Wooden Carving

Chapter 4: Wooden Carving

If Shen Xing hadn't sent himself a photo earlier, Hong Anjie would never have believed that his other father had suddenly vanished right before his eyes.

He sat on the edge of the bed near the carving workbench, staring at the empty floor.

Shen Xing crouched on the floor, carefully examining the spot where Hong Bin had fallen. There wasn't a trace of anything, except for the wooden carving that had already been picked up.

A small piece had broken off the carving's base, but the damage wasn't serious. After some sanding, it would be impossible to tell.

"So you're saying the guy was hit on the head by the falling wooden carving, then you ran out to open the door for me. And in those ten seconds, he disappeared?" Hong Anjie asked, utterly bewildered.

"Right." Shen Xing nodded firmly.

In truth, he was relieved that he'd taken a photo of the vanished Hong Bin and sent it to Hong Anjie for confirmation. Otherwise, with the man suddenly gone, Shen Xing could have grown mouths all over his body and still been unable to explain what had happened.

Hong Anjie was just as overwhelmed. "When I came out, just in case, I asked our neighbor, Uncle Zhao, to keep an eye on the one at home."

"Why don't you call him now and ask if anything unusual happened?" Shen Xing suggested.

But as soon as he finished speaking, Hong Anjie's phone began to vibrate. He glanced at the screen, his expression turning strange. "It's Uncle Zhao."

As he spoke, he answered the call. "Hello, Uncle Zhao. What?! I'll be right there. Sorry for the trouble, Uncle Zhao!"

After hanging up, Hong Anjie sprang to his feet, frantic. "Uncle Zhao just said my dad suddenly passed out. He's already called an ambulance. I need to get to the hospital!"

Shen Xing stood up too. "Is it serious?"

Hong Anjie shook his head. "I don't know. You don't need to come with me. First, figure out what's going on here."

As he spoke, he hurried out and down the stairs.

Listening to the sound of his hurried footsteps fading away, Shen Xing still felt as if he were dreaming. Standing in the bedroom doorway, he turned to look at the spot where Hong Bin had been lying and couldn't help feeling a chill of fear.

Hong Bin's savage face, bulging eyes, curled lips, and terrifying teeth—every detail of that dangerous moment was still vivid. If Shen Xing hadn't quickly knocked him to the floor, Hong Bin would probably have bitten through his carotid artery.

"What the hell... was he human, a ghost, or some kind of beast?"

As he pondered this, Shen Xing went to the kitchen and got a sharp knife. He turned on all the lights, then searched the room inch by inch.

It took about half an hour to check every corner of the rented apartment, along with the cabinets, under the sofa, and under the bed. Once he was sure he hadn't seen anything unusual, he finally relaxed a little.

He returned the knife to the kitchen, tidied up the apartment, and locked the living room door. In particular, he carefully wiped a standing photo frame near the window on the workbench, making sure it was free of dust.

The photo showed a young woman with long hair, wearing a white T-shirt, denim overalls, and white mesh sneakers. She leaned her left shoulder against a parasol tree, a sweet smile on her face. Yet it seemed that moment would remain frozen forever.

After cleaning the apartment, Shen Xing soon received a call from Hong Anjie. His father was out of danger and had woken up in the hospital. He was speaking and thinking normally, and his mental state was pretty good.

Ever since the kid had left, Shen Xing had been thinking things over.

The Hong Bin in his room had disappeared after being injured in the head. If he were an ordinary person, he couldn't have vanished on the spot. That was beyond common sense, so the most likely explanation was that he was a fake Hong Bin.

As for the one at Hong Anjie's home, although he had seemed unusual, everything else about him was normal. He could talk to Shen Xing like an ordinary person and didn't attack anyone, let alone bite them.

Why had a fake Hong Bin appeared, and why had he attacked people? Shen Xing had no way to know for now. With only the clues he had, he couldn't draw any conclusions.

After taking out the trash, he returned to the bedroom, turned on his phone, and pulled up the strange photo of Hong Bin he had taken earlier. He studied it for a long time, but it didn't look any different from the one at Hong Anjie's home.

Shen Xing couldn't help reaching out to touch the half-body sculpture beside him.

At that moment, he froze, his expression full of astonishment. A line of silvery-white text suddenly appeared in his mind, so vivid it seemed he could reach out and touch it.

[Hong Bin, current understanding of traits: 20%.]

The text disappeared after about five seconds.

Ever since he had been reincarnated into this world, Shen Xing had stubbornly refused to believe he was really without a system. He had tried all sorts of ways to activate his cheat, but nothing had worked.

He'd never imagined that, given what had just happened, his cheat seemed to have finally appeared!

Then Shen Xing felt an itch in his right eye. He reflexively reached up and rubbed it.

As soon as he lowered his hand, his gaze landed on the half-body sculpture on the workbench. At that moment, a black shadow was curled up inside the Wooden Carving, its outline almost exactly the same as Hong Bin's.

"Hong Bin?" Shen Xing exclaimed. "He was actually taken into the Wooden Carving?"

The shadow inside the Wooden Carving didn't move at all, as if it would never move again, remaining curled up in that position.

Shen Xing cautiously reached out and touched the Wooden Carving, but he could only feel its outer surface. Hong Bin's black shadow seemed to be hidden inside it.

He certainly wasn't going to split the Wooden Carving in half just then. What puzzled him was how he could see right through its surface and glimpse Hong Bin curled up inside.

Now it seemed he had found the reason Hong Bin had suddenly vanished after being hit by the Wooden Carving.

His right eye started itching again. Shen Xing couldn't help rubbing it, then shifted his gaze away from the Wooden Carving.

Just then, three lines of translucent text appeared in the corner of his vision.

The first line read "Mental Antibody" on the left.

To its right was a gray progress bar, with the words "Antibody Level: 0" above it.

The second line read "Physical Strength" on the left.

To the right was another progress bar, with the words "Mortal Body: 37%" displayed above it.

The third line was simple. It read "Latent Skill," with "None" displayed beside it.

Staring at the three lines and the progress bars, Shen Xing had good reason to suspect they had appeared because the Wooden Carving had hit Hong Bin and then absorbed him into the half-body sculpture.

He didn't know why these things had appeared. But it was clear that after the Wooden Carving struck Hong Bin, he had vanished, and his shadow had appeared inside it, where Shen Xing could see it. Then these three inexplicable progress bars had appeared too.

Although the progress bars were easy enough to understand from their labels, Shen Xing didn't believe they would have appeared if the Wooden Carving hadn't hit Hong Bin.

The cause had to be that the Wooden Carving had accidentally absorbed Hong Bin when it hit him, activating the Wooden Carving System and displaying three attributes for Shen Xing.

The progress bars also followed his gaze, so no one else could see them. As for the shadow inside the Wooden Carving, most likely only he could see that too.

"So that's how it activates. What a stupid system!" Shen Xing muttered to himself.