength to open his eyes; he just wanted to sleep forever in this warm tranquility.

who am I?
A vague thought flashed through the depths of his consciousness, but it was quickly overwhelmed by an irresistible drowsiness.

He seemed to have forgotten many important things, but what did it matter? It was so warm and safe here.

Suddenly, an immense pressure came from all directions, forcibly pushing him out of that warm ocean. Immediately afterward, an incredibly blinding light pierced through the darkness that enveloped him, causing his fragile consciousness to let out a silent cry of despair.

The icy air rushed into his lungs, causing him to let out a loud cry uncontrollably.

“Wow! Wow!”

"It's a boy! It's a boy! Congratulations, mother and child are safe!" A joyful voice rang in his ears.

Immediately afterwards, he felt himself being gently lifted up by a pair of warm and soft hands, and his body was being wiped with a towel. Then, he was pulled into an embrace.

A scent mingled with the aroma of milk and sweat enveloped him. He could clearly hear a slightly weak but tender and loving heartbeat right beside him, steady and reassuring.

He struggled to open his heavy eyelids.

What came into view was the face of a young woman, slightly pale yet breathtakingly beautiful. She had long, jet-black hair, with a few strands clinging messily to her forehead from sweat. Her face bore the weariness of a new mother, but her bright eyes were filled with a tender love as vast as the stars and the sea.

She looked at him and smiled. That smile was warmer than any sunshine he had ever seen.

"Baby... my baby..." Her voice was gentle and melodious as she softly called his name, while lowering her head and gently rubbing her cheek against his.

Bai Yu, the newborn baby, went blank for a moment.

It's a feeling of being enveloped in unreserved "love".

This was different from the protective and expectant love he had just experienced from his parents, and also different from the love among his teammates, which was full of trust and bond. This was a love that came entirely from instinct.

He felt a sense of bewilderment in the face of this pure love.

Just then, a tall figure appeared beside the woman. It was a man who looked very young, dressed in simple casual clothes, with a hint of nervousness and awkwardness on his face, but his eyes, looking at the woman and the baby, were filled with undisguised joy and love.

"Honey, you've worked so hard." He reached out and gently wiped the sweat from the woman's forehead, his voice trembling slightly. "Is he...is he our son? He's so...so young."

“Yes,” the woman looked up at her husband with happiness, “Look how adorable he is. Our son.”

The man carefully extended a finger and gently touched the baby's clenched fist.

Almost instinctively, the baby gripped the man's fingers tightly with his weak little hands.

The moment he grasped that finger, a warm yet powerful sensation traveled through that tiny point of contact to the depths of his soul.

The man felt the faint power emanating from his own blood, and his eyes uncontrollably reddened. At that moment, he shed tears of joy like a child.

"Wife, what name should we give him?" the man asked, wiping away his tears.

“Let’s call him ‘Baiyu’,” the woman said gently, looking at the child in her arms who was curiously observing the world. “I hope his life can be like a clean blank sheet of paper, pure and beautiful. I also hope that he can use his ‘words’ to bring more warmth and light to this world.”

Bai language.

The moment that familiar name reached his ears, it was as if a thunderclap suddenly exploded in the depths of his chaotic consciousness!
Countless images filled with blood and smoke flashed through his mind like a tide!
That coffee shop filled with strange tales of rules… that village shrouded in blood-red fog… that silent ruin filled with nothingness and oblivion… Anmu’s reliable, mountain-like figure… Mofei’s roar filled with the will to protect… Lance’s perpetually calm analysis… and, deep within his soul, the darkness called “Black Words” that coexisted with him…

"Do not……"

A primal resistance and vigilance from his very soul caused his body to struggle violently and uncontrollably. He let out a rapid, anxious cry.

This is all fake!
It's a trap! It's that woman's conspiracy!

However, his struggles did not elicit any attacks or ridicule.

In return, all she received was a gentler embrace from the woman and more attentive and worried reassurance from the man.

"What's wrong with the baby? Is he feeling unwell?"

"Are you hungry? Or were you scared?"

Their loving voices, like a pair of warm hands, gently smoothed away and suppressed the fragments of memory that had just surfaced in his mind. In the end, the baby's feeble resistance seemed so pale and powerless in the face of that love, as vast and warm as the ocean.

Exhaustion and drowsiness overwhelmed him once again like a tide.

In the last moment before his consciousness completely faded, he only saw the young parents gazing at him with the most tender eyes in the world.

……

Time, like the slowly flowing river outside the window, is neither fast nor slow, yet it never returns.

In this world entirely built on "peace" and "happiness," Bai Yu's life is like a carefully nurtured sapling, growing step by step.

When he was one year old, he learned to walk. As he wobbled from one end of the living room into his father's open arms, the whole house echoed with his parents' joyful and encouraging laughter.

When he was three, he started attending the best kindergarten in the neighborhood. At first, he wasn't used to the noisy environment. He always preferred to sit quietly in a corner, building strange structures with blocks that even he couldn't understand. The kindergarten teachers once thought he had autistic tendencies, but his parents never scolded him for it. They would simply give him a big hug when they picked him up from school each day, and then patiently listen to him explain the "design concepts" behind those strange buildings in his still somewhat broken language.

