The Decaying Dream of America: I Assemble Corpses and Confront Madness

Lin Zheng sat on a hard wooden chair, his fingers unconsciously tapping his knee.

The smell of disinfectant, mixed with the patter of rain outside the window, created a suffocating silence.

Arthur Morgan sat opposite him, looking better than he had a week ago; rest and recuperation had helped him recover somewhat.

"Maria's clinic is completely gone."

"It happened last night. It was cleaned up completely, not even a single brick was left."

Lin Zheng's fingertips paused for a moment.

He looked up at Arthur.

There was no fear in the old detective's eyes, only a bottomless weariness and resolute determination.

"We need to keep things under control," Arthur continued.

Lin Zheng did not respond immediately.

"Miskatonic University, you're still a graduate student, your status is still valid."

"Go back and continue being a student. The library has what you need—"

"Cryptography, folklore, ancient texts, anything that can help you crack that ledger."

His gaze fell on the old scars on Arthur's hands, then shifted to the gray sky outside the window.

Raindrops struck the glass, making a monotonous sound.

He remembered the firelight in the factory, the sensation of the cleaver cutting into flesh, and the indistinct voice of the man in Martinez's lingering dream.

"Hehe, I almost forgot I was still a student. Luckily, my advisor treated me like a lamb and almost never bothered me." Lin Zheng recalled his youthful days on campus.

"They will find me," Lin Zheng said.

His voice was so calm that even he felt unfamiliar with it. After experiencing so much, it was hard for him to return to that naive state of mind he had in the past.

"But they won't look at universities. Who would have thought that a graduate student would recently take down a low-level gang?" Arthur grinned.

"That place is too clean, too bright. To them, dirt should be hidden in the gutter. The more you hide in the sunlight, the less they can see it."

Lin Zheng remained silent for a long time.

"I might be safe once I leave, but what about you guys?" Lin Zheng asked, voicing the core issue of the arrangement.

"Us? Of course we're also in the dark. I'm still working at the hospital, while Arthur only needs to apply for a job as a general laborer. It's just a waste of our old detective's talents, that he can only do odd jobs." Evelyn teased with a smile.

"Haha, I'll be there whenever you need me, Lin. Don't worry, we'll take good care of ourselves." Arthur reached out his hand to Lin Zheng.

When his fingertips touched the roughness of Arthur's palm, he felt a familiar calm spreading through his heart.

They shook hands, patted each other on the shoulder, and hugged.

Arthur nodded without saying another word.

"Hey, Lin, you can't be sexist." Evelyn pouted, but couldn't help but laugh out loud.

Lin Zheng wanted to shake hands as well, but Evelyn took the initiative to extend her hand, so he had no choice but to hug her.

"Lin, take care of yourself. You're just too compassionate and pitiful."

Lin Zheng also held Evelyn and whispered in her ear.

"Evelyn, I'm not that weak. You take care of yourself and keep an eye on this old man for me, okay?"

After saying that, Lin Zheng immediately released his arms from the embrace.

Evelyn, however, hugged him even tighter.

"No, you have a heart of gold, kind and warm, but there are some things that will leave you feeling cold and helpless."

Lin Zheng lowered his forehead and rested it on Evelyn's shoulder.

"Thank you, Evelyn. I feel warm because of you and because of all of you."

The softness against one's chest is truly heartwarming, making one want to sink into this gentle embrace. Don't overthink it; it's a mutual warmth between hearts.

Lin Zheng stood up, his trench coat rustling as he walked to the door. He paused for a moment but did not turn around.

Time is a pool of murky water, flowing slowly, settling countless fragmented nightmares.

Lin Zheng moved to a rented apartment after several changes.

Although the rooms are small and the walls are yellowed, at least the windows face the fire escape, so you can escape at any time.

During the day, he forced himself to wear a clean shirt and jeans, slung his old backpack over his shoulder, and walked through the gates of Miskatonic University.

At night, he lay in bed, listening to the argument next door and the sirens of police cars coming from the street, his fingers unconsciously mimicking the action of sewing in the air.

He hid the cleaver and some of the ledgers in a hidden compartment under his bed in his apartment. Every time he touched them, he was touching the entrance to another world.

Of course, the electronic encryption was left to Youying to handle. Lin Zheng only made rubbings of the symbols in the ledger and went to find classic texts to verify them. Many special knowledge items stored in the library were not connected to the internet.

Lin Zheng sat by the window in the library, with a thick ancient book of occultism open in front of him.

The afternoon sun shone through the stained glass windows, casting dappled patterns of light on the floor.

