Chapter 103 A Quiet Sleepless Night
It's late at night.
In a high-rise apartment somewhere in the central urban area of Jiecheng, Baili Qing, wearing pajamas, poured herself a glass of strong liquor and strolled to the large floor-to-ceiling window.
There was no light in the room. Only the dim glow from the night lamp in the corner outlined the contours of the home furnishings. Outside the large floor-to-ceiling windows, there was a spectacular night view. The huge city was lit up by neon lights. The gorgeous colors flickered and flowed between the layers of stacked and densely packed buildings like some kind of breathing living thing. The earth seemed to have no end. The light and shadow of the city's buildings extended infinitely into the distance in the field of vision until they disappeared into the hazy night. In this night, Baili Qing's own reflection in the glass looked particularly thin.
It's foggy outside the French window.
The thin mist seemed to be generated out of thin air, quickly and evenly covering the night, gradually turning into a surging gray curtain. The scenery of Jiecheng looked hazy and illusory in the mist. Then, a pair of indifferent eyes appeared outside the French window, calmly looking at Baili Qing who was standing in front of the window.
Those eyes had human-like outlines, but were severely lacking in color. The extremely pale pupil structure was almost exactly the same as Baili Qing's eyes. It seemed to be floating in the mist outside the window, but it also seemed to be printed directly on the window glass, filling the entire window surface.
"Drinking at night is not a good habit, sister."
A voice came directly into Baili Qing's mind, mechanical and dull, but exactly the same as her own voice.
"This helps me calm down," Baili Qing said casually, shaking the glass in her hand, "especially after being awakened from a nightmare by a phone call."
"Nightmare?"
"I dreamed that I ended up being you."
"Oh, that was indeed a nightmare." The faded eyes blinked outside the window. "Be careful, don't be bewitched and controlled by me - although you have done pretty well so far. So, what do you want to do by calling me out now?"
"I just woke up suddenly, so I wanted to find you to learn some information - have you found out anything about the 'one-eyed man' who appeared in the night valley?"
The eyes narrowed slightly, and then a voice entered Baili Qing's mind: "I have traveled through all the places I have looked at, including those foreign lands we have been to together and the 'Death Holes' in the deep sky that were drilled by the Dark Angels, but I have not found any news related to the giant eye. It has never appeared in any of the above places."
"Really? You can't find it either..." Baili Qing seemed a little regretful. "Forget it, it's within expectations."
"You are in a worse mood, sister," said the eyes, "and somewhat worried."
"…Because now more and more clues indicate that the giant eye entered this world without anyone noticing. And considering the 'trail' that the Algraders discovered in deep space a few months ago that was suspected to be left by another unknown angel, it is very likely that more dark angels have already drilled through our world—there are more holes that have not been discovered, and even at this moment, the number of holes may be increasing."
Baili Qing said, shaking the glass in his hand, looking at the vortex of wine in the glass in a trance, and asked softly: "Do you know what I am most worried about?"
"Are you worried that more Dark Angels are hiding in the real universe?"
"No, this is just everyone's common worry. What I am more worried about is what is behind the Dark Angels - is it a group? Is there any organization? Do they have the ability to learn? Have they gradually learned the rules of our world and mastered a more efficient way to drill through the Death Hole? And... have they learned to actively hide themselves?"
“It does sound like something to be concerned about.”
Baili Qing drank the liquor in the glass, feeling the intense stimulation gradually spreading in his mouth, and then casually placed the glass on the floor beside him.
"Also, I asked you to scan the old town for the hidden No. 66 Wutong Road. Did you find anything?"
"I found some traces of distortion, but I can't see clearly." The eyes said, and there was a hint of frustration in the mechanical and dull voice.
Baili Qing finally showed a hint of surprise on her face: "Even you can't see clearly?!"
"Yes," the eyes in the mist blinked, "Every time I try to focus my sight, it seems that my sight is suddenly... absorbed by something. When I react, I will find that I have been distracted. But... I have a guess."
"What guess?"
