Chapter 19 Sand Dune Phantom

Li Cu was lying in a tent made of space fabric, hardly feeling the cold from outside after he had zipped the door closed.

The soldiers participating in the operation all stayed in big tents, while the members of the investigation team obviously lived in a more elegant style, with two people per tent. This helped maintain a little privacy and also enabled people to have a better rest.

Li Cu shared a tent with Wang Meng. After they entered, the both of them sat on their sleeping bags and stared at each other, not knowing what to say. Li Cu told himself that Wang Meng had attacked Liang Wan before and then been beaten down by her. Although he was also present at the time, the feud should be between Wang Meng and Liang Wan, so Wang Meng shouldn’t seek revenge here. Moreover, Wang Meng’s character was also very strange. On the surface, there was really nothing wrong with him, but he also revealed an extremely abnormal atmosphere.

It was a kind of unspeakable feeling. Although Li Cu could tell after spending some time with him that Wang Meng wasn’t stupid at all and his efficiency wasn’t low either, Li Cu always felt that Wang Meng was half a beat slower than normal people.

When Wang Meng saw Li Cu looking at him, he didn’t react at all, just stared straight back with an expression that made Li Cu speechless. Li Cu really wanted to kick him.

He doesn’t make any extra movements, Li Cu suddenly realized.

No matter how well trained a person was, they would always make some casual and habitual little movements while in a resting state. These little movements would sometimes morph into big movements, making the person look extremely restless.

However, Wang Meng wasn’t like that. When he had nothing to do, he hardly moved, which gave people a very dull feeling.

“You…” Li Cu wanted to know why this person was like this, so he tried to find a topic to talk with him about.

“I’m just a part-time worker making a living. Don’t take offense.” Wang Meng said.

Li Cu knew that Wang Meng was referring to his attack from before, so he smiled and said: “It’s ok, you were just doing your job. You didn’t…”

Before he had finished speaking, Wang Meng turned around, switched off the light on his side, and then went to lie down in his sleeping bag.

“…have a choice.” Li Cu said helplessly while laughing to himself: Weirdos, you’re all weirdos, all fucking weirdos.

“If you worked as a salesperson in a shop where the boss was never around and there was only one person from opening to closing, and sometimes no one would step in for a year, you would learn to turn off your power and become a weirdo when there was no business. That way you can spend the long days without wanting to cut yourself.” Wang Meng said in his sleeping bag.

“What kind of shop did you work in?”

“It’s been more than ten years. During the worst times, I sat behind the counter and didn’t even want to play minesweeper on the computer. I just sat there and then fell asleep. When I woke up, I found it was already noon the next day. So I kept doing the same thing over and over.”

“Wow, wouldn’t you sprout, or one day find that your feet had taken root?”

“I had a dream like that.” Wang Meng said.

Li Cu immediately wanted to laugh, but he desperately held it back. After he had calmed down, he continued to ask, “What happened next?”

Wang Meng didn’t answer him anymore, and a few minutes later, there were a few snores coming from his side of the tent.

Li Cu thought Wang Meng’s mentality was really good. If he had such an experience, he would never be able to fall asleep with a pillow.

But on second thought, that may not be the case. If you lived a very boring life, then sleeping may become a way to escape from reality, or maybe those simple days would wash away all your distractions and make you feel refreshed.

He lay in his sleeping bag with his head in his hand and looked at the top of the tent. Unable to sleep at all, he sorted out everything that had happened so far.

The boss, Wu Xie, was a hidden modern-day grave robber. In addition to that, he was also a photographer and freelance writer, which led him to meet a woman named Lan Ting. The woman told him that there was a mysterious force in Gutong Jing that made it so that people’s images wouldn’t show up in photos. From the photos Lan Ting gave him, he then found the remnants of an ancient tomb.

So Wu Xie began to pursue the matter and found that it was related to other things he had experienced, and the results of his investigation were now engraved on Li Cu’s back.

