This recall of all personnel was extremely urgent.
As an external member, Xu Muchan went along with them as well, taking a plane to the capital.
After leaving the capital airport, vehicles were already waiting for them. Everyone got into the cars and headed straight for the headquarters of the Black River Research Institute.
When they entered, Xu Muchan noticed that besides their own group, many other teams were arriving one after another.
The entire institute was filled with a tense, oppressive atmosphere.
Jin Qingqing and the others had to hurry off to a meeting. As an external member, Xu Muchan did not need to participate, so he temporarily settled into the accommodation arranged for him by the staff.
The meeting lasted a full three days.
During those three days, Xu Muchan stayed in the institute’s employee dormitory and gradually received quite a few pieces of information.
There were simply far too many predicted tide locations, and they were all appearing simultaneously. It was so bizarre that quite a few people were skeptical about the accuracy of the predictions.
But the losses and damage caused by previous tides could not be ignored either.
So the people at the institute argued over whether the prediction results were genuine while simultaneously working overtime to adjust the newly developed prediction system, trying to make another forecast.
According to the information Peng Ye sent him, however, the prediction system had been run three more times.
The result was exactly the same every time.
By then, the first teams dispatched to various locations to investigate had already sent back their reports.
Apparently, they had found nothing unusual at the predicted tide locations.
This result caused the argument to escalate again, with many people questioning the accuracy of the prediction system.
As for the deeper details, Xu Muchan did not have much access to them.
So he simply immersed himself in the headquarters’ archives, reading through every document he was allowed to borrow.
While he was reading, his phone suddenly vibrated.
Xu Muchan glanced at the screen.
It was Wei Yao calling.
He put down the documents and stepped outside to answer.
“Wei Yao?”
“Happy New Year, Xu Muchan!”
Wei Yao’s cheerful voice came through the phone, followed by a string of questions.
“Didn’t you say you went traveling to Panlong Ridge? Why did you suddenly become completely unreachable? We sent you messages too, but you never replied.”
Xu Muchan moved the phone away and glanced at the calendar.
Only then did he realize, in surprise, that it was already New Year.
“The signal at Panlong Ridge wasn’t very good. I didn’t see the messages.”
He switched to his earphones and opened WeChat. The screen spun for a moment before loading a whole bunch of messages, most of them New Year’s greetings.
While replying to the messages, he said, “Happy New Year to you too. Are you still in Yundong?”
The moment Yundong was mentioned, Wei Yao became animated.
His complaints came pouring out.
“Yep, still here. My grandpa is dead set on staying in this godforsaken place to teach us to appreciate the hardships of life. You have no idea—we had to cook the entire New Year’s Eve dinner ourselves this year! There’s no natural gas here either, so we can only use electricity to heat water. I shiver every time I take a shower… Who knows when Grandpa will finally take pity on us and let us go home? I don’t want to spend another second in this godforsaken place…”
“Oh, right. We’re also going to the ancestral graves later to pay our respects. During New Year’s, of all times—don’t you think that’s creepy? Even though they’re the Wei family’s ancestral graves, we don’t know any of those ancestors. And the ancestral tombs were flooded these past two days too. We don’t even know where the water came from. Half the burial chamber is underwater… Just looking at it gives me the creeps. Do you think there could be something filthy in those graves?”
As he spoke, Wei Yao sent Xu Muchan a video.
The video was too large, and the network on Xu Muchan’s end was poor. It took a long time to finish downloading.
He opened the video and watched it.
Sure enough, the inside of the tomb had been flooded, and the water appeared to be quite deep.
Inside the burial chamber, a residence had been constructed to exactly match the Wei family’s ancestral home, and it was now submerged in water.
As the water rippled around it, the whole scene looked like a mirage.
No wonder Wei Yao was afraid there might be something filthy lurking there.
The water really did look suspicious.
Although the video was over a minute long, it showed essentially the same scene the entire time, with barely any change in angle.
Xu Muchan frowned and dragged the progress bar forward. Just before the end, the calm surface of the water suddenly rippled, and something seemed to flash past beneath it.
Xu Muchan’s finger stopped.
He dragged the progress bar back and zoomed in.
In the frozen frame, the water’s surface reflected a faint glimmer of light. There was nothing there.
