Chapter 2: “Wandering Through The Misfortune I”

Arc 1 : Reincarnated Memories

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The crackled laughter didn't stop anytime soon. Choking on each breath, as Bai Lian (tried) to breathe in and out. Wheezing out unclear words, leaving Yongyuan in a bit of a confused daze.

Bai Lian finally cleared up her throat, holding her chest as she coughed out a half-ass apology. "Alright, alright, I'll stop!" She laughed out, with a slight undertone of pain in some way. Yongyuan closes his eyes as the corners of his mouth slightly turn up. Showing a small smile. In the far distance, Bai Lian held her stomach, as she kept quietly laughing. She snickered out, "Who knew you'd be such a weirdo?" She crackled. Leaving Yongyuan unresponsive, and blanked face. "I didn't mean it like that..I just ..I just didn't have this much fun in a while, I guess. Whatever, have a good day Mr. Hooker." Bai Lian continued to laugh out, giggling and snickering, while holding a smug smirk on her face.

Yongyuan eyed the wheezing individual, as he rubbed his temples. Trying to not sigh at the ill-mannered person, crackling out laughs like a new years bang snaps you would find in a local toy store. As he gave the girl a certain look, she quiet downed on the unnecessary crazed uncontrollable laughter she had deep in her lungs.

Holding down onto a small patch of grass as she held her stomach harder. Finally, Bai Lian stopped her annoying contagious giggling.

With how much one person could laugh it wouldn't be a shock if Bai Lian had a diagnosed with Pseudobulbar affect [1]. With how much uncontrollable laughter she kept cracking out like a fire pop how could you not think she's at least on the spectrum? Striking in outbursts with crying for several minutes and it would be a perfect case of PBA.

Letting go of the patch of grass, Bai Lian stood up, breathing in and out as she yelled out, her voice raspy and out of breath from her uncontrolled chatterbox of a mouth. "Hey! Wait!"

Yongyuan's face bitter up, his eyes turning sollen the moment he heard Bai Lian chatty voice. He tried his best not to flat out ignore the teenager with all of her unfunny hooker jokes. His face full of exhaustion, still, he turned around to face a teenager, running at him at full speed. Well the best she could, coughing the moment she reached Yongyuan. Bai Lian coughed and choked on her own breath more, feeling fatigued. She somehow managed to voice out raspy words.

"Sorry, I'll stop really. But take my hat. I won't need it."

"…"

No words, no response came out of Yongyuan, looking at the huffing and puffing girl astonished. Shocked full his eyes, wiping away the exhaustion he felt not too long ago with the coughing individual jokes. He shook his head multiple times, feeling dazed from Bai Lian words.

"No, it's okay. Your robe is too much to take anyway, I can't take your hat as well." Yongyuan pleaded, his tone full of worry for Bai Lian as she laughed.

"Nah it's fine, really. Just take it."

Rising her hand, brushing it off as she grabbed the corner of her straw hat, untying the ropes that held her chin up. As she tied the ribbons around Yongyuan, even doing last minute check ups to make sure it looked good. Before Yongyuan could protest, Bai Lian nonchalantly said.

"Besides, I gotta take care of Grandpa. What would you do without me, Gramps?" Bai Lian teased, chuckling. Leaving Yongyuan, again, flabbergasted. Stunned and bewildered. It wasn't the first time he's been called old, nor will it be the last time. As Bai Lian tied the last knot, making a pretty ribbon with the straw hat ropes, making Yongyuan look like a newly wrapped Christmas present, he quietly asked Bai Lian a question while he sighed a deep breath as well.

"I'm not that old to you..Am I?.."

Yongyuan mutters, mentally preparing himself for Bai Lian answer as she furrowed her brows, her eyes making eye contact with his. It was pointless since she wasn't even thinking properly with her head all the way up in the sky. Trying to think of an answer for Yongyuan, standing there confused and patient. A bright imaginary lightbulb lit up above Bai Lian's head. As she snarky replied.

"Nah, you look youthful but the way you talk is way too mature and old-fashioned."

"…"

"Even my grandma don't talk like that."

She continued. Yongyuan didn't even bother replying to Bai Lian comments anymore, as he reached out and gently grabbed Bai Lian robe as he pulled it down, one shoulder to the next.