The air was filled with the dusty smell of old book pages, mixed with the cheap perfume and faint smell of sweat emanating from the student sitting next to me.

The smell was so normal that it made him nauseous.

He began to morbidly yearn for certain strange flavors.

His fingertips slid across the pages, but his gaze couldn't focus.

The words distorted before my eyes, turning into incomprehensible symbols.

He tried to concentrate, but the distorted faces in the factory and the blurry whispers of the man in Martinez's lingering dream kept involuntarily appearing in his mind.

Hey, classmate!

A voice suddenly broke in.

Lin Zheng raised his head.

I saw a boy wearing a trendy brand hoodie standing by the table, with a sunny but slightly forced smile on his face.

The boy had a meticulously styled haircut and exuded a certain citrus scent of cologne.

"I've seen you sitting here by yourself for ages."

The boy casually pulled over a chair next to him and sat down.

"I'm Kevin Lee. I'm in the sociology department. You're here for some peace and quiet too, right? That's the good thing about the library, no one's making noise."

Lin Zheng did not answer.

His gaze fell on the prominent logo on Kevin's hoodie, then shifted back to the pages of the book.

"Halloween parties, you know?"

Kevin, oblivious to Lin Zheng's silence, continued speaking with great enthusiasm.

"It's a fraternity event, tomorrow night. It's going to be super fun! Free drinks and a live band. My girlfriend Jessica Wong is coming too; she's a social butterfly and can introduce you to tons of people. Want to come along? It's so boring going alone."

Lin Zheng felt his throat go dry.

Kevin's scent, the scent of youth, social life, and carefree existence, gave him a sense of vitality—

But a sad, thick barrier separates them.

He remembered Arthur's words: The more you hide in the sunlight, the less they can see you.

But now, the sunlight was so bright that it almost burned him.

"No."

He finally managed to squeeze out a word.

Kevin paused for a moment, his smile becoming somewhat stiff.

"Oh... okay. Well, then you get back to work."

He stood up, scratched his head, and seemed about to say something, but in the end he just waved and turned to leave.

Lin Zheng watched his figure disappear among the bookshelves.

The library was enveloped in silence again, but this time, the silence carried an empty echo.

He lowered his head and looked at his outstretched palm, which was covered in fine sweat and had several shallow, recently healed scars.

Just then, out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of a black, cylindrical object slightly rotating atop a bookshelf in the distance.

That was a surveillance camera.

It paused for a second, then slowly moved away, as if nothing had happened.

Lin Zheng closed the book and stood up.

The dusty smell of old book pages wafted back, but he could no longer smell it.

He slung his backpack over his shoulder and walked out of the library.

Outside, the sky was overcast, and a light drizzle began to fall.

The rain stung my skin, causing a slight sting.

Lin Zheng didn't use an umbrella, letting the rain soak his coat.

He walked through the campus, past the students laughing and playing, past the brightly colored Halloween party flyers on the bulletin board, his steps never stopping, his direction clear.

As dusk fell, the streetlights lit up one by one, stretching his shadow long and then shortening it.

He left through the side gate of the university and turned into a quiet alley.

After putting Professor Arthur's anti-tracking knowledge into practice, they left through the alley.

At the end of the winding alley, there is an inconspicuous gray building with no sign at the entrance.

He took a rusty key out of his pocket, inserted it into the lock, and turned it.

The iron gate groaned heavily as it opened inward.

A familiar, rich, and reassuring smell of formaldehyde wafted over me.

There was only one solitary incandescent light bulb in the morgue, emitting a buzzing electrical sound.

The light was stark white, reflecting a gleam onto the tiles on the wall.

In the center of the room were several stainless steel operating tables, their surfaces polished to a shine, reflecting the light from the ceiling lamps.

Lin Zheng took off his soaking wet coat and hung it on the clothes rack next to him.

He took a set of dark blue work clothes from a cabinet in the corner and slowly put them on.

The fabric was rough, but after several washes, it became soft.

He buttoned up his shirt, rolled up his sleeves to his elbows, revealing the fine scars on his forearms.

He walked to the innermost operating table.

A body covered with a white sheet lay on the platform.

Lin Zheng stretched out his hand, his fingertips hovering above the white cloth.

He could feel the chill seeping from beneath the fabric, that absolute silence that belonged to death.

At that moment, the unease and alienation that had been churning in his heart in the library suddenly subsided.

There is no sunshine, no noise, and none of Kevin's suffocating normalcy here.

All that's there is the smell of formaldehyde, the feel of metal, and the "parts" waiting to be assembled.

The silence of death, so morbid, brought him peace of mind.