Chapter 23

The hotel environment was unusually good. After changing into pajamas, several tall boys collapsed in various places in the suite - after all, the floors of the luxury suites were covered with fluffy soft carpets, and there were soft and elastic lazy sofas and piles of pillows everywhere.

When Gu Qingming changed into his pajamas and returned to the living room, he could no longer find Chu Zhongyuan.

"Be careful not to step on the two of them hiding in the pillows."

Luo Dong took out a bag of Oreo cookies from the refrigerator and started showing off.

This is also one of the advantages of the young master. Although he is always greedy, he has a good physique that others can't envy. No matter how much he eats, he can hardly gain weight, which makes the girls in their class envious.

"I really admire them both."

Gu Qingming saw Chu Zhongyuan and Zheng Qiuji burying themselves in a pile of soft pillows and pretending to be missing, and shook his head helplessly.

After their heavy high school studies and CPA online classes, they finally had a brief moment to breathe, and their bodies, which had finally relaxed, kept clamoring for comfort.

Gu Qingming felt that the tension that had been building up in him since his parents' disappearance had finally relaxed, and he belatedly realized how tired his limbs were.

"The pressure from the CPA is still too great, and we can't back off because of the truth about our loved ones. If we don't relax, we'll probably go crazy."

Luo Dong took the last Oreo cookie in his hand, looked at Gu Qingming and sat down, and explained seriously.

His voice was not loud, and Chu Zhongyuan and Zheng Qiuji, who were at the other end of the living room, might not have heard it clearly, but Gu Qingming heard it clearly.

Luo Dong's proposal was not a spur-of-the-moment idea. This seemingly spoiled and willful young master who always liked to argue with others had terrifying psychological sensitivity and realized the abnormality of their mental state earlier than anyone else.

"yes."

Instead, Gu Qingming raised the corners of his lips, and a rare smile appeared on his usually expressionless face.

The young man usually doesn't smile, which makes people feel that he is even a little heartless, but as long as the corners of his mouth curl up slightly, it is like a breeze blowing on your face, very comfortable.

"So thank you very much, we all remember it."

From the pile of pillows behind him, Chu Zhongyuan and Zheng Qiuji poked their heads out and nodded frantically.

"cut."

Luo Dong tilted his head slightly, and his fine hair half covered his beautiful eyes, but Gu Qingming could see that he was smiling.

“Click.”

The sound of the telescope being retracted was heard, and the figures of the two young men disappeared in front of the person holding the telescope.

At the window of another building on the same floor of the river opposite Gu Qingming and his room, a young man wearing a black hood appeared in the dark room, with red shoulder-length hair sticking out from the gap in the hood. The young man casually threw the telescope in his hand behind him. On the silver reflective logo on his shoulder was a black pattern of a three-headed dog.

"Hey, so we really don't have to do anything?"

The red-haired hooded man pulled the curtains and looked at his companion behind him who was wiping a sniper rifle that was shining with a strange black and blue functional fluid.

A mysterious aura emanated from the gun. It was a prohibited supernatural item that the CPA would never allow to be leaked out, but now there was a pattern of a three-headed dog on it.

The figure that appeared near Lantai No. 1 Middle School before and the two wandering psychics hiding in the darkness now seem to belong to the same organization.

"Sha said that she will be in charge of this ancient town, and we don't have to worry about it. After all, this is also her hometown."

The man, who was wiping his gun and wearing a large black scarf covering the lower half of his face, spoke in a low voice with a venomous, probing tone that was only possessed by species living in darkness.

"Really? Although I don't know why these ordinary high school students are so important that the moderators ordered them to be eliminated, this was a very good opportunity."

"As long as your sniper Q fires a shot here, those two young heads will explode right?"

The red-haired hooded man was playing with the telescope nonchalantly. The white 8x30 logo on the telescope cover was illuminated by a ray of light coming through the gap in the curtains.

"Sophistry didn't work in Lantai. Those high school students are not that simple. Don't forget that their supernatural instructor is Cao Sheng."

The legendary figure in the Psychic Guild.

