CH 114

At dusk, Haigu Municipal Hospital.

A woman in her mid-forties left the gift store with a lifeless bouquet in her arms. The petals of the pink carnations were yellowing at the edges, and the surrounding baby’s-breath had fallen apart into pieces.

The woman hunched her back and had a lackluster expression. She was wearing a colorful t-shirt that didn’t match her age, and the bouquet of flowers in her arms couldn’t cover up the faint smell of sweat.

She lowered her head and walked towards the inpatient area, passing by pedestrians who would glance at her for no more than two seconds.

The unremarkable woman approached the ward of the inpatient area slowly in this way.

“……”

Not long after, the door of the ward closed behind her.

An old man in the ward turned his head, and after seeing the person who came, he slowly put away the smile on his face.

“It’s you.”

In the ward surveillance, the woman in her mid-forties who was holding flowers was still standing, but in the eyes of the old man, the “person” in front of him was completely different—

Simple black work uniform and cheap flats. The woman’s eyes were slender and red, as if she had cried, and the hair on the back of her head was tightly tied in a bun.

“You can continue to call me ‘Qi Xin’,” she said. “Qi Xin from Gengsheng Town is dead, and there are no other Qi Xin nearby. I quite like this name.”

The old man made no effort to hide the disgust on his face.

“What are you doing here?”

He sat up from the hospital bed.

“There’s no rally today—you messed up on the affairs in Gengsheng Town, and we haven’t settled that matter with you yet.”

“Um… Messed up?” Qi Xin opened the bouquet and replaced the half-dead flowers in a vase with them. “You asked me to go and you clearly promised that I could ‘eat as much as I want’.”

She bared her teeth at him.

“I went to see the situation with Fu Xingchuan and Li Nian and found food that could be eaten, so I ate.”

Her tone was calm, as if she were describing how she had eaten a few ingredients before the meal was served.

The old man gritted his teeth tightly, as if he wanted to scold her, but when he was looked at by those slender eyes, he couldn’t say a word.

Qi Xin fiddled with the bouquet of flowers, and the withered baby’s-breath fell down as she picked at it. The setting sun shone through the window, dyeing the white dried flowers a light shade of red, like fresh meat shavings. She didn’t stop her movements and played with them attentively.

The old man, Mr. Qiu, looked at the side of her face, and disgust seemed fixed on his expression.

Qi Xin rushed towards Mr. Qiu, and her cheek twitched. A crack opened on her profile, and the gap wriggled for a few seconds, transforming into a slender eye.

“If you think I disrupted your rhythm, you can delay the operations by ten, twenty, or even a hundred years. I have no objections.”

Qi Xin’s mouth was closed tightly, and her voice seemed to come from nowhere.

“Humans grow old fast and forget even faster. I thought you knew the truth.”

“We’re not here to play.” Mr. Qiu frowned as he hissed back.

“Well, you three aren’t here to play, but I am.”

Qi Xin swept away the baby’s-breath with the back of her hand, and the shriveled white flowers fell on the table, silent like snowflakes. The extra-grown eye looked at Mr. Qiu happily, without blinking.

“…Don’t think that ‘you’ can be so unscrupulous because you’re older. There were people older than you before, and you know their endings.” Mr. Qiu was silent for a while before he responded with a hiss.

“I don’t need you to survive. Although I’m a different breed than those two, I enjoy working with them more than you—”

Qi Xin’s movements of fiddling with the flowers stopped.

The thin woman turned her head, and all her facial features disappeared, leaving only a vague dark vortex. Qi Xin’s neck was folded ninety degrees, and her joints clicked as her deformed face rushed straight towards Mr. Qiu.

The old man jolted.

“Shh—be careful what you say.” A blurred voice of indeterminate gender came from deep within the vortex. “If you want to act low-key, you need humans from Sunken Society to help you with your research…”

Qi Xin’s slender body stopped by the bed. Her neck stretched softly as if it were boneless, and the dark vortex stuck to the tip of Mr. Qiu’s nose.

