Chapter 43: 43

Chapter 43: The Answer

It had been a long time since Ge Tingting had slept so well.

When she was still in the village, the blanket at home exuded an old, damp smell, and the bed was always cold. No matter how it was washed and dried, her and her grandmother’s blanket was always cold and smelled like some kind of animal’s nest.

The dark internet cafés in the city had a mixed smell of instant noodles, foot odor, and smoke, and there was the sound of keyboard clacking all around. To make do with the enclosed area, with no bed or blanket, she could only keep warm by curling up.

When was the last time she had slept so well?

The faded memories that surfaced in her mind gradually became clear.

It seemed like ten years ago, under the cliff. Her parents’ bodies became cold and stiff, and she didn’t respond to any cries.

She was mute, her limbs were limp, and her head ached so badly it was as if it was split open.

[Honey, don’t be afraid.] She suddenly heard her mother say.

[It’s okay. Mom and dad are here.] She suddenly heard her father say.

They didn’t open their mouths, but they were talking. Even if the voice was a little faded and could only repeat a few words with difficulty, she could still hear them. In the drizzle-like murmurings, the young Ge Tingting curled up in her parents’ arms and quietly closed her eyes.

After that, she suddenly understood what “corpses” were.

She knew how to manipulate them, and even knew how to communicate with the newly dead “corpses”.

Soon after a person died, something like an echo would be left behind. The echoes would gradually dissipate, but they would always stay in the world for some time.

Was it an obsession? Was it an attachment? Or the last thoughts of the deceased during their lifetime? She didn’t know.

But now she understood why she chased after Feng Qi that night—there seemed to be two faint echoes on the child’s body.

Just like herself during that time.

Ge Tingting rolled over in bed and opened her eyes.

The phantom of a different world disappeared, replaced by the modern furnishings she was familiar with. There was a delicate music box at the head of the bed and bright red apples in a fruit basket.

She propped up her body and reached to pull out the infusion needle on the back of her hand.

[Don’t move around casually. Be careful. You might injure yourself. If you need anything, please write it here by hand.]

A tablet stretched out in front of her, with conspicuous characters on the screen. Ge Tingting turned her head and saw a female nurse smiling at her.

The nurse seemed to know her condition well and there was a strange black mark on her badge.

[Feng Qi?] Ge Tingting wrote with difficulty.

The crooked handwriting disappeared from the screen and became regular print.

[Feng Qi is fine. He has woken up. I was just about to talk to you about it.]

The nurse cleared the screen and quickly responded back.

[You were under a hallucinogenic effect that made you see a “different world”. Do you understand what I’m saying?]

Ge Tingting was stunned for a few seconds. She gradually shrank her body. [The monster we attacked?]

Before she was affected, she had seen Wu Tao’s death and had some conjectures in her heart.

[It’s a human, but he’s a criminal on the run from the cops. Someone will talk to you about it. Don’t be afraid. You two are in a special circumstance, so the police will judge impartially.]

Ge Tingting nodded slowly, still looking nervous.

The nurse smiled encouragingly at her.

[We have communicated with Feng Qi. He still believes that you have just returned from a different world. He’s still too young. Please don’t tell him the truth for the time being. We will have someone responsible for this matter.]

[I see. I won’t say anything.] Ge Tingting slowly wrote back.

[I’m older than him and know more than him. If there’s punishment, I hold the greater responsibility.]

The young nurse stepped forward and gave the girl a small hug.

[Don’t worry. I have experienced something similar to you.] She wrote. [Believe me, you will all have a home.]

Ge Tingting looked at the beautiful music box at the head of the bed. She closed her eyes and nodded gently.

After the infusion, accompanied by the nurse, she met Feng Qi.

The nurse had moved Feng Qi’s infusion needle to the back of his foot, vacating the boy’s hands so he could play with the dragon doll in his arms. The pus and blood on his face were wiped clean. Although his cheeks were still haggard, at least there was some color in them.

Seeing Ge Tingting, Feng Qi opened his eyes wide and shouted happily. Ge Tingting was sad to find she could no longer understand the boy’s words.

[I can’t understand.] She approached sadly and touched the boy’s head. [I don’t understand… but I really like the days when I could talk to you before. Thank you.]

The boy was taken aback. He tilted his head and asked the nurse for a tablet.

[It’s okay. Sui Jie told me. I can understand! This is my superpower!] Feng Qi wrote happily.

After writing this sentence, he hesitated for a few seconds, then seriously added another sentence.

[Now that we’re all home, will you still be my sister?]

Ge Tingting bit her lip. She followed the actions of the nurse just now and gently gave the boy a hug.

‘How wonderful,’ she thought.

[Of course.] She replied.

……

Shian Building, Emergency Management Department.

It was rare for Fu Xingchuan to change into a bright red shirt. At this moment, he was pouring instant coffee powder into a cup while yawning. A pair of dark circles around his eyes made him look as if he were a panda.

Li Nian: “You’re still alive.”

