Incendie mystérieux

Chapitre 51

"I am Yan Wuyue, lalalalala!" Poor Yan Wuyue was almost going crazy. Because she had been hidden away for so long and hadn't shown her face, even Maya didn't recognize her, the handsome and dashing only female protagonist in heaven and earth? How could this be? If this continued, not only Maya and the astrologer, but even the readers would completely forget that she existed!

After repeated reminders and even the revelation of embarrassing secrets, the forgetful doll finally remembered her. "Oh~ so you're the chubby girl with a 70B bust~" Maya's eyes couldn't hide her playful mockery and teasing. "So, what do you want with the master?"

What do you mean by "a chubby girl with a 70B bust"... How dare you slander me like that in front of my friends! Yan Wuyue's face flushed red and then turned pale, and she pouted angrily, "You're flat-chested too, a perpetual airport runway~" She couldn't help but mutter under her breath. If it weren't for her ladylike image (the problem is, does she even have one?), she really wanted to talk back to her openly!

She swallowed her resentment and told Maya that the girl behind her, Wang Fang, was in trouble and needed the help of an astrologer. Maya's sharp eyes darted between Wang Fang and Yan Wuyue's faces, and before she could finish speaking, she rudely interrupted:

"How strange! You actually came to me on your own initiative. Have you forgotten the sir's fees?"

In exchange for fulfilling their clients' wishes, astrologers would accept their bodies as payment. Having spent some time with him, Yan Wuyue should have been well aware of the ironclad rules established by the ghouls—and as a normal human being who was being hunted, she had long ago shown her resistance to this transaction. Why would she act so out of character this time, willingly leading her prey into the trap?

"That must be a big deal, right?" Yan Wuyue smiled slyly. "This time, I'm not talking business with that 'old man'! I just have a tiny little thing I want him to help me with!"

After a long pause, Maya finally realized who the "old man" was referring to. "Old man!" she cried out in grief and indignation, her finger pointing at Yan Wuyue weak and feeble. "How dare you address 'sir' like that! It's utterly disrespectful!"

"Oh, whatever he calls me! Even if he hears it, he won't be furious! I guarantee it!" Yan Wuyue waved her hand dismissively, revealing a bright smile. "Now tell me, where exactly did 'he' go?"

Maya was clearly still angry, and replied curtly, "I don't know. Even if I knew about Mr. [Sir's] affairs, I have no reason to tell an outsider like you!"

Undeterred by her initial setback, Yan Wuyue rolled her eyes, scooped up Zhenye, and said with a smile:

"Then, I'll have to trouble you, the most powerful psychic in the world!"

She grabbed Maya and ran, completely ignoring his kicking and screaming from her wrists. "You damn tomboy!" Maya cursed through gritted teeth, "You dare kidnap me? You'll be haunted by a hundred ghosts from now on!"

"Don't be so formal!" Yan Wuyue returned the smile. "If you help me out, I definitely won't treat you badly. I'll treat you to a big meal; you can eat whatever you want, how about it?"

As soon as the words left her mouth, Yan Wuyue felt the puppet in her hand fall silent. After a long while, Maya spoke again, but this time her tone was completely feigned maturity:

"Sigh, what can I do? You're an old friend of the master's." Maya shrugged dramatically, her demeanor almost like that of an astrologer. "Tell me the whole story."

Wang Fang is an ordinary student. Last night after self-study, she went to the ATM at school to withdraw money. To her utter surprise, just as she withdrew fifty yuan, a dark figure suddenly darted out from behind her.

"Robbery?" Maya asked first.

Wang Fang felt something cold pressed against her neck. "Give me the money!" the dark figure said in a deliberately low voice. Terrified, she froze, feeling the cold object slowly seeping into her skin—she seemed to realize she was bleeding. "Hurry up!" the figure said impatiently, snatching the fifty yuan from her hand and disappearing in a flash.

"Gone?" Maya could hardly believe it.

Wang Fang didn't dare to say a word, but simply nodded slightly.

"Aaaaah! Are you kidding me?!" Maya yelled in dissatisfaction. "This petty robbery—and they only stole fifty yen—does it deserve your attention, sir?! Are you all out of your minds?!"

"Of course not." Yan Wuyue calmly answered her question. "Actually, we came to see the astrologer for another reason."

Volume 3: The Hellish Record Carrot Rule (Part 2)

"A ghost at the ATM?" Upon hearing this, Maya, just like Yan Wuyue before her, widened her eyes in surprise.

Wang Fang avoided their gaze, not daring to look them in the eye, and only nodded silently, "They...that's what they all said."

