1TWITF[C Chapter 78

Chapter 78

Chu Xiu received a private assignment to investigate the whereabouts of a high school student named An Xingyu.

He sometimes did private detective-like work, but since getting involved in the task incidents, he hadn’t done it for a long time, running around all over the country. It was only because the client asked a friend to pull some strings that he managed to find him.

He wouldn’t have taken it if he hadn’t heard that the high school student’s disappearance seemed to be related to the cult he had been investigating.

He had just gone to the police station to understand the situation when he bumped into a small girl on his way out. He didn’t pay much attention and hurried out, eager to see the scene.

Chu Xiu had investigated several times before, and finally found some clues. An Xingyu’s usual activities were normal, but he would sometimes deliberately go to some strange and remote places, such as abandoned factories, closed schools, etc., and he would leave after midnight.

This characteristic made it hard for him not to think about the tasks he had experienced.

Perhaps, he was also a task performer.

His latest trace led to the University Town where four murders had occurred. Obviously, this was another new task, but none of the four dead people were named An Xingyu. He searched all the surrounding surveillance, but didn’t see him leaving.

Where did An Xingyu go?

He took a long-distance bus to University Town, transferred several times, and it was almost dusk when he arrived at his destination. Chu Xiu got off the bus and slowly searched around.

He walked towards the scene of the incident.

The alley was very remote. He had to turn several corners before he found the entrance to the alley with the yellow tape sealing it off. Whether it was psychological or not, Chu Xiu always felt that this alley was a bit dark, as if it hadn’t seen sunlight for a long time.

Several days had passed, and there were no police officers guarding the area. Chu Xiu looked around, used the wall beside him for support, and jumped over.

He knew that the police had already searched the area and that he might not find much information, but he still intended to take a look.

At the end of the alley, chalk outlines marked four human figures, and there were still some traces of blood. The fishy smell in the air hadn’t dissipated, making it easy to imagine what had happened here.

His friend on the other end of the phone agreed.

His friend was very efficient. In just three days, he got the contact information of a supposedly famous master.

“Here, this is a very famous guardian spirit from the Northeast. She’s quite special, still a child.”

“A child?” Chu Xiu repeated, feeling a bit incredulous.

“Yes, a child.” The friend took out a cigarette, lit it, and wisps of white smoke drifted around. “But don’t underestimate her, she’s very effective.”

After contacting his friend, Chu Xiu hurried to the village he had mentioned.

But the one in front of him…

He took a plane, then a bus, and finally a cow cart to get to the village. The entire village gave Chu Xiu a gray and dusty feeling. Only the little girl in the red dress was almost the brightest color in the village.

She was different from all the villagers with their worried faces. She glanced at Chu Xiu coldly, and only after he took out a lot of cash did she deign to give him a smile.

She didn’t seem like a little girl. Of course, her delicate and beautiful appearance was also out of place with the other children in the village.

“Bring the thing.” The little girl finally spoke her first words.

Chu Xiu understood and took out a handful of soil from his bag, still stained with fresh blood.

“What do you want to know?”

Chu Xiu was very respectful: “I want to know what happened in this place five nights ago.”

He obediently closed his eyes.

A piece of darkness. Suddenly, he heard some sounds.

It was the sound of wind, and a few people talking softly. Gradually, the sound of the conversation grew louder. In the boundless dark chaos with his eyes closed, images vaguely appeared.

He… he “saw” it.

A few people walked into the alley, there were… two women? And four men, six people in total. They were talking about the task.

The image gradually became clearer.

As expected, he saw the person he was looking for – An Xingyu.

An Xingyu was indeed a task performer! He had also gone to the scene that day!

However, why did that young girl feel a little familiar?

Chu Xiu suddenly remembered, wasn’t this the girl he had bumped into at the police station a few days ago?

Chu Xiu continued to watch. He heard the girl’s self-introduction.

Lin Chu… She was the one from “The Lights are on”?

Time seemed to pass quickly, and it seemed to pass slowly. He “saw” midnight arrive.

An Xingyu was missing.

Why did this happen? Where did An Xingyu go?!

The picture blurred again, gradually darkening.

Chu Xiu slowly opened his eyes and sincerely thanked the little girl in front of him. The little girl waved her hand, motioning for him to leave quickly.

He integrated the information and sent it to the client.

That day, An Ru returned home from work.

