Chapter 386: The Thief |
"Pitter-patter."
The rain in Linmen fell endlessly, soaking the wind and causing the white shrouds hung for the funeral to sway gently.
Inside the spacious hall, many students and teachers from Far Moon Academy sat on the chairs prepared in the funeral hall, holding white flowers with grim expressions.
In the center at the far end of the funeral hall rested a coffin-like temporary body storage. Surrounded by fresh flowers, Yan Huan's remains, with his demeanor of the deceased carefully arranged, looked exceptionally peaceful.
Around the coffin, there were numerous photos provided by Far Moon Academy showing Yan Huan participating in various activities.
Directly in front sat a large photo frame containing a black-and-white version of Yan Huan's admission ID photo, serving as the young man's portrait of the deceased.
"President... how could this..."
Below, Yurianna covered her face, crying out in agony.
Beside her, Ashley gently reached out and pulled her into her arms to comfort her.
Yabashi Ki grasped a white flower and shook his head, his mournful gaze directed upward at the motionless Yan Huan lying in the coffin.
Right in front of him, a young girl dressed in pure black formal attire was dragging her exhausted body around, busy with various tasks.
"Let's help out too. Vice-President Sakuramiya said we can't post this on Moments or anything like that. It's best not to share photos or mention this in the group chats either... Let's walk around and remind everyone."
"Sob... okay."
Unlike the custom of wearing white in the Dragon Country, funerals in Sakura Country typically required pure black formal attire to show solemnity.
"Thank you for coming to see the President off, Principal Hermes, School Director Alice..."
"My condolences, Sakuramiya."
Sakuramiya Hitomi made a bow. Watching Principal Hermes and the School Director turn and leave, her eyes could not help but droop slightly.
Meanwhile, Ye Lan walked over and said to her,
"Take a rest, Sakuramiya."
"It's fine, Auntie. I'm not tired..."
"..."
Ye Lan looked at the young girl before her, whose face was etched with exhaustion and sorrow, feeling quite upset in her heart.
When Ye Lan had mostly composed herself and started thinking about handling Xiao Huan's funeral affairs, she discovered that the girl in front of her had already silently gotten everything properly arranged.
The death certificate, transport, farewell ceremony, cremation...
A girl like this was the one who originally should have ended up together with Xiao Huan.
But now...
"...Shiyu is truly too unreasonable. At a time like this, as his older sister, she actually..."
Ye Lan did not know what to say and could only change the subject.
Hearing this, however, Sakuramiya Hitomi gave a helpless smile.
She glanced at An Le, who was standing beside Yan Huan's coffin staring at him with hollow eyes, and then outside the entrance, where Tong Yingying was standing under the eaves smoking one cigarette after another...
At this moment, both of them seemed like suppressed active volcanoes.
And when the funeral ended and the President was cremated, that would be the moment they completely erupted.
Therefore, it was better that Ye Shiyu did not come right now.
"..."
"Ding."
Right at that moment, the mobile phone in Sakuramiya Hitomi's arms suddenly rang.
She gave Ye Lan an apologetic look, then turned around and took out the phone... or rather, Yan Huan's phone.
On it, Aruiya had sent another message.
"Yan Huan, I got my phone back! Sakuramiya Hitomi said she helped you escape from Ye Shiyu, is it true?!"
"..."
Looking at the message, Sakuramiya Hitomi's eyes darkened a fraction more.
She could not help but recall meeting with Heather last night...
At that time, she informed Heather that she had Yan Huan's phone, and also stated that she could cooperate with Heather to hide the news of Yan Huan's death.
Just now, she had forbidden everyone present from posting on Moments or discussing it in groups precisely for this reason.
Sakuramiya Hitomi still remembered the shock on Heather's face last night...
But Sakuramiya Hitomi lacked the energy to explain; the matter of the Modifiers was not something an outsider could get involved in.
The problem now was...
She could hide it for a moment, but could she hide it for a lifetime?
