I'm Actually Panicking Because My Heart Doesn't Beat (GL) - Chapter 29

Bai Zhiqi looked at her confused for a moment, then said thoughtfully, “Unless it’s a weird entity itself, no one can see through the mask I gave you.”

Guan Xiaoxuan listened carefully and then asked cautiously, “Is there anyone ordinary who can see through it?”

Bai Zhiqi glanced at Guan Xiaoxuan and smirked lazily, “Why are you such a wimp? It’s just attending an offline salon. Why do you act like you’re going into battle?”

Being called a “wimp” didn’t make Guan Xiaoxuan angry. Instead, she explained, “I’m just being careful. The offline salon I’m going to has some complications. I don’t want anyone to see through me, so I came to ask you.”

Bai Zhiqi smiled and reassured her, “Don’t worry. The mask I gave you is very well hidden. Except for someone smart like me, no one else can tell. Even if someone from the Weird Affairs Bureau came with equipment, they wouldn’t detect it.”

Only then did Guan Xiaoxuan relax and nodded, “That’s good.”

“Was that the only reason you came to ask me?” Bai Zhiqi asked curiously. “Nothing else?”

Actually, that was the main reason.

But Guan Xiaoxuan, having lived in the real world, knew that asking for help usually required a little something in return. So she pulled out a box of chocolates from her pocket and smiled brightly at Bai Zhiqi.

“These chocolates have been pretty popular at school these past few days. I thought since you don’t get out much in the Underworld, I’d bring some for you.”

Bai Zhiqi glanced sideways and took the chocolates without hesitation, smiling as she said, “Alright, I’ll take them. If there’s nothing else, I’ll be going now.”

“Okay,” Guan Xiaoxuan smiled. “I’m heading back too.”

After leaving the girls’ dorm, Guan Xiaoxuan decided to check out the offline salon on Saturday.

That Saturday, Xing Tianqing was still very busy but managed to find time to meet Guan Xiaoxuan briefly in the morning, which made her quiet heart beat again.

Xing Tianqing greeted her and then left, so Guan Xiaoxuan didn’t get to tell him that she had made up her mind about the matter. She watched the elevator carry him away and sighed softly, planning to tell him after he finished his busy schedule.

The night before, before going home, Guan Xiaoxuan went shopping and bought some new clothes: a simple dark green dress, a white knit sweater, and a new pair of white sneakers.

Dressed in the new clothes, she took her mask to the bathroom and adjusted her face and height.

In the end, she created a woman about 165 cm tall, with long black hair and an ordinary face.

Looking in the mirror at this unfamiliar version of herself, she thought this plain face would definitely not be memorable.

Today, her persona was “ordinary.”

She planned to attend the salon on time, quietly listen to everyone’s discussions, and leave neither early nor late—just an ordinary young woman.

She examined her face and felt very satisfied.

At 3 p.m., in front of Riverside Café, Guan Xiaoxuan parked a shared bike by the roadside and walked to the entrance carrying her small shoulder bag.

The entrance seemed to have a registration and greeting desk, with two people sitting behind a table. Seeing Guan Xiaoxuan come in, one of them asked, “Hello, are you here for the offline salon of the Weird Forum?”

Guan Xiaoxuan nodded.

One of them said, “Please sign in here and pay a 70 yuan entrance fee.”

Without hesitation, Guan Xiaoxuan had already decided on her alias—Qin Dai.

She signed “Qin Dai” and paid the 70 yuan fee. Only then did the two greeters say, “Go straight in; the salon is at the back. Drinks and snacks inside are free to take.”

Guan Xiaoxuan chuckled softly and said, “Thank you.”

Carrying her bag, she walked inside and saw a large reading area at the very back. It was a step higher than the rest and fenced off with wooden railings, probably borrowed space from the café.

Not many people had arrived yet. Guan Xiaoxuan didn’t recognize a single person. She took a cup of black tea from a nearby table and found a random seat.

Time passed, and by around 4 p.m., more people had arrived. Guan Xiaoxuan even spotted Chen Man in the crowd.

Chen Man came in with two others—not looking like students. They were two tall men in their twenties or thirties. Guan Xiaoxuan couldn’t guess who they were.

At that moment, the two men turned sharply and looked straight at Guan Xiaoxuan.

She froze for a second, blinked, and quickly pretended to look away, taking a sip of her tea.

That was a sharp sense of awareness.

Guan Xiaoxuan had only glanced at Chen Man once, but her companions noticed immediately. It seemed Chen Man wasn’t ordinary either.

