Nightmare (3) - Soul Collision

The company cafeteria is very bright, with tables for four people neatly arranged in the hall. On the other side, small shops specializing in different foods are lined up like a snack street, with many people queuing at each window.

The woman following behind Yu Xing was clearly a seasoned veteran; unlike Guan Xin, who wore her name tag obediently, Yu Xing herself wasn't wearing one either.

Therefore, he didn't know the woman's name and could only try to avoid talking to her to avoid giving himself away.

Fortunately, the woman knew Fang Xing's personality and didn't try to make conversation to annoy him.

When the two arrived at the cafeteria, there weren't many seats left. The woman pointed to a seat in the middle and said, "Why don't you go buy your food first, Brother Fang? I'll save this seat for you."

Yu Xing didn't answer her. Just then, he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He took out his phone with a normal expression and saw a WeChat message pop up on the unlocked screen.

The other person's contact name was simple and clear: Zhou Xue.

I see you, you're on my right.

A second later, another message arrived.

"What's Wu Shan doing here? My discussion with you doesn't need an ordinary art student listening in, does it?"

Even through the screen, Yu Xing could sense the dissatisfaction in Zhou Xue's tone.

Perhaps the dissatisfaction wasn't directed at him, but rather at the tail following him.

Zhou Xue is a key character in the main storyline. In terms of work, she and Fang Xing are on the same level. More often than not, the priority of art direction is far less than that of the plot, let alone the world-building.

She didn't need to be careful when talking to Fang Xing.

"This woman's name is Wu Shan...?" Yu Xing obtained the information he wanted effortlessly. He replied, "She followed me here on her own. I'll handle it."

He put away his phone, glanced to his right, and spotted Zhou Xue alone in the corner.

In front of her was a bowl from the staff canteen, which appeared to contain braised chicken and rice. When Yu Xing's gaze swept over, her slightly tired expression softened a little, and she nodded gently.

The dissatisfaction was clearly not directed at him.

Yu Xing glanced at Wu Shan subtly, having already anticipated the conflict between the two.

The reason he could recognize Zhou Xue's face at a glance was because Zhou Xue looked exactly the same as in the first stage. It seems that the young master's supernatural space is indeed related to her.

He turned his head, still holding his phone, and said, "I already said, I'm not free at noon today."

Then, under Wu Shan's somewhat stunned gaze, he walked towards Zhou Xue.

If she followed at this point, it would only be considered inconsiderate. Wu Shan could only suppress her anger, glance at Zhou Xue who didn't even look at her, and silently go to buy food.

"I'm sorry to have taken up your lunch break."

Yu Xing sat down opposite Zhou Xue, and Zhou Xue's first words were an apology.

It's clear that Zhou Xue and Fang Xing's relationship is lukewarm; they don't interact much in private, just like ordinary colleagues.

"It's nothing, it's just work," Yu Xing said, while also observing Zhou Xue's expression.

Tired, haggard, even a little dejected, his young face, which should have been full of vitality, was now visibly lacking in energy, and he was shrouded in an inexplicable and eerie aura.

In a way, this is very similar to the Zhou Xue he met in Ghost Alley. However, back then, Zhou Xue was trying to avoid supernatural events. She not only had to work with the paper figures from the inside, but also had to hold back the shop owners so that they wouldn't go out to deliver food to the paper figures.

But what about now?

Yu Xing instantly guessed that Zhou Xue seemed to have encountered something that could put her in danger.

The discussion about the ghost bride's appearance later would be a great opportunity to gather information, but Yu Xing wasn't in a hurry at all. He smelled the aroma of the food in front of Zhou Xue, and his stomach quietly growled.

"I'll go buy some food first, we can talk while we eat."

He couldn't bear to go hungry no matter what he did; he just came to say hello as a sign of politeness.

Zhou Xue nodded, watching his departing figure. She picked up a piece of chicken and ate it with white rice. The rich flavor melted on her tongue, but it couldn't dispel the deathly aura that had been gathering between her brows.

Five minutes later, Yu Xing returned with a tray. He had bought a bowl of rice with toppings, took a bite, swallowed it, and then asked, "Are there any new requirements for the ghost bride design?"

Zhou Xue's gaze, which had been fixed on his face, suddenly snapped back to reality. She nodded and said softly, "Just yesterday, I had a new idea."

She took out her phone and opened a picture in her photo album.

This is a simplified concept sketch. Zhou Xue works in the Yugi industry, so she's not completely clueless about character design. Although her drawing is very simple, and compared to Yu Xing, it's like an elementary school student standing in front of a college student, but at least all the key design elements are shown.

