Pursuit of the Truth

Su Ming sat in the palanquin and shook his head fiercely. He could sense that there was a muddled area in his mind, as if a veil had covered his memories. Some time was required for him to remember his past self.

He watched the people in the noodle stall talking to each other and the woman screaming shrilly in the rain gradually fade away into the distance. He felt like he had understood something.

However, when he tried pondering over it, his mind turned completely blank.

In silence, he sat in the palanquin and slowly went into the distance with the man leading the way in the front. They continued walking until they reached a corner of the county town. There was a courtyard before them. It did not occupy too big of a space, but it was very exquisite. There were two lamps hanging on the gate, but the fire in them had already been extinguished. They only swayed in the wind.

The rain might have been heavy, but there were quite a number of people who were busy with their own tasks in the house. However, if anyone took a closer look, they would be able to tell that almost every single person was panicked and fearful. They were shuddering as if they had been frightened by something.

The palanquin stopped outside the house. The curtain over the window was lifted, and with anxiety on his face, the man looked at Su Ming.

“Doctor Mo, please save my wife…”

Su Ming nodded. With the medicinal box in hand, he quickly walked out of the palanquin. The man started running swiftly, and Su Ming was dragged into the courtyard. The instant he stepped foot into it, a shrill scream of pain suddenly came from the room in front of him. It was a woman’s voice. There was frailty in her voice, and she seemed to be in unbearable pain.

At the same time, an old woman pushed open the door to the room. There was fear on her face, and when she walked out, she shuddered before she started screaming loudly.

“Monster! This… This is a monster!” The old woman was clearly a hired midwife. The moment she opened her mouth, a person came forward to drag her out of the courtyard.

Su Ming came to a halt. The man in front of him had tears in his eyes. when he noticed that Su Ming had stopped, he turned around and knelt down with a thump.

“Doctor Mo, we’ve already asked three midwives to come here, and the one just now was the fourth, but all of them reacted this way. All of them cried out about monsters and refused to continue. Doctor Mo, please save us! Please, I’ll kowtow to you.”

The man kowtowed ceaselessly, causing Su Ming to sigh softly. He ignored the man and picked up the medicinal box to walk towards the room where the expecting woman was.

Inside, Su Ming immediately saw a woman lying on a bed. Her face was pale, as if she was already on the verge of death. At the instant he saw the woman, Su Ming’s heart trembled. She was… Bai Feng!

Her belly was swollen, and Su Ming could vaguely see the shadow of a big fish. It was indistinct, but the fish was the one that Su Ming had seen in his first reincarnation.

When he saw it, a loud roar suddenly rang out at the back of his head. He seemed to have come to a sudden understanding. He also remembered the crazy woman and the dialogue between the people in the noodle stall while he was in the palanquin.

‘Reincarnation… So this is reincarnation? It isn’t the circle I thought about previously, where the changes occur from the start to the end of a person’s life.

‘Reincarnation isn’t a circle. It take all kinds of shapes, and it is a world formed by countless connecting dots!

‘My first reincarnation was as a fisherman, and this is a dot. I personally witnessed Bai Feng being devoured by a fish. Then, in my second life, I am no longer a fisherman. I became a doctor, but I am still in this world. It’s just that I’ve become another connecting dot!

‘This is a world, and I… will become all sorts of people in this world due the cycles of life and death. So this… is reincarnation?’

Su Ming’s heart trembled as if he had come to truly understand something, but there was still something lacking. He felt that there were a few things which still evaded him.

A scream of pain from the expecting woman interrupted Su Ming’s thoughts, causing his gaze to become slightly complicated.

‘This person and the baby in her womb… Clearly, the baby is the manifestation of the will of the ring. If I sacrifice the woman and let the baby be born, I will be able to form a link of fate with it… but…’

Su Ming remained silent. He could vaguely sense the power existing in the cycles of life and death. It was a power of destiny that was one of the countless connecting dots in the world, but the things it did could cause a great change in the entire world.

The current situation could be taken as an example. If Su Ming chose the baby and helped it be born smoothly, then the woman would certainly die. The born baby would have no mother, and no one could tell what would happen to it in the future.

But if he chose the mother, he would be killing a baby before it was born. Because of that, the world would be missing a dot, and because of it, the changes which would have happened due to its existence will be lost forever.

