Ghost Butterfly
"I've slept soundly these past few days." Ye Jing'an and Liu Muzhe were eating and chatting in the restaurant. They were almost done eating but Qiu Zimu still hadn't arrived. He didn't reply to messages or answer calls.
Ye Jing'an ran to Qiu Zimu's room. He was sitting cross-legged on the bed, staring at the screen of his mobile phone without blinking.
"What are you watching?" Ye Jing'an took a closer look. It looked like a horror movie. The surrounding forest was pitch black, and only the leaves illuminated by the flashlight could be seen. "Don't you like watching horror movies?"
"It's not a horror movie, it's a replay of an adventure live broadcast." Qiu Zimu stared at the screen without even turning his head. It wasn't a shaking picture of Green Leaves.
"What's so good about this broken tree leaf? Why don't you even eat?" Ye Jing'an sneered.
"When they were in this forest this afternoon, a red thing flashed across the screen. It looked like a ghost butterfly to me," Qiu Zimu said. "There will be another live broadcast this afternoon. I'm waiting."
"What is a ghost butterfly? Let me take a look." Ye Jing'an said.
Qiu Zimu adjusted the live broadcast playback to 6:40 pm. About a minute later, a red shadow flashed by the bushes in the upper right corner of the video. It was very small, only the size of the surrounding leaves, and was moving so fast that it was impossible to tell what it was.
"How...how do you know it's a butterfly?" Ye Jing'an asked curiously, "Can butterflies be this bright red?"
"Yes, I'm a Gu Master, and I'm very sensitive to these poisonous insects. The ghost butterfly is ferocious and aggressive by nature, and flies very fast. It is the only Gu insect that we Gu Masters can use to communicate with ghosts. My father encountered one back then, but unfortunately he didn't catch it, and he regretted it for a long time." Qiu Zimu said.
"That sounds awesome, let's catch him," said Ye Jing'an.
"I don't know where he is. The host hasn't replied to my private message yet. He will start broadcasting at 6 o'clock today. I'll check again today." Qiu Zimu glanced at the time. There were about 20 minutes left.
"Okay, then you wait, I'll bring you some food." Ye Jing'an went to the cafeteria and ordered a beef clay pot rice, then ran to buy milk tea, fried chicken and some snacks, and walked towards Qiu Zimu's room with a lot of them.
Liu Muze just walked downstairs to the hall and came back to see him. He looked at what he was holding and said helplessly: "Didn't you just eat? Are you hungry again?"
"I bought dinner for Qiu Zimu. We're going to watch the live broadcast tonight. Do you want to join us? It's almost starting."
"Not interested. I'm going out for a walk."
"Would you like me to go with you?"
"You're so grown up, but you still need someone to accompany you for a walk."
Ye Jing'an watched Liu Muze's back as he slowly walked toward the lake and shook his head. He walked upstairs and just as he opened the door, he heard Qiu Zimu complaining about why the show hadn't started yet. He glanced at the time and saw it was already 6:20, so he asked, "What's going on? There won't be a live broadcast today, will there?"
"I don't know. We agreed to have it yesterday." Qiu Zimu said.
"Then wait a minute." Ye Jingan sat on a chair, eating snacks and browsing his phone.
Qiu Zimu stared at the screen of his mobile phone, exiting and refreshing it from time to time, waiting for the live broadcast to begin.
A few minutes later, a young man wearing a black mask and a hat appeared on the screen. After introducing himself, he apologized and explained that the live broadcast was more than ten minutes late because his phone had inexplicably crashed.
The number of people in the live broadcast room grew to 20,000 in just a few minutes. People in the comment section complained that he deliberately delayed the broadcast so that he could pretend to have encountered some supernatural phenomenon and attract others to watch the live broadcast.
There were also some curious people in the comments who said they wanted to go and try it, asking the anchor for the location of the expedition. Qiu Zimu also sent many messages asking for the address. The anchor did not reply, but just kept talking about the strange places in the surrounding environment.
Qiu Zimu didn't care whether he was lying or not; he just wanted to know where this place was. Knowing the host wasn't happy to reveal locations, he didn't bother asking. Instead, he paid close attention to the environment on the screen, trying to guess the area by observing some distinctive plants or geological features, so as to narrow down the area.
"Did you find anything?" Ye Jing'an asked.
Qiu Zimu shook his head. On the first day of the livestream, he could see waterfalls and such, but today's video was all dense forest, with no landmarks at all. Even if there were, he probably wouldn't know it; after all, his experience was far from enough.
"There's nothing interesting here. I just hear him playing tricks. I'm going for a walk with Brother Liu." Ye Jing'an said.
It was sunset at this time, and there were quite a lot of people walking and watching the sunset on the sidewalk by the lake. Most of them were in pairs, holding hands, smiling and chatting happily. There were also families with children out playing, and the children were running and making noises happily, making the atmosphere particularly lively.
Liu Muzhe stood in a sparsely populated place, with his hands on the bluestone railing, quietly watching the sunset in the distance.
Ye Jing'an looked at his back and always felt that he was different from the people around him. Suddenly, a strange thought came to his mind: Brother Liu seemed to have lived alone in this world for a long time...
He shrugged and walked over to ask, "What is Brother Liu thinking about?"
"Nothing." Liu Muzhe said.