"Who are 'them'?" Maya suddenly raised her voice. "The psychics?"

"How could there be any ghosts!" Yan Wuyue, a staunch atheist, retorted. "Wang Fang, didn't you say someone held a knife or something to your neck and stole fifty yuan? If there really were ghosts, wouldn't it have been better if they just showed themselves and scared you unconscious? It's obvious someone robbed you!"

"And they only robbed fifty dollars!" Maya scoffed loudly from her upturned nostrils. "What kind of ghost would do something so pathetic?"

"But..." Wang Fang peeked at the two of them nervously, "I really saw it..."

Wang Fang had heard of the ATM ghost legend before. It was said to appear on full moon nights, attacking those withdrawing money late at night and stealing exactly fifty yuan. It would hold something frozen against the victim's neck, forcing them to hand over the money—this thing wasn't sharp like a dagger, but slightly thicker, and its shape wasn't sharp like a knife. According to Wang Fang's recollection, it was a thin, sheet-like object, distinctly curved against the skin, yet inexplicably chilling, a bone-deep coldness emanating from its edges.

"It must be a spoon or something!" Yan Wuyue suddenly thought. "I've read some comics that say this kind of thing is best used to scare people. It feels like a knife but won't cause any real danger."

Zhenye glared at her angrily, so Yan Wuyue had no choice but to shut up and listen to Wang Fang continue.

"I thought to myself, 'I'll just pay to avoid trouble. It's only fifty yuan, so I'll just consider it a guarantee of safety.'" Wang Fang lowered her head. "I was really scared at the time. I thought that as long as no one was hurt, I would pay any amount of money! I never expected that it would only take fifty yuan..."

Yan Wuyue patted her shoulder knowingly, "It's all in the past now. Losing money is a small matter; getting hurt is the real issue!"

"But I just can't accept it!" Wang Fang cried out, her eyes filled with resentment. "Why am I the only one who's unlucky? Why did I get robbed by a ghost? Why didn't anyone else have this happen to them? They have money. They don't care about a mere fifty yuan. It's not even enough for them to have a good meal! But for me..." She buried her face in her hands and sobbed.

Yan Wuyue sighed inwardly. Indeed, what was fifty yuan to a student from a wealthy family? Two Starbucks lattes, or a nine-inch Pizza Hut chicken pizza. But fifty yuan was Wang Fang's food allowance for half a month. That night, Wang Fang was about to withdraw her food allowance for the next half month from the living expenses her parents had sent her. After being robbed, she could only stagger back to her dormitory, preoccupied with how to increase her income and reduce her expenses to make up for the fifty yuan. Her roommate noticed her pale face and asked what was wrong.

"No way? What a coincidence!" After hearing this, my roommate's already big eyes widened even more. "Actually, I was also robbed at an ATM tonight!"

What? Wang Fang could hardly believe her ears, but her roommate's serious expression told her it was true.

Unlike her, her roommate didn't study. Instead, she returned to the dorm after her evening classes. On her way, she passed an ATM and thought she'd withdraw some money for spending money. It was only a little past nine o'clock, and the pale streetlights cast long, shadowy shadows on the dark ground. As she stood in front of the ATM, just as the money was being dispensed, she suddenly felt something behind her.

one person.

What happened next was exactly the same as what Wang Fang experienced. Her roommate obediently handed over the money, not daring to look back at the "person" even once. She stood frozen in front of the ATM for almost five minutes, until she heard a group of classmates making a fuss in the distance. Only then did she slowly come to her senses. It took her twice as long as usual to get back to her dorm, and she spent the entire night still shaken. "The security situation is just terrible now!" she angrily concluded. "Doesn't the school do anything about it?! Is there no law anymore?!"

"Could it be that 'person' was lying in wait at the ATM all night, waiting to rob someone?" Wang Fang's face turned pale with fright. "If that's the case, who knows how many people will be victimized! Should we...?" She glanced tentatively at her roommate, but was met with a blank, unresponsive look.

"Forget it!" Her roommate's first words made Wang Fang's heart sink. "It's better to lose money than to suffer a disaster! Besides, they might be desperate criminals with a dangerous knife! They just let us go, are we going to walk right into their trap? We're not going to risk our lives to prevent others from being robbed!"

“But at least we should notify the security department, right…” Wang Fang asked, unsure whether she could get the “police” involved in a robbery case involving fifty yuan.

Her roommate pondered for a moment. "Wang Fang," she said, "I have a question for you," she continued, "can you clearly identify the person who robbed you?"

