"Yangyang, you're back!" The lights in the house were as bright as ever, and Gao Yang's parents were still wearing the clothes they wore in the afternoon.
It was as if the inside and outside of this house were two different worlds.
They each grabbed one of Lu Shi's hands and dragged him into the house.
The door slammed shut, and Lu Shi's eyes widened in shock. What he saw was a gloomy living room with not a single light on.
The ground was littered with trash, and Lu Shi didn't even have a place to put his feet.
The coffee table was covered with a thick layer of dust, as if it hadn't been cleaned in a long time.
"Yangyang, what are you standing there for!" His mother's words interrupted Lu Shi's thoughts. When he opened his eyes again, the scene in front of him was no different from that of daytime.
"Come, come, Dad made this tea for you himself. Happy birthday!" The father pulled Lu Shi to sit down on the sofa, where a very clean coffee table was in front of him.
Was that just an illusion?
Then Lu Shi smelled a strange odor coming from the kitchen.
The mother ran to the kitchen again, then came out singing "Happy Birthday": "Yangyang, happy birthday! This is your favorite chocolate cake!"
A birthday cake? This was something Lu Shi had never encountered before. He was about to see what this novelty was when a pungent stench wafted to his nose.
He looked again and saw that what was placed in front of him was not a cake, but a plate of rotten fruit and offerings intended as a sacrifice.
Maggots even crawled out of it.
"Where is this? Who are you?!"
Lu Shi couldn't make a sound, and the exquisite, fragrant cake reappeared in front of him.
However, a person walked out of his body.
Yes, Gao Yang walked out like that. He sat on the sofa and blew out candles and sang songs with his parents.
The room went dark again the instant the candle went out.
Gao Yang, his face covered in blood, his mother furious, his father sighing, and a torn dress on the floor.
The family of three stopped arguing and knelt down in front of the coffee table.
The scarlet candle wax spilled onto the coffee table, congealing into blood-red pimples.
The plate was also filled with fresh fruit and offerings.
They kowtowed three times, facing a black and white photograph.
Lu Shi remembers very clearly that a family photo used to be displayed there.
He moved a little closer before he could see the person in the black and white photograph clearly.
It is Gaoyang.
Happy birthday, Yangyang!
A note from the author:
Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!
Chapter 36
☪ Good Family Apartment 11
Gaoyang?
If the person in the black and white photo is Gao Yang, then who is the person kneeling with his parents?
Although Gao Yang's face was covered in blood, Lu Shi knew that he was only in this state because of those bastards; he was still alive.
He looks exactly like Gao Yang in the video.
In other words... Lu Shi suddenly realized that the bizarre scene before him might actually be a scene that actually happened back then.
On Gao Yang's birthday, he and his parents had a big argument about dressing as women, and then they worshipped another person together...
Although this guess is crazy, it is the most reasonable answer that Lu Shi can think of at this moment.
The birthday song still sent chills down Lu Shi's spine after listening to it for a while. Without hesitation, he rushed out and tried to grab Gao Yang's shoulder.
He wanted to make Gao Yang turn back, and he was determined to see the difference between Gao Yang in person and in the photograph.
Unfortunately, Lu Shi woke up before he could even touch Gao Yang.
"Are you alright?" Ye Bugui had woken up before Lu Shi. He placed his hand on Lu Shi's forehead, looking at his somewhat haggard and tired face with concern.
“Hmm.” Lu Shi immediately stood up from the ground.
However, his alertness made him lie back down on the bed immediately: "Is it almost eight o'clock?"
"Hmm, about ten seconds left!" Ye Bugui lay down as well, then made a shushing gesture.
Gao Yang got up.
He looked like he had a good sleep, and he even patted his cheeks.
The first thing he did after getting up was to pick up his phone from the bedside table, seemingly unaware that someone had touched it.
"Sigh." After looking at it for a while, he suddenly sighed, then angrily threw his phone on the ground and went straight to the bathroom to wash up.
Ye Bugui, who had been lying quietly on the ground, did indeed move. He seemed to want to go out and check the contents of his phone before the screen went black.
Lu Shi could tell what Ye Bugui was planning to do, so he turned to the side and stared intently at Gao Yang, who was washing up.
If Gao Yang is about to come out, he will immediately give Ye Bugui a signal.
Although they did not communicate verbally, they coordinated their actions and behaviors.
