Chapter 224: The Last Time You Felt Warm |
[VACCARIA: Sorry, but I have no interest in joining.]
With a hint of annoyance, Lu Yibei finished replying to the cat girl. She propped her chin on her hand, her eyes fixed on her phone screen, with a sneer.
Oh, this person is truly good at tricking people. They’ve conducted thorough background checks, crafting a web of lies to entrap their victims. I nearly fell for their tricks!
Thankfully, I know the circumstances of how my dad died. Whether it’s from my own memories, the police records, or Shui’s recollection of rushing to the scene, it was nothing more than a tragic accident.
An accident of my making.
As Lu Yibei delved deeper into her thoughts, a deep guilt crept from the recesses of her heart, making her feel suffocated. Her hands involuntarily clutched at her chest and bathrobe.
If I hadn’t insisted on dragging my father along on my graduation trip, none of this would have happened, right?
Her thoughts drifted, her eyes clouding over as her mind journeyed upstream through the river of time, back to the past.
…
As the first semester of his senior year approached, the harsh reality of the impending college entrance exams finally dawned upon him. The once carefree student was forced to confront the daunting task of securing a place at a decent university.
The carefree days of his youth had come to an end, and the price for his past ignorance was about to be paid.
His senior year was marked by relentless toil and stress as he struggled with the demands of college preparation. Yet, funnily enough, his determination never wavered, fueled by the hope of escaping his current predicament.
Finally, his unwavering dedication bore fruit. The moment he clutched his admission notice, the pent-up emotions of an entire year were unleashed in joy.
Elated by his success, he started planning his graduation trip with a close friend. The prospect of adventure and the chance to escape the stress of high school filled him with a sense of freedom.
After years of suppressing any form of enjoyment, the taste of excitement proved irresistible. His itinerary for his graduation trip was a testament to his yearning for thrills, and he meticulously crafted it to incorporate at least something strange, something dangerous or something out of the box.
However, fate had other plans. As the nights grew longer and the world around them began to undergo subtle shifts, planning for a trip was something that would soon prove to take a wrong turn.
Two days before graduation, all his friends were ordered by their parents to cancel their plans. Therefore, he begged his father to follow him on his graduation trip instead.
…
On that fateful day, they went rafting on the Xiling River—it was a thrilling father-son bonding moment. Soon, they went back to their hotel to rest.
It was lightly drizzling. After a short rest, the two of them took advantage of the cool weather to leave the hotel and hit the streets.
After visiting several snack vendors, Yibei suddenly came up with the idea of going to the Emei Mountains to watch the sunrise over the sea of clouds.
It originally wasn’t part of his original itinerary, so he didn’t expect his dad to agree to it so swiftly.
However, his father suggested that if he simply wanted to watch the sunrise, there was somewhere still mostly untouched by human development where the both of them could watch the sunrise in nature’s original splendour.
This is located in the Qionglai Mountains, and Yibei, like his father, was full of energy. If they agreed to go somewhere, they would leave overnight.
He spent half an hour buying the ticket after their short conversation.
…
The father-son duo left their hotel on the three-o’clock bus in the morning. The timing was precise, and it was hard to tell whether this was the first bus of the day or the last bus of yesterday.
When the two of them walked to the station, it began to drizzle, and a light mist covered the area.
Seeing the impending weather, Yibei suggested postponing it, but his father simply retaliated, “But it’s your summer vacation! It should be no problem; it’s just some light rain.”
The two of them boarded the bus, but for some reason, as the bus drove away from the city, Yibei noticed a faint uneasiness between his father’s brows.
Now that I think about it, don’t humans have some kind of sixth sense of when they’re about to die?
The bus was out of the city now, and the scenery outside the window was filled with nothing but steep, green mountains that towered over them. The sky became darker than it already was, and dark clouds announced their arrival with each thunder strike.
In the blink of an eye, it began to rain heavily.
The bus was extremely quiet, but it was clear that it was suffocating.
Everyone on the bus was uneasy, including the driver.
It became hard to see outside the window, and only the cascading droplets of water could be seen. If a school of fish suddenly swam past the window, it wouldn’t be strange at all.
Yibei’s father had his eyes and hands trained on his phone.
On a treacherous, rainy mountain road, Yibei didn’t know how his father managed to obtain a strong enough signal to support that magical girl online game that he loved to play.
