Going Home

Li Lin stared blankly at the empty corner of the wall, still holding the scraper for collecting samples, his mind so blank he'd forgotten what he was doing.

Captain Song, a middle-aged man who was the captain of the Special Operations Bureau's second team, Song Cheng, frowned tightly the moment the bloodstain disappeared.

Something had vanished from his memory and thoughts, but a residual impression remained. This faint impression stimulated his "spirituality," making him sense something was amiss.

A hazy, shimmering glow appeared in Song Cheng's eyes. He immediately controlled his mind, attempting to "solidify" the last lingering impression in his heart, lest it also dissipate with certain memories. Years of professional training kicked in. Li Lin, still holding the scraper, hesitated before looking up. "Boss, I feel like I suddenly forgot what I was supposed to do. Was there something here just now?"

"Mind interference!" Song Cheng reacted instantly, quickly warning, "Check the 'depth' here immediately!"

Li Lin put down his sampling tools without a word. He quickly took a palm-sized black box from his belt, pressed a few buttons on its surface, and then pulled out a thin "soft tube" from its side. He connected the needle-like tip of the tube directly to his eyeball. After doing this, he looked up, slowly scanning his surroundings with the eye connected to the tube.

A faint humming sound came from the black iron box, and liquid seemed to flow slowly through the thin tube. Li Lin's eye gradually took on a layer of black. In his spiritual vision, everything in the old street began to be covered in black and white.

"Depth L-0, no Otherworld reaction," Li Lin reported as he observed. "I also don't see anything that escaped from the 'Otherworld' or any residue."

Song Cheng frowned and glanced at the box in Li Lin's hand. It was a portable depth detector. Its sensing range and sensitivity were inferior to the standard suitcase-sized equipment, but even the portable version should have been able to detect changes in "depth" within its range.

He could be sure that something had affected his memory and thoughts just now. That residual "impression" was still forcibly solidified in his heart. There must be something sinister here influencing him, but... the equipment couldn't detect it.

Just as he was about to tell Li Lin to adjust the detector's sensing mode, the latter seemed to have suddenly discovered something.

Li Lin stared intently at a spot at the end of the alley.

One of his eyes, connected to the soft tube, was as black as ink. The deep blackness reflected another field of vision. He saw that amidst the black and white buildings of the street, there was a faint trace of color. The color was very blurry and faint, making it impossible to tell what it was, but it was large in scale. He struggled to make out the approximate outline of the almost transparent layer for a long time, estimating its size to be equivalent to a house.

"Captain Song, there's something up ahead, but it's very blurry. It looks like a house," he said, cautiously walking forward. "The depth reading is still 0, and there's no pollution reaction... I'm almost in front of it. Can you sense anything?"

Song Cheng followed Li Lin, his right hand gripping a badge in his pocket, ready to intervene if the situation turned bad. He frowned and shook his head. "My spirituality isn't giving any warnings."

Li Lin stopped at a certain spot. He felt like he had reached the hazy color. Then, he hesitated and slowly reached out his hand forward.

A sharp buzzing sound suddenly came from the black iron box, followed by a few crackling sounds. Accompanied by a puff of green smoke, the depth detector stopped working.

The soft tube connected to his eyeball instantly detached. A substance as black as silt flowed out, quickly evaporating and dissipating upon contact with the air.

The sudden stinging pain in his eye made Li Lin exclaim, "Damn it..." He threw away the black box, which was already getting hot, and instinctively reached to rub the eye that had just established the connection. Song Cheng, standing nearby, immediately stepped forward and placed his hand near Li Lin's temple. "Don't rub it! It'll be fine in a moment!"

Li Lin froze on the spot. He felt a burning sensation near his temple, and the discomfort in his eyeball rapidly subsided. After a moment, he recovered and saw the depth detector on the ground, still emitting smoke.

"...Can the bureau cover the expenses?"

"Yes, they will."

"Good, that scared me," Li Lin said, relieved. Then he turned to look at the direction he had just reached out with a mixture of surprise and uncertainty.

However, there was only a small open space here. At the end of the open space was a wall, covered in random graffiti by someone, with doors, windows, houses, trees, and stones depicted in colorful spray paint.

He waved his hand forward, touching nothing.

