655 I Am
The mad laughter echoed in Han Fei’s ears. It pulled on the strings of his soul. The whirlpool of memory appeared in his empty mind. He had lost something very important in that deep sea.
“This theme park worker is controlled by some kind of power. The mad laughter is like a mind-controlling toxin, corrupting his consciousness, turning him into this puppet.” The worker and the boy immediately got into a battle. Neither party held back. The blood mist and black mist crashed together. The pressure inside the bus escalated. The windows cracked and the vehicle aged further.
The theme park worker’s body cracked like porcelain after one collision. His body also bent back for 90 degrees. The hanging human head dangled from the back. The worker looked at Han Fei from this angle. The smile on his face became crueler. His lips moved and his eyes bulged.
“I’ll live for you?” Han Fei could read the worker’s lips. In the smile, the sense of familiarity increased. “F, the Laughter and I are fighting for the same thing.”
There was another collision. The boy rammed into the worker. He hugged the worker’s waist with his arms. The resentment pierced into the worker’s body like thorns. The boy wanted to break the worker’s waist. Han Fei could feel the pain from seeing this. However, the smile on the worker’s face grew wider. The more pain he was in, the happier he was.
“Kill me! Kill me now!” The worker lifted his head to roar. His lips tore open. His expression was ghastly like he was experiencing something despairing. Being torn apart was scary, but Han Fei realized the thing causing the worker despair was not the boy but something else!
The worker’s face was torn apart. His teeth sank. He laughed until tears fell. He used everything in his life to revealing this last maddening laughter.
The boy noticed something. He lifted his burnt face in confusion. He looked at the worker’s chest.
The sound of heartbeat intensified. The heart expanded. Another terrifying laughter rang inside the bus. The laughter came from the worker’s heart. The chest shifted as the ribs snapped. Something was moving out of the worker’s chest. The boy stared at the worker. The resentment and death inside the bus were controlled by some kind of power as they moved towards the worker’s face.
The bus stopped, and all the passengers shivered. When the resentment was at its thickest, an arm reached out of the worker’s body and pierced through the black mist to puncture a hole in the boy’s chest!
No one knew where the arm came from and why it would appear from inside the worker’s body. Everything affected by the laughter was his puppet. He could influence these people to topple the city. “Chaos is heaven!”
The worker’s lips couldn’t close anymore. He rambled on madly as he cried and laughed. The boy looked at his body in disbelief. The black mist couldn’t stop the arm. The skin covered in curses was like a piece of paper to the arm. The arm ignored all the rules and pierced through everything. The arm grabbed the beating heart. The boy hadn’t even understood anything, and he heard the sound of a balloon popping coming from his chest. It was very soft, and he only heard it once. He lowered his head to look. His half-living and half-decayed heart were squeezed until it was popped by the arm. The black blood and the charred skin mixed together. The black mist dissipated. The theme park worker also died. After the worker collapsed and stopped laughing, the arm retracted and disappeared. This surprising change shocked everyone. Han Fei wanted to stay to examine this further, but he knew his life was more important.
“The worker should be the puppet of the Mad Laughter. The Mad Laughter is a madman who doesn’t follow the rules. The maddening city is a perfect stage for him.” Ruthless, demonic, unpredictable, and mysterious, the Mad Laughter drew Han Fei’s alert. Compared to F, this Mad Laughter was the bigger threat.
“This bus’ final destination is the theme park. Was the worker’s responsibility to apprehend these lost souls? Why would he send a bus of dead people to the theme park? Is the theme park really for the living? Is it Mad Laughter’s plan to use this bus to sneak into the theme park?” Han Fei tried to force a smile under the mask, but he realized that he could not do that. He appeared to have lost the ability to smile.
“I need to go!” Han Fei glanced at the bodies of the theme park worker and the boy. He held Company in his sleeve. He placed it on the neck of the student beside him. “Why don’t we swap seats?” While he threatened the male student, Han Fei made a gesture at Lee Guo Er inside the taxi. He planned to jump out of the bus. The boy’s heart was crushed, but the body didn’t disappear. If Han Fei stayed, he might be targeted by the other passengers.
Lee Guo Er received the signal from Han Fei. She drove further away from the bus. While she lowered the speed, she had Xiao Jia quickly set up the ritual. Han Fei stopped hesitating. While the boy’s body was still supine, he pushed open the bus window. “Prepare the ceremony!”
Han Fei waved his knife at the passengers and escaped successfully. Seeing Han Fei make his escape, the boy came back alive. He got on the bus to kill Han Fei. Han Fei was fine, but his heart was crushed. The weakened boy screamed with bloody tears. He ignored his chest wound, slammed through the car window, and chased after Han Fei!
The boy was very angry. He just woke up from endless darkness, and he had already found a bastard that he had to kill. The accumulation of resentment caused his old wounds to burn.
