IWBL: Chapter 218
Xiao Li must now decide between rushing off or giving up to go sleep. He was actually a bit tired today but he thought about how the gap between instances had lengthened. Every day was an ordinary, daily life and he also felt a bit bored, so he agreed.
Xiao Li got up from the bed, changed his clothes and opened the door. As he left the room, Fu Zige was still singing. The microphone was floating upright in front of the TV and completely covering up the voice of the contestant on the show.
“Black pineapple—” Fu Zige saw Xiao Li coming out and his voice stopped in consternation.
Xiao Li didn’t say anything. He just asked him and several others, “There is a supernatural event. Do you want to follow?”
The little black cat was sleeping. He opened his eyes dimly and rolled over, exposing his belly in the air. Then he continued to sleep soundly, using actions to answer for him. Tan Li, buried in the flowers, slowly entered Xiao Li’s pocket in the familiar position.
Fu Zige spoke timidly, “I won’t go there, I am a humble person, the past is useless…”
Xiao Li smiled and teased him. “That isn’t necessarily the case.”
The dark microphone turned white to the naked eye but he didn’t dare to refuse Xiao Li out of fear that Xiao Li would bring him into an instance again. He asked in a trembling manner, “Is it in reality?”
Xiao Li nodded. Fu Zige sighed. Finally, under Xiao Li’s impatient ultimatum, he turned off the TV and entered the little yellow book.
At this time, there were no buses going to Shili Road. The Internet-addicted teenager Zhou Ying simply used an app to call a taxi. 10 minutes later, the taxi arrived. Before going out, Xiao Li didn’t have time to neaten his hair. He looked around, took a hat from the hallway and put it on to cover his disobedient hair. Then he went down.
It seemed inconvenient to not have a car.
As he looked for the taxi at the gate of the community, Xiao Li was thoughtful. It was better to have a car in the future. He could let Tan Li take the test and then buy a car to drive at night or he could call Shen Chenzhi directly…
He had this thought and sent a message to Shen Chenzhi.
Honk honk. The taxi parked in front saw the young man’s figure, flashed the car lights and motioned to the other person. Xiao Li opened the car door. He had many things in mind so he chose to sit in the back seat. The driver asked the address in detail, stepped on the accelerator and drove in the right direction.
Xiao Li leaned against the car window. The window was half-opened and the night wind suddenly poured in.
The occurrence of the supernatural events seemed to have changed all of reality. Originally, this season wouldn’t be the clear and refreshing autumn weather but it wouldn’t be like it was now. The gloomy and dark clouds had lasted for several days and seemed like a huge black cloth on the horizon, covering all the stars and the moon.
The city’s night scenes used to make people feel gentle but now people just felt depressed and miserable, even with the 24 hours entertainment.
In such a dark night, a person wouldn’t be able to see their fingers if there was no light. Maybe it was okay when there were many people but once one was alone at night, the feeling would be more obvious than before.
This type of stark contrast was clearest for a taxi driver who drove at night. This time, the driver was a bald, middle-aged man. He was good at chatting and warmly greeting the young man who got in the car but the passenger’s words were indifferent. He turned on the radio in the car, played a song and drove for a while. Then he couldn’t help asking, “Brother, you are going to Shili Road so late? It is quite far. Are you going to see friends?”
The dark-haired young man sitting in the back just casually hummed. It looked like this person was bad at communication.
The driver inwardly sighed and shut his mouth again. However, he was used to asking questions and had a hobby of observing guests. At this time, he was waiting for the traffic lights at an intersection and he couldn’t help saying, “I don’t know what is going on with this weather, especially at this time when there are basically no people on the road. Several times, I felt that there was a white shadow in front of me and I almost ran into it. I hit the brakes but there was no one when I looked in front. It was strange.”
The passenger who had been looking outside the car finally raised his head and looked at the driver. “It isn’t very safe lately. Try not to go out at night.”
“Eh?” The driver asked blankly, “Why?”
The passenger said, “It is easy to be haunted.”
Then he lowered his head and played with his phone.
“Brother, are you joking? Where are there ghosts these days? Hahaha…” The driver’s later gradually became weaker. He didn’t get any response from the passenger in the back so he secretly observed this person through the rearview mirror.
The teenager’s hat was pressed very low and only showed the delicate lines of his jaw. His face wasn’t clearly visible.
Perhaps it was due to his weird sitting position but a weird doll was sticking out of his pocket. This didn’t look like the ordinary Barbie dolls on the market. It looked like a real person without the whites of the eyes. There was grey in the eyes, making people afraid.
The driver was covered in sweat. He didn’t know if it was an illusion but he always felt that the passenger’s phone in the back had automatically switched screens before the young man even pressed it. It switched from the family Honor of Kings mobile game interface to WeChat…
In this instant, many urban legends flashed through his mind.
