Chapter 59#
Huaian University produces a promotional video every year, which has almost become a campus feature.
The promotional video is shown at the freshman ceremony and is eagerly reported by various media outlets. The script and actors are organized by students, with innovation and fun as the main focus, and they can act in anything.
The counselor was looking for him for the promotional video.
Ye Sheng refused without even thinking.
The counselor said, “Xiao Ye, are you really not going to reconsider? You’re very famous now, and you’re a freshman. If you act in the promotional video, your next four years of university life will definitely be very exciting.”
Ye Sheng thought to himself, whether he acted in this promotional video or not, his university life would be very exciting.
The counselor didn’t give up and showed Ye Sheng many messages, including enthusiastic suggestions from students in the same year and netizens who had nothing better to do than spam the official Weibo account.
The outcry was so loud that even the school leaders mentioned it in the work group chat.
The counselor said, “Xiao Ye, you’re so handsome, why don’t you like to be in the limelight?”
The counselor said, “Xiao Ye, just try it. The school leaders have already spoken.”
Ye Sheng looked at the messages she sent one after another and knew that the counselor was probably not going to give up. Whether it was early admission or various poverty subsidies, the counselor had handled them for him.
Ye Sheng frowned and sent a message.
“Teacher, I can’t act. If I play the main role, it will bring negative publicity to the school.”
He had said this reason the first time the counselor proposed the promotional video to him.
The counselor was very open-minded.
[If you can’t act, then we won’t act. Xiao Ye, you can just be a mute passerby and make an appearance. [Smile][Grin]]
“…”
Ye Sheng was speechless for a moment.
The counselor sent him several more pictures, which were screenshots from previous promotional videos of Huaian University. The promotional video shot last year had the theme of “Twin Lives, Twin Paths,” telling the story of twin sisters who had completely different developments after entering university. The older sister focused on academics and graduated with a GPA close to full marks.
The younger sister was active in various club performances and had already been offered olive branches by countless artist companies before graduation.
Ye Sheng didn’t look carefully at the words the counselor sent. His gaze fell directly on one of the pictures.
That picture was taken at the old art and sports hall of Huaian University.
The old art and sports hall of Huaian University was rarely open to the public and was closed all year round. It was estimated that the grand auditorium would only be used during the freshman entrance ceremony and the senior graduation ceremony.
This building, which cost 300 million to build, was magnificent in appearance, with a style that was both classical and modern. From a distance, it looked like a cathedral, with red brick walls, white porticoes, and even carved flowers on the colonnades. The front of the old art and sports hall was planted with osmanthus trees. In the golden autumn of September, it was the beginning of the school year and also the time when the osmanthus flowers bloomed.
Every young man and woman in the picture smiled brightly, but Ye Sheng’s gaze was fixed on the building behind them.
The red bricks of the old art and sports hall glowed faintly red under the setting sun. He didn’t know if the fragrance of osmanthus in September could cover the smell of blood inside.
[Xiao Ye, have you considered it?]
Ye Sheng withdrew his gaze: “Yes, I can.” The promotional video was not the key. The key was that filming the promotional video would allow him to enter the old art and sports building.
Just after he replied to the counselor, Huang Qiqi suddenly sent him several exclamation marks in a row.
[!!!]
[Junior, you’re on the hot search again. You’re famous throughout Huaian University now!]
“…”
He was already wanted by the Anomaly Empire, far more famous than she imagined.
After replying to Huang Qiqi’s message, Ye Sheng took a shower and went to bed.
The next day, Xia Wenshi was exhausted by the Luohu event and once again gave all the staff of the haunted house a day off.
Ye Sheng received a call from Ning Weichen in the morning.
“Do you want to go to the Third People’s Hospital of Huaicheng to have a look?”
Ye Sheng was stunned and said, “I just sent you a message yesterday, and you already have a clue?”
Ning Weichen: “It’s not a clue, it’s just that Tang Jiahao’s surgery is over, so we can go and have a look on the way.”
Ye Sheng was stunned. When he left the school gate, Ning Weichen had already been waiting there for a while.
Ye Sheng got into the passenger seat.
Ning Weichen held the steering wheel, turned his head, and suddenly smiled ambiguously at him: “Brother, do you think I’m like your exclusive driver?”
Ye Sheng didn’t want to chat with him on such a boring topic at all.
“The protagonist of that story is in the Third Hospital, and is closely related to the obstetrics and gynecology department of the Third Hospital.”
Ning Weichen didn’t say anything about this matter and suddenly said: “Do you follow the hot search?”
“…No.” Ye Sheng was stunned and looked at Ning Weichen in disbelief. “What do you want to say?”
Could it be that Ning Weichen was also going to talk about him being on the hot search?
Was Ning Weichen that bored?
Seeing his surprised and ghostly gaze, Ning Weichen chuckled lightly, his peach blossom eyes curving: “Don’t worry, it’s not about you.”
“At two o’clock last night, a blogger sorted out the recent series of murders in Huaicheng, from gouging out eyes, cutting out tongues, breaking legs, to Tang Jiahao’s ruptured eardrum. The blogger suspected that this was a premeditated murder.”
“Later, a hot comment immediately pointed out that a child had previously predicted that someone would have their ears pierced. That child said that a hero had appeared in their city.”
“This morning, the hot search was almost all about this matter.”
“I think you should know that child. He often calls “Little Mouth Tells Stories”. Everyone has given that murderer a name, called ‘Nightcrawler’, which comes from the child’s original words. The child said that he thought that person was so cool, like an urban nightcrawler who presides over justice and punishes evil and promotes good.”
Ye Sheng frowned and said word by word: “Urban Nightcrawler.”
