Taboo Mage - Chapter 166 - Finding Hope in the Illusion
Before I could ask more questions, the old man kicked me from behind. I lost my balance and almost fell forward, but managed to steady myself as I groped my way ahead.
Perhaps because my eyes were covered, I felt dizzy and disoriented, unable to see the path clearly. It was a truly terrible feeling, yet there was also a unique sensation that came with it.
Initially, when I woke up, everything around me was empty, as if I had fallen into a thin mist. I felt like I was floating, but now it seemed as if things had become solid, and the ground beneath felt firmer with each step.
After about ten minutes of walking, I felt my foot hit something. Instinctively, I reached out to remove the cloth covering my eyes, but as soon as my hand touched it, someone gave me a shove from behind, and I plunged forward.
“Darn it!”
I shouted in anger and opened my eyes. Everything was quiet around me. I felt the hard bed beneath me and looked up to see a ceiling covered with newspaper-everything seemed like a dream.
Where exactly am I…
“Oh, you’re awake! You’ve been asleep for days. Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere?”
Suddenly, the door creaked open, and I turned to see a woman walking in with a bowl in her hands.
I squinted around the room. It was a simple room with no decorations. I was lying on a bed, and there was only a bedside table next to me that looked quite old, with much of the paint chipped away.
A flickering incandescent bulb hung overhead, its old-fashioned style making me feel like I had traveled back to a time before modernization.
“Hey! I’m talking to you!”
The woman called out again, and I looked up at her. Her outfit matched the room’s style-a floral short-sleeve top paired with black pencil pants.
She appeared to be in her thirties, and her outfit seemed somewhat out of place.
I gave her a wry smile and glanced around. “Excuse me, where is this…”
“This is our village. You’re not from around here, are you? You look like you’re from a big city,” the woman said to herself, then handed me the bowl she was holding.
I hadn’t noticed it earlier, but now the aroma wafting to my nose made my stomach growl loudly, and I realized I was indeed quite hungry.
The woman heard my stomach grumbling and couldn’t help but chuckle. She placed the bowl on the bedside table, told me to come out after I finished eating, and left the room.
I rubbed my head, feeling as if there was something I had forgotten, yet at the same time not. My memory seemed briefly jumbled, probably from being too exhausted lately.
The bowl contained noodles, homemade hand-pulled noodles with great texture. I devoured them quickly, then wiped my mouth, holding the bowl in one hand and chopsticks in the other, and stepped into my shoes before heading out.
The light outside was glaring, and I instinctively squinted. When I opened my eyes again, I could see the surroundings clearly.
It was a small rural courtyard. The woman who had brought me food was crouched, sitting on a small stool doing laundry, with a yellow dog lying at her feet wagging its tail.
When the dog saw me, it jumped up instantly and began circling me.
“You’re done eating? The Village Chief said if you woke up, you should head to the clinic at the edge of the village. Dr. Liu mentioned you were fished out of the water and might have water in your head or somewhere. You need to get rechecked,” the woman wiped her wet hands on her clothes and said as she took the bowl from me.
Fished out of the water? I frowned. When did I fall into the water… My head buzzed, and as I looked around at the surrounding greenery, I momentarily felt dazed.
I responded instinctively and started walking out. Just as I stepped through the gate, I suddenly remembered-where was Dr. Liu’s place?
“Oh dear, I almost forgot. Ah Huang, take him to Dr. Liu!”
The woman called out, and the yellow dog dashed out, looked up at me, wagged its tail, and started leading the way.
I scratched my head, following behind the dog. The village road had been recently paved, and on both sides were neatly growing wheat seedlings. The yellow dog wagged its tail, moving slowly in front, occasionally turning to glance back at me.
I trailed behind, my eyes wandering around as I replayed the words that woman had said earlier in my mind.
I was fished out of the water… fished out… out of the water…
Suddenly, a series of images flashed through my mind like a movie, and I felt as though I were being submerged, struggling to breathe. I clutched my neck with both hands, gasping desperately for air.
My vision blurred, and the next moment, I felt a sharp pain at the back of my head and lost consciousness again.
When I came to, I found myself staring at a stark white ceiling. I moved my head slightly and saw a person in a white coat standing by the bed. After noticing I was awake, he bent down to check my eyes.
“Looks like he’s okay,” he said to someone sitting by my bedside, a man wearing a dark blue tracksuit, a cigarette held between his fingers.
“Thank you, Dr. Liu,” the man stood up, then turned to me and asked, “Do you remember your name?”
“Gu Qingshu,” I replied, frowning. Why was he acting so strangely? How could I possibly forget my own name?
“Do you remember where you’re from? Or why you ended up in the water?”
I tried to think carefully. “Who are you?”
“I’m the Village Chief. A couple of days ago, I was buying supplies in town. I passed by the riverbank and found you lying there. You were still breathing, so we brought you back.”
“Oh…” I nodded. Actually, during the brief moment I blacked out, my memory had started to come back, but perhaps because I spent too long in the water, some details were still foggy.
I gave the Village Chief my home address and asked him to contact someone to pick me up since I had no means of communication to reach Lin Huan and the others.
The Village Chief agreed readily and took me back, then headed to the village’s police station.
That’s when I learned that the place where I initially woke up belonged to the Village Chief’s son. The woman I met, named Suzhen, was his daughter-in-law.
