Mo Xi: “……”
Sea Turtle: “……”
“This is what you call useful?”
“Uh, this thing works based on luck. It randomly extracts content from the comment section to generate answers, so sometimes… things like this happen…” Under Police Officer Mo’s interrogative stare, Sea Turtle’s voice grew softer and softer until it finally turned into a puddle of mud, sprawled on the ground and pretending to be dead.
Mo Xi said coolly, “I can give it another chance.”
“It won’t work.” Sea Turtle pulled itself back together. “It can only answer each question once.”
“……”
“Anyway, just… use your judgment when you use it. Let me give you the third item first.”
This time, Sea Turtle didn’t even need to explain. When a crystal-clear droplet emerged from the black mist, Mo Xi reached out and touched it. The droplet silently melted from his fingertip into his flesh.
“This is the Tear of Li Jun. In The Forbidden Book by Ba Niao, a character in the novel was unwilling to accept his fate, so he turned into a tear.”
Sea Turtle paused before asking, “Lord Xihe, do you know why you’re transparent right now?”
Mo Xi replied coldly, “Because I’m dreaming.”
Sea Turtle looked pitiful. “…Could you give me a different answer?”
Mo Xi snapped impatiently, “I don’t know. You tell me.”
Apparently, the patient, Socratic teaching method wasn’t suitable for Police Officer Mo. Sea Turtle decisively abandoned its questioning strategy and hurriedly explained, “You can’t immediately become Marshal Mo from the book yet. Although you and him are very similar, you haven’t truly come to understand him. If you become him recklessly without a sufficient emotional connection to the character, your words and actions might cause this world to collapse even faster. That would be far too dangerous.”
“So you can only observe for now and wait until there’s a moment when your emotions align closely enough with his. Only then will the Tear of Li Jun allow you to enter Marshal Mo’s body.”
Mo Xi pondered for a moment. “Is that so… My actions might cause this world to collapse even faster…” He frowned. “What happens if it collapses completely?”
“Everyone disappears. No one is spared.”
“……” This was utterly absurd. How was he supposed to know which things he could and couldn’t do?
As if Sea Turtle had read his mind, it immediately reassured him, “Marshal Mo, there’s no need to worry. To help you gradually adapt to your own role, the Tear of Li Jun will naturally have its own way of handling things.”
“……”
Mo Xi had to be guided by someone else to adapt to himself. Could anything be more ridiculous?
By this point, he was practically sneering. “So I’m going to be controlled by this tear forever?”
“No, no!” Seeing how murderous he looked, Sea Turtle jumped in fright and hurried to explain. “Once the Tear of Li Jun decides you fully understand the character, its mission will be complete. It won’t restrict you anymore. You’ll be free to modify the plot according to your own understanding without suffering any consequences.”
At this point, it added another utterly miserable plea. “So, Lord Xihe, please, I’m begging you! You absolutely must gain the Tear of Li Jun’s approval as soon as possible. Otherwise, the plot will still have to follow Ba Niao’s writing, and in the end, we still won’t escape an OOC ending. Sob, sob, sob…”
“……”
“Anyway, that’s… more or less how it works.” Seeing him remain silent, Sea Turtle transformed into a tiny black hand and weakly tugged at his sleeve. “Lord Xihe, after I’ve explained all this for so long, do you still think you’re dreaming?”
Mo Xi had minor psychological issues in certain areas. For example, he disliked physical contact that was too intimate with other people. His sharp, blade-like eyes immediately lowered to stare coldly at Sea Turtle.
“Let go.”
“……”
That murderous aura! His awful temper really was exactly the same as Marshal Mo’s in the novel.
Sea Turtle felt a little reassured by this resemblance, but that comfort was quickly swallowed up by its awe of Marshal Mo. It hurriedly released its tiny hand, transformed back into a mass of black mist, and circled Mo Xi several times.
“I have to go now. The story is about to truly begin, so I can’t stay any longer. Lord Xihe, please believe me. This really isn’t a dream…”
Its trembling voice gradually faded until the black mist vanished completely.
