273: Chapter 71: The Bored, Lonely, and Empty Woman 273: Chapter 71: The Bored, Lonely, and Empty Woman Li Mumu had been very idle lately.
The reason why you can’t spend too much time traveling is that no matter how great a place is, if you stay there too long, you’ll grow tired of it.
Famous tourist spots that attract visitors might be considered by the locals as places they would never and never want to visit in their lifetimes.
After returning to the Real World from the Outer Dimension on May 15, she suddenly developed an inexplicable sense of disgust with the Real World.
Bored, lonely, empty, cold.
This isn’t Saifu; the streets are too quiet here, and you won’t meet red-named monsters if you go out in the middle of the night.
Wendy had entered that Outer Dimension with her but didn’t stick together.
According to Wendy, she followed a group of the dead towards the Imperial City, walked the entire night, and just as she was about to reach the city walls… day broke.
“That must be Hell in Ming Country.”
Wendy asserted.
“We call it Netherworld or Underworld here, and it doesn’t look like that.”
Li Mumu tried to explain to her.
Whatever it was, it definitely wasn’t the Underworld; not every place with dead people can be called the Underworld—have you ever seen someone from the Underworld come back to life?
However, Wendy didn’t believe her explanation.
“It’s your first time back in the country, how would you know what the domestic Hell looks like?”
“I’ve traveled back from the future!”
“Did you die before you traveled?”
Li Mumu was at a loss for words.
Okay, admittedly, that wasn’t very convincing.
She could have asked her senior sister, but Zuo Yan, her senior sister, had disappeared again.
This person… this ghost, always appeared and disappeared unpredictably; the last time she came to visit, she didn’t leave any contact information.
Asking Mu Yuming was even more useless; he just slept, and when he woke up, he remembered nothing.
Instead, Jiang Yinyin seemed to still remember what happened in her dream.
While eating breakfast, she said she dreamt about going back to Qinghe Middle School and saw her parents transformed into monsters there.
Then, those two monsters were chopped up by Wang Yunxiao and his group.
The dream was both realistic and absurd, leaving her in a dazed state for a long while after waking up.
Actually, her story should have been the main storyline, but Li Mumu, adhering to the principle of a professional player to not take the usual path, chose not to follow the main line.
And look now, back in reality, the plot got stuck.
Mu Yuming was still busily running about daily, and Li Ya was still holed up at home, unwilling to go out.
Li Mumu and Wendy walked around the streets for a couple of days and grew tired of it too.
Life was too calm, with no surprises at all.
At least Wendy could find some amusement; she still believed that was the legendary Hell of Ming Country and began collecting antiques related to “credit.”
“Nyarlathotep gave me a task.”
Wendy said, “My family has always been under Nyarlathotep’s care, although I don’t really want it, I have to admit… this goddess has a talent for finding amusement that I cannot match.”
Li Mumu was surprised; she had never heard such high praise from Wendy before.
“What does she want you to find amusement in?”
“She wants me to open a bank.”
“What?”
“A bank that specifically issues Joss Paper.”
“What???”
Well… that is indeed a bit… I’m really impressed, truly.
“Journey to the West hasn’t even started filming yet, who are you planning to print on the Joss Paper currency?”
Nyarlathotep’s?
Would people even recognize a Western lady’s portrait?”
But hearing Wendy say that, Li Mumu remembered that day at the Ghost Market when she saw Zuo Yan receiving a stack of Paper Money from the vendor, not knowing what the significance behind it was.
“My sister might know something about this area, consult her when she comes over one day.
Also, do you want me to help you design the Joss Paper currency?”
“You have inspiration?”
“Plenty of inspiration!”
It’s just a matter of closing your eyes and pressing 0.
Li Mumu was glad she had finally found something to pass the time when she was bored.
However, before this, she noticed that Jiang Yinyin had been somewhat absent-minded recently.
The girl was usually very sensible, efficient, and observant, so any unusual behavior was easily noticeable.
On the sixteenth, she had gone to the school and brought back a batch of handiwork by her little friend, including embroidered handkerchiefs and fragrant pouches.
She started to appear a bit dazed after coming back.
“Ran into something again?”
Li Mumu couldn’t help but ask her.
The young girl hesitated momentarily, unsure of how to explain.
“Miss, I told you before that I had a very realistic dream, right?”
“Right, what about it?”
“Today, I went to see Zhou Qing, and found out she had the same dream as me.
The scenes we saw in the dream were exactly the same.
She almost got strangled by a ghost in her dream, and then we saw those two…
monsters at school.”
Jiang Yinyin said anxiously in a low voice, “And it’s not just the two of us, many students at the school are discussing this privately.”
“That dream was too vivid, like it was real.
I’m a bit scared, scared I’ll dream of those two monsters again.
What if they come out of the dream?”
Li Mumu raised her eyebrows and said, “But didn’t you also tell me that you saw Wang Yunxiao with his people killing those monsters?”
Jiang Yinyin nodded, slightly relieved, but her expression still didn’t fully clear up her worries.
There was no helping it, for other students those two monsters were just rumors, but for her, they were vivid nightmares.
“Do you want to go back and see your parents?”
Jiang Yinyin violently shook her head.
“Have you asked Wang Yunxiao if he has had the same dream?”
“He’s so fierce, how dare I ask.”
“Should I ask him for you?”
“Huh?”
Jiang Yinyin paused, then quickly waved her hands, “Thank you, Miss, but really, no need to trouble you.
The next time I go to school, I will ask him about it.”
“It’s not much trouble.”
Li Mumu was about to pull out her notebook, thought for a moment, and then asked, “Your little friend is called Zhou Qing, right?
How did she get entangled with ghosts?”
Jiang Yinyin pouted, “I’ve asked her, and she doesn’t know either.
When I was studying at school, I never heard rumors of the school being haunted, but in that dream, there really was a disheveled female ghost chasing us.”
“What did she look like?”
“How would I dare to look closely?
But…
she was not tall, probably a student as well.”
Student, female ghost, Qinghe Middle School…
This place does seem to have some stories.
Li Mumu nodded, not pursuing the matter further.
Later that night, after taking a bath and lying in bed, she turned on the lamp, pulled out her notebook, hesitated for a few seconds, activated the communication function, and wrote down two simple Chinese characters—”Are you there?”