Free Web NovelEarly in the morning, at Huacheng Institute of Technology.
Professor Ma had no classes in the morning, so he arrived at his office early, brewed a strong cup of tea, and while browsing recent journals, waited for his old friend's son to arrive.
Two days had passed, and he had completed the replication work; it was time to return the bamboo slips.
One must be true to their word; this was one of Professor Ma's principles.
However, time flew by quickly in waiting. Professor Ma waited from sunrise until noon. The tea leaves in his cup had lost their flavor, but the young man did not appear at the office door.
Seeing that it was almost lunchtime, he finally grew a little impatient. He picked up the phone on his desk, recalled the contact information the young man had left, and dialed his number.
“Beep—beep—!”
The busy signal on the phone rang for a long time, as if deliberately wearing down patience. It wasn't until the waiting time was almost up that the person on the other end finally answered the phone slowly.
“Hello! Who is this?”
A strange voice, sounding like a middle-aged man, with a hint of tiredness and displeasure, came from the other end.
Professor Ma was stunned for a moment before responding, “Hello, I am Ma Zhen. I am the father of the owner of this number...”
“You are Professor Ma?” the middle-aged man said in surprise. “I thought... Uh, I'm sorry, it's great that you are all right!”
What kind of talk is this? Listening to this, is it normal for something to happen to me? Professor Ma's face darkened. Although he was a little displeased, with his upbringing, he wouldn't lose his temper with someone.
“May I ask who you are?”
“Ah, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.” The middle-aged man apologized repeatedly. “I am Yi Siyuan's eldest son. The young man who came to see You before is my younger brother.”
“Oh—!” Professor Ma suddenly understood, thinking that the young man might be busy with something and temporarily unavailable to answer the phone. But what the middle-aged man said next made him pause.
“Professor Ma, I know You made an ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) appointment with my brother to meet today, but...”
Midway through his sentence, the middle-aged man fell silent. Professor Ma faintly heard a low sob coming from the other end of the phone, and a sense of unease quietly arose in his heart.
After a long silence, the middle-aged man continued speaking, his voice seeming a little hoarse, “Professor Ma, why don't You keep that set of bamboo slips? My father originally gave them to You. My brother didn't know what sudden madness came over him and took it upon himself to come to You to ask for them. I apologize for the disturbance.”
Professor Ma frowned slightly, “...” Did that young man act on his own initiative? Didn't his father ask him to come and retrieve them?
He was suspicious. Recalling that the young man had told him that his old friend had suddenly come back to life, the more he thought about it, the more he felt something was wrong.
Before he could figure out the reason, the middle-aged man spoke again.
“Professor Ma, how about that? I won't take up any more of Your time. Too much has happened at home recently, and I also need to be busy handling things.”
Hearing that the middle-aged man was about to hang up, Professor Ma quickly said, “Please wait a moment. There are a few points I don't understand about this matter. I hope You can clarify.”
“...” The middle-aged man pondered for a few seconds. “Please speak. If I can help You, I will do my best.”
Feeling his lips somewhat dry, Professor Ma picked up his cup and took a sip of the light tea, which was as tasteless as plain water.
“The place I don't understand is, when your brother came to see me a few days ago, he said that the Old man suddenly, uh, came back to life and instructed him to retrieve the gradually, out of respect for the deceased and the dead, so I...”
“Hmph—!”
Professor Ma hadn't finished speaking when he heard a cold snort from the other end of the phone, followed by the middle-aged man gritting his teeth, “My useless brother, I really don't know what to say about him!”
“Professor Ma, You are also a knowledgeable person, how can You believe his nonsense? In fact, the day after my brother returned to our hometown, he also told me the same thing, saying that he woke up in the middle of the night and saw our father in the attic, saying that the Old man had come back to life.”
“At first, I thought he was just missing him too much and his mental state was a little unstable, and I even comforted him. To be honest, I also hoped what he said was true, but after my father passed away, I kept vigil every night. If the Old man had really come back to life, how could I not know?”
“But since then, he has always said that he saw our father. One moment he says he saw our father running and floating like a ghost in the bamboo forest on the mountain, the next he says he saw our father laughing alone in the corner of the old house's warehouse, and he even says he saw our father lying in the graveyard behind the mountain at night. Do You think this is reasonable?”
Professor Ma was stunned for a moment and echoed, “Indeed, it is a bit unreasonable.”
In the usual sense, it is indeed unreasonable.
However, when Professor Ma thought about what happened with Lu Yibei in Lu Xu's dormitory that day, he felt that this matter was a bit uncertain.
He slightly imagined the scene of a thin, pale-faced Old man, wearing a bright burial shroud, floating in the quiet bamboo forest, or laughing strangely in the corner of a dark warehouse. His heart felt a chill.
Maybe, he really saw it? freёwebnovel.com
Professor Ma was thinking when he heard the middle-aged man continue, “So, when he proposed to go see You yesterday, I scolded him and confiscated his phone and car keys. Who knew...”
