Retribution

[Urban Legend -- No One Calling].

[Grade: Lingering Fear].

[Urban Legend Type: Aberrant Machinery].

[Basic Characteristics: (Strong Signal) (Waterproof) (Untraceable) (Ringtone) (Simulated Communication)].

[Personality: None].

[Status: Average].

[When he was alive, he always thought he never received his mother's calls because he hadn't activated the incoming call notification service].

[Human beings are always unable to cherish things while they have them, and that goes for anything].

[Among the relics, the latest model of the Star Phone underwent a distorted transformation. It seemed capable of functioning without a SIM card or a physical phone body, and it should make that old phone of yours run faster].

[Manifestation Characteristic: Strong Signal].

[Encounter Location: Changzhao Reservoir Tributary, Thousand-Mountain Lake, Xinlin Subdistrict, Jiangcheng District, Jiangzhou City].

[Cost of Use: Unknown (Days)].

At this very moment.

Fang Xian stared straight at the black-and-white funeral portrait glaring at him from his phone screen.

Those pupils were withered, as if filled with endless suffering.

"Scared the hell out of me."

Without a second thought, Fang Xian went straight to his album to take a look.

Sure enough.

His album had inexplicably been stuffed with the funeral portraits of an unfamiliar man.

There were about twenty or thirty of them, each one pale and deadpan, as if the man had already died at the time the picture was taken.

This sensation would make ordinary people's hair stand on end, but Fang Xian was no ordinary person.

"I don't really mind urban legends invading my phone."

Fang Xian pursed his lips. "But you can't go changing my screensaver. What if someone else sees it and thinks my taste in wallpapers is messed up?"

Muttering this, he directly deleted those funeral portraits and casually searched his album for a better-looking photo.

Whether it was his imagination or not, Fang Xian always felt that this old-timer's phone of his was running a little faster.

"No time to waste, you'll do, Song Yizhou."

Fang Xian found the sneaky photo of Song Yizhou he had shown He Qi and the others not long ago and directly changed his screensaver to it.

Hmm, it looked pretty good.

Ordinary photos all looked like artistic portraits.

Fang Xian nodded in satisfaction, then packed away the dead man's relics left on the ground.

Among them seemed to be the man's identification papers, though Fang Xian no longer cared; packing them all up together would do.

This time, not only did he harvest two urban legends in one go.

He also gained [three months], in other words, ninety days of lifespan.

Furthermore, Fang Xian had already discovered that upon capturing the third urban legend—namely [No One Calling], which displayed a person's head on the chibi phone—

the Urban Legend Compendium unlocked the [Conversion] function.

"Converting captured urban legends can yield a certain amount of lifespan."

"Of course, they can also be converted into a certain amount of [Urban Legend Factor]."

Just as Fang Xian was preparing to see what on earth this Urban Legend Factor actually was, He Qi's voice came from afar.

"Big Brother Xian!!"

"Come quickly!"

"I'm a little scared!"

He Qi had gotten off the boat and was watching the Human-Faced Fish from afar on the shore, hardly daring to approach.

Fang Xian had originally been worried that this fellow He Qi would start taking photos or something, but now it seemed he still had his wits about him.

"No matter who you are."

"Listen up, I'm Fang Xian. Since I've captured your urban legend, I will definitely take responsibility for you to the end."

Fang Xian looked at the night scenery by the reservoir riverbank, his eyelids drooping as he spoke slowly. "I'll return your relics. If someone really harmed you, I'll definitely get revenge for you."

With that, he walked toward He Qi.

"Big Brother Xian, how should we handle this thing?"

Fang Xian bent down and observed the Human-Faced Fish.

The Human-Faced Fish's mouth opened and closed, looking somewhat terrifying.

Yet as it was being captured by Fang Xian, the creepy feeling uniquely belonging to urban legends on the Human-Faced Fish was rapidly fading away.

"They say this fish can be sold for money."

Fang Xian said, "You go sell it."

"We'll split the money evenly."