The other passenger is sitting diagonally in front of them.
He was tall and burly, wearing traditional clothes fit for a Tibetan and a pair of worn sunglasses. He seemed unkempt and dirty, and the skin on his face was dull and colourless as an indescribable smell emanating from him spread across the bus.
He had been sleeping since he got on the bus, snoring intermittently. It was as if the downpour outside and the bumpy road were nothing but a lullaby to him.
The bus continued to brave the dark and stormy night, and its light could only illuminate a tiny area ahead.
The driver’s driving speed was incredibly slow. The bumpier it got, the slower the bus drove.
This continued for a long time, and soon, Yibei could see a young man and a woman stranded by the roadside not far ahead.
The driver slowly parked the bus on the side of the road and turned his head back, saying, “Sorry, but it’s unlucky for them to encounter such terrible weather outside. Do all of you mind if we help them?”
After obtaining the approval of most of the passengers on board, the driver opens the bus doors and lets them inside.
Perhaps it was because it was raining so heavily that everyone was suddenly caught off-guard, or perhaps it was because this area was close to a hidden town in the mountains. As soon as the young man and woman entered, a bunch of other people entered one after another.
There were shepherds with tanned skin; girls were wearing traditional clothing with pale, blue faces from the cold; there were youthful teenagers with colourful hair.
Soon, the quiet bus was filled with people.
Among these people, the one who caught Yibei’s attention was a man with a hunchback, wearing a dark raincoat.
He caught his attention for three reasons: first, he visibly leapt out of the bushes as the bus was driving.
If it wasn’t raining and if the bus wasn’t driving slowly, this man would’ve been run over by the bus.
Second, he seemed scary; his face was weathered, and a large scar in the corner of his eyes and mouth was present. From a distance, it seemed as though his mouth extended from the upper ear to the lower ear.
Moreover, the wound seemed fresh, and the stitches could still be seen. Soaked in the rainwater, the stitches bulged as if the wound was threatening to fester again.
Lastly, the moment the man got into the car, the sleeping, snoring man suddenly woke up and clutched the prayer beads in his sleeves. He hurriedly yelled at the driver and begged to get off the bus.
When the unknown man saw this, he scoffed and simply sat in the seat he vacated.
The moment he sat down, he immediately stared at Yibei, stretching out his tongue and licking his wounds. His saliva burnt his wounds, but his face forced out an expression of pleasure.
Glancing at him, Yibei felt nauseous, and his father put down his phone to raise his middle finger at the man.
He could still remember how his father glared at the man before he gently gestured at Yibei to sleep on his shoulder.
He must’ve learnt that move from Shui, he deduced. He didn’t refuse and leaned on his shoulder, and he felt warm and at ease as his consciousness began to fade in and out from the lulling of the rain.
He had no idea that it would be the last time he felt his father’s warmth.
If he had known earlier, he would not have fallen asleep so quickly.
When he tried to open his eyes, he found that he couldn’t as he lay on a bed in Yucheng Hospital, and severe pain echoed throughout the walls of his body.
He soon found out that, after he fell asleep, the bus encountered a massive landslide and was swept away into a ravine, crashing through the highway fence.
The police told him that the accident was tragic and that he was the sole survivor of the incident. He was told that large stones crashed into the bus from the landslide and somehow avoided him.
Then Shui hurried over and told him words that were very different from those of the police.
Yibei once thought that death must be a very painful thing for all parties; it would involve crying and tantrums before falling into a deep depression.
However, after losing his father, it didn’t seem to be a big deal. No tears seemed to fall from his eyes.
He would simply nod and help his mother handle funeral arrangements, and Shui would comfort him from time to time.
This stark indifference lasted for a long time until he lived in his old house in Huacheng. One morning, he woke up and yelled into the living room, “Dad, I want some steamed dumplings and tofu for breakfast!”
But there was no response, and only then did it fully hit him.
Guilt, pain, sadness—all kinds of negative emotions that his body bottled up crashed into him wave after wave, destroying his façade and leaving nothing behind.
…
Recalling this, her brows furrowed.
There were indeed many things about her father’s death that made her feel weird: the weather, the sudden introduction of new passengers, the snoring man wanting to get off the bus, and that strange, strange man…
She recalled having remembered these scenes when she came into contact with the Eclipse Society’s totem.
Judging from her repressed memories, her father was a strong psychic. Could he really die from a mere car accident?
