Thriller Night Talk

Translator-Rhapsodite

Editor-simpforlife, Proofreader-Ghostie

Ayun’s call hung up.

Bei Quan finished the program, but instead of telling Wei Fuyuan to call it a day, he hastened out of the studio and passed by Wei Fuyuan, merely throwing a, “Keep up.”

Wei Fuyuan: “?”

He was confused, but still did as he was told.

Bei Quan rushed downstairs and went straight towards the study room.

The door to the study was closed. When Wei Fuyuan saw Bei Quan approach the door, raise his hand and knock twice.

Wei Fuyuan: “???”

About five seconds later, the door opened from the inside, and it was Zhu Ling who opened the door.

The girl was neatly dressed and had a stern expression on her face. It was obviously early morning, but there was no sign of weariness on her face. She appeared to have been sitting in the room the entire time and didn’t look like someone who fell asleep at all. She didn’t even have her pajamas on.

Wei Fuyuan: “!!!”

It never occurred to him that Zhu Ling slept in Bei Quan’s study at night.

But Wei Fuyuan clearly remembered that Bei Quan’s study only had one desk and a bookcase, and there was absolutely no place to sleep!

——No, wait, did Zhu Ling sleep on the floor?

He couldn’t help but peek around the room.

The floor was clean, devoid of any sheets or bedding.

Wei Fuyuan was even more confused.

He remembered that it had just been five or six seconds from Bei Quan’s knocking on the door to let Zhu Ling open it. How could she have cleaned up in such a short amount of time?

“What’s the matter?”

Zhu Ling leaned against the door and asked Bei Quan in a low voice.

“Let me know…”

Bei Quan lowered his voice and said something vaguely. Young Master Wei tried to prick up his ears but still couldn’t hear clearly.

“This time, a group of college students are involved. I suspect they are trapped in a Space Fragment— I don’t know what their current situation is, but it won’t be good to delay this any longer. We have to start the investigation right away.”

Bei Quan clearly explained the situation to Zhu Ling.

“Go search for any news regarding the students’ whereabouts, and report back to me as soon as possible with the results of your investigation.”

After hearing this, Zhu Ling nodded without saying a word, turned and went out of the study, and walked up the stairs with light steps.

Bei Quan turned back and said to Wei Fuyuan, “Come on in.”

His attitude was unprecedentedly solemn.

Wei Fuyuan: “???”

He walked into the study clueless and sat down on his designated assistant chair.

He looked down at his watch. It was half-past one in the morning.

Strictly speaking, today was Friday. He should be back in school in a matter of a few hours. However, looking at Bei Quan, it was obvious that he wasn’t going back to sleep or school anytime soon.

Just when Wei Fuyuan wanted to inquire about Bei Quan’s plan, Zhu Ling came back.

She had a stack of newspapers and faxes in her hand and an extension of a cordless fixed-line.

“Here, listen to this.”

Zhu Ling handed the extension to Bei Quan.

Bei Quan took the phone, pressed it to his ear, passed all the greetings and exchanged a few words quickly with the person on the other end of the phone.

“Okay, I see.” Bei Quan finally said, “Sorry, this is an emergency.”

Wei Fuyuan didn’t know what the other end of the phone said but Bei Quan nodded, “Hm-mm, bye.”

He hung up the call and turned to Zhu Ling. Even now, there was no trace of a smile on his face.

“What did you find?”

Zhu Ling put all the materials in her hand on the desk.

“Your speculation proved to be correct. The police received a report yesterday. Several teachers and students of the Fengxing University lost all contact after going out on a trip.”

Without looking at it, she took a page out of the stack of papers and handed it to Bei Quan.

It was the missing record.

At the end of last month— that was, on May 30th, a group of third-year students of the Photography Department of Fengxing University, led by a couple of counselors, drove out to collect scenic photos. The destination was a newly developed national-style resort in the mountainous area of Southern Henan.

They were originally scheduled to arrive at the resort on the evening of the 31st. However that night, some students contacted their parents and informed them that they had turned the wrong way on the road during the day and could only spend the night in the mountains. Fortunately, they had found an abandoned village and didn’t have to sleep in the wilderness.

Although the parents were concerned, they believed that their children had matured,? and that they were led by teachers. There were several students in the group and they hadn’t travelled to a dangerously steep mountain or a desolate forest, so they shouldn’t be in any immediate danger. So in the end, they advised them not to run about at night and to stay in the village with everyone, and they no longer worried about it.

However, they didn’t expect that from the next day onward, that was— from June 1, no one could contact anyone from the photography team. The parents dialed the resort they had planned to stay at, and the other party answered that the reserved guests had not been checked-in so far.

The anxious parents quickly organized themselves and collectively reported to the police early in the morning of June 2nd.

“I see.” 𝒃𝒆𝒅𝒏𝒐𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝙘𝙤𝒎

After reading the missing record, Bei Quan continued to ask, “Then, has anyone gone to search for them?”

“Yes.” Zhu Ling replied, “The local police force immediately organized forest rangers and fire units for search and rescue.”

After all, the missing people were a group of college students. All parties were obligated to pay special attention to the matter. Two hours after receiving the alarm, they quickly deployed the rescue parties.

