Chapter 475: The Manhole Cover, It Started to Ring

The West City Lime Factory was located in a remote area, and the surrounding dilapidated apartment buildings had long since been abandoned. With the towering brick walls blocking everything off, once inside the factory, there was almost no source of light.

Fortunately, the weather was clear today and the moonlight was bright, so the factory wasn’t completely swallowed by darkness; she could still vaguely make out the direction of the roads.

But all the scenery was blurred, the outlines merging together, piling up in the distance into clusters of deep, pitch-black patches.

Walking through the abandoned factory, Lu Yibei didn’t dare use her phone for light. In an environment like this, any strong light source would stand out sharply, exposing her to the possible gaze of Truth-Seeking Fellowship members.

So she could only inch forward cautiously in the dark. When she passed near the workshop closest to the courtyard wall, she caught a whiff from afar-a smell in the air like boiled eggshells. As she got closer, she found some lime piled up and caked into blocks.

If Lu Yibei guessed correctly, the white dust on Gu Xinian’s body was from the powder drifting around the factory grounds.

She kept moving forward in the dark, prying loose every manhole cover she encountered along the way and noting the approximate distance between each one. After more than ten minutes, Lu Yibei finally reached the open ground behind the second workshop.

Looking up, even shrouded in darkness, she could see a deep ravine on the open ground. Around the ravine, among the wild grass, were scattered crumbling walls and broken ruins, some vaguely showing traces of circular shapes.

“……”

It seemed these bricks and stones were the remains of that once-massive chimney.

But was it demolished, or did it collapse from years of neglect?

Lu Yibei stared at the chimney’s ruins, then slowly turned to look behind her at the pitch-black walls and the second workshop’s damaged roof, frowning slightly.

Or perhaps… did something unexpected happen?

The fire that once broke out in the second workshop, and the damaged roof, were both caused by that accident.

Could it have been those strange figures who, after sending Gu Qianqian into the chimney, triggered the disaster?

Lu Yibei was deep in thought, trying to reconstruct what had happened here.

Just then, a muffled sound came from afar, interrupting her train of thought.

In the silence of the abandoned factory, that dull thud was especially clear.

“Clang-!”

It was the sound of a loose manhole cover snapping back into place, colliding with the ground.

Someone was moving around inside the factory?

Was it a member of the Truth-Seeking Fellowship?

At the sound, Lu Yibei’s heart tightened. She glanced around, and when she spotted a curved hollow formed by the chimney’s ruins, she darted forward and quickly hid herself.

Using the sound of the manhole covers snapping back into place as a warning for danger approaching from behind-that was the purpose of prying them loose along the way.

—

Speaking of which, she had Wang Meili, her good mother, to thank for coming up with such a bizarre way to warn herself of threats approaching from behind.

That year, Lu Yibei’s father had just gone missing, his fate still uncertain. She was still living with Wang Meili on Mudan Street in the Lu Family’s old mansion, waiting for her father to return.

Back then, Lu Yibei had just started elementary school, too young to know worry or sorrow, only obsessed with playing-especially addicted to online games, which gave Wang Meili quite a headache.

To control Lu Yibei’s gaming time, Wang Meili had no choice but to wage a nearly half-year battle of wits against her.

At first, Wang Meili used the classic parental trick-feeling the temperature of the computer case.

She did catch Lu Yibei red-handed a few times.

But soon, Lu Yibei fought back-wrapping the case in a towel with an ice pack, successfully dodging several surprise inspections.

The good times didn’t last. One time, when Wang Meili climbed over the wall for a surprise check, she touched the case and found it so cold it stung, as if it had just come out of the fridge. Lu Yibei got a harsh beating for that.

Afterward, every time Wang Meili went out, she would take the computer’s mouse and keyboard with her.

But in less than a month, Lu Yibei saved up enough pocket money to buy the cheapest mouse and keyboard set, and to avoid being discovered, she took them with her whenever she went out.

Still, if you walk by the river often, you’re bound to get your shoes wet-she was eventually caught by Wang Meili.

That night, she lay on her bed in the bedroom, gazing at the moon outside the window, tears in her eyes, rubbing her aching backside.

As if in a dream, she heard the sound of someone stepping on a loose manhole cover in the alley outside the old mansion-the only way in or out-and a bold idea began to form in her mind.