Ye Jingan leaned against the guardrail, breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Let's chat?"
"Okay." Liu Muze raised his eyebrows slightly. "Look at the sword you are holding. You are the successor of the Ye family, right? How come you don't know anything?"
"Tsk, it's modern society now. I had never seen any monsters or ghosts back then. Who knew that learning that stuff would be useful?" said Ye Jing'an.
"Why did your father let you out?" Liu Muzhe asked.
"I was very smart when I was a kid. I knew how to get by without having to learn anything. My dad thought I had learned it all." Ye Jing'an smiled awkwardly, feeling a little regretful for using such clever tricks when he was a kid.
Liu Muze: "..."
"I'll learn slowly later. Let me tell you about you." Ye Jingan gossiped, "Do you have someone you like?"
Liu Muze glanced at him and said lightly: "Does it have anything to do with you?"
"Is it not okay for me to ask a question as a brother?" Ye Jing'an said, "Whether I learn skills or not is none of your business, but I'm still answering you."
Liu Muzhe was too lazy to pay attention to him, sighed and walked back.
Qiu Zimu ran over hurriedly, holding his phone and said, "Something happened! Something happened!"
"What's the matter?" Ye Jing'an took the phone and saw that the live broadcast on the screen had been interrupted.
Qiu Zimu found the screen recording of the live broadcast and scrolled to the last few minutes. The man in the video was waving his phone around, mumbling something as if something was watching him. Qiu Zimu slowed down the video. The video was filled with nothing but trees and grass; nothing strange could be seen.
The man's tone grew increasingly fearful, and his phone shook violently, making the viewer dizzy. Not long after, he yelled, and the phone fell to the ground, becoming silent. After a final, piercing sound, the live stream was interrupted.
"He was pretending to be mysterious and didn't see anything," said Ye Jing'an.
"I don't know." Qiu Zimu handed the phone to Liu Muze, "Brother Liu, is there anything wrong?"
Liu Muze shook his head: "No."
"Brother Liu, do you know where he is?" Ye Jing'an asked.
"These mountains and trees are everywhere, how would I know where they are?" Liu Muzhe said helplessly.
"Brother Liu, take a look at this video." Qiu Zimu called up the replay of yesterday's live broadcast and played it at double speed.
When Liu Muze saw a small waterfall, he paused and asked Qiu Zimu to take a screenshot and send it to him. He enlarged the screenshot and took a closer look at the pool under the small waterfall and said, "I think I've been here before."
"Really? Where is this?" Qiu Zimu stared at him with bulging eyes.
"Uh, let me think about it." Liu Muzhe said.
…
"You've gone on a mental journey and haven't figured it out yet." Ye Jing'an retorted.
"I've been to so many places, I can't remember them all at once." Liu Muzhe walked back to the room, "I thought of telling you."
Ye Jingan blocked the door, not letting him in: "Think about it quickly, don't just lie down on the bed and forget about it again, be reliable!"
"Tsk, you don't learn how to catch ghosts every day. You just eat, drink and have fun everywhere, and find things for me to do from time to time. When problems arise, you still expect me to help. Can you be reliable?" Liu Muzhe pushed him away impatiently, "I warn you, don't bother me!"
Ye Jingan: “…”
"Brother Liu, it's me who wants to go. There seem to be ghost butterflies here." Qiu Zimu said weakly.
"Ghost Butterfly..." Liu Muze rolled his eyes and thought, "I know, this is Yinyaxia. I was once asked by a Gu Master to accompany me here to find the Ghost Butterfly."
"Have you found it?" Qiu Zimu asked excitedly.
"No, he didn't even see a shadow." Liu Muzhe said, "He was not convinced, so he went there three or four more times and stayed there for a week, but still didn't see anything. However, he finally encountered another rare Gu worm, so he didn't have too many regrets."
"Brother Liu, can you take me to see it?" Qiu Zimu pleaded.
"Yes, that place is within the Dark Cloud Realm and has a good environment. For Gu Masters, it's a place where they can encounter good treasures. You can go and try your luck." Liu Muzhe said.
"That's great, thank you Brother Liu!" Qiu Zimu jumped towards Liu Muzhe.
Ye Jing'an took a step forward, standing in front of Liu Muze, and asked with a cold face, "What are you doing?"
"Brother Liu is so nice, I'll give him a hug." Qiu Zimu said with a silly smile.
"No hugging! It's all because of you! I even got scolded!" Ye Jing'an dragged him downstairs, "You have to treat me to a midnight snack!"
"What's it to me..."
The three of them agreed to leave at 8:00 tomorrow. Qiu Zimu returned to his room to prepare what he needed to bring. After thinking about it, he realized there wasn't much he needed to bring. The most important things were an insect net and a triangular paper bag made of sulfuric acid paper, plus some dry food and medicine he had just bought. After packing up briefly, he washed up and went to bed early.
The next morning, Qiu Zimu came downstairs with his backpack and was surprised to see a large pile of food in Ye Jingan's hands. "When did you buy this? Why are you carrying so much food?"
"I brought this for Brother Liu. Do you think he would like to bring extra things? He would rather go hungry than bother to bring anything!" Ye Jing'an said.
As expected, Liu Muze came downstairs light and without any luggage. After everything was ready, the three of them boarded the train to Mo County.
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