Exiting the university gate, they found themselves in an old neighborhood, separated from the school by a narrow, pothole-ridden road.
“How do we get to Happiness Street?” Xin Meng asked Xiao Jia.
Xiao Jia looked confused, “I don’t know either… Fei Fei, do you know?”
Fei Fei replied confidently, “If you locals don’t know, how would I, an outsider, know?”
The two girls exchanged glances, wide-eyed at each other.
“Is there a map we can check?” Xin Meng asked. “If you have one in your dorm, we can go back and get it now.”
“Right, a map!” Xiao Jia excitedly slapped Fei Fei’s arm.
Fei Fei took out her phone, opened the XX map app, and muttered, “Just use the phone navigation; it can check real-time traffic and perfectly avoid congestion… What era is this? Still wanting to look at a paper map? So outdated!”
Xin Meng: “…”
You Yi couldn’t help but chuckle softly.
Although they were supposed to check a map, following the typical horror game trope, it was likely that this address would be untraceable, essentially a ghost street.
However, unexpectedly, Fei Fei quickly found the address, and it wasn’t far from the school. They just needed to cross the old neighborhood in front of them and then cross two more streets to reach Happiness Street.
When they arrived, the street was completely deserted.
This was normal, considering it was late at night, and no one would be wandering around. However, the surrounding houses were even more dilapidated and messy than the old neighborhood, truly fitting the description of dirty, chaotic, and poor.
“This is Happiness Street?” Fei Fei crossed her arms, disdainfully lowering her heels, afraid that walking too fast would splash mud onto her pants. “Living in a place like this, how could anyone be happy!”
“Fei Fei… I don’t think anyone lives here…” Xiao Jia said uncertainly, “Look, some houses don’t even have their front doors closed.”
The two girls exchanged worried glances, both feeling a bit uneasy. “Could it be that we have to go to…”
“A haunted house!”
They scared each other enough to almost freeze in place.
Xin Meng, however, was looking for the house number. This street was indeed Happiness Street, with a sign at the intersection, but none of the houses had visible numbers on their doors, making it impossible to know which one was number 99.
They could only walk and look.
But as Xiao Jia had said, many houses had their doors wide open, and the insides were empty, indicating no one lived there.
As they approached the end of the street, You Yi suddenly signaled for everyone to stop. He listened intently, then pulled Xin Meng over to a wall on the right.
Xin Meng calmed down and perked up her ears.
“Rustle, rustle, rustle…”
A faint sound emerged, as if someone was digging in a yard just on the other side of the wall.
After a while, the sound disappeared, replaced by the heavy thud of a shovel hitting the ground, along with the sound of heavy footsteps, growing fainter until they entered a house, followed by a “click” as the door closed.
Xin Meng was curious and wanted to see what was happening, but the wall was a bit high. She asked You Yi to lift her up. Clinging to the wall, she peered inside and noticed that the soil in the middle of the yard had been disturbed, with a shovel still stuck in the ground.
Who was this person? Why were they digging in the yard at such a late hour?
As she pondered, You Yi set her down and pointed to a nearby wall where a dilapidated house number was barely hanging on, with three nails missing from its corners, leaving only one still stubbornly holding on.
The blue background was covered in dust and mud, but she could vaguely make out some numbers beneath.
Xin Meng tapped her finger on it, revealing the number—99.
“This is the one!” Fei Fei exclaimed, “There really is someone living here!”
Her clear voice turned into a chilling sound in the silent night, causing Xiao Jia to quickly cover her mouth, “Keep your voice down!”
Xin Meng glanced at the wall and exchanged a look with You Yi. With his help, she climbed over the wall and silently jumped into the yard, while You Yi nimbly followed. The two girls had no way to get over and could only hold hands, anxiously waiting outside.
The yard was not large, only about ten square meters. In the southeast corner stood a willow tree as thick as a person’s waist, its bark cracked, leaves all fallen, leaving only dry, slender branches swaying in the wind. The moonlight cast shadows on the ground, resembling the tentacles of a ghost, clawing and dancing, creating a very eerie scene.
Amidst the heavy “tentacles,” they could vaguely see the freshly turned soil, indicating that the person had been digging here.
Where were the digging tools?
Xin Meng scanned the empty yard and found a shovel near the front of the house.
The front end of the shovel was half buried in the compacted earth, showing just how much strength the person had used.
You Yi walked over, glanced at the dark window, then pulled the shovel out. After another look at the window, he turned and began digging under the willow tree.
What was he looking for?
Xin Meng was a bit curious and took another look at the window, but it was too dark inside to see anything, not a glimmer of light.
She turned back to You Yi, who was working quickly and quietly. In no time, something buried beneath the soil was exposed before them.
A corpse.
