It was already close to nightfall, dusk rising, the stars sparse, the wind faint.
Within the Comprehensive Logistics Park, aside from a handful of on-duty employees, there was no one else.
The vast expanse of the park resembled a grand mausoleum, silently welcoming two uninvited guests.
Shen Yao and Qiao Yunxue avoided the employees getting off work and walked deeper into the logistics park.
There were still a few truck drivers loading cargo in the Freight Truck Zone, preparing to drive through the night.
After skirting around them, they headed straight to the Sorting Zone.
The Sorting Conveyor had already stopped. An Inspection Staff was checking each piece of equipment.
Seemingly startled by the faint sound of footsteps, he turned around abruptly, only to see a palm-sized dragonfly flutter past the doorway.
He chuckled at his own paranoia, ticked off his Work Log, and locked the Roll-up Door.
The Sorting Zone was plunged into darkness.
No one knew how much time passed before a beam of light cut through the blackness. Shen Yao emerged from a corner, holding up a flashlight.
Qiao Yunxue glanced at the locked main door. “Hey, the door’s locked. How are we supposed to get out?”
“Let’s keep going. There might be another exit.” Shen Yao swung the beam of the flashlight, then suddenly remembered something and looked back. “You’re not afraid of the dark, are you?”
“Don’t underestimate me.” Qiao Yunxue folded her arms. Shen Yao instinctively glanced down following her gesture, then quickly averted his gaze, grumbling to himself: It’s hard not to underestimate you.
In the darkness, the machines flashed now and then under Shen Yao’s light, like giant beasts revealing their claws and scales from the abyss.
During the day, the place brimmed with life, but at night, it seemed as deep and infernal as hell.
The beam from the flashlight scattered against the swirling dust, making Qiao Yunxue’s nose itch as if she couldn’t breathe.
She impatiently asked, “Where are we going, exactly?”
Shen Yao replied,
“We tricked Zhong Wen earlier today. He’s worried we have some kind of evidence, so he came here at dusk to confirm if that ‘evidence’ is still here.”
“That means Zhong Wen hasn’t had time to move the evidence, and since it’s been hidden in the logistics park for over a month without being discovered, it can only be in the deepest part of the park.”
Qiao Yunxue pouted, “You could just tell me where to go. No need to explain so much.”
Shen Yao sighed helplessly. “I was afraid you wouldn’t believe me.”
“We’re already here. Do you think I’d still not believe you?” Qiao Yunxue retorted.
Shen Yao didn’t reply, leading Qiao Yunxue further in.
After leaving the Sorting Zone, they saw a sign standing by the door.
“Consignment and Storage Zone.”
Looking to the side, there was no trace of sunlight left—it was truly night.
Looking for ghosts at night was never a good idea, but Shen Yao worried that Zhong Wen would transfer the evidence by tomorrow, so he had no choice but to venture deeper with Qiao Yunxue.
“Shen Yao.”
“Mm?”
“If the Phone Ghost really is Xu Jia, why hasn’t she taken revenge on Zhong Wen?”
“Zhong Wen has no sensitivity to the supernatural. He can’t see Strangeness. How could she take revenge?”
“That’s true… So even after death, she can’t get what she wants?”
“Precisely because she can’t, she ended up as a Strangeness in the Network Strange Tales.”
“Really… Strangeness have no control over their own fate either, huh…”
Shen Yao looked back at her. In the faint moonlight, all he could see was Qiao Yunxue lowering her gaze, her long lashes casting deep butterfly-shaped shadows on her cheeks.
Was she grieving? Mourning for someone?
Heh… How ridiculous. He couldn’t even solve his own mental issues—how was he qualified to judge Qiao Yunxue?
Shen Yao fumbled along the wall and finally found the switch.
He yanked it down, and with a series of clicks, the not-so-bright ceiling lights flickered on in the massive warehouse.
The vast space finally revealed its entirety to the two who had intruded.
“This is…”
The warehouse was filled with all kinds of Suitcases and parcels.
Some as large as containers, others as small as a plastic bag, stacked tightly together, forming what looked like a modern metropolis made of boxes.
Looking up, even the tallest stacks blocked out the lights above. The massive shadows loomed over the two of them, casting an indescribable sense of oppression.
“What is all this…”
Shen Yao walked to the Sorting Counter and flipped through a manifest.
“Some of these are goods that haven’t been shipped out yet. The rest are items that were returned and left unclaimed over the past year…” He put the list away.
“Do you remember the username of the first person to reveal the Phone Ghost on the Forum Eye of Berlin?”
“Consigner?”
Shen Yao gestured at the piles of cargo. “Isn’t this precisely the workplace of the Consigner?”
A chill ran through Qiao Yunxue. “You mean the Consigner is here?” She looked down and realized goosebumps had popped up all over her arms.
Shen Yao said, “Calm down. All we need to do is find whatever Zhong Wen left here.”
“Find it? Just look at this mountain of stuff—how are you supposed to find anything?!”
Suddenly, Shen Yao said, “Suitcase.”
“What?”
“We only need to search the Suitcases.”
“Why just Suitcases?” No sooner had she spoken than Qiao Yunxue seemed to realize something. She clapped her hand over her mouth, fighting the urge to vomit.
Shen Yao looked around silently. “The reason the Phone Ghost set those Rules was probably just to let her victims experience the pain she went through. In order to escape the killer, she had to hide, but there was nowhere to go. So she stuffed herself into a cramped space, folding, folding again, twisting her body until it hurt, but she had to bear it, even being cut apart…”
“Stop! Don’t say any more!” Qiao Yunxue’s hair stood on end.
At that moment, a sudden ringing of a landline phone echoed through the empty space.
Doo doo doo, doo doo doo.
Shen Yao’s toes clenched, rooting him to the floor. His gaze locked onto the Sorting Counter where he’d checked the manifest.
There, in the corner, sat a Pink Landline Phone, emitting that unrelenting sound.
Night. Heavy with gloom.
On second thought, wasn’t this exactly when it would appear?
Doo doo doo, doo doo doo.
That landline was clearly broken, its muffled, oppressive ringing like the wail of a living corpse sealed inside a coffin.
Qiao Yunxue and Shen Yao exchanged a look, the same question flashing through both minds.
Should they answer?
Shen Yao pulled out his Mobile Phone. As expected, no signal. That could only mean one thing—the space had warped again… Strangeness had already awakened.
From his brief encounters with Strangeness, Shen Yao had learned one thing: to survive these terrifying incidents, the first rule was to obey the Rules of the Strangeness, and then find the loopholes within.
If humans broke the Rule, the Strangeness no longer needed to follow them either…
He slowly walked toward the landline, when suddenly he felt his right hand being grabbed. Turning, he saw Qiao Yunxue clutching his hand, shaking her head in fear, as if to say: Don’t answer.
Was she worried about him, or herself?
For some reason, Shen Yao wondered that.
He held Qiao Yunxue’s hand, slowly shook his head, and gently pried her fingers away one by one. “We have to follow the Rule if we want to survive. Trust me, and I trust you.”
At last, he stepped up to the landline and, under Qiao Yunxue’s anxious gaze, picked up the receiver.
“Hello,” he spoke first.
“It hurts… I’m in so much pain.” A young woman’s voice, “It hurts, it hurts so much… Let me out, please… I beg you, let me out… It’s so small, so cramped in here. It hurts so much, so much… I can’t see anything… Shen Yao, please let me out?”
Cold sweat poured down Shen Yao’s face, his hand trembling as he gripped the receiver. Looking at the endless sea of Suitcases, a wave of despair rose in his heart.