Hidden Dead Ends

Chapter 1

Late at night.

In a bedroom, moonlight shone in through the gap of the curtains, casting a beam on the floor, becoming the sole source of light.

The grayish-white moonlight faintly reflected the shadows of tiny insects crawling on the window.

Vroom~

A car with a softly humming engine passed by downstairs outside the window.

The pale car lights passed through the gap in the curtains and drew a fan-shaped halo on the ceiling before gradually dimming as the car drove away.

Click.

An old tape was inserted into the machine, and then the lid closed, making the sound of a switch closing.

Li Chengyi frowned as he plugged in his headphones and adjusted the volume. Immediately, faint music floated out of the headphones and entered his ears.

The music had no lyrics. It was just pure classical music mixed with a guzheng and a pipa.

The rhythm was soothing and clear.

The sounds of the two instruments were like two slender and sharp threads that sometimes intertwined with each other and sometimes separated distinctly.

It was just like the telling of an ancient story or two pale fingers constantly intertwining.

Li Chengyi lay on his side on his pillow, looking at the black curtains, listening to the music in his headphones without moving.

The cool pillowcase gradually warmed up on the side of his face and began to emit the faint smell of laundry detergent.

He opened his eyes, seemingly in a daze or thinking about something.

He clearly remembered that he was still halfway up a mountain twenty minutes ago. Twenty minutes later, he found a small, beautiful flower. But as a result... his head became dizzy, and everything changed. He inexplicably changed bodies and appeared in this room. He was also much younger.

After ten minutes of shock, doubt, disbelief, and so on, he began to accept reality.

At this moment, a large amount of information and memories in his mind quickly fused with him. These were all memories of another Li Chengyi, who had been in this world for more than twenty years.

The information was not complete, and many things were very vague. But it was enough for him to have a preliminary understanding of his situation.

“I have a very important friend coming over to the house tomorrow. Go out with Li Chengyi and find something to do. Come back after five in the afternoon, understand?” A deep female voice faintly came from outside the bedroom.

The train of thought in Li Chengyi’s mind stopped, and a name automatically appeared to match the voice—Li Chengjiu.

This was the sister of this body, and she should be talking to their parents.

“Okay. Don’t worry. We definitely won’t affect your matters,” their mother, Feng Yurong, replied carefully.

Their father remained silent, but his breathing was a little heavier, which was his tacit agreement.

“Jiu... your brother hasn’t found a job yet. Can you...” The mother carefully brought up another matter.

“What’s the rush? I haven’t stabilized my situation yet. Let’s talk about it later. Don’t cause any trouble for me,” Li Chengjiu said impatiently.

“Don’t worry. We definitely won’t,” Feng Yurong replied gently.

“Go sleep. Remember, leave before twelve and don’t come back early. If you see me accompanying a fair-skinned girl out, don’t greet me. Just pretend you don’t know me, okay?” Li Chengjiu continued.

“Don’t worry. We’ll go farther away. We won’t delay your business,” the mother replied softly after a pause.

“By the way,” Li Chengjiu paused, “I have to pay my class fees this month. It’s about one hundred and ninety thousand. Give it to me tomorrow.”

“One hundred and ninety thousand... Didn’t you just pay a large amount?” Feng Yurong was in a difficult position. She and her husband were a little tight on money because of the frequent payments.

One hundred and ninety thousand was not a small amount.

“This time, it’s the material and training fees!” Li Chengjiu said impatiently. “Don’t you still have your pensions? Just take it out and give it to me first. I’ll slowly make up for it later.”

“This...” Feng Yurong paused. “Okay, I’ll definitely give it to you.”

She didn’t say that she and her husband had already withdrawn their pensions and spent them on Li Chengjiu long ago.

Recently, the factory’s performance hadn’t been good, and their wages had been reduced repeatedly. The money on hand was really not enough.

Li Chengjiu hummed in response, pushed her chair away, stood up, and went to the bathroom to wash up.

