Mobster

[Audience Expectation +20]

The snowman's remains melted away in the dead silence. After the candle went out and blue smoke rose, Chen Ling's face turned as pale as paper.

"I..."

Chen Ling stammered, "I was talking to my younger brother..."

"Where is your brother?" Wu Youdong looked at the empty seat beside him. "Aren't there only the two of us in this house?"

Chen Ling looked at the seat across from him. At some point, it had become completely empty... In a daze, the lingering image of a smiling boy faded from his memories.

Beads of sweat slid down Chen Ling's temples. His back had soaked through his clothes, and his confused, hollow eyes trembled constantly, like someone who had just awakened from a nightmare.

"No, impossible..."

Chen Ling suddenly stood up, the table legs scraping harshly against the floor.

"How could there only be two of us??" Chen Ling's voice suddenly rose. "My brother was right here just now... Earlier, he was building a snowman by the door. He saw me off there this morning, and he was the one who patched my padded coat!"

He tore off his padded coat and pointed at the flawless patch. "Look! A-Yan mended this! I don't know how to sew at all!"

"And all these boards on the wall—he fixed every one of them!"

"There's also a doctor from Aurora City staying in our house. He's met A-Yan too. If you don't believe me, you can ask him!"

"I... I understand." Wu Youdong seemed frightened by Chen Ling. At a loss, he said, "I was just... asking... Because I saw you talking to the air by yourself just now... It was pretty scary."

"I wasn't talking to the air!!"

Chen Ling pointed at the empty space across from him, his bloodshot eyes fixed on Wu Youdong.

"My brother was sitting there just now. You should have seen him when you came in, right??"

"I... I really didn't see him."

Wu Youdong looked aggrieved. Watching Chen Ling's strange behavior, he hesitated for a long time before cautiously asking, "Chen Ling... have you run into a Calamity recently?"

Chen Ling froze where he stood.

[So, you fused with a Calamity too?]

[...I don't know. When I woke up, I was already standing there.]

[You lost a portion of your memories too?]

[Yeah.]

[But wasn't the site of the Gray Realm Convergence on the back mountain? You should have still been in surgery then... Why were you affected too?]

[I don't know... I only remember the doctor giving me anesthetic. When I woke up, then...]

The familiar conversation lingered by Chen Ling's ears. He seemed to have caught onto something, and his pupils contracted slightly.

"No..." Chen Ling muttered. "No... none of it is right..."

"Chen Ling, are you okay?"

"...The back mountain?!"

Chen Ling suddenly raised his head and looked in a certain direction. He bolted out of the house like a madman, leaving behind the padded coat he had just taken off. Wearing only a thin shirt, he plunged headlong into the heavy snow.

Just as his figure vanished at the end of the street, Chu Muyun, dressed in a wool coat, arrived at the front door.

He looked in the direction Chen Ling had gone with surprise. As he was about to enter, he spotted Wu Youdong standing alone in the living room, and his brows immediately furrowed.

"Who are you?"

"I-I'm Chen Ling's friend."

Behind his silver-rimmed glasses, his eyes immediately narrowed, revealing a dangerous glint...

"What did you say to him just now?"

"I didn't say anything... I just... I thought it was strange that he was talking to himself, so I asked who he was talking to... and then..."

Chu Muyun's expression changed drastically!

He looked again in the direction Chen Ling had gone.

"Do you know... what you've done?" Chu Muyun's voice seemed to come from the underworld.

"I..."

The instant his eyes met Chu Muyun's, Wu Youdong's heart trembled. He had never seen such cold, crazed eyes.

Wu Youdong was terrified. Trembling, he backed up half a step, tripped over a chair, and fell heavily to the floor.

Chu Muyun took a deep breath, stepped into the house, and gently closed the front door with both hands.

The drafty door shut out the light and snow outside, and the living room was swallowed by darkness. The figure in the wool coat slowly approached Wu Youdong.

He pushed up his glasses. Beneath his refined appearance, a viciousness flowed forth without concealment, like a savage beast trapped inside a human shell, shedding its disguise and baring its bloody, grotesque fangs.

"Do you know how rare a Fusionist maintaining such a delicate balance between madness and normality is as research material?"

"Do you know how much effort I put into playing along with him so he wouldn't notice his own abnormality?"

"Do you know... what kind of monster you might have unleashed?"

Wu Youdong was scared witless. His legs had already been broken, and though he wanted to run, he couldn't escape at all. He could only drag himself backward bit by bit...

"I don't know, I really don't know." He spoke in a nearly pleading tone.

"I guarded Chen Ling and this house for three days, keeping anyone from getting close... Yet you just had to walk right into it."

"...Why???"

Chu Muyun suddenly grabbed one corner of the chair and smashed it down onto Wu Youdong's head with a howl!

Bang—!!!

A dull impact echoed through the house, and Wu Youdong lost consciousness on the spot.

A huge gash opened across his forehead, scarlet blood pouring out wildly and quickly pooling beneath him.

Chu Muyun showed no intention of stopping. He stared fixedly at Wu Youdong, sprawled on the ground like a corpse, and swung the chair down onto him again and again!

"Why?!"

"Why?!!"

"Why?!!!!"

Scalding blood splattered across his wool coat, and a streak of crimson crawled over the lens of his silver-rimmed glasses.

Chu Muyun no longer carried his former scholarly air. He was like an executioner and a mobster, venting his rage madly in the darkness where no one could see. As the chair crashed down again and again onto the body, now limp as mud, Wu Youdong's breathing gradually ceased.

Bang—

With the final blow, the chair finally shattered apart.

Chu Muyun wiped away his sweat, his chest heaving violently. His bloodstained fingertips lightly pushed up his glasses as his deep blue eyes gazed at the pool of blood and mangled flesh at his feet.

After an unknown amount of time, the madness in his eyes gradually faded, and a sharp scalpel dropped into his palm...

At the same time.

A figure staggered through the snow and arrived at the back mountain.

His thin clothes were already soaked through with sweat. Heat and cold overlapped across Chen Ling's body as he crossed the unattended yellow warning line and passed snow mounds marked with wooden plaques, as though searching for something.

This was where everything began... and where the truth was buried.

Mass Grave.