Joshua hadn’t used a personal computer for a long time. On the spaceship, Leo would handle everything for them. Any question could be asked to the ceiling, and the AI would search its vast database for answers. For games or entertainment, they could use communication terminals. Joshua believed that most pirates, like him, could barely remember the position of the keyboard unless they had to work on a computer.
Now Joshua had to rely on himself. Leo wasn’t much help here. His computer didn’t have the capacity to run an advanced AI smoothly. Joshua closed the study door, sat at the desk, and a holographic keyboard appeared in front of him. With a swipe, the round walls projected a holographic screen around him. He took Leo’s chip out of his pocket and inserted it into the computer’s slot.
A low hum sounded, and then Leo’s holographic image appeared in front of him.
“You finally let me out for some air,” the AI complained. “Even prison would be better. This place is so small, it’s like a coffin!”
“I need your help, Leo,” Joshua said.
“What’s with the gloomy face? Trouble in paradise?”
“If you don’t help me, I’ll never have a love life again.”
“Oh, this sounds serious.” Leo raised an eyebrow. “What happened while I was stuck in this coffin?”
Joshua tilted his chin. “Alois is missing. I think he was kidnapped.”
“Are you sure he didn’t just leave because he’s tired of you?”
Joshua slammed the table with a loud bang, making the projections in the room shake. “I don’t have time for jokes!” the assassin roared.
Leo was momentarily silenced, swallowing back the retort that had been on his lips. Both the assassin and his brother were known for their patience, but their patience had limits, and once exceeded, their anger was fiercer than others. Leo didn’t doubt that if he pushed further, Joshua might yank out the chip and stomp on it.
“Alright, alright, I shouldn’t have said that,” the AI conceded. “What can I do for you?”
“The kidnapper couldn’t have just appeared out of nowhere. Search the surveillance footage from Avalon and the nearby areas and find any suspicious people.”
“That’s a huge task!” Leo exclaimed. “Do you think your crappy computer can handle that kind of load?”
He was about to continue protesting, but Joshua’s increasingly dark expression made him give up the unwise idea. “Fine, fine, I can use the planetary network…”
“And check the spaceport’s entry and exit records,” the assassin added. “Find any suspicious people and their whereabouts.”
The study door suddenly opened, and Joshua reflexively drew his gun, pointing it at the entrance, only to see Kepler walk in. The moneylender raised his hands to show he meant no harm.
“We can help too,” he said. “I have a friend at the spaceport who can help check the records. That’s how we found this place.” He smiled innocuously.
Joshua didn’t lower his gun. “You were eavesdropping.”
“Not ‘eavesdropping’,” Kepler corrected. “The house’s soundproofing isn’t very good, my boy.”
“I’m not your boy.”
“You all are,” Kepler said with the patience of an elder, gently dissipating Joshua’s anger. “Jolene and I are as anxious as you and want to rescue that child as quickly as possible. Don’t try to shoulder everything alone. You need help.”
Reluctantly, Joshua lowered his gun. “I can do it alone.”
“Really? Are you willing to bet Alois’s safety on that?”
The assassin bit his lip and didn’t respond. He could stubbornly refuse others’ demands, but this kind of elder-like, warm advice was hard to reject, even though he resisted it internally. Rationally, he knew Kepler was right. Joshua also had to admit that Kepler had more experience and wisdom than he did.
“…It’s my fault he was kidnapped,” Joshua persisted. “I shouldn’t make others pay for my mistakes.”
“It wasn’t just your fault,” Kepler said softly. “If we’re talking about mistakes, Jolene, our other companions, and I made a huge one over twenty years ago.” He glanced around the study, finally resting his eyes on Leo’s hologram. “We should have stopped his father from undertaking that dangerous and foolish mission, but we didn’t. Isn’t that a grave mistake?”
The sheriff stepped over the police line amid alternating red and blue lights, kicking up a cloud of red dust. The officer in charge of the case saluted him.
“What do we have?”
“A body,” the officer said. “Based on the comparison, it’s likely the missing Lancaster Company representative.” He pointed to the nearby body, where forensic personnel were taking photos, and a medical examiner with a mask and gloves was conducting a preliminary examination. The body lay face down behind a large wind-eroded rock, difficult to find unless specifically searched for. The outer clothes were missing, leaving only a shirt and underwear, which were intact, suggesting the killer wasn’t motivated by lust. His car and wallet were also missing, indicating robbery, but a conclusive judgment would have to wait for the autopsy and forensic reports.
Olympus wasn’t a top-tier peaceful planet. It was rife with gangs, assassins, prostitutes, and various fugitive criminals, with violent incidents happening daily, making the police somewhat numb to it. A day without a death or two would be unusual. But this case was different. The murder occurred in Avalon, known for its security and wealth, and the victim was an employee of a major company planning to buy this mountain to build an amusement park. The nearby residents and Lancaster Company pressured the police, prompting the sheriff to personally inspect the scene.
“Excuse me, Sheriff,” a young officer approached. “Someone wants to pass through the police line to go up the mountain.”
“Who? Reporters?”
The area was sealed off, and entry required strict checks. The sheriff hated reporters. They were like flies on rotting meat, circling endlessly, creating sensational yet unrealistic rumors.
“No, a courier delivering a package up the mountain. Should we check the package?”
“Do we have the authority?” the sheriff retorted. “I don’t want to receive complaints tomorrow about the police opening citizens’ packages and ignoring their privacy. Scan it. If it’s not a bomb or something dangerous, let him through.”
“Yes, sir!”
A vast amount of information displayed around Joshua, filtered and sorted by Leo, leaving only the useful bits. Leo’s work wasn’t fast. Even with the planetary network, his processing speed couldn’t match that on the Lady of the Night.
“By the way,” the AI suddenly said amid his busy task, “I think I know that Kepler.”
“Really,” Joshua responded absentmindedly. “Does it matter?”
“Not really. At least not to you,” Leo realized the assassin had no interest in his social circles and dropped the topic. “I’ll tell you when we have time.”
The study door opened again.
“Can’t you knock first?” Joshua snapped at Kepler.
The moneylender knocked three times on the already open door. “Can I speak now?”
“What is it?”
Kepler didn’t show displeasure at Joshua’s hostile attitude. “A package just arrived, Jolene signed for it. Want to take a look? It could be a message from the kidnappers…”
Before he finished, Joshua dashed out of the room and down the stairs like the wind.
In the living room, Jolene placed the long package on the coffee table, holding a box cutter, unsure whether to open it.
“Let me.” Joshua quickly approached, grabbed the cutter, and tore off the outer wrapping. The package was wrapped like a birthday gift, with bright colored paper outside and a plastic rectangular box inside.
“Careful, it might be a bomb…” Jolene said worriedly.
Joshua gestured for her to step back, setting the cutter aside, and carefully placed the box in the center of the coffee table, gently lifting the lid.
Jolene screamed, nearly fainting, and was saved by Kepler, who rushed to support her.
“My God…” The seasoned loan shark, usually unflappable, gasped at the sight inside the box.
Inside was a blood-soaked, severed arm, cut above the elbow. The stump jagged as if torn off by force rather than a clean cut, with broken bones protruding from the flesh.
Joshua’s face turned pale, as if plunged into an icy abyss, trembling uncontrollably. He gently touched the severed arm, praying silently, Merciful Lord, this can’t be. It’s not Alois’s hand. It must be a prank. This can’t be his hand…
The touch confirmed it was indeed a human arm—not a mannequin or a realistic toy, but a real severed limb.
The assassin caressed the uneven stump up to the wrist, prying open the stiff fingers, a white paper ball falling from the palm, but he didn’t notice. His entire focus was on the blood-stained, cold hand. He knew this hand well—every line, every callus from holding a gun and controlling instruments—and he knew it as intimately as his lover.
This is Alois’s hand.
Joshua covered his face. A low growl of pain, anger, and madness escaped his throat, like a wounded beast howling.
“How could this happen? He just disappeared suddenly?” Jolene covered her mouth in disbelief. She had been eagerly anticipating a reunion with the son of an old friend just a few minutes ago, but now it felt like a bucket of cold water had been poured over her, leaving her chilled to the bone. “How could that child…”
Kepler placed a hand on her shoulder. “Calm down, Jolene. We can’t lose our heads.” He turned to the silver-haired young man. “Do you have any idea? About what might have happened to him…”
Joshua held his forehead, his shirt drenched in cold sweat. If Kepler looked closely at his eyes, he would see that the golden rings in his so-called “Abyssal Fire” eyes had become extremely thin, like a taut string ready to snap at any moment.
“No clue,” he said. “I never thought something like this would happen… I was completely unprepared.”
“Do you have any enemies?” Jolene asked urgently. “Could someone have come seeking revenge?”
Joshua’s mouth twitched. “Enemies… he could have more than a dozen, and I have even more.” He looked up at the elegant woman in front of him. “We are fugitives wanted across the galaxy, madam.”
“Oh my god.” Jolene nearly collapsed into Kepler’s arms. Joshua thought she would express disbelief that the son of her old friend had become a fugitive, but Jolene only let out a sigh. “Oh, Lord, that child has really achieved something, hasn’t he? Even in our day, we were only wanted on a few planets.”
Kepler held her shoulder and gently patted it in comfort. “Don’t worry, Jolene, he’ll be safe. Maybe it’s just a simple kidnapping for ransom. After all, anyone living in Avalon is either rich or noble. Perhaps they just want money?”
“You’re right…” Jolene said. “Maybe we’ll receive a ransom call soon. Yes, that’s right, the child will be fine.” She covered her face. “Oh, merciful Lord, if his parents knew, how heartbroken they would be…”
“They won’t know,” Joshua said as he stood up and headed upstairs. “Alois’s parents are already dead.”
Jolene looked up in shock. “What? Dead?”
“He said they died many years ago.”
Kepler stared intently at the silver-haired young man’s back. “You seem to know him well? What’s your relationship? Friends?”
Joshua turned a corner on the stairs. “We sleep in the same bed every night. What do you think our relationship is?”
Jolene gasped, and Kepler continued to stare sharply at him. “Where are you going?”
“To contact some friends,” Joshua said, already on the second floor. “He wouldn’t be overpowered by a few small fry. If it really was just a simple kidnapping, Alois would already be back home, sitting in the living room, reminiscing with you two.”
Kepler looked at the empty staircase, holding the trembling Jolene tighter.
“He’s an assassin,” the shrewd moneylender said to his companion, revealing his guess. “You’ve surely heard his name.”
“Joshua Euler?”
“No. The assassin, the Mourner.”
Epolyne drove Dr. Frank Shelley around Avalon Mountain. The doctor was excited, gesturing and shouting about turning this place into a research lab and that place into a testing ground. Epolyne casually responded a few times. Her communication terminal suddenly beeped, giving her a legitimate reason to stop listening to the doctor’s endless thoughts, which made Epolyne quite happy.
“Hello, yes. What? …No, not yet… Yes. Alright, I’ll inform the doctor.”
The call was short, bringing some not-so-good news.
“What happened, dear Epolyne?”
“The company just received a complaint. An employee had scheduled a time with a household in Avalon to discuss relocation, but our employee hasn’t shown up.”
The doctor adjusted his glasses. “Could it be a major traffic jam?” He laughed. “Remember, the security guard said our diligent negotiator passed by him not long ago. Did the company send two different people?”
“No, only one.”
“Ah…” The doctor twirled his hair, looking at the red land outside the window. “A negotiator came to Avalon but didn’t complete the task. Why is that?”
“Do we need to send someone to find him?”
“No, this matter isn’t worth our effort,” the doctor said lightly. “Call the police. Isn’t that what they’re there for, to protect the people? Now it’s their turn to shine.”
Alois opened his eyes. The effects of the anesthetic gas were wearing off. Apart from feeling dizzy and slightly confused, he could mostly control his body again. But control didn’t mean freedom. He found himself in a dark, damp room with no windows, only a rusty iron door. He was tied to a heavy chair, his hands bound behind the chair back, with ropes winding from his armpits to his neck. He recognized this as the Empire’s typical binding method because prisoners could never untie the ropes themselves and would strangle themselves before they could.
He vaguely remembered opening the door for a business representative, and then what happened? He was kidnapped? Why would they kidnap him? He wasn’t the lover of a prince. What could they gain from him?
What about Joshua now? Could he be… in danger too? No, no, he was the Mourner. Who would dare to touch him!
The iron door creaked open, accompanied by a grating noise, and a man in a black trench coat walked into the room. Alois stared at him in surprise because half of his face was normal skin and features, while the other half was covered in silver-gray metal, with a red-glowing prosthetic eye rotating in the metal eye socket. The man walked slowly towards Alois, and from his uneven footsteps, Alois deduced that one of his legs was also a metal prosthesis.
Alois stared at the strange man, trying to find a familiar face from his remaining half, but failed. He didn’t know this guy.
“I guess you’re trying to figure out who I am.” The man’s voice sounded like metal scraping, unbearable to hear. “No need to guess. You don’t know me, have never seen me, and could never know my identity.”
As he spoke, he smiled, his entire face twisting. “But I’ve heard of you, Alois Lagrange. Maybe I should call you senior?” He walked around behind Alois, observing the bound young man with great interest. “Or predecessor?”
“Are you an Empire soldier?” Since he called him senior, he must be a junior from the military academy.
“Used to be,” the man said, walking back in front of him. “Ever since I got injured in the war…” He raised his right hand, pointing to his half-metal face, and Alois saw that his right hand was also a prosthesis, “I was ‘forced’ to retire.”
“That’s unfortunate,” Alois said coldly.
The man twisted his face into a smile again. “No need to feel sorry. I was a pilot, and after my fighter was shot down, half my body was burned to ashes. Fortunately, the technology was advanced enough to not only save my life but also allow me to continue to be useful.” He suddenly stepped forward, gripping Alois’s chin with his metal hand, forcing him to look up. “Do you know who did this to me?”
