Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 76: Out of Control
Lei Xiurong was the first person to call the police in Guo Laifu’s serial murder case.
Six months ago.
Lei Xiurong didn’t wait for Guo Wei’s call. After the child transferred to the new school, she never heard back. A month passed, and she couldn’t help but find the contact information for his new school.
“The transfer procedures have been completed, but that person has never come, so he’ll be automatically dropped from school,” the school staff said.
“Sorry, the phone number you have dialed has been disconnected. Please try again later…” She had never been able to get through to the number left by Guo Laifu.
“Isn’t that Guo Laifu doing business? Maybe he’s letting the child follow to help.”
Facing Lei Xiurong’s reaction, the principal of No. 16 High School didn’t take it seriously. Their school wasn’t very good in the first place, so there were always students who would drop out for various reasons.
“The class you’re leading is about to enter their senior year. Don’t be distracted. You’re going on like this endlessly. If other people’s children are fine, you’re going to get sued for harassment, okay?”
Lei Xiurong pursed her lips and spat out, “I want to call the police.”
“Hey, don’t. Teacher Lei, you’re overreacting. He is his legal guardian.”
“I want to call the police,” she repeated. “I know that kid Guo Wei. He wouldn’t give up studying. Something must have happened to him.”
“After nine years of compulsory education, who cares? Even if he dropped out of school, Mr. Guo didn’t do anything harmful…”
“We can talk about it after we find him. His father has a criminal record, so it’s not a good thing.” Lei Xiurong raised her brows and was as aggressive as ever. “If this matter has no results, I will not let it go.”
“If it’s true that Guo Wei doesn’t want to continue schooling, I want to hear that from him, personally.”
Without the support of the school, Lei Xiurong went to the police station by herself.
……
The police found Guo Wei in a suitcase.
The boy’s body was mutilated beyond human form. Mixed with his backpack and luggage, it sank at the bottom of the most remote reservoir on the Qingjiang River. Along with Guo Wei, there were four suitcases of the same style, filled with mangled corpses.
The case was so horrifying that it shocked the entire country. The media, large and small, picked up wind and online platforms were filled with various reports. There was no airtight wall in the world. Class 2 and 3… Or rather, Class 3 in the high school quickly learned the truth.
Lei Xiurong said nothing.
Just like in the past, under the name of the “Old Witch”, she walked to the podium with her head held high to give her lecture, shaking the students’ test papers while cursing. When it was time to get off work, she would rush home aggressively, as usual.
This night, like always, Lei Xiurong swallowed some sleeping pills.
This had become her new habit over the last six months.
After the incident, she would occasionally get hallucinations. It was supposed to be a dark night outside the window, but she could always see the sunset on that day. On the day Guo Wei left, the rosy glow was like blood, lingering in her dreams.
What a bright color, but it could only awaken her pain and self-blame.
But tonight was different. She had a strange dream.
She dreamed that she was standing on the roof of the main teaching building. In addition to her, there were four students in the class. Like an ordinary nightmare, the scenery around the teaching building was chaotic and distorted.
“Everyone, come here!” Before Lei Xiurong could take a closer look, she instinctively called out to the students. “Come here!”
Several students clustered together in a daze.
Floating in front of them was a figure of a long-haired man. The man turned his head; his face was blurred, and his eyes were red like coals.
“Everyone is here. Thank you, Xiaohe Jie,” Yin Ren said.
“You’re welcome,” Lu Xiaohe responded weakly. “Promise me, don’t screw it up.”
“They’re good at stabilizing Guo Wei. This is my judgment as the rear commander.”
Five familiar figures appeared on the rooftop. The chaotic vortex froze, and the crazy attacks stopped.
Guo Laifu’s face disintegrated into the dark clouds, and the carnival of phantoms was hidden in the shadows. The giant knives that kept going up and down disappeared out of thin air, and all the entrails all over the ground turned gray and the bloody school uniform ropes loosened.
Outside the main teaching building, all abnormalities suddenly became harmless. Just now, the raging animosity and malice faded away and were hurriedly hidden.
Inside the projection screen, Guo Wei covered his face almost instantly.
He lowered his head deeply, and the bone-deep wound on his hand quickly closed. However, his blood-stained school badge was exposed and could be clearly seen at a glance.
“Guo Wei?” Li Xiaoya was the first to react and was shocked immediately.
“Yeah, just say what you want.” Unlike usual, Yin Ren’s voice was extremely gentle. “He can hear everything you say here.”
Li Xiaoya nodded in a daze.
Unlike in Guo Wei’s memories, the girl had cut off her long hair, and her face had lost its carefree innocence. It became a bit more bitter and mature.
“It turns out it’s not a nightmare,” she said.
Disregarding Lei Xiurong’s attempts to stop her, she ran to the edge of the rooftop.
