Chapter 96: Transmigrated as a Fraudulent Male Streamer (20)
He Yongning’s house was just as they had anticipated earlier: overgrown with weeds out front, the window glass shattered at some unknown point, and a complete disaster inside… Cen Yu threw a glance at He Yongning, who seemed to have a severe case of mysophobia no matter how one looked at him, figuring the man definitely wouldn’t want to step inside.
Unexpectedly, He Yongning didn’t hesitate in the slightest, pushing the front door of the old house open directly.
—It was precisely because of this push that they discovered the door had merely been left ajar and wasn’t locked at all.
“You didn’t lock it?” Cen Yu looked at He Yongning beside him, feeling that his claw hammer was completely useless. He had originally planned to break the door down for him.
He Yongning glanced down at his own palm. “Forgot.”
This was obviously a lie. Who wouldn’t lock up when traveling far… In truth, He Yongning had somewhat forgotten why he had never wanted to return to this hometown again, as if the very moment he carried his luggage to report for college back then, a voice deep within his heart had told him, “Don’t come back.”
Having pushed the door open, he didn’t step inside right away, but merely circled around the house to check the small stream behind the building… Years had passed, and the small stream had reduced to a mere drainage ditch, flanked on both sides by crops planted by locals. Had He Yongning’s house not been impossible to demolish easily, the spot likely would have been converted into farmland long ago.
Cen Yu carefully recalled the novel’s plot once more.
The description of He Yongning in the text was quite sparse, mentioning only that he was Pei Hengyun’s high school classmate and the boss of the streaming platform Cen Yu belonged to. He was a calm, composed man who continued analyzing the causes behind everything even while the “ghost killings” were underway.
It was truly difficult to imagine a person like him playing some “four-corner game.”
Cen Yu couldn’t fathom why He Yongning remained standing beside that small ditch, lost in thought. “What are you looking at?”
“This used to be a river,” He Yongning explained as Cen Yu stepped up beside him.
He pointed to the stream before them. “Four or five times wider than it is now. Entertainment options were scarce back then… during summer breaks, we’d catch little fish and shrimp right here.”
Cen Yu pondered the potential candidates who might have participated in that game. “…Pei Hengyun? Or Jiang Tuan and Yu Sheng?”
He Yongning’s memory was faint, but he knew it was neither Pei Hengyun nor the other two.
In fact, he was already crystal clear about one thing by now—
Pei Hengyun was definitely not his classmate.
He didn’t bring this up with Cen Yu. Casting another glance at the stream, he simply said to Cen Yu, “Let’s go look inside the house.”
Evidently, He Yongning’s house had been ransacked clean during his absence over the years.
The bedroom, in particular, was an absolute mess, leaving practically no place to step. Cen Yu clicked his tongue at the sight. “Did someone come ransack your place?”
He watched as He Yongning moved with a clear purpose, walking straight toward a specific spot in his bedroom.
Picking his way past the clutter on the floor and dodging cobwebs, Cen Yu followed He Yongning to the corner he had approached, discovering that his desk stood there—
Which, naturally, had also been overturned.
Its contents lay scattered all over the ground.
If Cen Yu had to give his take, the chaos here didn’t look like the aftermath of a break-in, but rather as if a mini tornado had swept through… Under Cen Yu’s watchful eyes, He Yongning squatted down and picked up some old notebooks and assignments from back then.
And, of course, textbooks from those years.
True to the impression He Yongning’s desk gave off, there were no extra scribbles or doodles on these textbooks and assignments.
Cen Yu watched as He Yongning picked up his scattered books from the floor one by one. Just when he assumed the man intended to take them back to his luxury penthouse apartment to reminisce about past hardships and inspire his employees to strive harder, he saw He Yongning open the inner lining of a Chinese literature textbook.
He then pulled out a photograph from inside.
“…?” Cen Yu leaned in for a closer look.
Only to discover that the group photo happened to have been torn in half. The remaining half showed Yu Sheng and He Yongning himself.
He looked up at He Yongning. “Where’s the other half?”
Holding the half-photo, He Yongning vaguely recalled that in their graduation year of high school, a volunteer teacher had come to teach, bringing along a Polaroid camera… Looking at the award certificates in Yu Sheng’s and his own hands in the picture, he faintly remembered that because they had just won an award, the teacher offered to take a photo for them as a keepsake.
Yu Sheng pulled his desk partner over, and He Yongning pulled his own desk partner.
Presumably, the remaining half of the photo contained Jiang Tuan and the remaining person.
“Because he only had two sheets of film left, he could only take two photos,” He Yongning said.
They hadn’t held any particular superstitions back then, and considering how rare the opportunity was, they simply took two identical photos, with each person taking one half.
Therefore, the remaining half of this photo was undoubtedly in Jiang Tuan’s hands as well.
Cen Yu acutely picked up on the fact that He Yongning hadn’t mentioned Pei Hengyun’s name once since earlier. Even when discussing the ownership of the remaining half of the photo, he only stated that Jiang Tuan definitely had it.
Given He Yongning’s personality, he should have said “Pei Hengyun and Jiang Tuan,” yet he had deliberately omitted the existence of one person… Right then, Cen Yu’s phone vibrated. Opening it, he found a message from Little Le.
[Little Le: Just woke up, what’s up Brother Cen?]
While smoking in the courtyard earlier, Cen Yu had sent Little Le a message, simply asking him to reply once he woke up.
Seeing that Little Le was awake now, Cen Yu immediately texted him the task he needed him to handle.
He then slipped the phone back into his pocket.
Seemingly having obtained what he wanted, He Yongning decided to head back first. He stepped out of the old house, with Cen Yu following close behind.
However, just as Cen Yu was about to step over the threshold to leave, he felt a hand clamp down on his ankle.
“…” Cen Yu looked down. As expected, the floor remained completely bare.
The hand merely used its icy temperature to encircle Cen Yu’s ankle, refusing to let him leave.
By this time, He Yongning had already stepped outside the house. Turning back, he saw Cen Yu suddenly freezing in place at the bedroom doorway.
Just as He Yongning was about to ask Cen Yu why he wasn’t moving, he seemed to realize something in an instant. He immediately made a move to step back into the bedroom, but right at that moment, the clutter inside the room began levitating into the air, blocking He Yongning from entering—
BANG!
The front door slammed shut right before He Yongning’s eyes, producing a heavy, echoing thud.
Cen Yu naturally witnessed this scene as well. The hand was actually quite gentle toward him, merely encircling him to prevent him from leaving.
Cen Yu tried to yank his ankle free, only to find the hand gripping exceptionally tightly…
“Tsk.” Cen Yu cast an impatient glance at the floor, raising the hammer in his hand. “If you don’t let go, don’t force my hand.”
The hand kept its tight grip, completely unbothered by Cen Yu’s threat.
Cen Yu gestured through the empty air, realizing that swinging blindly without hitting the ghost might just fracture his own leg first…
However, a new idea had already taken root in his mind.
And so, addressing the invisible hand, he spoke—
“Actually, you came at just the right time…” Cen Yu lowered the hammer in his hand. “Just in time for me to test out an idea I had earlier.”
Saying this, he slowly lifted his leg once more.
This time, he met no resistance whatsoever…
Offering a smile toward the completely empty space, he said, “Your secret—I’ve figured it out.”
