Chapter 30: Spying from the Crab Fishing Boat
After changing clothes, Luxianbei stood in front of the mirror, looking at herself in the reflection, letting out a helpless sigh.
“Well—! I guess this is all I can do, right?”
In the mirror, the girl was wearing a loose white T-shirt with a cute bear print that didn’t quite fit her small frame, paired with somewhat baggy denim shorts that revealed her fair legs. She wore a pair of sunflower-patterned flip-flops, looking like a young girl collecting shells by the sea, simple yet pure.
This body was indeed too petite; it took Luxianbei almost half an hour to put together an outfit that she could wear.
The T-shirt was something she dug out from the corner of her closet, a relic from her elementary school days. As for the shorts and shoes…
Since she had already worn Mrs. Wang Meili’s clothes to meet Grandma Wang, it shouldn’t be a big deal to wear one more pair of pants, right?
After all, who hasn’t had the experience of sneaking into their parents’ clothes when they weren’t home and then getting a good beating?
But…
Doing something like this at her age would be quite embarrassing.
Although Luxianbei was confident that her mom was drifting somewhere over a certain area of Alaska, when she rummaged through Mrs. Wang Meili’s wardrobe, she felt as if her mom was watching her from somewhere, with a rather sinister smile.
It must be an illusion; it couldn’t possibly be real. How could her mom know?
Well, this matter is known only to heaven and earth. As long as no one else finds out, I’ve never done it!
I still have to go out later! I can’t just go n*ked on the street, can I?
Luxianbei thought to herself, her face flushed. She turned around and walked to the study, opened the computer, sat down, composed herself, and began searching online for information related to that description of powers.
“…What the sun and moon shine upon, and where the wind and rain reach, must all submit…”
While mumbling the full description of powers, she typed it into the search bar and pressed Enter. Soon, the search results appeared on the webpage.
【…Han Bingwei’s trust is upheld, leading ten thousand nations; all things shone upon by the sun and moon are subjects of my reign…《Book of the Later Han: The Biography of the Southern Xiongnu》】
“This doesn’t seem quite right?”
【…What the sun and moon shine upon, none do not submit…《Records of the Grand Historian: The Annals of Qin Shi Huang》.】
“This one matches a bit better; could that unknown urban legend be about Emperor Qin Shi Huang?” Luxianbei muttered.
“Could it be? Am I currently in the tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huang? And everyone here is just a burial attendant like the Terracotta Army…”
Then wouldn’t this world have turned into a massive “tomb party in the underworld”? Luxianbei thought to herself, shaking her head, finding her own wild brainstorming too dark and unreliable.
“…”
Time passed little by little.
Over an hour later, after carefully browsing nearly a hundred search results and rubbing her slightly dry eyes, Luxianbei crossed her arms and stared at the computer screen, frowning.
Among the nearly hundred search results, aside from a few overlapping excerpts in some historical texts, she found no records resembling that power description.
Truthfully, this outcome was within her expectations.
After calming down for ten seconds, Luxianbei combined the contents of “The Book of Siye” from her dream with her knowledge of the Great Serpent God, plunging into thought.
The first possibility is that the description of powers associated with that urban legend dates back too far. Perhaps the powers have changed hands several times, and the original description has long been lost in the flow of time.
Based on the memories from the dream, although the power descriptions of urban legends had strong directional meaning when they first appeared, with time and the changing customs and beliefs surrounding them, those descriptions could easily become distorted.
If the urban legend existed long enough ago, its power description could even have dozens or hundreds of versions.
This is also one reason why it is impossible for the inheritors of powers to fully inherit the powers of urban legends; the more powerful and widely known the urban legend is, the more variations there are.
Finding the true, original description of powers among these dozens or hundreds of versions is not an easy task.
The second possibility is that some force has secretly obscured the existence of that power description.
If that were the case, finding the source of that power description would be even harder.