The scarf man's voice was still muffled, and no emotion could be heard, but the red-haired hooded man quickly changed his attitude after hearing Cao Sheng's name.

"That's true. Okay, let's leave in a while. After all, there are still countless arrangements waiting for us to do in other places."

The red-haired hooded man snapped his fingers awkwardly when he heard that and stopped talking.

Even the inner side of the world is divided into day and night. What appears in the darkness is the color black, which is indispensable in both the supernatural world and the real world.

Under the supervision of the World Psychic Association, although the appearance is generally calm, there are still many psychics who are not under the control of WPA (World Psychic Association). They disregard the laws and regulations of the psychic world, disdain all good morals, trample on human souls, and actively roam around the world just for various criminal purposes.

Some of these wandering supernatural beings even formed loose dark organizations, like black eyes growing out of the earth, spying on everything in the shadows.

For example...now.

The red-haired hooded man chuckled.

The last incident at Lantai No. 1 Middle School could only be attributed to their good luck, as they waited for Cao Sheng to come at the last moment. But now it is different. Although only Sha is here, those high school students can forget about leaving this ancient hot spring town.

The hour hand ticked away, and as the dark purple color climbed up from the corner of the sky, the entire Heshu Town revealed a bright and dazzling side that was different from the daytime.

The light tubes inlaid on the ethnic-style buildings all lit up, and the signs of various shops, whether selling gourmet food or traditional crafts, also flashed. The entire Heshu Town was reflected in the River of Books, and countless colors blended together, presenting a hazy and dreamy beautiful texture.

Most of the buildings in the entire ancient town are ancient buildings that have continued from the past to the present day. Gu Qingming noticed that in front of each building, there is a metal sign for the preservation of cultural relics.

It’s a pity that the Hebo Temple, the most famous ancient building in Heshu Town, is not open to the public due to renovations.

He Bo is a local folk belief and the local protector god. He has the power to control the river and protect the people, and occupies an important position in the hearts of the locals.

Residents of the ancient town dressed in ethnic costumes come and go in the town. Some tourists wearing complicated and luxurious ethnic silver jewelry are looking for travel photography angles on the countless wooden bridges on the banks of Shu River. Wooden boats on the Shu River carry tourists through the colorful waves of the Shu River. Stories of local beliefs and hymns to the Shu River God are played on the bow of the boat, which is as colorful as a dream.

Such a beautiful place, no wonder my mother carefully described the floor plan of the entire Heshu Town and its foundation before commercial expansion in her notes.

However, his mother's records about Heshu Town did not contain any obvious mysterious connection. Gu Qingming remembered that in the few pages of notes about Heshu Town, his mother simply drew a comparison of the floor plans of ancient and modern times, and expressed her admiration for the well-preserved degree of the buildings in Heshu Town.

There is only an urban legend, like a variation of some mysterious phenomenon.

There was once a tourist in Heshu Town who heard a strange noise at night. He woke up from his dream and came to the door, only to find that he had disappeared.

Everything around was very familiar, but there were no rules. Tourists were surprised to find that the buildings in the entire Heshu Town seemed to have been dismantled and reassembled room by room, without any trace of daytime.

The tourist picked up the flashlight in the room and bravely explored outside, but was surprised to find the ancient well in the center of the town, which was said to have been filled up long ago because of unlucky feng shui.

That is an ancient well that only existed in the ancient town decades ago when it had not yet been developed.

In a dream, the tourists seemed to be thrown back to the ancient town decades ago, but the ancient town was dead quiet and there was no trace of anyone.

The tourist seemed to feel that he was the only one breathing in the whole town, but there were countless pairs of eyes falling on him, present all the time.

Unable to bear it any longer, the tourists packed up their things and tried to escape, but the moment they stepped onto the street, they saw a horrific scene that they would never forget in their entire lives.

Every building, with windows as eyes and crossbars as mouths, smiled at him like a living thing.

In extreme fear, the tourist lost consciousness.

Note: [Although in the end, the official explanation was that the tourists at the time had mental illnesses and fell into hallucinations, which is why they kept muttering that this ancient town was alive, but we who have been dealing with mystery for a long time can see at a glance that this town is indeed a bit weird...]

