While Xia Jienan was busy gathering information about Anthony Hospital, Ye Yuzhi stood quietly in place, holding a book and preparing to read it right there.
The book looked as old as its title suggested. Its pages weren’t printed but written entirely by hand, more like someone’s personal notes than a proper publication.
Ye Yuzhi opened it carefully, cautious not to damage the fragile, timeworn paper that carried a faint scent of decay. Because it was handwritten, there wasn’t much text on each page, and before long, he had already read through half of it.
Skipping past the initial passages that described general religious beliefs, he soon arrived at a section that began to detail certain “rituals.”
“…Though different religions may have their own categories and doctrines,” it read, “Both the new moon and the full moon are considered excellent times to invite the presence of a god. In some faiths, followers gather together, chanting hymns of blessing and sharing consecrated bread and wine. Others, however, perform far more primitive ceremonies…”
“At such sacred moments, believers offer living sacrifices to their deities, sometimes chickens, sometimes sheep, and in more sinister sects, human beings are used as offerings.”
“…Once an evil god is summoned, it will not easily leave. Those who participate often cannot save themselves, and sometimes even the city around them is doomed to fall into ruin. Therefore, should one encounter such a ritual, the best course of action is to interrupt it before the evil god is fully brought forth.”
“The means of interruption are as follows: first, break the summoner’s incantation. Second, use a banishing chant to counter it.”
Ye Yuzhi paused at that line. He wasn’t sure whether what he had seen earlier, those strange, dreamlike flashes of memory, had already shown him completing such a summoning himself. If that were true, then neither of the two listed methods would help him now.
Still, it might be worth paying attention to the banquet at the Anthony Manor later on.
He turned the pages again. There was another brief paragraph further in:
“…It is said that there were once high priests of great power who, in the final moments of disaster, invoked the god they themselves worshiped to intervene against the evil being. Of course, such accounts are only rumors, and even the existence of these so-called dark cults remains uncertain.”
After that, he found nothing more about the strange runes that had appeared on his arm, no record that could explain the scars shaped like incantations.
Ye Yuzhi exhaled softly, lowered his head, and slid the book back into its place on the shelf. Then he continued searching among the other ancient volumes.
He found a few with similar titles or related subjects, but none contained anything useful.
Besides, he had been meaning to look at the newspapers, perhaps they would contain something related to Anthony Hospital.
Moving quietly, he sneaked a glance at the others. The three of them had already pulled out a stack of papers and were completely absorbed in reading the printed columns.
So Ye Yuzhi crouched down and started leafing through the earlier issues they had left behind.
The paper was a joint publication from Guerrero Town and several neighboring villages, issued roughly once every two weeks.
It covered not only major local events but also a scattering of everyday matters, items for sale, business announcements, investment offers, and, tucked among them, missing persons notices and obituaries.
He skimmed through the contents quickly, flipping backward through the pages, until he finally found what he was looking for, a copy from a few issues before the ones Xia Jienan’s group had taken. On that page, a missing person notice caught his eye.
The person being sought was named Finn Ye.
The background line was short and plain, stating only that his father had left home and disappeared.
But seeing that name written there, printed in ink, struck him with a strange, cold familiarity. The flat words seemed to come alive, growing depth and shape before his eyes.
Lowering his gaze, Ye Yuzhi stared at the notice for a long moment, then quietly folded the paper back and set it where he had found it.
He rose to his feet, intending to try his luck among the section of medical books next.
Just as he stood, Xia Jienan and the others seemed to have finished organizing the information they’d gathered. They lifted their heads and called him over.
Ye Yuzhi hesitated for a moment, then walked toward them. Listening directly to their findings would certainly be faster than reading through everything himself, and besides, he had already agreed to share information earlier, an exchange like this would not hurt.
As soon as he joined them, Xia Jienan began to speak. “We found out that Anthony Hospital published an article fifteen years ago claiming they had discovered a treatment that could cure all psychological illnesses.
About three months later, the hospital went up in flames, burning down completely. The director, who was said to be an extraordinary man, died in that fire. And with his death, that supposedly miraculous method disappeared from history.”
He paused briefly before continuing. “That director’s name was also Anthony.”
“Ten years ago,” he went on,
“The old Anthony’s grandson, young Anthony, returned to Guerrero Town. Using the inheritance he received, he rebuilt the hospital’s ruins and bought a large tract of land behind it, turning it into a vineyard. The fame of the winery only began around five years ago. Many people say that when they drink Anthony wine, they feel as though they are drifting beneath a vast, starry sky, that no other wine can compare to the experience.”
Xia Jienan’s eyes shifted toward Ye Yuzhi. “May we ask, Mr. Shawn, why you said Anthony Hospital was targeting you?”
