Chapter 702: Frog

I stayed quiet and kept my movements light, but the little boy still sensed something. He immediately looked away, frantically flipping through his exercise book.

I swept my Judging Eye over the floral umbrella but found nothing unusual, nor was there any sinister Yin energy lingering in the room.

"You have a lot of homework, don't you?" Crouching down in front of him, I controlled my facial muscles to form a friendly smile.

The boy gripped his pen, restless and on edge. He seemed afraid of strangers.

"You mentioned earlier that a woman pushed your classmate down?" I reached out and rubbed the boy's head. His hair was soft, like the down of a young animal. "I believe you. Could you just tell me what that woman looked like?"

He hesitated, stealing glances at the floral umbrella drying off to the side. It took him a long time to finally speak. "She wore red clothes and held an umbrella. She had her back to me, so I couldn't see anything else clearly."

"You couldn't see her clearly?" I narrowed my eyes. "Then why did you say a woman pushed your classmate? Why did you call her 'big sister'?"

The little boy opened his mouth, but instead of answering, he simply took his pen and started drawing in his exercise book. "She had a thick braid. Only women grow their hair that long."

"A braid..." I watched him sketch out the crooked figure of a woman, recalling the story the restaurant owner had just told me. "Is this place really haunted?"

I reasoned with the boy for a moment and tore his drawing of the woman out of the exercise book.

It was a terrible drawing, yet it captured all of her defining features.

She was holding an umbrella, had a long black braid, and cut a frail, thin figure. She seemed as though she would never turn around, leaving people to only ever see her from behind.

"Were you the only one in the whole class who saw this woman? Did the kid she pushed down not notice anything at all?" I asked, tucking his drawing into my pocket.

"I don't know. They all said I did it, but I didn't." The boy pressed his lips together, looking deeply wronged.

"Then do you know why that woman pushed your classmate? Did he do something strange?" As I questioned him, I noticed something very interesting: the boy kept glancing at the floral umbrella leaning against the wall, as if something terrifying were hiding beneath its open canopy.

"No. We were going to leave together after school, but it started pouring, so we waited at the school shop for my mom to come pick me up."

"Are you sure?" If he hadn't done anything strange at all yet was still targeted by a malicious ghost, it meant this entity was incredibly vindictive. She likely possessed a twisted, cruel nature and despised all things good.

Combining that with the boy's drawing, I slowly sketched out an image of the woman in my mind.

"I remember now," the boy mumbled hesitantly. "We left late. My classmate saw a frog in the flower bed behind the school, so he climbed up to catch it. And then he got pushed down."

"A frog?" I frowned in confusion. "How could there be frogs in this season?"

Frogs were cold-blooded animals. Their body temperature was dictated by the ambient temperature, dropping steadily as the weather grew colder.

It was late autumn now; frogs should have been a rare sight.

I didn't know much about flora and fauna, but instinct told me it was very strange.

"That's all. Then the teachers and classmates crowded around, and everyone said I did it." The boy pouted. "They all blamed me, but it was actually that woman. I saw it with my own eyes."

"I know. I believe you wouldn't lie." Smiling, I rubbed the boy's head again, then stepped into the back room and picked up the floral umbrella from the floor.

The restaurant owner's family had helped me out a lot, so I wanted to repay the favor.

Wisps of ethereal black hair slipped out of the Ghost Ring, vanishing silently into my shadow. My expression remained entirely unchanged as I inspected the strange umbrella right in front of the little boy. I really wanted to figure out why he had been staring at it for so long.

The floral canopy was still damp. It looked completely ordinary.

"I practice ghost arts, so I'm extremely sensitive to Yin energy. There are no evil spirits attached to this umbrella." I pondered for a moment, recalling something the restaurant owner had told me earlier—never open an umbrella indoors.

"Let's give it a try. Ordinary evil objects are nothing to me anyway." Under the little boy's astonished gaze, I raised the open umbrella over my head.

The canopy blocked out the ceiling lights, casting floral shadows over my body. Staring up at the metal ribs, a strange sensation suddenly washed over me. Standing under an umbrella indoors felt as if I had been isolated in a completely private space.

It was somewhat stifling. The space beneath the umbrella seemed infinitely quieter than the room outside.

"What are you doing?" the little boy asked, tilting his head and chewing on the end of his pen.

"Nothing." Looking at the restaurant from beneath the umbrella, I vaguely felt that something was different from before. I used my Judging Eye to observe my surroundings carefully, my gaze slowly locking onto the kitchen in the back.

Right where those ghostly scribbled talismans were pasted, a deeply uncomfortable feeling washed over me.

"There were no ghosts in this room to begin with. Is the talisman the actual ghost?" I tossed the umbrella aside. Without it open, I couldn't see anything unusual at all. "What a strange place. Every single household puts up these talismans. Just what on earth are they used for?"

