Chapter Ten: He Is a Top-Level Pervert
Rainwater and stones flew towards the sky.
Stars were beneath her feet, and the city was above.
The old banyan tree turned upside down, absorbing nutrients with its branches and leaves, allowing its roots to thrive.
In the distant place, countless people whispered, bringing a drifting echo, like waves crashing against the rocks.
……
Lu Yibei did not know what she was seeing and hearing at this moment.
Everything was absurd, like a bizarre dream.
Countless dreamlike bubbles surrounded her, dazzling lights outlining an illusory yet real torrent.
Three people, two men and one woman, screamed as they flew past her, swept into the torrent, disappearing without a trace.
Suddenly, a gust of wind blew from nowhere, like a breeze blowing away the morning mist, dispersing everything in front of her.
In the remaining golden, brilliant light, a figure in the distance quietly gazed at her, seemingly smiling, making her feel warm and relieved, as if…
She had gone home.
Suddenly, a strange realization emerged in Lu Yibei’s heart, soon followed by a frown.
Am I™ about to travel through time?
d*mn it, whose fool wrote this script? If I’m going to travel through time, why not do it earlier!
At this point, three years from now and three years again, I’m already on the wanted list of the Siye Society before suddenly time traveling. Doesn’t it feel a bit late?
Lu Yibei thought full of complaints, and then the golden light from ahead suddenly intensified, radiating to envelop her body.
In an instant, her head felt like it had suddenly crashed, everything went dark, and her consciousness sank into silence…
———
At two twenty-one in the morning.
A thunderous spring thunder rumbled across the sky of Huacheng.
Layer upon layer of dark clouds, like being punctured by a hole, unleashed tons of moisture, turning the originally gentle spring rain into a sudden downpour, pelting rooftops, streets, and windows like steel needles, making a “tap-tap” sound.
In Amber Hall, deep in the courtyard, in a large study, Jiang Li was slumped over a mountain of documents, sleeping.
Her long eyelashes fluttered, beads of sweat forming on her forehead, occasionally mumbling sweetly in her dreams, clearly having an uneasy sleep.
“Boom—!”
The thunder outside roared again, illuminating every corner of the rundown manor in silver white, and Jiang Li suddenly woke up, sitting up, staring at the blurred rain outside in a daze.
“Tap-tap-tap—!”
The sound of heels tapping on the marble floor approached from afar, as the brass doorknob of the study turned gently, and the dark wooden door opened, Ahua hurriedly walked in.
“Miss, something big has happened!”
Jiang Li furrowed her brow slightly, “Oh? What happened? Tell me in detail.”
“Just received news that there was a serious collapse at the old mine of the cement factory…”
Jiang Li glanced at the increasing rain outside, steadied herself, and calmly asked, “What level of spirit energy fluctuation alert?”
Generally speaking, after such disasters as collapses, they should contact relevant departments like land or water resources. If it reached the Siye Society here, it must involve urban legends.
“The spirit energy fluctuation alert is…” Ahua hesitated, her expression changing strangely, and after a few seconds of deliberation, she continued, “Miss, no excessive spirit energy fluctuation residues were detected on the site.”
“Uh, Miss, although there are no excesses, the entire mountain where the mine is located has spirit energy fluctuation residues, and many strange phenomena have appeared on the mountain,” Ahua added.
Upon hearing this, the watery gaze of Jiang Li trembled gently, as if deep in thought.
Just like discussing toxicity without discussing dosage, talking about spirit energy fluctuation residues’ harm without addressing the degree of night erosion is nonsense.
According to the Siye Society’s standards, only when the night erosion caused by spirit energy fluctuation residues exceeds 0.1 is it considered excessive.
But even if it doesn’t exceed, it is too strange for an entire mountain to be covered in weak spirit energy fluctuation residues, especially since Ahua said there were many strange phenomena on site.
Jiang Li rubbed her temples, “I remember that tonight’s night watch is that girl Gu Xiliu, right? She must have found a pile of excuses to bail, right? Has anyone contacted her?”
