Hidden Dead Ends-Chapter 62

The others remained oblivious, still standing in a circle.

Five people formed the circle…

Five people!?

If Zhong Ying wasn’t here, then who was standing in her spot!?

As this unsettling thought dawned on him, Sindra and Song Ran’s faces grew tense, and they simultaneously rolled to the side, creating distance.

Almost at the same time, Li Chengyi and Sima Gui drew their handguns, aiming at the fifth person.

But just then, everyone had moved, breaking the circle.

To their shock, they realized that Zhong Ying’s position was empty—no one stood there at all.

Li Chengyi and Sima Gui felt a chill run down their spines as they pointed their guns at the empty space.

However, they soon noticed that they weren’t even aiming at where Zhong Ying had been standing. They were pointing at two different, empty positions.

Huff… huff… huff…

Sima Gui gasped for air, his face flushed as though he were suffocating.

"I...I feel strange... Where is she? Zhong Ying was just here!"

Li Chengyi remained silent, gripping his gun tightly as he stared at the spot where Zhong Ying had been standing.

In his mind, he sensed that someone was there.

But his eyes saw nothing.

His ears sensed movement, the sound of clothing rustling in the wind, as if someone were standing there, right in Zhong Ying's spot.

But there was no one there.

His sight and hearing were completely out of sync.

"Let’s...reform the circle! Go back to our positions and try to restore the original arrangement!" Sindra shouted suddenly.

All of them were feeling this intense disorientation, but trusting Sindra’s leadership, they slowly moved back to the burning frame.

Strangely, although the frame had been burning for a while, only the top part was scorched black—the rest remained untouched.

"Form...a circle!" Sindra took his original place, his voice steady.

Next was Song Ran, his towering figure trembling. His broad face showed signs of distortion and pain.

Li Chengyi was the third to take his position, resisting the urge to activate his floral armor, forcing himself to return to his spot.

Finally, Sima Gui took his place, his arm shaking as he clutched his other hand tightly, biting his lip, his face pale.

The four of them stood hand in hand, forming a circle.

But oddly, even though only four of them were holding hands, they all felt that there was a fifth person in their circle.

They saw only four people standing together, but their senses insisted that a fifth presence held hands with them.

They didn’t know how long they stood there.

Li Chengyi’s hand was starting to go numb.

Suddenly, he felt a jolt in his chest, looking up quickly.

Zhong Ying had reappeared!?

She stood expressionless, dressed in a white gown that was now charred yellow, her hair and face smeared with blood and blackened soot.

Just as Li Chengyi was about to call her name, he froze, catching a familiar face reflected in her eyes.

It was a round, pale face with a chilling grin.

Bai Feipeng!?

Li Chengyi stiffened, his gaze fixed on the reflection of the inverted face in her eyes.

That chubby, ghostly pale face seemed to be saying something to Zhong Ying, silently waving as if inviting her to follow.

Yet Zhong Ying was standing right in front of him, her eyes locked on him alone.

Suddenly, Sima Gui lunged forward, tackling Zhong Ying to the ground.

The two rolled across the rooftop before coming to a stop, lying sprawled on the concrete.

Sima Gui gasped for air, sweat streaming down his face as he lay exhausted.

Zhong Ying had passed out completely, her eyes closed, unmoving.

Song Ran rushed over, immediately starting CPR on her.

One minute, two minutes…

Five minutes… ten minutes…

There was no sign of life from Zhong Ying. She lay silent and still.

Song Ran, drenched in sweat, continued his desperate attempts, only to collapse beside her in exhaustion, wiping his face.

“Hehehe…”

Suddenly, a faint laugh echoed from behind Li Chengyi.

He shuddered, spinning around to see a pale figure standing in the shadows by the only doorway on the rooftop.

The figure’s face was obscured, but its uniform—the school uniform of Dongliu Experimental Elementary—was unmistakable. It was Bai Feipeng!

In an instant, Li Chengyi and Sima Gui raised their guns, firing at the doorway. Both bullets hit, but the figure had already vanished, leaving no trace of Bai Feipeng.

After waiting a while, confirming that there was no further movement, Li Chengyi and Sima Gui finally lowered their guns, glancing back at Zhong Ying.

“Zhong Ying is dead,” Sindra said, rising from her side, his face grim.

The three others fell silent, unsure what to say.

The bizarre sensations, the disorienting sensory overlap—it was impossible to comprehend how Zhong Ying had died.

