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Looking back now, if a strangeness is left unhandled, its resentnt builds up, significantly increasing the chance of it rising in rank.
And that’s precisely the case with the "Reflection Under the Moonlight" quest.
The coordinates of the quest were located in an electric fountain within the garden of the first zone of Flowery Paradise Garden.
Flowery Paradise Garden is right next to the FH Community where Yan Junze lives, also an old residential area, but not as dilapidated as FH Community.
Due to the property managent’s negligence, the property fees for Flowery Paradise Garden were essentially in arrears, with no hoowners paying, so the environnt of the residential area was even worse than that of FH Community.
The electric fountain, which once electrocuted a person, was broken long ago, filled with rainwater and covered with fallen leaves and garbage, with no one ever clearing it up.
In fact, almost all residents of Flowery Paradise Garden knew that there was a strangeness at the electric fountain, but the fountain was off the beaten path and sowhat secluded, so normally nobody went there.
Since it has never been cleaned up, that place has been subconsciously marked as a no-go zone, no one goes there to play anymore, and it hasn’t posed a threat to the residents.
Whether anyone has reported this strangeness to an exorcist or not is unknown, and Yan Junze didn’t have the ti to investigate this. Now that he had decided to complete the quest, and since the quest had reached a level comparable to the Back-faced Woman’s "Look at Her Face," he had to take it very seriously.
First of all, based on his experience, a strangeness that featured in the "Hair-raising (Low)" level of quests could definitely kill him in an instant.
Whether it was a club or the manual "Rewind," none would be possible in the face of an attack from such a strangeness.
Moreover, the quest information was different from that of "Photographing." All he needed to do was to et with Fang Ning and make the initial promise together.
In such quests, brute force cannot solve any issues, and could instead bring unexpectedly severe consequences.
The next day, Yan Junze made a trip to Grandpa Zheng at the security room. He knew that Grandpa Zheng had the habit of reading newspapers and that he kept the old newspapers instead of throwing them away.
"Newspapers from two years ago?" Grandpa Zheng looked puzzled.
However, he didn’t ask many questions and led Yan Junze to a room of his own near the entrance, opened the door, and pointed to an old wardrobe.
"The newspapers are all in there, so are three or four years old, you can take your ti to search through them."
Your next journey awaits at empire
"Mm, thank you, Grandpa Zheng."
Yan Junze walked over to open the wardrobe and began taking out the old newspapers stack by stack. Grandpa Zheng anwhile turned around and went back to the security room.
It was clear that Grandpa Zheng was ticulous; the read newspapers were all stacked in chronological order, which made Yan Junze’s search much quicker. In no ti at all, he had found all the newspapers from two years ago.
After spending nearly half an hour, he saw a piece of news in an evening newspaper from June.
"Breaking News: Frequent Hazards at Electric Fountain, Young Woman Electrocuted to Death."
"Latest news from the Shuntian City Police Departnt, this morning the body of a woman was found inside the electric fountain in zone one of the garden in Flowery Paradise Garden. The police have confird the identity of the woman and established that the girl had fallen into the fountain the previous night and died from electric shock, with the ti of death being more than 12 hours ago.
In the anti, the fountain remained electrified because the incident went unnoticed. Our reporter has learned and verified that the young woman did not live in the residential area but is suspected to have accidentally fallen into the fountain while waiting for soone. This report is by the reporter Yang Genshuo."
"Yang Genshuo, again?!" Yan Junze paused for a mont when he saw this na.
He rembered the news of Granny Ren’s son and his wife’s tragic death, which was also reported by this reporter nad Yang Genshuo. It was quite a coincidence to co across his na here again.
He flipped to the bottom of the newspaper where the news hotline was listed, and Yan Junze took out his phone and called. A staff mber answered.
After stating that he wanted to talk to reporter Yang Genshuo for an exclusive scoop on so news, the staff mber transferred his call to Yang Gensuo.
"Hello." A deep, middle-aged voice ca through, which didn’t match the flashy nature of his na at all.
"Is this reporter Genshuo?" Yan Junze asked.
