I'm an antique shop owner, so it's reasonable for me to know some magic

Chapter 381: Bridge

On the surface, Su Fan was still inspecting the police officers' work, but in fact, he could see every change in Piero's expression.

"What's wrong?"

"nothing……"

Piero coughed uncomfortably.

"I was just surprised. He had clearly just been in a serious car accident not long ago, but he was able to be alive and well and continue his homeless life so quickly."

"Car accident?"

"Yeah... About a month ago, James was wandering outside alone at night when he was hit by a car driven by a careless driver and was seriously injured. His injuries were very serious at the time..."

As Piero spoke, his gaze drifted off into the distance, as if he was trying to retrieve relevant memories from his mind.

"His whole body was wrapped in gauze, and you could hardly see his skin. It was very miserable. I originally thought he would not survive, but now it seems that God has mercy on him."

This is also the reason why he felt very incredible when he heard that Su Fan met James on the road.

When Su Fan heard this, he paused for a moment and carefully recalled James' face, neck, wrists, and other exposed skin. There were no obvious scars on them.

Even the color of the skin makes no difference.

It was at this moment that Piero suddenly smacked his lips.

"It's strange to say, because we were all visiting in our own name, so there were people going to the hospital in the morning, noon and afternoon...but the hospital always managed to dispatch nurses to accompany us."

"I didn't pay attention to it at the time, but now that I think about it, it's really a bit strange."

As soon as he finished speaking, Piero suddenly saw the young assistant beside him turn his head, with a captivating light in his eyes!
At this moment, Piero felt as if he was electrocuted, his heart was paralyzed, and everything in front of his eyes went blank.

But soon, he returned to normal. Looking at the young man again, he was inspecting carefully again. Everything that happened before seemed like an illusion.

"I see. Thank you for the information, Mr. Piero. Could you tell me the name of the hospital?"

"It seems to be called something like... Bridge Builders Hospital. It's a weird name, and I joked about it with my wife at the time."

After getting the exact information, Su Fan chatted with the other party for a few words and then returned to Theresa.

"Something happened again?"

"Ah."

Su Fan nodded slightly.

"Some time ago, I met a homeless man named James in the park. He used to work for the Enfield Police Station. He hated evil and had a tough attitude."

"But because of the death of his family, he was depressed and finally quit his job, and spent his days drinking. However, when his former colleagues got into trouble, he would also help them through the difficulties, so he has a lot of prestige in the police station."

“But doubts also arise.”

"Piero just said that a month ago, James had a very serious car accident. He was seriously injured and almost paralyzed. His body was covered with bandages."

"It is too abnormal to recover physical functions in such a short time and return to the days of drinking and sleeping rough."

It takes a hundred days to heal a broken bone, but it only takes more than a month for a person with severe injuries to be fine again. There must be some unknown secret.

But Su Fan can assert that there is no energy in James' body and he is just an ordinary person.

At least that's the case from a body structure perspective.

"Besides that, the name of that hospital is very strange."

Su Fan remembered it clearly.

In the urban legend described by James, the prerequisite for seeing the terrifying thing is to blow into an empty bottle on an empty bridge.

Bridge... Bridge Builders Hospital...

The similarities between the two seem a bit far-fetched.

Piero also mentioned a crucial detail.

The medical staff of that hospital cared very much about James and even assigned staff to provide special care for him.

As a policeman, James' financial situation should not support such high-end medical services.

"Could it be that Mr. Piero remembered it wrongly?"

Theresa made such a hypothesis.

"So many police officers in the police station didn't mention the car accident..."

Su Fan shook his head slightly.

"Normally, the memories of most people verify each other and the truth of the matter can be deduced, but the problem is that the police officers had too close contact with James."

"It is possible that their thoughts and memories have all been affected and become confused."

"So in comparison, Piero's words are more convincing."

The plainclothes police officers respected James even more than Piero.

It is difficult for a leader to forget such a subordinate who has overcome his superiors.

"I'm more interested in the secrets of James than the urban legends he's pursuing."

Su Fan had met the other party twice, both times for quite a short time, but he did not notice anything special about the other party.

The former couldn't help but become curious and wanted to figure out everything so as not to make the same mistake again in the future.

Perhaps I should have opened the secluded passage at the first sight and taken a closer look.

Just as Su Fan was thinking about this, Theresa's voice called out from not far away.

The night sky was bright with a moon and sparse stars. The woman in front of him was smiling, with her hands crossed behind her back, waiting for him to come up.

Forget it.

Let’s talk about it tomorrow.

Su Fan quickened his pace, came to Theresa's side, and walked side by side with her again.
-
"Event Log 2."

A man's voice rang out in the dark room. He held a recorder in his hand, and in front of him were many unrelated objects.

"Amanda's whereabouts remain unknown. Other police officers believe that she temporarily ran away from home because of a quarrel with her mother. But things are not that simple."

"According to her partner, everyone blew empty bottles on the bridge that night."

"I visited the homes of Brandon and Deval, who were with Amanda, and like Amanda, they disappeared after that night."

"All that was left were words written in blood on the mirror, and all of them mentioned Sorato."

He put the recorder to his lips with one hand and took a card from his left hand with the other.

"In the notebook left by Amanda, a postcard with the words 'Bridge Builders Academy' printed on it was found, and Tupa was written on the back."

"Similarly, there are similar recruitment advertisements in Brandon and Deval's homes."

"I plan to sneak in at night to investigate what is in the academy."

After saying this, the man suddenly paused and held his forehead with his hand.

In the dark space, he walked to the bedroom door with ease and turned on the light.

In the mirror not far away, the man's sturdy body and strong facial curves were reflected.

