DA chapter 3

 

After the Fishman finished speaking, the first-floor hall fell silent. Only the Fishman’s eyes moved as he scanned the eight people. His grin was etched with excitement, and his sharp teeth were bared.

Lin Jia noticed that the so-called Fishman only had fangs similar to those of a perch-form fish. The teeth in his mouth were small yet sharp, like saws. Even more disgusting was the fact that there were more than one row of fangs, filling his mouth.

Fortunately, Lin Jia didn’t have trypophobia.[mfn]Trypophobia is the intense emotional reaction of fear, disgust, or anxiety triggered by clusters of small holes or irregular patterns, though it is not officially recognized as a clinical phobia.[/mfn]

But the tall boy did. His hair stood on end, and beads of sweat rolled down his forehead. With a thud, he landed on the ground, leaving a dark spot.

“That white shadow…” a man in glasses muttered to himself. “It can’t be…”

Someone immediately covered the man’s mouth and said sadly, “Don’t talk nonsense.”

Lin Jia looked at the elderly men and saw fear in their eyes. However, their fear came from a different source than that of the other two newcomers. The newcomers were frightened by the fish man, but these men were frightened by his words.

Due to his childhood experiences, Lin Jia was afraid of the dark, but that was the only thing he was afraid of. He couldn’t grasp the horror of the Fishman’s words yet, but he knew they held profound meaning.

He tilted his head to glance at the cat on his right shoulder. The cat clung to him quietly, pretending to be a normal pet that had followed its owner into a world of horror.

At that moment, Shi Luo looked up at the three newcomers and said, “This is ‘Soup Surface.’”

The other two newcomers were stunned; the Fishman’s gaze flickered toward them. They couldn’t breathe properly, let alone respond to Shi Luo.

Shi Luo could only look at Lin Jia.

Lin Jia nodded slightly, indicating understanding.

Shi Luo continued, “Now that we have the ‘Soup Surface,’ we need to use it to find the ‘Soup Base’. In other words, we need to figure out what exactly happened in this studio apartment.”

Fearing that Lin Jia wouldn’t understand, he added, “Find out what the white shadow is, what happened to the neighbors, why the blogger deleted the video, and why he kept looking off-camera in the clarification video. Once all the mysteries are clear, you can return here and give the Fishman the ‘Soup Base.’ If you answer correctly, you can leave the Fish Belly.”

Not bad. Lin Jia nodded again and, like a subordinate reporting on a job, asked, “Is there anything else?”

Shi Luo said, “Everyone can ask the Fishman questions, and he’ll answer ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ but—”

Shi Luo changed the subject, saying gravely, “Don’t ask random questions because, as you get the answers, those questions might materialize and kill people.”

Lin Jia gently rubbed his right thumb against his index finger. He looked up at the man with glasses who had just been interrupted while mumbling.

Based on the soup, it wasn’t hard to guess what the man would say after being interrupted. He was probably thinking, “This white shadow can’t be a ghost, right?”

It was a question the Fishman could answer with a simple yes or no. Once the Fishman answered, the question would be answered.

However, Lin Jia wasn’t sure if the white shadow was a ghost or something else.

The explanation to the newcomer was clear enough. Shi Luo said, “Let’s start looking for clues. It would be best if we could get to the bottom of things without asking the Fishman.”

Everyone agreed and began searching the studio apartment for clues.

But not asking the Fishman didn’t mean the apartment was safe. For safety’s sake, they went in pairs or threes to search. The high school boy had wanted to team up with Lin Jia originally, but a two-person team would be too inefficient. Embarrassed, The high school boy left Lin Jia behind and clung to the old man’s thigh.

That was exactly what Lin Jia wanted.

After everyone left, Lin Jia pushed open the door to a room on the first floor and closed it.

The cat hopped off his shoulder and began surveying the room.

Since the cat was helping him find clues too, Lin Jia knew that Shi Luo wasn’t lying. He asked the cat his unanswered questions. The cat jumped onto the bed and dug into the pillow with its front paws, looking for something hidden underneath. Sadly, there was nothing there.

The cat replaced the pillow and replied, “If the white shadow is a ghost, then only a ghost will appear. If the white shadow isn’t a ghost, then both a white shadow and a ghost could appear.”

The room was unremarkable, containing only a bed, a table, chairs, and some personal belongings. Clearly, someone had lived there, but Lin Jia didn’t know where they had gone.

Lin Jia examined the other rooms one by one to gain a general understanding of the building’s structure. There were three floors, each with three rooms. Two of the rooms were adjacent to each other and separated by a corridor. The ground floor had no corridor, leading directly to the main hallway.

In total, there were nine rooms, and the lone room on the top floor, near the corridor, was locked. Room 303 had a 360-degree camera installed outside. All of the rooms except 303 could be opened.

All of the rooms showed signs of life, but none were occupied. No one knew for sure whether 303 was occupied because no one opened the door despite repeated knocks.