Professor Li stared at the red shirt his partner was wearing for a while. “…Or do you plan to die suddenly today while wearing the reddest clothes and becoming the fiercest ghost?’

“Don’t scold your big brother. I’ll definitely go to bed early today.” Fu Xingchuan shrank his neck. “After all, Sunken Society had caused a lot of trouble! Don’t you know that there were more than 100 ghosts that were thrown onto that battlefield all at once… The scene was so chaotic that I’m completely exhausted.”

Professor Li laughed and threw a stack of reports in front of Fu Xingchuan.

“It’s not like we’re idle in Haigu either. The kid named Feng Qi has woken up. Here’s the full investigation report.”

“Oh, oh.” Fu Xingchuan quickly sat down. He scanned through the report as he sipped on the freshly brewed coffee and let out an “Ow” as he was scalded by it.

Li Nian didn’t lift his head when he heard it, as if he were accustomed to it.

“Haa, this Feng Qi—”

“Right, Feng Qi’s ability is strange,” Professor Li said. “In previous cases, there are records of Sunken Society releasing ‘strong evil qi as the corruption source’ on ordinary people, but this time it’s different.”

“This kid’s case looks like an extreme enhancement of ‘observation’. It’s not without precedent, but…”

But something isn’t quite right.

Ordinary people who had been exposed to things they shouldn’t have were forced to get involved in the metaphysical world; such cases weren’t uncommon. Fu Xingchuan had handled them hundreds of times.

Even if they came into contact with a heavily corrupted object, these ordinary people could at most open a ghost eye and gain some “relatively reasonable” abilities.

Take Feng Qi, for example. As long as the conditions were met, any non-metaphysicians could cut people into diced meat.

With superhuman powers of observation to analyze the environment, track targets through fragmented intelligence, and even understand “crazy ravings”, it was all still a manifestation of the “extreme enhancement of observation power”. In the words of Professor Li, the human brain has infinite potential, and such people could be regarded as a super-doubled version of Sherlock Holmes.

Fu Xingchuan’s gaze stopped on the words “sin value”.

His intuition shouted frantically. This ability to “judge the value of sin” wasn’t strong, but it revealed a strange flavor.

The ability was unprecedented.

It wasn’t easy for victims to become evil beings, let alone to “count at a glance”. Over the years, in order to help solve cases, Shian had specialized in topics similar to “identifying murderers”, but so far, there had been no results.

Even with the Evil Spirit under their feet and the most advanced scientific theories in their hands, Shian still had no breakthrough—

Facts had proven that no matter how powerful an observation power was, it was still impossible to obtain information that “didn’t exist in the world”.

What was originally impossible was now easily accomplished by a child.

What was the source of Feng Qi’s information?

Minister Fu scratched his head. “If those people were seen for ‘having killed someone’ or ‘having murderous intent towards people’, it would still be considered an enhanced observation power… This ‘sin value’ is a bit outrageous.”

“Indeed. If you can be accurate about the number of people killed, the nature has changed,” Professor Li replied casually. “The kid said, ‘I don’t know why. I just do.’ Most likely due to self-protection, the brain directly presented him with the results.”

The two were silent for a while.

“Create a file and let Unit 7 continue to follow up.”

Fu Xingchuan lowered his voice. “Regarding Sunken Society ‘corrupting people with evil qi’, there’s been a new breakthrough.”

“Since we’re talking about Sunken Society, there’s one more thing that’s very strange.”

As if he were feeding a large animal, Professor Li threw another stack of reports.

Fu Xingchuan took it naturally, as if it were a conditioned reflex.

“…Fuck, what happened to Units 6 and 7?” Fu Xingchuan flipped through the pages. “Unit 7’s luck is like they’re cursed, so I won’t talk about them, but isn’t Unit 6 quite reliable? Why is the report so bad?”

“According to Li Xiaozhen and Li Xiaoli, there was some trouble, and Kong Wanqing was able to exploit it.”

“I know this, but I still don’t get that old bastard Kong. The issue is that they both fainted, but they were able to keep ‘Good Boy’. The degree of injury should be more serious—based on the photos of the scene, it looked as if the place was demolished.”

Fu Xingchuan shook his head and dropped his brows.

“That kid Feng Qi said there was a ‘Sunken Wiseman’ who had frequent contact with ‘Ibby’, giving them clues to the ‘black market merchant’. Now it seems that that bullshit wiseman is most likely Kong Wanqing.”

“But that night, instead of tracking the two children, he ran to squat at Master Liu’s side. Even if it’s Sunken Society, their brain circuits shouldn’t be this screwed up—did Sunken Society really only send one person?”

Professor Li turned the cap of the thermos in his hand and took a long breath as he looked at the blue sky outside the window.

“According to Ge Tingting, she was attacked near the woods in the community. Li Xiaozhen and Li Xiaoli quickly followed the scene. They didn’t find the attacker—blood residues, traces of weapons, nothing. But, having said that, Ge Tingting had abnormal cognition at that time, so her testimony might not be reliable.”

