An unexpected connection

Qin Manjiang frowned.

He looked straight into Qin Manyi's eyes. After a moment, he shook his head and said, "She isn't my sister."

Qin Manjiang's words were so unexpected that even Xi Wutong froze for a moment.

"I don't think there's any need for me to talk to her."

Qin Manjiang turned to leave.

Doctor Xi hurried after him. "Classmate Qin! Please wait."

Qin Manjiang stopped beside a window in the corridor and watched Doctor Xi approach.

Doctor Xi caught her breath before saying, "We've learned that Qin Manyi has lost a great deal of her memory. She isn't deliberately trying to upset you."

"Please don't be angry with her. Your attitude is very important to getting to the bottom of this," Doctor Xi urged.

Qin Manjiang shook his head and explained, "I'm not angry. I meant what I said just now. That girl really isn't my sister."

Doctor Xi's brow furrowed deeply. She studied Qin Manjiang and asked, "Are you sure you aren't just saying that out of anger?"

Qin Manjiang nodded again to confirm. "Ever since she was little, Qin Manyi never dared to look me in the eye. That didn't change even after she developed mental health problems."

At that, Qin Manjiang glanced toward the special care ward and said, "You saw it yourself just now. She stared straight at me. All I saw in her eyes was a stranger. She isn't my sister."

Doctor Xi said helplessly, "But that could also mean her condition has worsened. Her current personality might have completely erased her previous personality, leaving her like this..."

Hearing that, Qin Manjiang looked at Doctor Xi quite seriously and asked, "Doctor Xi, in your opinion, what exactly should we look at to determine who someone is?"

Doctor Xi hadn't expected that question, and for a moment, she had no answer.

It was midsummer, around two in the afternoon, and the heat left people feeling irritable.

Qin Manjiang's question kept circling in Doctor Xi's mind. After thinking it over carefully for quite some time, she looked up at him.

"I can't answer that question. Whether it's the body or the soul, we can't separate them and examine them in isolation."

"Mr. Qin, your way of thinking is very strange, and very dangerous. A human being is a combination of many aspects, not an individual defined by a single factor."

Qin Manjiang smiled. "Is that so?"

He said nothing more, merely looking out the window as he murmured, "In my view, a human being is just a camera, preserving pictures of the past day after day, year after year. Each camera might perform differently, but they all serve the same function. So the camera itself has no meaning."

He turned to look at Doctor Xi. "The different pictures we've taken in the past are what set us apart from others and make us who we are. As for the body and the soul, there's fundamentally no difference."

His explanation left Doctor Xi bewildered. "What are you trying to say?"

Qin Manjiang shook his head and stepped away from the window. "I'm going to get her pictures back."

Xi Wutong wanted to say more, but Qin Manjiang politely stopped her. "Doctor Xi, please don't follow me. I've fulfilled my responsibilities and obligations. Please don't interfere with what comes next."

"Wait!"

Xi Wutong went after him anyway.

During their conversation, the two had already reached the entrance to Giantwood Hospital.

"Mr. Qin, I can tell you frankly that although Miss Qin Manyi personally confessed to her crime, and eyewitness reports identify her as the perpetrator, it is also an indisputable fact that she was in this hospital all last night. So Miss Qin Manyi won't be prosecuted. This case will be reopened for a discreet investigation."

Xi Wutong explained.

Qin Manjiang nodded. "That's good."

"I know what you're going to do, Mr. Qin." Dr. Xi looked into his eyes. "You're going back to your hometown to investigate this murder yourself, and you're also going to begin investigating the cause of your father's death."

Qin Manjiang was a little surprised. Xi Wutong was a beautiful woman. People often underestimated someone's abilities because of their exceptional looks, but Qin Manjiang didn't. Even so, Xi Wutong's perceptiveness exceeded his expectations.

"Could we talk?" she asked.

Qin Manjiang hesitated, but eventually nodded.

"This is my number. Let's meet tonight."

Qin Manjiang took out his phone and had just turned on the screen to save her number.

At that very moment, however, Xi Wutong's expression changed dramatically!

She grabbed Qin Manjiang's hand. Always elegant and composed, she suddenly trembled all over with agitation.

