Walking and chatting like this, the three of them avoided the awkward atmosphere of just two adults together, appearing quite harmonious from a distance. Tang Yuan touched the little white snake constantly moving around his wrist and inconspicuously glanced behind them at a certain spot while turning a corner.

Tsk, tracking and such—do it more professionally, dear!

The night sky was covered layer upon layer by dark clouds, fine rain falling pitter-patter like broken pearls, hitting the umbrella surface with muffled sounds before sliding down the tilted umbrella.

Palace lantern-style streetlights flickered with dim yellow light in the rainy night. Even through the rain curtain, one could see the campus’s antique buildings—those massive bracket sets and flying eaves all exuded an ancient, dreamlike beauty. Having a refined and elegant beauty as a companion, each holding umbrellas while strolling in the rain, occasionally sharing smiles—surely this was what most men dreamed of.

But the doctor felt an awkward unease instead. Not because of the third wheel Tang Yuan, but from an indescribable anxiety. “Ye Zi, where exactly are we going?”

Ye Qianqian smiled gently, explaining apologetically: “The campus is quite large indeed. It’s just ahead.”

The doctor nodded, suppressing his inner irritation. As the leader responsible for this medical examination trip, the doctor naturally needed to ensure everyone’s safety. So when he inadvertently heard that Ye Qianqian was going out at night, he decided to accompany her. After all, Mingde University covered vast grounds with sparse population. Even during the day it was extremely empty, let alone at night.

Sure enough, after ten minutes walking along a small path to its end, they saw a three-story classical building appearing behind tree shadows. This building looked like it had once been a residential villa, but ivy covered the courtyard walls and iron gate, some windows were broken—in the pitch-black rainy night, it looked even more ominous.

Standing outside the iron gate, the doctor felt cold sweat seeping from his back, but still showed an extremely gentlemanly smile: “We’ll wait for you here.” He thought this might be somewhere Ye Qianqian had visited during her studies, perhaps to retrieve something like a time capsule buried under trees. Girls were naturally literary and refreshing.

“Let’s go in together—it should be unlocked.” Ye Qianqian reached out and gently pushed, and the rusty iron gate creaked open inward. This sound carried far in the silent rainy night, even having an echo.

This horror movie déjà-vu was really… but he couldn’t be less brave than a girl, right? The doctor steeled himself and followed Ye Qianqian into the courtyard. Sudden wing-flapping sounds and rustling leaves above startled his tense nerves, but after looking up and finding only a startled crow, he touched his heart that had dropped back into his stomach and continued forward, gripping Tang Yuan.

The doctor was grateful he’d brought Tang Yuan out—at least having someone for moral support.

Tang Yuan pouted, feeling his situation was too difficult. One hand was gripped so tightly it was sweating, while the other had to soothe his nearly rioting little ancestor—he had to hold it down! Otherwise, at this rate, it would probably rush out and bite that crow to death!

The building’s main door wasn’t locked either. Ye Qianqian hesitated for just a moment at the entrance before pushing open the door and entering. Seeing this, the doctor quickly followed.

A moldy smell immediately hit them upon entry. The doctor closed his umbrella and left it in the outer vestibule, pulling out his phone to activate the flashlight function. But in just this moment, Ye Qianqian had already vanished.

The doctor looked around bewildered with his phone. The building’s furnishings showed former luxury, but years of abandonment had accumulated dust and cobwebs everywhere. Just as the doctor was about to call Ye Qianqian’s name, Tang Yuan had already broken free from his grip and swaggered toward the building’s depths.

“Hey! Tang Yuan! Where are you running!” The doctor was frantic but had no choice but to chase after him.

Tonight’s entire sequence of events was extremely strange and surreal, so much so that when the doctor felt he’d triggered some mechanism, stepped into empty space, and fell to an underground level, he actually had a sense of relief thinking, “Ah! Finally something happened!”

With lots of dust, after coughing several times, the doctor didn’t rush to get up but moved his limbs to confirm he hadn’t injured bones or muscles before standing to find his phone that had fallen aside.

Fortunately, the screen wasn’t cracked—otherwise the loss would be significant. The doctor sighed in relief, held up his phone to illuminate the surroundings, and the scene that met his eyes nearly made him drop the phone. Horror crept from his heels to the back of his head like a venomous snake.

He was in a chamber about 100 ping in size, and in front, behind, left, and right of him stood many people—silently and densely packed.

To be precise, they were terracotta figurines in human proportions with realistic, lifelike coloring.

Why did this scene seem so familiar…

The doctor’s mind became hazy again. He’d never been to Xi’an—how could he have seen the Terracotta Army? Let alone jumped into a burial pit—he had no such privilege!

