Chapter 39: Mouth Harp and Suona
Suona, huh?
You and Bai Kai truly resemble a father and daughter with no bl**d relation.
After a brief moment of shock, Jiang Li watched as Lu Yibei’s departing figure, her eyes revealing a hint of understanding, and she gently nodded.
She did indeed seem to know whether the residents of Happy Neighborhood were really that friendly.
If someone were playing the suona in the neighborhood at night, it would be normal to be unable to tolerate it. If they could tolerate such behavior, it might be a sign of being overly friendly, influenced by some kind of force.
However…
As Jiang Li looked at Lu Yibei’s leaving figure, she suddenly seemed to remember something, lowering her head to take out a mask and a hat from her handbag, and hurried after her.
“Wang Buliu, wait a moment.”
Hearing Jiang Li call her by the ID from the Urban Legends Chat Group, Lu Yibei turned around to see her offering the mask and hat and was momentarily taken aback.
“What are you giving me this for?”
Jiang Li looked into Lu Yibei’s eyes and said earnestly, “To cover your face when doing bad things, it’s a basic respect for wrongdoing.”
You can blow that, I have no objection, but don’t let anyone remember your face and come knocking on your door, Jiang Li thought.
Lu Yibei glanced at Jiang Li, then at the brand new suona in her hand, and after a moment’s pause, she understood what Jiang Li meant.
“You can’t think I’m going out to play the suona, right? What are you thinking! Am I that morally bankrupt?”
Jiang Li sized up Lu Yibei from head to toe, her willow eyebrows furrowed as if deep in thought, before nodding and saying, “Sounds about right.”
What kind of moral bottom line could a person have who, at the last moment of fighting against urban legends, worried about the legends having a deathbed counterattack and feigned injury to trick teammates into finishing them off?
Such a person, wielding a suona and claiming to test residents’ friendliness, what else could they possibly be doing?
This once cold and aloof girl, who was like a flower hidden high on a mountain, began to experience an inexplicably lively inner monologue after coming across Lu Yibei.
In any case, no matter who interacted with her, they would never understand what this b*stard was really thinking. If I don’t vent a little, I might end up exploding from the strain.
“Sure, it sounds like it, but there’s no need to add a ‘very’ in there, right?” Lu Yibei frowned.
Jiang Li crossed her arms, her gaze unconsciously drifting to the suona in Lu Yibei’s hand, “So what do you plan to do with that when you go out?”
“Self-defense!”
Lu Yibei shrugged as she said this, bringing the suona to her lips and letting out a sound like “du!” that was sharp yet beautiful.
She only took two days to observe the instrumentalist Old Ma from the yangko dance team to be able to play the suona; that was already impressive.
Moreover, she not only mastered it but also went to the Cultural and Arts Center and managed to write a couple of pieces of music.
Such remarkable learning ability even left the teachers at the Cultural and Arts Center in awe, though they still refused her request for a refund on half her tuition.
“Self-defense?” Jiang Li looked at Lu Yibei, tilting her head in confusion.
I’ve never seen anyone carry a suona for self-defense before.
She let her imagination run wild, picturing this girl, who with certain moral qualities aside was at least decent-looking, swinging the suona like a weapon at the urban legends, and her expression grew slightly strange.
But since she wasn’t going out to disturb the peace at night, there shouldn’t be any major issue?
Jiang Li felt a bit more at ease and didn’t continue to question Lu Yibei about the suona’s purpose, simply asking, “So how do you plan to test the residents’ friendliness levels?”
“Hehe!” Lu Yibei chuckled lightly, her crimson eyes sparkling mischievously as she looked around, “Haven’t eaten dinner yet, have you?”
“Dinner?” Jiang Li frowned, “No.”
“Then just watch!” Lu Yibei raised her eyebrows slightly, “I’ll make you something delicious later!”
With that, she swaggered towards the door of the opposite apartment, pressing the doorbell.
“Ding dong—ding dong—!”
“Click! Creak—!”
The door opened to reveal a man who looked to be around thirty, wearing glasses and casual home clothes, who was half out of the door. Seeing the beautiful girl in front of him, he paused slightly.
“Um, may I ask, what’s the matter?”
“Ah, sorry for bothering you!” Lu Yibei politely bowed her head towards the man, “I just moved in next door. I was making dinner and suddenly found I had no vinegar. Could you lend me some?”
Borrowing a small item between neighbors is very common, and it’s even more agreeable when the borrower is such a delightful young lady.
“Sure, just a moment!” the man replied, turning and going back inside. In a short while, he returned with a bottle of vinegar, handing it over to Lu Yibei.
Carrying the vinegar back to her apartment, she set it down on the coffee table, sat on the sofa, and checked the time on her phone. Ten minutes later, she got up again, went out, and rang the doorbell of the opposite apartment once more.
“Ding dong—ding dong—!”
As soon as the door opened, Lu Yibei stuck out her pink tongue and tapped her head with one hand, “Sorry, I’m really careless! I didn’t just forget the vinegar; I also forgot the garlic. Could I trouble you to lend me some?”
“No problem!” the man said cheerfully, turning immediately to go back inside.