She slowly lifted Qin Manjiang's phone-holding hand until it was in front of his eyes, her body gradually drawing closer as well. The distance between them vanished in an instant, until they could hear each other breathe.

"What is this icon?"

"Where did you download it?"

"What does it mean? Tell me!"

Qin Manjiang said nothing.

He had never imagined that anyone in the real world would recognize the Ghost Story Game's icon.

And by such a coincidence, that person happened to be someone he had only met today.

Was this woman connected to the Ghost Story Game too?

Judging by her reaction, she wasn't necessarily a player, but she certainly knew something. At the very least, she had seen the Ghost Story Game somewhere before.

"Doctor Xi, you're attracting attention."

Qin Manjiang reminded her.

She really was a beautiful woman, and someone like her drew attention no matter what she did. All the more so when she was entangled with a man at the hospital entrance, gripping his hand and almost pressing herself against him.

Xi Wutong came to her senses and released Qin Manjiang's hand. She neither blushed nor grew flustered, simply stepping back and saying politely, "I'm sorry, Mr. Qin. I lost my composure."

Before Qin Manjiang could reply, she looked up and spoke again. "But my questions haven't changed. This is extremely important to me."

Seeing her serious expression, Qin Manjiang nodded. "Then let's talk tonight. I'm very interested too."

After receiving his confirmation, Xi Wutong let out a breath of relief. She gave him a long look. "See you tonight, Mr. Qin."

Qin Manjiang dipped his head slightly, then turned to leave.

"Are you really going to stop caring about Qin Manyi?"

Xi Wutong suddenly asked.

Qin Manjiang stopped again, but didn't turn around. "No. But that person isn't her."

Watching Qin Manjiang walk away, Xi Wutong took a deep breath.

She had never met anyone like him.

As a specialist retained by the police, Xi Wutong had taken part in countless strange and unusual cases and encountered all sorts of people.

Yet... Qin Manjiang, whom she had met today, made her question her own abilities.

While questioning Qin Manjiang earlier, she had deliberately employed a little trick.

The human body was strange. Breathing, for example, came naturally and required no conscious attention.

But when someone deliberately paid attention to their breathing, noticing which nostril they were breathing through, their body seemed to suddenly lose the ability to breathe on its own. They had to consciously keep track of it.

Blinking was the same.

Xi Wutong had deliberately mentioned, "You're blinking very quickly." Usually, after hearing something like that, people began to notice how often they blinked. What should have been an entirely natural action became deliberate under that scrutiny.

Their steady, natural blinking rhythm would instantly fall out of balance.

Yet that response had failed to materialize in Qin Manjiang.

His blinking rhythm seemed to have been programmed. Even when she deliberately prompted him to pay attention to it, the frequency didn't change in the slightest.

And...

He had that icon on his phone.

That eerie icon that haunted Xi Wutong's every waking thought and dream, the one she hated to her very core...

She took out her phone and dialed a number.

After hesitating for a moment, Xi Wutong spoke.

"Could you look into someone for me?"

August 13, eight in the evening.

Xi Wutong had changed out of her work clothes into a dress. Standing beneath a streetlight, she was very eye-catching.

She glanced down at her watch. It was eight, the time she had arranged to meet Qin Manjiang.

Men passing by kept turning to look at her.

Some young men laughed and jostled one another, deliberately drawing closer.

Xi Wutong had long since grown used to it and thought nothing of it.

"I'm over here."

Just then, Qin Manjiang's voice rang out.

She looked toward the voice and saw Qin Manjiang, dressed in a white shirt, sitting on a bench beside the sidewalk.

It was pitch-black over there. Standing beneath the light, she naturally hadn't been able to see him.

He had clearly arrived long ago, yet had insisted on waiting until eight to say hello.

Walking over to Qin Manjiang, Xi Wutong glanced at the bench and sat down beside him.

Before she could speak, Qin Manjiang's very first words made Xi Wutong's eyes slowly widen.

"Doctor Xi, do you believe in ghosts?"

Thanks to When I Enter Hell for the Helmsman-level support, and thanks to Fate Lies with Heaven, Eating Meat, Roast Duckie, and Cassia Seed for the tips!

I moved today, so the update was a little late. Sorry.

(End of chapter)