Before long, Yuanchu finished stir-frying the dish and handed the entire wok directly to Elder Gu.
"What is the meaning of this? You want me to eat straight out of the wok?" Elder Gu looked at Yuanchu in surprise.
"Isn't eating just eating, no matter how you do it?"
Ignoring Elder Gu's strange expression, Yuanchu shoved the wok right into Elder Gu's hands and turned around, walking out the door without looking back.
"Whoa, you brat... Ouch, so hot... Hey, where are you going this late?"
Elder Gu hurriedly placed the iron wok on a nearby table and looked at Yuanchu.
"Going out for some fresh air, I'll be right back." Yuanchu opened the door and left.
"Alright, stay safe and come back early."
The door gave a slow, creaking groan before closing shut.
"At this hour... It really is exactly the same as what you did back then..."
Elder Gu shook his head, then gently blew on his two hands, which had been turned red by the wok, restoring them to normal instantly.
……
After closing the door, Yuanchu headed toward the edge of the island. Elder Gu and Yuanchu's house stood right by the seaside, so it wasn't very far.
Whenever Yuanchu felt bored, he would walk along the beach, letting the distant sea breeze blow away many of his troubles, though it always left him smelling of salt and the sea.
Yuanchu walked step by step toward the ocean, until the waves were just barely lapping against his toes.
When he was little, Elder Gu had told him never to let the waves go over his toes because it was dangerous. For all these years, he had faithfully kept that promise, but today, he wanted to keep walking. For some reason, he wanted to prove that there was no such thing as a barrier around this island.
One step, two steps... He ignored the rule he had observed since childhood and pressed forward.
The seawater of the setting sun gently washed over his chest, and the distant clouds caught the rosy glow of the sunlight.
Fortunately, this wasn't real. Yuanchu let out a light sigh of relief.
Just as Yuanchu was about to turn back, his foot suddenly seemed to step on a smooth stone. Unable to control his balance, he tilted backward, and in an instant, the seawater completely engulfed him.
Yet, the suffocation he had imagined never came. Yuanchu opened his eyes—there was no seawater at all; he was lying right there on the sand.
Feeling extremely strange, Yuanchu stood up, intending to go home. But then, a shocking sight met his eyes: the massive island had vanished into thin air, replaced by an endless expanse of ocean. Yuanchu frowned, not knowing what to do.
Suddenly, as if recalling something, he plunged himself straight into the seawater. He tried to breathe just as he had moments before, only to find that the water rushed through his nose and into his mouth. He hastily scrambled to his feet, coughing, only to find himself kneeling on the beach with the vast ocean in front of him and Dream Island right behind him!
Moreover, Yuanchu discovered that even though he had clearly entered the sea, his body was completely dry.
"What is going on here?" Yuanchu wore a puzzled expression, utterly unable to find an answer.
"Could everything that just happened have been an illusion?"
Yuanchu brushed the sand off his hands and prepared to stand up when he suddenly felt a wave of dizziness wash over his brain. His vision blurred, and before long, he passed out.
……
"Elder Gu, this is bad! Your boy Yuanchu..."
A visitor pushed open the door without even knocking, shouting breathlessly at Elder Gu.
Unlike the leisurely person who had been chatting with Yuanchu, Elder Gu held a cup of tea he had brewed at some unknown time in one hand and a book in the other. Without even raising his head, he replied with a simple, "Hm."
"Um... Elder?" The visitor gradually caught his breath and cautiously reminded him.
"I know..."
This time, Elder Gu put the book down, slowly raised the teacup in his hand to his lips, took a gentle sip, set the cup back down, and stood up.
"What happened to Yuanchu?"
Elder Gu motioned for the visitor to continue.
The man froze for a moment, but quickly replied:
"Someone found Yuanchu passed out by the seaside. No matter how much they call him, he won't wake up, and they found they couldn't even budge him. Elder Gu, you'd better go take a look..."
"Alright, you go on ahead. I'll go take a look right now..."
Elder Gu nodded. The moment he confirmed the visitor had left, he vanished from the spot in the blink of an eye.
