Starting with dissecting ghost stories

Chapter 136 The Butterfly Effect

After Shen Xing left the room, two girls remained inside.

Shen Yuan's tension eased somewhat, but Wu Xiaoting's face still showed unease.

Seemingly sensing Wu Xiaoting's unease, Shen Yuan asked in a low voice, "What's wrong? If you had known beforehand, wouldn't everything have been fine?"

Wu Xiaoting's lips trembled slightly. After a long while, she looked at Shen Yuan and said, "But, I don't know..."

'

"I don't know the cause and effect of Brother Shen Xing's death..." Wu Xiaoting's facial muscles twitched nervously, her lips were a little pale, and she said, "If I hadn't told him, it wouldn't be this future. I wonder if reminding him was a necessary and sufficient condition for Brother Shen Xing's death..."

'

If I don't remind you, nothing will happen... but if I do remind you, something might go wrong?

Shen Yuan's mind raced. Unable to apply the knowledge she'd acquired through compulsory education to understand the current situation, she could only turn to the vast amount of movies she'd watched in her mind...

A new movie that was released at the beginning of this year, and a certain term entered Shen Yuan's mind, resolving her doubts.

The Butterfly Effect.

Sometimes, knowing the future but forcibly trying to change the past doesn't necessarily lead to a good outcome.

Because you never know what kind of storm a butterfly's gentle flapping of its wings might unleash in the future.

Shen Yuan's heart, which had just been at ease, was once again filled with apprehension.

What should we do then?

Is there anything I can do?

What if you did something that actually made things worse?

Trust that your brother can handle this...

But Shen Yuan couldn't help but recall the scene of her brother's death described by Wu Xiaoting.

What if my brother really dies?

What should I do if I'm really all alone?

One by one, the people around me are dying... Will my brother be next?

Isn't this exactly the same plot as in "Final Destination"?

Does my special ability mean that the people around me die one after another?

Shen Yuan panicked a little.

"It's alright." This time, it was Wu Xiaoting who comforted Shen Yuan. "Wait... I'm planning to go home later."

"Go home? Why? Isn't home..." Shen Yuan's mind didn't quite process it. She didn't understand why Wu Xiaoting, having finally escaped home, would want to go back, and right now at that?

"I want to go home and have this dream again... I want to know more details..." Wu Xiaoting looked at Shen Yuan and said with a smile, "Maybe if I enter that dream again, I can know more things."

Shen Yuan felt a slight tremor in her heart when she saw Wu Xiaoting's smile.

She couldn't sense any smile on Wu Xiaoting's face at all. The tear tracks on Wu Xiaoting's cheeks hadn't dried yet. Although there was a smile on her lips, her brows were slightly furrowed... There was a hint of madness in her smile.

"Anyway, I'm here, and I dream... don't I?"

Shen Yuan originally wanted to try to persuade her, but after hearing Wu Xiaoting's words, she gave up the idea.

Shen Yuan clenched her fist slightly, took a deep breath, and said, "Okay."

"I'll go with you."

Unbeknownst to the three people at home, just as Wu Xiaoting abruptly entered the abnormal dream, a similar anomaly occurred in Wu Xiaoting's room, approximately three kilometers away.

Wu Xiaoting's room was devoid of furniture. The wooden clock, which was one of the few decorative items in the room, had vanished without a trace, leaving only the rusty nail that had once been used to hang the clock on the wall.

But there were two more hanging ornaments on that wall.

To the left of the nail hangs the head of a middle-aged man with graying temples.

To the right of the nail hangs the head of a pale-faced girl who is crying.

Inside the room, the landlady was crying as she tidied up Wu Xiaoting's clothes by the wardrobe.

She seemed completely oblivious to the two heads hanging behind her on the wall, like the carcasses of hunted animals.

Twenty minutes ago.

The top-floor suite at Longting International Hotel.

Wen Yan, with an expensive SLR camera hanging around his neck, was taking pictures of an antique-looking clock placed on the table from different angles.

On the DSLR's screen, the clock's surface was covered in noise, making the image blurry...

With such severe, mosaic-like noise interference, the two decorative windows on the wooden house looked like two eyes, as if the photo didn't show a wooden house, but a head.

The Ninth Squad had no idea how to properly use these strange objects.

They are not inanimate objects, but individuals with distinct personalities and characteristics, requiring communication, understanding, and mutual resonance...

Then you can share its power... but the price is that you will be gradually assimilated by it.

This was something he knew before he returned to China.

However, he doesn't have many connections abroad... Foreign governments won't trust him as a Chinese person, and he can't obtain any resources. What could be more frustrating than having a gold mine in front of you but not being able to mine it?

That's why he returned to China.

He found his old acquaintance Lu Lingyun, and after revealing that he had participated in related research abroad, he was quickly invited to the Ninth Detachment... However, the Ninth Detachment's methods were still too conservative.

The fact that in other countries, a single person can easily trigger a bloody shooting has forced them to use more extreme methods to complete their research and improve their mechanisms for suppressing abnormalities.

As Émile Durkheim said, "crime is a normal phenomenon in society, and even a necessity for a healthy society."

What Wen Yan told Shen Xing was that in order to combat panic, the social system would be forced to operate, establish a stronger response mechanism, and complete the iteration.

These were his honest thoughts; he said these things precisely because he knew the gap in research progress between the two institutions.

Just like in Sweden, after abolishing the death penalty, in 2000, there was this person who forced the reinstatement of the death penalty through murder...

Wen Yan put on latex gloves, then slowly reached out, picked up the hanging clock, and examined it closely.

Manipulating dreams...foreseeing the future...

This ability is tailor-made for you.

He possesses remarkable mental fortitude, as well as a powerful ability to brainwash and subtly influence others.

Wu Xiaoting was almost driven crazy by this thing, simply because of her ignorance and incompetence.

And I am the most suitable.

Wen Yan carefully examined the wooden clock, and finally, he saw a hidden circular cut in the base of the clock.

Slowly reaching out and pushing, it was like a double door, pushed inside, revealing a circular cut and a bottomless black hole inside.

Is it here...?

He looked up at the mirror in front of him, then slowly raised the hanging clock above his head.

As Wen Yan retracted his arms, the hanging bell was slowly placed on his head.

Darkness enveloped him.