The area where the abnormal incidents had occurred was the old urban district of Shu’nan City.
There were many old houses in that area. As the new urban district developed rapidly, this old district had gradually declined. However, although the district was old, it was not desolate. Property prices were low and daily life was convenient, so the area was filled with the atmosphere of ordinary street life.
The four people who had come to investigate the old urban district ahead of Yan He and Pei Rong had gone missing shortly after entering the old district separately.
“Thinking back carefully now, they probably went missing earlier than we thought. Before we split up, we created a group chat. At first, everyone would report their investigation progress in the group, telling the others which places they had checked and whether they had found anything abnormal. But sometime after around four in the afternoon, they stopped updating their progress.”
Yan He said, “We didn’t pay much attention to it at the time. We thought they had discovered something and simply hadn’t had the time to send a message.”
After all, unexpected incidents were common when they went out on field missions like this. It was perfectly normal for updates to be delayed.
“Until it was time for us to meet and the four of them still hadn’t shown up. We waited for a long time, and when they didn’t respond to our messages or calls, we realized that something might have happened.”
Xu Muchan scanned the old houses around them. Buildings that were not particularly tall stood tightly packed together, with very little space between them. Between two buildings was only a narrow alley barely wide enough for pedestrians to pass through. Large piles of miscellaneous items were stacked along the walls. The streetlights on the main road outside couldn’t illuminate the alleys, so anyone walking through these narrow paths had to use a flashlight.
Although the surroundings looked somewhat eerie and frightening, there was actually nothing unusual to be found.
Jiang Fang suggested, “Let’s first go through all the places the four of them might have visited and see if we can find any clues.”
“But we’d better not split up, in case someone else suddenly disappears,” Peng Ye added.
Thus, with Yan He and Pei Rong leading the way, the five of them went together through all the places the four missing people might have visited.
As Xu Muchan observed his surroundings, he asked, “What exactly is the abnormal incident reported in the old district? It feels very clean here.”
If he really had to say what was abnormal, he felt that the old district was too clean.
It was already the middle of the night, when yin energy should be at its strongest. An environment like the old urban district was also the kind of place where all sorts of filthy things could easily hide. Yet after walking all this way, Xu Muchan hadn’t seen even a single ghost.
However, he looked at Yan He and Pei Rong walking ahead and wondered whether the reason this entire route was so clean was because the two of them were here.
Peng Ye had read the complete report on the abnormal incidents reported in the old district, so he took the initiative to explain.
“Actually, this started out pretty normally. Apparently, quite a few people in this old district have been dying over the past month or two. Some committed suicide, while others died in accidents. I think there were more than ten people who died from suicide or various accidents over the course of two months. But I compared the data with other areas, and that number actually isn’t particularly high.”
“What really attracted attention was a family in the old district whose son committed suicide. The deceased was the family’s only son. His mother insisted that her son hadn’t committed suicide, but had been killed after being possessed by a ghost.”
“According to the old lady, her son actually didn’t want to die. He kept begging his mother to save him, saying that he didn’t want to die. But at the time, a ghost was attached to her son’s body and controlled him into jumping from the building.”
“So the old lady took out her family’s savings and hired a very famous duangong from Shu’nan to perform a ritual. One reason was to help her wrongfully deceased son pass on to the afterlife, and the other was to have the duangong find the ghost that had killed her son.”
“That duangong really did have some ability, and he had officially registered with the Religious Association. Although we’ve never worked with him before, we’d heard of his reputation. The strangest thing happened here. The duangong went to the victim’s home, examined the place, and performed the ritual. After determining that there were no ghosts in the old lady’s home, he went back.”
“But not long after returning home, he died in an accident.”
Peng Ye paused at this point.
“Do you know how he died?”
Without waiting for Xu Muchan to answer, he continued.
“He was crushed to death by someone who jumped from a building. That’s how unlucky he was. When he returned home, someone jumped from the roof of a building in his residential complex, and he happened to be passing underneath. The person who jumped landed on him. The jumper didn’t die from the fall, but he was crushed to death. There are even pictures of the scene in the report. They’re extremely gruesome.”
Yan He had also read the report. He said, “The probability of something like that happening is indeed low, but it isn’t impossible. The local police investigated it, and it really was an accident.”
Peng Ye said, “It really was an accident. But didn’t his son die afterward too? The father and son both dying in accidents one after another is just too much of a coincidence. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have sent us here to investigate.”
