Edited by Cherry
Residential instance world, mirror world
Although the voice made it sound like he had a choice to make, its words contained its meaning clearly; agree, or fend for yourself.
Zhai Xiaoyi had already tried the latter previously, and he knew what consequences it would bring if he was abandoned at this moment. If he wanted to live, he could only say what the voice wanted to hear. ‘I agree. When you find me, I’ll do whatever you ask me to do if you help me out this once.’
He could clearly hear how pathetic his words sounded, but he couldn’t do anything about it. Things were already like this, and it was true that a dead man’s least valuable possession was his pride, yet he couldn’t help but loathe the feeling of powerlessness he currently felt.
It was as if the voice was purposefully ignoring his bitter expression as it kept talking, ‘Wonderful. In truth, it isn’t even certain that I’ll need your help.. So you might get off for free, how does that sound? After all, as I said, I’m a great businessman, and preparing for all possibilities is a fundamental part of business. If it weren’t for that..’
‘Khm. So, you want to get out, is that right?’ After the voice noticed that it had gone off topic, it quickly found something else to talk about.
Zhai Xiaoyi nodded, then because he wasn’t sure if the voice could actually see him or not, he replied out loud too. ‘Yes. I need to expose Qi Cheng’s.. Um, that kid from before, his matters. I have to tell him face to face, and if what I say is right, I can leave the world.’
‘What are we waiting for then? Quickly turn around!’ The voice sounded somewhat expectant.
For a moment, Zhai Xiaoyi didn’t understand what it meant. ‘Turn around? What do you mean?’
‘Just do it, do I look like I have the time to waste explaining to you?’ The expectation quickly turned into slight annoyance. Zhai Xiaoyi didn’t dare let the voice wait any more in case it suddenly decided to abandon him, turning around to face the mirror after a few seconds of contemplation.
After all, he had nothing to lose, other than his life of course.
Still, he was taken aback from the sight in front of himself, and it took him a while to come back to himself. It stood to reason that since the door was shut and none of the lights were switched on, the inside of the small bathroom should have been completely engulfed in darkness.
Yet in that moment, he could very clearly see his reflection in the mirror above the sink.
What surrounded him was nothing but pure darkness, and other than his body from waist up, nothing else could be seen.
He found it even more strange that his face seemed to be covered by a strange mask, yet when he raised his fingers to his face, he only touched bare skin. It seemed that the mask only existed on his reflection.
Suddenly, the features of the mask contorted, and the strange, beast-like face opened its mouth with a grin. As its lips moved, the voice sounded again, ‘Done staring? If you keep looking at me like that, I’ll feel shy. It’s quite rude, ah, look at that, I’m already blushing..’
The redness of the painted lines really appeared somewhat darker than before. Zhai Xiaoyi didn’t dare think about how that was possible, his face paling. ‘This.. This is you?’
‘Yeah, what did you think? That I was just some bodyless thing?’ After it didn’t get a reply, the mask let out a sigh. ‘But this isn’t my actual body. Even so, why do you care so much? Wasn’t it that you wanted to survive?’
This brought Zhai Xiaoyi out of his daze. He didn’t focus on the mask on his face anymore, only nodding resolutely. ‘Yes. So, can you please tell me what happened?’
Seeing his serious expression, the voice felt somewhat speechless. ‘Do I look like I know? Who do you think I am, some sort of an omniscient being?’
Zhai Xiaoyi frowned, ‘Then how do you want to get me out of here? If you can’t tell me, can you break the rules of the Bureau then, bringing me out forcefully?’
In truth, that idea didn’t sound too bad either. That way he wouldn’t have to go back to fleeing from Qi Cheng while having to continuously yell at him until he could no longer run and talk at the same time. Just now when he did that, it wasn’t at all an enjoyable activity.
Unfortunately, the voice didn’t let him daydream for too long. ‘No, as I said I’m not omnipotent. Are you not listening to me at all? Although I can’t tell you what happened, I can show you. It’s better than nothing.’
