Starting with dissecting ghost stories

Chapter 189 The Boss Lady

Shen Xing wrote down this ID.

Then he entered this ID into the search bar on Tianya, and the search results showed...

User not found?

Shen Xing frowned slightly.

My account was also deleted?

Shen Xing closed the browser, but did not leave immediately. He sat in the greasy swivel chair in the internet cafe, looking at his blurry reflection on the blacked-out monitor.

Is the materialist Thangka artist Cheng Ren?

Wu Xiaoting said that Cheng Ren had a wife who had disappeared from everyone's memory, except for Cheng Ren himself.

"Thangka...is that the wife's name?"

A person who adheres to materialism posted a thread on Tianya about "a person who has disappeared from everyone's memory".

This is a contradiction in itself.

A materialist is forced to confront something that cannot be explained by materialism at all.

That's why he went online for help, because no one in real life believed him.

And at that time, I replied to him.

Shen Xing looked down at the irregular white scar on the back of his left hand.

This afternoon, after being run over by a truck, dark red blood vessels crawled out of its body and licked the blood off the ground.

Just now at the mental hospital, Wu Xiaoting said that the sky would turn blood red and human heads would separate from their necks and fly into the sky.

Now, the wounds I get from using a utility knife can heal in seconds.

And this white scar has been here as long as he can remember.

He had never seriously considered how he got the scar.

Because...it seems unnecessary to think about it?

It's as if the brain automatically skipped over the question.

Every time my eyes glance at it, I get a feeling that "it's no big deal," and then my attention naturally shifts elsewhere.

But now.

Shen Xing stared at the white mark, for the first time truly looking at it intently.

He tried to recall when the scar appeared, how it appeared, and whether he had seen a doctor.

But my mind went blank.

It's like a book with a few pages torn out, but the page numbers before and after are consecutive, so you wouldn't notice the missing content if you didn't look closely.

Shen Xing turned his left hand over, palm up, and looked at the bluish veins on the inside of his wrist.

He pressed the white mark with his right index finger.

There was no pain, no unusual sensation, just like an ordinary scar.

If these were "birthmarks" that she had since birth, in such a conspicuous place, even Shen Yuan would probably have noticed them, right?

Shen Xing paid the bill and left the internet cafe.

It had stopped raining outside, but the air was still damp. The streetlights shone on the puddles, casting blurry orange patches of light.

He walked home, his hands in his pockets, his right hand touching his phone, thinking about what he needed to do tomorrow.

I need to be at the school clinic of Yucai Middle School before 4 o'clock tomorrow. I need to allow an hour to clear the clutter piled up outside before entering the clinic and see what's going on with the 5 o'clock campus ghost story.

Before going to the school clinic, you could talk to Wu Xiaoting's mother. At least she can explain from the perspective of a former forensic doctor that the wound was not self-inflicted.

Another thing is to wait for Chen Liming's reply. If Cheng Ren does exist and his information matches Wu Xiaoting's description, then it's necessary for me to learn more about Cheng Ren.

Shen walked downstairs in the residential area and looked up at his own window.

The lights were off; Shen Yuan must be asleep.

He stood downstairs for about a minute in the shadows of the streetlights, then took out his phone and opened the text message Chen Liming had just sent.

[Found. Cheng Ren, male, born in 1975, registered residence in the provincial capital, co-founded "Xingzhou Information Technology Co., Ltd." with partners in 2001. The company completed its first round of financing in 2003. Currently, Cheng Ren holds 17% of the company's shares. He has been removed from the position of technical director by the board of directors due to "health reasons," but retains the right to receive dividends.]

[My marital status is single, I've never been married... Why are you checking this?]

Unmarried.

They never registered their marriage.

Wu Xiaoting said he has a wife... a wife who has disappeared from everyone's memory and records.

If "rebooting" could erase everyone's memories and rationalize what happened...

It doesn't seem impossible to erase a marriage from the civil affairs bureau's records.

Shen Xing put away his phone, went upstairs, returned home, and lay down on the bed again.

The next day.

At the dining table, Shen Xing picked up a fried egg with chopsticks, put it in his mouth, swallowed it, and then said to Shen Yuan, who was still sleepy-eyed.

I won't be back at noon.

Shen Yuan stopped chewing and her gaze fell on the edge of the table.

"oh."

She continued to focus on the food on her plate.

Shen Yuan was clearly still half asleep. On weekends when she didn't have to go to school, she would usually wake up groggily, have breakfast, and then go back to her room to sleep until noon.

Sometimes Shen Xing would envy Shen Yuan's sleep quality. Even on a day when he had absolutely nothing to do, Shen Xing couldn't sleep for that long.

After finishing breakfast, Shen Yuan staggered back to her room, while Shen Xing went downstairs after washing the dishes.

The air humidity was still high in the morning, and the asphalt road surface still had water left from last night.

Shen Xing walked across two blocks and stopped in front of a video store with an old-fashioned storefront.

The roller shutter door was halfway up.

Shen Xing bent down and went inside.

The air inside the store was thick with dust and the smell of oxidized old plastic. The shelves were piled high with cassette tapes and CDs.

Behind the counter, a middle-aged woman was slowly wiping the glass countertop with a rag.

The woman had noticeable dark bluish veins under her eyes. Her shoulder muscles were relaxed, and her cervical spine showed a fatigued forward tilt.

Wu Xiaoting's mother.

Shen walked up to the counter and said, "Boss lady."

The woman stopped what she was doing and looked up.

"Choose whatever you want to buy," the woman said in a hoarse voice.

"I'm not here to buy anything." Shen Xing took out his work ID from his pocket and placed it on the glass counter.

"I'm Shen Yuan's brother. I used to work as a forensic doctor at the provincial department," Shen Xing introduced himself. "Today, I'm here because of Xiao Ting's matter."

The woman's gaze lingered on the embossed seal on the work ID for two seconds.

The rag slipped from her hand and fell onto the floor inside the counter.

"Has she...done something again?" The woman's chest heaved rapidly. "She's already in a mental hospital, and I've borrowed money to cover all her medical expenses. What more do you want?"

"You've misunderstood." Shen Xing put his work ID back in his pocket. "I came to tell you to bring her out."

The woman froze.

Get it out?

At this moment, the proprietress seemed to belatedly realize the special identity of the young man in front of her.

Shen Yuan's brother? A former forensic doctor? And then there's this... something about public security or something... anyway, it sounds like a very prestigious identity.

Did Shen Yuan tell her brother about this? Was he here to help?

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