Looking at the bowl of noodle soup on the table, Duya couldn’t shake a strange feeling of something being off.
Especially after tasting that godforsaken mushroom soup earlier, it had made him wary of any kind of broth or soup.
Duya picked up his chopsticks, dipped them into the soup, and stirred.
The noodles swirled along with the chopsticks, looking very chewy and resilient, almost as if they had just been freshly cooked.
He picked up a strand, sniffed it, and it had that familiar, comforting aroma of noodles.
“Could I really be overthinking this?”
Duya muttered to himself, picked up the noodles, put them in his mouth, and savored them carefully.
The noodles tasted exceptionally good, completely unlike the cooking skill his sister should possess.
At this moment, looking again at the note on the table, Duya’s heart began to fill with a trace of doubt.
Did his sister… know he was coming back?
Perhaps Ye Xiao had contacted his sister, so she could prepare a bowl of steaming hot noodles for him in advance when he returned.
Or perhaps…
Another possible guess made Duya shudder involuntarily.
He put down the noodles in his hand, walked out of the room, went downstairs, and stepped outside the residential complex.
Everything around him felt both familiar and alien at the same time.
The elderly residents were dancing their square dance downstairs, the music blaring from the speakers was still as piercing and noisy as ever.
Because they had their backs turned, Duya couldn’t see the expressions on their faces.
He just felt their movements were stiff, yet the group as a whole moved in perfect, synchronized unison.
On the ground were some grids drawn by children.
Looking closely, it seemed to be the game of hopscotch?
In this era of technological advancement, this kind of game only existed in his childhood memories.
Duya withdrew his gaze, feeling increasingly that everything he was seeing was so very wrong.
“Isn’t that Xiao Ming?”
Just as Duya was intently observing his surroundings, an old woman appeared behind him.
Her tone sounded very enthusiastic, and her face was beaming with a happy smile.
“Oh my, it really has been so long since I’ve seen you. Where have you been all this time?”
Seeing this elderly woman, Duya’s tightly furrowed brows gradually relaxed.
“It’s just that police work has been very busy, so I haven’t been home.”
“Busy, huh…” The old woman lowered her head, murmured for a moment, then showed her smile again, placing her withered hand on Duya’s shoulder.
“Being busy is good, being busy is good…”
After saying this, the old woman walked on her own into the residential complex.
Duya watched as the old woman slowly walked away.
Her warmth seemed to dispel the chill in his heart.
“Could it really be that I’m just too tired?”
Duya pondered for a long time, but finally shook his head and decided to return the way he came.
The lighting in the stairwell was a bit gloomy.
Perhaps due to age and disrepair, or maybe insufficient voltage, the fluorescent light flickered on and off, and the shadows on the wall flickered along with it.
Duya stopped, looking at the wall.
The shadow twisted from time to time, looking nothing like a normal human shadow.
Walking up the stairs, Duya soon returned home.
Stepping back inside, the aroma of noodles wafted over again.
For someone who was both hungry and tired, it was an irresistible temptation.
The only problem was…
The entrance was separated from the kitchen by three whole rooms.
How could the smell of this bowl of noodles travel so far?
With so many strange phenomena, even a fool could sense something was off.
Duya was no fool.
He cautiously entered the kitchen and picked up the kitchen knife from the table.
“Ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong…”
The wall clock began to chime.
The time had now reached ten o’clock at night.
Usually, by this time, his sister should have finished her evening self-study and returned home.
Why wasn’t she back yet…
Wait a minute?
Evening self-study…?
Realizing this, Duya quickly took out his phone to check the date.
Thursday.
It wasn’t the weekend.
So what was going on with this bowl of soup in the kitchen?!
A feeling of horror instantly spread throughout Duya’s entire body, goosebumps rising on his skin.
Bulanni’s mushroom soup and this bowl of noodle soup seemed to overlap bit by bit.
And the more he looked, the more similar they became, until finally, Duya felt as if someone was holding this bowl of soup, walking towards him…
Duya instantly sprang into action, grabbed the kitchen knife, and aimed it at the bowl of noodle soup.
However, the soup just sat quietly on the table, unmoving from the start.
“…”
His heart still racing, Duya slowly lowered the kitchen knife in his hand. Scanning his surroundings, he finally took out his phone and dialed his sister’s number.
“Beep… beep…”
The sound repeated continuously, then abruptly stopped and disappeared, without even a prompt tone.
Seeing that his sister didn’t answer the call, Duya couldn’t help but worry about her safety first.
Could it be that his sister had been kidnapped?
No, that’s not right…
Duya shook his head.
After the call was disconnected, a WeChat message came through.
“Bro, I’m fine. I’m staying at a classmate’s house for the night, I’ll be back tomorrow. You should go to sleep early.”
Looking at this message, especially the first four words, Duya fell into deep thought.
Those simple four words seemed to be responding directly to the question he had just been pondering in his heart.
What’s more, if she really had the time, she would absolutely answer his call.
Why suddenly hang up and then send such a strange message?
“Beep beep beep!”
Right then, another message came through.
“Bro, don’t forget to eat the noodles in the kitchen, or they’ll get soggy and won’t taste good.”
After sending the message, his sister’s online status showed as offline, and her profile picture turned gray.
Duya put his phone away and turned to look at the bowl of noodles again.
Everything seemed perfectly normal.
The eerie feelings from before seemed to be nothing but his own illusions.
Duya pulled over a chair, sat down beside the table, and looked at this bowl of delicious-looking noodle soup.
Carefully, he picked up his chopsticks, picked up a single, small strand, and held it before him.
Looking at this translucent, oily strand of noodle, Duya’s stomach couldn’t help but growl.
Putting this small strand of noodle into his mouth, that savory flavor rushed over his taste buds, compelling Duya to unconsciously extend his chopsticks again, picking up more noodles to send into his mouth.
One bite… two bites… three bites…
Instinct had overcome reason.
The unease in Duya’s heart was completely buried under this temptation.
The entire bowl of noodles, along with the soup, was completely eaten clean by him.
So much so that he couldn’t help but let out a satisfied burp.
“Maybe I really am just too tired?”
Duya whispered to himself, until a cold, mechanical prompt suddenly sounded in his mind.
“Ding, level has increased. Your current level is 20…”
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