Translator: Reina Editor: Killian
“But, is it alright to go there at this hour?” Yan Yang’s tone was still holding a trace of despair. “Qunfang-jie has disappeared for two months, and everything feels unreal…”
Yan Yang’s voice was very close. It was obvious that he was still the one holding the device.
Lu Xiaoyun ignored Yan Yang’s mutterings, and his footsteps kept getting farther and farther.
Yan Yang trotted a few steps to catch up. “Don’t you think it’s scary? A living person just disappeared. Is the power of the so-called chasm really so great? This is almost like satire for the doctors in the hospital who work hard every day to save lives…”
Lu Xiaoyun didn’t even slow his walking pace. “No.”
“Yes yes, of course you don’t think so, you are not an ordinary person,” the voice in the tape blurred for a moment, probably due to Yan Yang’s hand trembling, “You know about the chasm, know where its entrance is, and that’s why you dare to go to the laboratory to find that darn pot of plants at this late hour…”
(Sun Zheng and Lu Xia glance at each other, it seems that the relationship between the two partners was not as unshakeable as they imagined.
But this was to be expected, Lu Xiaoyun was a lone wolf… Sun Zheng thought to himself.
But this was to be expected, Yan Yang couldn’t be of any help… Lu Xia thought to himself.)
Lu Xiaoyun’s footsteps finally came to a stop. He spoke from a little distance away, “Are you afraid?”
His words were accompanied by a slightly empty echo. It seemed that the two of them were in a long corridor.
“How is that possible! “Yan Yang’s reaction became intense.
“Turn off the tape recorder and go back. Liu Qunfang is gone now so you don’t need to follow me either.” There were no fluctuations in Lu Xiaoyun’s flat voice.
Crack.
The tape really cut off, leaving only Yan Yang’s ‘hmph’ at the end.
Before Sun Zheng and Lu Xia could wrap their heads around what just occurred, the recorder was turned on again. There was the sound of someone lightly jogging.
“Haa.. haa…” the person holding the device finally stopped, saving Sun Zheng and Lu Xia from the noise generated from his running. His voice between pants echoed through the corridor. “Lu Xiaoyun, you just want to act like a hero. Hmph, I’d let you know that it’s not that easy to get rid of me. Do you really think you’re that capable, it’s been two months but you haven’t found the exit yet. If you fall in, only I can pull you out of there… haa…haa…”
The person walking in front halted his steps for the second time.
“What are you looking at me for? I went to get the key.” Who knew where Yan Yang got the bout of confidence from.
Lu Xiaoyun didn’t reply. There was no way to know what his expression was like at this moment from over the tape. The footsteps of the two people walking side by side sounded again.
(Sun Zheng and Lu Xia also seemed to be relieved. If the doctor and Lu Xiaoyun quarrelled and stopped recording, then they would really not be able to get out here.)
Dr. Yan continued mumbling to himself in a low voice. “Why would I foolishly go to work during the day then run around with you in this spooky hospital at night? It must be because of guilt… Guilt, forget it, you probably don’t even know what guilt is anyway…”
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 Lu Xiaoyun really had any clues, then from the current situation, he should be heading to the laboratory to investigate.
Sure enough, there was only the light click of a key turning in the door, coming from the tape.
Hiss—the noise in the recording suddenly became louder, and Lu Xia’s hand on the device trembled in shock. The indistinct sound whirred, resembling some kind of mourning.
Lu Xia and Sun Zheng exchanged glances, wondering if the two people in the tape had noticed it. The inside of this laboratory was indeed a little different from the outside.
(“The noise is so loud.” Sun Zheng complained. His eyes drifted to the laboratory separated from them by the glass panel, feeling inexplicably tense.)
The person holding the device walked a few steps. He bumped into something they couldn’t discern through the tape, and let out a yelp. The sound was amplified countless times over the tape and Sun Zheng and Lu Xia frowned at the same time.
“Where are you going? Come back over here.” This was Lu Xiaoyun’s voice.
Yan Yang seemed to have frozen for a moment. His reaction in the tape was half a beat slow. “Do you boss everyone around like this?”
Lu Xiaoyun answered crisply. “No.”
Yan Yang took a few more steps then stopped.
The mournful noise seemed to be louder now. Lu Xia finally turned the volume of the device to the maximum and the buzzing sound echoed throughout the hall of the laboratory.
“You, why are you lifting that potted plant up?!” Yan Yang suddenly yelled in a panic.
“Lifting it to move the table to this side, hurry up.” Lu Xiaoyun ordered.
In the tape, there was the sound of the table moving, and the table scraped across the floor like a tearing scream. Sun Zheng and Lu Xia could visualise Yan Yang’s trembling look.
“You won’t start recognising me as a cat, would you?” Yan Yang muttered while moving the table. “Of course you wouldn’t let the cat possess me either, so we’ll just leave as soon as we finish all this. At most, we’ll go with my mother to burn some incense this Saturday…”
He stopped speaking mid-sentence, as if he had received some signal from Lu Xiaoyun.
After a while, Lu Xiaoyun spoke up again, in a low voice, very close to the device. “Crouch down, don’t move around, don’t look up, lift up this floor tile.”
Poor Yan Yang, Sun Zheng said with emotion in his heart. He should be squatting in front of Liu Qin’s desk now, yet he didn’t know what was standing a step away from him, staring at him.
The two people in the tapes were tinkling something. Yan Yang was muttering under his breath too, but due to there being too much noise, Lu Xia and Sun Zheng couldn’t hear clearly at all.
(“Actually…their relationship is not bad.” Sun Zheng said, with an almost envious tone.
“What?” The pitch of Lu Xia’s voice suddenly rose.
“…They even went to the concert together ”
“You’re kidding. My brother was dragged there, and it even spoiled his plans!” Lu Xia was quite aggrieved.