Here a few drops of ink fell from my mother's notes, and she continued.

[But it's not a big problem. Ever since the local CPA demolished the puppet shop in the southeast corner of the town and filled the well, there has been no such strange thing in Heshu Town. I'm afraid the mysterious person who caused the trouble has been eliminated. ]

Thinking of this, Gu Qingming hurriedly took out the floor plan of Heshu Town that Chu Zhongyuan had stuffed into the side pocket of his backpack. After confirming that there were indeed no puppet-related shops in the southeast direction of the town, he breathed a sigh of relief.

At least they shouldn't encounter any mysterious incidents this time, so they can relax.

Gu Qingming thought.

"What's wrong? Xiao Ming."

Chu Zhongyuan was taking pictures of the night view of Shuhe River with his mobile phone. The various wooden plank bridges and folk ornaments looked gentle and vibrant under the night sky. He realized that Gu Qingming suddenly pulled over his backpack and started looking through the Heshu Town travel guide that he had stuffed in his bag before, and asked curiously.

On the other side, Luo Dong and Zheng Qiuji, who were holding sugar-coated meatballs and grilled cold noodles with turkey, also came over with worried expressions.

"It's okay. I just remembered some notes in my mother's notebook."

Gu Qingming felt somewhat helpless, but he carefully summarized his mother's records and shared them with his companions.

"Don't worry, brother. If the puppet theater has been demolished... that means CPA has been here before. Problems solved by CPA generally have only a 1% chance of reoccurring, unless someone re-triggers the mysterious source."

Zheng Qiuji shrugged with a relaxed look on his face. "In other words, we can't be that unlucky."

Gu Qingming nodded: "I hope so."

No one realized that a big FLAG was stuck in the ground.

The crowds of tourists could not conceal the characteristics of the town. In the end, not to mention Chu Zhongyuan and Luo Dong who kept their mobile phones and cameras in their hands, even Gu Qingming took out his mobile phone and, after getting permission, began to take pictures of the exquisitely made folk ornaments and woven patterns.

Gu Qingming, who was absorbed in filming, did not notice that behind him, a pale and slender hand was resting on his shoulder with all its strength.

"Gu~Qing~Ming~"

The owner of the hand made a strange sound like sobbing.

"Varied--"

Gu Qingming turned his head suddenly and broke free from the restraints on his hands, only to find that there was no one behind him.

What's going on?

Could it be that Fox Mask or that organization of wandering superpowers are still chasing us from Lantai City, or has the mystery here not been cleared up at all?

All sorts of messy thoughts piled up together in an instant, making his originally relaxed nerves tense again.

"Where are you looking! Gu Qingming! Down there!"

Gu Qingming's brain froze and he looked down.

I saw a girl about 1.5 meters tall wearing ethnic clothing waving her fists, looking very angry.

Ah, it’s his junior high school classmate Ayi.

This was Gu Qingming’s first thought.

It's over now.

This was Gu Qingming’s second thought.

"Ayi?"

Luo Dong, who was buying candy figures not far away and eating a string of squids, noticed the episode here and unexpectedly found an acquaintance behind Gu Qingming.

"Hey, isn't this Luo Dong? What, have you all forgotten that I'm taking the high school entrance exam this year?"

Ayi pouted, looking a little angry. The two braids on her back were trembling slightly.

Ayi's adoptive mother is Luo's father's business partner and also a friend of Gu's mother. She grew up with Luo Dong and Gu Qingming. Gu Qingming only remembers that Luo Dong, He Song and Jiang Hanzhang all went to Lantai No. 1 Middle School, but forgot that Ayi, who is one year younger than them, is also of the age to take the high school entrance examination this year and is a freshman in Lantai No. 1 Middle School.

"It's been two weeks since school started! Two whole weeks! It's ok that you and He Song didn't come to see me, but Gu Qingming, you didn't even tell me that you transferred here."

The girl's petite figure had the aura of a 1.8-meter-tall woman, which made the fearless Luo Dong lower his head and remain silent.

"Do you know how desperate I was during military training?!"

