Chapter 1 Pushing Open the Door

Pushing open the door to the ward, Geng Chen could be seen leaning against the pillows, already awake.

His face was deathly pale, and there were spots of blood and charred marks on his forehead.

These marks hadn't been there before.

Understanding what his boss meant, Lawyer An had "kindly" woken up the weakened Geng Chen in advance.

There really wasn't much need to be polite with him. Putting himself in the other's shoes, since the guy didn't genuinely consider him his boss, why should he be so foolish as to shower him with care?

Everything comes down to empathy.

Lawyer An dragged a chair over, and Zhou Ze sat down.

Geng Chen looked at Zhou Ze, his lips moving slightly.

He looked so pitiful.

If outsiders knew about this, they would definitely drown Lawyer An in spittle, accusing him of child abuse.

But these ghost messengers really had strange preferences. Zhou Ze had seen non-binary types before; for example, Feng Si'er had cross-dressed more than once.

And there were tons of people who liked to appear younger.

Little Lori Lin Ke was a given—a lady's heart in a loli's body.

Geng Chen had directly turned himself into an infant.

Even old Zhang Tou seemed to have been affected, reincarnating this time as a young boy.

However, Zhou Ze noticed that beneath Geng Chen's pale face, there was a flicker in his eyes.

He seemed to be hesitating, wondering if he should tell the truth.

Moreover, he was clearly displaying this hesitation, not even trying to hide it.

Zhou Ze wasn't in a hurry to ask questions; he was waiting for Geng Chen to speak.

Geng Chen seemed to prepare his words for a moment before saying,

"I've been looking for more advanced methods of making puppets..."

Zhou Ze nodded slowly.

This opening was much more comfortable than Lawyer An's—getting straight to the point.

Puppet making, after reaching Geng Chen's level, really required "experiencing life." It wasn't just writers and artists who needed to do that; Geng Chen needed it too.

Sometimes, a new idea, a new inspiration, could even subvert one's original understanding of puppets.

Of course, if one could observe the puppets of a more advanced predecessor, the value would be even greater.

"In an old Qing Dynasty book... more like a diary, I learned about that place in Xuzhou. It might have what I need.

Because in the diary, it said that one night, he saw a group of people who looked exactly alike talking in the woods. Later, he returned home and became seriously ill, believing that he was possessed and had seen illusions.

I spent about a month searching for the place the diary owner mentioned. Finally, fortune favors the persistent, and I really found it.

At first, I thought it was an ordinary mechanist's tomb. After digging a tunnel, I saw coffins. The material was very special, not the materials we puppet makers usually use."

"I saw the materials," Zhou Ze nodded.

Geng Chen paused and continued,

"I opened one coffin. The corpse inside was very well-preserved. It didn't seem like a burial pit, because even in ancient times, no matter how rich and powerful someone was, equipping all the buried people with such coffins would have been too costly.

Moreover, once the corpse was taken out of the coffin, it would immediately weather when exposed to the wind."

The boss felt like he was listening to a *Tomb Raider* story, but he didn't interrupt Geng Chen, letting him continue.

From the look in Geng Chen's eyes when he first saw him enter, Zhou Ze could tell that Geng Chen had a big revelation at the end.

"The side chambers were all filled with these coffins, neatly stacked. But to my surprise, there was only a pool in the main tomb chamber; no coffin."

The boss patiently continued listening. Geng Chen's account was actually similar to Lawyer An's earlier account.

Of course, the biggest focus should be on that pool.

It was very likely that Geng Chen, who had arrived earlier, had seen something extra compared to Lawyer An and the others who came later.

"The water in the pool was a bit yellow and a bit dark red, not clear. It looked a bit like melted chocolate.

But this pool had a special magic for me."

Hearing this, Zhou Ze was stunned.

*Are you a zombie too?*

The little boy was almost bewitched by that pool, and only woke up thanks to Lin Ke's "call of love." What about you?

"Because that pool represented the true pinnacle of puppet making!"

Geng Chen's eyes began to turn slightly red. It was a kind of fanaticism for his faith.

It could be said that after being almost expelled from the underworld and becoming a nobody like Lawyer An, most of Geng Chen's thoughts and energy were focused on studying puppet art.

In addition, Zhou Ze had been in a coma for a year, and the bookstore had been basically calm during this time, so he had been running wild outside, doing whatever he wanted!

"Ordinary puppet making is very similar to mechanical manufacturing: first make the parts, then assemble them, and finally connect them with formations.

But this pool is a container that can directly create complete puppets!

The puppet is complete from the very beginning!

This not only eliminates the assembly process but is a new level and a new starting point from the beginning. Puppets made in this way have inherent advantages in quality."