Xu Muchan pressed play again and slowed the playback speed to the lowest setting.
The progress bar began moving forward slowly. Light shimmered across the water’s surface.
Xu Muchan stared intently at the screen.
At fifty-six seconds, a figure flashed past beneath the calm surface of the water…
Xu Muchan’s pupils contracted.
He dragged the progress bar back again and examined it carefully.
This time, he was finally certain he hadn’t been mistaken.
The figure that had flashed past underwater was his brother.
Why had his brother returned to the Wei family’s ancestral tomb?
Xu Muchan’s heart began to race.
Wei Yao was still chattering away on the other end of the phone, but Xu Muchan didn’t hear a single word. He hurriedly came up with an excuse to end the call, then watched the video twice more before sending Wei Yao a message:
“You’d better not go down into the tomb again. I’ll be in Yundong tomorrow or the day after.”
As soon as he sent it, his phone began vibrating repeatedly. It was probably Wei Yao sending him messages, but Xu Muchan no longer had time to look.
He called He Yunyi and told her that something had come up and he needed to leave ahead of schedule.
He Yunyi was somewhat surprised, but she didn’t try to stop him. Her voice sounded a little tired.
“That’s fine. After several days of discussion, we’ve ultimately concluded that the prediction system may have malfunctioned. It’s New Year’s, and there’s no need for you to keep staying here with us. If you have something to take care of, go ahead. Go home and have a good New Year.”
Xu Muchan hummed in acknowledgment and was about to end the call when He Yunyi hesitantly asked, “I heard from Jin Qingqing and the others that something seems to have happened to your brother…”
She tactfully suggested, “If there’s anything you need our help with, you can ask us…”
“It’s nothing. I can handle it myself.”
After declining her offer, Xu Muchan ended the call and booked the fastest flight to Yundong that same day.
Fortunately, flights were easy to book during the New Year holiday. Xu Muchan packed a few things and hurried to the airport.
It wasn’t until he arrived that he discovered that while flights were easy enough to book, hiring a car to take him to a remote village during the holiday season was another matter entirely.
He paid a high price to charter a vehicle and had the driver follow the directions Wei Yao sent him.
It took four hours before they finally reached the small village.
The last time Xu Muchan had been brought here by Wei Xilou, the entire village had already been abandoned. Most of the original residents had moved away, leaving only the dilapidated houses standing where they had always been.
This time, however, the village was considerably livelier.
Besides the Wei family, there were also workers the family had hired at great expense. They hadn’t even taken time off for the New Year and were busy rebuilding the houses and clearing out the tombs.
After receiving word that he had arrived, Wei Yao excitedly came out to meet him.
Seeing Xu Muchan staring at the houses, he muttered, “My grandpa said he’s already applied to the local government. They’re going to fund the reconstruction of this entire area, including the underground tombs. Once everything is rebuilt, they can promote it as a tourist attraction. They even dug up quite a few of the Wei family’s genealogical records and various antiques from the tombs. Grandpa’s planning to set up a small exhibition hall too…”
“Who would travel all the way out here to look at this stuff? I don’t even want to see it myself…”
As he spoke, Xu Muchan had already been pulled into the house by him.
Old Master Wei and Wei Yao’s parents were all there. Since the family knew that Xu Muchan was close to Wei Xilou, they were extremely polite toward him as well.
Xu Muchan was pulled into a round of greetings and small talk. He also had to explain why Wei Xilou hadn’t come with him this time before he was finally able to escape.
Wei Yao dragged him away from the elders and let out a long breath.
“See? This is the miserable life I’ve been living lately!”
Xu Muchan was amused by his resentful tone and said, “I want to take a look inside the tomb.”
Wei Yao immediately said, “I’ll go with you. I really don’t want to listen to my grandpa and my parents nagging anymore. My ears are practically growing calluses.”
Xu Muchan had originally intended to go alone, but seeing the eager look on Wei Yao’s face, he couldn’t bring himself to abandon him after he’d just helped him.
He nodded.
“But I may have to go into the water and take a look later. You can’t follow me. I’m worried it’ll be dangerous.”
Wei Yao shuddered, his eyes widening.
“There really is something in there?”
