Chapter 18

By the time Feng Wei finished his long, boring speech that made people feel unlucky, it was already noon. The frail old man trembled and stood up from the doorstep, brushed off the dust on his body, and left.

From beginning to end, he never set foot in the old building.

After he left, Yu Tu placed the last bird she had woven on the handrail of the stairs. The black thing rushed over and swallowed it silently.

Yu Tu heard small sounds like "wow" and "ah" again.

Coming down the stairs from the second floor, Yu Tu felt an unknown black color surging around his legs. When he reached the threshold, countless tiny hands stretched out from the black color, pulling at the hem of his clothes, his trousers, and his shoes.

One tiny hand didn't have much strength, but when many of them were added together, Yu Tu staggered and almost fell to his knees. He turned around helplessly, squatted in front of the door and reasoned with them: "I want to go back."

Black surged at his feet and then climbed up his back, showing an attitude of displeasure.

Yu Tu reached out and took down the black claws that were stuck to his body. It felt a little cold, and a chill went straight into his heart. As soon as he took one down, another one stuck to him.

The black things in the old building are probably the ghosts of baby girls. They were too young when they died, so they only have the most primitive instincts left after becoming ghosts. Yu Tu is the only one who is willing to play with them in all these years, and the little ghosts don't want to let him go.

It is noon now, and the ghosts are at their weakest. As long as Yu Tu crosses the threshold, the sunlight will easily drive them back, but there is a high probability that they will be injured.

"I really have something to go back for." Yu Tu said kindly, "I'll come play with you guys next time, okay?"

The black waves surged at his feet, and Yu Tu vaguely sensed their emotions—sadness, anger, and anxiety...

After a while, a small grasshopper was thrown out from the black wave and hit his legs, a small butterfly hit his head, and a small windmill hit his back. It spit out Yu Tu's straw weaving like an angry little machine gun.

Yu Tu: “…”

He was angry and amused at the same time. He picked up the things that were thrown at him and held them in his palm: "Don't you want them? If you don't want them, I'll throw them away!"

The black wave paused for a moment, then suddenly surged and ferociously swallowed all the things from his hands. Then it melted into a ball, making a gurgling sound and looking even angrier than before.

Yu Tu reached out and touched it. It felt a bit like winter ice. After just a moment, his fingers began to stiffen. “I’m not lying to you.”

Seeing Yu Tu's firm attitude, the tiny claws that were grabbing him slowly loosened. Yu Tu felt as if a huge burden had been lifted off his shoulders, and his body suddenly became light.

Yu Tu walked out of the threshold, took a few steps forward and looked back. He saw visible layers of black rising behind the threshold, but it did not cross the threshold at all. The smooth threshold that had been concave was like a prison door, separating the two worlds.

*

After walking for a long time under the midday sun, Yu Tu finally felt the coldness in his body slowly dissipate and his limbs began to warm up.

He suddenly remembered what he had heard from his grandparents under the big locust tree before—that the ghosts who mistakenly entered the old building might not intend to harm them, but were just too curious about living people. Due to the nature of ghosts themselves, the yin energy entering the body overwhelmed the yang energy, which led to frequent nightmares and serious illnesses.

They themselves don't actually have any malicious intentions.

Yu Tu returned to the small building, and the vest turned into beads and returned to his neck. The signal in the old building was too poor, and the Internet function of the mobile phone was basically a decoration, and messages could not be received or sent.

Yu Tu opened the Lianxin APP, found Gu Hongying’s profile picture, and sent him the photos he had taken.

[Punch Monster]: Do you recognize these patterns?

In the past few days, Yu Tu sent all the information that could be collected to Gu Hongying, no matter whether it was useful or not. In the surface world, the executors of D-level missions would encounter a certain degree of life-threatening danger, so there was no need to be afraid of too much information, and the more complete the information collected, the better.

Gu Hongying held his mobile phone almost the whole time these days and quickly replied to Yu Tu's message.