"Bai Lian, please take your robe back. I can't accept it. Your hat as well, I'll be fine."

Yongyuan faintly smiled, while he folded the robe into neat folds as he untied the decorated bow into the two strips of ribbons that were attracted to the straw hat. Letting it fall as he placed it onto the folded clothes. Before he could do that, the moment his fingers grabbed hold onto the rim of the straw hat, two pairs of hands threw the hat back onto his head. As it forcingly seized it back on. Yongyuan had to blink once, no twice, to process what was happening. While Bai Lian was tidying up her hat onto him and the robe, fixing it back on.

"What did I say? I don't need it, you look like you're about to catch a cold if you stand out here for any longer." Bai Lian said as she dusted off her robes, she clapped while her eyes lit up like dawning stars in a pitch black sky. Before Yongyuan could say anything, Bai Lian cutted him off, again. "I have like four layers of clothing, just take it I really don't need it, okay?" Yongyuan nodded slightly at this, not wanting to argue with Bai Lain anymore. Besides if he continued to offer back Bai Lian things, she would come back stronger in the argument, so it was useless.

Bai Lian finally managed to fix the ribbon /again/ with it showing perfect loops as she cleaned off nonexistent dust on Yongyuan. Already removing any dirt or grime on him but double checking for any she didn't get. (There was none.)

"Alright there Gramps." Bai Lian laughed. Finally letting go of Yongyuan. "You really have a thing for calling me weird nicknames." Yongyuan remarked along with the jokingly atmosphere the two of the individuals shared. Bai Lian snorted at the comment Yongyuan made, having her head up in the sky again. Think of anything to cooley reply, not wanting to seem too fast or too slow. After a long moment, Bai Lian snapped her fingers and makes fingers guns, well just gun because it was just her right hand not both. She excitedly pointed at Yongyuan as he raised his eyebrow. "Well, I can give you a proper one. How about Xiansheng[2] ?" She smiled.

Yongyuan made a confused look on his face. If I was in my position of a Primordial One[3] if would make sense, but right now I'm nothing more or less of a normal commander…

Even with his thought, Yongyuan nodded. Feeling a slight warmth in his heart, he smiled faintly while Bai Lian was grinning joyfully. As Yongyuan turned around, Bai Lian had one more thing to say, she raised her hand as she mouth outs. "Farewell, Xiansheng. I hope we can meet again, someday…" She hums out, with a slight undertone of pain in her voice. Her head was straight forward, looking Yongyuan in the eye, now it was only slightly down, facing the calm meadows. Covered in cherry-red autumn leaves, as the warm color was highlighted from the sun.

Staring at the teenager, Yongyuan corners of his mouth crave up faintly more. Showing a tender warm gentle smile. As he raised his hand to bid farewell to Bai Lian as well, the moment he turned away, she was gone. As if she never existed, never there. The warm atmosphere, gone, shadowing on a grim-like setting. There stood the dirty, old, filthy cabin, with now moldy wood. Infested with ants and timber-eating parasites. The ground rotting away, as the once calm meadows of autumn leaves turn gray and brown. Decaying right before his eyes. Everything dead. The decomposed oder of overripe planks of wood filled up Yongyuan lungs, as he coughed out mouthfuls of blood. The familiar nauseating smell of humans remains consume his lungs. Feeling dread in his heart and bones, the rotting trail in the cabin, staining the windowed ground. In moments, it turned from a lustrous forest full of cherry-like autumn leaves with grass, fresh and the sunlight rays poking through the thick leaves, in the middle of it was a cabin, dirty and old, yet homely, now a horror sight. Staring right towards piles of wood, termites, and wood boring beetles, eating away what remained, closed Yongyuan throat. The omniscient present of a person standing right in front of him, left an unforgettable feeling in his heart.

The mysterious sudden disappearance of Bai Lian stayed in the back of his mind. As Yongyuan covered his mouth with his hand, unable to speak as his mind felt clouded and confused to a fault. The moment he turned around she was gone and reality, itself, changed. The moment the teenager arrived at the cabin, something was off. From the way she was overly generous, to her undertone of pain when Bai Lian spoke, stayed in Yongyuan mind the more he stared at the dead cold sight of the cabin. The foul-like stench of the corpse-like environment overflowed Yongyuan lungs once again, causing him to rasp mouthfuls of blood. It didn't matter, he had to swallow it all back up and find his way out of the dense thick decaying autumn forest. Grabbing the rim of Bai Lian straw hat as he tucked in his robe from the cold wind Ly breeze. He kept his eyes down as he walked the path away from the cabin and deep in the forest.

