Chapter 045 Three Sentences Fill the World-weary Villain with Hope (10)
At the dinner table, Yue Xun, facing three people at once, remained undeterred. He calmly replaced the spoon with a new one, "I'm asking Mr. Chen, not you. Does your agreement matter?"
"I'm his direct superior. Do you think it's important?" Yufa asked with a sneer. Turning to Chen Yunli, his expression immediately changed. "His workplace isn't a good place for humans. The pay is far worse than in the library. Mr. Chen, don't pay any attention to him. Just be a librarian."
You Fei gnawed on some short ribs and nodded, "He just wants to take advantage of your abilities. He's not really inviting you to change jobs. Don't let him fool you!"
After saying that, he picked up a piece of steak for Chen Yunli as well: "Mr. Chen, try this."
"……Thanks."
Chen Yunli found it funny. People who work, no matter where they work, are always cunning. They can be friendly colleagues one second, and the friendship can be overturned in the next. They are so skilled at it that it makes people feel distressed.
He couldn't help but suspect that this group of people's daily routine was to poach each other, change jobs, and poach each other's employees. Otherwise, this process wouldn't be so smooth, as if it had been rehearsed in advance.
Yue Xun glared at Youfa and Youfei. "I just wanted Mr. Chen to come over to my place. Why are you so wary of me?"
"The last person who came into your office is now your secretary." Ming Shaotu hadn't mocked him before, but now he was particularly adept at teasing him. "Mr. Yue, we won't fall into the same trap twice."
Yue Xun shrugged: "Okay. But I still want to ask Mr. Chen's opinion."
Chen Wenjian leaned against Chen Yunli's arm, chewing a river shrimp longer than himself between his claws. Upon hearing this, he raised his head, holding the shrimp tail in his mouth, to look at Chen Yunli's expression. He smiled faintly, noncommittally, and then opened his mouth to say something nonsense:
"We'll see if we have the chance. There's no telling what will happen in the future. What if something unexpected happens? You never know."
Moon Patrol: “…”
Listening to your words is like listening to a conversation.
Ming Shaotu lowered his head and chuckled, while Youfa and Youfei clinked their glasses to express their congratulations on achieving a temporary victory.
It was almost nine o'clock when the dinner ended. The rain clouds in the sky had completely dispersed, revealing the twinkling stars.
The city is brightly lit and bustling with people. Iron trains run through the streets and alleys all night long, leaving behind long columns of smoke and long horns.
"Mr. Chen, let me take you there." Youfa leaned against the car, his long legs supporting the ground, his lips raised in a carefully calculated arc, like a peacock spreading its tail in the zoo. "You live in a remote place, and it's not safe to go back alone at night."
Chen Yunli thought about it seriously, but Chen Wenjian, who was lying on his shoulder, was very unhappy. He rested his chin on his paws and stared coldly at Youfa, not hiding his hostility towards him at all.
Youfa ignored him and did not urge him, waiting quietly for Chen Yunli's answer.
Chen Yunli thought for a moment, and suddenly an idea came to his mind. He turned his head and looked out of the alley, looking at the busy street thoughtfully.
"No thanks. I live not far from here. I just ate so much, I want to take a walk back to digest the food." And also take in the scenery along the way.
The development of this world is very similar to an era of transition from the old to the new in reality, and at the same time it is superimposed with Cthulhu elements. It is mysterious and weird, which makes him very eager to explore.
But these two elements are currently separated. At least in the past two days, he did not find anything abnormal in an environment where most of the people were ordinary people.
Perhaps this is partly due to the efforts of the department where Yufa and others work, but Cthulhu is, after all, an omnipresent and inexhaustible existence. Humans have almost no resistance to strange creatures, let alone completely isolating them from their lives.
Moreover, compared to the "reality" that briefly appeared in the eyes of Ming Shaotu and others, the stable and peaceful world before them was more like an illusory dream, a curtain separating humans from evil gods, and an artificial protective shield.
If Chen Yunli wants to confirm his guess, he can't just focus on the evil god's den like the City Library, but human society is also an object that needs to be observed.
Perhaps his "observation" can help eliminate some hidden dangers in the human world - if his gaze can really drive away evil gods and solidify reality.
Yufa's eyebrows moved slightly, as if she had anticipated his reaction and was not surprised.
"Alright, here's my number. Send me a message if you need anything." He agreed without hesitation and handed over a business card. "See you tomorrow morning."
