RNP Chapter 23 The Whispers That Sprout
Chapter 23 The Whispers That Sprout
Late at night, only a desk lamp was lit in the study.
Hu Shenyan leaned back in his large leather chair, a nearly burnt-out cigarette between his fingers, the ash dangling precariously from the end. Niu Yafei sat on the sofa opposite him, holding a cup of long-cold goji berry tea.
"Sanhu, you're not talking nonsense, are you?" Niu Yafei finally broke the silence, her voice sounding exceptionally clear in the quiet room.
Hu Shenyan didn't answer immediately. He slowly exhaled a smoke ring. "Whether it's true or false doesn't matter; it's not a big deal."
"How can it not be important?" Niu Yafei put down her teacup and leaned forward. "He said he learned martial arts from that Zheng Shanhe and even promised to handle his funeral arrangements. This is no small matter; what if..."
"What if what?" Hu Shenyan finally stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray, looked up at his wife, and said, "What if it's fake? So what? Even if it's fake, he made up this story just to get us to pay for a burial plot and funeral arrangements for a lonely old man. That's not a bad thing, is it? What does that show? It shows that this guy has a kind heart!!"
Niu Yafei was taken aback, then said helplessly, "I'm just worried he'll be scammed into learning martial arts. The way he is, I'm afraid he'll be blown away by the wind if he runs a thousand meters!"
"It doesn't matter if we get scammed, it's only a few tens of thousands of yuan. Spending the money on charity is a good thing," Hu Shenyan said. "Don't worry, I'll investigate and see what's going on with Zheng Shanhe before we talk about anything else. What do you say?"
Niu Yafei nodded. "Alright, I won't interfere in your affairs anymore." She stood up. "But there's one thing I need to tell you."
Hu Shenyan looked up and saw the unusually solemn expression on his wife's face, and his eyes flashed.
"Niu Yaozu is out." Niu Yafei said this softly, yet it silenced the study.
"I know." Hu Shenyan's voice noticeably darkened as he looked up and said, "Your mother called you?!"
"It was my uncle. He called me secretly. He said he behaved very well in there, his sentence was reduced, and he was released early." She paused, then looked at Hu Shenyan and exclaimed, "How did you know?!"
"Me?!" Hu Shenyan didn't answer immediately. He lit another cigarette, his gaze fixed on Niu Yafei's face. After a long while, he laughed and said, "How do you think I knew? A loner, a gambler, do you think he'll change after a few years in there? Someone like him, I have to be careful!"
Niu Yafei opened her mouth, as if to say something, but after a long while, she said, "You know his temper. My uncle said that he tells everyone he meets that he wants to settle accounts with us."
"Settle accounts?!" Hu Shenyan sneered. "Fine, let's settle this properly, let's calculate how much money he's taken from us over the years, and let's calculate what he was planning to do five years ago!"
The air in the room suddenly turned cold.
"Okay, I know, I'll warn him." Niu Yafei's voice became low.
"Don't worry about this, I'll handle it."
Niu Yafei paused, "You..."
"Back then, your parents wanted to sacrifice you for him, but you chose to sacrifice him for yourself. What, are you being soft-hearted now?" Hu Shenyan sneered. "He stopped treating us like family five years ago. What, you still consider him your brother?"
"Of course not!" Niu Yafei raised her chin and said coldly.
※※※
The days that followed were relatively easy for Hu Biao.
During the day, he immersed himself in the world of bio-energy in his rented apartment. His progress in martial arts was visible to the naked eye. The feeling of having clear control over his own power and the exhilaration after executing hundreds of people gradually diluted the lingering dejection after witnessing the darkness.
At night, he would either wander among the stars, observing the wonders of the universe, or turn his gaze to Earth, searching for things that interested him, such as the archaeological achievements of the Second Research Institute, or the mysterious plants developed by the Institute of Botany.
However, this peaceful and comfortable period did not last long, and new troubles began.
About a week after submitting his college application, Hu Biao began to notice something was amiss.
At first, it was very faint, like an extremely subtle, continuous electrical hum, or the buzzing of mosquitoes in the far distance on a summer night, lingering deep in his left ear. The sound was very soft and intermittent, and it became slightly more noticeable, especially after he finished intense martial arts practice or after withdrawing his attention from long-term, distant cosmic observations.
"Maybe I've been working too hard lately?" Hu Biao rubbed his ears, not paying much attention.
After awakening his abilities, especially with the frequent use of higher-dimensional vision and interference, and later with the help of the Spirit Pivot Ring to cultivate martial arts, the mental fatigue was somewhat alleviated as his bio-energy increased, but it was still there after all.
Instead of going to the hospital, he researched online and attributed it all to tinnitus caused by overworking his brain or mental stress. So, he decided to take a few days off.
He reduced his martial arts practice time and interrupted his deep space travel. He only occasionally used his vision to peek at the various studies on relics by the real archaeological community. As for other things happening on Earth, he would not look at them. Having experienced darkness once, he did not want to experience it a second time. Human beings were not worth his time and effort.
More often than not, he would ride his bicycle aimlessly around the city, or simply lie on the roof of his villa, completely emptying his mind and staring blankly at the white clouds above.
He thought this would alleviate the situation, but things were not as simple as he imagined.