[The crescent moon hangs on the sparse tree]: Help, why is this mission so complicated? A living person mutates into a ghost after death, why is it related to runes? Someone from the other world intervened?

[Punch the Little Monster]: This is not the Blood Wedding Dress mission...

[The crease moon hangs on the sparse toon tree]: Oh, I'm scared to death.

[Punch the Little Monsters]: This is my other E-rank mission "Old Building". These two missions seem to have overlapped.

[The crescent moon hangs over the sparse toon tree]: …

[Crescent Moon Hanging on a Tree]: The chance of overlapping ghost-like quests of different levels is one in ten...

Tu Tu, are you sure there is no strange curse on you?

On the other side of the screen, Gu Hongying didn't understand and was greatly shocked - how could someone slander someone so obviously and directly!

"Hongying, why do you look like that?" Gu Hongying heard someone calling him, "What are you looking at?"

"I'm looking at something I can't understand." Gu Hongying turned his head and handed his phone to the side. "Captain Meng, do you recognize these runes?"

The man he called Meng Group took his eyes off the notebook on his knees and looked at the pictures on Gu Hongying's phone. He only took a glance at the blood-red runes carved on the black wood, and frowned: "Suppression, curse, luck absorption, purification - who made this thing? It's so vicious?"

"Isn't your friend Yu Tu trapped in the D-rank mission Blood Wedding Dress?" Someone nearby craned his neck, "Why is it related to runes again?"

"Sister Lu, he triggered two missions, the D-level mission Blood Wedding Dress, and the E-level mission Old Building." Gu Hongying touched the tip of his nose, "These two missions intersect..."

"Ah?" Lu Yayin's voice slightly raised, "One in ten chance, this kid is so unlucky?"

Gu Hongying: "...His luck is a bit bad..."

"It's not that he's not okay, it's really not okay." The driver in front took the time to interject, "After this mission is over, Hongying, you suggest that he get someone to check him out to see if there's anything strange on his body."

"We need science, not superstition." Meng Ziqiu said, "A Fei, how long will it take to get to Huailin Town?"

Qin Feiteng, who was driving, fiddled with the map in the car: "If it's fast, it will be around 10 o'clock tomorrow night. If it's slow, it will be 2 o'clock in the morning the day after tomorrow."

After answering, he murmured, "Don't be superstitious. Our existence is already unscientific, okay?"

Meng Ziqiu ignored him and kept tapping on the keyboard: "Yayin, have you finished drawing the Binding Talisman? How many have you drawn?"

Lu Yayin looked at their boss's serious face and sighed, "I've drawn five so far. I can draw three more in the car tomorrow. Eight should be enough."

"Okay." Meng Ziqiu cut to a different screen. "The ghosts will become stronger in the later stages. Hongying, tell your friend to stop investigating the data for the next few days. Focus on protecting himself."

"At present, what we can confirm about this mission is that the Feng family in Huailin Town arranged a ghost marriage. The bride did not die of natural causes, but became a ghost due to resentment, which activated the D-level mission." Meng Ziqiu said, "The Feng family wants a complete corpse, not ashes. The source of the bride can only be around Huailin Town. There are five missing girls who are basically the same age as Feng Cong. I have sorted out their information and sent it to your mobile phones. You can check it out."

"Why are you the one checking these things?" Lu Yayin opened the document in the small group. The dense words hurt her eyes. "Isn't this a job for the alienated place?"

The place in the surface world that handles matters related to the inner world is called the Abnormal Events Handling Bureau, or the Abnormal Affairs Bureau for short, which is divided into two parts: field affairs and internal affairs.

The field work is the Special Abnormal Incident Handling Group, referred to as the Special Abnormal Group, which is mainly responsible for resolving abnormal incidents occurring all over the world; the internal work is the Special Abnormal Incident Classification Office, referred to as the Abnormal Classification Office, which is mainly responsible for collecting data in advance of the mission. After the Special Abnormal Group resolves the incident, it will issue an official report that can be closed, as well as reimburse travel expenses for business trips, review and approve weapons and equipment budgets, etc.