Now only Police Officer Mo remained, a transparent figure standing by the roadside with legs that seemed two meters long. He expressionlessly watched the farmers, children, soldiers, and merchants passing by. He stood there alone for a while, silently setting himself a multiple-choice question in his mind.
1. Suppose this was a dream. Note: There was a 99.99% chance it was a dream. In that case, he should stand still and wait for his phone alarm to wake him up tomorrow morning.
2. Suppose this wasn’t a dream. Note: There was a 0.01% chance it wasn’t a dream. In that case, he should follow the black mist’s advice and investigate the situation first.
In truth, Mo Xi still hadn’t believed any of this. After all, the only person who could probably accept such an absurd situation without hesitation was Gu Mang, the two-and-a-half-meter-tall diamond boy and protagonist of The Legend of the Immortal Sword: The Rich Returnee.
But Police Officer Mo was an extremely rigorous man. So even with only a 0.01% chance of this being real, he chose the second option after a brief moment of thought.
Investigate first.
At present, neither the setting book, Angry Bird, nor the Tear of Li Jun seemed to be forcing him to do anything. It appeared that the next part of the plot hadn’t officially begun yet. Mo Xi therefore decided to learn a little about this world on his own.
“Selling flatbreads! Flatbreads with thicker skin than Gu Mang himself!”
“Fried rice cakes! Fried chicken ribs! Come take a look!”
Along the main road, Wang Ermazi was still baking his enormous flatbreads, while the other stalls each had their own specialties. But after walking for a while, Mo Xi suddenly felt that there was something strangely familiar about the vendors and the things they sold.
At first, he couldn’t put his finger on it. But when he eventually reached a small cart selling fried skewers, he suddenly realized—
Wait. Wasn’t this stall owner the unlicensed street vendor who used to roam around outside the entrance to their middle school?
This discovery stirred something in Police Officer Mo. He narrowed his eyes and stood by the roadside, examining the passersby again.
That was right. There was no mistake. The woman running the noodle shop was the owner of “Big Dog Noodle House,” across the street from his real-life school. The vegetable seller was the supplier who used to deliver produce to the middle school. And the beggar by the roadside, dressed in rags and leaning on a broken stick, seemed to be a certain little thug who had never gotten along with Gu Mang.
“…You put real people from the real world into The Forbidden Book?”
The setting book’s reply rang out in his mind in Gu Mang’s familiar, cheerful voice.
Some were deliberately added by me, like the beggar. Others slipped in subconsciously, without me meaning to. I didn’t even realize I’d done it myself. You’ll have to discover them as you go.
“……”
There really were plenty of things left to discover. Even the filthy, fluffy dog in front of the noodle shop, gnawing on a meaty bone, had a real-life counterpart. It was the guard dog kept by Big Dog Noodle House.
Mo Xi remembered that dog quite well. It used to love sitting on the noodle shop’s steps, basking in the sun. Later, the shop closed, and the owner returned to her hometown with her entire family. Thinking it would be too much trouble, she left behind their “Big Dog.”
The person who took over the shop opened a bakery. The new owner didn’t like animals, but Big Dog stubbornly believed its old owner would return. Day and night, it would wander around the bakery, whining. The bakery owner beat it with a stick to chase it away. At first, the dog wasn’t afraid, but somehow, one of its legs eventually got broken. After that, it became timid.
It no longer dared to wander in front of the bakery, yet it refused to leave its former owner’s shop behind. So every day, it sat across the street on three good legs, staring blankly at the shop from across the endless flow of traffic.
The dog was ugly, fierce, stupid, and filthy. Nobody liked it. Only Gu Mang felt sorry for it and once tried to take it home. But Big Dog was already old and stubbornly refused to go with him, no matter what Gu Mang said. In the end, Gu Mang could only bring it food and water.
A heavy snowfall came shortly before winter vacation. One day, when they went to check on the dog after school, they found it missing from its usual spot. They searched around and eventually discovered the little, emaciated corpse of Big Dog in a garbage pile.