“Uh…” Wang Fang was stumped. She only remembered that the person seemed to be a young man, thin and with a deep voice (but it was very likely disguised), and nothing else. She shook her head blankly and turned her hopeful gaze to her roommate, who also looked confused.

"Me too... because it was dark and that person was standing behind me..."

Wang Fang was utterly desperate. Even if they caught a suspect, they couldn't confirm the identities of the two victims—which meant they couldn't convict the perpetrator or recover the stolen money—and that was the crux of the matter. The real reason her roommate was so relaxed was that fifty yuan wasn't a huge sum for her; she usually spent more than that on face cream! But in Wang Fang's eyes, this seemingly insignificant bill determined whether she would have to live on porridge and steamed buns for the next two weeks! How could she not be anxious?

"However, I caught a glimpse of it out of the corner of my eye..." my roommate added casually, "because the glass door directly in front of us was reflecting light, so I saw a tiny bit of the prisoner's shadow..."

Huh? Wang Fang suddenly perked up her ears.

My roommate covered her mouth and laughed mockingly, "He's actually a big fat guy, huh... So fat and yet he became a robber, it's hilarious to think about it now..."

Could it be? Wang Fang felt her breathing become heavier. The man who was pressed against her back then was definitely not "obese"... Could it be that the robbers that night were two completely different people?

Or is it the same "person," or a "ghost," manifesting in different forms?

Volume 3 Hell Records: Tiny Business

For three whole days, that woman has been staring at me. Day and night, her foul-smelling mouth opens and closes, emitting those extremely noisy sounds. Her monotonous and tedious cries are driving me crazy, giving me headaches and blurred vision, keeping me awake at night and unable to think straight during the day; I feel neither human nor ghost!

I knew she had come prepared—her wolfish eyes were fixed on me, as if she wanted to devour me whole. Her greedy claws reached not only at my skin and flesh, but also attempted to invade my body—no! I screamed and instinctively pushed her away. In the pale moonlight streaming through the window, I understood her cruel smile. She wasn't just going to cruelly plunder me; for the sake of her unborn child, she was plotting a far grander and more wicked scheme—she intended to cling to my body, like a maggot sucking my life force to sustain herself and her unborn child.

Why are you looking for me?! I cried out to the heavens in grief and indignation.

That was her own doing, the child she fathered through her own infidelity. Why should she pin it on me and make me her cheap father?! That child has absolutely nothing to do with me! I swear to God.

But she didn't let me off the hook. She whispered in my ear, as if instilling in me the devil's sweet words:

“You can’t escape,” she said. “From now on, I’ve got you!”

She kept rambling on and on, recounting nothing but the hardships of her life as an orphan and widow, and thanking me, the "kind person," for taking her in. I could clearly sense a smug smile on her face as she said this. "Kind person," yes, in a sense, meant coward. Unlike others who initially angrily shut her out, I let her into the house—an act I would regret for the rest of my life. In the days that followed, like a nightmare, she occupied every corner of my home, treating it as if it were her own property. Wherever I went, she followed, telling me of her hardships, her pain, and her "begging for alms, sir." I tried to kick her out more than once, but my slow reflexes could never keep up with her nimble steps. She could simply turn around and sit comfortably on the back of a chair, stroking her flat stomach as she continued her rambling. Even when I was fast asleep, she would always find a crack to whisper in my ear. Her mouth was truly an invincible weapon, capable of shattering all my strength, my willpower, and my resistance. In her endless nagging, I lost all my weapons of resistance, and in the end, I could only surrender in exhaustion.

Please, just give me some peace and quiet! Whatever you want, I'll give you!

But she was still smiling; she was positioned just right, not too far, not too close, so that her victorious laughter could reach my ears without me being able to grab her and throw her out. Didn't I say before? What she wanted was definitely more than just a single victory; to save her and the life of the baby in her womb, she needed my submission for a much longer period.

My heart was filled with a burning sense of humiliation. No! I cried out. Who, who will save me?! I'm willing to pay any price!

********************************

“This is truly the smallest job I’ve ever taken on!” For the first time, a subtle smile graced the astrologer’s handsome face. He looked down at the unconscious man on the bed, and beside him lay the stiff corpse of “her.”

To be precise, it was the corpse of a female Aedes albopictus mosquito (commonly known as the tiger mosquito or black tiger mosquito).

"Sir, sir, I'm the one who did the work!" Maya muttered. She was about to bend down and drink a mouthful of warm blood from the man's carotid artery—this was the "price" they had agreed on beforehand.

