Terror Escalates

San Gou didn't let him down. Messages started arriving one after another.

San Gou had wanted to take a look at Han Jingjing anyway, to see whether his earlier guess had been right.

He hadn't expected Han Jingjing to bombard him at full force, sending nine photos in a row.

San Gou opened them one by one.

Good lord, she really was a gorgeous, charming young woman. Her figure, her face—even through the screen, San Gou could feel his cheeks heating up.

The town really was no place to live. In all his years there, when had he ever seen such an adorable young woman?

He had to stay in the city! San Gou resolved once more that this time, no matter what, he wouldn't go back.

"Jiang Yue: Um... Jingjing, thanks for the photos. They're great. My little brother's here, so I'll leave it at that."

San Gou rapidly tapped away on the Pinyin keyboard. From the sounds coming from the kitchen, Second Brother should be almost done washing the dishes.

"Han Jingjing: Yeah! Vacations are so boring! I've got nothing to do all day tomorrow, I'm going crazy! Jiang Yue, how about I treat you to a movie?"

"Jiang Yue: Maybe another time! My little brother's a clingy tagalong, so I'm afraid I won't be able to get away from him. Gotta go, he's coming over. Don't reply."

San Gou had pulled that off smoothly. It was clear he had plenty of experience sneaking onto his aunt and uncle's phones.

A thief might get away with it a thousand times, but sooner or later, he'd slip up.

He'd barely finished typing when Jiang Yue appeared before him, face cold as ice.

"Second Brother, um... If I said this was all a misunderstanding, would you believe me?"

"If I said I'm sending you back to town right now, would you believe me?"

Jiang Yue snatched the phone from him and took a look. He was so angry he nearly laughed. It had only been a few minutes, and the kid had already flirted with a girl behind his back.

And he'd managed to give the whole exchange a satisfying arc, with a beginning, a middle, and an end. The plot was full, and best of all, he hadn't dragged it out at all!

That final "Gotta go, don't reply" showed San Gou had all the makings of a heartless flirt who'd have no qualms about walking away after getting what he wanted.

Plenty of simps spent their whole lives without ever attaining that level of skill.

"Pretty, huh?" Jiang Yue switched the phone from silent to ring mode, laughing in exasperation.

"Pretty! Second Brother, now I want to go to high school too."

"Look at you, you little bear. You haven't even grown any hair yet. What do you know about pretty?" Jiang Yue swatted at him.

San Gou ducked away with practiced ease and protested, "You practice the same boyhood training as me, don't you? What's the difference between us?"

Oh? The kid had learned to talk back?

"Second Brother, hear me out. I only wanted to see if that video from earlier was Tianlang Mountain. I didn't mean anything else. I'm still a kid, and I've always had a pure heart. Why do you always misunderstand me?"

"If you ask me, this is your fault. Han Jingjing's obviously into you. I asked her to send photos of Tianlang Mountain. I never asked her to send pictures of herself."

"Look at those clothes—the fabric barely covers anything. And look at how much thigh she's showing. You can almost see her butt... Where we're from, in Panshi Ridge, that's called indecent!"

"Hey? Second Brother, what are you looking for? Don't do anything rash. A gentleman uses words, not fists!"

This time, Jiang Yue was determined to teach San Gou a lesson. Otherwise, the kid would soon be climbing onto the roof and tearing it apart.

One chased him with a broom while the other nimbly dodged around the house.

San Gou might not have finished growing, but he was nimble. In their three-bedroom apartment, he darted and weaved around so skillfully that Jiang Yue couldn't land a single hit.

As they chased each other around, Jiang Yue's phone rang again.

San Gou shouted, "Second Brother, stop hitting me! It might be Han Jingjing calling to ask you out."

Jiang Yue kept chasing him, letting the phone ring.

Unfortunately, San Gou was quick on his feet, and Jiang Yue always missed him by a hair.

The ringing stopped for a few seconds, then came again.

Jiang Yue still didn't answer. It rang for dozens of seconds.

As soon as the second call stopped, a third came in.

With no other choice, Jiang Yue had to stop. He glanced at the screen and saw that it was his aunt calling.

Pointing the broom at San Gou, he glared at him and mouthed, "Just you wait."

"Hello, Auntie?"

His aunt sounded a little anxious on the other end. "Yue, why did it take you so long to answer? What were you doing?"

"You'll have to ask San Gou. That kid's a real troublemaker. I need to send him back as soon as possible."

Normally, his aunt would have asked what trouble San Gou had caused this time, but this time things were very different.