When he was five, his mother began teaching him to play the piano. He displayed astonishing talent. He seemed to memorize complex sheet music after only one glance. His small hands danced across the black and white keys, but what flowed from them were not the playful nursery rhymes, but melodies tinged with a faint sadness and a sense of brokenness. His mother never corrected him; she would simply sit quietly beside him, her own music harmonizing with his melodies, which were filled with a sense of loneliness, adding a touch of warmth to that sadness.

At the age of seven, he started elementary school. He consistently ranked first in his class. He possessed logical thinking and memory abilities far exceeding those of his peers. What other children found incredibly boring—mathematical formulas and historical events—seemed like fascinating symbols full of interconnectedness to him.

But he was not a sociable person. He never joined in his classmates' chasing and playing, nor did he participate in those childish recess games. He always liked to sit alone by the window, quietly gazing at the azure sky outside, as if at the end of that sky lay something he had been searching for but had long forgotten.

His precocious maturity and aloof personality made him a unique presence in the class. Some classmates thought he was cool, while others thought he was strange.

Unlike other children, he wouldn't cry or complain during these times. He would simply stare quietly at those who bullied him with his deep, childlike eyes. There was no anger or fear in his gaze, only a calm as deep as an abyss. That calm was often more terrifying than any violence. The mischievous boys would often feel a strange pang of guilt under his gaze, and then slink away.

He was like a "stranger" who didn't belong to this world, examining this mundane world full of noise and everyday life with a detached yet calm gaze.

The vigilance and instinct deep within his soul, belonging to the investigator "Baiyu," kept him at a constant, invisible distance from this "false" world.

He seemed to know that it was all a lie, that he didn't belong here. He had been waiting, waiting for some opportunity to arise, waiting for the inevitable "battle."

However, the most fatal flaw in the world that Qin Yixuan created lies precisely in its "realism" and "ordinariness".

There are no nightmares he needs to fight, nor rules he needs to decipher. There is only the daily routine, filled with trivialities and warmth.

When he was feeling down because he was bullied by his classmates, he would always be greeted at home by his mother's worried questions and his father's clumsy but powerful comfort.

When he woke up in the middle of the night from a vague nightmare, his bedroom door would always be gently pushed open immediately. His mother would sit by his bedside with a cup of warm milk, gently hold him in her arms, and hum the lullaby that could soothe everything, just like when he was a child. His father would turn on all the lights in the room and then perform a comical monologue for him with his slightly exaggerated body language until he laughed.

That ever-present love was like a gentle spring rain, silently seeping into his soul.

The invisible barrier between him began to show tiny cracks under the erosion of that warmth.

He began to look forward to seeing his mother's busy figure in the kitchen when he came home from school every day.

He began to look forward to every weekend afternoon when his father would take him to the park to fly kites or to the library to read his favorite science fiction novels.

He would unconsciously add a touch of warmth, belonging to this family, to those melancholic melodies.

The memories belonging to "Baiyu" deep within his soul began to fade little by little. Meanwhile, the new memories belonging to this world, to this child named "Baiyu," grew like thriving vines, gradually taking over his entire soul.

He is...forgetting.

Forget who you are, forget where you came from, forget the mission that you should have been deeply engraved in your heart.

……

The summer when I was twelve.

Bai Yu achieved the highest score in the city and was admitted to the best junior high school in the area. To reward him, his parents decided to take him on a family trip to the beach.

That was the first time he had ever seen the real ocean.

The boundless blue sea shimmered under the sunlight, and the sea breeze, carrying a slightly salty smell, ruffled his soft black hair. The waves crashed against the beach, making rhythmic "whoosh" sounds.

He took off his shoes and walked barefoot on the sun-warmed sand.

Like a big kid, his father pulled him along, chasing and playing on the beach, and together they built a crooked sandcastle.

The mother, holding a beautiful parasol, sat on a beach chair not far away, a happy smile on her face, capturing these heartwarming moments with her camera.

As evening fell, the setting sun painted the entire sky and sea a brilliant orange-red.

A family of three strolled hand in hand on the beach bathed in the glow of the setting sun, their shadows stretched long and thin.

"Son, look, isn't the sea beautiful?" the father asked, pointing to the magnificent view where the sea and sky met in the distance.

"Mm." Bai Yu nodded, his deep eyes reflecting the magnificent sunset, his gaze carrying a hint of intoxication that he himself was unaware of.

“People should be like the ocean,” his father said, patting him on the shoulder. “They should have a broad mind, able to embrace all rivers. They should be able to withstand the tranquility of calm seas and also resist the onslaught of storms. Most importantly, no matter how many storms they experience, they should always maintain their own blue color and their pure heart.”

Bai Yu listened, seemingly understanding but not quite.

"Alright, stop lecturing your son with these grand principles," the mother said with a smile, taking her husband's arm. "He's so young, how could he understand these things?"

She turned her head and looked at Bai Yu gently: "Xiao Yan, just remember that no matter what happens in the future, no matter what kind of person you become, you will always be your parents' most beloved baby. That's enough."

She reached out and hugged Bai Yu tightly.

The father, from the other side, embraced the mother and son together with his broad arms.

Bai Yu suddenly felt an uncontrollable soreness in the tip of her nose.

He buried his face deeply in his mother's warm and soft embrace.

"Dad...Mom..."

He uttered those two titles in a voice that was almost like a dream, titles he had long thought he would never say again.

The icy barrier that belonged to investigator "Bai Yu" finally began to melt under the warm embrace of this ocean filled with "love" and "happiness".

　Thank you Yue Qingchen for the monthly ticket! @( oω)@
　　
　
(End of this chapter)