"I wonder how many mosquitoes were fed and satisfied with Midnight's dinner?" The astrologer smiled and turned his back. "This time, the client was bitten so badly by mosquitoes that he bled profusely!"

Finally, here's some information about mosquitoes ^_^:

I. Types of Mosquitoes

Mosquitoes belong to the class Insecta, comprising approximately 3,300 species and subspecies, with 15 genera and 33 species and subspecies found in China. They are important vectors of mosquito-borne diseases, mostly belonging to three genera: Anopheles, Culex, and Aedes. While there are many types of mosquitoes, they are generally classified into three main categories: Anopheles, Culex, and Aedes.

The first major category is Anopheles mosquitoes. Adult Anopheles mosquitoes are characterized by mostly spotted wings and a predominantly gray body. When resting, they maintain a certain angle with the resting surface and are mostly active at night. The second major category is Culex mosquitoes. Adult Culex mosquitoes are characterized by mostly spotless wings and a brownish-yellow body. When resting, they often maintain a balanced, parallel position with the resting surface and are also mostly active at night. The third major category is Aedes mosquitoes. Adult Aedes mosquitoes are characterized by spotless wings and a predominantly black body with white spots. Because they prefer daytime activity, we often encounter these mosquitoes indoors or in shady places during the day. You may remember that their bodies are black with white markings. Various mosquitoes that transmit viruses and malaria globally include: Culex pipiens aureus, Aedes aegypti, Anopheles africanus, Culex tritaeniorhynchus, and Aedes albopictus.

II. Mosquito Habits

1. Breeding Habits: Mosquitoes breed in water, and different types of water bodies breed different species of mosquitoes:

Breeding Site Types: **Main Breeding Species:** Highly polluted water bodies, such as latrines, cesspools, and garbage pits. Harassing mosquitoes: Slightly polluted water bodies, such as sewage ditches, clear water latrines, and stagnant water in depressions. **Culex pipiens quinquefolius and Culex pipiens pallens:** Larger, clean water bodies, such as rice paddies, lotus ponds, marshes, and irrigation ditches. **Anopheles sinensis and Culex tritaeniorhynchus:** Clean, flowing water bodies, such as mountain streams or streambeds. **Anopheles minimus:** Small natural water bodies, such as tree holes, bamboo tubes, jars, and containers with stagnant water. **Aedes albopictus and Aedes nicheon:** Water collected in containers inside and outside homes, such as water tanks and bottle caps. **Aedes aegypti:**

2. Blood-sucking Habits: Mosquitoes transmit diseases by sucking blood, and only female mosquitoes do so. Female mosquitoes need blood to develop their ovaries and reproduce. Female mosquitoes typically begin sucking blood 2-3 days after emerging from their molt. Humidity, temperature, light, and odors can all influence their blood-sucking activity. Female mosquitoes generally begin sucking blood when the temperature is above 10°C. Aedes mosquitoes primarily suck blood during the day, while Anopheles and Culex mosquitoes primarily suck blood at night. Some mosquitoes prefer human blood, some prefer livestock blood, and some suck both human and animal blood, potentially transmitting zoonotic diseases.

3. Habitat and Habits: After emerging from their molts and after feeding, mosquitoes prefer to roost in hidden, dark, and poorly ventilated places, such as under beds, behind cabinets, behind doors, in wall crevices, and in livestock sheds and basements indoors. Outdoors, they prefer grass, caves, cellars, under bridges, and rock crevices. Domestic mosquitoes include *Anopheles minimus* and *Anopheles anthropophagus*. Semi-domestic mosquitoes include *Anopheles sinensis* and *Anopheles spp.*, some of which roost indoors after feeding, while others roost outdoors. Wild mosquitoes, such as *Anopheles maculata* and *Aedes albopictus*, fly outdoors after feeding to digest the blood in their stomachs.

