19 Chapter 19 (Two in One)
◎Dark Shadow in the Mirror◎
Lin Yu stared blankly at the sweeping and mopping robot as it walked away, as if he finally felt that the nightmare that had been tormenting him was over.
She stood up quickly, "Thank you, Boss Ye! Thank you, Boss Ye, for saving me! I'll pay you. How much does the ritual cost—"
"Stop, stop, stop. Xiao Xia, you're going further and further down the path of feudal superstition, and you've even led your roommate astray. What do you mean by ritual? I'm just a small restaurant owner."
Ye Pingan looked at them helplessly and said, "You can find a hairpin by yourselves, what's so difficult about it?"
It’s just that the students had little experience and were so scared that they didn’t think of it.
Lin Yu pointed to the ground. "But that eye is moving! It's not a ghost, but it's... uh..."
Remembering that the strange-looking slime had been wiped off, her confident expression suddenly showed a crack.
...Oh yes, Boss Ye was so surprised that he crushed his eyeballs.
Can ghosts be sucked away like garbage?
"The props in horror movies are so scary, aren't they all made by humans?"
Ye Ping'an pressed the water cup into her hand. "Besides, there aren't any ghosts in horror movies. They're either mentally ill or just a dream. Watch a couple of episodes of 'Approaching Science' and you'll know that ghosts and monsters are all lies."
Lin Yu:?
The worldview seemed to be reshaped, but also seemed to be squeezed back.
Xia Zihan looked at his roommate whose brain was also starting to stall, and it was as if he saw himself struggling and confused.
Xia Zihan pulled her and smiled at Ye Ping'an, "No matter what, we have to thank you, Boss Ye. If you hadn't reminded us, we wouldn't know how long we would have been entangled in it before we realized it. Boss, you have good skills and a kind heart. We will promote you more when we go back!"
Lin Yu also realized, "Boss, do you have any flyers or business cards? I'm just starting my internship and have a lot of odd jobs. The company has a meeting soon, so adding another restaurant as a backup for group meals shouldn't be a problem."
"That's a good feeling."
Ye Ping'an's eyes lit up, and he took out his business card from the cashier and handed it over, reluctantly adding, "New store promotion, new customers get a 99% discount, and group meal orders are also discounted this way."
Lin Yu carefully put the business card away separately.
Looking through the bag with "xx seasoning" printed on it, holding the camera, she felt so angry that her hands were shaking when she thought about what she had been filmed about and how many jokes she had seen these days.
"Xia Xia. Come with me to the police station?"
Xia Zihan and Lin Yu left together, and before leaving, they packed four cups of red bean paste.
Ye Ping'an cleaned up the dishes, saw off several delivery riders who came in one after another, picked up a chair, and sat outside leisurely in the sun.
The construction site across the street had recently resumed work, and since it was the May Day holiday, there wasn't much construction noise. At noon, the owner of the 24-hour convenience store at the end of the street was already asleep.
The dishwasher in the kitchen started humming, and the sweeping and mopping robots in the lobby turned around and around, like white noise that made people increasingly sleepy.
“Sizzle…Sizzle…”
The robot turned away from the floor it had been mopping, the mop making a faint, clunking sound as it scraped. The automatic obstacle-avoidance module, which was cleaning the entire house, was still familiarizing itself with the store, constantly bumping into corners. The clunking became more frequent, and the impacts became a muffled, sticky, friction sound.
It seems that underneath the shiny white shell of the new sweeper and mop, there is no longer any metal parts, but a monster of flesh and blood.
Swish.
A puff of black smoke billowed from the sweeper-mop machine, which had become completely stuck and could no longer rotate. Threads of slime clung to the gaps between the components, silently gathering together as if possessed of life. Threads of blood seeped out from the cracks in the mop cloth, and the center slowly bulged upward, twisting into a fleshy ball significantly smaller than the camera.
The flesh ball trembled, a crack appeared, and a blood-red eyeball suddenly emerged, rolling and glancing around with salivating eyes.