Upon hearing her miss mention Gu Xiliu, Ahua sighed bitterly, “It’s precisely because today is that ancestor’s night watch, a member of the special action team, that I was notified to contact you.”
In stark contrast to Gu Xiliu, the pigeon queen of Huacheng, Jiang Li is a model worker at the Huacheng Siye Society. If a sudden event occurs and the main operatives cannot be found to handle it, looking for her is always the right choice.
Of course, another model worker, Mr. Li, could be called.
However, Li Xuan has encountered a massive number of urban legend sightings every time he’s on night watch in recent months. It’s quite strange.
He is almost driven to the brink of a nervous breakdown, and even the older brothers from the special action team feel a bit sorry for him. So, whenever it’s possible to avoid troubling him, they won’t disturb him at night.
“I understand, I’ll change my clothes and head over. You go to the garage and get the car ready,” Jiang Li nodded.
“Understood, Miss.” Ahua replied, bowed slightly, and exited the study, hurrying toward the garage.
Watching Ahua leave, Jiang Li finally searched her phone from the pile of documents, sending Lu Yibei a message.
Jiang Li: “Emergency event, get up and work! [Location]”
After waiting for a moment and seeing that Lu Yibei had not replied, she shook her head gently, stood up, picked up her cane, and limped toward the cloakroom.
It seems that it’s a case of urban legend materialization, and she can’t conveniently appear, right? Jiang Li thought.
———
Twenty minutes later, at the old mine of the cement factory in Huacheng, at the foot of the mountain.
After the severe collapse, the road leading to the mine was almost completely destroyed.
The brothers of the special action team drove to the mountainside but had to settle there temporarily, then split up to conduct an in-depth investigation of the entire mine.
On a sheltered piece of land at the mountainside, in a tent that had been temporarily erected, Jiang Li looked at the plant and animal samples collected by the special action team during their investigation, her expression grave.
In a sealed plastic bag, a still unripe wild jujube appeared to be eroded by some filthy and corrupting force, its shape distorted, with numerous irregular protrusions piled together, making its smooth surface look like it had contracted some malignant tumor.
On another side, on a white porcelain tray, lay the corpse of a sparrow, its feathers disheveled, and its head appeared to have had two heads each shaved off a third, then sewn together at the cuts, one eye even exhibiting a double pupil.
In an adjacent tray, a mountain toad climbed into a round ball, with some nerves and bl**d vessels protruding out, becoming long and drooping like air roots of plants.
……
There were many similar cases, various deformed and twisted beings presenting before her, making it feel like facing a nightmare directly.
If it wasn’t for the fact that these strange creatures had only appeared suddenly that night, and the special action team had found neither radioactive materials in the mountains nor excessive spirit energy fluctuation residues.
Jiang Li would have begun to suspect that they had been subjected to nuclear radiation or serious night erosion, resulting in bodily mutations.
However, she still linked some thoughts to these twisted creatures.
“……”
How strange, how could it change like this?
The organization has shown different degrees of abnormal proliferation, seemingly similar to the symptoms of the three nightfall syndrome patients found earlier?
But have animals and plants also developed nightfall syndrome symptoms?
Jiang Li pondered, letting out a heavy sigh.
Since the nights have grown long, although there have been discoveries of non-human creatures suffering from nightfall syndrome, up until now, the number of human nightfall syndrome patients has exceeded hundreds of thousands, while less than ten thousand cases have been found in the vastly larger population of animals and plants, making it quite rare.
However, tonight, in just over an hour, the special action team collected a massive amount of animal and plant nightfall syndrome samples, with Jiang Li only seeing a portion, yet the sample size had already reached more than eleven, which was alarming.
Is the shortening of daylight time recent causing some unknown horrible changes? Jiang Li thought with concern.
As the one responsible for monitoring daylight changes and maintaining records in Huacheng, she knew very well that compared to the same period last year, this year’s daylight duration had decreased by nearly fifteen seconds.
“Tap-tap—tap-tap—!”