Gu Qingming opened his mouth and tried to find excuses for himself for a long time, but he couldn't explain it clearly. He couldn't say that they had been entangled in a bunch of inexplicable strange things since the beginning of the school year and therefore had no time. Who could believe this?

Ayi might choose to slap him and Luo Dong and send them to the psychiatric department of the hospital.

"Forget it, forget it. I saw you bought some sugar-coated fruits just now. Give me a few of them and I will show mercy and forgive you."

Looking at the two childhood friends who lowered their heads lower and lower, Ayi shrugged his shoulders, closed his eyes and waved his hands in front of them.

Luo Dong quickly bent down and handed over the sugar-coated fruit he had just bought with both hands to show his piety.

"Well, that's good enough, thank you."

Ayi took the sugar-coated fruit from Luodong's hand, stuck one with a bamboo stick and threw it into her mouth. The sweetness of brown sugar and the fragrance of sesame blossomed in her taste buds at the same time. The sugar-coated fruit with a crispy skin and soft and chewy inside soothed Ayi's heart that was ignored by her childhood playmates. While enjoying the food, she looked behind Gu Qingming and the others, as if she was looking for something.

"What are you looking for?"

Gu Qingming asked curiously.

"The guys who came with me on the study tour were all as dull as you. They came to the famous Heshu Town but only wanted to do the homework in the hotel. I was too bored in the hotel, so I went out for a walk with my classmates."

Having said that, Ayi stuffed another candied fruit in his mouth and did not forget to complain about Gu Qingming.

"Just now I saw a folk artist selling puppets here. It is said that they are some kind of intangible cultural heritage. I thought the puppets were pretty good-looking, so I was going to buy a few. I didn't expect that the stall owner was gone now."

Ayi sighed regretfully.

Heshu Town was famous throughout the East C District for its puppetry decades ago. Although the fame of puppetry has long been lost, if it is true, it is still a rare masterpiece.

"That puppet is really pretty. Lia will definitely like it."

Li'a means mother in Miao language. Ayi's adoptive mother Long Weilin adopted her when she came from Guidi to discuss business. Her parents both died in a mountain flood. The relationship between the two is so good that they are better than real mother and daughter.

It seems that Ayi really likes the handmade puppets made by the stall owner, and he even unconsciously uses his hometown language.

"Forget it, I can tell at first glance that you didn't see it. My classmate is waiting for me at the stall over there. I'll go look for it. See you at No. 1 Middle School."

Ayi returned the two sugar-coated fruits to Luodong and threw the used bamboo sticks into the trash can of a nearby vendor - the sugar-coated fruits came with two bamboo sticks.

The girl waved her hand, and floated away like a small and delicate butterfly, flapping her wings.

"I didn't expect Ayi to be this big."

Gu Qingming sighed with some nostalgia.

Luo Dong: "Yes, although it's still a tiny one."

Gu Qingming: "...be careful or she'll come back and beat you up."

"What are you two doing back there?"

Chu Zhongyuan's voice came from the front. He and Zheng Qiuji were so engrossed in watching the water show on Shuhe River that they didn't notice Gu Qingming and Luo Dong stopping.

"It's okay, I just met a friend."

Gu Qingming explained a few words casually.

He turned sideways and pulled Chu Zhongyuan's shoulder, wanting to continue moving forward, but his dark brown eyes hidden behind the lenses suddenly burst into a turquoise glow.

No one around noticed it, not even Luo Dong who continued to eat the sugar-coated fruit, but Chu Zhongyuan who was very close to Gu Qingming at that moment saw it clearly.

"What happened—"

Just as Chu Zhongyuan was about to ask, the EN factor in his body instantly began to resonate with the unknown existence, and a mysterious aura flashed by, pure and thorough.

It's EN resonance!

The superpowers of the psychics are actually humans' use of the mysterious. Because of this, the psychics can detect the mysterious existence around them through the resonance of the EN factor with the surrounding mysteries.

Of course, this kind of exploration is very rough and cannot compare to professional perception-type abilities, but it is enough to make people aware of the existence of mystery.

