Netherworld Retrograde
Chapter 114 - 52 Horror Tales Notebook_2

For some reason, Li Yelai remembered that Cheese’s name was actually Xiao Ya, not Xiao Qi.

Moreover, that Xiao Qi seemed to be... her cousin’s name?

Li Yelai looked at Cheese strangely, but Cheese was indifferent and responded to uncle’s words, "Dad, your cooking isn’t all that great."

"You little girl..." Uncle responded, his gaze toward Li Yelai filled with pleading.

Dad? Xiao Qi?

Li Yelai had a realization and greeted his uncle with a bright smile.

"Hello uncle!"

"What a handsome young man, Xiao Qi has also grown up. Knows how to bring someone home," the middle-aged woman warmly urged Li Yelai to sit down, praising his appearance.

"Hello aunt!"

This made Li Yelai greet her somewhat reservedly. He didn’t feel any pressure when eating and interacting with his peers.

But visiting an elder’s home was his first time.

Thus, he sat down properly at the side of the dining table, picked up the rice under the warm hospitality of the uncle and aunt.

Cheese sat next to him, her bowl had been empty for a while. Yet she noticed that the uncle and aunt were still serving Li Yelai, inquiring politely about his well-being.

Li Yelai seemed a bit hesitant, very different from usual.

Cheese couldn’t help but stretch out her little foot, kicking off her slipper, and stepped on Li Yelai’s instep.

"You usually talk a lot, right?" Cheese complained, "Have you gone mute now?"

"They’re too enthusiastic, I’m scared," Li Yelai shuffled his legs to push away Cheese’s foot and responded in a low voice.

"What are you scared of?" Cheese arched her brow and asked.

"Scared that once I open my mouth, we’ll become family. That’s a whole different price!" Li Yelai complained.

"That’s hilarious, keep dreaming!" Cheese became angrier as she spoke and stepped on Li Yelai’s foot again, "Acting as if you’re at a loss!"

It seemed that uncle noticed the disturbance under the table, he glared at Cheese, "Xiao Ye rarely visits, don’t bully him!"

Cheese felt a bit numb, why was this uncle still favoring outsiders?

At that moment, aunt looked at the two bantering, her eyes suddenly reddened.

"If... Xiao Qi was still here, she should have brought a boy home by now."

Li Yelai and Cheese’s expressions froze, uncle’s face also became unreadable.

That Xiao Qi, she was their daughter. Cheese’s cousin.

Previously, calling Cheese as Xiao Qi was because it seemed aunt mistook Cheese for Xiao Qi.

The other three just went along with this pretense, performing the act along with the aunt.

But unfortunately, by the end, it seemed aunt came back to her senses.

Her emotions became uncontrollable, tears kept flowing, "Xiao Qi, Mom misses you... I miss you so much, my darling..."

Uncle stood up, consoling her continuously. He took aunt back to their room.

After a long while, a tired and haggard uncle returned to the dining table and sighed to Li Yelai, "Sorry for the scene, she was really looking forward to your visit. Unfortunately, while cooking, she just... I appreciate you two playing along."

"Not at all," Li Yelai shook his head.

He understood that aunt couldn’t accept her daughter’s death, often mistaking Cheese for her daughter.

Initially, she knew it was Xiao Ya bringing a colleague for dinner, but the condition suddenly triggered, and she mistook Cheese for Xiao Qi.

Then, during the meal, she suddenly came to her senses. The grief of losing her daughter caused her emotions to collapse again.

Perhaps to divert from this sad topic, uncle wiped his face.

He said to Cheese, "I’ve arranged everything for university. You can register for college tomorrow, you..."

"Wait!" Cheese frowned and interrupted, "Uncle, are you confused? I graduated a long time ago! Why do I need university?"

Li Yelai also looked puzzled.

Cheese, who came from a well-off family, went directly to university after finishing high school. He had graduated a long time ago.

Uncle frowned at Cheese, "What nonsense are you talking about...you..."

Then, Uncle seemed to sense something strange.

He shook his head vigorously, "No, you have indeed graduated. But why...what’s going on? How did we think of getting you into Huan City University?"

Cheese and Li Yelai’s expressions changed; Uncle’s behavior was clearly influenced by some type of hypnotic or suggestive ability.

"Listen to me, think clearly!" After Cheese used his ability, he quickly swallowed a candy.

Uncle’s expression no longer seemed conflicted, but surprised, "Did I get...affected by an ability?"

Cheese frowned and asked, "When did you start having such thoughts? After meeting whom did you have this idea?"

Uncle frowned and recalled for a long time, finally saying, "It seems...it seems that it was when I went to Huan City University to discuss business. Suddenly I thought of getting you into that school."

Uncle was in the tile business, and recently University City needed to replace tiles.

He had visited the school about half a month ago.

"Is there a problem with that school?" Li Yelai frowned, "But someone hypnotized Uncle to let you enter the school? For what purpose?"

"At times like these, we can’t just rely on conjecture," Cheese responded, and contacted the division directly to report the whole event.

Soon, more information was reported back.

After the Fantasy Band incident, within East City, people had been continuously sending their children in their twenties to this Huan City University. Some even transferred from other universities.

Those influenced were either attractive young girls or children of wealthy families.

Their parents and elders, or they themselves, were very adamant about entering the university.

Some people gave up respectable jobs and left behind high salaries of thousands of City Coins a month.

Some clearly couldn’t afford the fees, yet scraped together the tuition to enter the university.

Meanwhile, a certain type of horror tale rule suddenly became popular within the university. But these were just rumors, and in reality, nothing unusual had happened in the university.

The officials had already dispatched several Processors to investigate the university and had freed those affected from the hypnotism.

The initial guess was that it might be one of the escaped Taboo Items.

A Level C Taboo Item, Horror Tales Notebook!

This was a kind of paperback that generates random horror tales within a certain range.

The holder could not only view all the rules and learn how to break them.

It could also select some characteristics to attract people who fit those characteristics into the range.

Once the effect was triggered, if anyone within this range broke those rules, the Taboo Item would take care of the violators.

The consequences could be as mild as losing memories or as severe as brain damage or even death.

The officials had once listed this Taboo Item as one of the defenses for Black Prison. They wanted to use horror tale rules to strengthen the prison’s defenses.

However, they later found that the randomly generated rules were too troublesome.

Ultimately, they abandoned this proposal.

Clearly, Cheese’s uncle had been influenced by this Taboo Item, wanting to send Cheese into the university.

"I see," Cheese analyzed, "Now we know that someone in the university has obtained that Taboo Item."

"And they have already selected their horror tale victims—beautiful young girls and wealthy business heirs. Hey, I must be the former, hence my uncle, under influence, had that logical lapse, wanting me to return to university."

"You’re so full of yourself!" Li Yelai ridiculed and then asked, "Why would they have such options?"

"Haven’t you heard of Long Aotian?" Cheese looked at Li Yelai and said, "The other party is probably very chuunibyou, wanting to use horror tales to show off to the rich heirs and win the hearts of beautiful women. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have chosen these characteristics. They’ve specifically brought in these ’spectators’ to showcase something in front of an audience."

Li Yelai frowned, "Just for this, they used a Taboo Item?"

"Using Taboo Items to satisfy desires is very common," Cheese responded, "They don’t understand the danger of Taboo Items. Many tragedies have occurred because of this."

"However, although horror tales are troublesome, they are not too dangerous for us Spiritual Ability Users," Cheese replied, "The officials are planning to let us blend in to find the holder."

"Us?" Li Yelai looked confused, pointing at himself, "Am I included as well?"

"Of course, with you around, the other party might just come to us directly!"