Chapter 23 Bubbles (7) "...The water is overflowing."...
Sun Enze was among the first group of students to run downstairs, but he was clearly not used to the speed at which the first group rushed out to occupy the cafeteria, and he was panting heavily as soon as he stepped out the door.
But he looked back in surprise and dared not stop. Just as he was about to continue running, his shoulder was blocked.
He almost jumped up, but when he saw who it was, he relaxed: "Senior... Senior..."
"Why are you in such a panic? Are you being chased by a ghost?" joked the older student who was being called "senior." Many of the students passing by recognized him and greeted him, to which he responded gently.
The senior student turned around, saw the male student's pale face, and his smile faded: "Weren't those guys already...? Did someone bully you again?"
He turned back, displeased, scanning the crowd for the bully. Sun Enze grabbed him and pulled him away, saying, "No one. Let's go to the cafeteria quickly."
“You’re just too soft-hearted. Those people are being punished by heaven, but you can’t always be so lucky. You need to be tough. If anyone tries to hurt you, you have to fight back…”
The senior frowned, but still went along with him and was pulled away.
"I understand, thank you, senior... Don't say anymore."
"Alright, alright, let's not talk about it anymore. You have an elective class tonight, right? I happen to have a lab session. Let's go back together tonight. I'll wait for you downstairs."
"No need, senior, it's too much trouble for you."
"You're telling me this? Haven't you heard about the recent series of murders in the rain? It's safer to go with someone, don't make excuses."
"yes……"
Xie Tan watched them leave, and only went upstairs when the crowd thinned out.
He remembered that this senior was one of Sun Enze's contacts on his phone after receiving the swimming pool video. He was also the only one who was worried about being questioned again, so he made many calls and even came to find him in person.
After leaving the swimming pool, Sun Enze was taken to the hospital by a kind senior student to have his wound treated.
The senior is a celebrity in the engineering school. I heard that his family is very rich, and he eats, wears, and uses all brand-name items. He drives luxury cars, goes to high-end clubs when he goes out, and has many friends both on and off campus.
Such a young master would become friends with Sun Enze and show him great care.
Another great philanthropist?
Xie Tan felt that something was off.
Anyway, this senior and Lu Jinzhao gave him different feelings.
The students and teachers had all left, and the corridor was empty. Xie Tan stood by the window, watching the crowd constantly moving up the long staircase, like a giant worm surging.
Just then, someone stood silently beside him.
Through the glass window, Xie Tan saw a familiar face beside him, its eyes hidden by long bangs. He had just seen it; it was Sun Enze.
But the bubble splits.
His bubble clone didn't burst?
Xie Tan thought the art museum ended at nine o'clock, and that the bubble clones had all burst and disappeared.
He saw the clone's lips move on the glass window, as if trying to find a topic to start a conversation with him.
Xie Tan spoke first, still watching the flow of people leaving get out of class, as if he could pinpoint Sun Enze's location precisely in the dense crowd: "He trusts others more than himself."
They all knew that this "self" referred to the clone.
After a long silence, the clone uttered a low, choked sentence: "I was born for him."
"Would you even be willing to die for him?"
The clone didn't answer, but only reminded him: "It's raining, it's dangerous, don't stay outside."
"I'm not in danger." Xie Tan understood the implication from his clone's silence, so as he turned to leave, he said, "Don't you have class tonight?"
The clone watched him leave silently.
The students in Art History Class 1 were still resting when Director Wu also had an accident. The presentation assignment for the appreciation class was changed to the form of a paper, which was used as the final assessment. It could be submitted before the end of the semester to another teacher.
Xie Tan expressed his condolences to his partner, Chang Mingai, who was almost unharmed, only suffering a minor scrape, but was in low spirits and was still resting at home.
He was in good spirits and was still at school, so he picked up his unfinished group assignments and went to the library to study.
After quickly finishing writing today's content, Xie Tan received a message from Lu Jinzhao, reminding him to eat dinner.
Xie Tan stared at the message for a long time before casually putting his phone away.
Whenever he thought of his neighbor, a strange feeling would rise in his heart.
Even ghosts could smell his pheromones; he'd already been exposed, so it wasn't a big deal.
But Lu Jinzhao is not a ghost.
After countless failed attempts at contemplation, Xie Tan once again relegated this urgent matter, which he couldn't understand, to the sidelines.