The middle-aged man was silent for a long time. Professor Ma felt that something was wrong and pressed, “Did something happen?”
“Sigh—!” The middle-aged man sighed heavily, “My brother disappeared last night, along with my father's body. They haven't been found yet.”
“I suspect there is something wrong with his mental state and I'm worried that he might do something out of line, so when You called just now, I... I'm really sorry.”
“It's okay, it's okay.” Professor Ma said, thinking that encountering such a troublesome matter during the vigil period, it is understandable for anyone to have emotions.
“Professor Ma, then I'll be busy. With this kind of thing happening, things are in chaos here in the hometown. You...” The middle-aged man hesitated, stopping and starting, and finally said solemnly, “Please take care of Yourself. I'm worried that my brother will go back to find You.”
After speaking, he hung up the phone.
The busy signal of the hung-up phone sounded in his ear. Professor Ma was in a daze for a long time before he came back to his senses. He slightly recalled what the middle-aged man had just said, and always felt something was not right.
“What do You mean, ‘take care of Yourself'? It sounds like a threat! As a scientific researcher, I should believe in science! Yes, science!”
Professor Ma muttered, took out his phone, opened his contacts, and searched for Lu Yibei's number.
He had just found Lu Yibei's number and hadn't had time to press the dial button when his phone rang. The caller ID only had seven digits, it was an unknown number.
Professor Ma frowned at this and lightly touched the answer button.
A sweet voice came from the other end of the phone, “Hello, hello? May I ask if this is Ma Zhen, Professor Ma?”
“Who are You?” Professor Ma asked in confusion.
“Oh, hello, I am a Doctor from Huacheng People's Hospital. When we were doing rounds this morning, we found that Lu Xu was missing and hasn't returned yet.”
“Missing? How could this be...” Professor Ma was stunned.
“We don't know what happened either. We checked the surveillance footage, but didn't find where he went. He was supposed to be discharged today, but now...”
“In short, Your phone number is the only one in his contacts. I called to ask if You know where he is? If it's convenient, please ask him to come to the hospital to pay the fees.”
“Uh...” Professor Ma opened his lips slightly and said, “I'm sorry, I don't know where he is, but later, I will go and pay the fees for him.”
“Okay, that would be troublesome, beep—!”
Putting down his phone, Professor Ma sat in his chair in a long daze, thinking silently.
Why did my old friend and Lu Xu disappear at roughly the same time?
Is it because they both had close contact with that set of bamboo slips?
I also had contact with that set of bamboo slips, why am I fine?
Professor Ma was thinking when a faint, almost imperceptible stench entered his nostrils. The smell was like the sour odor of decaying food scraps, or like a dead mouse hidden in an unseen corner of the office.
The stench interrupted his thoughts. He got up with a look of confusion, took a few deep breaths, but found nothing. Like an illusion, that nauseating strange smell appeared out of thin air and quickly disappeared without a trace.
Professor Ma looked around, at the dusty book shelf piled with material, frowned, and muttered, “It seems I need to hire someone to clean this place properly later.”
As he spoke, he took out his phone and called Lu Yibei.
...
At noon, a sleeping Lu Yibei was awakened by the ringing of his phone and reluctantly got out of bed.
He had finally managed to take a day off from his Counselor by claiming to be “going to the hospital for a follow-up check on the eighteen stab wounds he received.” He had planned to sleep until sunset, but things didn't go as planned.
Before he could answer the phone, he heard a series of “thump-thump-thump” footsteps coming from the stairwell.
Ju Meng rushed up from downstairs, jumped onto his bed, sat beside him, squinted at him, and her large eyes sparkled with an unusual light.
Lu Yibei ignored Ju Meng, answered the phone, put it to his ear, and then heard Professor Ma's familiar voice.
“Lu Yibei, the situation is urgent. Come to my office quickly. Lu Xu and my old friend disappeared together last night.”
“I suspect something has happened to them. I'll tell You the details when You get here. That's it.”
Missing? Lu Yibei was stunned for a moment, then responded, “Okay, then let's talk when we meet?” After saying that, he hung up the phone.
As soon as Lu Yibei hung up the phone, Ju Meng became gossipy, “Who is it, who is it? Girlfriend? Or someone from the Night Watch?”
You are the God of Reproduction, not the God of Gossip, why are You so talkative? Lu Yibei thought, saying expressionlessly, “Teacher.”
“Tch! Boring.” Ju Meng rolled her eyes and said, “In this world, anyone whose name contains the word ‘Lao' is particularly boring, wife, Teacher, mother...”
“I don't think so.” Lu Yibei tilted his head and said, “Because I heard his tone, I think we have a job! Maybe soon, I can help You collect the first urban legend core.”
He was still worried about where to hunt urban legend! He didn't expect them to come knocking on his door. Professor Ma is truly an excellent people's Teacher! Lu Yibei thought, his eyes slightly narrowed.
