Chapter 1090: Mei Jia's Lamp Stand
A dense, murky, and foul odor accompanied the hissing of hot steam sprayed intermittently on her face and neck, stirring Mei Jia's consciousness in the midst of darkness. In the far distance, there seemed to be faint voices conversing.
In her dazed and heavy-headed state, she recalled a boy who lived next door when she was a child. He was about seventeen or eighteen at the time, rarely ventured outside, and spent his days drawing at home. Except for working night shifts for a few hours in the evenings, he never left. Later, when Mei Jia started elementary school and was adapting to her new life, she couldn't remember when she had last seen the older brother next door, who had probably moved away.
Strange, why am I suddenly thinking about something so long ago?
Mei Jia was only six or seven years old at the time, but she was already mature for her age.
In the fungal society, people didn't strive to achieve exceptional accomplishments or attain remarkable status. As long as they could find something they were interested in or something that allowed them to realize their personal value, whatever they did would make them a respected member of society. After all, most of their basic material needs were met by the byproducts of fungi. In their first year of schooling, they had learned about Maslow's hierarchy of needs and understood that their society had moved beyond the bottom four layers of needs and entered the highest level of 'self-actualization needs'... well, perhaps except for one.
Her consciousness drifted aimlessly, and the occasional thought passed by like a fleeting fish in a deep pool, only capturing a partial image.
In any case, the reason Mei Jia still remembered that older brother after many years was because his situation seemed a little different.
His interest, without a doubt, was in painting. Although she occasionally saw him sketching outdoors, the scenes on his canvas looked incredibly childish and hardly any better than her classmates' work... Indeed, liking something doesn't necessarily mean you're good at it. It was a good thing that he didn't have to rely on painting for a living; otherwise, it would have been a cause for concern.
However, every time she saw that older brother painting, his expression was always dark, and veins stood out on his forehead. To young Mei Jia, he looked quite intimidating when he clenched his teeth.
If she grew up and had the chance to see chocolate frogs every day, Mei Jia was sure she wouldn't show such an expression. Oh, what a pity. Her childhood dreams faded as she grew up. Otherwise, if she could work in a snack company that produced chocolate frogs, her mother would surely be very happy... Sigh, what should she do next...
Even in her hazy consciousness, the burning anxiety was sharper and more vivid than the foul, hot stench, completely waking her up.
When she first opened her eyes, Mei Jia was utterly confused. It took her a while to gradually comprehend her surroundings.
The supposed pitch-black cave, illuminated by a swaying light source behind her, looked unreal, almost like a hallucination. The faint earthy smell was unfamiliar. Everywhere she looked, it was just soil. In her usual living environment, the ground was always covered with a layer of flooring made from fungal skin, preventing dust accumulation and offering elasticity, with a fresh, clean scent. She had never experienced being enveloped by soil like this or smelled such an odor.
At this moment, she belatedly realized that something behind her was exhaling hot, dirty breath on her, even without turning around.
Even without looking, she knew what was behind her. Mei Jia couldn't help but tremble, and her stomach contracted in waves, ready to expel its contents at any moment.
"She's awake," a male voice, which started faint and distant but became clear as it got closer, as if he wasn't speaking to her, broke through her still-hazy consciousness. "Can we start?"
No wonder she had dreamt of the older brother who lived next door when she was a child.
Mei Jia suppressed the urge to vomit and slowly turned her neck. Her hands were bound behind her, making it difficult to twist her body.
Though it had been almost ten years, she could still vaguely recognize his face from his youth. However, his forehead was a bit shorter, his chin a bit longer, and his right eye seemed slightly closer to his temple than the left. If you took a person, opened them up like a pocket, and sewed them back together, it would result in such a minor misalignment.
What was his name? Mei Jia couldn't remember anymore.
No matter how she pleaded, cried, or begged for him to release her, he probably wouldn't be moved because he had become a completely different creature—disappearing silently all those years ago, he had been attacked and abducted by that thing, just like she was now.
Wait... could it be that he, in this moment, was her own future?
The mere thought that her own face could also contort slightly like that sent a chilling fear coursing through Mei Jia's bones. From her vantage point, she couldn't see the creature behind her that was releasing hot steam onto her neck, which added to her confusion and fear.
"It's me," even though she knew it was futile, she couldn't help but plead, "I'm Mei Jia. Do you remember me? I used to live in the Lion's Mane Mushroom area... Please, don't come after me. Take me home!"
"Mei Jia?" The man who had lived next door and was terrible at drawing, after hearing her words, took a couple of steps closer and examined her for a moment. The cave was probably about 1.8 or 1.9 meters high, and he didn't need to stoop while moving. "Oh, I remember now. You're the kid who used to live next door, right? It's really a coincidence to meet you under these circumstances."
What a coincidence? It was clearly a kidnapping!
Mei Jia felt both fear and anger in her heart but didn't dare to say that out loud; the back of her head still throbbed with pain from where she had been struck.