This was a complete failure.

Lin Jia noticed that everyone’s expressions were grim. The elderly looked pale and the newcomers trembled with fear. But that was understandable. If they found nothing, they would need the help of the Fishman.

“Are we really going to find the Fishman?” the tall man asked, trembling. “Why don’t we wait a little longer? Maybe the people in the apartment are out. We can wait for them to come back. When they come back, we can ask them what happened.”

“How can that be so easy?” asked the man with the buzzcut. “Do you think the Fishman will give us enough time to find the Soup Base?” There’s a time limit. Should we wait for the people in the apartment to come back? What if they don’t?”

The tall man didn’t dare say anything.

There was no other way. They could only return to the living room on the first floor. The Fishman’s lips, once pursed into a line, widened again as if he couldn’t wait for the eight people to ask him questions.

Everyone returned to the first-floor lobby, but they were all silent.

They had to ask, of course, but how? Should they ask Fishman? ”Soup Surface” from the Fishman triggered everything, so how could they ask him?

Should they ask the neighbors? ‘Soup Surface’ revealed that the neighbors were strange; calling them out would be life-threatening.

After much deliberation, he could only ask the blogger from “Soup Surface.”

Shi Luo was about to speak when he heard a clear voice. It was neither humble nor arrogant, and its tone was calm and composed.

Everyone was startled and looked at the owner of the voice.

Lin Jia asked, “Will you voluntarily release a clarification video?”

The newcomer was still trembling. Meanwhile, Shi Luo and the buzzcut man looked at Lin Jia with mixed feelings. Questions can be concrete, but there no subject in Lin Jia’s question. The only thing that could be considered a subject was “the video.”

The Fishman grinned and replied, “Yes.”

Ding—

Lin Jia’s phone buzzed in his pocket. Not only his phone, but also the phones of everyone else who had brought a phone into the Fish Belly dinged simultaneously after the Fishman answered.

Each phone received a video message.

What was going on? Even the high school boy reacted. Lin Jia’s question was clear: Should he open the video? Could the video be lethal?

It’s certainly possible, but unlikely.

Lin Jia was about to open the video when the cat meowed. “Meow—”

as if to stop him.

The cat’s voice was masculine, and its meow was unusual, but everyone else’s attention was on Lin Jia.

Under their gaze, Lin Jia continued to open the video without hesitation. The sound echoed in the empty first-floor hall.

“H-hello everyone, I’m video blogger Xiao Wu. I’m sorry to tell you this will be my last video. I’m sorry I lied to you all. There’s no such thing as a ‘white shadow.’ My previous videos were scripted and edited. I’m so sorry to all my fans who follow Xiao Wu. I’m so sorry…”

As seen in the ‘Soup Surface’ video, blogger Xiao Wu speaks in a panic while his eyes drift involuntarily to the right, outside the camera. He can’t help but look as if there’s something to the right of the camera.

To be on the safe side, Lin Jia didn’t watch the end. He remembered a movie about a videotape. When the tape ended, a ghost broke through the dimension and crawled out of the device it was playing on.

Lin Jia simply didn’t watch the end.

Seeing that Lin Jia was safe and sound, the others, who had also received the video, opened it to watch. After looking at it, the man with glasses muttered to himself again, “Is there something outside the camera?”

The Fishman replied, “No.”

Everyone was stunned, and only then did the man with glasses react, asking himself the question.

He dropped his phone in shock and his face turned pale.

After the second question, everyone lost interest in watching the video on their phones. They waited in silence for the second question to materialize. After a long wait, everything calmed down.

Everyone finally felt relieved. Shi Luo scolded the man with glasses, telling him to be quiet.

The man with the buzzcut scolded him too, saying, “If you don’t shut up, I’ll sew your mouth shut!”

The man with glasses didn’t dare say a word.

Inspired by Lin Jia, Shi Luo asked the third question.

“Do the other videos exist?” he asked.

The fish man replied, “Yes.”

Then, ding ding ding—

The phone rang incessantly.

Videos kept loading into the phone, about 7 or 8 in total.

Lin Jia opened one of the videos. This time, the cat didn’t stop him. It rested its head in the crook of his shoulder and watched as well. “It’s going to rain soon, so today I’m showing you ants moving.”

Blogger Xiao Wu reappeared in the video, holding his camera up and pointing it at himself. He walked down the hallway and said to the camera, “I found a spectacular scene of ants moving. You wouldn’t understand how spectacular it is unless you saw it. It’s a shame I didn’t bring my camera last time. Luckily, it’s going to rain again soon. Ah… Ah… Oh my god…”

In the video, blogger Xiao Wu screams as he speaks. He appears to fall, and his camera clatters and flies off. At that moment, a “white shadow” appears, clearly flashing through the lens.

The faces of those who saw the video fell, and they looked up, unsure what to say.

But they found resonance in their companions’ expressions—this white shadow…

It truly looked like a ghost.

 

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