"Yes, everything is fine on Ye Shiyu's end, no need to worry."
Thinking this, Sakuramiya Hitomi remained silent for a long time before finally replying in Yan Huan's place, concealing the truth.
"Great! So when are you coming to see me? Heather has given me so much homework lately, and I can't do any of it without you!"
"Sorry, Aruiya, I have to go on a business trip for a while. I might not be able to come back for some time."
"Huh?"
On the other side, Aruiya, who was secretly clutching her phone while sitting on top of her wardrobe, pouted.
To prevent any news from leaking to Aruiya, Heather had not only confiscated her phone and assigned her homework but also cut off the internet, television, and everything else that could possibly connect her to the outside world.
But Aruiya was no ordinary person.
She wanted to chat with Yan Huan so badly that one night, puzzlingly, someone else's phone flew all the way from the bottom of the Golden Lion Mansion up to the top floor over a hundred stories high just for her to use.
Then, lacking Wi-Fi, she could only sit in various spots around the room, trying to find a place with a good signal to connect to someone else's office Wi-Fi on another floor.
Even though she did not know the password, it was the same this time: with a mere thought, the foreign Wi-Fi on that phone began to automatically input the password and connect for her...
Thus, after expending a tremendous amount of effort, Aruiya finally managed to contact Yan Huan.
Yet, the result was this kind of response.
"Mmm..."
She was a little unhappy, but blinking her clear eyes, she still clumsily typed out,
"Alright... then how about we go out and play for a day before your business trip? Even though Heather won't let me go out, I can sneak out!"
She was unable to contact him before, but at least she could reach Yan Huan now, so it didn't matter!
"But I've already set off... Sorry."
However, the response remained the same.
Aruiya finally revealed a sad expression. Holding up the phone, she sent a wronged message,
"But we haven't seen each other for so long..."
"..."
"Do you not like me anymore?"
"..."
On the other end, at the funeral, Sakuramiya Hitomi looked at the messages sent by Aruiya, feeling inexplicably dreadful.
Not only did she not want to respond, but she also felt it becoming difficult to breathe.
It was like a heavy blow, causing cracks to form in the dam that Sakuramiya Hitomi had built in her heart over these past few days to resist the exhaustion and anger.
Just as Sakuramiya Hitomi's face was clouded with gloom, her fingers hovering over the phone for a long time unable to type a single word, An Le's voice drifted over,
"It's about time."
"..."
Sakuramiya Hitomi raised her eyes and saw a few staff members from the funeral home standing behind An Le.
They were here to take Yan Huan to be cremated.
"...Sorry, I have some things to keep me busy right now, Aruiya. I'll contact you later, okay?"
After sending one last message, Sakuramiya Hitomi wiped the moisture from the corners of her eyes, tucked the phone into her arms, and walked in Yan Huan's direction.
Many of the guests sitting below saw the funeral home staff approaching and, realizing the proceedings were moving forward, stood up one after another.
But the funeral home staff merely glanced back at the people behind them before looking at Yan Huan,
"Hello, just the two or three closest family members will be enough. Space is limited over there. If you want to say your goodbyes, do it here one last time."
"..."
As soon as these words were spoken, An Le was already standing beside Yan Huan with hollow eyes.
At the entrance, Tong Yingying, who had been smoking, had also returned at some unknown point.
Add to that Sakuramiya Hitomi, who had been presiding over the ceremony from the start, exuding the aura of a grieving widow...
The guests below stared blankly at the intense aura radiating from the three women beside Yan Huan's corpse, and silently sat back down.
"Auntie Ye, will you..."
Sakuramiya Hitomi looked at the two beside her and subconsciously turned to glance at Ye Lan.
Ye Lan also took a few final looks at Yan Huan, her eye sockets inevitably turning red.
Soon after, she shook her head and said in a hoarse voice,
"You girls go ahead... Once the cremation is done, bring Xiao Huan out. I'll handle the cemetery arrangements. After I came to Linmen, I set up a cenotaph for his parents. I want to bury Xiao Huan together with his father and mother..."
