DA chapter 4

 

This is the video described in “Soup Surface,” where blogger Xiao Wu captured a fleeting white shadow.

Lin Jia opened the other videos one by one.

“I’m here again. I haven’t seen any ‘white shadows’ in the past few days. It’s almost midnight. I wonder if I’ll see any more.”

In the video, Xiao Wu nervously held his device to film. Initially, the camera was focused on him, but then he turned it around to show his surroundings.

The camera began to capture the corridor.

At midnight, the corridor was eerily quiet. Xiao Wu was clearly frightened. His hands were shaking, and the camera was wobbling slightly from the trembling.

Just as he switched to the front camera, a white shadow flashed by again.

But Xiao Wu didn’t seem to notice. He continued talking to the camera in a low voice: “Luckily, there’s a light in the hallway; otherwise, I’d be scared to death by my own imagination.”

As he finished speaking, there was a “chu” sound, and the hallway lights went out.

Blogger Xiao Wu: “…”

The lights went out and the camera went black.

To see the video more clearly, Lin Jia raised his phone and moved closer to the screen.

In his blurry vision, whether due to a problem with the equipment or some other reason, a faint bright spot seemed to linger in the video. Unfortunately, the dark lighting made the spot difficult to see.

Lin Jia looked up and glanced down the hallway leading to the first-floor lobby.

The hallway was airtight. The installed voice-activated lights couldn’t escape through the cracks in the walls, nor could outside light penetrate them.

Lowering his gaze, Lin Jia continued to watch the video in silence and realized that the bright spot wasn’t refracted moonlight. Its color in the pitch-black environment suggested that it was a light source in itself.

A dim light source.

Blogger Xiao Wu suppressed a scream, and the video shook violently. Then, with a snap, the video finally came back to life. Blogger Xiao Wu had groped around in the dark, found the electrical box, and pushed the stairway’s power switch.

“Guys, I can’t take it anymore. I need to go back. I’ll pee myself if I stay here any longer.”

The incident with the power switch made blogger Xiao Wu give up. He glanced at the camera, his face suddenly pale and his body stiff.

The video clearly showed the white shadow behind him.

Xiao Wu covered his mouth, hesitation evident on his face as he considered turning back.

The moment he turned around, however, the shadow vanished.

Xiao Wu’s face was grim, and he seemed about to say something to the camera. However, Lin Jia stopped and switched to the next video when he saw that the progress bar on this one was almost at the bottom.

The next video showed different characters. Blogger Xiao Wu knocked on the door of Room 202. It opened, and an old man appeared. Blogger Xiao Wu said, “Hello, Grandpa.”

The old man asked, “What’s up?”

Blogger Xiao Wu hesitated for a moment. “I heard you’ve lived in Yile Apartment the longest. Have you seen a white shadow?”

Old Man: “What white shadow?”

Blogger Xiao Wu: “Like, a ghostly white shadow.”

The old man froze for a moment. “No.”

Bang!

The door slammed shut in Blogger Xiao Wu’s face.

In the next video, Blogger Xiao Wu appears to be in distress. He addresses the camera, saying, “Grandpa from apartment 202 has disappeared. I don’t know where he went. Shouldn’t the other residents of the apartment find it strange that he suddenly disappeared? What should I do? Should I warn others about the white shadow?”

In the next video, blogger Xiao Wu accidentally captures a mother and daughter. The mother glances at Xiao Wu and quickly pulls her daughter close, seemingly to avoid contact with him.

As blogger Xiao Wu was passing by, he suddenly turned around and said, “That… little girl has weak masculine energy. She shouldn’t stay in this apartment overnight.”

Unmoved, the mother took her daughter’s hand and hurried away, disappearing from view.

In another video, Xiao Wu was at home. His spirits were dwindling, and he kept pulling at his hair. “That mother and daughter also disappeared overnight. People in the apartment are disappearing one after another. Is it my turn soon? What should I do?”

Lin Jia switched videos. Blogger Xiao Wu paced anxiously around his home and stood nervously by the door, peering out through the peephole. After looking out for a moment, he sat back down in front of the camera. “I feel like I’m being watched. I don’t know who’s watching me.”

He looked around and suddenly noticed something. He stood up and picked up a pen that had fallen on the ground in front of him. As if petrified, blogger Xiao Wu looked around the room more nervously. He threw back the covers, crawled under the bed, and opened the closet, seemingly searching for something.

After finding nothing, he returned to the camera, clutching the pen tightly in his hand. “I clearly left the pen on the table. I didn’t touch it. Someone came in—the person monitoring me. There’s no one else in the apartment. It’s almost my turn…”

Lin Jia wanted to switch videos again but discovered that they had all already been viewed.

