Chapter 66: Section 67: My Name is Lan Zao


    A thread of light began to appear on the horizon.


    The light was weak, but in the dark night, it was incredibly conspicuous.


    Then, as if accompanied by the beating of the heart, the light gradually strengthened, becoming magnificent bit by bit.


    The darkness receded under the expansion of light, which resembled a giant that had just awakened, stretching its arms and limbs.


    Dawn.


    The dawn!


    ...


    The light fell on Huang Zao’s face, but it brought him no warmth.


    “Woo woo woo…” Huang Zao cried out in pain, suddenly kneeling on the desert, with Lan Zao also falling to the ground from his back.


    “Oasis… Oasis!” Huang Zao called out, his eyes already clouded and unclear.


    In his view, there was an empty desert; the oasis he had envisioned did not appear.


    “But I clearly heard the sound of water. I definitely did!” Huang Zao screamed, determined to shout until his voice broke.


    “There was the sound of water,” Lan Zao unexpectedly woke up.


    This was a sign of the returning light.


    “Yes, brother, you heard it too, you heard it too!” Huang Zao, like a confused child who had suddenly found his guidance, screamed frantically.


    But Lan Zao did not respond to him, instead continuing to murmur, “I heard it, the sound of the sea, the sound of the waves.”


    Huang Zao suddenly froze, abruptly realizing that Lan Zao had fallen into a hallucination.


    In a daze, tottering.


    Lan Zao’s sensations were wonderful.


    Hunger had completely left him; he felt light, as if… as if he were engaged in his favorite activity—


    Diving.


    He loved to dive into the sea and then stay motionless, letting the ocean currents carry him in any direction, or descend slowly through the water, viewing the vast expanse of sky through the shimmering light.


    Such a pure blue without any impurities.


    The blue of the sky usually seemed indifferent, lofty, but through the sea’s transmission, this blue became soft, elegant, sad, and approachable.


    Lan Zao loved this shade of blue the most.


    Immersed in this deep blue, he could forget himself.


    In such a beautiful scene, did it matter who he was?


    It didn’t matter anymore.


    “Let’s just keep sinking…” Lan Zao sighed contentedly in his heart.


    Then, a giant shark quietly appeared.


    It had a snow-white belly, fins as straight as blades, rows of terrifyingly sharp teeth, and its eyes were blue, reflecting light like glass.


    The shark and the unconscious Lan Zao made eye contact, closely looking at each other’s eyes, a thrill of terror emerging from deep within Lan Zao.


    Like an electric shock, he woke up, remembering who he was.


    “Yes, my name is Lan Zao.”


    “I was born in a seaside fishing village, and I loved to dive in the sea; I nearly never grew up.”


    Lan Zao was ten years old when the fishing village faced famine.


    Of course, it wasn’t just the village; the entire domain had hardly any harvest. However, the lord of the land still ruthlessly exacted taxes. The villagers’ spare grain was forcibly collected.


    In the humble thatched cottage, including Lan Zao, the family sat at the dining table.


    In front of others, there were big bowls with a small dollop of dark green paste-like food. But in front of Lan Zao, there were half a bowlful.


    Lan Zao looked at the food in his bowl, which was unprecedentedly plentiful. Likewise, an unprecedented fear enveloped his whole being.


    “Eat, eat more,” Lan Zao’s father said gently, like the rolling waves by the sea.


    Lan Zao looked up but couldn’t see his father’s face clearly. The village was so poor they couldn’t afford candles. In the dim room, most of his father’s face was hidden in darkness, only his blue eyes visible, reflecting light like glass.


    Late at night, Lan Zao heard breathing next to his ear, the sound growing heavier.


    He opened his eyes and saw his father leaning over his bed, staring at him, their faces almost touching.


    Lan Zao opened his mouth to shout, but the next moment, his father reached out his hands and grabbed Lan Zao’s throat.


    Lan Zao struggled frantically, the thrashing sounds awakening his mother and brother, Huang Zao.


    Seeing their father trying to strangle Lan Zao, they hurriedly ran to stop him.


    “Get away from me!” the father kicked the mother away.


    Huang Zao shrank into the corner of the Fang family’s home, trembling with fear.