Could it be me? Alois thought.
However, the name the man uttered far exceeded his expectations.
“It was Joanna Begrel.” The man’s normal eye widened, while the prosthetic eye trembled. “Although I suffered immensely, I also gained immense pleasure—because I watched Joanna Begrel die before my eyes! Hit by the mothership’s artillery, not even ash was left! Hahaha, hahahahaha…” He half screamed, half laughed.
“Bastard!” Alois roared. He remembered now, during his last battle alongside Joanna, there was a fighter that kept entangling them. In the end, Joanna intercepted it, allowing Alois to escape. The man in front of him was that fighter pilot! “You… bastard!” He couldn’t finish his words because the man was choking him so hard he couldn’t breathe.
“What? Want to avenge your superior?” The man sneered. “Don’t worry, I’ll send you down to reunite with her soon. But before that, you need to answer a question…”
Alois was close to suffocating when the man slightly loosened his grip, allowing him to breathe and speak.
“Tell me, dear senior, where is the chip you switched from the Duke?”
Hearing the Duke’s name, Alois wasn’t surprised at all. The Duke discovered the chip switch and sent people to track them, only making a move when they reached Olympus. He should have known. The assassin who killed Miss Leia was also the Duke’s minion. The Duke just repeated the trick, and he fell for it again—damn it!
“I don’t know,” Alois rasped. “I think you should ask Joanna yourself.”
Then he was punched hard in the stomach. Being hit by a metal prosthesis wasn’t pleasant. Alois almost threw up.
“Don’t play games,” the man said. “Where’s the chip?”
Long destroyed by Leo, Alois thought. There’s no such thing in the world anymore, and even if there was, only Leo would know.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I’m just a regular pilot. The captain wouldn’t tell me such important things.”
“Really?” The man leaned in, whispering in his ear. “You’re so ordinary? Ordinary enough for the mad bitch to help you escape? Ordinary enough for even Darius Bayes to want to capture you? Ordinary enough to visit the Duke with the mad bitch? Cut the crap, Alois Lagrange. I suggest you behave and tell me everything you know, or…” He pressed Alois’s shoulder, the metal fingers digging deeply into his skin. “I’ll reenact everything that happened to me on you.”
“I really, don’t know, anything.”
The pressure on his shoulder vanished.
The man walked towards the door, calling out to someone. “It seems he’s determined to resist. Maybe his companions know something. Let’s send a gift to that guy to make him think about how to answer us.”
Several people dressed like the man entered the room. “What gift, Mr. Faraday?” one of them asked.
Joshua was in a deep sleep, exhausted from too much exercise the previous day. He felt so tired that he couldn’t even lift a finger. He had many disjointed dreams and vaguely heard the doorbell ring. When he finally woke up slightly from his slumber, nearly an hour had passed since he last opened his eyes. He felt extremely hungry, waiting for Alois to call him for breakfast, so he could get up slowly to dress and wash. Maybe Alois would even bring breakfast upstairs? Having someone make breakfast for him was such a blissful life.
The assassin lay there with beautiful and fantastical thoughts, waiting for the familiar sound of footsteps. But after staring at the ceiling for ten minutes, he didn’t hear a thing. Making breakfast wasn’t like training. Did it really need to take this long? What was Alois doing? Had he fallen asleep while cooking?
Instinctively, he dismissed the possibility of Alois being in danger. Although Olympus’s public security wasn’t that good, this was Avalon, one of the most peaceful areas on the planet. With security guards patrolling the roads day and night, unless Alois had a death wish, who could harm him?
When Joshua slowly went downstairs and saw the still-on stove and the pot of soup about to boil dry, he realized he was gravely mistaken. The large house was empty, with no one there but him. Alois wasn’t here. He seemed to have vanished from the world, as if he had never existed, with no trace of him except the boiling pot on the stove.
The assassin began to wonder if he was having a nightmare. In this terrifying dream, Alois disappeared, leaving him alone here. He pinched his thigh hard, hoping to wake up, but the pain didn’t take him away from the nightmare. Instead, it revealed a brutal fact: everything he saw was fucking real.
Joshua returned to his bedroom, grabbed his gun, filled the energy cartridge, and took off the safety. He looked around. The house was still clean and tidy, with no signs of forced entry. However, the door hinges were lowered. He clearly remembered that the hinges were latched when he entered the house yesterday. The windows in the living room and kitchen were locked from the inside, the locks intact, and the alarm system was still diligently working with no signs of tampering. This left only two possibilities: Alois opened the door himself and left, never to return, or he opened the door for a visitor (maybe even invited them in for a chat), and this visitor wasn’t as kind as he thought. They kidnapped him.
Joshua leaned towards the latter since he seemed to hear the doorbell in his half-awake state, but he didn’t pay attention, unable to distinguish if it was real or a dream. Subconsciously, he even thought, Alois will answer the door, so what if it’s real?
The assassin cursed his negligence. How long had peaceful days passed for him to become so unalert, losing Alois in his own home! He lost him! If he could, he would shoot himself twice in the head to punish his negligence!
Suddenly, the doorbell rang loudly. Joshua, holding his gun, walked to the door, latched the hinges, ready to shoot outside at any time, then opened the monitor. A middle-aged man’s face appeared on the screen, meticulously dressed, like a well-groomed business elite.
“What can I do for you?” Joshua asked.
“Hello, my name is Erwin Kepler, here to visit Mr. Jacques Turing. Is he in?”
Joshua’s hand twitched slightly. “What do you want with him?”
“That’s a long story. It goes back to…” Kepler was pushed aside before he could explain, and a woman with exquisite makeup appeared on the screen.
“Sorry to bother you,” the woman said quickly. “I’m Jolene Cavendish, running a casino in Neo Venice. I knew Mr. Jacques Turing’s father, so I’m here to visit him. Ah, but he surely doesn’t remember me. I knew his father before he was born.”
Joshua frowned. He had heard the name Jolene Cavendish and met her in person, but the woman on the screen…he wasn’t sure, but she did look like the Jolene Cavendish in his memory. He didn’t rule out the possibility of an imposter, but what good would it do to impersonate a casino owner?
“Jolene Cavendish of the Portia Casino?”
“That’s me!” The woman seemed pleased to hear her casino mentioned.
The owner of the Portia Casino knew Alois’s father? Joshua had never heard him mention it. When in Neo Venice, Alois never said a word about having such an elder. Did he deliberately hide it? Or did he not know himself? After all, Jolene said she knew Alois’s father before he was born.
Why had she come to Olympus? Was she related to Alois’s sudden disappearance?
Joshua switched the gun to his other hand, freed his other hand to lower the latch, and opened the door.
Jolene Cavendish, though aged, perhaps due to being unmarried, still retained some very girlish habits. Seeing a young silver-haired man opening the door, she placed a hand on her chest, showing a bit of disappointment, but then asked in a more expectant tone. “Where is he?”
“He’s not here.” Joshua hid the gun behind him to avoid scaring the uninvited guests.
“Not here?” Jolene turned to her companion, as if questioning his incompetence.
“This is the right place,” Kepler whispered.
Jolene turned back to Joshua. “When will he be back? Can we wait for him?”
“He disappeared.” The assassin tried to keep his tone calm. “Just now.”
As the flying car entered Avalon Mountain, it was stopped by security.
“Guests need to check IDs and register,” the guard was diligent.
The driver, Epolyne, expressionless, took out her ID. “We are investigators sent by the Lancaster Company, here to survey the terrain for planning.” She glanced at the doctor in the back seat. “This is Dr. Frank Shelley.”
The guard looked at the doctor with admiration. “Your company is busy, always sending people to persuade residents to relocate, changing groups frequently. Not long ago, another one came.”
“There’s never enough good speakers,” the young doctor smiled.
After registration, Epolyne drove up Avalon Mountain. The doctor leaned out the window, marveling at the red land below.
“Please be careful, Doctor. Don’t stick your head out while driving. It might cause an accident.”
“Oh, what could happen, dear Epolyne?” The doctor didn’t heed her advice. “This is such a great place. Avalon, the realm of heroes and gods.”
“You like it here?”
“Of course, love it.”
Epolyne inwardly sneered but kept a straight face. “If you want to buy this land for a research lab, you can simply order the residents to move using military authority. Why bother with an entertainment company building an amusement park?”
“A military research lab sounds terrifying,” the doctor said. “Are we going to tell everyone ‘this is a military zone, no trespassing’ and wait for people to get curious? No. An amusement park is more discreet and easier for the public to accept.” The doctor paused. “Besides, to me, a research lab is an amusement park. No mistake about it!”
Epolyne was glad she wore long sleeves. Otherwise, the doctor would have asked why she had goosebumps.
As expected, the door to the room on the second floor was wide open. Alois was sitting on the floor, looking terrified, as if he had seen a ghost. Joshua, holding his aching head, walked up behind him.
“I told you not to wander around, but you didn’t listen.”
Alois, not realizing someone was behind him, was startled again by Joshua’s voice. “When did you get back?” he asked, looking distressed.
“Just now.”
“Are you some kind of Bluebeard? Keeping a room full of corpses at home and forbidding anyone to see it?”
“…Those aren’t corpses.”
Joshua’s explanation did little to convince him. The small, windowless room contained a wooden shelf as high as the ceiling, neatly divided into compartments like a giant honeycomb. Each compartment held a wide-mouthed jar filled with formalin, and each jar contained a pair of lifeless eyeballs. Combined with the fact that the room’s owner was a notorious assassin, it was like something out of a horror movie!
The countless lifeless stares seemed to pierce through the door, pinning Alois in place and making it hard for him to breathe. A chill ran down his spine.
“I’ve told you about this room before, more than once. I thought you’d be prepared…” Joshua continued to defend himself, futilely.
“I thought you were joking!” Alois’s voice trembled.
“Besides, they’re just eyeballs. What’s the big deal?” The assassin felt increasingly ridiculous as he spoke. “Some people collect stamps, others collect specimens. I just happen to collect eyeballs…”
“Your hobbies are quite different from ordinary people!” Alois tried to stand, but his legs, weakened by fear, wouldn’t cooperate. “Are those eyeballs real?”
Joshua helped him up, avoiding his gaze. “Most of them are fake…”
“So some of them are real?!” Alois exclaimed in disbelief. “Where did you get them?”
“Uh, after I killed people, I just…”
“Don’t make it sound as casual as stopping by a cake shop after work!”
Joshua closed the door, blocking out the needle-like stares, and helped Alois toward the bedroom. “It has nothing to do with you.”
This statement struck a nerve in Alois. He angrily shook off Joshua’s hand, glaring at him. “Ah, yes, it has nothing to do with me. Your interests are your own business and have nothing to do with me.” He marched into the bedroom, yanked off the bed cover, and flopped onto the bed, ignoring the slight mustiness from unwashed bedding.
Joshua knew he had said the wrong thing again. Frustrated, he tugged at his hair, pacing nervously before walking to the bed and gently shaking Alois’s shoulder. He found a clumsy excuse. “Aren’t you going to eat?”
“I don’t want to.”
Joshua lay down beside him, pressing his body against Alois’s back. “I’m sorry. I know it’s scary,” he said. “I know it’s… weird, but I…”
He remembered the feeling of being watched by those lifeless eyes, as if the dead were cursing him from hell. Every time he felt those stares, he experienced a thrilling pleasure. In those moments, he was no longer a helpless boy but the master of others’ lives, a feared assassin known as the Mourner. He reveled in this twisted delight, like an actor basking in applause.
He had collected eyes from his victims and eagerly ordered various artificial eyes from medical suppliers, preserving them in formalin to enrich his collection. He knew this was perverse, but he was already covered in blood; what difference would a “pervert” title make?
But things changed after he met Alois. He began to confront the darkness within him. He realized that such behavior was a form of self-torture, seeking fleeting pleasure to escape his unbearable past.
About a year ago, after cleaning up the room, he left for a mission, only to end up imprisoned. On that distant prison planet, he encountered a pair of eyes that he would never forget. Whenever they looked at him, he felt an uncontrollable excitement and an inexplicable calm. Those clear blue eyes slowly healed his inner wounds, protecting him from the nightmares of his past. He had thought about adding those eyes to his collection, but without a doubt, they shone brightest only on their owner’s face.
What Joshua desired was not just those eyes but Alois himself—his eyes, his warm body, his embrace, everything.
“Do you hate me for this?” Joshua asked quietly.
Alois turned to face him. “Would you put my eyes in formalin too?”
“No,” Joshua said.
“Neither do I.” Alois snuggled closer to him. “You’re a famous assassin with a couple of strange hobbies. That’s normal. The Galactic Diva is a gambler and a drinker. But I don’t want to hear you say, ‘It has nothing to do with you.’ I hate it when you say that, as if I shouldn’t care about you too much. If something isn’t suitable to tell me, just explain why instead of pushing me away with one sentence… Do you think I’ve taken too much of your freedom, leaving you with too little space?”
Joshua opened his mouth, confused about what to say. Was that really what Alois thought?
“I understand. I won’t say that again.” He took Alois’s hand, placing it over his heart. “Feel that?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“This place—you can take as much of it and for as long as you want,” Joshua said solemnly. “As long as it beats, it belongs to you.”
Alois’s eyes became wet, his chest filled with a mix of sweetness and bitterness. “Even if it stops, it’s still mine!” he said, pulling his hand back and covering his face. “Go get the food. I’m starving!”
Joshua jumped out of bed, went downstairs, and returned with the food he had just bought. When he got back, Alois seemed back to normal, except for his slightly red eyes, even managing to show disdain for their dinner.
