Artifact Report

Chapter 41: Chai Si: Do you think the rumor has stopped spreading?
"Hmm? Hmm?"

A long, sharp sound of doubt came from the resident's throat, as if he couldn't understand why Chai Si refused to die in his memory and had to get up from the ground again and again.

"You can die, go back to remember, remember three, eighteen places -"

It just said "thirty-nine", Chai Si thought, it turned out to be counting down.

Memories that have been used once cannot be used to attack him again, right?

It just so happened that he had had enough of that weak, useless, helpless, crying five-year-old child.

His aversion to incompetence was even greater than that of the residents.

Chai Si closed his eyes tightly and took a deep breath.

“Hmmmm?” Seeing that he was still standing, the resident seemed very unhappy and his voice became much harsher: “Three, eighteenth place—”

"Don't scream," Chai Si whispered, "As long as I can't see your face, I won't faint, right?"

Every time my eyes meet its face, I immediately fall down and sink into memory. Even a fool can draw a line between cause and effect.

"By the standards of the locals, you're a shabby, lousy creature," Chai Si said, taking a step back. "You can't come up with many new tricks, but you have so many shortcomings—"

Before he could finish his words, a gust of wind blew towards him.

The skin on the soles of my feet slapped against the floor with a soft sound. Countless tattered strips of cloth stirred up tiny air currents, and a thick, sticky, fishy smell instantly became stronger...

When I close my eyes, my other senses become more acute.

Chai Si stepped back again, his shoes touching the broken glass. With a crunching sound, he knew he had reached the window through which the resident had climbed in.

He suddenly bent down and reached forward, his hand reaching out like it was plunging into a sticky miasma, finally catching a wad of fabric. The sickening yet familiar electric shock of contact with the resident jolts through his palm all the way to his crown. Even as his chest was grasped, the resident let out a short, triumphant laugh.

Chai Si knew why it laughed.

It probably thought that Chase would be so uncomfortable that he would be unable to move; because most people would be so overwhelmed by the physiological effects that they couldn't even stand when they had physical contact with the residents for the first few times.

But it didn't know that compared to the residents when it was five years old, it was just a cheap commodity.

Chai Si gritted his teeth and suppressed the trembling in his muscles. He clenched his five fingers tightly together, grasped the cloth robe on the resident's chest, swung his arm, and threw it heavily into the broken window next to him.

The resident only had time to utter "Huh?"; the next second, it hit the track outside the car window, making a "bang" sound, distant and dull.

The next step is the crux of the matter - what is the path that led this resident to the human world?
It crawled in through the "black car window", but that would never be the only condition.

Otherwise, there would be countless "black car windows" in our daily lives, and they would have entered the world long ago. Why would they have waited until today?
In addition to the condition of "pitch-black car windows", there must be at least one other condition that must be met before it can crawl into the human world - no matter how hard he thinks, Chai Si can only think of one.

In a flash, he opened his eyes and strode across the car; halfway, he stretched out his arm, picked up the T-bar, and stopped abruptly beside the half-conscious subway driver.

"'Rumor', send it back,"

Chase could hear rustling noises coming from the car window behind him; it seemed the resident was trying to climb back into the car. He raised the T-bar high and said, "Or I will smash your host into a pulp right now."

He never makes empty threats.

The moment the T-bar bit into the subway driver's shoulder, the small voice in the driver's cheek screamed repeatedly: "Cancel the invitation to 'nostalgia'! Cancel the invitation to 'nostalgia'!"

...What a crappy name.

Chai Si panted and lifted the T-bar from the driver's shoulder. He stood there and waited for a second or two. The carriage was bright white and silent.

Slowly, he turned his head and looked at the car window through which the resident had climbed in.

In fact, he had already prepared himself mentally to see a human body half hanging on the car window and a face smiling at him - but the car window was empty, with only a few pieces of broken glass still standing on the window frame, unaware that they had become useless.

Chai Si carried the T-bar and walked closer to the car window step by step. He was very cautious and did not look directly with his naked eyes. He just turned on the camera of his mobile phone and scanned outside through the screen.

If the other person is a resident, he or she is likely to like to play tricks on people. Maybe he or she is squatting outside the car, covering his or her mouth with his hands and giggling, waiting to disappoint him.

But outside was just a dim subway tunnel, empty and quiet.

He stepped on the broken glass and the driver's painful groan, and walked back to the "rumor" again.

The driver was hit on the shoulder by the stick, but the pain woke him from his near coma. Seeing Chai Si approaching, he twisted his body and tried to crawl back with tears in his eyes. Chai Si pressed the T-bar against his chest and said, "Don't move."

The driver froze, his face covered in fear and sweat. "What was that just now..."

"It's a dream," Chase said calmly, "You had a nightmare."

If the expression on the driver's face were translated into words, it would probably mean "Even if you're lying to me, you should put more effort into it."