    “This is your son!” the mother shrieked, her voice heartbreakingly sharp, like the last cry of a bird being strangled in a small throat.


    “This life was given by me, now I am simply taking it back,” the father yelled, “Stop struggling, give it to me, give it to me! Only then can I live, and our whole family can survive!”


    “No, no!” The mother shook her head frantically, “His life was not given by you, it was granted by the divine Spirit Mother. When I was in difficult labor, it was the Spirit Mother’s priest who saved me.”


    “That’s a god of the Elf Faith, our Human Race’s Evil God! And you dare mention it?!” the father roared.


    But the next moment, Lan Zao reached for his solid wooden pillow and struck his father hard on the head.


    His father was caught off guard and knocked unconscious.


    “I’ll kill you, I’ll kill you!” Lan Zao didn’t stop, he kept shouting as if possessed, repeatedly lifting the pillow high and then smashing it down on his father’s skull. Sёarch* The novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Blood flowed more and more, filling the room with the stench of blood.


    His father lay motionless.


    “Stop, stop, he’s already dead, dead!” Finally, the mother grabbed Lan Zao and held him tightly in her arms.


    Only then did Lan Zao stop his mechanical hitting, his vacant expression faded, and he came to his senses and sobbed uncontrollably.


    In the following days, seven people died in the fishing village. Most were either old, weak, sickly, or young; Lan Zao’s father was the sole exception.


    Lan Zao and his mother buried his father together.


    Hunger can turn a person into a beast.


    Widows and orphans were the easiest to bully; the usually gentle and kind villagers became wild and rough.


    His mother was attacked and seriously injured.


    Sensing the danger, Lan Zao’s mother took her two sons and secretly left the fishing village.


    Near their coastal fishing village were many very small deserted islands.


    A small deserted island became their new home and also the grave for their mother.


    “It’s better if I die, then you can survive,” the mother called Lan Zao to her side, whispering her last words into his ear, “The great gods are calling me, my spirit will ascend to the Holy Temple of the Spirit Mother. Don’t worry about me, take good care of your brother.”


    Crying, Lan Zao, placed his mother on the small boat.


    The boat was outfitted with firewood and fresh flowers.


    The most exquisite of the funeral goods was a statue.


    The statue depicted the Spirit Mother as a doe, but with antlers like branches, larger than those of a stag. The deer’s legs were entwined with vines, and flowers bloomed across its body, forming patterns like deer skin.


    Together with Huang Zao, Lan Zao pushed the boat into the sea and then lit the dry wood on the boat with a torch.


    Watching the boat burning, drifting with the waves, the sea surface reflected an orange glow.


    In the continuous sound of the waves, it seemed as if they repeated the mother’s last words.


    Take good care of your brother…


    Take good care of your brother…


    Take good care of your brother…


    This last wish deeply etched in Lan Zao’s heart until now, continued to echo in his ears.


    Lan Zao forced his eyes open wide.


    He only saw a vast expanse of bewildering white.


    “Huang Zao… my brother, where are you?” he called out, surprisingly, with enough strength to shout.


    “That’s fake, all fake.”


    “There’s no oasis, no Oasis!”


    “Brother, there’s no Oasis… Wuuu wuuu…”


    Huang Zao lay beside Lan Zao, crying uncontrollably, already broken.


    Suddenly, Lan Zao reached out, grabbing Huang Zao’s head and pulled it close. His mouth next to Huang Zao’s ear, just like their mother had done before.


    Lan Zao gave his last words: “Huang Zao, eat me, then you can keep going! Live well, take good care of yourself.”


    Huang Zao’s body shook violently as if turned to stone, becoming a statue.


    About two or three seconds later, Huang Zao suddenly sprang into action, lunging at Lan Zao, hands gripping Lan Zao’s neck.


    “Brother, brother!” he yelled out.


    “I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” he cried.


    “I’ll eat you, eat you…” his eyes blood-red, like a wild beast.


    Lan Zao felt very uncomfortable, slowly suffocating.


    He tried to curl the corners of his mouth into a smile.


    It seemed the sound of surging waves came to his ears.


    Whoosh… Whoosh… Whoosh…


    His body felt as if it were soaking in seawater, as if diving under the sea, serene and peaceful.