Artifact Report

Chapter 377 Mai Minghe: The Increasing Number of Strange People and Ivan

At 12:40, the Red Swan Garden Hotel was still just an old brown brick building in the style of the mid-20th century—it had neither a garden nor red swans, only a flamingo painted on the building, seemingly for people to use to misrepresent the facts.

As long as it wasn't a construction site, Mai Minghe breathed a sigh of relief, wondering if the nest had stimulated his imagination.

The wife should have arrived before her; but she said the hotel was a construction site, so how could it really become a construction site?
Even the inhabitants of the nest don't have the ability to make whatever they say come true.

"No need to stop, I won't get off."

When Mak Ming-ho noticed the taxi slowing down, he quickly added, "I need to go check out Cain Street next."

Fortunately, she had made some money from selling lipsticks, which gave her the courage to let the taxi meter pound in her heart.

Starting from Cain Street, half the block was similarly enclosed by simple wooden fences, covering an area much larger than the Lookout Street construction site—Mai Minghe pressed his face against the window, watching the gray-white wooden fences approach and flash past the car window scene by scene.

and many more.

...Was that just her imagination? It must have been, right?

Even if the car isn't going fast, how could someone sitting in the car possibly see a face flash by through a crack in the wall?

"Where do I get off on Cain Street?" the driver asked.

“I won’t get off,” Mai Minghe answered instinctively, then immediately corrected himself, “Wait. Let me get off and take a look. Don’t go, I’ll be right there.”

The driver cast a suspicious glance in the rearview mirror; she had no choice but to use her backpack as a hostage, placing it on the back seat, before she could get off the bus. Mai Minghe looked at the plank wall, paused, and then walked step by step between the two planks.

...She wasn't mistaken.

She stood in front of the crevice, and within seconds a fleshy patch squeezed in; a brown eye pressed against the crevice, watching her and blinking.

Short black hair, blue plaid shirt... even her skin tone was the same dark color.

Mai Minghe let out a low sigh.

She pulled the folded AI portrait out of her pocket and said to the worker behind the wall, "I'm looking for Evan."

"This is a construction site."

“I know,” Mai Minghe said, already prepared. “My name is Mai Minghe, and I’m looking for Evan. Is he near this construction site?”

“I don’t know,” the worker behind the wall said.

"Have you met him?"

“Yes,” the worker behind the wall said.

Mai Minghe actually had no idea what she was doing—in the current situation, even if she had only lived for eighty-six years, or even if she had ridden a mammoth as a child, she still wouldn't be able to figure it out.

He—no, it should be called "it"—what is the pattern of its speech, and what is its function? Why does it appear in the human world?

Ivan is nowhere to be found, but he has already discovered something incredible in Blackmore City... We should inform the hunters about this, right?

She was full of questions, but had no answers.

It felt like standing in the pitch black of night, not knowing where you were or what lay ahead, but vaguely feeling a hot, pungent breath coming from your ankles.

Whether in this metaphor or in reality, Mak Ming Ho has no idea what is standing in front of him.

She swallowed hard, her throat dry and itchy.

Since she doesn't know what to do and everything seems pointless, let's look at it from another angle... she can do anything, right?

"Are you aware of the welfare housing renovation project in Xiacheng District?"

“Yes,” the worker behind the wall said.

"Is Evan there?" Mai Minghe was like an incompetent forensic doctor, questions becoming her branches as she poked randomly at the corpse; where she poked would make the corpse sit up in fright was anyone's guess, just blindly poking around.

"Do not."

Is Evan on this construction site?

"Yes."

"Then tell him I'm coming to your construction site right away—"

The car horn blared sharply and violently, like a hammer blow to the eardrums, instantly snapping Mai Minghe out of her daze; she jolted awake, turned around, and saw the driver leaning out of the car window.

"Where are you going?" he shouted. "Are you getting on the bus or not?"

Mak Ming-ho was panting as he looked around.

She had left the board fence without realizing it; without even noticing, she had circled the front of the taxi and was almost stumbling into the middle of the road.

Cain Street was much busier and more lively than the area around the previous construction site, with a constant stream of vehicles coming and going. If the driver hadn't called out to her in time, she would have definitely stepped into the traffic.

Mai Minghe quickly walked back to the roadside and glanced around. The worker she had just spoken to had disappeared through the gap. "Thank you, I'm not going any further," she said, leaning into the car, picking up her backpack, and paying the fare. "This is my destination."

The driver looked at her with suspicion, clearly mistaking her for one of the growing number of oddballs in Blackmore City.

"Excuse me, may I ask you one more question?" Mak Ming-ho said, holding onto the car door, "From the time I got out of the car to the time I walked around the front of the car onto the road, how long do you think has passed?"