He glanced at the fish man, who, as if sensing something, froze with his eerie eyes fixed on Lin Jia. It, too, was looking at Lin Jia and then laughed deviously.

In the third question, Shi Luo asked, “Do other videos exist?”

Suddenly, more videos appeared on their phones. However, “other videos” did not represent “all videos.”

They could avoid seeing some terrifying things by asking questions. The Fishman also set traps when visualizing problems.

Shi Luo and Buzzcut Man also noticed this problem. Shi Luo felt a little frustrated. He should have asked if all of the other videos existed. Then, perhaps they could have received all of blogger Xiao Wu’s videos and gained more clues.

The others watched blogger Xiao Wu’s videos one after another. The man with glasses continued muttering to himself, “Blogger Xiao Wu seems like a good person.”

Thankfully, it was a statement, not a question, so the Fishman couldn’t answer.

“Yes.” Shi Luo put away his phone. “If blogger Xiao Wu is a good person, then our next questions can revolve around him.”

In these videos, despite being exhausted, blogger Xiao Wu tried to remind others about the existence of the “white shadow,” but unfortunately, no one paid attention.

The tall man asked fearfully, “Brother Shi Luo, didn’t you say that materialization would…would…” Afraid that the Fishman would answer his question, the tall man made a gesture of wiping his neck.

Shi Luo explained, “If blogger Xiao Wu is a good person, then even if he materializes, as long as we don’t provoke him, we’ll be safe. Just like these videos, the materialization is unlikely to kill us.”

Of those present, only Lin Jia held back and didn’t watch the entire video. The others, however, did. They all watched from beginning to end, and now they’re still standing here, safe and sound. This clearly showed that not all materializations were murderous.

The high school boy breathed a sigh of relief. It was the only good news he’d received since entering the Fish Belly.

“How should I ask?” the high school boy scowled.

It’s simple to ask questions, but how can one keep them centered on blogger Xiao Wu, focusing on him and not other deadly entities?

Shi Luo solemnly warned, “Think carefully. Think it through. Ask after you’ve figured it out.”

He pronounced each word with great emphasis.

While everyone else was lost in thought, Lin Jia had already thought it through.

The conversation with Fishman could be seen as a game of wordsmithing—and unfortunately, Lin Jia excelled at it. Evil capitalists always plant word traps in contracts, negotiations, and other documents. For Lin Jia, this was a specialty.

He asked the Fishman, “Is Room 303 the home of blogger Xiao Wu?”

The high school boy and the new girl looked at Lin Jia, suddenly realizing something. Lin Jia’s question was good, mentioning both blogger Xiao Wu and Room 303. All the doors in the Yile Single Apartments were open except for Room 303, so it was likely that Xiao Wu lived there.

However, since they couldn’t open the door, they couldn’t be sure.

The others didn’t dare use force to open it. What if Room 303 wasn’t Xiao Wu’s home but the White Shadow’s lair? Wouldn’t forcing it open be a sure way to get killed?

However, if Lin Jia received a positive answer to his question, the videos on his phone would confirm that Room 303 was safe. After exploring the bachelor apartment and finding nothing, they could then find a way to open Room 303’s door. Perhaps it held the key to finding the source of the soup.

Getting a crucial clue without having to ask the Fishman questions would be a dream come true for everyone.

Lin Jia’s question was certainly a good one, but only the two newcomers showed admiration. The others looked uneasy. Glasses coughed dryly and lowered their heads.

The businessman’s keen intuition told Lin Jia that something was amiss.

He tilted his head to look at the cat. At first, the cat seemed to be thinking, but then, as if realizing something, its expression grew serious. It let out a deep “meow” at Lin Jia.

There is indeed a problem!

The Fishman’s smirk widened after Lin Jia’s question. This was his fourth question. The Fishman said, “Yes.”

Then he said, “Perhaps you could go to Room 303 and knock on the door to verify it yourself.”

It was the first time the Fishman had given an instruction besides the Soup Surface and his answers.

Lin Jia’s gaze immediately fixed on Shi Luo. Shi Luo rubbed his nose and chuckled dryly. “Oh, I forgot to tell you, We can only ask the Fishman three questions a day. Any more than three will trigger the ‘Fishman mission.’”

Lin Jia looked at Shi Luo, his face expressionless. However, the high school boy and the new girl looked incredulous. Shi Luo said, “Sorry, sorry. It’s my fault. I really forgot. Stop glaring at me and get back to your mission. If you don’t finish within six hours, the Fishman will kill you.”

Lin Jia remained silent, calmly observing the others.

The elders avoided his gaze. The two newcomers shifted from disbelief to relief when they realized that it was Lin Jia, not them, who asked the fourth question of the day.

Lin Jia averted his gaze.

He chuckled, “Heh.”

 

---

You can read the full completed story here with instant full access. ✨