My ‘Healing’ Game
Chapter 434 Night Journey

Chapter 434: Chapter 434 Night Journey

"Am I not supposed to leave the mall at night?" Han Fei faintly felt that something was amiss.

Wang Ping’an, however, didn’t think too much of it. He put on his helmet, checked all his items one by one, and then mounted his electric scooter with the seriousness of a first-grader riding a bike for the first time.

"Ping’an, go a little faster!" Han Fei was somewhat impatient. He took Wang Ping’an and left the mall, but Huang Li had no reaction at all, and the lights inside the second-hand supermarket seemed to have dimmed a lot.

"Okay, okay." Wang Ping’an, carrying Han Fei, rode on the pitch-black road, where the night was so oppressive it was hard to breathe.

Most of the street lights on both sides of the road were malfunctioning, casting twisted glimmers as if warped by something.

In this darkness, light couldn’t bring a sense of safety.

As they crossed the main road, Wang Ping’an reached a crossroad where the traffic light was red.

Even though there wasn’t a single car on the street, Wang Ping’an waited patiently for the red light to turn green, tapping his fingers quietly on the handlebar and muttering words that nobody could understand.

Han Fei was anxious but didn’t urge Wang Ping’an to run the red light. He knew Wang Ping’an’s father must have taken great pains to teach him to obey traffic rules.

It’s hard to become a person, but it’s very easy to destroy one.

Watching the surroundings vigilantly, Han Fei’s gaze wandered restlessly between the different street corners, and that uncomfortable feeling inside him grew stronger.

"Someone is watching me. I can feel their gaze."

His heartbeat began to quicken. In a state of high tension, Han Fei’s mood value started to decline, now dropping from fifty to forty-eight.

"Stay calm!"

The chilly night wind penetrated his sleeves. Han Fei looked up and saw the traffic lights were about to change to green in a few seconds.

"Ping’an, don’t stay here. As soon as it turns green, get going!" Han Fei’s tone was serious. He felt terrible now, and leaving the store at night seemed to be an act against the rules. His mood score was falling faster and faster.

"Three, two, one!"

Han Fei stared intently at the red light. He had intended to have Wang Ping’an set off as soon as it turned green, but in the last second as the red light vanished, Han Fei saw that the red traffic signal had turned into a giant eyeball filled with blood vessels!

The electric scooter moved forward, the signal had already turned green, and the blood-filled eyeball disappeared as if it had never been there.

"Is it the one watching me?"

Han Fei opened the Attribute Panel. His mood score had now dropped to forty-five, and that was just after passing one intersection.

Under Han Fei’s constant urging, Wang Ping’an accelerated. They left the main road and turned into a side pedestrian street.

There were all sorts of shops on both sides of the street, sporting colorful signs above their entrances. Through the display windows, one could vaguely see the goods inside the shops.

"The display window..."

Han Fei looked at the reflections in the glass. The people inside looked back at him, but as they passed the window, those reflections still stared at him.

The street wasn’t very wide, leftovers from the day’s trash lingered on the ground, and among those were things that didn’t quite make sense, like a cola bottle emanating a stench of blood, fingernails pierced by barbecue skewers, and a black shadow hanging next to a counter, which seemed like a pitiful stray cat but kept crying like a baby.

"Quite lively." Han Fei’s mood score had dropped to forty-two, and he wasn’t sure how much longer he could hold on.

In contrast to Han Fei, Wang Ping’an seemed oblivious to anything abnormal, driving forward as usual.

The end of the pedestrian street led to a desolate alley flanked by buildings awaiting demolition. Beyond that was Shahe.

"Almost there... home." Wang Ping’an’s voice carried a hint of joy, but it only made Han Fei feel more uneasy.

He had already called Wang Ping’an’s father in advance, but it had been so long without a sight of him on the road.

"Ping’an, is this the route you usually take home?"

Wang Ping’an didn’t reply, focused on riding the scooter, with a strange laugh coming from his mouth continuously.

"Brother, I’m trying to help you. You need to act normal, okay?" The veins were popping on the back of Han Fei’s hand as he clutched the delivery box. He felt the scooter slowing down as if the wheels were being stuck by the darkness.

The sound of the river’s flow was audible in the distance. Han Fei watched his Attribute Panel. As his mood value plunged below forty, his inner unease magnified, the world in his eyes became sharper, and he could clearly see many things hidden in corners and dark places.

The alley had poor conditions and no lighting. Han Fei stayed close to Wang Ping’an, feeling a premonition that if he fell off the electric scooter, he might be dragged deep into the alley and never able to come out again.

With sweaty palms, Han Fei finally left the alley when his mood score fell to thirty-six.

The sound of water echoed in his ears, the view became more open, and right beside Han Fei was the ford of Shahe. Walking further, one could see an abandoned pond filled with stinky mud.

After taking a deep breath, Han Fei was about to look away when he suddenly saw something moving at the edge of the ford.

It was like someone crawling, with an overturned wheelchair beside them.

"Should I go over or not?"

Han Fei didn’t have much time to think; Wang Ping’an was eager to get home. He hadn’t noticed anything odd by the riverbank, and the speed of the scooter was increasing.

"Stop!"

Han Fei patted Wang Ping’an on the shoulder and decisively said, "Stop!"

The moment the car light swept past, Han Fei was certain that the figure that had fallen onto the shallow bank was a person, or at least, it had the appearance of one.

