This man, he... his father...
A surge of joy welled up in his heart, impossible to hide, yet not even the faintest smile would come to his face.
The sky hung low over Fu City, its clouds dark and gloomy.
The "patients" in the street staggered about, while the father blocking their way wore a complicated look.
"Dad..."
Qin Manjiang murmured.
No matter who Jiang Du was, no matter who he himself was, those nearly twenty years of care were real. In Qin Manjiang's heart, Old Qin had always been his only father.
Yet when he actually called him that again, Qin Manjiang found the word strangely unfamiliar.
Old Qin glanced back at the villa district and said to Qin Manjiang and Shen Hai, "Come with me."
Shen Hai naturally said nothing, merely looking at Qin Manjiang.
Qin Manjiang nodded and followed Old Qin, parting a path through the eerie crowd.
They passed through streets and alleys. Old Qin walked ahead without speaking, and Qin Manjiang followed in silence.
Only Shen Hai occasionally glanced at Old Qin.
When they reached an old house in the Urban Village, Old Qin unlocked the door and said, "Come in."
They had barely entered, their eyes not yet adjusted to the old house whose light was blocked by the surrounding high-rises, when Shen Hai spoke.
He unceremoniously found a chair and sat down. "Mister, how did you know we were there? Why did you stop us?"
Old Qin kept his head lowered as he poured water for them. "I'm not the only one who knew. In this world, twenty people knew..."
"Twenty?" Shen Hai was particularly alert to that number and immediately made the connection. "The Lower River Village ghost story in Fu City lasted twenty years, with one death a year. Exactly twenty