Nightmare (11) - The Cemetery

At this time, neither Qingming Festival nor any special day for remembrance, the cemetery entrance was deserted. Only a handful of people bought a few bouquets of flowers from the vendors at the entrance and set off on the uphill asphalt road.

Yu Xing calmly paid and got out of the car, casually buying two bunches of white chrysanthemums.

He had just contacted Zhou Xue on WeChat under the pretext of encountering a problem with the original design, but he received no reply. It seemed that she had disappeared along with Zhao Ruru.

Both of them are gone; that's quite interesting.

Thinking this, Yu Xing looked up.

The cemetery is quite large, built on a hillside. From the ground, you can see rows of black stone tombstones separated by straight evergreen trees, like a lecture hall and its seats.

If a family member's grave is numbered late, it's a long walk to pay respects... Fortunately, there weren't many people, and he could tell which grave had just been visited with just a glance using his excellent eyesight.

Regardless of what happened to Zhao Ruru and Zhou Xue, they at least had to see the tombstone before anything happened to them, otherwise it wouldn't make sense.

Since a memorial service has been held, traces will be left behind—flowers, fruits, these are all very obvious things.

A gentle breeze was blowing; the midday wind wasn't as fierce as it was at night, and it felt just right against my skin.

Yu Xing carried the flowers for a while, her pace unhurried, like someone visiting a cemetery to relax, a leisurely smile on her lips, showing no sign of urgency.

In a sense, his every move was indeed very similar to the madman in Zhou Xue's dream. It was a habit that originated from trivial details and was difficult to fake.

No wonder Zhao Yijiu mistook the madman for someone else, even though the madman was wearing a mask.

However, Yu Xing wasn't really worried about Zhao Ruru. As mentioned before, Zhou Xue lied when she had dinner with Zhao Ruru, and as an experienced strategist, Zhao Ruru would definitely be wary of Zhou Xue.

In this situation, if Zhou Xue was the one pulling the strings, Yu Xing didn't believe Zhao Ruru would be harmed by someone as ordinary as Zhou Xue. If not, then it was even simpler.

Zhao Ruru and Zhou Xue have both disappeared. If something happened to Zhao Ruru, Zhou Xue would have been killed too. But he is still standing here safely, which means that Zhou Xue is still alive. Similarly, there is no reason for Zhao Ruru to die.

"Ah, is that the one?"

He put one hand in his pocket and touched his cell phone. He turned his head and saw tribute apples with the character "" in the row of tombstones on the left.

So he turned into the middle of the road and walked to the tombstone.

Sure enough, the name on the tombstone was "Liang Erni," and there was a small black and white photo on it.

In fact, in these kinds of cemeteries, the elderly are usually buried together.

The photo of the person who passed away first was filled in first, while the photo of the person who passed away later was left blank, with the name already written in advance.

However, Liang Erni was buried alone, with her name and photo placed in the very center of the tombstone, indicating that, at least from her children's perspective, she did not have a partner.

I wonder why Liang Erni's husband doesn't have a position.

Yu Xing gazed down at the photograph on the tombstone, sensing something amiss in the rather dated photo of a young man.

Zhou Xue said that her grandmother suffered a lot when she was young, and it was only later, with the care of her children, that her life gradually improved.

This "later" likely refers to when he was in his thirties.

The girl on that tombstone looks only a teenager... this photograph... who took it? And how did it survive so many upheavals, without even a trace of fading?

Or rather, what he was most curious about now was whose orders were used to commission this tombstone? Zhou Xue couldn't possibly have a photo of her grandmother when she was a teenager, could she?

The girl in the photo is charming and cute. Although she is not particularly beautiful, she is very spirited. More importantly, she doesn't look like Zhou Xue at all now. It's astonishing how different their facial features are, even though they are grandmother and granddaughter.

Liang Erni wore two braids that hung down, and was dressed in a very popular student uniform at the time, which was a short-sleeved top and a knee-length skirt.

Yu Xing's gaze darkened slightly.

The dates don't seem to match up... The Fang Mansion existed a little earlier than the female students did.

It's really interesting. What is the relationship between Liang Erni and the piece of jade with the character "Ling" engraved on it?

Since it concerned the Lingren, his interest in Liang Erni even surpassed that in Zhou Xue.

Yu Xing had seen enough. She squatted down, gently placed the bouquet of flowers beside the monument, and murmured softly, "What did you do to make Zhou Xue and Liu Ruru disappear?"