"You're sixteen now, aren't you? Still on your way to school," the man hit her sore spot with his first words. "So, do you also feel like you've been excluded?"
Also?
"In a place where everyone seems so content and happy, isn't it a bit frightening when you think about it?" The man seemed to be in high spirits, perhaps because he hadn't met an acquaintance in a long time. He waved to the creature behind Mei Jia, the one exhaling hot steam, as if to tell it to wait, then sat down cross-legged in front of her. "I think people are inherently filled with darkness, chaos, and they scream in pain... that's what truly makes a human. Haven't you ever thought about it?"
Mei Jia noticed it. He was talking about "this kind of" place... which meant they were still within the boundaries of the fungal society, right?
The mere thought that she could likely be rescued as long as she escaped from this cave renewed her strength.
"Everyone is content and happy?" She retorted, "That's because everyone worked hard for that contentment and happiness! What's wrong with reaping the rewards of your efforts? Like me, even though I'm anxious every day and don't know what to do in the future, but—"
She had intended to say that as long as she persevered through this stage, she would have a fulfilling life in the future. However, the man suddenly interrupted her with a look of excitement on his face.
"Are you very anxious and unsettled? Ah, I had a similar feeling before, though not exactly the same." He looked up and smiled at the creature behind Mei Jia. "Hey, I think we should go capture some other people later. I believe they have great potential for transformation."
The creature behind her released a foul-smelling breath, causing Mei Jia's whole body to tense up.
"You're quite naive. You don't realize that your thoughts have already been controlled," the man waved his hand. "I've lived under the control of fungi for nearly twenty years, more experienced than you. Let me tell you, if your negative emotions continue to persist, it won't be long before the fungi take action."
Mei Jia stared at him in confusion.
"In school, they use education to control you. After you leave school, if education doesn't work, they will release spores to change your thoughts, brainwash you, and make you believe in some nonsensical ideas that you never believed before," the man sneered and had a cruel smile on his face. On closer inspection, his right eye seemed slightly closer to his temple, probably due to the stitching. "For example, they might deceive you into thinking that you're passionate about something and that you've found your purpose in life... but in reality, just a few years ago, you had no interest in that thing."
Mei Jia suddenly thought of all the art supplies and paint sent to his house continually.
"Does that mean..." she asked tentatively, "that you didn't really like painting back then?"
"That's right, not at all," the man gritted his teeth and laughed, "I was deceived into thinking that my interest was in painting. A day without a paintbrush felt like there was a hole in my heart, and I was anxious to do something to satisfy myself. But once I started painting, that sense of satisfaction disappeared in an instant... it was like eating a piece of zero-calorie artificial sweetener, fooled into thinking it's sweet, only to leave behind an even bigger, emptier void. To fill that void, I had to pick up the paintbrush again... it was a vicious cycle. For the tiniest artificial sweet taste, I painted from morning until night, my wrist ached, swelled, and couldn't be lifted, and I reluctantly went to bed with that emptiness."
Mei Jia shivered. The man's tone was emotional, and she didn't think he was lying.
"It was later that I found out why," he said, his eyes shining in the dim cave. "Because my true personality and desires were hidden by those fungal spores! They tried to change me, make me one of those honest, working people who serve them! What truth, it's all brainwashing! Only I should control my own thoughts!"
Mei Jia fell silent for a moment.
"What's wrong?" The man placed his hand on her shoulder, fingers sliding over the fabric, brushing against her shoulder. "You don't believe me?"
"No, I believe you," Mei Jia was facing the creature behind her, with the man in front of her, and the situation wasn't favorable. But she had to come up with a plan. "You've been away from here for too long... there are things you still don't know."
"What things?"
"In the past, schools used to hide this from minors to avoid discrimination against certain members of society. However, a few years ago, new laws were passed, so every schoolchild knows... we all know that aside from the immigrant population, the fungi also release spores to change the thoughts of some native people."
She lifted her head and looked at the man. It seemed that the cave was newly dug, and a bit of daylight leaked from somewhere.
"Don't use this kind of speech to motivate others in the future," she forced herself to calm down and said, "it has exposed something."
"What?" The man suddenly straightened up.
"Do you think the fungi want to brainwash you because they want more servants? Concealing your true desires, making you think that your life's mission is painting... does that even make sense? It's not like they're turning your interests into mushroom farming."
In fact, the fungi don't lack willing caregivers at all.
Perhaps it was an illusion, but the man's face seemed even more distorted – perhaps due to his anger at being exposed?
"In school, we learned about it," Mei Jia said gently. "When the fungi do this to the locals, there's usually only one reason. That is, your true desires are harmful to society, harmful to humanity... so the fungi have to replace them with harmless hobbies."
She paused and continued, "I remember now, it was Little Jian, right? I remember my mother told me that in the Lion's Mane Mushroom area, there was a time when you could often find the bodies of animals and birds that had been cut and burned. But after I started primary school, I never found the bodies of small animals that had been abused to death again. Little Jian, you haven't told me yet, what was your true desire?"