Chapter 78: Compression (5)
78 – Compression (5)
The restaurant was spacious and well-lit, with excellent views from this spot. Looking outward, one could see the cityscape of towering skyscrapers below; looking inward, the entire corridor was visible.
“That’s an emergency exit over there. No one’s gone in there for ages,” said the flamboyant trainee, his tone tinged with a hint of coquettishness.
Agent Xie asked, “Did he run down through the emergency exit?”
Lin Xun sat in Qi Yun’s seat, looking across the room, and replied, “Probably not.”
The agent pressed, “Then where else could he have gone?”
One trainee suggested, “Maybe we should call the police.”
The agent shook his head. “It wouldn’t look good. Let’s search on our own first.”
As they spoke, the baby-faced trainee who had volunteered to check the emergency exit returned.
“The door handle is covered in dust. It doesn’t seem like anyone’s been there.”
The agent asked, “What if he kicked the door open?”
“I remember he wasn’t running in that direction.”
Lin Xun and Chang Ji exchanged a glance.
Lin Xun stood up and walked toward the window, with Chang Ji following closely behind.
Lin Xun looked down from the window.
Below was a sizable artificial lake, dotted with lotus leaves floating on the surface.
He asked, “Is this your lake?”
He found it rather odd. In such a prime commercial district where land was at a premium, it was unusual to dedicate such a large area to a decorative pond.
Agent Xie explained, “It belongs to the company.”
Lin Xun, curious, inquired, “What was the reason for building it?”
“I know,” chimed in the flamboyant trainee.
Agent Xie cut him off. “Don’t speak.”
Lin Xun glanced at the trainee, then back at Agent Xie.
“Sir,” he said, “perhaps we should still call the police.”
The agent frowned and shot a look at the trainee, seemingly giving him permission to speak—it was clear he really didn’t want to involve the authorities.
The trainee began his story.
He explained that half a year ago, this wasn’t a lake but a parking lot.
It was a parking lot where someone had died. For reasons that were difficult to discuss openly, a minor celebrity had jumped from a building, meeting a tragic end. The blood had even stained the boss’s car.
The boss grew uneasy, and after a few more inauspicious incidents, he consulted a feng shui master. The master rambled on and eventually concluded that a lake needed to be built—and so the lake came to be.
“Mainly to ward off evil spirits,” the trainee added. “That’s why they planted lotus flowers and raised some koi fish.”
Lin Xun took another look at the lake.
He remarked, “The koi look a bit plump.”
Both the agent and the trainees gathered by the window to look down.
Lin Xun continued observing.
At first glance, nothing seemed amiss. But upon closer inspection—something felt distinctly off.
From the center of the lake to about three-quarters of its diameter, there was an irregular area where the water appeared unusually dark. In contrast, the surrounding water was much lighter in color.
Artificial lakes were typically shallow, kept at a depth that wouldn’t drown an adult, with a perfunctory “Danger: Deep Water, No Swimming” sign posted. During the day, it shouldn’t appear so dark—especially when the outer ring looked perfectly normal.
There were two possible explanations: either the center of the lake was deeper than the edges, or there was something in the water.
Lin Xun leaned toward the latter.
—In the video, Qi Yun had been sitting facing the window. Just two seconds before the surveillance footage ended, Lin Xun had seen him turn to look at his guitar case.
The guitar case leaned against his seat, quite large. According to Qi Yun’s behavioral logic, as a sword cultivator, his sword couldn’t be far from his body—he had likely placed it inside the case.
But… from Qi Yun’s perspective on the eleventh floor, how could he have noticed something strange in the lake?
Lin Xun withdrew his gaze from the lake surface and looked outside the building at the air conditioning units, protruding windowsills, and other fixtures.
The agent asked, “You suspect he went out through the window?”
A trainee nearby chimed in, “That can’t be possible.”
“He’s a singer-dancer, isn’t he?” Lin Xun eyed the nearest air conditioning unit. “Maybe he just hopped and skipped his way down.”
The people around him looked confused.
Lin Xun paid them no mind. “Keep searching up here. We’ll go down and take a look.”
With so many eyes in the company, it wouldn’t be appropriate for him and Chang Ji to simply jump out the window. So, they took the elevator—which swayed and creaked as it moved, a clear sign of the building’s shoddy construction.
When they reached the first floor, the girl at the reception desk glanced at him again, even taking out her phone as if to snap a photo.
Lin Xun didn’t think much of it. He was quite accustomed to being photographed or asked for selfies. Back in college, sometimes he’d just sit down in the cafeteria when, out of the corner of his eye, he’d notice a girl raising her phone.
He and Chang Ji made their way to the pond.
The water was indeed murky. Even without looking from above, they could see a dark, dense mass at the center of the lake.
Chang Ji approached the edge of the pond, leaned over, and stirred the water with his hand. Wisps of golden Qi emanated from his fingertips before dissipating moments later. “There’s demonic Qi in the water.”
Lin Xun gazed toward the center of the lake. “So, there’s something in the middle, and the demonic Qi has spread out, darkening the lake?”
Chang Ji replied, “Mhm.”
Standing on the artificial rocks by the lake, Lin Xun felt a faint sense of melancholy.
He said, “What if Qi Yun drowned? I really think he might be in danger.”
Chang Ji responded, “We need to find him, alive or dead.”
Lin Xun nodded in agreement, picked up a fairly large stone from nearby, and walked onto the wooden bridge over the small lake—a pretentiously elegant pond with a pavilion built right at its center.
He stood expressionlessly in the pond, right where the dark Qi was thickest, and tossed the stone into the water.
A dull thud echoed, though it was unclear whether it had hit anything.
Shortly after, there was another splash—Brother Chang Ji had thrown an even larger stone.
The two of them quietly watched the lake surface.
After about three minutes, a sharp, eerie cry seemed to rise from the depths of the water.
Chang Ji frowned. “A water ghost?”
As he spoke, Lin Xun opened a search engine to look up the term.
A water ghost is a creature from folklore—according to the cultivation world’s accounts, many legendary monsters can be traced back to ancient appearances of demonic entities. These beings are formed from the souls of those who died by suicide or accident, lurking in the water to lure others to drown and become their replacements.
In summary, those who linger by the water’s edge are the most attractive to water ghosts.
At the same time, Lin Xun himself was the most attractive to demonic creatures.
Lin Xun set his keyboard aside, motioned for his senior brother to step back, and then extended his left hand into the water.
The water was quite cold. He felt the buoyancy and pushed his hand a little deeper, submerging his entire palm while leaving his wrist exposed.
One minute passed.
Two minutes passed.
Lin Xun watched the shimmering ripples on the water’s surface and counted down silently.
Three, two, one.
A cold, slippery-skinned, long-fingered hand grasped his wrist from beneath the water.