After resting for three or four days, the "buzzing" in his ears not only didn't lessen, but actually became clearer and more stable. It was no longer intermittent, but had become a continuous background noise. Although the sound intensity was still not high, and he could even ignore it if he wasn't paying attention, as long as he was quiet, especially late at night, the sound would stubbornly penetrate his auditory nerves, subtle and continuous, with an indescribable sense of rhythm, unlike pure noise.
A strange unease began to grow.
"Could it be that something is really wrong with his health?" Hu Biao wondered.
Despite his current ability to move stars, destroy the world with a wave of his hand, and create a great flood with a piss, he is still essentially a mortal being who can get sick, injured, and die.
Especially this tinnitus—what if it's a sign of some serious illness? A brain tumor? Auditory neuropathy? Various terrifying terms he'd gleaned from fragmented online readings swirled in his mind.
He's afraid of dying!
"No, we have to get it checked out!" Hu Biao, who was afraid of dying, couldn't sit still any longer.
He didn't dare tell his parents, fearing they would make a fuss and ask all sorts of questions. So he went to the best tertiary hospital in the city by himself, booked the most expensive specialist appointment, and had a comprehensive physical examination from head to toe. The focus was, of course, on the ENT and neurology departments, and he even had a brain CT scan and MRI.
During the two days of waiting for the results, the voice in his ear seemed to become a little more arrogant, and he could even vaguely sense it sometimes when he was riding his bike during the day.
Hu Biao became even more agitated and somewhat uneasy.
The result came out.
everything is normal.
No, it's not just normal.
Looking at the medical report, even the elderly specialist, who was surprised by the exorbitant registration fee, couldn't help but glance at him a few more times. "Young man, your physical condition is excellent! Cardiopulmonary function, metabolic rate, bone density… wow, those are better than many professional athletes' data. Your nerve reflexes are also very sensitive. Your tinnitus… based on the test results, there's no organic lesion to support it." The specialist adjusted his glasses. "It's probably due to recent stress or mild nervous tension. Get plenty of rest, relax, and observe your condition. Come back if it worsens or other symptoms appear."
Holding the excessively healthy medical report, Hu Biao felt a weight lifted from his heart.
"Well, at least it's not a terminal illness!"
Perhaps I'm just overthinking it; it's just a unique form of fatigue resulting from the use of abilities and martial arts training? After all, how could a normal person's physical examination detect the effects of high-dimensional interference or bio-energy cultivation?
He forced himself to relax, stopped paying attention to the sound, and tried to make it disappear on its own by ignoring it.
A few days later, the college admission notice arrived.
His first choice was the School of Bioinformatics at Jiangcheng University.
Although Hu Shenyan was somewhat dissatisfied with his choice of major, his dissatisfaction seemed to disappear the moment he received the admission notice.
After all, that's Jiangcheng University, a top ten university in the country, or even a top five. The Hu family has never produced such a talent in generations. In Hu Biao's words, what right does a rough man who only graduated from junior high school have to judge the majors at Jiangcheng University?
So what could he do? He could only happily organize a thank-you banquet for his teachers and show off the photo of his college acceptance letter everywhere, while Niu Yafei began to enthusiastically prepare his college attire.
Everything seems to be moving in a positive direction.
Except for that damn tinnitus.
The truly terrifying thing happened the night after the teacher appreciation banquet.
My parents had already gone to bed, and the villa area was quiet, with only the occasional chirping of insects in the distance.
Hu Biao sat cross-legged on the bed, not practicing any exercises or opening any higher-dimensional vision, but simply trying the most basic meditation and breathing exercises he had learned from online videos, hoping to calm his mind and dispel the annoying sounds.
As breathing gradually becomes steady and long, external sounds are filtered out and inner distractions are suppressed, while the continuous "humming" becomes more prominent and clearer than ever before.
"——……&%￥#@……Ah……Ka……*&……Sa……Di……"
Hu Biao suddenly opened his eyes, his heart skipped a beat, and then he began to beat the drum frantically!
It's not tinnitus!
That's not meaningless noise!
Just now, in absolute silence and focus, he was absolutely certain that he had heard several extremely indistinct fragments, yet each possessing distinct syllable characteristics! Although fragmented and incomprehensible, he was certain that it was not noise…
It was... a whisper!
Whisper!
An indescribable whisper!
Having read thousands of novels and been familiar with various fantasy, mystery, and xuanhuan web novels, Hu Biao's mind almost reflexively conjured up this word, along with countless terrifying associations: Outer Gods, Great Old Ones, whispers of evil gods, information pollution, cognitive distortion, madness and destruction...
"Aren't all online novels just nonsense?! Fantasy! Fiction!" The sudden fear left him somewhat incoherent.
It took him a while to calm down.
"Could it be... related to the high-dimensional abilities I suddenly gained? Is it because I frequently observed and interfered with the universe, even manipulating stars, thus attracting the attention of some 'thing' existing in deep space or higher dimensions? Or is it because of the Spirit Pivot Ring? Is this relic of an ancient civilization connected to some unknown source?"
"This is even more ridiculous than online novels!" He felt a mix of speculation and fear, and he felt like he was about to collapse.
He sat stiffly on the bed, his hands and feet icy cold, but his ears were perked up, trying to catch the constant whispers. But once he tried to "listen" deliberately, the sounds seemed to degenerate back into an indistinguishable buzzing, with only one or two vague syllables occasionally flashing by, tormenting his nerves.