Chapter 32

"The Land of Great Peril 2, Belief in Existence."

After leaving the address of the construction site, Zheng Jiu took his leave. Angel and Mo Fei promised him they would visit the site in the evening.

Once he was gone, Mo Fei stood up and went to the kitchen, busying himself with something, then came out holding a large glass bowl in one hand and a whisk in the other, asking Angel, "Angel, is this possibility real?"

"Are you talking about zombies?" asked Anger.

Mofei nodded, "I don't quite believe in this stuff, but people often talk about it."

"Hmm," Angler leaned back in his chair, pondering. "The concept of spirits and ghosts is as ancient as human history itself, and it's an interesting commonality in the vastly different cultures of the East and West. Almost every ethnicity and race believes that souls exist in another form after leaving the human world, endowed with unknown powers and often associated with evil and fear."

After listening to Anger, Mofei asked, "Do you believe in them?"

Anger glanced at him and said, "Mofei, belief and existence are not necessarily conflicting concepts."

Mofei seemed a bit confused, continuing to beat eggs with a whisk while asking Anger, "What do you mean by that?"

Anger glanced at the whisk in Mofei's hand and explained, "If you believe in something, even if it doesn't actually exist, you can concoct reasons for its existence and find evidence to support it. But if you don't believe in something, even if it does exist, you can find ways to disprove it. So, for people, whether something exists or not is one thing, but what’s more crucial is whether they believe in it."

Mofei blinked, turned off the whisk, and stirred the thick, white egg whites before switching it to a higher setting, continuing, "You have a point. Ghosts, God, deities, aliens... whether they exist or not, indeed no one can prove it."

"Tsk tsk," Anger wagged a finger gently, saying to Mofei, "Ghosts, God, deities, and aliens are two different concepts."

Mofei looked up at Anger.

Angel said earnestly, "Aliens do exist!"

Mofei was surprised, not expecting Anger to be a firm believer in the existence of aliens.

For the next hour, Angel followed Mo Fei around, from the living room to the kitchen and back, passionately citing numerous examples to prove the real existence of aliens, and his firm belief that living aliens had been captured but were being detained in secret.

Finally, overwhelmed, Mo Fei covered Angel's mouth with his hand and said, "I get it, you've thoroughly demonstrated the idea of 'believing is seeing, disbelieving is not.'"

Angel frowned and looked at Mo Fei discontentedly, "You don’t believe in aliens?"

"I do," Mo Fei, seeing the expectant look on Angel’s face, blurted out a statement he himself didn't believe, nodding and saying to Angel, "From now on, I believe."

Angel stared at him for a while, then smiled contentedly.

Mo Fei shook his head, trying to dismiss the image of Angel's smile, and continued to focus on his task.

Angel, eyeing a round, soft, yellow object on the table, reached out to poke it.

"Don't touch," Mo Fei pulled his hand back.

"You’ve been busy since we started talking," Angel asked curiously, "What are you making?"

"Cake," Mofei answered nonchalantly. "We had a lot of eggs left over from last time. They need to be used before they go bad."

Angel glanced at the bowl of egg yolks and asked, "Did you actually separate the eggs? Can I use some of those yolks for egg tempera painting?"

"You can have some, but I need to keep a bit," Mo Fei said with a laugh, "How about cake this afternoon and, if we come back late, egg-fried rice for a late-night snack?"

Angel blinked as he saw Mo Fei pick up a can that looked like spray paint, shake it vigorously, and start spraying fresh cream onto the cake base.

Angel dipped a finger to taste, "Sweet."

Mo Fei smiled and said, "I used to work in a cake shop, but I only know how to make choux pastry. I’ve often seen pastry chefs make cakes, but this is my first attempt at it."

Angel watched as Mo Fei sprayed a mound of cream onto the cake base, then picked up a long knife, apparently to smooth out the cream.

"Mo Fei, this is the ugliest cake I've ever seen!" Angel commented.

Mo Fei looked at him, somewhat helplessly, "What should I do then? I'm not skilled in cake decorating."

Angel stroked his chin, reached for the "spray paint," and said, "Let me try!"

Mo Fei glanced at him and handed over the jar.

Anger took the spray can, looked down at the round, flat cake, shook his head, cut the cake into several pieces with a cake knife, and then stacked them up.

Mo Fei nodded, "Yes, now it's become a sandwich."

Anger glanced at him and began to spray whipped cream all over the cake, using up two whole cans.

Mo Fei watched from the side and asked Anger, "Anger... what are you doing?"

Without a word, Anger rolled up his sleeves and started to shape the whipped cream with a carving knife.

Mo Fei watched as Anger roughly shaped the cream into a standing male figure, then started to refine the face, hair, and then moving down to the neck, shoulders, collarbone, and chest muscles. Mo Fei could tell it was a naked man, and it somewhat resembled himself.

As Anger was meticulously carving the upper half of a sculpture and about to start on the lower half, Mofei quickly interjected, "Anger... that's enough."

