Chapter 424 - 369: Mai Mingle: Yes, No, This Is a Construction Site

Chapter 424: Chapter 369: Mai Mingle: Yes, No, This Is a Construction Site

Mai Mingle snapped back to her senses with a jolt. She forced her heart, which was pounding wildly, to calm down and subconsciously called out, "Ivan?"

The eye blinked, its lid closing and opening once.

Actually, as she called out, Mai Mingle had already realized it wasn’t Ivan behind the wall because the eye color didn’t match. Ivan’s eyes weren’t yellow or green, but a messy, muddy mix of colors. The person behind the wall, however, had a pair of ordinary brown eyes.

’Hmm, one eye. I haven’t seen the other one yet.’

Without waiting for the person behind the wall to answer, Mai Mingle waved her hand and said, "Ahem, you gave me a scare. Do you work at this construction site? I’m looking for someone."

"What?" the eye behind the wall asked.

He stepped back, and Mai Mingle saw a narrow face, short black hair, and a blue plaid shirt.

"I’m looking for someone. A friend of mine has gone missing." Mai Mingle also took a few steps back and showed him the AI-generated portrait. "Have you seen this person around here? He should be wearing a gray shirt..."

"This is a construction site," the worker behind the wall said.

’This person doesn’t seem to be very good at communicating—does he mean that outsiders can’t enter a construction site, so Ivan isn’t here?’

’In any case, I shouldn’t just guess. I’d better get a clear answer.’

"I know it’s a construction site. But have you seen him nearby?" Mai Mingle asked again.

"Yes," the worker behind the wall said.

"Really? Where?" Mai Mingle was surprised. "When? Is he at the construction site?"

"No," the worker behind the wall said.

’...What does he mean, yes and no? Did he see him or not?’

Talking to this person was exhausting. He was even less lucid than the residents. He didn’t have an accent either, so it wasn’t like there was a language barrier...

"When you said ’no,’ which question were you answering?" Mai Mingle was starting to regret it; she knew she shouldn’t have asked several questions at once. When there were too many questions, some people would only answer the last one.

The worker behind the wall looked at her, paused for a few seconds, and said, "I don’t know."

’...Could he have some kind of intellectual disability?’

’When I came over, I don’t think I saw a main gate... Maybe I should just go inside to talk. Since there’s someone on site, he’s probably not alone. Asking his coworkers is another option.’

"Excuse me, where is the entrance to the construction site?" Mai Mingle asked. "I’ll just come in and talk to you—"

She blinked and came back to her senses.

’...Huh?’

’Seriously, why am I sitting on the curb? Even if I was tired from walking, I can’t just plop down on the ground. The streets of Blackmoor City are notoriously filthy.’

Mai Mingle quickly jumped up and used her free hand—the one not clutching her phone—to brush off her pants.

She glanced at the screen.

A moment ago, it seemed she had been bored, browsing the apps Hai Luwei had downloaded for her. Tapping on one was enough to make her dizzy and confused; she hadn’t even opened a post before an ad popped up.

’When and how did I get sidetracked by an ad—no, by my phone?’

Mai Mingle hesitated, then looked up at the residential renovation site across the street.

Looking from here, she could only see a wall of light-blue corrugated panels stretching for more than half the street before turning a corner and disappearing, its total length unknown.

The AI portraits she had just posted looked like patches, or like rectangular windows had been opened in the wall, with a face in each one staring back at her from afar.

The missing person notices were posted, and the worker behind the wall couldn’t give a straight answer about whether he’d seen Ivan... There was no point in staying any longer. She had to leave.

Mai Mingle just couldn’t figure out how, after crossing the street, she had ended up sitting on the curb and playing with her phone. She should have at least checked the time and headed home sooner.

Hai Luwei was right. Smartphones make it too easy to get distracted and sucked in. She didn’t even remember when she had crossed the street. No wonder he’d said, "You don’t even notice it, and the next thing you know, you’re scrolling on your phone." She hadn’t understood it at the time, but now she was experiencing the phone’s power firsthand.

She looked at her phone and said to it, "You’d better not distract me again next time. I’m in the middle of something."

The phone looked back at her with an air of perfect innocence.

’Then again, there aren’t even any messages or calls on the phone. I can’t blame it for grabbing my attention...’

’Hmm, speaking of which, those two kids have been strangely quiet today.’

’Last night, they were saying they wanted to come along and help search... Did they get busy today?’

But Hai Luwei had been very blunt: "When I’m not going into the Nest, I’m bored to death. If you don’t let me go with you, I’ll just rot into a puddle in front of the TV."

Emily had said that she wasn’t a puddle; she had her Body Techniques training and shooting classes. But not letting her come along was absolutely out of the question, and she trusted Mai Mingle to make the right choice.

But today, her phone was completely silent.

The gloomy gray sky hung low, pregnant with heavy, thick clouds. The construction site was silent, and the streets were nearly empty. It was as if the whole world was demonstrating the meaning of "the calm before the storm."

Mai Mingle glanced at the construction site again.

’Something feels strange... Since I have to take a taxi home anyway, it doesn’t matter where I catch one. I’ll just cross the street and check it out again first.’

As she was thinking, she was already stepping onto the crosswalk.

Coincidentally, while Mai Mingle was standing on the median in the middle of the road waiting for the next light, she saw an elderly tourist couple turn the corner. They were walking while looking back and forth between their phone and their surroundings—Mai Mingle understood; phones have maps now.

It seemed the map hadn’t stopped them from getting lost. The two craned their necks to look down the road, as if trying to see where the wall ended before wasting the energy to walk all the way there.

