Ye Lan and Buzzcut saw the fidgeting, anxious young man standing outside the kindergarten right when they were walking, thinking about the arguing couple.
Buzzcut almost immediately connects him to the couple in question, and immediately rushes forward to accost him.
Buzzcut can see that this residential area is full of insane people, all living their lives like normal on the surface, but deeply twisted down below; this young man, though, is markedly different. He feels normal, and especially… wary and fearful.
It’s more like how a normal person would react to all this, rather than a madman.
So Buzzcut rushed over.
Though the young man is clearly afraid of them, asking with a trembling tone, “who… who are you?!”
Ye Lan is furrowing her brows looking at Buzzcut, possibly disapproving of his crass actions; she’s not going to say anything while they’re getting results, though.
She tells the man, “we should be asking why you’re acting suspicious outside a kindergarten instead.”
“I… I’m waiting for my girlfriend!” Yells the flushed young man, “she works here! I… I’m worried about her.”
“Worried?”
“Yeah… The thing that’s going to fall out of the sky…” The young man’s tone is much less assertive now, “you, you’ve heard it right? I’m worried something is going to happen, so I’m here to pick her up. She’s a kindergarten teacher here.”
Buzzcut and Ye Lan give each other a glance. It must be him!
They are very possibly the arguing couple everyone heard about!
However, the young man continues in a way that sends doubts to the both of them.
The young man says, “I think it’s really something we should be wary of. Assume the worst, they say, and so we should prepare ourselves a little… but she doesn’t think that way. We argued because of that.”
Here, while still scared, the young man also looks somewhat pitiful.
He tells them, “she thinks I should believe in actual science instead of conspiracists. My girlfriend, she’s an… especially just and uncompromising person. She doesn’t believe anything published in the magazines and tabloids.
I know… I know they must all be full of hot air too, but just, what if… what if? What if they’re right?
If they are, we need to save ourselves already! Our lives are at stake, really, why would she not believe me this once…”
The young man lowers his head, slumping.
Buzzcut and Ye Lan are still looking at each other.
The couple definitely fits the description and events. Young, having an argument overnight, but somehow, their roles are flipped.
In this couple, the boyfriend believes in the conspiracy instead, while the girlfriend doesn’t.
Everything fits, except for one single piece.
Buzzcut and Ye Lan are confused.
Buzzcut has let the young man off, but he doesn’t look to be running away anymore. He just stands there, all sappy.
That is when a specific piece of music starts playing from the kindergarten. The young man raises his head immediately, and looks inside the kindergarten.
A bunch of children rushes out the building, and starts playing games at the grounds outside.
“Their… class is over?”
“It’s their playtime,” the young man says, visibly excited, “my girlfriend is going to be off work now. Her shift is done.”
Soon enough, as expected, a young lady in a long dress comes outside from the kindergarten.
She seems happy to see the young man waiting outside the kindergarten.
Although that smile gives way to disappointment as soon as the man opens his mouth to say “Lianlian, the Apocalypse could be coming!” She asks, speechless, “why are you still going on about that?”
The young man tries to explain stuff but he’s stuttering. The woman shakes her head, and instead turns to face the two others present, slightly curious. She asks, “hello. Are you here to pick your kids up? You’re early.”
The woman, Zhang Minglian, is certainly a gentle and understanding person, as befits a kindergarten teacher.
She doesn’t look at all like she would argue loudly even when she and her boyfriend have a great disagreement.
She looks very much unaggressive.
Therefore, Buzzcut is even more confused──Can such a gentle-looking couple really have argued so loudly that the entire community could hear?
That doesn’t sound right.
Though what they’re doing, and how they look, seem to suggest they would play key roles in the Nightmare regardless.
Ye Lan, meanwhile, reminds Buzzcut, “we should be going back to the library now.”
“The library?” The young man reflexively wonders aloud, but then immediately cuts himself off, and he looks quite gloomy all of a sudden.
“Don’t think about it anymore, Xiaoli. Auntie only wanted the best for you.”
Zhang Minglian says, trying to cheer her boyfriend up.
The man, Xü Xiaoli, looks like he’s going to say something, but no words come out.
Buzzcut asks, “did something happen at the library?”
Xü Xiaoli remained silent for a bit before explaining, “I used to work there, but after the, madness… the madness came out of nowhere and infected people, my mom didn’t let me go to the library anymore.”
“Why is that?”
“I’m not sure…” Xü Xiaoli seems lost when he says, “she just kept saying that it’s a dead-end of a job. I won’t have a future with that job, and so she didn’t let me go anymore. Whenever I looked like I was going to go to the library, she’d lock me up at home.
Even if I’m not working, and doing other things, my mom still stalks me. Lianlian and I have seen her following behind us a few times already.
His smile is really hard on the eyes.
Buzzcut and Ye Lan listens calmly, without a word. There is nothing to add here.
Though if Xü Xiaoli is related to the library as well, the possibility that he is the Nightmare owner would not be insubstantial.
It is important to remember that Nightmares are ultimately based on someone’s personal experience.
This Nightmare mainly surrounds Cangcheng, with the library at the centre; Xü Xiaoli is a local, and clearly related to the library itself. If they add in his fear of the Apocalypse and the anxiety brought on when his girlfriend would not believe in him no matter what, it certainly makes it plausible that he could have Nightmares about it.
The only question is that, this couple, has a gender mismatch with the information making the rounds in the residential area…
Regardless, they should think about if they should take Zhang Minglian and Xü Xiaoli with them back to the library.
It’s also possible the other Missiontakers could have found critical clues.
So Buzzcut tells them, “we found some clues related to the possible meteorite, would you like to check it out with us?”
Xü Xiaoli and Zhang Minglian give each other a look. They seem unsure, but they nod in the end.
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