It was summer after all. Not long after wrapping himself in the thin blanket, Chen Ling felt sweat all over his body. His bathrobe stuck to his body, and the previous bath was in vain.
He adjusted his posture slightly, opened his eyes, and tilted his head to listen to the sounds outside.
The surroundings were quiet, but the dent in the bed next to me was still there. It seemed that the old ancestor had not left yet and was stubbornly guarding outside.
Chen Ling turned his head and pressed his cheek against his forearm, but the warmth did not diminish.
Tsk, he thought in distress, what's wrong with him, they are all men, what's wrong with flirting. But Jiang Yu always managed to force him to hide with just a few words, and the occasional direct response was just bluffing.
Chen Ling was distressed and couldn't help but sigh heavily. Could it be that he was born gay and didn't know it
"It's hot in the quilt, come out." As the words fell, there was a force pulling the quilt.
Chen Ling subconsciously pulled the quilt back, and a buzzing sound came out from under the quilt, "I'm going to sleep like this, you go to your own bed."
Jiang Yu pointed out calmly: "The bed you are lying on is mine."
Chen Ling suddenly felt like his butt was on fire, burning all the way up his spine to his forehead. He stood up with a bang, staring at Jiang Yu with a red face: "Can't we switch?"
"Okay." Jiang Yu raised his eyebrows, pulled a piece of paper from the bedside table between the two beds and pressed it on the young man's forehead.
The white tissue stuck tightly to his skin because of sweat. Chen Ling's vision was blocked by the white. Just as he was about to pull it down, a shadow approached and a cold breath rushed towards him.
"Whatever you say is fine." Jiang Yu said, and really got up and went to the bed opposite, and considerately turned off the lights in the room.
Chen Ling sat there for a few seconds, then threw his upper body onto the bed in a huff. He rolled half a circle with the quilt between his legs, buried his face in it, closed his eyes and forced himself to calm down.
The moonlight was pleasant, and the silvery moonlight shone in through the window, casting black shadows on every furnishing in the room.
Chen Ling counted the time silently in his mind. When the breathing sounds from the bed next to him became calm, he sat up, hugged the balled-up quilt, and let out a silent sigh.
Because of what happened before, his brain was always in an excited state and he couldn't fall asleep.
I want to sit up and play some games, but I’m afraid my ancestors will find out.
He stared intently at the man opposite him. He was sleeping quietly, lying on his left side, with one arm bent under his head and the other casually resting on the pillow.
The not-so-bright light gently blurred his facial features, making people want to get closer and push away the haze.
The ground beneath his feet was icy cold, and when Chen Ling came to his senses, he had already stepped on the ground.
He lowered his head and stomped his feet hard. How could this foot move on its own against its owner's will
It's outrageous!
He sat back on the bed, forced himself to divert his attention, and sent a message to Wu Weiwei: Have you found anything abnormal
Wu Weiwei was dozing off at the moment and was awakened by the vibration of his cell phone. His heart was pounding, and he held his chest and took deep breaths to calm himself.
After five or six times in a row, the palpitating feeling eased and he opened his phone to reply to the message: No.
The message was sent successfully. He rubbed his heavy eyelids and planned to get out of bed to drink some water, but he found that the bed opposite was empty, the quilt was neatly folded, and there were a few wrinkles on the sheets where someone had sat on it.
Wu Weiwei quickly grabbed his phone and sent a message to his brother Chen: Li Hongyu is missing.
The moment Chen Ling received the news, he quietly changed out of his bathrobe, walked out of the room, closed the door gently, and came to the outside of Wu Weiwei's room.
Wu Weiwei heard a noise coming from the door, opened the door and stuck his head out.
After confirming it was Chen Ling, he opened the door completely and said, "Come in and talk."
"No." The Sifang Mountain surrounded by plants was actually a little chilly at night. Chen Ling touched his arm, which felt cold. "He must have heard something. Let's go out and take a look."
Wu Weiwei also felt a little cold, so he pulled down the two thin quilts on the bed and gave one to Brother Chen, "Put it on, so you don't catch a cold."
Chen Ling was also not vague and shook it open and put it on.
The two men left quietly like thieves, following the green light of the safety passage indicator above the corner of the wall towards the stairs.
The whole building has six floors, and they are now on the top floor. If they want to find someone, they can only go downstairs.
