Understanding Anomalies

"Not a ghost?!"

Hearing Zheng Ruijun's words, Shen Xing's expression froze.

"If it's not a ghost, then what left this dried-up face skin?"

"I don't know," Zheng Ruijun answered curtly.

As he spoke, he stood up, his gaze shifting from the curled-up Song Xiaoyu on the ground to Shen Xing. "I've encountered more anomalies than you. From what I see now, some special cases might indeed be caused by what we understand as ghosts. But for some cases, well, I don't know what I'm dealing with, just like this current case."

Normally, Zheng Ruijun wouldn't say such things to a civilian. He was only speaking to Shen Xing because Shen Xing had encountered anomalies more than once.

According to the deductions of these special case investigators, Shen Xing should be similar to him, belonging to the category of people with strong mental power and possessing a certain "attraction to anomalies."

Otherwise, in the encounter just now, this guy wouldn't have lasted so long. He might have ended up lying on the ground with Song Xiaoyu, unconscious.

"Isn't this a ghost possession?" Shen Xing was even more puzzled. "This ghost, by disguising itself as the host's face, hid itself and could directly control the person at a critical moment. Moreover, through some method we don't yet know, it transmitted the possessed clone to you and me."

Zheng Ruijun paused, then looked at Shen Xing a few more times. "You're quite something, kid. I've only said a few words, and you've already deduced so much!"

As he spoke, Zheng Ruijun habitually reached out to pat Shen Xing's shoulder. But his black glove had just touched the festering, maggot-infested flesh on the back of Song Xiaoyu's head, so he hesitated in mid-air and withdrew his hand.

"But deduction is one thing. Since you say it's a ghost, did you see its true form?" Zheng Ruijun asked.

While asking, he picked up the skin layer that had fallen from Shen Xing's head from the ground. "What kind of ghost have you ever seen that looks like a dried scalp? And a solid one at that? Both you and I can touch it, and it can undergo chemical changes, like drying out due to moisture loss."

Shen Xing almost blurted out his thoughts but managed to hold back. He muttered inwardly, 'The shadow of this thing is right in my mind now, how do you explain that?'

On second thought, he couldn't explain Zheng Ruijun's question either.

Of course, if he revealed now that he had already locked onto the "face skin," Zheng Ruijun's previous deduction might be overturned.

But at this moment, with two sets of information in hand, Shen Xing felt even more lost.

If it wasn't a ghost, how could he have locked onto it through deduction and then put it into the wooden carving?

But if it was a ghost, the dried face skin it produced would indeed undergo chemical reactions, lose moisture, and become withered, as if it were something that followed the natural laws of this world.

After pondering for a moment, Shen Xing couldn't find an answer.

Zheng Ruijun, unaware of his thoughts, continued, "The ghosts I've encountered have human forms and are ethereal and elusive, not solid. They cannot be defined by our understanding of existence, unlike this, which I am holding directly in my hand right now."

He waved the dried face skin he was holding, almost slapping Shen Xing in the face.

This explanation involuntarily brought the image of "Blood Pupil" to Shen Xing's mind.

Blood Pupil was also solid, not ethereal or elusive. It could be grasped, and it could even crawl through the eye nerves.

Could Blood Pupil also not be a ghost?

But this thing came from the organ in the eye socket of Lin Feifei's mother, Lin Wanru!

If there were no resentments concentrated within Blood Pupil, how could Lin Wanru have turned into a walking corpse?

In Shen Xing's previous impression, Blood Pupil was essentially Lin Wanru, just another form she took after becoming a vengeful spirit.

As for Fake Hong Bin, that guy was definitely a "ghost" as Zheng Ruijun described, because he had a human form and his whereabouts were unpredictable, fitting the characteristics of a ghost.

Otherwise, it wouldn't be possible for there to be two identical humans in the world.

According to Zheng Ruijun's explanation, Shen Xing found that the world became even more perplexing after a little deduction. No matter what it was, it seemed to be shrouded in a layer of mystery now.

Just then, Zheng Ruijun looked around the floor with some surprise. "Song Xiaoyu should also have a face skin on the back of her head. Did you see it just now?"

Shen Xing immediately shook his head like a rattle, his face showing a timely expression of surprise.

Zheng Ruijun immediately said, "You should leave here. Li Naijing and Zhao Wenbo will be here soon. If the face skin belonging to Song Xiaoyu is still here, this room is still very dangerous!"

Shen Xing couldn't wait to leave. He quickly nodded, pulled open the living room door without a word, and ran out.

Zheng Ruijun immediately closed the living room door from the inside.

Shen Xing stood in the corridor outside the room and raised his voice, asking through the door, "Old Zheng, I'm leaving first. Call me if anything comes up, or come find me at Ivy Apartments."

"Okay."

Zheng Ruijun's voice came from inside the room.

Shen Xing ignored him and turned to leave quickly.

After hearing the footsteps recede, Zheng Ruijun's expression slowly shifted from tense to cold. His body trembled slightly, a gray aura appeared on his face, and crackling sounds could be faintly heard around him.

Then he reached out his left hand, which was wearing a black rubber glove, and felt towards the back of Song Xiaoyu's head, inserting his index finger into the festering flesh.

The moment Shen Xing walked out of the gate of Jujia Garden Residential Quarter, he saw a black BMW SUV driving towards the entrance. The car window was open, and Li Naijing was sitting in the passenger seat.

The security guard at the gate stepped forward to inquire.

Li Naijing said, "We're from the Public Security Bureau, here to investigate a family living here."

"May I ask which family?" the security guard asked.

"Unit 1, Building 7, Apartment 8-2," Li Naijing replied. "Their dog, Wangcai, bit a neighbor three years ago and insisted the neighbor bit himself. The neighbor didn't believe it and bit himself, then died of a fungal infection. The family then fled overnight with Wangcai."

The security guard rolled his eyes, while the black BMW drove straight into the residential quarter.

Shen Xing stood at the other end, listening in a daze.

Coming to his senses, he had just reached the main street when an ambulance came screaming by. Looking back, he realized it was also heading into the Jujiayuan residential complex.

Shen Xing didn't linger, hailing a taxi to return to Ivy Apartments.

The plan had been completed very smoothly; the scalp itching that had plagued him was gone, and he had even harvested this strange Skin Face.

Sitting in the taxi, he carefully examined the shadowy Skin Face in his mind. He had originally assumed it would look like Song Xiaoyu, but upon closer inspection, he realized it didn't look much like her at all.

The deeper he looked, the more he felt this Skin Face was not so simple. From its features, Shen Xing could sense a strange unfamiliarity, yet after staring for a moment, it suddenly felt incredibly familiar.

It was a bizarre illusion, caught between the strange and the known; after looking at this eerie Skin Face, one couldn't help but want to take another look.

He arrived home by noon.

The weather today was poor, overcast and gloomy. Although it wasn't raining, it created an indescribable sense of oppression.

Shen Xing checked the locked front door as usual and returned to the workbench in his bedroom. Switching on the desk lamp, he couldn't wait to take out his phone and pull up his saved documents.

There were currently three encrypted documents saved on his phone: [Fake Hong Bin], [Blood Pupil], and the most recently added, [Song Xiaoyu (Tentative)].

He opened the third document, changed the name from [Song Xiaoyu (Tentative)] to [Skin Face], and immediately began adding the descriptions of the traits he had just mastered.

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