Chapter 24: The Pear Garden Shock
Since the weird thing has started to harm people, Mo Xuanji can't just sit back and watch.
After seeing off the first customer since the store opened, Mo Xuanji used the almighty invisibility technique taught to him by Doraemon, and none of the psychics who were responsible for watching him noticed that he had left the house.
"Report, the little girl has left the target store and her vital signs are normal."
"Continue to observe."
"receive."
The person on the other end of the intercom breathed a sigh of relief. They'd already contacted the demon clan's higher-ups, but they knew there was no such thing as Yuheng among them, and no human records of him existed. No one knew him; it was as if he had appeared out of nowhere. The only traceable trace of his activity was back to Qishan a month ago, when he had casually rescued a student from an S-rank monster.
Although Yuheng had intervened twice to save people, his origins were ultimately unknown. He'd feigned friendliness, only to reveal his true colors once their guard was down. They'd even suffered a loss recently. They couldn't act rashly until they were certain Yuheng was friend or foe.
Mo Xuanji arrived at the spot where Fang Ying had mentioned the bronze mirror was broken. Not much time had passed, and traces of the unfortunate individual's presence were still visible on the ground.
There were scattered dirt stains on the clean, cyan-colored brick floor, mingled with a bit of green liquid. Broken pieces of porcelain remained in the cracks between the bricks, having not been cleaned up.
Mo Xuanji subconsciously looked up, and sure enough, there was a windowsill on the upper floor filled with potted plants, with a few gaps near the edge.
"It seems that the flowerpot fell down. How unlucky! Judging from the traces, it must have been someone chasing her and smashing her down one by one." The system sighed in its consciousness.
Mo Xuanji remained silent. He closed his eyes and gently tapped his palm with his fan. His consciousness quickly dispersed, and a colorless world appeared in his mind.
Under the influence of this skill, even minor details would appear clearly in his mind. This was a detection skill he had learned from the bamboo slips. It was very convenient for searching for strange things, but it consumed a lot of mental energy. Just when Mo Xuanji was about to give up, a wisp of deep purple mist appeared within the detection range.
“Found it!”
Following the mist, Mo Xuanji soon arrived in front of a residential building. To be more precise, it was outside the window of a resident on the first floor.
The sound of opera singing could be heard faintly from inside the house. The person seemed young, and there was still a hint of childishness in their voice.
"But that~unfaithful person..."
"Xuanxuan, stop singing and eat something. It's been two days..."
Beneath the clamor of the opera was the voice of a woman pleading desperately. The other party seemed oblivious to her, and the singing continued without stopping.
"Xuanxuan, Xuanxuan, please wake up soon. Whether you want to learn painting or singing opera, mom will support you, okay..."
The girl's hollow and hoarse voice seemed extremely strange amid the woman's crying.
"There is a strange aura about this child." Mo Xuanji's expression was solemn. He used a fan to lift up the purple mist, and its other end connected to the girl's eyebrows.
This looked like the work of a psychic. But...why was it psychic?
…
The vast theater, shrouded in red gauze, was filled with an air of decadence and extravagance. The audience was filled with well-dressed spectators, dressed in clothing from the 1980s and 1990s, sitting motionless and wooden in their seats. The pale light from overhead shone down, burying their faces in shadow, obscuring their features.
On the stage, a young girl in costume mechanically sang her lines, her eyes filled with fear. She seemed to have been performing for a long time; her voice was hoarse, and her feet were bleeding. Bright red blood soaked through her cloth shoes, and every step she took left a bright red footprint on the ground. Yet, even so, she never stopped. She didn't dare stop.
"Mei Niang, please, I've been dancing for a long time. Can you let me rest for a while? Just for a while."
A female voice sang in an operatic voice: "You said three days and three nights, so it must be three days and three nights. Breaking your promise is unacceptable. Young lady, please concentrate on singing and don't disturb the official's interest."
