Chapter 70#

The People in the Story (Part 7)#

Ye Sheng withdrew his hand, quickly turned on the flashlight, and shone it forward.

The strong light only illuminated a pitch-black, hard wall.

The concrete wall was cold and solid, without any abnormalities. The sensation of human flesh in the darkness just now seemed to be merely his illusion.

Going down the stairs, there was a huge space.

The underground exhibition hall had only just taken shape when construction stopped due to insufficient budget. Concrete walls were everywhere, and after walking a few steps, one could still see brushes, plastic buckets, and discarded worker gloves on the ground.

The environment here was cold and silent.

Su Wanluo was waiting for him ahead. She took out the map in her hand and said, “The map doesn’t mark where the supervisor’s office is. But there are only a few built rooms, two in the east and two in the west. Let’s split up.”

Ye Sheng: “Why are you looking for the supervisor’s office?”

Su Wanluo was silent for a long time before simply saying, “The School of Civil Engineering is doing an activity about the history of campus architecture recently. I want to go to the supervisor’s office to see if there are any relevant materials from back then.”

Ye Sheng didn’t expose her and said lightly, “Since you’ve seen ghosts at the Luo Lake Mansion, you should know that it’s very dangerous here.”

Su Wanluo smiled palely: “I know. But I’m not afraid of these things.”

Ye Sheng: “Oh.”

He stopped there and didn’t say anything more. After memorizing the map, he walked east.

After Ning Weichen caught up, he naturally followed Ye Sheng. Before parting ways, he looked at Su Wanluo thoughtfully. His peach-blossom eyes seemed to be smiling yet not smiling, rippling with affection yet ruthless, and he said softly.

“Senior Su, your mental state doesn’t seem very good. If necessary, you can close your eyes and sleep for a while.”

Su Wanluo took a step back. She was a little afraid of dealing with Ning Weichen, always feeling that all her secrets were exposed on the surface, coldly scrutinized by him. She forced a smile and nodded: “Mm, okay.”

The underground space was initially intended to be a student art exhibition hall, so there were many walls and corridors, like a huge maze. However, Ye Sheng had an exceptional memory. Relying on his excellent night vision and sense of direction, he went all the way east and soon arrived in front of a door. As soon as his hand touched the door handle, he froze. The handle felt less like metal and more like human bone. But when he shone the flashlight on it, there was nothing unusual.

“Brother, this is where the wooden boards are stored,” Ning Weichen looked inside and said calmly.

There was a choking smell of damp wood in the air. Ye Sheng shone the flashlight forward, and sure enough, the room was densely packed with rotting, blackened wood.

Just as Ye Sheng was about to say “Let’s go, next place,” something suddenly moved in the corner. He frowned, held up the flashlight, and walked forward step by step, seeing a… puppet?

A crude and rough puppet, seemingly made by a worker in his spare time using excess wood. Its head, hands, and feet were pieced together in the simplest way, standing as tall as a human child.

The puppet had fallen against the edge of the wall. Its eyes were two holes, and its mouth was a high upward curve drawn with chalk. Having stayed underground for a long time, the puppet’s body was inevitably damp. Its face was covered with various dark green mold spots, making that big smiling face look incredibly eerie under the light.

Ning Weichen looked down at the puppet.

Ye Sheng walked over and reached out to fiddle with the puppet’s body. It was clearly just a pile of lifeless wood, but his fingertips inexplicably felt a bone-chilling coldness. He knew this puppet was strange, but in a “world” created by a B-grade Heresy, Ye Sheng possessed Spirit Calling and wouldn’t be overly timid.

Ye Sheng said, “You go to the next place. I think there’s something strange about this place. I’ll investigate further and find you later.”

Ning Weichen looked at him deeply, a smile casually falling on the corners of his lips as he nodded: “Okay, brother.” He turned around, his long legs walking towards another room.

After Ning Weichen left, Ye Sheng looked around again and found that there was only one puppet in this room. He lowered his eyes, took out his phone, and used the flashlight to open Search and take a picture of the puppet directly.

Unexpectedly, Search showed that this was not a Heresy.

Ye Sheng frowned. Not a Heresy?

Such an abrupt puppet in such an eerie environment, not a Heresy?

Who are you kidding?

Ye Sheng didn’t believe it. He glanced at the smiling puppet again. That smile was really too big, almost stretching to the back of its ears. The more he looked at it, the more eerie it became.

Ye Sheng started moving the wooden boards. He was strong, standing them up one by one to see if he could find any other clues. When he moved the last piece of wood, fine sweat had appeared on Ye Sheng’s forehead. He shone the flashlight and his pupils shrank. He saw a very thin and small notebook on the ground.

Ye Sheng bent down to pick it up, patted off the sawdust and dirt, and could vaguely see the name written on it was “Su Jiande.”

Surname Su.

Ye Sheng opened the notebook. It was densely packed with accounts. The expenditure for every material and every meal on the construction site was recorded very clearly. In addition, Su Jiande also recorded the phone numbers of some workers.

Ye Sheng turned to the last page and stared at the last few names recorded, stunned.

The last few phone numbers were all reporting hotlines.

