Yibei’s favourite meat is a roll of beef. Every time he eats hot pot, the fat, juicy rolls of beef are his first choice of meat to eat.
Some say that, after a traumatic event, you will start to hate the things you love, and he finds that this saying is absolutely true.
After seeing that dismembered man, he buried his love for beef in his heart, seemingly paranoid about eating meat.
‘Who knows if there were any strange things mixed in the beef… am I a cannibal?’
Assuming that if each of his hot pot meals were mixed with fingernail-sized human flesh, adding it up over ten years, he could very well be a cannibal.
He feels nauseous.
An Qing temporarily quelled his worries and confirmed that there were no urban legends in this stall, but he still prefers to never come to this side of the market ever again.
The psychological shadow still lingered in his heart, however, and curiosity seemed to get the best of him.
‘I’m not the same Lu Yibei as before,’ he decided, wanting to go near the stall to confirm the situation.
He didn’t rule out the possibility that the original owner of the stall simply came to clean up or that they were here to pick something up, but he also didn’t rule out the possibility that when he reported the situation to the Night Division, whatever lurked here scrambled away as soon as they sensed danger.
He sneakily crept towards the stall and unzipped his bag, grasping the handle of his kitchen knife.
‘If I discover anything, I need to ask for payment from the Night Division,’ he grumbled. ‘Need to make up for my missing funds because of that stupid goddess.’
This stall has been sitting in the corner of the market for quite some time now. He vaguely remembers that he came here with his father to shop before.
Their shutter door was gathering dust and stained with an unknown substance, and above it was a faded signboard that read [Frozen Food].
Ever since the nights got longer, many stalls closed as early as possible. In the past, they would usually wait at least until after the office workers got off work, but now, after lunch, they would usually close their stalls or be inactive.
Which is how nobody noticed Yibei’s covert operation.
Taking a deep breath, a rancid smell rushed into his lungs.
It smelled like a dirty refrigerator, and he gripped his knife harder as he ducked underneath the shutter and slid inside.
He took out his knife, held it close to his chest as he entered the dim store, and froze in place.
The store was a square room, and the walls were stained yellow from the leaking pipes. For some reason, he felt that the ceiling was caving in on him, which made him feel a little claustrophobic.
He gulped. If An Qing told him there that there was nothing here, then what did he see the other day? Was he hallucinating?
Looking around, his eyes landed on a small table with an incense burner and candles stuck into it. The apples that were given as offerings had grown large pieces of mould, and surrounding them were the ashy remains of burnt money made of paper.
There was also a photo frame on the table. The black and white photo in the photo frame had been torn in half as if the person in the photo were split in half from top to bottom.
He immediately recognised him—the owner of this store! His sallow complexion, his thin body, his stooped figure, his dead eyes—it was impossible for him to forget.
Taking a look at the burnt incense, two were short, and one was long. It is said that burning incense like this is taboo! What is the owner thinking? Is he trying to chase away his customers?
He swore it was getting harder to breathe, and just as he was planning to leave, a sound suddenly came from above him.
Thud!
There was a dull sound in the ceiling as if there were an attic above him.
So that’s why the ceiling feels so low, Yibei thought. ‘There’s a hidden attic here.’
Squinting his eyes above him, there was indeed a square-shaped hole in the ceiling, but it was so dark that he couldn’t see what was beyond the hole.
It was barely big enough for a person to pass through as well. Squinting his eyes even more, he could make out the outline of a folding ladder hanging in the darkness, low enough for him to jump up and pull it down.
Gazing at the void above him, it seemed to loom over him, and at any moment, a dismembered corpse might just crawl out along the ladder.
Staring at the void, he ducked slightly and leapt up with all his strength.
“Shit!”
He found that he used too much strength and leapt straight through the hole, and in the darkness, a cold white light flashed across his vision.
Landing back on the ground, he staggered twice to regain his balance and breathed erratically.
‘Did… did I accidentally activate my powers? How did I jump that high? An ordinary person shouldn’t be able to jump that high to begin with. And what the hell was that light?’
He rummaged through his backpack and loaded his toy gun with a couple of charms before attempting to jump again. Soon, he managed to pull the ladder down with a clatter.
He decided to climb up the ladder and throw a couple of charms straight into the attic.
Clack!
The charms simply fell on the attic floor, dormant. This time, he took his knife out and stretched his arm in, slashing through the mouth of the hole as he flailed his arm around before climbing up the attic.
Entering the attic, he immediately saw the source of the white light that flashed in his sight just now.
It was a strange-looking freezer—boxy, unlike a rectangular freezer. The lower parts were made of metal, but the upper part was entirely made of glass. It was pushed into the deepest corner of the attic, and it was powered on. Nothing was inside the freezer except for the cold, white mist that leaked out of it.
‘An abandoned store… But somebody burnt incense downstairs and hid a freezer up here…’
Although there were no urban legends here, he was sure that it would transform into one if these rumours about this place were to spread. He decided to immediately report it to the Night Division.
‘You made me paranoid of beef! You’re gonna pay for this!’
Just as he was about to contact Jiangli, he decided to take a photo of the freezer first and opened his browser in order to use the search-by-image function.
The freezer was eerily familiar, and as the page loaded, his face instantly turned pale.
[Ice caskets, or corpse-preservers, were a temporary solution to help mourning families.]
The dim light from his phone illuminated his pale cheeks, and his eyes began to burn as an unsettling sound could be heard in the darkness.