The strangeness that Gu Qingming felt when he first saw Chu Zhongyuan and the fox mask was the result of the resonance of the EN factor.

Luo Dong obviously noticed it as well. The three of them looked at each other and saw disbelief in each other's eyes.

"What just passed by?"

Zheng Qiuji ran over hurriedly from the front. Since he was not in school, the boy didn't need to wear colored contact lenses. Now his pair of dark golden eyes were frighteningly bright.

“I don’t know.”

Gu Qingming looked around seriously, but there was nothing unusual in the bustling crowd. Tourists dressed in ethnic costumes smiled at each other and marveled at the quaintness of Heshu Town. The sound of hawking came from the barbecue stalls. Amid the hustle and bustle of the people and the beautiful scenery of the ancient town, the only thing that seemed abrupt was the four of them who were standing there in a daze.

But the resonance of the EN factor will not lie. Something must have passed by very close to them just now, and they could only feel its presence for a moment through the induction of the EN factor.

"The ghost is still there, Boss Cao, help me!"

Chu Zhongyuan sighed in a daze.

However, they did not panic. After the initial fear passed, an indescribable sense of excitement spread over their hearts.

"I have a question. Aren't we all CPA members now?"

After putting away the snacks he bought, Zheng Qiuji raised his hand, as if asking a question to the teacher in class.

"You have a point."

Luo Dong supported his chin with his hands, leaning against a long pillar of a stilt building, and was deep in thought.

"Then why are we so panicked? Shouldn't Mysterious be scared when he sees us?"

Zheng Qiuji paused and added a sentence.

"Although your recent experiences are quite strange. But compared to the mystery, the fox mask of the suspected wandering psychic in Lantai City is more terrifying, right?"

Mystery is a general term for all supernatural phenomena in the world, including all kinds of gods, ghosts, abnormal creatures, and natural spirits.

For CPA, the mysteries encountered in daily life are mostly mountain and wild spirits, or spiritual creatures with spiritual power. Compared with the wandering mutants and criminal gangs who will fight to the death when encountered, these ubiquitous little creatures can almost be called cute.

"That mysterious aura isn't very strong. Besides, the ecological environment of Heshu Town is well protected. Could it be that some mysterious people in the nearby mountains were curious about human habitation and stopped by to take a look?"

After the initial panic, Zheng Qiuji, who had a long experience in the mysterious world, reacted and put forward his own judgment based on experience.

Faced with a large number of mysterious creatures of various types, CPA does not eliminate all of them. Some natural spirits that are harmless to humans or are too weak will basically be released back to their original places even if they are caught.

There are already a lot of mysterious creatures, and after awakening their superpowers, their sensitivity to these things will also increase to a certain extent. Maybe that mysterious creature was just passing by in a hurry and had no ill intentions.

Otherwise, it would be impossible for it to appear for just a moment and then disappear.

Maybe he was scared away by their identities as people with super powers.

"I see."

After hearing Zheng Qiuji's explanation and combining it with the knowledge he had previously learned on the CPA website, Gu Qingming roughly understood that it was just a false alarm.

"At best, if there is a problem here, the nearest CPA specialist will come and deal with it quickly."

Zheng Qiuji shrugged and his expression became much more relaxed.

Only Chu Zhongyuan screamed: "Aren't we the closest CPA specialists? What do you mean by speed of response? These days, even if we just want to relax, we have to work overtime?!"

The tense atmosphere disappeared in an instant.

Looking at Chu Zhongyuan's exaggerated expression, Gu Qingming just wanted to laugh.

The night passed quickly and the number of people on the road gradually thinned out. After Gu Qingming and his companions raided the last snack bar nearby and filled their stomachs, they prepared to return to the hotel.

Not far from the hotel entrance, the four saw an unexpected figure - in the swaying shadows cast by the low trees, there was a puppet stall simply furnished with a small square table.

A man wearing a black cloak decorated with feathers and his face covered by an exaggerated pale opera mask sat quietly in a stall. He was illuminated by the dim street lights, revealing a somewhat strange color.

"Oh, isn't that the puppet stand that Ayi mentioned?"

