IWOL Chapter 321: His Past Self

Dong Zheng stood quietly at the railing for a while. Cui Zuojing seemed to sense that he was being watched, because he looked around. Dong Zheng returned to the bedroom so he that he wouldn’t be seen.

The sun was gradually slanting westward, but Dong Zheng stayed in his room the entire time.
Everything was repeated in his mind, making it difficult for him to breathe. Luo Yan’s every word was etched in his heart. Linhai probably died of illness. Until the very end, he failed to meet up with Xia Qiongyun, Wang Que, and Lin Hangzhi so he had no idea what had happened to them.

Thinking that if he continued like this, he might break down, Dong Zheng stood up and left his room, intending to go to the deck to relax in the sea breeze.

He knew most of the faces on the ship. After three years, those memories were still stored in the depths of his kernel. He stood alone on the side of the ship, looking at the seagulls flying over the sea. The glow of the setting sun spread out across the sky and sea, beautiful and touching.

When the flaming sun touched sea level, Dong Zheng pulled out a cigarette from his pocket and held it in his mouth. He wasn’t addicted to cigarettes and hadn’t smoked a single pack of cigarettes after arriving to the Pure White Realm, but this was the only way he could relax, aside from alcohol.

The pulsating flame ignited the cigarette. Dong Zheng sucked in a deep breath, feeling the bitter smoke fill his lungs. He put the lighter away and watched as the stars and moon appeared under the gradually darkening blue sky. At this time, someone approached him.

The young man who had just arrived also had a cigarette in his hand. Seeing Dong Zheng looking over, he raised his eyebrows and said, “Have a lighter?”

Dong Zheng was a little surprised. He only knew that Cui Zuojing went in private to inquire news about Domingo, but he didn’t know what method Cui Zuojing had used.

Cui Zuojing looked at him, with starlight in his smiling eyes. Dong Zheng’s hand holding the cigarette trembled, and the voice in his heart kept clamoring: talk to him, touch him!

Dong Zheng held the cigarette in his mouth and looked down at him. Cui Zuojing seemed amazed that someone who looked so cold would actually lend him fire in this way, but he didn’t say anything and merely smiled as he stepped forward.

When the two cigarettes collided, Dong Zheng took a slow sip, and the spark on the cigarette butt became brighter, igniting the cigarette Cui Zuojing was holding.

“My name is Cui Zuojing, what’s your name?” Cui Zuojing’s posture while holding the cigarette was very social, but when he took the first suck, he nearly choked up. Although he covered it well, Dong Zheng still caught it.

Because he didn’t know how to smoke.

Dong Zheng leaned on the railing and answered in a low voice, “Domingo.”

His voice sounded a little strange, even to himself. Victor had poured the power of body into him and forcibly changed his physical appearance and voice. Because of this, no one suspected that Domingo was him.

“Did you enter this box by yourself?” Cui Zuojing asked.

“Yes.” No matter what Cui Zuojing asked, Dong Zheng replied smoothly. Domingo’s background was designed a long time ago, and there were no loopholes. This was because Domingo was based on a real person—He was Heimdall’s Elena García’s younger brother, Domingo García. Dong Zheng knew his hometown and many things about him from Elena, plus some things he made up himself. The information he gave was mixed with truth and falsehood, making it impossible for anyone to sparse them.

As they chatted, the color of the sky darkened completely. The sea breeze cooled, and the stars brightened. Their cigarettes burned quietly, and Cui Zuojing got the answers he wanted to know.

Suddenly Cui Zuojing turned his head and looked in a certain direction. Dong Zheng followed his gaze and saw that his past self was by the swimming pool not far away. Dong Zheng remembered that at that time, he seemed to have sent news to Cui Zuojing through the blood contract.

“My teammate’s calling me.” Cui Zuojing straightened. He smiled at Dong Zheng and said, “We’ll talk more next time when we meet.”

Dong Zheng nodded, and he watched the young man move towards his past self. That bright smile remained on his retina and refused to disappear for a long time.

He also left the ship’s gunwale, threw the burnt cigarette butt into the trash can, and moved toward the cabin. In another two hours, the crew would discover the corpse of the pilgrim that he’d killed.

Dong Zheng turned around, placing himself in a visible spot to give himself an alibi. After inquiring about news from him, Cui Zuojing should be meeting with the rest of the team in the game room. Dong Zheng stayed in a nearby restaurant, ordered some wine and drank slowly.

At ten o’clock in the evening, the sailors hurried over to inform them of the murder. The pilgrims, all of whom had been waiting for the plot to unfold, were all excited, and they rushed to the dead person’s room one after another. ‌

Dong Zheng was also caught in the crowd, and moved along the hallway crowded with crews and pilgrims. He stood far away and saw Cui Zuojing and his past self enter the room first, and the others were not far behind. After discovering some clues, Lin Hangzhi’s voice rang out, “The cause of death is due to the destruction of brain matter. There are no injuries except for the brain damage. Even the skull is still very complete.”

Everyone began to speculate. No one could think of a reason for such a strange death nor could they imagine that the murderer was standing among them.

After a while, Dong Zheng saw Cui Zuojing and his past self leaving the room. The people with teams talked to each other in low voices before they too left. The general guess was that there was some kind of monster on the ship with a powerful mental ability.

The surveillance records also confirmed their conjecture. After all, Dong Zheng had long erased the traces of his existence and so no one knew that he came out of the dead man’s room.