The latter is naturally James, who met and talked with Tom some time ago.

But at this moment he looked in very bad condition and his face was pale.

The situation did not improve until he took out an ink-black bottle from the cabinet, poured out the pills and swallowed them.

The reason he resigned from the police force was not entirely because of the death of his wife and children.

Since that day, his body has been abnormal, he would tremble from time to time, feel dizzy, and even see some horrible scenes. The doctor was helpless and could only prescribe some sedatives to stabilize his mind.

And this eating lasted for more than a year.

Fortunately, his body had not yet developed drug resistance, and the speed at which the drug took effect was no different from what the doctor had described at the time.

Putting on his jacket and gloves, James opened the door and headed for the garage.

The car that had been with him for many years was quietly waiting for his arrival not far away.

But James suddenly stopped and turned his head sharply when he was only two steps away from the car door.

He seemed to see a dark shadow moving behind him out of the corner of his eye, but when he turned around, he saw nothing.

At this moment, James seemed to hear the heavy breathing of some creature.

Forcing the strange feeling out of his mind, he started the car and drove away from his home.

Street lights are sparse and visibility is low.

James drove slowly and the black car seemed to blend into the night, with the engine turning low and smoothly.

As the vehicle moved forward, the surrounding scenery kept moving backwards, and the red bridge head appeared in James's perspective.

That was where Amanda and the others had been before they disappeared.

The vehicle did not slow down and drove smoothly.

Only the empty bridge is left, watching the water flowing below.

But not long after, the black vehicle that had left earlier came back.

James got out of the car and walked onto the bridge.

The lights on the bridge seemed to be out of order, and none of them were on. Looking around, the bridge deck stretched forward until it sank into endless darkness.

James took a flashlight from his jacket pocket and stepped onto the bridge alone.

The gray cement road was covered with fallen leaves, but apart from that, there was another object that was even more eye-catching.

A dark green glass bottle without any patterns or characters.

James walked over, bent down to pick up the bottle, stared at it, his eyes changing.

Finally, as if he had made up his mind, he put it to his lips and blew it gently.

The whimpering sound spread along with the vibration of the bottle.

At this moment, everything around seemed to be silent. Apart from the sound of the wind in my ears, there was no other sound.

James waited for a moment, but nothing happened, so he simply threw the bottle in his hand under the bridge.

Just as he was about to leave, he heard a series of rhythmic knocking sounds.

Listening carefully, he quickly determined where the noise came from. He immediately found the manhole cover on the bridge, moved it open, and went down to the bottom of the bridge along the rusty ladder.

After lighting the flashlight again, what came into view were corpses hanging by ropes...

Their lifeless bodies swayed gently in the wind.

The sound James heard earlier was caused by the sole of one of the men's shoes colliding with the steel pipe.

Even though James used to work in a police station, he still felt a chill down his spine when he saw such a scene alone at night.

He first looked around to make sure there was no one else there, and then he walked forward with bated breath to check the dead person.

As soon as he approached, the image of the young man with a sunny smile in his student photo album emerged in James' mind.

Brandon...

When was the high school boy who had disappeared for many days hanged here?

The flashlight lingered on the faces of each corpse, and James was certain that they were the friends who had played with Amanda before.

But Amanda was not among them.

James, wearing gloves, turned over the clothes of the body and found no scars or signs of resistance.

They committed suicide.

James looked up, only to see familiar words written on the beam above.

"It was Sora who forced me to do this..."

A thick cloud of doubt seemed to seep out from the font, wrapping around his neck and making it difficult for him to breathe.

James took a few deep breaths and immediately turned around and left.

Logically speaking, as the first person to discover the scene, he should call the police and cooperate with the investigation to help the police solve the case as soon as possible.

But that would take too much time.

He had a premonition.

All the answers are in the so-called Bridge Builder Academy.

The black car was speeding up, and veins bulged in James' hands as he gripped the steering wheel.

At this moment, he forgot his previous strategy of hiding his whereabouts and had only one thought in his mind.

Find out what's going on here.

His eyes kept shifting back and forth between the road ahead and the rearview mirror.

Because the inexplicable whispers were looming in his ears, as if someone was whispering some fragmented, dense, but inaudible secret words close to his ear.

Slow and heavy footsteps came closer and closer.

James felt dizzy again. In a hurry, he had to brake suddenly, staggered out of the car, and found a chair to sit down.

Twisted white skeletons...gray mist...strange black humanoid figures jumping nervously.

Weird and terrifying illusions kept flashing in his vision, and soon, James was sweating profusely.

He tremblingly took out the bottle of medicine from his pocket and poured it directly into his mouth without caring about the dosage.

The bitterness of the medicine became his lifeline to stay awake at this moment.

After a while, the whispers in my ears finally disappeared, and the dizziness that was turning my brain into a mess also disappeared.

But the heavy eyes indicate that this body is about to fall asleep.

No...no...

I haven't figured out the truth of the matter yet...

James struggled to stay awake, but his consciousness was like that of a person drowning in the deep sea. He could only watch the light above disappear bit by bit.

After an unknown amount of time, he managed to open his eyes, only to find that he was already in a spacious tiered classroom.

The sunlight outside shone through the window onto James' face, warm and bright.

Is it daytime already?
How long have I slept and what time is it now...

Where is this place?
James just felt as if a part of his memory was missing.

The unfamiliar situation made him subconsciously want to stand up, but he was infected by the quiet and serious atmosphere around him and did not dare to act rashly.

I only heard the person on the stage speaking slowly.

"We were once one, and we will be one again in the future. This is the message that the Sora-jin asked me to convey to you. He calls on you to discover the true side of the world..."

(End of this chapter)