Chen Yunli nodded: "See you tomorrow morning."
Yufa got in the car but didn't leave immediately. He rolled down the window and asked with a smile, "By the way, Mr. Chen, I'll bring you breakfast tomorrow. What would you like to eat?"
Chen Yunli smiled helplessly: "You can help me bring it, but you have to charge me."
"Tsk, Mr. Chen is really as hard-hearted as a rock." Yufa sighed exaggeratedly, "Okay, I'll treat everyone to dinner after I get my salary, and I'll treat you 'by the way'. Going away."
Waving his hand, he drove away in a leisurely manner without waiting for Chen Yunli to answer.
Chen Yunli scratched his temples and muttered, "He looks like he really wants to pursue me... Hmm, weird."
When Chen Wenjian heard this, he suddenly felt an inexplicable sense of dissatisfaction in his heart. It was the kind of dissatisfaction that his treasure was being coveted by others, and even tried to take it away, but he couldn't bite his neck off.
It popped out its claws and a hint of murderous intent flashed in its eyes.
At the same time, Chen Yunli heard the system's reminder:
"The protagonist's mindset has changed. Now it's 50 percent positive and 50 percent negative."
Chen Yunli was stunned, and turned around to see Chen Wenjian staring at the direction where Youfa left, gritting his teeth and claws.
His mood suddenly became very strange.
Is this furry ball jealous?
…
Chen Yunli walked along three main roads, each of which was bustling and prosperous in its own way. Common people and rich people lived together, with no sharp class distinctions and nothing strange to be seen.
He also asked Chen Wenjian, and what Chen Wenjian described was exactly the same as what he saw.
"It seems that we can only look in the 'corners' of the city."
Chen Yunli looked around and turned into an alley at the corner of the street.
Ancheng is an emerging city. Although it is developing rapidly, the level of development is uneven. Radiating from the city center, the further inward, the better the development, and the opposite is true towards the outside.
Not only that, there are still some old urban areas in the city that have not been completely "cleared", perhaps a criss-crossing old alleys, or perhaps a few high-rise buildings that have not been demolished in time. They are like the city's mustard disease, oil stains on silk, and thorns in the garden. They exist obscurely and glaringly because the people in the urban planning department have no time to deal with them.
These places are recognized as blind spots in the city and dangerous places, which are most suitable for the infiltration and growth of evil forces.
Chen Yunli walked into Masheng Lane, a well-known lawless area in the city center.
Rope Alley is formed by a network of more than a dozen short, narrow, dark alleys, resembling a tangled mass of hemp rope, hence its name. Due to its complex terrain and the numerous wanted criminals it harbors, even officials from the Supervisory Office dare not venture there. As a result, the area is simply erased from city maps, and its mention is often kept secret.
However, in recent years, Masheng Lane has become much more peaceful. Although it is still independent of civilized society, there are almost no cases. This may be because the wanted criminals have all died.
The residents of Ancheng ignored Masheng Lane and were accustomed to its existence. The Supervisory Office had never thought of razing this place. Upon closer inspection, it was quite intriguing.
It looks like this dead corner of the city was left intentionally, and there are many similar places outside the city center.
Chen Yunli couldn't help but think about it.
"Yun Li, it's dangerous here." Chen Wenjian brushed his hair, looked around, and the hair on his back stood up slightly.
The light in Masheng Alley was dim. The street lamps had been in disrepair for a long time, and the bulbs were covered with dust. They would always flicker twice as if there was a bad contact when they passed by. For at least five seconds, it was pitch dark.
Unexpectedly, the road surface was relatively clean, and although the brick and stone walls had some damage, it was not serious. The original appearance of the buildings from the previous era was completely preserved, which was ancient, old, and decadent.
Chen Yunli walked for a few minutes and saw an almost 90-degree turn in front of him. There was another alley around it. There were no street lights. The only light source was the lights coming from the houses on both sides of the road.
The worst thing was that the light was red, shining through the paper-pasted doors and windows, dyeing the entire house and the ground in front of the house a deep, silent, cold red.
If it were in the real world, Chen Yunli's first reaction when seeing this kind of house would definitely be to turn around and leave. But now, with the idea of playing a horror game, he chose to go forward and knock on the door without hesitation.
Standing in front of the nearest tiled house, Chen Yunli whispered to the cat on his shoulder, which was almost invisible in the darkness: "What you see now is still normal, right?"
