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

The biting cold was kept out by the car windows, but the warm air inside could not dispel the pervasive stillness.

Everything that just happened is stuck in everyone's throat.

The windshield wipers swung rhythmically, pushing the ever-flowing snowflakes to the sides.

Soft jazz music was playing on the radio.

Emilia's pale face had lost all color, and she gripped her knees tightly, her knuckles turning white.

The winter snow scene she longed for is now just a memory of rotting stench and wriggling maggots.

No one spoke; the atmosphere was oppressively suffocating.

As the car drove to the edge of the city, about to return to the familiar neighborhood, Emilia finally broke her silence.

Her voice trembled slightly, as if it came from a very far place.

"Lin Zheng..." she called softly.

He turned to look at her, waiting for her to speak.

In the darkness of night, she appeared exceptionally vulnerable, like a wounded little animal whimpering.

"My home is nearby," she paused, took a deep breath, and mustered her courage, "My family is all out, and I'm all alone... I'm a little scared."

Her gaze turned to him, with obvious pleading.

"Could you... come back with me? Just for one night."

She then looked at Jessica and Kevin in the back seat, her tone becoming more cheerful than usual, trying to dispel the unease in the air.

"Come join us! My house is big, you can sleep when you're tired of playing. We can have a wild party and wash away all the bad luck of tonight!"

To others, this suggestion was like a lamp suddenly lit in the darkness, faint yet enough to dispel some of their fear.

Jessica and Kevin exchanged an uneasy glance, but eventually nodded.

Kevin pushed up his glasses, his voice a little hoarse: "Then... thank you for your trouble, Emilia."

A complex emotion flashed through Lin Zheng's mind.

He knew that Emilia's invitation was not only out of fear, but also an escape from everything she had seen that night.

She tried to erase the horrific images from her mind with a party, with alcohol and noise.

His thoughts returned to the woodland, cold, desolate, and decaying, a stark contrast to the warm atmosphere inside the car.

Lin Zheng felt the strength of Emilia's grip on his arm, and felt her icy body temperature in his palm.

He nodded and replied in a low voice, "Okay, lead the way."

Emilia looked at him gratefully, as if she had received some kind of pardon, then turned on the car's navigation system and entered her home address on the screen.

When Lin Zheng looked at the navigation interface, his brows furrowed involuntarily.

The screen showed a blank area with no road signs or building information.

It was as if that address didn't belong to this city, or even to this world.

"It's not on the navigation." Lin Zheng said with some doubt and curiosity.

Emilia leaned forward, glanced at the screen, and frowned slightly.

"Oh, by the way, my neighborhood is newly built, so it might not be included in the latest map system yet," she explained casually.

"It's okay, I'll give you directions." She then smiled again, as if nothing had happened.

Lin Zheng didn't ask any more questions, but simply followed Emilia's directions and drove the car away from the main road in the city.

The vehicle traveled along what appeared to be an ordinary asphalt road, gradually entering the depths of the suburbs.

The surrounding buildings became increasingly sparse, replaced by groves of trees and the occasional flash of streetlights.

This road seems to have no end.

About half an hour later, Lin Zheng felt Emilia guiding him into a more secluded path.

The trees on both sides of the path are tall and lush, their branches and leaves intertwining in the night sky to form a black archway that swallows up all external light and sound.

The beam of the car headlights became the only guide, cutting a bright slit in the darkness.

The GPS signal completely disappeared after entering the trail, leaving only a black area on the map and a constantly flashing "Signal lost" message on the screen.

"How much longer until we get there?" Jessica's voice came from the back seat, tinged with obvious fatigue and unease.

"Almost there, almost there," Emilia replied, her voice less energetic and more complaining. "Honestly, it's always such a hassle to go home."

Lin Zheng glanced at Emilia's expression through the rearview mirror.

Her complaints weren't deliberately concealed; they were more like a habitual grumble, a sense of entitlement to this extraordinary "inconvenience."

This made him even more certain that there was a huge gap between Emilia's life and the underworld he lived in.

After driving for a long distance, the car suddenly drove onto a flat and wide private road.

The road is lined with meticulously trimmed evergreen hedges, completely isolating it from the outside world.

The streetlights are evenly spaced, emitting a soft white light that illuminates the area as if it were daytime.

The forests on both sides are no longer growing wildly, but have been carefully planned and maintained, with trees of varying heights.

Everything here exudes a silent, powerful sense of order and an inviolable sense of privacy.

This place is similar to, yet different from, the countryside.

It is an exquisite yet chilling mask that conceals the true flesh and decay beneath.