“Self-heating single-serve meals!” He took the can reluctantly, like he was facing the broccoli at Hecate. “Are we camping? The last time I ate this stuff was during survival training at school!”
“There are other foods, but you know I can’t manage them.”
“Fine for today, but tomorrow… let me use the kitchen!”
“Please, chef.”
The next morning, Alois woke to the dim light of an Olympus dawn. Joshua was still asleep, briefly roused by his movement and murmuring, “Are you making breakfast?”
“Yes. I’ll call you in an hour.”
Joshua glanced at the time on the communication terminal by his pillow before dozing off again. Alois washed up and went downstairs to check out Joshua’s kitchen, finding it as clean as he expected. From the ingredients Joshua bought, he picked some decent ones to make a soup.
As he boiled water, the doorbell rang.
Alois paused his work, listening for any movement upstairs. Joshua made no sound, either not hearing the bell or pretending not to. After a few minutes, the bell rang again. Alois set the ladle aside and went to the entrance to check the monitor.
On the screen stood a man in a suit, holding a briefcase.
“Hello,” Alois said. “What can I do for you?”
The man adjusted his tie and spoke clearly. “Hello, I’m Alec Stewart from Lancaster Entertainment. Is Mr. Joshua Euler at home? I’d like to discuss our company’s plans to purchase land for an amusement park…”
Alois remembered the guard mentioning this. He wondered why they were interested in this bald hilltop for an amusement park. Would anyone really come here? The thoughts of the big bosses were indeed puzzling.
He opened the door. “Mr. Euler is still resting. You can come in and wait for a bit.”
The man nodded politely. “Thank you. Here is my card,” he said, reaching into his briefcase.
At that moment, years of training heightened Alois’s senses. Something was off! The scene felt eerily familiar, like he had seen it somewhere before.
How could he forget? This was exactly how Miss Leia had been killed!
As the man pulled out a spray bottle instead of a card, Alois quickly stepped back, intending to slam the door shut. But it was too late. The man pressed the bottle, releasing a high-concentration anesthetic gas into Alois’s face. He inhaled it and immediately collapsed.
The man put the spray bottle back in his bag, adjusted his tie again, then hoisted Alois’s body over his shoulder, making sure to close the door behind him. “This was too easy,” he thought. “This trick never fails. Why are people always so unguarded?”
In front of them stood a silver-gray three-story villa with a small garden. Owning a small garden on Olympus was a rare luxury, but this one clearly had been neglected by its owner. The lawn was uneven and half-withered. Joshua didn’t seem like the type to take care of a garden.
The owner of the withered garden unlocked the fingerprint lock at the door and called to Alois, “Don’t just stand there. Come in!”
Alois hesitated before following him inside.
The interior was in much better condition than he had expected. He thought a long-abandoned house would be filled with dust and cobwebs, with mouse footprints all over the floor, but this house was clean and tidy. The floor was waxed, and everything was spotless. The furniture was covered with dust covers, and aside from the slightly stale air, there was no sign that it had been uninhabited.
“Is this really your place? It’s quite… clean.” Alois couldn’t help but doubt it. Although the minimalist decor and modern furniture did reflect Joshua’s style, could the Joshua who made cooking look like a massacre really keep a house this orderly?
“A housekeeping robot comes to clean regularly.”
…Of course. He shouldn’t have expected too much from Joshua’s housekeeping skills.
The assassin pulled off the dust covers, tossing them to the floor. Immediately, a plump housekeeping robot slid in from another room, picking up the covers while emitting some incomprehensible beeps before sliding away.
Joshua put his hands on his hips. “That’s my robot butler.”
Alois slumped on the sofa, exhausted. “After seeing Leo, I can’t be impressed by other robots anymore.”
If Leo could speak, he would have laughed arrogantly at this praise. Joshua snorted. “It’s much more useful than Leo. At least it doesn’t sneak around taking inappropriate pictures when I’m not looking.”
Joshua was standing in front of Alois, at an angle just intimate enough. Alois raised an eyebrow, holding Joshua’s waist and gently rubbing. “Doesn’t sneak around, huh?”
“Are you happy?” The assassin looked down, grabbing Alois’s hair and pushing his head towards his crotch. “Make me happy too?”
Alois unzipped Joshua’s pants. It wasn’t fully hard yet, so he carefully took it into his mouth. He licked and sucked, his tongue sliding along the shaft and circling the tip. He felt it quickly swell and harden, like a scorching weapon pressing against his throat.
While sucking on Joshua’s cock, Alois glanced up at his face. The assassin’s eyes were half-closed, the golden rings around his pupils shimmering. The mysterious fire in those eyes seemed connected to his emotions, dimming when he was down and brightening when excited. Judging by the look now, Joshua was definitely very excited.
Alois boldly reached behind him, but before his fingers could touch the crease of his ass, Joshua grabbed his hand and pushed him onto the sofa. As his pants were stripped off and his legs spread apart, Alois sighed. “I miss Neo Athens.”
“What’s to miss about it?”
“I was always on top in Neo Athens… Go easy!”
Joshua thrust in forcefully, invading the narrow passage and eliciting a cry of pain from Alois. Not waiting for him to adjust to the thick, hard intrusion, Joshua started thrusting. “This isn’t Neo Athens,” the assassin cruelly rubbed the sensitive spot inside him, “and I prefer fucking you to being fucked.”
Alois gasped under the onslaught of pleasure. “Didn’t I… make you… feel good?”
“Your technique is terrible,” Joshua said deliberately.
“That’s nonsense! Everyone at Hecate who’s been in bed with me said I was great… Ah!”
Joshua thrust hard, making Alois scream. Taking advantage of his open mouth, Joshua shoved two fingers inside, muffling his voice while thrusting even faster. Alois was overwhelmed by the pleasure but couldn’t vocalize it, so he licked Joshua’s fingers, a mix of pleading and further temptation.
“Don’t mention Hecate or your past lovers to me,” Joshua whispered in his ear. “What happened before we met, I can overlook. But if you bring it up now, you should know the consequences.” He thrust hard again. “If you dare speak of it, I’ll fuck your mouth. If you think about it, I’ll fuck your ass raw. Got it?”
Alois whimpered. To hear what he was saying, Joshua pulled his fingers out. Alois tightened his grip on Joshua’s waist and licked his lips. “We’ll see if you can satisfy me…”
His words turned into broken, ambiguous moans, mingling with the sound of flesh slapping and the lewd noises of their coupling, filling the whole house.
After their passionate session, Alois lay tiredly against Joshua’s chest. He was nearly fucked to death, his lower body aching as if it had been torn apart by a wild beast. Joshua knew he had gone too hard (though most of it was deserved, the assassin thought shamelessly), and now he was trying to make amends by massaging Alois’s sore waist.
“I’m hungry,” Alois suddenly said.
“Didn’t I feed you enough?” Joshua’s voice was thick with amusement.
“I’m really hungry. Is there anything to eat? Ah, I shouldn’t ask. Of course there isn’t. We should have eaten outside before coming back.”
The massage paused. “Can I still go buy something now?”
Alois kissed him. “Just get back before I starve to death.”
So Joshua had to climb out of the cozy embrace, get dressed, and head out to buy food. “Stay put and don’t wander around,” he instructed before leaving.
Alois lazily acknowledged.
There was a car in the garage, though Joshua wasn’t sure if it still had power. Driving to the commercial street at the bottom of the hill and back would take about half an hour. Joshua estimated that Alois, worn out from the intense sex, wouldn’t be wandering around. If he saw anything he shouldn’t, it would be a disaster.
When Joshua returned home with a load of emergency food, the greeting he heard wasn’t the lively “You’re back” but a terrified scream.
From the mysterious room upstairs, where Joshua kept his collection.
Joshua’s temple throbbed. He cursed under his breath, dropped the bags, and sprinted upstairs.
It’s been a long time since I last wrote to you. How have you been lately? Ever since you mentioned that special mission in Neo Athens, we haven’t seen each other or heard from you. I heard from Kepler that you and your family moved to the Unfallen Star, but who knows if that’s true. You know, that guy’s words are never reliable.
I’m sending this letter to your old mailbox. I don’t know if you can still receive it. Maybe you stopped using this it long ago. May the Lord bless you to see it.
Damn you, you bastard! How long have we known each other? We’ve been on more missions together than you’ve had sex with your wife, so how could you disappear without a word? I almost thought you had died in Neo Athens! No matter how classified the mission was or how inconvenient it was to tell us, you shouldn’t have cut off all contact! Oh, Lord, you son of a bitch, I really want to tear you apart and feed you to Jack!
Jack’s little girlfriend gave birth to a litter of puppies. Kepler and I each took one to raise. That clumsy idiot Kepler definitely won’t be able to keep his puppy alive! Lord, I really shouldn’t have given him the puppy! But it’s too late now. It would be harder to take that thing back than the diamonds off the Queen’s crown.
Do you know, Nana got married last week to that stupid and dumb bar owner. (What’s so great about him? Nana marrying him is like a flower stuck in manure!) I was her bridesmaid, my second time being one—the first was at your wedding. They say if you’re a bridesmaid three times, you’ll never get married. I’m really worried and hope it’s just a superstition.
Most of our old comrades have settled down, and many have quit. I’m also planning to wash my hands of it and open a casino with my current savings. Casinos make money. Remember when we teamed up to steal that famous painting “Empire Sunset” from that casino owner? That’s when I thought I’d open my own casino someday, filled with famous paintings. But I won’t let them be stolen! I’m the best thief, who could steal from me? (Kepler says he could guard the casino and lend money at high interest. That guy!)
Figaro, it’s been over ten years since our first mission together. Thinking back to our meeting in the underground market of Olympus feels like it was just yesterday. Back then, we were young and ambitious, thinking we could do anything as long as we had comrades. We believed we could overcome any difficulty, and even if we got hurt, we would eventually heal.
Now I’m thirty. One by one, my comrades have left. Some I still contact occasionally, some, like you, have vanished, and some I’ll never see again. Only now do I understand that some things, once lost, can never be found again. At my age, I’ve come to see things clearly, which inevitably makes me cautious and calculating.
I wish I could go back to the past. As long as you’re young, you can be fearless with your youth. But I’m no longer that young person. Now I’m like an old woman, stuck in past glories.
Sometimes I wonder what my life would be like if I hadn’t chosen to be a thief. Maybe I’d have gone to college, met a shy boy, fallen in love, dated for years with constant quarrels and reconciliations, eventually realizing we were perfect for each other. We’d start a family, have children, a cat, and a dog, and buy a seaside house with white walls and red tiles, with a small garden. I’d tend to the garden while my husband taught the kids to weave fences. Maybe he’d be a high school teacher or an office worker, and I’d become a housewife. Our kids would grow up, rebel, and turn the house upside down. They’d grow up, fall in love, get married, and have children. One day, I’d grow old, collapse while pruning the flowers, and never wake up. That might be my life: a bit dull, not exciting, but fulfilling.
Sometimes I secretly dream of such a life because ours is filled with danger and rarely peaceful moments. But I have no regrets. I have never regretted meeting you all, never regretted walking into that underground market on that rainy day, seeing Nana and Kepler bargaining, and you standing in the shadows, looking into the distance, giving me only a blurry side profile.
Thank the Lord for letting me meet you all at that time and place. I thank Him for bringing us together. I thank Him for this path. Though it’s rough and bloody, I believe it’s the best path because I have you all with me.
This letter is coming to an end. Kepler is urging me to book the tickets (he can’t do it himself?). I’ve never liked saying goodbye, and this time is no different. I won’t waste ink on a sentimental farewell. If we meet again, then no goodbyes are needed.
Give my regards to your wife and son (though I’ve never met the little rascal, I wish him well and hope he becomes as excellent as his father).
Things seemed to have developed as tonight the heavy breathing wasn’t making its usual patrol rounds. Starting at some point, it passed by the base far fewer times. No one knew where it had gone.
Before leaving, Fang Xiu obediently left a large supply of food. Jia Xu popped a piece of candy into his mouth, feeling slightly better.
Right now, Fang Xiu was out investigating on everyone’s behalf, so Jia Xu didn’t have to take any risks. It was a feeling like traveling for business by plane or waiting in a car wash while sitting comfortably inside your car. It was a “legitimate” way to pass the time.
Jia Xu was well aware that, in both psychological endurance and intellect, Fang Xiu outclassed him. But so what if Fang Xiu was stronger? In a company, there were plenty of high achievers more capable than the boss, yet they still had to rely on him for negotiating deals and allocating bonuses.
For a leader, the most important skill was managing people.
Anyway, even without Fang Xiu, Jia Xu had his own role to play.
Clearing his throat, Jia Xu looked toward Lao Jin. “Since we’re idle anyway, let’s talk about the previous sacrifice we experienced. The more we know, the better.”
Lao Jin let out a laugh. “Sure.”
Then he said nothing more, clearly signaling for Jia Xu to go first.
Jia Xu didn’t hold back. He briefly recounted the events in Weishan Village.
In Jia Xu’s telling, he was the one who outwitted Brother Scar, uncovered the local thugs’ tricks, and discovered the rules of the taboo. Fang Xiu became little more than his follower, merely getting lucky at the end by being the first to bite into that piece of candy.
After all, Fang Xiu had already told them a lot. Jia Xu only needed to revise it slightly. Right now, Fang Xiu was playing the obedient subordinate, and Jia Xu was helping him keep up that cover.
Everyone could tell something was off. But not even Blondie wanted to tear down one of their own in front of Lao Jin, so nobody said anything. Only Guan He, hidden behind Cheng Songyun, silently mouthed several curses.
Lao Jin listened intently. “So that ‘abnormal change’ ended up being a good thing. I might have fallen for that deception if I’d been there.”
Jia Xu: “Exactly. I nearly fell for it too. …What about your side?”
