Akita Ward is a large suburban area of Jihoku City, 70% of which is covered by dense forests.
There is also the well-known "Aomori Sea of Trees" in the north, which has been selected by many island citizens as "the place they want to stay on the last day of their lives", so much so that the district council had to allocate funds to set up a large number of patrols and patrols at the edge of the sea of trees.
Psychiatrists are stationed in the area to alleviate the persistent suicide rate in the area.
I took the local light rail train and arrived at Sendai Station in the southern part of Akita Ward. It was already 10 o'clock in the evening.
Chen Ziang sent the text message to the other party again, and after confirming the address, he and Suzuna Tsukinomiya transferred to the subway. It took more than 20 minutes to arrive at the door of the writer's house - a "one-family house" with a courtyard.
The nameplate next to the main entrance of the courtyard wall reads "Kikuchi".
After hearing the doorbell, Miss Kikuchi quickly came out and opened the main door of the courtyard wall for the two of them.
"I'm sorry for bothering you." Suzuna Tsukinomiya saluted and said, "We are from Urban Mystery Magazine."
"It's okay, it's okay." Miss Kikuchi waved her hands quickly, "It would be nice if there were guests visiting. This old house always makes me feel flustered."
Out of professional habit, Chen Ziang quickly looked at the young lady.
She has light makeup on her face and a polite smile on her face. She should be a woman who has been in the workplace for at least three years.
There is no ring on the hand, which means she is unmarried. The dark circles under her eyes are a bit heavy, she often stays up late, and there are coffee stains on her chest and clothes.
After following Miss Kikuchi into the house, Tsukimiya Suzuna suddenly said:
"A bit cold."
"Well, I don't know if it's due to the aging of the heating pipes. It's been really cold at home these days." Miss Kikuchi sighed, "I've made an appointment with the boiler master to come over for maintenance tomorrow."
"By the way, I haven't told you about that nightmare yet, have I?"
She invited the two of them to sit down on the sofa in the living room, and then began to describe her nightmare vividly, as if it were an anecdote worth sharing.
Tsukimiya Suzuna took out her small notebook seriously and started taking notes based on Miss Kikuchi's description. Her attitude was impeccable and she cooperated with questions from time to time, which made Miss Kikuchi's conversation more interesting and the relationship between the two quickly became familiar.
Chen Ziang looked around and thought that he had made the right decision to bring Tsukigiya Suzuna here.
If Suzuna Tsukinomiya hadn't been there, he would have been the one sitting on the sofa being pestered by Miss Kikuchi to describe the dream - of course that's not to say that the testimony of the person involved was unimportant, but he was still more accustomed to investigating on his own.
The ancestral house left by Ms. Kikuchi's grandfather has a unique decoration style. Except for the TV wall and windows in the living room, very high bookshelves are placed against the wall, with a height of at least two and a half meters, filled with various kinds of bookshelves.
All kinds of books can even be reached with the help of a ladder.
Chen Ziang looked carefully and found that the partitions and book spines were covered with dust. It was obvious that Miss Kikuchi who inherited the house was not a person who loved reading.
"I've flipped through a few of those books." Miss Kikuchi, who was half lying on the sofa, looked at Chen Zi'ang who was studying in front of the bookshelf and said with a smile, "They are all in Ancient Meneus, so I can't understand them."
"Ancient Meneus language?" Chen Ziang asked in surprise.
"It's the ancient elven writing." Miss Kikuchi waved her hand, "You know elves, right?"
The Meneus tribe was the first alien race that humans encountered in the Milky Way during the era of colonization of the universe.
Its appearance is very similar to that of humans, but the upper ends of its ears are pointed, so it is nicknamed "Elf" by humans - after all, the name "Meneus" is long and difficult to remember.
"My grandfather used to be a folklorist." Miss Kikuchi continued. "He stayed in the Meneus Federation for decades, so he should have brought these books back from the elves."
"I see." Chen Ziang nodded to express his understanding, "Can I read these books?"
"Please." Miss Kikuchi said casually.
Chen Ziang took out a book and opened the title page.
It was indeed as she said, all of them were unfamiliar elven characters. Judging from the yellowing of the pages, it seemed that they had been thinking about it for a long time, and there was a faint musty smell on the surface.
