DNSTU Chapter 2. Uncanny Event

Ever since Shen Yanzhi and Song Ling reappeared, Xiang Ye’s life had been veering off course, like a runaway train plunging into a world of mystery and strangeness.

The broken lock was only the beginning. Before long, Xiang Ye began to suspect that someone was watching him.

It was an intuition, baseless and inexplicable.

When he stood by the window, he felt as if someone was standing in the pitch-black woods below, looking up at him. When he lay in bed, he felt the room growing colder, a chill seeping into his bones. He left the lights on the whole night, but never actually fell asleep. He kept going over his memories, got up to sort through Old Xiang’s belongings again, and searched online for news reports about the accident back then, trying to uncover some kind of clue.

The sun rose the next day to a clear, cloudless sky.

Xiang Ye saw Shen Yanzhi and Song Ling again. They had bought breakfast and come by, acting as if they had never left in the past ten years, warmly and ingratiatingly urging Xiang Ye to eat.

But Xiang Ye still could not summon even a trace of familial affection for them. He decided to go out for a walk.

Talk of ghosts and monsters did not frighten him. He might not have been able to pass a 1500-meter run, but he was gutsy and defiant. He believed in the scientific outlook on development, yet at the same time was the most superstitious idealist imaginable. In other words, unless he saw a ghost with his own eyes, they did not exist.

There was no way a timid person could survive in an unfinished building. The summer before he turned seventeen, Xiang Ye even worked for a film crew that came to the complex to shoot a horror movie.

Because there were so many trees and weeds in the area, the original developer, before they went bankrupt, had actually done good work. Back then, the greenery rate in the neighborhood was one of the best in all of Jiangzhou. After it was abandoned, the greenery turned into wilderness. People often lost their way inside, and only the locals knew their way around. The male lead of that low-budget crew, a bottom-tier actor, was so unnerved by Xiang Ye’s ghost-like comings and goings that for quite a long time, he thought Xiang Ye was a spirit bound to the place.

Shen Yanzhi claimed to be worried about Xiang Ye’s safety and followed him from a distance.

Xiang Ye ignored him. He was determined to uncover the truth about what happened back then. Ghosts or not, there were still too many unanswered questions. If his grandparents had really acted out of goodwill by handing him over to Old Xiang, then why him of all people? The man was eccentric, poor, and by all appearances, not someone anyone would entrust a child to.

His grandparents had already cut ties with his father. Why had they suddenly been so willing to cooperate with them? They even managed to deceive the police. Had they been moved by some last trace of conscience?

Could parents who truly loved their child really go ten years without returning even once to see him, only to suddenly claim they had sensed danger and had come back to protect him?

If he wanted to find answers, he had to track down people who were connected to what happened back then.

The older generation was all gone, and that made evidence even harder to come by. Old Xiang and Song Ling had no known relatives, and their social circles had been extremely narrow.

Xiang Ye went to Shen Yanzhi’s old company, hoping to find some of his former colleagues. But ten years had passed, and people came and went too quickly. Even the janitorial staff in the building had been replaced more than once. Xiang Ye did not find a single familiar face.

He then tried to look for their old neighbors.

Back when Shen Yanzhi and Song Ling were still “alive,” they had not lived in the Nanshan District. Xiang Ye crossed more than half the city to return to their previous neighborhood, only to find it had long since been demolished. Where had the neighbors moved to?

No one knew.

He thought of calling his hometown, but there was no one to call. It was a remote rural village some distance from Jiangzhou. The elders there held very conservative views and had never accepted Song Ling, a daughter-in-law of unclear origin.

Xiang Ye had seldom visited and had bad memories of the place. He barely knew anyone there. After his grandparents abandoned him, he had heard almost nothing from that side of the family.

By the end of the day, after all his searching, Xiang Ye suddenly realized that it was as if his ties to the past had been severed.

As if guided by unseen hands, he found himself standing before the place where the ashes were kept.

The photos of Shen Yanzhi and Song Ling were pasted side by side, cropped from the same group picture. Both were smiling warmly, radiating happiness. If they really had become ghosts, having died on the same day, in the same month and year, they would surely make a fine ghost couple.

Xiang Ye suddenly realized that he did not know his parents at all.

They had died too early, before he ever had a chance to grasp what life meant. They left him behind before he even understood the world. Now they had returned, but were they truly the same people?

He stood in front of the urns for a long time. Only when the sun had set did he finally turn to leave.

But he had only taken a few steps, not even reached the door, when he heard a sharp cracking sound behind him. He turned instinctively and saw Shen Yanzhi’s urn lying on the floor, the ashes scattered everywhere.

The caretaker rushed in at the sound. The moment he saw the scene, his face changed.

