NOVPUBAfter Yan and Zhu Jue quickly contacted the Special Case Team, the department behind Officer Zheng Yi also coordinated with them. By noon, a large group of personnel arrived at the address Zhuo Si had sent—Bincheng’s Malu Bay.
"Li-jie," Yan greeted Cheng Li, though they had only met once before. Still, Cheng Li was the only person in the "Special Case Team" Yan knew and could reach out to.
Ding Ling hadn’t replied to her WeChat messages, and her phone was constantly busy.
It was said she had recently been in the south, assisting in the search for early Nanyue ruins deep in the mountains, where the signal was poor. Communication required a satellite phone.
Yan wasn’t too worried about Little Lingdang’s safety, but she had no idea when her work there would wrap up.
Despite it being high noon in the peak of Bincheng’s summer, the large group walking on the scorching asphalt road couldn’t shake off an eerie chill clinging to them.
"This place is... interesting," Li remarked, squinting at the sun.
"If we didn’t know there was something off about it, this would be a great summer camping spot to escape the heat," Xiao Gua, a member of the Special Case Team, chimed in.
"That thrill-seeking yet cowardly young man really lives up to his reputation of courting death," Li couldn’t help but shake her head.
"In a way, we should thank him," Zheng Yi said, scanning their surroundings. Ever since she arrived at Malu Bay, the dark-red mission progress bar in her vision had advanced a notch.
However, once she stepped onto the road here, the progress bar stalled again. Clearly, they had to find that "indescribable place."
"Nearly twelve hours have passed since that young man, Zhuo Si, entered this place. Most likely, we only have twelve hours left," Li said, her expression turning grave.
"And by 'time,' I mean the window to enter that other place."
"The Ghost Gate opens on the Zhongyuan Festival, connecting realms that are usually inaccessible."
"Li-jie, are you saying today’s date acts as a bridge between these two places?" Yan asked.
"Like attracts like, temporarily linking them," Zhu Jue added, looking up.
Li nodded briskly as she watched the team members working with detection devices. "You could put it that way."
"There’s a theory about magnetic poles in your human science—opposites attract, likes repel."
"But in many other scenarios, the opposite holds true: likes attract."
"Though we haven’t entered that other place yet, let’s just call it the Nameless Realm for now."
"Malu Bay and the Nameless Realm coexist, both housing a special type of ghost. With the Ghost Gate open and similar energies resonating, these two places have connected due to their inherent similarities."
Li’s explanation was straightforward, but Zheng Yi’s attention was drawn to the large number of external personnel the Special Case Team had dispatched. "What are they holding?"
Yan followed her gaze. She had been curious about it too but hadn’t found the right moment to ask. Even Xiao Gua beside her was holding a device about the length of an arm.
"Yin-energy detectors," Li answered.
Yan’s eyes widened. They had devices like that now? Then again, considering the nature of the Special Case Team—with beings like Li, a powerful yokai, and Little Lingdang, a Ghost King, working under an official department—it wasn’t surprising they’d developed such technology.
"Zhuo Si entered the Nameless Realm at midnight, during the convergence of yin and yang—a rare opportunity. We don’t have the same conditions now, so we’ll have to resort to a cruder method: tracking residual traces of living energy and areas with abnormal yin concentrations."
"In short, we’ll follow the lingering traces of that 'bridge' and tear it open."
Before Yan could nod in understanding, a voice called out from nearby.
"Report—"
"Abnormal yin fluctuations detected here."
"Li-jie, please come to Position 17."
The voice crackled through Li’s walkie-talkie. Yan noticed that although Ding Ling had once told her Li was technically an affiliated member of the Special Case Team, the team members treated her with deep respect.
They seemed to hold Ding Ling in the same regard—Yan recalled hearing them refer to her as "Lingdang-jie" before.
Normally, affiliated personnel were only called in for specific tasks and followed orders.
But in the Special Case Team, these affiliates seemed to be high-ranking figures, with on-site personnel deferring to their directives.
"Let’s go take a look," Li said, leading the way.
Yan glanced at Officer Zheng Yi, who seemed lost in thought. "Zheng-jie?"
