Chapter 74: Work is Coming!
In the early morning, at Huacheng University of Technology.
With no classes scheduled for the morning, Professor Ma arrived at his office early, brewed a cup of strong tea, and while flipping through recent journal materials, he awaited the arrival of the son of an old friend.
Two days had passed, and he had completed the reproduction work; it was time to return the bamboo slips.
One must not be untrustworthy; this is one of Professor Ma’s principles.
However, time flew by in waiting. Professor Ma waited from dawn until midday, and the tea leaves in his cup had lost their flavor, yet the young man had not appeared before his office door.
As mealtime approached, he finally grew a bit impatient, picked up the telephone on his desk, recalled the contact information left by the young man, and called him.
“Beep——beep——!”
The busy signal rang for a long time on the line, as if intentionally wearing down one’s patience, until the person on the other end lazily connected the call as the waiting time was almost up.
“Hello! Who is this?”
A strange voice came through, sounding like a middle-aged man, his words laced with fatigue and displeasure.
Professor Ma was taken aback for a moment before responding, “Hello, I am Ma Zhen, the one associated with this number’s owner’s father…”
“You’re Professor Ma?” the middle-aged man said in surprise, “I thought… uh, I’m glad you’re fine!”
What kind of statement is that? Is it normal for something to happen to me? Professor Ma’s expression darkened; although he felt a bit unhappy, his temperament prevented him from getting angry.
“May I ask who you are?”
“Ah, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” The middle-aged man repeatedly apologized, “I am the eldest son of Yi Siyuan; the young man you met previously is my younger brother.”
“Oh—!” Professor Ma realized, thinking that perhaps the young man was busy with something and temporarily unable to answer calls. However, what the middle-aged man said next stunned him.
“Professor Ma, I know you had an appointment to meet with my brother today, but…”
Before finishing his sentence, the middle-aged man fell silent. Professor Ma faintly heard a low whimper on the other end, and a sense of unease quietly rose within him.
After a long silence, the middle-aged man continued, his voice seeming to have grown hoarse, “Professor Ma, you can keep that set of bamboo slips? That was originally a gift from my father to you. My brother doesn’t know what madness overtook him to unilaterally come to you for them. I apologize for the disturbance.”
Professor Ma frowned slightly. “……” Was it the young man’s own decision? Wasn’t it his father who asked him to retrieve them?
He was puzzled. Coupled with the fact that the young man had told him about his old friend suddenly coming back to life, he felt increasingly uneasy.
Before he could figure things out, the middle-aged man spoke again.
“Professor Ma, then I will not take up your time any longer. Too much has happened at home recently, and I have to go deal with it.”
Hearing that the middle-aged man was about to hang up, Professor Ma quickly said, “Please wait, I have a few things I don’t quite understand, and I hope you can clarify them.”
“……” The middle-aged man hesitated for a few seconds. “Please go ahead; if I can help you, I will do my utmost.”
Feeling his lips dry, Professor Ma took a sip of the tasteless tea from his cup.
“What I don’t understand is that a few days ago, when your brother came to find me, he said the elderly gentleman suddenly, uh, returned to life and instructed him to retrieve the slips. Out of respect for old friends and the deceased, I…”
“Hum——!”
Before Professor Ma could finish his sentence, he heard a cold hum from the other end, followed by the middle-aged man gritting his teeth and saying, “My good-for-nothing brother, I really don’t know how to describe him!”
“Professor Ma, you are an experienced person; how could you believe his nonsense? Actually, the next day after my brother returned to our hometown, he told me the same thing, saying he woke up in the middle of the night and saw our father, saying he had come back to life.”
“At first, I thought he was just overly sentimental and unstable. I even comforted him. To be honest, I also wish what he said were true. But after my father passed away, I’ve been keeping vigil every night. If he really came back to life, would I not know?”
“Since then, he keeps saying he’s seen father; one moment he says he saw father running and floating in the bamboo forest on the mountain, the next moment he says he saw him laughing alone in a corner of the old house’s warehouse, and then he says he saw him lying in the grave on the back mountain at night. Does that make any sense?”
Professor Ma was taken aback, agreeing, “Indeed, that does sound a bit nonsensical.”
In the usual sense, it truly was nonsensical.
However, thinking back to what had happened with Luxianbei in Luxu’s dormitory that day, Professor Ma felt a bit uneasy about the matter.
After a moment of consideration, visualizing the frail, pale old man dressed in a bright burial robe floating in a quiet bamboo forest, or lurking in a dark corner of a warehouse laughing strangely, made his heart race.
Could it be that he really saw something?
Professor Ma thought, just as he heard the middle-aged man continue, “So, when he proposed to find you yesterday, I scolded him and confiscated his phone and car keys. Little did I know…”
The middle-aged man fell silent for a long time, and Professor Ma felt something was amiss, pressing on, “Did something happen?”
