Dreadful Radio’s Bug

The little guy was as fair and tender as before. When he saw Su Bai, he cracked such a big smile that his eyes narrowed, which showed clearly how happy he was.

He opened his arms, just like the old times when he kept climbing onto Su Bai's bed even after Su Bai kicked him down. He was so into that game.

Su Bai was ready to kneel and pick him up, but he immediately crawled backwards.

Su Bai paused in surprise.

The kid managed to stand up supporting himself off the ground with his little hands, and then tottered to Su Bai. He was staggering like a drunk man, but at last, he managed to approach Su Bai and clasped Su Bai's leg.

Su Bai stretched his hand to him and he immediately grasped it. Su Bai picked him up and held him tight.

The little guy rubbed against Su Bai's chest with his face; apparently, he missed Su Bai very much.

Su Bai tapped the little guy's butt. He was fishing by pretending to kneel. But now, he felt ashamed compared with the kid's pure heart.

But it was just a habit to be suspicious. He couldn't trust anyone here.

The old man showed up in the white light.

He was much older than he was on the fishing boat. He had told Su Bai that he was over 120 years old, but by that time Su Bai thought he was in good shape and could live for another 60 years. But now, his hair was totally white and messy, his face was sickly and gaunt, his eyes were glazing and apparently, he was dying.

Su Bai looked at the old man while the old man looked at the kid.

"You want to go with him?"

The old man's look was uncommonly merciful. He had showed no mercy to Gyatso, Seven or Fatty, or even to the Taoists who had lived in Mt.Fulong, according to Lam Chin-Ying. The disgusting view of those men and women was still going on again and again in the pavilion even today, which was a kind of humiliation and taunt for decades.

The kid looked at the old man and then at Su Bai, as if he was trying to say something. But after hesitating for a short while, he gripped Su Bai's collar. Clearly, he wanted to go with Su Bai.

"He will leave you. He doesn't belong to this world…" The old man suddenly paused. His eyes glazed. He looked up to the sky and sighed. "You made a wrong choice. Stay with me. I will pass my legacy to you. I will teach you both Taoism and evil skills, I will give you this blessed Mt.Fulong as your training ground…

"In the future…

"You will become a demon if you want,

"or a Taoist if you want.

"Isn't that good enough?"

The little guy shook his head as a refusal.

The old man turned to Su Bai since he knew it was useless trying to persuade this kid.

"Young man, I know where you're from and where you're going, but I can't say it out.

"You should know, he likes you and wants to go with you, but you don't have much time for him, right?

"I will let you leave, as long as you leave that kid to me. I'm tired. I'm dying. I want no more trouble. All I want is an inheritor."

Su Bai shook his head. "You know, I'm not a decent person."

Indeed, Su Bai was not a saint. More importantly, if he left the kid here, MT 2 would fail and he would be killed by Dreadful Radio.

"You are so selfish," The old man said.

"Yes, I am." Su Bai admitted frankly.

"If so, I can't let you go." Suddenly, the old man's eyes were no longer glazed. Next, he became really ferocious.

The little guy reacted before Su Bai could do anything. He opened his mouth and bit the air in front of his face.

The white light cracked.

The old man was shocked.

Su Bai reached out his hand, grasped the edge of the crack and tore the white light apart.

"Clatter!"

Su Bai was still crouching in the thatch, the kid was still in his arms, but the painting was torn with a large crack.

"You will regret." The old man in the painting knocked his bowl over. His eyes lingered over Su Bai and the kid. "You will regret."

The old man had a meaningful smile on his face.

Su Bai couldn't tell whether the old man was referring to him or the kid in his arms.

The painting changed while it started burning. Now, the old man was standing on a high mountain looking into the distance. It seemed to be the ending he had chosen for himself.

The painting burnt completely and turned into smoke, leaving no ash at all.

Fatty, Seven and Gyatso who had all been unconscious now woke up and opened their eyes.

Su Bai stood up. The kid climbed onto Su Bai's shoulder, sat there and grabbed Su Bai's hair to keep himself from falling off.