“However, since that power description has inexplicably surfaced once and even affected my body, it probably won’t just disappear like that, right?” Luxianbei murmured.
She felt that the voice of the woman softly reciting the power description was bound to appear again.
Although she preferred to take action by herself, sometimes lying back and enjoying it seemed like a good option when she couldn’t do otherwise.
The rocky start did not affect Luxianbei’s resolve to continue investigating.
There’s no problem too difficult to solve, as long as you’re willing to give up; as a master of retreating with style, how could something like this be difficult for her?
The road in this world isn’t just one; even if all paths seem blocked, she could always follow someone else’s lead!
Mr. Lu Xun once said, “Originally, there were no roads in this world; when many people follow behind, a road will be formed.”
Temporarily setting the investigation of the power description aside, she re-entered “Abandoned Factories in Huacheng” in the search bar, hoping to find clues related to the abandoned factory from her dream.
Soon, a plethora of search results appeared before her.
“This is troublesome…” Luxianbei frowned.
Investigating the powers of urban legends encountered difficulties due to a lack of information, but researching the abandoned factory from her dream posed complications due to the overwhelming amount of information available.
Huacheng had once been an industrial city. With the upgrading and transformation of industries, there were over a hundred abandoned factories of various sizes. Even limiting the search to just those with large smokestacks, there were still over forty.
These more than forty abandoned factories were scattered across every corner of Huacheng, many of which had already been dismantled, making it likely that one wouldn’t even recognize the site of these factories anymore.
If she had to search one by one and confirm them, even a week or two might not be sufficient.
Just as Luxianbei was worrying, she suddenly noticed a crucial clue.
In the articles about those abandoned factories, many mentioned a reference book—”Local Chronicles of Urban and Rural Construction in Huacheng.”
“Local Chronicles, huh?” Luxianbei pondered for a moment, nodding resolutely, “It seems I should make a trip to the city library.”
Once she clarified her thoughts, she immediately took action, grabbed a backpack, slung on her toilet plunger, and rushed out the door, only to quickly return, dash into Mrs. Wang Meili’s bedroom, take off her coat, and pull out a yoga tank top to wear.
That was close! Wearing girl clothes for the first time, I didn’t have much experience and almost exposed myself. Thanks to the unknown person who put the full-length mirror in the hallway!
But why would there be a full-length mirror in the hallway?
Forget it; maybe someone is moving.
Luxianbei thought, patting her chest. She put on the T-shirt and stepped outside again.
————
Meanwhile, in Alaska, roughly 120 nautical miles off the northernmost town of Barrow, a large crab fishing boat braved the fierce winds and waves, occasionally crashing into floes with cracking sounds.
On the deck of the fishing boat, a woman dressed in a red cold-weather suit was holding onto the railing, seemingly unafraid of the cold, smiling as she gazed into the distance, her fiery red hair bobbing in the wind.
Looking out, apart from the ancient white icebergs, there was only the roiling deep blue sea.
In her fingers was a Polaroid photo, freshly taken, with the image not yet fully developed.
A gust of wind blew, creating splashes that struck the crab fishing boat with a loud crash.
In the wind, the image on the photo began to take shape, revealing a girl wearing a baseball cap, dressed in a white T-shirt and shorts, with long pink hair.
She was pressed against a street corner wall, peeking outside with a sly expression.
“Pfft!” The woman picked up the photo, took a quick look, and couldn’t help but laugh.
Her eyes softened as she gazed at the photo, murmuring, “Silly child, this is how it should be! You can’t go out without wearing your clothes properly!”
Just then, a tall man walked over from the cabin, patting the woman on the shoulder, “Hey, Qi! We’re getting ready to drop the nets…”
“Oh really? Then let’s hurry inside!” The woman said, carefully putting the photo away and tapping her pocket.
Noticing the woman’s action with the photo, the tall man wore a knowing smile, “Is that your boyfriend?”
“No!” The woman shook her head, thought a moment, and then said, “That’s my daughter.”
