Ancient Castle Monsters (Please Vote Monthly)

The moment Han Su saw him, he recognized him.

This man was also a victim's family member—the older brother of the braided ponytail girl who had died on the second floor of the Ancient Castle.

Over the years, aside from that wealthy couple, he had come looking for Han Su more often than anyone else. But that had only been during the first few years. Starting six or seven years ago, Han Su had barely seen him, as if he had suddenly vanished.

Han Su did not dare let down his guard. He slowly looked up at the man and tightened his grip on his backpack. "Everything I know, I've already told you."

"Believe it or not, I have nothing left to tell you."

Song Chushi noticed Han Su's wariness and gave up on shaking his hand. He nodded. "I know."

"This time, I didn't return to Qinggang City to dredge up the past with you, Mr. Han. I was just wondering whether you might be interested in finding somewhere to sit down and talk?"

"Hm?"

Han Su froze slightly and looked up at him.

A few minutes later, Han Su sat with him in a wonton shop nearby. Two bowls of egg-yolk-filled wontons were set before them.

Song Chushi took off his glasses, pulled over a napkin, and wiped them. Then he said softly to Han Su, "When this happened ten years ago, nobody had it easy."

"At the time, many people thought you had lied. Or that you had lost your memories, which had been replaced by unrealistic fantasies. That was why they kept waiting for you to remember some valuable clues."

"But I believe you, Mr. Han."

"I saw what you looked like when you first escaped. The fear on your face was real. Afterward, I watched the videos of the Public Security Bureau questioning you many times. I studied the itinerary of everyone in your class, the time they vanished, and the time you escaped."

"Although we never found the dark Ancient Castle you described, based on the timing before and after, the place where it happened truly should not have been far from where you said."

"And over all these years, so many Factions investigated so deeply that they turned over the entire area, yet they found no clues at all. That in itself was rather unreasonable."

Hearing his words, Han Su looked up in surprise.

Ever since he had told the Public Security Bureau about the dark Ancient Castle as a child, neither the newspapers, the experts, nor the victims' families had ever believed him.

Other than Xu Ji, who believed everything he said, this was the first person.

He fell silent for a moment, set down his spoon, and said quietly, "Then why did you come to see me...?"

"Before my Younger Sister's accident, I never truly believed in the supernatural, or in ghosts and monsters. I am a Doctor at Qinggang University, as well as a researcher of Radiation Era relic applications. I believe in science and logic, not in those illusory things."

Song Chushi let out a low breath and gently rubbed his brow. Slowly, he said, "But over these past ten years, in order to uncover the truth behind my Younger Sister's accident, I investigated many things, including even some absurd claims."

"I..."

He seemed about to say something, but stopped. He merely looked at Han Su and said, "I'm beginning to waver, Mr. Han."

Han Su listened carefully, and something stirred faintly in his heart.

The man before him had an extraordinary identity.

In this world, all ruins and even records related to the Radiation Era were among the most dangerous and difficult things to deal with. The Administrative Hall had even passed laws forbidding anyone from entering that field without approval. The fact that this man could work in it spoke for his ability.

"I've discovered that this world really does seem to contain many things that do not follow the logic of reality."

Song Chushi spoke slowly. "This time, I came to ask you whether you could help me remember what happened back then once more."

"And the monsters you saw inside the dark Ancient Castle?"

When Song Chushi made this request, he looked somewhat apologetic. He seemed to feel that forcing someone who had escaped the clutches of demons ten years ago to repeatedly revisit painful memories was impolite.

Han Su was somewhat surprised by his plea.

After considering it briefly, he slowly nodded. "All right."

Actually, if it had been ten years ago, right after he had escaped, Han Su would not have been able to describe these things clearly. He had been too panicked then, with no time to observe every detail inside the Ancient Castle.

But now, after returning again and again, after escaping again and again, everything had instead been etched deeply into his mind.

Upon hearing this, the other man was delighted. He hurriedly took out a notebook and a sharpened pencil.

"There's no need for me to say much about how it began."

"Our class had gone to the science museum together. We were still young then and didn't know the way. Somehow, we ended up in that place."

"That place should have been a castle. Or perhaps a prison. Even calling it a tower would have been fine, because it seemed to have many floors, linked by spiral staircases, and every floor had a monster..."