Perhaps the complaints dissolved some fear, because the doctor miraculously calmed down. He shone the light upward but found no passage through which he’d fallen, so could only investigate forward. He walked carefully past these terracotta figurines, wondering what dynasty’s artwork these colorfully painted pieces imitated. Well, it should be the flamboyant Tang Dynasty. Had this once been Mingde University’s art workshop? Or storage room? Warehouse?

But actually commissioning these human-shaped terracotta figurines—the aesthetic taste of Mingde University’s former management was really something…

While frantically complaining internally, the doctor carelessly nearly tripped on debris underfoot, bumping into a nearby figurine. His phone’s light swayed, illuminating the other side.

“Ye Zi! You’re actually here!” The doctor was angry, his tone unusually stern.

But the expected response never came.

The doctor frowned and raised his phone again.

The phone clattered to the ground again with a crisp cracking sound from the screen.

An inexplicable cold wind blew through the spacious underground room, nearly scaring the doctor into sitting on the ground.

Because beside him stood a terracotta figurine that looked exactly like Ye Qianqian!

The phone’s flashlight pointed upward, the pale light source illuminating from bottom to top, shining directly on that figurine. Even with a beautiful woman’s face, it was equally terrifying.

The doctor took several rapid deep breaths. Seeing no other abnormalities around, he tremblingly picked up his phone again, muttering to himself for courage: “What the hell is this? Is this a haunted house?”

“Not really a haunted house.”

A voice came from another direction in the underground room. The doctor’s hand shook, nearly dropping his poor phone again, but he quickly shone the light in that direction. A small figure emerged from behind a certain figurine.

“Tang Yuan! I told you not to run around!” All previous horror transformed into fury—the doctor’s anger gauge hit maximum.

Tang Yuan scratched his hair and grinned sheepishly. He’d actually arrived a bit earlier than the doctor and had been considering whether to hide and startle him, but seeing how this guy was scared pale by the slightest movement, he decided it was better to voluntarily surrender.

Having a companion, even if just a little bean reaching his waist, the doctor forced himself to regain composure. After all, he was the adult who should look after the child. He pulled himself together, enduring the scalp-tingling sensation, and used his phone to survey the surrounding Tang sancai figurines.

Only then did he discover why seeing these Tang sancai figurines felt so dissonant—these human figurines were actually carved wearing modern clothing, and all looked young, around teenage years. The more the doctor looked, the more terrified he became.

Tang Yuan beside him clicked his tongue: “Really extravagant! Were these Tang sancai actually made imitating Mingde University students? But why are the body measurements so precise? This big sister’s measurements are virtually identical to a real person!” Tang Yuan spoke while running to the figurine resembling Ye Qianqian, using his hands to gesture and compare measurements.

The doctor thought of today’s examination and that holographic body-scanning instrument. What if it wasn’t for making uniforms but for making Tang sancai figurines? The doctor’s back went cold—no one would make these Tang sancai without reason. What was the purpose?

Just as the doctor was letting his imagination run wild and scaring himself, he suddenly noticed that the constantly chattering Tang Yuan had suddenly fallen silent, his small face pale, walking back and forth around the figurine resembling Ye Qianqian.

“What’s wrong?” The doctor’s voice was somewhat trembling.

“Nothing, maybe I’m overthinking…” Tang Yuan smiled weakly at him. “But… but I remember Sister Ye wore this white dress today…”

The doctor felt goosebumps rising all over his body. Tang Yuan’s words implied that Ye Qianqian had been turned into Tang sancai? These figurines were all originally living people?!

He wanted to refute this, but the more he looked, the more the white dress on this figurine resembled what Ye Qianqian wore tonight…

So… Ye Qianqian didn’t disappear but was turned into a figurine?!

Just as the doctor’s heart was about to jump to his throat, a snickering laugh broke the indoor silence.

“Cough… Uncle, you didn’t really believe that, did you?” Tang Yuan pursed his lips, pulling out the children’s phone the doctor had bought him from his little pocket. He also activated flashlight mode and began examining the surrounding figurines one by one. “Look at this Tang sancai—this face has high recognition, right? He’s a currently famous stock trader who frequently appears on financial channels. And this person—just the day before yesterday I saw him representing some relevant department speaking on TV. Well, this girl seems to have played a white lotus supporting character in some TV drama…”

In Tang Yuan’s chattering voice, the doctor finally truly calmed down. He looked down at his phone—though the screen was cracked, it could still barely make calls. But perhaps being underground, there was no signal at all, making it impossible to contact Ye Qianqian. While trying to raise his phone high to search for signal, Tang Yuan made another soft exclamation. The doctor asked irritably: “What now?”

“Well… Uncle, come look at this—this figurine actually has cracks.” Tang Yuan called from over there.

Wasn’t having cracks quite normal? This was a terracotta figurine, not diamond.

Despite his internal complaints, the doctor still walked over, but frowned upon seeing that figurine.