And, if there really was an urban legend attack, did Shui know? Is he hiding something?
In this new world of urban legends, Yibei felt that there were too many inconsistencies about the accident.
No, it can’t be that simple.
Even though 100 2/3 CATS claimed to have the answer, she felt that she couldn’t trust a group of people with unknown origins.
She must first understand their nature.
…
On the other end of the phone, the cat-girl waited but received no response from the Witch. She couldn’t help but feel anxious again, and she got down on all fours as she scurried through the windows, tables, chairs, and floor.
Finally, the lanky man couldn’t stand the cat messing up his desk and interrupted, “Can you stop that? You’re making me feel dizzy.”
The cat girl glared at him and scoffed, “That Witch hasn’t replied yet, and I feel anxious. I want to see her and cyberbully her in real life!”
“You’re a cat,” he reminded her.
“Whatever,” she huffed as she grabbed her phone to send another text before being interrupted.
“Wait a minute,” the lanky man stopped. “Are you sure you want to send her a text now?”
“So what if I am?”
“She doesn’t care,” he simply said. “What are you going to send her to convince her to join us? She doesn’t even care about how her father died, which shows how cold-blooded she is. If you send her a message now, I think…”
He hesitated to speak.
“Well?” the cat-girl urged, revealing her claws.
“Get those claws away from my face; I still have girls I need to seduce.”
“Get to the point!”
“Well,” he said. “If you send her a message now, she will only continue to be annoyed, which in turn will annoy you.”
As he finished speaking, a cold light flashed across his face, revealing three more scratch marks on his face.
“What the fuck? Why did you do that?” He moaned, covering his face.
“Tsk, then what do you think we should do now?”
“Well, I think she’ll cave soon and text you herself.”
As soon as he spoke, the cat-girl’s phone vibrated twice, and on the screen was a message sent by [VACCARIA].
[VACCARIA: Fine. But you have to answer a few of my questions.]
[100 2/3 CATS: No problem. I’ll tell you everything I know.]
After reading the cat’s message, the Witch slightly frowned as she tapped into her phone.
[VACCARIA: Does my father’s death have anything to do with urban legends?]
[100 2/3 CATS: Yes.]
[VACCARIA: Does it have anything to do with the Eclipse Society?]
[100 2/3 CATS: Sorry, but I can’t reveal that yet.]
In translation, it probably means that they are involved, but I can’t be sure until certain conditions are met.
[VACCARIA: How do I know what you’re saying is true?]
It was silent for a moment.
[100 2/3 CATS: We have our own ways of receiving information, and it is always reliable. I cannot prove it now, but the decision is yours to make—discover the truth or continue living in the dark.]
The Witch frowned slightly.
Why are they suddenly so formal?
[VACCARIA: Here is my suggestion: We will help each other. I will complete your review, but you have to form a contract of alliance with me. After that, you will answer a few more questions for me.]
In the past month, Yibei was very free, which gave her enough time to study the alliance contract between her and Jumeng.
Whenever she had thoughts of killing Jumeng, the mark on the back of the goddess’ hands would light up, and the same would be true if she wanted to lie to her, albeit a bit dimmer.
Therefore, she felt that this contract could be used as a lie detector.
As for the spell to form the contract, it was just a few simple incantations. She could recite it after listening to it once, but she needed a target.
After a while, her phone vibrated.
[100 2/3 CATS: I can promise you this, but you must join us after passing the review.]
[VACCARIA: Don’t worry about it.]
[100 2/3 CATS: If you go against your word, you will be cursed!]
[VACCARIA: Well, I’ll definitely keep my word.]
It’s impossible to not get involved, so the best she could do was cooperate.
[100 2/3 CATS: Dear VACCARIA, tomorrow night, you will undergo the second review. Please head over to the Southern Suburbs Slaughterhouse at 12 o’clock midnight and wait until daybreak.]
That slaughterhouse? Rumour has it that a giant, black pig eats people who venture into it.
Am I the only one? Is there anyone else coming?
[100 2/3 CATS has added you to the “104th Review Discussion Group.”]
Besides this cat, are there other people?
Looking at the chat group’s members, she started to memorise their usernames.
[Genius Mahjong Girl], [Invincible Wang], [Li’s Outdoor Broadcast]…
After writing down their IDs and memorising them, she put away her mobile phone.