The streets were decorated with lanterns and decorations, bustling with activity. Even though the New Year’s atmosphere had gradually faded in recent years, being able to have a holiday was still something to be happy about.

An Ru couldn’t be happy.

The New Year was approaching, but An Xingyu still hadn’t been found. He still… Thinking of this, he sighed deeply.

“I’m back.” He opened the door, and as expected, there was no answer. An Ru assumed that his wife was out again and didn’t pay attention. It wasn’t until he entered the house that he realized she was sitting on the living room sofa in a daze, her eyes red.

“What’s wrong?” His voice softened involuntarily.

His wife slowly turned her head to look at him, forcing a stiff smile.

“An Ru, tell me. In that murder case in University Town a few days ago, was Xiao An really not there?” She slowly asked this question.

“No! Who told you that?”

An Ru’s reaction was perfect, but how could she not understand her husband after decades of marriage?

An Ru was very agitated: “Was it that private detective you hired who told you? He’s a liar, don’t believe him.”

“An Ru, you lost my son.” She stared intently at her husband, word by word, soft and gentle.

An Ru stared at his wife’s unfamiliar eyes, unable to say anything.

What she said… was of course true. The police found some hair and fingerprints at the scene. After testing, the hair of one of them was An Xingyu’s!

*

Another world.

Lu Yanli didn’t know where the task performers were going this time. He just wanted to get out of it as much as possible.

He didn’t know what was so special about him. In previous tasks, whether he wanted to or not, he was always accidentally drawn in at certain key moments, forced to participate.

In the end, he simply took the initiative to participate, trying to find patterns from the tasks and find the truth about the world’s changes. With a goal, life seemed to have hope.

Hopefully, he wouldn’t run into them this time…

Sitting on the train to another place, it was rare not to have all sorts of bizarre and supernatural events. Lu Yanli silently prayed.

His eyelids twitched.

But he always felt that something would happen.

Traveling north, the journey was long. Lu Yanli leaned against the soft back of the seat, closing his eyes to rest.

More importantly, most of the cultural relics in the tomb were well preserved and didn’t require a lot of effort to repair.

For this reason, a small portion of the cultural relics would be exhibited in the local provincial museum after being restored by experts.

He was closing his eyes when he suddenly heard even more shocking news.

As the excavation work progressed, they finally excavated the main tomb chamber, but what was shockingly surprising was that in the main tomb chamber, there was actually the corpse of an underage male, his clothes clearly belonging to modern people!

Lu Yanli suddenly opened his eyes!

The boy said: “Who knows if he was a tomb raider? The experts said there was a tomb robbery tunnel.”

“But the experts also said that he was underage. Would an underage person go tomb raiding? That’s unlikely.”

The boy scratched his head, also puzzled: “If his family was very poor… it’s not impossible, maybe his accomplices ran away?”

They were still guessing, but Lu Yanli’s heart had completely sunk.

An Xingyu… why was he left in this world?

Even if he died in the tomb, shouldn’t he have returned? What made him stay here?

The more information he obtained, the more he felt that he was like a blind man touching an elephant, futilely exploring parts of the truth, but never able to find the reality.

The train moved forward in the wilderness, and the beautiful and lush trees outside the window quickly receded one by one. Night gradually fell, and the almost unchanging green plain in the distance was also gradually dyed with the colors of night.

Finally, it slowly pulled into the station.

“Are we really going to join the archaeological team? Can’t we wait for them to excavate it?”

“Silly, how long will it take to wait for the experts to slowly dig it out? We definitely have to go find it slowly.”

They were afraid of attracting attention, so they had to talk in low voices.

“I just searched the news, and although there are a lot of things that have been excavated, there is no jade pendant with two fish on it, which means it must still be inside.”

A slightly fat man slapped his thigh: “They’ve already reached the main tomb chamber and say there isn’t one? They’re not broadcasting it now, so they’re still hiding it from people. Come to think of it, if it were ordinary stuff, they wouldn’t have specifically asked us to find it.”

“Well, buddy, it’s hard to get a taxi at this hour, let’s share a ride?” The slightly fat man said very familiarly. Before Lu Yanli could open his mouth, he had already said to the driver, “Master, so many people are riding, give us a discount.”

The girl in the passenger seat also fastened her seat belt, her eyes glanced at the back seat and couldn’t help but linger. She turned her head and gave Lu Yanli a sweet smile: “Handsome, I’m sorry, let’s all make friends and get to know each other?”

