At the most dangerous moment, Liu Xianxian finally found the statue they had been desperately searching for. By all rights, this should have been cause for celebration, but Ma Ying couldn't bring herself to smile.
She knew there was a third person hiding somewhere in the warehouse. At this very moment, that person might be standing in some dark corner, watching them.
Should they leave? Or risk trying?
"No, I still think this is too dangerous. We already know where the statue is—we can come back tomorrow. There's no rush," Ma Ying tried to persuade her best friend. "Listen to me, let's just leave."
"Just two quick questions—it won't take more than a few minutes." Liu Xianxian was being stubborn. The man she liked had become a thorn in her heart that she simply couldn't pull out.
Letting go of Ma Ying's hand, Liu Xianxian walked deeper into the warehouse on her own. "It'll be over soon. I'll have my answer in no time."
Her voice sounded strange, as if she were in a trance.
"Liu Xianxian!"
Ma Ying was anxious. She wanted to leave, but she couldn't bring herself to abandon Liu Xianxian here alone.
Gripping a chair with both hands, she gritted her teeth and hurried after her.
The two girls reached the last row of shelves on the left side of the warehouse. Liu Xianxian pointed at the gap between the shelf and the wall. "The space behind the shelf has been hollowed out. The statue is in there."
Ma Ying leaned against the shelf and shone her phone light inside. Deep among the shelves, she could make out an ugly human face.
When the light fell upon the sculpture, the statue's eyes seemed to blink ever so slightly.
"There's only this one statue in the entire warehouse—it has to be this one." Liu Xianxian grabbed the edge of the shelf. "What are you standing there for? The thing we've been looking for for nights on end is right in front of us. Come help me!"
"I have a feeling someone deliberately hid this statue behind the shelf." Ma Ying stared at the sculpture. She didn't know why, but it looked strangely familiar.
The two of them pushed the shelf aside together, and a faint, foul odor wafted out.
"Do you smell that? It seems to be coming from the statue. It smells a bit like… the stench of a corpse?"
"How could a plaster sculpture smell like a corpse?" Liu Xianxian walked up to the statue with her phone. The light played across its body.
It was a sculpture of an adult male—slightly larger than a real person, unclothed, with a well-built physique, but its face was so ugly it was almost impossible to look at.
Very few sculptors would deface their own work this way, unless there was some deeper meaning behind it.
"Engraved text on the base, an ugly face—this is exactly the same statue from your video." Liu Xianxian stared at the sculpture before her, her fingers trembling slightly. She had finally found it. She could at last resolve the question that had haunted her for so long.
The gap between the shelf and the wall was barely a meter wide. The statue stood at the very back, like a devil with arms spread wide, ready to embrace a lost traveler.
Standing before the statue, the foul smell grew stronger, but Liu Xianxian seemed not to notice. She pressed her palms together, not daring to look into the statue's eyes, and bowed her head in silence.
"In my heart—"
"Wait!"
Ma Ying cut her off before she could finish. "Think carefully before you ask. The urban legend says the statue can verify the truth of a statement. If what you say is true, it will weep tears of blood. But if it's false… something terrifying will happen."
"I know." Liu Xianxian couldn't hear any more advice. She took another step forward and whispered to the statue: "The person I love in my heart—does he love me too?"
In the sealed, eerie warehouse, the girl poured out the question buried deepest in her heart, gazing at the statue's eyes with desperate anticipation.