"The so-called 'No. 66 Wutong Road' may not be there at all. It's just an entrance..."
"That's not surprising," Baili Qing shook her head before the other party finished speaking. "The Secret Service agents who went to investigate also submitted this conclusion. They believe that it should be a special space in the cracks of space, just like other 'fortress'-type foreign lands in Jiecheng, floating in the cracks of the space-time structure of the border area..."
"No," the eyes suddenly interrupted her, "I mean, it might not even be at the junction - it's not floating anywhere, it's just... too deep, too far away, so that the 'No. 66 Wutong Road' reflected on the junction is just a very thin shadow. When I feel that my gaze is being swallowed, it's actually because I'm looking at a place that is too far away to see."
Baili Qing's expression froze for a moment.
"Too deep, too far?" There was a rare hesitation in her tone. "Do you know what this means? Your eyes... can even see into the warp."
"So, it's deeper and further than that. This is based on logical analysis, sis."
Baili Qing blinked.
After a moment, she heard the mechanical voice in her mind again: "So, who is the 'person' who lives in 'No. 66 Wutong Road'?"
"I don't know," Baili Qing said softly, "I only know that all the intelligence so far shows that his personality and self-awareness are infinitely close to that of a 'human', and just now, he called me."
"Ah, so he was the one who called and woke you up from your nightmare—what did he want to do?"
"He said he was going to open a 'door' and report to me. According to the intelligence sent by the operations department a few hours ago, he should have gone to the 'museum'."
"……interesting."
The pair of eyes gradually disappeared in the mist, and the fog outside the window quickly receded, and the boundless city night scene filled the window again.
…
I hardly slept in the middle of the night after I was born.
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He lay in bed, tossing and turning. All kinds of thoughts, knowledge, and information were like countless Irenes crawling all over the floor, crawling, jumping up and down, and squeaking in his mind...
Of course, this description might be a bit exaggerated, because if there were really countless Irenes crawling all over the floor, it would definitely be much more noisy.
But Yu Sheng’s mind is indeed a mess.
New knowledge about foreign lands, about Little Red Riding Hood and the "Fairy Tale" organization behind her, about angel followers and "Dark Angels", about the unfortunate victim in the white exhibition hall, and... the scene where the dead spoke to him.
Yu Sheng turned on his mobile phone and searched for entries related to "talking to the dead" in the "Border Communications" database, and actually found some information.
It was mentioned above that some "special people" outside the border area do have the power to communicate with the dead. Some of them, called necromancers, are even able to temporarily fix the souls of the dead in the real world after performing a series of complex rituals and have simple conversations with them face to face.
But no matter which piece of information, the process of "talking to the dead" described was obviously different from what he experienced in the white exhibition hall at that time.
Those "techniques" that appear in information encyclopedias either require very complicated ritual processes, or require the assistance of extremely advanced equipment, or are simply like "holographic reasoning", using technical means to collect massive amounts of intelligence to try to restore some scenes before death. Moreover, even those so-called means of directly "communicating with the dead" are extremely vague and crude, and can only get some "yes" or "no" feedback from the remaining brain waves or so-called "soul" of the deceased.
It's not like if you touch the blood on the scene, the dead will suddenly turn around and rap with you...
Yu Sheng put down his phone and sighed softly in the dark room. Then he heard rustling noises coming from the bed again.
Turning around, I saw Irene squirming and rolling at the end of the bed. She kicked into the air and fell down with a plop.
Yu Sheng had a blank expression.
Another major reason he couldn't sleep was that there was really a crawling Irene in his bed.
And he kicks people in circles.
The next second, he saw Irene suddenly turn over again, and then the little doll sat up straight, pointing forward with her eyes still closed: "Me! From Alice's Cottage! Give me money - or I'll beat you up!"
Then she tilted her body and fell to the side of the bed, landing on the ground with a thud. She grabbed the bed sheet and climbed up in a daze. She moved towards Yu Sheng while muttering, "Don't kick me... I fell down..."
Yu Sheng sighed.
He couldn't sleep any more.
(End of this chapter)
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