“That’s a long story…”
Lao Jin felt around for his cigarette pack and stuck a cigarette between his lips.
Since they’d sealed the windows so thoroughly, and the heavy breathing wasn’t making an appearance, he took out his lighter, planning to indulge in a smoke.
Click.
The instant he lit the lighter, the flame turned into countless tiny fireballs. Lao Jin’s hand shook, and his expensive lighter fell to the floor.
Each little flame was about the size of a cigarette tip, scorching and pressing against his skin from every angle. Accompanied by sizzling sounds, Lao Jin barely stifled a pained outcry.
He took pride in maintaining his skin well, but now it was covered in burns, as if countless lit cigarette butts had been pressed against him.
Cursing under his breath, Lao Jin hastily put away the unlit cigarette. Jia Xu was so shocked he nearly fell over along with the dropped lighter. “This is…triggering a taboo?”
“Seems like it,” Lao Jin growled irritably. He kicked the lighter toward Mazi. “You try.”
Saying nothing, Mazi picked up the lighter and lit it in turn. As expected, a flurry of small flames emerged again, burning him enough that he dropped the lighter on the spot.
Jia Xu grew excited.
…The third taboo, it had to be the third taboo!
…Weishan Village was just an exception. Ultimately, they still needed him here.
But this might be a setup by Lao Jin, so Jia Xu forced his face to remain composed, adopting a studious tone. “Then we should test it thoroughly. We’ll try as well.”
He had Blondie and Mei Lan tear off pieces of a can label to hold in their hands, then picked up the lighter himself.
Right after he flicked it on, Jia Xu tossed it aside, escaping with only a minor burn. The flames caught the scrap of paper in Blondie’s hand first, and before Blondie could swear, Jia Xu was already using it to ignite Mei Lan’s piece of paper.
An instant later, Mei Lan let out a shriek as she was scorched in more than a dozen spots.
She immediately flung the burning scrap to the ground, stomping it out in a fluster, finally snuffing out the flames.
“…Looks like it’s not the lighter. Any fire triggers the taboo, and whoever has the fire gets burned.”
Ignoring Mei Lan’s furious glare, Jia Xu declared, “Obviously, the third taboo is that fire is forbidden here.”
Blondie rubbed the burns on his arm, sounding pissed off. “How can that be? There’s a barbecue stand right outside!”
“That’s fake fire, just like the barbecue is fake. They’re all illusions,” Jia Xu explained. “Otherwise, you could step outside and see if the charcoal can light your paper.”
Blondie glanced at the sealed window. “…I don’t wanna die. I’ll wait till daylight.”
He did recall that those charcoal grills looked blazing hot yet gave off almost no real heat.
Jia Xu seated himself on a battered table in the base, striking a pensive pose.
“All that’s left is for Fang Xiu to figure out the second taboo. Once we have all three taboos, we can finally deduce the cause and effect of this ‘E’.”
“Any leads so far?”
Lao Jin picked up a can of almond milk, pressing the cold metal to his burns.
Jia Xu pondered. “The first taboo forces us to kill each other; the second forces us to stay indoors at night; and this third forbids any open flame… Considering the outside situation, I think this ‘E’ may be related to fire.”
Blondie said, “Fire?”
“That’s just my guess. Maybe fireworks or a cigarette butt started a fire, and for some reason, a lot of people were burned alive indoors.”
“Before dying, someone wanted to get revenge on society, which gave birth to the ‘E’. It wants us to experience the despair of being trapped and dying.”
Though Jia Xu spoke as if he was “guessing”, he sounded quite certain.
Cheng Songyun, half-shielding Guan He, knit her brows. “Doesn’t make much sense. You’re saying everyone burned to death, so the ‘E’ empathizes with them but at the same time is forbidding any fire? Isn’t that contradictory, considering it wants us to die in the same way?”
“Also, how do you explain the first taboo demanding killing, or all the faceless people outside?”
Jia Xu answered breezily, “Actually, that’s all simple.”
“When the fire started, everyone was stuck indoors. If they didn’t trample others to get out, they’d be stuck at the back inhaling toxic smoke, causing weakening. That’s our forced mutual slaughter.”
“As for the faceless people, it indicates that those outside refused to help, turning their backs on the victims. It’s reproducing the despair those people felt as they died, a condemnation of societal apathy.”
Lao Jin remained silent, hidden in the darkness, seemingly in deep thought.
Cheng Songyun still found Jia Xu’s explanation forced, full of incongruous patchwork.
When Fang Xiu had explained Weishan Village’s truth, she felt a “So that’s it” sense of enlightenment. But hearing Jia Xu prattle on here, the more she listened, the more confused she got.
Seeing she kept quiet, Jia Xu raised his voice slightly. “If you ask me, there might have been a subdivided basement apartment for migrant workers here. Whoever created the ‘E’ died at night, which is why the ‘Blood Night’ happens then.”
“And the patrolling breath at night represents government workers cracking down on those illegal apartments. As soon as they discover them, they chase out the poor tenants. That forced these group-rental units to be hidden, leading to huge fire hazards.”
Jia Xu sighed dramatically.
“Trapped inside, the underclass turned on each other, while outsiders were indifferent and officials unfeeling… Haa, faced with something like that, it’s no wonder an underclass victim would want revenge on society.”
Cheng Songyun: “……”
This all feels so contrived.
After these few days, they’d basically scoured every nook of the pedestrian street, finding no trace of a fire. She had a hunch that if she brought that up, Jia Xu would say, “Well, it was demolished long ago, so it’s hard to find evidence.”
Guan He finally couldn’t hold back. “Even if officials discovered the apartment, they wouldn’t sentence anyone to death. Using it as a death taboo seems strange. And cracking down on illegal housing is necessary for public safety, right…?”
He glanced at Fang Xiu’s official ID in his mind, finding Jia Xu’s words increasingly grating.
“And Auntie Cheng asked why they’re re-enacting a fatal fire but forbidding us from making fire didn’t explain that at all. Nor did you mention the ‘three quarters before twelve’. What’s the significance of that time? It all seems fishy.”
Jia Xu paused, sounding profound. “You’re still young. Society’s darker than you realize.”
Guan He: “……”
Fuck, then at least explain!
He suddenly missed his teachers. Even when they were in a bad mood, they explained problems methodically. Jia Xu just picked whichever points he could justify and glossed over the rest.
If it weren’t for Fang Xiu telling him to keep quiet and act injured, Guan He would have argued with Jia Xu until he was hoarse.
“No point arguing. Let’s just wait for Fang Xiu to come back,” Jia Xu continued.
Who’s arguing with you? I’m making a reasoned point! Guan He tried to rise, only for Cheng Songyun to gently press him back down.
“No point in quarreling, we’ll wait for them… If they’re still alive to come back.” Lao Jin broke in slowly. “In the meantime, take a look at this.”
With that, he pulled a small bagua mirror out of his coat pocket.
The mirror was palm-sized, made of brass, tarnished and dark. Only its center was shiny, a shallowly recessed surface.
In the darkness, it emitted a faint glow that drew everyone’s eyes.
The next instant, Guan He heard a soft sound. The previously quiet room became even more silent and some people’s breathing had disappeared.
Instinctively, he reached out for Cheng Songyun, touching her thin, bony hand. She gripped his wrist in return, speaking nervously…
“Xiao Mei? Xiao Du? …Xiao Jia?”
No one replied.
In the darkness, Lao Jin let out a quiet chuckle or two. Then they all saw that in the center of the bagua mirror, three distorted silhouettes had appeared.
Cheng Songyun instantly pulled Guan He close, ready to deploy the “Resentful Ghost Shield” at any moment. “Fang Xiu told us…”
“Calm down, ma’am. I didn’t kill them. I just locked them away.”
Lao Jin’s tone remained cordial, except now a hard-to-describe ruthlessness colored his words. “The real leader of your group is Xiao Fang, isn’t it?”
Cheng Songyun and Guan He both fell silent.
Lao Jin clicked his tongue. “That slippery brat almost fooled me, but sadly that Jia guy doesn’t have any real talent.”
Cheng Songyun grounded her teeth. Lao Jin had deliberately left only her and Guan He unconfined, presumably to use them as bargaining chips against Fang Xiu.
She was short and older, while Guan He was injured. The two of them were easiest to control.
Meanwhile, the “uncooperative” group had already been shoved into the mirror. By noon tomorrow, those inside the mirror would be forced into violating the taboo, leaving them defenseless. Lao Jin could take them out at leisure, fulfilling the kill quota without risk.
“Next, we’ll see how far your real boss is willing to go. If he cooperates, we’ll kill the ones in the mirror first. If not…”
She’d lived long enough to know that resisting at the wrong time only invited more violence. If she had to strike, she needed the right moment.
For now, her best move was to protect Guan He. It was just as Fang Xiu had told her before leaving… Wait?
“Cheng Jie, take good care of Xiao Guan.” She recalled how Fang Xiu had specifically reminded her of this when he left, whether by chance or on purpose.
Maybe that wasn’t a coincidence. Cheng Songyun exhaled slowly.
Now wasn’t the time to risk everything. She was sure of that.
……
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Finally, the Blood Night ended, and the lights came on. The instant fireworks reignited, a knock on the door sounded.
“It’s me,” came Fang Xiu’s voice from outside.
Inside, Cheng Songyun and Guan He had their hands and feet bound, old clothes stuffed in their mouths, unable to speak.
Though it wouldn’t stop her from using the Resentful Ghost Shield, Cheng Songyun was still tense, wriggling in place. Guan He mumbled a couple of times, blinking at her.
A small, bluish-black hand emerged from behind him, forming a clumsy “OK” sign.
Cheng Songyun’s eyes lit up in relief.
The child ghost was perfect for delivering messages, so Fang Xiu already knew about their predicament!
On the other side, Lao Jin clenched the mirror, exchanging a look with Mazi.
Mazi crept over to the door, pressing himself to one side before reaching out to yank it open in one swift motion.
The moment the door opened, Mazi lunged, grabbing the figure outside and slamming him to the floor. He was confident he could break a few bones without killing the target outright.
But the moment he completed the throw, he realized something felt wrong…
With a sickening thud, Dashun’s corpse crashed to the ground, spattering a mess of blood.
“No need to be so rough. I just figured out the ‘death taboo’.” Fang Xiu clicked his tongue from the doorstep.
He glanced at Cheng Songyun and Guan He, all tied up in a corner, with no apparent change in expression.
Just earlier…
After taking a commemorative photo, Fang Xiu dragged Dashun’s corpse back. Dashun wasn’t tall yet lugging him was enough to leave Fang Xiu gasping for air, feeling like he might keel over.
“Hah… I really miss the Spirit Binding Chains…” Fang Xiu muttered between ragged breaths.
Bai Shuangying said nothing. He’d argued that living humans were too frail and lacking in stamina. How was Fang Xiu going to survive on his own given his poor physical strength?
Dragging this heavy body, Fang Xiu looked like a baby beast attempting to haul its prey without fully grown claws or fangs.
In the end, Bai Shuangying couldn’t bear to watch and grabbed one arm of the corpse. The two of them dragged one arm each, moving in a “夹*” shape.
*It means to clamp/clip.
Had it not been for the long bloody trail behind them, it would’ve looked like they were supporting a drunk friend home.
Arriving at the base, Fang Xiu paused outside. “Bai Shuangying, go in first and take a look around. Remember to stay hidden.”
‘Now he wants me to slip through the door crack,’ Bai Shuangying thought.
But then he recalled there were two tasty “mooncakes” inside, so he swiftly melted into his true form, sliding in through the gap. Sure enough, he bumped right into the lurking child ghost.
Within a few minutes, Bai Shuangying slipped back out.
He gave Fang Xiu a quick summary: the others had been taken prisoner, and Lao Jin was using some sort of bagua mirror.
Bai Shuangying had recognized it at a glance as a proper Underworld magic weapon: a basic demon-revealing mirror. Its recessed surface reflected anyone harboring hostile intent toward the mirror’s owner, effectively distinguishing friend from foe.
As for the dire circumstances inside, Bai Shuangying didn’t have a strong opinion.
Whether or not people were held hostage had nothing to do with him. He only hoped Fang Xiu wouldn’t get sentimental, causing him unnecessary trou… ble…?
Bai Shuangying watched Fang Xiu with suspicion. Was he misreading something? Because Fang Xiu looked… pleased!
Indeed, Fang Xiu’s lips were twitching as though stifling a laugh.
“What’s so funny?”
Bai Shuangying suddenly felt he might need to lower his moral baseline even further; if he truly had one in the first place.
“I’ve been wondering how to persuade everyone to risk violating a taboo. Lao Jin’s basically done the work for me.”
Fang Xiu stifled a grin. “And he’s even proactively exposed his ‘unusual ability’… That’s convenient…”
With that, he pulled Bai Shuangying aside, whispering his plan of action.
……
Back to the present.
Stepping into the base again, Fang Xiu made no attempt to conceal the murderous aura that surrounded him.
“Boss Jin, you’re being a bit rude here,” he said casually, placing one foot on Dashun’s corpse.
Hearing him call “Boss Jin”, Lao Jin’s face twitched slightly. “Likewise.”
Both men looked too lazy to bother pretending anymore. From the corner, Guan He lay motionless, eyes wide.
“…Kid, you killed two of mine. I haven’t even made a move yet.” Lao Jin waved a hand, signaling Mazi to hold off for now.
Fang Xiu shook his head. “That’s going a bit far. Yan Jing’s death was an accident. He messed with an evil spirit, and I had no obligation to save him, right?”
Lao Jin snorted, half-convinced.
“Da Shun is indeed my doing, but that was to test the death taboo. It benefits all of us.”
Fang Xiu shrugged. “You already suspected me when you sent him along. You never expected him to come back alive, so there’s no point hashing it out.”
