Over time, the word "vintage" has acquired a supernatural connotation.
Lu Mingran scrolled through the shop's page. There weren't many items listed, and every piece of clothing looked vintage, reminiscent of a movie from the last century. After scrolling down, Lu Mingran finally saw a white jacket with lace trim on the cuffs at the very bottom.
This is the only garment in the store displayed on a hanger, without a mannequin.
“This dress has actually been sold a few times,” Tao Chen said quietly, “but almost everyone who bought it felt a woman standing in front of their bed at night.”
She won't just stand by your bedside; she'll also appear in your dreams and follow you around at any time.
"And..." Tao Chen asked Lu Mingran to zoom in on the photos of the other clothes, "Take a close look, are there any small, dark brown stains on some of the clothes?"
These issues were mentioned in the reviews of those clothes; some buyers commented that the clothes they bought had a strange smell.
Lu Mingran was so angry she almost exploded, and she threw the phone back to Tao Chen.
But this was just the beginning. Tao Chen said they had to buy the white coat.
Since Tao Chen no longer exists, only Lu Mingran can register an account and make the purchase. Whether it was her imagination or not, when Lu Mingran clicked to view the garment this time, she felt the hem of the dress sway slightly.
Less than two minutes after placing the order, customer service sent Lu Mingran a message to confirm the order information.
This is a common message on Taobao, but this time, after the confirmation box, there was a sentence: "Are you sure you want to buy this?"
"yes."
Lu Mingran thought to herself that this person still had some conscience, knowing to remind others.
But the next message from the other party made Lu Mingran realize how naive she had been:
"I'll buy you clothes, but I have one condition."
"After you receive the clothes, wear them and take a selfie for me. You don't need to show your face, but you have to do a pose I specify to prove it's you."
This is really weird. Lu Mingran put down her phone and looked at Tao Chen across from her.
Tao Chen, having experienced this incident firsthand, revealed the shop owner's identity completely: "Sima's men have a lot of lives on their hands."
Although the original owner of this garment did not die here, the way he obtained it was disgusting enough.
Sima is a major villain in this book, causing Tao Chen a lot of trouble in the early stages. Mentioning this person makes Tao Chen's eyebrows furrow.
Fortunately, the clothes only contained the remnant soul of the victim and wouldn't cause much harm. Lu Mingran submitted the order and, for safety reasons, set the delivery address to a Cainiao Post Station on the other side of the city.
The logistics were fast; Lu Mingran received the clothes a day later. As soon as the tracking information was updated, the seller eagerly sent a message:
"You got it, right? Hurry up and put it on!"
Lu Mingran thought to herself, "You're not offering me a broken leg or a broken bone, so why all this trouble? Besides, what can you do to me if I absolutely refuse to take pictures?"
Given that Tao Chen said those who didn't follow the instructions were terrified, Lu Mingran ultimately held back. He silently carried the package back to his room, and under Tao Chen's gaze, he opened it, took out the white coat, and shook it.
She didn't know what material the coat was made of, but it felt incredibly soft, like human skin. The moment Lu Mingran touched it, she felt an urge to wear it.
It's a women's style, and it's kind of embarrassing to wear, but thankfully you don't have to show your face.
On the other side, Tao Chen didn't seem to have any intention of doing it for her. Lu Mingran noticed that Tao Chen was looking at her with a very reassuring and admiring gaze—this couldn't be blamed on Tao Chen, as the original gatekeeper of this world had always been showing off his abilities in front of Tao Chen.
The phone was nearby, and the other party sent the first request: "Wear it and make a heart shape with your hands on your chest first."
"Pervert." Lu Mingran cursed inwardly before having Tao Chen take a picture of her with his phone.
Tao Chen stepped back a few paces, took the photos, and sent them over. The other party seemed to still be having fun, and made Lu Mingran pose in several more positions. Seeing Lu Mingran's increasingly gloomy expression, cold sweat broke out on Tao Chen's forehead.
He had experienced the goalkeeper's skills firsthand; if you angered the goalkeeper, you would experience a feeling more unbearable than pain.
However, Lu Mingran was in a very good mood at this time and didn't say anything. When the other party said "It's okay", he then gestured for Tao Chen to return the phone to him and sent a message.
"Hey bro, I want to do a pose for you too."
Before the other person could react, Lu Mingran raised her hands and shook them ten times. Just as the system had said, her hands turned into a bird's black wings, almost bursting through her clothes.
Next, Lu Mingran asked Tao Chen to take another picture of her with his phone, this time specifically instructing him to capture a free and unrestrained feeling.
Tao Chen nodded and hummed in bewilderment, feeling that his photography skills had been thoroughly honed.
The seller then received this image:
A pair of proudly raised wings, like the sleeves of a coat of a bird.
It's worth mentioning that when the seller saw this message, they were stunned.
His heart sank into darkness, and physically, he was truly blind—a punishment from the gatekeeper.
After Lu Mingran finished doing all this, she looked at Tao Chen standing in front of her with a smile.
Tao Chen finished reading the messages on his phone and didn't look up for a long time.
The message that followed the picture, posted by Lu Mingran, was:
"Hey handsome, let me show you the magnificent roc spreading its wings!"
Chapter 80 Want to study philosophy? No way (7)
While the esteemed Bird King still maintained his majestic posture of spreading his wings like a roc, Tao Chen sincerely offered him a suggestion:
"Could you take your clothes off so I can look for the keys?"
The clothes covering the wings were difficult to remove, and the system hadn't explained how to turn back into arms. Frustrated, Lu Mingran tried shaking her arms ten more times to see if she could revert back.