Xu Muchan shook his head.
“I’m not sure. That’s why I need to go see for myself first.”
Hearing that, Wei Yao immediately lost all his earlier bravado. He followed timidly behind Xu Muchan, taking small steps.
“Then I’ll wait outside. It’s flooded inside, and my grandpa is worried that the old residence in the tomb will be damaged by the water. He was planning to pump it out over the next couple of days anyway… Why don’t we wait until they’ve drained it before we go take a look…?”
Xu Muchan shook his head and continued down the long, narrow passage.
Electric lights had been installed along the passage, making things much more convenient than before.
The two of them continued downward. After passing through a doorway, they indeed saw that the enormous burial chamber below was completely submerged in deep water.
Xu Muchan remembered that after passing through this doorway, there had once been a small bridge leading to the Wei residence inside the tomb.
But now the bridge had disappeared completely.
There was only stagnant water filled almost to the point of spilling into the passage.
A rubber dinghy was tethered on the surface. Apparently, someone had previously taken it out to inspect the Wei residence.
“You wait here. I’ll paddle over and take a look.”
As he spoke, Xu Muchan had already climbed into the swaying dinghy.
Wei Yao craned his neck to look, clearly unwilling to let him go alone but too frightened to accompany him.
“Are you really sure you don’t want me to come with you?”
Xu Muchan shook his head.
“You stay on shore. If something happens, you can still go get help.”
After a pause, he added, “Don’t forget, I’m not an ordinary person. Nothing will happen to me. Just don’t go into the water. There might really be something in there. If something happens to you, I’ll have to go rescue you.”
His reasoning was sound.
Wei Yao picked up an extra paddle lying nearby and held it in his hand.
“Fine. Just be careful.”
Xu Muchan sat in the rubber dinghy and paddled somewhat awkwardly, slowly making his way toward the distant Wei residence.
He remembered where the figure had appeared in the video.
It had been inside the Wei residence, in the waters near the Ascension Tower.
The Ascension Tower was the tallest structure in the Wei residence.
Xu Muchan looked up and felt that the wooden tower resembled a sunken ship at sea, with only half of it remaining above the surface.
The light refracted by the water rippled across the tower, casting a bizarre, otherworldly glow over it.
Xu Muchan paddled slowly closer.
But when he reached the area shown in the video, he found nothing.
The Wei residence, submerged underwater, did have an eerie and uncanny atmosphere, but that was merely an illusion created by the surroundings.
Xu Muchan looked around carefully but found no trace whatsoever related to Wei Xilou.
Unwilling to give up, he lowered the paddle and leaned over the side of the dinghy to peer at the water.
He softly called out, “Brother… Wei Xilou…”
He kept his voice very low, afraid of frightening Wei Yao on the shore.
But after calling for a long while, the figure that had flashed past in the video never appeared.
Xu Muchan straightened up and sat blankly in the dinghy for a while.
Then he paddled around the entire Wei residence before finally heading back in disappointment.
Ever since his brother’s body had also disappeared in the ghost domain, Xu Muchan had been doing his best to maintain a normal life.
He kept reassuring himself that his brother couldn’t possibly be in danger, never allowing himself to show anxiety or panic.
But at this moment, the immense disappointment finally broke through the composure he had worked so hard to maintain.
He barely even had the strength to paddle the dinghy back.
The dinghy’s speed gradually slowed.
At last, it stopped in the middle of the water.
Xu Muchan sat motionless in the center, his unfocused gaze blankly fixed on the shimmering surface.
Wei Yao’s voice seemed to come from the shore.
Xu Muchan slowly turned his head and saw Wei Yao waving his arms frantically, as though shouting something.
Strangely, even though they weren’t very far apart, Xu Muchan couldn’t make out what Wei Yao was saying.
Only distorted, muffled sounds reached his ears.
Xu Muchan finally pulled himself out of his overwhelming despair and belatedly realized that something was wrong.
The dinghy had been spinning in place the entire time.
A whirlpool had appeared beneath it, ripples spreading outward layer after layer, as though something were moving underneath.
The first emotion Xu Muchan felt wasn’t fear.
It was the excitement of finding something he had thought he’d lost.
