Urban Legends

"Dude, we're almost 30, can we stop being so childish? Although men are boys until they die, that's just something people say online."

He chuckled, but Lu Li didn't believe him at all.

It's not that he doesn't believe in the existence of extraordinary beings in this world; after all, he himself has encountered them.

The main reason is... we're just too familiar with this person.

We've known each other for over ten years, from when I was fifteen to now, at twenty-eight.

This is like someone whose ancestors were poor farmers for eight generations, and who has lived for more than twenty years. One day, while you are at work as usual, you are squatting on the toilet scrolling through your phone and chatting with netizens about how you plan to buy streetlights and ropes to hang your boss up.

Then suddenly my dad called and said that he would no longer hide it from me after all these years. He said that I was actually a super rich second-generation. Even if I spent a million every day from the Stone Age until the 22nd century, I still wouldn't be able to spend all the money in the family.

Isn't that nonsense?

However, Lu Li immediately realized that this might not be nonsense.

It does not refer to the metaphor of "second-generation rich".

Instead... the world has been changed again!

Because Miss Huai Xu has arrived, the world has been changed, just like it was before when Miss Bai and Miss Luo arrived.

Hiss... Lu Li suddenly felt a little regretful.

Why did he forget to get together with these three when he was turning the world upside down?

Just thinking about those three brothers with their unshaven, affected manners...

Lu Li shivered.

Forget it, that scene is too beautiful for him to look at; he'd have nightmares about it.

"It's true." Pan Shuai's expression was more serious than ever before.

Lu Li was taken aback.

It seems the world has really changed.

Now we need to find out what's going on first.

When Miss Huai Xu doesn't show up, Lu Li at least needs to figure out her purpose.

He recalled the description of Miss Huai Xu's personality on the dating app.

[Her actions are unpredictable, making it difficult to discern her thoughts, but in reality, she is a meticulous, calm, and highly purposeful individual.]

"So the reason you came to find me is because of that beauty PhD student I went on a blind date with yesterday, right?" Lu Li crossed his legs, frowning slightly. "It seems her death has caught your attention?"

Pan Shuai also seemed a bit strange.

Why isn't Lao Lu afraid?

However, considering Lao Lu's personality, he stopped thinking about it.

Lao Lu is the kind of quiet person who likes to observe and rarely shows his inner emotions.

In other words, even if he is terrified right now, it's not very obvious on the surface.

"Yes, she's dead. The time of death should be between 12:30 and 1:30 this morning."

Pan Shuai clicked his tongue and turned to Luo Hao, saying, "Ritian, bring the photos over."

Luo Hao's eye twitched. "Isn't that unnecessary...? Besides, according to regulations, this kind of thing shouldn't be shown to ordinary citizens, right?"

"Old Lu is the person involved, and he could be next. It's good to make him understand the seriousness of the situation."

Seeing that Pan Shuai said this, Luo Hao did not refute it.

He silently took out a few photos from his briefcase and handed them over.

Pan Shuai took the photo and handed it to Lu Li. "Old Lu, take a look first, and then I'll explain. But you'd better be prepared."

Lu Li pursed her lips and took the photo.

He thought to himself that it was a joke; he had seen the world on the verge of destruction before, and he hadn't reacted much when the streets were filled with dried corpses covered in peonies.

That's it?

Upon taking the photo, his pupils contracted slightly.

Although I wasn't scared, I was still a little startled.

The woman in the photo, whose face was originally well-defined and regular, had become fragmented and disfigured.

The key point is still on a face.

Well...

It's roughly like it's been pieced together.

Take a selfie or a photo booth picture, then tear the photo into seven or eight pieces and randomly put them back together. That's roughly the look of the face in the photo.

Moreover, her mouth was cut open to her ears, the skin was torn open and her teeth were exposed, making her look like a clown with a seemingly healthy toothy smile.

However, the upper and lower lips were sewn together with black steel wire.

The eerie smile, the bizarrely pieced-together face, and the terrified look in the eyes beneath the cut eyelids combine to create a highly demonic and bizarre scene.

Despite his physical discomfort, Lu Li turned to the next photo.

The next photo is a wide-angle shot, showing the entire living room inside the house.

There is a large mirror on the wall of this room that takes up the entire wall.

The woman was nailed to the wall opposite the mirror with her limbs outstretched, and behind her, on the white wall, was a glaring scarlet.

That was the blood flowing down her body along the snow-white wall.