Feng Yurong and their father, Li Zhao, were left sitting in the living room, talking quietly.

“We don’t have enough in the pensions. Take out the medical funds to make up for it. Our daughter’s business is more important,” Feng Yurong said softly.

“Little Yi also needs to find connections and give money for his job. If we take it all out, what should you do when you need to see a doctor? Don’t you care about your waist pain? You have to take prescription medicine every day,” Li Zhao replied stiffly.

“We can save some money later and make up for it soon. Don’t worry. My waist doesn’t hurt much now. It’s fine.” Feng Yurong urged softly, “Our daughter’s future is more important. Don’t drag her down at a critical moment.”

Click.

Suddenly, a clear and crisp sound woke him up from his drowsiness.

His eyes slowly opened, and the sleepiness that had just gushed out began to disappear.

What was that sound?! He sat up and looked around, but he didn’t find anything. Then he found that there was no sound from his headphones.

Why is there no sound? Li Chengyi picked up the cassette player. This old-fashioned music player was a collectible bought from a flea market by his predecessor.

Now, in this grayish-white cassette player with some peeling paint, through the glass-like plastic casing, he could see the cassette tape spinning inside, but there was no sound from his headphones.

The music had disappeared, and only a slight electric current noise remained in the headphones.

Frowning, he picked up the machine and shook it, but there was still no music.

Li Chengyi took off his headphones and looked at the bedroom.

The street lights outside the window had disappeared at some point, leaving only darkness.

There were not many furnishings in the bedroom. Coupled with the white walls, it looked a little cold.

A wardrobe, a desk, a utility cabinet, two high-backed metal chairs with two backpacks hanging askew on them, and a pair of white plastic slippers with their toes facing each other...

Apart from these things, there was nothing else.

I keep feeling something is wrong. Li Chengyi frowned, feeling a faint sense of uneasiness creeping into his heart.

Having slept in this room for many years, he was clearly familiar with every place, but now...

Is it possible that my predecessor was fine after living here for more than twenty years, but something happened as soon as I came?

He looked around again, and his gaze slowly stopped on the door.

The door was open!

His heart turned cold.

He had clearly locked it when he went to bed!

But now, the door was slightly ajar.

Outside the dark crack, there seemed to be a faint humanoid shadow crouching at the door, peeping inside.

In the darkness, Li Chengyi felt his hair stand on end as he stared intently at the crack in the door.

He didn’t know if it was an illusion or a hallucination, but through the crack that was only as thick as a finger, there seemed to be a black eye staring straight at him sitting on the bed.

Creak.

A gust of cold wind blew into the room through the crack of the door.

The current of air pushed the bedroom door open wider.

Li Chengyi broke out in a cold sweat, and his vision was slightly blurry.

At this moment, he looked carefully again and found that there was only darkness at the crack of the door. There were no eyes or figures.

Everything just now seemed to be his illusion.

He sat quietly on the bed for a while.

After waiting for a few minutes, when his body was no longer too tense, he slowly relaxed his breathing, put on his slippers, and got out of bed.

He took a deep breath, his chest rising and falling, and calmed his emotions. He gently grabbed the metal bat standing in the gap between the headboard and the wardrobe.

It was the fellow that his predecessor had bought specifically for self-defense.

The solid feel of the cold bat made him feel a little more at ease.

He raised the bat silently and slowly walked to the back of the door, where he wouldn’t be seen through the crack.

Standing behind the door, he could see the night scene outside the window and the gap between the curtains.

However, what shocked Li Chengyi was that he just glanced out the window from the corner of his eye and found that it was still pitch-black outside the gap of the curtains. There was nothing.

Hallucination? Dream? He felt his throat go dry and gulped. He held the bat tightly in one hand and slowly grasped the door handle with the other.

Whoosh!

He suddenly pulled hard.

He turned to face the opened door and raised the bat high, ready to smash it down.