"Zhou Xue's fear is strange. She's not afraid of ghosts, blood, or any kind of terrifying imagery. The only thing she's afraid of is death." Of course, no one responded to his words. In the vast cemetery, only his voice could be heard fading away in the wind.

"Why... because she's already seen ghosts? She already knows the helplessness ghosts have against humans in this world?" Yu Xing's voice grew softer and softer, almost to herself. "The jade wasn't given to her by you. You wanted to take it with you, but Zhou Xue snatched it away, right? You looked for her after you died, but you couldn't do anything to her. So now, facing the nightmare, she's just as fearless."

His response was a sudden gust of wind that howled past, scattering every syllable of Yu Xing's voice.

He paused for a moment, then didn't continue.

These are all just his guesses, without any factual basis. Frankly speaking, Liang Erni's storyline has little to do with their Main Quest.

If I had to pinpoint a reason why I should care, it would be that this storyline is a side story and is related to the gift from the "special guest."

Yu Xing wanted to complete the side quest to see what kind of "surprise" that person had prepared for him.

However, after the most likely conclusion was stated, Liang Erni's tombstone did not react.

He ran his fingers over the clearly cleaned surface of the monument, his mind wandering.

Where were Zhao Ruru and Zhou Xue taken?

Is there anything else he needs to trigger? Or is it that the abnormal event can only occur if Zhou Xue is present?

He needed to contact Zhao Ruru as soon as possible to confirm the whereabouts of the two girls.

Just then, Yu Xing's phone vibrated twice in her pocket.

He took out his phone and saw that it was an incoming call.

The caller ID displayed "Liu Ruru".

These were the contact details they exchanged last night; they saved each other's WeChat, QQ, and even phone numbers.

Yu Xing raised an eyebrow and answered the phone.

"Hello? Fortunately, Zhou Xue is missing!" Zhao Ruru on the other end of the line was panting, and there seemed to be many people around, making a lot of noise.

"... Wait." Yu Xing interrupted her, "Where are you?"

"I'm at the subway station... Didn't I tell you we were planning to take the high-speed train first and then a taxi? But as soon as I got off the train, I swiped my access code, and when I turned around, she was gone! I can only go look for her, but I can't contact her. It's really..."

"You just got off the subway?" Yu Xing was taken aback.

Things took an unexpected turn.

First, Zhao Ruru seemed unaware that her phone had been out of service for a long time.

Second, if the two girls haven't arrived at the cemetery yet...

Where did the fruit offered in front of this tombstone come from?

"..."

As soon as the phone call came in, the audience, who had just been caught off guard by Yu Xing's speculation, immediately became agitated.

Some people have speculated that Zhou Xue snatched the jade from her grandmother when she was about to pass away, claiming it was for its protective purpose.

Furthermore, the possibility that Zhou Xue killed her grandmother for Yu's sake, and that her family kept quiet and claimed that Liang Erni had died of old age, causing Liang Erni to become a vengeful spirit, has been raised by some viewers who followed the plot closely.

But Zhao Ruru's phone call interrupted everyone's train of thought. Just as Yu Xing had said, a phone call brought with it questions.

[What the heck? The fortune teller hasn't arrived at the cemetery yet?]

[That doesn't make sense. Judging by the time, she shouldn't have just gotten off the high-speed train. Yu Xing has been wandering around the cemetery for over half an hour since getting out of the taxi.]

[Who can go to the fortune teller and see what happened?]

[Aww~ Time's been eaten up~]

[Don't fucking think I don't know you're from a perverted guild, what are you pretending to be, cute girl?]

Doesn't anyone care where the fruit comes from?

[A chilling thought]

[Terrifying to think about]

[The ash on the tombstone was wiped away, and there wasn't a speck of dust on the apple. This kind of place is very dusty, and it's right next to a burning incense burner, so it gets dirty in just a few minutes.]

[Yes, there's a lot of dust in the air. This apple and the tombstone clearly indicate that someone else was standing here just a few minutes ago.]

[Damn, I followed Xing all the way here and didn't see anyone else, they must still be here!]

Why the timing didn't match up, who put the apple there, was anyone lying, how did Liang Erni die... These questions were all pointed out, but none of them could be answered at this moment.

Everything seems to have deviated from the normal rules at some point.

Unwittingly, things that make logical sense suddenly become absurd, subtly proclaiming a fact.

This time, Yu Xing was wrong.