"Based on the sensation of blood flow, the investigators said she was still alive when she was nailed to the wall, which means..."

Pan Shuai paused, then couldn't help lighting another cigarette. "When her features were pieced together, when her mouth and eyelids were cut open, when her lips were sewn back on... she was still alive. She died from excessive blood loss."

Lu Li: "..."

"It feels a bit too much."

He did think it was a bit excessive.

Just like the reincarnated Xing Tian before him, he felt a little reluctant when he saw this scene.

Of course, he still hates this woman, but at most he'll take her to court or expose her online and let netizens criticize her until she's dead.

This is the limit.

After all, although what she did was disgusting, it didn't really warrant death.

"The one who killed her wasn't human either." Pan Shuai flicked his cigarette ash into the ashtray. "Keep reading."

Lu Li was skeptical, so he turned to the next photo.

The photo shows an apple with its peel still on and a fruit knife.

Lu Li looked up. "What's this?"

"A curse, or rather, an urban legend," Luo Hao replied. "It's an urban legend about peeling apples."

He pushed up his glasses with his chubby hand. "You're an expert in this area, handsome."

"Handsome Guy" is Hao Liang's nickname, just like his nickname "Ritian" (meaning "Heavenly Emperor").

Hao Liang took out his laptop and explained to Lu Li while flipping through the pages.

"Legend has it that before the clock strikes midnight, you should take an apple and sit in front of a mirror. Then, carefully peel the apple with a knife. But you must be careful not to break the peel while peeling it, otherwise something bad will happen."

"If you peel an apple completely without breaking the skin, and it's exactly midnight when you finish, then if you look up in the mirror at that moment, the image of a person will appear in the mirror. That person is the image of your future lover."

"This is standard feudal superstition, completely devoid of any scientific basis." Lu Li calmly commented first, then calmly asked, "So here's the question: what if the timing doesn't match? What if the skin breaks? What exactly is this so-called bad thing?"

Let's answer them one by one.

Pan Shuai stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray, then organized his thoughts, "If the timing doesn't match, then naturally nothing will happen."

"If you look at someone, you can indeed see their appearance, but it's not the appearance of your future lover, but rather the appearance of the person you have a crush on."

"If you don't have a crush, then you'll create a character based on that person's subconscious preferences."

"If the peeling fails and the timing is right, you'll see something bad. Some say they saw a ghost, others say they saw a murderer. If you break the mirror at that point, nothing will happen. If you don't break the mirror, then what you see in the mirror will become reality a minute later."

Lu Li seemed thoughtful. "Does that mean someone will survive?"

"Well, this woman is unlucky, mainly because..." Pan Shuai paused and didn't speak, but just snapped his fingers.

Luo Hao took out another stack of photos from his briefcase and handed them to Lu Li.

"This woman, for some reason, has attracted dozens of urban legends all at once..."

Lu Li took the photo and looked at it, and felt a little dizzy.

The candle in front of the bathroom mirror, the water in the bathtub, the bloody footprints under the bed, the bloody handprints on the window...

There are dozens of photos, each representing an urban legend.

"This guy is really pitiful." Lu Li curled his lip, looked up and asked, "So? What does this have to do with me?"

"It's a big deal."

Pan Shuai's expression was serious. "Based on past experience, urban legends are passed down. That is to say, after a person experiences an urban legend, it will be passed on to the last person he encountered before that person."

"Of course, this is on the premise that the person triggers the urban legend but fails to complete it. If it is not triggered, then the urban legend will not be triggered. If it is successful, it will not be passed on to the next person."

Lu Li thought it didn't make sense. "She left with a woman in the end. That woman was probably her assistant or something. Even if there were rumors, they should have been spread to her. What does it have to do with me?"

"That's the problem," Pan explained. "After you two met yesterday afternoon, they stayed together until about 11 p.m. before separating, and their apartments are across from each other."

"Then that girl also died, also in the early morning, but about two hours later than this beauty blogger. Only one urban legend was found at her death scene. But there were dozens of death scenes for this beauty blogger."

Lu Li sighed. "So, in other words, she didn't even make it past the first urban legend, and didn't even get a chance for other urban legends to come to her. So now these urban legends are actually lining up, and they're going to come to me, the second in line?"

Pan Shuai's expression was solemn. "You could say that."

Lu Li: "..."

Dozens of urban legends!

Isn't this nonsense?