From then on, every time Lu Yibei played on the computer, she would pry loose the manhole covers in the alley.

There were usually few people walking through the alley, so whenever there was a “clang,” there was at least a fifty percent chance that Mrs. Wang Meili had returned. By counting the steps from the alley to the doorstep or the backyard, one could estimate roughly when she would arrive home.

So, whenever she heard a noise, Lu Yibei would immediately turn off the computer, return to the study, open her textbooks, and by the time Mrs. Wang Meili got home, the computer case, cooled by an ice pack, would have returned to normal temperature.

This method never failed!

Thus, she enjoyed a long period of happy times, until one day, what came from outside the window was not a “clang!” but a “damn… thud!”

After that day, Mrs. Wang Meili took the bedridden Lu Yibei and moved to the faculty housing complex.

Later on, Nanling Rao Hua appeared in Lu Yibei’s life, and from then on, her gaming time was drastically reduced.

Perhaps it was because Mrs. Wang Meili had bribed Nanling Rao Hua with sweet words to act as a spy.

Or maybe it was because the faculty housing was full of professors and teachers from Hua City University of Technology, immersing Lu Yibei in a good cultural atmosphere.

But most likely, it was still because… how could games ever be as fun as cute, fair-skinned little lolis!?

—

Hiding beneath the curved gap, Lu Yibei listened intently to the dull thuds echoing through the factory, just as she used to listen for Mrs. Wang Meili’s footsteps on the loose manhole cover.

Although she wasn’t sure if this method would work, being prepared was always better than not.

As it turned out, her preparations were indeed somewhat useful.

Judging from the muffled sound just now, the person who stepped on the manhole cover was still about two or three hundred steps away.

At such a distance, plus the dim lighting, the other party probably hadn’t noticed her presence yet, so she still had time to react.

However, after the first dull thud, the abandoned factory fell silent again.

……

Strange, what’s going on?

Were they not walking this way, or did they not step on any other manhole covers?

Lu Yibei grumbled inwardly, frowning.

On her way here, she had observed that although this was a factory with plenty of manhole covers along the way, the roads inside the factory were quite wide. Unlike the alley in front of the old mansion, it was impossible to step on a manhole cover every time and make a noise.

Unable to determine whether the person who made the noise was actually approaching, Lu Yibei decided to stay hidden for now and wait until she could figure out what was happening outside before making a move.

With that in mind, she slowly crouched down against the wall, hoping to use the waist-high withered grass on the wasteland to better conceal herself.

Who knew how many years these ruined walls had been abandoned here? In the shaded areas, a thin layer of sludge had accumulated, with some moss growing on it, breeding all sorts of insects. It felt slimy to the touch, and occasionally, some unknown bug would be startled and scurry across the back of her hand, making her extremely uncomfortable.

As Lu Yibei crouched down, she instinctively put her hands behind her to brace against the wall and keep her balance. The next moment, her palms felt a slippery, cold sensation.

In this kind of setting, suddenly touching something like that made Lu Yibei’s skin crawl, and she almost cried out in surprise.

But just as she was about to pull her hand back, she felt something hidden beneath the moss, and her body stiffened slightly.

There were actually words carved on the inner wall of this damaged, massive chimney!?

And not just one!

Was I imagining things? Lu Yibei wondered.

She wasn’t sure if the regular indentations she felt were really words. After all, this chimney, who knew what it had been through, and it wouldn’t be strange if the collapse had left a few scratches.

With doubts in her mind, she took a deep breath, mustered her courage, and carefully felt along the wall behind her. Gradually, her mood grew heavier.

Her instincts were right-there really were a lot of words carved into the inner wall of the chimney.

Those deep and shallow lines were distributed very regularly on each brick, forming rings. Such a pattern was obviously man-made.

Scratches from the chimney’s collapse could never be so regular in depth or arrangement.

However, it was too dark all around, and Lu Yibei couldn’t make out the words on the inner wall at all. She hadn’t learned Braille, and after so many years, the carvings had already weathered and eroded to varying degrees, making it impossible to tell what was written even by touch.

……

Were these words carved by members of the Truth-Seeking Fellowship who gathered here?

But what was their purpose in carving words on the inner wall of the chimney?

Surely it couldn’t be something like “So-and-so was here,” or “I love Ah-Hua,” that kind of trash talk, right? Besides, those lines didn’t look like modern Chinese characters.

