**Chapter 145: The Attic of the Frozen Food Store**
Among all the frozen foods, Luxianbei’s favorite has to be the beef rolls. Every time he went to a hotpot restaurant, beef rolls were always on his must-order list.
Some say that the depth of love once felt is matched only by the intensity of hatred upon seeing its “true face.” This holds no error.
After witnessing the “half-person” at the frozen food store, Luxianbei buried his love for beef rolls deep within, similar to the way he gave up on the spicy rabbit heads he once adored.
Who knows if the beef rolls he ate before contained any strange things, and whether he unknowingly consumed them?
Based on his level of fondness for beef rolls, if we assume that each serving contained human flesh the size of a fingernail, after more than a decade, it would add up to nearly enough to constitute an adult male.
Thus, every time he thinks of this, Luxianbei feels a churn in his stomach, as if something is stirring within, causing uncontrollable spasms and an urge to vomit.
It can be said that this frozen food store located in Market 96 has become an indelible shadow in his life, second only in shadow area to the cicada pupa and the rabbit.
If it weren’t for An Qing confirming that there was currently no possibility of any urban legends existing in this frozen food store, even if it had the most complete variety of goods in Huacheng’s city center, Luxianbei would not willingly return here.
However, what was meant to come would eventually come—the most terrifying part of psychological shadows is that they never truly vanish, and will inevitably pop up at some moment, trying to expand their area.
But after experiencing so many storms and witnessing over ten urban legends, is Luxianbei still the same Luxianbei?
Indeed, he is still the same young man, not at all changed—displeased with the spring breeze, unfazed by the summer cicadas, and reporting urban legends.
Though… it’s best to confirm the situation first.
The long-abandoned shop door suddenly swung open, and it’s possible that the store owner returned periodically to clean or retrieve something.
To hastily report the situation here to the Siye Society, only for them to send someone to investigate and find nothing, would have a bit of a “wolf is coming” suspicion.
Luxianbei thought, turning his backpack from his back to his front, unzipping it to reveal the hilt of an ancestral vegetable kn*fe, his expression serious as he walked toward the frozen food store.
If something is discovered this time, helping the Siye Society solve the urban legend event, he must remember to ask them for the bounty for bravery to make up for Jumeng’s losses—a way to save and spend wisely!
As he gradually approached the frozen food store, such thoughts flashed in Luxianbei’s mind.
…
This frozen food store located in a corner of Market 96 had been around for quite some time. Luxianbei vaguely remembered that it seemed to be there when he followed his father to shop in his childhood.
The rolling shutter door was covered in dust, stained with unknown grime, and above, the now faded plastic signboard only had the words “Frozen Food” prominently displayed.
Since the nights began to lengthen, the closing times of major markets had been significantly earlier than before, as they used to stay open until the nearby office workers finished work.
Now, after lunchtime, nearly half the stalls had closed, and the remaining stall owners appeared listless and distracted, so Luxianbei’s approach to the frozen food store went unnoticed.
Standing still before the rolling shutter door, Luxianbei took a deep breath as a peculiar foul smell invaded his nostrils.
It was a smell akin to that of a refrigerator that hadn’t been cleaned in a long time. He silently reached into his backpack, grasping the hilt of the ancestral vegetable kn*fe tightly, glanced around, and crouched low to slip through the half-height gap of the rolling shutter door into the frozen food store.
As soon as he entered, with the change of light, a moment of darkness enveloped him. He hurriedly drew out the ancestral vegetable kn*fe, preparing himself, until his eyes adjusted to the store’s light, and then he froze in place.
The store’s arrangement was quite simple—a square room of about thirty to forty square meters, with yellowed walls stained by dampness and mold. Being inside, it oddly felt as if the ceiling was pressing down low, creating an inexplicable sense of oppression.
Just as An Qing had previously reported after an investigation, the entire store appeared almost completely cleared out.
It was as though the “half-person” he had seen earlier, the decrepit cash register, and the haggard and waxy-faced owner were merely figments of his imagination.
However, at this moment, Luxianbei noticed some things that An Qing hadn’t described.
In the center of the room, directly under a fan, there was a very small table with an incense burner on it, holding burnt incense sticks. In a white porcelain plate meant as offerings, an apple had developed large patches of mold, and the floor was scattered with the black ash of burnt paper money.
There was also a picture frame on the table, where a black-and-white photo had been ripped in half, looking as if the person in the photo had been split down the middle.
Luxianbei immediately recognized the person in the half of the photo—he was none other than the owner of this frozen food store he had seen earlier.
That emaciated figure, thin with hunched shoulders, had eyes gleaming with an uncomfortable, bizarre light, resembling a mobile cadaver. Most people who have seen it once find it hard to forget.
