Zhu Shi 2

Let me continue with Zhuang Cheng, though this topic still has to begin with the matter of my brother.

Although our family had originally planned to pass the family Magic Tool down to my brother, he was actually not favored at home.

Or rather, it was precisely because he was not favored that he was made the heir in the first place.

The skill of the Zhu family's Demon Hunters had gradually declined over the generations. By my grandfather's time, he had already planned to withdraw from the Demon Hunter world.

But withdrawing was not something that could be accomplished overnight. The Zhu family still had grudges and debts of gratitude in the Demon Hunter world, and one of my brother and me would have to carry the banner for the transition. My grandfather was sick and wary of the Demon Hunter world, so he instead prepared to place this dangerous responsibility on my brother.

My brother's position in the family was awkward. Our father had married into the family, while my brother was Father's illegitimate son from an affair outside the marriage. Mother was greatly favored by Grandfather, so Grandfather naturally detested Father's infidelity and could not bring himself to treat my brother kindly.

In theory, since my brother was going to become the family's Demon Hunter, the family would need him, and there was no reason to treat him coldly. Besides, the guilty party should be punished for their own crimes, so Father was the one who ought to have been despised. But understanding something rationally did not mean one could handle it well emotionally. Grandfather was the sort of person who was bad at hiding his likes and dislikes. And Father had been missing for years, so Grandfather could not find him to settle the score. All the anger Grandfather had accumulated had nowhere to go.

Naturally, my brother became extremely depressed in that environment. Starting in high school, he picked up the bad habit of misbehaving outside with a crowd of wastrels. As a result, I gradually grew distant from him, and after he entered university, he became even more outrageous.

As his reckless behavior grew worse, the trouble he caused outside naturally piled up as well. I only heard about what happened afterward. Apparently, someone hired thugs to cover his head and abduct him into the wilderness, where they gave him a vicious beating.

The beating did not break his bones—not because he was tough-skinned, or because the attackers showed mercy, but because someone who happened to come across the scene rescued him halfway through.

That person who drew his blade to help was Zhuang Cheng, who was investigating clues related to a Ghost Story in the wilderness at the time.

Only then did the two of them truly get to know each other. Before that, my brother had merely known of him on his own. Having been rescued by the person he had admired so fervently for so long, my brother was naturally filled with gratitude and took the initiative to befriend him. Their relationship was probably quite good during that period.

But the good times did not last. Not long afterward, Zhuang Cheng heard about all the bad things my brother had done in the past, and even caught him in the act of doing something bad. This time, Zhuang Cheng was the one who drew his blade to help the victim. He beat my brother up and severed their friendship on the spot.

This dealt my brother a heavy blow. Later, he reflected on his mistakes and changed himself bit by bit, eventually rebuilding his friendship with Zhuang Cheng.

The two of them were very close now—at least, that was what my brother bragged to me. I had no idea whether it was true.

I was extremely happy about my brother's transformation, and deeply grateful to Zhuang Cheng.

At the same time, I also grew worried.

Zhuang Cheng was very likely to encounter a genuine strange entity in the future. An ordinary person who lived an honest, uneventful life would not be able to encounter one so easily, but someone like Zhuang Cheng, who was "not an honest person," might have already had such experiences... It was not just that the past two or three years had seen an increase in strange phenomena. Perhaps he had already come into contact with Ghost Stories during his childhood. Otherwise, how could he pursue clues about strange incidents with such unwavering determination?

His junior high school classmates had mentioned that he used to stare at candles frequently and obsessively, as if he had been possessed by some filthy thing... Could that kind of unconventional behavior also have been a sign that he was being influenced by some external supernatural force?

More importantly, would he bring danger to the people around him in the future?

To confirm this, I used my brother's connection to meet him in person.

It was the winter solstice of 2022. I was still in my final year of high school and planning to get into Xianshui University, where my brother and Zhuang Cheng studied. We arranged to meet at a commercial center near Xianshui University. The excuse was "going to eat at a newly opened hot pot restaurant nearby." I met him and my brother beside the steaming hot pot.

Seeing was better than hearing a hundred times. Just by looking at his appearance, no one would have imagined that he was a madman with a head full of fantastical ideas.

He wore a black turtleneck wool sweater and had hung his down jacket over the back of his chair. He was not playing with his phone. Instead, he was staring intently at the white broth in the heating hot pot, apparently lost in thought. At first glance, from his appearance to his clothes, he looked no different from an ordinary university student on the street.

If I had to find something unusual about him, it was that he seemed very solitary and paid no attention to the reality of the things around him. He was probably the sort of person who could easily become immersed in his own inner world.

But did that really count as something special? Weren't quite a few young people like that?

When I walked over, he only glanced at me before immediately returning his attention to the hot pot. I understood. I wanted to eat hot pot too. When eating hot pot with friends, I would rather eat, eat, and eat than chat.

