Starting with dissecting ghost stories

Chapter 188 Materialist Thangka

"But not because I think you're talking nonsense."

Shen Xing continued, "You were admitted with your mother's signature. Legally, you are a person with limited capacity for civil conduct. Only the signature of your guardian or legal representative can be used to process your discharge."

Although Shen Xing's work ID is useful and could be used to temporarily take her away in the name of the police through some special means... there's no need for it.

Taking them away in the name of the police means more people will know about this...

If what Wu Xiaoting said is true, then the fewer people who know about this, the better. If what Wu Xiaoting said is false, then I won't have made a blunder because of this.

From both a moral and logical standpoint, he had no reason to take her away tonight.

Wu Xiaoting pursed her lips slightly, and tears welled up in her eyes.

She didn't wipe her tears with her sleeve; she just let them flow.

"I'll talk to your mother," Shen Xing said, standing up. "Before tomorrow."

Wu Xiaoting suddenly looked up: "You...you believe me?"

Shen Xing looked at her, without directly saying "I believe" or "I don't believe," but simply said, "Whether it's true or not, I will naturally investigate."

Talk is cheap; the truth is what matters most.

"What you said may not all be false."

"But it's not necessarily all true."

"Let me check."

After saying that, he got up and walked towards the door.

As I reached the door, I heard Wu Xiaoting's voice behind me.

"Brother Shen Xing".

"Um?

'

'

.Thanks."

Shen Xing did not turn around, but simply raised his hand slightly as a response.

No one here believed Wu Xiaoting, but Shen Xing did not deny her directly. Instead, he told her what he was going to investigate. That way, even if he had to stay in the mental hospital for another day, at least he would have some hope.

He walked out of the reception room and was led back towards the iron gate by the nurse in the corridor.

I went downstairs and retrieved my phone.

When I pushed open the door of the mental hospital, it was almost dark outside, and the streetlights were casting a dim yellow light.

Shen Xing stood at the door and took out his phone.

He first sent Shen Yuan a text message.

I saw her. She's probably not crazy. I'll talk to her mother tomorrow.

Shen Xing was somewhat inclined to believe Wu Xiaoting, not because she looked particularly pitiful...

It's because Shen Xing was run over by a large truck today, his internal organs were almost crushed into a pulp, yet he's still full of energy...

There must have been some untold stories that happened during this time...

After sending the message, he found Chen Liming's number and edited a second text message.

[Please find out about another person for me, named Cheng Ren, around thirty years old.]

Shen Xing ate something outside, and when he returned home with the packed food, Shen Yuan had already cooked a bowl of instant noodles and finished eating. The bowl was still unwashed and soaking in the sink.

Shen Xing changed his shoes, walked to the kitchen, glanced at the bowl of instant noodle soup with oil residue, and frowned slightly.

"You ate this?"

"There's no food in the fridge." Shen Yuan's voice came from the living room. She was sitting cross-legged on the sofa, the TV was on but she wasn't watching it, and she was holding her phone in her hand. "So? Did you see her?"

"I saw it." Shen Xing washed the bowls in the sink and then wiped the stove.

"How is she?"

Shen Xing dried his hands, walked to the living room, and sat down on the sofa opposite Shen Yuan.

He considered his words carefully before speaking, "She is very lucid; she doesn't seem to have any mental problems."

Shen Yuan's body visibly relaxed, her lips moved as if she wanted to say something, but in the end she only hummed in agreement.

"I'll talk to her mother tomorrow and see if we can get her out of here first." Shen Xing stood up and walked towards the master bedroom. "You should go to sleep early."

"elder brother."

"Um?"

"Those things she said... do you believe them?" Shen Yuan hesitated for a moment.

Shen Xing paused for a moment.

"It's not certain yet."

"Um..

..Good night."

"Good night."

Shen Xing entered the master bedroom, closed the door, locked it, washed up, changed his clothes, and lay down on the bed.

Then I just kept my eyes open, staring at the ceiling.

He was waiting for himself to fall asleep.

But instead of feeling sleepy, a series of questions came one after another.

About half an hour later, Shen Xing gave up on going to sleep and started thinking again.

Chen Liming hasn't replied yet.

Wu Xiaoting said that Cheng Ren had appeared before the "reboot" and was a netizen who came looking for "Shen Xing". They met on Tianya Forum.

Tianya (the ends of the earth).

Shen Xing put down his laptop and picked up his phone.

He did indeed register a Tianya account.

Since I can't sleep... I might as well just go look for it.

Shen Xing rolled out of bed and prepared to leave.

There was no computer on his desk. He didn't have a computer, and he hadn't thought it necessary to buy one before. His cell phone was enough for making calls and sending text messages, but now he needed to go online.

Shen Xing glanced at the clock; it was 9:20.

At this time, the internet cafe outside the residential area should still be open.

Shen Xing rarely goes to internet cafes.

When he arrived at a nearby internet cafe, he pushed open the glass door and was greeted by a mixture of the smell of smoke and instant noodles, along with the clattering of keyboards.

The internet cafe wasn't big, with about thirty computers, nearly half of which had their screens lit up. A few boys who looked like middle school students were playing Counter-Strike together, cursing under their breath.

Shen Xing turned on a machine at the front desk and sat down.

The familiar yet unfamiliar Windows interface, with game shortcuts piled up on the desktop, took Shen Xing a while to finally find the Internet Explorer icon in the corner.

He double-clicked to open it and entered the URL of Tianya Community in the address bar.

The page loaded very slowly, with the progress bar moving forward one step at a time. Shen Xing waited for about two minutes before the homepage finally opened completely.

After logging in, the first thing he saw was the "My Replies" list.

He rarely replies to posts, and his list only has a few lines of posts. However, one of his most recent replies caught Shen Xing's attention.

The post title has turned gray and is marked "[Deleted]".

However, his reply history still retains traces of his reply to this post.

Shen Xing opened his reply.

Because the original post has been deleted, he can't see the title and content of the original post, only his own reply.

[Could you elaborate? — Li Si, a law-abiding citizen]

This is Shen Xing's account.

However, he felt vague about the scene when he wrote this passage. Under normal circumstances, he probably wouldn't have noticed this abnormality at all, since it's normal for people to forget some things.

However, given the current situation, it's hard not to delve deeper into this anomaly.

He tried clicking the "View original post" link, but the page redirected to a message saying "Sorry, this post has been deleted or does not exist".

He then tried the "private message" function and opened his private message inbox.

The private message inbox is empty.

If that "Cheng Ren" really communicated with me online, then at least he would have sent me a private message, right?

Shen Xing searched the post page again, hoping to find the original author's ID, but the deleted post had also cleared the poster's information.

but-

He returned to his reply list and stared at a nearly negligible button next to the timestamp below the reply.

"Reply to".

He nodded.

A line of small gray text popped up on the page.

[Reply to: @MaterialistTangka]

Materialist Thangka.

A