1TWITF[C Chapter 97

Chapter 97

The girl with the bamboo skewer stuck in her eyeball covered her eyes and cried, shedding tears of blood. The others found it amusing and laughed heartily. After a while, they enthusiastically prepared to eat the cake.

“Hey, is that a new neighbor?” Someone nudged the birthday star. “Should we invite him to have some cake with us?”

So, Lu Yanli, who had intended to pretend not to see and walk past, was stopped by several girls.

“Are you new here? Please have some cake.”

As she spoke, one of the girls brought over a paper plate with a slice of white cake slathered in red cream, looking sickeningly rich.

Lu Yanli silently shook his head. Just as he was about to turn and walk around them, he was stopped again.

“Why…why…why…why…don’t…don’t…don’t…you…eat…”

“Don’t…don’t…don’t…don’t…don’t…don’t…leave…leave…leave…leave…leave…leave…”

Lu Yanli wanted to retreat, but they had already surrounded him.

“Why…why…why…why…do you want to leave, why do you want to leave, why do you want to leave, why do you want to leave?”

The voice sounded like an old, skipping cassette tape.

What exactly were these things, people or ghosts?

Lu Yanli stood still, allowing them to get closer and closer, until one of them almost had her head on his shoulder.

He could feel the beating of her heart against his chest.

Lu Yanli gently held his breath, and then he closed his eyes.

That terrifying red figure reappeared before him. In the chaotic darkness behind his closed eyelids, the blood-red figure drew closer and closer, so close that Lu Yanli could almost smell the stench of decay and the icy coldness that seemed to emanate from the earth.

But compared to before, it was a little further away, only approaching him when he closed his eyes.

Lu Yanli suddenly opened his eyes, and the several “girls” who had been in front of him had all disappeared. He didn’t miss the opportunity, and he sprinted out of the residential area.

This method was too risky. Lu Yanli couldn’t guarantee that the figure wouldn’t charge straight at him the next time he closed his eyes. In any case, he couldn’t rest now.

Not long after he left, the girls reappeared one by one, their ghostly green eyes fixed on his retreating figure.

Behind Lu Yanli, a faint red shadow flickered.

Another gust of wind howled, causing the doors and windows of the residential area to creak and rattle, but… no one came out.

One of the windows, neglected for years, had its latch blown off, and it slammed against the wall, revealing the interior.

The entire residential area was silent. Looking into the windows of the buildings, every household without exception was uninhabited, with only one mourning hall after another.

Some people couldn’t afford cemetery plots, so they simply bought houses in remote suburbs to store the urns containing ashes.

Sometimes, excessive silence in a residential area isn’t a good thing.

Spiritual Medium Town… spiritual medium…

Are there really spiritual mediums here?

Lu Yanli didn’t believe it. He felt that everyone looked a little off, not to mention that the people in the town were already strange. As if sensing an outsider, they would stop talking as soon as he passed by, staring at him with incredibly eerie eyes.

*

“This town is very strange. Such a tragic murder occurred, but it’s as if nothing happened. No one is even discussing it.” Jiang Yu planned to go to the town’s library.

Generally speaking, libraries contain local gazetteers, and if not, he planned to visit museums or similar places to take a look.

Several task-doers assigned to his group followed behind him, including Yu Huaiyao.

Yu Huaiyao joined later. He had originally been closely following Lin Chu, but Lin Chu found him annoying and thought that since he was an archaeologist, he might be useful, so she suggested that he not go to the police station but instead follow Jiang Yu to find information.

Lin Chu found some random excuse to fob off Shen Zhu and followed Di Ying’s team.

The information on the missing person posters was pitifully simple, only the name, gender, and an estimate of height and build based on what Yi Zhenzhen had said.

If Lu Yanli really came, he would definitely become suspicious if he saw so many missing person posters.

Di Ying: “It’s okay, let’s put them up.”

On the other side, Shen Zhu waited and waited, but no one came. Seeing that it was almost dark if she procrastinated any longer, she braced herself and took a few people to the police station.

*

He knew that this group of people wanted to find him, and his greatest advantage was that they didn’t seem to know anything about him, or what he looked like.

But…

Lu Yanli steeled his heart and made a crazy decision.

The world was changing again. In the past, the world would return to normal after the task-doers entered. But now… even though the mission was in progress, it was no different from what he usually experienced.

He didn’t even know where the source of all this was. A faint voice told him it was because of him, but Lu Yanli didn’t want to believe it.

He was just an ordinary person.

So, was there a problem with this mission? Where was the source of the town’s abnormality?

And what exactly had the future him experienced?

Lu Yanli still remembered the wish he had made, not to die before finding out the truth of everything. So, had the future him been unprotected after finding the truth, or was that truth related to the so-called “god” in the first place?

At the thought of this, a cold wind blew, making him shiver. Lu Yanli wrapped his clothes tighter around himself and continued walking.

As he walked past a store, the plastic mannequin standing in the glass display window fell down with a bang.

The shop assistant was playing with her phone and was startled. She quickly went over to pick it up.

When she looked up again, one of the mannequins in the glass window was missing.

Only one other mannequin was still standing obediently in place.

“Oh no! Someone must have stolen it!” The shop assistant was anxious. Suddenly, she slapped her forehead and remembered that there was surveillance in the store. She quickly sat back in front of the computer to check the recording.

But… the image on the recording shocked her.

The mannequin displayed in the window, clearly… clearly just a dummy, had actually moved its body and slowly walked out of the room on its own.

“No way, how is this possible…”

It was a ghost… What did the ghost want to say?

The image was still very blurry. She widened her eyes to look, and there were always some shadows on the screen. She reached out to wipe them away, but found that the screen was clean and clear, with nothing on it.

Instead, her own eyes itched. The shop assistant didn’t take it seriously and rubbed her eyes and continued watching.

The image continued to zoom in, and the mannequin’s movements became much clearer. It seemed to be raising its hand and pointing at its eyes.

Eyes? What’s wrong with the eyes?

The shop assistant rubbed her eyes and wanted to continue watching, but she had already noticed that there seemed to be something wrong with her eyes. She walked to the large mirror in the store that girls usually used to admire themselves and widened her eyes to look closely.

“So it was just an eyelash that fell in, no wonder.” The shop assistant muttered, peeled back her eyelid, found the short eyelash, and wanted to rub it out.

She failed, rubbing for a long time to no avail, only pulling out a little bit. The shop assistant reached out to pinch it, carefully clamping it with two fingernails, and actually managed to grab it. She carefully pulled it out.

Strange, wasn’t it just an eyelash?

Why… was it getting longer and longer?

This wasn’t an eyelash! This was hair!

She kept pulling it out, and the thin, black hair-like thing grew longer and longer…

No! What the hell was this?!

“No… don’t…”

The shop assistant was on the verge of tears, almost viciously pulling out the strands. She didn’t notice that her eyeballs seemed to be changing in the mirror.

If someone looked closely, they would see that there seemed to be a word on her eyeball.

At the same time, Lu Yanli walked towards the town’s library.

He didn’t notice that a mannequin was following him closely not far behind.

The mannequin’s eyes had already been gouged out, leaving only two black holes.