Zhai Xiaoyi wanted to ask the mask what it meant, but he soon noticed that he couldn’t open his mouth anymore. His eyes widened as he watched his reflection dim suddenly, almost disappearing.
The mirror flickered like an old TV that hadn’t been turned on for a long time before finally adjusting to the energy that was channelled into it and showing the image of a streetscape in the evening.
Because the image was only a reflection of the past, everything in it mirrored its original position, even the big words plastered on the storefronts, stating that there were great write-downs going on that week in some of them.
It was almost as if for the time being, he became part of that world, breathing together with the breeze, hearing the sounds of birds and traffic and the noise of people. It felt incredibly realistic.
The sounds filled the small bathroom, and the image in the mirror moved. It seemed to be following someone walking on the sidewalks, but because the road was too crowded, Zhai Xiaoyi couldn’t see the person clearly.
Although the scene felt real, there seemed to be some barely perceptible fluctuations in the air from time to time, as if the world could feel that it had been invaded by curious eyes that shouldn’t have been able to remain on its plane for more than a split second.
Since Zhai Xiaoyi had been drawn into this image of the past, he could naturally feel the subtle changes in the atmosphere as if the energy was flowing against his skin like the cold breeze of an early morning. Goosebumps ran up his arms, and he shuddered before he could regulate the strange sensation.
After a few moments of getting used to it though, he found that the feeling was rather comfortable. It made him feel as if there was power running through his blood vessels, power that made him calm down and breathe in harmony with the world.
It wasn’t too bad.
On the contrary, it made a deep, subconscious fear blossom in him, telling him that this was something he couldn’t let go of. Once he lost the feeling, he could never get it back.
It didn’t take too long for him to get used to the sensation, and as he didn’t dare think about what it would feel like when he would inevitably lose it in the future, he focused his attention on that back that continued to appear and disappear in the sea of people.
It belonged to a young woman. Zhai Xiaoyi noticed her first, because her person appeared to be the only fixed point in this world.
Although she was moving, her frame was steady, and the image of the street almost blurred around her – as if she truly was the centre of this world.
The air coming from the mirror was cold, with a touch of after-rain freshness. It filled Zhai Xiaoyi with a sense of nostalgia; the kind one would get while strolling around on vacation.
When he was small, even though his parents were extremely busy people, they never failed to take a couple of days off work every time there was a break at Zhai Xiaoyi’s school – then the three of them would travel to other cities or countries to play around for a few days. This was what the scent in the air reminded him of now.
His heart felt warm, and he could sense that special kind of fondness the memories brought him.
It was then that the woman on the other side of the mirror suddenly turned and walked through the entrance of a building, and the scene changed.
The noise of her heels on the floor echoed through the empty hall as she made her way over to one of the apartments on the first floor in a manner that was not too hurried, but not too slow either.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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If one listened carefully, the sound of the television from the flat above could be heard through the walls. It sounded like a sports commentator at first, but then the channel was most likely changed and the noise seeping from the television upstairs turned into canned laughter before changing again.
On the wall above the dining table, there was a round clock. It gave a loud ‘tock’ with every second, as if its mere purpose were to measure that woman’s life, going around again and again, never backwards, with extreme punctiliousness as it counted each moment in time before counting them again.
Footsteps sounded from the apartment above. The parquet creaked, and at the same time, a sudden buzzing sound appeared in the woman’s flat. The heating had started up.
The woman walked around the room for a while more, putting her things down and organizing others. After some time, she opened the door to the hanging corridor and stepped outside again.
She stood, looking up towards the top of the building for what felt like a long, long time before she fumbled to pull out a cigarette from her pocket.
She rested an arm on the handrail as she lit it, enjoying the feeling of her throat being filled with smoke, almost greedily sucking in more of it until she felt dizzy from the lack of oxygen. She smoked quickly and without restraint, so much so that after a couple more schlucks her mind’s buzz started to feel more intense than the breeze on her skin.