He Qi was stunned. "Ah? Big Brother Xian, you put in the heavy lifting for this fish, you should take the bigger share."

Fang Xian couldn't be bothered to argue. "Add me on WeChat, just handle it for me and stop dawdling, otherwise you won't even be able to handle a girl in bed."

He Qi thought to himself that it did make sense. "Alright, once we head back and get a signal, I'll add you."

Signal?

Fang Xian suddenly looked at his phone screen, feeling a slight sense of incongruity.

Soon, he realized where that incongruity came from.

Didn't they lack a signal deep inside the reservoir earlier?

How come it had been showing full bars this whole time?

Fang Xian immediately cast his gaze onto the manifestation characteristic [Strong Signal].

Awesome.

So that was the kind of signal it was.

The urban legend [No One Calling] was quite practical!

It seemed to have attached itself to his phone. Thinking about it this way, if he switched to the Star-brand Phone in the future, he probably wouldn't have to deal with the signal issues everyone else complained about.

Fang Xian was still immersed in the joy of a bumper harvest at that moment when Xiao Jiu suddenly poked him in the cheek.

"Chiumi chiumi."

Xiao Jiu let out a soft sound, as if reminding Fang Xian of something.

"Got your meaning."

Fang Xian took an orange-flavored lollipop from his pocket and stuffed it into Xiao Jiu's mouth.

This was Xiao Jiu's favorite flavor.

A smile appeared on Xiao Jiu's face, quickly sucking the lollipop into her little mouth while continuing to poke Fang Xian's cheek.

Poking my cheek like this might make your Xian-ge's face crooked.

Thinking this, Fang Xian was just about to pinch Xiao Jiu's cheek.

Only to realize that Xiao Jiu meant he had a WeChat message.

But that message had been sent a few hours ago.

[11:40].

[Silence Is Zhou: Are you there?]

[Silence Is Zhou: I saw you guys go out just now.]

[Silence Is Zhou: It looks like someone is following you.]

[Silence Is Zhou: Photo].

Fang Xian looked at the photo sent by Song Yizhou.

He clicked to view the full image.

Vague pitch-blackness.

A tiny clump of a person.

Fang Xian found it somewhat familiar as he looked.

"Looks like a kid wearing a duckbill cap."

"It's that fellow."

Fang Xian immediately recognized it.

In other words, that kid hadn't just happened to run into him.

Instead...

He had been following him all along!

When did it start, exactly?

Fang Xian continued reading the messages sent by Song Yizhou.

Then came the messages from two hours ago.

Around midnight.

[Silence Is Zhou: I'm feeling a bit restless.]

[Silence Is Zhou: When I got up in the middle of the night, I happened to see this outside the window.]

[Silence Is Zhou: Photo].

Under the moonlight.

Outside the guesthouse window.

A bizarrely short, small figure was raising its head, looking up at the second floor.

Then came the messages from half an hour ago.

[Silence Is Zhou: Fang Xian, I don't know if you can receive my message. What I'm about to say might sound a bit strange, but you must believe me.]

[Silence Is Zhou: Outside our room door, there seems to be a paper figure.]

[Silence Is Zhou: Photo].

Taken through the peephole, extremely blurry.

Yet one could vaguely make out the paper face of a figure that made one's body stiffen.

Along with the overly vibrant, eerie red blush on both sides of the face.

[Silence Is Zhou: The General Affairs Bureau's phone won't go through, and we fucking don't dare to go out!]

[Silence Is Zhou: Hurry back ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!]

Oh.

The battle-cry-proficient school nurse auntie was awake too.

Fang Xian's expression gradually grew cold.

The urban legend [Paper Figure].

He hadn't even laid eyes on that thing yet, so why would it suddenly go to the guesthouse to attack Song Yizhou and Yao Hui?

No... it was that kid in the duckbill cap.

Fang Xian clutched that piece of [Paper Figure Fragment] in his hand. "He Qi!"

"Row the boat!"

"Grab this big fish, we're heading back to the guesthouse!"