Yibei’s favourite meat is a roll of beef. Every time he eats hot pot, the fat, juicy rolls of beef are his first choice of meat to eat.
Some say that, after a traumatic event, you will start to hate the things you love, and he finds that this saying is absolutely true.
After seeing that dismembered man, he buried his love for beef in his heart, seemingly paranoid about eating meat.
‘Who knows if there were any strange things mixed in the beef… am I a cannibal?’
Assuming that if each of his hot pot meals were mixed with fingernail-sized human flesh, adding it up over ten years, he could very well be a cannibal.
He feels nauseous.
An Qing temporarily quelled his worries and confirmed that there were no urban legends in this stall, but he still prefers to never come to this side of the market ever again.
The psychological shadow still lingered in his heart, however, and curiosity seemed to get the best of him.
‘I’m not the same Lu Yibei as before,’ he decided, wanting to go near the stall to confirm the situation.
He didn’t rule out the possibility that the original owner of the stall simply came to clean up or that they were here to pick something up, but he also didn’t rule out the possibility that when he reported the situation to the Night Division, whatever lurked here scrambled away as soon as they sensed danger.
He sneakily crept towards the stall and unzipped his bag, grasping the handle of his kitchen knife.
‘If I discover anything, I need to ask for payment from the Night Division,’ he grumbled. ‘Need to make up for my missing funds because of that stupid goddess.’
This stall has been sitting in the corner of the market for quite some time now. He vaguely remembers that he came here with his father to shop before.
Their shutter door was gathering dust and stained with an unknown substance, and above it was a faded signboard that read [Frozen Food].
Ever since the nights got longer, many stalls closed as early as possible. In the past, they would usually wait at least until after the office workers got off work, but now, after lunch, they would usually close their stalls or be inactive.
Which is how nobody noticed Yibei’s covert operation.
Taking a deep breath, a rancid smell rushed into his lungs.
It smelled like a dirty refrigerator, and he gripped his knife harder as he ducked underneath the shutter and slid inside.
He took out his knife, held it close to his chest as he entered the dim store, and froze in place.
The store was a square room, and the walls were stained yellow from the leaking pipes. For some reason, he felt that the ceiling was caving in on him, which made him feel a little claustrophobic.
He gulped. If An Qing told him there that there was nothing here, then what did he see the other day? Was he hallucinating?
Looking around, his eyes landed on a small table with an incense burner and candles stuck into it. The apples that were given as offerings had grown large pieces of mould, and surrounding them were the ashy remains of burnt money made of paper.
There was also a photo frame on the table. The black and white photo in the photo frame had been torn in half as if the person in the photo were split in half from top to bottom.
He immediately recognised him—the owner of this store! His sallow complexion, his thin body, his stooped figure, his dead eyes—it was impossible for him to forget.
Taking a look at the burnt incense, two were short, and one was long. It is said that burning incense like this is taboo! What is the owner thinking? Is he trying to chase away his customers?
He swore it was getting harder to breathe, and just as he was planning to leave, a sound suddenly came from above him.
Thud!
There was a dull sound in the ceiling as if there were an attic above him.
So that’s why the ceiling feels so low, Yibei thought. ‘There’s a hidden attic here.’
Squinting his eyes above him, there was indeed a square-shaped hole in the ceiling, but it was so dark that he couldn’t see what was beyond the hole.
It was barely big enough for a person to pass through as well. Squinting his eyes even more, he could make out the outline of a folding ladder hanging in the darkness, low enough for him to jump up and pull it down.
Gazing at the void above him, it seemed to loom over him, and at any moment, a dismembered corpse might just crawl out along the ladder.
Staring at the void, he ducked slightly and leapt up with all his strength.
“Shit!”
He found that he used too much strength and leapt straight through the hole, and in the darkness, a cold white light flashed across his vision.
Landing back on the ground, he staggered twice to regain his balance and breathed erratically.
‘Did… did I accidentally activate my powers? How did I jump that high? An ordinary person shouldn’t be able to jump that high to begin with. And what the hell was that light?’
He rummaged through his backpack and loaded his toy gun with a couple of charms before attempting to jump again. Soon, he managed to pull the ladder down with a clatter.
He decided to climb up the ladder and throw a couple of charms straight into the attic.
Clack!
The charms simply fell on the attic floor, dormant. This time, he took his knife out and stretched his arm in, slashing through the mouth of the hole as he flailed his arm around before climbing up the attic.
Entering the attic, he immediately saw the source of the white light that flashed in his sight just now.
It was a strange-looking freezer—boxy, unlike a rectangular freezer. The lower parts were made of metal, but the upper part was entirely made of glass. It was pushed into the deepest corner of the attic, and it was powered on. Nothing was inside the freezer except for the cold, white mist that leaked out of it.
‘An abandoned store… But somebody burnt incense downstairs and hid a freezer up here…’
Although there were no urban legends here, he was sure that it would transform into one if these rumours about this place were to spread. He decided to immediately report it to the Night Division.
‘You made me paranoid of beef! You’re gonna pay for this!’
Just as he was about to contact Jiangli, he decided to take a photo of the freezer first and opened his browser in order to use the search-by-image function.
The freezer was eerily familiar, and as the page loaded, his face instantly turned pale.
[Ice caskets, or corpse-preservers, were a temporary solution to help mourning families.]
The dim light from his phone illuminated his pale cheeks, and his eyes began to burn as an unsettling sound could be heard in the darkness.