The driver thought for a moment. "It won't be more than three minutes. You're standing there talking to the person behind the wall, and suddenly you turn around and walk into the middle of the road."

In other words, as soon as she said she wanted to go into the construction site to find Evan, she immediately turned around and walked towards the road without realizing it.

“Thank you,” Mak Ming-ho said sincerely. “You saved my life.”

After the taxi drove away, she didn't dare to approach the wooden fence any further and went into a coffee shop across the street. While considering whether she should order something and borrow a phone, she glanced at the dessert counter and didn't pay much attention to the shop. When she suddenly looked up, Mai Minghe was dumbfounded.

The coffee shop clerk stood behind the counter, staring straight at her, his face filled with sorrow and extreme grief.

His facial muscles sagged downwards, and his eyebrows and mouth corners drooped into the shape of the Chinese character "八" (eight), making him look like a poor actor with terrible acting skills trying to portray a sorrowful appearance.

"Waaah," even his sobs were pronounced clearly and clearly, but not a single tear could be squeezed from his eyes. "Welcome, what would you like to order?"

Mai Minghe stared blankly at him. After a few seconds, she turned her head and looked at the construction site across the street from the shop.

"Are you... are you crying?" she asked cautiously.

"Huh? Why am I crying?" The shop assistant chuckled a few times amidst the sobs. Mai Minghe didn't know how he did it. "Maybe something got into my eyes earlier, they're a little red."

His eyes weren't red at all; instead, two prominent nasolabial folds were bulging and straining, pressing down hard on the corners of his mouth and muscles.

Mai Minghe looked away, but then, not daring to look away, she looked back. "I'd like a latte... and could I borrow your phone?"

Her phone had plenty of battery, but she dared not use it anymore.

Despite not receiving a single phone call or seeing a single message, Hai Luwei said that he and Ai Meili had tried to contact Mai Minghe several times, but to no avail.

"How could that be? I haven't seen anything since I got my phone back." Mai Minghe was utterly astonished. "Could someone really intercept messages and calls like that?"

After he finished speaking, there was a few seconds of silence on both ends of the phone.

Without keenness and alertness, one cannot succeed as a hunter.

“That’s impossible,” Hai Luwei replied, her tone subtle, a hint of ambiguity beneath the lightness. “I think it’s a bad signal.”

People who have faced life and death together, even if they have only known each other for a short time, probably understand each other much better than casual acquaintances.

"Don't worry, I'm fine," Mai Minghe replied cheerfully. "Didn't we agree that you guys go to my house first and watch it for me for a while? I'll be there soon."

Thankfully, she didn't break her old-fashioned habit of always carrying a pen. After hanging up the phone, she copied Hai Luwei and Ai Meili's phone numbers onto a slip of paper and immediately turned off her phone.

Now, to contact Hai Luwei, one can only pretend that their phone is out of battery, that they are anxious, and repeatedly beg the shop assistant.

"Waaaaah, office phones are not usually allowed to be lent out," the shop assistant said, her face contorted with sadness. "Please don't use it for too long, waaaaah."

Can't he hear the "whoosh" sound coming from his own mouth at all?
Mai Minghe managed to smooth out the inappropriate expression on his face, thanked him, and picked up the microphone.

Sea Reed answered the phone as soon as the first ring.

“Mai Minghe?” he whispered. “We’re downstairs at your place. You’d never guess who’s in there.”

“…Evan?”

“Yes.” Hai Luwei seemed to be covering his face with his sleeve as he said, “He flashed back and forth through the storeroom window a few times before, I wonder what he was doing—wait?”

what happened?
"Look!" Amy's voice came through the phone, hard and anxious: "Is that him?"

"Really—" Hai Luwei seemed surprised and quickly explained into the phone, "Evan is out, he just came out of the front gate!"

Breathing sounds, wind noises, and vibrations suddenly arose, striking the microphone repeatedly; Mai Minghe hurriedly asked, "What's going on?"

"As soon as that guy came out, he suddenly started running forward—"

"He found you?"

"No, he didn't even glance in our direction. As soon as he stepped out, he found a direction and started running—how can that guy run so fast?" Hai Luwei panted, seemingly asking someone else, "And he didn't stop for a moment. He looks like he has a goal! Where is he planning to go?"

After a few seconds of silence, listening to the sounds of wind, footsteps, and low curses mixed in with the phone call, Mai Minghe, almost as if struck by inspiration, came up with an answer that had no reason but convinced her.

Ivan understands.

Ivan hadn't finished what he needed to do after surfacing from the sea...

“He’s running toward the Cain Street construction site,” she murmured. “He…he’s coming for me.”

(End of this chapter)