As they entered the cabin, she confidently raised her fist, “Today, I’m definitely going to catch the biggest king crab ever!”
“Haha!” An older Black man laughed, “Qi, while you are the strongest woman I’ve ever seen, catching the biggest king crab in history depends on God’s grace.”
“Is that so?” The woman raised an eyebrow and smiled, “But I don’t believe in God; I only believe in myself!”
“Haha, then good luck to you!”
That day, the crab fishing boat caught the largest king crab in history, measuring over three meters long and weighing over a hundred kilograms. The older Black man, upon seeing the crab, briefly thought they had caught some offspring of an evil deity…
————
The journey from the faculty staff compound at the Institute of Technology to the bus station wasn’t far, yet Luxianbei took a full twenty minutes to reach the bus stop.
Twenty minutes ago, the moment she left the faculty staff compound, she felt something was off.
Beautiful girls attract attention, and who wouldn’t want to take a glance? Especially an urban legend whose charm seemed to be coming from an invisible source.
Those girls who had been cute since childhood generally didn’t mind the stares from passersby, as long as they weren’t excessive. This came from their confidence in their beauty.
However, Luxianbei didn’t have years to build that kind of psychological foundation; it was her first time!
As she walked down the road, anytime a passerby looked at her, she would blush, her heart would race, and her legs would instinctively close together, her sweat soaking her clothes, sticking to her body.
That sensation felt like the first time wearing girls’ clothes and being forced to go out, terrified that others would notice something unusual about her.
Thus, along the way, she felt like a guilty thief, sneaking around, hiding.
Of course, it was just shyness; it wasn’t that serious.
What made her even more uneasy was that throughout her walk, she had the feeling that someone was watching her from the shadows, resembling being followed by a stalker but unable to locate the source of that gaze.
The untraceable stare swept over her as if it wanted to scrutinize her entire being beneath her clothes, sending chills down her spine and raising goosebumps all over her body.
“Could it be there really is someone in the third dimension leering at me? d*mn it! This is so strange!” Luxianbei quietly cursed, pulling the brim of her baseball cap down. “d*mn it! If I catch you, I’ll knock your head off!”
“Skree—!”
The bus approached from a distance and stopped in front of the platform.
Luxianbei regained her composure, quickly retrieved her bus card, and jumped onto the bus.
Now that I’m on the bus, surely they wouldn’t chase after me, right? Luxianbei thought.
————
The weather in mid-August often alternates between hot and cold unexpectedly.
A few days ago, it was cold enough to switch to autumn clothes, yet today, in the early morning, the blazing sun turned Huacheng into an oven, making everyone outdoors suffer.
Thus, the bus’s air conditioning was upgraded to a magical level, attracting those waiting for a bus to board early and grab a seat to rest.
“It’s so hot! Driver, can you turn the air conditioning up a bit more?” a plump woman shouted to the driver.
“It’s already at the highest setting.” The driver, without even looking at her, closed the door and drove off.
As passengers boarded the bus, after a scramble, Luxianbei settled into a window seat at the back.
Looking at the few unlucky souls who couldn’t get seats, sweating profusely, she couldn’t help but privately rejoice that she was still young.
Since they were all young adults, on the bus, the seats naturally belong to those who can seize them!
Luxianbei concentrated her senses and confirmed that the prying gaze had vanished, leading to her feeling relieved.
Finally on my way, if I had to keep being followed, I really would have gone nuts! she secretly thought.
“Skree—!”
The doors closed, and the bus slowly moved forward.
Sitting on the bus where the cool wind blew through, Luxianbei peered out the window at the scenery, quietly searching through her dream memories for any content regarding various powers.
From some pictures online, the “Local Chronicles of Urban and Rural Construction in Huacheng” appeared to be comprehensive, containing visual and textual records of factories built and demolished over the last twenty plus years.
After checking the local records in the library, she should be able to narrow down the range of abandoned factories from her dream to fewer than ten.