Cement distributors, Market Supervision Bureau, Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision, Mayor’s Hotline, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and even the Academic Affairs Office of Huai’an University. He seemed desperate, trying everything. Turning the page, there was a crossed-out paragraph, a draft.

Written to the Raw Materials Industry Section of the Huai’an Municipal Bureau of Industry and Information Technology.

[Dear City Leaders,

I am a worker building the Huai’an University Gymnasium. I want to report that the project manager Yuan Shou is attempting to use inferior (crossed out) I want to report that Yuan Ming’s Jianxing Cement Factory has serious violations of production regulations…]

Su Jiande’s education level was not high, so he had a devout seriousness towards words. The hand holding the pen was unsteady, and the writing wasn’t beautiful, but every stroke was extremely careful.

Ye Sheng thought of what Su Wanluo had told him. The first argument between the supervisor and Vice-Principal Yuan was because Yuan Shou wanted to change the cement company. But later, for some unknown reason, Yuan Shou’s plan fell through and the change didn’t happen.

It seemed the reason was here.

He looked at this notebook. Back then, the country was cracking down on chaos in the cement market, let alone in a metropolis like Huai City. The government certainly wouldn’t sit idly by after receiving a report.

So Su Jiande completely ruined the financial path of the two brothers, Yuan Shou and Yuan Ming.

Ye Sheng put away the notebook, intending to give it to Su Wanluo.

But when he tried to stand up from the ground, his head suddenly stung, a wave of dizziness hit him, and a hazy blood color brushed past his eyes.

At this moment, the world seemed to go silent.

Ye Sheng held his forehead and opened his eyes abruptly.

His chest heaved slightly, and his almond eyes were filled with crazy, intense hostility.

The world went silent. He was too familiar with such silence. In the old toilet of carriage 44 in Yinshan, and the moment he jumped into Lover’s Lake and looked at Duan Shi.

—The Story King!

The ground under Ye Sheng’s feet began to become very soft, and his eardrums stung in waves.

The space, originally quiet as an underground tomb, instantly filled with all kinds of strange and noisy sounds. There were birds singing, grass growing, children laughing, the sound of water, footsteps, heavy snow, and long winds. Bizarre and chaotic.

But around Ye Sheng, there was only a thick darkness.

Click, click. Something was moving behind him.

Ye Sheng squatted down, opened his eyes, and saw a thin layer of blood seeping out from the crack at the bottom of the wall.

He held the flashlight in his hand, and a strange and huge shadow appeared on the wall. Something appeared behind him. This monster’s movements were uncoordinated, stiff, and strange.

Ye Sheng turned his head and his eyes widened—

That puppet actually came “alive.”

It swayed, holding a huge axe in its hand, the corners of its mouth grinning, looking cheerful.

Ye Sheng cursed silently. When the puppet raised the axe and chopped down at him, he dodged the first swing with agility and speed. After using Spirit Calling many times, Ye Sheng was already very proficient. A thin mist with a watery sheen easily appeared in his eyes as he whispered: “Get lost.”

However, the puppet was not a Heresy. It was completely unaffected by Spirit Calling and continued to chop at him cheerfully with the axe. Instead, when the puppet saw Ye Sheng’s tears, it spoke, its voice also cheerful, but its tone malicious and strange.

The puppet muttered to itself: “Smiling is a very important thing. Anyone who can’t smile can’t live a happy life.”

“…”

Ye Sheng thought it was sick in the head. The blood continuously seeping from the ground and the pressure from the Story King told him that this place should not be stayed in for long. Ye Sheng didn’t intend to tangle with the puppet. He bent his waist, used his agile posture to dodge the puppet’s attack in a few steps, and left it behind.

In the process, he also tried to kill the puppet by breaking its head off.

However, the puppet’s head fell to the ground cheerfully, then flew back and reattached itself to the neck.

It couldn’t be killed.

In this “spatial domain” created by the Human Wall, the puppet wouldn’t die.

Ye Sheng pursed his lips. While escaping, he used Search to take a picture of the puppet, but it still showed no results.

It wasn’t a Heresy. At the last moment of fighting and fleeing this room, Ye Sheng gritted his teeth, endured the blood in his chest, turned around, and quickly took a picture of the wriggling wall!

Click.

The moment Search took the picture.

Ye Sheng’s eyes were filled with blood color.

In the unseen world, there seemed to be a gaze, sometimes cold and crazy, sometimes quiet and innocent, silently watching him. Then he heard that person’s laugh, a very strange laugh. The voice was that of a young man, but the way of laughing was like a child.

*

Su Wanluo went all the way west. Walking alone in a pitch-black, silent basement, it would be a lie to say she wasn’t afraid. But the obsession of more than ten years had long turned into intense hatred. Except for life and death, everything else in the world was trivial. Since she wasn’t even afraid of death, what was there to be afraid of here?

Su Wanluo pushed open the door of a room.

This was a utility room with wooden buckets, mops, and the like. Su Wanluo’s gaze was vigilant and careful, not letting go of any suspicious place.

Wait, there seemed to be something moving in the mud bucket.

Su Wanluo’s back went cold. She took a deep breath, clenched her palms, walked in, squatted down, and found that there was actually a bird in the mud bucket.

