Artifact Report

Chapter 190 Mai Minghe: This is too realistic

When Hai Luwei first woke up, he still couldn't seem to distinguish reality from nightmares. In fear and confusion, he struggled desperately to get out of the car, his face covered in sweat and tears. He couldn't tell whether he was sobbing or screaming, "Let me go! Let me go!"

"Shh, shh...it's okay, it's okay."

Mai Minghe held his shoulders tightly, and even after being hit twice, he didn't let go, still holding him firmly on the seat: "It's me, I'm Mai Minghe. It's all over, it's okay, I'm here."

Sea Reed lay between her arms, breathing heavily for a while, and his violently heaving back finally calmed down.

After a few seconds, he whispered, "...Mai Minghe?"

"Yeah, it really is me."

After he calmed down a bit, he seemed a little embarrassed. Mai Minghe loosened her grip and patted him gently on the back a few times. She was very good at comforting children; she was almost thirty years old, and she was not much different from a child.

"Feeling better? Can you talk?"

Hai Luwei wiped his face heavily and looked around. "I...I really got on this car?"

"What happened?"

"I... I realized you were taken away by that empty taxi. I didn't know what to do. I couldn't catch up, so I just walked along the road... As I was walking, I saw you driving this car, appearing at the intersection..."

"That wasn't me," Mai Minghe said with a wry smile. "I was in the taxi, unable to move."

"I know now, but it was like I was thrown into a nightmare without any warning."

Hai Luwei looked at the steering wheel in front of him and said, "I clearly saw you driving here, but when I went over to take a look, I found you sitting in the passenger seat and asking me to get in. It was just like being in a dream, I didn't feel anything was wrong at all, everything was going smoothly... After I got in the car, you said there was a public road open and we could drive back to Blackmore City together..."

He couldn't help but tremble, but his face was confused. "Huh? What happened next? I just remember it was terrible..."

After people wake up, the dream will quickly dissipate - it seems that there is something in the nest that can control people through dreams, and its method is not exactly the same as that of the dream scriptwriter.

One allows people to see a false reality when awake, and the other completely plunges people into a dream.

Perhaps the opposition... is planning to kill one of our own residents. Be careful next time.

Mai Minghe held his shoulder with one hand and comforted him, "It's okay, it's just a dream. It's over, and nothing happened to you. This is not a dream now. Look, this is your phone—what kind of dog do you have? What's its name?"

Hai Luwei looked down at the lit screen and let out a faint, fleeting smile. "It seems like cell phones don't appear in dreams... Well, you might not believe this, but her name is Ice Cream."

Mai Minghe was a little unsure how to continue. It might not be polite to say that the object resembled its owner.

Hai Luwei seemed to not want to stay in the car for a moment. As he got out of the car, he asked, "By the way, what happened to you?"

Mai Minghe had tried her best to summarize it briefly, but in the end she still kept on talking back and forth for several minutes - but Hai Luwei, who was sitting by the road, did not seem impatient. Instead, she seemed to slowly calm down in the midst of her chatter.

"Fortunately, I hesitated and didn't call you back."

He looked at his phone, and said with lingering fear: "I asked you if you could use your phone to illuminate the road, and you said yes, then turned and walked away, right? At that time, I had been shining the flashlight in front of you, so it was not until you were about to cross the road that I realized that you were actually using the screen light to illuminate the road."

"Isn't that so?" Mai Minghe was stunned.

Hai Luwei demonstrated it to her, and the back of the phone immediately lit up with a strong white light. "Look, there's a flashlight on the phone, too."

How amazing.

Mai Minghe looked at her phone back and forth, and suddenly remembered that the thief who broke into her room seemed to have used the same lighting method - it was a good thing she didn't think of it just now.

"I was so tired, I figured, since the car was empty anyway, it didn't matter what kind of light I used... I'm glad I didn't call you back to teach you how to use a flashlight, otherwise you would have melted into the taxi."

Hai Luwei thought for a moment and added, "When you were sleeping in the apartment building, I was afraid I might fall asleep, so I played a podcast I downloaded, and that's why it stayed on the screen. I didn't expect this, but it can help you a lot. It seems that the saying 'luck is part of strength' is not wrong."