It was as if it had been upgraded in the blink of an eye. The wheels made no noise at all, and were covered with a soft layer of protection, almost gliding silently. It never bumped into any tables or chairs again, like the instinct of chasing prey.
A cold shadow crawled out from under the narrow shell, and strands of blood spread under the wheels, leaving a long, dark red wet mark on the shiny tiles.
The sweeper and mop restarted and rolled straight towards Ye Ping'an.
The young boss leaning against the door had an account book covering his face, a calculator in his left hand and an abacus in his right hand. He was sleeping with his legs crossed happily, and his relaxed back was defenseless.
The silver van's windows reflected the deformed robot, parked quietly.
In the corner by the kitchen door, only a thin layer of mop head remained, covered in dust and dirt, clinging to chopped vegetable leaves, with oil smoke and broken bones rolled up in the thread ball. Apart from emitting almost no odor and having a very low presence, it was no different from the garbage in the garbage dump.
The moment the sweeper-mop rolled past, the mop trembled and stretched out like a venomous snake awakening from hibernation. Black threads wriggled and rose, becoming fluffy in the blink of an eye, and quietly rolled out from the shadows, following the sweeper-mop.
Long blood trails were stuck to the tiles. They were not as wet as when they had just crawled out, but they were not completely dry either.
The expanded "mop" caught up with the trace, and the stretched black silk thread wrapped around it. The trace was completely covered by the surging black hair, as if there was a long black snake in the store.
It followed the sweeper and mop machine and spread out in circles to form a web, silently blocking the direction of the sweeper and mop machine, leaving only one way forward.
Boom.
The sweeper and mop hit the glass door, making a slight noise.
The eyeball, bulging from the mechanical shell, stared blankly ahead, seemingly unable to comprehend why it was blocked by an ordinary glass door. Its pupils shifted slightly as it stared at the figure less than a meter ahead, bloodshot instantly spreading from beneath the shell.
Blood gushed out from the crack in the door like a tide, pulling the eyeball out of its shell. Before the eyeball could roll out and reach the chair, the blood spreading in all directions collided with the black hair that snaked down its back.
The fine hair gleamed with a sharp metallic sheen, cutting deeply into the swollen eyeball. The bloodshot eyeball was squeezed into pieces, almost shattering at any moment.
Like a balloon, its eyeball swelled countless times in the blink of an eye, already covering the outer shell of the sweeper and mop. Its eyeball trembled wildly, trying to turn slightly, staring at the attacker behind it, but it could not move. It could only violently strike the existence that restrained it, bouncing and struggling on the spot.
Step, step.
His eyeballs bounced, dull as the sound of heavy footsteps.
But everything was in vain. The more she struggled, the tighter her black hair became, like a waiting spider.
Sharp strands of hair pierced into the eyeballs and the wet marks left on the ground, like countless leeches entangling their prey, quickly sucking away the blood, and the wailing in the shadows was drowned out by the hair.
In just a few seconds, the struggling eyeballs stopped beating, the swollen spheres shrank, and the coldness and ominous red marks in the hall disappeared in a short time. The gray hair wriggled, and it seemed that a few more strands had appeared, regaining some of the lushness of its former seaweed.
The hair fluttered in the air, and before it could reach Ye Ping'an, it quickly retracted and tangled. It didn't stop, like an inconspicuous insect, continuing in the direction the eyeball had left the door, and quickly crawled out.
The van's headlights flickered on, barely visible in the sunlight. Without anyone controlling it, the wheels turned a slight angle, aiming towards the steps.
A strand of hair had just emerged from the crack in the glass door, and when illuminated by the car lights, it suddenly stood straight up. Like a cobra vigilantly spreading its head to intimidate its prey, the hair made a faint slicing sound as it cut through the air.
Ye Pingan, who was sitting on the recliner, snorted vaguely, opened his eyes dazedly and looked back, "Why do I seem to smell smoke? It seems like something is banging on the door... Is the kitchen fire still on? Are there thieves?"
