She Comes Into My Dreams Every Night - Chapter 25

Chapter 25: Not All Calls Are Sales Pitches

Su Huaiwang put down her phone, her heart filled with confusion.

She rubbed her slightly aching brow, sighed, and turned around.

The moment she turned, Lin Jue was standing at the doorway, her amber eyes shadowed, silently watching Su Huaiwang, her expression unreadable.

Su Huaiwang was startled, involuntarily stumbling backward several steps until she hit the railing, letting out an involuntary yelp of pain.

The look on Lin Jue’s face instantly shifted to clear anxiety. She quickly moved forward, wrapped an arm around Su Huaiwang’s waist, and pulled her back from the railing:

“Be careful. It wouldn’t be good if you fell. Are you alright?”

“Thank you, I’m fine,” Su Huaiwang said, a little embarrassed.

“Good that you’re fine.” Lin Jue wasn’t smiling as usual: “I needed to use the restroom. I apologize, I didn’t mean to eavesdrop on your call.”

“It’s alright. It wasn’t an important call anyway.” Su Huaiwang composed herself, took a step sideways, distancing herself from Lin Jue:

“The restroom on the second floor is over there,” she pointed toward the end of the corridor.

“I see.” Lin Jue nodded, turned around, seemingly genuinely just wanting to use the restroom.

After a moment of hesitation, Su Huaiwang called out to her: “Did you hear everything just now?”

Lin Jue turned back, answering with what seemed like honesty: “I heard a little. Was it the police calling you?”

“Sort of,” Su Huaiwang wasn’t entirely clear herself, so her answer was vague: “I told you before that I hit my head in Minguan and stayed at a villager’s house for a month.”

“They thought I was missing back then and searched for me for a long time. Because of that incident, the police said they need to do a follow-up with me.”

“Follow-up…” Lin Jue muttered softly: “But wasn’t that a year ago? A follow-up now?”

Su Huaiwang spread her hands: “I know, I don’t know what’s going on. They just said they were coming to see me. Setting aside why they’d travel all this way to this remote mountain area, I haven’t even told them when I’m available.”

“Could it be some kind of scammer?”

Su Huaiwang hesitated, deciding not to mention the amnesia to Lin Jue: “Probably not. Don’t worry about it. We’ll deal with it later.”

She looked up at Lin Jue.

The expression that had caused her vague fear and unease disappeared from Lin Jue’s face, replaced by a thoughtful look.

Noticing Su Huaiwang watching her, Lin Jue temporarily put aside her thoughts and said earnestly: “If you have any problems, remember to find me.”

Then, perhaps feeling the statement sounded too self-assured, she added: “At least we can look out for each other.”

“I know,” Su Huaiwang smiled: “Good neighbors are better than distant relatives, right?”

She waved her hand, pressed the doorknob, and entered the art studio.

Separated by the thin door panel, even if she didn’t want to listen, Lin Jue could still sense her footsteps, the brief pause as she picked up the paintbrush, and the faint sound of drawing on the paper.

The Demon-Slaying Bureau.

There was no other possibility.

Lin Jue slowly walked to the railing where Su Huaiwang had been moments ago, inhaling her lingering scent of human vitality almost greedily.

The same old persistence.

A newly-sneaked-in small specter clung to the ceiling, surprised that this house contained no other presence similar to itself.

But it quickly discovered the reason.

The entity wrapped in human skin on the second floor found it. The entity looked up, and the specter saw the skin on that face crack and peel, revealing a texture like fire-scorched pottery.

The Grudge Spirit smiled at it, only the skin moving dramatically, the corners of its mouth stretched back to its ears. Inside the gaping mouth, and where the pupils should have been, was nothing but a smoky darkness.

A distant pointing gesture, and an unspeakable shriek was crushed. Lin Jue touched her own face, readjusting it back to her beautiful, living appearance.

…

Time passed quickly. Su Huaiwang invited Lin Jue to stay for lunch. Lin Jue initially offered to cook, but Su Huaiwang couldn’t possibly allow that to happen, so Su Huaiwang ended up making the meal herself.

When Lin Jue left, she took several pieces of paper with her, not only her own drawings but also Su Huaiwang’s.

Su Huaiwang asked her what she was going to do with them, and Lin Jue simply said she would collect them.

Su Huaiwang was puzzled. What collection value did her drawings have?

But when she asked Lin Jue again, Lin Jue just smiled and remained silent.

After Lin Jue left, the entire villa fell silent again.

Su Huaiwang let out a long breath and collapsed onto the sofa, her gaze settling on the two dogs and one cat curled up in a ball.

They say pets resemble their owners. The three little pets were as reserved as their owner, rarely making a sound.

In the city, this was an excellent trait, but they were in the countryside now, where such formalities weren’t necessary. Sometimes Su Huaiwang truly wished they would bark or meow a little.

Just to clear the inexplicable desolation in the house.

Su Huaiwang got up and patted the three little ones. Mimi’s rough tongue scraped across her palm, leaving a prickly sensation.

She zoned out while petting the cat, something flashing through her mind.

That phone call earlier…

Slowly standing up, Su Huaiwang paced to the sofa and sat down, her mind racing with connections.

The person on the phone said she went to Beiguan Village, but in her memory, she distinctly went to Nanguan Village.

She took out her phone and opened the map, but she couldn’t find either Nanguan Village or Beiguan Village.

