Hidden Dead Ends-Chapter 59

“I entered a memory flash, and right after I got in, I was attacked by a swarm of those black-masked figures in Mist Street. I got scratched, but managed to escape using my momentum. If I hadn’t…” he trailed off, pouring a liberal amount of iodine onto the palm-sized scratch on his arm.

Hiss…

Sweat beaded on his forehead as he winced in pain.

“Iodine hurts? Are you sure it’s not alcohol?” Zhong Ying asked, unable to hold back her remark.

“Pain is for me to judge! What, got a problem?” Sima Gui glared at her.

Li Chengyi, sitting nearby, stayed silent, feeling somewhat guilty. He suspected the changes in Mist Street were due to his own actions—the disruption he’d caused when he clashed with the slot machine using his Flower Scale Armor.

“So, we shouldn’t use memory flash haphazardly anymore?” he asked, feigning ignorance.

“For now, I’d advise against it,” Sima Gui shook his head. “I was wearing double layers of bulletproof clothing, and even then, I still got scratched. Anyone unprepared could get killed instantly.”

“Don’t worry. Dead Ends typically revert to their original state after some time. We just need to wait it out. This could be part of Mist Street’s cyclical change,” Sindra reassured them in a firm tone.

“Alright…” Sima Gui nodded, resigned. “I guess that’s all we can do.”

“But what if I end up entering one by accident?” Zhong Ying asked anxiously.

“Well, then, that’s just your bad luck,” Sima Gui replied with a cold laugh.

For a moment, none of them felt like talking.

While waiting for the company’s search results, everyone returned to the villa to rest.

Since Mist Street had become unstable, Sindra warned both Sima Gui and Li Chengyi to avoid wandering near that area until things calmed down.

From his years of tracking Dead Ends, Sindra had observed that they typically stabilized within about a week.

Days passed.

They still hadn’t found any information on the chubby kid, and Zhong Ying grew more anxious with each passing day.

As her scheduled entry date approached, her nerves were fraying. If Mist Street was indeed as dangerous as Sima Gui described, entering now would be a death sentence for her.

As the deadline loomed, Li Chengyi, too, began feeling tense. Every day, besides going out to gather materials and absorbing malevolent energy, he continued to search for information on Dongliu Experimental Elementary School.

Taking action, even if small, was better than doing nothing.

His concerns weren’t centered on Zhong Ying but rather on his own future. If he encountered another Dead End, he might not have the time or energy to investigate Mist Street further.

Once someone was pulled into a Dead End, it kept happening, again and again, until they eventually perished.

A week went by, and they still hadn’t found any leads, but Zhong Ying was visibly on edge.

She paced the villa every day, constantly asking Sindra and Song Ran for updates, only to be disappointed each time.

Before they knew it, the end of July arrived, and it was nearly the beginning of August.

One afternoon, Sindra’s phone chimed in the villa’s living room.

He picked it up, and his expression immediately grew serious.

“We got it! We found something!” he announced, a hint of excitement in his voice.

Everyone else, seated on the sofas and chairs, stood up, looking at him expectantly.

“My million dollars, finally!” Sima Gui chuckled.

Li Chengyi felt a weight lift off his shoulders. They’d found a lead, which might also mean a way to resolve his own issues.

And more importantly, that little flower…

“Boss, is it about the chubby kid?” he asked.

“Yes, there’s information on him. Dongliu Elementary’s records are patchy, and with the Silent Fortresses between cities, even internet connections can be challenging to establish. It took a while,” Sindra nodded, confirming.

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He pulled out a projector flashlight, pointing it at a white wall in the living room.

A light beam projected onto the wall, displaying an image.

The first picture was of the chubby kid, someone Li Chengyi remembered well.

His round face, the three-line expression, two visible nostrils with hardly a nose bridge in sight.

Below, his information slowly appeared on the screen.

‘Bai Feipeng: 3101–3178. Son of Bai Tang, owner of the Zhonglu Bai Family Bookstore. Inherited the bookstore, spent his entire life in Zhaoshan, bedridden in 3177, and passed away the following autumn.’

“That’s it?” Sima Gui asked, surprised. “We waited all this time for that?”

“That’s all there is,” Sindra confirmed, looking at the group.

“But it’s enough,” he added.

“How so?” Li Chengyi asked.

“Because the Bai Family Bookstore is still open!” Sindra explained, his voice grave.

In the town of Qingshui, along Qianhong Road, about ten kilometers from Zhonglu—the Bai Family Bookstore.

The black luxury SUV slowly came to a stop on the roadside between two slender saplings.

The car doors opened.

Song Ran was the first to step out, looking around, followed by Sima Gui, Zhong Ying, Li Chengyi, and finally Sindra.

They took a moment to survey their surroundings.

They were standing at the border between an old district and a new one.

A few steps away from the decaying old buildings, bright signs glowed on the sleek mall facade.

In the old storefronts, they could faintly hear the blaring music from a high-tech karaoke bar nearby.

Here, the old and new merged in an oddly seamless way.

Standing in front of the Bai Family Bookstore, they all looked up at the establishment.

To the left was a coffee shop, to the right, a stationery store, and above them was an abandoned building with balconies and windows already dismantled for demolition.

Slogans and advertisements were plastered haphazardly across the outer walls.

It was just past four in the afternoon, and the store was already quiet and empty.

Only a bald old man sat at the entrance in a checkered shirt, absorbed in a mobile game.

“The Bai Family Bookstore has been here for over a hundred years. The owners have always been from the Bai family, so if we’re looking for the Wu Ji Convenience Store, we’re bound to find some clues here,” Sindra said gravely.

“I’ll go talk to him,” Zhong Ying volunteered, seeming to regain her confidence as she approached the old man.

She leaned down and gently asked, “Excuse me, are you the owner of this bookstore?”

The old man didn’t move, nor did he look up; his fingers continued tapping furiously on his phone.

Zhong Ying’s face twitched, and she repeated her question.

Still, no response. The old man didn’t even flinch as she circled him, remaining as fixed in place as a statue.

“See that? Now that’s true gamer’s focus!” Sima Gui said in admiration. “We gamers can ignore any distraction to achieve our goals! Even if she were beautiful, it wouldn’t matter!”

“You’re a hardcore gamer?” Li Chengyi asked, a bit exasperated.

“Reality’s too dull. Games are all I’ve got,” Sima Gui sighed.

Li Chengyi had no response to that.

Seeing Zhong Ying’s lack of success, Sindra stepped forward, pulling a few hundred-yuan bills from his wallet.

“Sir, I’d like to buy some books.”

The old man paused, slowly raising his head.

“Go inside

and take a look yourself. Ten yuan for two books, buy over a hundred, and I’ll throw in an extra,” he said.

They exchanged glances, but no one entered. Sindra continued speaking with him.

“Your last name is Bai, isn’t it? I heard this bookstore has been here for over a century. Is that true? It doesn’t look it,” Sindra remarked.

“Of course it has. My grandfather passed it down to me. It was much more profitable back then,” the old man sighed, finally putting down his phone. “You’re not here to buy books, are you?”

He was sharp, quickly sensing their intentions since none of them had shown interest in the store itself.

“Yes, we’re actually here to ask about someone named Bai Feipeng. Do you know him?” Sindra asked.

“That was my grandfather,” the old man replied with a smile, his wrinkled cheeks bunching up. “He passed away a long time ago.”

“Well, that’s convenient,” Zhong Ying sighed in relief. “Sir, since you’ve had this bookstore for so long, do you happen to know where the Wu Ji Convenience Store used to be? You were based on Zhonglu Street, weren’t you?”