Anger turned and glared at Mo Fei, seemingly upset at being interrupted in his artistic creation, and said, "I'm not finished yet!"

Mo Fei chuckled nervously, "Anger, this is meant to be eaten... who are you carving?"

Anger glanced at Mofei somewhat smugly, "Doesn’t it look like you? I’m very good at capturing the details of a figure, so let me finish it."

Mo Fei nodded, "You're too focused on the details."

Anger shook his head, "Mo Fei, art is about the pursuit of details. I am a classicist."

Mo Fei, holding his hand, asked, "So, who's going to eat the detailed lower half later, you or me?"

Anger paused, glanced at the cake figure, and said, "You eat it..."

Mo Fei raised an eyebrow, "I certainly won't."

Anger thought for a moment, then added, "Then I'll eat it..."

Mo Fei also pondered, "I don't really want you to eat that. It's unsettling for me to even think about."

Anger gave him a look, suddenly reached out with the carving knife, and excised a part of the cake figure, smearing the cream to the side. Mo Fei frowned at his actions and looked sympathetically at the now mutilated cake figure.

The two exchanged glances. Anger reached out, cruelly plucked off the cake figure’s head, and began eating it as he turned back to the living room.

Mo Fei, resigned, picked up a fork and lifted the cake plate, following him out.

The TV in the living room was broadcasting the afternoon news, which recently seemed to be filled with several child abduction cases.

Mo Fei sat next to Anger with the cake, poured two cups of tea, and remarked, "It seems there have been quite a few child disappearances lately."

"Children are an extremely vulnerable group," Anger said, licking cream off his fingers. "Many children die from unnatural causes every year, but such consecutive disappearances are indeed rare."

"Is it abduction?" Mo Fei asked. "But many are from ordinary families; there's not much ransom to be gained."

Anger reached out, plucked a leg off the cake figure in Mo Fei's hand, and said, "Protecting the next generation is a human instinct, so cases involving children generally receive more attention. Os must be quite overwhelmed these days."

"The first child has been missing for almost half a month," Mo Fei frowned. "Since no bodies have been found and no ransom demands made... what could be the motive for taking the children?"

Anger, while eating the cake, watched the TV news where several parents were tearfully answering reporters' questions. He stroked his chin, seemingly puzzled.

"Anger," Mo Fei reached out to touch Anger's chin, "You've got cream all over your face."

Anger turned to look at Mo Fei, "Mo Fei, make a call to Os... have him check out the parents of those missing children."

"Check the parents?" Mo Fei was puzzled as he picked up the phone and asked, "What should he look for?"

Anger thought for a moment, then said, "Those parents know each other and... they don't seem too worried. Ask Os to look into their financial situation."

Mo Fei frowned slightly, called Os, and relayed the situation. After hanging up, Mo Fei asked Anger, "Anger, how did you figure that out?"

Anger crossed his legs, saying, "Every couple seemed too loving, understanding each other, jointly hoping for their child's return."

"What do you mean?" Mo Fei seemed confused.

"Mo Fei, these parents are from all walks of life, with different personalities," Anger said nonchalantly. "While I believe every couple unites out of love, I also believe that romance doesn't last... humans are creatures adept at disappointing. If a child goes missing, out of ten couples, at least five would blame each other. After arguments, they would be together in appearance but distant at heart, and appear quite exhausted... But to me, these parents seemed off, with a shared hope in their eyes."

"A shared hope for the return of their children," Mo Fei said. "What's wrong with that?"

"People's mental states change in phases. Even grief and hope vary over time," Anger shook his head, explaining, "After a child is kidnapped, parents initially harbor pessimistic and humble hopes. They only wish for a clue, for the child's safe return, without considering anything else. But this only lasts for the first two days. After forty-eight hours of worry, people sink into despair... After nearly half a month missing, how could there still be undimmed hope? It's suspicious that several parents at different stages of grief exhibit the exact same reactions."

Mofei stared at Anger for a long time before the phone rang. Answering it, he heard Oss's frantic narration.

After listening for a while, Mofei hung up and relayed to Anger, "Oss said they found out these families have gambling issues and debts. After the news aired, philanthropists sent donations to prepare for potential ransom demands, which makes him suspect these couples. He's started investigating."

Anger nodded silently upon hearing this, his expression not one of happiness.

Mofei moved closer to Anger and asked, "Anger, don't you believe in love? Didn't you say before that love is the most beautiful memory?"

Anger looked at Mofei, smiled faintly, and said, "The beauty of love is confined to the time when you're in love. When love departs, it brings sorrow greater than never having loved at all."

Mofei frowned and asked, "Where did you get that conclusion from?"

Standing up, Anger lightly smiled at Mofei and said, "Just like the theory I just mentioned, reality is one thing, belief is another. Belief is one thing, but reality is often another matter." Finishing, he glanced at the time and said to Mofei, "Grab some useful weapons, we're going to catch a ghost."

Mofei watched Anger go upstairs to change, deeply furrowing his brow.