Original Suspense Novel: 《ℬ𝓁𝒾𝓏𝓏𝒶𝓇𝒹 ℳ𝒶𝓃𝑜𝓇》 EP51

"That night, the village elders decided to send all the children away—except for him. Because he bore that mark, 'S', since birth. The Watcher said he had to stay, with that door." "And then what?" Xu Ziqian lowered his head, a long silence. "Then the door closed. He didn't come out." The air in the room grew heavy. Chen Mo looked at the photo on the wall, a little boy smiling with a missing front tooth, his eyes crinkled into crescent moons. He looked happy and oblivious, completely unaware of his future. "So," Chen Mo said slowly, "I'm not the 'key.' Your brother is. Then why did you say I could open this door?" "Because that door was opened eighteen years ago." Xu Ziqian looked up, his eyes gleaming strangely in the firelight. "The one who opened it was my brother. He came out once—two years after everyone thought he was dead. When he came out, he wasn't the same person anymore." "What did he do when he came out?" Xu Ziqian walked to the wall and pointed to a clipping pinned in the corner. It was an old news article, the headline reading: "Ruins Discovered in Nantou Mountains, Suspected Ancient Indigenous Ritual Site." The date was sixteen years ago. "He came out, and then he started doing one thing—erasing all evidence from Fog Valley Village." Xu Ziqian said. "The village's buildings, documents, photos, household registration records... all disappeared. Not naturally, but systematically cleared by one person." "Why?" "Because he said—" (To be continued)