Better to keep a distance from her.

Soon, Chen Man and her two companions found a spot and sat down. Guan Xiaoxuan caught their whispered conversation in her peripheral vision. Chen Man glanced toward her and then shook her head, as if to say she didn’t know her.

Guan Xiaoxuan’s heart raced. She worried her disguised face might slip, but she kept calm and casually looked around, “relaxing” while sipping her tea.

At first, people gathered in small groups. Some made deals, others chatted. When the crowd was nearly full, a man in a black suit and glasses stood up.

“Hello everyone, I’m the organizer of this offline salon, my name is [Sword and Longevity].”

He looked around and smiled lightly. “Thank you all for taking time out of your busy schedules to join the Weird Forum offline salon. It’s not easy for everyone to gather here today, so feel free to communicate and discuss openly.”

Everyone’s attention was focused on the man called “Sword and Longevity.” He had probably organized many meetups like this before. Slowly, he began leading the conversation, drawing most people’s interest.

“I don’t know if anyone has noticed, but this month in Xinglin City, there have been several cases of students going missing from schools. All of them are teenagers,” Sword and Longevity said. “Has anyone heard any news about this?”

At these words, Guan Xiaoxuan’s ears perked up.

Xing Tianqing had been busy with this case lately. She heard that five kids had disappeared—boys and girls, mostly middle and high school students.

This was what Guan Xiaoxuan had seen on the forum, but because the authorities kept it confidential, she hardly knew any details.

“I do have some information,” said a woman sitting diagonally across from Guan Xiaoxuan. “I work at one of the schools where a student went missing. It matches what the forum says—the student kept saying she saw a little boy before she disappeared.”

At this, everyone turned their attention to the woman.

“I heard that too. There’s a little boy who throws a ball to you and often shows up near the school stairwell,” someone nearby asked, “Besides the missing students, has anyone else seen this boy?”

The woman shook her head. “I asked the missing student’s friends, and they said they never saw the boy. Even when she pointed him out, they couldn’t see him at all. At first, everyone thought she was lying—until she disappeared, then people realized how serious it was.”

“Has the student been found?”

The woman shook her head again.

A man wearing a black hoodie said, “They couldn’t find her. It’s like she vanished without a trace. The Weird Affairs Bureau has been investigating for a long time, but there’s no news.”

Guan Xiaoxuan looked at the man and listened as he continued, “The bureau has been busy for over half a month. With more students disappearing, higher-ups have sent people to investigate. It’s not easy for the bureau’s people right now.”

“Let’s not discuss official agencies here; we don’t want trouble,” someone reminded. “Instead, let’s try guessing what kind of strange ability this could be. How could so many students just vanish into thin air? Do they have anything in common?”

“Could it be bullying at school?”

The woman who spoke before glanced around and said, “The students seemed to have been bullied before they disappeared. I’m not sure about other schools, though.”

“The fourth missing student I know was also bullied a lot. I heard the first and second ones had similar experiences.”

“So, all the missing students were bullied at school?”

“Not just that,” Sword and Longevity looked at everyone and smiled faintly. “These kids share another common trait: they all came from the Xinglin City Welfare Home.”

Xinglin City Welfare Home?

Guan Xiaoxuan was stunned. After her parents died, her original self had also lived at the Xinglin City Welfare Home for a while.

So, if the kids went missing, it might be not just because of bullying but also related to the welfare home?

Maybe that little boy was connected to the Xinglin City Welfare Home too?

As people around started whispering, Sword and Longevity smiled and said, “Actually, I have another theory. I suspect that the little boy, who only the victims can see, has a special strange ability—he can exchange items.”

“What do you mean?”

Sword and Longevity explained, “From the information we have, strange objects always appear near where the missing students were last seen. Sometimes they’re balls, toys, or erasers. So, I guess this boy’s power is to swap items with the missing students and take them to his own world.”

After hearing this, everyone started whispering again. Guan Xiaoxuan looked at Sword and Longevity, unsure how much this person really knew—he even mentioned the inner world.

It seemed this forum was more professional than she had imagined.

Just then, Chen Man, sitting not far from Guan Xiaoxuan, suddenly spoke up. She said to Sword and Longevity, “So you’re saying this little boy might drop these special items?”

Sword and Longevity nodded, stood up, smiled lightly at everyone, and scanned the crowd before saying, “That’s right. Fellow forum members, this strange being likely drops special items with this exchange ability. So I’m announcing a reward—anyone who can get these special dropped items, I will buy them for one million yuan.”