Thirteen-year-old Gu Mang stood in the heavy snow. The child stared blankly for a while before suddenly bursting into tears.
Mo Xi had no choice but to comfort him. “It’s okay, it’s okay. In a way, this is probably for the best.”
Gu Mang sobbed uncontrollably. “It died of heartbreak.”
Mo Xi froze for a moment before saying, “It died of old age.”
“No. It died of heartbreak.”
“Nobody dies of heartbreak.” Mo Xi was somewhat helpless. His mind had always worked like that of an engineering student. “It was old, and the weather was cold. It could only have died of old age or frozen to death.”
“Big Dog died of heartbreak.”
“……” Mo Xi fell silent and sighed as he gently patted Gu Mang on the head.
Now, he had encountered Big Dog again in this world. It was just as filthy as before, as though it had rolled around in a mud pit, dried in the sun, and then rolled through a pile of flour until it was coated in dust.
But this Big Dog had an owner and a meaty bone to gnaw on. Its noodle shop seemed to have sunk deep, sturdy roots into this little frontier street, with no intention of ever moving away.
The Big Dog in Gu Mang’s novel looked happy.
Mo Xi suddenly felt that this world wasn’t all that unfamiliar to him after all. Everything seemed to have some traceable connection to reality.
Then he remembered what Sea Turtle had said—
Hidden within this story were emotions Gu Mang couldn’t let outsiders know about, especially his hopes, his struggles, and his unwillingness to accept his fate.
Mo Xi’s heart tightened.
If everything happening before him was real, then what emotions, hopes, struggles, and unwillingness had Gu Mang projected into this world?
Everything in the book was connected to reality. Even nameless passersby and Big Dog had been reflected into it. And the story itself was about two generals from the Chonghua Empire who eventually went their separate ways. In the novel, Marshal Gu went from being kindhearted to betraying others, just as Gu Mang in real life had gradually embarked on the path of a criminal.
Mo Xi seemed to see Gu Mang’s face flash before his eyes again: the decadent, pleasure-seeking way he had lived in hotels after dropping out of school, and the way he had worn a bloodstained police cap aboard a ship, laughing mockingly.
A gunshot rang out. Seagulls scattered into the sky. The sigh still seemed to linger beside his ear—
“I really will shoot.”
“Whether you’re a thief, a bandit, or a police officer, you can’t afford to get too sentimental about the past…”
“Officer Mo, are you willing to rot all the way to the bottom with me?”
In those dark eyes, the stars had fallen, leaving only cold detachment and mockery flowing against the current.
So, on this road of no return, Gu Mang had actually struggled against his fate once.
He had actually been unwilling to accept it.
The golden crow sank toward the horizon, and the market gradually dispersed. Mo Xi still hadn’t awakened from his dream when a cold, mechanical voice suddenly sounded inside his skull.
ImportantNotice:Thenextplotpointisabouttobetriggered.Pleaseproceedtothelocationapproximately3,200metersinthenineo’clockdirectiontocontinueexploringBaNiao’sTheForbiddenBook.Wewishyouanearlymasteryofthecharactersettingsandsuccessinrewritingthisbook.Important Notice: The next plot point is about to be triggered. Please proceed to the location approximately 3,200 meters in the nine o’clock direction to continue exploring Ba Niao’s The Forbidden Book. We wish you an early mastery of the character settings and success in rewriting this book.
The setting collection spoke in Gu Mang’s cheerful voice, while Angry Bird had a shrill little voice.
Then this cold, indifferent notification voice must belong to the Tear of Li Jun.
Tear of Li Jun: If you are unable to locate the plot point, you may search the setting book for “Map of Chonghua’s Northern Frontier.”
“No need, thanks.”
If the directions were so specific—3,200 meters in the nine o’clock direction—and he still needed to consult a map, then all those years he’d spent as a police officer would have been wasted.
Mo Xi soon reached the plot point.
It was the encampment of the Northern Frontier Army.