Free Web NovelChapter 366: Chapter 313: Ghost Shadow_2
"Yang Xiao, stay in your apartment now, don’t go out, and don’t contact anyone else," Nalan Shuo instructed. "We can’t be sure how the curse is spreading, but since the Ghost Script from Zhuwang Village was received, we must find anyone who has had contact with you. Huang Qiang and I are already in self-isolation, and the two rideshare drivers who drove you today have also been detained. We’re still looking for the others."
After giving a few words of advice, Nalan Shuo hung up the phone. He was clearly busy with other matters as Yang Xiao faintly heard the landline ringing in the director’s office.
The more Yang Xiao thought about it, the more worried he became. He didn’t know the situation on Tong Han’s side, and there was an important issue: he hadn’t received a reply to the message he’d sent to Mo Daidai earlier.
Suddenly feeling anxious, Yang Xiao was concerned that Mo Daidai might also have been affected. If Mo Daidai disappeared, who would fulfill the promises made afterward?
Unable to wait any longer, Yang Xiao made a direct call. The phone rang for a long time before it was finally answered.
"Why didn’t you answer the phone? There’s been an incident here!" Yang Xiao said urgently.
Mo Daidai’s voice carried a weary tone, "I know, someone’s missing, right? It’s happening here too, and a lot of them."
"Then why the hell didn’t you tell me?" Yang Xiao flared up instantly. How could Mo Daidai keep such a thing from him? How could they cooperate with such an attitude?
To his surprise, Mo Daidai just sighed, "This incident is quite unusual, it has contagious properties. According to our analysis, it’s more like a curse. In the absence of certainty about how the curse is spreading, rashly contacting you, the source of infection, would lead to what?"
Yang Xiao fell silent, knowing Mo Daidai was right. After all, the curse had spread from him, and judging by Mo Daidai’s mention of missing persons on his side, Tong Han must have also received the Ghost Script from Zhuwang Village and become another source of the curse.
"How’s Tong Han?" asked Yang Xiao. "Is your loss significant?"
"It’s similar to your situation. Tong Han is fine, the loss is not small, but still within the controllable range. I’ve assigned more personnel, estimating another disappearance of about three people before we can uncover more valuable information; we know too little at the moment," said Mo Daidai impassively.
"Are you experimenting with human lives?" Yang Xiao frowned.
"The harvest hasn’t been bad. We’ve roughly figured out how the contagion spreads. It requires face-to-face interaction, and the fewer people involved, the longer the contact, and the more intense the emotion, the easier the curse spreads," Mo Daidai explained, unemotionally. "Most importantly, as sources like you and Tong Han, you can only spread the curse once, and the infected people are the same."
Yang Xiao couldn’t help but be impressed by Mo Daidai’s methods and efficiency. While the Patrol Defense Office was still thinking about isolating the infected population, Mo Daidai had already used human lives to test the routes of transmission.
"I’ve fed that creature nine people. Based on their recollections of dreams before their disappearances, I’ve discovered their dreams aren’t completely the same, the environments and items they see differ too. What can be confirmed is each person’s dream involves passing through a village, then a dense and twisted forest, arriving at a strange building. And this building is the endpoint of each person’s dream," Mo Daidai explained and then continued, "As long as one dreams of this building and then falls asleep again, they’ll disappear. I’ve tried many methods to prevent them from sleeping again, including acute pain, drug injections, even the Power of Resentful Eyes, but to little effect. The entity behind the curse is too powerful, and there’s no one in my team capable of stopping it."
After hearing Mo Daidai’s words, Yang Xiao instinctively felt an ominous premonition, "What exactly are you trying to do? Have you come into contact with the ghost that caused the curse?"
"Not yet, but it shouldn’t be long now. I’ve brought in a specialized team to see if we can capture that ghost," Mo Daidai replied.
At that, Yang Xiao’s hairs stood on end, "Say that again? You... you want to catch this ghost?"