“How did his son die?” Xu Muchan asked.
Peng Ye said, “After the duangong died unexpectedly, his son said that he dreamed about his father’s spirit. The spirit kept asking him for help. So he suspected that there was something strange about his father’s accident and also went to the old district.”
“He even went to that old lady’s house. But a few days later, he got into a car accident while driving. A dump truck ran over him, killing him on the spot. The scene was even more horrific than his father’s.”
Xu Muchan frowned.
“That does sound like too much of a coincidence.”
Jiang Fang also said, “It just so happens that the newly developed system predicted that Shu’nan was very likely to be the location of the next flood tide, so the research institute is taking this very seriously.”
Not only had they requested four people from the Taoist Association as outside support, they had also specifically invited Xu Muchan, hoping that in case something happened, they could minimize the number of casualties as much as possible.
But who would have thought that before Xu Muchan had even arrived, four people had already disappeared, two of whom were outside support personnel from the Taoist Association.
As they spoke, the five of them had already followed all the possible routes.
Yan He said, “These are the routes they reported in the group chat. They didn’t send any more messages after this. If we want to know where they went afterward, we’ll have to go to the police station during the day and check the surveillance footage.”
Peng Ye fiddled with his computer strangely.
“This place is as normal as it can possibly be. The yin energy isn’t above normal levels, and the monitoring system hasn’t issued any warning either. Could it be that you have to enter at a specific time, or need some specific item to trigger it…”
Yan He spread his hands.
“Then we don’t know. We can only come back a few more times and take a look. Maybe we’ll get lucky and a blind cat will stumble across a dead rat.”
Jiang Fang checked the time.
“It’s almost three. Let’s go check the surveillance footage first thing tomorrow morning. For now, let’s head back to the hotel and rest.”
After spending half the night running around without discovering anything, the five returned to the hotel and went back to their respective rooms to rest.
Xu Muchan had a room to himself. Yan He and Pei Rong’s room was directly in front of his. Yan He was just about to ask whether Xu Muchan wanted to come to their room for some late-night snacks when he saw Xu Muchan open his door.
Suddenly, something reached out from behind the door and pulled him inside.
Yan He was startled. He hurried over and pushed the door, only to find that it had already closed.
He could only pound hard on the door and shout, “Xu Muchan? Xu Muchan, are you okay?”
Xu Muchan leaned against the door and looked at the person in front of him. Behind him came Yan He’s worried, anxious voice.
He slowly adjusted his breathing before replying, “What’s wrong? I’m fine.”
Yan He was only half-convinced. He turned his head and asked Pei Rong whether he had seen anything just now, but Pei Rong shook his head.
“I wasn’t paying attention to Xu Muchan’s room.”
“You’re really okay? Why don’t you open the door and let me take a look?”
Four teammates had already disappeared. Yan He didn’t dare let his guard down and continued knocking forcefully on the door.
Xu Muchan looked at the black figure restraining him in front of him and lowered his voice as much as possible.
“Big Brother! Let me go first, otherwise Yan He will definitely keep knocking outside.”
He pushed hard, and the arm restraining him finally loosened.
Xu Muchan was free. He immediately turned around and blocked the gap with his body, opening the door only halfway. He poked his head out and looked at Yan He with a puzzled expression.
“What’s wrong?”
Yan He examined his expression but couldn’t see anything unusual.
Could he really have just imagined it?
Yan He scratched his head.
“Nothing. Maybe I was seeing things. We’ve just lost four people, so I might be a little too nervous.”
Xu Muchan apologized to him silently in his heart, but smiled on the surface.
“I see. It’s good to be careful. Then I’ll go take a shower first?”
Yan He nodded and returned to his room with Pei Rong.
Xu Muchan hurriedly closed the door and turned around to glare at the person standing tightly behind him.
“This trip doesn’t allow family members. Didn’t we agree that I would come by myself?”
Everything had been arranged properly before he left. Who would have thought that Big Brother would secretly follow him again?
Wei Xilou’s physical body was still lying on the sofa. Freed from the restrictions of his physical shell, his soul had taken on a humanoid form and was lying across Xu Muchan’s shoulder.
His voice sounded somewhat displeased.
“Is Ah Chan unhappy to see Big Brother?”
Feeling his icy breath beside his ear, Xu Muchan immediately changed his words.