At that point, she’d select the most distant and obscure abandoned factory to investigate while also trying to familiarize herself with the various abilities of her current body, Luxianbei thought.
Just as she pondered, a series of distressing coughs rang out within the bus, breaking her train of thought.
“Eh—eh-eh—!”
Luxianbei furrowed her brow slightly, following the sound of coughing to see a girl standing a short distance away, holding onto a hanging strap.
The girl looked to be around sixteen or seventeen, her appearance and clothing quite ordinary, but what caught attention was her pallid complexion, approaching sickly, beads of sweat raining down her face after sitting in the air conditioning for several stops, soaking her white T-shirt.
“Eh—eh-eh—!”
The girl’s coughing intensified, shaking her whole body, her face flushed red, and her coughs interspersed with strange noises, as if something were lodged in her throat.
The passengers standing beside the girl quickly backed away at the sight.
Then…
The girl suddenly looked up, staring intently at Luxianbei.
Her eyes bore a strange mix of excitement and fervor, as if to say, “I’ve finally found you!”
Noticing the girl’s unusual gaze, Luxianbei froze for a moment, looking side to side, then back at the girl, who was now swaying and walking toward her.
Luxianbei, “…”
Could it be… no way?
You’re the pervert who was stalking me earlier, aren’t you?
Is the living environment for beautiful girls so tough now that they have to keep an eye not only on men with ulterior motives but also on women? Luxianbei thought.
Just as she hesitated over whether to give the girl a kick, the girl stumbled toward her and, without warning, collapsed into her arms.
Their faces nearly touching, the girl leaned into Luxianbei’s ear once more, bursting into a fresh wave of violent coughing.
“Eh—eh-eh—!”
“!!”
The soft sensation against her face made Luxianbei freeze up, her face flushing red, momentarily unsure whether it was she taking advantage of the girl or the girl taking advantage of her, only feeling like a flurry of lily petals were drifting in front of her.
Then, before Luxianbei could collect herself to push the girl away, the girl suddenly rolled her eyes back, leaned into her ear, slightly parted her lips, and emitted a series of eerie throat noises.
The sound was garbled as if it was distorting audio signals, muddled with a hissing, crackling noise like electrical static.
“Lu… time is tight… I will only say this once… everything you see now is an illusion, don’t believe it… ga—!”
“???”
What the hell is this? What’s going on? Can you finish your sentence, dammit!
Is this some new type of scam?
Why does it feel like, “I’m Godzilla, and I’m just $648 short for a train ticket to meet King Kong. If you send me the money, I’ll have King Kong take you to climb the Empire State Building to sh**t down planes against the setting sun”?
Let me clarify: I can be scammed for s*x, but don’t even think about scamming me for money. I might have plenty of beauty, but I seriously haven’t earned much money in my life.
Just as Luxianbei was inwardly cursing and gripping her phone tightly to prevent theft.
The girl’s murky eyes suddenly cleared, the color returning to her pale face, and her coughing stopped, as if she had returned to normal.
Collecting herself, the girl looked down, catching sight of Luxianbei’s chest, their eyes met, and her expression gradually turned fearful.
“You… you, I… I…”
Seeing the girl stutter and fail to form a complete sentence after a long pause, Luxianbei sighed silently, expressionless, and pushed the girl away, speaking heavily, “Miss, if I said that you walked over and thrust a weapon in my face, would you believe me?”
“I think you might be suffering from heatstroke? If you don’t believe me, you can ask them!”
As Luxianbei’s words finished, the girl turned her head, and to her surprise, all the passengers in the bus had exchanged glances with each other before nodding in agreement.
What malicious intention could a beautiful girl have? It must be an accident!
The girl, “…”
Gulp…
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I finished a chapter but I’m not very satisfied; I feel the quality isn’t up to par. I’m taking a break today and will make up for it tomorrow with two updates…
I’m very sorry. @@
