Chapter 10: Tube Building (10) Overgrown with Weeds
[Host, what's wrong with you?]
028 noticed Wen Yin's disordered heartbeat and asked quickly.
[028, I'm fine.]
Wen Yin breathed a sigh of relief and looked towards the woods that were blocked by the crowd.
[Can you help me check what’s going on at the scene?]
[Okay, host, I can describe it to you.]
028's consciousness flew out and began to describe the scene it saw.
[In a small forest, the soil is wet. A woman with long hair and a blue dress lies in a mud puddle.]
[The original face is no longer recognizable due to decay. The body has long limbs, is shoeless, and has bruises on its arms and neck.]
[The fatal wound was on the head, with a bloody hole.]
028 Try to use simple sentences to describe the facts it sees.
But the next second, 028 obviously paused.
[What's wrong? ]
Wen Yin spoke sharply.
028 hesitated for a moment, and the child's voice continued.
[Host, when the staff lifted her up, I saw that her skirt... was empty...]
After 028 finished speaking, he found that Wen Yin was silent.
Xiaotuan's heart-wrenching sobs could still be heard at the scene.
It penetrated through numerous barriers, amplified millions of times, and poured into Wen Yin's eardrum.
"Mom... don't leave me..."
"Don't leave Xiaotuan alone..."
"Xiaotuan is scared..."
[Host, host, are you okay?]
Seeing that Wen Yin’s face was extremely pale, 028 felt a little worried.
[It's okay,] Wen Yin shook her head, and Xiaotuan's crying gradually became weaker in her ears. [How is Xiaotuan?]
[She fainted from crying and was carried into the car by the staff.]
[The body was also carried away.]
[Well, let's go.]
Wen Yin suddenly spoke.
[Host, where are you going?]
Wen Yin looked up in the direction of the tube building: [Go to the patch of weeds that changed last night.]
-
The weeds were right in front of Wen Yin's room downstairs, blocked by several dilapidated walls.
Wen Yin climbed over the half-collapsed wall, and the half-human-high weeds immediately covered half of her body.
There were a lot of broken and discarded daily necessities in the grass, which seemed to have been thrown away by the surrounding residents.
She parted the grass and walked around the wall.
The soil under her feet was moist and the vegetation was dense. Apart from a few flying insects that popped out from time to time and were disturbed by her, she didn't find anything else.
Wen Yin stepped on the soil and found it was firm and there was nothing unusual.
But 028 in his mind suddenly spoke: [Host, I looked down at this wasteland from the air and seemed to notice something was amiss.]
[What? ]
Wen Yin looked around and saw weeds growing wildly everywhere, with all heights scattered and no distinction made between them.
[Starting from the collapsed wall on the left, extending to the bushes facing the street, the grass along the route in between is shorter than the surrounding grass.]
[Like... grass that has been crushed by something and is growing again.]
Upon hearing this, Wen Yin walked towards the starting point mentioned by 028. A section of the wall had collapsed, and the window of a resident's room on the first floor of the tube-shaped building could be seen behind the wall.
The windows of the room were closed at this time, but the curtains in the room were obviously not drawn. Wen Yin could still vaguely see the layout of the room through the frosted glass.
Wen Yin stepped onto the collapsed bricks and tentatively reached out to pull the old wooden window frame.
The window creaked open from the outside, revealing a warm and simple home inside.
Children's toys were scattered on the bed, and on the yellowed table at the head of the bed was a black and white photo of the two of them.
Inside, a gentle and beautiful young woman is holding a chubby little boy and smiling peacefully and elegantly at the camera.
This is...Song Wan's room.
-
When Wen Yin returned to the building, everyone was discussing the female corpse found in the woods.
Some were horrified, some were mocking, and some were beaming with joy.
The explosive news of a young and beautiful woman being found dead in the wilderness with obvious signs of sexual assault undoubtedly provided ample topics for discussion among the ignorant and materialistic lower-class people.
They speculated wildly, sometimes showing contempt, sometimes smiling at each other, and the curve of their lips seemed to make people feel colder than weird.
Wen Yin subconsciously looked upstairs.
I saw the landlord standing in front of the iron railing on the sixth floor in a black suit, looking down at me, well-dressed, with a cold expression.
He lowered his eyes and looked down at the various creatures in the building, like an evil god looking down at a group of ants.
Their eyes met, and the coldness in the other person's eyes seemed to freeze Wen Yin's soul for a moment.
[Host, Xiaotuan is back.]
028 alert: several messy footsteps were heard at the entrance of the corridor.
There were several staff members who came to investigate. One of them was holding Xiaotuan, who had a dazed look on his face and red and swollen eyes.
The arrival of the uniformed staff brought the discussions in the entire building to an abrupt halt.
Wen Yin looked in the direction of the landlord again, but there was no one there and the landlord was gone.
"Does anyone know any other relatives of the child?"
When the staff asked, everyone immediately turned into enthusiastic neighbors and answered in a flurry.
"I have never met the child's father."
"His mother has been raising him alone."
"No other relatives, never seen."
"Song Wan is from another place and has no relatives here. We don't know anything else."
A staff member picked up a pen and started taking notes.
"Was there anything unusual before the deceased's accident?"
"No."
“I don’t know.”
"I don't know. She never really pays attention to people. She's aloof."
Upon hearing this, the staff member looked up at the aunt who spoke, and then looked at the pale-faced Xiaotuan.
"Don't talk nonsense, the child is still here."
"Oh oh oh, okay okay."
The old lady laughed awkwardly twice, and after being pulled to a corner by the staff, she started recording again.
After visiting some of the neighbors one after another, the staff put away the record book and looked at Xiaotuan with worry.
"Is there any neighbor who could babysit the kids for a few days?"
The staff member spoke and looked at the crowd of onlookers.
Suddenly everyone showed an embarrassed expression, laughed it off and left the scene.
Until in the entire corridor, only Wen Yin was still standing there.
"Hello, I can take care of him."
Wen Yin spoke softly, pointing to the little girl in someone's arms, "Also, I have some discoveries I'd like to share with you."
The staff followed Wen Yin to Song Wan's room and saw the collapsed and dilapidated courtyard wall behind the window, and the window without a protective net that allowed people to enter and exit.
The staff member quickly wrote down the information in the notebook, then closed it and said in a serious tone, "Thank you for the clue you provided."
At the same time, 028's surprised childish voice reached Wen Yin's ears.
[Host, the text he just recorded disappeared...]
[The overwritten text is...]
[No anomalies.]
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