"Alright."
When discussing someone's funeral affairs, the topic is always heavy.
Sakuramiya Hitomi nodded, then took a deep breath and looked at the staff members nearby,
"We'll be troubling you."
A few staff members stepped forward, grabbed the stretcher beneath Yan Huan's corpse, and lifted it.
Subsequently, Sakuramiya Hitomi, An Le, and Tong Yingying followed them away.
"Tap... tap... tap."
The three women followed the staff members in total silence all the way until they entered the waiting area in front of the cremation furnace.
"Please wait a moment. You can watch the cremation progress on the screen. You are the first ones, so there's no one to queue up ahead of you. Once it's complete, our staff will notify you to collect the cremated ashes."
"Thank you for the trouble."
"It's our duty."
Sakuramiya Hitomi made a bow, or perhaps it was more like taking one last look at Yan Huan being carried by them.
The iron doors slowly closed, but it was a long while before Sakuramiya Hitomi finally straightened her posture again.
"..."
Behind her, neither An Le nor Tong Yingying had left.
Amidst the silence, Tong Yingying suddenly spoke up,
"I found out where Ye Shiyu is hiding."
"?!"
Upon hearing this, An Le's expression immediately changed. She shifted her gaze toward her and asked darkly,
"Where?"
"I had someone check the surveillance cameras from these past few days and discovered that on the night of Yan Huan's accident, she took a taxi from the hospital to Ye International."
Tong Yingying took out a cigarette, then pulled out a lighter and lit it,
"Later that night, she left Ye International and went to the nearby employee dormitory. Right up until I came here to attend the funeral, I haven't seen her come back out."
In the brief moment she took out the lighter, Sakuramiya Hitomi caught a glimpse of the silhouettes of blades, a taser, and firearms tucked against her body.
"Haa..."
The hazy smoke from the lit cigarette cast a murky shadow over Tong Yingying's eyes, which were ringed with dark circles. Meanwhile, An Le turned to leave without saying a word.
"Smack!"
Seeing her about to leave, Sakuramiya Hitomi immediately reached out and grabbed her shoulder.
"We agreed, three days! Xiao Huan hasn't even been buried yet, what are you rushing for?!" "..."
An Le turned her head back to look at Sakuramiya Hitomi with hollow eyes and shook her head, saying,
"...I just temporarily don't want to stay here anymore. Is that okay?"
"Do you think I'd believe that?"
Sakuramiya Hitomi did not let go of her, and An Le shakily turned her head away,
"Why wouldn't you believe it? Just now, I stayed by Xiao Huan's side the whole time. I... I saw his remains..."
She covered her face, her vacant eyes entirely bloodshot,
"The ambulance hit Xiao Huan so hard, his body was... was... Even though the mortician stitched him up so many times, his whole body... there were still so many parts twisted completely out of shape..."
"..."
Upon hearing this, both Sakuramiya Hitomi and Tong Yingying looked away, their eyes turning red.
Taking the cue, Sakuramiya Hitomi released An Le's shoulder.
"Sakuramiya Hitomi... tomorrow, you'll go with me, right?"
An Le turned her head away and drunkenly swayed as she intended to walk back toward the funeral hall.
But after only taking a few steps, she stopped again and asked this ghostly question.
"..."
Tong Yingying also looked at Sakuramiya Hitomi, causing Sakuramiya Hitomi to instantly feel the weight of two piercing gazes.
She took a deep breath and closed her eyes.
But the moment she closed her eyes, what surfaced was similarly Yan Huan's tragic state, the messages Aruiya had just sent, and everything Ye Shiyu had done.
All these things acted as fuel, causing her emotions to fluctuate violently.
But...
She had to remain calm.
Consequently, she opened her eyes once more and reminded them,
"Even if you kill Ye Shiyu, the Modifier problem won't be resolved... You were the one who told me this, An Le."
