Chapter 478: Day 6 into the Alien War Story
Chapter 478: Day 6 into the Alien War Story
Chapter 478: Day Six of Being Thrown into an Alien War Novel
In one interrogation room, a woman in her forties suddenly screamed, both hands desperately clawing at her own neck, her face turning purple.
Police officers rushed to stop her, but she was incredibly strong—it took two male officers to barely restrain her.
"They're choking me... those ghosts are choking me..." the woman rolled her eyes, frothing at the mouth.
In another room, a bald man slammed his head against the interrogation table, smashing his forehead into a bloody mess, wailing: "I shouldn't have sold that pregnant woman... she died in childbirth... two lives lost... she's come for me..."
The police station was in complete chaos.
Deputy Captain Cai Ying raked a hand through her chin-length hair, frowning deeply at the surveillance footage.
She was forty-five, with more than twenty years on the force as a detective. She'd seen every kind of case, but what she was seeing now was truly bizarre.
"They're all like this," she said in a low voice to the veteran officer beside her. "They all claim ghosts are after them, that they've personally felt the victims' pain. And the key thing is, the investigation suggests it might not just be hallucinations."
"Take this Wu Qiang. The coroner says some of the wounds on his body are old injuries—like his legs were broken before. But X-rays show the bones are perfectly intact. And this woman—she says she went through the agony of a difficult labor, and the exam found marks to match. But she's never had a child."
The young officer beside her shuddered: "Captain Cai, are ghosts really real?"
Cai Ying didn't answer, staring at the raving traffickers on the screen.
They were strapped to chairs, yet they kept struggling, their faces twisted as if in unimaginable agony.
They seemed to be losing their minds, but it was as if they were rotting from the inside—like a pile of decaying trash.
The reports were kicked up the chain of command, and they drew serious attention.
It wasn't just how heinous the cases were—it was also the bizarre state of these traffickers.
Higher-ups sent a specialized task force—criminal investigators, psychologists, and even consultants who studied the paranormal.
An Yi didn't pay it any more mind.
He left the police station and walked the streets of Xiang'an City.
Cai Ying walked out the front entrance tiredly. Morning sunlight poured down, and steam rose from the breakfast stalls along the street. Office workers hurriedly grabbed their breakfasts, students with backpacks chatted and laughed.
Everything looked so normal, but she knew something was off.
An Yi stopped at a breakfast stall, bought a cup of soy milk, and sipped it slowly. He'd taken a little cash from the traffickers—recycling, so to speak.
The stall owner was an older woman who, seeing he was just a kid alone, gave him an extra fried dough stick.
"Sweetie, where are your parents?" the woman asked.
An Yi smiled: "Thanks, ma'am. I'm just out playing by myself."
His smile was so charming that the woman was caught off guard for a second before she quickly praised him for being such a good kid.
After finishing his soy milk, An Yi began walking home, following the route in his host body's memories.
His hometown was Guanglan City, a small city in another province.
In an instant, An Yi stood on a quiet street in Linjiang City.
Sycamore trees lined both sides of the street, their branches thick and green in the height of summer.
Sunlight filtered through the leaves, casting dappled shadows, cicadas buzzing.
Guided by his memories, An Yi walked to a six-story apartment building.
Building 2, Apartment 403.
He stood at the base of the building, looking up at the fourth-floor window.
Clothes were drying on the balcony—a man's shirts, a woman's dresses, and a few small children's outfits.
A few potted plants sat on the windowsill, looking healthy.
It was a weekend morning, so the building wasn't exactly quiet.
An Yi was about to head upstairs when the entrance door opened.
A middle-aged couple walked out—the man wore glasses, bookish and refined; the woman looked gentle and composed, pushing a double stroller.
In the stroller sat a pair of twin boys, about a year old, identical, babbling and grabbing at the toys hanging from the stroller.
The man bent down to fuss over the kids, beaming.
The woman smiled too, reaching out to adjust her husband's collar.