Luo Dong was very interested. He walked forward and stopped in front of the stall. He picked and chose for a while. He saw that the puppets on the stall were all dressed in various ethnic costumes, with lifelike expressions. Even with Luo Dong's discerning eyes, they were rare and high-quality products.

In the corner of the small square table, there is a wooden model of Heshu Town covered by a glass cover, with exquisite carving.

Gu Qingming looked up and saw two opera flags behind the man in black, with a line of colorful characters hanging on them: Heshu Town Intangible Cultural Heritage Characteristic Exquisite Puppets, all 135, all 135! You won't lose money or be fooled!

Uh... this folk puppet master is quite down-to-earth.

Gu Qingming's mouth twitched. He took a photo of Ayi, sent it to her, and asked her which one she wanted.

Ayi responded instantly and chose a beautiful girl puppet wearing peacock blue Miao costume.

"Boss, excuse me?"

Gu Qingming opened his mouth to ask the man in black, but the other party seemed not to hear him and remained silent.

"boss?"

Gu Qingming asked again suspiciously, but still got no response.

Did he fall asleep due to tiredness?

Looking at the naturally relaxed posture of the man in black, his head tilted to one side, and even the sound of his long, relaxed breathing, Gu Qingming strengthened his guess.

He didn't say anything else, but just transferred the money through the payment QR code. Seeing this, Luo Dong also took several, showing his inhumanity.

They left a small note, took the puppet, and caught up with their companions at the door of the hotel.

The teenagers who returned to the hotel exhausted did not notice that when they shifted their view, they saw that on the black-clothed man's limp hands hidden under the small square table, at the pale finger joints were wooden round joint balls that only puppets had.

Gu Qingming and his friends were on the third floor of the hotel, while Ayi's outstanding students who were on the study tour were on the second floor. When Gu Qingming went upstairs, he brought the puppet to Ayi as well.

The moment the girl saw the puppet, she smiled and said, "You, the taciturn fellow, still remember some of our childhood friendship."

Then Ayi transferred the money and used similar rhetoric to Luo Dong to invite Gu Qingming to his house, saying that his adoptive mother missed him very much and so on.

Ayi's adoptive mother Long Weilin and Gu's mother Gu Nanfeng are very good friends. Their friendship has lasted from high school to this day. When she heard that her friend had accidentally fallen off a cliff due to a mountain flood, the always strong-willed career woman almost fainted in tears in the office because she was wearing her professional suit and high heels that she had not had time to change out of.

From then on, Long Weilin would always compete with Luo Dong's father to invite Gu Qingming to their home to play, and everyone knew about their affair.

Gu Qingming waved his hands and stepped back, thinking that although he was very touched, it was not necessary for every aunt and uncle to want to snatch the custody of Uncle Lu Ze, or even mobilize Ayi and Luo Dong to do ideological work.

He ran for his life to the third floor and stopped in front of the hotel convenience store in front of the stairs on the third floor.

Convenience stores are the best speed bumps for a high school student. Even outside, Gu Qingming couldn't resist the urge to go shopping. He sent a message in the chat group that has been renamed: Love and Mutual Ability Team, and immediately received replies from several people who had gone there in advance.

Love and Ability Team:

Gu Qingming: Supermarket dd, fast, one minute

Chu Zhongyuan: Classmate Xiao Ming!!! My benefactor!!! Instant noodles!!! Take it as a midnight snack!!! I’m hungry again!!!

Luo Dong: Do you have the kind of sliced ​​bread that looks like this? I don’t know why, but I really want to eat the bread core.

Zheng Qiuji: MD, after seeing what they said, I’m hungry too. Just help me get a sausage and a boiled egg.

Gu Qingming weakly pointed out the truth:...You didn't order any instant noodles, so you were planning to steal Chu Zhongyuan's?

Luo Dong: Watch the fun, those two are fighting (blurred 6-second video.mvp) (Qun Naiya, come and watch the fun from time to time.jpg)

Gu Qingming put down his phone and felt his forehead twitching again.

These childish ghosts...