“Young man, you may be good-looking, but how can you be so careless with your hands? Even if you had a grudge, you can’t take it out on someone’s remains.” He naturally assumed Xiang Ye was responsible. The urn was heavy, and the shelf faced away from the window. There was no wind that could have knocked it down. Even the incense burner beside it was undisturbed.

Xiang Ye acted as if he had not heard a word. His gaze swept the room, his face stiff and ashen.

The caretaker was startled by his expression and quickly asked what was wrong. Xiang Ye did not answer. He ran straight out the door, lungs burning, and finally found Shen Yanzhi behind a pillar outside.

“What are you doing here?” Xiang Ye barked the question at him.

“I… I was smoking?” Shen Yanzhi looked down at the cigarette in his hand, clearly embarrassed.

“You said you were here to protect me. So why didn’t you come inside?”

“Well, isn’t my urn in there? If someone saw me and realized I looked exactly like the dead guy in the photo, wouldn’t they be scared out of their mind? Are you alright? Did something happen in there?”

Once again, Shen Yanzhi’s explanation was perfectly reasonable.

So damn reasonable.

Xiang Ye had run too fast and was struggling to catch his breath. He did not feel like talking. The two of them walked home in silence, but on the way, something strange happened.

Xiang Ye had been walking along just fine when someone suddenly shoved him. A car roared past, nearly hitting him. Shen Yanzhi had reacted quickly and grabbed him in time.

But when he turned to look, there was no one else within ten meters. Just him and Shen Yanzhi. And it could not have been Shen Yanzhi who pushed him, because Xiang Ye had been walking behind him.

If the broken lock and the overturned urn had been minor disturbances, this time, Xiang Ye truly felt the threat of death.

Shen Yanzhi looked even more shaken than he did. “No, Xiao Ye, we have to leave. They’ve already found us. Don’t you get it?”

Xiang Ye did not look well. He had not slept all night, and the shock had drained the color from his face even further. His voice was quieter than usual, though his tone remained unchanged. “And with tricks like this, where exactly do you think you’re going to run? Might as well find some shaman to dance it off.”

Shen Yanzhi tried again and again to persuade him, but Xiang Ye would not budge.

If there was still a chance of uncovering clues here in Jiangzhou, then leaving with the two of them now might mean losing everything forever. Even if Shen Yanzhi and Song Ling really were his parents, and everything they said was true, with things the way they were now, he might very well die in some unfamiliar place and never return.

The biggest problem was that they were not being honest.

Song Ling had said she came from a special place and could see ghosts, so what kind of place was it? There were still so many things they were keeping from him. And Xiang Ye was now beginning to suspect even Old Xiang.

This man who had raised him for ten years had left behind such a cryptic warning. It was clear he knew something. Then why had he never told him?

That night, Xiang Ye kept searching online and managed to find the name of the newspaper where the journalist who had reported on the incident back then had worked. But the paper had gone out of business, and of course, there was no way to get the reporter’s contact information.

Every lead he chased ended in a dead end. Xiang Ye could not help but swear, “Fuck!”

On the third day, Xiang Ye decided to go to the police.

Not to actually file a case. He just wanted to test the enemy’s limits. On one hand, the police would never believe in ghosts or anything like that. A man returning from the dead after ten years was more likely to end up as a headline on some tabloid. On the other hand, if what Shen Yanzhi said was true and calling the police would put others in danger, then Xiang Ye did not want to get innocent people involved either. He had always been the kind of person who would rather walk alone at night than bother someone just to take a longer route.

All he wanted was the truth.

Xiang Ye went straight to the police station. With how well he knew Jiangzhou, he easily shook off Shen Yanzhi and made his way there alone. The report he filed was simple. He suspected someone was following him.

He did not expect that before he could even leave the station, it would catch fire.

The blaze had started in the records room. It was not large, and in a busy station full of people, it was discovered and extinguished quickly. But standing in the sunlight outside, looking up at the smoking windows, Xiang Ye felt a chill shoot straight through his chest.

“Move!” Shen Yanzhi finally caught up, grabbing him and dragging him all the way back to the unfinished building.

“Don’t you get it by now? It’s useless!” Shen Yanzhi pleaded with him. “This is their warning. We can’t ask anyone for help. The only thing we can do is run.”

Song Ling had tears in her eyes as she urged him, “Xiao Ye, please come with us. Will you? Mom is really worried about you.”

Xiang Ye closed his eyes, took a deep breath, then opened them again. His pale eyes locked onto them as he asked, “Then why are you both fine? I’m just your son. I don’t know anything. If they really wanted to kill someone, why wouldn’t they come for you first instead of targeting me?”