Lin Xuan tried hard to keep her voice and movements standard, but even so, mistakes were inevitable.
The theater's hues were dark and oppressive, the red gauze everywhere like the bloody maw of a vicious beast. As Lin Xuan misstepped, the entire environment began to shift. The stage, the audience, the red gauze—sometimes they appeared normal, sometimes transformed into flat sheets of paper. The paper shifted colors, emitting bursts of sounds that could be described as mind-numbing.
Lin Xuan fell to the ground under the double torture of physical and mental torture, and her face turned pale in an instant.
The audience erupted in laughter. They clapped their paper-like hands, shouted "good" and threw "gifts" onto the stage. Some tore off a bloody arm, some dug out their own eyeballs, and some ripped out their hearts. They were even still beating as they were thrown onto the stage, squirming a few times before snapping their teeth and twisting themselves towards Lin Xuan.
Such a horrifying scene frightened Lin Xuan so much that she screamed on the spot. She finally broke down and cried out, "Mei Niang, I was wrong! I'm sorry! I will never write a story like this again. Please let me go. I will change it for you when I get home!"
"Don't go back on your word~" the voice was still singing.
The paper figures covered in blood and holes in the audience laughed and watched Lin Xuan's collapse.
This was the explosive scene that Mo Xuanji saw when he came in, and his san value almost evaporated all at once.
"Oh my god!" the system exclaimed.
At this time, there was a little girl in the audience. She wanted to rush onto the stage anxiously, but she was blocked by the paper-like audience every time. After finally squeezing out a step, she was pushed back again.
Mo Xuanji quickly used his spiritual sense to investigate and found that he and the two little girls were the only living beings in the entire space, and the rest were all strange creatures.
The little girl noticed Mo Xuanji's appearance and turned around in surprise: "Huh? You too..."
She realized something and quickly covered her mouth, but it was too late. All the onlookers turned to look at them, their hollow faces twisted into a look of resentment.
They opened their mouths and made sharp cries.
Mo Xuanji couldn't stand the noise anymore, so he waved his fan and the paper people were blown away for a long distance. Mo Xuanji quickly rushed onto the stage and rescued Lin Xuan.
As if some mechanism had been triggered, the paper figures began to twist and turn, stretching and contorting, transforming into long strips of paper that swept over with a strange and unique stench, trying to snatch Lin Xuan back. The little girl quickly pulled Lin Xuan over and carried her on her back: "Hurry, follow me!"
Mo Xuanji waved her fan to cut off the piece of paper that was extended to her, then turned around and followed her.
The little girl seemed familiar with the place, leading them in a roundabout way until they found a hidden room. There were some costumes laid out there, and a mirror on a table with some makeup supplies in front of it. There seemed to be a certain rule here; once the door was closed, the paper figures were completely isolated from the outside. Even if they slammed the door loudly, none of them could get in.
Lin Xuan was trembling with fear. The young girl patted her back and whispered soothing words, then bowed to Mo Xuanji. "Thank you, sir, for your help. My name is Xun Lan, and I'm trapped here with Miss Lin. The evil spirit has captured Miss Lin and forced her to go on stage. If she fails to sing well, the evil spirits in the audience will go crazy like they did just now."
Lin Xuan nodded frantically, wiping away her tears. "Mei Niang is still forcing me to...act according to the script."
"Mei Niang?" Mo Xuanji felt a little strange. He suddenly remembered what Lin Xuan had shouted on the stage. "Excuse me, what did you mean when you shouted 'I'll never write a story like this again'?"
His intuition told him that this might be the key to breaking the deadlock.
Lin Xuan showed a conflicted expression, and Xun Lan patted her shoulder.
Seeing the encouragement and comfort in Xunlan's eyes, Lin Xuan finally decided to tell the truth.
"Yes...it's like this." She lowered her head: "Mei Niang is a character I created, and the script is also the past I arranged for her when I created her..."
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