Translator: CinderTL
The light and shadows shifted, and the ground beneath their unsteady feet solidified.
When they opened their eyes again, they were back in the elevator they had left.
With a crisp "ding," the elevator doors suddenly opened, revealing not the hospital they had been in, but the 17th floor of the building they had visited before.
Jiang Cheng remembered that Nan Huaili's office was just around the corner.
They were back.
"You two," Huai Yi turned around, a bitter smile on his face. "I never thought we'd actually survive."
Before he could finish speaking, Jiang Cheng's gaze was suddenly drawn to Lin Wan'er's arm. There were two distinct puncture wounds there.
As Lin Wan'er moved her arm, blood occasionally seeped from the wounds.
The injuries had not healed.
Reaching into his pocket, Jiang Cheng pulled out his phone. It was covered in missed calls and various message notifications.
The time displayed on the phone showed that a full three days had passed since they entered the Ghost Hospital.
This wasn't like entering a nightmare in their sleep. The injuries they had sustained in the nightmare had not healed, and time had not been reset. Jiang Cheng narrowed his eyes.
The rules of the nightmare had changed. They were no longer the same as the ones he had experienced before. They were becoming... increasingly like reality.
When Jiang Cheng encountered the Ghost Taxi earlier, he had already sensed a force slowly eroding the boundary between Nightmare and reality.
The appearance of the Ghost Hospital now confirmed this.
The middle-aged man clearly knew more than Huai Yi, but extracting information from him required an equal exchange. With Huai Yi, however, Jiang Cheng felt less constrained. After all, they were like brothers.
After seeing Lin Wan'er off, Jiang Cheng draped his arm over Huai Yi's shoulder. "Brother Huai Yi," he said with a smile, "would you mind letting me take a look around your place?"
"Of course not, not at all."
After getting into Huai Yi's car, they soon arrived at the gate of an old residential complex. The buildings and facilities inside looked rather dated, more like a long-established family housing area.
"You live here?" Jiang Cheng asked as he stepped out of the car.
Huai Yi didn't seem like someone who lacked money. His car was quite nice, so Jiang Cheng had expected to see a sea-view villa and bikini-clad beauties upon exiting the vehicle.
Huai Yi parked the car, removed the keys, and got out. "This is my parents' place," he explained. "They moved out later, so I've been living here alone ever since."
Jiang Cheng glared at him. "So that sea-view villa you mentioned before, and the whole 'older woman-young girl' thing... all just hot air?"
"How could that be?" Huai Yi widened his eyes. "I just don't live there all the time. I only go there to unwind when I'm feeling up to it."
Then, as if remembering something, he lowered his voice. "You know, in our line of work, it's easy to make enemies. It's usually best to keep a low profile."
"The greatest concealment lies in plain sight. Who would ever suspect I'm hiding here?" Huai Yi chuckled. "Every time I come back, I change clothes in the car and put on this gear. Not even my own parents would recognize me."
Jiang Cheng stared at Huai Yi, now clad in a new outfit, sunglasses, a mask, and a baseball cap. He couldn't help but think this guy was a little off.
Driving a black Mercedes SUV in this aging, heavily geriatric neighborhood, dressed in such a bizarre getup...
Was he trying to be funny?
Somehow, he hadn't been tracked down by any enemies. Jiang Cheng seriously doubted Huai Yi even had any.
In the Nightmare, he seemed like a sharp individual. How could he have left his intelligence behind in the dream?
Looking at Jiang Cheng's expression, Huai Yi scratched his head sheepishly. "Actually, it's not as terrifying as it sounds. After all, the Guild keeps things in check, so no one usually dares to act recklessly. We're not like those crazy Crimson lunatics... We're high-quality, self-sufficient, and hardworking individuals." Huai Yi suddenly stopped, then quickly backtracked.
"Don't be nervous," Jiang Cheng said, shrugging indifferently. "Say whatever you want. We Crimson aren't unreasonable people."
"Oh, really?" Huai Yi said nervously.
"Yes. For those who don't cooperate, the worst we'll do is tie you up and mail you home," Jiang Cheng said, looking at Huai Yi with a benevolent gaze. "In separate packages, of course."
"We'll send your limbs first, then your torso. Your head and facial features will be sent separately as well. If you behave well, we'll even include a tutorial with the packages," Jiang Cheng explained patiently. "Once your family receives the packages, they can follow the tutorial to reassemble you. Then, with a blast of the suona, you can be sent straight to your funeral."
Huai Yi's legs trembled, and he nearly collapsed to the ground. "Brother Jiang, what are you saying? Let's not talk about this anymore. It's too... stimulating. Come on, let's go to my place."
Huai Yi's home was in the third-to-last building of the residential complex, an old, dark green apartment block with several missing buttons on the gate, clearly broken long ago.
It was an old complex without an elevator, so the building had only six floors.
Huai Yi's apartment was on the sixth floor, unit 602.
According to him, the neighbors across the hall had moved out long ago.
Huai Yi's room wasn't large, and it felt less like a home and more like a rental unit. Things were piled everywhere, and there were numerous empty beer bottles scattered around.
However, there were no cigarette butts or ashtrays in sight.
"I don't smoke," Huai Yi said, urging Jiang Cheng not to mind the mess and to make himself comfortable. "I just drink beer occasionally. I can't handle hard liquor—my tolerance is terrible."
Jiang Cheng scanned the room, but found nothing of value. Huai Yi's life seemed quite simple, except for the high-end laptop sitting on his bedroom desk.
The laptop looked out of place in the otherwise modest surroundings.
Huai Yi noticed Jiang Cheng's gaze and quickly explained, "We usually take on jobs through the Guild website."
"The Guild is just a placeholder name. It's actually a website where people post cases that need handling."
"Of course, they're all related to... that kind of thing."
Jiang Cheng nodded. He naturally understood that Huai Yi was referring to supernatural events.
"It's a mixed bag of people. There are people like us, and then there are ordinary people with connections and resources. It's a deep, murky pool."
"Everyone's goal is to resolve these tricky cases. The website is just a platform," Huai Yi whispered. "The truly terrifying thing is the power behind the website, the force pulling the strings. It has... that thing's shadow."
"The state," Jiang Cheng said, glancing at Huai Yi.
It was obvious. Creating such a place without alerting the state apparatus would have been impossible. Without its tacit approval, not even ten guilds could have survived—they would have been wiped out.
After all, Disciples of the Door were still human. And no human could withstand a 7.62mm armor-piercing round.
"Did you take this case from the website?" Jiang Cheng asked, tilting his head.
"Yes."
After a moment of thought, Jiang Cheng said, "Pull up the details for this case. I want to see them."
A file soon appeared on the computer screen.
"Case Code: Chuangrong Building Ghost Face Incident"
"Supernatural Event Level: C"
"Threat Level: ★★"
(End of the Chapter)
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