She called out, and Zheng Yi finally looked up.
"I’m fine," she said.
"You two should stay back."
In Zheng Yi’s eyes, while her informants were useful, neither Yan nor Zhu Jue were supernatural experts like the Special Case Team members.
"We’ll be fine," Yan reassured her, exchanging a glance with Zhu Jue.
In a way, they were the ones most familiar with the current situation.
From the information about Lou Yun they’d obtained from Lu Chen to Zhuo Si’s distress call, the two of them were already deeply involved.
Yan shook her silver bell bracelet and pulled out a set of Five Emperor coins from her small bag.
"Don’t worry, we’ll protect ourselves."
She spoke with confidence—her silver bell bracelet had been a gift from Ding Ling, and even Lu Chen had tried to buy it off her back at the little shop.
Blessed by a Ghost King? Nothing to fear.
Zheng Yi eyed the items and felt slightly reassured.
They followed Li to the so-called "Position 17."
"Huh?" Yan couldn’t help but exclaim.
It was a small shrine.
"Shrine" wasn’t entirely accurate—it was more of a makeshift memorial site.
Yellow paper, incense, copper coins, and fresh ash in the incense burner indicated recent activity.
"This must be a memorial site set up by local residents for the deceased," Li said.
The "shrine" was unusually oriented toward the road, with no deity statues inside—it was dedicated to those who had died on the road.
"Someone visited recently to make offerings. The incense was lit today, and I smell a young man’s scent—likely Zhuo Si," Li said, sniffing the air.
"He came here on his own to offer incense to wandering spirits, no wonder they chased after him," Zhu Jue muttered, shaking his head.
"Someone erected a memorial here for the incomplete dead," Li observed carefully.
"So that’s it. Zhuo Si accidentally triggered something. This shrine worships the deceased who died incomplete, and his incense offerings resonated with the fragmented spirits in the Nameless Realm, becoming the catalyst that linked the two places."
"Of all things..." Yan mused. Zhuo Si hadn’t mentioned the incense in his message—he probably hadn’t realized it was the cause. Too busy running from ghosts, no doubt.
Zhuo Si rambled about a bunch of ghosts chasing him—perhaps they weren’t chasing him but rather the incense he carried. Or maybe these spirits had sensed the changes in this place, and his panicked running had inadvertently led him somewhere he shouldn’t have gone.
Li squinted at the sky and spoke into her walkie-talkie: "Block the light."
Within five minutes of her command, Yan and the others watched as dark clouds rolled in, shrouding the sky in a thick, gloomy haze. The sunlight was completely obscured, and the world seemed to dim.
"Oh my god," Yan muttered, exchanging a wide-eyed glance with Zhu Jue.
"Is this the legendary 'swallowing clouds and spitting mist'?"
It was their first time witnessing such a grand spectacle. Even Officer Zheng Yi seemed momentarily stunned.
"No, we don’t have the ability to artificially create clouds. We just used magic to redirect clouds from other areas. Looks like they’ve added quite a few rain-inducing pellets too," Li explained.
Magic to manipulate clouds, combined with rain-inducing technology—this fusion of the mystical and the scientific left Yan gaping.
"The end of science is mysticism," she said. 𝓃𝓸𝓿𝓹𝓾𝓫.𝓬ℴ𝓶
"And the end of mysticism is science," Zhu Jue finished seamlessly.
With the dimmed light, the atmosphere grew oppressive, like a storm pressing down on the city.
Incense was lit again in front of the small temple as the special case team attempted to reconnect the two fragmented realms where the lost spirits lingered.
But… it didn’t work.
Fearing that too many living souls might disturb the spirits, most of the field personnel had already withdrawn from the area.
Three team members took turns making offerings, yet all attempts failed, leaving the atmosphere tense and uncertain.
"Could it be a matter of timing?" Officer Zheng Yi suggested.
Li’s gaze sharpened. "It shouldn’t be. We’ve already altered the celestial phenomena here and adjusted the concentration of yin energy. The conditions now are nearly identical to the original environment at midnight."
"Then is it a problem with the person?" Yan guessed.