Miss Kikuchi and Suzuna Tsukinomiya were chatting happily, but the topic had changed from nightmares to entertainment industry news. Chen Ziang took the opportunity to continue observing the bookshelf and quietly started to get inspired.
The so-called "inspiration", also called spiritual intuition, is a certain kind of intuition used by people with high spiritual vision to explore mysterious things - it is very useful when it is inconvenient to carry a spiritual pressure meter.
After opening his inspiration, Chen Ziang scanned the surroundings again and initially confirmed that there was indeed something wrong with this ancestral home.
It's not weird, it should be some kind of mysterious thing that is deeply hidden and continues to radiate weird energy to the surroundings.
Judging from past cases, it may be undiscovered relics of gods, strange traces, or books recording forbidden knowledge, etc.
Judging from the original owner's large collection of books, the last possibility is relatively high.
Thinking of this, Chen Ziang asked again:
"Can I take a look around here? I want to see if there are any books I can read."
"Okay, just don't go to the bedroom on the second floor." Ms. Kikuchi said with a smile, then turned to whisper to Tsukimiya Suzuna, "This colleague of yours really likes books."
"Of course, I am an editor after all." Tsukimiya Suzuna's answer was impeccable.
Chen Ziang walked around the living room several times and checked almost every bookshelf.
His inspiration was sharper than that of ordinary operators, but he still could not confirm the location of the source of the anomaly.
It must be here. Chen Ziang can clearly sense that it is here, but the specific location cannot be determined. It is obviously very close...
Um?
Another strange intuition emerged from his mind, and he suddenly guessed where the target was hidden.
Chen Ziang turned around quietly and saw Tsukinomiya Suzuna chatting animatedly with Miss Kikuchi.
"There's a call from the editorial department. I'll answer it." He raised his cell phone and signaled to Miss Kikuchi.
Arriving in the foyer and avoiding Miss Kikuchi's sight, Chen Ziang took a deep breath and activated his dream walking ability.
He entered the preconscious level.
Turning back to the living room again, Chen Ziang saw that Suzuna Tsukinomiya was still talking about something, and Miss Kikuchi sitting opposite her had a mask of a bright smile on her face.
The symbolic meaning of the mask is to "hide the true heart." After staying in the Sheriff's Department for so long, Chen Ziang could certainly see that Miss Kikuchi's way of dealing with people showed obvious signs of workplace training. She probably worked in a job where she often dealt with people.
As for Suzuna Tsukimiya, the image in her preconscious mind is no different from her in reality - this means that she has become familiar with her.
When meeting a stranger, through critical observation and a few words of conversation, people usually build up their first impression of the stranger in their hearts, and this is reflected in the preconscious level, such as Miss Kikuchi's mask.
There is nothing strange about Tsukimiya Suzuna's phantom, which means that she is no longer a stranger in my heart, so there is no need to use first impressions to maintain my memory.
Having said that, this young lady is obviously from a bureaucratic family, but her words, deeds and behavior do not have the characteristics of a young lady at all. Instead, she looks more like a energetic childhood sweetheart.
Chen Ziang stopped letting his thoughts fly and continued to dive into the subconscious level.
The surrounding environment began to change in a strange style, with a large number of candles appearing around the bookshelf, and the candlelight swayed in the dim light.
There are many books with their leaves open like birds, circling and flying in the living room, chasing each other, and the broken pages are fluttering like feathers.
Miss Kikuchi on the sofa has disappeared, and Suzuna Tsukimiya covered her face with her hands, tears flowing from her fingers.
Why are you crying again? Could it be that the last time she hugged her sister and cried bitterly, she left such a deep impression on herself?
In the subconscious world, everything is bizarre and illogical, so Chen Ziang did not continue to delve deeper and dived into the collective subconscious level again.
When I opened my eyes again, the roof above my head was no longer visible, but the violet curly starry sky was as bright and beautiful as silk satin.
A large number of bookshelves were left in the living room, but the wooden structure was replaced by stone. Most of the books arranged on them were decayed, and the words on the spines were almost unrecognizable.
Chen Ziang's eyes quickly locked on one of the books.
Its books are dark red, slightly curled at the edges, and exude an obscure aura that makes inspiration extremely uneasy—this thing is hiding in the collective subconscious, constantly radiating spiritual pollution into this ancestral house.
The shadow cloak badge pinned to his underwear suddenly vibrated violently.
[The Lord of the Great Deep Sea is very interested in this diary.]