The restaurant owner and his wife were in the kitchen making a phone call, making it inconvenient for me to go over. They had specifically gone to the back to avoid me; barging in right now would definitely be inappropriate.

"The waters of Jinghai run deep. I can't even see through a single outer district." I smiled at the little boy and was just about to leave. I had almost reached the door when I suddenly changed my mind.

I crouched down in front of the boy again. "Let me ask you a question. Do you know where the Pig Cage Apartments are?"

The boy shook his head, but a moment later, he seemed to remember something. "I heard my dad mention it before. The Pig Cage Apartments are really close to us, just to the north, near the inner district. He told us never to go up north."

To my surprise, the boy had actually given me a crucial clue. "Thank you, little guy."

While he wasn't paying attention, I slipped an evil-warding Profound Truth Talisman into the lining of his backpack. I silently chanted an incantation, only standing up to leave once the talisman took effect.

"Eight forty-nine. This meal took a bit too long."

I checked my watch. The moment I walked out of the back room, the owner hurried over to meet me. He looked pale, and despite it being late autumn, cold sweat clung to his forehead. "Sorry for the poor hospitality. A little issue came up."

"You look awful. What happened?"

"You shouldn't ask too many questions. The nights around here haven't been safe lately. Whatever you do, don't walk the streets alone after dark." He shoved my change into my hands, repeating his warnings.

"Don't just leave it at that. Tell me a little bit, at least give me an idea of what to expect." I really wanted to know who had called them, managing to completely flip a grown man's demeanor in just a few short minutes.

"You heard it earlier. My kid pushed his classmate down, and a tree branch nearly poked the other boy's eye out."

"I know that. Was the phone call from his parents? Are they demanding compensation?" I ventured a guess.

"It wasn't his parents. It was the police." The owner offered a bitter smile. "Their kid went missing."

"Missing?!" My voice shot up in surprise; I hadn't seen that coming at all. "What did the police tell you?"

"His parents were taking him home. When they passed by a small alley, he suddenly took off sprinting into it like a madman, and then he just vanished. The police suspect the boy suffered some kind of shock, so they called my wife and asked her to bring our son to the station." The owner pulled a crumpled soft pack of cigarettes from his pocket. "What a mess. Now our whole family is dragged into it. A trip to the police station is definitely going to cost us money. Life is just too hard these days."

"Could the kid have seen something that made him run into the alley? Is the legend of the Black Umbrella Woman real?" I shoved the change into my pocket and shot the owner a look.

His face grew even paler at my words. He called out to the back room, brought the little boy out, and fetched two raincoats for them to wear.

"You're not bringing an umbrella?"

Before I could even finish my sentence, the owner shoved his remaining cigarettes and a lighter into my hands. "Brother, when it rains at night, don't go out. And if someone goes out, don't ask them to stay. I have too much on my plate today, so I'm closing up early. Keep the smokes."

I could hear the unspoken demand for me to leave. I didn't refuse his cigarettes, but as I stepped out the door, I made sure to add one last thing. "Make sure your son wears his backpack. The police will want to reconstruct the scene, so don't forget to bring his things."

Only after I saw the boy strap on his backpack did I nod in satisfaction, open my black umbrella, and step out into the night.

"It's very close, it's to the north, and it's near the inner district. Right now, those are the only three clues I have." Staring down the pitch-black alley, I realized I was actually incredibly curious about the Black Umbrella Woman. If I wasn't already bogged down by my streaming mission, I really would have liked to go meet her. "Forget it. I shouldn't go out of my way just to make myself suffer."

On rainy nights, the sky was always exceptionally dark, not letting a single sliver of light through. The thick clouds felt as if they were pressing right down on my head, so oppressive it was hard to breathe.

The rain was coming down harder and harder.

I didn't return to the hotel I was staying at, but instead headed straight north.

After leaving the residential area, I spotted a few taxis on the main road. However, they either already had passengers or immediately waved me off and drove away the second they heard I was heading north, leaving me no chance to say anything else.

"It seems they all know there's something bad up north."

This was a completely unfamiliar city to me. I had no help and no means of transportation. Trying to find my destination with nothing but a child's hints would require a stroke of incredible luck.

I reached into my jacket and pulled out the Good and Evil Asura Mask. This icy mask could shield me from the hostility of the heavens, returning my luck to a normal level.

Pulling my black umbrella down to obscure most of my face, I walked briskly through the rain along the empty road, heading due north.

I didn't know how long I had been walking, but the surroundings grew increasingly desolate. The buildings thinned out, replaced by sprawling patches of weeds, thickets of trees, and scattered puddles.

"The boy said the Pig Cage Apartments were close to the inner district. Did I walk in the wrong direction?" I climbed up a dirt mound by the side of the highway, intending to use my Judging Eye to scan the distance. However, the moment I reached the top, I spotted a sedan driving erratically just a short distance away.

The driver seemed completely drunk, and they hadn't even turned on the headlights. The car lurched forward and then backward, as if the driver were frantically trying to dodge something.