The driver was obviously a little tempted and hesitated to look at Lu Yanli in the rearview mirror, but due to station regulations, he couldn’t kick anyone out.

Lu Yanli had already leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes. “Master, XX Road, XX Hotel, please hurry.”

He didn’t even look at the three people who had suddenly squeezed into the car. The girl’s smile froze on her face, and the slightly fat man’s outstretched hand stopped in mid-air.

The atmosphere in the car was a bit awkward for a moment.

Once the passengers were in the car, they couldn’t just stay parked there. The driver stepped on the gas and drove off. The thin man with black-rimmed glasses smoothed things over: “What a coincidence, we also booked that hotel, it’s on the way.”

The driver was relieved, and the speed increased.

“What’s with the attitude of an NPC…” the slightly fat man said in a low voice, with a look of disdain.

He assumed that the man hadn’t heard him, but when Lu Yanli got out of the car to take his luggage from the trunk, he heard this sentence clearly.

He took a deep breath, took his suitcase as if nothing had happened, and entered the hotel.

Sure enough… even if he went thousands of miles away, he would still run into them.

Jing Tao only felt a throbbing in his forehead and didn’t want to say anything. He shook his head and sighed as he entered the hotel.

Not long after, another car arrived, and the group of seven finally reunited. After dividing up the rooms, they each prepared to go upstairs to check in.

Lu Yanli sat in his room. The elevator footage was playing on the tablet. The seven people were still arguing, and they only shut up after the tallest man roared in anger.

It had been… a long time since he had seen such task performers.

The images released by the media were pixelated. After Lu Yanli processed it multiple times, he finally made the images much clearer. He could see that a section of the male corpse’s trouser leg had been torn off, revealing a part of his calf, and on his calf, he could vaguely see a red mark.

A wall away, two women in the hallway were still angry.

“What’s going on? The thing we’re going to do is already unlucky, and they made us stay at the very end of the hotel, at the end of the hallway. How can people live there?”

Another woman was equally indignant: “Don’t they say that the rooms at the very end of the hotel should be sealed off? How did they sell it to us? They said there were no more rooms, probably because they think we’re easy to bully as outsiders.”

Another tall and thin woman who wasn’t too young calmly asked: “So, do you want to change rooms now?”

The two young girls curled their lips. One of them knocked on the door, and the other went into the room to pull her out, so as not to delay.

Lu Yanli heard a knock on the door.

“Who is it?” he asked, standing by the door.

Lu Yanli put on the door chain: “What’s the matter?”

Lu Yanli recognized the other party’s voice. It was the one from the taxi just now.

With a soft sigh, another voice rang out: “I’m sorry, sir, we booked a room, but now there’s not enough space in that room. Can we switch with you?”

Lu Yanli didn’t have many things. He always maintained a “ready to escape at any time” state. The things in his personal suitcase were basically not taken out.

“Sure, wait a moment.”

Lu Yanli knew what was going on, so he agreed without hesitation.

As soon as he opened the door, Cao Yi was stunned.

Yi Yun smiled warmly, reached out, and pointed to the end: “That one, I’m really sorry, thank you so much.”

Lu Yanli didn’t say much. He nodded to her and entered that room.

It was said that when staying in a hotel, try not to choose the last room in the hallway, otherwise it was easy to trigger certain supernatural events.

Before leaving, he stuck a bug on the door of the room.

He wanted to know what would happen.

*

Lin Chu was irritable, rubbed her hair, and got up to open the door.

“Who is it?”

“I’m looking for ‘The Lights are on’.” A man’s voice came from outside.

“Wrong number.” Lin Chu didn’t plan to open the door.

Yu Xianguang’s portrait and urn were still in the living room. She didn’t want to hear anything related to the task right now.

“It’s about An Xingyu, please open the door, can we talk about it in person?”

Hearing this name, Lin Chu was dazed for a moment.

“Ahhh–” She grabbed her hair forcefully, and had to smooth it out neatly with her fingers, before opening the door.

Putting on slippers, as soon as Chu Xiu entered the living room, he was immediately shocked.

Lin Chu scratched her head: “I guess.”

“Then do you know An Xingyu?”

“I don’t know, I’ve never heard of him.” Lin Chu denied it outright.

“No, six nights ago, you clearly appeared in University Town near City X, and An Xingyu was there too.”

Lin Chu: “… Okay, I know him, what’s wrong?”