Lao Jin narrowed his eyes. “…Who exactly are you?”
“Aren’t you going to guess I’m a cop?” Fang Xiu scratched his face in disappointment.
Lao Jin sneered. “I’ve met plenty of cops. None as ruthless as you.”
“Well, I’m not the police,” Fang Xiu admitted. “I’m half an underground Taoist priest… I do rituals for the people on our side of the law.”
“Just take a look at your mirror. It’s a bagua demon-revealing mirror, used specifically to expose the unrighteous. It’s particularly good at sorting friend from foe.”
Lao Jin aimed the mirror at Fang Xiu, yet it reflected no image of him.
Underworld magic weapons never lied. At this moment, Fang Xiu clearly bore no hostile intent toward him.
Lao Jin’s brows relaxed a little. “…So you’re an ‘underground Daoist priest’.”
He was in the sort of business where guilty consciences were common, so there was indeed demand for shady practitioners. Mainstream exorcists wouldn’t cater to them, leaving a market gap filled by so-called underground Daoists or corrupt monks. They often went down crooked paths, not formally recognized by the metaphysical community.
Fang Xiu, being able to identify the bagua demon mirror at a glance, evidently had some real ability.
Sensing the momentum, Fang Xiu pressed forward. “Boss Jin, your name is famous all over Gui Province. I was thinking of finding a chance to work with you, but who’d have expected us to meet in a place like this first.”
As he spoke, Bai Shuangying stealthily flitted over to Lao Jin’s side, and with a smack, slapped the mirror.
It flew in a neat arc and landed securely in Fang Xiu’s hand.
Casually waving it, Fang Xiu remarked, “See? I can do telekinesis.”
Bai Shuangying: “……”
Fang Xiu really had the vibe of a lowlife thug, putting on quite the act.
Lao Jin wasn’t rattled, just pulled a long face. “Even if you have it, you can’t free those inside.”
Fang Xiu: “I know… It’s your ‘anomaly’, right? You can trap anyone shown in the mirror. But I’m guessing you’re limited to using mirror-type magic weapons.”
“…So an ‘underground Daoist priest’ knows that too?” Lao Jin murmured.
Fang Xiu gave a secretive smile, tossing the mirror back to Bai Shuangying, who hid it again. In Lao Jin’s eyes, the mirror simply vanished into thin air.
Then Fang Xiu spread his fingers. The mirror reappeared in his hand.
Cheng Songyun and Guan He’s eyes lit up hopefully, but Fang Xiu raised his arm and threw the mirror right back to Lao Jin.
“Consider it a gesture of cooperation. Once we kill the evil spirits, those people can be shared as a resource,” Fang Xiu said offhandedly, as if those trapped weren’t his companions.
“We’re all on the same side, so no need to turn on each other right now. Let’s hurry and break the ‘E’ so we can leave this hellhole.”
Lao Jin glanced at Cheng Songyun and Guan He.
“Oh, lock that old woman in there too.” Fang Xiu gestured at Cheng Songyun. “She’s old, not too mobile. She’ll just drag me down.”
“So generous?”
Fang Xiu grinned widely. “I’m guessing, Boss Jin, you won’t rush to kill my men for your quota. There are still plenty of evil spirits outside.”
Indeed, Fang Xiu was a valuable Daoist, and his dead subordinates wouldn’t revive. There was no need to flip the table just yet.
Lao Jin smacked his lips, then looked at Guan He. “Then why keep that boy?”
“Ah, just in case. I need someone I can kill as backup.” Fang Xiu sounded perfectly reasonable. “Not that I don’t trust you, but a person has to think about safety, right?”
“You saw how everyone looked at him. He’s just extra baggage.”
Recalling how, upon learning they might have to kill each other, Blondie and Jia Xu had both shot looks at Guan He. Also, the kid had a head injury. He was indeed a liability.
The logic was sound. If it were Lao Jin, he’d also pick Guan He as a sacrifice.
So this underground Daoist even treated his own people coldly. Lao Jin suddenly found Fang Xiu somewhat likable.
Cheng Songyun, however, was highly uneasy.
Fang Xiu’s attitude seemed too authentic. She couldn’t tell whether he was genuinely willing to sacrifice them. But she had chosen to follow Fang Xiu, so she gripped Guan He’s clothes, forcing down her doubts.
It was Guan He’s first time seeing Fang Xiu like this, and he was still reeling. He only remembered that Fang Xiu was “an official”, who’d even given him a longevity lock. This thought was his lone lifeline, helping him keep hold of his sanity.
“I-I’m okay.” He managed to produce some muffled sounds. “Fang Xiu must have a plan…”
Before he could finish, he felt the space next to him vanish. Cheng Songyun was gone. In the mirror Lao Jin held, another twisted silhouette had appeared.
“‘Fang Xiu must have a plan…’”
Fang Xiu mimicked Guan He’s tone in a mocking way. “He still trusts me that much. Cute.”
Guan He locked eyes on Fang Xiu, searching for some trace of reassurance, but he found nothing. Fang Xiu looked back at him, lips smiling, yet his eyes held zero warmth.
He looked at Guan He as one might look at an animal about to be slaughtered.
…Did Fang Xiu really have a plan?
…Or was his plan simply to treat everyone else as expendable, only wanting to destroy the “E”?
…Should Guan He expose how Fang Xiu was the one who killed Yan Jing? But what if Fang Xiu was genuinely acting? Would Lao Jin even believe him?
Across from him, Fang Xiu’s dark, lightless eyes watched calmly, fear and uncertainty swallowing Guan He whole.
Behind him, the child ghost clutched at Guan He’s back with cold little fingers, repeating some motion over and over. After a dozen seconds, Guan He finally noticed.
It was tracing letters on his back.
Since the child-ghost didn’t know how to write, someone else must have taught it. The letters were:
[Trust me]
At last, Guan He lowered his head.
It looked as though he’d resigned himself. He stared at no one and said nothing.
The author has something to say:
The fake con man: Jia Xu.
The real con man: Fang Xiu.
Now that the area’s cleared, time to go wild √
Xiao Fang: “Who said I don’t know any Taoist arts? Check out my technique!” (strikes a Lion King pose, lifting Xiao Bai’s true form)
Xiao Bai: ……………………. (quietly reverts to human form)
Night fell once again, and with it came the Blood Night. The passersby froze in place. Fireworks and the full moon were all swallowed by a dark red hue.
Blackish-red blood pattered onto the ground with a thick dripping sound. Once the drops landed, they vanished without a trace, presumably illusions. Yet the fishy smell they left behind was disturbingly real.
A raspy breathing emerged from the other end of the street. Dashun, with his head covered, couldn’t see a thing. He clung to the wall of the alley, breathing raggedly, as if suffering from some toxic shock.
“What do we do, what do we do…” he mumbled, drool seeping into the cloth that covered his face.
Fang Xiu placed a hand on his shoulder, calmly saying, “Move forward now.”
“N-no…no, I, I can’t…”
“Aren’t you just fine right now? I’m telling you, walk.”
Fang Xiu’s voice was extremely gentle. In the madness of this Blood Night, that very gentleness made it all the more chilling.
Overwhelmed by fear, Dashun found Fang Xiu’s voice like a tether, leaving him unable to think clearly.
…Right, when he listened to Fang Xiu’s instructions, nothing bad happened to him.
…Fang Xiu had always been kind to him, even shielding him from danger. Fang Xiu’s odd behavior must be due to the unusual situation… Killing him wouldn’t do Fang Xiu any good… Yes, that had to be it…
After repeated coaxing, Dashun stumbled forward, emerging from the alley. His covered head turned in vain, trying to see.
Fang Xiu gave a small smile and pressed a knuckle to his lips. “Dashun Ge, turn left. Trust me.”
“L-l-like this…”
Dashun sounded close to tears. He was now facing the direction of the breathing noise, which grew steadily closer. He didn’t dare move a muscle.
“That’s it,” Fang Xiu reassured gently. “Don’t move at all.”
The breathing was now near enough to be within that same “lethal range” they’d experienced before. Fang Xiu could hear it clearly.
That took care of half the test. Now it was time for action. He motioned Bai Shuangying to remain behind, then stepped out of the alley alone.
All the way, Fang Xiu kept his eyes on the ground. He halted behind Dashun, who stood 1.7 meters tall. “You’re doing great.”
Hearing Fang Xiu approach, Dashun relaxed a little. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he tried to speak, but before he could say anything, Fang Xiu kicked sharply behind his knees.
Dashun, caught off guard, dropped to them on the spot.
Using his weight advantage, Fang Xiu lunged forward, driving his knee fiercely into Dashun’s back. It nailed Dashun to the ground, pinned like a specimen under glass.
Dashun fell like a frog on all fours and started flailing desperately. “What…what are you doing?!”
Right after, Fang Xiu yanked a handful of Dashun’s hair, forcing his face upward.
At that moment, Dashun finally caught the scent of death.
“X-Xiao Fang…Xiao Fang, don’t do this.” His voice trembled wildly. “I’ll give you two million… four million! You said you liked this watch, right? I’ll give it to you. I’ll give you everything…”
Fang Xiu paused as though seriously weighing it.
Dashun quickly continued, “What else do you want? A house? A car? Beautiful women? Anything you want. Just let me go, please…”
“Great, thanks so much, Dashun Ge.”
Fang Xiu’s voice was as earnest and friendly as it had been a few days ago.
After a few seconds, he went on, sounding a bit bashful. “…I want your living soul, Fan Dashun.”
Dashun jerked violently, going rigid at once.
“Fan Dashun, age thirty-eight, originally from Mao Province. You’ve been working for ‘Boss Jin’ for nineteen years, tasked with recruiting lackeys. Due to failed drug trafficking and gang wars, you indirectly caused the deaths of one hundred and forty-five people.”
“In retaliation, rival gangs tortured your innocent twin brother, Fan Xiaoshun, and his entire family of four to death. But you didn’t care at all. You looked down on your brother, who had a regular job.”
Dashun panted like a bellows. “It-It had nothing to do with me… The recruits knew the risks… They took the money…”
Fang Xiu tugged on the cloth over Dashun’s face, peeling it down from the forehead slowly. “What about your brother? He only found out you were trafficking drugs when they came for him.”
“It’s not like I killed him… He was just unlucky…”
Fang Xiu sighed. “You’re a pretty shitty big brother. No wonder Fan Xiaoshun doesn’t want to say a word to you.”
It was a strange way to phrase it, yet Dashun was in no condition to dwell on the oddity.
Fang Xiu ripped off half the covering, exposing Dashun’s eyes, allowing him a direct view of the source of that breathing.
In the instant Dashun saw it, he wet himself from terror. He screamed inhumanly and struggled frantically.
Although Fang Xiu was slender, he still stood over 1.8 meters tall, more than enough to subdue Dashun. Dashun’s hands clawed at the ground desperately, nails ripping from his fingers.
“Monster!” he screamed, “I’m begging you, please let me go, let me go, let me go—!”
Fang Xiu ignored him.
He continued, slow and systematic, pulling away the cloth that covered Dashun’s face. From exposing only the eyes to uncovering the cheekbones, then revealing the entire nose…
The moment Dashun’s lips were exposed, he let out a final shriek, and his flesh peeled away like scales on a fish.
Blood burst forth in a cloud, scattering across the ground like crimson fireworks. Wounds tore open down to the bone, steaming blood drenching Fang Xiu entirely.
Fang Xiu remained unmoved, left hand still gripping Dashun’s hair, forcing his head upright.
“Look.”
Fang Xiu’s voice brimmed with laughter. “You two brothers came into the world in blood, so it’s only fair you die together in blood, too.”
The cloth around Fang Xiu’s head was soaked in gore, turned a dark blackish red. But those eyes beneath it remained starkly, piercingly dark.
Blood drained rapidly from Dashun. His body, convulsing from agony, no longer had the strength for a full-throated scream. Only muffled sobs reverberated from him.
Within a few seconds, Dashun fell silent.
Not far away, maybe a dozen steps, the heavy breathing sounded. At last, Fang Xiu lifted his head. He studied that thing calmly for a moment before beckoning Bai Shuangying closer.
Bai Shuangying emerged from the shadows. He turned his featureless face toward the true shape of the second taboo…
It was a massive human face.
A grotesque visage blocked the sky above the street, as if viewed through the refraction of a glass bead. Its exaggerated features twisted together, identifiable only in general form.
Its nose alone spanned half the street’s width, those deformed eyes rolling back so only the whites showed, glaring maliciously down at the pair.
Its nose tip hovered less than two meters from Fang Xiu’s head, but it made no further move.
Everything was drowned in red. The entire street reeked of blood.
Fang Xiu, drenched in dark crimson, his head wrapped in a blood-soaked cloth, looked like a figure forged of blood and shadow.
He knelt on Dashun’s mangled body, waving repeatedly at Bai Shuangying, as if the corpse beneath him were no more than a cushion, and the monstrous face above him just a large festive lantern.
…It was as though this was Fang Xiu’s natural habitat.
Bai Shuangying found himself pausing to take in the sight.
It resembled the end of the world and was utterly…magnificent.
“All good. Come and eat,” Fang Xiu called, eyes smiling behind the torn cloth.
No other evil spirits roamed the street. Even without a drawn circle, Bai Shuangying could easily seize the living soul.
“What just happened?”
He sat atop Dashun’s remains, making the scene feel eerily like a picnic.
“From the first test, I noticed the evil spirits screamed in different sequences and died in different ways. That means the ‘death taboo’ has a specific trigger. It’s not something absolute like ‘anyone who stays outside dies’.”
“When that breathing reached a certain distance, the evil spirits died. So the trigger involves proximity and works from afar.”
