Chapter 21: The Hour of Meeting Demons

After parting ways with Zhao Haotian, Xie Sui took a car directly to Tianyi Elementary School.

Tianyi Elementary was an elementary school affiliated with a private institution. It was located near Bihu Ecological Park, and further south lay the Liuying River.

He arrived at around four-thirty in the afternoon, just after the elementary students had finished classes. Since he didn’t know the exact location of Horror Old Liu, Xie Sui planned to wander around the vicinity of the school first to try his luck.

While eating earlier, he had chatted with Zhao Haotian about the elementary school urban legends.

Zhao Haotian was a northerner who had only settled in the south after graduating from university. Before that, he had lived in Ice City. Back when Old Zhao was in elementary school, a certain urban legend had circulated there as well. The panic it caused was so great that many elementary schools had even suspended classes.

That legend was about Cat Grandma, also known as the Cat-Faced Old Lady¹.

Supposedly, an old lady surnamed Li in the Daowai District of Ice City had committed suicide by hanging. During the wake, her corpse was startled by a black cat and came back to life, turning into a zombie with a face that was half-human and half-cat. Legend had it that she particularly enjoyed catching and eating children, especially those born in the Year of the Rat².

The internet wasn’t widespread back then, so this kind of urban legend was very effective at terrifying children. Many kids were too scared to take a single step out of their homes, and some would rather wet the bed at night than venture out to the bathroom.

It was no longer possible to know who had originally started the rumor. This legend was not only popular among students but was also a bedtime story used by the older generation to scare children who wouldn’t sleep, making Cat Grandma a childhood trauma for an entire generation.

The screenshot from the supernatural forum that Horror Old Liu had posted on his social media feed also featured an elementary school legend about a monster eating children.

However, unlike the Cat-Faced Old Lady, which had a specific origin story, the monster haunting Xiangcheng seemed to have been fabricated out of thin air.

That monster was called Yawu-po.

Despite the name Yawu-po, this monster was not humanoid. Instead, it was a black creature in the form of a bipedal wild dog.

Supposedly, Yawu-po would appear during the twilight Hour of Meeting Demons. If it encountered a child wandering alone, it would quietly crawl onto the child’s back. When night fell and the sun completely disappeared, if the child looked back, it would bite their head off in a single mouthful.

This legend had also first appeared among elementary school students before being posted on the supernatural forum by someone unknown.

Xie Sui felt that the story of Yawu-po eating children shared similarities with the Cat-Faced Old Lady legend. He suspected it might have been made up by parents to scare their children into coming home early after school.

However, in Xiangcheng, it seemed that neither adults nor children paid much attention to this Yawu-po. After all, the legend had been circulating for over half a month, and no children had gone missing.

Xie Sui didn’t see many parents coming to pick up their children near Tianyi Elementary. The people walking on the road after school were all elementary students in groups.

Tianyi Elementary was an affiliate of a private school with very high tuition. The families of students who could afford to study there generally had the financial means to buy school-district housing³ right next to the school. After class, those students could be home in just a few steps.

Whether it was the riverside villas or the residential complexes adjacent to the ecological park, these expensive and highly private school-district properties had patrolling security guards and surveillance cameras on every street. Safety was absolutely guaranteed.

Xie Sui circled the entrance of Tianyi Elementary but found no sign of Horror Old Liu. He took out his phone and opened a map app, wanting to see if there were other elementary schools nearby. Perhaps Horror Old Liu had finished gathering material at Tianyi and moved on to another school.

Just as he was about to leave Tianyi Elementary, Xie Sui noticed a child in a school uniform standing by the roadside.

He looked out of place. While other children were happily walking home with friends after school, he stood alone by the side wall of the school, clutching his backpack and shrinking into the shadow of the wall, his small face deathly pale.

The boy didn’t look like he was waiting for someone, nor did he seem to have any intention of going home.

Xie Sui’s pace faltered for a moment. He turned a corner and walked toward the child.

The reason he had noticed the boy was because he sensed something wrong with him. The child’s soul aura⁴ was very turbulent, as if it were on the verge of leaving his body.

A child’s soul is unstable before the age of twelve. After a massive fright, the soul can easily detach from the body, a condition commonly referred to as “having one’s soul scared away⁵.”

If Xie Sui’s guess was correct, this child must have encountered something terrifying recently… something terrifying? Could it be related to that urban legend? Had this child met Yawu-po, or some other ghost?

Carrying a sense of concern for the child’s safety, Xie Sui walked up to him.

Sensing someone approaching, the boy looked up warily. The school badge pinned to his left chest read: [Grade 4 Class 1, Zhang Shengrui].

“Little friend, you’re a student at Tianyi Elementary, right? Why are you standing here instead of going home after school?”

Hearing Xie Sui’s question, Zhang Shengrui’s face filled with tension. “What does it matter to you if I don’t go home?”