Because the students were in contact with their friends and family before they vanished, and some students had also posted photos of the deserted village where everyone stopped for the night in a group chat of friends, the local police quickly discovered their last known location as the ‘Xuanmen village’, and rushed over to the accident site.

The search and rescue team found two cars rented by the students at the entrance of the village, and also found their luggage, mobile phones and photographic equipment that seemed to have been haphazardly left all over the village. According to the speculations made by the search and rescue personnel, this was no different from the students leaving the deserted village on foot and empty-handed.

“There were no signs of violence or substantial destruction in the village.” Zhu Ling said, “So, the police presumed that they wandered off into the mountains and got lost.”

She paused and added, “Strangely enough, it had rained the night before and the mountain road was very muddy, but the search and rescue team could not find any footprints of the students near the village whatsoever, so it was impossible to gauge the direction they went.”

“From yesterday until now, the search and rescue team has scoured over the place for more than 24 hours and nearly turned the land near Xuanmen village upside down, but so far they have been unable to find any clues about these children and teachers.”

Bei Quan listened to Zhu Ling carefully and took a quick glance at the information at hand.

He was looking at the list of the missing teachers and students.

As the hotline caller ‘Ayun’ had informed, the missing photography team had a total of eight people: one teacher, and seven students.

The male teacher who led the team was Mr. Song Qi. He was not too old, only 32 years old, but he got married very early. His son was already turning five years old this year.

The other seven students— precisely, four men and three women, were all in their third year at the Photography Department of Fengxing University. They usually had an amicable relationship. There was also a pair of young lovebirds. They had decided to go to the resort together this time and readily put together a team.

Bei Quan touched his chin, “I just asked, ‘that side’ sent someone to see it today and didn’t find any ‘thing’…”

He muttered gibberish words that made Wei Fuyuan feel perplexed. He slightly frowned and pondered over it for a while.

Bei Quan looked at Wei Fuyuan and said, “We’ll leave at dawn tomorrow and have a look at this Xuanmen village.”

Then he handed Wei Fuyuan the information he had just read out,

“Remember these words in your head, do you understand?”

Wei Fuyuan: “???”

Listening to Bei Quan’s explanation, the term ‘we’ in his mouth signified his assistant— Wei Fuyuan and himself.

But today was Friday after all. Wei Fuyuan had to go back to school.

He was a little worried, “What about my classes?”

Those students had been missing for three days, and even the professional search and rescue personnel had failed to find any clues. Even if they wanted to help find the people, they still didn’t know where to begin. The mountainous areas of Southern Henan were nearly on the outskirts of Fèng Xīngchéng city. It was uncertain when they would come back from solving this case.

“If I am absent from school for no reason, they will not only withdraw me from the course, but they will also record demerits!”

Bei Quan turned to Wei Fuyuan, his eyes flickering back and forth several times.

“Oh, yes I almost forgot you were a student.”

He walked over to open the drawer, rummaged through the messy pile of papers and pulled out another pile of wrinkled, blank, diagnosis certificates from a doctor’s notepad. He tore off one, picked up the pen, filled the paper with bold, cursive calligraphy, and placed it in front of Wei Fuyuan.

Wei Fuyuan looked down and saw that the note was written in a handwriting that made it quite fitting to be called a doctor’s prescription:

Diagnosis: Acute mumps.

Suggested Remedy: Take a full week off and rest.

Wei Fuyuan: “!!!”

——You dare to not only possess forged credentials but even forge sick leave certificates?!

Considering that the diagnosis certificate was stamped with the crimson stamp of a highly known hospital in the city, it was indeed viable to be taken back to the school for the leave procedures, but…

Wei Fuyuan was still struggling to understand.

“Well, I was obviously fine during the last couple of days… suddenly I contracted mumps, isn’t it a little illogical?”

Bei Quan thought and felt that his assistant was reasonable.

So he decided to put up a whole play for his sake.

“Hm, wait a minute…I’ll find that…”

He got up, went to the corner of the room, squatted down, and opened a hidden drawer under the bookcase.

“I remember keeping it somewhere around here— got it!”

Then Bei Quan straightened up and revealed the small spray bottle in his hand.

Wei Fuyuan: “!!!”

Somehow, a dreadful premonition rose in his heart.

In the next second, Bei Quan had moved closer to him, opened the bottle cap, aimed the snout at the bottom of his right ear, and sprayed it swiftly and accurately.

“What the fuck!?!”

The next second, Wei Fuyuan jolted up like he was electrocuted.

His skin that had been sprayed on by an unknown liquid, he felt like it was being pricked with countless fine needles that seemed to be growing every minute, piercing, itching and burning as if that place had been burned instead. The pain wasn’t unbearable, however, the skin felt very sore and extremely uncomfortable.

When Wei Fuyuan touched the skin, he was even more distressed.

Because his cheek had swelled rapidly and turned into a humongous, asymmetrical face plaque!

“Good, good. It’s totally similar.”

Bei Quan nodded with satisfaction,

“Take a picture of yourself and send it to your classmates together with the diagnosis certificate. Ask them to take the leave for you. Make sure no one suspects you.”

His eyes curled up into tiny crescents as he smiled and said, “Don’t worry so much. Go wash your face sometime later and you’ll be back to normal within an hour or so.”