They had not found any news about missing children, but with Ye Yuzhi providing the name “Anthony Hospital,” they had managed to connect several threads from the previous day’s findings. Still, there were gaps in the story that only he could fill.
Ye Yuzhi looked down at the messy stack of newspapers spread across the table, organizing his thoughts before answering. “I escaped from Anthony Hospital,” he said softly.
If his memory wasn’t wrong, that must have been during the fire.
“I don’t… remember the details,” he added, his voice hesitant. “But I can tell you one thing, they weren’t treating any illness of mine.”
The second half of his sentence was vague, spoken in a way that revealed nothing. But that much could be forgiven. After all, at that time he would have been only a child. It was normal that he couldn’t remember everything clearly.
Xia Jienan nodded, interpreting it that way too. From what Shawn had said before, he had gone to the hospital for treatment, not because he had been kidnapped. “So Mr. Shawn,” he asked again, “your current business here is also related to Anthony Hospital?”
“More or less,” Ye Yuzhi admitted, though a hint of discomfort flickered across his face. The backstory he’d been given hardly explained anything, and even he didn’t truly know what that so-called ‘opportunity’ he was waiting for was supposed to mean.
After a brief pause, he decided he couldn’t just let them do all the work while he offered nothing in return. So he told them about what he had read in the old book earlier, the methods to interrupt an evil god’s summoning ritual.
The others listened intently, but when he finished, they exchanged uncertain looks.
“Mr. Shawn,” Xia Jienan said, frowning slightly, “are you trying to tell us something with this?”
They already knew, of course, that there was a high possibility of a summoning ritual connected to the Cthulhu mythos, but they couldn’t openly say so.
That kind of knowledge belonged to the game’s meta-layer, the information they had received before the session began. They could guess what entity might appear, but they were forbidden from naming it.
“Maybe it’ll come in handy,” Ye Yuzhi replied vaguely.
Most likely, the ritual would take place at the Anthony Manor. Less likely, but still possible, was that it would involve himself. He raised a hand and unconsciously rubbed his arm, then shut his mouth without saying anything more.
At that moment, Du Yun suddenly broke the tense silence. “I’m a little hungry,” she said with a light smile. “Why don’t we stop here for today? Let’s go get something to eat, and this afternoon we can walk around the town a bit.”
Ye Yuzhi turned his head away, not answering. He didn’t want to look at her. It wasn’t that she had done anything wrong, exactly, but there was something about her face that unsettled him, he couldn’t shake the feeling that the skin might slip off at any moment. The thought made his stomach twist.
Xia Jienan nodded almost immediately and then looked at him again, eyes bright with expectation. “I was thinking the same thing. Mr. Shawn, why don’t you join us?”
“That won’t be necessary,” he replied quietly. His current identity was still a problem, and he didn’t want to draw attention by sticking with a large group. Besides, the man named Samuel seemed overly interested in him, and Du Yun… made him uneasy.
In short, Ye Yuzhi would rather not be with them.
But as he had already realized, Xia Jienan was exactly the kind of person he found hardest to deal with.
Ten minutes later, Ye Yuzhi sat stiffly in a nearby restaurant, staring blankly ahead.
He had been right. He really wasn’t good at handling people like that.
They hadn’t been seated long when Xia Jienan excused himself to the restroom, leaving the three of them at the table together in an atmosphere of thick, awkward silence.
Du Yun wanted to start a conversation, but after her earlier blunder, she was afraid of making things worse. She hesitated, uncertain, and finally nudged Jiang Xing beside her with her elbow, hinting that he should say something.
But Jiang Xing wasn’t good at talking to NPCs either, or, rather, everyone in their team had their own strengths, and his definitely wasn’t social interaction or information gathering.
So he just sat there, unmoving, as if he were carved from stone.
Ye Yuzhi rested his chin on one hand, turned his face slightly toward the window, and pretended to be deep in thought, anything to avoid conversation.
Then came a sharp click, the sound of a shutter snapping close to his ear. Startled, Ye Yuzhi lifted his head, and his gaze met someone else’s.
Outside the window stood Xia Jienan, holding an old green-bodied camera. The white curtain billowed softly in the wind as he lifted it aside, leaning slightly forward. His dark green eyes gleamed like polished jade as he looked in at him.
“You don’t look very happy, Mr. Shawn,” he said, smiling faintly. “No matter what you’ve been through, at least for the camera, try to smile.”
✦ ✧ ✦
Nycreth
[Translator]
☕ A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TRANSLATOR
No propaganda here. Only coffee.