She took her time smoking, only going back inside after a good while had passed.
The gas-range clicked, letting out a buzz as it lit up. The woman filled a pot with water and placed it on top of the heat distributor, covering it up before sitting down to the small table and starting to peel potatoes.
Her movements were without any sense of direction, and often there were big chunks of yellow that fell to the table along with the peel. It was as if the small knife in her palm knew no mercy; no matter what was placed under its blade, it would hack away at it all the same.
She washed the peeled potatoes one by one before cutting them into small squares at a slow pace. The water’s gurgitation was loud, and it filled the room with a solemn sense of liveliness.
The woman pushed the squares into the pot before sprinkling it with salt generously. She watched the water move for some time, only standing up to clean the table after a good while.
The light in the room was warm. The lamp above her head was rather old, and the lightbulb in it emitted an orange glow that drew a strange kind of haze onto the small corner.
The woman sat dazedly, looking ahead at the calendar on the wall, but not really seeing any of it.
Then, she moved suddenly. She looked away as she came out of her daze, grabbing the small bag filled with the remains of the potatoes that had suffered through her peeling. She still needed to take them outside.
Although the residential building was near the city centre, the residents placed a great deal of importance on the aesthetics of the inner court. Other than the half-sunk doors of the cellars, there was also a smaller room in which the garbage bins were stored, and in an obstructed corner of the court there even was a composter box.
The woman hummed quietly as she made her way across the court.
It was already dark outside. She opened the lid of the box with two hands before pouring the contents of the bag inside.
The sludge inside was muddled by the potato peels, and the nauseating smell stirred as it came into contact with the fresh air.
A vague sound came from the stairwell. It sounded like someone was talking, but the noise was too faint, and the woman didn’t look up.
She finished throwing the peels out before heading back towards the building.
Previously, she had changed into slippers right after she had gotten home, which caused the sound of her footsteps to not be as pronounced as before, making the noises of the night city appear even more prominent.
The hollow, far-away sound of cars passing by came from the direction of the street, and faint chirr sounded from the tall tree in the corner of the yard. A door was opened somewhere on an upper floor in the house, and a hazy light fell onto the moonlit courtyard.
The yellow brightness illuminated the ground in front of her, and she stared down at the small, bloody lump as the sounds in the stairwell grew louder.
It was a familiar voice, that of an elderly man who lived on an upper floor with his wife and grandchild, ‘..Here, all the time, and you don’t even think about how your..’
The words echoed down the corridors, some of them sounding strangely muffled.
The woman didn’t look up, raising a hand to her chest as she glanced down at the lifeless bird in the dust.
It had once probably been a pigeon, but the wings were completely picked clean, the head removed, and only a bloody mess of a torso remained with the structure of the body barely visible.
The woman breathed out as she looked away, just in time to hear a loud noise from the inside of the building.
‘Auntie shouldn’t..’ A light, childish voice came from the direction of the stairwell. The words halted in a strange way, and the woman turned abruptly to look over.
‘Does auntie have any snacks?’ A little girl stood at the top of the stairs, shyly twirling a handful of her uniform’s long skirt as she spoke with downcast eyes.
‘………’ The woman contemplated for a moment before asking, ‘Where is your mother?’
The girl answered without thinking, ‘Mommy’s upstairs. Auntie shouldn’t walk around this late at night. It isn’t safe these days.’
The woman raised an eyebrow as she walked over to the foot of the stairs, ‘Should children run around then? It isn’t safe, that’s right, it isn’t safe for little kids either.’
Seeing the little girl only looking back at her without saying anything, she sighed. ‘Okay. Which apartment do you live in? Let auntie send you back. Don’t let your mother worry, it’s very late already.’
The girl nodded shyly. ‘On the fifth floor.’
‘Alright.’ The woman walked up the stairs and held out a hand towards the little girl.
