Walking This Night Road Alone Is Better

With a creak, the factory gates were pushed open.

Fresh air mixed with the oppressive feeling brought by the torrential rain rushed at him.

Rain hammered against the ground in a clattering downpour. Without reinforced concrete and glass windows separating him from it, Yu Xing suddenly felt a bright, crystalline clarity.

After listening to the rain for so long... he had gotten used to it.

He looked up at the dense black clouds overhead, then lowered his gaze slightly, his expression indifferent.

In the sparsely populated outskirts at night, there were no stars and no lights. The road stretching ahead vanished into an indistinguishable darkness.

"Do you have someone picking you up?" a cool voice asked from behind him.

Zhao Yijiu came to a stop beside Yu Xing, unhurried. His bleeding had not stopped yet, though it had slowed considerably. Still, he needed medical attention as soon as possible.

Or... Yu Xing guessed Zhao Yijiu had more than one senior Deductionist. Perhaps those people possessed sacrificial items that were particularly effective at treating injuries caused by ghosts.

"No. Oh... you have someone picking you up? Then you'd better hurry." Yu Xing tilted his head and saw the wound on the other man. He did not say much, merely bent down to pick up his black umbrella. "It's raining this hard. Be careful your wound doesn't fester."

"It will. Here." Zhao Yijiu handed him something.

Yu Xing looked down. It was that little knife.

He did not take it. A trace of amusement appeared at the corners of his eyes. "Changed your mind. We'll look at it another day. I'm tired right now."

Tired?

Zhao Yijiu repeated the word in his mind instinctively, unconvinced.

This man was so skilled. One glance was enough to tell he had trained extensively, and his usual amount of exercise could not be low. Yet he was tired this easily?

But Yu Xing clearly paid no attention to his doubts. He raised a hand and stretched it beneath the eaves.

Mm, the rain seemed to have eased a little.

"By the way, are you really a student who just graduated?" Zhao Yijiu finally could not hold it in anymore.

"Of course." Yu Xing turned to him with a completely matter-of-fact expression. "I'm not."

"..."

"I have a friend at Ruibo University. As for me... I just said it casually." Yu Xing smiled like a cat begging to be punched.

Zhao Yijiu: ...Forget it. He had told so many lies already. One more made no difference.

Turning the handle of his folding umbrella, Yu Xing prepared to leave.

"This stretch is pretty long, and taxis can't get in here. You can ride with me. It's not far, and there's a driver." Watching Yu Xing snap his umbrella open, Zhao Yijiu saw that his face was even paler than it had been at midnight. After only a moment's hesitation, he offered the invitation.

Yu Xing had saved him once, after all. Helping with this little matter was only right.

Besides... judging by his appearance, regardless of how many lies Yu Xing had told, his poor health was probably real. Perhaps he had only fallen ill recently?

His invitation was both reasonable and timely.

Yet Yu Xing thought for a moment, stretched out a leg, held up his umbrella, and stepped into the rain.

He did not look back. His figure seemed a little frail, yet somewhat carefree.

"This night road is still better walked alone..."

Though his tone rose at the end, making it sound almost teasing, Zhao Yijiu heard a faint chill within those words.

Yu Xing's footsteps blended into the rain and gradually faded away. Only then did Zhao Yijiu realize he had been refused.

Fine. This man did not appreciate the gesture.

He took out his phone and sent a text, then opened the umbrella he had left nearby and departed the factory as well. But as he put his phone away, he suddenly remembered that he had not asked Yu Xing for his contact information.

"..."

A trace of confusion appeared in Zhao Yijiu's usually gloomy eyes.

Hadn't Yu Xing said they would look at his knife "another day"?

Without any contact information...

Forget it. They would have another chance to meet. He owed Yu Xing his life, so he would definitely have to help him with something else to repay the debt.

The surroundings were all indistinct wilderness. Yu Xing's eyes had long adapted to the dark, and he walked smoothly without even turning on his flashlight.

Once he was sure no one was around, his entire body began to tremble uncontrollably.

Taking a deep breath, he pulled out his phone, opened WeChat, and sent a line to his pinned contact.

san: Track my phone. Come pick me up.

The other side replied instantly.

Z: On my way.

Clearly, he had just fooled Zhao Yijiu again...

In his condition, let alone walking back, even getting rained on a little would probably leave him dead by the roadside.

How could he possibly not arrange for someone to pick him up in advance?

After receiving the reply, Yu Xing stuffed his phone back into his pocket, covered his stifled chest, and crouched down.

Because of the angle, his black hair hid his expression. A line of red blood silently seeped from the corner of his mouth, dripped from his jaw to the ground, and blended into the pooled rainwater.

A rusty taste immediately filled his mouth, fishy-sweet and bitter.

He took out a tissue from his pocket and wiped it away. Yu Xing muttered, "I'm a little too weak this time. This is troublesome."

Fortunately, the person named Z on WeChat did not make him wait long. Just over a minute later, a motorcycle sped toward him with a roaring engine.

The rider wore a black helmet and a dark blue long-sleeved jacket, covered by a transparent plastic raincoat. Long hair spilled from beneath the helmet, and her slender figure clearly belonged to a woman.

The motorcycle stopped beside Yu Xing, carefully avoiding splashing water onto him. The rider lifted her visor, revealing half of a pretty face. She got off the bike and asked in surprise, "Eh, how did you end up like this? Is it dangerous around here?"