“Da Guo!” Li Xiaoya raised her voice. “We’re in our senior year of high school! Did you know?”
There was crying in her voice.
“…That pen is for you. Don’t worry about returning it. Do you hear me?”
“I’ll do good and pass the exam. I’ll buy gifts for everyone, so you should accept them in advance!”
Guo Wei didn’t make a sound. He firmly blocked his face as the deep wounds on his chest and abdomen disappeared.
He didn’t want her to see this.
“Our brother is different.”
A tall and thin boy followed in Li Xiaoya’s footsteps and walked to the rooftop.
Guo Wei’s roommate’s eyes were flushed, but he held back his tears with a deliberate smile on his face.
“Ya Jie turned grief and anger into motivation. We’ve all gone through psychological counseling as a group.”
“Lao Si, why are you covering your face? Are you giving us the cold shoulder?”
“Just you wait. When the time comes, we’ll burn the college entrance exam papers for you! We can’t just suffer—”
“We found a shop outside that can print out the photos. We’ll burn that for you as well.”
The three boys gathered not far from Li Xiaoya. Their eyes were red as they were laughing and chattering.
The ghostly presence gradually faded away, and the internal organs and blades on the campus disappeared. The blood-stained school uniforms fell to the ground as countless twisted phantoms stood silently, their heads turning towards the direction of the main teaching building.
Small alien monsters started being repelled and were suspended in the air.
The wound on the back of Guo Wei’s hand slowly closed as he put it down. He revealed a blue, intact face. The bloodstains on his body were gradually fading.
He wanted to see them.
Those eyes showed turbidity from corruption, but the tears were no longer pus and blood. Guo Wei grabbed the red rope on one side of his temple and tremblingly pulled it out.
The Evil Force in the red rope corroded his hands, but Guo Wei still pulled hard, trying to make himself look more normal.
The desire to be born a ghost, the bitter hatred for his biological father—they were like extra-curricular books in a bucket that he carefully pushed into the darkness.
Guo Wei’s gaze turned to Lei Xiurong with a vague apology and expectation in his gaze.
He still wanted to hear her speak.
Lei Xiurong was extraordinarily strict with them and stubborn. Her voice was sharp, and she spoke fast, with a natural sense of acrimony. Once she scolded someone, she could talk endlessly without taking a single breath.
Half a year later, what would she say?
However, there was only silence that answered him.
Lei Xiurong wasn’t like her students. At this moment, she wasn’t pretending to be okay. The middle-aged teacher walked step by step to the edge of the rooftop. Her usually well-tended curly hair was a mess, and the wrinkles in the corner of her eyes were much deeper than he remembered.
Time passed minute by minute.
Lei Xiurong stared at Guo Wei. She was expressionless, but her face gradually wetted with tears. The first time the students saw their head teacher like this, they stood awkwardly looking at each other.
After a few minutes, Lei Xiurong finally spoke.
“Good boy,” she said. “Don’t be so bitter in your next life.”
On the projection screen, Guo Wei was silent for a long time.
After a while, he raised his head completely and directly looked at the five people on the rooftop, showing a faint, unskilled smile.
“Okay,” Guo Wei replied to her.
He clenched his fists and made a sudden effort, pulling the red rope full of Evil Force out of his head.
……
Outside the campus, it was 1:45 a.m..
In Guo Laifu’s consciousness, the nearby neighborhood was in a mess. The buildings staggered, and there were no pedestrians left on the street. A high-rise building broke in the middle, and the ruins were scattered everywhere. The entire scene was like a disaster movie set.
“It’s the first time I’ve seen this thing. It’s so big.”
Fu Xingchuan stood on the orange cone monster and lit a cigarette, as if he were evaluating the seafood at a supermarket.
He was wearing a long red tunic like a wedding outfit, with a single red tassel earring wobbling on one side. The dark circles under his eyes were frighteningly heavy, but there were no signs of fatigue.
The cone monster fell sideways on the street. Its entire body was scarred and unconscious, with holes protruding from all its eyes. Around it, tall humanoid monsters twitched on the ground while small monsters crawled aimlessly. They were gathered in a haphazard heap, obviously beaten to a pulp.
The “Ghost General” was a title for higher-class ghost masters and corpse servants. Their abilities were completely suppressed here.
However, it seemed this didn’t apply to Minister Fu.
The space outside the school was still “night”. Around the small campus, orange-red spells soared into the sky, intertwining into a protective net like a raging fire. More monsters were blocked outside the protective net. They bared their teeth and claws to get closer, but they were still unable to break through Fu Xingchuan’s defenses.
“It’s almost cleaned up now. Wang Zhou, Bao Linlin, what’s the status of the ‘artificial gap’?”
Fu Xingchuan patted the dirt off his sleeves and blew out a smoke ring. The white smoke didn’t spread, but turned into tiny chains, wandering near the cracks in the ghost fetus.
