Starting with dissecting ghost stories

Chapter 182 Re:Re: (5k2)

"Feed?" Cheng Ren asked into the phone, "Ah Song?"

"Hello, is this Cheng Ren?"

Cheng Ren paused for a moment after hearing the voice on the phone.

It's an unfamiliar number, but it's not the person?

Who called me?

Just as Cheng Ren was moving his thumb, intending to hang up the phone, a sentence from the other end made him stop.

"I am Shen Xing."

Shen Xing?

"You're not dead?" Cheng Ren's voice held a hint of surprise, but not much. It seemed that finding Shen Xing was no longer something he needed to do.

Cheng Ren didn't bother to find out how the other person got his phone number; there were plenty of ways to get a phone number.

"Are you looking for Shen Yuan?" Shen Xing's calm voice came through the receiver again.

Cheng Ren was somewhat puzzled. He glanced at Lu Wenying lying in a pool of blood and said, "Well, to be precise, I'm looking for something unusual. How did you come back to life? Are you an anomaly?"

"You've been tricked. The thing that asked you for help killed your wife to get your help."

Through the receiver, Cheng Ren could hear Shen Xing's voice, along with the sounds of an engine and wind, as if he were in a car traveling at high speed.

"You are an anomaly." After a long silence, Cheng Ren slowly spoke, "I have seen too many of your methods... Anomalies should all be destroyed, and those who help anomalies cannot be considered human."

The call was immediately disconnected.

"Click"

The truck doors were opened, and the two thin men sitting in the driver's and passenger's seats got out.

That afternoon, the national highway along the river was unusually empty. The two of them walked directly to the center of the road and blocked the path of the woman's scooter.

While struggling to stabilize the vehicle, Wu Xiaoting noticed the two people blocking the road and quickly shouted, "Excuse me! Please move aside!"

"Xiaoting, speed up and go around them from the opposite lane!" Shen Yuan seemed to have noticed something was wrong and quickly told Wu Xiaoting to speed up and pass by the two people.

Wu Xiaoting gritted her teeth, but just as she twisted the accelerator to turn, she suddenly stopped.

The motorcycle lost power and slowly came to a stop, then tipped over to one side.

"Xiaoting?!"

The car wasn't going fast, and Shen Yuan quickly jumped off. When she looked back, she found that Wu Xiaoting was still on the car, with one of her legs trapped under the motorcycle.

But Wu Xiaoting seemed to have no awareness of pain or struggle, and simply lay there.

Twenty meters away, the two men were still standing in the middle of the road. Shen Yuan quickly ran to the overturned motorcycle, shook Wu Xiaoting, and called her name.

But Wu Xiaoting seemed to be asleep, showing no intention of moving at all.

Shen Yuan held onto the motorcycle and used almost all her strength to flip it over.

On Wu Xiaoting's fair calves, there was a red burn from the motorcycle engine. Fortunately, she was driving slowly, and the engine wasn't particularly hot. Otherwise, after being pressed down for a while, her calves would have been burned even more severely.

Shen Yuan looked up nervously and found that the two men did not make any move. She bent down, wanting to pick up Wu Xiaoting, but found that she did not have the strength to lift her up.

Wu Xiaoting had completely lost consciousness and her body was limp. Shen Yuan could only support her arms and grit her teeth as she dragged her to the side of the road.

She dragged Wu Xiaoting into a nearby alleyway of a residential building, but the other party showed no intention of chasing them.

It was as if their only purpose in coming here was to put Wu Xiaoting to sleep.

Shen Yuan dragged Wu Xiaoting into the stairwell of a residential building to hide her before she stopped, panting heavily.

She instinctively reached for her phone to call for help, but didn't know who to call.

But just as she turned on her phone screen, she saw an unread text message.

The text message seemed to have been sent not long ago, but she was still on the run at the time and didn't have time to read it. Shen Yuan clicked on the text message.

The message was very short, only three words, but Shen Yuan was stunned when she saw it.

【Where are you?】

The text message was sent from a number that Shen Yuan had never seen before.

Logically speaking, only a handful of people should know her phone number: Lu Lingyun, Lu Wenying, Wu Xiaoting, and a few police officers.