Sun Zheng shook his head at him and said, “That’s why I said so! See, even if you tried to drag me, I might not agree.”
“…”
“What kind of expression is that, stop it.”)
A light exclamation came from the tape.
The mournful noise stopped abruptly.
Light and crisp sounds of something rattling was transmitted from the other end of the recording, bringing with it an acute coldness.
(“What’s that?” Lu Xia frowned, straining to move closer to the recorder.)
The sounds from the other end of the recording poured forth, pounding against Lu Xia’s eardrum
“This is…” Yan Yang seemed to be holding that thing far away. “Do you recognise it?”
Lu Xiaoyun didn’t answer.
Yan Yang continued: “It looks familiar to me…but it isn’t from a human body, it’s more like…”
“It’s the bones of a cat.” Lu Xiaoyun completed the sentence for him.
(Startled, Lu Xia almost jerked away from the device. There were cat bones… in that hole previously?)
“Why did this aunt bury four cat bones here…” Yan Yang asked. “Is that why that whatever-her-name-is saw the cat? It wasn’t because of the pot of Chlorophytum?”
“Two front paws, two back paws. This isn’t good.” The sound of bones colliding slightly came from the tape.
(Lu Xia felt goosebumps creeping from his lower back to the back of his skull. According to his understanding of his brother, Lu Xiaoyun seldom made any sort of comments on the situation, regardless of whether it was good or bad. More often than not, he chooses not to speak because actions could completely solve these problems, and there was no need to waste words.
This time, for the first time, his brother said the three words ‘This isn’t good’.)
“What do you mean?” Yan Yang’s voice sounded terribly frightened, “Is there some kind of curse on these cat bones?”
“No. There’s something else underneath. Take it out.” Lu Xiaoyun’s voice was still calm.
Rustling sounds from Yan Yang’s motions came from the tape, followed by the man’s voice. “As expected, the problem is still with this aunt. It’s impossible not to be suspicious of her at this stage. Whether it is the plant or the cat, it all has something to do with her. Of course you don’t know this since you just came here, but I heard that she used to have a pet cat, and she was raising it like it was her treasure. She would often walk around in the hospital while carrying that cat in her arms, and would even talk to it… However, this cat was later injured by a car accident when it was crossing the road and died a few days later.”
(Lu Xia and Sun Zheng exchanged another glance, vaguely feeling that they had figured out something, yet that feeling was like a fish jumping out from the water, before they had time to capture it, it had eluded them again.)
“Huh?” Yan Yang let out a cry of surprise. “It’s a note? It looks like it’s from some time ago… Ah!”
Lu Xiaoyun seemed to have taken it away.
“What’s written on it? It’s all blurry, read it out to me.”
After a moment of silence, Yan Yang’s complaint came from the tape. “Why aren’t you reading it? Hey, don’t pass it to me again… Xiao Qin, it’s very delicious. After my practical laboratory session tomorrow, I’ll go eat your food… What the hell…?”
“Xiao Qin, I’ll meet you downstairs to pick up my books on Sunday afternoon…”
“Xiao Qin, I won’t be going to class tomorrow. Could you lend me your notes… Zhiwen, Zhiwen?!” The pitch of Yan Yang’s voice suddenly rose, becoming sharp.
(“Zhiwen?” Sun Zheng looked at Lu Xia with questioning eyes. Why did he feel that this name was in his memory…
Lu Xia was also pondering about this name. It was familiar, too familiar.
Who was it?)
“What is this?” Lu Xiaoyun asked, obviously not comprehending the contents.
Yan Yang burst out laughing. “Hahaha, so there’s finally something you don’t understand!! Let me tell you, this note… should be written by a boy to a girl when he was in school. These things were very popular in that era. This girl is Liu Qin, who was very young back then, and this boy is called Zhiwen. Do you know who Zhiwen is? This would be a shocking scandal in the hospital!”
(“I remembered!” Lu Xia suddenly exclaimed. “This Zhiwen is Chen Zhiwen!”
Chen Zhiwen… the name pierced into Sun Zheng’s head like a needle, and his heart involuntarily tightened.
Chen Zhiwen…)
“Chen Zhiwen, he is the dean of this hospital, you idiot Lu Xiaoyun! It seems from this that he and Liu Qin were classmates back then and they had a great relationship… But why did Liu Qin keep these notes under the cat bones? Dean Chen is already someone with a wife and son…”
(“Chen Zhiwen, he’s the former dean of this hospital, Zheng!” Lu Xia turned his head excitedly to the side, as if he’d just grasped some important clue.
Only to find Sun Zheng with a deep frown. There was a dazed and fearful gleam in his eyes.
“What’s wrong?”
Sun Zheng came back to his senses. But he still appeared conflicted. “I keep feeling like we are missing something out…”)
“Did you discover something?” Yan Yang asked in the tape, as if he had completely forgotten the story of the cat or Chlorophytum, and was immersed in the enjoyment of gossiping.
The four cat bones suddenly rattled again.
“Cat bones are used by Yin-followers to seek marriage. I’ve heard of them, but I’ve never seen them before.” Lu Xiaoyun’s voice was heavy.
“Where's that?”
“I don’t know. Since Liu Qin is a yin-follower, the problem with this hospital is worse than what I’d assumed.”
(“A yin-follower? Have you heard of them?” Sun Zheng was equally confused.
“No.” Lu Xia shook his head. “It sounds like people from some strange ethnic group, the kind who would know some strange black magic…”)
“Put all the things back in their original positions. Let’s go back first. We can’t let her discover we’ve been here.” Lu Xiaoyun instructed at the end of the tape.
Gosh that’s so creepy 😭😭
Oh wtf… this is aunt curse the dean? And the hospital?