If any of them had faced the same circumstances, none were confident they’d have survived.

From her sudden disappearance to her reappearance and subsequent collapse, they’d all been affected by some inexplicable force, their senses thrown into disarray.

Not a single one of them could pinpoint what had gone wrong.

The cold wind howled over the rooftop, sounding almost like someone crying.

They remained silent, waiting for their bodies to recover slightly before each of them stood up, dusting themselves off.

Li Chengyi looked at the burning painting, now reduced entirely to blackened charcoal.

But…

They had failed in their mission.

All their preparation was for nothing.

He walked over to Zhong Ying’s lifeless body, gazing down at her scorched, blood-streaked form.

“Bai Feipeng…what in the world are you?”

“I don’t know,” Song Ran replied, his expression somber. “Maybe it’s not Bai Feipeng at all, but something else entirely.”

Looking at Zhong Ying’s body, a chill settled over them. Their company mission had been to help her escape Mist Street, but no one had anticipated such strange events.

Li Chengyi found himself wondering what might have happened if he hadn’t been pulled into Mist Street's flash and had instead followed that chubby figure, looking for the mysterious Wu Ji Convenience Store.

If he’d followed it… what would he have found?

Wu Ji Convenience Store likely didn’t exist in reality; it was part of the painting’s realm. If he had gone along...

Li Chengyi couldn’t predict the outcome.

He was different from Zhong Ying. He had his floral armor, the flower language ability, and his own set of defenses.

Whatever would have happened, it wouldn’t have ended like this.

Zhong Ying’s death was a silent one, like a pebble dropped into a stream, barely causing a ripple.

Her funeral was simple, arranged by Song Ran. It was a quiet, clean service provided by a professional company, costing only a few thousand.

There were no friends, no family, no coworkers—she had been an isolated figure, leaving no mark on the world.

After the funeral, Sindra returned to the company, and Sima Gui left for another city to rest.

Only Song Ran remained to handle the various matters following Zhong Ying’s death.

Li Chengyi, however, didn’t leave. He waited, hoping that when Mist Street reappeared, he could enter it again and retrieve that small white flower. He still wasn’t ready to let go.

**Tianxing Old Street - Candy Bar**

Late at night, Li Chengyi strolled along the edge of Old Street. The desolate street was mostly dark, with only a few lit storefronts scattered here and there.

Scorched black marks lined the area, giving the neighborhood an eerie sense of history.

He paced back and forth along the sidewalk several times.

But there was no movement. Mist Street seemed to have fallen into a deep silence, with no memory flashes at all.

‘Could the likelihood of memory flashes increase with the presence of certain people connected to Dead Ends?’ he wondered.

As he walked, he suddenly stopped in his tracks.

Ahead of him, the street had somehow become shrouded in a thin layer of gray mist.

At the end of the mist, under the dim glow of a streetlamp, stood a chubby figure in a school uniform, silently watching him.

Bai Feipeng…

Li Chengyi’s heart tightened, and he stopped, staring back.

“Shake, shake… shake, shake…” came the faint chant from behind Bai Feipeng, as colored lights flickered through the mist.

It was the light from the slot machine.

A slight breeze stirred, and the gray mist thickened, pulling Bai Feipeng and the slot machine further away.

It was as though an invisible conveyor belt beneath Li Chengyi was

pulling him away from the street where the slot machine stood.

Panic surged within him, and he quickly scanned the base of each streetlamp.

At last, beneath one lamp, he found the small white flower swaying gently.

The sight of it steadied him, and he felt his urgency subside.

“I’ll be back…” he murmured, casting a deep, determined look at the little figure of Bai Feipeng.

Zhaoshan, Tianxing Street, Mist Street Dead End.

The only way to acquire the flower language of that little white flower would be to wait until the Flower God’s slot was open, returning here repeatedly to refresh Mist Street.

It would be a long journey, filled with countless encounters with the slot machine and that mysterious chubby figure.

As long as Mist Street Dead End persisted.

Suddenly, he was pulled out of the Mist Street, finding himself back on Tianxing Old Street.

This chapt𝓮r is updat𝒆d by ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom.

Without hesitation, Li Chengyi turned and walked toward a different part of the city.

He had finally confirmed that Mist Street and Bai Feipeng likely weren’t even in the same Dead End—they might well be intersecting Dead Ends.