Yu Xing casually took her phone and examined it closely.

In the picture, against a black background, a woman dressed in red, or perhaps Female Ghost, floats low in the air, her feet, clad in red cloth shoes, dangling limply.

The woman was dignified, her upper body straight, her hands clasped in front of her abdomen, a red robe wrapped around her body, her hair tied up, and a red veil covering her head, which was slightly lifted by a breeze from who-knows-where, allowing one to see half of the Female Ghost's face.

Her skin was deathly pale, her lips were bright red and slightly parted, and two streams of bloody tears flowed from her eyes, which were covered by a veil, and then dripped from her jawbone to the ground, where they burst into a bloody flower.

He glanced at the details, raised an eyebrow, and asked, "What's different from before? It's just a slight change in the style of the clothes. Was it really necessary?"

Zhou Xue pursed her lips. "Yes, this is the kind of dress a ghost bride would wear."

Her answer seemed ambiguous, but if you listened carefully, you could detect a subtle persistence in it.

It was as if... she knew exactly what the Ghost Bride was like.

Yu Xing handed the phone back, resting her chin on her hand, and asked, "Is this the last revision? I'm starting to draw this afternoon, and if they come up with any new requirements then, I'll get really angry."

He didn't miss the slight contraction in Zhou Xue's pupils when she heard those words.

"How about... you design other characters first?" Sure enough, after a few seconds, she spoke cautiously.

Yu Xing tentatively asked, "Shall I draw the ghost groom first?"

"Um... didn't the groom say he'd paint after the bride?" Zhou Xue seemed surprised that he'd switched his focus to the ghost groom, and stammered, trying to dissuade him.

Yu Xing understood.

He took a bite of food, not responding to whether or not to insist on drawing the groom first, but instead raised his chin and pointed at Zhou Xue's phone. "Don't you think your drawing is missing something?"

A hint of confusion appeared in her eyes. "Well, of course, I always feel like something's missing... but I can't think of anything."

There was an odd pause in the middle of the sentence, as if he had changed his words at the last minute.

Yu Xing guessed that what she meant was not "I can't think of it," but rather "I can't remember it."

This person might have had some connection with Liu Xue, and based on that face that bears a striking resemblance to Liu Xue's portrait in the mourning hall, this connection is valid.

He didn't want to play games, as that would only keep him a casual colleague and prevent him from effectively completing his protection mission.

Recalling her limited impressions of the ghost bride Liu Xue so far, Yu Xing said, "If a ghost bride had red nail polish, wouldn't that create a better atmosphere?"

Zhou Xue was stunned.

She stared at her phone for a long time, looking somewhat bewildered.

Ghost brides are a common character in horror Yugi, with nails that are either red or black, so they should be easy to imagine. However, Zhou Xue gave the ghost bride a pair of hands with pure nails in her painting.

She said, "I always felt that she shouldn't wear red nail polish... it just didn't feel right..."

Yu Xing narrowed her eyes slightly, thought for a moment, and then changed her mind, saying, "How about we change it to bloodstains instead of red nail polish?"

Zhou Xue's eyes suddenly lit up.

Suddenly, an image flashed into her mind: a pair of slender, white hands, covered in blood.

But something's still missing...

"Add a paper cutter." The magnetic male voice startled her from her reverie. She suddenly opened her eyes wide and stared intently at "Fang Xing" in front of her.

In the current design, she has not yet mentioned the bride's weapon.

She had always felt a thin mist preventing her from thinking, but when Yu Xing uttered the words "paper cutter," she suddenly realized, "Yes, that's exactly what a ghost bride should use."

That's right, in those fragmented, elusive memories, the ghost bride used this!

Zhou Xue seemed very happy, but the deathly aura on her face intensified, to the point that Yu Xing suspected she might be so unlucky as to get hit by a car and die the moment she stepped outside.

Is protecting her from being killed by bad luck also part of the mission...? Yu Xing thought to herself.

Then, taking advantage of Zhou Xue's gaze, Yu Xing pressed on. "You look terrible, has something happened to you recently?"

"Ah... no." Zhou Xue looked away, but her guilty conscience only proved that she was lying.

"Looking at you, it's like you haven't been able to sleep at all. Have you been staying up all night for days?" Yu Xing gestured for her to look at her own dark circles, which were still very noticeable even with a lot of makeup.

Without makeup, her eyes would probably look like a panda's.

When the topic of sleep came up, Zhou Xue involuntarily trembled slightly.

Clearly, she was not in good spirits at all, unlike the nonchalant attitude she was putting on.

Yu Xing pretended to move a little closer, squinting as he sized her up.