She didn’t take it. The girl’s expression dimmed for a moment before she jumped forward with a smile on her face. She walked quickly, jumping around as if playing a game, asking the woman, ‘So does auntie have snacks? Hehe..’
The woman listened to her as she pulled her arm back without a change in expression, ‘No snacks. It’s so late already, little children shouldn’t eat at this time. It’s not good for your immune system if you have too much food after eight o’clock.’
The two of them walked slowly, the woman asking some perfunctory questions from time to time, and the little girl answering them without any suspicion.
The building was tall, and the elevator had been out of order for more than two weeks at the time. Every turn in the stairwell had eight steps, and there were three turns on each floor. By the time they got to the fourth floor, the woman was already taking deeper breaths.
She glanced at the girl who still seemed energetic at this point in time, asking, ‘So, how come your mother let you outside this late? Don’t tell me that you snuck out..’
The little girl shook her head solemnly before smiling. A small dimple appeared on her cheek. ‘No, mommy told me to have a good day, she let me out herself. It’s still early. Auntie should know this.’
She jumped forward, directly landing on the fifth floor’s ground. She looked at the woman with eyes that gleamed like the starry sky, and pulled her arm as if wanting her to lean down.
The woman complied wordlessly. She watched as the child took a step closer to her and raised a palm to obscure her mouth. A breathy whisper reached her ear, ‘Auntie should go back now. Don’t walk around in the dark anymore, and be careful of the pretty gege. Okay?’
The woman stood up straight, looking down at the little girl silently. In the end, she only asked, ‘What’s your name?’
The girl’s smile was like a blossoming flower, but she didn’t seem to have the intention of answering.
The woman didn’t think much of it, and turned to walk downstairs after not having gotten a reply even after a long time had passed.
Just as she was about to reach the last step of the turn, a sweet laugh sounded from behind her. ‘Auntie doesn’t remember Siyun? It’s not a problem. I remember auntie very well, that’s enough.’
The woman turned back abruptly, squinting in the dark as she stared up at the empty corridor. There was no one there.
Zhai Xiaoyi could feel the energy surrounding him turn more and more turbulent gradually.
The cold greens and hazy oranges of the mirror world twisted and swirled until nothing could be made out in the cavalcade of colors and scents before the scene stilled suddenly.
That young woman still appeared to be the origo of the world here, but she seemed more haggard than when he had last seen her.
She was sitting in the living room of her apartment, the pair of shoes with high heels she usually wore carelessly thrown onto the carpet. She held a worn-looking notebook in her hand. The striped paper had only a single line of numbers scribbled on it; a phone number.
In her other hand she held a phone, carefully putting in the numbers one by one, each of them followed by a melodic ‘chip’ sound.
The curtains covered the windows, but their thin material couldn’t entirely filter the brightness of the day outside. The light fell onto the bright orange curtains and then fell onto the interior of the room, only dimming slightly after having gained a strong, warm hue.
The phone rang. Once, then twice, then for the third time. The woman waited, subconsciously slowing her breath until it could only be heard faintly, listening intently.
The fifth ringing sounded, then the sixth and seventh ones. The eighth one.
The woman was starting to feel desperate.
This was nowhere near the first call she had made that day, and truthfully speaking, she had already mostly memorised the phone number too. It was such a pity that still, no one took her call.
The tenth, and then finally, eleventh. She let out a disappointed breath, pulling the phone away from her ear to disconnect the call, but strangely, she didn’t hear a twelfth ring.
She looked down at the bright yellow screen of the phone and saw the numbers on the screen. 00:00:03.
00:00:05.
She quickly held the phone to her ear again, asking in a shaky voice, ‘Hello?’
The energetic voice of a woman came from the other end of the call. ‘Hi, this is Chunyuan Supernatural Investigation ltd., CSI for short. What can I help you with?’