The result wasn't that the body flew up, but rather that bird feathers flew everywhere in the room in an instant.
Fortunately... the arm has returned to normal.
Tao Chen removed the feathers from his head, went over and pulled the clothes off Lu Mingran, reaching into his pocket.
It was a car key that would never fall out of the right pocket, waiting for someone to come and find it.
Tao Chen held the old key in his hand, a chill spreading from his palm. He could even imagine the key's owner struggling to open the car door and escape before he died.
"The victim had some connection with the original owner of the antidote. On the day she was murdered, she left the bottle of snake wine in her car."
Lu Mingran asked, "Where was she murdered?"
"...the underground parking lot of Suntec Plaza."
——————
Suntec Plaza was formerly a hospital.
The hospital had been abandoned for a long time, and locals had hardly heard any ghost stories about it. When people passed by, all they could see were vines climbing the walls. Later, at some point, that scene disappeared, replaced by a newly built shopping mall.
The area has become bustling with activity thanks to the shopping mall, no longer the quiet place it once was. Although this place was originally a hospital, no one thinks much of it.
Until one day, a strange story unfolded.
The incident occurred after the last movie of the night had ended. According to CCTV footage, a man took the elevator from the cinema to the parking lot, without going to any other floors along the way. However, he disappeared after stepping out of the elevator.
He was nowhere to be found in the parking lot, and the other floors of the mall had long been closed. There was no trace of him; he had simply vanished without a trace. Thankfully, he returned alive, but he terrified another customer who had come to shop.
That day, when the customer in the red car finished shopping and went to retrieve his car, he saw a young man lying unconscious in his car and immediately called the police.
When asked where he had gone during that time, the young man knew nothing. And not long after, another person disappeared.
This time, the man was clearly not as lucky as the young man; when he reappeared, he was a corpse. It is said that the owner of the red car went insane upon seeing a dead body suddenly inside.
Rumors immediately spread. Whether it was a wicked businessman who designed an evil feng shui arrangement, or whether it was related to the fact that this place was originally a hospital... there was no conclusion to any of it. However, after that, no one dared to drive a red car into the underground parking lot anymore, because red cars would bring bad luck.
The underground parking lot of Xinda Plaza suddenly became a well-known strange story in the city.
In order to get the medicinal wine, Lu Mingran had no choice but to rent a red car and go to the underground parking lot with Tao Chen.
That day they attracted a lot of attention. Passersby near the mall looked at their car with mixed feelings, but they just continued driving nonchalantly down the slope.
Lu Mingran looked around and found that there were indeed no red cars here. Among the row of white cars, their car was very eye-catching.
As soon as they parked, someone from next door knocked on their car window. It was a young woman who said to Lu Mingran and his companion, "You're not locals, are you? Red cars can't park here. Hurry up and leave."
“Okay.” Lu Mingran smiled at her.
They said that, but neither of them showed any intention of moving the car. After the girl's car drove away, Lu Mingran got out of the car first.
Honestly, this was probably the boldest moment Lu Mingran had ever shown in all the missions he had undertaken.
While sitting in the car, Lu Mingran was thinking that Tao Chen had been through all of this and knew what would happen next. Moreover, he was now many times stronger than before.
What do you call this? This is what you call taking a max-level player back to the newbie village to grind quests!
Lu Mingran gets excited whenever he thinks about this, and when he gets excited, he slaps his thigh. On the way, Tao Chen even counted the number of times Lu Mingran slapped his thigh, thinking to himself that this bird not only sheds its feathers but also has leg pain, and he should be advised to exercise more and pay attention to health.
However, Tao Chen didn't dare say these words aloud. After getting off the car, he simply and naturally assigned Lu Mingran a task:
"Go to the mall."
Huh? Lu Mingran thought she had misheard. Wasn't Tao Chen supposed to be in charge of everything in the original plan?
Tao Chen patted him on the shoulder, his eyes shining, and said:
"I feel very reassured bringing such a big shot like you along."
Lu Mingran forced a smile and asked him:
"Do you believe I can't do anything except spread my wings like a roc?"
——————
Tao Chen clearly didn't believe it.
Plan C was thus launched, with Lu Mingran tasked with luring out the evil spirits from the parking lot of the shopping mall.
To be precise, it was formed by the entanglement of many vengeful spirits. The owner of this key died at its hands, the apparent cause of death being a car accident. After death, the vengeful spirit of the key's owner and her car remained in the same spot.
When a red car appears in the parking lot and a new victim arrives, this woman and her red car appear together. She has become the accomplice of this evil spirit, beckoning to the victims.
If the victim runs towards another red car, he will find the door open and can crawl inside to escape. However, if he chooses to go to the evil spirit, he will find the car door locked and will be killed by the evil spirit while standing outside.
In the original story, Tao Chen visited the first customer who had disappeared and then returned alive. That customer's house was always sealed off, with no light penetrating. Under the protagonist's relentless persuasion and reassurance, the man finally stammered out a message.
He genuinely didn't remember what happened after he went missing, but he seemed to know how he had gotten involved with something evil.
“Forum!” the young man exclaimed.
In fact, people had already been discussing this shopping mall on a certain online forum, saying they had seen nurses carrying surgical trays wandering around the mall. Last summer, a young man named Xiaofa started a thread on that forum, saying that he was going to explore Xinda Plaza at night.
If it were just a nighttime raid, that wouldn't be a problem. The real issue is that he posted a message online.