Chapter 124

Chapter 124



“As expected, we didn’t get an answer.”

“...However, it wasn’t entirely fruitless.”

“At least we now know their whereabouts during this period, which gives us more clues worth investigating.”

“Indeed, who would have thought there were so many events connected to Joey? Perhaps we should talk to the relevant people?”

“Agreed. Shi Cheng’s account alone is one-sided. Though we can confirm he wasn’t lying, different people have different perspectives. Even the smallest detail from others could help supplement and complete our understanding.”

“Then let’s take action.”

After learning about Shi Cheng’s experiences during this period, the Special Case Investigation Team discussed for a while, adding more than ten thick pages to Joey’s paper file.

As for which relevant personnel to talk to...



Everyone simultaneously turned their attention to the newly added pages in the paper file and the events they had written down themselves.

(1) The Truth Behind Top Celebrity Gu XX’s Retirement

On May 5th, at 17:36, the rising superstar Gu XX’s social media account suddenly posted a retirement announcement: stating that due to excessive pressure, Gu XX had developed depression and had to temporarily retire from the entertainment industry, with no set return date. A psychiatrist’s diagnosis was attached.

That day, Gu XX’s fans nearly crashed the social media platform, questioning whether the account had been hacked. Some underage fans even attacked Gu XX’s rivals, confronting artists who had previous conflicts with him. Afterward, Gu XX had to appear personally to confirm the retirement announcement was genuine and not a hack, while clarifying that his condition was unrelated to others and purely personal. In the livestream, the rising star appeared haggard, with makeup unable to conceal the dark circles under his eyes, and his gaze was gloomy and distant, indeed showing terrible mental state.

However, just three days prior, he had held a concert where he was energetic on stage, smiling brilliantly, answering reporter interviews with vigor and enthusiasm, and even had intimate interactions with fans, showing no signs of abnormality.

His sudden, unpredicted retirement became an unsolved mystery in the entertainment industry. But if those fans who still couldn’t accept the truth could see certain pages in this file about Joey...

On the white paper were clear handwritten lines:

[According to Shi Cheng’s account, on the evening of May 4th, after receiving the guiding compass from the Heavenly Master Divine Calculator, the compass began to shake slightly, suggesting that something lost was not far from their location, likely in the same city. The next afternoon, following the compass’s guidance, they arrived at a secluded alley in the film city, heading directly toward a black car parked at the corner. Their target was inside that car.]

“At the time, there were several bodyguards around the car, all trained in internal energy. When they noticed strangers approaching, they stopped us from getting closer. Since it was a film city where movies were being shot, I guessed it might be some celebrity...” Shi Cheng recalled.

“But such a small obstacle couldn’t possibly trouble Teacher Joey.”

“...So those people quickly gave up resisting and allowed us to approach the car and open the door.”

His tone was as casual as discussing what dessert to have after dinner. He even exclaimed dramatically. “Wow, I really hadn’t expected the person sitting in the car would be the big star Gu XX!”

But Gu XX, when interviewed by the Special Case Investigation Team, wasn’t nearly as calm and relaxed as Shi Cheng. Recalling that day’s events, his voice still carried lingering fear.

“Devil! That person must have been a devil...”

What was his reaction when that sudden stranger said “My music score is in your hands, it’s time to return it”? Guilt? Fear? Angry embarrassment? Not only did he deny it, but he also ordered his bodyguards to drive them away.

For a moment, he even considered permanently sealing this secret. After all, there were so many mysterious extraordinary crimes.

Someone whose rivals’ fans once mocked him for only having a pretty face had suddenly revealed unparalleled musical talent not long ago, creating over ten original classic pieces at once. His album became an instant national hit upon release, shedding the “pretty face” label and rocketing him to top celebrity status! How could he expose the secret behind his meteoric rise to musical genius? How could he give up that miraculous music score that automatically composed music and refreshed with new melodies after midnight each day?

But his greedy refusal to let go ultimately made him pay the price.

“I regret it, I really was wrong...”

In his fear-dilated pupils, the scene from that day seemed to replay—

Looking out through the black windows of his private car, everything in his view seemed covered in shadows. He watched as the security guards who had stepped forward to drive away the stranger suddenly froze like rigid puppets, their angry shouts turning into unintelligible screams and delirious mumbling. Their stiff limbs flailed about as if they were trapped in cement, desperately struggling.

An inexplicable fear suddenly struck him. He wanted to urge the driver to leave quickly, but couldn’t make a sound.

He could only watch stiffly as that increasingly pale and gloomy figure in the shadows approached slowly with his companion, strange, unnamed melodies floating from between their lips.

Then everything in his vision melted into twisted shadows. Heaven and earth inverted, the melting ground, melting figures, melting everything turned to sludge, surging down from the inverted sky like a black ocean swallowing him completely.

It felt like black sludge was entering through his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, flowing down his throat, filling every crevice in his body. Countless shadows whispered in this deep sea.

His brain, his abdomen, the blood and flesh in his body—everything seemed filled with sludge. Without realizing when, he had fallen from his seat, collapsing to his knees through the opened car door, curling into a ball. Amid intense nausea and dizziness, he shook violently and retched, as if trying to expel all the invasive sludge.

“Looks like he carried it with him...”

Through his confused consciousness, a figure stopped before him, directing another person to retrieve a yellowed music score from his pocket, which that person then took.

He instinctively struggled, seemingly trying to stop them, but his outstretched hand quickly twisted into a rigid shape. Like the final struggles and pleas for help of someone drowning in the deep sea.

—When his manager arrived shortly after, he found his artist curled up on the ground with a twisted expression, desperately grabbing at the air like a drowning person. His face was a mess of tears and mucus, showing the agony of someone whose lungs were filled with seawater. Hearing his manager’s footsteps, he opened his eyes in confusion, his pupils completely unfocused.

