Chapter 119 Train (Minor Repair) Age

It is said that when nature is about to undergo some drastic changes, the first ones to feel it are the little ones closest to nature.

A strange and brilliant glow appeared in the sky, fish struggled to jump out of the water, the chickens and dogs were in a state of panic, and cats and dogs barked non-stop.

Before Chang Xile had time to ask the cats more questions, they left in a hurry.

She walked on the street back to school in a daze, took out her phone and looked at the earthquake monitoring app.

Chang Xile's hometown, Yangcheng, is quite far from the earthquake zone. At most, she felt the ground shaking for a moment, and after a while, she would see news reports about an earthquake somewhere in Country C and the tremors were felt in Yangcheng.

But for mountain cities, earthquakes are not something so far away.

Local schools and residents frequently conduct earthquake drills, and nearly everyone has earthquake monitoring apps installed on their phones. Fang Xinai and her friends often joke about stocking up on food in the dorm to avoid going hungry during critical moments.

But now, the app shows that everything is calm.

Chang Xile turned off his phone, thinking that maybe the kittens were just worrying too much, and that the machine might not be accurate.

Pedestrians continued to hurry along the roadside, occasionally a few young girls running off, laughing and playing. Chang Xile lowered his head, silently observing the flat ground beneath his feet. He seemed to see it truly crack open, devouring everything. The screams and howls, the twisted limbs, were like the shadows of trees distorted by a fire. Chang Xile blinked hard, and before him, only the shadows cast by his fingers through the branches were left.

"What are you thinking about?"

Suddenly a voice sounded above Chang Xile's head, scaring her so much that she shuddered all over.

"Why did you suddenly appear next to someone and talk? It's scary!" Chang Xile reached out and hit Anping in annoyance. Although he complained, the panic in his heart inexplicably subsided a lot.

"Did you get scared?" An Ping lowered his eyes, stroked Chang Xile's hair, and said softly, "It's just humming hair, it won't scare you."

Chang Xile shook his head, finding it funny, and muttered, "Where did you learn that from?"

"Does it work?" Anping asked, and without waiting for an answer, he explained, "One rainy night, I was passing by someone's house and saw the owner using this method to comfort his cat."

Chang Xile immediately grasped the key point of this sentence: "It's thundering and raining, why are you still hanging around outside?"

An Ping looked at her and said, "Survive the tribulation."

Chang Xile blinked and looked at him for a while. Anping still looked serious. Then she realized that Anping seemed to be serious.

"You, you, you... transcending tribulation? What does that mean? Have you ascended to become an immortal?" Chang Xile was a little incoherent, and even he felt it was ridiculous after he finished speaking.

No, he ascended to heaven? Joined the ranks of immortals? When did that happen? Can immortals fall in love? Or did he become a spirit beast under the tutelage of a Daluo Jinxian? So, can divine beasts fall in love?

Chang Xile's mind was in a mess, and all the settings of gods, ghosts and monsters that he had read as a child came to his mind.

An Ping couldn't help laughing. He rubbed Chang Xile's head again and walked forward, leaving only one sentence: "Failed."

He hadn't even cultivated nine lives yet, so how could he ascend to heaven and transcend the tribulation? Chang Xile finally realized he was joking. Her bangs were messed up, partially obscuring her vision. She blew a breath of air at them angrily and followed him.

How can this person lie so seriously?

"Just now I heard the cats on the street say that the mountain city is about to have an earthquake." Chang Xile asked him, "Aren't you the leader of the cats? Do you know about this?"

An Ping turned around and looked at her: "This is what I wanted to tell you last night."

"So this is true?" Chang Xile's eyes widened. "Why didn't you tell me such an important thing earlier?"

"Because it wasn't certain at the time," Anping told her. "That's why I went to Changle Mountain this morning."

"So what's the conclusion?" Chang Xile asked him to stop keeping him in suspense.

Anping frowned and said, "The earth is very calm. I can't feel any fluctuations."

"So what the cats said might be wrong?" Chang Xile was a little confused. "But if there really was an earthquake, and it affected the entire mountain city, why would you go all the way to Changle Mountain to confirm it?"

Anping didn't answer this question. He lowered his eyes and looked at the land with Chang Xile, muttering, "It's very strange. I think this is nonsense, but..."