And my older brother.

Shen Yuan felt her breath catch in her throat. A very slim possibility surged in her mind, and she felt her hands trembling slightly.

Shen Yuan almost held her breath as she dialed the number back.

"beep.....

""

"beep..

'

After waiting for a while, a woman's voice came from the phone.

"Hello, this is the number you have dialed..."

'

The glimmer of hope that had ignited in her heart vanished, and Shen Yuan momentarily forgot to breathe, feeling a tightness in her chest.

Just as she was staring blankly at the text message, Wu Xiaoting beside her finally made a move.

Wu Xiaoting, who had initially appeared to be "asleep," slowly opened her eyes. After adjusting to the light for a moment, she turned her head and looked at Shen Yuan.

"How long has it been?" Wu Xiaoting asked quickly after seeing Shen Yuan.

Shen Yuan snapped out of her daze, put away her phone, and looked at Wu Xiaoting, asking, "Just a few minutes...you're awake? What happened?"

"No, I'm not awake. I'm probably in that... that state you mentioned, with a clock on my head." Wu Xiaoting's face showed a hint of lingering fear as she continued, "The world in the dream was a bit strange... Shall we run?"

"Strange? What's wrong with the world in my dream?"

"I woke up in the first layer of the dream... and then I found that I was repeatedly experiencing what we are doing now. The dream and reality were synchronized, and I couldn't wake up. Now I have gone to the second layer of the dream, and only then can I regain control of my body from the dream."

Wu Xiaoting began to explain.

"Doesn't time flow faster in dreams?" Shen Yuan asked, puzzled.

"I don't know... Now it seems that the second layer of the dream is in sync with reality..." Wu Xiaoting shook her head.

What exactly is going on?

"Let's go, let's find a safe place first." Shen Yuan didn't understand, so she didn't think about it anymore, grabbed Wu Xiaoting's hand, and ran out of the building.

When they ran outside, Shen Yuan clearly felt that Wu Xiaoting stopped.

"What's wrong?" Shen Yuan turned to look at Wu Xiaoting, who had stopped, and found that she was looking up at the sky.

"Can...you see it?" Wu Xiaoting stared blankly at the sky, her mouth agape.

Shen Yuan looked up following Wu Xiaoting's gaze, but saw nothing but the reddish sunset and sky.

"What did you see?" Shen Yuan looked at Wu Xiaoting again.

She knew Wu Xiaoting was usually a bit eccentric, but this was clearly not the time for jokes. Wu Xiaoting must have actually seen something, but only in a dream...

"The sky is red... there are heads flying in the sky..."

'

Shen Yuan stared at Wu Xiaoting, who was speaking, her mouth slowly opening to the sky.

In her line of sight, Wu Xiaoting's neck began to show tearing wounds, as if something was pulling at her neck.

But Wu Xiaoting seemed completely oblivious to the wound on her neck, still looking up at the sky.

"Xiao Ting?! Wu Xiao Ting?!" Shen Yuan subconsciously released her grip on Wu Xiao Ting's hand. Then, she watched as Wu Xiao Ting's head was torn apart, the severed head connected by a few bits of flesh, slowly floating towards the sky.

No blood flowed out, and Wu Xiaoting's body remained standing, seemingly unaware that her head had been separated from her body.

"No...no!"

Shen Yuan lunged forward, jumped up, and grabbed Wu Xiaoting's head with both hands.

But the head didn't feel warm and soft to the touch as I expected; instead, it was cold, hard, and angular... more like a small wooden house than a human head.

The moment Shen Yuan touched Wu Xiaoting's "head," it was as if a light had been turned off in Shen Yuan's world. Crimson clouds enveloped the sky, and everything around her was adorned with a crimson glow.

But Shen Yuan didn't notice this for the time being. She tried desperately to use her body weight to press Wu Xiaoting's floating head down, but her body was instead carried upwards little by little.

No...no...no...

Carrying Wu Xiaoting all the way here had already taken a toll on Shen Yuan's strength.

Now, she closed her eyes tightly, her hands gripping the cold, hard object, but her hands, gradually losing strength, could no longer hold on.