But Chai Si never liked to deal with the aftermath and the finishing touches, and he had no patience for finding a reasonable explanation for what had just happened. He was just thinking about how to expose the rumored fake when he heard the driver speak again.

"What's in my mouth...what's that in my mouth?" The driver said with a dazed look on his face. "You just called it a rumor...why is it a rumor again..."

Chai Si's attention was immediately drawn to him, like a dog's ears hearing a strange noise.

"'Again?'" He leaned forward, startling the driver into belching. "Who else mentioned the word 'rumor'?"

Whether it was physical pain or mental fear, the driver's lower lip was wet and shiny, and it trembled constantly. "A few days ago, someone said he lost his glasses and couldn't see clearly, so he asked me to read a few sentences to him..." Chai Si was stunned, but didn't interrupt him.

"He asked me if it said 'I have a rumor to tell you'. I looked at his phone and said no, it said 'I heard a rumor'... It was quite strange, and I didn't know who sent him that strange message, so I remembered it."

"What does that person look like?" Chai Si asked immediately.

"I don't know..." the driver said shakily, "He was wearing a mask, and I could only tell he was a man in his twenties or thirties."

No wonder the driver had no reaction to Ivan's description of his appearance before - for a moment, Chai Si almost wanted to laugh out loud.

He understood it all.

The answer was surprisingly simple; after knowing it, looking back on it, one might even wonder why one hadn't thought of it.

Since the object is a "rumor", the way to convey it is of course through "words", right?

There was no doubt that it was Ivan who asked the driver to help read a message that day.

Ivan's goal was not just to make the driver read a message, but to trick him into having a conversation with him.

"Now say it again, 'I have a rumor for you.'"

Chai Si looked at the bulge on the driver's cheek from his tongue, and then he swiped it across again. "After you say that, I'll leave immediately and won't touch you again."

"Really?" The driver was stunned for a moment, then immediately grasped at this life-saving straw. "I, I have a rumor to tell you!"

Chai Si took a deep breath.

"...I heard a rumor." He replied in a low voice.

The conversation is complete.

The carriage fell into silence. Chase looked at the driver's face; there was no movement on his face.

Chai Si suddenly felt his tongue licking the inside of his mouth uncontrollably before he lay back down.

He slowly cracked a smile.

"You...you said you were leaving..." The driver trembled as he stood up, inching back a little, staring at him and saying, "You can't..."

"Do not worry."

Chai Si stood up and pulled a wallet from his suit pocket. He took out the thick wad of bills and threw it at the driver. "This is my compensation for the misfortune you've caused me. Remember to speak politely when you call the police."

When his eyes stopped on the banknotes, Chase turned and walked away.

He would definitely call the police immediately, but Chai Si didn't care about that.

"Rumors," Chase whispered as he jumped onto the platform. "How long do you have left?"

He waited patiently, and sure enough, he heard a small voice coming from his cheek - "'Rumor', countdown, 3405 days, 16 hours, and 15 minutes."

Chai Si did a rough calculation. As expected of a Vesile artifact, it was top-notch in every respect, yet it still had nearly nine years and four months of useful life left. Remember, many artifacts didn't have that much useful life left when they first left the nest.

It must have been in Vesile's hands for at least a few years, right? After Vesile's death, how did it get to Ivan from someone who was dead?
Chai Si couldn't think of an answer for a moment.

The police who were chasing him seemed to think that he had already left the station by blending in with the arriving passengers.

He ruffled his hair, letting his bangs fall over his forehead. He then took off his suit and shirt, leaving only a white short-sleeved shirt underneath, and walked out of the subway station almost without hesitation. There were a few police officers left to monitor the entrances and exits, and one of them shouted at him, "Hey!"

Chase stopped and asked in a gentle manner, "Officer, what's the matter?"

The policeman looked him up and down.

When he crossed the tracks just now, he didn't let the police see his face clearly except for the back of a man in a suit. In addition, the light in the tunnel was dim, so Chai Si was very sure that they would not recognize him. Although he was not short, he was not uncommon either.

"Where are you from?"

"Ninth Street."

"When did you get off?"

"Just now. I went to the bathroom and was delayed for a while."

The policeman thought for a moment, waved his hand, and said, "Got it. Thank you for your cooperation. You can go now."

As Chai Si was about to leave, he suddenly asked involuntarily, "...I heard there's a subway serial killer, is that right?"

The police were stunned.

"Oh... yes," he said, as if memories were slowly coming back to him. He glanced at his companions before saying, "Yes, there are such rumors... but he wasn't the one we caught today. Yeah, probably not."

"Good luck to you, officer." Chai Si smiled and turned to walk out of the subway station.

　I'm actually quite satisfied with this section on Tsai's childhood history. His story will be over in just one more chapter!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)