QT- I’m Almost Died
Chapter 267. Corpse Orchard
Fan Jialuo led the middle-aged woman into the house and into the living room.
She was very thin, as if she were just a skeleton. Her cheeks and eye sockets were deeply sunken, making her once beautiful face ugly. Her skin was also sallow and rough like sandpaper. At first glance, she even resembled a monster like Zhang Wencheng.
Fan Jialuo extended his hand to invite her to sit down.
She sat down cautiously on the sofa, her expression one of great unease. Her ten fingers were tightly clenched together, and her eyes darted around anxiously, as if she would jump at the slightest disturbance.
“You mentioned that eating an apple triggers you……” Fan Jialuo began.
The middle-aged woman’s attention was immediately diverted, and her unease turned into anxiety, “Yes, I don’t know why, but when I ate these apples, I inexplicably started crying. My heart ached terribly, like I had a heart attack. Then I started feeling nauseous and vomiting. I vomited on the toilet all night and cried all night too. I kept hearing my husband’s voice in my ears. I heard him calling my name and vaguely saying something, but I couldn’t make out what he said.”
The woman hugged herself, tears streaming down her face, “At that moment, I suddenly had a bad feeling. I knew something had happened to my husband and son. They were trapped somewhere, waiting for me to rescue them, but I couldn’t find them, and the police couldn’t find them either(sob sob sob)……”
The woman burst into tears uncontrollably.
Fan Jialuo spread his magnetic field, enveloping her, and then channeled his own inner peace to her, suppressing her panic, helplessness, and fear. This was his unique way of comforting people.
Song Rui opened the plastic bag and carefully examined the apples. They were large and round, bright red in color, and had a shiny skin. They looked much better than ordinary apples. Each one had a small oval label indicating its place of origin.
“When did you buy these apples? Do you feel anything when you eat other apples?” Song Rui asked calmly.
Drawing strength from Fan Jialuo, the woman finally calmed down and choked out, “I bought these apples about two weeks ago. Only when I eat them do I inexplicably cry, feel nauseous, and then feel my husband calling me. Eating other apples doesn’t do that. I——”
The woman hugged herself tightly, her body trembling, “I tried eating another one later, and then I cried even harder. I don’t know what that feeling was like, I can’t describe it, it was just so uncomfortable, so heartbreaking, I wished I could just die right there. I tried to dig the apple out of my mouth, but after trying all night, I only vomited up some acidic fluid. I felt so awful, so awful……”
She didn’t know how to express her feelings in words, and could only keep repeating the last sentence. Her gaze would occasionally catch a glimpse of the bright red apples, and she would hurriedly look away as if she had seen some kind of demon or monster.
Her feeling was somewhat similar to, yet quite different from, that of a psychometry.
A psychic needs to find a medium to communicate deeply with the world——air, water, sound——anything tangible or intangible——can become this medium. But for the woman, the medium was simply these apples.
As Fan Jialuo pondered, he picked up one of the apples, but did not use his magnetic field or mental senses to perceive it. After trying many times, he had already discovered that this kind of fruit did not allow spiritual beings to explore its origin. Even if it was picked and transported to a faraway place, it seemed to maintain a close connection with its roots.
This connection felt very familiar to Fan Jialuo, yet it also filled him with extreme apprehension. Moreover, he vaguely knew that it was absolutely impossible to sever this connection with a magnetic field. The two were inextricably linked.
Only then did Fan Jialuo vaguely recall that the crisscrossing, mottled, dark image he had seen in Su Fengxi’s mind was just like a tangled vine. He had actually glimpsed part of the truth long ago, but he had never been able to understand it.
The woman was still crying, but Fan Jialuo’s thoughts had already wandered far, far away, and he couldn’t bring them back for a while.
He stroked the fruit in his palm and murmured, “Dr. Song, what connections in this world can never be severed?”
After pondering for a moment, Song Rui said, “Blood ties?”
Is it a blood relation? These fruits can also be considered offspring of that sentient plant, which is why the connection between them cannot be severed? Rationally, Fan Jialuo felt that this answer should be the truth, but intuitively, he thought it wasn’t, and he preferred to trust his intuition.
Therefore, the connection between these fruits and the sentient plant is far more than just blood ties.
For a moment, Fan Jialuo couldn’t figure it out, so he could only extend his hands and politely ask, “Madam, may I ask your name?”