Next to the deformed school gate, the smoke gathered together.
Not far from the school gate, there was a “door” composed purely of runes hanging in the air. The flame-like runes flowed continuously along the door frame, and behind it was abyss-like darkness.
The “artificial gap” of Shian.
While Unit 9 destroyed the core memory the ghost fetus would become unstable, which could open up two spaces as a temporary exit.
Bao Linlin was squatting by the door, confirming the location of the spirit weapons, one by one.
“Reporting. All interference has been eliminated.” Bao Linlin’s voice was crisp. “The ghost-binding spirit weapon is in normal condition. Unit 6 is on standby by Guo Laifu. No matter where the ghost is born into the world, we can deal with it.”
“Nn.” Fu Xingchuan’s face didn’t relax. “Xiao Zhao told you, right? There are signs of Evil Force in there. Saving people takes priority over catching ghosts. Don’t get attached to the battle.”
“Yes!” “Understood!”
With the brilliance of the magic fire cage, Fu Xingchuan added a series of protection spells near the door frame. Seeing that the runes on the door frame were running more smoothly, he took a few steps back and looked up and down at the “ghost fetus” in front of him.
“Just now, its appearance changed again.” Wang Zhou, the science post, was busy sketching, writing down a series of numbers from time to time. “This thing doesn’t look very good.”
He stopped his pen and flipped through the album schematically.
The first one was at 7:30 yesterday morning. When they discovered it, it was just a “tumor” protruding from the street.
The tenth one was around 4:00 yesterday afternoon. It became more distorted, and countless “filaments” that looked like nerves and blood vessels grew on the surface.
Wang Zhou quickly turned back dozens of pages. The pages alternated quickly, and the picture seemed to move.
He didn’t know how many sheets he had flipped through, but just ten minutes ago, the ghost fetus in the sketch was exactly the same as the one in front of them.
Tens of millions of filaments stood upright, leaned into the sky, and stretched into the deepest part of the huge vortex. They suddenly deflated from time to time, quickly absorbing something. At the same time, the entire ghost fetus pulsated weakly, like an ominous heartbeat.
Even if Wang Zhou was a science post, he could still see that…
Something was about to be born.
It wasn’t that Wang Zhou hadn’t ever been into the Archive before; after all, he had to put on women’s clothing and play out a palace drama resulting in a broken leg. Compared to the outrageous encounter that Unit 9 stumbled upon, Unit 7’s trip to the Archive was like a vacation.
“Minister Fu, is it really all right?” Sweat gathered around Wang Zhou’s forehead.
“It’s okay. Put away your sketchbook. It’s almost time.”
Fu Xingchuan glanced at the time. There were still two minutes left before 2:00 a.m..
Bao Linlin stood at the activation point of the spirit weapon, while Wang Zhou put on protective clothing and waited obediently by the door. Shian’s number one Ghost General cracked his neck and knuckles and was about to move forward—
When the pulsation suddenly stopped.
Without warning, tens of millions of filaments quickly withered. The “tumor” full of campus elements slowly unfolded, revealing square corners, like a flower first blooming.
Not far away, the “door” prepared by Shian was functioning normally, and there was no sign of rejection. Bao Linlin and Wang Zhou exchanged glances before the two turned to Fu Xingchuan in unison.
Before they could exert their strength, the thing had wilted by itself. Could it be that Unit 7’s long overdue good luck has finally surfaced after all their time accumulating bad luck?
“What did Unit 9 do?” Fu Xingchuan connected to Lu Xiaohe.
“Yin Ren recruited five people to ‘dream’ in order to stabilize Guo Wei’s emotions,” Luo Xiaohe slowly reported.
“The effect is too good to be true.” Fu Xingchuan rubbed his forehead and switched communication partners. “The plan remains the same. Yin Ren and Zhong Chengshuo, commence the countdown. Prepare to destroy the core memory all at once. There are probably people from Sunken Society in it. Don’t dawdle…”
Sss.
Before he could wait for a response from the two people in Unit 9, the signal was suddenly interrupted. It wasn’t cut off because of shielding or turned off, but the signal just suddenly disappeared.
“Unit 9, come in!”
“The channel is fluctuating abnormally. Something’s wrong!” Lu Xiaohe’s report came almost simultaneously.
Boom boom.
The ghost fetus twitched violently, with greater force than before. The original withered filaments surged quickly, and an abnormal silence spread along the block.
Wang Zhou gulped. “Minister F…”
“Forcibly open the door!” Fu Xingchuan sharply shouted.
……
Fifteen minutes ago.
Considering the complexity of the situation, Yin Ren didn’t let the ordinary people stay for too long.
After a simple exchange, the figures of the teacher and students on the rooftop gradually faded. Guo Wei said goodbye to the most important people in his life through the projection screen.