“Sigh——!” The middle-aged man sighed heavily. “My younger brother went missing last night, along with my father’s body, and we haven’t found them yet.”
“I suspect his mind has already gone astray, fearing he would do something outrageous, which is why when you called just now, I… truly sorry.”
“No harm done, no harm done.” Professor Ma replied, thinking it was understandable for anyone to have emotions during a vigil under such troubling circumstances.
“Professor Ma, I’ll be on my way then. Things have fallen into chaos at home because of this. You….” The middle-aged man hesitated for a moment, before solemnly saying, “Please take care of yourself; I am worried my brother might come looking for you.”
With that, he hung up the phone.
Hearing the busy signal after the call, Professor Ma sat in a daze for a while, slightly recalling the middle-aged man’s earlier words, feeling something was off.
“What did he mean by ‘take care of yourself’? It sounded like a threat! As a researcher, I should believe in science! Right, science!”
Professor Ma mumbled as he took out his phone, opened the contact list, and began searching for Luxianbei’s number.
Just as he found Luxianbei’s number and was about to press the dial key, his phone rang, the caller ID showing only seven digits—a strange number.
Professor Ma frowned at the sight, lightly tapped the answer button.
A sweet voice came from the other end, “Hello, is this Ma Zhen, Professor Ma?”
“Who are you?” Professor Ma asked, puzzled.
“Oh, hello, I am a doctor from Huacheng People’s Hospital. This morning while doing rounds, we found that Luxu was missing and has not returned.”
“Missing? How could that be…” Professor Ma was momentarily stunned.
“We don’t know what happened either. We checked the surveillance footage and found no trace of him. He was supposed to process his discharge today, but now…”
“In any case, your number was the only one in his contact list that I could reach. I called to ask if you knew where he was? If possible, please have him come to the hospital to settle the costs.”
“Um…” Professor Ma slightly parted his lips, “I’m sorry, I don’t know where he is either, but I will come by later to help him settle the bill.”
“Uh, that would be troublesome. Beep——!”
After hanging up, Professor Ma sat in his chair, lost in thought for a long time, silently pondering.
Why did my old friend and Luxu go missing at almost the same time?
Is it because they both came into close contact with that set of bamboo slips?
I also had contact with those slips; why am I fine?
As Professor Ma pondered, he suddenly smelled an elusive stench wafting into his nostrils—an odor reminiscent of rotting food scraps, mixed with the scent of a dead rat hidden in an unseen corner of the office.
The foul odor interrupted his thoughts. Confused, he got up and took a few deep breaths, but found nothing—like an illusion, that nauseating strange smell appeared briefly and then quickly vanished.
Professor Ma looked around, spotting the dusty, cluttered bookshelf filled with materials, frowned, and muttered, “It seems I’ll need to hire someone to help clean up properly later.”
As he spoke, he took out his phone and called Luxianbei.
……
At noon, a drowsy Luxianbei was awakened by the sound of his phone ringing and reluctantly got out of bed.
Having managed to ask for a day off from his counselor, claiming he needed to go to the hospital for a check-up of the eighteen stab wounds, he had planned to sleep until sunset, but that didn’t go as he wished.
Before he could answer the call, he heard hurried footsteps coming up the stairs.
Jumeng rushed up from downstairs, jumped onto his bed, sat beside him, and made faces, her big eyes sparkling with unusual light.
Luxianbei ignored Jumeng, answered the call, held it to his ear, and soon heard Professor Ma’s familiar voice.
“Luxianbei, the situation is urgent; come to my office quickly. Luxu and my old friend went missing together last night.”
“I suspect something has happened to them; I will explain the details when you arrive. That’s all.”
Missing? Luxianbei was momentarily startled, then replied, “Okay, let’s talk in person?” After saying that, he hung up.
As soon as Luxianbei hung up, Jumeng began to gossip, “Who was it? Was it your girlfriend? Or someone from the Siye Society?”
You’re the goddess of reproduction, not the goddess of gossip, why are you so chatty? Luxianbei thought, maintaining a blank expression, “A teacher.”
“Tsk! Boring.” Jumeng rolled her eyes, “Anyone with ‘old’ in their title is incredibly boring—wife, teacher, mom…”
“I don’t feel that way.” Luxianbei tilted his head, saying, “Because from his tone, I feel like we’re about to get busy! Perhaps soon, I’ll be able to collect the first core of an urban legend for you.”
I was still worried about where to hunt for urban legends! I didn’t expect it to come knocking on my door. Professor Ma truly is an excellent public teacher! Luxianbei thought, his gaze slightly sharpening.