As Lu Yibei pondered, a sudden sharp pain shot through her brow, and then a fragment of a blurry dream became clear.

Related memories surfaced from the fog, surging into Lu Yibei’s mind like a tide.

First Spring Breeze Talisman, Face-Changing, The Midnight Watchers Society’s standard triggered solidified spell formation…

The names and crafting methods of various talismans and solidified spell formations appeared in Lu Yibei’s mind.

In the darkness, she narrowed her eyes, looking at the chimney ruins hidden behind her in the shadows, her eyes narrowing again.

What’s carved on it… could it be some kind of talisman or the incantation of a solidified spell formation?

If that’s the case, could the destruction and collapse of the chimney be related to these incantations?

At this thought, a bold yet reasonable guess suddenly arose in Lu Yibei’s mind.

Maybe, those figures she saw in the dream at the abandoned factory, the ones who sent Gu Qianqian into the chimney, were planning to use her for some kind of sacrificial ritual!

But that sacrificial ritual failed, resulting in the massive chimney’s destruction and collapse, as well as the fire in Workshop No. 2, and Gu Qianqian turning into that half-human, half-ghost form.

“……”

Could it be that the Truth-Seeking Fellowship really conducts experiments on living people?

Damn it, people’s hearts are unpredictable. Friendly members like Gu Xinian in the Truth-Seeking Fellowship must be exceptions, right?

Maybe it’s just a PR tactic to recruit members… As Lu Yibei thought this, a chill quietly crept up her back.

If her guess isn’t far from the truth, then as one of the Truth-Seeking Fellowship’s bases, the West City Lime Factory has probably already conducted countless terrifying experiments.

Those who died tragically might be buried right beneath her feet.

“Clang!”

A muffled sound suddenly rang out again, breaking the silence, and the source seemed to be closer than before.

Lu Yibei’s heart jolted, and she immediately held her breath, pricking up her ears to listen carefully.

Then.

Something completely unexpected happened.

After the first muffled sound, a series of similar noises followed, pouring into Lu Yibei’s ears. The intense sense of oppression kept squeezing her heart, as if trying to suffocate her.

“Clang-clang-clang-!”

The sound coming from the darkness was like someone sprinting wildly, but even the world’s fastest human sprinter could never reach such speed.

On her way here, when Lu Yibei pried loose the manhole covers along the way, she’d noticed that even the closest ones were twenty or thirty meters apart.

Yet the interval between the muffled sounds was less than a second, and creatures lighter than a human couldn’t possibly make such loud noises stepping on those loose covers.

A “monster” moving at twenty or thirty meters per second, weighing nearly as much as an adult human, was racing toward her!

At this thought, Lu Yibei’s pupils contracted, her heartbeat quickened, and sweat beaded in her palms.

Nervously, she poked half her face out from her hiding spot, using one eye to look in the direction of the sound, and her breath instantly caught.

She saw that at some point, clouds had covered the moon, making the abandoned factory even darker. Everything in sight was reduced to vague, pitch-black outlines.

In this eerie darkness, Lu Yibei saw, about twenty meters away, two points of crimson light and a blurry human-shaped shadow flash by and disappear.

As that figure vanished from sight, the wasteland once again fell into a deathly silence devoid of any human presence.

A stench of blood spread through the air, growing thicker, constantly reminding Lu Yibei that danger was lurking right beside her.

“Plop…”

A soft sound came from behind Lu Yibei, as if some viscous liquid had dripped onto the ground. She whipped around, and by muscle memory, raised her hand to unleash a red flame flash.

A crimson blaze pierced the darkness, and in its light, she saw that terrifying face, hanging upside down at the entrance to her hiding spot.

That face was grotesquely swollen, the lips completely gone, exposing ghastly white teeth in a grimace. On the uneven, mangled flesh of its face, patches of mold-like corrosion appeared, so deep the bone showed through.

Dark red, fleshy tendrils burst through the facial skin, writhing stickily across its face. Countless tiny eyeballs trembled all over its face, staring at Lu Yibei, radiating venomous malice.

Then.

Just as the fist-sized crimson fireball was less than a palm’s width from that terrifying face, its figure suddenly flickered and vanished from sight.

“Pfft-!”

The fireball from the red flame flash struck a shattered wall, flickered twice, and went out. The surroundings once again plunged into deathly silence and darkness…