A mysterious realm descends, and I defy fate in comics.

Chapter 25 Special Hospital

It was only when Jiang Xingni heard these words that he truly felt that he was in a shonen manga.

Then Jiang Xing smiled and said, "Stop with the nonsense and get to the conclusion."

Pei Zhaoye looked at Jiang Xingni's almost imperceptible smile with some disappointment, but he didn't delay. Instead, he followed the flow of people out of the carriage and whispered an explanation in Jiang Xingni's ear.

"Let me explain again," he declared solemnly. "We're not hiding anything from you; in fact, we've been kept in the dark ourselves."

He then began to explain the nature of the "book without words"—or more precisely, the nature of the strange objects recorded in the visionaries.

"Its ability is to peer into the deepest desires in people's hearts." Pei Zhaoye's gaze quickly swept over the lines of text, and he casually sent these documents to Xiao Jiming's group.

"So, the village chief of Nanshan Village..." Jiang Xingni fell into deep thought. Amidst the bustling crowd, the little girl instinctively protected the person next to her. "He genuinely wanted to spread shadow puppetry."

"It seems so." Pei Zhaoye nodded. "It really does sound like some kind of Holy Grail that grants people's wishes, but it would distort people's true intentions."

—It's just that the wrong method was used. The goal of promoting shadow puppetry was indeed achieved, but it may not be the same as what the village chief originally thought.

Who could have imagined that the so-called "promotion of shadow puppetry" would turn itself into a shadow puppet?

"Why were those kids alright?" Jiang Xingni recalled.

They didn't die, but they did become accomplices in the shadow puppetry. If an ordinary person didn't know about the existence of the "wordless book," they might think that these children were the real murderers.

"It's probably because of... the village chief." Pei Zhaoye handed one earphone to Jiang Xingni and then started playing music.

The village chief's voice—it should be the village chief's voice, even though they had never seen a living village chief before, only a dead walking corpse—sounded from the second level.

He wasn't talking to anyone at the time, but his tone was incredibly resolute.

"Everything we create is for the children." The village chief's voice was hoarse with age, but every word was clear and distinct. "Our shadow puppet shows are for children."

He seemed to pause for a moment, then softened his voice, and the sound of hands and hair being rubbed could be heard.

"Children shouldn't be sad," he said again. "We should bring them joy; childhood should be a time of happiness."

"According to this passage, the phenomenon will be discovered. Children aged twelve and under will also see these images, but they will not be manipulated to die or made into shadow puppets. Instead, their survival will be affected," Pei Zhaoye continued to read the next page and then explained to Jiang Xingni.

"That makes sense," she said softly.

The two of them walked out of the high-speed rail station.

Even though he had been killed by the Wordless Book, and was completely dead, both physically and metaphysically, his former consciousness—or more precisely, the desires that the Wordless Book had glimpsed—still influenced the Wordless Book.

—They are spreading shadow puppetry, and the children are innocent.

So it ended up like this: through the internet and in person, their shadow puppet shows spread like a virus, but whether it was a real play or a video shared online, everything avoided children.

Pei Zhaoye naturally thought of this as well. He was silent for a moment, then shook his head, putting all these thoughts out of his mind.

"Can you monitor where that wordless book is?" Jiang Xing noticed his slight dejection, but calmly didn't dwell on it. Instead, she changed the subject and focused on the most important issue at hand.

"Let's go to the location of the last shadow puppet show victim first. Can you check the surveillance footage around there, okay?" The young girl's tone was calm and even. Seemingly realizing her tone might have been a bit too harsh, she hesitated for a moment before adding, "Is that okay?"

Pei Zhaoye then changed the subject, following Jiang Xingni's words.

"I can give it a try," he said.

As soon as he finished speaking, Jiang Xingni heard a system notification: [Comic updated!]

She can basically predict what the new comic will be like. Reader feedback can wait; it's not something urgent that she needs to know immediately.

As for the content of the comic, it can be basically divided into two parts: one half is the plot development of Jiang Xingni and Pei Zhaoye, and the other half is the remaining main characters.

Jiang Xingni was also confident that Xiao Jiming and his group would receive far more attention and occupy more space in the narrative than Jiang Xingni and Pei Zhaoye.

Now, none of that matters. Jiang Xing stared at Pei Zhaoye's hand. Among the golden light spots, she saw some faint purple spots, almost transparent in color, but they were definitely there.

—The settings Pei Zhaoye added for her earlier have taken effect.

The little girl silently thought to herself, "Thank you, Xiao Pei. Thank you for your imagination and for speaking."

Pei Zhaoye, of course, had no idea what Jiang Xingni was thinking, so he explained.

The victim in Luzhou is a woman who, according to the investigation, has a daughter and is a single mother. She is currently under observation in a special hospital run by the Vision Society.

"Actually, I've wanted to ask this for a while now," Jiang Xingni said slowly.

Pei Zhaoye struck a pose of anticipation: "What's the problem?"

"Is your Phenomenon Society—or Phenomenon Bureau, both names—from the same department?" Jiang Xingni asked with pure curiosity.

To be honest, Pei Zhaoye didn't expect Jiang Xingni to ask such a question.

It concerns vision societies.

"It's a bit complicated," Pei Zhaoye admitted. "The Phenomenon Society is an organization from a long time ago, while the Phenomenon Bureau... was only later incorporated into the government."

"But many people still habitually call them by their original name, the Vision Society."

Then he saw Jiang Xingni smile, and the little girl poked her own face with her fingertip: "Just like you."

Pei Zhaoye nodded: "Yes, just like me."

Jiang Xingni just smiled and stared at him for a while, her tone thoughtful: "So your superpower is still data manipulation."

Pei Zhaoye finally understood what Jiang Xingni meant by those words.

He instinctively wanted to make something up, but then he remembered his promise to Jiang Xingni that he wouldn't deceive her.

So the young man smiled and said, "I'm keeping up with the times."

*

The special hospital is located not too far from the high-speed rail station, and it only takes ten minutes by subway.

From the outside, it looks like an ordinary top-tier hospital, with people coming for checkups and treatment filling the entire open space.

Jiang Xingni silently put on a mask for herself and handed one to Pei Zhaoye.

"Where did you get so many little things?" Pei Zhaoye asked, but didn't pursue the matter further and simply put them on.

Immediately afterwards, Pei Zhaoye led Jiang Xingni into the staff elevator, lightly tapped the elevator door with his knuckles, and then pressed the "14L" button twice.

Jiang Xingni remained silent, quietly observing Pei Zhaoye's actions.

The elevator doors opened in the gap between the thirteenth and fourteenth floors. Outside, medical staff rushed by, not even glancing at the two people who walked into the elevator car.