The woman said through teary eyes, “My name is Duan Xiaoyun.”
“Ms. Duan, could you please place your hands in my palms? I can read your feelings through your thoughts, those feelings you cannot describe in words. Please do not resist, just recall the scene in your mind. Is that alright?” He waited silently, palms facing upwards.
“Ok, I…… I just need to hold your hand, is that alright?” The woman quickly wiped her hands, which were covered in snot and tears, with the hem of her clothes.
“Yes.” Fan Jialuo ’s fingertips stiffened slightly.
Song Rui immediately handed over a pack of disinfectant wipes that was placed on the coffee table.
The woman blushed as she accepted the wipes, took out one of the wipes, carefully wiped her hands clean, and then gently placed it in Fan Jialuo’s palm.
“Closing your eyes can help you recall things.” Song Rui suggested.
The woman immediately closed her eyes, trying hard to recall what she felt at that moment.
At the same time, a look of forbearance appeared on Fan Jialuo’s serene face. He finally understood the depth of a woman’s suffering. It was the pain of having her heart ripped out, the despair of having her soul torn to pieces and never to be pieced back together, but beneath the pain and despair lay an intensely powerful rage. She didn’t just want an end to her current life, she wanted to erase her very existence for all eternity.
She believed that the disappearance of her husband and child was her fault, that she hadn’t taken good care of them and that this had led to the breakdown of the family. But while she said she was worried about her husband, she only mentioned her son briefly, her mind filled with her son’s innocent and adorable smile, leaving her husband with few memories of him.
This is understandable, when a woman becomes a mother, her focus in life naturally shifts to her child. She doesn’t mention her son simply because she would break down if she did.
Through her eyes, her thoughts, and her memories, Fan Jialuo also saw the scene of the day the father and son disappeared. They vanished inexplicably in the dead of night, each wearing thin pajamas, hand in hand, barefoot, disappearing into the deserted streets.
The surveillance cameras captured their backs, but not their final destination. They kept walking and walking, never looking back……
Three years have passed. The woman quit her job and searched everywhere, only to be met with repeated despair and heartbreak. She always believed they were still alive, until this time when she bought these apples and tasted the bitterness of heartbreak.
Sensing this, Fan Jialuo released the woman’s hand.
She immediately covered her face and wept bitterly, saying in broken sentences, “I…… I can feel it, they…… they are dead. But even so, I…… I must find them, I want to know the truth! I want to know why they left back then. Was it because I didn’t do enough? Or did something happen to them that I don’t know about?”
She took a deep breath to calm herself down, then looked straight at Fan Jialuo and said her final question, “Teacher Fan, I want to know the truth. Please answer my question.”
After searching for so many years, struggling and tormenting between hope and despair, she was actually exhausted. Sometimes she felt that people always need something to look forward to in life, and other times she felt that this hope was like a noose around her neck, slowly strangling her.
It wasn’t until she ate those apples that she finally understood that the only thing she could obtain now was the truth. She had to know what happened back then, no matter the cost!
She opened her handbag, took out a bank card, and said in a sad but firm tone, “Teacher Fan, I sold my house and added my savings over the years to raise five million. I’m giving all this money to you, please help me.”
Fan Jialuo extended his slender fingertips, pressed the card, and slowly pushed it back. Then he took out his phone and called Meng Zhong, his tone serious, “Director Meng, has your investigation begun? Could you check Hongxing Orchard first?”
After a few words were exchanged, Fan Jialuo stood up, nodded, and said, “I’ll head over with you. I have Ms. Duan here who consumed a highly unusual apple, and I believe this could be a vital lead.”
He hung up the phone, picked up the bag of apples, and said, “Let’s go, I’ll take you to the place where these apples originated.”
“Okay.” The woman quickly stood up.
Song Rui naturally picked up his coat, ready to follow, but a cold index finger pressed against his brow. Immediately afterward, a gentle yet warm magnetic field invaded his mind, stirring his drowsiness and making his consciousness exceptionally hazy.
He grasped the index finger, his thin lips parted slightly, but before he could utter a single word, he collapsed onto the sofa and fell into a deep sleep.
Fan Jialuo withdrew his fingertips, picked up the tall Dr. Song, and carried him up to the master bedroom on the second floor. He gently placed him on the bed and covered him with a blanket. After going downstairs, he put the meat and vegetables that were on the coffee table into the refrigerator, then wrote a note and stuck it on the refrigerator door.