I got involved because I innocently happened to pass by that place and got dragged in.

No, he didn’t know the key piece of information. He sighed, thinking that Wu Xie had intentionally said so little because he didn’t plan on revealing the real key part to him.

“Having an explanation is better than not having one.” Wu Xie seemed to have said this to him earlier. Was he hinting that just knowing a little was enough, and Li Cu shouldn’t pursue it?

He didn’t care to know.

Li Cu picked up his camera, remembering that when he was snapping pictures of the scenery earlier, he seemed to have captured something strange. Bored, he began to flip through the photos.

After going through them one by one for a while, Li Cu soon became sleepy. As everything turned blurry in the small viewfinder, he flipped to the next photos and took a look, finally finding the ones he was looking for. He slowed down and looked carefully, knowing that the strange thing should be in one of those photos.

Suddenly, he sat up. He had finally turned to the problematic photo!

I did get something! What I felt at that moment near the sand dune wasn’t an illusion! As Li Cu looked at the photo, he saw a shadow on the sand dune.

This wasn’t an illusion caused by light and shadow, but something indescribable that had appeared on the sand dune.

Yes, that was definitely a shadow.

Li Cu enlarged the photo until the whole shadow filled the frame. He then stared at the shadow for half a day, only to find that it was the outline of a figure.

Li Cu took a deep breath and carefully looked at it again for a long time, until finally, he came to a conclusion.

Judging from all the details of the shadow’s outline, it should be a woman lying on the sand dune.

The woman appeared in that place at that exact moment when he took the photo. He didn’t know why the camera only captured a vague outline instead of her real appearance, but he clearly remembered that when he put the camera down and looked at that place with his naked eyes, there was nothing at all.

The whole process had lasted no more than half a second. He didn’t see any sand blowing, nor did he see any traces of anyone who had just moved on the sand dune over there. All he saw was very quiet desert.

A sudden chill emerged from Li Cu’s bones, as if the temperature outside the tent had finally penetrated inside.

He quickly put on his clothes and climbed to Wu Xie’s tent. This was a big discovery. He didn’t know what it meant, but he definitely had to show it to that man.

Wu Xie was still reading in his tent, which was a single-person one that was clean and of good quality. It appeared he got the VIP treatment. Li Cu smacked the zipper door and called, “Boss, Boss.”

Wu Xie unzipped the tent and frowned: “Shouldn’t you be sleeping, what are you yelling about?”

Li Cu immediately showed him the photo. Wu Xie was puzzled at first and narrowed his eyes and looked at it carefully, before quickly shaking his head at Li Cu and saying, “Come in.”

When Li Cu entered the tent, Wu Xie immediately took out his computer, copied the photo onto it, and enlarged it.

The vague figure stood out even more. Although there were no details and it was still very vague, he could still make out some facial features and clothes.

Wu Xie took a deep breath and murmured, “It’s her…”

“Do you know her?” Li Cu was surprised. Fuck, what kind of person are you? You know a ghost I randomly photographed in the desert.

Wu Xie put on his clothes and said, “Let’s go. Take me to the place where you took this picture.”

They hurried out and walked to the dune where Li Cu had taken the photos before. Li Cu pointed out the direction, and Wu Xie made several laps around the area, but found nothing. The desert was very cold at night, so they had to walk back.

“Are we looking for this female ghost?” Li Cu asked.

Wu Xie shook his head and motioned for Li Cu to go back to his tent while saying, “Don’t tell anyone about this.” Li Cu found that his anxiety was even more obvious now.

<Chapter 18> <Table of Contents><Chapter 20>

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TN Note: I never really thought much of Wang Meng’s character before but his little convo with Li Cu kinda punched me in the feels lol. Poor guy, abandoned by his boss so all he could do was sleep for 10 years. Wonder if this phantom shadow is that bitch Zhang Haixing? Will we get answers? Probably not lol.