It was as if the words broke an invisible barrier in the woman. Tears streamed down her face as she tried to explain as specifically as she could, ‘I’m having a problem, it’s kind of an issue, yes, let’s call it that. It’s very difficult to say but I’ve had this feeling, like, as if someone was constantly watching me, since I don’t even know when, maybe last week?’
‘I can barely sleep anymore, and it all started when I saw a ghost a few days ago. It was this girl, you know, she used to live in the building, and she was always very cute and polite, but I checked, I checked and the news had, there was a report, I don’t know how I didn’t remember before, one or two months ago, she disappeared, and there hasn’t been anything, no one has seen her ever since, except, of course, me, but you do understand, you also get why I can’t go to the police with this?’
‘Anyway, I feel like I’m being watched, yes, even now.’ She unconsciously lowered her voice, holding the phone closer to her mouth as if she could make sure that no uncalled forces could hear what she was saying. ‘It’s not the girl, she doesn’t seem to have any enmity with me, that’s right, I had always been nice to her, why would she.. The thing is..’
The voice on the other side of the call had been quiet for a while, interrupting her only now, ‘I’m sorry, miss, but I’m going to need some more information about you and your relation to this case. If you are serious, I am willing to meet up with you in the coffee shop on XW Avenue in two hours.’
Not hearing the woman reply, the voice emphasised, ‘I currently just happen to be in the city. If it isn’t convenient, we can set another appointment two weeks from now.’
The woman came back to herself suddenly, saying hurriedly, ‘No, no, today is good, two hours from now is very good. I’ll be there!’
Truly, two hours later she was sitting in an obscured corner of the aforementioned coffee shop. She held a big, almost bowl sized cup in her hands, clutching it as if the burning warmth passing onto her hands through the porcelain could ease her anxiety.
The chair across from her was pulled away with a faint screeching sound, and a young woman sat down without even looking at her.
She raised a hand, motioning for the waiter to come over, and ordered while fixing her hair with graceful movements. After the waiter left, she looked at the woman sitting across from her for the first time, noting with a light smile, ‘It’s a very windy day, isn’t it?’
The other stared at her. This person who she had agreed to meet didn’t look like an actual investigator at all. She looked very young, with only her pinned up hairstyle making her appear somewhat more mature.
She let the woman scrutinize herself with a light smile on her lips as she pulled a folder out of her bag, laying out different sheets of paper onto the table.
‘This is a form I’d like you to fill out before we begin. It is basic, personal information for our database.’ She handed over one of them first, ‘This one, it already has the company’s stamp. It states that we will not misuse your information in any case, and that if we do, you’re entitled to a financial compensation of a hundred thousand.’
Placing a pen next to the paper, she cast her eyes down, ‘Please sign.’
A quarter of an hour later, all of the paperwork could be said to have been finished. The young woman smiled and extended a hand towards the other. ‘Excuse me for not having introduced myself earlier. It is very common that swindlers think that all our company does is scam people, and so we have to spend a lot of time differentiating between actual clients and people who have nothing better to do than to bother others trying to do their job. I apologise. My name is Chu Lizheng.’
The other shook her hand without much thought. She asked, ‘Miss Chu, what can be done about the things I’ve told you about?’
‘Hauntings are a quite serious matter. You told me about a little girl, and you mentioned feeling like someone is watching you?’
The woman nodded, explaining, ‘Yes, the girl appeared very suddenly, and it is like I haven’t been alone ever since. But I know it’s not her. What the strangest thing is, I don’t feel like I’m being watched right now.. I don’t feel it when there are others around me. Only by myself, only when I’m alone..’
Chu Lizheng didn’t reply for some time, thinking about something as she bit the end of her pen. Finally, she asked, ‘Are you completely sure that the cause is supernatural?’
‘What do you mean?’ The woman’s expression became blank.
‘I mean that oftentimes, experiences similar to seeing spirits or meeting relatives who have passed away can be caused by psychological reasons. It’s not rare that people think they’re seeing things, when in reality, they only wish that they could see those, you know, one last time.’