"I don't care... I just want Ye Shiyu dead."
Receiving An Le's answer, Sakuramiya Hitomi looked toward Tong Yingying again.
And Tong Yingying, taking a drag of her cigarette, merely said softly,
"Even if there's a new host, it's still better than Ye Shiyu, right?"
"..."
Sakuramiya Hitomi did not reply. Emotionally, she also desperately wanted to seek revenge against Ye Shiyu.
But rationally speaking...
There was something suspicious about the car accident at the time. Why would Ye Shiyu use hypnosis to make the driver crash into the villa where both Xiao Huan and her mother were present?
And last night, right after Xiao Huan's accident, Ye Shiyu surprisingly didn't flee, but instead suddenly headed to Ye International?
What was she doing there?
Yezi AI, imprisonment, hypnosis, the car crash, the President's death...
Linking these keywords together made Sakuramiya Hitomi increasingly suspicious:
Would getting a new Host truly be better than Ye Shiyu?
But right now, if she did not give them an explanation, she feared they would take action tonight.
So, after deciding to think long and hard, Sakuramiya Hitomi still nodded and said,
"I will go with you, but for the specific actions, you must listen to me."
Before An Le and Tong Yingying could speak, Sakuramiya Hitomi immediately stared at them,
"I can't just watch you, An Le, lose control of your emotions and cause your Modifier to go out of control. If that happens, even if you take revenge on Ye Shiyu, it will all be meaningless!
"And you, Tong Yingying, you are not a Modifier Host. Facing a Modifier will be extremely dangerous..."
Hearing this, Tong Yingying let out a cold laugh,
"Got it, Modifier Hosts are just superior beings, huh?"
Sakuramiya Hitomi shook her head, merely lowering her head as she whispered,
"No, I'm just worried about your safety...
"Because, if the President were here, he would absolutely make this same choice."
Hearing those words, both An Le and Tong Yingying couldn't help but freeze.
It was as if some sort of invisible aura had transmitted itself through those words.
"..."
Subsequently, they thought it over for a moment and almost coincidentally chose to tacitly agree.
That is, to follow Sakuramiya Hitomi's lead.
The silence lasted for a long time. An Le did not leave again; instead, she stayed right there.
Only after a very, very long time had passed did An Le suddenly speak up, breaking the silence,
"...Does anyone know exactly how long a cremation takes?"
"Hmm?"
"Didn't they just say that there was no one to queue up ahead of us? It's been over twenty minutes, but there is no progress at all up there..."
Alerted by An Le's words, Sakuramiya Hitomi and Tong Yingying turned back to look at the display screen mounted beside the iron doors.
Up there...
It was completely empty.
Generally speaking, once the process began, the deceased's name would appear on the screen, followed by real-time progress updates.
But...
What was going on right now?
Puzzling over this, Sakuramiya Hitomi frowned and walked over to the iron doors, knocking on them,
"Knock-knock-knock."
"Hello, we are Yan Huan's family members. Could you please tell me if the process has started? How much longer will it be?"
"..."
Inside, there was a dead silence.
Sakuramiya Hitomi blinked, feeling more and more that something was wrong.
"Move aside!"
She was just about to raise her hand to knock again when Tong Yingying shouted fiercely from behind her.
"Bang!"
Sakuramiya Hitomi hurriedly dodged to the side, only to see Tong Yingying deliver a vicious kick from behind.
The iron doors instantly caved in and flew backward from the force of the kick, producing an incredibly ear-piercing scraping noise.
"..."
With a murderous look on her face, Tong Yingying strode inside, only to see the staff members all standing frozen in place, utterly motionless.
Their eyes were completely hollow, just like dolls.
Seeing their condition, the breathing of all three women hitched.
Immediately, they hurriedly looked toward the same spot—the stretcher that had previously held Yan Huan's remains.
However, the stretcher lay empty beside the staff members...
As for the top, Yan Huan's remains had completely vanished.
"!!"
