Frightening Joke: Above the Mist
Chapter 260 Confusion

Chapter 260: Chapter 260 Confusion

There’s no denying that Dark Abyss’s aim has been largely achieved.

When the phone finally connected, Bai Yanliang immediately reached out to Li Mu, but... the person who answered wasn’t Li Mu.

"Hello?"

This voice, Bai Yanliang was not unfamiliar with it.

"Mr. Ren, where is Li Mu?"

"Dead."

Ren Wudao’s tone was flat, as a matter of fact, he and Li Mu had no real connection.

Bai Yanliang was silent for a moment, then hung up the phone.

Xu Zhifei glanced at him, saying nothing.

Soon, news came about the survivors from the third group. After confirmation, the number of deaths this time... was a full six, with one person severely injured, losing an entire arm from the shoulder—Du Shangjing.

Fifteen set out, only nine returned alive.

Li Mu, Ling Tao, Jiang Li, Lu Guo, Li Yuejun, Jiang Zhijie... Bai Yanliang had never interacted with Ling Tao and Jiang Zhijie, but they were not newcomers.

The remaining four individuals each had some history with Bai Yanliang.

Among them, Li Mu’s death was undoubtedly the most regrettable.

He shouldn’t have died...

But Bai Yanliang had already somewhat expected Li Mu’s death. When he confirmed that this mission was the handiwork of Dark Abyss, Bai Yanliang knew Li Mu was in danger.

Dark Abyss had once been active in Li Mu’s city, and during that time, Li Mu, being a police officer, had left them extremely troubled, leading to numerous grudges.

Even the curse on Li Mu was placed by someone from Dark Abyss.

Given this opportunity, there was no reason they would let Li Mu go.

However...

Bai Yanliang looked down at his phone, his mind turning to another matter.

If Dark Abyss could so easily infiltrate Fog Gathering to issue a fake mission, they would have done so earlier. But in reality, they hadn’t.

And this time, they did, and succeeded.

Bai Yanliang couldn’t help but suspect that this matter was related to that person—Ren Wudao.

No... maybe it should be said that this was closely tied to both Yu Sheng and Ren Wudao.

Yu Sheng’s behavior was very strange. Although emotionally, Bai Yanliang didn’t want to associate the heavy casualties with Yu Sheng, rationality told him that Yu Sheng wasn’t innocent.

Next to him, Xu Zhifei quietly observed Bai Yanliang. Although she could see that Bai Yanliang seemed troubled, she wasn’t someone who talked much, nor someone who offered comfort.

For her, just quietly sitting there with him for a while was already an act of kindness.

After a long silence, Bai Yanliang suddenly let out a deep breath, looking up at the sky.

A rare trace of bewilderment flashed in his eyes.

So many things had happened this time, leaving him at a loss.

Among them, the biggest one was undoubtedly about his own secret.

Bai Yanliang never thought that Yanren’s death was truly caused by his own hands, though... it was Yanren’s choice.

Yet Bai Yanliang found it hard to let go...

"You are too selfish... brother..."

Bai Yanliang hugged his legs, his chin resting on his knees, with his dark hair quietly falling over his eyes.

A glimmer of confusion crossed Xu Zhifei’s icy eyes; she had never seen Bai Yanliang like this.

She herself was a profiler, so she understood the meaning behind this posture very well.

Bai Yanliang... was feeling very insecure now.

Insecure?

This word seemed laughable to Bai Yanliang, because everyone was already used to the fact that this man feared nothing.

He was like a precision and exquisite machine, though reliable, he could never be considered one of them.

Only at this moment did Xu Zhifei realize that Bai Yanliang could also feel insecure, displaying a defensive posture as if constantly guarding against his surroundings.

"Are you okay?"

A somewhat stiff female voice sounded by Bai Yanliang’s ear.

Bai Yanliang slightly turned his head, his dark hair slipping to the side, revealing a pair of slightly dim eyes.

Xu Zhifei sat rigidly, staring straight ahead. If Bai Yanliang wasn’t the only one by her side, he might have suspected she was talking to someone else.

She was noticeably more constrained than usual. It was obvious that those four words had required great effort from Xu Zhifei, her awkwardness and discomfort were clear to Bai Yanliang.

However, despite the clumsiness, Bai Yanliang accepted her goodwill.

"Xu Zhifei, have you always been like this since childhood?"

Bai Yanliang rarely addressed others by their name, his seemingly close politeness actually placed a distance as vast as a thousand mountains.

Xu Zhifei seemed a bit unclear about his meaning, a trace of confusion flickered in her cold gaze.

Bai Yanliang looked at her pristine demeanor and said, "I mean, have you always been this cold since you were young?"

Xu Zhifei’s eyes flickered, she initially wanted to get up and leave, but after carefully meeting Bai Yanliang’s gaze, she realized he wasn’t mocking or joking with her.

After a moment’s silence, Xu Zhifei nodded, saying nothing.

"I am too." Bai Yanliang moved his gaze to the ground.

"I used to think... it’s a disease, a disease of being emotionless."

Xu Zhifei was drawn in by his words, quietly observing him.

"But then... someone suddenly told me, this isn’t a disease at all..." Bai Yanliang murmured quietly, "Ending up like this is because... I’m fundamentally a soul returning from another world..."

His latter half of the sentence was spoken so softly that Xu Zhifei couldn’t hear it at all.

But Xu Zhifei clearly understood what Bai Yanliang was feeling at this moment.

In any group, there would always be one or two anomalies.

From a young age, Xu Zhifei knew she was that anomaly.

She could see things that others couldn’t, hear inexplicable abnormal sounds, she exuded an aura that discouraged strangers from approaching, often attracting people with her beauty who tried to befriend her, only to be scared away by some inexplicable abnormal phenomena.

It seemed... she was born inauspicious.

Not only did others think so, but she also believed it herself.

Xu Zhifei had never met her father, and her mother never mentioned him, only saying he disappeared.

Until she went to college, when her mother died mysteriously, leaving Xu Zhifei with only a peculiar key.

After that, Xu Zhifei became even more reticent and colder.

She no longer tried to make any friends, even proactively distancing herself from some to avoid bringing them disaster.

However, she never gave up on her investigation. The reason she worked for the police was to use their vast information network to trace her parents.

Until... she discovered the secret of the key.

Xu Zhifei didn’t know Bai Yanliang’s past, but she knew his future.

Her key told her Bai Yanliang’s future.

... To be precise, in her future, Bai Yanliang had a presence.

From then on, Xu Zhifei began to notice him, and gradually, she found that Bai Yanliang... seemed as lonely as she was.

However, her loneliness was self-imposed.

And Bai Yanliang was innately aloof.

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