Although she had anticipated this, the sudden confirmation that this “extra person” was indeed connected to Tian Ke still sent a shiver through Shen Kui.
She tapped open the chat window, which was unsurprisingly blank. This “person” lay quietly in Tian Ke’s friend list, like an unused alternate account.
Could this be the one who messaged Tian Ke during last night’s gathering?
Shen Kui scoured every detail of the profile but found nothing. She even enlarged the pure black profile picture, hoping to uncover some clue.
She zoomed in to the maximum, but the screen remained pitch black. Patiently, she examined every inch, unwilling to overlook any possible hint.
Yet… there was nothing.
It was just an ordinary, plain black image.
Shen Kui sighed and casually placed Tian Ke’s phone on the coffee table. Perhaps distracted, as she withdrew her hand, she accidentally knocked over a nearby water glass. Water instantly flooded the phone screen. She quickly picked it up.
“Oh no, oh no.”
She rushed to the bathroom, grabbed a towel, and was about to wipe it when, in the previously pitch-black screen, a faint shadow suddenly appeared!
The bathroom had no windows, and though it was daytime, the light was dimmer than outside. Startled, Shen Kui instinctively turned on the light for a closer look. But as soon as the light brightened, the blurry shadow on the screen vanished instantly.
…Was it the light?
Lost in thought, Shen Kui closed the bathroom door, turned off the light, and plunged the enclosed space into complete darkness. She looked at the phone screen again.
Sure enough, as the light dimmed, the phone screen’s adaptive brightness adjusted accordingly. The image, previously invisible under intense ambient light, finally revealed itself.
Against the pitch-black background, a slightly lighter pattern faintly emerged. Shen Kui recognized it instantly. It was the ouroboros symbol that had appeared repeatedly!
It felt like the final piece of a puzzle falling into place. The moment she saw the pattern, Shen Kui had the strange sensation that it was meant to be this way.
Everything that had happened around her—the inexplicable deaths, the anomalies at three in the morning, the unresolved questions about the accident twenty years ago, the keepsakes, the photographs…
All of it ultimately traced back to this eerie ouroboros symbol.
“Yishen Cult…”
Shen Kui murmured unconsciously. Could all of this be connected to it?
And what role did Tian Ke play in all this?
She dried the phone, returned to the desk, and, as was her habit, began to methodically outline the entire sequence of events on paper.
Writing helped her organize her thoughts. She listed the clues one by one, arranging and sorting them based on their connections, and soon identified the core of the problem.
From the initial questions raised by the forum, to the anomalies at three in the morning, to Tian Ke’s fall, these events seemed loosely connected at first glance. But upon closer reflection, traces of Tian Ke’s involvement could be seen at every juncture.
Throughout the entire process, Tian Ke had only directly intervened in two key aspects:
One was the investigation into the anomalies at three in the morning.
The other was the actions taken regarding the “non-existent classmate”.
The unusual behavior of Tian Ke at three in the morning was clearly captured on the surveillance footage. Her motives remained difficult to determine due to the lack of clues, so Shen Kui decided to set this part aside for now.
As for the “non-existent classmate”, there was much more to explore.
Shen Kui wrote down two items on a piece of paper: “Ouroboros Avatar” and “Lu Zhengrong”.
With that, the problems she needed to solve became clear.
She drew a line between the two items and placed a question mark in the middle.
Could they… be the same person?
She opened her phone and tried searching for information related to Lu Zhengrong. However, perhaps the delayed aftermath of dropping her phone the previous night had finally arrived. The moment she finished typing “Lu Zhengrong”, the screen went black.
“Perfect timing,” Shen Kui thought with a sigh of resignation. Fortunately, there was a repair shop right at the entrance of her residential complex. She pocketed her phone and headed out to get it fixed.
While changing her shoes, she happened to touch the thick stack of flyers on the shoe cabinet by the door. She casually flipped through a few, and one with a distinctly different style caught her attention.
The flyer featured a young man in a gray suit, seated behind a deep red table, his face slightly turned to the side. Light cast a dim shadow beneath his high-bridged nose.
Below him was a line of bold white text: “The Double-Slit Interference Experiment and Quantum Entanglement Speculations”, Speaker: Lu Zhengrong.
Shen Kui’s breathing unconsciously quickened. This was truly a case of “a pillow arriving just as one is about to fall asleep”. She had been worrying about how to approach Lu Zhengrong. Now, an opportunity had presented itself right before her eyes.
She carefully noted the lecture time. It was scheduled for the next day, right on the campus of University A. She might even run into Ji Xun there.
But should she tell Ji Xun?
At this thought, the stick figure drawing from the rooftop flashed through Shen Kui’s mind. Her excitement quickly cooled.
Better not say anything for now, Shen Kui decided. Since this was a clue left by Tian Ke before her death, she would investigate it herself.
*** ***
By the time she returned home with her repaired phone, it was nearly evening.
Shen Kui rummaged through the fridge and found a bag of frozen dumplings, which she boiled for a quick meal. Her days had been chaotic lately, with events piling up one after another. It had been a long time since she’d had a proper meal.
After seeing the stick figure drawing left by Tian Ke on the rooftop, Shen Kui inexplicably felt a surge of strength. Reflecting on the recent events, she felt as though there had always been a voice, subtle and intangible, trying to tell her something. This feeling of being guided, however faint, strangely brought her a sense of comfort.
She couldn’t shake the feeling that Tian Ke hadn’t truly left. Everything from the previous night now seemed like a nightmare, dissipating like shadows fleeing under the harsh sunlight of the rooftop.
As she ate, Shen Kui scrolled through her phone. This quiet evening, a scene that had repeated countless times in her life, dining alone, now felt incredibly precious.