Stepping out of the dormitory door, Chen Ling suddenly shivered, "The temperature is lower than in the room."
"It's dropped by 35 degrees at least." Wu Weiwei sighed, "Luckily I brought my blanket with me."
Chen Ling nodded at him, "You are smart and have foresight."
Wu Weiwei chuckled and scratched the back of his head embarrassedly, "No, no, it's just so-so."
The two chatted in low voices as they went down from the sixth floor to the fifth floor.
The light on the fifth floor was even dimmer, and many of the safety channel indicator lights were broken. The corridor was divided into many sections by green dim light and darkness. Each small space cut out by the light and dark seemed to contain some kind of danger.
Wu Weiwei stood in front of the dormitory gate, swallowing nervously, "Brother Chen, we can see clearly from here, so let's not go in."
"Split into two groups, you go on the left and I go on the right." Chen Ling did not give him a chance to refuse. Before leaving, he remembered Wu Weiwei's rookie level and stuffed a few more talismans into his hand.
The corridor should have been visible at a glance, but it became unpredictable due to the strange light.
Chen Ling stepped across the green floor and into the darkness ahead. The place obscured by the darkness was the door of the room.
If you look carefully, you can even hear snoring coming from inside.
They kept going forward like this, but didn't see a single ghost, let alone a living person as big as Li Hongyu. The two met at the dormitory gate, and Wu Weiwei's answer was also no one.
Chen Ling gestured, "Go to the fourth floor."
The office area starts from the fourth floor, and the layout is much more complicated than that of the dormitory floors.
Chen Ling led Wu Weiwei down the stairs and turned a corner to the office area on the fourth floor. This floor was transformed into a large flat with countless small cubicles. Only at the innermost position were there two offices separated by glass walls.
After a careful search, the two continued to go down to the third floor, the second floor, and finally heard a strange sound on the first floor.
The sound spread in the flowing air, boom, boom, boom, boom...
It was crisp and clear, like something hard hitting a wooden board. Chen Ling looked at Wu Weiwei, motioned him to lighten his steps, and then led his men to slowly walk towards the source of the sound.
As the sound grew louder, Chen Ling began to get nervous. He caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye and stopped abruptly, putting out his hand to block Wu Weiwei's head as it moved forward.
Wu Weiwei staggered back a step due to this obstacle, and his butt hit the office chair, causing the wheels to roll.
Just as the chair was about to hit the desk, a hand suddenly stretched out from behind the desk, blocking it and freezing it in place.
Li Hongyu nodded to the two people who were looking at him in surprise, and raised a finger, signaling them not to make a sound.
The dong sound was not continuous. It would stop after a certain period of time, and then continue to sound tirelessly. Chen Ling suppressed his anxiety and did not dare to move. He raised his chin towards the window and asked Wu Weiwei to look over.
Outside the office are lush green trees. The breeze blows, and the leaves rustle. A white shadow stands with its back to the window. Her hair crawls in along the window frame, and she moves like a snake, passing by the desk and stool, bypassing the obstruction of the small cubicle, and explores the office of a leader deep inside.
Chen Ling was in a position where he could just see the scene inside the office.
The twisting hair seemed to be searching for something, rummaging through the office. But every time a thumping sound was heard, it would pause, probably trying to identify the direction of the sound.
The office was turned upside down. The tangled hair retreated unwillingly and lay quietly on the ground, waiting for the next thud.
Chen Ling narrowed his eyes. The black things on the ground were not real hair at all, but the aerial roots described by the security guard. Upon closer inspection, he could find that each so-called hair was thicker than normal, not straight, but crooked, and some of the hairs had even finer, fluffy roots.
Wu Weiwei obviously noticed it too, he tugged at his brother Chen's sleeve and mouthed, "Xiao Yang?"
Chen Ling nodded, and without much thought, he made an attacking gesture towards Li Hongyu, suddenly stood up and rushed forward, stepping on a bunch of hair with his foot.
There was a violent struggle beneath his feet, his hair stretched infinitely, struggling to wrap around the young man's ankles and climb upwards.
Chen Ling offered a talisman to ward off evil spirits, and at the same time, he bent down and grabbed the hair that had crawled to his thighs. While loosening his feet, he turned his wrists and forcibly peeled the hair off his legs.
He chanted an incantation, and when the words "quickly escape, as quickly as the command" came to his mind, a little flame shot out from the talisman paper that was pasted with the air-growing roots.
