Chapter 18: 18

Chapter 18: Motivation

Yin Blade didn’t move immediately.

He stood quietly in place, waiting for the opponent to take action. However, the hostility only faintly persisted. There were a few eyes watching him from extremely close. Yin Ren could smell their vigilance.

Was this a test?

He gradually narrowed the range of his murderous aura, and the air in the room seemed to freeze under the heavy oppression.

At this time, if Zhong Chengshuo was at the scene, even he could detect something was off—Yin Ren’s maroon eyes completely turned bright red, as if they were like sparks in the dark night. His long black hair was blowing in the wind, creating a halo of light around him.

Five seconds.

Thirty seconds.

One minute.

The thing behind Yin Ren didn’t stop releasing its killing intent, but it didn’t take action either. The subtlety of being watched hadn’t disappeared, and the source of those gazes seemed to be a little far away.

It was avoiding him.

“Got a bit of brain.” Yin Ren smiled.

He pretended to have found nothing, pulled back his murderous aura, and then stretched his waist.

He had seen this kind of thing they called a “gap” thousands of years ago. He only saw it as a swamp beneath the turf; a crack in the ice—just a hole for the unlucky. He could just go around, so why bother with dead things?

The gap naturally didn’t possess eyes that could gaze, which meant something was using it, like a viper lurking in the swamp.

Evil things also have their own ways of self-cultivation. People usually stay away from dangerous things like this. In other words, if there was an evil thing that wanted to take advantage of the gap, it must possess at least some skills. There were Shian employees everywhere, yet it still chose to entrench itself here, which was enough to explain certain problems.

The evil thing in this apartment wasn’t weak, wasn’t very hostile, and didn’t seem aggressive.

There was work to be done, but he was just a weak and helpless rookie ghost master. Yin Ren decided to learn his lesson from last time and hand over the matter to the professionals.

After finishing what he wanted to do, Yin Ren moved himself and opened the door happily.

The hostility in the room dissipated instantly, as if it had never existed. Although before it dissipated, there was a lot of “what’s the matter” feeling of doubt mixed in with the hostility.

Zhong Chengshuo, who was guarding the door, asked him when he came out, “Did you feel anything?”

Yin Ren: “I feel, hungry.”

Zhong Chengshuo’s expression became a little more complicated.

“…Do you want to eat ramen?” He didn’t press the matter after that and just glanced at the time.

Now they could move freely in Haigu. Although it was still far from noon, it wasn’t as if they couldn’t have lunch.

“Eat!” Yin Ren readily agreed. He had been coveting the beef ramen next to the apartment for a while now.

“Have you been here all this time?” A voice interrupted suddenly.

The two of them turned their heads at the same time and saw Fu Xingchuan’s solemn expression.

Fu Xingchuan was dressed in a weird outfit. He had changed into a long coat and switched the color from ochre to magenta. He wasn’t wearing any protective clothing, was holding a long knife in his hand, and the dark circles under his eyes were even worse than the last time they saw him. In addition, there was a strong smell of smoke coming from his body.

Zhong Chengshuo: “Yes. We’re continuing to investigate the scene.”

Fu Xingchuan gave a non-committal response. He glanced at the empty room and turned directly to Yin Ren.

“What about you? Did you find anything unusual?”

Yin Ren stood at attention and said with a heavy tone, “Yes, I suddenly felt chilly just now, so I deliberately stayed in the room alone for a while. Then…”

Fu Xingchuan and Zhong Chengshuo both looked at him.

“Then I felt the hairs on my back straighten.” Yin Ren looked serious. “But I think it might be an illusion. Maybe it’s because I’m hungry and I was thinking about it, so I came out and asked Zhong Ge to go for a meal.”

Fu Xingchuan didn’t show a relaxed expression.

“What did you do in the room?” he asked calmly. “There was a very strong killing intent nearby just now.”

‘Great,’ Yin Ren thought. This was the effect he wanted.

Yin Ren glanced at Zhong Chengshuo and spoke with a bit of hesitation. “I didn’t do anything special… Just now, Zhong Ge deduced that Gao Mengyu looked out for some unknown reason, so I kept looking at the window.”

“Did you touch anything?”

“I didn’t,” Yin Ren replied sincerely.

The clues that should be given… Well, he gave out all the work reports that needed to be given. As a human, Fu Xingchuan could perceive his murderous aura, which meant his level was acceptable. Since he was tasked to take over the matter, Yin Rin felt relieved by this.

