Atlas of Heaven and Man.

Chapter 127 Breakthrough
Although this puppet was wearing real human clothes and looked like a real person from a distance, Chen Chuan could not possibly mistake it for a real person.

Director Lei said from behind him: "Did you forget to take something? Come out first."

Chen Chuan turned around and said, "Yes." He turned around and walked out of the room. Director Lei looked inside again and saw his son playing with building blocks there, but he couldn't put them together properly. He gently pushed the door shut.

When the two of them returned downstairs, Director Lei looked at him and said, "Did you see something just now? Tell me, I can accept whatever it is."

Chen Chuan glanced at the second me. There was a faint sign of emptiness on me when I entered the room just now, and it still continued until now. He considered the words and said, "In Director Lei's eyes, what is the state of his child?"

Director Lei was silent for a while, then he spoke frankly, "He is withdrawn, dull, and doesn't like to talk. He has no friends, but that's not his fault. He was hurt and has been entangled by unknown abnormal substances. It's all my fault, so I can accept not treating him as a normal child. As long as he can grow up safely, it's fine, even if he no longer recognizes me as his father."

Chen Chuanshuo said: "Then I will also tell you what I saw."

Director Lei looked over and waited for his answer.

Chen Chuan also looked at him and said slowly: "What I saw was not a child, but just a puppet."

Director Lei was stunned. He stood there for a long time, then suddenly looked up, strode forward and grabbed Chen Chuan's shoulder.

Chen Chuan stood there without dodging. Director Lei stared at him: "Really?"

Chen Chuan nodded.

Director Lei murmured, "That's it, that's it..." Then his eyes seemed to turn red, and he shook Chen Chuan's shoulders vigorously, "Thank you, thank you, classmate Chen!"

Chen Chuanshuo said: "Has Director Lei thought of something?"

Director Lei took a breath and said, "Yes, this is a question that has troubled me for two years."

He seemed to have calmed down at this moment. He let go of his hand, stepped back two steps, and asked seriously: "Student Chen, are you sure that what you saw was a puppet, and not something else?"

Chen Chuan said: "I am sure of that."

Director Lei nodded and said, "Then please wait here for a while. I'll make a few calls."

Chen Chuanshuo said, "Director Lei, please go ahead." Then he sat down on the sofa at the side.

Director Lei waited for him to sit down before leaving the room. Although he looked calm on the surface, Chen Chuan could tell from his slightly trembling back that he was very excited, but he suppressed it with his strong self-control.

After waiting for about half an hour, Director Lei came back and sat down on the sofa opposite Chen Chuan, without speaking for a long time.

Chen Chuan didn't speak up either.

After a long while, Director Lei took off his black-framed glasses, fumbled around, and didn't seem to find anything. He wiped the fog off them with his sleeve, put them back on, looked at Chen Chuan, and said solemnly: "Student Chen, before today, I didn't think I could save my son's life in this way. Thank you."

Chen Chuanshuo said: "Director Lei..." Director Lei waved his hand and said: "I'm not crazy, I know what you are saying is right."

He looked at it and said, "Two years, two years. Who would have thought that I was facing a puppet all day long?" He laughed at himself and said, "I call myself an expert in esoteric rituals, but I couldn't distinguish the esoteric rituals that were right in front of me."

Chen Chuanshuo said: "Director Lei, it seems that you believe what I said."

"Reason and emotion, sometimes emotion always prevails, so I always don't want to think about it, but fortunately when the truth appears in front of me, I can make a rational judgment instead of choosing to deny it immediately."

Director Lei said, "Without your reminder, it would be difficult for me to break through this point on my own." He sighed, "Care leads to confusion."

Chen Chuan thought for a moment and said, "Maybe it's a little presumptuous, but can I ask what's going on?"

"There's nothing wrong with saying this," Director Lei took off his glasses again, rubbed his red eyes, put them back on, and regained his previous calm.

“As the director of the Esoteric Religion Inspection Bureau, I often meet with illegal sects. When I was investigating a certain esoteric sect, someone leaked my whereabouts.

Later I learned that a member of the illegal sect had escaped and entered my temporary residence, and performed a ritual curse on my son. It is not complicated to explain it simply, which is to make my son connect with a strange story.

Afterwards, I tried many methods to solve the problem, but none of them worked.

This incident also attracted the attention of my ex-wife. When she saw me performing the ritual on the child, she immediately reported me. However, she did not understand that if the curse ritual lost its suppression, it would affect the people around her.

There are regulations that these things cannot be disclosed to ordinary people other than law enforcement officers. I couldn't tell her directly, so I just hinted that she needed to stay away from our son.

My marriage to her was arranged by our elders, and there was no love between us. In fact, we didn't know each other very well. Even if I told her the truth, she would probably just think that I was talking nonsense and making it up to scare her in order to get the child back.

I kept trying to make amends, but she kept avoiding me until half a month later..."

He sighed deeply. "In fact, if I had discovered the problem earlier, I might have been able to prevent this tragedy from happening. But I am also somewhat relieved that her death has nothing to do with the child. Neither of them has to bear this..."

