novelPerplexed and Smitten (24)
| ← Ch.0963 | Ch.0965 → |
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
An Xiaoning and He Yi exchanged glances as they could both guess who it was.
"Bring her in, " said An Xiaoning.
"Okay."
"What is she here for? Did you invite her?" He Yi asked.
"No. I don't know why she's here either. We'll find out when she comes in later."
Wen Lele was appalled to see He Yi and asked in bewilderment, "What are you doing here?"
"Why can't I be here? I should be the one asking you, what are you doing here?" Noticing how filthy and disheveled she looked with her unkempt hair and bare face, which was a far cry from her appearance during the gathering, He Yi gibed, "Is this how you should be dressing when you're paying someone a visit?"
Wen Lele looked at An Xiaoning and said eagerly, "I didn't have time to change. Ms. An, I have something important to tell you."
"What is it?"
"He Yi, if you don't have anything important to talk to Ms. An about, please go back. There's something I must tell Ms. An privately, " said Wen Lele, turning around to look at He Yi.
He Yi nodded and left after bidding An Xiaoning goodbye.
Wen Lele walked toward the door to make sure that He Yi had left before returning inside. With a grave expression on her face, Wen Lele said, "Ms. An, some of the members of our archeological team headed to an ancient graveyard yesterday. However, they grew hysterical all at the same time the next morning..." Terror was written all over Wen Lele's face as she continued, "I was at the toilet with my female colleague at the time and when we returned, we saw that they were all knocking their heads against the rocks continuously. We were both petrified and so we scrambled into the car and called our captain. By the time our captain arrived with some other members, our colleagues had already died, all of them died..."
An Xiaoning asked, "You're an archeologist?"
She nodded and answered, "My captain is there now and he tried to get your number from the police station. However, he could not reach you and I had no choice but to look you up personally."
"Is your captain Wang Jinsheng?" An Xiaoning asked, referring to the middle-aged archeological team captain whom she had met previously in Mount Yihua.
"Yes."
"Where's that ancient graveyard located?"
"G City."
"The Northwest region?"
"Yes."
"Since a mishap has already happened, why didn't your captain come back with the rest of your colleagues?"
"He didn't come back but he dares not go near that ancient graveyard again. However, that place is where an ancient palace used to be."
An Xiaoning dreaded going to such places. However, now that she had learned about the incident, she had no choice but to go take a look, for that was the only appropriate thing to do. Fortunately, G City was not too far from A City and it would take only an hour-long flight to get there.
"There's a guest room over there. Take a shower first, I'll get someone to bring you a fresh set of clothes. I'll go upstairs to get ready."
"Alright, thank you, Ms. An."
An Xiaoning instructed Auntie Chen to pass Wen Lele a set of clothes while she made her way upstairs. Half an hour later, she returned downstairs with her bag and saw that Wen Lele had already taken a shower and was waiting for her in the living room.
Although Wen Lele was curious about what An Xiaoning had in her bag, she dared not ask any questions and instead got inside the car together with her, after which Fan Shixin drove them to the airport.
Along the way, she called Jin Qingyan to inform him about the sudden change in plans. She initially thought that he would not have any comments about it. To her surprise, he refused to let her go.
She asked, "Why?"
"Wouldn't you be extremely tired all the time if you render help in every similar incident that happens in this world? What has that ancient residence have anything to do with you? What's going to happen if you meet with a mishap in that spooky place? Go home immediately."
"I'll just be taking a look. I'm almost at the airport. Shixin's sending us there."
He immediately hung up and swiftly proceeded to call Fan Shixin.
Fan Shixin put his earphones in and answered the call. After hearing his instructions, he expressed assent and immediately drove away from the airport.
"Why are you driving back?" Wen Lele asked worriedly.
Fan Shixin answered, "Young Sir said that he doesn't want Young Madam to go to such a dangerous place."
Wen Lele could not help but panic upon seeing An Xiaoning remaining silent."How could Jin Qingyan be so tyrannical and unfeeling? There are more than a few casualties there. What's wrong with going to take a look? Ms. An, please go and have a look. If there are any supernatural beings, do help us get rid of all of them. If you're not willing to do it yourself, we'll hire some mediums to perform rituals. Please, Ms. An, I know you can see spirits. Captain and the rest are waiting for you there."
An Xiaoning had been contemplating about whether she should go or not since it did not concern her at all and going would only upset Jin Qingyan. However, she would be ill at ease if she did not.
"Shixin, turn back around, " she instructed.
"Young Madam, Young Sir..." said Fan Shixin, who was put in a difficult position.
"Just drive back to the airport. I'll explain it to him myself. I'll be returning after taking a quick look."
After weighing the pros and cons, Fan Shixin decided to drive back to the airport.
The moment Jin Qingyan found out that An Xiaoning had really gone to G City, he did not berate Fan Shixin at all because he knew how stubborn of a person An Xiaoning was. His anger also dissipated a great deal after reading the text message she had sent.
An Xiaoning decided to just go take a look and return if she could not solve the problem.
The ancient residence was quite a great distance away from the city center of G City.
Hence, they hailed a taxi to the destination immediately upon touching down.
Humidity was scarce due to the fact that it was in the Northwest region.
It was noticeably warmer in G City compared to A City.
The temperatures were blazing in the afternoon.
They finally located the archeological team after trekking a long distance.
Upon the sight of her, Wang Jinsheng hurriedly scurried toward her to welcome her while the others quickly followed closely behind.
"Ms. An, you're finally here. I was so worried that you wouldn't come, " said Wang Jinsheng.
An Xiaoning questioned, "I heard that you hired a medium to perform a ritual in that abandoned mountain in between Mount Heyuan and Mount Nanshan. Is that true?"
"Yes. I reckon those spirits inside had already left long ago. We didn't sense anything after entering again. I don't think the medium was capable enough, though. Anyway, we entered again and discovered that there was nothing inside that coffin."
"Tell me about what happened here."
Wiping away the beads of perspiration that were trickling down his forehead uncontrollably, Wang Jinsheng explained, "We received special instructions to come to this ancient residence to research on it. No one dared to come here in the past, and hence, we had a ritual performed beforehand. However, it turns out that it was of no use at all."
"Have the corpses been sent back?"
"No, we were waiting for you to come and take a look before sending the corpses back to A City."
"Where are they now? I'll go take a look now. Once I'm done, hurry and get your subordinates to send them back. Corpses decompose very quickly in such warm temperatures."
"Over there, " he said, pointing at a tent that was not too far away.
The bunch of people hurried there under Wang Jinsheng's lead. An Xiaoning chose to walk at the back of the line and was soon greeted with the sight of a deceased man whose face was stained with blood.
The blood had already dried up, and the wounds on his head were rather grotesque and too horrendous to take another glance at.
| ← Ch. 0963 | Ch. 0965 → |