So he added in a good mood, “Is there such a mysterious thing as killing intent in the world? Minister Fu is incredible. Where can I learn this?”

Fu Xingchuan’s eyes wandered. “When you’re strong enough to be 007.”

Yin Ren: “…” Is it good to be that straightforward? Do you still want to recruit new people to Shian?

They handed back their protective clothing before they headed downstairs. Yin Ren whispered to Zhong Chengshuo, “Do you think Minister Fu’s knife is a controlled knife?”

He missed his dagger. Back then, he said he had picked it up because he was in a desperate situation. Now, it couldn’t be regarded as a spiritual weapon and was handed over to Shian to be labeled as a first-class national cultural relic.

He felt very wronged.

However, as soon as he finished muttering, Fu Xingchuan shouted from room 1413, “My knife has no blade, so it won’t cut anything living!”

Yin Ren instantly responded back, “Wow, our Minister Fu also has good hearing. Is this a top-notch master?”

Zhong Chengshuo: “…”

Zhong Chengshuo made a serious face. “You may have been a social worker before if you could recall this kind of stuff.”

……

The isolation zone of Fanghua Apartments wasn’t withdrawn, which only made the number of passersby watching the excitement grow. The old men and women who had acquired a rare pastime set up their table downstairs and drank tea while they played mahjong.

As he passed through the crowd, Zheng Chengshuo’s eyes swept around. Yin Ren didn’t know what he saw, but he suddenly stopped for a moment.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” Zhong Chengshuo retracted his gaze and shook his head.

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The ramen store had few customers since it wasn’t lunchtime yet.

It was a chain store, and the inside was clean. The interior decoration of the store had unique characteristics. The back kitchen and the restaurant were separated by a layer of glass, and the customer could see the cook slapping the noodles on the white table. The kitchen was steaming with the fragrant aroma of beef sauce that was stewing in the pot.

Zhong Chengshuo ordered a bowl of noodles accompanied by beef sauce and vegetables. Yin Ren asked for the “Big Mac” sea bowl, added sweet rice wine, and ordered 30 lamb skewers—this was a rare opportunity, so he didn’t want to eat vegetables.

When the ramen hit the bowl, it was filled with steaming bone broth. Thin slices of radish were decorated with chives, then topped with sliced beef that was neither thick nor thin and was half covered with orange and red chili oil. On the whole, it was full of color, fragrance, and flavor.

Without Liang Shan’s heated atmosphere, Zhong Chengshuo didn’t say a word and just quietly ate. He ate carefully without missing a single item. Even the chives in the soup were eaten clean. Yin Ren was busy with his meal, so the two of them didn’t talk for a while.

However, even though Liang Shan wasn’t there, his spirit still was. As soon as the two of them were halfway through eating, their phones vibrated at the same time.

Taking a closer look, the name of their group chat was changed by Liang Shan to “Shian—Farmer Orchard”.

[The River Flows Eastward: @Final Fruit @Fruit Knife Did you two go to Fanghua in the morning?]

[Final Fruit: ?]

[The River Flows Eastward: Minister Fu recruited several Black Seal bosses to Fanghua! Isn’t this still looking for evil spirits? Things are definitely not simple. Do you know what’s going on?]

Yin Ren raised his brows, daring to believe that this senior had interrupted their lunch break for gossip.

[Fruit Knife: There seems to be some corruption in Gao Mengyu’s apartment   ]

[Fruit Knife: Minster Fu also said he felt a shark.]

[Fruit Knife: Killing intent.]

After a few days of pondering, Yin Ren had initially grasped the usage of pinyin, but he was still a little jerky*.

*Clarity: The common way to type text in China on cellphones is in pinyin. This is why Yin Ren mistypes killing intent [shayi] as shark [shayu] since he’s not familiar with it.

[The River Flows Eastward: Impossible. Absolutely impossible!!!]

[The River Flows Eastward: The investigation of the gap is very intensive. If there are evil things, it would’ve been discovered long ago. Besides, our people have entered the gap. Why would evil things still be there?]

[Final Fruit: Guarding of course?]

[The River Flows Eastward: ……]

[The River Flows Eastward: Anyway, don’t meddle in this matter. Maybe it’s a new kind of evil being. You can’t handle it.]