“I’m not unhappy. I was just a little surprised. Besides, I’ll probably be running around outside these next few days. You can’t follow me around either.”
Wei Xilou seemed to chuckle. His cold fingers gently stroked Xu Muchan’s cheek.
“I came here this time because I have something important to take care of.”
Xu Muchan asked curiously, “What could you possibly have to do?”
He suspected that his big brother was simply making another excuse for himself.
Wei Xilou returned to his body, opened his eyes, and sat up from the sofa.
“I told you before that part of my memories is incomplete. At first, I thought it was because too much time had passed and I had simply forgotten. But later, when I found that dog-face mask in Huangshi Town, I remembered some things.”
“I lost some important things. I’m currently trying to find them.”
“Not long after you set out, I received word that the thing I’m looking for had been discovered in Shu’nan.”
Xu Muchan frowned. “That much of a coincidence?”
Wei Xilou smiled and nodded.
“That much of a coincidence. And just now, I caught a familiar scent on you.”
Then he changed the subject and asked, “Did you bring the dog-face mask?”
“I did.”
Xu Muchan brought over his backpack and showed him the bag charm. After being squeezed into a ball, the dog-face mask was only about the size of a fist. Hanging from the backpack, it could perfectly disguise itself as a bag charm.
Ever since Xu Muchan had fiercely threatened it, it had been very obediently playing dead.
Wei Xilou said, “Bring it along tomorrow too. It can find scents from the same source. Maybe it’ll discover something.”
Xu Muchan agreed, his brows drawing together even more.
“We went to the old district tonight, but we didn’t discover anything.”
Wei Xilou naturally followed up, “Then I’ll go take a look with you tomorrow.”
Xu Muchan hesitated.
“Isn’t it inappropriate to bring a family member along when I’m working?”
Besides, although He Yunyi and the others had already noticed that something was unusual about his big brother, Xu Muchan instinctively didn’t want more people to discover the strange things about him.
Wei Xilou drawled, “There’s a way to keep them from finding out.”
Xu Muchan pursed his lips and glared at him.
Wei Xilou met his gaze with a smile in his eyes.
In the end, Xu Muchan was the one who gave in. His shoulders slumped as he said dejectedly, “Fine. You can possess me, but you can’t casually control my body, and you absolutely cannot let anyone find out.”
Wei Xilou put on an innocent expression.
“Every time before, Ah Chan was the one who asked me to possess him.”
But once he was possessed, what happened afterward was no longer up to him!
Xu Muchan didn’t argue with him. He turned and headed toward the bathroom.
“I’m going to take a shower!”
The hotel room was a twin room. After Xu Muchan finished showering, he saw Wei Xilou lying on the bed on the left, so he naturally headed toward the bed on the right.
But as soon as he lay down, a wave of icy energy squeezed over.
Xu Muchan had no choice but to move backward. The hotel bed was only 1.2 meters wide to begin with, and Xu Muchan was tall. After moving back another step, his body was already against the edge of the bed, and he nearly fell off.
The icy aura wrapped around him and pulled him toward the middle.
It even scolded him, “Why can’t you stay put even when you’re sleeping?”
Who was the one who couldn’t stay put while sleeping?
He had a perfectly good bed of his own, yet he insisted on squeezing into Xu Muchan’s.
Xu Muchan opened his eyes and glared angrily at the mass of dense darkness. His cheeks puffed up unconsciously from anger.
The evil spirit in front of him seemed completely oblivious. Its cold tentacles pressed him farther into its body as it murmured, “Go to sleep.”
Xu Muchan had originally intended to keep glaring at him and see when exactly he would realize that he was angry.
But it was already far too late, and after staring for a while, his eyelids unconsciously closed. Curled up in the evil spirit’s embrace, he fell asleep.
Wei Xilou chuckled softly, kissed his forehead, then kissed his thin eyelids. More tentacles extended outward, tightly restraining him in his embrace.
Although he had gone to sleep very late, driven by his biological clock, Xu Muchan still woke up at seven.
His body was restrained by the cold yin energy. Xu Muchan tried to break free, but when he turned over, he discovered an extremely embarrassing situation.
Teenage boys were always prone to getting aroused. Xu Muchan himself wasn’t particularly lustful and rarely even took matters into his own hands, but embarrassing situations in the morning still happened often.
He hunched over slightly, pulled the blanket up to cover himself below the waist, then pushed the completely unresponsive evil spirit beside him.
