"I can give the child to you, but you need to think this through. If this isn't resolved at the root, it will keep happening. Next time, the one holding the child might not be me." Chen Ge set Wenwen down. The girl was still clutching the shampoo bottle in her hand. She had grown accustomed to being with her sister — the moment she was separated, she felt deeply insecure.
"Don't trouble yourself. I'll take good care of Wenwen." The woman looked at Wenwen. The little girl had calmed down. She didn't try to hurt the woman again, but neither did she follow her.
"Go home with your aunt. I'll help her fulfill her wish." Chen Ge pointed at the shampoo bottle. "Trust me."
It took a long while before Wenwen finally released the shampoo bottle and silently took her aunt's hand.
Seeing Wenwen return to normal, the woman let out a breath of relief.
"You two head back early. Leave the rest to me." Chen Ge stuffed the shampoo bottle into his backpack and gazed out at the pitch-black river surface.
Sensing the change in his tone, the woman pulled Wenwen behind her. "What are you planning? We never asked you to get involved. Don't do anything stupid and go digging around."
From those words, Chen Ge was certain Wenwen's aunt knew something more — she simply hadn't said it, for one reason or another.
"You're all victims. The ones who turned tragedy into catastrophe are the real culprits. If we don't stop them, more families will suffer the same pain you've endured. Despair is contagious — it only gets harder to contain from here on out." Chen Ge gripped the bridge railing with both hands. He didn't entirely know whether he was saying this to extract useful information and make his trial mission easier, or whether he genuinely wanted to use his own insignificant strength to change a world that was far from perfect.
"Then watch yourself. I have work tomorrow, so I won't stick around to watch you play hero." The woman took Wenwen's hand and walked off into the distance. After a few steps, she suddenly stopped, stood still for a few seconds, then turned back and spoke one sentence to Chen Ge: "Replanting requires three things — a seed, a fetus, and a womb. Planting one child's life into another child's body — that is replanting. But what if you planted many people's lives into a single person's body, using the entire city as the womb? Once the seed takes root and sprouts, what kind of monster would grow?"
Chen Ge had been deep in thought when the woman suddenly said this. He nearly thought he had misheard her.
"The night our parents left, I secretly followed them to Liwan Town. I saw some things." The woman seemed to be talking to herself. When she finished, she took Wenwen's hand and walked away.
Chen Ge stood at the edge of the bridge, watching the woman's retreating figure until she disappeared from view.
"Using the entire city as a womb?" Chen Ge tightened his grip on the railing. He realized the situation was far worse than he had imagined. "Countless children's lives, plus living people full of despair as seeds — the city as the womb — and the fetus would be a Nether Fetus."
"Liwan Town is rated three-and-a-half stars. The Nether Fetus is four stars. What's the connection between the two?" Chen Ge's mind swirled with countless questions. "Wenwen's family might have been just the most rudimentary experiment — proof that replanting does produce some effect. Liwan Town is where the mastermind behind the scenes is really conducting its experiments. Xiao Bu is very likely the 'fetus' it selected. But why go to all this trouble to create a Nether Fetus? Is it like the well-jumping ghost in the Living Coffin Village, wanting to be reborn?"
The door to Liwan Town had already gone out of control, and just how powerful Xiao Bu had become, Chen Ge couldn't tell. She might be a very unusual Red-clothed, which was exactly why the mastermind in the Eastern Suburbs had taken an interest in her.
"The upper limit of a three-star scene is a top-tier Red-clothed. Three-and-a-half stars gets a bit harder to pin down."
Replaying the woman's final cryptic words in his mind, Chen Ge thought carefully and dredged up some details he had previously overlooked. "If the mastermind behind the Eastern Suburbs is preparing to use the entire city as the womb and every living person as a seed, then it definitely needs a medium to reach everyone. The first time I encountered the shadow was at the Eastern Suburbs Water Treatment Plant. The replanting happened to take place at Donggang Reservoir, not far from the plant. The water treatment plant purifies water from Donggang Reservoir. Both locations are on the Route 104 bus line. Could the mastermind be after the drinking water supply? That man from the fishing association said he saw a huge number of water ghosts in the reservoir. Under normal circumstances, that shouldn't happen. Could Donggang Reservoir be one piece in the mastermind's plan?"
The situation was far grimmer than he had thought. Chen Ge hailed a taxi and headed straight for Donggang Reservoir.
The water's surface was pitch-black, with only the occasional ripple disturbing the stillness. By the time Chen Ge arrived at Donggang Reservoir, it was already past eleven at night.
"Anyone here?" He knocked lightly on the reservoir caretaker's door. After a dozen seconds, a light flickered on inside.