Cooking in the Monster Sanctuary - Chapter 8 - Part 1

Lin Yu received a call from Chen Beici again, around noon the next day. She had just woken up and was lying in bed, so she lazily answered with a barely audible sound, “Hmm?”

“Captain, new mission,” Chen Beici, who also seemed half-awake, and mumbled with a mix of slurred words.

“Email, check.”

He hung up the phone, leaving Lin Yu bewildered, wondering if he meant to say, “The information has been sent to your email; please check it yourself.”

It was like abstract performance art.

She lay lazily on her back for a while, then reluctantly opened her email and clicked on the message from Chen Beici.

?Mission: Arrive at Qichuan No. 3 Middle School on July 21st at 9 PM, investigate the incident and the whereabouts of missing individuals.?

?Attachment 1: Event Overview?

On July 20, 2019, at 12:35 PM, the client, Xie Tingting, claimed that she and several high school classmates were successively haunted by evil spirits. They received notes at home stating, “Tonight at 9 PM, come to Qichuan No. 3 Middle School.”

At 9:00 PM on the same day, three members of Security Team Six accompanied the client to the school and attempted remote live broadcasting through their equipment.

At 9:02 PM, their equipment connection was interrupted by an unknown force, and the logistical team and security team lost contact.

The security team and the client have not returned since.

Lin Yu raised an eyebrow. She couldn’t believe that so-called “evil spirits” had the power to completely annihilate three members of the security team.

Regarding the cause of “ghostly” occurrences, the human brain generates electrical currents as brain cells interact during its activities which produce brainwaves. 

In most cases, what is referred to as “ghosts” is a form of brainwave presence. Unlike the terrifying spirits in horror films, they are more like a manifestation of thoughts and obsessions in an electromagnetic wave form. 

Everyone has different brainwave frequencies, making it challenging for them to influence each other. 

Even if they encounter someone with a similar frequency during transmission. Their influence is minimal, at best causing brief disturbances in the person’s thoughts or inducing short-lived hallucinations.

If the world were truly plagued by malevolent spirits as depicted in horror movies, humanity would have likely gone extinct long ago.

She rubbed her temples and continued reading.

?Attachment 2: Client’s Video Recording?

The client appeared to be around thirty years old, with no makeup and heavy dark circles under her eyes. She was trembling as she spoke.

“You have to save me,” she said. “It must be that person coming back for revenge!”

The employee at the reception desk handed her a cup of tea, saying, “Miss Xie, please try to calm down.”

“How can I calm down! Two of my high school classmates have mysteriously disappeared!” Xie Tingting cried with red-rimmed eyes. “I’m also… I have to go tonight…”

[The screen is pixelated, then switches to a video ten minutes later.]

“Have you calmed down?” the receptionist asked. “Please provide more details about the events.”

“When I was in high school, about ten years ago, there was a very gloomy boy in our class. My friends and I occasionally teased him,” Xie Tingting rambled, her words disjointed. 

“Later, he died, they said he fell into the lake late at night, right at the school. That area by the lake has been sealed off now. I didn’t want to bully him, but you know, everyone in the group did the same, and I couldn’t just stand out.”

She took a sip of tea, her colorless lips trembling. 

“My friends and I have kept in touch until now. Three days ago, someone found a piece of paper in their house, asking them to go to Qichuan No. 3 Middle School at 9 PM. They thought it was a prank, so they ignored it. But the next day, we couldn’t reach them no matter what we tried. At the same time, another friend found the same note in their home.”

The receptionist poured her another glass of water. “So, like a daily relay?”

Xie Tingting nodded vigorously, “Yes, exactly.”

“The two of us have talked it over for a long time, and we both believe that the handwriting on the note is from that boy. He had excellent handwriting, and he won awards in calligraphy competitions. With the first person’s experience as a warning, he certainly wouldn’t dare not to go. We’ve been keeping in touch through video all along, but the signal was lost the moment he stepped through the school gate.”

“He didn’t come back either?”

“…Hmm.” She rubbed her messy hair and spoke with a trembling voice, “Whether you go or not, in the end, you disappear. I’m really at a loss, please, help me!”

The video stopped at this point.

Lin Yu watched it expressionlessly, then opened the third attachment.

This document was quite lengthy and contained information about the incident involving the boy who drowned in the lake ten years ago.

The deceased’s name was Zhou Hangyu, a security patrolman who, at around 10:00 PM, heard a scream near the Starry Lake on campus. When he arrived at the scene, he rescued Zhou Hangyu, who had already stopped breathing.

At the time, there were no surveillance cameras on campus, so the exact events of that night remained a mystery. Zhou Hangyu had lost his parents, and his only remaining family member was a younger brother, who was still quite young. Consequently, the case had gradually gone cold.

Zhou Hangyu didn’t have a standout appearance; he had narrow, pale lips and was the kind of person who would easily blend into a crowd. His younger brother, Zhou Hangxing, had a similar appearance, with a faint mole at the corner of his mouth.

Both brothers were quite thin, suggesting that they might not have had an easy life.

Following the conventions of detective novels, the small group that Xie Tingting belonged to was undoubtedly connected to Zhou Hangyu’s death.

Looking at the deceased’s social circle, if foul play was involved, his younger brother would be the primary suspect.

This mission had elements of suspenseful investigation, which made it more interesting than the previous straightforward containment tasks. Lin Yu propped herself up with excitement and opened the next attachment.