The mood value was still dropping rapidly. After the electric scooter came to a stop, Han Fei immediately took Wang Ping’an with him to approach the shallow bank.

Hearing the sound of footsteps, the struggling shadow on the shallow bank waved its hands frantically and weakly cried out for help.

As soon as the shadow spoke, the normally silly and foolish Wang Ping’an suddenly started to move faster, muttering incomprehensible words quickly, with an anxious expression on his face.

"Slow down! It’s dangerous!"

Han Fei could no longer afford to worry about his mood value. He followed closely behind Wang Ping’an, climbing over the damaged fence, jumping off the cement road, and stepping onto weeds and mud.

The closer he got to Shahe, the more intense the fear in Han Fei’s heart became. The river seemingly symbolized death and misfortune in the Master of Shrine’s memory.

Upon seeing Wang Ping’an, the shadow in the shallow bank shouted out Ping’an’s name loudly, his voice carrying a mix of surprise and distress.

"Do they know each other?"

Overcoming the fear in his heart, Han Fei quickly moved beside the shadow.

The man who fell in the Shahe shallow bank was around sixty years old, with atrophied leg muscles and an unhealthy body.

"Are you Wang Ping’an’s father?" Han Fei, along with Wang Ping’an, helped the old man onto the cement road.

The old man clasped Han Fei and Wang Ping’an’s hands tightly, his face filled with gratitude.

"Old man, if your legs aren’t working well, you should’ve told me sooner!" Han Fei felt a wave of fear. He had seen countless horrifying things on the road. If he hadn’t insisted on the rescue, he might have passed the old man without noticing him.

"I’ve walked this path for decades without incident. It was just too dark to see that the fence was vandalized, and I accidentally fell down," the old man thanked Han Fei, who then turned his attention to the nearby fence.

At the gap in the fence, there was a small piece of torn fabric, seemingly from a child’s clothing.

"Did I miss something?" Han Fei’s mind raced, "The mission brief for ’going home’ implied that if I don’t get Wang Ping’an home quickly, he might never see his father again, suggesting that his father could be killed on the way back."

"The old man fell onto the shallow bank of Shahe, a desolate and remote place, but the river had not submerged him. Even if no one had come to the rescue, he might have been able to hold out for a while."

Looking at the piece of children’s clothing, Han Fei’s pupils slowly constricted. He realized the fabric’s color matched the clothes worn by the child who had gone to the second-hand store, all due to his astonishing memory and insight ability!

"Beside Shahe, the abandoned pond, the muddy ground..." Han Fei touched the gap in the fence, which appeared to have been deliberately damaged, "Could this be where the boy’s father had buried the body? He had been to the store before! When I told him that the toys had been bought by the boy, could he have gone back to the abandoned pond to check the body because of that?"

Han Fei took a cold breath. If that was the case, then the boy’s father should be nearby!

"I get it now, the real danger the old man faced tonight wasn’t the river, but the boy’s father! Because of what I said, the murderer might have returned to the body’s hiding place, and realizing the old man had fallen nearby, he would most likely try to kill him." Han Fei felt a chill coursing through his veins. It was he who had called the food delivery man’s father, and he who had driven away the boy’s father.

His intentions had been good, but he nearly caused the death of another person.

"Is this one of the Master of Shrine’s regrets...?"

Han Fei had Wang Ping’an steady his father as he jumped back down to the shallow bank. As he helped lift the wheelchair up, he stealthily glanced toward the abandoned pond.

All was calm, but the weeds on that side were swaying, as if someone were lying in the mud, quietly observing Han Fei through the gaps in the weeds.

"Is he watching me?"

Han Fei got the wheelchair to the bank. He did not dare to separate from Wang Ping’an and his father, opting to stay with them on their way home.

Wang Ping’an’s father kept thanking Han Fei, who in turn, pushed the wheelchair and quietly reminded the old man to be careful.

The three moved fast, and as they turned a corner, Han Fei heard a strange noise behind them. Using his peripheral vision, he saw a shadowy figure dart past the gap in the fence they had just come from.

"What are you looking at?"

"I’ll tell you when we get home." Han Fei’s face wore a warm smile: "Old man, what happened to your leg? You can’t go running around like this anymore; just stay at home and make sure to lock the doors and windows."

"I had a car accident a few years ago, and without money for treatment, my legs got worse. If it hadn’t been for my legs, I wouldn’t have let Ping’an go out to make money," the old man gripped Ping’an’s arm, clearly loving his child very much.

"Ping’an is quite skilled now; he can deliver food on his own. He will surely get better and better."

"I don’t ask for much, just for Ping’an to be safe and sound. That’s enough for me," the old man spoke warmly, his voice seeming to dispel the chill in the wind.

After a few minutes, Han Fei finally got the father and son back home.

Upon entering Wang Ping’an’s home, Han Fei found that his mood value was not only no longer falling, but it had actually started to rise very slowly.

"Attention Player Number 0000! You have completed a Shrine Random Task—Going Home; successfully escorted Wang Ping’an home."

"The regret in the heart of the Master of Shrine has been alleviated by five percent! Received a large amount of experience rewards! Gained the trust of Wang Ping’an! Acquired the title—’Good Person’."

"Good Person (Shrine Random Title): His biggest mistake in life was once wanting to be a good person."

"After acquiring this title, the speed of mood value decrease becomes slower."

"Attention Player Number 0000! You have completed a Shrine Random Task and earned the chance to open the Item Bar. You may choose an item to bring into the Memory World of the Master of Shrine."