He raised his left hand and said to Chang Xile, "Look."

Anping's hands are used for drawing. He can draw a very straight line on paper without the help of any tools. His hands have always been very steady.

But now, this hand is shaking slightly.

He is scared.

Chang Xile grabbed Anping's hand, asked him to stop, and said seriously, "Take me to your home."

Adhering to the principle of proximity, the two went to the residence where Chang Xile had first left her soul. Chang Xile then realized that all 26 buildings were under Anping's name. She looked at the tall building in shock and looked at Anping: "Do you usually make a living by selling a few paintings?"

"Yeah." An Ping nodded without any guilt. "At that time, I just wanted a roof over my head and didn't want to get wet in the rain anymore."

"Then why choose to buy a whole building?"

At that time, buying a house was not considered an investment behavior, and no one could have imagined that a house in a mountain city would be worth so much money in the future.

"The salesperson said we can get a discount if we buy together." Anping said honestly.

“…”

Well, no matter how much the discount is, it is indeed a big discount based on such a large base. It just depends on whether you can afford it.

Chang Xile sadly decided not to waste any more time talking to Anping. She entered the room and prepared to begin her soul-leaving process.

Her goal was simple: earthquakes were terrifying because they could kill a large number of people in an instant. Therefore, to determine if an earthquake was real, she simply had to look at whether there would be a large number of deaths in the short term in the next few months.

Anping sat beside her, looking a little conflicted, but in the end he didn't say anything, and just protected her seriously.

"Isn't it necessary for you to come so often just because I called you a rare guest?"

When Chang Xile saw Xie Wuya, the situation was completely different from that morning.

To be exact, she didn't even see Xie Wuya himself. He was buried in a pile of documents and scrolls, with only the top of his head showing. Xie Wuya didn't look up, but he knew immediately that it was Chang Xile who came.

"Why are there suddenly so many more documents?" Chang Xile was surprised.

"It would be fine if there were just too many, but the weird thing is that all these documents are so unusual," Xie Wuya complained. "I have no idea how to deal with them."

"How is it so unusual?" Chang Xile asked, seeing some unfolded pages with densely written words, which were very similar to the Book of Life and Death she had seen before. The difference was that the words on these books were all flickering and looming.

"Oh, it's hard to put it into words." Xie Wuya sighed, and he said with a smile, "Speaking of which, I just heard a very scary ghost story recently. Do you want to listen to it?"

"Will ghosts listen to ghost stories?" Chang Xile was surprised.

"...Do you want to listen?" Xie Wuya paused.

"Listen, listen, listen." Chang Xile made a gesture of invitation, not caring whether Xie Wuya, who was buried in the pile of books, could see it or not, "You go ahead."

I have superpowers. In my eyes, everyone has a number above their head. One day, on my way home after working overtime, my night train was fifteen minutes away from arriving. I sat in my seat, bored, when something suddenly occurred to me.

I asked the people around me, "Excuse me, are you 32 years old this year?"

She was surprised and said, "Yes, how did you know?"

I didn't answer her, and then I accurately reported the ages of the people around me. They looked at me in surprise, but I didn't feel like explaining.

"How come even people with super powers have to work overtime? That sounds even more terrifying." Chang Xile couldn't help but complain.

"Listen carefully." Xie Wuya tapped the table with his knuckles in dissatisfaction and continued:

[When I asked the last old lady, things were different: "Are you 61 years old this year?"

The old lady laughed cheerfully: "Yes."

She glanced down at her watch. It was almost midnight, the hour and second hands ticking away. "But I'll be 62 in five minutes," she said.

I suddenly checked the train's ETA again and knew it was over.]

The story came to an abrupt end here. Chang Xile was a little confused and asked, "Are you done?"

"That's all." Xie Wuya said calmly.

"Hey... where did you pull this ghost story out of?" Chang Xile was still pondering the details of the story. "Why did I say everything was over? Isn't what I saw the actual age of the people?"

"Something about a collection of terrifying, high-IQ ghost stories." Xie Wuya said indifferently, "If you don't understand it, it means your IQ is not high enough."