The deceased was a young woman, completely naked, her limbs twisted at impossible angles, fingers and toes neatly severed. Her pale face and disheveled black hair were smeared with a thick, black liquid, emitting a strong stench, but there were no signs of decomposition, indicating she had died not long ago.
The owner of this house had just been burying a body!
Xin Meng was startled. In the dark, silent yard, a tragically dead female corpse appeared, her unblinking pale eyes seemingly locking onto his gaze!
He couldn’t help but take a step back. Although he couldn’t say he was terrified, he still felt a bit uneasy, his eyes instinctively drifting away, scanning the surroundings. When he glanced at the window, he was nearly startled into jumping by a distorted face pressed against the glass!
It was that man, the owner of the house!
He had somehow been alerted and had come to the window, silently watching them!
The face pressed against the glass was distorted, his wide-open eyes filled with an incomprehensible expression, far more terrifying than the buried female corpse!
Xin Meng instinctively reached for the shovel for defense, but the man at the window seemed to be even more frightened than he was, suddenly jumping back in terror and retreating into the house!
Darkness fell again, and the window was once more a pitch-black void, nothing visible.
After waiting for a while, no one reappeared inside the house, nor was there any sound, and contrary to Xin Meng’s expectations, no one rushed out to silence them.
“What’s going on?” Xin Meng whispered to her boyfriend.
“He’s afraid of us,” You Yi replied calmly, as if this situation was not surprising at all. “He won’t confront us directly, and of course, he won’t show himself. Let’s go.”
“What about the corpse?” Xin Meng looked at the female corpse, feeling a bit troubled.
You Yi pulled out a phone from his pocket, aimed it at the corpse’s face, and “click” took a picture.
Xin Meng: “…Why do you have a phone?!”
Why didn’t he have one!
Hearing his complaint, You Yi wordlessly shoved the phone into his hands, “If you want it, just take it.”
Xin Meng thought this was just another one of his occasional, unexpected sweet nothings, his face warming up. He quickly handed the phone back to him, “I can’t use the phone; you should keep it.”
You Yi looked at him deeply but didn’t refuse. He took the phone back and then recited a string of numbers to him, “Phone number.”
“Oh.” Xin Meng nodded absentmindedly, not really paying attention, not understanding why You Yi was telling him his phone number. They were always together, so there was no need to call. Besides, even if he wanted to play, he didn’t have a phone.
You Yi filled in the hole, the pale face of the corpse disappearing beneath the soil, as if it had never existed.
Seeing Xin Meng looking at the spot with a hint of sympathy, You Yi said, “Just a string of data.”
Upon hearing this, Xin Meng immediately understood, his brows relaxing.
A string of data meant that this corpse had never had self-awareness; it wasn’t a perfectly fine NPC being killed over and over again, but rather, it had been a corpse from the moment it was born.
Like mass-produced inflatable dolls, soulless, incapable of feeling pain or suffering.
Once he thought of it this way, he felt nothing more, turning to climb over the wall, but You Yi did not follow. He turned back, puzzled, and saw You Yi raising an eyebrow at him, seemingly lost in thought.
“What’s wrong?” He blinked.
You Yi smiled and shook his head, “You used to not think so much.”
Used to?
Xin Meng hesitated in his steps. You Yi’s tone was too calm; he couldn’t gauge the attitude behind those words. Had he changed? Did You Yi approve or disapprove?
In truth, he didn’t care much about what he used to be like or what he was like now, but he did care about his boyfriend’s attitude. If he and his former self were a couple, did that mean he liked his former self?
Love makes one anxious.
Even though Xin Meng’s resolve was relatively strong, in the face of lost important memories, he couldn’t help but feel a bit conflicted.
Heavy clouds drifted in, obscuring the moon, cutting off the light, plunging everything into darkness. Even the sound of the wind disappeared, and the small yard was so dark that one couldn’t see their hand in front of their face, enveloped in silence.
Yet You Yi seemed to be able to penetrate this layer of darkness, seeing into Xin Meng’s heart. He rarely softened his voice, saying, “You seem more like my ‘companion’ now.”
Xin Meng felt a sense of relief in his heart.
He understood You Yi’s meaning; he… was more like a human now.
Not saying it outright but using “companion” instead, avoided emphasizing the distance created by their different natures, making them feel closer. This was a deeply hidden tenderness and thoughtfulness from You Yi.
In that moment, Xin Meng fully grasped it.
The moon broke free from the clouds, and the moonlight once again bathed the earth. You Yi walked over, took Xin Meng’s hand, and led him to the front gate of the small yard, directly unlocking the inner lock and confidently stepping outside.
Xin Meng looked at You Yi’s broad back in front of him and couldn’t help but curl his fingers, lightly scratching his palm.
You Yi turned around, and upon seeing Xin Meng give him a small smile, his dimples deepened.