On the second day, filming officially began. Dong Zheng took his own copy of the card and also participated in it. He was at a level that the pilgrims on the ship could not compare to. To a certain extent, he could even face Cui Zuojing, who had yet to unlock his first seal.

Dong Zheng easily became one of the guests for this segment, acting as usual for the next three days. On the fourth day, when the kitchen crew were checking food supplies, they discovered that there was less food than expected in the warehouse. They began to suspect that some people had smuggled aboard. Therefore, the ship began to strictly control the outflow of food.

On the sixth day, the crew member discovered a corpse that was badly eaten. Filming urgently stopped. Dong Zheng knew that soon the Wonton Insurgency would voluntarily ask to join the search team on the ship. He waited for a while, until he saw through the monitoring that Cui Zuojing was making his way to the captain’s cabin.

When Dong Zheng entered the captain’s cabin, Cui Zuojing was in the middle of persuading the captain. Seeing him coming, a look of surprise flashed across the young man’s face. Meanwhile, his past self frowned slightly as he passed by.

The gazes of the past and the future met.

Dong Zheng and Domingo. He and the past Dong Zheng.

Was myself at that time really like this?

As Domingo, Dong Zheng lowered his eyes first and looked away.

In the end, he, Dong Linhai, and Wang Que were put into a team and assigned to search the Central Garden. His younger brother and Wang Que, both of whom had always been close,, spoke in a low voice, always on guard against him. Dong Zheng observed all of this, his heart feeling uncomfortable, but he knew that they weren’t familiar with him.

After some time in the garden, Dong Zheng slipped away to the power cabin. At this time, Cui Zuojing and his current self should have encountered the gluttonous beast Gulon and Ibris.

When Dong Zheng hurriedly arrived, he heard the chaotic sounds of fighting coming from inside. He rushed into the power cabin. In the maze formed by the boiler and intersecting pipes, he saw Cui Zuojing squatting on the ground. He was turning over a bloody Gulon beast, when a humanoid creature with fangs and blue wings quietly appeared behind him and raised its axe, prepared to smash it down in an instant.

“Be careful!” Dong Zheng yelled out in desperation. He immediately pressed the dark pattern on the back of his hand and a crossbow appeared in his hand. His motion of notching the arrow, aiming, and shooting were done in an instant. The silver-white arrow shot out the moment the youth looked up and it slammed into Ibres’ chest!

Facing Cui Zuojing’s surprised eyes, Dong Zheng’s face was expressionless, but only he himself knew how nervous and afraid he was that Cui Zuojing would be hurt.

Another gluttonous was still fighting with the crew, hissing. Dong Zheng took out the arrow and effortlessly took its life.

His past self was holding a stick to poke at the gluttonous beast, but when he saw this, he was stunned. When Dong Zheng saw this, the corners of his lips twitched, and he nearly raised his hand to cover his eyes. It turned out that…he was like this back then? Why was he so stupid?

After putting away the crossbow and arrow, Dong Zheng squatted down and said to Cui Zuojing, who was observing the body of the gluttonous beast, “This is a monster in Scandinavian legends. It’s Latin name is Gulon, and it’s a gluttonous beast.”

He explained the source and legend of the gluttonous beast in detail . After leaving Dusk Island, perhaps because he was angered by Domingo’s breadth of knowledge, Dong Zheng read many books about myths, legends, and monsters. After reading so many stories and seeing the myriad of monster appearances, he now realized why Domingo knew so much.

Dong Zheng raised his gaze and looked at his past self. The past Dong Zheng’s eyes were wary, and he had placed his hand on Cui Zuojing’s shoulder, as if to declare a certain kind of sovereignty.

Dong Zheng found his behavior a bit amusing. At this time, he already discovered his feelings for Cui Zuojing. Although he had a crush on the youth, Cui Zuojing, who’d deposited his feelings with the clown, didn’t feel it at all. But because of this crush, he had perceived Domingo as a potential threat.

Over the past three years, he had grown a lot. Looking back now, there were really many things worth complaining about in the past.

The crew cleaned up the gluttonous beast’s and left to deal with the captain and passengers, leaving the three of them behind. Dong Zheng could feel the energy fluctuations the moment he entered the power cabin. At this time, he deliberately took the other two to it. When he saw the energy source, he couldn’t help but frown.

In the past, he’d successfully received the hint and found a box with a black six-pointed star, Solomon’s seal.

Dong Zheng gave the box to Cui Zuojing, and seeing the young man happily accept it, he silently outlined the smile of Cui Zuojing’s lips with his sight, and his heart throbbed again.

After going back, he didn’t know if he would have a chance to see Ah’Zuo smile like this again.

After taking the box, Cui Zuojing was on his way out when he accidentally discovered another partially eaten corpse. This caused him to doubt the exact number of pilgrims on the ship.

But none of these matters. Even if they realize that there is one extra person, it wouldn’t affect Dong Zheng’s plan.

After the inspection was over, Dong Zheng did not alert anyone and returned to his room. He stood in front of the window and watched the pilgrims and crew gather on the deck and threw the gluttonous beasts’ bodies into the sea. The staff felt that the threat was resolved and so they cheered.

Dong Zheng watched for a while, drew in the curtains, and lay on the bed. In the temple of his kernel, the physical power that Victor had given him was stored on the second floor, mixed with the momentary power of time that had been integrated into his body. This guaranteed that even if Dong Zheng was injured, the wound would heal quickly and would not be affected by Cui Zuojing’s power.

It was just that Dong Zheng would have to actively use the power that didn’t belong to him. He could heal by himself.

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