To prevent him from seeing clearly, Chen Wenjian rubbed his head against the side of his neck and nodded up and down.
Chen Yunli felt itchy and dodged for a moment, rubbed his ears, put him in his pocket, and then knocked on the wooden door.
“Knock knock knock—”
The clear sound traveled far into the night, and the entire alley seemed to be echoing with the same sound.
No response.
No one opened the door. Chen Yunli waited for a while, then reached out and knocked twice, but still no one responded.
But because he used more force this time, the wooden door creaked open a crack, and dark red light poured out. Only then did he realize that the door was not closed.
The night wind suddenly picked up, blowing from behind the dust cloud, as if pushing him. He touched the hairs on the back of his neck, and a mixture of fear and curiosity in his heart prompted him to push the door open further and step over the threshold.
This is an old-style house with a living room in the middle, bedrooms and study on both sides, and a long and narrow corridor opposite the door leading to the backyard.
The living room was bare and neatly swept, save for a straw mat in the middle. Two long rolls of white cloth lay scattered on the mat, looking strange in the red light. It was unclear what they had been used for, but they gave off a faint scent of sandalwood.
The study door was closed, locked with a copper lock, the cylinder of which was filled with lead, making it difficult to open. The bedroom door was open. Chen Yunli walked to the door and could see the mirror on the dressing table opposite and a corner of the bed through the crack.
The mirror was covered with white cloth, and the bed curtains were also white gauze. The wind blew up the corners of the cloth and then fell down, making it cold and deserted.
Chen Yunli was afraid that someone would attack him right after he opened the door, so he didn't rush in. Instead, he changed his angle and observed other parts of the room.
Just as he turned sideways towards the bed, he caught a glimpse of a pair of white embroidered shoes sticking out from the wall next to the door.
The embroidered shoes were mostly hidden by the silver-embroidered skirt, with only a pair of toes sticking out, facing him diagonally, less than half a step away from him.
Chen Yunli's hair stood on end. He didn't even dare to look above his shoes. He turned around and ran away.
The next second, a pale hand stretched out from the side of the door, and its scarlet nails dug into the door panel, making a harsh friction sound.
"Meow!--"
A shrill cat cry came from somewhere, making Chen Yunli's nerve endings tremble.
In a flash, he remembered the straw mat and white cloth in the middle of the living room, and what the fragrance on them was.
In the homes of ordinary people, if they cannot buy a coffin on the first day after someone dies, they will spread a straw mat on the place where the body is placed and wrap the body with white cloth.
The sandalwood scent came from the incense burned all night to cover up the stench of the corpse.
The aroma from the straw mat and white cloth was still strong, indicating that a body had been placed in this room not long ago.
Then...where is the corpse?
Chen Yunli stood stiffly where he was, looking at the hands on the door panel in front of him, and hearing the difficult sound of the door behind him slowly opening. He was caught in a dilemma, with a wolf in front and a tiger behind.
"Chen Wenjian..."
"I am here."
Chen Wenjian jumped onto Chen Yunli's shoulder, slowly extending his sharp fangs and claws. His body shape remained unchanged, but the shadow behind him was rapidly expanding.
Chen Yunli, sweating profusely, asked, "What did you see?"
"I..." Chen Wenjian looked around, not knowing whether he should describe what he saw to him.
They stood in front of a huge rotten eye, its eyelids peeling off, dirty blood flowing from the eye sockets, countless maggots attached to the surface of the eyeball and twisting wildly, and from time to time, rotten minced meat fell to the ground and landed at Chen Yunli's feet.
The maggots were most numerous in the center of the pupils. They swarmed densely from the eyeballs, like pale buds growing from rotten flesh, wriggling to form a human face. The only organ on the face was the single eye on the forehead. When the eye opened, countless white maggots rolled down like tears, crawling towards Chen Yunli.
"Are you sure you want to listen?" Chen Wenjian hesitated, "I'm afraid you won't be able to eat in the next few days."
"Go ahead." Chen Yunli said, "I feel that what I saw is more terrifying."
Chen Wenjian shook his ears, chose his words carefully, and described to him everything he saw as concisely as possible.
Chen Yunli regretted it before he even finished listening.
He neither wanted to see the truth here, nor did he want to solidify reality into what he saw.
Otherwise, it will be physical destruction.
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