Thus, Lu Yibei successfully borrowed garlic again.
Ten minutes later.
“Ding dong—ding dong—!”
As soon as the man opened the door, a woman’s low roar echoed from inside, indicating they were reaching a breaking point.
“d*mn it! Why is she back again?!”
“We’re all neighbors! Isn’t it normal to help each other out?”
“Hmph!”
Standing at the door, Lu Yibei said apologetically, “Sorry to disturb you again. I didn’t mean to. Is your girlfriend home? She won’t be mad, will she?”
“She won’t, don’t worry!”
“Mm-hmm, that’s good! If I upset your girlfriend, I’d be sad too! So, could you lend me two packs of instant noodles and some green onions?”
The man’s mouth twitched slightly, “Y-yeah, sure.”
Jiang Li, “…” Why is she acting so shamelessly?
If this continued in another neighborhood, it would surely lead to a vicious argument or a fight.
She couldn’t bear to watch any longer, stood up, grabbed an umbrella, and left her rental apartment, planning to take a stroll around Happy Neighborhood to see if she could make any special discoveries.
As she was leaving, the doorbell rang again behind her.
“Ding dong—ding dong—!”
“Hey, could I borrow two eggs?”
“Okay, wait a moment.”
“Ding dong—ding dong—!”
…
The doorbell echoed in the hallway for over an hour before it finally went quiet.
Lu Yibei sat in her rental apartment, staring at the table piled high with the ingredients and condiments, resting her chin in thought.
The people in Happy Neighborhood are way too laid-back, right?
I’ve almost emptied their fridge, and they only seem a little unhappy, yet there’s no sign of anyone getting angry.
How is this possible? Two families have lent me over thirty items combined, and if it were me, I would have called the police by now! There’s something off with them!
It seems like I can only try PLAN B now?
As Lu Yibei thought this, she opened her guitar bag, pulled out a small speaker, plugged in her phone, and found the song “Classic Sweet Breaths” that she had obtained from Water Brother, preparing to play it when she suddenly thought of Jiang Li.
“By the way, if I play some weird music, it might be a bit inappropriate for kids. You don’t mind, do you?”
“Uh-huh? I’m asking you a question!”
“Eh? Where’d you go?”
————
After raining most of the day, the downpour had lessened a lot by evening, leaving only strands of rain that were barely visible, falling from the sky.
Jiang Li walked alone on the path of Happy Neighborhood, glancing around.
All the buildings in the neighborhood were grayish-white, with lights on in the homes, and even the rainy weather could not mask the warm atmosphere.
However, the neighborhood was too quiet; all she could hear was the soft patter of raindrops against her umbrella and the rustle of plants swaying in the breeze.
This place was only a few blocks away from the busiest street in Huacheng but didn’t have even a hint of urban noise.
Jiang Li strolled through the neighborhood with her umbrella for a while when she suddenly seemed to remember something, glancing towards Building 2 of Phase 3, which had just filled up with residents.
The place where the man from the Urban Legends Chat Group had posted the bounty was in Unit 17 of Building 2.
Maybe I can find something there?
Thinking this, Jiang Li quickened her pace towards Building 2 of Phase 3.
————
Arriving in front of Building 2 of Phase 3, Jiang Li immediately let her spirit energy fluctuation spread out, taking a look around. After not discovering anything unusual, she walked towards the main entrance of the building.
Just as she reached the entrance, she remembered the woman who lived on the first floor mentioned in the bounty description. She scanned the area and her gaze landed on the only unit on the first floor that had no lights on.
Her steps quiet, she approached that household and stood by the window to peek inside.
It was pitch black inside, and she could see nothing.
Noticing this, Jiang Li furrowed her brow slightly and concentrated her spirit energy to clear the darkness from her vision, trying to see what was happening within the room.
At that moment, a blurry outline of a face suddenly intruded into her sight.
The darkness behind the window seemed like a stagnant, murky lake, and the pale face appeared as if it were slowly rising from the depths of the gloomy water, getting closer and clearer.
Then.
“Clatter—!”
The window of the house suddenly opened.
A woman with disheveled hair, appearing weary but still beautiful, appeared before Jiang Li.
This sudden encounter even stirred emotion within Jiang Li, an operative from the Siye Society who had investigated many urban legend cases.
Moreover, the woman’s rare cold and striking aura immediately confirmed to Jiang Li that she was indeed the missing person mentioned in the bounty description.
The woman stared blankly at Jiang Li, not blinking, desperately forcing a polite smile, and said softly, “Excuse me, miss, what can I do for you?”
“I…” Jiang Li gave the woman an even more “polite” smile, “I’m just looking around, nothing much.”
Seeing the unsettling smile in front of her, the woman paused slightly before smiling and nodding, turning to close the window.
Jiang Li stepped aside, gazing at that dark window from a distance, a sliver of doubt crossing her mind.
Hadn’t the bounty description said that the woman living on the first floor had gone missing with her whole family?
Why was she back?
Was the person who posted the bounty suffering from an overreaction that led to memory confusion?
In fact, Jiang Li had encountered many individuals whose spirits or memories had become confused due to excessive fear during the investigations she had participated in for the Siye Society, making it very difficult to obtain reliable information from them.