…A bird?? And the bird’s wings were still moving.

Su Wanluo’s throat was dry with fear, but she still gritted her trembling teeth and slowly reached out her hand. The moment her fingertips touched the bird’s body, the little bird suddenly let out a scream. Its sharp beak directly bit Su Wanluo’s finger, biting until the white bone was visible.

Su Wanluo bled profusely, tears coming out from the pain.

“Who touched me—hmm? A human?” The moment it tasted blood, a trace of surprise and satisfaction flashed in the little bird’s turbid yellow eyes. Soon, its round eyes sized up Su Wanluo. It was surprisingly hungry, but it compared the size difference between her and itself.

The little bird decided to use its wits.

The little bird said: “Who are you, and why are you here?”

A bird, a b-b-bird talking? Su Wanluo’s mind went blank, and her blood ran cold. She felt like she was dreaming, but the pitch-black building and the smell of damp cement beside her told her that she was indeed under the old gymnasium.

This wasn’t a dream. She had broken into a world of ghosts… and she had done so voluntarily.

Overcoming her fear, Su Wanluo trembled with red eyes and said: “Hello, I came here to find my father. He died here, his name is Su Jiande. Have you seen him?”

The little bird flapped its wings and said without thinking: “I have. But before I take you to find him, you have to help me find a friend first.”

Su Wanluo said: “Find who?” She actually didn’t dare to look directly at this strange-looking talking bird with teeth in its beak.

The little bird flew up from the mud bucket, its greedy and covetous gaze quickly concealed.

The little bird flapped its wings covered in blood and mud and flew to Su Wanluo’s side.

It said briskly and meaningfully: “Find my good friend, the tree. I promised to come back and sing for it when spring comes.”

*

Ye Sheng escaped the puppet’s pursuit and looked at the line of words displayed on his phone.

[Category Section: Story King]

[Ghost Name: Human Wall]

[Ghost Level: B]

[Overview: The mixer crushed his body. His hair, eyeballs, bones, and flesh were all mixed into the cement, built into the strongest and toughest wall along with steel and bricks.

post scriptum: Poor honest man. The underground space he was obsessed with during his life was ultimately not built, but it doesn’t matter, kind and hardworking people will always get their wish.

—April 23rd, 5:16 PM]

And just now! The postscript of this strange tale refreshed again!

Ye Sheng gritted his teeth, panting, and looked at the new pps added by the Story King.

Crooked and ugly handwriting, words arrogant and gloomy.

[post post scriptum:

I know you are looking for me, but we met a long time ago.

In textbooks, in legends, in stories.

You shouldn’t have broken into here, shouldn’t have broken into this honest man’s world.

This poor honest man is also a poor father.

He worked conscientiously, spending his whole life teaching his daughter love and kindness.

Using textbooks, using legends, using stories.

Childhood is a journey with no return.

What you read first, what you see first, will become part of your future life.

Welcome to, Father’s World.]

Welcome to, Father’s World.

Ye Sheng looked up with an ugly expression. Just a wall away was that smiling puppet looking for him with an axe.

Thump, thump, thump. The puppet walked with a bounce. It seemed happy all day long.

Father’s World, could it be this gloomy basement? With a few more murderous monsters added.

The Story King really was sick.

He held his breath, thinking of going to another room to find Ning Weichen.

“Ning Weichen, we…” Ye Sheng pushed open the door and found Ning Weichen chatting with a worker with a smile.

Hearing his voice, Ning Weichen turned around and smiled brightly.

He waved to Ye Sheng, the corners of his lips hooked lazily, and said: “Brother, come here, I found a construction worker.”

The worker should have been dead long ago, but he didn’t know he was dead. He was wearing clothes covered in cement and a yellow safety helmet.

He said with a dazed look in his eyes: “Did I really oversleep? It’s already night?”

Ye Sheng looked at this worker coldly and walked over.

Ning Weichen smiled and said to the worker: “Hello, we are freshmen at Huai’an University. Seeing that the gymnasium was still under construction, we wanted to come and play, but we accidentally got lost. Can you take us out?”

The worker scratched his head and said: “Oh, sure. But I have two brothers. I don’t know if they also overslept here. I have to find them first.”

Ning Weichen smiled without saying a word.

Ye Sheng stared at the worker for a long time and said calmly: “We’ll go with you.”

The worker revealed a big, simple smile.

“Oh, okay, thank you.”

The puppet was dragging its axe and searching towards the south. Ye Sheng didn’t want to run into it, so he said: “I just came from the south, there’s no one there. Let’s go in the opposite direction.”

The worker said cheerfully: “Oh, okay.”

Ning Weichen said with interest: “Are you three brothers all here to work in Huai City?”

The worker said: “Yes. We three originally made a living by herding, but we weren’t happy living in the village. The well was blocked and we couldn’t even drink a mouthful of water. My eldest brother said let’s go to the city to work, so the three of us came together, all hoping for a happier life in the future.”

Ning Weichen laughed: “Happy?”

The worker said: “Yes.” He raised his head, still with a dark and honest face, but his eyes had a unique eeriness.