**Chapter Sixteen: This City is Strange**
2:05 AM.
The pitch-black night sky seemed soaked in ink.
Invisible raindrops fell from the sky, pattering softly, as a thick fog enveloped the entire Huacheng, with two or three dim lights faintly visible through the gaps in the fog.
Perhaps it was due to experiencing too much in just one day.
Lu Xianbei, who originally planned to stay awake all night to prevent Gu Qiqi from “causing trouble,” ultimately fell asleep unknowingly to the sound of the rain.
Then…
A sudden chill struck him awake.
He opened his eyes, his pupils constricting slightly, and was astonished to find himself barefoot, standing on the rooftop of a tall building, the smooth floor damp beneath his feet, sending chills through him.
The sky was overcast with dark clouds, and through the gaps in the clouds, a vague glimmer of light appeared, making it impossible to distinguish whether it was dawn or dusk.
The cluster of tall buildings ahead seemed to have been eroded by time, their surfaces covered with a dark red stain, exuding an air of decay.
Clusters of dark red mist flitted through the city like wandering souls.
The outlines of those dilapidated buildings were almost indistinguishable from those of Huacheng.
Lu Xianbei steadied himself and suddenly spotted the girl at the edge of the rooftop. An instant chill coursed through him, causing him to shiver involuntarily.
The girl’s figure was not clearly defined, appearing hazy and ephemeral, like a bubble, yet strangely familiar to Lu Xianbei.
It felt like looking into a mirror…
She was dressed in a long green skirt, standing at the edge of the rooftop, her silvery hair billowing like silk in the wind behind her.
Lu Xianbei watched as the girl’s lips moved rapidly, frowning.
Is she the proxy player sister from my dream memories?
She seemed very eager to tell me something… Lu Xianbei thought.
When he strained to listen, it was only filled with a ringing in his ears.
But what exactly was this proxy player sister supposed to do again?
She wouldn’t be asking me if I want hacks, proxy gaming, or hand-done gold, right?
Who would market these in a dream? Lu Xianbei pondered.
Most of the memories he had gathered from the dream were quite clear, enough to weave together a complete timeline, creating a rough network of relationships.
However, there were many important pieces of information and details that seemed to have been sealed away by some force, shrouded in thick fog.
———
“Creak—!”
Accompanied by a piercing sound in his ears, Lu Xianbei woke up abruptly from bed.
Opening his eyes, he was greeted by the familiar chandelier on the ceiling.
He lay quietly in bed for a few seconds, and once his awareness had sharpened, he noticed that the sound was emanating from the living room.
“Creak—!”
“Creak—!”
The sound resembled something heavy being dragged across the floor, intermittent and cautious.
With each sound, there would be a pause of more than ten seconds before it occurred again, sneaky and careful.
What’s going on? Is Gu Qiqi up to something?
Lu Xianbei thought to himself, tiptoeing out of bed, moving to the door, removing the glass from the doorknob, and cautiously maneuvering the bedside table that blocked the door. He pressed himself against the door, silently listening to the commotion in the living room, waiting for the scratching sound to occur again before using it as cover to unlock the door.
When the gap between the door opened wide enough for him to see into the living room, Lu Xianbei leaned in, gazing deeper inside.
Goodness, Gu Qiqi, staying at my place, you really have ulterior motives!
The unlit living room was pitch black, yet for some reason, he could see it exceptionally clearly.
In the darkness, Gu Qiqi’s body wriggled like an insect, tied to a chair, twisting in a way that caused one’s scalp to tingle.
Accompanied by a grinding sound that sent a shiver through him, she crawled across part of the living room and finally stopped on the living room balcony, looking outside through the gap in the curtains.
She gazed like that for nearly an hour.
Lu Xianbei also remained, observing in a heightened state of tension for an hour in silence.
After a long time.
Lu Xianbei sensed something was off, straightened his back, loosened his slightly stiff muscles, and picked up the toilet plunger, moving towards the living room balcony.
“……”
I might really be losing my mind.
Otherwise, why would I be standing here like an idiot, watching her for so long?
What difference is this from staying up all night in an Internet café watching someone play Minesweeper? Lu Xianbei considered.