“…”
Jiang Li took another glance at the pitch-black window on the first floor, her eyes narrowing slightly.
Or was it possible that she was already captured by the urban legend mentioned in the bounty?
Could it be that the legend had implanted something strange into her mind, which is why she returned, becoming one of the friendly residents of Happy Neighborhood? Jiang Li pondered.
As she was contemplating, a strange noise suddenly pierced her ears, breaking her train of thought.
The sound was light and slow, as if pulsating with some eerie vitality in her mind.
It was the sound of the mouth harp.
Jiang Li pricked up her ears, carefully listening to the sporadic sounds, but they were very soft and faint, hidden within the wind and rain, making it hard to hear clearly.
It even made one suspect that it was merely the wind blowing through a narrow gap, producing a buzzing noise.
The more she listened, the more she felt something was off with that sound.
The source of the sound seemed to be moving, almost like it was flying, darting around from one side to the other.
Her gaze followed the direction of the sound, and after moving back and forth for a while, she suddenly seemed to realize something, lowering her head to look at the damp ground beneath her feet.
“It’s like… it’s coming from below?”
Jiang Li murmured, then opened her umbrella and walked toward the underground parking lot.
————
When Jiang Li investigated in the past, she had disguised herself as maintenance personnel for the underground ventilation system along with members of the Special Action Team and entered the underground parking lot of Happy Neighborhood.
The parking lot was vast, spanning three levels, and almost covered more than half of the neighborhood area as if it had been constructed with the future use of multiple residential phases in mind.
Under the guise of maintenance, they had meticulously checked every corner of the underground parking lot covered by the ventilation ducts but hadn’t detected even a single urban legend with a spirit energy fluctuation level of D-.
This was good news for the residents of Happy Neighborhood, but it was also very unusual!
In the dimly lit, empty parking lot, rolling heads like basketballs; figures hanging from the ventilation ducts, tongues dangling like crimson streams; humanoid webs growing within abandoned cars; faceless women suddenly rushing out from dark corners after starting a vehicle…
Jiang Li had seen all sorts of urban legends in underground parking lots, but she had rarely encountered one that was completely devoid of urban legends.
Yet, the underground parking lot of Happy Neighborhood was just such a unique place, and now things felt different.
Jiang Li sensed that something was off.
Though no spirit energy fluctuations had crossed into her perceptive range, the bounty mentioned the mouth harp, and now she could hear its sound; she felt it necessary to investigate the validity of this phenomenon.
She slowly made her way down to the underground parking lot.
The streetlights outside cast their light on her back, forming a long shadow along the extended slope.
Treading in her own shadow, she gradually caught a whiff of dampness—after a day of rain, the water had seeped in and pooled on the parking lot floor.
The illumination in the underground parking lot was quite dim, sturdy concrete pillars connecting the ceiling and ground scattered large patches of shadow, with vehicles parked silently in the shadows.
Those occasional sounds of the mouth harp echoed, reflected, and morphed through the vastness of the underground parking lot, becoming increasingly eerie.
It sounded like some kind of sacrificial music.
Jiang Li’s mind couldn’t help but conjure an unsettling image.
Just as all the residents were at home enjoying a warm and harmonious moment, a group of individuals who looked just like ordinary people, yet had indistinguishable faces, were engaged in some eerie ritual in a place they couldn’t see, twisting their limbs oddly to the unsettling music of the mouth harp.
As she thought this, it seemed as though an illusion flickered before her eyes, her imagined imagery becoming inexplicably clear as if they were about to materialize in front of her.
Following the sound of the mouth harp, Jiang Li unknowingly ventured deep into the lowest level of the underground parking lot. As the sound grew closer and clearer, she determined it must be just ahead.
Continuing toward the direction of the sound, the eerie music suddenly paused for a moment, then intensified, ringing more clearly in her ears.
In an instant, a shocking wave of spirit energy surged toward her, her vision darkening, and she was engulfed in deep shadows, hearing a peculiar noise filled with numerous negative emotions.
The source of the mouth harp’s sound was still approaching, and that strange noise grew stronger and more intense.
No human could describe that noise precisely; all the veins beneath Jiang Li’s pale skin stood out, threatening to burst.
She couldn’t detect the spirit energy fluctuation but felt as if she were under attack by some urban legend, as though someone had driven a long nail into her head, stirring her brain, pain exploding from the depths of her soul, filling all her thoughts in an instant.
At that moment, a resonant and sorrowful suona sound, powerful and lingering, reverberated throughout the underground parking lot.
Lu Yibei had arrived, bringing her suona and playing a piece titled “Sunrise at Mount Emei.”
Under the influence of the majestic yet occasionally off-key music, the mouth harp’s sound noticeably faltered before blowing again, pausing and blowing once more…
After several attempts, it finally lost track of its melody due to Lu Yibei’s suona, emitting a final desperate, shrill cry, fading into silence.
As the sound of the mouth harp vanished, Jiang Li saw before her an array of translucent lines, intertwining like dense tentacles, with skeletal-like spikes at their ends.
And where she stood was the entrance to the underground parking lot…
