Nightmare Apostle

"Listen to me for once—don’t get too close to that woman, she’s dangerous." Ye Zheng seemed to think of something, his expression changed slightly, then he lowered his voice to add on.

With Chi Dan’s identity finally decrypted, Yang Xiao had at last untied a knot in his heart. He hadn’t expected this woman to be the daughter of the Commerce Association Chairman; even if she was born out of wedlock, that was scary enough. Looks like he really had underestimated her before.

The two of them walked into the Cultural Palace. The movie had already started by now, and there were far fewer people in the main hall. It seemed everyone had already found themselves some entertainment.

Once the movie began, the doors to the auditorium were shut, with people guarding outside not letting anyone in. Yang Xiao and the others stood nearby for a while; after seeing nothing out of the ordinary, they went upstairs.

They hadn’t even reached the second floor yet when they heard throbbing music—the dance hall on the second floor had begun as well.

Luckily you didn’t need a ticket here. Yang Xiao took Ye Zheng and slipped inside. The lighting was dim and gray; Yang Xiao could only vaguely make out silhouettes twisting in the middle of the dance floor, while along the edge of the hall there were long wooden benches for people to rest on.

Hugging the edge of the dance floor, the two moved along and quickly found their own people resting and watching from the side.

It was Wang Yong and Liu Hongwei. No one greeted; Yang Xiao and Ye Zheng chose an empty spot not far from these two and sat down.

As a dance number ended, the lights came up. In that instant, Yang Xiao felt a bit dazzled and couldn’t help but squint.

Soon, some people left the dance floor and new ones stepped in. One after another, young men and women with shining eyes, all the fatigue and pressure built up from production work about to be completely released in this moment.

Taking advantage of this brief window when he could see clearly, Yang Xiao exchanged a look with Wang Yong. The other man blinked, signaling him to relax—so far nothing suspicious had been found here.

Leaving the dance hall, the two walked through all the rooms on the second floor: reading room, chess-and-cards club, and activity room. Every room had people in it. The crisp cracks of ping-pong balls and the clack of chess pieces landing on boards rose and fell, painting a bustling scene.

Men in the factory-issued blue vests were sweating buckets at the ping-pong tables. Every inch of this place was brimming with vigorous human presence and robust Life Force.

Back in the dance hall, Yang Xiao had still been wondering why people would come dance with such a big incident having just happened. Now he understood: in front of these pure members of the working class, all that talk of demons and monsters was just nonsense.

Just like Chief Zhou and the others—they firmly believed the killer was a saboteur, an enemy agent doing damage, absolutely not some mysterious Fierce Ghost.

In the chess room, Yang Xiao ran into another patrol group: Zhao Xuejun and Zhang Xiaomin. The two of them were standing off to the side watching the excitement.

Inside the chess room, two middle-aged men were playing a game. One sat legs sprawled wide, holding a palm fan; the other wore a sleeveless undershirt and a pair of metal-framed glasses, staring at the board without blinking.

These two looked to be experts from the factory. People nearby had all crowded around to watch them play, Zhao Xuejun and Zhang Xiaomin among them.

"What’s this about?" Yang Xiao frowned and lowered his voice. "Didn’t we tell them to avoid gathering in crowded places as much as possible?"

"I’ll go call them out." Ye Zheng was about to move.

"Forget it, let’s sit and watch for a bit." Yang Xiao found a seat and sat down. There were plenty of empty spots here anyway; everyone was scrambling to watch the masters play. Some kept shouting instructions, and cries and calls broke out from time to time—obviously whenever one of the players made an excellent move or a rotten one.

To be honest, Yang Xiao’s hands were itching too, but without running into his good brother Qu Muzhi, he wasn’t going to make a move easily.

Ye Zheng’s gaze slowly swept across the crowd of spectators. After a moment, he seemed to notice something strange, and couldn’t help but knit his brows.

At the same time, Yang Xiao felt the same way, though his sense of it was more specific. Those gathered around the board looked full of Life Force, yet for some reason they gave him a deeply unfamiliar, icy feeling.

Yang Xiao let his eyes pass over these people one by one: some had their backs to him, some were turned sideways, some faces were fully visible. But after going around the circle, he still couldn’t find what was wrong.

Until...

Suddenly, someone bumped his arm. He turned his head toward Ye Zheng in response, only to see Ye Zheng’s face deathly pale. It was clear she was forcing herself to stay calm, her expression barely holding together.

"What’s going on?" Yang Xiao didn’t move a muscle, keeping his voice very low.

"Someone in there is looking at me." Ye Zheng’s voice was shaking, her fingers unconsciously clenching tight as she kept her original posture. "It’s real, I’m sure. But... but I can’t find him."

"Don’t move. Pull your gaze back and look somewhere else." Yang Xiao whispered a reminder while raising his eyes as if naturally to look over.

There were roughly twenty people in the chess-and-cards club. aside from the few sitting nearby to rest, the rest were all clustered around the board in the middle, watching the master players.

After counting, Yang Xiao noted that there were seven people resting nearby, including him and Ye Zheng. Those gathered around to watch the chess experts totalled ten. Adding in the two players themselves, that circle contained twelve people altogether.

Yang Xiao first confirmed that the people resting nearby had no issues. From Ye Zheng’s description, the "person" watching her should also be in that most crowded patch around the board in the middle.

Yang Xiao had no doubt about Ye Zheng’s judgment, because he himself had sensed something strange as well—just not as pronounced as hers.

His gaze passed over each face in turn, and Yang Xiao confirmed that none of them were looking in the direction of him and Ye Zheng.

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