Terrifying Upgrade

San Gou wasn't disappointed; messages started flooding in one after another.

San Gou had originally wanted to observe Han Jingjing, to confirm if his previous guess was correct.

He hadn't expected Han Jingjing to unleash a full-scale bombardment, sending nine pictures in one go.

San Gou opened them one by one.

Good heavens, she really was a beautiful and charming young lady. Her figure, her face – San Gou felt a pang of desire even through the screen.

The town really wasn't a place for people to live. In all his years, he'd never seen such a lovely young lady in town.

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

"Jiang Yue: Uh... Jingjing, thanks for the photos, they're great. My brother is here, so I can't talk anymore."

San Gou quickly typed using the nine-palace grid Pinyin input, listening to the sounds from the kitchen. Second Brother should be done washing the dishes soon.

"Han Jingjing: Mhmm! It's so boring during the holidays! I have nothing to do all day tomorrow either, I'm going crazy! Jiang Yue, why don't I treat you to a movie?"

"Jiang Yue: We'll see! My brother is a clingy little pest, I'm afraid I won't be able to get rid of him. I'm hanging up, he's coming over. Don't reply."

San Gou's maneuver was indeed skillful. It was clear he'd often played with his aunt and uncle's phones in secret.

A thief may operate for a thousand days, but they'll eventually slip up.

The moment he finished typing, Jiang Yue appeared before him with an icy expression.

"Second Brother, that... if I said this was a misunderstanding, would you believe me?"

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

Jiang Yue snatched the phone away and took a look, almost laughing in anger. In just a few minutes, the kid had managed to flirt with a girl behind his back.

And the whole process was complete, with a clear beginning, middle, and end. The plot was rich, and what was even more commendable was that it wasn't at all wishy-washy!

The final line, "I'm hanging up, don't reply," fully demonstrated San Gou's immense potential for ruthlessness in the future.

Many simps couldn't achieve this level of skill in their entire lives.

"Looks good, right?" Jiang Yue turned the sound back on from silent to ringtone, his anger turning into a laugh.

"Looks great! Second Brother, you've made me want to go to high school too."

"Look at you, you brute. Haven't you even grown body hair yet? What do you know about what looks good?" Jiang Yue swatted at him.

San Gou skillfully ducked his head and retorted, "Aren't you still practicing chastity arts? You're no different from me."

Oh ho? He's learned to talk back now?

"Second Brother, let me explain. I just wanted to see if that earlier video was from Tianlang Mountain, I didn't mean anything else. I'm still young, and I've been pure-hearted since childhood. Why do you always misunderstand me?"

"If you ask me, it's your fault. That Han Jingjing definitely likes you. I asked her to send photos of Tianlang Mountain, not photos of herself."

"Look, this outfit, there's too little fabric. And look at how much leg she's showing, you can almost see her butt... Sigh, back in Panshi Ridge, this would be considered indecent."

"Hey? Second Brother, what are you looking for? Don't do anything rash, gentlemen use words, not fists!"

This time, Jiang Yue was determined to teach San Gou a lesson, otherwise, the kid would really start tearing down the house.

One wielded a broom, chasing, while the other nimbly dodged everywhere.

Don't let San Gou's underdeveloped height fool you; his agility was remarkable. In the space of their three-bedroom, two-living-room apartment, he weaved and dodged, managing to evade Jiang Yue's attempts to hit him.

As they were chasing, Jiang Yue's phone rang again.

San Gou yelled, "Second Brother, stop chasing! Maybe Han Jingjing is calling to ask you out."

Jiang Yue continued his pursuit, letting the phone ring incessantly.

Unfortunately, San Gou was truly agile, and Jiang Yue was always just a little bit short.

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

Jiang Yue still didn't answer, letting it ring for dozens of seconds.

As soon as the second ring ended, a third one began.

With no other choice, Jiang Yue stopped and took a look. It was his aunt calling.

He pointed the broom at San Gou and glared fiercely, signaling "you just wait."

"Hello, Auntie?"

His aunt sounded a little anxious on the other end: "Yue, why are you only answering now? What were you doing?"

"You should ask San Gou about that. This kid is a real troublemaker, I need to send him back as soon as possible."

Normally, his aunt would have pressed for details on what trouble San Gou had caused this time, but the situation was completely different.

His aunt's mood seemed a bit low: "Why are you guys causing such a ruckus as soon as he arrived? Yue, why don't you let San Gou stay in the city for a while longer? I've already requested leave for him, a week to start, and we can discuss more if it's not enough."