"Don't look down on me." Chang Xile sneered, and suddenly thought, "Could it be that what I saw was actually the date of people's death?"

"Hmm." Xie Wuya remained noncommittal.

"Everyone on the train will die this year. The old woman will die at the age of 61, but she will be 62 in 5 minutes, and the train will not arrive at the station for another 15 minutes." Chang Xile felt goose bumps on his arms.

"Will everyone die on this train? A major accident is about to happen?" Chang Xile gave her answer.

"That's right." Xie Wuya agreed. He asked, "Do you like this story?"

"I think I'm going to have a nightmare tonight." Chang Xile said softly.

The scary thing about this story is that even though you know that everyone, including yourself, will die, you can't get off the bus, and it's too late to change the situation. You can only sit and wait for death to come.

Xie Wuya smiled with satisfaction and changed the subject: "So what are you doing here? To help me share the work?"

Chang Xile was overjoyed. She was worried about not being able to see the words clearly when reading the book upside down. Upon hearing this, she immediately reached for the documents on the table and readily agreed, "Of course."

Xie Wuya suddenly stood up and reached out to hold Chang Xile's wrist through the documents.

He made a great effort and asked her, "Why are you so kind all of a sudden?"

Chang Xile struggled a few times but couldn't break free. He half-jokingly said, "Why, is it wrong to want to help you?"

Xie Wuya stared at her for a long time before letting go of her hand and saying, "None of your business, you are not qualified to see this."

"Why?" Chang Xile touched his wrist with lingering fear, and there was a mark left by five fingers on it.

"Because the secrets of heaven cannot be revealed." Xie Wuya walked out from behind the desk. Every step he took forward forced Chang Xile to take a step back. They were getting further and further away from the desk. "You have emotions and desires, and your ties to the mortal world haven't been severed yet. If you knew someone close to you was about to die, would you save them or not? If you, as a living being, got involved in matters of life and death, everything would be a mess."

Before this, Xie Wuya had indeed only let Chang Xile deal with the ghosts of the dead.

"You mean, all that information on your desk is about people who suddenly appeared and are about to die in the future?" Chang Xile heard a different message from this and exclaimed in astonishment, "So many?"

"If you continue to ask questions without knowing what's good for you, I will have to reconsider whether you are qualified for the position of Wuchang." Xie Wuya said coldly.

Chang Xile saw his resolute attitude and did not pursue the matter any further. She left, lost in thought.

Only after she left did Xie Wuya let out a long sigh.

Everything has a cause and an effect, and only the unknown can disrupt an uncertain situation.

If you read these documents, you are already in the game and will never be able to shake the reality in the slightest.

Always happy, of course you can try to change people's destiny, but the premise is that you can't cheat.

Xie Wuya sat back at the desk and continued to look at the names on the pages that were flipping through in front of him.

When Chang Xile woke up, she felt a burning pain on her wrist. She looked down and saw a black finger mark on her right wrist.

"What's going on?" Anping sat up alertly and pulled Chang Xile's hand to look at it.

"It doesn't matter." Chang Xile waved his hand and cared more about what he had just seen from Xie Wuya.

There are so many books, and how many people's fates are recorded in them...

"Anping, have you ever seen the Book of Life and Death in the underworld?" Chang Xile asked him.

He found some ointment from somewhere and began to carefully treat her wound with his head down. After hearing Chang Xile's question, Anping's ears twitched and he said, "I've seen it."

"Can human medicine heal wounds caused by ghosts?" Chang Xile was a little skeptical about this treatment, but he let Anping go. "Let me ask you, if your name on the Book of Life and Death is flashing, what does it mean?"

Anping shook his head in confusion.

What kind of statement is this? I've never heard of it.

Chang Xile touched his chin and said thoughtfully, "I always feel that this scene is very familiar."

Chang Xile felt a little troubled, as if he was walking in a fog and couldn't find the way. "Although Xie Wuya's attitude was very bad, I vaguely felt that he seemed to want to tell me something."

The books seemed to flip through Chang Xile's mind, and she felt a splitting headache. Finally, she grabbed Anping's hand and suddenly said, "December 24th."

"What?" Anping asked.

"The time following everyone's name has the same strokes." Chang Xile raised his head, his eyes filled with fear. "It's all on this day."