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It still left him cold feet. His heart numb as he continues to walk on the path, the sound of crunching autumn leaves beneath his very feet ring in his ear. Holding the straw hat in one hand and his other hand free, small glimpses of light shine through the small holes of the hat as he looks up. The warmth of the sun calms him as a red leaf floats down into his hand. Yongyuan holds it high in the sky as the veins of the cherry-colored lead glow transparent. With all of the little details radiating and showing through the daylight. Through the leaf, Yongyuan eyed the autumn trees, full of life unlike the ones close to the rotting cabin. Withering away every second that's passes. Vibrat and animated as instead of howling winds, calm tender breezes brush through the locks of Yongyuan hair as a little piece of it gets stuck in his mouth. He raised his fingers to brush against his lip to pull the thin thread of silk-black hair out.

As he took a step farther, the cool winds and the warm-colored leaves left his point of view as Yongyuan's vision was filled with a clear sunset horizon. Kaleidoscopes of hazy colors blended with the silhouetted of vacant clouds, gilded with golden light. Fading in with the overcasting daylight. In a near distance, voices with harsh undertones as they yelled at one another.

Bickering like nine years old over something idiotic and dumb just by telling the subject they were arguing about as Yongyuan was eavesdropping on. He wasn't really listening but from being so loud and blaring like nonstop bells, he couldn't help but listen into their conversations to see what they were so worked up about.

"YIN SHANCUN [4] ?ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR OWN MIND. WHO IN THEIR DAMN RIGHT MINDS WOULD GO TO YIN SHANCUN???" An elderly woman cried out, sounding angry and pissed off at a younger figure who was sweating bullets. As they assuring replied back, trying to keep their composure.

"Auntie..How bad could it be? It's just rumors, I won't actually die." The younger one laughed out, as Yongyuan walked by the two, he had a closer look at both of them. The individual who was screaming their heads off was an elderly woman seemingly around the age in her late 30s and early 40s. Probably around the age 45. With the one with one arm up, scratching their head as they were softly laughing and seemed around in their late teens.

"HOW COULD YOU SAY YOU WON'T DIE WHEN HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE WENT MISSING AND DIED ON THAT VERY MOUNTAIN. GOD! You…You are a lot." The elderly woman heavy sighed out as she give the late teenager a disproved and discounted look on her face. Frowning as she gained more headaches and wrinkles. The late teenager beamed with his eyes shining like Bai Lian's, as he excitedly said. "I won't! I'll come back safely, I swear on my right leg and left arm! Just please let me go on this expedition!" He begged as he cupped his hands together in a praying position, with an apologetic smile on his face. As the teenager kept begging, the woman kept refusing.

Yongyuan couldn't help but feel at least a little curious, as he slowly approaches the elderly woman and the begging teenager, he raises his hand a little to get both of their attention. "Excuse me, I couldn't help overhearing you two talk about a place called, Yin Shancun?.." He asked quietly.

The tall teenager exploded with joy as he cupped his hands harder and bowed down to the elderly woman as he asked again, this time with more volume in his voice. "Auntie, can I please go to Mount Yin Shancun? I'll go with the reliable Xiansheng!"

The elderly woman scoffed as she spit out, "How do you think he's going to go with you? All he asked was about the damn place, not about he's going there!" She exclaimed in a tired and annoyed tone. As she put two of her fingers between her eyebrows she continued to rant out. "Besides, there's a reason why nobody with a sane mind would go to that mountain anyway. It's called the 'Misfortune Mountain' for a REASON." She sighed out.

Yongyuan hummed as he put his fingers on his lip, thinking. Trying to hold back a laugh internally, he jokingly said. "Then I'll go to Mount Yin Shancun." As he began to stroll away from the flabbergasted woman and the eager teenager, as he called out. "Can I go with you?" In a pleading voice, the woman pinched his ear to pull him back as she firmly said. "Not in a million years!" As the teenager was now the one signing out in a defeated tone.

