“The final message.” The middle-aged man repeated his last words to Li Zu, appearing very tired as he forced himself to sit there. His eyes were filled with a mix of despair and hope. Li Zu felt that the look in Wu Xie’s eyes during the first night in the desert, just before the heavy rain, was the same.

“First of all, my uncle hopes you can forgive him.” The middle-aged man fell silent for a moment and said, “Everything you have experienced is my fault. But I cannot regret it. Because it was to prevent you from entering an even more sorrowful situation.” He paused. “You cannot blame me either; if you can read this message, it proves that I am no longer in this world.”

“I cannot say whether being born into this family is a misfortune or a blessing. If you had been born before the year 2000, the only worries you would have faced would have been food and a warm shelter. If the world were at peace, everything would be good. You would believe in the existence of deities and thus not fear death. You know this is foolish, but foolishness itself may not necessarily be a bad thing for humanity. Compared to the pain you feel now, desperately seeking answers to everything around you, living a muddled life back then was also a choice we considered.”

“Of course, if that were the choice, your father might not have chosen to have you in the first place. In our most desperate moments, we thought that if we could die together in our prime, then that ever-present fear would at least no longer appear in our lives. However, in the end, we did not do so, because we still possess the most fundamental weaknesses of humanity.”

“In this final message I am giving you, I will not tell you the truth about everything you have experienced before, because you will eventually know—not only the meaning of your experiences but also go through everything we have gone through. This is the fate of the Wu family and the reason why three generations of our family cannot escape this nightmare. Because of this, no matter how much we try to cleanse our names, the only thing we can wash away is the oppression of the secular world; we cannot wash away the final outcome.”

“First, I want to tell you what kind of ever-present fear we are fighting against. It is not any of the terrifying monsters you have seen before; that kind of thing is gentle but irresistible. The fear lies in the fact that it cannot be changed. Ordinary people call this force—fate.”

“Can you see fate? You cannot, but can you feel its existence? It is always by your side; fate is irresistible, a massive torrent composed of countless coincidences, appearing in almost every decision you make.”

“Previously, when we were at a loss, we only felt that our enemies were very concealed, but their attacks were still attacks, and defenses were still defenses. No one ever thought that perhaps these things themselves were not important; what mattered was that all our responses based on whether the other side was attacking or defending were being controlled by an even more terrifying force.”

The middle-aged man spoke up, his face revealing an indescribable expression. He looked up and said, “Nephew, I only have one question for you: Have you ever felt, at some point in time, that all this pain and failure is because the heavens don’t want to help you? After experiencing so much, does that feeling of the heavens working against you become particularly evident?”

Li Cu furrowed his brow, struggling to keep up with the man’s pace. He wanted to ask for clarification, but the man ignored him and continued, “You haven’t misunderstood; what I mean is that our fate is manipulated by someone.”

“Damn,” Li Cu thought to himself, impressed; this old man is crazier than Wu Xie.

The middle-aged man continued, “There are many very subtle things that we may not even notice, but their impact on our decisions can be fatal.” As he spoke, he pulled something out of his pocket—a bottle of medicine that appeared to be a type of Western medication. “This is a water purification tablet; when placed in water, it can disinfect water that is somewhat toxic, making it drinkable. We are about to enter a cave, and the water in this cave must be purified with these tablets before it can be consumed. In other words, the number of tablets in this bottle determines how long I can go into this cave. But when we bought this bottle of tablets, is it possible that we counted the number of tablets inside each bottle?”

Li Cu was already lost. He vaguely guessed that the middle-aged man was trying to use an example to prove that their fate is indeed controlled by someone.

“Ordinary people wouldn’t, and I wouldn’t either. But when I counted the tablets in this bottle, I found that there were 40 more tablets than what was indicated on the label. Based on normal consumption, I could delve into this cave for an additional month. And according to records, it indeed takes that long to reach the bottom of this cave. Do you know what this means?” the middle-aged man said. “Someone wants me to reach the bottom of this cave. From the moment I bought this bottle of medicine, someone in that pharmacy knew that there was a valley in this desert, and that there was a cave within that valley, and how long it would take to enter that cave.”

“If I turn back before reaching the cave’s end, I won’t get the result I want, but I might survive. However, if I reach the bottom of the cave, I might die inside. We often think that all choices lie with us; we never consider that perhaps the heavens do not want me to reach the bottom. What leads me to the deepest part of this cave may be another force of fate, one that desires my unaware and resigned death.”

Li Cu touched his chin, and the middle-aged man said, “This is not the most terrifying part. Fate operates when you least expect it. Those who do things in a planned and logical manner cannot escape it. For example, I will definitely bring this bottle of pills, because this is my experience. In my experience, there are countless things that must be done, and all these things are my weaknesses. I will carefully check everything. I realize that there is a fate conspiring against me, so I will check everything, but this kind of checking can never cover all aspects, and I cannot do nothing and still proceed with something.”

“This is just one example of why I am destined to fail. In fact, you will never discover that there are 40 extra pills in your bottle, because their real methods are more insidious. You can only sense something is off, but you won’t find any real clues. Therefore, we are bound to fail. Anything governed by logic is destined for failure. The experience and knowledge we possess are our greatest weaknesses. Maybe you don’t believe it, but once you realize this, one day you will feel that something is amiss, an omnipresent oddity around you.”

Li Cu thought to himself that this old man was indeed crazy.

The middle-aged man paused and said, “Give up your experience, your knowledge, your logic. I will not tell you my plan, because when you follow this plan, everything will have already fallen under the other party’s control. Everything that Third Uncle does only has value under conditions you cannot understand.”