“You won’t like the news of ‘collective suicide of the members of Sunken Society’… You’ll have to wait for another batch of collaborators to be trained, and the result won’t be any different. Be patient, young one.”

A blatant threat.

Mr. Qiu’s withered throat bobbed.

He began to understand why “that one” wanted to bring down this old trouble.

Considering Qi Xin’s “nature”, her strength as a teammate was average, but her ability to be a hindrance was unparalleled. As long as she wanted to, she could cause them huge trouble at any time.

So far, Qi Xin had basically ignored commands, but fortunately, she hadn’t deliberately sabotaged their actions, though it was difficult to say in the future. It was as if “that one” liked putting in unstable factors to monitor them more than pulling combat power.

And he couldn’t interfere with “that one’s” plan.

“…It’s my fault.” Mr. Qiu laughed dryly. “I spoke out of turn. I just want to save my compatriots, so I became a little anxious.”

The swirl on Qi Xin’s face gradually changed back to her original facial features, but her brows remained extremely cold.

“Compatriots? Your rhetoric is becoming more human.” She retracted her neck and continued to fiddle with the flowers. “It sounds really uncomfortable.”

Mr. Qiu didn’t respond.

“I came back because I wanted to say one thing. I don’t care about your heroism, but I don’t want to be hungry either,” Qi Xin said. “A little advice. You’d better keep your plans to more than 50 years. This generation of humans is interesting, so it’s best to wait for them to weaken before acting.”

The cub was guarding “Zhong Chengshuo” and she couldn’t see through that strange man.

And looking at Shian’s attitude, they only suspected the cub was related to an Evil Spirit. Regarding the truth about Evil Spirits, those poor humans’ understanding wasn’t even skin deep. However, with Fu Xingchuan and Li Nian leading this generation, it was difficult to say how things would develop.

So it was better just to wait another fifty years.

Fifty years later, Fu Xingchuan and Li Nian would be six feet underground and wouldn’t pose any threat. Zhong Chengshuo would become an old man of about eighty years old, and it would be hard to say if he could even get up and down the stairs by himself.

At that time, after the dust settled on the relationship between Shian and the cub and when everything came to fruition, she could just decide how to act.

But… in addition to herself, it was still unknown whether “the other three” were willing to wait another fifty years.

For example, like this Mr. Qiu.

As she expected, Mr. Qiu’s voice suddenly became excited. “Why wait? Did you find anything in Gengsheng Town? I heard that Yellow Millet disappeared without a trace and even Snake Swallowing was taken back by Shian and arranged to go to some ‘rare evil creature reserve’. Can this be done with just Fu Xingchuan’s level alone?”

“Is it the pair of partners that Sunken Society has been paying attention to…?”

Qi Xin’s tone was extremely calm. “Fu Xingchuan did it. He was lucky. Those two evils were not controlled by the imitation and lost their will to fight… As for the two boys from Unit 9… They are considered normal humans.”

She lied smoothly.

“I just comprehensively evaluated the situation of the leaders of Shian and gave you my advice.”

“So your suggestion is to ‘wait fifty years’ before taking action? Do you want me to repeat this over and over again for this worn-out idea?” Mr. Qiu showed an expression of speechlessness.

“Yes, because I hate you, and I hate the other two even more.”

After speaking, Qi Xin straightened her back. She patted the dried flower crumbs on her hand and walked to the door without turning her head.

Mr. Qiu: “Hey.”

The cheap flats knocked against the ground, making a regular tapping sound.

“Hey!”

Qi Xin grabbed the door handle with her right hand and moved in a fluid manner.

“Is it because of ‘his’ death that you’re treating us like this?”

Qi Xin’s hand paused.

She didn’t answer. After a while, Qi Xin left the room quietly, and the door to the ward was gently closed.

“…Bastard.”

Mr. Qiu fell back on the soft pillow at the head of the bed.

With Qi Xin’s perfunctory attitude, he didn’t bother to share the latest information with her. Mr. Qiu just got news in the morning that Shian was about to usher in their triennial joint exercise tournament again.

