Chapter 66 Another Phone

It was almost like the effect of an anesthetic, numbing the nerves of the body temporarily! Chu Ning found it fascinating that white, worm-like creatures would crawl out from within the sofa, secreting two entirely opposite substances.

Whenever the middle-aged man was on the verge of death, about to be released and end his life, the white worm would inject a transparent liquid into his body. After this process, the man’s cheeks would flush, his eyes redden, and his spirit become even more agitated.

Chu Ning could imagine the suffering the man endured before dying. The rest of the scene was never shown again, but he could guess the final outcome.

“How tragic!” The images in his mind made Chu Ning click his tongue in sympathy. He lounged lazily in the chair, studying the sofa before him, still unable to understand the mechanism that triggered its effects.

During this time, Chu Ning threw opened bags of potato chips, plastic items, and metal objects onto the sofa, but the strange piece of furniture gave no response. He even hesitantly picked up a bit of meat from the floor and carefully placed it on the sofa.

Tanya watched Chu Ning’s actions with a puzzled expression, nervously eyeing the items he tossed onto the couch. Since Chu Ning was also carefully observing any changes, Tanya followed suit, mimicking his behavior.

She was intensely curious about what secrets this pristine, white sofa was hiding. As for Chu Ning’s friends, she didn’t care to comment; they were all equally unpleasant. She had learned her lesson about Wang Jinkai’s character, having suffered enough at his hands.

“What’s inside here, anyway?” Tanya finally couldn’t hold back her question, uncertain what Chu Ning was watching so intently. None of the items on the sofa had changed, not even the piece of meat he had been so attentive to.

“Perhaps it prefers its food raw,” Chu Ning mused, recalling how the sofa had devoured the middle-aged man. The man had survived for quite a while, unless his vitality was as stubborn as a cockroach, able to withstand attacks on his organs and still stay alive.

Clearly, the white worm had the ability to stimulate his senses, secreting substances akin to adrenaline. Chu Ning silently mourned for the stranger, who may have once been a friend. He had fulfilled his duty as a companion.

Beep, beep...

Familiar music accompanied the ring of the phone. Chu Ning gripped his phone nervously, realizing he had never so loathed social interaction. The situation with Wang Jinkai was headache enough; he still didn’t know how to deal with it.

To be honest, when Chu Ning suspected Wang Jinkai might be dead, he actually felt a sudden relief. It spared him from having his identity exposed and from having to eliminate Wang Jinkai himself to keep the secret forever.

“Hey, don’t mess with the phone at the crime scene!” Chu Ning snapped unceremoniously at Tanya, hearing two distinct ringtones in the room and seeing her with another phone.

Tanya didn’t own a phone herself; according to her, she lacked both the money and the means to buy one. Chu Ning was used to calling her by shouting, so it was strange to see a golden phone suddenly appear in her hands.

The truth was clear: the phone must belong to Wang Jinkai. At last, Chu Ning wouldn’t have to devise ways to silence him.

“Uh, sorry! I haven’t touched a phone in ages, couldn’t help myself!” Tanya laughed awkwardly, glancing apologetically at the device. As for Chu Ning, she had long ignored him, her eyes never leaving the phone, her hands gripping it tightly.

Tanya shot Chu Ning a guarded look. She had finally found a usable phone, and as a seasoned shut-in, electronic devices were essential. She had no idea how she’d survived these days without one—it was a nightmare.

Once basic survival is secured, humans seek higher spiritual needs.

In fact, after becoming a ghost, Tanya had tried to find a smartphone, but the results were disappointing. She discovered she couldn’t use human networks at all, neither for communication nor for browsing the internet.

The phones she managed to acquire from specialty shops were fundamentally useless—unable to connect to any network, they were fragile bricks. Perhaps switching brands wouldn’t help, at most they’d serve as sturdy weapons.

This disappointment lingered for a long time, almost driving Tanya to despair. Only when she saw Chu Ning’s phone, which could connect to the living world, did she regain hope.

After some time, Tanya finally understood the reasoning behind those elaborate paper offerings burned during human memorials—paper houses, horses, refrigerators, and so on.

“Call my number again!” Chu Ning commanded, refocusing his attention on his phone, waiting to see if the display would show the same unknown caller as before.

Tanya cheerfully agreed. She wasn’t trying to claim the phone; these minor requests were easy to accept. She lowered her head and operated the device anew; her earlier call to Chu Ning had been purely accidental.

When she unlocked the screen, she had inadvertently tapped the dialed call page, and by the time she wanted to cancel, it was too late. It wasn’t entirely her fault; every phone brand designs its interface a bit differently to highlight its uniqueness.

After unlocking, the phone’s display happened to be on the call log, revealing that the previous owner had likely just made a call. Tanya had participated in that conversation, though she wasn’t particularly surprised by it.

“Missed call!” Chu Ning’s lips curled in mockery. The information on the screen was like an outdated joke, listing Wang Jinkai as a missed call—a little prank at his expense.

“All right, hang up now. Also, tell me what information your phone is displaying, specifically the note for my contact.”

Chu Ning was preparing to test another experiment: what had happened to the vanished call records? He didn’t recall phones having an automatic self-destruct feature for logs—unless it was a special-purpose device.

If his suspicions were correct, then Chu Ning’s original identity would become all the more intriguing.