He edged closer silently.
When Lu Xianbei reached the window and saw Gu Qiqi’s eyes, he paused for a moment.
Her pair of pure, clear eyes, resembling top-grade amber, stared intensely out the window, shimmering with confusion and curiosity.
Then…
Confusion gradually turned into surprise, and surprise morphed into terror.
Thus, her pupils constricted, and a scream erupted.
“Ah——!”
The scream echoed, and Lu Xianbei’s heart skipped a beat. He raised the plunger, frantically looking around, wary of any impending terrifying entities.
Then…
He realized that the “terrifying” entity might be him.
The silver-haired girl stood with a sword in hand, facing frost.
Gu Qiqi stared at his reflection in the glass, her pupils constricted, trembling, “Don’t k*ll me, don’t k*ll me. Reporting you to the Siye Society is the System’s attention; it has nothing to do with me!”
Although she sincerely felt that Lu Xianbei could be considered a friend, she was also genuinely terrified of the “calamity.”
She had seen some carefully curated clips about “calamity” from the System, and those segments, edited and beautified by the System, had given her nightmares for days.
“……”
What the hell is the System? Have you been reading too many web novels?
But…
I said in the memory of dreams, how did I end up on that ridiculous wanted list? I even suspected that it was Gu Qiqi’s doing, but it turns out it was really her?
At this moment, Lu Xianbei suddenly felt that his vigilance and wariness towards Gu Qiqi were not unwarranted.
Even if she seemed harmless, didn’t she also use poison and report others?
Ugh, what a low tactic; I wonder who she learned that from!
“What are you looking at?” Lu Xianbei asked in a deep voice.
“Um…” Gu Qiqi opened her mouth, sneaking a glance at Lu Xianbei before shaking her head and honestly replying, “I don’t know what I’m looking at; I just feel it’s strange.”
Lu Xianbei tilted his head, puzzled, “Strange? In what way is it strange?”
“Hmm, I can’t quite explain…” Gu Qiqi pondered for a moment and earnestly said, “It looks very much like Huacheng, everything looks the same, but I just feel that it’s very strange.”
“For example?”
“For example…” Gu Qiqi glanced out the window, tilting her chin, “Do you see that cat?”
“It’s going to leave soon, then come back in five minutes, stay under the streetlight for about ten minutes, and then leave for another five, always like that. Don’t you find it strange?”
Lu Xianbei remained silent, standing on the balcony with Gu Qiqi, watching the tabby cat leave, come back, and then leave again.
Although it wasn’t as precise as Gu Qiqi claimed, it indeed seemed to hide some predetermined pattern.
Watching Gu Qiqi gaze out the window with her eyes in a trance, speaking such words while the glass reflected her fair face but not her eyes, Lu Xianbei felt a slight unease in the atmosphere.
“It’s probably just a coincidence; you’re not a cat, how do you know what cats think?”
Gu Qiqi, “……”
“Alright, you should sleep early, don’t cause a commotion and disturb my rest.”
Seeing that Gu Qiqi kept quiet, Lu Xianbei coldly dropped a remark and turned to leave the living room balcony, heading towards his bedroom.
“Oh, got it,” Gu Qiqi replied, pouting.
When the sound of the door locking echoed, she murmured in a tone only she could hear, “That’s not it; it’s just a coincidence…”
This city is clearly very strange, yet Lu Xianbei can’t seem to see it. Once I find the System, I must tell it that the calamity has gone mad, Gu Qiqi thought seriously.
Having wandered around this city with the same name as Huacheng for several days, she had discovered such strange phenomena more than once.
Just like when she found Lu Xianbei at that crossroads.
In the morning, there would inevitably be a chubby boy with a beef stew bun.
At noon, a middle-aged woman would invariably be brushed by an electric bike, spilling the freshly made food she held.
In the evening, a young man dressed like an insurance salesman would hurriedly pass by, carrying something for dinner that Gu Qiqi had never seen before, only remembering it smelled particularly good.
At that bustling crossroads, teeming with people, such details are easily overlooked, but Gu Qiqi does not miss them.
Beef stew buns, freshly made food, and unknown delicacies, she clearly remembered them.
