UCS Chapter 119

“This really is a bit strange. But we have already accounted for most of the known spirit world entities, and the surveillance equipment has been updated many times over, so it was probably genuinely a coincidence.”

“There is something uncanny about Xiao Yusheng though. Two actresses who worked on his production have now run into trouble.”

“What kind of trouble?”

Gao Shi pushed the door open and walked in.

“Chief!”

“Captain!”

“Brother Gao!”

The team members surged forward like a flock of chicks catching sight of their mother hen, falling over each other to greet him.

Chang Yang explained to Gao Shi, “Captain, do you remember Zhou You? She has gone missing.”

Gao Shi had an excellent memory. He naturally remembered Zhou You, who had once livestreamed on behalf of the Gao family.

More than that, Xiao Yusheng had met Zhou You privately at night and spoken to her in ambiguous terms.

Zhou You had since gotten a boyfriend, however, and had responded to Xiao Yusheng’s overtures with visible awkwardness.

She had gone missing?

“Chief, the news came in this morning. Zhou You’s boyfriend filed a report saying his girlfriend has disappeared.”

Zhou You had left home one morning, telling her boyfriend she was going to buy clothes. She had not returned by evening.

On top of that, Zhou You would always send notice to the group when she was not going to livestream. This time she had sent nothing, and her livestream channel was flooded with question marks.

Zhou You was a responsible streamer. If something came up she would always let people know.

So her boyfriend’s instinct was that something had happened to her.

At first he had only reached out to Zhou You’s friends, but after asking everyone and finding no one who knew where she had gone, he concluded this was serious and quickly reported it to the police.

At the same time, news of Zhou You’s disappearance made it onto the trending list.

Xiao Yusheng’s production crew had now had two actors run into trouble in succession. The entertainment industry is a fairly superstitious world, and some began saying this production was cursed, that anyone who worked on it would run into misfortune. A number of actors spoke out on social media to refute this, though behind closed doors the rumours were making everyone uneasy.

Interestingly, no one was pointing fingers at Xiao Yusheng himself. Instead, a different theory gained popular traction:

Xiao Yusheng’s film had exposed too much darkness. It was an act of great moral merit. But the merit was so immense that actresses of insufficient personal destiny could not bear the weight of it, which was why all manner of hidden secrets were now being brought to light.

Some people online had even begun throwing baseless accusations of a sordid nature at Zhou You.

The claim was so absurd that it spread beyond its original circles.

The incident also led to even more people learning about Xiao Yusheng’s film.

Xiao Yusheng issued a public statement on the matter, urging his fans not to believe the ridiculous claims, and mobilising every resource available to him to help search for Zhou You.

His measured and reasonable statement actually won him a new wave of admirers.

At present, with Wanxing Entertainment having collapsed, there were quiet signs that Xiao Yusheng was moving toward a position of dominance in the entertainment industry.

Gao Shi’s instincts told him something was wrong. “Let me check the location.”

Previously, to protect Zhou You, Gao Shi had arranged for her to receive a trial model from the Gao family. The defining feature of this new model was its satellite positioning system.

If Zhou You was willing to enable headquarters location tracking, Gao Shi could find her position through the central system.

It was entirely Zhou You’s choice. After all, it did involve privacy considerations.

As it happened, perhaps frightened by the trafficker village incident, Zhou You had left the tracking enabled.

Gao Shi opened the star wristwatch interface. Chang Yang leaned over with wide eyes, made the gesture of offering a cigarette to a superior, and held out a lollipop instead. “Captain, if you have a treasure like this, why do you still use that ancient phone of yours?”

Gao Shi’s Nokia had not changed since his first day on the job, and as a result many people’s first impression of him was of a stiff traditionalist. Who could have imagined that Gao Shi was the young master of the Gao family, a name synonymous with high-end technology.

Gao Shi shook his head. “Which is exactly why a phone only needs to be able to make calls.”

He pressed enter. Zhou You’s phone location appeared.

Everyone crowded in to look.

“This place looks familiar. Minghua Garden?” Chang Yang scratched his head.

Ran Qiu said, “It is quite a nice garden, beautiful scenery. A lot of young people like to go there on dates.”

Huang Shan frowned faintly. “Something is off. Almost everything in that garden is designed for couples. It is very strange for Zhou You to go there alone.”

Chang Yang made a sound of realisation. “How do you know all this? Have you been there?”

Huang Shan paused, a faint flush crossing his face. “Yes,” he said quietly. “Almost everyone who goes there is part of a couple. It has the nickname Date Paradise. If you go alone, the environment is… not particularly kind to the individual.”

That was peculiar then. Why would Zhou You go to a garden notorious for public displays of affection on her own?

Could it be, as the rumours suggested, that Zhou You really was the ambitious and disloyal type?

Gao Shi felt that was wrong.

His thoughts turned to Xiao Yusheng.

Xiao Yusheng had spoken to Zhou You in ambiguous terms that night. The production had then continued filming for two more months, and it was entirely possible the two had developed a deeper connection during that time. But Zhou You was an intelligent woman. Both emotionally and rationally, her current boyfriend was the most suitable person for her, so the likelihood of her developing feelings for someone else was low.

The more probable scenario, therefore, was that Xiao Yusheng had arranged to meet her in this garden.

To confess his feelings, perhaps?

Gao Shi relayed his suspicions to Lu Xingzhi. Lu Xingzhi immediately dispatched two teams, one to review the surveillance footage and one to track Xiao Yusheng’s movements.

At that moment, a notification chimed. Zhuang Xiuqiu took out her phone. It was an update alert from Xiao Yusheng’s Weibo.

Xiao Yusheng had posted another of his paintings.

At the centre of the composition was a rose.

The rose was in full bloom, blazing like a flame. Yet the soil in which it was rooted was nothing but filth and disorder.

Scattered through the soil were broken rose stems, withered leaves, the remains of animals.

The entire image was rendered in dark tones. Only the rose was vivid in colour.

The caption read: “For Miss Zhou, and for all of you.”

Likes and comments surged rapidly. The top comment read:

[I’m in tears. Let me do a quick reading of this, sisters, and tell me if I have it right.

I think this painting has two layers of meaning. The first is “May Yuzi be safe and well, may she overcome every hardship and bloom into the most beautiful flower.”

The second layer is connected to the film: “May all the girls in this world break through the world’s cruelty and become their own most beautiful rose.”]

In under ten minutes, that comment had received nearly a hundred thousand likes, with countless fans sharing their own interpretations below.

Setting aside the deeper meaning, the painting itself was genuinely outstanding.

The rose at the centre in particular almost seemed to have been painted to life. One could only wonder how many times he had studied and practised to render a rose with that kind of mastery.

But Gao Shi felt, for reasons he could not name, oppressed.

The entire painting gave him a deeply uncomfortable feeling. The rose was red with a viscous, concentrated intensity, like a pool of blood about to drip.

His gaze came to rest on the soil in which the rose was rooted.

Everyone, or rather every ordinary person, would take it for granted that the rose at the centre represented Zhou You.

***