He didn't want to squeeze into the cafeteria, so he went to a convenience store to buy a sandwich, and it suddenly started raining on the way.
Because of the intermittent rain and the series of murders, no one went out except for students who had classes. At this time, everyone was eating in the cafeteria, and Xie Tan was the only one heading towards the convenience store.
His umbrella had been confiscated by the police, and he had no spare. The surrounding buildings where he could take shelter were all some distance away, and the rain was no longer a light drizzle; it was getting heavier and heavier.
Xie Tan frowned, preparing to run quickly to the library, when suddenly a shadow fell over his head, and an umbrella was held above him.
He turned his head, and the ghostly figure was right outside the umbrella.
He could only see its chest; it was still hidden in the rain and could not be seen clearly.
The hand holding the umbrella, without the rain's cover, was also a mass of black. Xie Tan turned his head, and from the changed angle, he could see flowing, illusory light.
It's like being enveloped in a layer of bubbles, or like it's made up of countless bubbles; peering inside is like looking into a kaleidoscope.
It really was the figure from that painting; the story was indeed not over.
Xie Tan continued walking forward as usual, with the ghostly figure silently following behind, holding an umbrella for him.
Upon reaching the convenience store entrance, the ghostly figure vanished in the blink of an eye.
Xie Tan caught the falling umbrella, turned it over, and saw several streaks of blood on the top of the umbrella.
He didn't really want to know whose umbrella it was.
Xie Tan sat by the glass wall of the convenience store, looking through the floor-to-ceiling windows at Building 1 in the distance, where all the lights were off.
On the fourth floor, the lights in one of the classrooms suddenly came on.
By the time he finished eating, the lights in that classroom had already been turned off.
He threw away the trash, opened his umbrella, and walked through the gradually subsiding rain back to Building 1.
When Xie Tan reached the fourth floor, he saw a winding trail of blood flowing down the stairwell.
He turned into the corridor, where there was a corpse on the floor.
The person he had just met not long ago.
The police station is more chaotic at night than during the day.
The victims were found one after another, and taking advantage of the rain stopping, the police team from the Criminal Investigation Brigade quickly sealed off the crime scene.
Because of the heavy rain and the special circumstances, the survivors could only be sent to Qilu Police Station, which was the nearest station. The station was so busy that there weren't enough interrogation rooms, and some of the people brought back had to wait in the corridor.
These are all victims who witnessed the ghost committing crimes, or who faced the ghost directly and were unexpectedly rescued. Their mental state is worse than the last. Among them are colleagues who responded to the call. The remaining police officers are overwhelmed with problems.
During the break between interrogations, Xue Hong listened to his apprentice's report from the doorway.
"They all drowned, but how could it be drowning? There were only two victims in the puddle. No matter how heavy the rain was, it wouldn't be enough..."
"...The water overflowed."
Amidst the commotion, this murmured remark reached Xue Hong's ears, and he turned his head upon hearing it.
A row of people stood in the corridor. The boy sat in the spot closest to the door, huddled up in a ball, his long bangs covering his eyes.
He uttered those words as if suddenly realizing the hidden key, and his voice trembled.
The trembling was all tense, firmly held inside the body, not daring to show.
"This is?"
"A student from Didi University asked us for help on his way home. He had arranged to walk with a friend, but the friend never came. We were afraid he had been harmed..."
"Di Da?" Xue Hong's expression changed as he recalled the map on the draft paper. He squatted down. "'Water overflowing'—what does that mean? Where did you and your friend meet?"
Sun Enze was engrossed in his own world and did not answer.
Xue Hong remotely directed the team heading to the university to speed up, grabbing Sun Enze's shoulder: "Wake up, kid. Your friend might be being watched. Every minute earlier is a lifeline. Building 1, right?"
"It's too late."
Sun Enze slowly raised his head, his eyes unfocused, as if he were not looking at the world before him, and tears streamed down his face.
Tears of pain filled his eyes, obscuring his irises and reflecting a faint iridescent light.
Dida University, Building 1.
As someone who had been through it all, Xie Tan understood the whole story as soon as he saw the corpse of his senior, Sun Enze.
The bullying clique consists of the senior's men, who listen to the young master and cause trouble for Sun Enze.