Seeing Zhang Shengrui’s reaction, Xie Sui quickly tried to soothe him. “Don’t worry, I’m not a bad person. I just saw that you looked very scared and wanted to ask if you’ve encountered anything frightening lately.”

Zhang Shengrui replied coldly, “Thanks for the concern, but the scariest things I’ve encountered today are a math test with a score of 20, and a weird uncle who suddenly approached me to ask strange questions while claiming he’s not a bad person.”

Xie Sui, now labeled a “weird uncle,” fell silent for a moment.

This kid really wasn’t cute; he was like a little firecracker.

Because Xie Sui had helped his father look after children at the orphanage since he was young, and was constantly surrounded by the souls of children, he had a high level of goodwill toward all kids.

Thinking about the Yawu-po legend, which might or might not be true, Xie Sui patiently tried to persuade him again. “Go home early. Look, the sky is almost dark…”

However, before he could finish his sentence, he was interrupted by Zhang Shengrui.

Zhang Shengrui was like a little hedgehog with all his quills standing up. He waved his arms and shouted angrily, “Uncle, don’t you think you’re meddling a bit too much? I just messed up an exam and didn’t want to go home right away. Is that not allowed? Or did you buy this street, and I need to pay you to stand here?”

“Uncle?” Xie Sui was stunned by the address and subconsciously touched his own face.

He was only twenty-five this year. He hadn’t become so weathered that he deserved to be called “uncle” by a ten-year-old brat, had he?

Watching his movements, Zhang Shengrui seemed to think of something and grew even more furious. “Tsk! I’ve seen plenty of people like you. You’re just some eighteenth-tier minor celebrity who wants to use me as a stepping stone to get close to my mom! So annoying. Even after transferring schools, I still run into people like you. If you spent the energy you use on finding other people’s sons on your acting instead, maybe you’d actually be famous by now!” With that, he gave Xie Sui a harsh glare and ran off with his backpack.

Watching Zhang Shengrui’s retreating figure, Xie Sui let out a soft sigh.

Fine then. Since the kid was so energetic, it seemed he had been overthinking things.

Then again, kids these days were far too fragile. Just messing up an exam was enough to scare his soul into an unstable state.

After leaving Tianyi Elementary School, Xie Sui circled around two other nearby elementary schools, but he found no sign of Horror Old Liu at all.

After wandering all day with nothing to show for it, Xie Sui felt like he was wasting his time.

When he had dinner with Zhao Haotian this afternoon, Xie Sui hadn’t asked for Horror Old Liu’s social media ID to avoid alerting the target. Looking at it now, adding Horror Old Liu’s social media account was quite necessary. Otherwise, searching blindly like this was like looking for a needle in a haystack.

The matter of the Life-Swapping Talisman could not be delayed. The sooner it was resolved, the fewer children would fall victim to it. He would have to talk to Old Zhao tomorrow. If all else failed, he would have Old Zhao help him set up a meeting with that Horror Old Liu.

Xie Sui looped back toward Tianyi Elementary School and arrived near Bihu Ecological Park on the east side of the school. Feeling a bit exhausted, he sat down on a park bench and glanced around at his surroundings.

Well, the moon was dark and the wind was high, the area was sparsely populated, and the horror atmosphere was at its peak. It was perfect for a livestream.

Since he had nothing else to do tonight anyway, he might as well start a stream to earn some travel expenses. He needed to accumulate more fans while the Newbie Rankings’ protection period was still active.

Old Zhao’s logic was sound. If there were no popular supernatural events to latch onto, then he should create a supernatural event himself to get on the trending searches – just like what Horror Old Liu was planning to do.

However, he had to manage the degree of realism carefully. He couldn’t manifest a real ghost, or he would be easily reported. But he couldn’t make it look too fake either… actually, fake might be fine. As long as the atmosphere was built up well in the beginning, the audience would start seeing shadows where there were none.

Xie Sui seriously considered the future direction of his livestreams.

Livestreaming would be his primary profession from now on. It was impossible for every stream to be as lucky as the first two, where he encountered wealthy tycoons who gave massive tips. In the future, his main source of income would likely be the platform’s advertising revenue share below the stream, so the number of fans was very important.

Thinking of this, Xie Sui prepared to walk around and see if there was any material nearby worth filming.

However, just as he stood up from the bench, a familiar voice filled with a sob suddenly sounded from behind him.

“Un… Uncle…”

Xie Sui turned around and saw the elementary student, Zhang Shengrui, had suddenly appeared a short distance behind him at some unknown point.

Seeing him appear here, Xie Sui was somewhat surprised.

It was already past ten o’clock at night. Why hadn’t this kid gone home yet?

Xie Sui didn’t have time to overthink it and quickly walked over to Zhang Shengrui.

Only after getting close did he notice the abnormality on the child.

“Save me…” Zhang Shengrui’s face was pale, his voice choking with tears.

Resting clearly upon his thin, small shoulders was a black dog’s face.

Translator’s Notes