The shop seemed to suddenly wake up from a deep sleep, and the hair instantly froze in place.
Before Ye Ping'an's eyes fell, the black hair in front of the door whizzed into the nearest sweeping and mopping robot. It rushed in so fast that the sweeping and mopping robot slammed into the door again.
"Hmm? Luckily the door was closed, it almost got out." Ye Ping'an rubbed his eyes, stood up, and picked up the robot that had been banging on the door and changed direction. "Strange, the planning prohibition on approaching the area is not in effect?"
Ye Ping'an had just opened the smart APP when a message popped up.
Your robot vacuum/mop cannot connect to the network, the power is exhausted, and multiple modules are faulty. Please repair it as soon as possible.
Ye Pingan:?
"What kind of crappy quality is this? A new machine broke down on the same day?!" Ye Ping'an looked at the robot and saw only a few hairs tangled around the mop and the nozzle. Except for the indicator light when the robot was running, it looked brand new in every way.
Pa pa.
Ye Pingan patted the machine up and down and turned it back on. "If physical repairs don't work... I wonder if Xiao Xia can still get it repaired after she deleted the order?"
"drop."
The sweeping robot was hit and flashed, and with the shaking sound, the light flashed and turned on.
Scan the QR code to reconnect the smart APP, and the pop-up fault reminder has disappeared.
Except for the fact that a portion of the store map that had been scanned was missing, even the battery was full.
Ye Ping'an reset the settings, and the robot vacuum started to operate automatically. This time, its obstacle avoidance efficiency was significantly improved, and it never approached the restricted areas. As it swept and mopped, it completely sucked up the sand and dirt Ye Ping'an had thrown into the door for testing.
"Hey, after a reboot, it's not so artificially stupid anymore. Not bad, not bad."
Ye Ping'an stretched lazily with satisfaction and looked at the time. It was just time for the takeaway dinner he had ordered.
She disappeared into the kitchen. The robot vacuum's small light flickered, its color a bit cloudy, as if it were tangled with many tiny filaments, slowly wriggling. The robot rolled past the doorway, paused for a few seconds, unable to cross the threshold, and continued on its route, following the app's route.
The van's wheels turned back, and the blurry crying face on the floor of the car drooped even more, as if with some regret.
Xile Hotel’s business today ended in a blink of an eye. Ye Ping’an posted a reminder on the takeaway platform in advance, and the restaurant will be closed for half a day after business tomorrow.
I only have two days' worth of sauce for the BBQ pork, and today I sold more than I expected, so I'll have to sell it for another half day at most. That's just enough time for a trip to the reservoir.
After taking a look at the balance before going to bed, Ye Ping'an fell into a deep sleep with satisfaction.
The water for washing was flowing, and Ye Ping'an's face was reflected in the mirror.
The young woman had a smile on her face and a rosy complexion, and it was obvious that she had slept very well.
Ye Ping'an brushed his teeth with a blank look in his eyes, still recalling the dream of happily counting money last night.
She lowered her head and spit out the foam. The mirror flickered, and the eyeballs in the shadowy image swelled, as if to leave her shadow.
The next second, a ball of dark red mucus suddenly exploded, and the shadow in the mirror disappeared bit by bit.
Another eyeball rolled out of the shadow in the mirror. Behind Ye Ping'an, who was looking down in the mirror, a human-shaped black shadow emerged, with an outline exactly the same as hers.
The shadow in the mirror stood at the doorway, not too far away. Two cracks appeared on the mirror's surface, and its bloodshot pupils rolled out. Its dull gaze gradually focused and fell on Ye Ping'an. Before Ye Ping'an noticed, the eyes rolled back into the shadow.
Ye Ping'an raised his head to rinse his mouth, glanced at the mirror, and happened to see a black shadow.
Ye Ping'an, holding a mouthwash cup and a toothbrush, stood at the door, looking at her quietly.
Ye Ping'an looked back and saw that she was the only one in the store, so it was obvious that there was no one behind her.
