"anyone there?"

A gust of cool wind blew by, and the coolness of the night rushed into the girl's thin pajamas along with the cold wind, making the nine-year-old Ryoko shiver uncontrollably, goosebumps began to appear on her skin, and subconsciously hugged her tightly again A puppet bear in his arms.

So she looked at the depths of the deep alley in front of her, and shouted again tentatively.

"Is there... anyone?"

However, the streets in the lower city were as quiet as ever. There was no sound in the night alley at two o'clock in the morning, and a needle could be heard quietly. The girl took off her shoes and walked in it, and could even hear the echo of her own steps. The sound of each step seemed to echo back and forth in the alley, spreading faintly into the distance, and then disappearing in the darkness.

The only sound in the whole alley is probably the whistling sound of the advertising light tubes in the store next door due to poor contact. Show a kind of bleak luster.

"Dad, Dad..."

The girl couldn't help shouting, but no one responded to her in the darkness. The deep alley swallowed up all the sounds like a giant beast with its mouth open, and there was a dead silence inside, and there was no sound coming back from it, so naturally there would be no reply.

Ryoko shuffled step by step in the darkness, stumbling over a bump between the bricks and stones on the ground from time to time. The little nightdress and shoes she was wearing were not easy to move around, and walking in this old alley was even more strenuous. The soft plastic shoes stepped on the ground and picked up the rolling stones, which rolled on the ground into the darkness of nowhere. The further you went, the darker the alley became, and the girl couldn't even see the road ahead when she got to the back. He could barely distinguish his feet by relying on the occasional old street lamps.

The lower urban area is not as developed as the core area. In this city full of sweeping robots, there are still places in remote corners of the lower urban area that use that kind of wooden pillars as support for utility poles. After decades of wind and rain, those quaint wooden poles present a rotten black color. Under the illumination of those dim street lamps, there are dense corrosion holes all over the wooden poles, outlining each and every infiltrating pattern. The pendant street lamp rotates slightly in the night breeze, while making a "squeak" sound, while casting a swaying shadow on the wall brick next to it, as if it is warm yellow The light penetrated the gap between yin and yang, illuminating the walking figures in another world.

In the darkness, you can even feel those figures walking around you, as if you can hear their whispers in the darkness.

"dad……"

Ryoko walked on the road tremblingly, her thin nightgown was unable to resist the cold wind at night. Xue Jianze brought the humid night wind of the sea breeze into his clothes, and there was a bone-chilling chill. The young girl was walking in the alley while trembling, but she tried her best to look around and saw the darkness everywhere. He hugged the puppet bear in his arms tightly. The puppet bear has soft hair and a doctor's hat representing "wisdom". At this time, it is the only friend Ryoko relies on.

"dad--!"

Ryoko could only call her father over and over again, while staggering in those dark alleys. The girl didn't know what happened. According to the usual practice, her father should have arrived home long ago, but today he suddenly didn't return. The hungry girl could only crawl out of her small home and run outside, trying to find her trace of the father. However, she ignored that she was not familiar with the outside environment at all, and soon she found that she was lost. At two o'clock in the morning, she got lost in the intricate and deep alleys of the lower city of Xuejianze. I can't even find my way back home.

"dad……"

She could only shout in that trembling voice, the trembling in that voice was so clear that she could hear the clear fear in that voice when it reached the girl's own ears.

The chill at night gradually increased, and at some point, the scene in front of the girl began to become a little hazy. The street lamps beside the road began to show a clear light path in the girl's sight, and there were countless fine dots in the light path. Flying chaotically in the lights. The girl recognized this phenomenon. Her father had taught her that it was called the Tyndall effect. The appearance of this phenomenon indicated that there were more and more particles—in fact, it was true. She felt that small water droplets were gradually agglomerating on her clothes while walking on the road. The more humid air took away the heat from the girl's body faster and faster, she felt every hair on her body tremble, and the muscles on her back began to tremble unnaturally.

Everyone in Xuejianze is not unfamiliar with this phenomenon. The temperate marine climate of Grady Island makes the environment here naturally mild and humid. Even in the clearest summer time, there will often be thin smog. It is because this kind of phenomenon covered the whole city for nine months four years ago. It was those nine months that completely changed everything that belonged to Xue Jianze, and pushed Xue Jianze to where he is today. So much so that this supposedly unusual phenomenon has now become a nightmare in the hearts of everyone in Xue Jianze.

It's getting foggy.

Maybe there is a process of a few seconds, maybe it is just in the blink of an eye. A thick thick fog quietly covered all the space around the girl, and the visibility in the air quickly dropped to below fifteen meters. In an instant, it seemed that the whole world was far away from her, and the lights that were very close before suddenly became far away. The originally clear light seemed out of reach for a moment, and the originally dim alley became deeper and deeper at this moment, and it became extremely difficult to even distinguish the road under your feet.

All the sounds seemed to have disappeared, the sound of rolling stones, the sound of shoe surfaces rubbing against the ground, the hissing sound of a short circuit, all the sounds disappeared, even the sound of her own footsteps suddenly became It was extremely faint, as if it was coming from somewhere far away.

"dad……"

The girl staggered in the thick mist, and the bone-chilling coldness continued to seep into her skin through her clothes. All the light became extremely distant in an instant. While she was walking, a thick black suddenly appeared in front of her eyes. Just when she was about to scream, she realized that it was actually a black wall. The wall spread all the way to the right into the darkness, gradually blurring her figure.