The unease deep in Lin Zheng's heart grew stronger, and he could almost "smell" some strange atmosphere beneath this "perfection".

But it's not the kind of nauseating gore; rather, it's a more abstract and deeper sense of incongruity.

Finally, a colossal object appeared in front of the headlights.

It was a towering wall, built of unpolished dark gray stones, without a single superfluous decoration, exuding an almost tyrannical sense of oppression.

In the center of the wall, a huge metal gate, like the gate of a fortress, is tightly closed and blends perfectly with the walls on both sides.

There was no community name or any sign.

Only above the main gate was a huge emblem.

It was an eye carved from obsidian, tightly closed, yet radiating a strange and intimidating power.

It hangs there silently, proclaiming the sovereignty of this region without a word.

The car was parked in front of the gate.

"We've arrived." Emilia unbuckled her seatbelt and smiled slightly at everyone.

She took a card out of her bag and swiped it lightly in an inconspicuous groove above the car window.

With a soft "beep," the closed eye inside the obsidian statue suddenly glowed with a faint red light.

A deep, heavy rumble followed.

The massive metal gate began to slowly open to both sides, the heavy door panels scraping against the ground with a dull thud.

The scene revealed behind the door caused Lin Zheng's pupils to contract sharply.

It was a place that felt like another world.

The winding asphalt road has disappeared, replaced by a polished stone road.

The streetlights are not ordinary pillar-shaped lampposts, but antique-style cast iron streetlights that emit a warm amber light.

The road is lined with giant villas, each occupying a large area and with a different style yet harmonious and unified, exuding a distinct retro vibe, as if it stepped out of the cover of an architecture magazine.

Each villa has its own private courtyard, with a beautifully manicured lawn covered in a light snow and fountain sculptures gleaming under the lights.

There is no urban hustle and bustle here, only the occasional gentle lapping of waves in the distance and the soft rustling of the wind through the treetops.

Lin Zheng realized that Emilia was not an ordinary "rich second generation"; the world she lived in was more distant and profound than he had imagined.

Her "home" is a power fortress unknown to the outside world.

A car stopped in front of the largest villa in the very center, which was Emilia's home.

She warmly invited Jessica, Kevin, and the other classmates into the house, arranged rooms for them, and then started preparing for the party.

The party that night was held in the villa's living room.

Beneath the dazzling crystal chandelier, the luxurious decorations gleamed under the light.

Alcohol and music became the best anesthetics, allowing the students who had just experienced terror to temporarily forget what had happened during the day.

Jessica and Kevin, their faces pale from the alcohol, swayed to the music with their classmates, laughing loudly and releasing the fear they had suppressed all day.

Lin Zheng sat quietly in a corner of the sofa, holding a glass of amber-colored whiskey in his hand.

He looked at everything before him—noisy and bustling, yet imbued with a genuine vitality.

Emilia, on the other hand, moved through the crowd like a true hostess, her smile radiant and her eyes sparkling with long-lost joy.

The party's festivities didn't gradually subside until late at night.

Exhausted, the students settled into their assigned guest rooms, the air thick with the scent of alcohol and a faint fragrance.

Emilia walked up to Lin Zheng, her cheeks slightly flushed and rosy under the light.

Her eyes became brighter under the influence of alcohol, revealing a vulnerability and dependence that she wouldn't normally show.

"Thank you, Lin."

She said softly.

Thank you for staying with me tonight.

Lin Zheng looked at her, his heart filled with a complex mix of emotions.

He felt an inexplicable attraction flowing between them, mixed with doubts about her identity and wariness of the world.

Emilia slowly reached out and gently took his hand.

Her fingers were cold and soft.

In her eyes, he saw a deep affection he had never seen before, tinged with a desperate longing.

"Please don't go, okay?"

She pleaded softly, as if she would be swallowed by darkness again the moment he turned away.

He didn't answer, but simply took her hand in return and stood up.

There were no more words exchanged between them, only a silent understanding spreading between them.

They embraced each other, swaying their hips, sharing drinks, inhaling warmth, and baking their love; they were overcome with emotion and lost in passion.

Emilia's bedroom was even more spacious and luxurious than Lin Zheng had imagined, with floor-to-ceiling windows offering a meticulously designed night view of the community.

The enormous round bathtub and the silk sheets as soft as clouds exuded the highest level of taste and boundless wealth.

She leaned gently against his chest, feeling the warmth emanating from his body—the comfort she craved most that night.

The night outside the window was deep, and the magnificent villas in the community appeared quiet and proud under the lights.

This is a hidden place, where the worlds of the poor and the rich are separated.