‘I feel like what happened to He Siyun is quite sad, and scary even. It is understandable that it would cause people to think about her often. It isn’t unrealistic to say that people who had a good relationship with her may wish to see her again.’
‘As I said, this is a normal psychological reaction. After all, our subconscious desires cannot be regulated easily, and once we want something to be true, we’re inclined to believe it is. So I want to make sure, are you certain that what happened was a supernatural encounter?’
The woman’s hold on the cup became tighter. ‘You mean to say that everything that I’ve gone through has only happened in my own head?’
Seeing the other’s frail expression, Chu Lizheng hurried to explain, ‘That isn’t what I said. I asked you if you thought it could’ve had a psychological reason. Miss, I would like to remind you that even if it is a mental process, it is no less real than an actual ghost. Just because something doesn’t physically exist, that doesn’t mean it isn’t just as important as..’
The woman interrupted her. ‘Alright, I see, you don’t need to say any more. I get it. I’m sure it was supernatural. What now?’
Chu Lizheng shook her head, ‘Even if you are sure, there is still a risk.’ Seeing the other’s frown deepen, she sighed. ‘My team has a strict three step plan we implement when investigating supernatural cases. The effectiveness is relatively high; first, we investigate the location. Secondly, we try to recreate the initial situation with the help of our clients, and finally, we do our best to exorcise the spirit.’
‘We usually work on a budget, meaning that our prices are relatively low. They really mainly depend on the actual amount of money we use up while doing a job..’
The woman seemed anxious to wave her down, ‘It’s fine even if you’re asking for a lot. Just be sure to get rid of whatever the thing is.’
Chu Lizheng finally showed a genuine smile. ‘Great. Then, I’d like to propose ninety thousand as the beginning price. We will have a look around the place tomorrow, then decide what further action is needed.’
‘Good. That is good.’
Seven days had passed since the day the woman had seen He Siyun’s ghost.
It was also the day that Chu Lizheng’s group agreed to visit the residential building, a day with heavy rain all around the country.
She shook the umbrella in her hand as she closed it, having stepped into the lobby of the building. The man next to her took the wet umbrella from her wordlessly, letting her ready the copy of the documents she wanted to hand over to their client.
After closing the door, the noise of the rain grew faint and more distant as the sounds from the building’s interior became more prominent.
The lush green of the residential park outside painted the light’s reflection green, making the atrium of the building appear somewhat unreal. The sound of conversation came from an upper floor, and a door was opened somewhere in the house, letting the faint sounds of a record of Ruse of the Empty City escape into the open air.
Chu Lizheng spoke to the group of three, ‘Miss Yang will be here soon. Remember; answer whatever questions she has, but don’t go into details. It’s better if you let me speak, she’s already familiar with me.’
‘We’ll begin in the courtyard, then check the stairwell up to the fifth floor. Document anything extraordinary, take photos and notes. You already know how it goes. I think we’ll end today with her apartment probably in about two to three hours. Alright?’
The reply was a unanimous ‘yes’.
Not long after, the group began their walk through the building. It was as Chu Lizheng had said, and their investigation really did wrap up in less than three hours.
She stood in the woman’s living room, imitating a motion of dusting her hands off softly as she spoke to her, the other three of her team still inspecting the room, ‘I think this is all for today. We’ll go back and go through all of the documentation, see if there is anything amiss. If there is nothing new, I suggest that we directly carry on with the next portion of the routine a week from now. Does Miss Yang think that’s feasible?’
‘Feasible, yes.’ The woman nodded quickly before realising what Chu Lizheng had just said, paling significantly. ‘Are you sure it can’t be carried out earlier? Do you need an entire week? Surely?’
Chu Lizheng knit her eyebrows subconsciously, but no other sign of displeasure could be seen on her expression. She smiled as she rejected the request, ‘I’m sorry, but we won’t be able to do thorough work if we rush this part. I hope you understand.’