Each time the mastermind finishes outlining the day's bullying theme, they immediately change their tune, becoming indignant and offering words of comfort.
Sending videos is not humiliating; it's a small group reporting their work to their leader so that the leader can arrive in time to review the results.
So the ritual hidden within the bullying was also this young master's intention, or rather, his true purpose.
He instructed the ghost to kill people and piece together the goat image, so the young master's real background is actually the Black Goat family?
There was indeed something clipped to the corpse's waist.
To die so easily, as a member of a family belonging to one of the two major powers, is rather useless.
He remembered that the Black Goat family was quite large, with many branches.
So he's a collateral descendant, a marginal figure, who's using the family's reputation to bully others.
In the classroom behind the senior's corpse, Sun Enze's clone slowly walked out, his shirt stained red, and the tip of the axe in his hand dripping blood.
Silence spread, and the clone pursed its lips, asking, "Are you helping me?"
Xie Tan's words reminded him that his true form was being targeted by his senior, and he would be in danger that night.
Actually, Xie Tan was referring to the ghostly figure in the rain; he hadn't expected it to turn out this way.
He walked forward, bent down as he passed the corpse, and with a flick of his finger, removed the black knot from the corpse's waist.
“I just hate sheep,” Xie Tan said.
The surveillance footage showed that the bubble was split into multiple parts, so Xie Tan left easily.
The clone watched him leave again, and was about to leave as well. As it turned around, a pair of Taoist shoes appeared in its field of vision not far away.
"Hey kid, I see you have amazing potential. How about joining our club?"
Xie Tan's timing was perfect; he got into the car to go home just before the police arrived.
As the car drove away, he seemed to catch a glimpse of a familiar figure outside the window, but before he could see clearly, the car had already driven off.
Xie Tan didn't pay attention and took out the knot to examine it. It was a Vajra knot made of long black hair.
The Vajra Knot is originally a protective amulet that can protect the wearer from harm by non-human beings, but using hair to weave it makes it look a bit eerie.
It didn't protect them either.
Xie Tan recalled that the original owner's bedroom was also locked up by tangled long hair, which further confirmed that the young master was related to the Black Goat family.
The phone screen lit up, and Xie Tan opened it to take a look.
Embracing the Sun: [I'm back early, on the high-speed train, arriving in Diqiu tonight!]
Embracing the Sun: [[Dog Sprint.gif]]
Embracing the Sun: [I brought some local specialties; the roast chicken and chestnut cake there are delicious.]
Embrace the Sun: [I'll send it to you tomorrow, get some rest.]
Embrace the Sun: [Goodnight, Atan]
.at: [Goodnight]
Lu Jinzhao stared at the words "Goodnight" for a long time before putting down his phone with a smile.
He got into a taxi and had just given his home address when he received a call from the police station.
"Brother Hong, eh? Okay, okay, I'm in Diqiu, just got back. It's nothing, the rain has stopped, the clouds have all dispersed, I'll just go pick it up on the way—Master, turn around, go to Qilu Police Station."
On the night Bubble split, Lu Jinzhao was in a hurry to take Xie Tan to the hospital, leaving his schoolbag at the art gallery, where it was taken away as evidence.
The case was classified as a mass hysteria and hastily concluded. The schoolbag should have been returned long ago, but the subsequent series of murders involving ghostly figures in the rain kept the police station extremely busy, so it has been delayed until now.
Lu Jinzhao went to the police station to retrieve his schoolbag and saw something burning in the yard, like a painting.
He was always involved in cases, and all the police here knew him. The policeman who returned the backpack to him happened to be a close friend of his and casually mentioned, "That painting from the art gallery you mentioned, I just brought it back, but Brother Hong had it burned. I don't know what he meant by that."
Upon closer inspection, Lu Jinzhao indeed saw dense bubbles on the painting in the firelight, as well as the silhouettes of people obscured by the bubbles.
"I see." Lu Jinzhao didn't seem to mind, laughing as she ran off. "I'm going home now, thanks for your hard work!"
As he walked out, he ran into Sun Enze, who was also leaving.
They had only met twice, once backstage at the opening ceremony and once at the orphanage, and were not close.
But Lu Jinzhao was too friendly to resist. Seeing that Sun Enze's eyes were red and swollen, his expression was unsteady, and he almost fell down the stairs, he took the initiative to help him walk together.
