Chapter 16 Red Nose (6) Two Forces
Welfare home, children's living quarters.
The clown's magic disappeared, and the children returned to normal, awkwardly sleeping in their beds, only to be woken up by Lu Jinzhao who had rushed over.
Once Lu Jinzhao confirmed that all the missing persons were here, he called the police.
While waiting for the police and their parents to arrive, he looked around and noticed that one bed was empty.
He didn't seem to see his classmate's friend.
He asked the two oldest students present to take care of everyone, and finally found the student from Di Da in the basement. His overly long bangs were covering his eyelids, and he was sleeping soundly.
Lu Jinzhao did not wake him up at first, but walked to the shattered mirror. Suddenly, black mist emerged from the crack and began to corrode the mirror.
Finally, the mirror melted away in the fog and disappeared into the room.
"..."
Hearing a rustling sound, Lu Jinzhao turned around. The male classmate had woken up, but was still groggy, probably having a dream. He murmured, "What is death..."
Lu Jinzhao, who had stepped forward to help him, tilted his head upon hearing this. The male student, realizing that someone was there, became fully awake and retreated in fright.
He bumped his head on the corner of the table and almost fell, but Lu Jinzhao caught him.
"Be careful." Lu Jinchao bent down, smiled gently, and patted the dust off his clothes.
"Th-thank you, where is this... Ah, this is!" The boy fell silent. He seemed to still retain some memories of being a child, but for some reason, he didn't seem as afraid as before.
Returning to this place, the fear became blurred, and the stubborn nightmare finally began to fade away.
"Has...someone died?"
But when the word "death" was mentioned, the male student still felt an instinctive fear. He subconsciously murmured the question he had been searching for in his remaining memories, as if solving it would dispel his fear. He rambled on, "What exactly is death..."
"Death can happen at any moment."
Lu Jinzhao smiled and patted his shoulder, then walked forward: "Let's get out of here first, the police are almost here."
The young man's voice was clear and bright, his smile was radiant, and his patting motion was gentle yet firm, yet he inexplicably shivered.
The basement must be too cold. The male student quickly followed.
He will never come here again.
Meanwhile, Xie Tan arrived home and went into the bedroom to change his clothes.
Stepping out of the bedroom, the living room lights were off, and the clown was standing in front of the master bedroom door.
The darkness of midnight casts a faint, eerie blue hue. Its vibrant colors, within this shadow, resemble patches of old blood in varying shades, their smiles terrifying.
It waved to him happily.
Xie Tan: "..."
Followed home, crouched at the bedroom door, suddenly appeared in the dark, and seemed to have a ghostly filter—how come these ghosts have no sense of boundaries?
Well, if creatures from the underworld can do whatever they want in the mortal realm, they certainly don't have any sense of boundaries.
Xie Tan glanced at this point and was about to say something when he saw the clown stop laughing a little, become a bit serious, tell him to wait a moment, and then point behind him.
He looked behind him, but there was nothing there. When he turned back, the clown was gone.
There was a knock on the door. Xie Tan paused, opened the door, and saw the clown standing outside, smiling at him, but not coming in.
It is waiting for his permission.
"..." Xie Tan stepped aside to make way.
The clown hopped and skipped back to the master bedroom door and pointed to it.
Is this the one?
Xie Tan nodded.
The clown knocked dramatically on the door, pressed his ear against it to listen, and nodded earnestly as if he had received permission.
Then it went to Xie Tan's second bedroom, knocked on the door, and invited Xie Tan to the door, gesturing for him to open it.
Xie Tan gave a gentle push, and the second bedroom changed its appearance. He immediately saw the admission notice on the bookshelf.
Meanwhile, in the adjacent master bedroom, the long hair locked to the entrance automatically untied and fell down, and the door could be opened, turning it into his second bedroom.
The clown told Xie Tan to close his eyes. When he opened them again, the two bedrooms had been switched back, and the doors could still be opened.
"Thanks."
The clown chuckled and waved, much happier than him. It approached Xie Tan, opened its arms, and stared at him expectantly.
"..."
Xie Tan gave him a gentle hug.
The clown happily hugged him, his red nose twitched, and he shook his head contentedly.
Xie Tan let go, and the clown waved goodbye. This time it remembered to use the door; it turned around and disappeared behind the open bedroom door.
Xie Tan was already used to it. Well, ghosts don't come and go normally.
The original owner of the house left behind not much, only a few scattered books on the bookshelf and a box of old items, all of which were textbooks, exercise books and certificates from his student days.
But after going through the whole thing, there wasn't much information.
The textbooks and workbooks are all for solving problems; they are for general compulsory courses, and there are no books for specialized courses.
All that is known is that the original owner was a graduate of Diqiu University, but his major is unknown.
The book contained many strange and intricate drawings that he could not decipher.
Children's drawings are incomprehensible, and college students' drawings are also very difficult... Is realism no longer popular?
He could only try to deduce some personality traits from the painting; the original owner must have been quite cheerful and had a strong imagination.
Without notes, diaries, sticky notes, or other things to record his life outside of studying, he couldn't analyze anything further for the time being.
The other documents are the admission notice and the application for a one-year leave of absence.
However, there was no photo of the ID, the paper was wet, the key words were blurry, and the name was illegible.
Total loss record.
It's as if someone erased the original owner's core information, perhaps something the original owner did before leaving.
This actually made it easier for him to operate.
Among these books was a black envelope.
The letter paper was also black, without any words, and the traces of melted red sealing wax looked like blood splattered on the paper.