Just looking wouldn’t tell them much, as the project site was quite large. So, the next logical step was to ask someone for directions.

The couple turned their heads and, from across half the road, their eyes met Mai Mingle’s.

The weather was bad, and with the construction site nearby, there were few pedestrians. Mai Mingle cleared her throat, ready to step up and give them directions. Just as she was about to wave for them to wait, she saw the wife suddenly turn her head, as if she’d heard something.

The wife looked at the wall, then tugged her husband’s arm. The two of them turned, walked over to a gap where two of the simple panels met, and called out to someone behind the wall.

’...Is that the worker?’

Mai Mingle couldn’t explain why her heart suddenly tightened. She glanced up at the traffic light, didn’t wait, and, under the gaze of the little red man, broke into a run and dashed across the street.

"Hello, I’d like to ask for some information,"

As Mai Mingle ran closer, she could hear the wife standing at the gap, asking the person behind the wall, "How far is it to the ’Red Swan Garden Hotel’? We’re following the map, but the cursor keeps spinning around..."

The husband heard the noise and glanced back at Mai Mingle.

Blackmoor City wasn’t known for being safe. He couldn’t tell what Mai Mingle was doing dashing across the street like that, so he cautiously clutched his backpack to his chest.

"This is a construction site," the worker behind the wall said. If he hadn’t immediately added another sentence, Mai Mingle would have almost thought he was a robot. "This is a social housing project site, not the Red Swan Garden."

"I know," the wife said, a bit flustered by his response. "Is it far from the Red Swan Garden?"

Through the gap, the same brown eye blinked once and said, "No."

The couple’s spirits lifted, and they moved a step closer to the gap. "That’s great! Which way should we go?"

Wait—

The word was still caught in her throat. Before Mai Mingle could stop them, she heard the worker behind the wall speak again: "That’s also a construction site."

What?

The elderly tourist couple and Mai Mingle were all stunned.

"’The Red Swan Garden Hotel,’" the worker behind the wall said, "is also a social housing renovation site."

"What are you talking about?" the husband said, his shock turning to anger. "That’s the hotel we’re staying at. This morning, we just—"

He stopped abruptly.

Mai Mingle had reached the couple’s side, but before she could speak to them, she found herself frozen by his sudden cutoff. ’What’s going on?’

The husband didn’t seem to see her. The backpack slid down his arm.

The couple stared fixedly at the eye in the gap, and the eye in the gap stared fixedly back at them.

Under a gloomy, rain-cloud-filled sky, Mai Mingle stared blankly as the three of them looked at each other motionlessly for a few seconds. After a moment, the elderly tourist couple turned around without a word.

"Hello, wait," Mai Mingle called out. "Are you..."

She had barely started speaking when she froze again.

As if no one had heard her, the husband walked off to the left, while the wife walked step by step to the right. They didn’t look at each other, didn’t say a word, and walked away in opposite directions, the distance between them growing in moments.

’Which one should I follow?’

For a moment, Mai Mingle was at a loss. After a few seconds, she decided to hurry after the wife. She called out to her several times, but the wife didn’t react, just kept walking with one determined step after another—until Mai Mingle tapped her on the shoulder and finally stopped her.

"Where are you going?" Fearing the woman wasn’t in her right mind, Mai Mingle grabbed her and pointed back. "That’s your husband, isn’t it? He went that way."

"I know," the wife said calmly.

"You know? ...Why did you two suddenly split up and go in different directions?"

It wasn’t a question a stranger should ask, nor was it something one should answer for a stranger. But the wife replied anyway, "He’s gone to find a hotel. Our hotel turned into a construction site, so we don’t have a place to stay. We need to find a new one."

It was the first time Mai Mingle had ever heard something that sounded so perfectly reasonable and yet was complete and utter nonsense.

She had too many questions, all clamoring to get out at once, tangling themselves up. In the end, she could only grab hold of the first one that surfaced in her mind: "Then what are you doing?"

"I’m going back to the ’Red Swan Garden Hotel,’" the wife answered. "I have to go and inform them that their hotel has become a construction site."

Mai Mingle couldn’t help but close her eyes and pinch the corners of them hard.

"Listen to what you’re saying," she said, opening her eyes. "None of this makes any sense—"

The wife’s face was almost touching hers.

Those aged, cloudy pupils filled most of Mai Mingle’s vision. Their noses were nearly touching.

Startled, Mai Mingle involuntarily stumbled back a step or two. The sharp blare of a car horn from nearby pierced the air and her eardrums. She suddenly realized she had stepped into the road. When she turned, a pair of headlights shone into her eyes from under the overcast sky.

...After she had scrambled back onto the sidewalk in a flustered mess and been cursed at by the speeding driver, Mai Mingle looked up to find that the wife was a fast walker. Not only had she gotten far away, but she had already hailed a taxi.

She slammed the car door shut with a BANG, as if putting a final punctuation mark on the whole episode.

Mai Mingle caught her breath, momentarily confused about why she had insisted on stopping the woman in the first place.

’She just wanted to go see the social housing project site, right?’

’People in this world want to do all sorts of things. If the wife wanted to look, then let her...’

’Hmm, but something still feels off. I just can’t put my finger on what it is.’

Mai Mingle looked back at the social housing renovation site not far behind her. It was still perfectly silent. Unless you got close, it seemed no one would ever know a person was standing in a gap in the wall.

After hesitating for a few seconds, she took out her phone and called Hai Luwei.

The phone rang several times before it was picked up.

"Mai Mingle?" Hai Luwei seemed to let out a huge sigh of relief. "You’re finally reachable! Was your phone off or something? We sent you messages but you didn’t reply, and our calls wouldn’t go through..."