[Fruit Knife: ]

[Final Fruit: ]

Liang Shan stopped responding. Yin Ren hurriedly continued to eat to eat his ramen—after chatting for a while, the noodles became a bit too soggy.

“Under what circumstances do you think people will take inventory of their food?” Zhong Chengshuo suddenly asked.

Liang Shan had dragged his thoughts back to the case, so Zhong Chengshuo began to think about Gao Mengyu’s behavioral logic again.

“Either when they pack it up or to pick out the bad stuff and throw them away. Or, if grain… food is insufficient, they estimate consumption.” This kind of thing had been around since ancient times, so Yin Ren could answer it smoothly.

Zhong Chengshuo paused his hand holding the chopsticks.

“Gao Mengyu was flustered at the time. The meat had been frozen for a month, so it wouldn’t be bad. It shouldn’t be that she suddenly wanted to clean house. There’s a market near Fanghua Apartments and there’s always takeout or express delivery, so it’s reasonable to say lack of food isn’t an issue, unless she decides to stay behind closed doors.”

“According to what you said, the anomaly is in her room. If she was to avoid ‘evil things’, normally she would try to escape from the apartment, right?”

“You seem to misunderstand. Not all evil things want to harm people.” Yin Ren stared at Zhong Chengshuo’s face, which was beginning to turn pale, like his heart was slowly being drained of blood. “Maybe people’s ‘anomalies’ aren’t involved in this matter. Didn’t Miss Fang say before there’s also a possibility of ‘the living picking a fight’?”

Zhong Chengshuo stood up suddenly. He knocked against the bowl, causing the soup inside to almost splash out.

Yin Ren quickly reacted, and he protected the bowl from spilling. “Speak clearly if you have something to say! Speak clearly if you have something to say!”

“Come with me to the police station in the afternoon.”

“Why? I’m not carrying a controlled knife.” Yin Ren became vigilant.

“I’m not trying to turn you in. I have a suspicion, but a lack of evidence. At least the knowledge on Shian’s side isn’t enough.”

“Okay, okay. Let’s eat first.”

Zhong Chengshuo paused. A few seconds later, he sat down, muttering “for shame on being wasteful”, and stuffed noodles into his mouth as if he had no desire to eat.

Five minutes passed.

“What do you suspect? Why are you so excited?”

Yin Ren finished eating his food in a flustered manner, and his mouth was finally empty. Opposite him, Zhong Chengshuo drank the last of his soup in one gulp and let out a long sigh.

“You’re right. Gao Mengyu has an average resume and isn’t special like you. This incident may be able to eliminate the ‘abnormal phenomenon’—Gao Mengyu saw something outside the window, so much so that she firmly believes it would be dangerous to go outside.”

Zhong Chengshuo’s eyes were focused. Locked on by those dark eyes, it made Yin Ren feel a little uncomfortable.

Yin Ren recalled for a bit. “But I have seen the information. In the past week, there hasn’t been any abnormal situation nearby—not even a neighborhood conflict.”

“The ‘dangerous situation’ encountered by Gao Mengyu may seem to others to be a trivial matter, and such a situation may not have happened for the first time. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have reacted so severely.”

Zhong Chengshuo stressed his words.

“…A person who’s afraid will definitely vent their fear in certain ways. She may have left behind some kind of clue. Relevant personnel should have been investigated by the police, and there should be a comprehensive record at the station.”

As Yin Ren thought about it, his fingers wound around the end of his hair unintentionally. Zhong Chengshuo rarely talked at such length. He took a sip of tea and looked at Yin Ren seemingly short of breath.

“Good idea, though it seems a bit simple.” Lord Ghost King smiled lightly. “It’s rare for us to have a favor in our hands, so it’s too wasteful not to use it.”

He shook his phone and immediately dialed Lin Bei’s number.

“Hello, Bei Jie*? It’s me, Xiao Yin from Shian.”

*Sister (姐). Similar to ge but used to refer to an older woman as a sign of respect/closeness.

“Chengshuo and I need your help with something. Yes, can we meet? At two in the afternoon. Is it convenient for you to come to the Municipal Public Security Bureau?”

The author has something to say:

Damn it, Xiao Yin and I are different. I really need leafy veggies.Yesterday, I counted the inventory of my freezer while dividing the (hard-to-get) meat. What is an immersive experience_(;””∠)_

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