Doomsday Wonderland Vol. 10: Lava [Complete]

1252: Sweet Life After Marriage

Even though Bohemia knew entering a pocket dimension might be necessary to fetch water, she couldn't help being disappointed, and her shoulders slumped.

"I haven't even set foot in the house. How did this damn place get activated?" she grumbled, ascending the steps and entering the building. With her image already captured in the photographs, avoiding the house or circumventing it seemed futile. She might as well go inside and see what was causing this.

Yuan Xiangxi trailed her, eyeing the photographs. Brushing his hair aside to reveal a delicate jawline and deer-like eyes, he said, "Look, this was my hairstyle at our wedding."

"Nobody in their right mind would marry you," Bohemia said.

As she entered the corridor, Yuan Xiangxi paused at the entrance, meticulously examining each photograph. "Seems our marital life was quite delightful," he said, a hint of satisfaction in his tone. "I always said I'd make a fine husband if I survived. Oh, and here's our firstborn."

Bohemia's expression darkened. She strode back to his side, incredulous. "Who the hell would... Do you have a few screws loose?"

A floorboard made a long and convoluted noise in the distance. Glancing at the photograph, Bohemia indeed saw herself cradling a newborn. Her irritation mounting, she couldn't help but say, "How did I end up with a child? And how do you know this is the first?"

"The dates and labels are a giveaway," her husband pointed out with patience.

"I can see that myself," Bohemia said, rifling through the photographs. She stumbled upon a caption: "December 15, 1974, Birth of Baby Bao."

Married in 1973 and parents by 1974. Bohemia scanned the photos, revealing that the couple, seemingly idle, had produced two more children. In one snapshot, they each cradled a child with Baby Bao standing before them, clutching a toy car, her gaze fixed on the camera.

"Why bother having children when you can't even do what you want and are stuck in one place?" she grumbled.

To her, marrying and bearing children was an unfathomable concept. What was the purpose of raising them if, once grown, they'd leave? They weren't like Puppeteer's puppets, to be assigned tasks at will. What joy was there in being anchored to one place, unable to do what you wanted?

Yuan Xiangxi, engrossed in the photographs strewn across the round table and adorning the walls, discovered more photos of Baby Bao. After putting the photos back, he lingered on the stairs, deep in thought, before softly saying, "I want to find our photo album."

"You mean their photo album," Bohemia said, too hungry to argue properly. "Are you fixated on this now?"

"Our faces are in the photos, narrating this family's story," he said. "This lore could be key to solving this pocket dimension."

For once, he wasn't lost in his thoughts, which was unusual enough to catch Bohemia off guard. Moreover, Yuan Xiangxi's slight frown, giving him the appearance of a lost little animal, made it difficult for her to deny his requests. "Fine, go look for it. Meanwhile, I'll try to find a way out."

The likelihood of easily finding her way back to the main road was slim, but wasn't it worth a shot?

"You're too optimistic," he said.

"Mind your own business."

Outside, it remained a sunny afternoon, the sunlight as intense as ever. Tree shadows lay still on the ground, with only the clouds above moving slowly, their forms shifting like ink dispersing in water under the bright sun. Amid such pleasant weather, she was stuck pretending to be part of a couple with this ghost, enduring hunger to get through the pocket dimension when there might be fish in the pond.