"W-What are you doing..." Even though Fang Xing had an eccentric personality and was difficult to get along with, he had never been this close before. Zhou Xue looked at him, somewhat at a loss.

"It's nothing, it's just that your complexion reminds me a bit of a relative of mine who had their spirit possessed." Yu Xing started making things up, then seemed to realize belatedly, "Oh, is it inappropriate of me to say that? It sounds like I'm cursing you."

Based on his guess, if Zhou Xue really had something going on, she would definitely be interested in the relatives he mentioned.

Sure enough, she paused for a moment. "No, no, everyone knows you're outspoken... But what do you mean by 'soul being possessed'?"

"Well, it's a bit superstitious, I don't know if you believe it or not." Yu Xing pretended to recall something. "I heard it from my aunt. That relative always felt like he could share another person's memories, but he couldn't remember them clearly. Later, he discovered that these memories... came from a dead person."

Zhou Xue swallowed hard. "And then?"

"And then? That dead man tried to kill him, and he really did almost die. One morning, he foamed at the mouth and collapsed on the ground. He was taken to the hospital, still muttering that there were ghosts. When the people around him lifted his clothes, they saw a black handprint on his chest."

Zhou Xue: "... Is it... that scary?"

Yu Xing snorted lightly, "Later, my aunt finally found a reliable Daoist priest. The priest said he had been possessed by a spirit, and after a ritual was performed, he recovered. I only saw a picture of that relative at the time, and it looked a bit like your condition today. It's mainly because we're having a 'nightmare,' facing all sorts of ghosts and monsters every day, that's when I remembered. No offense intended."

[What a load of dubious nonsense!]

[Huh? Is this nonsense? I actually believed it]

[It's obvious. He doesn't know exactly what Zhou Xue encountered, but this passage perfectly matches Zhou Xue's attitude towards the painting of the ghost bride. It's very easy to guess.]

[Wow, I really thought I was lucky to have gone through this.]

[Haha, typical platitudes to gain trust]

I think Zhou Xue has already believed it.

Zhou Xue's gaze towards Yu Xing had indeed changed. Initially, she had only called someone to alter the ghost bride's appearance, but now she felt uneasy. She cautiously asked, "Do you believe it? That relative's possession of a spirit... it doesn't seem to conform to materialism at all..."

"Ha, if I didn't believe, why would I enjoy drawing supernatural concept art so much?" Yu Xing picked up a ready-made excuse, seemingly not embarrassed at all by her belief in ghosts.

Then, pretending to have just noticed Zhou Xue's slightly trembling hands, he took another bite of his food and said, "Really? Is something wrong? Should I ask someone to take a look at you?"

Zhou Xue seemed somewhat hesitant.

Yu Xing didn't urge him; he pondered to himself.

Zhou Xue's attitude towards her own experience seems a bit strange.

She was clearly worried and scared. Anyone else, upon hearing that someone understood and believed this nonsense and that there was a solution, would have immediately dropped their guard and told him.

But Zhou Xue was different; while she was afraid, she also seemed to have a little hope and anticipation.

She seemed to be waiting for something to arrive.

But Yu Xing's suggestion still held a strong appeal for Zhou Xue; her eyelashes fluttered slightly. "Then..."

Just when he thought he had succeeded, Zhou Xue's peripheral vision fell on the painting of the ghost bride.

She stopped mid-sentence, then gritted her teeth and said, "No, you've misunderstood, I'm fine."

Yu Xing: "..." Tsk.

It seems that we'll have to take some extraordinary measures to protect Zhou Xue today.

Besides, saying more would easily arouse suspicion, Yu Xing shut up, finished her meal while listening to music, said goodbye to Zhou Xue, and left.

His suggestions regarding the bleeding fingernail and the paper cutter were both approved, and he went back to his workstation and took a nap.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, he won't be able to sleep tonight; he can only hope that the brief period of safety during the first day will allow him to catch up on some sleep.

Then, Yu Xing spent the entire afternoon drawing. During this time, she also took advantage of others not paying attention to hack into the company's internal network and retrieved Zhou Xue's resume and information.

After finishing work, Yu Xing packed her things and headed to the parking lot.

He walked along blind spots the whole way, using vehicles and people as cover, so that he didn't leave any identifiable figure in the surveillance cameras. If the cameras captured him, they would only see a blurry figure shrouded in blue mist. He took out the Sheqing Dreamscape and let the invisible mist envelop his whole body, affecting the electromagnetic field.

A few minutes later, he stood behind a white car, fiddled with his laptop for a while, and successfully hacked into the car's system.

This is Zhou Xue's car.

He climbed into the trunk.