His aunt sounded a little down. "You two have only just arrived, and already you're raising a ruckus? Yue, why not let San Gou stay in the city a little longer? I've already asked for leave for him—one week to start, and we can see after that."

"Huh?" Jiang Yue was bewildered.

What was his aunt thinking? Taking time off school to play in the city? That was so unlike her.

"Yue, things aren't peaceful in town right now. You left early this morning, so you don't know what happened. Something strange happened last night, and everyone in town is on edge. If we weren't tied down, our whole family would want to leave."

"What happened in town now?" Jiang Yue's heart skipped a beat. Had something else happened?

"Last night, the dogs barked nonstop for the first half of the night. You heard them, right? Then, in the second half, they all went quiet. Everyone was sleeping soundly, so no one thought much of it at the time. It wasn't until this morning that the people who owned dogs in town realized they were all missing."

"The dogs disappeared? They still haven't come back?" Jiang Yue recalled the details of the barking last night. The dogs in town really had behaved strangely. Their barking during the first half of the night had been eerie, and the silence that followed had been bizarre.

"They won't be coming back. They're all dead." His aunt's voice trembled, and she spoke with a grave air.

"Dead?"

"They're all dead! It was terrifying! Someone went looking for their dog this morning and found an abandoned pond outside the west bridge. Dozens of dogs from town were all dead in it. Yue, I don't think this is right!"

"They all died in the pond?" Even over the phone, Jiang Yue felt the hairs rise all over his body. He hadn't seen it with his own eyes, but he could easily picture the scene.

"Yes, they all died in the pond. Their bodies were floating all over the surface."

"How did they die? Did they have any wounds? Did they all drown?"

"I heard they had no obvious external injuries, so people think they drowned. But there's something really strange—someone said all the dogs seemed to have broken spines. I don't know if it's just a rumor."

As expected, the thing he'd feared had come to pass.

Broken spines!

If that was true, it could point to all sorts of things.

Vermilion Bird broken spine!

Nine Li Pavilion supported the fortune of the region and nurtured its feng shui. The main beam of Nine Li Pavilion had broken. Could its effects have first shown up in the dogs in town?

Jiang Yue's scalp prickled. Things had reached this point, and though there was no proof these events were necessarily connected,

he was certain something was wrong with the world.

Or, more accurately, perhaps it had been happening for a long time.

Now, all that was happening was that humanity, numb and slow to catch on, was beginning to notice.

"Auntie, if things really are bad in town, come to the city. We can squeeze everyone in at our place."

"Going to the city would be too much trouble. Yue, the old house in Panshi Ridge is sitting empty anyway. If it comes to it, your uncle and I can take the kids there and lie low for a while."

"Don't go!" Jiang Yue blurted out. "Auntie, listen to me. You absolutely mustn't go back to Panshi Ridge!"

"Why?" His aunt asked, baffled.

Jiang Yue hesitated, unsure how to put it.

"Auntie, if you need to get away, come to the city. The old house... probably isn't safe either."

"The old house isn't safe? Yue, are you hiding something from me?" His aunt sounded displeased.

Faced with his aunt's questions, Jiang Yue thought it over and decided to tell her the truth.

"Auntie, today in Panshi Ridge..."

Jiang Yue explained everything in detail, from their return to Panshi Ridge to the bus, leaving nothing out.

There was a long silence on his aunt's end of the line.

"Yue, that can't be right... San Gou's always making a fuss. You believe him?" His aunt didn't sound entirely sure either.

"Better safe than sorry. Auntie, why don't you come to Star City now?"

His aunt did believe in strange and supernatural things.

But an adult couldn't uproot the whole family based on a few words. It wasn't an easy decision.

"Things haven't gotten that bad yet. Let's see what the authorities find out. Maybe it's not as bad as it seems. Maybe someone just pulled a prank."

His aunt still clung to a little hope. After all, the town was her home, and she'd lived there for so many years.

It wasn't that moving to the city to stay with her nephew and niece was impossible. It was just a little embarrassing, and a lot of trouble.

And in the long run, making a living would be a problem too.

The old saying that it's hard to leave one's homeland had some truth to it.

"Auntie, don't wait around. Leave now—the sooner, the better."

His aunt seemed to have made up her mind. No matter how much Jiang Yue tried to persuade her, she was determined to wait a few days before deciding.

Jiang Yue knew what she was like and understood he couldn't change her mind just then.

He repeatedly told her that if anything seemed amiss, she should come to Star City at once. Then he hung up.

Jiang Yue's mood grew even heavier.

The familiar world seemed to be sinking further and further into the strange and unfamiliar, and there was no stopping it...