“Get down from the car!” Xiao Jia and Lee Guo Er, who had set up the ritual, escaped from the taxi. Han Fei stared at the door. He couldn’t shake off the boy, so the solution was to deal with him once and for all. One had to be the bait to lure the boy into the taxi. Han Fei didn’t hesitate. He knew this was something he had to do. When he was close to death, Han Fei realized his emotions were completely different from before. His soul sang. His instinct was awakened. He was even shaking in excitement. “Who would have thought that the height of fear would be excitement? I seem to have gotten used to being at the edge of death. I live for death!”
Han Fei crawled into the car. He had memorized the location of all the ritual objects. When Han Fei reached the car door on the other side, the boy had lunged into the car. The black mist was suffocating. The burnt face neared Han Fei. Black blood leaked out from the boy’s eye sockets and mouth. They dripped on Han Fei’s white mask.
Fear enveloped Han Fei. A normal person would have given up now. They couldn’t face such intense hatred. They would close their eyes to welcome the end. However, the eyes under Han Fei’s mask were extremely calm. He grabbed the mirror handle and waved it upwards. He aimed it at the boy’s face. His other hand held the knife and stabbed it into the boy’s chest wound. The normal mirror echoed with the cries of children. The boy was affected. Just as he was about to go out of control, Han Fei placed the mirror at its allotted location.
The human faces on the rooftop appeared silently. Han Fei tightened his grip on Company. He pressed the heavily-injured boy before the mirror. The twisted bones, the scorched skin, and pouring black blood would have scared off a normal person but not Han Fei.
At this moment of death, Han Fei did something others couldn’t. His choice was crazy yet rational. It was highly risky, but it was also the only solution he had.
“Han Fei! Come out now!” Lee Guo Er and Xiao Jia shouted nervously, but Han Fei ignored them. Han Fei in the white mask was like a weeping Death. He imbued his despair and pain into the knife. He cut into the freshly formed skin.
He didn’t have F’s talent and a large army, and he didn’t have the Mad Laughter’s strange power and talent. He had nothing. He didn’t even have his memory, but he knew he was the real Han Fei!
He was unique and irreplaceable. He followed his instinct and tried his best to survive!
All eight ceremonial objects were in place. Arms reached out of the roof to help Han Fei detain the dead body.
The crying in the mirror intensified. A poor and lonely boy appeared in the mirror. His face wasn’t burnt. He was fearful of everything around him. He was afraid of darkness and loneliness. He was trapped inside the mirror, and he cried loudly.
Affected by the boy inside the mirror, the boy outside stopped struggling so hard. The black blood from the boy gushed into the curses painted inside the taxi. Han Fei replicated most of the curses using his superhuman memory. The black blood was going in reverse. The curses came alive. They pierced into the taxi like needles.
Laughter and cries echoed. The faces on the roof became clearer. The arms solidified. The victims took back the things the boy had taken from them. The boy wanted to escape, but Han Fei pressed him down. He entrapped the body. The black mist and resentment were held back by the nine victims. Neither party surrendered. The boy’s crying and screaming mixed together. The perfect mirror started to crack. As the cracks multiplied, the boy crying became more despairing.
As the black blood almost drained out of the body, the mirror suddenly shattered. The victims held a young boy. Hatred, resentment, and vengeance coursed towards the boy, but at that moment, Han Fei stood in the middle with Company. “His father killed you, and he was a boy who died in a fire. Don’t be fooled by your anger. Identify your real target.”
Han Fei wouldn’t hesitate to kill the sinners, but he would do everything to save the innocent too. Kindness wouldn’t survive in this world, but without principle, one would become a murderous butcher.
Even though Han Fei tried his best to stop it, the victims still tore at the boy’s soul until he almost dispersed. After the boy was severely damaged, the last black blood in the body was absorbed by the taxi. The burnt body and the mirror shattered inside the black mist and became the power of the nine victims. Blood and ash were everywhere. Han Fei sat inside the car and took back Company.
Lee Guo Er and Xiao Jia outside the car were shocked. Their original plan was to lure the boy into the car, and close the door after Han Fei got out. They would have the ghosts inside the car deal with the boy. But Han Fei volunteered to help too.
“Is he not afraid? That was a ghost!”
The two teammates ran towards Han Fei after they recovered from the shock. They examined Han Fei and the taxi which had changed. After absorbing the boy’s power, the taxi became more terrifying. Occasionally, the human conversation could be heard. There were also pleas for help. The temperature inside was low. This was a vehicle that headed to the other world.
“Han Fei, are you alright?” Lee Guo Er inched towards Han Fei. She witnessed the whole process. When Han Fei was fighting for his life, he was very different from the normal Han Fei.
“I’m fine.” Han Fei turned around. His gaze frightened Lee Guo Er. “After the boy’s body was destroyed, I heard that icy voice again.”
“What voice?”
“I can’t hear it clearly, but I’m certain of one thing.” Han Fei removed his mask and looked at his reflection in the car window. “No matter how many things I’ve forgotten, there is only one Han Fei, and that is me.”
