[Audience Expectation +20] The snowman remnants melted in the silence, after the candle extinguished the blue smoke, Chen Ling's face was pale as paper.

"I..." Chen Ling hesitated to speak, "I was talking to my brother..." "Where is your brother?" Wu Youdong looked at the empty seat beside him, "In the room, isn't it just the two of us?" Chen Ling looked at the opposite seat, and at some point, it was already empty...

In a daze, the faint image of a smiling youth faded in memory.

Beads of sweat dripped from Chen Ling's forehead, his back soaked in sweat, his bewildered and empty eyes trembling incessantly, like a sleeper just awakened from a nightmare.

"No, it's impossible..." Chen Ling suddenly stood up, the table legs scraping the ground with a harsh creaking sound.

"How could it be just the two of us??" Chen Ling's voice suddenly raised, "My brother was just here...

Earlier, he was building a snowman at the door, this morning he was at the door seeing me off, my padded coat was sewn by him!" He forcefully took off his padded coat, pointing to the perfectly patched spot, "Look! This is An's work! I don't know how to sew clothes at all!" "And, these wooden boards on the wall, he fixed them all!" "There's also a doctor from Aurora City living in our house, he has met An, you can ask him if you don't believe me!" "I...

I understand." Wu Youdong seemed to be frightened by Chen Ling, he said in a flustered manner, "I just...

wanted to ask...

because I saw you talking to yourself in the air just now...

it was quite scary." "I wasn't talking to myself in the air!!" Chen Ling pointed at the emptiness in front of him, his bloodshot eyes staring at Wu Youdong.

"My brother was sitting there just now, you should have seen him when you came in, right??" "I...

I really didn't see him." Wu Youdong looked aggrieved, he looked at the eccentric behavior of Chen Ling in front of him, hesitated for a long time, and tentatively asked, "Chen Ling...

have you encountered a disaster recently?" Chen Ling stood still.

[So, have you also merged with the disaster?] [I don't know, I woke up and was already standing there.] [Have you also lost a memory segment?] [Yes.] [But isn't the convergence point of the Ashen Realm in the back mountain? You should have been in surgery at that time...

why were you affected too?] [I don't know...

I just remember the doctor gave me anesthesia, and when I woke up, I just...] Familiar dialogue lingered in Chen Ling's ears, he seemed to have caught something faintly, his pupils slightly contracted.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"No...," Chen Ling muttered to himself, "It's not right...

none of it is right..." "Chen Ling, are you okay?" "...Back mountain?!" Chen Ling suddenly looked in a certain direction, went crazy and rushed out of the house without even taking the padded coat he had just removed, wearing only a thin shirt, and plunged into the heavy snow.

Just as his figure disappeared at the end of the street, Chu Muyun, wearing a woolen coat, arrived at the door of his house.

He looked puzzled in the direction Chen Ling had left, about to enter the house, but seeing Wu Youdong standing alone in the living room, his brows furrowed.

"Who are you?" "I...

I'm Chen Ling's friend." Under the silver-rimmed glasses, his eyes immediately narrowed, exuding a dangerous aura...

"What did you say to him just now?" "I didn't say anything...

I just, I just found it strange that he was talking to himself, so I asked him who he was talking to...

and then..." Chu Muyun's face changed drastically! He looked in the direction Chen Ling had left, "Do you know...

what you've done?" Chu Muyun's voice seemed to come from the underworld.

"I..." At the moment when Wu Youdong's gaze met Chu Muyun's, Wu Youdong's heart trembled.

He had never seen such cold and crazy eyes before.

Wu Youdong was extremely afraid.

He took a half step back, trembling, and was tripped by the chair, falling to the ground with a thud.

Chu Muyun took a deep breath, stepped into the room, and gently closed the door with both hands.

The drafty door blocked the light and snow outside the house, casting a dim shadow over the living room.

The figure in the wool coat slowly walked towards Wu Youdong.

He pushed his glasses, and beneath his cultured appearance, a fierce and unmasked malice emerged, like a ferocious beast imprisoned in a human shell, shedding its disguise to reveal its bloody and ferocious fangs.

"Do you know how rare it is to have a fusionist who maintains a delicate balance between madness and normalcy as a research subject?" "Do you know how much effort I put into pretending with him so he wouldn't notice his abnormality?" "Do you know...

what kind of monster you might unleash?" Wu Youdong was scared silly.

Already with his legs broken, he couldn't escape and could only drag his body backward bit by bit...

"I don't know, I really don't know," he pleaded.

"I've been guarding here for three days, not letting anyone near Chen Ling or this room...

and yet, you had to barge in yourself." "...Why???" Chu Muyun suddenly lifted a corner of the chair and smashed it down on Wu Youdong's head! Bang!!! A muffled sound echoed in the room, and Wu Youdong fainted on the spot.

A large gash was opened on his forehead, and crimson blood flowed crazily, quickly pooling into a puddle.

Chu Muyun showed no signs of stopping.

He stared fixedly at Wu Youdong's body on the ground, which looked like a corpse, and lifted the chair, repeatedly smashing it down on him! "Why?!" "Why?!!" "Why?!!!" The scalding blood splattered on the wool coat, staining the lenses of the silver wire glasses crimson.

Chu Muyun no longer had the gentlemanly demeanor he had before.

He was like a ruthless executioner, venting his anger in the dark where no one noticed.

With each blow of the chair on the rotten body, Wu Youdong's breath gradually disappeared.

Bang— With the final blow, the chair finally shattered.

Chu Muyun wiped the sweat off his forehead, his chest heaving violently.

With blood-stained fingertips, he lightly pushed up his glasses, his deep blue eyes staring at the pool of blood and mud at his feet.

After an unknown amount of time, the madness in his eyes gradually faded, and a sharp scalpel fell into his palm...

Meanwhile, a figure stumbled through the snow and arrived at the back mountain.

His thin clothes were already soaked with sweat, and the heat and cold intertwined on Chen Ling's body.

He crossed the deserted yellow caution line, passed through snowdrifts with wooden signs, as if searching for something.

This is where everything began...

and also where the truth is buried.

The mass grave.