He squeezed the steering wheel and didn’t dare open his mouth to talk to the person behind him. He could only speed up frantically while hoping to reach his destination earlier.
Due to the driver’s speed, the half an hour journey was reduced to a quarter of an hour. He looked at the sign ‘Shili Road’, stepped on the brakes and sighed with relief. The strange passenger got out of the car.
Xiao Li paid in the app and it was accompanied by the automatic sound in the car ‘The Alipay has arrived, 30—’. Then he pushed open the door and got out of the car.
The driver was relieved. He took advantage of turning his head to glance at the passenger’s back. He found that this person was walking toward the door of an old-fashioned community on Shili Road. Meanwhile, the doll in his pocket changed actions as if staring at him!
He sucked in a breath as he recalled the man’s ‘ghostly’ tone. He decided to directly reduce his expenses and stop working at night.
***
The address that Wang Huai gave Xiao Li was in an old-fashioned community. This was an apartment block for retired teachers. It wasn’t close to the city and most of the people living in it were older generation intellectuals and their relatives.
Xiao Li walked over and saw Wang Huai waiting at the bottom of Building 7 with a group of people. Xiao Li glanced around. In addition to Old Wang, there was Ye Lingshi whom he hadn’t seen for a long time. There were also two other strangers he didn’t know.
Ye Lingshi hesitated when he saw the person walking toward them. He couldn’t see the other person’s face clearly but confirmed the identity when seeing the doll. He greeted the other person in a friendly manner. “Sherlock, long time no see.”
Xiao Li nodded.
“The first time I met you, I never thought you would be like this.” Ye Lingshi sighed. “My brother has always had his head raised high yet he keeps talking about you.”
The moment he finished speaking, Wang Huai raised his chin lazily. “This isn’t the time to reminisce about the past. Sherlock, these two are Ye Ziye and Sun Jiaming.”
The two men smiled at Xiao Li.
Ye Lingshi continued, “To make a long story short, in response to the recent supernatural incidents, we have set up a forum to give ordinary people a chance to ask for help. We will try our best to help according to manpower while also investigating the reason for these ghosts.’
“Everyone knows that ghosts in reality are generally very weak. They don’t have the strong resentment of the instance ghosts. Therefore, the average reincarnator can handle it with items. There have been no casualties and many reincarnators didn’t mind helping ordinary people.”
“However, according to our investigation, the intensity of the ghosts and monsters in reality has gradually increased. They were more than twice as strong as they were, half a month ago. If this continues, it is really hard to tell what will happen. We have to hurry and solve the problem or… we won’t be able to do anything.”
“This place is a recent request for help. The reason it caught our attention is a detail that she mentioned when asking for help.”
“To be specific, she lives on the fourth floor of this building.”
Ye Lingshi turned on his phone, switched to the forum help interface and handed it to Xiao Li.
[Dear masters, please help me. I have encountered a strange thing.]
[In this case, the incident didn’t happen to me. It is a writer I am following.]
[I have been following him for a long time and following every one of his stories. He has always written really good stories. I really like them. This writer has always written emotional ones that people can’t stop reading. He is very diligent but last week, he suddenly stopped updating!]
[There were no signs before the break. Everything was sudden.]
Then the day before yesterday, he appeared again and updated a chapter. However, the newly updated chapter has nothing to do with the previous context. The protagonist has changed to someone else and the sweet novel with an emotional flow has changed into a short horror novel. This novel isn’t the writer’s usual style at all. It seems like it is written by a different person.]
Then yesterday, he updated another chapter of the horror novel that suddenly appeared. At the end of the new chapter, there was a strange symbol.]
[I checked and couldn’t find this symbol at all. I am afraid that it is the writer’s distress signal but calling the police is useless. They just said the writer is alive and while. I found it very strange and thought of a ghost possessing the body. My classmate recommended this forum to me. I hope you can help me and the writer.]
The person seeking help took a screenshot of the symbol and Xiao Li narrowed his eyes when he saw it. It was particularly similar to the symbol he found with Fu Zige earlier.
Ye Lingshi said, “I tried to call her and she answered, but some things aren’t clear on the phone. So I made an appointment to meet her.”
Xiao Li wondered, “In the early hours of the morning?”
Ye Lingshi also thought it wasn’t right and shrugged. “She was the one who set the time. She said that this is the only time available. She can come out when her parents are sleeping.”
Xiao Li returned the phone to the other person. Ye Lingshi opened the message box and sent a message to the person seeking help upstairs. Then he raised his head and said, “She told us to go up.”
TL: Reminder that Ye Lingshi is the relative of Ye Zeqing. He appeared in the Bloody Mary instance.
Proofreader: Tofu