☕ BUY THEM A COFFEE →
✧ (づ｡•ㅅ•｡)づ ☕ ✧
✦ thank you for reading ✦
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ChaptersChapter 1 · Guerrero’s Lair (1)Chapter 2 · Guerrero’s Lair (2)Chapter 3 · Guerrero’s Lair (3)Chapter 4 · Guerrero’s Lair (4)Chapter 5 · Guerrero’s Lair (5)Chapter 6 · Guerrero’s Lair (6)Chapter 7 · Guerrero’s Lair (7)Chapter 8 · Guerrero’s Lair (8)Chapter 9 · Guerrero’s Lair (9)Chapter 10 · Guerrero’s Lair (10)Chapter 11 · Guerrero’s Lair (11)Chapter 12 · Guerrero’s Lair (12)Chapter 13 · Guerrero’s Lair (13)Chapter 14 · Guerrero’s Lair (14)Chapter 15 · Guerrero’s Lair (15)Chapter 16 · Guerrero’s Lair (16)Chapter 17 · Guerrero’s Lair (17)Chapter 18 · Guerrero’s Lair (18)Chapter 19 · Guerrero’s Lair (19)Chapter 20 · Guerrero’s Lair (20)Chapter 21 · Guerrero’s Lair (21)Chapter 22 · Guerrero’s Lair (22)Chapter 23 · Interlude (1)Chapter 24 · The interlude (2)Chapter 25 · The interlude (3)Chapter 26 Part 1 · Calling in the Wind (1)Chapter 26 Part 2 · Calling in the Wind (1)Chapter 27 · Calling in the Wind (2)Chapter 28 · Calling in the Wind (3)Chapter 29 · Calling in the Wind (4)Chapter 30 · Calling in the Wind (5)Chapter 31 · Calling in the Wind (6)Chapter 32 · Calling in the Wind (7)Chapter 33 · Calling in the Wind (8)Chapter 34 · Calling in the Wind (9)Chapter 35 · Calling in the Wind (10)Chapter 36 · Interlude (4)Chapter 37 · Interlude (5)Chapter 38 · Interlude (6)Chapter 39 · Interlude (7)Chapter 40 · Interlude (8)Chapter 41 · Interlude (9)Chapter 42 · Welcome to Doville (1)Chapter 43 · Welcome to Doville (2)Chapter 44 · Welcome to Doville (3)Chapter 45 · Welcome to Doville (4)Chapter 46 · Welcome to Doville (5)Chapter 47 · Welcome to Doville (6)Chapter 48 · Welcome to Doville (7)Chapter 49 · Welcome to Doville (8)Chapter 50 · Welcome to Doville (9)Chapter 51 · Welcome to Doville (10)Chapter 52 · Welcome to Doville (11)Chapter 53 · Welcome to Doville (12)Chapter 54 · Interlude (10)Chapter 55 · Interlude (11)Chapter 56 · Interlude (12)Chapter 57 · Interlude (13)Chapter 58 · Interlude (14)Chapter 59 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (1)Chapter 60 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (2)Chapter 61 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (3)Chapter 62 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (4)Chapter 63 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (5)Chapter 64 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (6)Chapter 65 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (7)Chapter 66 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (8)Chapter 67 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (9)Chapter 68 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (10)Chapter 69 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (11)Chapter 70 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (12)Chapter 71 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (13)Chapter 72 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (14)Chapter 73 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (15)Chapter 74 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (16)Chapter 75 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (17)Chapter 76 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (18)Chapter 77 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (19)Chapter 78 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (20)Chapter 79 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (21)Chapter 80 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (22)Chapter 81 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (23)Chapter 82 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (24)Chapter 83 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (25)Chapter 84 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (26)Chapter 85 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (27)Chapter 86 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (28)Chapter 87 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (29)Chapter 88 · Tunnel in the Dark Night (30)Chapter 89 · Interlude (15)Chapter 90 · Interlude (16)Chapter 91 · Interlude (17)Chapter 92 · The Promise of Hamelin (1)Chapter 93 · The Promise of Hamelin (2)Chapter 94 · The Promise of Hamelin (3)Chapter 95 · The Promise of Hamelin (4)Chapter 96 · The Promise of Hamelin (5)Chapter 97 · The Promise of Hamelin (6)Chapter 98 · The Promise of Hamelin (7)Chapter 99 · The Promise of Hamelin (8)Chapter 100 · The Promise of Hamelin (9)Chapter 101 · The Promise of Hamelin (10)Chapter 102 · The Promise of Hamelin (11)Chapter 103 · The Promise of Hamelin (12)Chapter 104 · The Promise of Hamelin (13)Chapter 105 · The Promise of Hamelin (14)Chapter 106 · The Promise of Hamelin (15)Chapter 107 · The Promise of Hamelin (16)Chapter 109 · The Promise of Hamelin (18)Chapter 110 · The Promise of Hamelin (19)