Without waiting for Mai Minghe to ask, he raised his hand and said, "When we get back, I'll teach you what 'download' and 'podcast' are. This isn't the place to chat."

Mai Minghe smiled at him and said, "You are such a warm-hearted kid. I was afraid you would pretend not to know me when we got back."

Hai Luwei paused. "I feel like this isn't very humane..."

Compared to the previous peril and torment, the return to Blackmore City was a remarkably smooth experience—not a single resident had ever attempted to kill Mai Minghe. When she regained consciousness, she was once again in Blackmore City, only without the sea reed. She had fallen to the same spot: Mai Minghe had tumbled from a large trash can, dragging her injured foot back home, gasping for air with every step.

She had nowhere else to go except the old apartment where she had lived for decades.

It had been several days since the thief's arrival, so he should have given up long ago. Mai Minghe reached out and turned the doorknob, only to find it unlocked. It swung open, and sure enough, no one was inside. The air was thick and cool, and everything was the same as before he'd fallen into the den.

Whether Mai Minghe is in this world or not makes no difference to anyone.

She walked into the dim and narrow living room and found the switch that had become smooth and yellowed in the place where she had touched it for decades.

The moment the light came on, Mai Minghe was stunned, and suddenly felt that the past few days had been just a dream. Like this apartment, her life remained frozen, heavy, and familiar, reaching its inevitable end...

Until she looked down and saw her hands.

Mai Minghe stood in the middle of the room in a daze, as if these young hands had some kind of addictive magic. She stared at them for a long time and couldn't move her attention away - until the phone rang. She was startled, walked over a few steps and picked up the receiver.

"Hello?" a shrunken, distant sea reed answered. "Are you home yet?"

"Yes," Mai Minghe breathed a sigh of relief, "it turned out to be you."

The last time someone called her seemed to be two or three years ago.

"It suddenly occurred to me that you might need me to take you to see your wound. There are some doctors in Blackmoor City who can treat hunters..." Sea Reed said, "Don't forget to bring money, their fees are usually not cheap."

"Oh, it's okay. I'll just go to the hospital," Mai Minghe said, a little confused. "There's no need to look for a doctor who treats hunters, right?"

On the phone, Hai Luwei paused.

"Going to the hospital? Do you have identification and health insurance?"

"Huh? Of course I do—" Mai Minghe started to speak, but suddenly stopped and sighed. "Yes!"

Today, she is no longer the 86-year-old Mai Minghe on the insurance policy.

"Isn't that right?" Hai Luwei wasn't surprised at all, apparently having expected this. "Your previous insurance certificates probably won't work anymore. If you can only pay with cash, then the Hunter Clinic is much more convenient and reasonable."

Oh no, it seems like I've become a complete illegal immigrant... I have no identity, no insurance, and I don't know how long my bank account will last.

The old-age pension is already meager, but if I can't get it, I can't pay the rent, and I can't even keep this apartment...

Although I have returned to reality, this is too realistic.

From this perspective, the matter of the "false image report" can be put on hold for a while. The most urgent issue now is how to make a living.

The money available to an elderly person living alone is definitely a drop in the bucket compared to the upcoming expenses that belong to young people.

I can’t believe that at the age of 86, I still have to find a way to make money.

"Money..." Mai Minghe sighed to himself.

"Hmm?" Sea Reed became alert. "Don't you have any money?"

Mai Minghe answered honestly, "Not much."

Sea Reed was silent for a few seconds, as if he felt it was very difficult: "This is the first time I have encountered a hunter like you--"

Yes, she is already a hunter!

Mai Minghe was cheered up and suddenly realized that since she was already a hunter, she should of course make money in a hunter's way - speaking of this, didn't she get a false image this time?

"Can you teach me how to understand the purpose of artifacts and where to find clients?"

As Mai Minghe spoke, he reached into his trouser pocket and took out the small lipstick he got from the restaurant.

　Today is a transition chapter, which is relatively easy to write. I wonder if you find the other side of Mai Minghe's life after he becomes a hunter interesting... I personally think it's quite interesting to dig out the world of hunters bit by bit. Now Mai Minghe can be my pathfinder.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)