"There was definitely something here. The equipment observed it, but it broke before I could confirm. Before the equipment broke, the depth reading was still L-0," Li Lin muttered.

"...Let's head back to the bureau," Song Cheng decided after a two-second pause. "I'll file a report with the council when we get back. This place definitely needs to be monitored for a while. It's possible it's some unregistered 'Otherworld.' We'll probably need large equipment and specialized 'deep divers' to handle it. Also, is your eye okay?"

"...If it's serious, can I get half a day off?"

"No, the bureau is short-handed."

"Then it's fine, I'll just put in some eye drops when I get back."

Song Cheng nodded. Li Lin bent down and carefully picked up the remains of the depth detector, which was no longer smoking. The two walked back to where they had parked their electric scooters, one after the other.

Li Lin turned the key to start the scooter. The scooter's LCD screen flickered and then went dark.

He froze for a moment, then looked up, meeting Captain Song's identical gaze.

"My scooter's broken... yours too?"

Song Cheng nodded silently.

"...Do you think it's a coincidence?"

Song Cheng gently shook his head and said in a deep voice, "People from the 'Academy' have a special term to explain this phenomenon."

Li Lin was slightly taken aback, then recalled some information he had seen before.

"'Machine spirit unhappy.' / 'Machine spirit cowed.'"

They both said in unison.

Then they were silent for a moment, and again said in unison, "You remembered it wrong."

"We'll talk about it later," Song Cheng waved his hand and pushed his scooter, walking slowly back. "Let's leave this place first."

Li Lin pushed his scooter behind Song Cheng. "...Boss, are we just going to push it all the way back?"

"What else? Do you want to abandon your scooter?"

"Doesn't the bureau have a small truck or something? If not, we could even call over that electric tricycle from the logistics department downstairs... Pushing it back is killing me..."

"Stop complaining. Your stamina is worse than mine at your age?"

The two veteran agents of the Special Operations Bureau pushed their electric scooters and gradually moved away, their figures disappearing into the intersection of Wutong Road.

Yu Sheng was very familiar with the boundless, deep darkness around him. He had been coming here quite frequently lately. Floating in this dark chaos, he even felt like he was home.

Eileen's scream still echoed in his ears.

He figured that the scene of him, covered in blood with his stomach ripped open, pushing open the door and dying inside, had probably scared the doll in the painting. It seemed that even Eileen, as a "cursed item," had her limits when it came to psychological endurance.

This made Yu Sheng even more eager to see what would happen after his "return."

When he returned to the human world and appeared before Eileen again... what would the doll missy's reaction be?

Would she... still remember the incident of him pushing open the door and dying in the room?

Yu Sheng floated in the darkness, and the figure of Huli appeared "before his eyes." Recalling the experience in the valley that night, he remembered that when Huli saw him in the dilapidated temple, she had completely forgotten how she had headbutted someone to death. Although she suddenly remembered it later for some reason, at first, Huli had indeed completely forgotten his "death."

Yu Sheng didn't know what this "forgetting" was, nor was he sure if it was his problem or Huli's. After all, the fox girl's mind seemed quite chaotic, so it was normal for her to suddenly forget certain things.

But if Eileen also didn't remember the scene of him pushing open the door and dying in the room later, then Yu Sheng would be basically certain... the problem lay with himself.

There was no way to judge the length of time he floated in the darkness, so after tidying up his experiences so far, Yu Sheng cleared his mind, allowing his tense nerves to rest a bit, and patiently waited for the moment the darkness would end.

Then, he felt that familiar sensation of falling, feeling himself rapidly "returning" to the mortal world.

Yu Sheng, who was prepared, immediately focused his mind, trying to capture the perception at the moment he crossed the "boundary."

Familiar scenes appeared "before his eyes," and a faint sense of guidance urged him to "fall" in a specific direction. He struggled to distinguish among the myriad images that surged forth in those moments, but before he could grasp anything, he "saw" one of the images rapidly enlarge before him—

No. 66 Wutong Road, the living room after entering the door.

Yu Sheng's eyes snapped open.

The familiar furnishings of his home met his gaze. In the dining room next to the living room, that ancient and exquisite oil painting stood quietly on the dining table.

Eileen in the oil painting broke the silence.

"Yu Sheng! You're finally back!"