Zhou Xue didn't disappear after entering the cemetery; she had already vanished at the subway station. Zhao Ruru, completely unaware of the time she had lost with Yu Xing, was frantically searching for her.

He looked at the plate of apples offered as tribute, and something about them seemed inexplicably jarring. "Strange."

I haven't seen anyone leaving in the opposite direction along the way. Who could be here to pay their respects? Where is this person now? Could they be hiding in the shadows watching him?

If his final calculation is wrong, it can only mean that some variable in the middle has an error. He believes that Liang Erni's ghost once had malice towards Zhou Xue, and this must be corroborated by the fact that "Zhou Xue disappeared after visiting her grandmother in the cemetery".

But now the part closer to the source is different, so all his speculations are invalid.

"It seems we started from the wrong point," Yu Xing said in a low voice. "In that case, Liang Erni may not be unrelated to the main plot, and all the clues need to be rearranged."

"Huh? What did you say?" Zhao Ruru asked in confusion on the other end of the phone.

He paused for a moment, then said, "It's nothing. Just send me your location, and I'll come find you."

"Okay, Zhou Xue absolutely mustn't get into trouble. Luckily, I already did a divination in the women's restroom, and she's out of immediate danger."

Zhao Ruru quickly took a screenshot and sent it to Yu Xing on WeChat.

The call was temporarily disconnected, Yu Xing then realized that while he was talking to the tombstone, Zhao Ruru had already made two WeChat calls to him, but "Fang Xing" had muted these kinds of invitations, so he hadn't received them.

The possibility that "the phone call was made by a ghost imitating Zhao Ruru" has also been greatly reduced.

Yu Xing remained silent. Fragments of Spiritual Sense vaguely appeared in his mind, but they were too ethereal to take shape for the time being.

That's fine, Yu Xing thought.

Yugi need a bit of challenge to be fun.

He increasingly felt that the second phase of the mission had been significantly altered by that special guest.

Only Lingren can transcend the long years, grasp his thought patterns, and thus provide the perfect misleading interpretation.

But precisely because of this, Yu Xing would be the one most capable of deducing the Lingren's thoughts in reverse.

He turned around and looked down at the vast forest of steles, his expression unchanged.

The viewers in the live stream couldn't even detect the slightest emotional fluctuation in his expression. Little did they know that if he narrowed his eyes or a hint of amusement flashed in his gaze, it simply meant that he was quite interested.

When Yu Xing is truly excited, he often hides this feeling deep inside. No matter if his heart is like a volcanic eruption or frozen solid, there is an airtight cage that peels it away, creating a barrier called "loneliness".

The fortress was impenetrable, but inside lay secrets and toys belonging solely to Yu Xing.

If two madmen don't cooperate, they'll always have to fight it out and one of them will win.

The subway station was packed with people; the arrival of the weekend had significantly increased the crowds. Zhao Ruru mingled in the throng, using her crossbody bag to conceal her hand movements, trying to pinpoint Zhou Xue's location amidst the noise.

Unfortunately, fortune telling requires a relatively quiet environment, and the excessive noise made Zhao Ruru irritable. She twirled her chopsticks in her hand like a pen, but she couldn't sense anything at all.

She frowned; if the divination she received in the women's restroom hadn't been so mild, she would have exploded by now.

Even so, there was still no trace of Zhou Xue. This woman was like a drop of water that had merged into the calm surface of a lake.

"Ugh, this is so annoying." Zhao Ruru took a deep breath, maintaining her usual calm demeanor, and reluctantly put away her fortune-telling tools.

She was skilled in divination, but casting hexagrams was mentally taxing, especially casting them repeatedly in a short period of time, which took a toll on her rationality.

For safety reasons, she couldn't do the calculations for a while and had to rely on her eyes to find the objects.

Some might think that Zhao Ruru too useless; she can't fight or run away, her reasoning ability isn't outstanding, and her only special skill is fortune telling, yet she still has so many limitations.

In fact, abilities such as prophecy, divination, and fortune-telling are far more popular among strategists than high combat skills, because having such people means that, at crucial moments, the team can avoid many deadly situations by relying on these abilities.

Zhao Mou also gained rare divination abilities from a sacrificial item, which allowed him to quickly stand out and eventually steadily climb the ranks to a level that even his own family had to take seriously.

Zhao Ruru's importance in the family was even greater than that of Zhao Mou.

She was squeezed in the crowd, feeling exhausted.