The question came off as too cold-blooded, too piercing. Both of them were caught off guard, rendered speechless. Before they could collect their thoughts, Xiang Ye asked again, “These past two days you’ve been trying to get me to leave with you. Leave and go where? Is that place actually safe? And what have you been asking around the complex about?”

“I—I just wanted to know if you’ve been doing well all these years, and if that old man treated you right…” Song Ling stumbled through her words, then suddenly burst into tears. “I know we’ve let you down, Xiao Ye. I’m sorry. Mom is so sorry…”

The sound of crying seemed to put an end to the confrontation.

Shen Yanzhi comforted her tenderly, and just like that, the matter was brushed aside. Xiang Ye turned and went back into the room, though his heart was still pounding. In truth, of all the questions he had asked, the most important was the last one.

Shen Yanzhi followed him around every day under the pretense of protecting him, while Song Ling stayed behind at the unfinished building, asking around about Xiang Ye and Old Xiang. That gave Xiang Ye a subtle suspicion that they seemed to be looking for something.

Was it an object? Or a piece of information?

During meals, they had also been casually trying to ask about his daily life, as if it were just parents showing concern for their child.

Xiang Ye did not confront them directly. He simply turned and went back to his room, slamming the door behind him.

Inside, the anger on his face vanished without a trace. He first looked around the room to make sure nothing was out of place. Then he sat at his desk, put on his headphones, picked up his fountain pen, and opened his journal, calmly scribbling across the page.

Static buzzed in his ears. It was not music. It sounded more like electricity. Then other voices began to come through. It was Shen Yanzhi and Song Ling speaking in hushed tones.

Song Ling said, “He still doesn’t believe us. And we haven’t been able to get any information. What do we do?”

Shen Yanzhi said, “Who knew he’d turn out to be a wolf cub that can’t be tamed. Even with his own mom and dad, he’s still this heartless.”

Song Ling said, “If I’d known it was going to be this much trouble, we should’ve just used force from the start. Then we could take the bones out of him when the time comes…”

Shen Yanzhi said, “Don’t be reckless. If we accidentally kill him, the trail goes cold. We’ll be the ones who end up paying the price.”

Song Ling said, “Are you sure you’re not just going soft?”

Shen Yanzhi replied, “Heh…”

Their voices suddenly grew faint and indistinct. He could no longer make out what they were saying. He pressed one hand against the earbud, straining to hear, but it was no use.

The two of them had likely walked out of range of the bug, and the device’s quality left much to be desired. Still, it was better than nothing. Xiang Ye had picked it up from a secondhand market on a whim, never expecting it would come in handy like this.

What exactly were those two scheming? What did they want from him? He turned his head again, gaze piercing toward the wall, as if he could see through it to what was happening across the hall.

Then, the sound in the earpiece suddenly became clear again.

Song Ling said, “Tomorrow we have to take him. We need to get out of this place as soon as possible, quietly and cleanly, before anyone else catches on. If it comes to it, we’ll drug him.”

Shen Yanzhi said, “Don’t worry. I’ve got everything ready.”

The pen scratched a hard line across the page, the nib nearly splitting. Xiang Ye sat in thought. So tomorrow was their final deadline for him.

That night, he lay alone in the unfinished building, trying to figure out what to do. He drifted off at some point, but his sleep was shallow. He woke from a nightmare not long after.

It was already past midnight. He remained curled on his side, facing the wall. As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw a dark, blurry figure on the wall.

The room was so silent you could hear a pin drop. Xiang Ye stared at the shadow, completely still.

There was a knife under his pillow. Xiang Ye had placed it there on purpose. He held his breath and slowly reached out to grasp the handle. It was a simple motion, yet it felt like it drained all the strength from his body. He could even hear the creaking of his joints, sharp enough to make his teeth ache, as if his body had rusted.

But just as he steeled himself to turn and look, the shadow was gone.

The room was empty. He was alone.

Xiang Ye knew he could not stay here any longer. He hurriedly packed his things into a backpack and prepared to leave. As soon as he opened the door, Shen Yanzhi’s face appeared right in front of him. They were so close that if Xiang Ye had walked just a little faster, their faces would have touched.

“Xiao Ye, where are you going this late at night?” Shen Yanzhi asked with concern.

“What are you doing here?” Xiang Ye’s voice tightened. One hand gripped the knife behind his back, every muscle in his body taut.

“I couldn’t sleep. I was worried about you, so I came to stand guard. Are you scared? It’s alright. I’m here. Go back and get some rest.” Shen Yanzhi stood blocking the doorway, showing no intention of stepping aside.

“Can’t even run away properly,” Xiang Ye muttered. Old Xiang’s curse had come true after all.