The talisman fire was weak at first, but gradually became stronger as the hair twisted and struggled, and the flames rushed along the hair towards the source.
Xiao Yang, who had been facing away from the office, suddenly turned around. She had kept her head down, but her hair began to flutter in the wind, and she began to launch a more fierce attack.
"I've been discovered... I'm so hungry, this is a good opportunity to fill my stomach..." The murmur was like a mother's gentle whisper, but it was full of malice.
The sound of bones breaking was heard, and the three of them could clearly see that under the skin that was illuminated almost white in the moonlight, the uneven fracture surface slowly rose up and poked the skin.
The bones shifted and adjusted their positions to form the physique of an adult male.
Wu Weiwei was stunned, "Not Mrs. Tang?!"
"It's her, and it's not her." Li Hongyu pulled out the copper coin sword from behind and held it in his hand, "It's obviously another person's skin."
Looking at that unfamiliar, handsome face, Chen Ling complained in disgust: "I'm really curious about how ugly she is. She still refuses to show her true face. This is not a love of beauty, it's a disease."
Wu Weiwei nodded frantically, "Yes, yes, Brother Chen, you are right."
"There must have been many more victims before the first remains were accidentally discovered!" When Chen Ling sneaked out of the dormitory, he was afraid that he would be too conspicuous, so he only took a telescopic stick and talisman paper.
He exerted force with his hands, swung the telescopic stick away, picked up a stool with his left hand and smashed it towards the window.
Xiao Yang's five fingers turned into vines, wrapped around the chair and threw it away. A strange smile appeared on the man's face, and his tongue stuck out, like a snake's tongue split into two from the tip, and he attacked Chen Ling from both sides.
Chen Ling used a telescopic stick to knock down one of the enemies head-on, but he was unable to take care of what was behind him.
Li Hongyu reacted quickly, jumping over from the desk on one foot, and using the copper coin sword to block the attack from behind for Chen Ling at the critical moment.
"Brother Chen!" Wu Weiwei knew that his inkwell was useful and always carried it with him. He tied one end of the ink line to the ballpoint pen he picked up from the ground and threw it in the direction of his brother Chen.
Chen Ling grabbed the ink line and threw it to Li Hongyu.
Li Hongyu understood, grabbed the string, jumped out of the window, ran around Xiaoyang, and tied him up tightly.
Xiao Yang was suppressed for only a very short time, and broke free in a few moments. Her face was almost unable to maintain its current male appearance due to her rage, and tree-root-like things were twisting and undulating under her skin.
Strong winds blew all around, bending the flowers, plants and trees. Countless leaves flew out from the mountains and plantations and entangled around Xiaoyang.
Boom, boom, boom, boom.
The sound that had been silent for a long time sounded again. Xiao Yang seemed to have given up looking for the source of the sound and remained unmoved.
Chen Ling was distracted and turned his head to look in the direction of the office. Wu Weiwei whispered to him, "I'll go check it out!"
As he took a step forward, a leaf flew in, like a sharp blade, cutting a long and narrow scratch on the edge of the table as it passed, and then pierced into the cement floor beside Wu Weiwei's feet.
"Damn!" Wu Weiwei failed to brake and his shoe hit a leaf, cutting a hole in it.
Chen Ling's left hand had already grasped the tip of the telescopic stick, intending to pry it open and release the curse whip. He asked calmly, "Mrs. Tang, what were you looking for just now?"
The frequency of the pulsations under Xiaoyang's skin increased, and a small amount of skin began to crack and bleed because it could not withstand the force of the root-like object underneath.
Just when the two sides were on the verge of a war, Xiaoyang suddenly calmed down.
The attacking hair was quickly retracted, the roots hidden under the skin returned to silence, her bones creaked again, and then turned into smoke and dissipated into the night.
"What's going on?" Wu Weiwei was confused. "She was so murderous just now, and it was obvious that she didn't want to let us go. Why did she suddenly give up?"
Chen Ling lowered his eyes and reassembled the half-disassembled telescopic stick. Wu Weiwei was right. Xiao Yang really wanted to kill them on the spot. As long as they died and her bones were thrown to a place where no one would know, no one would ever know her true identity.
"If you can't figure it out, forget it. Let's find out what's making the noise first." Chen Ling put the telescopic stick into his trouser pocket and looked back at Li Hongyu. "Are you done?"
