"Knead the path?" Chen Yu muttered softly, not quite understanding the meaning. Solano was speaking in English, and "knead the path" was the literal translation, which made Chen Yu think of judo, but then he shook his head.
Impossible. Solano was a wealthy American girl; it was unlikely she would play with Chinese homophonic puns in English, so she must have meant it literally, Knead the path?
Knead...
Chen Yu was momentarily stunned, subconsciously lifting his head to look at Solano in front of him. The rich girl's complexion was still very pale, but now under the gaze of Chen Yu and Jack, a blush appeared on her face.
Chen Yu suddenly didn't know what to say, and Jack, too, stood there with his mouth agape in shock, making Chen Yu worry whether this unlucky kid might just simply babble.
This truly was a sad story.
Knead the path, knead the path. If Chen Yu's English listening was correct, then these words meant that Solano was likely among the few in America who were politically correct, poor Jack, being toyed with by her.
"So when I hugged you just now, did you instinctively want to slap me?" Chen Yu glanced at the haunted house behind him, the Solano who had been hanging by the window was gone.
The entire haunted house seemed to return to normal suddenly, but Chen Yu knew that things weren't that simple—the tracker showed the red dot representing the source of the curse was slowly moving.
The evil spirit was still there, and it had noticed them.
"I... I have been afraid and hated men since I was young, so later I just..." Solano started fixing her hair, seeming a bit embarrassed as she spoke.
Her action earlier was completely instinctive. When humans are frightened, they always exhibit some instinctual behaviors, such as screaming or bursting into tears.
Chen Yu, however, hadn't expected Solano, a beauty, to actually be a contact book.
Although America was already seeing trends of political correctness, it was not as extreme as in the later periods, especially for families; having a contact book was unacceptable and not permitted, so it was perfectly normal for Solano to have concerns.
If it were in that dreadful future era, Solano's hobby wouldn't be a big deal.
Chen Yu glanced at Jack, who was staring blankly at Solano.
"Tsk, tsk." Chen Yu shook his head, poor Jack, originally unrelated to the evil spirit, but in trying to win the lady's favor, he ended up being cursed. He thought coming to Tokyo might improve his rapport and then unlock some special events.
With some luck, he might even score a home run, considering American girls were pretty open-minded about certain things.
But unexpectedly, his goddess turned out to like girls. If Jack were truly madly in love, going to Thailand for surgery might give him a chance to be with Solano, otherwise, this might never be possible in this lifetime.
"So, when you went to this haunted house initially, did you do anything else?" Chen Yu looked at Solano, who suddenly revealed her hobby at this time—it couldn't possibly be just to be brave and be herself.
It could only be that this hobby had something to do with the haunted house.
"I... I and Meihuizi are... lovers of Knead the Path... and that day we were on the bed in the bedroom on the second floor of this room..." Solano lowered her head and fiddled with her skirt, her voice getting softer and almost inaudible towards the end.
But Chen Yu had understood anyway.
Meihuizi, Chen Yu knew, was the first victim of this cursed incident. According to Solano, Meihuizi's entire family had died, utterly destroyed by an evil spirit.
Previously, Chen Yu had wondered if Meihuizi had taken something from the haunted house that provoked the wrath of the evil spirit, causing Meihuizi to be targeted first.
But now Chen Yu understood that this had nothing to do with taking anything, it was purely because Meihuizi and Solano had been foolish. If these two fools hadn't acted recklessly, they probably wouldn't have been the first and second to suffer from the curse.
"Solano, you..." Jack looked at the person he once had a liking for with some headache. He hadn't expected to just find out that his prospective partner was a communicator, and then to hear about her and her companion's wild past.
Arguing in such a creepy haunted house could only be attributed to the harm of alcohol.
"Alright, I pretty much understand now, Solano you..." Chen Yu glanced at Solano, initially planning to keep this master of argumentation outside, since the evil spirit's malice towards her was just too strong.
But considering that if he went in, Solano could be affected by the evil spirit using illusion techniques or something else, which would be even more troublesome, so Chen Yu abandoned the idea of having Solano stay outside.
"Let's go, remember to stick close to me." Chen Yu looked at the iron gate in front of him, then opened the courtyard door and walked in first.
Jack hesitated for a moment, then followed Chen Yu's footsteps. Although Solano was still trembling, she didn't want to stay outside alone, so she also followed them in.
Jack glanced back at the pale-faced Solano, sighed, and still went over to support her. Solano gratefully grasped Jack's hand.
Chen Yu didn't bother with Jack and Solano, the most important thing now was the haunted house in front of him.
"Walking into the courtyard doesn't feel peculiar. Is it only being inside the house that triggers the curse? And does contacting the cursed also possibly spread the curse?" Chen Yu looked at the messy courtyard, slowly drawing the M29 holstered at his waist.
Bringing a revolver to Tokyo was usually very challenging, but it also depends on whose plane it was, and moreover, Jack being a member of the Dupont family meant that Chen Yu's M29 was also successfully brought over.
The cold touch of the firearm in his hand calmed Chen Yu's mind a bit.
The entire courtyard had nothing particularly noteworthy, this place was simply completely unattended, weeds growing wildly, graffiti on the walls of the courtyard featuring slogans like "Life is Hard."
It seemed that some delinquent youths had come here before.
But as long as these guys weren't foolish enough to enter the haunted house, there shouldn't be any problems.
"These guys are pretty bold," Chen Yu mused, frowning slightly at a small umbrella he stepped on.
Knowing this was a haunted house, did people still come here for thrills? But then again, haunted meant that no one dared to enter, which indeed made it a suitable place.
After a full circle without any other discoveries, Chen Yu found he had no choice but to enter the haunted house to resolve this issue.