The giant face above shifted around, focusing on Fang Xiu, but Fang Xiu kept his gaze on Bai Shuangying, or more precisely, on that tiny bright red mole on Bai Shuangying’s face.
“When an evil spirit was facing the breathing, it died quickly. If it had its back turned, it took a bit longer, but once it turned around, it died. The most likely triggers were ‘looking directly at it’ or ‘being seen by it’. So yesterday, Jia Xu and the others basically ran a test for me.”
As Bai Shuangying leisurely shaped Dashun’s “mooncake”, he recalled the second experiment: the blind evil spirit had died anyway, while the blindfolded evil spirit survived longer and ran a good distance.
“…The blind one died, so ‘looking directly at it’ can be ruled out.”
“If the condition was simply ‘being seen’, the blindfolded evil spirit wouldn’t have lived as long. Plus, that almost ghost immortal wouldn’t risk wandering around at night if the taboo was so easily triggered.”
“So ‘being seen’ must have an extra condition… Like ‘no eye contact’ or ‘no exposing a certain area’. Something in that vein.”
At that, Fang Xiu lifted his hollow black gaze toward the passersby, who each had only the backs of their heads.
“I used Dashun to confirm. Now I’m 100% sure. The second taboo is: ‘You must not show your face’.”
While Bai Shuangying listened, he took a bite of the piping hot “living soul mooncake”. Dashun’s flavor was milder than that of “Yan Jing”, but the karmic aftertaste was much stronger, so delicious that he let out a drawn-out “Mmm.”
“Hehe, tasty, right?”
Behind the cloth’s torn opening, Fang Xiu’s eyes curved happily, their light restored.
Bai Shuangying nodded, feeling he’d contributed a lot. “You also deduced it wouldn’t chase you because that almost ghost immortal freely roams at night?”
“Yeah. The area is only so large. If this taboo meant actively pursuing, it would’ve gone after that evil spirit long ago.”
Fang Xiu reached out with blood stained fingers, as though wanting to brush Bai Shuangying’s sleeve, but paused halfway.
“Thanks. You saved me a lot of investigation time,” he whispered, withdrawing his hand in the end.
Bai Shuangying set down his mooncake, considered a moment, then reached over to peel the cloth away from Fang Xiu’s face.
Fang Xiu stiffened. “Eh?!”
Though startled, he didn’t resist. Bai Shuangying’s hand was already beneath the fabric, lightly brushing over Fang Xiu’s features.
That cool hand glided over Fang Xiu’s brows, eyes, cheeks, lips, giving him a strange sensation. He knew his features were still there yet also knew they’d “vanished.”
Now, like Bai Shuangying, his face appeared blank.
With a faint look of distaste, Bai Shuangying then tore the blood-soaked cloth completely away, lifted his sleeve, and thoroughly wiped the blood off Fang Xiu’s head.
Seeing that pristine sleeve about to get soiled, Fang Xiu panicked. “You’ll get it dirty…”
“A little blood can’t dirty me.” With his sleeve, Bai Shuangying vigorously rubbed Fang Xiu’s hair.
It was like a cool tongue had licked away the grime. The clotted blood vanished in an instant, leaving Fang Xiu’s hair clean and fluffy, looking rather soft to the touch.
This was much better. There was no cloth blocking the way, and Bai Shuangying could pat Fang Xiu’s head whenever he liked.
Satisfied, Bai Shuangying continued eating his “mooncake”.
Fang Xiu watched Bai Shuangying’s sleeve remain spotless, chuckling quietly as he sidled over to wipe off his own arms. Bai Shuangying, busy savoring his meal, let him do as he pleased.
That giant face still hovered right overhead, staring at them fiercely, but neither paid it any mind.
When Bai Shuangying finished his bite in one go, Fang Xiu finally rose to his feet. Though his face was blank, Bai Shuangying could tell he was smiling.
“It’s a rare chance. How about we take a nighttime stroll?” Fang Xiu asked excitedly.
Bai Shuangying licked the last scraps of “soul filling” from his fingers.
He sensed that half-step ghost immortal still lurking. It kept itself hidden and made no move to attack.
…How irritating.
So Bai Shuangying gathered his aura and cast an intimidating glance in the half-step ghost immortal’s direction. Instantly, the evil spirit withdrew its presence and fled.
After driving away that annoying creature, Bai Shuangying happily extended his sleeve.
“Let’s go,” he said.
……
Under the Blood Night, the passersby were frozen in place, making it more unsettling than it was in daylight.
They still had only the backs of their heads, remaining at their usual posts. Even the splashing foam from their beers was suspended in midair. The fireworks overhead were gone, the music had faded, and the neon lights no longer flashed.
The entire street lay silent as if sealed in amber.
Only two faceless figures wandered down the street, a giant face floating above them like a balloon.
Fang Xiu showed no sign of unease. On the contrary, he roamed about in curiosity, prodding here and there, faintly excited.
“This is so bizarre. It’s nothing like daytime!”
He studied both sides of the street, mentally comparing it to how it had been when everything was in motion.
Bai Shuangying, for his part, felt it was a pity that the advertisements weren’t blinking and the cotton candy machine had stopped spinning. Daytime was more entertaining. But the “Dashun mooncake” had been extremely tasty, and that alone was enough to mollify him for now.
Passing the base, Fang Xiu let out a mischievous laugh or two, directing some rude gestures at Lao Jin’s group.
Finished with that, he bounded back over to Bai Shuangying, still covered in blood, draping an arm around his ghost’s shoulders. “This is great.”
Bai Shuangying scowled slightly at the enormous face still trailing them. “What’s so great?”
“You’re here. It’s more fun with a friend.”
Fang Xiu slung an arm around Bai Shuangying’s shoulders. “If my contract weren’t ‘summoning a ghost’, I’d have to handle all this on my own.”
While speaking, he opened a can of Wangzai soda right in front of that second taboo, chugging the whole thing. Then Fang Xiu even took care to toss the empty can in a trash bin.
But when he noticed the nearby barbecue stall, Fang Xiu made a puzzled “huh” sound.
He’d passed by the stall twice earlier, vaguely sensing something off, and now, getting a closer look, realization struck him…
A person seemed to be missing.
At the stall sat seven young men happily eating skewers and drinking beer. One had an arm draped in a friendly way around… empty air.
During daytime, when those faceless people had been in motion, it looked like the stall just had some free space. Now that everything was frozen in place, that empty gap was obvious.
Fang Xiu thought for a moment, then grabbed a faceless little boy standing nearby. Indeed, each illusion had a consistent texture, light like foam; even Fang Xiu could lift him with no problem.
So Fang Xiu simply wedged the child under his arm, carrying him horizontally away.
Bai Shuangying, rooted in place, couldn’t fathom why.
“They’re just illusions. I’m going to move him somewhere else to see what happens in the daytime.”
Fang Xiu pointed at the cheery barbecue stall. “They’re missing someone there. I need to figure out what’s going on.”
Bai Shuangying stepped up, pulled the child from under Fang Xiu’s arm, and said mildly, “When morning comes, illusions will stay where you placed them. But the next Blood Night, they’ll revert to their original spots.”
Fang Xiu was taken aback. “You can tell all that just by looking?”
He truly marveled at how knowledgeable his ghost was, both with magic weapons and general spellcraft. This “support” was downright priceless.
“It’s all the ‘E’ at work, illusions driven by yin energy,” Bai Shuangying said, tapping the little child’s blank head. “I’ve watched them enough in both daylight and Blood Night to be sure.”
“Could these illusions ever come to life on their own?”
Like stumbling on new territory, Fang Xiu circled Bai Shuangying in excitement.
“Absolutely impossible,” Bai Shuangying replied.
“In that case…can I hug you?”
Fang Xiu was moved. A professional ghost was really something else.
Bai Shuangying had planned to refuse, but Dashun’s mooncake still tingled on his taste buds, so he nodded graciously.
Fang Xiu opened his arms and pulled his ghost into a tight embrace, rubbing his face against Bai Shuangying’s neck. “Wow, I would have had to test all these things by myself. You’ve been an enormous help…”
Bai Shuangying took advantage of the moment to pat Fang Xiu’s head, habitually saying, “We are friends.”
The seal remained silent. Bai Shuangying was unsurprised.
But Fang Xiu was delighted, hugging him tightly. The human’s body radiated heat, as hot as a fresh soul.
“For four days, the seat here has always been empty.”
Half a minute later, Fang Xiu finally released him. “That means each Blood Night, something removes the illusion that was here.”
“Mm,” Bai Shuangying agreed. He couldn’t think of any other explanation.
“But as far as I’ve seen, only one evil spirit moves around at night,” Fang Xiu reflected. “I was going to nickname that almost ghost immortal ‘Half-Immortal1’, but now I’m calling it ‘Half-Mountain1’.”
Bai Shuangying: “?”
Fang Xiu said, “The ‘Person1’ got removed by it.”
1Clarity: Half-Immortal is (半仙). The immortal part is a combination of person (人) and mountain (山). Fan Xiu removed the radical person from it, making it Half-Mountain (半山). This is a joke on how the half-immortal supposedly removed that missing person in the BBQ stall.
Bai Shuangying: “…”
He suddenly recalled the exasperation of wanting to ignore a human. He hadn’t felt that in a while.
“If Half-Mountain is doing that, it means the person missing from here must hold some clue to breaking the E,” Fang Xiu continued, suddenly serious.
Bai Shuangying: “…So we need to find the person who vanished?”
Fang Xiu glanced at the barbecue stall again, eyes flickering briefly. “No, I can guess the gist of it.”
Bai Shuangying stared at the stall for a good while, failing to see anything special. Fang Xiu, however, wore a mysterious look. “I’ve got some ideas about that missing taboo. And as for the two remaining drug dealers, I know how to use them now.”
“Tell me.”
“Let’s keep it a surprise. Watching the ‘cooking process’ is part of the fun of a good meal,” Fang Xiu muttered. “Besides, if I turn out to be wrong, that’d be embarrassing.”
Bai Shuangying found that reasonable enough and didn’t ask any more questions.
……
After that, Fang Xiu confirmed where the remaining evil spirits were hiding, then, leaning on Bai Shuangying, caught a short nap at the police booth. When he woke again, less than an hour remained before the Blood Night would end.
The giant face still lingered over them, showing signs of fatigue.
With “daybreak” near, Fang Xiu took Bai Shuangying to a small electronics store.
The young clerk inside was frozen, mid-swipe on his phone. Fang Xiu left the rest of his money at the counter and rented a Polaroid camera.
It was Bai Shuangying’s first time seeing such a curious little box. He inspected it closely from all sides.
“It’s rare that we can walk around together, so let’s snap a photo for a keepsake,” Fang Xiu said merrily.
“Photo?”
“Yeah, it’ll produce a little picture that shows how we look right now.”
Bai Shuangying touched his own faceless cheek, then Fang Xiu’s also faceless face, then glanced at the giant face looming above: “?”
Fang Xiu: “……”
Fang Xiu: “…We might as well try. Maybe nothing will show up!”
But it turned out the Polaroid was perfectly functional.
Fang Xiu hooked an arm around Bai Shuangying’s neck, both of them facing away from the street. They snapped a proper selfie. After a few seconds, the film developed, accurately capturing everything…
A red-clad figure and a white-clad figure, both featureless, crammed together in frame, blood-red surroundings, and the sky dominated by that giant face rolling its eyes.
Bai Shuangying: “……”
Fang Xiu: “……”
Fang Xiu couldn’t help but comment, “This is basically a perfect horror movie shot.”
Even so, he carefully slipped the photo into his innermost pocket, wary of it getting stained.
“Let’s head back.” Just thinking about seeing Bai Shuangying’s real face again put Fang Xiu in a great mood.
Reluctantly, Bai Shuangying put down the Polaroid, then left the store with Fang Xiu.
As the two of them walked away, a sigh suddenly sounded in that little shop.
The faceless clerk tucked his phone away and rose in a lazy stretch, sauntering over to the counter.
“They overpaid. Don’t even want their change.”
He counted the coins Fang Xiu had left, muttering carelessly, “After all these years, this is the first time I’ve seen someone treat this place like a tourist spot.”
As he spoke, the back of his head twisted, faint outlines of facial features surfacing. In the next instant, his “face” perfectly reverted to the usual back-of-the-head appearance.
Outside, the Blood Night continued.
The author has something to say:
It feels like no matter what those two do, it turns into a date… They even took their first commemorative date photo.
Xiao Fang has already guessed three taboos, but he’s not saying anything (?
Anyway, let’s collect all of Bai Shuangying’s mooncake gift boxes first!
After speaking, Bai Shuangying looked expectantly at Fang Xiu, waiting for a brand-new reaction. He had never seen Fang Xiu panic before.
However, Fang Xiu merely scratched his head. “Okay.”
He wasn’t even as excited as when Bai Shuangying had told him “Yan Jing tasted good.”
Bai Shuangying: “?”
He felt his question wasn’t obvious enough, so he turned Fang Xiu’s face toward himself.
Bai Shuangying tilted his head slightly, once more: “?”
Fang Xiu quickly responded, “This information is indeed valuable. Thanks to you, I’ve learned something I never could have discovered on my own.”
Then he softened his voice. “But right now, what’s more important is to resolve the ‘E’ here. If we stake our lives on ‘the Underworld is kind’ or ‘the enemy isn’t that strong,’ that’d be too lame.”
“Who cares if it’s a ghost immortal or the Underworld? As long as it’s possible to win by following the rules, we just need to focus on winning.”
Bai Shuangying looked at Fang Xiu’s dark eyes. Right now, they were filled with a bright gleam. It wasn’t the naive confidence of someone who didn’t know his limits, but rather a burning enthusiasm for snatching victory.
It was like fireworks.