But there was a straight path here before the fog, so why is there a wall suddenly?

The girl couldn't think much, she looked back at the deep darkness behind her, as if all the street lights had been extinguished along the way, she hugged the puppet bear in her hand and turned forward tremblingly, barely distinguishing the road in the faint light . Her eyes widened, beads of sweat dripped from her forehead, and she stepped cautiously with every step. The confused black fog brought a strong sense of suspension, and she couldn't tell whether it was a flat road or an abyss in front of her. There is no way this kind of thing can appear on the streets of the city. However, the cool wind blowing her body made her seem to be suspended in the sky, only feeling that she might fall at any time.

The surrounding fog seemed to be disturbed. The girl trembled, her sight and hearing gave her no feedback. However, the natural sense of touch of human beings helped her grasp the subtle eddies caused by the mist being disturbed. She could feel something slowly passing by her side, but she could not feel the transmission of that "thing". The heat coming from her could not hear the sound from that thing, but she could clearly feel the breeze that disturbed the mist when that "thing" passed by her side. When the "thing" passed by, her body subconsciously curled up to avoid it, but she couldn't even hear the footsteps of that thing passing by.

There seemed to be a small noise in the darkness behind her, as if someone was following her. Great fear climbed up from the base of her spine and spread throughout her body. An invisible gaze seemed to rise from the darkness behind her, as if there was a floating white shadow behind her.

Should she cry? Should she run?

Ryoko seemed to be in a daze, and the little girl seemed unable to respond to the current situation. The two legs just walked on the ground mechanically, walking towards the blurred light sources in the smoke ahead. She didn't know if she should cry or react otherwise. Intermittent lights and shadows began to appear in the mist, but she couldn't even tell what those human-shaped shadows were. She seemed to hear something sniggering behind her, but she couldn't see anything clearly when she looked back.

Big drops of sweat dripped from the girl's forehead, and her clenched palms were constantly sweating. Her body was already thin and shaky even after walking in the cold wind for a long time. She couldn't even judge the situation on her face at the moment. What kind of expression is it, she can't see anything clearly in the dark fog, as if this body is no longer her own.

But suddenly her ears picked up another sound in the mist, like a drowning man grasping at the last straw, she turned her head sharply in the direction of the source of the sound. It seemed to be the cry of a girl, right next door across the wall. The girl's cry was full of fear and trembling, and the tone sounded vaguely familiar to Ryoko's ears, but at this moment she already felt familiar regardless of why. She lifted her skirt and ran towards the front of the wall. At this moment, the sound of running came from the other end of the wall. She couldn't hear her own steps, but she could hear the steps of the opposite side. The steps were flustered and tense, as if being chased by some great fear, running away in a hurry. There was a wall between the two sides and they were running in the same direction. Ryoko didn't know why the girl next door wanted to run away, but she was subconsciously going to find her.

Soon the end of this wall appeared in Ryoko's field of vision, her heartbeat accelerated, and she could feel hope in the cry of the girl next door, both sides seemed to stagger on the ground, and then While running the boundaries of the wall.

It wasn't until the moment of rushing out that Ryoko suddenly realized that something was wrong. In the inertia of rushing out, the joy on her face began to disappear, because she suddenly realized why the crying sound was so familiar.

Because that's clearly—

[her own voice]

The moment she rushed out of the wall, with a smile on her face that hadn't faded and a sudden paleness, she turned her head subconsciously and mechanically, and looked in the direction of the next door.

There is no alley next door at the other end of the wall. It was clearly a dead end, and there was a shining mirror in the middle of the road.

In the mirror, she saw a girl in a white dress standing quietly inside. Her eyes moved up her chest, and she saw the very familiar chin, the lips that were grinning, and the twisted eyes...

"do not look."

"Bang--! Crash--"

It was as if a bright light suddenly cut into the thick fog, and then suddenly two hands stretched out from behind her, pulling her back before she could clearly see everything in front of her. Then there was a clean gunshot, and the clear and crisp sound of glass being smashed suddenly came in her ears.

The moment the breaking sound reached Liangzi's ears, she suddenly woke up. At that moment, it was as if her soul returned to her body and her five senses returned to her body. It was not until this second that she suddenly understood what happened just now. She had just been pulled back by someone, and now she was being pulled behind by that person.

"Investigation Bureau, the chief investigator sees Shenxiu."

Then she heard the man say this with his back to her, his voice was serious and calm, with a kind of solemn coldness.

The man put the gun away after confirming that there was no danger, turned around and looked her up and down with some surprised eyes, then saw that she was still standing there in a daze, frowned slightly, raised his hand and took out his ID, and asked the assistant He shook the lamp in front of the girl, and repeated it with a term that she could understand more easily.

"police."

"Wipe the tears off your face." Then he threw her a handkerchief, "You have been crying all the way."

He didn't have any intention of wiping her for her, as if he didn't have the slightest awareness of "serving the citizens". He just looked at the thin nightgown on the young girl, raised his hand, took off his coat, and threw it to her. Then he crossed his arms and stood there indifferently.

"Hurry up, we're still in the fog."

"Oh." Ryoko didn't seem to understand the situation at all, but subconsciously wiped her face with a handkerchief, and stared blankly at the man in front of her.

This is the first time in Kosaka Ryoko's life that she has encountered these "enforcers" whom her father told her to avoid.

The taste is unexpectedly hot, like sunshine tearing through the thick fog.

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