‘I do, I get it, but you also have to understand, I’m not doing too well these days, you see, everything’s already like this after only a week, what will it be like after another? I will be honest with you, I don’t think I can bear it.’ The woman was sitting down on the couch, massaging her forehead as she spoke.
She glanced up at Chu Lizheng standing in the middle of the living room, but only got another affable smile as a reply. ‘I’m sorry, Miss Yang. If you think it’s suitable, I have a very good friend, she has just recently opened her own clinic, she is a very talented psychiatrist. If you think so, I can give you her business card..’
The woman’s voice became close to hysterical. ‘You.. I don’t.. I’m not..’ She laughed with an uneasy expression, ‘You just do your job, okay? Try to be quick, just try to be quick.’
Chu Lizheng let out a sigh. ‘Miss Yang, there is nothing wrong with seeking professional help.’ She looked at the woman with some pity, but didn’t see any change in reaction from her. ‘We will try to work as fast as possible. I’m sure Miss Yang will be satisfied in the end.’
The woman nodded slowly, not daring to say anything more. She agreed, ‘Fine, that is fine, after all, you are the professionals, you know how this works, better than me, next week it is then, next week.’
She glanced at the others in the room, ‘I just wonder if there is anything I could do? To help, you know, to be honest, it is so that I don’t feel so useless when I’m waiting.’
Chu Lizheng didn’t have the heart to tell her that she could be of little help without any expertise. She thought for a moment before saying, ‘I’ll give you the address of a shop; just go there if it feels unbearable. They have a wide variety of amulets and the like. They can also be trusted most of the time. It’s just that their prices tend to be a little high.’
‘If Miss Yang finds that it could make you feel better about the situation, I suggest taking a chance. It shouldn’t be too far away either; about fifteen or so minutes by bus. Alright? I’ll give you the address.’ She pulled out a pen from her bag, scribbling the words onto scrap paper from the table, coincidentally right below her company’s phone number.
The woman nodded, reluctantly taking the piece of paper from between the extended fingers. The gaze she used to glance over also had traces of the emotion. ‘Are you sure there is nothing else I..’
Chu Lizheng gave an apologetic smile, ‘The best thing you can do is try to be safe. I know it isn’t much, and it might make you feel discouraged. Try to bear with it. We won’t take too long.’
‘Alright.’ The woman didn’t force it anymore.
After the group left, she sat alone motionlessly for a long time. She stared at the blank tv in front of her, but it was clear from her expression that she was more so in a daze than thinking; it appeared that she really didn’t have anything more to do.
She stood up suddenly, stirring up the settling dust particles in the golden light coming from outside.
The shop Chu Lizheng had mentioned only took up about a dozen square metres in actuality, a small, inconspicuous room on the ground floor of an ordinary residential in the city centre.
The bells above the door jingled crisply as the heavy door with painted glass lining was pushed in.
The author has something to say:
A cliffhanger, isn’t it? Not too much of an exciting one, but one nevertheless. This is part 1 of chapter 39, part 2 will be the next update in two months. Wishing everyone a fun time until then.
I’ll post in the announcements channel once I get up, too. It might be a couple hours later than when the chapter goes up.
Also, this chapter is 5.8k words so far. I did say it was going to be longer than ch40 after all. Hopefully I can end it with Miss Yang’s death already in the past, and another one after. I did plan to have three murders in the chapter, but for obvious reasons(it would be too long) that isn’t really feasible. In fact, I have realised that had I simply divided all of the recent text into the usual 3k long chapters, I would have enough material to not have to take a break. Well. That’s not an issue, it’s good to take a rest when the time comes for it.
At last, – and I am only mentioning this because I can’t stop thinking about it – I’d like to recommend the third arc of a novel that is getting translated on here.. I’m not sure if it has already been translated or if the translator is still doing the second one at the moment(I think that is what’s happening). The third arc of BECD, ‘Did the young master pretend to be sick today’.. That’s what I’m rereading today. It’s very good. Yes, that is all. See you all in two months!