"My sister's here." My brother sat across from him and introduced me. "This is my little sister. She's Zhu Shi. Acheng, this is my sister, Zhu Shi."

When Zhuang Cheng looked over at me again, many of his past "insensitive" actions flashed through my mind. I was filled with solemn respect and the desire to keep my distance, and I could not help addressing him: "Senior Brother Zhuang, hello. I'm Zhu Shi."

He was startled first, then said, "Junior Sister Zhu... No, Zhu Shi, you can just call me Zhuang Cheng."

"Okay..."

Unless the other person was an elder, I usually preferred to address people by their names as well.

It was just that in daily life, I played the role of an ordinary person. The problem was that I did not know what I was like after growing up as an ordinary person. I forget who said it before, but when someone imitates a role they are unfamiliar with, they often reveal their stereotyped impression of that role. My performance of my everyday self was based on the helpless women in the online novels I had read before, and sometimes I overdid it.

In other words, well, how should I explain this? Anyway, some people in my class said I was a little fake and coquettish. Unlike when I was working as a Demon Hunter, my everyday voice was rather affected. By the time I realized that this was not good, the habit had already become deeply ingrained. People who were true to themselves in every way might not understand that going against the "persona" one had already established was actually a considerable psychological hurdle.

"Senior Brother Zhuang, have you ever seen ghosts, monsters, or anything like that before?"

During the meal, I found an opportunity to ask the question that was the purpose of this trip.

Zhuang Cheng did not correct me again. He merely shook his head regretfully. "No. Not even once."

"Really?" I was doubtful.

"I wish it were false." He tugged helplessly at the corner of his mouth. That expression of someone returning empty-handed did not look fake.

I still found it hard to believe.

Although I was not as enthusiastic as my brother, I had also kept following the investigation into Zhuang Cheng. The results were highly suspicious. Even though this was an era in which strange phenomena were gradually becoming more active, Zhuang Cheng seemed to have gained nothing at all on the path of investigating Ghost Stories.

I had visited the places where he had conducted investigations before. Those places were not completely free of abnormalities. Some even had monsters openly causing trouble. Yet every time, he managed to brush past them, as if... as if the strange incidents themselves were afraid of him.

Was something like that possible?

Or had he remained safe until today purely because he was incredibly lucky?

I was more willing to believe that he had hidden what he had seen and heard.

However, after probing him repeatedly, I found myself increasingly inclined toward the conclusion that "everything he said was true."

Afterward, I tried to persuade him to give up investigating Ghost Stories. Obviously, my persuasion could not shake the resolve he had maintained for years. Likewise, I had no way to persuade my brother to cut ties with him. In private, my brother was practically his die-hard fan.

All I could do was exchange contact information with him and use asking about my brother's recent situation as an excuse to chat with him online, probe his own activities, and closely monitor his movements. Although we did not meet many times offline, we communicated extensively online.

Before I knew it, I had also developed a considerable sense of familiarity with him.

Contrary to the rumors, he was not a reckless madman who respected no taboos. He actually had plenty of reason and conscience. He was merely a young man who liked Ghost Stories more than anyone else and occasionally performed acts of bravery to help others.

At least, that was what I believed.

That was precisely why I felt even more strongly that he should not be dragged into the strange... dragged into the dangers of our world.

As a fellow Demon Hunter, I had to protect him.

Then, the night before last, my brother told me about the "cave."

Only then did I learn that he had recently moved into a house where the Fallen Demon Hunter had committed crimes. However, since I could not reveal my identity as a Demon Hunter in front of him, I had to ask Agent Kong to investigate whether the matter was genuine.

What I had not expected was that Agent Kong not only confirmed the existence of the cave and the ritual formation, but also brought me another shocking piece of news—my brother had actually taken Zhuang Cheng to see the cave and ritual formation with his own eyes.

This completely unexpected development nearly made my vision go black.

It was not Zhuang Cheng who had brought a strange incident to my brother. It was my brother who had brought a strange incident to Zhuang Cheng?

Brother, what are you doing? Brother?

Given my brother's timid and trouble-averse personality, he probably would not approach that cave of his own accord. But what about Zhuang Cheng? He must already have developed the intention to investigate the cave. Someone like him could never turn a blind eye to such an obvious strange incident.

Although I heard that the cave had temporarily disappeared, since it had already appeared a second time, it would inevitably appear a third and fourth time before long... What if he chose to enter it in person to investigate the cave?

No, no, that was impossible after all.

Even someone as obsessed as him could not possibly enter such an unknown domain in person, knowing that the entrance and exit might disappear at any moment and risking being unable to return.

Just in case, once it was daylight and the other Demon Hunters came to relieve me, I would immediately deal with the cave's strange incident.

I was a Demon Hunter of Luoshan, and Zhuang Cheng was also my friend now. Even for personal reasons, I had to defend his life and rescue him from the potential danger posed by the strange incident.