Book 3: Chapter 31: The Zhang Family’s Magical Domain


    I had a hunch just based on the general clues we had seen so far, but when Poker-Face put it into words, I suddenly felt my heart clench.


    Fatty and I looked at Poker-Face and I asked, "What changes do you mean?"


    "Tired," he said as he nced down at my shadow, which lookedpletely worn out and exhausted.


    I nced at Fatty, who nodded, "Of course Im tired. Why, I just thought that I was the only one who felt this way."


    "But why didn''t I notice?" I asked him.


    "I thought that I was just getting old, so I had to try and hide it, Fatty said. But if you felt the same way, Little Brother, then I guess Im not getting old after all.


    Poker-Face nodded and Fatty and I exchanged a look before giving each other a high-five. <em>Great, its not a problem with us. But is it really a problem with this grasnd? Is this grasnd really sucking our spirits away?</em>


    Poker-Face shook his head and then pointed to his watch.


    "What do you mean?"


    "When the satellite phone rang and we went into the darkness to find the sound, about one night passed before we got back on our horses and left the area." Poker-Face phrased this as a statement, but he seemed to be asking me a question as he looked up ahead.


    I nodded, but at this time, I suddenly realized something and immediately looked at my watch.


    In fact, we usually didnt pay any attention to the date and just looked at the time.


    I looked at the date and immediately broke out in a cold sweat. "When did we enter the grasnd?" I asked Fatty.


    "On the third, he said. So it should be the seventh. Right?"


    Fatty finally seemed to understand and looked at his watch.


    "Shit!" He swore so loudly that it startled the horses.


    Today should have been the seventh, but the time on my watch showed that it was already the tenth.


    I looked at Poker-Face and he nodded.


    "When we camped yesterday, it was the sixth. So today should be the seventh, right?" Fatty looked at me. "Why is it suddenly the tenth?"


    I checked Fatty''s watch against mine and found that they were both working just fine. I was always quick to ept whatever strange incidents urred, so I turned my focus on analyzing what might have happened. I thought of all kinds of possibilities, which had me breaking out in a cold sweat.


    At first, I couldn''t believe it. Was it possible thatst night, the time we had experienced was different from what we had originally thought? So instead of twelve hours, it had actually been three whole days? That was seventy-two hours.


    <em>So that''s why I''m so tired today! The three of us haven''t slept for seventy-two hours!</em>


    But was this theory correct? I tried hard not to believe it, but I could tell just by looking at Fatty''s expression that this was the most likely possibility.


    But as far as I could remember, only one night had passed.


    After thinking about it, I immediately turned on the GPS and began observing the map very carefully. I soon discovered that we were very far away from Jin Wantang''s camp. ording to how far we had traveled yesterday, we shouldve only been a days ride away from Jin Wantangs camp. But now that wasnt the case. This definitely wasnt a distance you could walk in a day.


    I suddenly thought of the small grove that had magically appearedst night.


    "That grove didn''t suddenly appear," I said to Fatty. "When we camped and suddenly heard the satellite phone ring, a whole day had passed."


    "So when we rushed into the grasnd, shot the res, and saw the grove, another day had already passed!" Fatty buried his face in his hands, "Fuck! Fuck!"


    "As it turns out, weve been on the road the whole time but have no memory of the middle part of the journey. So when we set up camp, we were actually already by the edge of that forest. We thought that only one day had passed, but it was actually three days." I suddenly had some doubts and said, "Wait a minute. Lets not jump to conclusions. Let me see if I can figure it out."


    "Dont worry about it. What you said is right," Fatty said. "Thats probably exactly what happened." He then looked at Poker-Face, "Little Brother, is this how you felt before? Like your time has been stolen? You woke up and thought that it was still the same day, but in fact, a long time had passed."


    Poker-Face didn''t answer. I patted Fatty and sighed in my heart. I honestly never imagined that we would be able to feel the same as Poker-Face. Of course, our situation couldntpare to his since the time he had lost was calcted in years. But I never thought that losing time would feel so creepy.


    We had lost that huge chunk of time in the middle of our journey. What did we do during that time? Did we simply keep moving? Were we being controlled or were our memories erased along the way?


    My whole body was covered in a cold sweat, <em>this whole thing is really strange.</em>


    "Shen Qianjue knows," Poker-Face said.


    Of course she knew. She had contacted us from outside the grasnd, after all. She must have been unable to contact us and waited for several days. When I thought of this, I suddenly had a sh of inspiration and turned on my cell phone to listen to the recording from earlier. I listened carefully to the strange voice and realized that I couldnt me them for having reservations. I couldnt even me her partner for thinking that I was dead.


    That was my fucking voice!


    I hadnt noticed before because the voice was so hoarse that the tone was no longer audible. Moreover, that voices pronunciation waspletely different from mine. Although it sounded like my voice, that persons pronunciation habits werent the same as mine.


    During those days that we had lost, I had apparently been hoarsely telling Shen Qianjue to go back to the grasnd. But the thing was, the speaker wasnt me.


    "Weve been possessed," Fatty said. "Damn it, someones possessed us."


    I nced at Poker-Face. <em>He can get possessed?</em>


    I suddenly understood why the Zhang family had considered this area so taboo. The things that had happened here werepletely different from what we had encountered before. Not only was this a magical domain, but it also had something to do with memory.


    Just as I was thinking this, a river valley appeared right in front of us. It appeared that we were starting to enter the area where the Sea of ck Lights was.


    ****


    <strong><em>I''m over here like "Time Warp!!" </em></strong>