They Exist

"Achoo!!"

In the biting wind, Chen Ling suddenly sneezed hard.

As someone from the north in his previous life, even Chen Ling found it hard to endure the weather here. It was cold and damp; although a blazing sun hung overhead, he could not feel the slightest warmth from it.

"Make way, make way!"

A lazy voice called out from ahead. Chen Ling came back to his senses and instinctively pressed himself to the roadside.

At the end of the road, a tricycle slowly rolled toward him. One teenager pedaled while another sat in the seat behind him, beside two large barrels of salt.

The boy scooped up salt with a ladle and scattered it over the frost-covered road. As the grains fell, the ice on the ground gradually melted.

"Well, if it isn't Chen Ling?" The boy scattering salt raised his brows when he saw Chen Ling standing by the road.

"Never thought I'd see the top student here. Didn't you go take the Enforcers' exam? Get eliminated?"

The moment Chen Ling saw that face, a memory surfaced in his mind.

His name was Zhao Yi. He had grown up on the same street as Chen Ling, but he had always been naturally jealous. Chen Ling had done well in school during high school, and Zhao Yi's mother had often compared him to Chen Ling, making Zhao Yi dislike him more and more.

"I passed the written test. There's still the Martial Trial." Chen Ling answered casually from the roadside.

"Hehe, then I hope your luck is through the roof!"

Though he said that, Zhao Yi scooped up a huge ladleful of salt and flung it hard toward the side of the road, catching Chen Ling in the spray.

Flying salt grains covered Chen Ling's hair and cotton robe. He had never expected Zhao Yi to pull something like this, and quickly brushed the salt off with his hands before turning to glare at him.

By then, Zhao Yi had already ridden off on the tricycle, swaying away into the distance... He rested one foot on a salt barrel and stuck out his tongue at Chen Ling in a mocking face.

As a twenty-eight-year-old adult who had been beaten down by society in his previous life, Chen Ling felt both irritated and amused by such a clumsy prank...

Still, Chen Ling had no intention of chasing after the brat and beating him up. He merely made a mental note of it. He had more important things to do right now.

Just as Chen Ling was about to continue on his way, he caught sight of the ground beneath his feet from the corner of his eye and froze slightly.

The frost touched by the salt grains was gradually melting, leaving faint white residue on the ground. In that instant, Chen Ling saw a line of words form within it—

[Audience Expectation: 27%]

Before Chen Ling could react, the salt grains completely melted away. What he had just seen seemed like nothing more than a fleeting illusion.

Chen Ling rubbed his eyes hard and muttered to himself,

"No way..."

The sense of urgency rose again, and Chen Ling could not help quickening his pace as he rushed straight toward the clinic.

A few minutes later, Chen Ling pushed open the clinic's door.

Calling it a clinic was generous. It was really just a residential house on Frost Street, two stories tall, square and dusty gray, reminding Chen Ling at a glance of the houses in his rural hometown.

Yet even such a crude house was considered fairly decent on Frost Street. At least it had two floors and could keep out the wind.

"It's you." Behind a wooden desk, a man in a white coat turned slightly. "Here to get medicine for your little brother again? Didn't he transfer to the hospital in the Second District?"

"This time, it's not A-Yan. It's for me."

Chen Ling's younger brother had previously been hospitalized here and was quite familiar with Doctor Lin. Chen Ling walked over, sat down at the desk, and looked somewhat nervous.

"Oh? Where do you feel unwell?"

"My... brain doesn't feel quite right."

"Do you mean a physical headache, or...?"

"I think I've been having hallucinations lately."

"Psychiatry?" Doctor Lin raised his brows and seriously adjusted his black-framed glasses. "That's my specialty... Tell me about your symptoms."

"I had a dream last night. I dreamed that I was standing on a stage, with lots of Audience below it... I couldn't see their faces clearly, but they didn't look human. I ran desperately across the stage, but I could never find an exit..."

"Dream interpretation isn't part of my practice."

"I know." Chen Ling took a deep breath. "But after I woke up, I kept feeling... like they were still watching me."

Hearing this, Doctor Lin finally became interested. "You imagine yourself being watched?"

"It doesn't feel like imagination... They seem to be inside my head, sitting in the audience seats and observing everything I do. And I'm like an actor forced to perform, nothing more than a tool to entertain them."

"You're saying your life is a stage, and you're the only protagonist on it?"

"That's about right... but it's not as positive as you make it sound."

"What about the Audience? Besides watching you, do they do anything else?"

Chen Ling fell silent for a moment. "I don't know if it's just my imagination... but they seem able to affect things around me."

"They can affect reality? That sounds rather fantastical." As Doctor Lin spoke, he picked up his mug and took a sip. Just as he was about to say something else, his expression suddenly changed!

Pfft!!

Doctor Lin sprayed out a mouthful of scarlet blood, splattering it across the floor.

"Doctor Lin??" Chen Ling jumped in fright. "What illness do you have?"

"...No." Doctor Lin wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. It was not his blood. After frowning in thought for a moment, his gaze fell on the mug at the corner of the desk...

At some point, the mug had filled with thick, viscous blood.

Doctor Lin's expression turned ugly. He clearly remembered steeping a packet of pu'er tea in it a minute ago.

During that time, only he and Chen Ling had been in the clinic. Chen Ling had remained under his watch the entire time and had neither the opportunity nor motive to switch the tea. Yet the mug full of blood had appeared inside it as if by magic...

Chen Ling seemed to realize something as well, and his face grew even paler.

"Just as I said," he said hoarsely.

"They... might really exist."

Doctor Lin stared at the cup of blood for a long time before slowly looking at him.

"How long has this been happening?"

"One day." Chen Ling paused. "Since I became conscious, only one day."

"What about before you became conscious? What were you doing then?"

"I..."

The image of himself stumbling through a rainstorm last night suddenly appeared in Chen Ling's mind. "I don't know. I can't remember."

"So you aren't sure whether these symptoms began last night, and you have no memories from before last night?"

"...Right."

"Have you ever been possessed by a Calamity?" Doctor Lin adjusted his glasses.

"Or let me put it another way—did you encounter a Gray Realm Convergence last night?"