The chat logs in her class group were still updating. Ji Xun seemed to have recovered from the shock of the morning and was now frequently sending her messages. In the company’s work group, the boss was outlining recent assignments…
The world order that had nearly collapsed for Shen Kui the previous night now seemed to be gradually restoring itself. Her scattered soul had finally settled back into place. After finishing a satisfying meal, she felt a renewed sense of courage for everything that lay ahead.
Shen Kui made a simple to-do list for the next day and sent her boss a message about returning to work.
Lu Zhengrong’s lecture was in the afternoon, so she planned to go to the office first thing in the morning. First, to probe her boss about the origin of the Ouroboros mark, and second, to consult the company’s legal department about the Sanjiang Law Firm. The story told by 412L still weighed heavily on her mind. Her intuition told her that there were many secrets hidden behind this person. His bizarre tale must contain some deeper meaning she couldn’t yet decipher.
After finalizing her plans, Shen Kui took a relaxing shower, tidied up the apartment a bit, and noticed it was almost midnight. She repositioned the video recorder to its original spot, plugged in both Tian Ke’s and her own phones to charge, set them to video mode, and placed them in two other corners of the room. Then, she relaxed into bed and let herself drift into sleep.
*** ***
The moment Shen Kui stepped into the office building, rain began pouring down outside.
The summer heat was intense. As the rain hit the scorching ground, it instantly turned into rising steam. The office building was sealed tight, and the air conditioning had reportedly broken down the night before. The rain did little to cool things off. Instead, the air grew stifling and hard to breathe.
After greeting a few familiar colleagues, Shen Kui returned to her workstation. Since Lu Ting’s incident, the atmosphere in the entire company had grown noticeably subdued. Even though this was Shen Kui’s first day back after what happened, she could sense an unusual tension lingering in the air.
The legal department colleagues hadn’t arrived yet, and there was no sign of the boss either. Shen Kui quickly handled some pending tasks on her desk and decided to go downstairs for a coffee.
It wasn’t until she reached the company entrance that she realized she hadn’t brought an umbrella. She turned back. As she approached the elevator, she overheard a conversation:
“Yeah, it’s such a shame. Such a nice girl. How unlucky to run into a scumbag like that.”
“She was foolish, too. So what if she had online loans? Her family was well-off. If she’d just told her parents, they could’ve paid it off in no time. Was it really worth jumping?”
“Right, Xiao Ting’s family did seem pretty well-off. I remember her car was expensive, and the bags she carried weren’t something ordinary people could afford. She definitely came from a wealthy family. That reminds me. If her family was so well-off, why did she come to work as a receptionist at our small company?”
“No idea. It’s just speculation, but I did hear someone mention that Xiao Ting came here to look for someone.”
“Look for someone? Who?”
“I don’t know. She’d been here for a few months, right? Did you ever see her get close to anyone?”
“Not really. Xiao Ting was always polite and friendly, but she never seemed particularly close to anyone.”
“Exactly. So it might just be hearsay. Maybe someone was just making it up.”
Hearing this, Shen Kui’s heart stirred. She remembered the Ouroboros tattoo on her boss. It was completely identical to the one on Lu Ting.
If Lu Ting had really come to this company to look for someone… could it have been the boss?
Just then, a large hand suddenly landed on her shoulder.
Shen Kui instinctively flinched backward, followed by a deep, hearty voice from behind: “Hey, Xiao Shen, you’ve been way too jumpy lately. Every time I try to say hi, you get startled.”
Shen Kui turned at the sound of the voice. Sure enough, the boss was looking at her with a smile.
“Sorry, Uncle Xu, I was distracted.” Shen Kui smiled politely, subtly stepping back a pace.
The boss seemed not to notice her unease and said with concern, “How have you been resting these past few days? With everything that’s been happening one after another, it’s no wonder you’re so jumpy.”
“Not well. I don’t even dare go home,” Shen Kui half-truthfully probed.
“Why don’t you dare go home?” the boss asked in surprise. “Did something happen?”
“You don’t know?” Shen Kui carefully observed his expression. “Lu Ting… jumped from the building where I live.”
The boss was taken aback for a moment, then nodded in understanding and let out a long sigh. Though he showed no confusion, his expression was natural, revealing no flaws. Shen Kui continued, “This incident has hit me hard. I haven’t been sleeping well lately. On top of that, my best friend also had an accident…”
As she spoke, she deliberately lowered her head in a show of sadness, her gaze drifting to the side.
“Xiao Kui, some things can’t be changed once they’ve happened. You have to learn to move on,” the boss gently advised. Even with her head lowered, Shen Kui could imagine the usual gentle and kind expression on his face now filled with worry.
But—
Shen Kui stared intently at the scene reflected in the elevator door:
The polished, glass-like surface of the elevator door clearly mirrored the two people standing in front of it—
Shen Kui, with her head lowered and slightly turned, her gaze subtly fixed on the elevator door, while the boss, who was speaking comforting words, wore an entirely different expression on his face!
It was a cold, detached, and condescending look, like a venomous serpent coiled overhead, flicking its tongue as it watched her with a sinister gaze!
A storm of shock surged within Shen Kui. Though she had anticipated this, witnessing it firsthand still struck her with such force that she couldn’t help trembling slightly.
She did her best to control her emotions, subtly shifting her gaze away and pretending to sob softly as if struck by grief.
The boss didn’t notice anything unusual. He sighed, patted her shoulder twice in a comforting gesture, and turned to leave.
Only when the sound of his footsteps completely faded at the end of the hallway did Shen Kui slowly raise her head.
Her eyes were clear, her gaze firm and calm.
She took out her phone and sent a message to Ji Xun. Then, she rubbed her eyes vigorously, pretending they were red from crying, and returned to her workstation as if nothing had happened.
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Sam Williams On TYMIMA Chapter 152