“Big Brother?”
Wei Xilou gave a vague “Mm,” sounding as though Xu Muchan had just woken him.
“Mm?”
Xu Muchan’s face flushed bright red, even his ears growing hot. He lowered his head and tried to act as naturally and calmly as possible.
“Go sleep in your own bed.”
The pitch-black figure didn’t move. Its featureless face lowered, seemingly examining Xu Muchan.
Xu Muchan became even more embarrassed. An indescribable feeling welled up inside him. He glared at the other party and raised his voice slightly.
“Go sleep in your own bed!”
Perhaps realizing that he was angry, the evil spirit finally moved and returned to its own body.
Xu Muchan hunched over and quickly jumped out of bed, rushing into the bathroom.
He bit his lip and hurriedly took care of things himself. Once he had calmed down, he took a shower. Only after making sure there was no strange smell lingering in the bathroom did he come out wrapped in a bathrobe.
The moment he came out, he met Wei Xilou’s gaze.
The older man looked him up and down, the corners of his lips curling into a meaningful smile.
“Ah Chan has grown up too. Big Brother gets like this as well. Ah Chan doesn’t need to be so shy. If there’s anything you don’t understand, you can ask me.”
“…”
Xu Muchan’s cheeks, which had finally cooled down, heated up again. Like a tiny kitten whose fur had been blown up, he bared his teeth at Wei Xilou and said with extreme hostility,
“Logically speaking, your body is already more than a hundred years old. It should have lost its vitality long ago, so you shouldn’t have any physiological reactions either, right?”
Besides, it wasn’t as though Xu Muchan had never seen what he looked like when he was young. He had looked so pure and restrained, with such a weak desire. Maybe he knew even less than Xu Muchan himself.
Wei Xilou fell silent.
He actually didn’t say anything.
Xu Muchan suspected that he had hit a weak spot and immediately felt a sense of triumph. He walked lightly over to the suitcase and crouched down to look for his clothes.
A faint voice suddenly came from behind him.
“If Ah Chan is really curious, Big Brother doesn’t mind letting you take a look.”
Xu Muchan spun around abruptly and stared at him as if he had seen a ghost.
“I. Am. Not. Curious. At. All!”
“Is that so?”
Wei Xilou looked disappointed.
“Then I suppose we’ll have to forget it. If Ah Chan becomes curious next time, you can just say so openly.”
Xu Muchan: “…”
He felt that he had made another mistake.
When it came to shamelessness, he had never once won.
Xu Muchan didn’t continue the topic. He silently changed his clothes, then said with his back to Wei Xilou,
“I’m going out.”
Wei Xilou gave an “Mm” but didn’t move.
Xu Muchan secretly cursed him in his heart. On the surface, however, he put the Mountain God token between his teeth and invited the Mountain God to possess him.
Only then did the man sitting on the sofa move.
Dense shadows flowed out from the handsome human shell, taking on a humanoid form and attaching themselves behind Xu Muchan.
A cold current of air brushed past his cheek. Wei Xilou chuckled softly.
“Ah Chan, let’s go.”
Xu Muchan took a deep breath before opening the door and leaving.
He planned to go to the restaurant for breakfast first, but unexpectedly, Yan He and Pei Rong from across the hall were also up very early.
The three ran into one another, exchanged morning greetings, and went to the restaurant together for breakfast.
Yan He walked in the middle, repeatedly turning his head to look at Xu Muchan.
Thinking that he had noticed something, Xu Muchan immediately became wary.
“What’s wrong?”
Yan He hesitated, but in the end quietly told him what he had seen the previous night.
“When you opened the door last night, I saw something reach out through the crack and grab your hand. Are you really okay?”
He had thought about it all night and still felt that he hadn’t imagined it.
Xu Muchan shook his head in confusion.
“I’m fine. And I slept pretty well.”
Hearing this, Yan He relaxed somewhat and muttered,
“I wonder if there’s something wrong with this hotel. I always feel like the air inside is gloomy too. It gives me a really uncomfortable feeling.”
Xu Muchan, who was walking beside him, suddenly turned his head and looked at him.
There was no other expression on his face, but his gaze was exceptionally cold.
Yan He abruptly met his icy gaze and froze.
“Xu Muchan, what’s with that look? Did I offend you?”
“What look?”
The cold, indifferent expression from just a moment ago seemed to have merely been an illusion.