Where there was "blood," something hidden was revealed. Xie Tan saw an animal's eyes and horns. Was it a sheep?
Black goat.
The bottom two corners of the letter were crumpled and wrinkled, which gives an idea of the intense emotions the original owner felt when they received the letter.
It doesn't feel like a good mood.
The cat lazily sat on the edge of the table, its tail drooping down and swaying back and forth, watching Xie Tan look through the items.
Can Chekhov's spear target life forms in comics?
"Theoretically, you can't meow."
"but?"
The cat lowered its head and rubbed against Xie Tan's hand: "But you're an exception, you're Blank Meow."
"So the acceptance letter and leave of absence certificate can be changed to be mine?"
"Yes, they belong entirely to you, they are your property. By adding another layer of plot depth to them with Chekhov's spear, they become yours, meow."
Xie Tan didn't act immediately, scrutinizing the black panther cub: "If I hadn't chosen this house with my gun in the first place..."
He didn't continue. The cat tilted its head, trying to understand what he meant, and comforted him, "It's okay, there are many haunted houses in Diqiu City, and the rent isn't expensive. We can make do for a while... Wait? Damn it! We should have waited a little longer. With just this one completely blank key, if we waited until the author drew a government building or a big villa, wouldn't we be able to just lie down and relax, meow?"
As it spoke, it began to meow in regret.
Xie Tan stared at it quietly for a while, but couldn't find any flaws.
That's true. Fitch City has no shortage of haunted houses, and haunted houses have no shortage of stories. In such a world, where is there no mystery?
He looked away: "Even the police are useless. Even if you live in the Louvre, ghosts can come and go as they please."
The cat, who had been circling around in disappointment, stopped, was quickly convinced, and leisurely wagged its tail again: "That's true, meow. Well, our work is still going very smoothly, meow!"
Chekhov's Spear requires popularity points, so Xie Tan will wait until the next chapter is released before using it.
The new chapter opens with the reunion at the circus, but the part where Xie Tan went to the orphanage alone before that is not shown.
He was originally positioned as a "sacrifice" character in the first unit. Apart from dying at the beginning, there was no further plot development, and he relied entirely on his own popularity to gain attention.
Although the response was good, he still appeared too few times, and his first story, which was considered cannon fodder, has already ended. He hasn't gotten involved in the main storyline yet, and he's not an important supporting character in the current comics.
There are no popular characters, nor are there any main characters or important supporting characters in this episode. The Joker himself does not appear, so naturally he does not receive any special attention.
But it's not necessarily a bad thing.
Because he received a special surprise ticket at the orphanage, removing this background, his presentation of such a ticket at the orphanage's charity performance further highlights his unfathomable nature and mysterious origins.
The comic is being updated continuously, with content consistent with Xie Tan's experiences and presented from Lu Jinzhao's perspective. The magic tricks are clearer, and the visuals are more exciting.
In the final scene at the orphanage, after Xie Tan leaves the children's room, the perspective shifts to the chase between the clown and the last man.
It wasn't until Xie Tan said, "Please do me a favor," that things changed.
Then he and Lu Jinzhao reunited.
While giving a statement at the police station, the police investigation revealed the suspicious points and past events surrounding the welfare home and the Oasis Charity Foundation, uncovering the mystery.
The epilogue is Lu Jinzhao going to the welfare home to look for the missing person.
Xie Tan stared at the fogged mirror in the basement, trying to guess the time.
The police station is much farther from the welfare home than from Heshun Community. In the time it takes Lu Jinzhao to get to the welfare home, Xie Tan can make two round trips.
So the clown unlocked the door for him and left, and only then did Lu Jinzhao stumble upon the broken mirror at the orphanage.
The hidden main storyline has finally quietly begun.
The reason why "Strange Tales" is speculated to have a hidden main storyline is because, in addition to Lu Jinzhao, who passes through the world through the anthology characters, there are two other forces that appear repeatedly and are almost present throughout the entire series.
A cult called "Mirror," symbolized by mirrors and possessing the ability to create mist, harbors secrets and plans, and acts accordingly.
Another century-old family that has fallen into decline, with the black goat as its family symbol, hides in the shadows of decay. Its glory has faded, but its heritage remains profound.
The little ghost could turn into mist, and the sorceress used a mirror to monitor the female ghost. Xie Tan thought of the Mirror Cult, but it was difficult to make a judgment on the first story and the first ghost.
In retrospect, it seems that the sorceress was a member of the Mirror Cult.
The clown's ability to perform in two locations simultaneously is also due to the Mirror Cult's assistance, which creates a mirror image in another location through the mirror.
What will happen to the clown after he leaves? Will he end up like the kid?
Having received help from the Mirror Cult, what did they have to give up in return? Did they reach some kind of deal?
The mirror fogged up in front of Lu Jinzhao, the male classmate in the basement slowly woke up, Lu Jinzhao turned around, and this part of the story ended here.
There wasn't much else to draw, except for the story of the helpful big dog assisting the police in rescuing the missing students.
The next scene after Lu Jinzhao turns around shows Xie Tan turning around in the living room because of the knocking sound, looking towards the front door.
The door opened, and the clown stood outside, smiling, and greeted them.
That concludes this episode.
The comics don't show what the Joker did after he came in and what he did afterward.
Is this another attempt to create suspense?
However, it makes sense; his blank space is naturally the most suitable place to leave suspense.
Xie Tan opened the forum.
A note from the author:
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