Bai Shuangying didn’t like humans, but he didn’t dislike fireworks. He would remember the brilliant fireworks here, and he thought he would probably remember Fang Xiu as well.
“…What are you planning to do?” Bai Shuangying let go of Fang Xiu’s face.
Fang Xiu mischievously scratched the back of Bai Shuangying’s hand, then mouthed, “Of course, we’ll test with people.”
“But right now, it’s not the right time.”
……
The second “Bloody Night” arrived at exactly six in the evening.
Before six, everyone had tied four evil spirits outside the shop door.
These four little evil spirits had violated the taboo and were so weak they couldn’t move. By looking through the small window in the door, they were in clear view.
Very soon, the storm-like breathing sound reappeared.
Though the breathing was still some distance from the base, the evil spirits by the door let out shrill screams, as if being flayed alive. The sound was indescribably agonizing.
A few seconds later, only the eerie breathing remained outside, accompanied by the sticky sound of liquid dripping.
This time, even Lao Jin didn’t bother putting on a pleasant face. This place’s taboo struck indiscriminately. If the evil spirits ended up like that, humans wouldn’t fare any better.
The second taboo was very likely the death taboo here.
Even after the breathing receded, no one dared to look outside.
The ritual had actually started in the morning, so by calculation, they hadn’t rested properly for a day and a half. They already had the result of their test, so everyone decided to sleep in their own corners. At least there was no shortage of food and water, and the evil spirits weren’t all dead yet. People weren’t desperate enough to turn on each other just now.
Fang Xiu chose the darkest corner.
He faced the base’s door, arms wrapped around his knees, with the lower half of his face hidden by his arms. The breathing outside rose and fell, sometimes near, sometimes far. Beneath his bangs, Fang Xiu’s eyes slowly curved into a smile, concealed carefully.
Then he leaned slightly, resting against Bai Shuangying, who sat next to him, and quickly fell asleep. Whether intentional or not, his cheek was pressed against the long hair cascading over Bai Shuangying’s chest, gently rubbing with each breath.
Bai Shuangying looked down at Fang Xiu.
Now Fang Xiu, asleep, wouldn’t cling to him as tightly as before. Instead, he was quite relaxed as he leaned over, seemingly trusting him a bit more.
Trust…
Using half a plastic mannequin, Bai Shuangying replaced himself with it and slipped away.
He could sense that almost ghost immortal was on the move. Unfortunately, it used the power of the E to conceal itself, so Bai Shuangying couldn’t pinpoint its exact location.
The good news was that the powerful evil spirit hadn’t truly reached ghost immortality. It likewise had to abide by the rules of the E.
Right now, it could move freely outside, meaning if the method was correct, it was possible to go out during the Bloody Night as well.
In fact, Bai Shuangying had weighed his options: this “E” here really couldn’t suppress him. But if he forcibly resisted the death taboo, the Underworld would definitely take notice.
Bai Shuangying decided to find a “permitted way” to go out under the taboo.
He’d been sealed for too long and hated being cooped up indoors for twelve hours every day. Besides, that half-step ghost immortal was swaggering around outside. The thought of it made him annoyed.
Bai Shuangying concealed himself fully and melted into his true form, then stuck a small tendril out of the door crack.
Like a snail’s eye stalk, the little tendril wriggled for a moment in the red glow, and sure enough, nothing happened. So he extended himself a bit more to test the waters, and then…
A pair of warm hands scooped him up entirely, dragging back the part that had just poked outside in one swift motion.
Bai Shuangying: “!”
It was Fang Xiu.
He had formed a pact with his human, so Fang Xiu was immune to his concealment.
Fang Xiu hugged Bai Shuangying’s true form like a bolster pillow, hauling his ghost back in. He buried his face in that weightless, airy shape, mumbling, “…I told you I’m a light sleeper…”
Bai Shuangying struggled desperately, afraid to use too much force and accidentally kill Fang Xiu, but he couldn’t shake himself free.
“Don’t test the taboo… dangerous… leave it to me…”
Fang Xiu mumbled sleepily, “You have to stay with me… until the very end…”
Fang Xiu kicked aside the plastic mannequin, then shrank back to his original spot, as if he wanted to nestle entirely into Bai Shuangying’s body.
“Mmm…” He rubbed his cheek against that alien-like creature, letting out a contented sound.
Unable to move, Bai Shuangying unleashed his trump card: he shifted back into human form.
The cold, pliable fluid by Fang Xiu’s side instantly morphed into smooth, firm skin, snapping Fang Xiu awake.
He realized Bai Shuangying was sitting there disheveled, and he himself was clinging to Bai Shuangying’s waist, face buried against his chest and belly.
Fang Xiu: “……”
Fang Xiu swallowed hard, stammering, “Um… I-I swear it wasn’t on purpose. Do you believe me?”
Bai Shuangying enunciated clearly, “You lecher.”
Fang Xiu silently let go of him. He wanted to explain, but didn’t know how. Should he say “sorry, I was half-asleep and treated you like a bolster pillow?” That sounded pretty rude too.
“Next time, don’t wait until I’m asleep to test the taboo. It’s dangerous.” Fang Xiu quickly changed the subject.
This time, Bai Shuangying found himself speechless… He couldn’t exactly say he was annoyed because that big evil spirit was swaggering around outside and he wanted to go for a stroll too.
Finally, they both fell silent, ending in a stalemate.
“Let’s keep resting.” Fang Xiu sat back down, patting the space next to him.
“Mm.” Bai Shuangying also resumed his seat beside Fang Xiu. The man and the ghost once again leaned against each other.
This time, Bai Shuangying gave up on trying to go out. He took out that small white porcelain vase and began to toy with it in his hand.
……
At six o’clock the next morning, the Bloody Night ended, and the ritual officially entered its third day.
Once the base’s door opened, people immediately saw what happened to those four “test subjects”.
They lay sprawled on the ground, flesh and skin ripped to shreds, wounds covering their entire bodies. Judging from the blood stains around them, all those injuries appeared in an instant.
Seeing how horribly they had died, no one showed much surprise, only falling into even greater silence.
Such an impossible way to die. There was no doubt it was the death taboo.
Fang Xiu scrutinized the four corpses, finding them quite interesting.
Three of them had collapsed facing the direction from which the breathing had come, their backs on the ground. The remaining one had apparently tried to run away, managing to crawl a few steps before dying in the middle of turning its head.
Noticing Lao Jin looking at him, Fang Xiu put on a fearful expression and kept his observations to himself.
Next came the third “white day”, and everyone had the critical task to figure out exactly how many evil spirits were left on this street.
Now, it was a matter of life and death for them all.
Guan He was “injured” and couldn’t move. This time, Cheng Songyun and Guan He remained in the base, while the other seven all set out.
Lao Jin’s team of three refused to separate. Jia Xu was unwilling to give up on Blondie’s combat abilities, and Mei Lan wasn’t keen to deal with Lao Jin’s group. Eventually, the two sides split up: three on one side, three on the other, leaving Fang Xiu as the extra.
“Perfect timing. We’ll split up and each do a count,” Jia Xu called to Fang Xiu.
“Boss, I’d like to go with Lao Jin’s group,” Fang Xiu said. “Our side already has enough people, but Lao Jin’s abilities are pretty one-note. We should give them a bit of support.”
With that, he bit his lip. “Besides, about Yan Jing Ge’s death yesterday…I bear some responsibility, and I want to make it up to them in my own way…”
Jia Xu didn’t understand but was quite impressed. Fang Xiu sounded genuinely remorseful, with no hint of putting on an act.
This kid had been so ruthless in Weishan Village, yet maybe he was fair with his grudges and gratitude? …Perhaps it was because Lao Jin’s group hadn’t attacked them?
Then again, both Jia Xu and Mei Lan were good at stealth and had Blondie for combat. Although Fang Xiu’s “concealment” was handy, it wasn’t strictly necessary.
“Fine, go on over,” Jia Xu said, glancing at Lao Jin with a magnanimous air.
“What a thoughtful young man.” Lao Jin nodded at Fang Xiu.
That said, Lao Jin didn’t walk alongside Fang Xiu. He had Ma Zi guard himself while Da Shun stuck close to Fang Xiu every step of the way.
Da Shun was just over 1.7 meters tall, looking like a shar-pei in human form. He wore only name-brand clothing, and his hair was plastered close to his scalp in a greasy sheen.
All along the way, Fang Xiu seemed not to notice Lao Jin’s vigilance. He went out of his way to chat with Da Shun.
“Da Shun Ge, your clothes are brand-name, huh.”
“Da Shun Ge, is that a Rolex Submariner? Whoa, I’ve never seen the real deal before.”
…
“Watch out, brother!” Fang Xiu darted forward, shielding Da Shun from an evil spirit’s attack. His arm ended up with several bloody gashes.
Fang Xiu’s sweet words and protective actions flattered Da Shun, and with relatively few evil spirits around, they started chatting for real.
When Da Shun heard that Fang Xiu was an orphan who worked as a hospital janitor, he burst into laughter.
“A janitor? A month’s pay isn’t even enough for my night out,” he said derisively. “You’re in Taiyi City of Gui Province, right? If we see each other outside, I’ll take you under my wing as a lackey, and guarantee you’ll earn thirty to fifty thousand a month.”
Lao Jin gave them the occasional glance which made Da Shun quickly clear his throat. “The evil spirits really have gotten a lot fewer, huh.”
“Mm, we need to count them over and over.” Fang Xiu looked worried. “Looks like there aren’t even a hundred. We have to hurry and find the E.”
Using the Five Emperors’ coins’ power to “bewitch the evil spirits”, they combed every nook and cranny—streets, alleys, even garbage bins.
Most small evil spirits were already wiped out, leaving only medium and large ones. There were no more than seventy in total. With so many stronger evil spirits, it was getting difficult for Lao Jin’s group to control them using the coins. Lao Jin’s expression grew grim.
They counted three or four times in a row. Within that short time, the evil spirits killed several more of their own, still revealing no additional clues about the “E”.
The fireworks in the sky went on crackling incessantly, which made things increasingly irritating.
At noon, the two groups met in the middle of the street.
“Plus the ones left at the base, there are sixty-four evil spirits,” Fang Xiu called out.
Sure enough, Jia Xu immediately contradicted him. “It’s already three-quarter past noon, so subtract the two that Cheng Jie and Xiao Guan killed. Only sixty-two evil spirits remain on this street.”
Blondie: “Still good.” A decent number still remains.
Jia Xu: “Good? What’s good about it? There are nine of us. If we rely on evil spirits alone, we can last at most two more days.”
The first taboo halved the daily kill quota indiscriminately. If they insisted on killing only evil spirits…
Tomorrow would halve their number again, leaving at most twenty-six evil spirits. By the day after tomorrow, there would only be eight evil spirits… Then before noon on the day after that, they’d be stuck with nine humans and eight evil spirits.
That was if the evil spirits only killed one of their own per day. In reality, it was likely worse, as that group of brainless creatures attacked on sight.
Lao Jin weighed his thoughts. “Once the evil spirits get even fewer, we could isolate some of them. If they break taboos, so what… It’ll slow the rate of reduction a bit.”
After saying that, he frowned again. “But that’ll only buy us a day or two at most. It won’t solve the problem.”
…If they couldn’t find the “E”, they’d have to start killing each other eventually.
No wonder that big evil spirit wouldn’t show itself, Fang Xiu thought.
Even without its interference, humans would auto-destruct. It only had to pick them off in the chaos to fill its quota, then act like the mantis stalking the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind*. Once all the sacrifices and evil spirits were dead, it would simply wait for the next batch.
*Idiom referring to a situation where someone is focused on taking advantage of another party that they fail to notice a third party taking advantage of them.
Oh, according to Bai Shuangying, it might not even need to wait for the next batch. This time might let it become an immortal.
“Tonight we’ll test the evil spirits again,” Fang Xiu suggested in a small voice. “Actually, I found something odd about how those evil spirits died this morning…”
Lao Jin raised his eyebrows. “What do you mean?”
Fang Xiu put on a slightly uncertain look. “The ones facing that breathing sound died instantly. The one that had its back turned held on a few seconds longer… It died while turning its head. Maybe the taboo is ‘you cannot look directly at it’…”
Before Fang Xiu could finish, Jia Xu immediately perked up. “Tonight we’ll blindfold the evil spirits and put them outside to see what happens!”
Lao Jin let out a long groan. “We have no choice. Let’s try it.”
They spent the entire “white day” accomplishing nothing apart from the evil spirit census. As the Bloody Night approached again, Jia Xu tore some cloth strips to blindfold the evil spirits.
“One won’t be enough.” Ma Zi grabbed another evil spirit. He didn’t bother with cloth, instead gouging out the creature’s eyeballs.
All four eyes landed on the ground with a splat, giving off an unpleasant stench.
The little evil spirit screamed as Ma Zi subdued it with practiced ease with a completely blank expression.
Jia Xu’s voice quivered, “R-right now, we don’t have many evil spirits left. They’re very precious…”
Ma Zi shot him a sinister look, making Jia Xu instantly shut his mouth.
Two evil spirits were set at the old spot, each forced to face the same direction. But everything went the same way…
The breathing drew near. While it was still some distance away, the evil spirits once again shrieked and died.
The next morning, people checked and found the evil spirit with gouged eyes lying flat on its back, dead as could be.
The other evil spirit had torn off its blindfold, running a few steps farther. It likewise died mid-turn.
Jia Xu immediately looked at Fang Xiu. “Your guess was wrong. The taboo isn’t ‘you cannot look directly at it.’ We wasted two evil spirits for nothing, haa.”
Fang Xiu lowered his head so that his face showed guilt and despair.
……
In this manner, the third Bloody Night ended, and the fourth white day arrived.