"Uh... please go ahead."
"Do you rember the incident from two years ago involving a woman who was electrocuted to death in an electric fountain in a certain residential area?" Yan Junze asked bluntly.
"You... aren’t you here to report news?" Yang Genshuo’s tone suddenly beca skeptical.
```
"I’m currently haunted by that strangeness, so I’m turning to you to understand the situation back then." Yan Junze’s reason was very straightforward.
In this era, only such a straightforward reason as being haunted by strangeness could possibly gain soone’s trust and thereby uncover so of the insider information they desired to know.
"Ah!" Yang Genshuo’s tone indeed changed imdiately, asking, "Is it serious?"
"Hmm, I’ve already reported to an exorcist," Yan Junze didn’t go into details, simply stating, "I just want to know who this woman was waiting for back then. Do you have that person’s contact information?"
"That person used to live in the residential area by the fountain, but it seems that he moved away later," Yang Genshuo recalled. "You should ask so of the long-term residents there, they might have a clue."
"Thanks," Yan Junze didn’t say anything else and hung up the phone.
After putting away the newspaper he had found, and returning it to the wardrobe, he closed the door and went to Grandpa Zheng in the security room.
"Grandpa Zheng, do you know the security guard from the neighboring Flowery Paradise Garden Residential Area?"
The answer was indeed as he had guessed.
Grandpa Zheng nodded: "Of course, I know him. I see him all the ti. What’s up?"
"Just curious." Yan Junze roughly recounted the incident of soone being electrocuted by the fountain but naturally omitted a great deal.
Then, he left the security room, bought half a pound of marinated pig’s ears for Grandpa Zheng to enjoy as an evening snack with his drink. Grandpa Zheng hee-hawed his way to the security room of the next residential area and ca back about ten minutes later.
He handed Yan Junze a note: "Just so happens, the security guard from Flowery Paradise Garden has the contact information for that guy who moved away. He said if anyone wants to rent a place, they should contact him with this number."
"Thanks, Grandpa, take your ti eating. I’m heading back," Yan Junze said as he took the note and left the security office.
When he got ho, he spread out the note and saw not only a phone number but also the man’s na. Yan Junze dialed the number on the note.
Soon, a man who sounded to be in his thirties picked up.
"Jiang Hao?" Yan Junze was already prepared with what to say, so as soon as the call connected, his voice imdiately took on a somber tone as he directly called out the other party’s na.
The person on the other end was clearly taken aback before responding, "This is , may I ask who this is..."
"An exorcist currently dealing with Fang Ning’s haunting," Yan Junze spoke at an even pace, "If I can’t resolve her completely, she will likely find you soon."
"Ah!" The man nad Jiang Hao was evidently startled.
"However, to resolve her, I need a general understanding of the situation between you two. Were you lovers before?" Yan Junze asked.
Silence fell on the other end of the line; it was unclear whether Jiang Hao was hesitating or had concerns.
"Well then, I suppose we’ll et soon. When she finds you, you can contact ," Yan Junze threatened to hang up the phone on purpose.
"Wait, please wait, I’ll tell you," Jiang Hao quickly said. "Yes, we were lovers; we t at work. Where is she now...?"
"Answer my question first," Yan Junze was not one to mince words, "When you two were dating, did you make any promises to each other?"
This was, after all, Yan Junze’s ultimate goal after beating around the bush.
Otherwise, during the mission, he would have to speak of the original promises made to Fang Ning—sothing he knew nothing about—and it would be weird not to be caught off guard on the spot.
"Promises?" Jiang Hao pondered for a mont before saying, "She would often say: I hope the world can be so small, so small that I’d see you the mont I turn around. Then I’d reply: I hope the world can be so vast, so vast that I could hold your hand and we’d never reach its end."
Are they shooting a romance drama or what?
Yan Junze held the phone, stunned for quite a while.
"And the last part," Jiang Hao continued, "Then she would make say: I don’t want any sea-drying, rock-crumbling promises, not the next life, not forever. I just want that every second, you are still by my side."
At that mont, Yan Junze broke into a cold sweat.
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