Luxianbei glanced again at the burnt incense on the table, noting the two short sticks and one long one.
People abhor three long two short, while ghosts avoid two short one long; he had heard this saying before getting involved with the Siye Society and a series of urban legends.
To set up a shrine for the former owner of a shop, and for the incense to burn this way… Luxianbei mused in disdain, what were the people doing here thinking? If someone saw this, how would they continue doing business?
Just as Luxianbei found himself confronting this rather ominous scene, and that part of the psychological shadow cast by frozen food expanded unknowingly, calculating on leaving quickly, a sudden dull sound came from above, drawing his attention.
“Bang—!” A muffled sound was like something had been knocked over in the attic above, crashing down onto the floor.
Could there be a situation? Luxianbei froze for a moment, then began to scan around, noticing details he had previously overlooked.
The low ceiling that had felt oppressive was indeed not an illusion; there was indeed an attic hidden above.
In one corner of the shop’s ceiling, there was a square opening, dark and unlit, obscuring what lay above.
The opening was about the size of tiles on the floor, barely enough for a person to pass through, and a hanging folding ladder dangled down a little from the darkness, high enough for a person to leap up and grab.
Staring at that deep, seemingly ever-expanding darkness made one feel as though it contained sinister eyes, as if at any moment a bl**d-soaked corpse could come crawling down the folding ladder.
Luxianbei gazed at the opening for a moment, steeling his courage to approach it, aligning himself to the folding ladder, slightly bending his knees and jumping upward.
“Holy cr*p!”
His legs unexpectedly unleashed a surprising force, and Luxianbei seemed to fly up, half of his head thrusting directly into the opening, causing him to let out a startled yell.
Then…
In the darkness, a cold, stark white light flashed in his line of sight.
As he landed back on the ground, Luxianbei staggered a couple of steps but managed to regain his balance, his eyes shifting with contemplation.
The first question that popped into his mind wasn’t about when his body had changed; despite not being in an urban legend, he had exhibited more than ordinary strength.
Rather, it was about what that flash of light had been just now?
With that doubt in mind, he silently reloaded his poker g*n with talismans from his backpack, chambered it, and unzipped the compartment containing the initial spring breeze talisman before once again jumping to reach the folding ladder.
After a few careful attempts to control his strength, he successfully pulled the folding ladder down with a resounding “clatter.”
Climbing a little way up the ladder, enough to extend his arm in, Luxianbei paused, gripping the ladder tightly with his left hand and reaching into his chest pack with his right, taking out a few initial spring breeze talismans and abruptly tossing them into the attic.
“Thud—!”
The talismans hit the ground with a few crisp sounds. Waiting a few seconds, seeing no reaction from the talismans, Luxianbei climbed up another step, drew out the ancestral vegetable kn*fe, and thrust his arm inside. After a sequence of wild hacking reminiscent of a windmill’s movements, he finally cleared away any threats and climbed up.
Upon entering the attic, Luxianbei instantly spotted the source of the white light that flashed just before.
It was a strangely shaped freezer, square rather than the common vertical or horizontal types; its bottom half was silver metal while its upper half was completely made of glass, resembling a rectangular cover.
At that moment, the odd freezer sat at the deepest corner of the attic, plugged in, empty inside, and exuding a cold, white mist that projected a light seemingly devoid of warmth.
In a frozen food store that had been closed for a long time, someone had set up a shrine, and the attic hid a powered freezer that contained nothing—this was rather peculiar, wasn’t it?
Luxianbei felt that although no urban legend had appeared in this frozen food store, the scenes he witnessed, if spread, would be enough to become “urban legend events,” and thus he decided to promptly report the situation to the Siye Society.
How dare it affect my appetite for beef rolls, I’ll report you!
Luxianbei, quite vengeful, cursed inwardly, pulled out his phone, and was just about to contact Jiang Li when suddenly he recalled something. He stepped forward, lifted his phone to take a picture, opened a browser, and utilized the Baidu image search function effectively.
That strangely shaped freezer made Luxianbei uneasy as if something were not quite right.
With his old and outdated phone, the internet speed and performance were quite poor. Luxianbei stared at the phone screen for a long time until the page finally shifted, and search results slowly began to emerge. His complexion instantly turned pale.
The faint glow from the phone screen illuminated his somewhat pale cheeks; on the screen, under similar images found by the image search engine, the words “Ice Coffin” were prominently displayed.
Ice coffin? Isn’t that something used to preserve corpses in cold storage?
Just as this thought flashed through Luxianbei’s mind, an intense burning pain struck his eyes, and unsettling sounds echoed in the darkness, indicating that something bearing spirit energy fluctuations was drawing near…