"Yeah." Li Hongyu put away the copper coin sword, wrapped the ink line for Wu Weiwei, and threw it over in the air.
Wu Weiwei took it with both hands, ran to the two of them in three or two steps, and asked, "Li Hongyu, why are you on the first floor? I remember you were meditating on the bed opposite me before I dozed off."
Li Hongyu: "I couldn't sleep, so I went downstairs to walk around, and then I heard the noise from the first floor."
Following Chen Ling's steps, he entered the office and continued, "Before you came in, Xiao Yang had already been here once. At that time, the dong dong sound was not loud and was intermittent. After she couldn't find the source of the sound, she went to other rooms."
"Are you going to stay here forever?" Chen Ling stopped and looked at the huge office with a frown.
Li Hongyu opened a cabinet door, which was empty. He closed the door gently and continued, "I'm actually not sure whether the sound came from here or next door. I was afraid that I would have no chance of winning if I confronted Xiao Yang head-on, so I just stayed here. And then I met you guys."
Chen Ling pointed at Wu Weiwei and said, "He and I have been looking for you all the way."
Li Hongyu thought about it, stared at Wu Weiwei and said, "I'll remember to leave a note next time."
"…" Wu Weiwei felt uncomfortable being looked at with such a serious expression, and unconsciously became reserved, "Sending a text message is fine."
Li Hongyu: "Okay."
The office was already quiet, and once the talking stopped, the space became even quieter, with only the creaking sound of the cabinet door being opened.
The cabinets in this room are a bit old. They should have been moved directly from the neighboring city. Inside are various materials and trophies, as well as many certificates related to landscaping companies.
Chen Ling put a red certificate back into the cabinet. "This should be Tang Siping's office."
In addition to bookcases and shelves, the office also has storage cabinets and safes.
Wu Weiwei stared at the safe worriedly, "This is the only one left. Who among you knows the password?"
No one knows this top-secret number except Tang Siping and Mrs. Tang.
Chen Ling squatted down, tilted his head to take a closer look, reached out his hand, dug his fingertips into the door, and pushed it outwards, and the door opened.
Li Hongyu cast a surprised look, while Wu Weiwei clapped his hands, "My brother Chen is awesome."
Chen Ling was stunned by the good fortune that fell from the sky, and he didn't know whether to laugh or cry, "I just wanted to try to see if I could open it violently."
Boom.
The sound of impact poured out from the gap in the safe door.
The three men were acting as if they were facing a formidable enemy. They surrounded the safe tightly and were on high alert, fearing that some evil thing might come out of it again.
Just as they grabbed the cabinet door and were about to open it completely, a stumbling sound of running came from outside the office, and the dim room was suddenly filled with light.
Chen Ling continued to open the door, while Li Hongyu and Wu Weiwei stood up.
Outside the office door, Tang Siping, the fat and thin senior brothers, and the chief and deputy security captains were all there.
Seeing his junior brother, the fat senior brother said, "Hongyu, why are you here instead of staying in your room?"
"I heard a strange noise and came out to check." Li Hongyu asked, "Why are the two brothers and Mr. Tang here?"
"My son is missing." Tang Siping stood on tiptoe, trying to look inside the office that was blocked by the two people.
"Mr. Tang, are you talking about him?" Chen Ling stood up and said this, with a thin little boy in his arms. The boy had dry yellow hair and a pale face. His exact age could not be seen, and he felt very light in his arms.
Mr. Tang nodded hurriedly when he saw the child, "It's him, it's him."
He walked past the fat and thin brothers, pushed aside Li Hongyu and Wu Weiwei who were blocking the door, and excitedly took the child from Chen Ling's hands, "My dear son, you scared your dad to death. Why did you sneak into the office building again? Come on, dad will take you home. Your mom is still worried at home."
"Mr. Tang, is this the child with soul-leaving syndrome that you mentioned before?" Chen Ling stopped the person who was about to leave.
Tang Siping came back holding the child, "It's him, but it's late today, so the healing can only wait until another day. After all, my wife is still waiting at home, so I have to take the child back to let her see him first."
"Of course, but I still hope you can describe your son's symptoms in detail." Chen Ling paused, his face heavy, "Because I suspect he doesn't suffer from soul separation syndrome at all."
“This…” Tang Siping was caught off guard and tightened his arms around the child.