Sun Enze was too weak to refuse, so he mechanically said thank you and then blanked out his mind and followed Lu Jinzhao.
Upon reaching the first floor, the courtyard gate was open, and a draft carried in the black smoke from the burning paintings, which gently enveloped them.
Sun Enze coughed and looked back. Two-thirds of the huge painting had been burned. The flames burned through the center of the painting and rolled outwards. The figure had been burned away, and black smoke was drifting out from the hole.
He followed the direction the smoke was drifting, turned his head back to the front, and saw that Lu Jinzhao had already arrived at the entrance of the police station.
Whether it was blown away by the wind or because it was too dark outside, the black smoke dissipated when it reached Lu Jinzhao's location.
Lu Jinchao waved to him under the cover of night: "Let's go, you're not staying out, are you? I'll take you back to your dorm first."
Her smile was radiant, like the sun descending upon the night sky, defying the laws of nature.
Sun Enze suddenly felt a familiar chill.
On the same street, in the mirror in front of a clothing store, the figure of a man with a scar on his face appeared, staring grimly at the black smoke drifting out of the police station.
"Bubble" was a treasure he had finally found, but the ghostly figure sealed in the painting inexplicably ran away.
He confronted his annoying cult colleagues and learned that the location of his death had been pieced together to form a goat image, and the monster he had obtained had been stolen by a member of the Black Goat family from who-knows-where.
Didn't those heretics with impure beliefs disappear? Why would they suddenly reappear to disgust him and disrupt his plans?
He spent several days finding a member of that disgusting family, only to discover that it was just a neglected and exiled member of a collateral branch.
Even if the "wolf" raised by the Black Goat family came and dared to ruin his plans, he would find a chance to retaliate. How much more so a piece of trash who couldn't even get into the outer perimeter of the family.
But he remembered that the cult was secretly searching for the Black Goat's trail, so he patiently waited until the Goat's image was fully formed tonight before killing him.
He didn't believe that a good-for-nothing abandoned by his family could make anything worthwhile, but this wasn't his area of responsibility, so he didn't want to risk being picked on by his annoying colleague and boss.
As expected, he received nothing. The whole thing was all talk and no action; the ceremony didn't even register.
He drove off to kill someone, only to find that the rain had gradually stopped.
It wasn't just the occasional rain that stopped these past few days; the dark clouds had slowly dispersed. There was only one possibility: the bubble had either been resealed or died.
His ominous premonition came true. When he arrived at the university, he saw a taxi leaving, with a familiar boy sitting in the back seat.
The boy glanced at him casually, as if looking at an ant, and then moved on in an instant.
The black goat's collateral descendant died, becoming the final piece of the goat puzzle.
That foolish collateral relative and he, no matter how much they planned, were all used by that boy named Xie Tan.
Zhu Fengliang's mind cleared, and a murderous intent surged into his heart.
He watched the taxi drive away, his eyes fixed on Xie Tan. He couldn't just kill him like that.
He didn't know the boy's background. Could Xie Tan's use of Ghost Shadow's knife to kill the Black Goat be related to the Black Goat?
Perhaps Xie Tan is an enemy of the Black Goat, so he doesn't even spare a disgraced member of the clan, or perhaps Xie Tan is a member of the Black Goat's family.
He should report this to the religious community.
But he didn't do that; driven by paranoia, he only wanted to see the boy's corpse.
He needs a more comprehensive plan.
Zhu Fengliang watched the black smoke dissipate, the mission of the cult was completed, and it slowly disappeared into the mirror.
The rain stopped and the sky cleared, but the dampness dissipated slowly. Xie Tan, half asleep and half awake, heard the sound of the door across the hall opening and closing, and glanced at his phone.
It's past 1 a.m., such a late bus?
Cat No. 7 appeared out of nowhere, curled up next to him and slept, the little animal's warm body rising and falling gently.
Xie Tan couldn't sleep, so he stared at the little leopard for a while and then quietly touched its round ears twice.
The cat's tail wrapped around his arm, and it opened its golden eyes, blinking blankly: "Is it morning, meow?"
"No, go back to sleep."
Aren't you going to sleep, meow?
Xie Tan shook his head, and Number 7 sat up and stretched, making a long cat-like gesture: "Then I'm not going to sleep either. Do you want to read the comic update, meow?"
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