“Goodbye.” His tone was extremely solemn, and his eyes remained reluctant to leave the ground.
When the five figures disappeared completely, Guo Wei raised his hand. The memories that Ge Tingting and Zhong Chengshuo had lost turned into light spots and drilled back into their bodies.
After that, he clenched the red rope in his hand and turned his gaze to Yin Ren.
For the first time, Yin Ren saw a clear expectation in those eyes. After watching for a moment, Guo Wei seemed to come to a determination. He turned around and handed the red rope to the edge of the projection screen.
“Mr. Kong,” Guo Wei said softly. “I don’t need you to help me increase my hatred.”
“I want to suspend our transaction. I want to talk to these people first…”
Halfway through speaking, the red rope in his hand suddenly moved like a snake. It rushed to Guo Wei’s temple again and then coiled frantically, wrapping Guo Wei’s head tightly.
In just an instant, Guo Wei didn’t even have time to raise his hand to stop him.
The projection screen split into several pieces in an instant, and the illusory radio station was destroyed.
Like egg whites leaking out of an eggshell, a gloomy man with a straight face “dripped” from the projection screen. A circle of red rope was wrapped around his right wrist. Without the cover of the master’s will, the Evil Force on the red rope spread quickly, and it was so sharp that it was hard to ignore.
At the other end of the red rope, Guo Wei’s head was completely entangled in the red rope. His head was down and his feet were up, looking like a poor-quality balloon floating in mid-air.
The boy’ hands and feet were stiff against his torso, and there was no response.
“Turn off the lights,” the man said with a smile. There were traces of blood and pus coming from all his orifices.
In the next instant, the entire campus sank into dull darkness.
Before the man’s voice fell, Yin Ren had already rushed out. He stretched out his wings again, firmly protecting Zhong Chengshuo and the two cocoons by his side. A protective spell wrapped around the four of them, layer by layer…
Sure enough, in the next instant, dozens of small objects collided against him.
It was a bullet tied in a knot.
These knots carried Evil Force and were so aggressive that even the protective spell couldn’t stop them.
It shouldn’t be a problem when the Evil Force from the outside world entered his body. His Evil Force would devour these “foreign forces” on its own, but it would cause a small imbalance for a moment.
At this moment, Yin Ren felt as if a hammer had struck his head.
The out-of-control dizziness didn’t disappear as before.
The Evil Force in Yin Ren’s body seemed to have been awakened and was violently colliding with the power he used to suppress it; they were boiling, and the difficulty of controlling it was a thousand times higher than before. The vicious dog at the end of the leash became a crazy elephant.
The balance was crumbling.
[It’s different here. Don’t use your power so casually.] Dog Thing once warned him.
He was already very careful, but…
At the same time, anger, sadness, worry, and the fear of losing control magnified exponentially, causing something to drill uncontrollably out of his heart. Coupled with the relentless assault from the Evil Force, Yin Ren’s consciousness was about to be torn apart.
Can’t lose control. Can’t lose control. Fu Xingchuan and the others were nearby, and Guo Wei was here. The members of Unit 9 were here. His partner… Zhong Chengshuo, was here…
Zhong Chengshuo was still here. He at least couldn’t—no, absolutely couldn’t—in front of Zhong Chengshuo.
Yin Ren twitched and tightened his wings, panting for breath.
“How does it taste? Outside, my emotional ‘resonance’ is no better than ‘Charon’, but here, I can magnify your negative feelings hundreds and thousand times, and force you to commit suicide in front of me.”
Hearing Yin Ren’s unsteady gasp, the man laughed.
“I forgot. With your authority, you still can’t get this kind of information, right?”
The man’s voice was like boiled porridge, mixed with a tremor. It seemed to be getting farther and farther away from him… No, everything was getting farther and farther away from him.
“…What a pity. If this kid can become a ghost, it can match my abilities. This consciousness is still inconvenient to use…”
“Take away the best memory… Only children play this kind of trick. How about seeing the effect of ‘manifesting your worst memories’ and ‘emotional amplification’… What will the effect be?”
Blurred light began to appear in the surrounding darkness.
Yin Ren was half kneeling on the ground. This thinking seemed to be mixed with magma, and his vision began to quickly melt. His five senses went wild with confusion.
[Be careful of yourself.]
“Zhong… Chengshuo…”
Yin Ren groped Zhong Chengshuo’s arm and spoke with difficulty. His pronunciation was flat and chaotic, giving people the creeps.
“Escape…”
Yin Ren loosened the cocoons.
At 2:00 a.m. sharp, he used his last strength to throw his three companions in the direction of the school gate.
The author has something to say:
Kong Wanqing: Let me use this nuclear reactor to show the performance of my newly bought lighter.
There is hell ahead.jpg
——————
Xiao Zhong is absolutely accumulating strength!
The glorious moment of the Science Post—
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