Chapter Thirteen: The Wax Figure

Yin Nian and Yuan Yin both fell to the ground at the same time.

Yin Nian pointed at the cabinet, her expression flustered. "There's someone inside!"

Yuan Yin was also terrified, her face pale. "Who?"

Yin Nian backed away. "I don't know... I just saw a pair of eyes, purple-red."

They retreated several steps. Mist began to drift out from the cabinet, the light shining in, making their view clearer. They saw that there was indeed someone inside, but it couldn't be a real person, for the figure was only about half a meter tall.

"It looks like a statue..." Yuan Yin said.

"And there’s more than one..." Yin Nian added.

The two stepped forward and finally saw clearly: the cabinet did not contain real people, but two statues.

The statues were entirely red, their eyes a deep purple-red. One was slightly taller and shaped like a woman, the other a bit shorter, resembling a man. Diagonally across from the statues was a wooden stool, and between the stool and the statues lay some miscellaneous items.

After carrying the statues out, Yin Nian realized they were not ordinary statues, but wax figures. Perhaps because they had been stored for so long, the wax on their faces had melted somewhat, blurring their features and making them appear particularly eerie.

They also took out the items from inside: a block of sandalwood, a wooden fan, a bracelet, and a key.

The base of the fan had fallen off, the bracelet was a dark green, and the key was mottled with rust, clearly aged.

"This bracelet belonged to my mother..." Yuan Yin examined it. "She died many years ago... This fan, I think I’ve seen it before, but I can’t recall..."

"The sandalwood must be to mask the smell of wax," Yin Nian said. "What about this key?"

"I’m not sure... but it must be important." Yuan Yin studied the key for a moment, then compared it to a lock on the ground, confirming it did not fit the cabinet.

"And these two wax figures?" Yin Nian glanced at their faces, feeling a chill.

"They should be a man and a woman..." Yuan Yin scraped some wax from the female figure’s face, studied it, and pondered, "Could it be mother?"

"Your mother?" Yin Nian asked.

"I think so..." Yuan Yin replied softly.

"And the other one? Could it be Yuan Yi?"

"Possibly..." Yuan Yin looked for a while, unable to discern the features, but the face shape did resemble Yuan Yi.

"Why would Yuan Yi place wax figures of your mother and himself in a cabinet? Some kind of special ritual?"

"I think it might be a kind of spiritual comfort. There’s a stool inside; perhaps, when feeling lonely, he would sit in the cabinet and talk with mother..." Yuan Yin speculated. "I know when mother died, Yuan Yi was devastated. He was closest to her, and she cherished him most... After her death, he couldn’t accept it for a time and became mentally unstable. I heard this from others. Later, he became a psychologist, partly because of this..."

"That makes sense." Yin Nian saw tears shimmering in Yuan Yin’s eyes and asked, "Are you alright?"

"I just remembered some things... Well, it’s all in the past." Yuan Yin tilted her head back, taking a deep breath.

Yin Nian quietly patted Yuan Yin’s shoulder. She had long sensed that Yuan Yin carried many secrets too painful to speak. Those secrets formed invisible chains, imprisoning her spirit, making her nervous and timid when facing others.

Yin Nian had felt similarly in middle school, but she overcame her fears and emerged from her spiritual crisis, which gave her the confidence and resilience she now possessed.

"This fan probably belonged to my little brother..." Yuan Yin suddenly said.

"Yuan Yi’s?" Yin Nian asked.

"No, I have another brother, the youngest in the family."

"Is he dead too?" Yin Nian remembered Yuan Yin saying she was the only one left.

"He’s not dead, but it’s almost as if he is..." Yuan Yin suddenly remembered something, examined the male wax figure closely, and exclaimed in shock, "Could it be... this wax figure is him?"

"The youngest brother?"

"Yes, the three of them were always very close..." Yuan Yin mused. "Looks like I need to visit him."

At that moment, there was a knock at the door. The clinic manager pushed the door open, standing outside and clearing his throat. "I have something to attend to later, so if you plan to take anything today, do it quickly. Otherwise, you’ll have to come another day."

"We’re almost done," Yuan Yin replied.

"I’ll wait for you at the front desk. Come when you’re ready." The manager closed the door and left. Throughout, he hadn’t stepped into the clinic even once, as if he were afraid of something.

Yuan Yin packed all of Yuan Yi’s belongings into a bundle, including items from the wardrobe.

Yin Nian and Yuan Yin carried the enormous bundle to the front desk. When the manager saw the wax figures inside, his face turned ashen. Zhou Yi, who had been spying from nearby, was also startled, banging his head against the wall.

The manager didn’t dare look any longer; after signing off, he hurried out.

Watching the manager and Zhou Yi leave in such panic, Yin Nian and Yuan Yin exchanged a smile. They didn’t explain the figures were made of wax—this was exactly the effect they wanted. If the others were guilty of something, surely nightmares would follow.

Yin Nian and Yuan Yin left with their bundle, unaware that someone had been watching them all along.

Only after they entered the elevator did that person emerge from the corner—it was Yu Weiran’s assistant, Xiao Huang.

"Sister Yu, they’ve left, carrying lots of things. It seems they’ve discovered something," Xiao Huang whispered into her phone.

"Stay close, track their movements, and be ready to turn the tables," Yu Weiran replied, her voice tinged with a strategic smile. "I want to see what waves they can stir up."