"I don't want to lie to you, he was right that I would leave. I will leave very soon." Su Bai tapped the kid's belly.

The kid chuckled and gently blew into Su Bai's ears.

Seven was still lying on the ground. Seeing this, he felt both relieved and helpless and just said:

"Amitabh. Su Bai, to save one person is better than to build a seven-storied pagoda for Buddha."

Su Bai looked at Seven and smiled.

...

In the carriage, Gyatso, Fatty and Seven were lying inside because they were badly injured.

Su Bai was driving while the kid was riding on a horse.

"How far are we from the demon nest?" Fatty asked weakly.

"At this speed, one day and a half, or two days."

"Then the task will soon be fulfilled, right?" Fatty felt as if a nightmare was going to end.

Seven looked concerned, "Don't be so sure. It's only a few days after the 30-day task began. It'll be too easy if we just accomplish this task like this."

"Easy? Seven, look at us!" Fatty was speechless.

"If Su Bai didn't relieve the painting's control on us with the help of that kid, if he had saved us in another way, I would have believed that the story was coming to an end. But to bring us out like this? All the difficulties and suffering would become worthless with the easy happy ending.

"Dreadful Radio wants a good story. Don't you think it's too boring to have such an unbelievable queer ending?"

"So… Seven, are you saying it's gonna 'fix' the story?" Fatty felt hopeless.

Gyatso opened his eyes and said, "In Journey to the West, when Buddha and the Goddess of Mercy counted and realized the four heroes had gone through only 80 difficulties when they should have 81, they would fix it by causing one more difficulty on their way back home. Why can't Dreadful Radio do the same?"

...

In the thatch on the top of Mt.Fulong, black smoke gathered from all over the place and became a painting. In the painting, the old man was still standing on the cliff looking into the distance.

All of a sudden, thunder rumbled and lightning flashed in the sky. The painting shook violently as if it couldn't bear such horrible power.

The old man stood in the painting staring at the sky. "Are you accusing me of not doing what you ordered?"

The sky thundered with anger.

It seemed that the nature had no mercy and considered everything as nothing.

"I really like that kid and I do want him to have my legacy. Well, sorry for disobeying."

The old man opened his arms and roared:

"I'm a Taoist and a demon, I lived by killing other Taoists, I don't need someone to tell me what to do behind my back, you coward!"

"Boom!"

A thunder hit the old man. He vanished with a wild laugh.

In Su Bai's last story, the black shop-owner let Su Bai and Sophia leave just because he wanted to, and even accepted Su Bai's cigarette; now this old man turned down Dreadful Radio's arrangement on his own. This meant Dreadful Radio was gradually losing control over these awakening NPCs in the stories.

"Dear friends, I'm sorry to bring this bad news to you. Because of equipment breakdown, our shows will be suspended for three months, so we won't be with you for three long months. However, we will finish all the stories we have in process and provide you with interesting endings.

"I believe that after three months, when we are back, all the problems will be taken care of, and nothing will ever go wrong. We will again bring stories based on real cases.

"Thank you for your support, see you in three months."

...

"Potato mash, potato mash, and more potato mash! Smith, do you even have anything else in this church?" A bald white man smashed his spoon onto the table angrily.

"Where's your manner, Shawn?" A blond young man reproached his teammate, scooped up some potato mash and put it into his mouth. He had no no special requirement for what he ate.

Four western people were sitting around the table and an old priest was standing by. He apologized, "Sorry about that. It's all we have in this church for the time being."

"I'd say you're saving the best for your self." Shawn mumbled.

"No, I'm not. God is watching me," said the old priest.

"Shawn, it's Qing Dynasty, decades before the first Opium War. Priests in China at this time were all living with great difficulty. You have to show some respect."

Shawn nodded and sighed. "I know, Michael. I'm just saying."

"Enjoy your food," Michael said to his three partners, "After the meal, we have to figure out how to trigger our main task."

Beside their feet, there was a bag full of human heads that belonged to the eastern audiences they had met all the way here. One of their side tasks was to kill eastern audiences.