It was almost eleven o'clock in the evening, and the 24-hour convenience store had no service staff on duty. There was only an automatic cash register at the checkout counter. Only after paying the fee could the single-row small swing door be opened to exit. It was extremely smart.

Gu Qingming exclaimed in amazement like an old man who had never seen high technology. He thought that this was high technology that would benefit the socially anxious, and hoped that it would be popularized throughout the East C District as soon as possible.

By the time the young man appeared at the door, Chu Zhongyuan and Zheng Qiuji had already stopped fighting temporarily. The two 1.8-meter-tall boys fell into a ball of pillows, with only their trembling hands exposed.

Two still trembling hands stretched out from a pile of pillows, and next to them sat the young master Luo Dong, who was elegantly sipping jasmine tea and applying a facial mask to protect his skin. The scene looked weird no matter how you looked at it.

Gu Qingming paused, wanting to say something to change the current situation, but his poor language skills only allowed him to utter one sentence:

“It’s time for dinner.”

"puff!"

Looking at Gu Qingming who was so serious as if he was reading a speech in front of Zhang Yiwei, Luo Dong couldn't help but was the first to laugh.

Fortunately, before Gu Qingming said something shocking, he had swallowed the jasmine tea in his mouth, otherwise the carpet next to him would have suffered another disaster.

Zheng Qiuji jumped up with surprise, and Chu Zhongyuan was shaking with laughter, but he also rolled and crawled up, trying to snatch the instant noodles from Gu Qingming's hand.

"Calm down, everyone."

Gu Qingming, with a gloomy face, hit Chu Zhongyuan and Zheng Qiuji each with a blow, suppressing the two dogs with absolute pressure, and each of them had to pay a bucket of instant noodles.

He looks like a dedicated zoo keeper.

Luo Dong thought inappropriately.

"No need to rush, I bought two buckets."

"Student Xiao Ming!"

Chu Zhongyuan was so moved that his eyes were filled with tears. It looked like he was about to perform the ritual of kneeling three times and kowtow nine times to Gu Qingming in the next second, which frightened the latter so much that he quickly took a few steps back.

“Ding—ding—ding—”

After hearing a few reminder sounds of money transfer, Luo Dong elegantly changed the indoor air-conditioning mode to sleep, waved and said good night, climbed onto his bed gracefully, and said good night to himself.

Gu Qingming yawned. A day of hard work really made him a little tired. He followed Luo Dong to his room and fell onto the soft bed.

It was already very late at night, and the sound of a few birds chirping could be heard outside the window. In the small town where the only sound left was the sound of the waterwheel sliding over the flowing water, the chirping seemed particularly mournful.

"ah---!"

A truly shrill scream suppressed the distant sounds of birds, and like a sharp sword, it split the entire hotel.

“Wow!”

Gu Qingming jumped up from the bed. After basic training from Cao Sheng, a turquoise wind lit up from his body as if by reflex. Gu Qingming was not even fully conscious yet, but he was ready for battle.

As a member of the CPA, when ordinary people are in danger, it is his responsibility to rush to the scene to check the situation. Even if it is unrelated to the mystery, the CPA specialists with special powers may also need to help.

CPA rule number one: do your best.

Now that he has joined CPA, given Gu Qingming's personality, he will definitely do his best to do his best.

At least... I can't bring shame to my parents.

The young man showed a bitter smile.

"Classmate Xiao Ming! Classmate Xiao Ming!"

Chu Zhongyuan's anxious voice came from not far outside the door, but it seemed to be at a vague distance and could not be heard clearly.

Gu Qingming put away his cell phone, took out the flashlight prepared by the hotel from the bedside table, and walked towards the door.

"I'm here--!"

Shouting in the dark night to expose one's position was not a good idea, but considering that the idiot Chu Zhongyuan had already done so, and they were only in a four-bedroom suite, Gu Qingming did not care and also raised his voice in response to Chu Zhongyuan's voice.

The young man with delicate eyebrows pushed open the door separating the bedroom and the living room.

Then, the night wind blew in his face and lifted the boy's shaved head, leaving his black hair scattered in the air. Although his summer pajamas had long sleeves, they looked a little thin in such an environment.

