A Manual for Surviving a Weird World

Chapter 394 Returning to an old haunt only brings more loneliness

Generally speaking, when Ascendants use ink lines to create sealed-off areas, they rarely completely seal off an area. They usually leave a hidden gap for easy entry and exit, and this is especially true of Sheepfold Village.

But perhaps due to bad luck today, even though he already knew the approximate location of the entrance to the Yanglao Village quarantine area, Ning Zhe still searched around the high wall for a long time before finally finding the entrance.

Due to time constraints, the high walls surrounding Yanglao Village were constructed by assembling prefabricated concrete panels, rather than being cast as a single unit. Each concrete panel is approximately 13 meters high, 5 meters wide, and 127 centimeters thick.

Of the 13-meter-long wall panel, only a little over 5 meters were visible above the ground; the rest was buried underground, covering the ink lines buried deep beneath. The gaps in the ink lines were hidden between the joints of two concrete walls. Ning Zhe spent considerable effort finally finding the two special concrete panels, and led Plumeria through a narrow, U-shaped passage that was so narrow that one could only pass sideways, into the quarantine zone.

“It’s so dark here.” Plumeria looked up at the gloomy sky inside the wall and said, “Outside it’s a clear blue sky, but just across the wall it becomes a dark and gloomy sky.”

Ning Zhe leaned against the wall, took out his phone and checked it. The signal was gone. He put the phone back in his pocket and looked into the distance. Under the dark sky was a desolate wasteland, with gray embers drifting in every gust of wind, like a long, light snow.

In the distance, on this desolate land, a few residential buildings can be vaguely seen.

"Master, are you waiting for someone?" Plumeria asked softly when she saw Ning Zhe standing still.

"I was waiting for someone, but unfortunately, I didn't see them."

Ning Zhe gazed at the distant residential buildings and said, "There are more than one ghost imprisoned in the Yanglao Village quarantine area, and each ghost is quite dangerous. Therefore, Yundu has specially assigned an extremely valuable Ascendant with a clean background to guard this place. When we passed through the gap just now, he should have already received the news that someone had broken in."

Logically, the ascendant should have come to the breach to check the situation as soon as he learned that someone had broken in, but Ning Zhe has been waiting by the wall until now, and only snow-like ashes are falling on the desolate ground, without seeing a single person.

"Let's not wait for him anymore, let's go." Ning Zhe reached out and caught a few wisps of embers drifting in the wind, rubbed them between his fingertips until they turned to ash, and stepped away from the high wall.

Plumeria hurriedly followed Ning Zhe's footsteps, and the two walked one after the other through the swirling ashes, heading towards the residential buildings in the distance.

"Master, what are we going to do?" Plumeria asked.

“Go find someone… or rather, a ghost.” Ning Zhe said as he walked, “It’s a little girl named Yin Lishang. She’s about this tall, barely reaching my waist. She usually wears her hair in pigtails, with thick bangs covering her face. Her whole body is covered with all kinds of festering skin diseases and acne. She looks quite scary.”

Ning Zhe gestured with his hands to indicate Yin Lishang's height and briefly described her physical features. He then said, "She was imprisoned in Yanglao Village. At first, two of my women were here to take care of her. Later, when the quarantine zone was built, those two women left and went home. Only Yin Lishang and the Ascended One who was responsible for monitoring her remained in the quarantine zone."

Plumeria listened intently, but her attention was focused on the two women Ning Zhe mentioned as "mine," and she didn't really care whether Yin Lishang was a human or a ghost.

"Oh right, Melinda." Plumeria suddenly remembered that she needed to let Melinda know she was safe. She quickly unzipped her bag and reached into her small handbag to feel for her notepad, but found nothing. "Huh? Where's the notepad?"

Promelia looked puzzled. She fully unzipped her purse and searched through each of the compartments, but still couldn't find the notepad. "It's gone..." Promelia blinked. Her bag didn't contain much—just her phone, keys, lip balm, and a few credit cards. There wasn't a problem with too many things or a cluttered bag. The purse itself was perfectly intact, without any damage, and she had just unzipped it herself. Her notepad was truly gone.

"What's missing from your possession?" Ning Zhe stopped and asked softly.

“The notepad, the one I use to contact you. Mary also has a mirror copy. I was planning to let her know I was safe…” Plumeria frowned, her tone somewhat helpless. “I checked it before boarding the ship, and it was still there then.”

Ning Zhe thought for a moment and handed her his notepad: "Use this to let her know you're safe. Be careful from now on."

"Thank you, Master~" Plumeria happily took Ning Zhe's notepad, took a few deep breaths in front of her nose, and then carefully turned to a page and wrote a message to let him know she was safe.

After doing all this, Plumeria put the notepad into her purse, zipped it up, and continued walking forward with Ning Zhe.

A notepad, hmph, the notepad that Master used... Plumeria recalled the scene of Ning Zhe taking the notepad out of the inside pocket of his clothes. Just thinking that Ning Zhe had always kept this notebook close to his body and that every page was stained with his scent made Plumeria's mood lighten up.

The girl followed Ning Zhe with light steps, like a bouncy little elf, occasionally unzipping her zipper to peek at the notepad inside, and couldn't help but hum softly to herself.

Ning Zhe paid no attention to the girl's little actions behind him, and just strolled across the wasteland covered with ashes. The residential building was not far away.

"what!"

A scream suddenly came from behind him. Ning Zhe immediately turned around and grabbed Plumeria's shoulder: "What happened?"

“No, it’s gone.” Plumeria’s voice trembled, and glistening tears welled up in her eyes. She looked extremely heartbroken. She unzipped her purse and showed it to Ning Zhe. Inside were her cell phone, keys, lip balm, and several credit cards, but the notepad was nowhere to be found.

"It's gone again?" Ning Zhe frowned, but didn't blame her for being careless. He had seen everything Plumeria had done. She treasured that notepad very much, unzipping it every now and then to check on it. She also held her purse very carefully in her arms, so there was no way she would lose it.

Ning Zhe looked around, and all he could see was ashes falling like snow: "Tell me exactly how and when it was lost."

“Just now,” Promelia said, tears welling up in her eyes, “I just unzipped the purse and checked, the notepad was still inside, and then less than a minute later, I couldn’t resist unzipping it again, and the notepad was gone…”

Ning Zhe silently translated her narration into human language in his mind:
1. Plumeria always held the handbag in her arms and never let it out of her sight.
2. The bag itself was not damaged, and the zipper was always zipped up.
3. Plumeria unzips the bag approximately every minute to check the notepad inside.
In this situation, the notepad inside the purse disappeared in less than a minute between the two unzippings.

"..." Ning Zhe took a deep breath, his expression becoming serious: "Be prepared, my dear Melia, this place is haunted."

(End of this chapter)