Facing the mirror again, the shadow in the mirror moved a little closer to her. As if taking advantage of her inattention, he maintained his posture and took a step forward.
"Oh. I understand." Ye Ping'an calmly changed his actions.
Now, she was in the same posture as Sombra.
The shadow in the mirror opened its eyes a crack and then paused, its grin gradually widening and froze.
It seemed like it had never encountered this kind of reaction before and didn't know what to do.
Ye Ping'an lowered his head and continued washing his face, as if he didn't see the strange black shadow appear at all.
He splashed the water off and looked up again. The black shadow was already an arm's length behind him.
Without even turning around, Ye Pingan patted the mirror in frustration, "I shouldn't have installed this crappy mirror in the first place. This supposedly cutting-edge AI smart makeup mirror, with a screen that can match your makeup and let you watch videos anytime, has already started freezing and showing dark shadows after just a short while."
The mirror trembled slightly, blurring like ripples, and the shadows distorted and vanished quickly. Only a bloodshot eyeball remained, rolling down into the depths of the shadows in the mirror.
But this time, its shadow that came and went at will seemed to have turned into an inescapable fog. No matter how it rolled, there was still the mirror behind it, reflecting the bright bathroom.
The mirror lit up again, and the shadow completely vanished. A circle of gold coins rained down next to Ye Ping'an's head, and the news video on his phone reappeared on the screen.
"That's right."
Ye Ping'an wiped his face and went downstairs. The eyeballs in the mirror that rolled away flashed.
A vague black shadow remained on the polished and oiled stair handrail. Ye Ping'an had already walked down a few steps, but a black shadow similar to her was still there, turning its head to look at her back.
The lobby tiles reflected the morning sunlight, casting the outline of Ye Ping'an. 'She' stretched out her hand, and the shadow of her hand twisted like a sharp claw.
The barbecued pork that had been marinated overnight was put into the oven early in the morning.
Preparations for business never stop. Ye Ping'an hums a tune while preparing dishes, and the fragrance wafts away little by little.
Ye Ping'an's figure was reflected on the stainless steel kitchen counter. The black shadow behind him was holding a knife in his hand and was chasing Ye Ping'an step by step.
It was just a shadow… chasing Ye Pingan from upstairs to downstairs, from the kitchen stove to the oven. He even changed his knife several times, but he still couldn't catch up with her. Ye Pingan didn't notice the shadow's unusual movements at all; her attention was completely focused on the dripping barbecued pork sauce.
The black shadow's eyes widened as he stared at Ye Ping'an viciously.
"Just wipe the sign and we can open for business!" Ye Ping'an walked briskly, picking up a rag and crossing the lobby.
The black shadow flashed, like a melting shadow puppet, sliding lightly and silently across the tile surface, across the transparent window, and across the smooth white shell of the sweeping robot.
Slide... not slide.
The black shadows reflected on the shiny white surface were quite clear, only slightly blurrier than in the mirror.
The moment the reflection fell on the surface of the robot, it was like triggering a Venus flytrap. Strands of black hair emerged from the empty plastic shell and suddenly wrapped around it.
The black hair dragged the outline of the shadow, shrinking back little by little.
His eyeballs widened, and the complete reflection shattered into pieces in an instant. His eyeballs were covered with bloodshot and flashed in a new black shadow.
The robot started slowly, and under the rolling wheels, countless black hairs were crawling and speeding up to catch up with the eyeballs.
Her eyes flashed and jumped rapidly again and again, following from the lobby tiles all the way to the wide-open glass door, reflecting Ye Ping'an who was stepping on the ladder, and then turning into a dark shadow behind her.
The robot stopped at the door of the store and started humming. Ye Ping'an looked down at it in confusion, and the sweeper-mop machine slowly turned away.
In the parking space outside the store, a dark shadow was vaguely reflected in the window glass of a van. As soon as it appeared, it couldn't wait to reach out for the ladder.
