Chapter 103: Peaceful Sleepless Night
The night was deep.
In a high-rise apartment in the central district of the , Bai Liqing, wrapped in her pajamas, poured herself a glass of strong liquor and walked over to the large floor-to-ceiling window.
The room was not lit, only the dim yellow light from the corner nightstand outlined the contours of the furniture. Beyond the large floor-to-ceiling window was a spectacular nightscape that rushed in. The enormous city was lit by neon, and the magnificent colors flickered and flowed among the layered, closely packed buildings like some kind of breathing living creature. The earth seemed endless, the shadows of the urban architecture stretching infinitely into the distance within view until they disappeared into a hazy night. And in this night, Bai Liqing's own reflection in the glass appeared particularly slender and solitary.
Fog began to form outside the window.
The thin mist seemed to generate out of thin air, quickly and evenly covering the night, gradually turning into a surging gray-white curtain. The scenery of the appeared hazy and illusory in the mist. Then, a pair of indifferent eyes appeared outside the window, calmly watching Bai Liqing standing before it.
Those eyes had a humanlike outline but were severely lacking in color. Their extremely pale pupil structure was almost identical to Bai Liqing's own eyes. They seemed to float in the mist outside the window, yet also appeared to be directly printed on the glass, filling the entire pane.
"Drinking at night isn't a good habit, sister." A voice directly entered Bai Liqing's mind, mechanical and dull, yet exactly the same as her own voice.
"It helps me calm down," Bai Liqing said casually, shaking the glass in her hand. "Especially after being jolted awake from a nightmare by a phone call."
"Nightmare?"
"I dreamed that I eventually became you."
"Oh, that is indeed a nightmare," the faded eyes blinked outside the window. "Be careful not to be seduced and controlled by me—though you've done fairly well so far. So, what do you want from me by calling me out now?"
"I just woke up suddenly and wanted to ask you about something—about that 'One-Eyed' that appeared in the Nightfall Valley. Have you found anything?"
The eyes narrowed slightly, and the voice then entered Bai Liqing's mind: "I have traversed all the places I have ever watched, including the strange domains we experienced together and the 'Death Voids' in the deep void that were bored through by the Dullahan Angels. I found no information related to that giant eye. It has not appeared in any of the above locations."
"Really? Not even you could find it..." Bai Liqing seemed a bit regretful. "Forget it, it was expected."
"Your mood has worsened, sister," the eyes said. "And there's some worry as well."
"...Because more and more clues point to the fact that that giant eye entered this world without anyone noticing. And in light of the 'trail' left by another unknown angel discovered by the Algleds in the deep void a few months ago, it's likely that more Dullahan Angels have already bored through our world—there are more voids that have not been discovered, and even at this very moment, the voids could be increasing."
As she said this, Bai Liqing shook the glass in her hand, staring absentmindedly at the swirling vortex of the liquid inside, and quietly asked, "Do you know my greatest worry?"
"You worry that more Dullahan Angels are already hiding in the real universe?"
"No, that's just everyone's common worry. What I'm more concerned about is what lies behind the Dullahan Angels—whether they are a race, whether they have organization, whether they have learning ability, whether they have gradually learned the rules of our world and mastered more efficient ways to bore through Death Voids, and... whether they have learned to actively hide themselves."
"That does sound quite worrying."
Bai Liqing downed the strong liquor, feeling the fierce stimulation spread in her mouth, then casually placed the glass on the floor beside her.
"Also, I asked you to scan the Old City to find that hidden No. 66 Wutong Road. Any discoveries?"
"I found some distorted traces, but I can't see them clearly," the eyes said, a hint of frustration even in the mechanical, dull voice.
Bai Liqing finally showed a hint of surprise on her face: "Even you can't see clearly?"
"Yes," the eyes in the mist blinked. "Whenever I try to focus my gaze, my sight seems to be... absorbed by something, and by the time I realize it, I find that I've actually been zoning out. However... I have a guess."
"What guess?"
"That so-called No. 66 Wutong Road may not be there at all. It's just an entrance..."
