Chapter 42: Suspicion

The moment the phone rang, Shi Rang started walking toward the door. It was only after two steps that he realized it wasn't the doorbell.

He turned back and answered the call.

"Yin—"

"Hello, are you interested in life insurance?"

Shi Rang swallowed the nickname that had reached his lips and hung up.

He couldn't help but open the door to look outside, just in case Ying Shang was crouching there playing a prank, but he came up empty-handed again.

The sky was about to turn dark, and he had already reheated the meal twice.

She should have been back by now...

Shi Rang opened his contact list and found the number for Ying Shang’s studio.

I should just call and ask.

"Beep... Beep..."

The moment the call connected, the world collapsed. Shredded images and mottled blocks of color surged past him.

Everything returned to clarity.

Shi Rang woke up.

He found himself sprawled on the floor, wrapped in a bath towel, his body lingering with steam.

The lights in the house were off, but it was illuminated by the dim, glowing sky; the sun was about to rise.

He was too weak to move, as if he had just finished a marathon and collapsed right after crossing the finish line. At first, he could only twitch a few fingers, using all his strength to drag his palms across the floor until he touched a solid, rectangular shape—his phone. The screen was covered in deep cracks; it was broken. After lying there for a while, feeling his body recover slightly, he pushed himself up from the floor. By the faint light, he noticed his camera resting on the cabinet by the door.

Am I at home?

But I... didn't I go to the Yunling New District?

Was it, was it all just a dream? The darkness, the monsters, the flash of life before death—all a dream?

His stomach was empty, and he felt dizzy with hunger.

His last memory was of killing the stitched ghoul and waiting for death alone in the darkness, but the more he recalled, the more absurd it felt—his right arm was perfectly fine right here!

Slightly dizzy, Shi Rang pushed the monsters and faces in his head aside, struggling to convince himself that he had finally woken up.

He cleared the confusion from his mind, trying to find the parts of his memory that held water.

After a few minutes, he managed to piece together a probable truth:

He hadn't been trapped in the industrial zone at night. Instead, before sunset, in a fit of emotional distress, he had returned home. He had probably intended to take a shower and go to bed, playing the coward after facing his editor-in-chief's harassment, only to somehow faint in the living room. Not only had he broken his phone, but he had also had a bizarre, surreal dream.

The supernatural elements in the dream had all appeared on the Administration’s main station—he knew the information about Bjorn and the stitched ghoul, while the rest came from painful memories of a few days ago. His imagination and subconscious had created a chemical reaction in his brain, ultimately causing him to suffer great torment in a half-awake state. Perhaps his desire to beat his editor-in-chief had been condensed into a miraculous defeat of the stitched ghoul to relieve his own stress.

Yes, that made sense.

This is the real world; how could such bizarre things happen?

But, why am I not even wearing slippers...?

I keep feeling like there’s a strange smell in the house. Is it an illusion?

Shi Rang clenched his very real right hand and decided to ignore it for now.

He set aside the phone he had bought only a day ago and headed to the kitchen in the dark to look for food.

It was a bit too early to eat, but he hadn't touched food since he started rushing around for photos at noon. Now, every cell in his body was crying out for energy.

The dizziness and lethargy brought on by low blood sugar made him stop in front of the refrigerator. He leaned forward, resting his forehead against the fridge door to ease the discomfort.

The coolness on his forehead reminded him of the hand that had reached toward his head.

That was supposed to be his own arm, but it had been torn away by the stitched ghoul and used for its own ends...

Stop thinking about it. It was all a dream.

Shi Rang sighed.

He remembered buying a bag of bread before his business trip. If it wasn't moldy yet, he would just pop it in the microwave and make do.

It was time to return to reality.

He pulled the fridge door open, squinting at the light bulb flickering to life inside.

Stop overthinking. How could there possibly be any abnormal creatures in the world—

Shi Rang froze.

After a moment, he blinked hard, then began to rub his eyes.

On his plastic bag of fresh, expired bread, there was a group of... ants.

No, they were even larger than ants. He could clearly see tiny specks moving along the grain fibers inside the plastic bag.

At that moment, something about the length of an index finger caught Shi Rang’s attention. It stood at the front of the bread bag, almost blending in with the logo, waving its arms at him while jumping up and down. It emitted a sound as faint as a mosquito, almost drowned out by the fridge's cooling system.

"I'm here! I'm here! Can you see me?"

It was a miniature person.

Shi Rang stared blankly at the tiny figure for a while, closed the fridge door exactly as it was, wobbled toward the bedroom, and collapsed onto the bed.

He really needed to rest.

The dream came on with unusual speed. Shi Rang was once again standing next to the cold food, waiting for Ying Shang to come home and see this surprise.

As time passed, he paced around anxiously until the room darkened with the fading daylight, and he couldn't help but take out his phone.

I should just call and ask.

He pressed the dial button.

No...

Something was wrong...

Shi Rang paused his finger.

The dream blurred as he recalled it, and the surroundings shifted with his thoughts, constantly changing.

Finally, he looked out the window at the descending night.

He was terrified of social interaction, but any sign of abnormality regarding Ying Shang made him uneasy.

He always felt that doom followed happiness, and he spent his days and nights worrying that the dream-like beauty of his life would be snatched away by a tragedy.

If she didn't reply to a message for more than ten minutes, vivid scenes of collapsing buildings, gas explosions, or armed robberies would fill his mind. He would call in his anxiety to ask if she was safe, and then regain his peace in the sound of her laughter. Ying Shang never grew annoyed or blamed him for it. After every "check-in call," she would return his concern, showing him a small gift when they met—sometimes fruit, sometimes a small cake, sometimes a flower.

She was going to spoil him rotten.

Ying Shang had finished work an hour and a half ago. How could he have waited at home until it was completely dark before going to look for her?

For the first time in his life, Shi Rang doubted his own memory.

Not doubting the details or his thoughts at the time, but doubting the entire memory itself...

Then, the dream shattered.

Shi Rang, sleeping askew on the bed, opened his eyes to the morning light. Before he could even sit up, his eyes focused on the tip of his nose—a miniature person with hands on its hips was standing there.

"I'm talking to you, big guy. You can see me now, right?"

Shi Rang began to seriously suspect that he had gone insane.

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[Mu-2 "Hippie" Combat Communication Channel-3]

[Command Operations Department: All squads, the Intelligence Department has completed the analysis of the "Stitched Ghoul." Team leaders, synchronize intelligence according to your clearance levels.]

[Leader Al: In the last 12 hours, our team has found no traces of ghoul activity. The same goes for C-888. Perhaps the remaining missing individuals have been neutralized.]

[Leader Be: Are you serious? This thing is afraid of light?]

[Leader Ga: If the data wasn't already archived, I'd say they were full of crap. This description is way too vague. What kind of light specifically? Natural light? Artificial light? What about the spectral data? I didn't see the ghouls fearing the sun when they were running wild in the city in broad daylight. Has everyone been getting this sloppy lately?]

[Command Operations Department: Anomalies change. The stitched ghoul has mutated many times, and it is certainly possible for it to continue mutating. Before you start another round of complaining, all squads prepare for handover in 3 hours. The follow-up search for traitors and out-of-control anomalies will be taken over by local agents and containment teams.]

[Leader Be: Finally!]

[Leader Al: Do we need to swap gear to continue the search? Can our tactical flashlights meet the requirements to suppress the ghouls?]

[Command Operations Department: I’d love to give you an answer, Team A, but unfortunately, there are no individuals available for testing right now...]

[Leader Al: Oh, I see. They couldn't find any lab rats inside, so they're looking outside now.]

[Command Operations Department: Report any developments immediately.]