They searched the street yet again, as they had predicted. After their day’s required kills, only a bit over twenty evil spirits remained.
What drove them to despair was that three days had passed, yet the pedestrian street looked the same as ever.
Faceless passersby went on merrily enjoying the night, the music still light and airy, fireworks beautifying the sky under a round moon. As if the Mid-Autumn Festival here had no end in sight.
They could see the fourth night was about to arrive, a precious day about to be wasted in vain.
In the base, Lao Jin took out a pack of cigarettes, staring grimly at it. Ma Zi stood silently beside him, evaluating each person with his gaze.
Even Blondie was now glaring at Guan He.
He scratched his chin and quietly asked Jia Xu, “You think killing a ghost under contract counts?”
Jia Xu actually answered. “No. If a contracted ghost also counted as part of the quota, we’d have to kill two evil spirits a day.”
Blondie glanced at Guan He again. “Tch. Then there’s no solution, huh.”
Sensing danger, Guan He inched closer to Cheng Songyun, and Cheng Songyun glared back at Blondie like an enraged mother beast. Mei Lan gripped a can of food tightly, ready to smash it on the floor at any moment to create water for hiding.
Undercurrents swirled in the base, tension high.
Fang Xiu tugged on Bai Shuangying’s sleeve, whispering, “You’re sure we can move around outside during the Bloody Night?”
“Yes. That almost ghost immortal is roaming every night,” Bai Shuangying responded irritably.
Fang Xiu thought for a moment, then smiled. “I think I get it now.”
Bai Shuangying warily asked, “Are you sure?”
“Yesterday I was about sixty percent sure. Today it’s more like ninety. That last ten percent requires a test, but it’ll be worth it.” Fang Xiu said quietly, “…I think things have gotten tense enough that I won’t even need to volunteer.”
Bai Shuangying was about to ask what he meant, but Lao Jin spoke up, giving him the answer.
“Little Fang, tonight you go out and try.”
Lao Jin’s tone was especially warm. “Our five emperor coins only work on evil spirits. They won’t help against the taboo. There’s no other way. If this goes on, there’ll be chaos.”
Fang Xiu visibly shrank back, faltering a little. “But I still need to provide everyone with food…”
“You just need to leave enough supplies.”
Lao Jin gave him a kindly smile. “Your ability is concealment, so you’re best suited for reconnaissance. Don’t misunderstand. I’m not forcing you.”
“You still have the power to produce food, so even if we start killing each other, we’ll spare you until the end… If you don’t want to go, we’ll all understand.”
He spoke each word slowly, making sure everyone could hear.
Fang Xiu’s own teammates fell silent, except for Cheng Songyun, who bit her lip and said, “What do you mean? Xiao Fang has no obligation—”
But before she could finish, Guan He tugged on her sleeve.
Faced with Cheng Songyun’s puzzled look, Guan He shook his head and carefully mouthed, “Brother Fang isn’t refusing. He definitely has a plan.”
Fang Xiu took a deep breath, his expression resolute.
Lao Jin was just about to smile when Fang Xiu added…
“But I have no combat power. I’ll need someone with me. I want him to come.”
Fang Xiu pointed straight at Ma Zi. “Xiao Guan’s already hurt, so if another two from our side die, that would be… Sorry, Uncle Jin, but I have to think about my companions too.”
He was practically writing “I’m already risking my life, so you’d better meet me halfway” on his forehead.
Lao Jin gripped the cigarette pack, hesitating. “Da Shun, you go with him.”
“Boss?!” Da Shun was shocked.
“Xiao Fang’s concealment can protect you. Don’t you two work well together?”
Lao Jin said calmly, “Against the taboo, strength doesn’t matter much. I just need to send someone… Isn’t that right, Xiao Fang?”
Fang Xiu pursed his lips. “…Yes.”
Only Bai Shuangying noticed Fang Xiu’s mouth twitching for a while, as if suppressing a smile.
…So that’s it. This human’s target all along was Da Shun.
If he was forced to bring the tall and brawny Ma Zi, Fang Xiu would have had a hard time managing him.
“We’re off, then.”
At 5:50 p.m., Fang Xiu gathered a few old clothes and stepped across the threshold. “Promise me, no one kills anyone else tonight… If I come back and find someone dead, I won’t say a word!”
“Cheng Jie, take good care of Xiao Guan.” Before leaving, Fang Xiu specifically added.
There were only ten minutes to go until six. Fang Xiu led Da Shun in a sprint toward the archway on the right side of the base. Since the breathing always came from the left archway, moving from left to right and back again.
They quickly reached the end of the street and stopped at “Treasures of Huai Zhen”, panting for breath.
With only three minutes left before the Bloody Night descended, Da Shun trembled. “X-Xiao Fang, are you sure your concealment will work?”
Fang Xiu tossed him an old piece of clothing. “Later, use this to cover your face, and don’t make a sound.”
Da Shun’s brow twitched. Fang Xiu’s tone had changed, no longer that of the “naive young man” he was used to. In this moment, the youth spoke like someone in charge.
Like Boss Jin, who could casually snuff out a life.
Da Shun suddenly sensed danger. “Why do we need to cover our faces…”
“Because I said so.” Fang Xiu didn’t bother to explain. Time was short, and Da Shun wouldn’t make it back to the base.
Then Fang Xiu turned to Bai Shuangying, his voice suddenly gentler. “Bai Shuangying, you cover your face too. Just use your sleeve… ack!”
Bai Shuangying directly made his facial features disappear, leaving only a blank patch of skin and that single bright red mole.
Fang Xiu lamented instantly, “What a waste—!”
Then, letting out a small sigh, Fang Xiu picked up an old piece of clothing and pulled it over his own head.
Unlike Da Shun, he cut two holes in it so he could at least see outside.
Immediately afterward, the three of them hid at the mouth of the alley beside the arch.
Bai Shuangying concealed himself more carefully, then lightly nudged Fang Xiu. “What exactly is going on?”
He truly was curious how they would walk around during the Bloody Night.
Fang Xiu smiled, lowering his voice.
“I watched very closely how those evil spirits screamed, moved, and died.”
Bai Shuangying leaned his blank face closer. Fang Xiu looked at that featureless visage and tapped the single red mole with his fingertip.
“…Once we confirm with Da Shun, I’ll tell you everything,” he whispered. “Then you can devour his living soul while you listen.”
As soon as he finished speaking, the fourth Bloody Night fell.
The author has something to say:
The surface-level peace is over. It’s time to strike.
As for Bai Shangxian, it’s best not to casually reveal his true form; not only does it fail to intimidate, it also makes it all too easy for a certain someone to scoop him up as a hug pillow (???
The staff at Olympus Spaceport was diligently providing attentive service to travelers as usual. When he saw a middle-aged woman stepping out of the cabin, he instinctively went forward to assist her and politely greeted her.
The “madam” he referred to gave him a graceful smile. Her well-maintained fingers rested on the staff member’s forearm, like a noblewoman accepting a knight’s help. “Thank you, sir,” she said, “but I hope the term ‘madam’ on Olympus doesn’t carry the same meaning as I understand it.”
The staff member’s face turned red with embarrassment. “Ve… very sorry, madam… I mean, miss.”
Only then did the woman withdraw her intense gaze.
“Ah, Jolene, come on now. You’re not a twenty-year-old girl anymore. Why are you so particular about these titles?” A man followed her out of the cabin. A cane hung from his wrist, and his hair was meticulously groomed. He was dressed in a suit that complemented the woman’s vintage attire. If she hadn’t denied being married just now, anyone would have mistaken them for a traveling couple!
“Shut up, Kepler. If people think we’re married, I might as well jump into a spaceship’s turbine engine and die!”
“Not to mention how terrible that would be, the cleanup afterward would be a real headache. You should choose another way to die that doesn’t trouble others.”
As soon as they disembarked, they started bickering. The staff believed more that they were enemies than a couple. They bantered back and forth until they accidentally bumped into a young man wearing glasses.
“Oh, sorry,” Jolene said, stopping her verbal battle with her companion to check on the young man she had bumped into. “Are you hurt?”
“No, it’s fine,” the young man replied with a gentle smile, taking off his glasses to check for damage before putting them back on. “I’m not that easily hurt, madam.”
Miss Jolene wanted to correct his wording, but the young man’s companion—a serious-looking girl—came up. “The car is still waiting for us, Doctor,” she said in a stern voice.
“Alright, alright, we’re going,” the young man said, clearly resigned to the girl’s urging. He gave Jolene another smile, nodded in farewell, and followed the serious girl away.
Jolene watched them disappear into the crowd. “Did you hear that, Kepler?” she said to her companion. “She called him ‘Doctor’. So young and already a doctor, how impressive.”
“If you start working hard now, you could be a doctor in ten years too, I guarantee.”
“Hmph! You always know how to mock me!”
The two continued their earlier quarrel as they walked toward the immigration checkpoint. The staff checked their documents. “Welcome to Olympus, Ms. Jolene Cavendish, Mr. Erwin Kepler,” he said, turning on the green light to let them pass.
They had been bickering like enemies, but now Jolene seemed to let go of her grudge. She didn’t argue further. Instead, she took Kepler’s arm and walked toward the spaceport exit like a lady escorted by a gentleman.
“It’s been a long time since I came to Olympus. The spaceport looks more beautiful,” Jolene said, glancing around. “It wasn’t this luxurious before.”
“The changes outside should be even bigger,” Kepler said. “I wonder what the underground market looks like now. I’d love to see it.”
“You’re feeling nostalgic, Kepler. Nostalgia means you’re getting old.”
“You’re no different. Look who’s talking.”
Their sparks flew again, but Jolene suddenly let go of Kepler’s hand and ran off, quickly disappearing into the crowd. Kepler adjusted his hat and hurried after her, but Jolene was nowhere to be seen. He looked around until he found her near the spaceport exit.
Jolene was looking around frantically, like a mother searching for her lost child.
“What’s wrong with you!” Kepler grabbed her arm. “Did you see someone who owes you money?”
“Damn it, shut up. How do you know what I saw!” Jolene snapped. “I almost found him. I saw him just a moment ago, and then he vanished!”
Kepler was baffled. “Who was it?”
“Ah, there! Look!” Jolene pointed. Kepler saw two young men walking side by side out of the exit. One had silver hair, the other black hair. The latter seemed familiar to Kepler, and after thinking for a while, he remembered seeing him at the Portia Casino in Neo Venice. He hadn’t expected to meet him again on a distant planet. It was quite a coincidence. After a moment, he realized the young man resembled someone else, a friend he hadn’t seen in a long time.
“He’s just like Figaro,” he muttered.
The young men hailed a flying car and left the spaceport, disappearing into the sky.
Jolene smacked him on the back. “You idiot! What are you standing there for! Don’t you claim to know many people in Olympus? Find out who that guy is! Hurry!”
“These fake IDs from Neo Athens work well,” Alois remarked, looking at the small card in his hand. To facilitate their travel, Neo Athens had given them special fake IDs. Alois’s card read “Jacques Turing”, and Joshua’s card read “Joshua Euler”.
“I used this name on Olympus,” Joshua explained. “I have a bunch of documents proving my identity.”
“I remember you also have a property here,” Alois recalled Joshua mentioning his residence on Olympus several times.
“Want to see it?”
“Why not?”
Joshua put his ID back in his pocket, took Alois’s hand, and boarded a flying car. “Avalon 27,” he told the car. The self-driving car recognized the location and took off, carrying them into the sky.
As they left the spaceport, Alois finally saw the true face of Olympus. The land was a vast expanse of red, with silver-gray buildings nestled among the rolling hills, forming several commercial centers. The streets flowed like mercury over the red earth. Olympus was windy, so tall windbreak walls surrounded the major cities. Trees were scarce because the soil wasn’t suitable for plants. All the oxygen was produced by bacteria that absorbed carbon dioxide and emitted oxygen. Towers housing the bacteria dotted the city, like a forest of steel pointing at the sky.
The landscape resembled Mars, the brother of Old Earth, the fourth planet of the solar system. That land was also red. In the past, before humanity left the solar system, Mars was seen as a new paradise, humanity’s second heaven. Perhaps Olympus was influenced by this, as many of its place names were taken from Old Earth mythology. “Olympus” itself was the land of the gods in one of those myths.
The car flowed like mercury to the edge of the city. Alois leaned against the window, eagerly taking in the surroundings like an insatiable, curious child.
“This area is Takamagahara, Olympus’s industrial zone.”
“See the east? That’s Penglai, the only place with a river.”
“We’re heading to Eden now, one of the few areas with greenhouse parks.”
Joshua subtly played the tour guide with a doting smile on his face. Thank goodness, Alois seemed to like this place. Contrary to its name, Olympus was no paradise but a haven for the underworld. But Alois didn’t know that. It was great that he liked it here.
The car left the bustling city, heading to the suburbs, and ascended a red hill scattered with villas. Joshua’s residence was likely one of them.
Alois whistled. “The rich neighborhood. You must be loaded.”
“If you have to live somewhere, might as well live comfortably.”
Joshua directed the car to stop at a security checkpoint by the road. He lowered the window and greeted the guard. “Good day, Mr. Fez.”
The guard, standing straight, saluted him. “It’s been a while since you were here, Mr. Euler!”
“Yes, I was away on some business.”
The guard glanced at Alois in the car. “Is this your friend?”
“Yes. Jacques Turing.”
Alois, slow to react to his fake name, just smiled foolishly at the guard.
“By the way, there’s something you should know,” the guard said. “Recently, an entertainment company plans to buy the land on the hill to build a large amusement park. They’ve been persuading the residents to sell. They’ll probably visit your place in the next few days.”
Joshua nodded. “Got it.” He bid farewell to the guard and directed the car to continue, soon arriving at a villa halfway up the hill.
Kinky Translations 