Seeing this, the eyes of the three women instantly flushed blood-red.
"YE! SHI! YU!!!"
An immense sense of oppression erupted violently from the depths of the funeral home, so startling that even the curtain of rain falling from the firmament seemed to pause for a brief moment.
Meanwhile, on the top floor of the Golden Lion Group Mansion.
Sitting on her wardrobe, Aruiya's eyes were slightly red as she looked pitifully at the messages Yan Huan had sent on her phone.
She didn't know what she had done wrong to suddenly be grounded, and then Yan Huan was also acting so cold toward her.
Of course, with Aruiya's little brain, she wouldn't be able to figure it out no matter how hard she tried.
She just stared at those messages. Originally, she had wanted to type out a text to ask for the reason...
But at this moment, Aruiya inexplicably felt a surge of fear.
She was afraid that she wouldn't be able to accept the truth if she asked.
Obviously, she hated people who told lies the most.
But what if...
What if the truth Yan Huan had to say was "I don't like you anymore"? What should she do then?
Thus, after hesitating for a long time, she had no choice but to write,
"Alright then... I'm going to do my homework now...
"You definitely have to contact me later! I'm going to miss you..."
Afterward, she tightly gripped the phone, waiting for Yan Huan's reply.
However, the other side remained silent; there was absolutely no response.
"Sob..."
Seeing this, Aruiya wiped her tears, hugged her phone, and slowly hopped down from the wardrobe.
"Bzzzt..."
The curtain of rain outside the window grew increasingly heavy at this moment. Not far away, a hue of unclean pink began to diffuse from deep within the dense, dark clouds.
But at this moment, inside Aruiya's flat, all the appliances equipped with the new generation Yezi AI—even those on standby—suddenly began to flicker.
Immediately after, without any commands from Heather, the television in the living room abruptly lit up.
"It is currently 4:30 PM Linmen time. Let's look at the weather forecast for today, tomorrow, and the day after. Starting tonight, the entire city of Linmen will experience another round of heavy rainfall..."
"We apologize, interrupting with breaking news.
"Today at 10:13 AM, a severe car accident occurred in the Beihai Villa District..."
Hmm?
Hearing the sound coming from the living room, Aruiya blanked for a second.
Immediately, carefully clutching her phone, she pushed open her bedroom door.
She looked left and right, but there was absolutely no one outside.
Strange...
Didn't Heather lock the television so I couldn't use it?
Would she be so kind as to turn it on for me?
Still full of doubts, Aruiya honestly walked toward the living room.
At this moment, the television was broadcasting a news report.
But what was bizarre was that this breaking news was clearly from yesterday...
"...
"Inside the villa's room, one person was killed, one critically injured, and two suffered minor injuries.
"According to our reporter, the identity of the deceased has been confirmed: Yan Huan, a First Year student at Far Moon Academy and President of the current Student Council..."
Staring at the news appearing on the screen, Aruiya's expression completely froze.
She subconsciously glanced at the timestamp displayed on the side. After realizing that it was from yesterday, she dazedly looked down at the phone she was still clutching.
On the phone, the messages Yan Huan sent today were still vivid in her mind.
"Bzzzt..."
In the next second, inside a certain group chat on the Plane app, a message suddenly popped up mentioning her.
"Has everyone arrived for President Yan's funeral? I'll send the address again.
"The location is at the Linmen Kyogo Ward Funeral..."
Every single word of the message reflected in Aruiya's eyes. Instantly, she hurriedly stretched out a finger and closed Plane, revealing the Yezi AI downloaded on that phone.
Then, she immediately turned around with a blank expression and sprinted madly toward the entrance.
"Click."
"Eldest Miss, you temporarily cannot—"
"RUMBLE!!!"
Outside, millions of streaks of lightning flashed instantaneously.
Only, at this moment, the lightning was incomparably blinding, refusing to fade away for a long time...
It was terrifying to the extreme, as if the sun itself was about to plummet from the sky.