4. Mosquito Activity Habits: Mosquitoes are attracted to air currents. At dusk, the ground releases the heat absorbed during the day, and the rising air currents near the ground make it easier for mosquitoes to fly, making them most active at this time. The dead mosquitoes found in indoor fans during summer are the result of them taking flight with the wind. Mosquitoes also attract carbon dioxide to bite humans. Scientists, using electron microscopy, have discovered that mosquitoes detect humans by sensing carbon dioxide gas through the sensory hairs on their antennae. In the darkness of night, mosquitoes initially fly randomly. However, when the carbon dioxide receptors on their sensory hairs detect an airflow of carbon dioxide, they immediately fly towards that airflow and land on human skin like a "helicopter." Experiments have shown that mosquitoes can detect carbon dioxide gas from 15 meters away from a human. American scientists conducted the following experiment: they placed a person wearing an airtight rubber suit in a small laboratory with a large swarm of mosquitoes. When the carbon dioxide exhaled by a person is piped outdoors, mosquitoes ignore them; however, if a small amount of carbon dioxide is released indoors, mosquitoes will flock to it to bite. This shows that mosquitoes find people by carbon dioxide gas, not by body heat, because the areas where people exhale the most heat—the mouth and nose—are rarely bitten. Mosquitoes track sex pheromones. Chemical exchange is the most basic form of communication among insects. Mosquitoes release chemical signals, or sex pheromones, to attract mates. They sense these chemicals through their antennae. Inside the antennae, pheromone molecules activate special switches, transmitting nerve signals to the brain. Mosquitoes follow mates by tracking the faintly visible sex pheromones in the air, constantly resetting their pheromone detection system to accurately read the information and land. This is why we often see mosquitoes swarming or clustering together. Mosquitoes are attracted to light. It is common knowledge that mosquitoes are attracted to light at night. However, what attracts them most is ultraviolet light. Mosquitoes' eye structure and vision differ from humans; what is invisible to humans is a bright, dazzling light source for mosquitoes. Humans often exploit mosquitoes' phototaxis by using ultraviolet light to lure and kill them. Generally, mosquitoes can perceive ultraviolet light with wavelengths between 300nm and 400nm.

Thank you for reading to the end. What I want to say is—

I hate those annoying mosquitoes, boohoo~

Volume 3: The Hellish Record Carrot Rule (Part 3)

"Ghosts? Don't be ridiculous!" Maya retorted angrily. "As the greatest psychic, I've never heard of such an absurd thing—a ghost that can suddenly get fat and then thin? Impossible, I swear on my life, absolutely impossible!"

"In your opinion, what is the truth of the matter?" Yan Wuyue asked.

"Is that even a question? Even a child could figure it out!" Maya curled her lip dismissively, pointing at Wang Fang and saying imperiously, "You, or your roommate, are just seeing things! That's the end of the matter!"

“Indeed, if it were just the two of them, that possibility certainly exists.” Yan Wuyue nodded. “Because they were too frightened, their thoughts were in disarray. But,” her bright black eyes stared imposingly at the doll in front of her, “what if there were more than just the two of them?”

Upon receiving Wang Fang's request for help, Yan Wuyue didn't hesitate for a moment but immediately began searching for other possible victims. If the "robber" was indeed lying in ambush near the ATM, then the number of victims that night would not be limited to just Wang Fang and her roommate. Persistence pays off; after mobilizing all her resources, Yan Wuyue finally found the third victim of the night.

A thin, weak boy.

Sporting a simple buzz cut, he recounted his ordeal with barely suppressed rage. His experience was similar to others, but the outcome was somewhat unexpected. No, faced with an unidentified weapon pressed against his neck, he didn't passively await his fate like the two girls before him. Instead, he patiently gathered his strength, intending to launch a counterattack. As he spoke, he deliberately raised his thin, bony arm and waved it twice in front of Yan Wuyue.

"And then?" Yan Wuyue was clearly more concerned about the outcome than his muscleless arms.

The boy's eyes immediately dimmed. "I got poked." He showed the mark on his neck, a distinct purplish-red spot, not at all like something caused by a sharp weapon. "It probably hit some important blood vessel or artery," he gave an embarrassed, bitter smile. "All my strength just vanished, I collapsed to the ground, and watched helplessly as that woman snatched the money from my hand..."

"A woman?" Yan Wuyue's entire body tensed up instantly, her eyes widening in surprise. "You mean, the person who robbed you was a woman?"

The boy raised his eyes, blazing with anger. "Of course! How embarrassing would it be to get robbed by a girl!"

What's even more infuriating is that the boy withdrew two hundred yuan that night. After being knocked down by the female robber, he thought all the money was going to be stolen—but to his utter surprise, the woman snatched the hundred-yuan bill from his hand, one bill at a time.

There was only one.

The woman examined the ATM under the light, then took out her wallet and carefully picked out a fifty-yuan note with her slender fingers. Under the boy's surprised gaze, the woman forcefully stuffed the fifty-yuan note into his hand.

"What...?" he asked unconsciously.

"This much is enough," the woman said, and then walked away.

"You mean that the female robber only took fifty yuan from you and even gave you change?" Yan Wuyue stared wide-eyed in confusion, unable to understand this at all. Fifty yuan, fifty yuan—why did all the robbers, who were not only different in appearance and build, but also different in gender, all choose to rob fifty yuan?