After learning of Lu Shi's thoughts, Ye Bugui no longer hesitated and silently leaned his upper body out.
Ye Bugui only glanced at it before the phone screen conveniently went dark.
But his originally calm face underwent a dramatic change.
From Lu Shi's perspective, Ye Bugui must have learned some explosive news, otherwise he wouldn't have reacted so strongly.
Unfortunately, Lu Shi couldn't bring himself to ask Ye Bugui. He could only endure it until Gao Yang finished dressing and left the room before finally emerging from under the bed.
He looked at Ye Bugui, clearly having many questions to ask. Ye Bugui knew this, so he kindly stood there, looking at Lu Shi, waiting for his questions.
"Did you wake up before me?" Lu Shi asked.
Ye Bugui nodded, and couldn't help but recall the scene from that time.
He was originally following Lu Shi, intending to go upstairs together.
Halfway there, Ye Bugui found himself in a fog, unable to see anything.
He tried to find Lu Shi by groping around, but Ye Bugui soon found himself bumping into a wall.
“I woke up immediately,” Ye Bugui said, subconsciously touching his forehead. “Then I realized that I had just bumped into this wall. In other words, I must have been sleepwalking in this room.”
"Like being trapped in a maze?" Lu Shi answered with his understanding, "And what about me back then? You should have seen me after you woke up, right?"
"Yes, you were lying on the floor under the bed, asleep on your side. I was worried that waking you would cause something bad to happen, so I just sat next to you and watched from a distance."
Lu Shi hummed in agreement. It seemed that their bodies were still asleep after they entered the dream. No wonder they hadn't felt tired when they woke up these past few days.
Of course, apart from today, Lu Shi feels dizzy all the time and wants to sleep some more.
However, Lu Shi did not say it aloud. Instead, seeing Ye Bugui's hesitant expression, he directly told him about the strange scenes he had witnessed later.
“A mourning hall? Paper money? A rusty iron gate, and rotten offerings.” Ye Bugui kept repeating the elements he saw in his dream when he landed: “These are indeed very easy to think of death. And they also fit my guess that Gao Yang should be dead.”
But Ye Bugui changed the subject: "But you also said that Gao Yang was among the people you saw worshipping. If he were dead, would he really still go to worship himself?"
“I also think that’s unlikely,” Lu Shi said, pacing slowly around the room. “So I’m more inclined to believe that he’s not dead. Or that he’s not the same person as the one in the black and white photograph!”
Golden Hall
People come and go in the live stream, but the total number remains constant.
Aside from occasionally logging off to handle official business, Wei Jin spends most of his time watching live streams.
He also understood that while the game might be difficult for the participants, it wouldn't be exciting for the spectators.
The only battle ended thanks to Lu Shi's bold and meticulous planning.
The people in the live stream got excited when the black and white photo appeared.
"I told you, Gao Yang is definitely dead!"
"How could there be a living person in this apartment? This time I think Lao Ye is more reliable than the anchor."
"President Ye seems to know how to have fun, so why did he specifically find a powerful backer?"
"Could it be because of love?"
Wei Jin rolled her eyes. Weren't these people talking about something completely off-topic?
But when he heard Lu Shi's conclusion, his expression changed, and then he revealed a smile that seemed to have taken a dramatic turn for the better.
He seemed to have fallen into the same mindset as many others in the live stream from the very beginning, stubbornly believing that Gao Yang was already dead.
Unfortunately, no supporting evidence has been found.
However, when the enshrined black-and-white photograph appeared, he became certain that Gao Yang was dead.
As for why he would still join in the worship, he subconsciously ignored it.
That's why they forgot a very simple truth.
Is the person in the photo definitely Gao Yang? What if it's just someone who looks like him?
Lu Shi's words were a wake-up call, and he received a large number of donations once again. His popularity also rose to sixth place in the Golden Hall.
However, the most popular person in the hall right now is Zi Ling.
...
After hearing Lu Shi's words, Ye Bugui almost immediately understood what he wanted to express.
Then a smile gradually crept onto his face, and he slapped his forehead: "Right, I didn't even think of that. It's because I had a powerful mentor that I forgot to bring my brain."
Lu Shi shook his head. "It's just because you didn't see it with your own eyes. If you had been there, you would have had the same doubts as me. Because Gao Yang kneeling there really looked like a living person. I could feel his immense sorrow just by looking at his back."