After all, Zhuo Si was the "Supernatural Intern"—a man with protagonist-level luck!
"Let me try," Officer Zheng Yi said, stepping forward with prepared incense and candles.
As the smoke curled upward, she tossed paper money into the fire. Slowly rising, she gestured in a specific direction. Yan and Zhu Jue blinked—had Officer Zheng Yi seen the "path"?
They watched as she walked toward an invisible entrance.
"I see it too—is it that gray-black area?" Yan whispered.
"Must be," Li confirmed.
"Let’s go."
Though Li still didn’t understand the exact mechanics of the ritual, finding the path was progress. She whistled into her walkie-talkie, and Yan, hand in hand with Zhu Jue, followed closely behind Officer Zheng Yi.
Their surroundings shifted abruptly—the road of Mawan Bay vanished, replaced by a haze of mist.
"Zhu Jue, Officer Zheng is gone." In the blink of an eye, Yan and Zhu Jue could no longer see her.
"Don’t worry, I’m still here," Zhu Jue reassured her, gripping her hand tightly.
"Let me check my phone." Yan remained calm. Though they’d wandered into an unknown place, she’d chosen this herself.
"No signal. Maybe we’ve gone deeper. Zhuo Si managed to send us messages before—maybe because of his special status, or maybe he was still near the surface."
"The sense of direction here is unreliable," Zhu Jue muttered, scanning their foggy surroundings with a frown.
"In horror movies, splitting up is the worst mistake," Yan declared sagely.
"Zhu Jue, let’s sit down."
He obliged, and the two settled on the ground.
"Like Mom taught us when we were kids—if we stay put, someone will find us."
"In horror movies, the reckless ones die first."
Yan pondered for a moment.
"Protagonists are like the main characters. Officer Zheng Yi might be the lucky lead, and Zhuo Si the unlucky one."
"We just need to lay low and trust the protagonists will come back for us," she reasoned.
Though they rarely ventured into danger like this, Yan had thought it through. Even if she and Zhu Jue weren’t protagonists, they always seemed to cross paths with them. If the special case team couldn’t find them, they could always rely on their own peculiar luck.
"We’ll wait for the rabbit to come to us," Zhu Jue said, wrapping an arm around her waist as they leaned against each other.
Their phones had no signal but still had battery, marking the passage of time.
Bored, Yan pulled up a sudoku game on her phone and began filling in numbers, chatting idly with Zhu Jue.
"Li and the others must’ve come in too. Wonder where they ended up."
"If Da Bao and Xiao Bao were here, they’d probably tease us for still playing sudoku."
"We stopped playing when we were seven," Zhu Jue said.
"They were only four back then," Yan mused, smiling faintly.
Puzzle games like sudoku had been their favorites before the twins arrived. But after being thoroughly outmatched by the prodigious siblings, they’d abandoned them for years.
As kids, they’d just wanted to grow up fast—to escape the twins and their ego-crushing brilliance.
But now that they were apart, they missed them.
"I kinda miss Da Bao and Xiao Bao," Yan murmured.
"Then after this, we’ll spend the rest of our vacation at home," Zhu Jue promised.
"AAAAAHHH—"
A scream—somehow familiar yet foreign—shattered the quiet.
Yan and Zhu Jue looked up to see a figure sprinting toward them. About five meters away, the person suddenly veered and bolted in the opposite direction.
After running another ten meters, they seemed to realize something and charged back.
"Bosses!"
"You’re finally here!"
"Holy crap!"
Zhuo Si skidded to a halt in front of the seated duo, tears welling in his eyes as he nearly dropped to his knees.
Yan and Zhu Jue: "…"
They’d been hoping for Officer Zheng Yi to save the day—not this guy!
"You scared me! I saw a bunch of ghosts behind you and freaked out!"
"You’ve dealt with them, right?" Zhuo Si babbled excitedly.
Yan and Zhu Jue’s expressions froze. Wait—what was this idiot saying?
Then, a hand politely tapped Zhu Jue’s shoulder and pointed at his phone.
Expressionless, he turned and handed over his unlocked device.
A few seconds later, it was returned.
A new line had been added to the notes app:
"Are you here to save us?"
