Ti rewinds to half an hour ago.
The five people trapped in the mysterious house, Yu Wenxuan included, listened to the words of the man whose face couldn’t be seen, and sank into deep thought.
Gu Pingsheng already knew who this person was. After all, he was a firsthand witness from ten years ago, part of the group chosen last ti, and alongside the faceless man before him... had once shared life and death.
"Bai... Yanren?"
Gu Pingsheng exposed the mysterious man’s identity.
The room fell into silence.
A mont later, the man with the indistinct face nodded slightly.
"Long ti no see, Ping Sheng."
His voice made Gu Pingsheng suddenly recall those deliberately concealed mories, gradually coming back to life...
————
My na is Gu Pingsheng, and I am a negotiation expert by profession.
My profession requires to remain calm under any circumstances, but at this mont, I still felt the long-lost fear and panic.
Although three minutes had passed, I still couldn’t make sense of what was happening.
What on earth is going on?
Why did opening a door bring to this foggy, dim space?
I clearly just opened my office door...
I don’t know why I’m here. Fear is an uncontrollable response humans have when facing unknown dangers, and I’m no exception.
Until——
"Hey, co over here!"
A strange man’s voice startled . Normally, I wouldn’t be scared by such a commotion, but the unfolding "supernatural event" had left my worldview on the brink of collapse. Now, even the slightest disturbance made jittery.
I imdiately looked toward the voice. Sure enough, amid the mist, there was a man calling out to .
He looked very young, with so figures seemingly behind him.
"Who are you? What is this place?"
I stood still and asked the questions on my mind.
"? I’m Xun Weimo, I run a bar. As for the second question, I can’t answer that."
The person nad Xun Weimo suddenly lowered his voice as he turned his head to speak to another direction: "You can ask him; this guy is the most experienced here."
I walked over, as I really had no other choice.
The mist parted like curtains, slowly opening as I stepped forward.
There were indeed others here.
Without exception, their expressions were very complex when they looked at .
However, I could see the relationships among this group. Their positions were both close and distant, and the atmosphere here fluctuated like ebb and flow. This was a group... that needed to cooperate but must also be wary of each other.
"Hello, my na is Bai Yanren."
As if responding to Xun Weimo’s words, this most experienced man’s voice carried a smile.
"This place is called Fog Gathering. Simply put, it is a boundary between life and death."
The boundary between life and death?
Bai Yanren’s answer left montarily stunned.
"Am I already dead?"
I asked.
As soone considered successful by common standards, the na "Gu Pingsheng" hadn’t been used for even thirty years. Could it be that I died so inexplicably?
"Not yet, but soon," Xun Weimo interjected.
His words carried a sense of defeat. I was familiar with this feeling; it often appeared in people contemplating suicide.
This is where my negotiation skills are needed. Though forlorn and desperate, most can be persuaded fairly easily.
Truly desperate people who take their own lives give no chance for soone like , "a negotiation expert," to negotiate.
I glanced at the people present. There were quite a few, difficult to count at a glance—at least dozens.
But strangely, despite everyone maintaining distance and contact, only one person had all bodies subtly oriented toward him.
That person... was Bai Yanren at the front.
He was the "leader."
I promptly confird Bai Yanren’s identity.
Even if he wasn’t a leader in na, in the subconscious minds of these people, he was their "leader."
I finally cald down completely.
These people, like , must have entered this place nad Fog Gathering, a boundary between life and death, for so unknown reason.
I walked up to him because I knew I had no choice.
Since then, bizarre "tasks" began appearing in Fog Gathering. Initially, those "tasks" didn’t manifest in the real world, or rather, they seed to be snippets extracted from already-past tis, given to us to execute. Often, once the blood letter concluded, upon opening our eyes, we found ourselves in another ti and space.
However, as soon as the outline of a key started to faintly appear in all of our palms, the situation changed.
The "tasks" from Fog Gathering beca closely linked to the real world, with so even foretelling events days ahead.
Those who survived to the later stages weren’t fools.
Everyone realized the underlying issues.
The initial blood letters seed more like a selection process.
But upon reaching the key-forging stage, it wasn’t just about selection anymore; it was an all-inclusive process.
Everyone had the sa qualification.
The qualification to acquire a "key" of so sort.
During this ti, my relationship with Bai Yanren, Xun Weimo, and Feng Yiru grew increasingly close. Human nature is such that once used to the parting of life and death, respect for death wanes.
I was no different. In fact, so shared the sa understanding deep down — that we were bound to die in a blood letter task one day.
But no one feared anymore.
Except for Bai Yanren. Only he maintained reverence for death; it was only after spending ti with him that I understood why everyone instinctively centered around him.
It wasn’t because he was much wiser or stronger than everyone else.
Because...
He was an anchor.
Everyone was influenced by the anomalies in Fog Gathering, life and death, ghosts, and other peculiarities.
Everyone underwent changes.
Except him, he remained unchanged.
He stayed the sa as he was when he first entered Fog Gathering, and amidst everyone else’s daze—transforming into a different kind of living dead—an "alive" person like him was too conspicuous.
Bai Yanren was precisely such a conspicuous figure.
Until one day, until that ti...
"Yanren... you seem different," I said, "Lately, I’ve noticed you’ve beco more silent, always quietly looking up towards the top of Fog Gathering. Have you discovered sothing?"
"Ping Sheng, I want to et him."
"et?" I was taken aback, "Who?"
"The true master of Fog Gathering."
His words made widen my eyes.
Fog Gathering has a master?
"You’ve noticed too, right? The blood letters from Fog Gathering serve as both task summaries and life path hints. If it rely wanted our lives, there’d be no need for life path hints."
"It’s almost as if, in Fog Gathering, ghosts and us humans have ford so sort of eerie balance, with ghosts trying to drag us into Hell, but another force wants to keep us alive."
Bai Yanren gazed up at the dim sky of Fog Gathering and smirked:
"I want to see who this force, that subtly indicates life paths and has been protecting us, really is."
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