Such words were spoken by Mo Daidai, and if they were uttered by anyone else, Yang Xiao would have certainly thought the person had gone mad. To be frank, he didn’t believe Mo Daidai could achieve it either.
A moment of silence passed before Mo Daidai’s voice rang out again, "You might have misunderstood. What I mean is to capture its image. I want to see the true face of this guy, not to satisfy my curiosity but for your own good. You may not know, but just a while ago, Tong Han was attacked by it. There in the corridor, that thing followed right behind her. Luckily, my people reacted swiftly, surrounding her when Tong Han said she suddenly felt very cold."
The next second, Yang Xiao immediately remembered the bizarre incident that had occurred in the Patrol Defense Office that morning. He was walking alone in the corridor when he suddenly felt an intense chill, followed by a piercing pain in his back where the Drama Robe usually rubbed against his skin, which started to bleed. On further thought, he realized that the eerie cold sensation enveloping him had disappeared after the rupture on his back.
At that time, he didn’t have the chance to think it through, still resenting the Drama Robe for its carelessness. Now that it had troubled him yet again, he suspected that, perhaps, the Drama Robe had taken a misfortune upon itself for his sake.
"Can you confirm whether I am no longer contagious?" Yang Xiao wanted to make sure of this point.
"Of course, you have to trust science," Mo Daidai replied with confidence.
"Alright, then I would like to come over and find you now, is that possible?"
After a moment of hesitation, Mo Daidai still agreed. They arranged for a white ride-sharing car to pick him up in half an hour.
The ride-sharing car made lefts and rights along the way, even entering an alley at some point, where another car was already waiting for them. Yang Xiao switched cars and, finally, an hour later, arrived at a villa in the suburbs where he met Tong Han. He didn’t run into Mo Daidai, though; the bodyguard said that Mo Daidai was busy with something else. However, Yang Xiao suspected these were just excuses, thinking that this kid still treasured his life, worried that the research might be flawed and that he could be infected by their presence just like the other origins.
Especially after talking to Tong Han, Yang Xiao became more convinced of his guess. After receiving the Ghost Script, Tong Han hadn’t seen Mo Daidai again. The communication between the two wasn’t even done by phone, but through a note written by Mo Daidai, which was passed on by someone else.
However, Yang Xiao soon changed his mind. A knock sounded on the door of the room where the two of them were, and a bodyguard strode in, carrying a silver briefcase. freewebnøvel.coɱ
At the same time, Yang Xiao’s phone started ringing. It was Mo Daidai on the line. The first thing Mo Daidai said made Yang Xiao freeze on the spot. Mo Daidai mentioned that they had used someone as bait and, with the operation of a professional team, had taken a photograph.
"What photograph?" Yang Xiao asked excitedly, "Did you capture that ghost?" ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm
"I don’t know. I don’t know what was captured. After developing the photo, the person who developed it was infected and disappeared at the fastest rate we’ve seen so far. We deduce that only you two origins will not be attacked by the curse from the photo."
Hearing Mo Daidai’s words, Yang Xiao was convinced that they had really captured something. Even if it wasn’t a ghost, it must be related to one. Otherwise, there would be no reason for just looking at a photograph to result in a curse infection, in a speed far more terrifying than that of other infected individuals.
Without any further hesitation, Yang Xiao and Tong Han opened the briefcase. Inside was an upside-down photograph. Yang Xiao skillfully put on silver gloves and gently turned the photo over. It showed a man leaning against a bare pillar, his waist tied with a rope, head hanging low as if asleep.
There was also the reflection of the man and the pillar in the background, though not very clear. Yang Xiao realized that it wasn’t a large mirror in the background but a dark tea-colored glass.
Most crucially, in the reflection in the tea glass, about 3 or 4 meters behind the man, a figure was approaching him.
But in reality, outside the glass, there was nothing behind the man.