‘Every single reincarnation is linked together. The story which happened previously has bled countless types of changes to this one. All of them are activated in an unseen manner based on my choices…

‘If the fish did not eat the girl, this woman wouldn’t have such a difficult labor… and the mother who went mad in the rain wouldn’t have appeared either…’

In silence, Su Ming stared at the woman whose breathing was growing increasingly weaker. He also stared at the baby in her womb, whose presence was also becoming weaker with each passing moment. After a long while, he raised his right hand and swung his arm at the woman. With it, her breathing instantly became stronger and steadier, but behind it was a life swiftly flowing away. In just the span of a few breaths, a baby’s cries rang out in the air. A smile appeared on the woman’s lips, and she closed her eyes, breathing her last.

The adult died and the baby lived. Or rather, the baby was born because the adult died. With a person’s death, another person survived!

With the baby in his arms, Su Ming quietly pushed open the door to the room and stared at the anxious man outside. At the instant the man saw the baby, excitement appeared on his face. He took a few steps forward, but when he saw the dead woman on the bed, his face instantly turned pale. He staggered, and sadness as well as anger appeared in his eyes.

He stopped moving, then threw his head back to let out a forlorn roar. He did not stare at Su Ming or the baby, but instead took a step forward to arrive beside the bed. When he saw the woman, who still had a smile filled with maternal love on her lips even though she had already died, tears fell from his eyes.

“Is this your choice?! Why didn’t you ask me?! WHY?!”

The man turned his head around and glared at Su Ming. He did not even stare at the baby in his arms, but instead started shouting loudly as if he had gone mad.

The forlorn voice made Su Ming sigh softly, but the next moment, with red in his eyes, the man suddenly raised his right hand and pointed at Su Ming.

With it, a great sense of danger rose in Su Ming’s heart. When he turned his head around, his pupils shrank rapidly, and he saw a scene he could not believe!

He saw a vague figure appear faintly behind the man. Its presence might have been faint and fragile, looking like it might disappear when wind blew against it, but at the instant Su Ming saw the figure, his heart trembled in a manner he had never experienced before.

“How could this be?” he mumbled. A hole appeared at the center of his brows. Blood poured out from it, taking away his life and soul with it.

He could not dodge the one finger strike. It was like a destined strike. The moment Su Ming saw the figure behind the man, he was destined to die.

That figure… was himself. Su Ming saw himself.

The body slowly fell down. The instant Su Ming’s consciousness scattered, the entire world went silent and gradually shattered to turn into a gigantic vortex. The pieces regrouped and turned into a complete world again. Moments later, Su Ming opened his eyes.

Rain was pouring. It was dark, but the lamps in the area were bright. A shrill scream of pain came from the house, clearing Su Ming’s head. When he looked around, he found himself in a courtyard. As he stared around it, he felt that it was incredibly familiar, but there was also a hint of unfamiliarity to it.

However, it was very weak, and Su Ming could not help but disregard it while picking up anxiety. He stared at the servants busying themselves in the courtyard and the figure under the lamps in the room. The person in pain in the room was his wife.

It was the day she was supposed to give birth, but a long time had passed, and they had already brought two midwives. Each of them would eventually run out with fear and panic, announcing their refusal to continue helping with the labor.

“Monster… Monster!”

The door to the room was pushed open swiftly. An old woman ran out while shuddering. Through the door, Su Ming could see his wife struggling in pain, and his heart clenched in pain.

He had forgotten his past. It was as if this was who he was supposed to be. He was a slightly reputable ministry councilor in this county town, and he had a well-off family, a beautiful wife, as well as an official rank in the government. Yet now, he could do nothing but stare at his wife in pain and watch as the midwives screamed that there was a monster.

“Have someone get the palanquin! We’re going to Doctor Mo!”

Su Ming gritted his teeth. He remembered Doctor Mo, the doctor who had the greatest medical skills in the county town and whom he disliked for some unknown reason. Yet at that moment, he could no longer care about stuff like that. When he turned around, he went into the rain, and with his servants, he rushed out of the house. At a rapid speed, the group went past a noodle stall with rain pouring down over them. He did not see the old owner of the noodle stall sitting there and taking out his tobacco pipe before casting a glance at him.

Neither did he pay any attention to the crazy woman screaming for her daughter in the rain. Her shouts only brought annoyance to the others in the dark night filled with rain.

When he arrived outside Doctor Mo’s house, he went forward to knock on his gate. Rain fell on his body, and there was a cold chill to it, but at that moment, he couldn’t care less about that. The only thing on his mind was his wife and child.

“Is Doctor Mo here? Doctor Mo, please, help us!”

The moment the door to the room was pushed open, he grabbed the middle-aged doctor with anxiety on his face.

“Doctor Mo, please help us! My wife is about to give birth, please save her!”