—That afternoon, he was sent to the hospital. Doctors determined he had no physical injuries but had suffered severe mental trauma.

He didn’t dare tell anyone the truth, fearing retaliation from the score’s owner. He insisted on retiring, and no one could persuade him otherwise.



The stolen musical talent was never truly his. If he stayed in the entertainment industry, he lived in constant fear of that person finding him again. He just wanted to find a safe place to hide, to hide forever!

—When the Special Case Investigation Team found him, this retired top star had already been hiding at home for over a month without going out. If not for the team’s repeated promises of protection, he wouldn’t have come out at all.

“It wasn’t depression from psychological pressure at all, but something more serious—PTSD...” Recalling everything from that day remained an indelible mental torture for him. “I shouldn’t have touched that music score. It must have been bait laid by the devil, a medium for the devil to come from hell to the human world. My greed made me take the bait...”

According to the poem’s description, the fictional Alice committed suicide due to school bullying, and the entire poem seemed more like the delirious ramblings of a madman who couldn’t accept her death. Alice died in various ways in the poem, presumably symbolizing the poet’s countless mental breakdowns.

Liu Ningshuang: “???”

When she saw the interpretations of this unusual incident, she almost wanted to ask who came up with such a reading comprehension.

Liu Ningshuang remembered this incident very clearly since she was the one who handled it.

The cause of the incident was simple. At first, when the school saw the poem on the library wall, they thought it was just a student prank and didn’t take it seriously.

But then someone got the idea to copy down the poem and replace Alice’s name with that of a classmate who had been bullying them. The next day, that classmate actually died in one of the nineteen ways described in the poem. Things started spiraling in an unimaginable direction.

This person excitedly shared their discovered secret with close friends, and soon the secret was no longer a secret.

Thus, “Alice’s Curse” spread as a terrifying school legend, not just within that middle school but to many other schools as well.

As more and more bullies died in the ways described in the poem after having their names written in it, people discovered there was a price to pay – those who wrote the curse would lose their natural capacity for joy whenever someone died because of their name substitution in the poem. In other words, they were losing their ability to feel happiness. Things that should have brought great joy only brought slight pleasure. If they cursed too many people, they would permanently lose the ability to experience joy.

Compared to taking the lives of their enemies, this price seemed insignificant. Especially when hatred reached its peak, they didn’t care about mutual destruction, let alone this so-called price.

At the time, as the investigator in charge of this unusual case, Liu Ningshuang and her teammates tried everything they could. They even completely destroyed the wall where the poem first appeared.

But nothing worked.

Fortunately, the poem’s curse didn’t kill indiscriminately – it only affected extremely malicious bullies. Since they had no better solution at the time, they could only work with schools and teachers to prevent bullying, strengthen student education, and teach them to report to the police or tell teachers and parents as their first choice when bullied, rather than choosing curse-based revenge.



When Liu Ningshuang heard this incident was actually related to Joey’s lost item, she felt relieved, hoping they could finally solve the curse.

But Shi Cheng poured cold water on her hopes.

In his words: “Once poetry takes this form and spreads, it’s very difficult to stop its contamination unless you erase everyone’s memories. Joey was just going to retrieve the original manuscript. After its retrieval, the curse might weaken. The curse is only that strong near the original.”

Following the compass’s guidance, they quickly found the original manuscript.

After learning the details from Shi Cheng, the Special Case Investigation Team had a direction for their investigation and quickly uncovered the whole story.

The original manuscript had been tucked inside a book in a corner of the school library, accidentally discovered by a student.

That student had been scolded by the hot-tempered library administrator for breaking rules earlier that day. Growing increasingly upset, they scrawled on the library wall after school when no one was around, hoping to get the administrator in trouble with the school. They chose this particular poem simply because it was dark, cool, and scary enough for their purposes.

Later, when “Alice’s Curse” broke out, he became nervous and scared, not daring to tell anyone or even go to the library anymore.

.....

Joey’s file had already grown into a thick stack. Besides these few notorious unusual incidents, most of the time he had retrieved his lost items without any fuss.

The incident at the village where his stay almost led to villagers being suspected of drug use was also included in the files.

Based on the summary of these events, this mysterious extraordinary Joey seemed to be proficient in everything from music, painting, and sculpture to even culinary arts, although the effects always turned out quite bizarre.

“However, at least we can now confirm that Mr. Joey’s extraordinary abilities are indeed oriented towards the spiritual aspect,” Chu Xingrui concluded. After collecting so many traces of his activities, they had enough evidence to draw this conclusion.

“...Is this another extraordinary system different from martial arts, or is it an ability unique to him?”

If it was the former, it meant it could be spread like martial arts, though its dangers would need to be questioned.

If it was the latter, then he would be truly unique.

The answer to this question was actually simple to find out.

They all looked at each other and simultaneously spoke one name. “Shi Cheng!”

As someone who had spent nearly two months with that extraordinary, if these abilities were systematic and learnable, he might have already gained some mastery. They just needed to observe Shi Cheng’s changes to know the answer.

And their observations confirmed it was true.



Shi Cheng now had a nominal position with the Special Case Investigation Team and would occasionally, like other wild martial arts practitioners, take on some tasks posted by the team for compensation.

Not long after, during an unexpected situation in a mission, he encountered a wanted criminal extraordinary. He surprisingly summoned an intangible phantom sword out of thin air, and with one strike, made the person weep with regret.

It seemed his sword had touched the person’s soul.

When this news reached the Special Case Investigation Team, everyone was shocked.

This really was another path to becoming extraordinary!

This caused them to raise Joey’s importance level several more notches, while inevitably raising another question.

“Just who exactly is this Mr. Joey...”



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