The faint lines of a crying face on the carriage floor became clearer, like a snickering smile.
The van was filled with a chill and black slime surged from the cracks like a tide, flooding the windows before quickly receding.
The tide flooded the black shadow, and the black shadow struggled in the mucus like a drowning person. The eyeball only had time to roll out of the "water surface" a little, and before it could escape, it completely disappeared.
The shadow of the carriage receded silently, as if the shadow had only flickered briefly due to the slanting sun.
The sign is wiped every day, so it's not very dirty. Ye Ping'an came down with a rag and prepared to wipe the dusty license plate of the van.
When I turned around, the license plate was brand new, as if it had been washed by water.
"The sprinkler truck passed by last night? That's a good time to not have to wash it."
Ye Pingan felt relieved and went back to the kitchen to turn on the oven. As soon as he clicked on the food delivery platform to open the store, the first takeout order sounded.
The restaurant does not close on May Day. In another company in Jiang City, there are quite a lot of people busy working overtime. At first glance, it seems that they never have a holiday.
"Xiao Lin, you can eat whatever you want, but you can't say whatever you want. What's the use of cameras? Those who can join the group are all top students. Who would do such a thing?"
The office manager's face was gloomy, and his eyes kept glancing behind Lin Yu. "You asked two classmates to accompany you. What does that mean? Are you worried about the group? Your work efficiency has been so poor recently. We thought you were frightened last time, so we didn't tell you. We know you're under a lot of pressure to keep your internship, but you can't just grab a camera from somewhere—a camera that didn't capture anything—and then randomly frame your seniors, right? You can check the surveillance and see who's nearby, and then just blame them? That time you were locked in the office, I worked so hard to open the door for you, but I opened it by mistake."
The supervisor had grown impatient after repeating the same excuse several times.
Lin Yu had never expected that her supervisor, who had often given her guidance, would act like this. She was stunned for a moment, then came to her senses when she felt her roommate gently hold her hand.
"I really hope to get an offer from a group company after graduation. I originally wanted to keep it low-key so as not to affect the company's reputation. But..."
Lin Yu made room to the side and bowed slightly in embarrassment, "Excuse me, officer."
Luckily, I listened to my boss's advice when I left the Xile Hotel yesterday and went straight to the police station. Although the camera image quality was severely damaged and only captured her profile and the back of her head intermittently, it was still a candid shot!
The policewoman, who looked like a college student, pulled out her ID, slapped it on the desk, and repeated Lin Yu's request, which had just been made with a dry mouth, "Surveillance."
The supervisor's face immediately turned pale, and he stood up quickly. "Lin Yu! What are you doing?!"
The policewoman stopped the two students behind her and looked at him quietly.
The supervisor forced a smile. "No, officer, it's not that I don't want to transfer it. The main thing is, it's been over a month since I was accidentally locked in the office, and now Lin Yu wants to transfer the surveillance footage. Even the sales office's surveillance footage is only stored for a month, so where can I transfer it from? Besides, after so long, who knows where the camera came from—"
"Whether there are any suspects, and whether anyone is a suspect, is something we'll determine when we're investigating the case. Do you want me to ask a colleague from the Information Department to come over and help you take a look?"
The supervisor was choking and worrying when he heard a knock on the door of the small conference room.
Looking through the glass at the people outside, the supervisor's face flushed, "Mr. Xiao."
After knocking on the door, the secretary stepped back. The round-faced woman in a suit outside the door glanced around, paused at the policewoman, and finally stopped at Lin Yu.
"I remember you. At the Jiangda Autumn Recruitment Information Conference last year, you asked me if Xingkui Group had any plans to recruit interns this year. I'm glad you can join Xingkui, and I'm also glad you can bring more friends to join Xingkui."
Lin Yu's anger suddenly stopped, and he was at a loss, "Mr. Xiao."
Mr. Xiao smiled and nodded, "So, what happened?"
"Ms. Xiao Zhuan." The policewoman took out her ID and briefly explained the situation.