Su Huaiwang frowned deeply.

After a moment of silence, she stood up, walked back to her room, opened her computer, and started searching online with keywords.

Right, why did I think of going to Nanguan Village for inspiration back then?

It was something about… she was writing a short story related to folklore horror. While searching for material online, she happened to see a post about this village in a forum.

The post claimed the village had a long history of female infanticide and human trafficking, which led to some supernatural phenomena. Although the area had been cleaned up after the reform and opening up, and the supernatural phenomena had stopped, some elderly residents still retained memories of them.

The poster mentioned his grandfather’s recollections, which sounded incredibly realistic and chilling.

Su Huaiwang, suffering from a lack of inspiration, immediately decided to go to this small village for field research.

Perhaps it was the result of too much suppression during the first twenty years of her life, but after her parents’ death, Su Huaiwang’s execution power was frighteningly strong. She booked a flight that very night.

After that, her memory became blurry.

She only remembered the plane landing, renting a car in the city, and then, and then…

No matter how hard she tried to excavate, no new memories surfaced from the depths of her mind.

Su Huaiwang leaned back, closing her eyes.

Her browsing history had been deleted. She had logged onto that forum but couldn’t find the thread she had seen.

A creepy feeling squirmed in her heart. Su Huaiwang shivered, got up, and closed the window.

Since she couldn’t find the original post, she would have to try her best to find information about the village.

Su Huaiwang typed in “Minguan Beiguan Village Nanguan Village” again, adding more keywords this time.

After browsing over a dozen irrelevant pieces of information and advertisements, Su Huaiwang finally found the information she was looking for at the bottom of the page.

It was mid-afternoon, and the sun was bright, yet Su Huaiwang felt chilled to the bone.

The pupils staring at the computer screen suddenly dilated, the clear characters reflecting in the center of her eyes.

【…Severe ghost village phenomenon in the surrounding areas of Minguan: Beiguan Village (abandoned 1997), Nanguan Village (abandoned 1998)…】

If Beiguan Village and Nanguan Village were successively abandoned in the nineties, then what kind of village did she go to? What was the situation with that forum poster? Was her month-long recovery at a “villager’s” home… truly real?

Should she seek a psychiatrist, or should she go back to Baiyang Temple?

Su Huaiwang sat on the chair stunned for a long time, finally picking up her phone and dialing a number.

The call was answered quickly, not the scenario Su Huaiwang had imagined. Her mind felt slightly at ease.

The person answering was no longer Lei Yinyin, but a sweet female voice:

“Hello, welcome to the City Rail Processing Bureau. Would you like me to transfer you to your assigned processing officer, Comrade Lei Yinyin?”

City Rail Processing Bureau? Was this the department handling her case? Didn’t that seem a little strange?

Su Huaiwang was somewhat confused, but regardless, the other party’s professional, official tone genuinely lessened her fear.

“Um…” She hesitated.

The voice on the other end added: “If it’s just a routine question, I can also help you. We are happy to serve you. Why don’t you tell me what you’d like to consult about first?”

It was obvious the person had professional psychological training and was handling her situation with ease.

“Uh, I mainly want to consult about… do you have my… relevant records on your end?” Su Huaiwang racked her brain, not knowing how to clearly explain the current situation in a few words. A sudden flash of inspiration reminded her of Lei Yinyin’s phone call.

The people surrounding her bed back then didn’t include Lei Yinyin, but since the other person was in charge of the case, their City Rail Processing Bureau must have her records.

“Yes, we do, but please be assured that all our records have strict confidentiality measures and are only for internal staff to view,” the staff member on the phone answered with a smile. An electronic case file was already open in front of her, bearing the traces of Lei Yinyin’s modification from that morning.

Su Huaiwang breathed a sigh of relief: “It’s like this. I just discovered that the Nanguan Village… or rather, the Beiguan Village I went to has long been abandoned. But in the parts I can remember…”

Su Huaiwang recounted the incident piece by piece. By the end, her voice was slightly trembling.

The staff member on the phone patiently listened to her stuttering explanation, answering without a moment of silence:

“The situation is this: Although the files state that Nanguan Village is abandoned, there are actually a few elderly residents who chose not to leave. The forum content you saw and the farmer who took you in are derived from this. In fact, when you went missing, we conducted an extensive survey of the surrounding area, which led to this conclusion. We didn’t tell you the full story because we didn’t want to cause you further distress.

“As for the mistake with Nanguan Village and Beiguan Village, it was indeed a record error on our part. I apologize for that. Comrade Lei Yinyin has already corrected it.”

As the woman in the professional suit spoke, she looked down. The electronic case file was not as she had described.

The name “Beiguan Village” had never been crossed out. The only addition was a note: [Victim believes her destination was Nanguan Village].

“Is that so… Thank you. May I ask one more question?”

“Of course, do you have any other questions?”

After her confused inquiry, the voice on the other end still sounded calm and serene, with a soothing quality. Su Huaiwang somewhat admired the person.

She swallowed:

“What kind of organization are you, exactly?”

The response from the other end was quick again:

“We are a government-affiliated incident management agency, responsible for handling sudden incidents and providing follow-up support, aiming to relieve pressure on the police system.”

“Alright, thank you.”

The call ended, and Su Huaiwang’s hand dropped weakly.

Should she… perhaps find a psychiatrist after all?