No...no...

No one else should leave me...

Shen Yuan gritted her teeth and, as if doing a pull-up, raised her right leg to reach up, seemingly wanting to press it directly onto the "head." Then she grabbed the railing of the house next to her, hoping to prevent Wu Xiaoting's head from leaving.

"BOOM!!!"

But at that moment, a violent explosion came from the direction where Lu Wenying had separated.

This violent explosion was the final straw that broke Shen Yuan's back.

Her fingers finally gave way and slipped off the cold, hard wooden roof. Shen Yuan slowly opened her eyes.

At that moment, everything around her seemed to slow down. She saw the gleaming wooden house slowly drifting towards the scarlet sky, along with countless other wooden houses that floated upwards like Kongming lanterns, following a specific pattern.

"Thump—!"

Shen Yuan landed on her back, falling from a height of nearly three stories, and crashed heavily onto the concrete ground.

A sharp pain struck, and the moment she hit the ground, Shen Yuan gasped for breath, blood trickling from the corner of her mouth. She couldn't even utter a cry of pain.

"dad?"

Wu Xiaoting's slightly ethereal voice rang out beside Shen Yuan.

She struggled to open her eyes again and saw Wu Xiaoting's headless body walking forward with her back to her.

Wu Xiaoting seemed to have "seen" something, and hugged the air in front of her.

No... what's going on... is this a dream? Have I entered a dream myself?

Through her blurry vision, Shen Yuan saw Wu Xiaoting raise her hand and take the hand of something she couldn't see at all, and walk away into the distance.

Don't go...

"Sister Yuan?"

Just as Shen Yuan's consciousness was about to fade.

A child's voice rang in her ears.

Shen Yuan struggled to open her eyes, and a familiar girl was squatting down next to her.

"Sister Yuan, what's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?"

Li Xiao...flower?

Shen Yuan slowly opened her eyes wide, looking incredulously at the child squatting beside her.

A dream...?

Shen Yuan slowly raised her hand, wanting to touch the other person, but just before she touched that tender face, her hand trembled slightly and she paused.

She thought of Wu Xiaoting, who had just walked away while holding the air.

It's all fake... fake...

Li Xiaohua is dead.

An indescribable anger welled up in Shen Yuan's heart.

Perhaps it was the adrenaline kicking in, for she struggled to turn over, picked up a stick from the roadside, and stood up unsteadily.

Her hand, gripping the wooden stick, trembled slightly, but she still slowly raised it to Li Xiaohua's head and gently waved it.

Li Xiaohua's head vanished like smoke.

"What are you doing, Xiaoyuan!" Grandma Zhang, hunched over, rushed over in a panic. "Why did you hit Xiaohua? Grandma won't be cooking noodles for you anymore!"

"Fake...

'

Shen Yuan once again stirred the wooden stick in the direction of Granny Zhang, and Granny Zhang's figure also turned into a red cloud of mist that twisted and dissipated.

"Thank you, Xiaoyuan, thank you for believing in me."

A man's voice sounded behind Shen Yuan.

Shen Yuan turned around abruptly and saw Li Ya standing behind her, looking at her with a silly grin: "I've really changed."

"Die!!! Die!!!"

Shen Yuan could no longer contain her anger. Holding the wooden stick in both hands, she lunged forward and swung it fiercely in Li Ya's direction.

Li Ya's figure was smashed into a cloud of red mist, but Shen Yuan seemed tireless, her eyes red and tears streaming down her face as she continued to swing her bat at the air.

Shen Yuan finally stopped her pointless swinging. Using the wooden stick for support, she lowered her head and shouted almost hoarsely, "Who are you! What kind of monster are you?! Show yourself if you dare!!"

"Little Kite...it's us..."

""

Ahead, an even more familiar voice rang out.

Shen Yuan froze, then slowly raised her head and looked ahead.

In front of her, her parents stood together, looking at her with slightly worried eyes.

"What's wrong? Are you feeling unwell? Let Mom take a look..."

'

"Let's go home first..."

""

Her parents reached out their hands to her.

Shen Yuan's grip on the wooden stick tightened and then loosened.