Ning Weichen nodded and smiled: “Yes, because he always acts at night, and doesn’t the three words ’nightcrawler’ sound like a hero?”
Indeed.
Mysterious and chuunibyou.
But what normal person would name a murderer Nightcrawler at the beginning?
Like a term that only exists in a child’s wild imagination.
But as more and more people call this name, it will soon become an inherent memory and spread among the public.
Ning Weichen said: “If you go and look at the hot search, countless people are already guessing the identity of the Urban Nightcrawler. Because the deceased all deserved it, and the way they died corresponded to the crimes they committed in their lifetime. So everyone has a fanatical interest and worship for the Urban Nightcrawler rather than fear.”
Ye Sheng was not surprised by this result. Didn’t the King of Stories want to create a widely circulated hero story? If more people died, the pattern of death would be discovered sooner or later.
Ye Sheng asked: “Did you investigate the child who called?”
Ning Weichen said: “I did. He’s just a very ordinary child, and I didn’t find anything wrong.”
Ye Sheng: “Was he controlled by the King of Stories?”
Ning Weichen shook his head: “Not necessarily. It’s too easy to make a human child obedient. The radio station and that child are just mediums used by the King of Stories to ’tell stories’. We can’t find any useful clues from them.”
Ye Sheng was stunned and changed the question: “The Bureau of Paranormal Affairs has fought with the King of Stories many times. Have they never seen his true face?”
Ning Weichen smiled and said: “No. The King of Stories has also stayed abroad before, and the bizarre events he created are all over the world. But he seems to have a unique feeling for China and comes back once a year. And this time in Huaicheng, he stayed for a particularly long time.”
Ye Sheng was sharp: “So, the King of Stories is an anomaly formed after a person’s death, and he was a Chinese person in his lifetime.”
Ning Weichen nodded: “Yes, I think so. A characteristic of China’s agricultural civilization is the homesickness of returning to one’s roots. It can be inferred more accurately that the King of Stories may be from Huaicheng.”
Ye Sheng was silent for a long time, thinking of his own speculation yesterday, and asked: “Ning Weichen, do you think the King of Stories is an adult or a child?”
Ning Weichen laughed: “Why do you ask that?”
Ye Sheng said: “Every ps he wrote is full of the gloom and viciousness of an adult, but every story he created has a cruel sense of justice. Whether it’s the Yanzhen Bridge or the current Urban Nightcrawler. Extreme justice and ‘karma’ only exist in the black and white world of a child, especially the name Urban Nightcrawler.” Ye Sheng said: “I was thinking, if the King of Stories was a person before, then was he also writing stories when he was alive? The characters he created, could they be the protagonists he wrote down with a pen in his lifetime?”
Ning Weichen smiled and said: “A very reasonable guess.” He lowered his eyes to hide the thoughtful look in them and smiled ambiguously: “But I think the King of Stories is like an ‘adult trapped in childhood’. He is imaginative and has a very extreme judgment of good and evil. Maybe if we find out the true face of the Urban Nightcrawler, we can see him.”
Ye Sheng said: “Did the King of Stories become an anomaly because he experienced extreme pain before he died?”
“Probably not.” Ning Weichen said: “What kind of pain can turn someone into an S-rank anomaly? The King of Stories may have been influenced by a bit of timing, location, and human factors. The earlier an anomaly is born, the stronger its ability. A hundred years ago was recorded by Butterfly Island as the ‘Year of Catastrophe’. Most of the current S-rank and super A-rank anomalies were born at that time. Their lives are much longer than the Bureau of Paranormal Affairs.”
Ning Weichen said lightly: “But since he can become an S-rank anomaly, the emotions of the King of Stories when he died would not be simple.”
Emotions that transcend the limits of humanity.
But what would humans have such feelings for?
The conversation drifted to the Third People’s Hospital.
After getting out of the car, Ye Sheng was pulled by Ning Weichen to the supermarket next door to buy some fruits and flowers.
Ye Sheng looked down at the fruit basket in his hand and was silent for a while.
“You can’t visit a patient empty-handed.” Ning Weichen held a bouquet of flowers and smiled at him.
It turned out that these fruit baskets and flowers were really useful.
He and Tang Jiahao were complete strangers, just happened to have stayed in the same room and just knew his name. They were completely unrelated.
But after Ning Weichen entered the ward, he was suave and smiling, and after chatting with his girlfriend who was guarding the bedside for a few sentences.
Tang Jiahao’s girlfriend’s eyes turned red, and she sobbed as if she were treating them as old friends, telling them everything.
“…” Speechless again.
Tang Jiahao’s crime was seeing someone die and not saving them. That night when he passed through the forest, he knew that what he heard was not a bird call, but a girl’s cry for help, but he turned a blind eye. Later, Tang Jiahao woke up. From his as calm as possible recollection, the image of the Urban Nightcrawler had two more features.
—His face could not be seen clearly, and his voice was a bit distorted.
That Dr. Liang Xu from the Third People’s Hospital, Luo Xingyan had already told the Bureau of Paranormal Affairs about him. His education, occupation, and family information were all clean, and nothing could be found.
Later, Ye Sheng went to the underground shopping mall of Jiahe Shopping Mall himself, and even went to see the ruins of the warehouse of the Story Magazine Agency that was burned down that year, but found nothing.
In a big city like Huaicheng, although the matter of the Urban Nightcrawler was constantly fermenting, the surface was still calm.
Time passed quickly. From Ye Sheng getting on the train in June, it was finally time for Huaian University to start school.
Ye Sheng’s current attitude was: although he was curious about his identity, he still didn’t want to completely break away from his original life.