Rapid footsteps approached, trampling the muddy ground outside the tent.
A member of the special action team parted the tent’s door curtain and stepped inside, not taking a moment to rest before pulling out a night camera from his pocket and handing it to Jiang Li.
“Operator Jiang Li, this is a photo our team just captured at an abandoned primary school on the mountainside. It’s too bizarre, we didn’t dare go investigate. In short… please take a look first?”
“Mm, okay, let me see.” Jiang Li nodded, taking the night camera, she fiddled with it for a moment, pulling up the just-taken photos, and after viewing just two, her pupils dilated slightly.
The two photos captured the playground and the teaching building of the school.
The first photo showed the playground under thick night, where numerous soil mounds of various sizes had risen, their surfaces cracked as if something was about to grow out from underground after the land soaked in rain.
The second photo depicted a solitary two-story building standing on the mountainside, with various constructions “growing” on the walls of the building.
Either gray spire-like structures on the roof, or ancient-style red stone pillars, or golden abstract sculptures… it looked as if pieces had been clipped off and pieced together on the old, cracked exterior walls of the small building, twisted and grotesque.
Staring at the two photos, the words “Nightfall Syndrome” quietly emerged in Jiang Li’s mind.
If the old building were compared to a senile elderly person, it would now be covered in strange parasitic growths, undoubtedly in dire straits.
But……
This has never happened before, right?
How could a building develop nightfall syndrome? Jiang Li thought.
In the depths of her mind, she felt that something terrifying was about to happen in Huacheng.
Putting down the photos in her hand, Jiang Li looked towards the special action team member and said seriously, “Notify everyone, send a few more teams from the special action team over, seal the mountain immediately, and absolutely no information about everything that happened here tonight can leak out!”
“Additionally, notify the special action teams currently investigating in the mountains that they must inform me of any intelligence they gather as soon as possible. I need to continuously draft a report to the higher-ups here.”
A mountain completely covered by weak spirit energy fluctuations, combined with a large number of suspected nightfall syndrome patients…
If the abnormalities here were to form a legend and spread, it probably wouldn’t be long before it becomes a breeding ground for urban legends.
“Understood.”
The special action team member also recognized the gravity of the situation and responded, then hurriedly left the tent.
In the meantime.
Under a large tree shrouded in darkness, Qi Dong looked at Jiang Li in the tent, his gaze filled with meaning.
———
At the other end of Huacheng, in an underground entertainment venue, at the end of a tunnel that seemed to lead to another dimension, a hidden soundproof curtain was swept aside; it was the moment of revelry.
In the dance floor, Bai Kai was dressed in a flashy deep purple fitted suit with a green shirt, swaying his body freely alongside a crowd of young men and women to the strong rhythms of electronic music under the psychedelic lights.
Before long, at the other end of the dance floor, a blond handsome guy in a white suit pushed through the crowd to Bai Kai’s side, leaned in to whisper a few words, and Bai Kai frowned, walking to the edge of the dance floor together with the blond guy.
Bai Kai left the dance floor and entered a luxurious private room, taking the phone handed to him by the blond guy and hurriedly dialing that missed call not stored in his contacts.
“Hello? I’m Bai Kai, may I ask…”
Before Bai Kai could finish, a gruff voice filled with anger erupted from the other end of the line.
“d*mn it, Bai Kai, didn’t you say Lu Yibei doesn’t know anything and won’t find out? Now look, there’s been an incident over at Banshan Primary School, he really went to that damned place!”
Hearing this, Bai Kai’s face instantly turned pale as if he had heard something extremely terrifying.
———
At the Fifth People’s Hospital of Huacheng, Psychiatry Department, Room One.
Morning sunlight streamed in from the window, casting light on the youthful, pale, and somewhat weary face of a boy as he stared blankly at a cluster of brightly blooming African daisies on the windowsill.
Not long after, the metallic doorknob turned, and the door opened. A doctor in a white coat entered, taking a seat across from the boy.
“Sorry for the wait, shall we begin?”