"Huh?" Jiang Yue was bewildered.

What was his aunt's plan? Skipping school to play in the city? This behavior was very unlike his aunt.

"Yue, it's not peaceful in town right now. You left early this morning, so you don't know the situation. Something strange happened last night, and now the whole town is in a panic. If I could get away, my whole family would want to leave town."

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

"Sigh, the dogs wouldn't stop barking all last night. Did you guys hear them? Then, in the second half of the night, they all went silent. We were all fast asleep, so nobody thought much of it at the time. This morning, people in town who keep dogs found that all their dogs had run off."

"The dogs are gone? They didn't come back this morning?" Jiang Yue recalled the details of the dog barking last night, and it seemed the town's dogs had indeed been acting strangely. They barked eerily in the first half of the night and stopped eerily in the second.

"They won't be back. They're all dead." Aunt's voice trembled slightly, her tone filled with unspoken meaning.

"Dead?"

"All dead! It's terrifying! This morning, some people went looking for the dogs and found an abandoned cold water pond outside the west bridge of town. Dozens of dogs from town, all dead in the pond. Yue, I think something's not right about this!"

"All dead in the pond?" Even over the phone, Jiang Yue felt his pores stand on end. Although he hadn't seen it himself, a little imagination was enough to picture the scene.

"Yes, all dead in the pond, their bodies floating on the surface."

"How did they die? Were there any wounds on their bodies? Did they all drown?"

"I heard there were no obvious external injuries, so they're presumed to have drowned. But there's one very strange thing. Some people said that all the dogs' spines seemed to be broken. I don't know if that's just a rumor."

Just as he feared, it was happening.

Broken spines!

If this were true, there were too many things to connect.

Vermilion Bird broken spine!

Nine Li Pavilion supports the Fortune of a region, nurturing its Feng Shui. If the main beam of Nine Li Pavilion broke, would it first manifest in the town's dogs?

Jiang Yue's scalp tingled. Although there was no concrete proof of a connection between these events, He was completely certain that something was definitely wrong in this world.

To be precise, perhaps it had already happened long ago.

And now, it was merely allowing the numb, slow-to-realize humans to catch a slight glimpse.

"Aunt, if it's really difficult in town, you should come to the city. We can squeeze in at home." Jiang Yue suggested.

"Going to the city is too much trouble. Yue, the old house on Panshi Ridge is empty anyway. If things get bad, your Uncle and I can take the kids and go there to lay low."

"Absolutely not!" Jiang Yue blurted out. "Aunt, listen to me, you absolutely cannot go back to Panshi Ridge!"

"Why?" Aunt asked, bewildered.

Jiang Yue hesitated, unsure how to phrase his words.

"Aunt, if you need to lay low, come to the city instead. The old house... I'm afraid it's not peaceful either."

"The old house isn't peaceful? Yue, is there something you're hiding from me?" Aunt's tone was displeased.

Faced with Aunt's question, Jiang Yue thought for a moment and decided to tell her the truth.

"Aunt, today at Panshi Ridge..."

Jiang Yue recounted everything, from their return to Panshi Ridge to the bus journey, explaining the entire process truthfully.

Aunt was silent on the other end of the phone for a long while.

"Yue, that can't be right... That kid San Gou is always so dramatic, do you believe him?" Aunt's tone wasn't entirely certain.

"It's better to believe it exists than not to believe it doesn't. Aunt, why don't you come to Star City right now!"

Aunt actually believed in these strange things.

But for an adult to uproot their entire family based on a few words was indeed not an easy decision.

"The situation hasn't reached that point yet. Let's see what the official investigation results are. Maybe things aren't as bad as that? Maybe it was just a prank?"

Aunt still held onto a sliver of hope. After all, the town was her home, and she had grown accustomed to it over the years.

Bringing her family to the city to stay with her nephew and niece wasn't impossible, but it would be a blow to her pride and indeed troublesome.

In the long run, livelihood would also be a problem.

The old saying "it's hard to leave one's homeland" spoke to this very reason.

"Aunt, don't delay, leave now, the sooner the better."

Aunt seemed to have made up her mind. No matter how much Jiang Yue tried to persuade her, she decided to wait and see for a few days before making a decision.

Jiang Yue understood Aunt's personality and knew he couldn't convince her immediately.

He repeatedly urged her to come to Star City the moment there was any sign of trouble, before finally hanging up the phone.

Jiang Yue's mood undoubtedly grew heavier.

This familiar world seemed to be slipping into an unfamiliar strangeness, and there was no way to stop it