The farther Yongyuan was, the was pleas the elderly woman yelled out, begging him to reconsider his decision and to not step a single foot on that Mouat Yin Shancun. Yongyuan only ignored both of them as he continued to walk, feeling slight guilt on ignoring the begging pleas of the woman but not looking back. The dying day whispers its goodbye in hues of red as he gently grabs the rim of his straw hat. Feeling the warm hues on the fading daylight.

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After a while of walking, pieces of cherry-white autumn leaves float down lightly, delicately falling onto the ground as Yongyuan steps on them, crunching into bits and pieces. Arriving in a bountiful field full of cherry-white blossoms, Oshima cherries, falling down, bringing the billowy white blossoms of spring. Nearly pure snow white, tinged with a sweet pale millet coral. White weeping cherries fall down in more piles as light winds breeze right through them. Bracketed by shiny bronze leaves, covering Yongyuan field of view. Yongyuan steps back as his mind turns into confusion. Isn't it only supposed to be Autumn around this time of year?…Why is it spring all of a sudden..

It was as if reality shifted again, changing time back and forth without Yongyuan knowing it. Shifting from one timezone to the next in an instant snap. Yongyuan's expression turned to disdain, watching the seasons and time change without even feeling it sent cold slight shivers down his spine. The once warm hazy hues of red snapped into petals of flowers as spring began early in the span of minutes. Yongyuan gazed up into the sky, dying into a cool toned sunset, minutes from nightfall. As he stops his tracks to think how the hell all of this was happening, In a nearby distance, not really far away from where Yongyuan stood, cries of help could be heard.

Wails of a child being beaten up, as the voices mixed with each other. One crying, two kicking something repetitively, over and over, and three laughing. Yongyuan immediately put the thought of time changing itself without feeling a slight difference in the reality where he stood in the back of his mind, as he rushed over to the situation.

When he arrived, his pupils dilated when he bared the sight of a child no older than the age of 12, curled up in a ball, holding his head tightly. His hair, a strangled mess, mixed with blood. Yongyuan misunderstood most of it, since it was a child crying with a bruised arm as another comforted them, the one being beaten up, hair was pulled up, revealing the split lip, swollen up black eyes with cuts all over his face. One of the two who were repetitively kicking the child's stomach with bruised kidneys was holding a dull rock. A corner of it happened to be sharpened, as he stabbed it again at the motionless body. The one who was pulling up the beaten up kid hair, screamed out the same words Yongyuan overheard from away.

"WHERE IS IT? I KNOW YOU HAVE IT."

The still child layer there motionless. Eyes lifeless and already gave up, as he coughed out.

"I don't know where it is. I didn't steal it."

"LIAR."

One howled out, yelling as he threw the rock towards the broken ribcage of the child. Kicking the same ribcage with force as a snap could be heard from the body, the child screamed as the kid who held up his hair, covered his mouth. Smashing his head onto the ground. "SHUT IT." He screamed. Before the child's eyes, a flash of light blinded their vision, wind howled and cried as it threw the child away from the motionless individual.

A white clothes figure with silk-black hair stood before him. As his robes gently glided with the flows of the wind. Truly a ertheral sight, as the figure turned around to face the dead-like corpse of a child.

"Who..Who are you?!?!" The group of children yelled, a gust of wind blew in their face, pushing them miles back as they cowardly ran away from the two individuals.

Yongyuan eyes, paled and voided of any emotion. As he fully turned around to have a better look of the child, he gave a reassuring faint smile as he bent down. One knee down on the ground as he softly spoke out. "It's okay now, no need to worry anymore."

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[1]-Pseudobulbar Affect

-Pseudobulbar affect (PBA) is a condition that's characterized by episodes of sudden uncontrollable and inappropriate laughing or crying. Pseudobulbar affect typically occurs in people with certain neurological conditions or injuries, which might affect the way the brain controls emotion

[2]-Xiansheng

-Xiansheng was a courtesy title for a man of respected stature. Middle Chinese pronunciation of this term may have been *senʃaŋ or *sienʃaŋ. In modern Standard Chinese, it is used in the same way as the title "Mr"

[3]-Primordial One

-Those who achieve something so beyond ordinary godhood, becoming primordial

[4]-Yin Shancun

-One of the Four Sects of Yìyǒng Fēng :

隱山村, Yǐn shāncūn

-Hidden Mountain Sect

-Known as the Misfortune Mountain