He ignored Wei Yao on the shore and leaned over the side of the dinghy toward the water.
His voice trembled faintly.
“Brother, is that you?”
A huge, bracket-shaped ripple spread across the water beneath the dinghy, as though some enormous creature had just passed underneath.
Xu Muchan couldn’t help leaning even farther down, his face almost touching the surface.
The dinghy rocked violently as its balance shifted under his weight.
But Xu Muchan paid no attention.
His eyes had already involuntarily turned black-red, and he stared fixedly into the water.
The thing beneath the surface slowly rose.
Wei Xilou’s devastatingly handsome face appeared beneath the water.
Separated by the thin layer of the surface, his hair drifted like seaweed, while his face was deathly pale.
His thin, pale lips slowly moved, as though he were speaking to Xu Muchan.
But his voice was too faint beneath the water for Xu Muchan to hear.
He could only turn his face sideways and press his ear against the surface, listening carefully.
This time, Xu Muchan finally heard him.
He was saying:
“Ah-Chan, come here…”
“Brother.”
Xu Muchan’s eyes widened.
He unconsciously reached his hand into the water.
The person beneath the surface reached out as well, seemingly intending to take his hand—
But just as their fingertips touched, Wei Xilou’s expression suddenly changed.
His ink-black brows furrowed, his long, narrow phoenix eyes seeming to hold a trace of sorrow.
Then he let out a faint sigh.
“How are you still this easy to fool…?”
Xu Muchan paid no attention to his words.
He tightly grasped his hand, trying to pull him out of the water.
But the person beneath the surface did not move an inch.
Instead, the violently shaking dinghy suddenly began moving.
There was no one paddling it, yet it seemed to be pushed forward by some invisible force.
And the person beneath the water always remained exactly the same distance from the dinghy, his face submerged beneath the surface as he gazed at Xu Muchan through the shifting ripples.
Xu Muchan stubbornly pressed his lips together. He had almost completely transformed into a ghost by now. One hand remained submerged in the water, gripping Wei Xilou’s hand tightly, while his rapidly growing hair spread into the water like a swarm of snakes, wrapping tightly around Wei Xilou’s body.
Yet even so, he still could not move the person beneath the water.
The dinghy was almost at the shore, and Wei Yao’s voice was becoming clearer and clearer.
Xu Muchan’s lips trembled. Through gritted teeth, he said, “You’re coming back with me!”
Wei Xilou seemed to sigh again.
The face beneath the water vanished like ripples. The long hair reaching into the water lost its target and drifted about aimlessly.
Xu Muchan felt something cold brush against his ear. He immediately turned his head, but saw nothing.
The dinghy continued moving, now only four or five meters from shore.
Xu Muchan turned back toward the water again, pressed his lips together, and began taking off his heavy down jacket and shoes.
He had made up his mind to bring Wei Xilou back with him.
He was actually preparing to get into the water.
Just as he was about to jump in, something cold suddenly wrapped around his body.
Then his butt was smacked hard.
Wei Xilou’s voice sounded beside his ear, full of warning.
“Ah-Chan, don’t be stubborn.”
Xu Muchan shuddered and turned around, but there was nothing there.
If this had happened before, he might have been afraid.
But things were different now.
Xu Muchan pursed his lips and stubbornly pressed him for an answer.
“Why can’t you come back with me? Did something happen to you?”
Wei Xilou fell silent.
Xu Muchan gritted his teeth.
“If you don’t tell me, I’ll come back again.”
A faint sigh seemed to sound beside his ear.
The cold limbs seemed to embrace him.
Xu Muchan closed his eyes for a moment and heard a voice beside his ear.
“I’ll be fine… Go back first. Once I’ve taken care of things, I’ll come back.”
Xu Muchan didn’t believe him at all.
But by then, the dinghy had silently reached the shore.
Wei Yao grabbed the handle and pulled the dazed Xu Muchan out.
“Holy shit, are you okay? You scared the hell out of me just now!”
Xu Muchan turned to look at him.
“What did you see just now?”
Wei Yao froze and said blankly, “I didn’t see anything…”
Xu Muchan frowned even more deeply.
“Then why were you shouting and yelling from the shore just now?”
Wei Yao looked even more confused.
