Missing Person Notice

Today, Fang Xian was playing the part of an innocent kid who knew nothing about the world.

He widened his eyes and answered with perfect sincerity, "I think it was... North Bank Garden? That should be it."

For an instant, Fang Xian caught a strange look in the woman's eyes.

He had no idea what it meant, but the older woman who had struck up a conversation with him seemed to know something.

The woman leaned a little closer.

She was slightly hunched.

A sour stench mingled with an odd fragrance, making for a deeply unpleasant smell.

"Handsome young man, North Bank Garden... I've heard that area..."

The woman lowered her voice. "Has something unclean in it."

Oh, I get the feeling you're not exactly clean yourself, lady.

Fang Xian shifted his bag to the front of his chest. "Really? I just got here, so I don't know a thing."

The woman glanced around. "I heard that many years ago, a little girl went missing in North Bank Garden."

Fang Xian's expression shifted. "Missing?"

"Kids go missing—it happens, doesn't it? What does that have to do with the residential community?"

The woman lowered her voice. "The girl went missing inside the community."

"It happened ten years ago. North Bank Residential Community was the best and most expensive community on this street back then, with excellent security. But that was when a resident's daughter vanished."

"Both the surveillance footage and the police investigation confirmed that the girl never left the community."

"And yet she was gone."

"As if... she'd never existed at all."

The woman's voice turned eerie.

Fang Xian tilted his head back slightly.

Say what you want, but quit putting your face so damn close to mine.

"What happened next?"

Fang Xian was good at playing the innocent kid. He looked at the woman with an expression of eager curiosity.

The woman gave him a peculiar smile. "Apparently, the girl's parents have always believed that one of their neighbors killed their child. They've spent years asking the General Affairs Bureau police to investigate and putting up missing person notices around the community. Sometimes they come out onto the street, too. Their mental state doesn't seem good."

"Ah."

The woman spread her hands. "The lengths parents will go to for their children."

Fang Xian nodded and agreed offhandedly. "True... Well, I need to get to North Bank Garden. We can talk another time."

The woman froze.

Why had he suddenly gone cold?

Was he changing faces on her?

"Let's add each other on WeChat, handsome."

The woman spoke.

Fang Xian smiled. "Sorry, I don't have WeChat..."

His eyes shifted slightly.

Reflected in the woman's pupils, he spotted someone about twenty meters behind him who seemed to be watching them.

A proselytizing organization...

At the same time, he caught a glint of cold metal at the edge of the woman's coat pocket.

A razor blade.

She's carrying a razor blade.

Fang Xian kept smiling, but his right hand had already slipped into his bag.

Gripping the handle of the Fire Axe brought back his sense of security.

Hmph.

Fang Xian wasn't afraid.

If there weren't any pedestrians around, don't blame me, a superpowered Jiangzhou local, for smacking you over the head with this Fire Axe.

Just then, Fang Xian saw a notification appear at the top of his phone.

[Urban Legend Notification]

[Urban Legend: The Church—Living Truth]

[Urban Legend Level: ??]

[Urban Legend Type: ??]

[At the edge of the city, beside the road, you encountered a middle-aged woman who moved like a puppet. She eagerly preached her doctrine to you and invited you to a church event.]

[You felt that perhaps you should experience the religious atmosphere to fill the emptiness in your heart.]

Oh?

A new urban legend?

Fang Xian abruptly stopped what he was doing. "Actually, let me scan your code."

"Right..."

This is it—the worthy opponent I've been looking for.

Fang Xian's change of heart was so sudden that even the woman seemed confused.

She gave a slight shake of her head, apparently signaling to the man behind Fang Xian.

"Fang Xian, a first-year engineering student at Jiangzhou Normal University."

The woman had looked at Fang Xian's WeChat Moments.

The first post was a selfie he had taken over dinner that night.

He really did look like an innocent college freshman.

"Well, goodbye."

Fang Xian gave the woman an innocent smile and waved.

So if I hadn't added you on WeChat, you were going to attack me?

It's 1015 already. Aren't we supposed to live in a society governed by law?

Fang Xian followed the navigation along the side of the road.

Besides...

That looked like a cult.

No, it definitely was a cult.

Otherwise, the catalogue wouldn't have classified it as an urban legend.

Fang Xian was a little curious.

The [Little Baldhead] counted as an individual urban legend.

So what would happen if he captured this [Living Truth Church]?

Would he become a cult leader?

Hmph.

Fang Xian's smile faded a little.

You're not my target today. Lucky you.

As night drew closer, the surrounding streetlights seemed to grow dimmer.

The outskirts of the city lacked the bustle of its center and had a desolation he couldn't quite put into words.

The summer heat had yet to fade.

A few pedestrians wandered ahead.

"Oh... I'm here."

Fang Xian closed the map app.

[North Bank Garden].

The entire community was enclosed by dark gray walls topped with decorative railings.

Time had left even those once-elegant details spotted with rust.

Compared with the four- or five-story buildings lining the street outside, these buildings of over a dozen stories did look relatively refined.

It was around eight in the evening.

The moon had risen.

Fang Xian made a rough count of the lit apartments.

In a community that could hold hundreds of households, only twenty-odd homes had their lights on.

Fang Xian took a few photos with his phone, then walked around the outside of the community.

"There's only one gate connecting the inside and outside."

"And there's no separate access for cars and pedestrians. That couldn't have been an easy sell."

Fang Xian rubbed his chin.

"Which family lost their child?"

"And who can I ask at this hour?"

Fang Xian looked at the passersby and the elderly residents enjoying the cool air by the gate. After a moment's thought, he stepped into the convenience store beside the community.

"Boss, a pack of Heavenly Splendor."

Fang Xian pushed aside the door curtain with practiced ease and called out to the owner.

The owner, who had a gleaming bald head, tossed him a pack. Fang Xian, who had developed a bit of a fear of bald heads lately, caught it on reflex. "Boss, can I ask you something?"

The owner had a cigarette in his mouth and was busy playing a game. Without looking back, he said, "What?"

Fang Xian opened the pack, pulled out two cigarettes, and offered them to the owner. "I'm a journalism student at Jiangzhou Normal University's School of Literature and Communication. I heard a girl disappeared from North Bank Residential Community. Was it this place?"

The owner kept playing with his right hand and took the cigarettes with his left. He glanced at Fang Xian, his tone softening a little. "That case was ten years ago. You lot dig it up every year."

The owner pulled a missing person notice from beneath the counter. "Here. Read it yourself."

[Missing Person Notice].

[Li Wan, age seven, height 130 cm. A small mole beneath her right eye. At the time of her disappearance, she was wearing a white floral dress and a white jade pendant around her neck.]

[Anyone with information should contact Mr. Li. A generous reward will be offered.]

Below that were a phone number and home address.

Beneath them was a photograph. Its ten years of age showed, but he could still make out that the little girl was adorable. She would have grown up to be a beauty.