The night wind whistled through the sky, bringing with it a hint of water vapor and a horrible coldness.

A tributary passed through the middle of the left and right buildings. Chu Zhongyuan, who was calling Gu Qingming from the opposite building, and Gu Qingming, who had opened the door and was about to step out, were both stunned by the scene in front of them.

Outside the door of Gu Qingming's room was not the corridor that originally led to the living room, but rather a high place without any safety measures.

It was as if the entire room was artificially lifted up by a giant entity, rotated, and then randomly put together and placed here.

And sitting opposite the wet water was Chu Zhongyuan, who also had a dazed look on his face.

At two o'clock in the morning, Chu Zhongyuan woke up from his hunger. He picked up his instant noodles and prepared to quietly run to the living room to boil a kettle of water for a midnight snack. As a result, the moment he pressed the power switch of the kettle, a shrill scream rang out out of nowhere, as if it penetrated the entire building, making Chu Zhongyuan's drowsy mind instantly clear.

He quickly stood up and wanted to wake up Gu Qingming and others to go and check out the situation. As people with special abilities, whether facing accidents caused by mystery or other accidents, they have stronger risk resistance than others. Protecting the public interest and the legitimate interests of others is the responsibility of the CPA. Every CPA specialist should take action when faced with such a situation.

This is what is called doing your best.

However, when Chu Zhongyuan tried to knock on the doors one by one along the corridor, he was surprised to find that he seemed to be in a dream.

The corner that was supposed to connect the four separate rooms seemed to have been neatly cut off by a sword, facing the night outside and the River of Books.

Not only was the hotel they were staying in broken into pieces and placed randomly, but apparently everyone else's rooms were the same. Chu Zhongyuan even saw a few beams of light that belonged to flashlights light up, but then went out after realizing that this behavior was extremely dangerous.

A faint smell of blood wafted through the wind, accompanied by the low growls of wild beasts.

The town is very dangerous now.

The entire wall, along with the four rooms, disappeared completely. Chu Zhongyuan felt a strong sense of worry in his heart. The worry made his brain almost blank, and he called out Gu Qingming's nickname without caring about anything.

It's clearly written in the CPA coursework that in the dark, in an uncharted environment, exposing your position by making a sound is the stupidest thing to do.

Fortunately, Chu Zhongyuan's voice was responded to.

He looked around desperately. It was already too late at night and the surroundings seemed to be immersed in thick black ink. Chu Zhongyuan was a little night blind. Although his vision was excellent during the day, at night he was as if he had several hundred degrees of myopia and could not see the direction clearly.

Fortunately, Gu Qingming's existence itself is dazzling.

A door that Chu Zhongyuan could never have imagined opened across a tributary of the Shu River that was more than ten meters wide. The blurry boy did not use a flashlight, but the green light all over his body allowed Chu Zhongyuan to instantly confirm the other party's identity.

"Student Xiao Ming!"

Chu Zhongyuan lowered his voice, and a fluorescent blue wave of water lit up around him, helping Gu Qingming to identify his position more easily.

“This is too…”

Gu Qingming, who was standing on the other side of the Shu River tributary, looked at the completely divided room and forced himself to come back to his senses from his fear.

The breath of the wind told him a lot of things. Mystery was surging in the town at this moment. Countless mysterious auras were wandering in the town, and it had become very dangerous.

The most urgent task is to reunite with Chu Zhongyuan as soon as possible.

The other party soon realized that using the EN factor to transmit information was far more useful than shouting loudly. Gu Qingming picked up the phone, but found that the signal bar showed no signal.

No wonder Chu Zhongyuan could only shout.

He sighed, picked up his only luggage from his room - a student-like blue and white patchwork backpack with the homework inside, and walked towards the empty door with the wind in his hand.

There was no fulcrum in the empty sky, but the boy, who should have fallen according to Newton's law, was steadily held in the air by the green wind around him.

The young man seemed to have a pair of invisible wings and flew towards Chu Zhongyuan.

And Chu Zhongyuan caught him accurately.

I’m afraid that doing homework today will affect the update, so I’ll post it in advance... Thank you all the little angels for reading this!