Xiao Zhuan answered without hesitation, "Since I took over, due to the aging of the headquarters building and the occasional accidents, we've extended the surveillance backup retention to two months to prevent any accidents. However, the quality of some of the images backed up during the extended period will be lower, so I hope this helps."
Lin Yu originally thought that it would be difficult to obtain evidence, but when she checked the surveillance footage, she saw a scene where her colleague was holding something and putting it behind her back.
The policewoman continued to move forward, and the surveillance camera from the same angle also captured another office with a broken door. On the day of the accident, someone was putting something behind the frightened girl.
This isn't the first incident at all!
"No wonder that intern never came back..." Lin Yu murmured.
"Ah? I, wasn't..." The supervisor, sweating profusely, hurriedly expressed his loyalty, "I really didn't know! I just thought it was better to avoid trouble than to damage the group's reputation, Mr. Xiao! I was also deceived by Huang Ju. This guy has ruined me. Yes, he must be feeling guilty. He didn't even show up to work overtime on the May Day project!"
Xiao Zhan gave him a cold look, and the secretary pulled the supervisor away.
Xiao Zhuan turned to Lin Yu and bowed apologetically. "I'm sorry to have wronged you. The group will cooperate with the police to complete the investigation as soon as possible and give you a satisfactory answer. This month's internship salary will be doubled. In addition, if you don't want to continue to stay in this project team, you can consider finding another one."
After the investigation was over and Xiao Zhuan's figure completely disappeared, Lin Yu was still a little stunned.
Xia Zihan hugged her roommate and said enviously, "I didn't expect the CEO to be so young and such a nice guy. I was thinking if I couldn't find an internship, I'd just work in sales in your real estate department for a few days!"
A few hours later, Jiang City Investigation Branch.
Bai Xuan ran around the various office areas holding documents, "Sister, brother! They've been delivered~"
She was the youngest among them all, and everyone couldn't help but tease her, "You don't want to do your homework today, so you're running around to exercise? The captain is almost awake, so hurry up and catch up on your homework."
Bai Xuan frowned as she took the file box from the archives room. "The last one!"
The little girl ran across the seats and stopped behind Lao Li. "Huh? Deputy Captain, what do you mean by the candid photos on the screen?"
"It's a bad thing. Go do your homework." Old Li blocked the screen and chased her away. A curious new investigator gathered nearby. "Secret filming? Isn't that something the police handle? A few days of administrative detention will make the scum behave. Did you send us the wrong document?"
Old Li rubbed his brows and said, "No need to lock him up. They thought it was a small case at first. When they went to arrest him at home, they found out that he had been eaten by the weird today."
"When they arrived at the scene, there were still several strange sub-bodies, but they had inexplicably gone blind and exploded into a puddle, making it impossible to trace them. According to the search records, he was a habitual voyeur. He got hold of a sub-bodies deliberately released by the evil cult, thinking he had struck gold. He began using the cameras to satisfy [D33029-Peeping Eyes]'s killing patterns and his own perverted hobby. Fortunately, he had just started to deploy the cameras as a disguise, and before he could release the sub-bodies he had obtained, he was discovered by the interns by sheer luck."
"Let's go and search the area carefully to see if there are any fish that have escaped the net."
The police station became busy. The shutter door of Xile Restaurant at the end of the food street was drawn and a van slowly drove out.
The reservoir wasn't far from the food street, so it didn't take much longer to drive through the city than it did to the car dealership. But after entering the side road, sandwiched between pedestrians returning home in the afternoon and various rickshaws, the car couldn't go very fast. It was more than an hour later that Ye Pingan saw the reservoir.
The mountain breeze blowing in through the car window grew cooler and more moist. As Ye Pingan turned the corner, he saw a dark-skinned woman sitting on a small stool in front of him, sighing over an empty bucket. "Empty air! How could it be empty air? It must be that Xin Gan and I don't get along!"
Hearing the sound of a car, she looked up and waved, "Xiao Ye, right? Let's go and see the fish."
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