The next second, Xu Muchan smiled brightly, like spring warmth spreading across the land.
“You’ve been seeing things quite a lot these past two days. Did you not get enough rest?”
After hearing him say that, Yan He also felt that he really hadn’t rested well the previous night, and he began complaining.
“Don’t you guys think this hotel feels really gloomy?”
Xu Muchan and Pei Rong shook their heads at the same time.
Yan He let out a heavy sigh, completely unable to find anyone who understood him.
The three sat down in the restaurant. While Yan He and Pei Rong went to get breakfast, Xu Muchan finally dropped the overly brilliant smile from his face and complained,
“Big Brother, don’t casually control my body. Be careful someone notices.”
Yan He was relatively easy to fool, but Pei Rong, who had remained silent the whole time, was another matter. Xu Muchan felt that although he hadn’t said anything, he had looked at him several times along the way.
He was worried that Pei Rong might notice something.
Wei Xilou was attached to his shoulder and smiled.
“They won’t find out.”
Xu Muchan felt that after his big brother had taken off that human skin, he had become extremely difficult to communicate with.
He thought that aside from the period at the beginning when he couldn’t control his ghost transformation, even after he learned to transform into a ghost, he had never behaved like his big brother.
He pursed his lips and warned him again.
“Anyway, don’t cause any trouble. If you really get discovered, I’m not going to take care of you anymore!”
Perhaps the warning worked. The evil spirit behind him finally settled down a little.
Xu Muchan relaxed slightly. Seeing Yan He and Pei Rong return with their breakfast, he also got up to get his own.
Halfway through breakfast, Jiang Fang arrived as well.
Yan He casually asked, “Why haven’t I seen Peng Ye?”
Jiang Fang said, “He can’t get up this early. He’s still sleeping. I’ll just bring him something later.”
As he ate, he talked about the day’s arrangements.
“The people sent by headquarters probably won’t arrive until the afternoon. Should we go check the surveillance footage this morning?”
Yan He and Pei Rong had no objections, so Xu Muchan also nodded cooperatively.
After breakfast, Jiang Fang packed several pieces of bread and a bottle of milk into a takeaway box, then called Peng Ye.
By the time the four of them reached the parking lot, Peng Ye came rushing over with a bird’s-nest head of hair and climbed into the passenger seat.
While eating his breakfast, he turned around and chattered away at the three people in the back.
“You guys got up way too early. I only slept for a few hours, and I still feel like I can barely open my eyes.”
He stuffed a small bun into his mouth and grumbled around it,
“Sigh, I hate going to work.”
Of the remaining four people, Yan He was the only one who talked much. He answered with a smile, “I heard the research institute pays pretty well and has good benefits, right? Don’t you even get paid vacation? How come you still have so many complaints?”
Peng Ye gulped down half a bottle of milk and said, “The pay is high, sure, but that’s money you trade your life for. We really do risk our lives. Even when we know something is dangerous, we still have to charge in. But forget about that—that’s for the sake of the paycheck. As for paid vacation, forget it. Sure, the vacation days exist, but it also depends on whether the higher-ups approve your leave.”
Peng Ye put down the milk, counted on his fingers, and said heavily, “I haven’t taken a vacation for two years straight. I’ve accumulated two months of annual leave. Every time I want to take time off, all kinds of things come looking for me, or some higher-up finds one excuse or another not to approve it.”
“What about you?” Peng Ye looked at Jiang Fang, who was driving.
Jiang Fang said, “I have five months of annual leave. But I choose not to take it. There’s nothing for me to do even if I take time off.”
Peng Ye rolled his eyes dramatically and turned to Yan He. “See? Our entire research institute is full of heartless workaholics. I really don’t fit in there.”
As soon as he finished speaking, he met a pair of clear black-and-white eyes.
Xu Muchan stared at him intently. Peng Ye finally remembered that there was still a research institute trainee in the car. Remembering everything He Yunyi had repeatedly instructed him before they left, Peng Ye immediately sucked in a breath and changed his words.
“I was just talking nonsense. Actually, our research institute is great. Really great!”
He racked his brain for something complimentary to say, but could only desperately look toward Jiang Fang.
Jiang Fang was concentrating on driving and completely ignored him.
In the end, Peng Ye could only give an awkward smile and emphasize, “Really, it’s especially, especially great. I can’t even bear to quit.”
As for what exactly was so great about it, whatever you do, don’t ask!