"That's not surprising," Bai Liqing shook her head before the other finished. "The agents from the Special Services Bureau who went to investigate also submitted this conclusion. They think it should be a special space in a spatial rift, like the other 'fortress'-type strange domains in the , floating in the seam of the time-space structure of the Borderlands..."
"No," the eyes suddenly interrupted her. "I mean, it may not even be in the Borderlands at all—it's not floating anywhere. It's just... too deep, too far, so that the reflection of 'No. 66 Wutong Road' in the Borderlands is only a very faint shadow. When I felt my gaze being devoured, it's actually because I was gazing at a place so far away it cannot be seen."
Bai Liqing's expression stiffened for a moment.
"Too deep, too far?" Her tone was uncharacteristically hesitant. "Do you know what that means? Your gaze... can even see into subspace."
"So, it's deeper and farther than that. That's based on logical analysis, sister."
Bai Liqing blinked.
A moment later, she heard the mechanical, dull voice again in her mind: "So, what exactly is that 'person' living at No. 66 Wutong Road?"
"I don't know," Bai Liqing said softly. "I only know that the various intelligence so far all indicate that his personality and self-awareness are infinitely close to that of a 'human'. And just a moment ago, he called me."
"Ah, so the call that woke you from your nightmare just now was from him. What did he want?"
"He said he was going to open a 'door' and wanted to inform me about it. According to intelligence from the operations department a few hours ago, he should have paid a visit to the 'Museum'."
"...Interesting."
The eyes gradually dissipated in the mist, and the fog outside the window quickly receded as well. The boundless city nightscape once again filled the window.
...
***
In the latter half of the night, Yu Sheng barely slept at all.
He lay in bed, tossing and turning, with all kinds of thoughts, knowledge, and intelligence wriggling, crawling, jumping up and down, and screeching in his mind like countless Eileens crawling all over the floor...
Of course, that description might be a bit excessive, because if there really were countless Eileens crawling all over the floor, it would definitely be even more chaotic.
But Yu Sheng's mind was indeed that messy.
The new knowledge about the strange domains, about Little Red Riding Hood and the "Fairy Tale" organization behind her, about the Angel Cultists and the "Dullahan Angels", about the unfortunate victim in that white exhibition hall, and... the scene of the deceased speaking to him.
Yu Sheng opened his phone and searched the "Border Communications" database for entries related to "conversations with the dead". He actually found some information.
It mentioned that some "extraordinary individuals" outside the Borderlands did possess the power to communicate with the dead. Some, known as necromancers, even had the ability, after performing a series of complex rituals, to directly fix the soul of the deceased in the real world temporarily and engage in simple face-to-face conversations with them.
But none of the information described the process of "conversing with the dead" as being similar to what he had experienced in the white exhibition hall.
The "techniques" described in the encyclopedia either required very complex ritual processes, or extremely advanced equipment, or were simply like "holographic deduction" that collected massive intelligence through technical means to try to reconstruct scenes before death. And even those methods that claimed to directly "communicate with the dead" produced very vague and crude results, sometimes only obtaining "yes" or "no" feedback from the deceased's residual brainwaves or so-called "soul".
None of them involved simply touching the blood at the scene with a hand, and then the dead suddenly turning its head and launching into a rap with you...
Yu Sheng put down his phone, sighed softly in the unlit room, and then heard rustling sounds from the bed again.
Turning his head, he saw Eileen wriggling and rolling at the foot of the bed, kicking a flying leg into the air, then flopping back down with a thud.
Yu Sheng's expression was wooden.
Another main reason he couldn't sleep was that there really was an Eileen crawling all over his bed.
And she was spinning around and kicking people.
The next second, he saw Eileen suddenly turn over again, and then the small puppet sat bolt upright, pointed in front of her, eyes still tightly shut: "Me! From Alice's Cabin! Pay up—or I'll beat you!"
Then she tilted over, fell toward the bedside, thudded to the floor, then drowsily grabbed the bedsheet and climbed back up, wriggling toward Yu Sheng while muttering, "Don't kick me... I fell..."
Yu Sheng let out a sigh.
There was no way he could sleep anymore.