“Mm.” The boy nodded obediently, responding.
“Name?”
“Lu Yibei.”
“How old?”
“Eighteen.”
“Gender?”
“……”
Strange, why do I feel an impulse to make a sarcastic remark?
Lu Yibei internally mocked, then answered truthfully, “Sometimes male, sometimes female.”
“……”
Sometimes male, sometimes female?
The doctor set down his pen, lifted his head to look at Lu Yibei, tilted his head, sizing him up for a moment, and then wrote a few hasty lines in the notebook before continuing, “Why don’t you go ahead and tell me about your situation?”
As a psychiatrist, he had seen plenty of psychological issues such as gender identity disorder, so Lu Yibei’s response did not surprise him.
“……”
Lu Yibei looked into the doctor’s eyes, paused for a few seconds, and began to narrate the story he’d already shared twice that day, “This all started with the dream I had last night…”
Lu Yibei had a very strange dream last night. He dreamed he was born and raised in a city that looked almost exactly like Huacheng.
The difference was that whenever night fell, the pedestrians on the street would disperse.
The darkness and ominousness hidden in the corners of the city would awaken, with countless twisted, evil figures appearing in the streets and alleys, sharpening their teeth and sucking bl**d, lurking, and hunting humans.
He also dreamed that his mother, who he relied on, left this world early, and it was his long-lost father and a strange man named Bai Kai who raised him.
Later, his father also died in a bizarre car accident, leaving him to live alone…
……
“Wait.” The doctor interrupted, “Are you saying you were kidnapped by a monster in a rabbit head mask and a man controlling cicadas to k*ll you, and were forced to swallow an egg…”
“It’s a witch’s egg formed by a witch’s life force that had reached its end, condensed with all spirit energy and power,” Lu Yibei corrected.
“So after swallowing that egg, you completely turned into a woman?” The doctor evidently hadn’t noted the lengthy preamble but only the word “egg.”
Although Lu Yibei felt a bit ashamed answering such questions face to face, but to understand what was happening to him, he steeled himself and replied, his cheeks flushed, “It’s not that I completely turned into a woman, but rather I’m male during the day and female at night.”
The doctor nodded thoughtfully and wrote down several hasty lines in his notebook. Those scribbles were standard “doctor’s handwriting,” and Lu Yibei could barely make out the words “rabbit,” “cicada,” “father.”
“Alright, you can continue.”
Hearing this, Lu Yibei shifted his gaze away from the doctor’s notebook and continued recounting his long and terrifying dream.
Two minutes later.
When Lu Yibei recounted Lin Yiqi personally killing Zhao Ke and dismembering his body into pieces to sew into a doll for venting, the doctor’s forehead glistened lightly with sweat.
Five minutes later.
When Lu Yibei spoke about the entity dwelling in the distant dark mountains, casting curses upon its former subjects so they would not regain their humanity for eternity, the doctor’s hand holding the pen began to tremble slightly.
Seven minutes later.
When Lu Yibei reached the part about the animals at the South Suburb Slaughterhouse that raised humans, the doctor finally couldn’t help but interrupt, “May I ask, did you come here by yourself?”
When he spoke, he looked at Lu Yibei like he was looking at a demon crawling out of an abyss.
As a psychiatrist, he knew he shouldn’t have any discrimination or bias against any patient, but the dreams Lu Yibei was recounting were simply too terrifying, and they felt real, as if he had personally experienced them.
The doctor even suspected that the person sitting in front of him was a highly intelligent, twisted top-level pervert, whose mind had twisted to the extreme yet still concealed a harmless facade.
If not for the lack of concrete evidence, the doctor would have definitely called the police to have Lu Yibei arrested to prevent him from harming himself or others after leaving.
“No, I came with my girlfriend. What’s the problem?” Lu Yibei replied calmly.
“Then please have her step in, would you?” The doctor said solemnly.
Lu Yibei shrugged, stood up, walked to the door, pulled it open, and called outside, “Aohua, the doctor wants you!”