……
The evening wind carried a hint of chill, cutting straight through clothing to the very soul. The sky looked like white paper stained with ink, devoid of even a single star.
Elder Gu waved away the onlookers, walked straight up to Yuanchu, and quietly studied the young man before him.
Recalling what the messenger had said, he found it rather amusing. The boy had simply touched the barrier and entered an illusion, yet people were complaining that he had passed out from playing in the sand.
Elder Gu bent down and pressed his index finger against Yuanchu's forehead, sending a nearly imperceptible ripple across the boy's skin.
At first, Yuanchu's face looked somewhat unnatural, but as the ripples gradually faded, he quickly drifted into an even deeper sleep.
"Sweet dreams, Yuanchu," Elder Gu murmured, withdrawing his finger.
……
"So... where is this place?"
Yuanchu looked around his surroundings, feeling as though he were dreaming. That must be it—since the last thing in his mind had been a blur, he must be dreaming.
Yuanchu pinched his arm hard, but to his surprise, he felt a sharp pain.
"Ow—why does it hurt so much?"
Yuanchu frowned, not quite understanding what was happening. If he could feel pain, it shouldn't be a dream; but if it wasn't a dream, how on earth had he arrived in this pitch-black place where he couldn't even see his own hand?
Ever since starting school today, Yuanchu had found that many things did not seem to align with his existing knowledge. He had thought he was finally certain that Han Xinnian's words were false, but now it seemed he had plunged into an even more bizarre event.
"Whatever, this isn't the time to dwell on that. The real problem is: how do I get back?"
Yuanchu took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down.
If what happened by the sea was real, he could return to Dream Island by going into the water and trying to breathe again. But what about now? His vision had blurred before he ended up here, so what should he do—knock himself out?
Yuanchu shook his head, temporarily dismissing the idea. Earlier, he had been trapped by the sea on all sides with no way to move, but this time was different. At the very least, he could walk around in this dark place, and if he couldn't find a way out, knocking himself out then wouldn't be too late.
With that, Yuanchu decided to take action. Walking in one direction surely wouldn't be a problem.
He felt around in the dark to make sure there were no obstacles like walls, and then cautiously began to move forward step by step.
……
He had no idea how long he had been walking when Yuanchu finally stopped. He felt something was odd about this place; he had been walking for nearly three hours, yet he hadn't found a way out at all.
Even stranger was the fact that he didn't feel tired in the slightest.
Normally, after walking for just over an hour, he would already be at his limit, but today he felt completely fine. This could only mean one thing: this place was extraordinary.
Yuanchu stopped in his tracks and decided to try knocking himself out. How could anyone ever find a way out of a pitch-black, abyss-like darkness like this?
Yuanchu dealt his own face a vicious punch, knocking himself straight to the ground. The intense pain left him speechless.
"Do I... normally have this much strength?"
Yuanchu inwardly mocked himself. It seemed this place amplified pain. Instead of knocking himself out, wasn't this just waking him up even more?
Yuanchu slowly closed his eyes and stopped making a sound. What difference was there between keeping his eyes open and closed in a place like this? He couldn't help letting out a bitter laugh in his heart.
Just then, a flash of intense light suddenly shone into Yuanchu's eyes. Stinging from the glare, he slowly sat up with his eyes closed, only to find that the light seemed to persist.
"It's not coming from above, then where is the light source?" Yuanchu slowly opened his eyes, only to be stunned by the sight before him:
There was no glowing light at all; rather, there was a figure radiating intense brilliance right in front of him. A massive aura of light shrouded the person's body, obscuring his face from view. His radiance spilled into every corner of the darkness, yet it failed to illuminate a massive chessboard sitting directly in front of him.
The chessboard emitted a faint glow, twinkling on and off like stars in the sky. On either side stood stools made of some unknown material, and a circular stone box rested quietly upon one of them. Though it was impossible to see what was inside, one could easily guess that it held chess pieces.
The glowing figure parted his lips and asked indifferently:
"You... are awake?"