Having said that, he picked up the water cup next to him, tilted his head back and drank the water in it in one gulp, then put it heavily on the table beside him.

He looked up at Chen Chuan and said, "You know, in order to successfully perform this ritual, my child must be alive, so they should still be holding my child somewhere."

Chen Chuanshuo said: "Director Lei, do you need help?"

Director Lei said, "Thank you. This ritual... I almost know where they will hide the child. I have arranged for someone to go there. Just wait here." After a while, he spoke again, "But..." He took a breath, "We must break this ritual first." Chen Chuan looked at his expression and said, "Is it difficult?"

Director Lei's lips trembled slightly, and he slowly closed his fingers. After trying several times, he finally clenched them into a fist. "I just need to kill the thing I see with my own hands, and then I can break this ritual."

Chen Chuan's eyes fixed on Director Lei who was sitting there, and he understood the pain he was suffering at the moment.

No wonder the director of the Esoteric Cult Review Bureau never thought about it in this direction, because as a father, he would do everything possible to avoid the thought of hurting his children, and this ritual is really too destructive to the human heart.

He said, “Can’t we do it another way?”

Director Lei shook his head. "The original intention of this ritual was to destroy the love between family members in the cruelest way. Without this method, even if it is broken, it will recur in the future." He took a deep breath. "As a father, I failed to fulfill my responsibilities and brought him misfortune, so the consequences should be borne by me."

He stood up and said to Chen Chuan: "Student Chen, please help me again. I need you to watch from behind so that you can remind me that it is indeed a puppet. Otherwise, I am afraid I won't be able to do it."

Chen Chuan also stood up and said solemnly: "Director Lei, I am willing to help you, but..." He said: "Director Lei, aren't you afraid that I will make a mistake?"

Director Lei looked him in the eyes and said, "You are Director Cheng's student, but as far as I know, you have dealt with many strange stories yourself. It was you who eradicated the flying head monster in Manshan. And I noticed that the intervals between your clearing of strange stories were not long, but you were not affected at all.

Maybe you don't know it yourself, but you have a very special talent that can resist the invasion of certain strange substances, and what you say is more credible than what others say. "

Chen Chuan understood that Director Lei should not only arrange to rescue the child, but also check his background at the same time. He understood this. After all, it involved his son's life, so it was right to be cautious.

And he roughly understood that it might not be just Director Lei who felt his son was alive, maybe other people felt the same way. And the invasion of ghost stories to him was all borne by the second self, so he was not affected, which was also what Director Lei said was talent.

"wait a second."

Director Lei said hello and left. After a while, he came back with a hammer in his hand.

"Let's go."

Chen Chuan followed him upstairs and returned to the third floor.

After pushing the door open, Director Lei looked over with a questioning look. Chen Chuan glanced inside and saw that the puppet was still huddled quietly in the corner, so he nodded at him.

Director Lei clenched the hammer in his hand and walked in. In his eyes, the person sitting there was still his well-behaved son. However, he should have known something was wrong, because his son was still the same as he was two years ago.

Nothing has changed at all.

He instinctively wanted to close his eyes, but the ritual did not allow him to do so. He walked forward with feet that felt like they were filled with lead. He tried to raise the hammer. From his perspective, the child suddenly raised his head and looked at him with innocent eyes, "Dad, why are you hitting me?"

Director Lei said with tears in his eyes, "Xiao Ying, I'm sorry." He picked up the hammer and hit her hard again and again.

In Chen Chuan's eyes, the puppet gradually cracked and damaged under the beating of the hammer. At this moment, the signs of the second self's virtuality suddenly became more severe.

As Director Lei struck down with the last blow of the hammer, there was a click, and along with the sound of a wooden object cracking, a glass bead acting as an eyeball fell to the ground.

Director Lei was gasping for breath there. All he saw was a broken puppet. With a clang, the hammer in his hand fell to the ground.

He took two steps back and held onto the wall.

Chen Chuan looked at the second me, and the signs of blurring on it were gradually disappearing.

Director Lei took a long time to calm down, regained some energy, and his eyes were shining again. He said to Chen Chuanshuo: "Thank you, let's go down."

Chen Chuan nodded, took another look at the puppet, and followed him down.

When they got downstairs, Director Lei was waiting there silently, waiting for a result that he could accept. Chen Chuan didn't say anything either. For a moment, the only sound in the living room was the ticking of the clock.

After waiting for about ten minutes.

"Jingle Bell……"

The phone in the living room suddenly rang.

Director Lei quickly reached out and grabbed it, but after placing his hand on it, he paused for a while before slowly picking it up and putting it to his ear, trying to make his voice as steady as possible, "Hello, I'm Lei Guangcheng."

In the empty living room, a clear and excited voice came from the telephone receiver. Even Chen Chuan could hear it. "Director Lei, we found it. We found the child. We found your son!"

Director Lei's eyes suddenly became moist.

"He's just a little weak now. Those guys only give him simple water and food every day, but it's nothing serious. We'll send him to you now."

Director Lei suppressed his turbulent emotions and said, "Thank you, Lao Gao! Thank you for your hard work."

……

……

(End of this chapter)