A perfect little family of four.
An Yi stopped in his tracks and watched quietly.
That was the father and mother of the body he'd taken over.
They looked even younger than he remembered, in high spirits, with happy, contented smiles.
An Yi remembered that when the police had called yesterday, they'd sounded pretty calm about it.
An Yi's eyes landed on the twins.
The two children were healthy, chubby, wearing clean and adorable onesies.
One of them grabbed a rattle and shook it happily, making a crisp little sound.
The other reached over to snatch it, and the two children tumbled into a playful scuffle while their parents laughed and stepped in to referee.
They strolled through the park, saying hi and chatting with other parents.
An Yi could catch fragments of their conversation:
"...Yeah, both of them are little troublemakers."
"Not at all, they're perfectly well-behaved. By the way, have you signed your kid up for early education classes?"
"Trial lesson next week—I heard that place is pretty good..."
Not a shadow, not a hint of grief, not a single mention of the child they'd once lost.
An Yi leaned back and hissed through his teeth.
He scrapped his original plan to go up and instead watched from the shadows.
He watched the original body's father head out to teach every morning, the mother likewise, with the children entrusted to doting grandparents. When they had free time, they'd push the stroller to take the kids for walks, hit the vegetable market in the afternoon, and return home together as a family in the evening.
On the weekends, they drove out for outings, went to malls, and hit up family-friendly spots.
Relatives and friends came to visit, playing with the twins and gushing, "What a blessing," "Two kids, how great."
On the evening of the fifth day, An Yi stood invisibly in the living room of Apartment 403.
The family of four had just finished dinner.
The twins were crawling around on the padded floor, the host mother was washing dishes, and the host father was tidying up toys.
"By the way..." the host father suddenly said, "Early next month, Mom said she wants to take the kids to the temple to offer incense."
The host mother paused mid-motion: "To the temple?"
"Yeah, Mom said to get the kids protective amulets. And also..." the host father's voice lowered a bit, "also to... to pray for Xiao Yi, hoping he gets a better life in his next incarnation, and if he's still alive, hoping the family who found him takes good care of him."
The host mother was silent for a moment, then gently nodded: "That's fine too. We just didn't have the luck."
"Don't overthink it." The host father stood up, walked over, and put his arm around his wife's shoulder: "The doctor said this pregnancy is a miracle, heaven's way of making it up to us. The two kids are little blessings. As for the eldest... maybe someone found him after he disappeared? Maybe he ended up with a good family? That's better than struggling with us."
The host mother leaned against her husband's chest, watching the twins play on the floor, her eyes soft: "Yeah, that's right."
An Yi stood off in the corner of the living room, listening quietly.
He narrowed his eyes, resolved to get to the bottom of it.
He recalled from the host's memories how much his father and mother had doted on him.
They drove him to and from school every day, took him to amusement parks on weekends, and sat up all night with him when he was sick.
This reaction didn't sit right with him.
And then he learned...
After the host went missing, they did search like crazy, printing tons of missing person flyers and hitting up every nearby city.
Until a month later, the host mother found out she was pregnant.
The prenatal checkup showed twins, and they were very healthy.
From then on, their search efforts slowly tapered off.
After all, when their first child was born, the doctor had said they might not have more children. He was their only child, and they wanted him to succeed and take care of them when they got old. If he disappeared, what would they do?
But now they were having children again... These two must have sensed the eldest was gone and came to comfort them, right?
After the children were born, they were a pair of handsome boys, an easier birth than the first, and healthier too.
Relatives all said: "Heaven saw how pitiful you were and made it up to you."
"These two kids came to comfort you; they're little blessings."
They bought into this idea.
Life returned to normal.
The new children needed care, love, and money.
They also needed someone to support them in old age.
As for the lost child... just treat it as if there was no such fate.
An Yi: "..."
An Yi: "Huh?"
He didn't quite understand.
He turned and silently slipped away from the place.
Forget it, no reason to go back.