The sight of the dead appearing one after another caused Shen Yuan to feel an excruciating pain, as if her scalp were being ripped open.

She instinctively took two steps forward, but quickly gripped the wooden stick in her hand and slowly raised it.

"Dad...Mom...I love you..."

"7

With a gentle wave of the wooden stick, the figures of the parents vanished like smoke.

She was constantly on edge, a constant reminder to think rationally and act prudently.

The dead can never come back; she must accept this fact, and she must do what is right for those who are still alive...

"Little Kite".

A voice I least wanted to hear rang out behind me.

"Dong dong" 6

The wooden stick that Shen Yuan had been holding fell to the ground with a crisp sound.

She stiffly turned her head and saw that familiar, pale face.

The man was wearing a simple white T-shirt and gray capri pants, his clothes covered in burn marks and blood.

Why...why...

'

Why are you here too?

That's not right... that's not it...

You can't be here...

Wu Xiaoting said you didn't die... She can foresee the future... She was right... She said it...

Shen Yuan looked at the familiar figure in front of her in despair, and retreated step by step until she hit the wall. Her body almost instantly lost its strength, and she slid helplessly to the ground.

All the forced composure and perseverance crumbled at this moment, and the taut string in my mind snapped abruptly.

She watched the figure walk towards her step by step, and finally, it half-squatted in front of her.

"How are you? Can you still move?"

The man extended his right hand towards him, his voice as calm as ever, and said, "Let's go home first."

yes..

What's wrong with dreams?

As long as he doesn't wake up, that's fine...

Anyway, in the real world, is there anything left that I'm willing to cherish?

Shen Yuan looked at the outstretched hand in front of her, her eyes dim and lifeless. With her last bit of strength, she slowly raised her right hand and placed it on the outstretched hand.

It's warm...

Did Wu Xiaoting feel the same way when she held her father's hand just now?

very nice..

Shen Yuan completely fainted.

"Buzz"

The phone vibrated.

Shen Xing reached into his pocket but found nothing; his phone seemed to have shattered during his collision with Cheng Ren.

He reached into Shen Yuan's pocket, took out her phone, and turned it on.

An unfamiliar number.

Shen Xing pressed the answer button directly and calmly said, "Feed."

"I thought you were going to choose to kill me, Brother Shen. Why did you choose the most boring option?"

A flippant voice came through the phone, seemingly tinged with mockery.

"I have no interest in saving anyone else," Shen Xing said calmly. "I wasn't sure whether to kill you before, but now I'm starting to get interested in you."

He looked up at the red curtain in the sky.

This was the first time Shen Xing had ever seen such a scene, which resembled the end of the world. Every cell in his body seemed to be buzzing wildly, and his strength was also rising rapidly.

All the anomalies were rapidly intensifying, as if they were all climbing to the highest peak before suddenly bursting open like an inflating balloon.

He had always had a question: why was the [01-Wall] so powerful in its own way, yet weakened to the point that it could no longer hunt on its own... was it because of the first reboot?

Is what I'm experiencing now the second time?

"Hahaha..." A boy's laughter came from the other end of the phone. He said happily, "But unfortunately, Brother Xing, you don't have a chance. Next time we meet, I'll take what I want from you."

"It's such a shame we couldn't be friends."

"Brother Xing, it's almost five o'clock."

"You can pray that next time, you'll wake up before me..."

'

"By the way, I gave myself a surname before, Song. Brother Xing also gave my derivative a name. How about I call myself Song Mengzhong?"

Goodnight, Xing-ge.

"Beep beep, the number you dialed is currently asleep..."

"Hahahaha—!"

The call was abruptly ended amidst the other party's maniacal laughter.

The time on my phone also jumped to 5:00.

A violent buzzing sound erupted in Shen Xing's mind—

He looked up, and in his line of sight, countless walls of flesh and blood burst through the concrete and rose from the ground. Not far away, a large amount of black fungal carpet was spread on the ground.

The shimmering wooden house clock in mid-air became twinkling stars, and countless crazy, increasingly powerful anomalies were rising in resonance, until they reached their peak.

— *kiss*

Like an overinflated, multicolored bubble, it burst.