Shian had always suspected that those two boys from Unit 9 were related to an “Evil Spirit”. The execution mission caused such a big uproar that the subsequent observation wouldn’t stop immediately.

“But since those two in Unit 9 are just humans, it’s not a big deal.” He moved his withered fingers. “It doesn’t matter if I play around, right?’

……

“Wow.”

One of Mr. Qiu’s targets was amazed.

Yin Ren shifted his attention away from Zhong Chengshuo and looked at the information on the wall—one after another, all of them were special murder cases that occurred after the ‘Divine Descent’.

“Officially, they are my biological parents.”

Zhong Chengshuo paced to one of the newspaper clippings and pointed at a young man and woman above.

The words “serial killers” next to it were particularly eye-catching. Taking a closer look, the words “has been executed” were also written in fine print.

Yin Ren: “……”

He never thought that the process of meeting Zhong Chengshuo’s parents would come a second time, and this second time was even stranger.

For a moment, thoughts swirled in his feverish mind. Lord Ghost King squinted at the information that covered an entire wall, and countless dog-blooded stories quickly turned up in his heart.

“Stop.” He raised his right hand and said confidently, “Wait, let me guess first! When you were a teenager, you found out that you were adopted and decided to investigate the mystery of your own life. During the investigation, you discover that your parents were actually serial killers.”

“You discovered the existence of the Divine Descent and decided to step into this world. You thoroughly understood the events of the year, your parents’ motives, and traced the fate of the previous generation. During your investigation, you gradually became King Yama.”

Yin Ren shook his finger and was satisfied with the script he had written.

“Ah, to add a little more suffering element—you discovered your personality problem earlier on and decided to use hunting evil things and murderers to relieve your desire for destruction—am I right?”

Zhong Chengshuo applauded with a blank expression.

Yin Ren snorted. Before he could finish saying “old ginger is spicier*”, his boyfriend solemnly commented.

*(姜还是老的辣) Idiom referring to older, more experienced people are usually wiser and more capable than younger people. || In this context, he’s saying that because he’s older than Zhong Chengshuo, based on his life experience, he can come up with this kind of story about Zhong Chengshuo’s life.

“Amazing.” Zhong Chengshuo stopped applauding. “I can’t believe you got nothing right.”

Yin Ren: “?!”

The corners of Yin Ren’s mouth twitched. “If… If Shian finds something wrong in the future, let’s use this to mislead them!”

Zhong Chengshuo tilted his head and thought for a while, then nodded reluctantly.

“So what’s the situation with your biological parents?” Yin Ren continued, asking cautiously.

“Scums like Guo Laifu. These are just the usual investigations. I have no special interest in them.”

“What about hunting evil things?”

“Researching equipment and gear burns money, and I need money.”

“What about… torturing murderers?!”

“Need subject data.” Zhong Chengshuo explained seriously. “Do you want to see their brain CT and blood hormone index?”

Yin Ren was stunned.

Every time he felt that Comrade Xiao Zhong’s plan was too far-fetched, this person could always bring him back down to earth with a thud.

“Then you’re studying Divine Descent,” Yin Ren asked almost hopelessly, “It’s not out of personal interest, right?”

This time, there was no answer from Zhong Chengshuo.

“Step by step.” He thought for a while before replying. “When our relationship goes further, I’ll tell you. Just like a bank card pin, these are secrets belonging to the degree of marriage.”

“Well, if that’s what you say…”

Inwardly,  Yin Ren felt extremely frustrated and couldn’t refute him.

So he decided to spread this pain.

Yin Ren took out Dog Thing and prepared to slap it on the table. Just as he was about to do so, he suddenly hit the brakes, carefully removed Yellow Millet and the little hamster, then slammed Dog Thing onto the table.

Dog Thing: “Woof, woof, woof…”

“Now you’re barking.” Yin Ren cracked his knuckles. “Honesty is the best policy. This is the perfect place to explain yourself.”

“What the hell is up with Qi Xin?”

The author has something to say:

This is a clash between the Riddle Master and the straight-forward Emperor Xiao Zhong!