This was destined to be a night of insomnia.
Sun Yushu was worried if Zheng Mei's family had fallen victim to the bridge as well.
Fang Zheng did not say no to him. He was alright with helping people to the best he could.
Under Sun Yushu's request, Fang Zheng endured the pain he was still feeling in his stomach and rushed to Zheng Mei's house.
After Sun Yushu had his uncle take his mother in for some time, he rushed to Zheng Mei's housing area with Fang Zheng. The duo woke her husband and children up but nothing was unusual.
Fang Zheng did not smell the earthy and fishy scent from the housing area nor Zheng Mei's house.
It seemed like Zheng Mei did not come here at all.
The duo also waited outside the area for the night just to make sure that nothing was happening. It was calm. It seemed like the Zheng Mei incident was over.
This was Sun Yushu's worst nightmare.
Thankfully, that dream was over.
Later on, Fang Zheng politely declined Sun Yushu's intention to host a party for him. He was still feeling sick in his stomach, every time he came across food, he would have cramps in his gut.
This was how trauma felt like.
He probably could not deal with seafood for another year or two.
Thankfully, Sun Yushu gave him a bank card with sixty thousand yuan in it as a token of appreciation and compensation. Fang Zheng was not shy about taking it—he felt that he deserved it.
Fang Zheng frowned as he watched Sun Yushu leave in a taxi.
After what happened last night, Fang Zheng was sure about one thing—the world was changing.
The surge in online posts about peculiar and terrifying incidents could be true.
The female corpse in the village, the dead asking for directions…
As well as the recent disappearance of dozens of moviegoers at a cinema abroad.
The Bloody Mary game seemed to be coming to life…
He had already encountered his second horror incident within four days.
The first was the Ghost Driver.
The second was the dead man's meal.
As he had already encountered two incidents himself in the last four days—making it a high possibility—he was wondering if the others were also met with the same fate as he did.
He exhaled at the same time. How does a normal person escape such situations?
His life might be over.
The more he thought about it, the more terrified Fang Zheng was. He did not dare to imagine what the world was turning into. At the same time, he also felt like the darkest days had yet to come—the world was no longer in peace.
He had to improve his skills as soon as possible.
It was as if he was a strand of grass, standing alone in the storm, trying his best to survive in this strange world.
However, it was not that he did not gain anything from the second incident at all. He gained more.
He had collected two clouds of white smoke.
After the dead man's meal last night, Fang Zheng understood where the white smoke came from—from the ghosts! This was going to be his direction in the future.
Ssst!
Fang Zheng felt his teeth ache.
He sensed that something was off.
He wanted to become stronger as he did not want to be left without a defense mechanism at all when he encountered horror incidents like the general public.
However, if he was serious about getting stronger, he had to take the initiative to look for such incidents.
If he did not, he would not be able to become stronger.
If he could not become stronger, he would easily fall victim to the horror incidents.
However, if he wanted to defend himself better, he had to look for such incidents himself and push himself against the muzzle.
"F*ck!
"Isn't this just an endless loop of dying!"
Fang Zheng was irritated.
Later on, under some extraterrestrial forces…
Fang Zheng could not help himself but pulled out his local made-smartphone to search for similar incidents in recent times.
He confined the search to Zhou City.
Prosperity, democracy, civilization, harmony, freedom, equality, justice, rule of law, patriotism, professionalism, integrity, and friendliness.
These were the same old themes being circulated online.
Just as Fang Zheng logged onto the hackers' forum, he was shocked by a new post.
'Life-threatening secret shot! After waiting for a few days at the Zhou City People's Hospital, I saw a robe-clad old priest going into People's Hospital! Is the hospital actually haunted?'
Fang Zheng disappeared into the corner of the street amidst sounds of a revved engine.
30 minutes later.
Bus 239 arrived at People's Hospital. The bus, which was packed like a sardine can, was half empty within seconds.
The moment he got out of the bus, the cap-clad Fang Zheng seemed excited and happy.
A cloud of white smoke!
It was coming toward him from the hospital!
It was absorbed by the human skin-made scripture hidden under his jacket within seconds.
There was a crowd around him but none of them realized what was going on. Everyone seemed normal.
If the People's Hospital had not been taken over by the military, Fang Zheng would have been laughing victoriously by now.
This was on top of the white smoke he had collected from last night.
This was the first time he had obtained two clouds of white smoke within a short period of time.
He held his excitement in and waited patiently. However, after waiting for a day and skipping the afternoon training, Fang Zheng was disappointed that he never saw another cloud of white smoke again.
Sure enough, there would not be too many good things happening in one day. He really thought it was a game where he could get experience points from certain levels. Fang Zheng smiled miserably but he was unwilling to admit defeat.
Although he was a little disappointed, one thing was for sure.
Every time a priest appeared, there would be a cloud of white smoke.
The white smoke came from ghosts.
Fang Zheng was a little terrified. 'What secrets are there inside the People's Hospital?
'If the military has taken over the hospital and a soldier has been stationed as the hospital entrance guard, it shouldn't be because of horror incidents then. Otherwise, the hospital would not be opening its doors to patients.
'What is in the hospital?
'A priest, ghosts, and the military… what did all of these mean?'
After being deep in thought, Fang Zheng frowned.
Maybe…there was such a government agency in Zhou City that was responsible for handling such incidents. It was as good as having a specific information agency to filter and delete online posts related to such incidents.
It could be like a Supernatural Bureau, or a Special Incidents Investigation Bureau?
Meanwhile, the old priest mentioned in the post could be a member of this organization.
Maybe this agency was bigger than Zhou City itself, maybe there was such an agency in cities across the country, and it became a monster that had touched every corner of the country…
Fang Zheng thought it was possible. At this very moment, his smartphone rang.
It was Sun Yushu whom he had just parted ways with in the morning.
Just as he answered the call, Sun Yushu said in fear, "There's another person dead!
"Just moments ago, our colleague who had participated in performing post-mortems on the victims of Tongjiang Bridge found that four more people had died!"
Fang Zheng's expression changed.
This was not over. Zheng Mei was only the beginning.