Unable to resist her curiosity, Duan Xiaoyun went to the kitchen doorway and peeked inside, only to find a simple sentence written on the note:【Come find me after you wake up and eat something.】
When she noticed that Teacher Fan had turned around and was looking at her, she quickly shrank back into the living room.
“Alright, let’s go now.” Fan Jialuo put on his coat and explained softly, “He didn’t sleep last night, so he can’t be out and about today.”
“I see. I’m so sorry to have troubled you.” Duan Xiaoyun felt very apologetic, but she also clearly realized that the two people had a really good relationship.
Dr. Song was clearly sleeping on the second floor and couldn’t hear anything from the first floor, but Teacher Fan would unconsciously lower his voice, afraid of disturbing him. Only when they constantly keep each other in mind can they have such a protective behavior, almost like a conditioned reflex.
As Duan Xiaoyun left the magnificent villa, she looked back at the second floor, her eyes filled with envy.
The two drove to the Hongxing Orchard in the suburbs and met with Meng Zhong and others.
“Are these apples grown here?” Meng Zhong took the bag of apples and handed it to the orchard owner.
“It was grown locally, right in our area.” The orchard owner glanced at the label on the fruit peel, nodded immediately, then took a bite, crunching happily.
Seeing his unrestrained eating, Meng Zhong and the other investigators couldn’t help but feel a pang of unease. Duan Xiaoyun had already turned her head away, covering her mouth and gagging.
Fan Jialuo took the apple that the orchard owner had taken a bite out of, casually threw it on the ground, stomped on it, and said in a calm voice, “Where is the orchard that grows this kind of apple? Can you take us to see it?”
The orchard owner was passionate about agriculture and proud of cultivating the market’s best-tasting honey-core apples. Seeing Fan Jialuo wasting his hard work like this, he immediately became furious, “Hey, what’s wrong with you? If you don’t want to eat it, fine, but why are you throwing it on the ground and stomping on it? You are being way too disrespectful!”
Meng Zhong urged impatiently, “Where are the fruit trees? Take us there!”
The orchard owner seemed annoyed and refused to cooperate, “What on earth did you guys come here for? Our orchard is operating legally. We haven’t done anything wrong, and we certainly haven’t stuck needles in the fruit! Wouldn’t that be cutting off our own source of income? We’re not that stupid! If you want to search, bring your warrant!”
Meng Zhong lowered his head to take out the search warrant, while Fan Jialuo had already started walking in a certain direction.
Seeing him leave, Meng Zhong didn’t care about the warrant anymore and hurriedly followed. Liao Fang, Liu Tao, and other team members also rushed after him, looking like a group of bandits coming to rob someone.
The orchard owner was furious. He quickly caught up with these people, cursing and swearing, and waved for the fruit farmers to come over with hoes to stop them.
The fruit farmers dared not confront the law enforcement team and turned and ran away one by one.
Without a guide, Fan Jialuo bypassed one fruit-growing area after another, following his subtle intuition as he wandered through a web of paths, finally arriving at an apple tree. Its leaves were not as lush and green as the surrounding trees, nor was its stem as thick and strong as the others, at first glance, it was ordinary and unremarkable, without the slightest anything special about it.
Meng Zhong, filled with fear of the mutant fruit tree, stood there, staring blankly, his face full of doubt.
“Is it it?” He asked uncertainly.
“It’s it. I sense the unbreakable connection between the fruit and the tree.” Fan Jialuo reached out and placed his palm on the tree trunk.
The owner yelled hoarsely, “Hey, what are you doing! Don’t touch my trees!”
In that instant, the ordinary tree withered and turned yellow, its branches fell bare of fruit, and in the blink of an eye, it became a withered, dead tree. It seemed to have endured decades or even centuries of rain, snow, wind, and frost, yet with a gentle touch from Fan Jialuo, it broke in two and crashed to the ground.
Before anyone around could react, Duan Xiaoyun let out a piercing scream, “Husband! That’s my husband!”
She lunged forward and grabbed the tree trunk that had broken in two. Inside the jagged break was a body that had not yet decomposed. Its swollen face still vaguely resembled its appearance before death, and blood was gushing out from its skin riddled with holes.
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