Seeing them every day but not being able to taste them was simply a hellish torment.
————
Lying on the bed in the master bedroom, Lu Xianbei stared blankly at the ceiling, his mind replaying the image of the wild cat that kept disappearing and reappearing in a cycle.
Just as Gu Qiqi said, that sort of situation was indeed very strange.
That cat seemed stuck in some kind of world bug, perpetually unable to escape.
That scene seemed to whisper to Lu Xianbei that his past fourteen years of life were like a dream bound by predetermined rules.
But he was unwilling to believe it.
Memories can deceive, and people sometimes deceive memories.
Though the father in the dream memories was very nice, he couldn’t bear to part with Nanling Yaohua, his childhood friend, nor with Wang Meili, who raised him alone.
————
Sitting on the bed, questioning life for a moment, drowsiness overtook him.
Lu Xianbei sighed silently, picked up the photo frame on the bedside, and spoke to the woman in the frame, “Mom, what’s so interesting about Alaska King Crab?”
“Could you hurry back? If you don’t return soon, the next time we meet might be in the visiting room of a mental hospital.”
With that, Lu Xianbei set down the frame, fell back onto the bed, and reached for the lamp, plunging the room into darkness.
In the darkness, in the photo frame on the bedside table, half of a photo depicted a woman holding someone’s hand, her beautiful face radiating a blissful smile.
————
Morning, 6:55 AM.
The sky faintly shone with a hint of weak light. Early risers in the half-awake city produced sounds that seemed to come from another world.
The living room was dim without lights. Gu Qiqi sat curled up on a chair.
She maintained that position, looking outside, having almost watched the entire night.
In the beginning, she observed the strange cat that walked back and forth, then watched the moths circling under the streetlight in a peculiar pattern.
Now, her attention was focused on the father and daughter passing through the community.
They were unlike the cat and the moth, having no strangeness about them. The father rode slowly on his bicycle, the little girl on the back with a small backpack, wrapping her arms around her father’s waist.
Watching them, Gu Qiqi involuntarily thought of the scene when her uncle took her to school early in the morning, a bittersweet feeling surfacing in her heart.
It turned out that even those who eat simply have emotions, and sometimes they are particularly rich.
Gu Qiqi felt that her family must be in this strange city.
They hadn’t left because they didn’t want her; they, like her now, must have accidentally stumbled into this city and become trapped here.
As she watched the father and daughter’s figures disappear from sight, Gu Qiqi glanced at the wires wrapped around her body and pouted.
She felt she should be leaving soon.
While she initially planned to let the calamity eat her to bankruptcy.
However, she said she’d just crash for one meal and spend the night, so she would only crash one meal and spend one night.
I, Gu Qiqi, am honest and trustworthy!
Moreover, if I can’t find the System or my uncle, I should still be able to come back for more food, right?
Gu Qiqi thought, hoisting the chair and standing up, her feet slightly apart, her fists clenched. With her arms exerting force, the wires wrapped around her tightened, making a creaking sound.
Thus, after several attempts, the wires wrapped around her abruptly snapped.
A few wires could tie up most people without issue, but not Gu Qiqi.
Under the eaves, one must bow their head; she was merely worried that the “calamity” would be displeased, hence her decision to comply.
Even though after coming to this city, her spirit energy fluctuation had dropped to around D+.
However, as a spiritual ability user with powers akin to Hercules through spirit patterns, even just a small amount of spirit pattern power was enough for her strength to rival top giants in the world.
Having freed herself from her bindings, Gu Qiqi stretched her muscles, then quietly left, and then…
She quickly returned, carefully rummaging for paper and pen, leaving Lu Xianbei a note.
“I told the calamity where I’m going, so it’s not considered leaving without saying goodbye, right? Hmm, that’s right, this way, she should not be angry; I’m so clever!”
As she spoke, she noticed the half bucket of KFC leftover from last night, hesitated for a moment, licked her lips, picked up the packaging, and packed it to take with her.
This was leftover from yesterday, not considered crashing a second meal!
Gu Qiqi thought to herself, successfully convincing herself, gleefully leaving Lu Xianbei’s home, opening the door to greet the bright morning sunlight…