As Han Su began recounting the story, his voice was strangely flat. "The monster guarding the gate was a man with a face as white as porcelain, dressed in a black suit. He was very tall, probably... around three meters. He was very thin, and countless withered vines were wrapped around him..."

As Song Chushi listened, the pencil in his hand scratched across the paper with a soft rustle. He was actually making quick sketches of the monsters.

He was quite skilled. The sketches bore some resemblance to the monsters Han Su had seen.

Unfortunately, no matter how accurately they were drawn, they could not capture the oppression of facing such a monster in the body of a ten-year-old child.

"We were all sitting on the elementary school bus at the time. There was a jolt, and the sky seemed to go dark. When we opened our eyes, we were already in that courtyard filled with the stench of decay."

Sitting across from Song Chushi, Han Su continued slowly. "The man whose skin looked like porcelain led us into the castle."

"Many monsters sat around a long table as though they were having a banquet. They spoke in words we could not understand. Or perhaps it was not speech at all, merely the howls of monsters—their language."

Song Chushi's expression shifted slightly at this point, becoming much graver.

Han Su continued, "They stared at us as if we were toys, or food. Then they carefully selected the children they liked and took them upstairs."

"One disobedient child began to cry. The monster in the black apron smashed him to death. Blood splattered across our faces, and every child forgot how to cry. We couldn't understand why a child's head could burst apart like a watermelon, and why he wasn't crying."

"They were pleased by our silence, so they chose even more carefully. They examined our eyes, teeth, the lines on our palms, eyebrows, and ears. Some monsters looked excited, while others were even drooling."

"One monster wrapped completely in a black robe, like a noble lady, chose a girl with a ponytail..."

"A female monster with only half a body, who laughed like a goat, took away a little boy wearing glasses..."

"And there was a monster in a trench coat, his body bloated like a giant corpse. He carried away a girl as beautiful as a doll, wearing a white little skirt and a birthday crown on her head..."

"Oh, right. Her name was Li Xiaoman. She was the daughter of the Chairman of Magic Box Group. Over the past ten years, that couple often came looking for me, asking about her whereabouts."

The hand Song Chushi was using to draw seemed to tremble.

Only after a long while did he look at the image he had drawn and say in a low voice, "These are the Withered Butler, Meat Horn Madam, Worm Monk, and Pale Giant that were once reported in the newspapers..."

Han Su gave a mocking laugh. "Yes."

When Han Su first escaped, the Public Security Bureau questioned him over and over. The reporters staking out the place also found ways to obtain the records of his questioning and reported them at length.

Although no one believed Han Su's story, the case had caused too great an impact.

They still reported the events Han Su described in detail, even giving the monsters he described their respective Codenames.

However, though the reports had initially caused a huge stir, people soon forgot about them. Han Su had not expected Song Chushi to still remember.

After a long silence, Song Chushi finally raised his head. "And then?"

Han Su looked at him calmly and said slowly, "After that, I escaped."

"That braided ponytail girl was very brave—perhaps even a little reckless. Though she was young, she must have trained often. She was very agile. She jumped out, knocked over a candlestick, and started a fire. The frightened children all began to cry."

When he reached this point, Han Su paused briefly and looked at Song Chushi's expression. He did not show any obvious grief, but his face seemed to have blurred somewhat.

That was his Younger Sister.

Han Su sighed softly. "Because of that fire—or perhaps simply because the children had disobeyed—the monsters became very irritated. I took advantage of the chaos and ran out through a door that had not yet been closed, then crawled into the rose bushes beside it."

"I only remember crawling through countless thorns and vines, then running without stopping. I did not dare look back until members of the search-and-rescue team found me."

"Afterward, I pointed others in the direction where the Ancient Castle had been, but you know the result. There was nothing."

Han Su did his best to satisfy Song Chushi, telling him every detail he knew. He even drew out the mysterious symbols he remembered and told him in a certain tone that they were clues.

Song Chushi recorded everything with great seriousness, not overlooking a single minor detail. But as their conversation neared its end, he suddenly stopped sketching.

His gaze suddenly became shrewd and sharp, entirely unlike his usual weary appearance. "Mr. Han, ten years have passed, yet you still remember so many details?"

Seeing the scrutiny in his eyes, Han Su suddenly grinned.

He said softly, "Over these past ten years, I often dreamed of returning to that damned place."

"I relived that experience again and again. Even if I wanted to forget it, I couldn't. Even in my dreams, I kept trying, again and again, to save the other children..."