"The phoenix of the inner world has left, and the barrier of the outer world is unstable. The Alien Reunion Office is too busy to handle it, and they have to argue with the Meteorological Bureau. There is a serious shortage of manpower." Meng Ziqiu replied, "Recently, all special teams have to solve problems on their own."

He paused and added: "Including the preliminary data collection and the official closing report at the end."

Lu Yayin: "This time, this time... you won't let me write it, right?"

The special team hates writing these things the most! How difficult it is to whitewash an unnatural event as a normal event. Not all missions can be covered up with the four universal reasons of gas leak, natural gas explosion, drunken falling into the river, and car accident!

Every time she saw the dark circles under the eyes of the people who wrote the official reports, she was glad that she only had to submit a strict workflow report! She swore by her experience of writing three official reports that no one would write such a thing!

Meng Ziqiu, who looked serious, paused for a moment: "Nothing I wrote has ever been approved."

Lu Yayin: “…”

If their boss's report was sent out as an official report, the whole world would probably know about the existence of the inner world by now. Who would dare to pass it?

Lu Yayin really didn't want to write this nonsense. Her eyes fell on Gu Hongying, who was reading the information and shuddered inexplicably.

"Hongying..." Lu Yayin tucked her short hair behind her ears and said with a smile, "Do you want to exercise yourself?"

Gu Hongying raised his head, his face blank: "...Ah?"

"You will follow us to carry out D-level missions, and you will be our temporary non-staff member." Lu Yayin said, "Just collecting some data during the mission will not be of much help to your growth. It is better to get in touch with the formal reporting process in advance. After you go to school, you will have practical classes every semester, which is equivalent to the internship of the special group. It will be beneficial to get in touch with it in advance."

Gu Hongying didn't realize the pitfalls at this point. He was a little tempted, but also a little worried: "Is it okay for me to take care of this important reporting process? Wouldn't that be too careless?"

"Don't worry about that." Qin Fei, who was driving in front, reassured him, "We'll tell you if there are any problems, and you can modify them. People grow slowly in their shortcomings."

He encouraged: "Young people should be aggressive and not be so cautious."

Encouraged by several seniors, Gu Hong, who had just opened the door to the new world for less than a month and had not yet recognized some sinister shadows, nodded dazedly: "As long as you are willing, I will write the report this time."

What Gu Hongying, who was so fooled that he turned around, didn't see was that the three people in the car quickly exchanged a tacit look—

Good cooperation! Success! Yay!

*

After lunch, Yu Tu received a message from Gu Hongying. The four pictures he sent corresponded to four runes respectively - suppression, curse, luck absorption, and purification.

These runes need special means to be completely eradicated, but if you want to destroy them, you only need to destroy their carriers, which will greatly reduce the power of the runes.

Gu Hongying sent Yu Tu the simplified information of five girls who were missing near Huailin Town. If Yu Tu unfortunately ran into the bride, he could try to identify which one of the girls in the information she was, but collecting information was secondary. The most important thing was to protect himself.

As long as it is not the seventh day, even ghosts still retain a certain degree of rationality. You can try to communicate with them and use various methods to reduce their attack power.

After Yu Tu read all the messages Gu Hongying sent him one by one, he felt slightly relieved. As long as they could still communicate, the worst situation had not occurred.

He sorted out the yellow talismans, cinnabar, glutinous rice, peach wood and other things he bought online, took photos and sent them over.

[Punch Monsters]: Are these things useful against ghosts?

Gu Hongying was silent for a long time before a message came in———

[The crescent moon hangs on the sparse toon tree]: Fellow Yu Tu, feudal superstition is not acceptable. To prevent being deceived, you should start with yourself.