There was still a trace of fear in his expression. He swallowed hard and stammered, “I wasn’t shouting and yelling. Don’t scare me… I just got worried when I saw you suddenly stop paddling and sit there without moving, so I called out to you a couple of times…”
But Xu Muchan hadn’t responded to him at the time. Not long afterward, the dinghy had started moving again, so Wei Yao had simply waited for him on the shore.
Looking at the unmistakable fear on Wei Yao’s face, Xu Muchan pressed his lips together and didn’t ask any more questions.
“Forget it. Let’s get out of here first.”
Wei Yao said, “Oh,” then gripped the paddle and followed him out timidly, not even daring to look back.
Xu Muchan, however, inexplicably glanced back again when he reached the entrance to the main burial chamber.
Inside the submerged Wei family residence, an enormous shadow seemed to flash past.
The water rippled violently, creating enormous waves, before quickly settling back into stillness.
The two of them left the tomb and went to Wei Yao’s room.
The tomb was damp and flooded, and both of their clothes were dirty to varying degrees.
Wei Yao rummaged through his suitcase and tossed a set of clothes to Xu Muchan.
“Conditions are rough here. I only brought a few sets of clothes, so you’ll have to make do.”
Xu Muchan was still thinking about what had happened. He caught the clothes but didn’t move.
As he carefully replayed everything that had happened in the tomb, he realized that the brother he’d seen at the beginning seemed somewhat different from the brother he’d encountered later.
At first, his brother had seemed strange somehow.
Only later had he returned to the familiar person Xu Muchan knew.
But he was certain that both of them had been his brother.
And if his brother had clearly appeared, why couldn’t he come back with him?
Thinking of the overwhelming black water in the passage beneath Immortal Village, Xu Muchan bit his lip hard.
Was it because of the Black River?
Was his brother trapped in the Black River?
And judging from what his brother had said, it seemed that he had encountered some kind of trouble and simply didn’t want to tell Xu Muchan about it.
Xu Muchan felt unhappy. His brows were tightly knitted.
Wei Yao watched his expression and cautiously raised his hand.
“I’ve only worn these clothes once, and I washed them before bringing them here. You don’t have to look that disgusted, do you?”
Xu Muchan came back to himself and saw Wei Yao staring at him indignantly.
He realized the misunderstanding and explained, “No. I was thinking about something else that made me angry.”
Because of what he had discovered in the tomb, Xu Muchan stayed in the village.
The houses in the village were still undergoing their initial repairs, and there weren’t many that were habitable, so he had no choice but to share a room with Wei Yao.
Later, he went to the tomb several more times, still unwilling to give up, but he never saw Wei Xilou again.
Instead, after the third day of the Lunar New Year, all the workers Old Master Wei had arranged finally arrived.
They quickly drained all the accumulated water from the tomb.
Because the tomb had been submerged, quite a bit of damage had been done to the residence inside.
Old Master Wei was heartbroken and spent his days sighing over it.
Xu Muchan stayed in the village until the fifth day of the Lunar New Year.
With school about to start, he finally had no choice but to return to Jiangcheng with Wei Yao.
On the way back, Xu Muchan was deeply troubled.
Wei Yao, on the other hand, was in high spirits, as excited as a prisoner being released.
His smile never faded, even after they got off the plane.
While they were still in the car, he had already arranged to meet Wen Dajiang and the others for food and video games.
Xu Muchan wasn’t in the mood.
He ate one meal with them but didn’t join them for the activities afterward. Instead, he took a taxi back to Oak Manor.
Oak Manor was quiet and deserted.
The housekeeper had been given an extended holiday, leaving only the cleaning staff who came by at regular intervals.
The enormous villa felt empty and cold.
After a full day of traveling and the dinner afterward, it was already late.
Xu Muchan took a shower and intended to go to sleep, but once he lay in bed, he couldn’t fall asleep no matter what.
When he had lived here with his brother before, he had never thought the house felt so empty and cold.
After tossing and turning for a long time, Xu Muchan bit his lip, got out of bed, hugged his pillow, and went to Wei Xilou’s bedroom.
Wei Xilou’s bedroom was right next door.
Xu Muchan put the pillow down, pulled the covers over his head, and only then managed to fall asleep.