Translator: CinderTL
Jiang Cheng drove Fatty and Lin Wan'er to Huai Yi's place.
Before they left, Jiang Cheng had instructed Huai Yi not to say too much about the website. He was to compile the selected supernatural events separately, and they would discuss them later to choose one.
"This is..." Huai Yi looked at Fatty.
"Wang Fugui," Fatty replied confidently, his eyes filled with distrust.
"Brother Fugui," Huai Yi said with a wide smile, as if greeting a relative. He likely assumed Fatty was someone of similar importance to Jiang Cheng and Lin Wan'er.
Huai Yi felt confident this time.
Judging by Fatty's gaze and physique, he was undoubtedly a Brother Crimson-level figure—the kind of reclusive elder from a clan in a cultivation novel.
Huai Yi warmly invited everyone to sit down, drew the curtains, plunging the room into darkness, and set up a projector against the wall.
"I've selected three C-Class supernatural events, all located in nearby cities, no more than a six-hour drive away."
Soon, an image appeared on the wall: an ancient-looking three-story building with a peculiar architectural style, likely over a century old.
"First: The Fengcheng Museum Half-Body Statue Incident."
Huai Yi held the remote control and pressed it. The screen began to cycle through images, pausing for about ten seconds between each. These showed the building from various angles and at different times of day.
"What's that?" Fatty asked, pointing to a corner of the screen.
Huai Yi froze the image and zoomed in. Everyone noticed a bronze statue standing in the most secluded window on the second floor of the museum.
Only the statue's upper body was visible. Its face was eerily lifelike, contorted in an expression of agony.
"This is a folk museum with nearly a century of history," Huai Yi explained. "But recently, the museum's curator suddenly disappeared. Not long after, a cleaner and a maintenance worker also went missing."
"Oh, right, this folk museum has a small audience and is located in a remote suburban area. Few people visit it, so it only had three staff members: the curator, the maintenance worker, and the cleaner."
"The exhibits are of historical value only, with little economic worth. They're also highly specialized, so the museum doesn't even have a security guard."
"What does this have to do with the statue?" Lin Wan'er asked.
This Supernatural event is known as the "Fengcheng Museum Half-Body Statue Incident." The statue in the footage is clearly unsettling, sending shivers down the viewer's spine.
Huai Yi continued clicking the remote. "Keep watching. This is the museum's promotional image from before the Curator disappeared, and this is what the police captured inside the museum after his disappearance."
Two images were projected onto the wall side by side.
They were statues of human figures, life-sized judging by their proportions, but only the upper halves remained. The lower halves were replaced by an odd lotus pedestal.
The statues were enclosed within a thick glass case. A sticker was affixed to the lower right corner of the case, bearing several words.
They were faintly visible, written in red ink, but the characters were now blurred and indistinct.
"This is..." Fatty's eyes widened.
"That's right," Huai Yi nodded with a strange expression. "These two statues should be identical, though that might not be entirely accurate. Hmm... this statue has undergone a transformation."
It was obvious. The first statue depicted a middle-aged man in his forties, robust and muscular. The second was an old man, hunched and blind in one eye.
Yet both statues shared a common trait: expressions of extreme agony.
Next, Huai Yi took a deep breath, as if signaling something. He pressed the button, and the image on the wall changed again, this time to a photograph.
An elderly man with a hunched back bent over, gripping a massive broom to sweep up fallen leaves scattered across the ground. The backdrop was the folk museum itself.
The overall atmosphere was somber and desolate, evoking a sense of desolation brought by the passage of time.
But what truly captured everyone's attention was the half of the old man's face visible in the photo. It was identical to the face of the old man in the second sculpture!
"The old man's surname is Zhao. He's the missing curator of this folk museum," Huai Yi said, turning to the group.
"Also, take a look at this," Huai Yi zoomed in on the photo. At the very edge of the frame, a window on the second floor of the museum was partially visible.
Due to the angle, only half of the window remained.
But even this partial view revealed something chilling. The wind had caught a corner of the heavy, dark red curtain hanging at the window, lifting it just enough to expose a bronze-colored face hidden behind it.
The face was turned directly toward the old man, its eyes fixed on him with a chilling intensity, as if someone were hiding behind the curtain, spying.
It was the sculpture from the first image!
(End of the Chapter)
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