Chapter 32: Thug

[Audience Expectation Value +20]

The remains of the snowman melted in the dead silence. After the candles went out and the smoke cleared, Chen Ling's face was as pale as paper.

"I..."

Chen Ling stammered, "I was talking to my brother..."

"Where is your brother?" Wu Youdong looked at the empty chair beside him. "Isn't it just the two of us in the room?"

Chen Ling looked at the seat opposite him. At some point, it had become completely empty... In a trance, the lingering image of the boy's smile faded from his memory.

Beads of sweat rolled down Chen Ling's forehead, his back soaked through his clothes. His dazed, hollow eyes trembled incessantly, like a sleeper just waking from a nightmare.

"No, that's impossible..."

Chen Ling stood up abruptly, the legs of the chair scraping against the floor with a harsh, screeching sound.

"How can it be just the two of us??" Chen Ling's voice rose sharply. "My brother was just here... Before, he was building a snowman at the door. This morning, he was still seeing me off at the door, and he was the one who mended my cotton coat!"

He took off his cotton coat forcefully and pointed to the perfect patch. "Look! This is what Ah Yan mended! I don't even know how to sew!"

"And these wooden boards on the wall, he fixed them all!"

"There's a doctor from Aurora City living in our house, he's seen Ah Yan too, if you don't believe me, you can ask him!"

"I... I see." Wu Youdong seemed frightened by Chen Ling. He said helplessly, "I was just... asking... because I saw you talking to yourself at the air just now... it was quite scary."

"I was not talking to the air!!"

Chen Ling pointed at the void opposite him, his bloodshot eyes staring at Wu Youdong.

"My brother was sitting right there just now. You must have seen him when you came in, right??"

"I... I really didn't see anyone."

Wu Youdong felt wronged. He looked at the strangely behaving Chen Ling, hesitated for a long time, and asked tentatively: "Chen Ling... have you... run into a Calamity recently?"

Chen Ling stood frozen in place.

[So, you also merged with a Calamity?]

[...I don't know. When I woke up, I was already standing there.]

[You also lost a segment of your memory?]

[Yes.]

[But the intersection point of the Gray Realm was at the back mountain, right? You should have been in surgery at the time... Why were you affected too?]

[I don't know... I just remember the doctor giving me anesthesia, and when I woke up, I was...]

The familiar conversation echoed in Chen Ling's ears. He vaguely felt he had caught onto something, his pupils slightly contracting.

"No..." Chen Ling muttered to himself. "No... none of this is right..."

"Chen Ling, are you okay?"

"...The back mountain?!"

Chen Ling suddenly looked toward a certain direction and rushed out of the house like a madman, not even taking the cotton coat he had just taken off. He ran into the heavy snow wearing only a thin shirt.

Just as his figure disappeared at the end of the street, Chu Muyun, wearing a wool coat, walked up to the door.

He looked at the direction Chen Ling had left in surprise, and just as he was about to enter the house, he saw Wu Youdong standing alone in the living room, and his brows immediately furrowed.

"Who are you?"

"I, I'm a friend of Chen Ling's."

Behind his silver-rimmed glasses, those eyes narrowed immediately, revealing a dangerous aura...

"What did you say to him just now?"

"I didn't say anything... I just, I just saw him talking to himself and thought it was strange, so I asked who he was talking to... and then..."

Chu Muyun's expression changed drastically!

He looked at the direction Chen Ling had left in again.

"Do you know... what you've done?" Chu Muyun's voice seemed to come from the underworld.

"I..."

The moment he met Chu Muyun's gaze, Wu Youdong's heart trembled. He had never seen such a cold, insane look.

Wu Youdong was terrified. He retreated half a step, trembling, tripped over a chair, and fell to the ground with a thud.

Chu Muyun took a deep breath, walked into the house, and gently closed the door with both hands.

The drafty door blocked out the light and snow from outside, and the living room was shrouded in dimness. This figure in the wool coat walked slowly toward Wu Youdong.

He pushed up his glasses. Beneath his refined exterior, a ruthless malice flowed out unmasked, like a fierce beast imprisoned in a human shell, shedding its disguise and baring its bloody, hideous fangs.

"Do you know how rare a research subject is that maintains a delicate balance between madness and sanity like this?"

"Do you know how much effort I put into acting along with him just so he wouldn't notice his own abnormality?"

"Do you know... what kind of monster you might have unleashed?"

Wu Youdong was scared witless. With his legs already broken, he wanted to escape but couldn't, so he could only drag his body backward bit by bit...

"I don't know, I really don't know." He said in a tone bordering on pleading.

"I've been guarding here for three days, not letting anyone get close to Chen Ling or this house... And you, you just had to crash in yourself."

"...Why???"

Chu Muyun suddenly grabbed the corner of a chair and smashed it onto Wu Youdong's head with a roar!

Bang—!!!

A dull thud echoed in the room, and Wu Youdong fainted on the spot.

His forehead was split open, and bright red blood flowed wildly, quickly pooling into a puddle.

Chu Muyun had no intention of stopping. He stared fixedly at Wu Youdong, who was like a corpse on the ground, lifted the chair, and smashed it onto him again and again!

"Why?!"

"Why?!!"

"Why?!!!!!"

Hot blood splattered all over his wool coat, and a smear of crimson climbed onto the lenses of his silver-rimmed glasses.

Chu Muyun no longer had his previous refined demeanor; he was like a butcher or a thug, venting his rage frantically in the darkness where no one was watching. As the chair smashed down again and again on that body, which was now like a pile of mush, Wu Youdong's breathing gradually ceased.

Bang—

With the final blow, the chair finally shattered and broke apart.

Chu Muyun wiped the sweat from his brow, his chest heaving violently. He pushed up his blood-stained glasses with his fingers, his deep blue eyes fixed on the bloody mess at his feet.

After an unknown amount of time, the madness in his eyes gradually faded, and a sharp scalpel fell into his palm...

……

Meanwhile.

A figure stumbled through the snow and arrived at the back mountain.

His thin clothes were already soaked with sweat, and heat and cold overlapped on Chen Ling's body. He climbed over the deserted yellow warning tape and passed through mounds of snow marked with wooden signs, as if searching for something.

This was the starting point of everything... and the place where the truth was buried.

The mass grave.