After taking a short break to digest Chen Ling's words, he slowly spoke, "Tongtong was very healthy and sensible when we first brought him home. At only four years old, he knew to wait for me at the door every day when I got off work, would bring me slippers, and would look up to ask dad if he was tired. Although he is a boy, he is also a caring and warm little cotton-padded jacket."
Tang Siping had a loving smile on his face, and it was obvious that he truly liked this child.
"About two years ago, my wife was in a car accident. The car collided with a truck... Master Chen, you didn't see the tragedy. The entire front of the car was almost dented. At that time, I took Tongtong to the hospital to see her every day. Tongtong was very well behaved. He would hug my wife's legs and ask if it hurt. He would also pout and blow on her."
At this point, everyone could clearly sense that Tang Siping's tone was beginning to drop.
It seems that the following story is a turning point.
"After the doctor allowed her to be discharged from the hospital, I took her home for recuperation. In addition to converting a room into a rehabilitation room, I also hired a professional rehabilitation therapist. Rehabilitation is a very painful process. My wife's temper became more and more strange, but she was always consistent with the child and never blamed or scolded him for being naughty. But one day, I came back late from a social event, and as soon as I entered the door, I heard the child crying..."
It was the weekend and the weather was bad, with a howling north wind and heavy snow.
Tang Siping walked in rubbing his hands. As soon as he took off his leather gloves, he heard a clanging sound from upstairs, followed by a child's wailing.
One cry after another, filled with fear and sorrow.
Tang Siping didn't even bother to wait for the elevator, he rushed up the stairs to the second floor, and finally found Tongtong, who had stopped crying but was unconscious, in his study.
Next to the child, his wife was sitting in a wheelchair, desperately reaching out to touch the child's hand hanging on the carpet.
There was a long wound on that hand, and next to the bleeding arm was a bloody fruit knife.
At this point, Mr. Tang touched his son's head lovingly and pressed his head against his shoulder. "Since he woke up that time, Tongtong has become a different person. He doesn't talk or laugh anymore. Sometimes when he's sick, he can't stand strangers. If they see him, he'll scream loudly, hide himself in fear, and keep banging his head against the wall or cabinet."
"But I think he is very calm tonight." Wu Weiwei looked at the child lying on his father's back and said, "He has not cried since we found him until now."
"Yes, I'm a little surprised too." Tang Siping lowered his head and kissed the child's forehead, and hurried back, "Master Chen, do you have anything else to ask?"
Chen Ling said yes, and turned to point to the half-open safe, "Tongtong also locked himself in the safe before?"
"Not really." Mr. Tang's face showed a trace of pain and a trace of unrelieved melancholy. "Tongtong often hides himself at night. Sometimes he hides in the closet or cabinet at home, sometimes in the dormitory or office in the office building... Every time he hides in a different place. I usually bring the security guards to help find him. After we find him and bring him back, we have to hold him while we sleep. Otherwise, he will disappear again in a blink of an eye."
Chen Ling knew that Tang Siping had a good relationship with Mrs. Tang, but he still asked at the risk of offending her: "After Tongtong got sick, how did your wife treat him?"
Such doubts did make Tang Siping feel a little uncomfortable, and his tone became stiff: "Of course it is no different from before."
Chen Ling nodded and asked, "Will Mrs. Tang still do rehabilitation afterward?"
"Yes, but I don't know what's going on. No matter how much she cooperates with the therapist, my wife still can't walk upright. She has no strength in her feet and can't stand straight. When she takes a few steps, it's like she sprained her ankle. Her posture is very strange."
How can we not blame him? Even if Xiaoyang shrank into human skin and retracted his leg bones, his innate habits could not be changed.
Not to mention anything else, just the posture of walking backwards is enough to scare people.
Chen Ling didn't finish his words and continued to ask, "Will Tongtong watch your wife while she is doing rehabilitation?"
"Won't."
"Never before?"
"Before..." Tang Siping frowned. He remembered that when his wife was just brought home, Tongtong not only watched from the side, but also shouted "Come on" to encourage his wife.
"Mr. Tang?" Chen Ling reminded.
Tang Siping came back to his senses, "Tongtong did watch from the side before."
"Mr. Tang, forgive me for being blunt, Tongtong's illness has nothing to do with soul separation syndrome." Chen Ling made up his mind and stroked the child's forehead. "He was scared out of his wits."