"It's alright. Not that dangerous. I'm just sleepy." Yu Xing slowly stood up, naturally handed her his umbrella to hold, then accepted the raincoat and helmet she took from the storage compartment and put them on.

Once he was dressed, the girl folded the umbrella and put it into the compartment. She walked with him to the motorcycle and patted the back seat.

"Get on!"

Yu Xing swung onto the bike neatly, thinking that he could finally sit down and rest for a while.

The girl started the motorcycle and sped toward the city. Her voice passed through the rain and engine noise, emerging from her helmet slightly muffled and unreal.

"Yu Xing, don't forget to come to my school anniversary celebration the day after tomorrow... Hold on tighter, or you'll fall off!"

Yu Xing laughed. "I won't fall off. Stop worrying for nothing."

"Oh, then... the school anniversary..."

The girl was clearly very persistent about the matter. Noticing that Yu Xing did not seem interested, a hint of resentment entered her voice.

"Other kids have parents or friends attending for them, but I don't have anyone~ I'm telling you, Ruibo's anniversary celebration is really fun. Come just once. It's not like you'll lose anything..."

"Hiss... with this face, wouldn't it be inappropriate for me to be your dad?" Yu Xing started teasing her again.

"Who asked you to be my dad!?"

"Then why do you sound like a kid whose parents never came to parent-teacher meetings?"

"..." The girl fell silent at once. More than ten seconds later, she huffily said, "There are results on the Wang Group investigation you asked me to do last time. I have a feeling it involves a major case. Will you come with me the day after tomorrow?"

Knowing that she had sought him out for serious business, Yu Xing stopped teasing her and said, "I'll come."

"Hehe." Having achieved her goal, the girl stopped talking. After dropping Yu Xing off before midnight, she had sheltered from the rain beneath the eaves of a nearby building, waiting at all times for his message. She was full of energy now, but once she noticed that Yu Xing seemed exhausted, she decided not to disturb him.

Unexpectedly, a few minutes later, Yu Xing spoke first. "Zhu Yan."

"What is it?" Zhu Yan asked in surprise.

"Next time you ride a motorcycle, you'd better not wear a short skirt. Look, it's flipping up."

It sounded both sincere and incredibly punchable.

Zhu Yan was already used to him. She did not even lower her head. "Even if it flips up, I'm wearing safety shorts. You're not allowed to look... I won't wear one next time."

Yu Xing said, "You won't wear safety shorts next time?"

"Fuck you! I mean I won't wear a short skirt!"

The next day.

After several days of rain, it finally began to ease in the morning. The curtain of rain gradually thinned, and by noon, the sky had completely cleared.

Mijin City had finally welcomed a bright sunny day. The temperature rose sharply; anyone would have sighed that the weather changed faces faster than Sichuan opera.

Yu Xing woke up from the heat.

After Zhu Yan brought him back to his apartment last night, she left. He forced himself to take a hot shower, changed into pajama pants, then wrapped himself tightly in his blanket.

He slept until noon. Before his alarm could go off, he could no longer stand the heat. He woke up miserably halfway through trying to pull himself out of the blanket, then sluggishly felt around for his phone and checked the time.

12:24 p.m.

He turned off the alarm that read "Ringing in six minutes," yawned, and sat up in bed.

His constitution was abnormally poor, but it was not as if he lacked muscle definition.

When the blanket slid down, it revealed his firm chest and abdominal muscles. They were not especially bulky, so he looked somewhat thin when dressed.

He pressed hard against his temples, got out of bed, and washed up. Recalling last night's test, a pleased curve formed at the corner of Yu Xing's mouth.

His stamina had already recovered. Those pitiful-looking symptoms came quickly and disappeared quickly as well. For the time being, as long as he did not encounter yin energy as intense as when the Persona Mask had appeared last night, he would not become that weak again.

So... he could begin the Persona Mask evaluation game.

Stretching lazily, Yu Xing summoned the Persona Mask template that was lacking in every possible way from within his consciousness and reread the final passage.

"I'd like to see what I'll be like in an evaluation of personality like this, hehe~"

Surely, after becoming a Deductionist, his days would no longer be so boring.

The things he wanted and the matters he wished to accomplish would not be too far away either.

Yu Xing stopped dawdling. After washing up, he selected a light-colored graphic T-shirt from the wardrobe, paired it with jeans and white sneakers, simple and casual.

Within his consciousness, he chose to begin the game immediately.

[Are you sure you wish to begin the Persona Mask evaluation deduction?]

"Mm-hm~"

[Entering deduction in twenty seconds]

[The information for this deduction game is listed below]

Lines of translucent red text appeared in the upper-right corner of his vision.

[Small-Scale Deduction: Corpse Carnival]

[Type: 60% Role-Playing]

[Explanation: In role-playing deductions, Deductionists will replace an existing character in the Absurd World, inheriting that character's identity, interpersonal relationships, and so on. In 60% role-playing games, Deductionists do not inherit the character's abilities and use their own bodies. Their freedom of action is relatively high.]

[This deduction game is a single-player game]

[This deduction game occupies real-world time. Please set aside three hours.]

After reading the information, Yu Xing waited for a while. Twenty seconds quietly passed.

The next moment, everything before his eyes was swallowed by darkness, including himself.