Many people have similar experiences: a friend sitting in front of you is desperately blowing up a topic that he is very interested in but you don't understand at all and have no interest in.

He blows it with relish, and you have to pretend to be polite and listen carefully.

"That's a miracle, really a miracle. With it, you can instill formations into the puppet from the very beginning. Oh no, it's no longer formations, but directly instilling thoughts!"

Zhou Ze took a deep breath.

Lawyer An knocked on the bedside next to him and said,

"Get to the point."

Geng Chen glanced at Lawyer An,

and continued:

"It's just that the pool has been abandoned for a long time, and there's only residual solution left inside, and these solutions have long since deteriorated.

It's right there; the pool is right there, but I can't restore it, and I can't restart it. I'm like a kindergarten child facing a difficult conjecture that even mathematicians can't solve.

Do you know what kind of despair this is?"

"If you don't get to the point, I'll let you experience despair."

Lawyer An couldn't help it.

Geng Chen looked at Zhou Ze and suddenly smiled. His originally pale face became even paler.

"Boss, if my body didn't prevent me, I would have knelt down and hugged your legs."

Lawyer An was stunned.

*What the hell?*

*Why is the style suddenly running wildly in the direction of shamelessness!*

"Do you know what I saw when I first walked to the pool?"

Geng Chen reached out and pointed at Lawyer An.

"Get paper and a pen."

Lawyer An nodded and went directly to get a large sheet of white paper and a pencil. He even thoughtfully found a piece of wood for Geng Chen to write on.

Geng Chen's little hand held the pen.

and began to draw.

Truly excellent puppet masters are actually excellent painters.

The same principle applies to true game engineers, who basically know how to draw a few strokes.

Zhou Ze and Lawyer An both stood up.

standing on either side of Geng Chen's hospital bed,

looking at the white paper.

On the white paper,

a pool appeared.

The details of the pool were very detailed, enough to show Geng Chen's obsession with it.

However, the middle of the pool,

remained blank.

He was deliberately whetting their appetites!

Finally, the other corners were finally drawn. Geng Chen began to draw the middle part of the pool.

Waves, ripples,

and then,

a person appeared in the pool.

This person seemed to be lying in the pool, floating up and down.

Lawyer An said that when the three of them came down, they saw Geng Chen soaking in the pool, but he didn't say that he saw anyone else.

Obviously,

this was what Geng Chen had additionally seen.

"There is a person lying in the pool, no, to be precise, only half a person."

Geng Chen was drawing while also explaining very seriously.

"Because this person is only a semi-finished product.

I guess this might be an experimental product used for testing, or it is also possible that due to insufficient time or other reasons, the making of this puppet was forced to stop before it was completed.

The pool was also abandoned.

Therefore, the other bodies are all being placed in coffins, but it continues to float in the pool.

I was very curious at the time, very close, and wanted to touch him, but I accidentally got splashed with the water in the pool.

I blame myself for being hot-blooded at the time and not paying attention to the problem with this water, so I didn't care too much. By the time I really noticed, I was already stained with a lot of water from the pool.

I found that I was constantly weakening, and that the power in my body was constantly being lost. Finally, when I still had the last bit of consciousness left, I called Lao An for help."

"You have to thank the signal over there for being pretty good," Lawyer An joked.

"Yes."

Geng Chen responded.

and continued to draw.

He first drew the legs, then the hands, from the bottom up, and then continued to add details.

"This puppet only has a front side. Its back side is missing, like a person cut in half from his forehead."

"That is, there's only a dick but no ass."

Lawyer An supplemented vividly.

"Yes, that's right."

Finally,

Geng Chen began to draw the face.

Fortunately, Geng Chen had a good memory, his drawing skills were strong, and Lawyer An had found a large sheet of white paper,

leaving a lot of room for manipulation of the face.

Geng Chen drew very carefully.

the face of the person in the pool,

was constantly becoming clearer, more three-dimensional, and more realistic.

Zhou Ze slowly stood up straight.

Lawyer An's mouth slowly opened, as if he could swallow three goose eggs.

"Lao An, do you remember that night when I was chased by you in Yangzhou, and you took out the boss's old photos to show me?"

"What, no, impossible!"

"I still remember that you told me that no wonder the boss was single in his previous life, but Xu Le was able to directly become the Lin family's live-in son-in-law. You insisted on showing me, saying that the boss in his previous life was really not as good-looking as Xu Le in this life."

"..." Lawyer An.

Finally,

Geng Chen put down the pen,

looked up,

specially stared at Zhou Ze,

and said:

"This is the real look of this unfinished puppet that I saw in the pool!"

In the painting,

the person floating up and down in the pool,

was Zhou Ze,

was Zhou Ze, who was still a doctor in his previous life!