“That’s not right. Sunken Society wouldn’t be so kind.” Fu Xingchuan clicked his tongue. “If you ask me, there must be someone who’s responsible for disposing of the children and recycling the corruption source.”

“Indeed.” Professor Li took a leisurely sip of his tea.

Fu Xingchuan looked at him. “What about Yin Ren and Zhong Chengshuo?”

“They were all captured by nearby surveillance. Yin Ren returned to the community early, and Zhong Chengshuo didn’t come back until midnight. There was no problem with their GPS location, but suspicion on the two can’t be completely ruled out.”

“Clues?”

“There were traces of flying skills. According to Xiang Jiang’s identification, Yin Ren’s ghost can fly, and Yin Ren said that night he had been practicing it.”

“…” Fu Xingchuan was silent.

“We have no clear evidence of ‘interference by others’. It’s not impossible to say that there were internal changes in Sunken Society and that Unit 6 was that lucky.” Professor Li put down the teacup. “However, that’s just a hypothesis. If someone really intervened…”

“At least for now, it seems that the meddler isn’t hostile towards Shian.”

“Got it.” Fu Xingchuan pressed his temples. “I’ll pay more attention.”

……

A certain two people who didn’t know that they were being suspected.

This Monday was easy. Yin Ren and Zhong Chengshuo only needed to fill out the case report. Under Yin Ren’s strong urge, everyone went straight to the self-service barbecue restaurant after work.

The barbeque was hot as red, tender meat sizzled on the metal mesh. Grease dripped into the flames from time to time, making a sultry crackling sound. The square table was full of tempting meat, while the vegetarian dishes were placed in front of Zhong Chengshuo.

“Making amends to Liang Ge.” Yin Ren raised his glass of juice.

Across the table, Liang Shan grunted twice. He didn’t respond, but the smile and grease stains on his face betrayed him—this person had already lost his anger and was busy turning his indignation into appetite.

Even Lu Xiaohe came.

“I’ll eat a little less and go at 7,” she said apologetically. “I’ll pay equally for my share.”

Zhong Chengshuo: “Lu Jie, is there an urgent matter in the company?”

Lu Xiaohe paused her chopstick motion. “I’m going home to eat with my mother. Our family always has dinner together.”

…As far as her mother’s condition was concerned, this was one less meal with her mother, so she didn’t want to miss even a single one.

Yin Ren was startled. He quickly picked up a pair of chopsticks, grabbed the cold vegetables, and stuffed it into Zhong Chengshuo’s mouth.

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“?!” Zhong Chengshuo was about to ask why when he was blocked.

Although Yin Ren hadn’t used these chopsticks, the weird curse had started to attack Zhong Chengshuo again. Zhong Chengshuo’s eyes, nose, and ears began to have serious heat issues.

“I heard that the pudding here is very good. I’ll ask the waiter later to see if you can bring some for Auntie.” Yin Ren quickly changed the subject. “The internet says that this store is nice, so there shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Haha, thank you, Xiao Yin. I didn’t even think of that.” Lu Xiaohe scratched her head a little embarrassedly.

“Speaking of which, the reason I came is because I have something to tell you.”

“Nn.” Just in case, Yin Ren had picked up a piece of vegetable again and continued to block his partner’s mouth.

Zhong Chengshuo continued to eat in a uniform manner. Liang Shan glanced at the two of them in shock, but he politely remained silent.

Lu Xiaohe: “…Ge Tingting will be transferred to our group for field work training.”

Zhong Chengshuo choked. This time, he tried to look as if there were question marks written all over his face.

“So fast?” Yin Ren asked on his behalf. “We’re still newcomers. Isn’t this not good? Didn’t Units 6 and 7 from the Special Investigation Team participate? Is it because there are inconveniences for our seniors or…?”

“Maybe it’s because we’re relatively free and you’re also new recruits, so it’s better to train together. Units 6 and 7 are all B-level investigation groups. They don’t have that much time to take care of newcomers.”

Lu Xiaohe laughed.

“This is great. She’s a rogue corpse servant with great potential. No matter how many groups want her, they won’t be able to snag her.”

Yin Ren thought for a while about Qin Xiaoxiao and Qin Lele, who were the “orthodox corpse servants”, and was convinced.

It was probably better for Ge Tingting to communicate as well.

By Yin Ren’s side, Zhong Chengshuo wanted to speak but was stopped. He even tried to raise his hand. Lu Xiaohe raised her brows at him. “What’s wrong, Xiao Zhong? Is there something inconvenient on your side?”

Zhong Chengshuo finally swallowed the food in his mouth with difficulty and a bitter expression. “My home can’t accommodate so many people.”

Yin Ren, Lu Xiaohe: “……”

One of them looked at the sky while the other stared at the ground with the same exhausted expression on their faces.

Liang Shan wasn’t familiar with Comrade Xiao Zhong’s brain circuit. “…You two are grown men, and that’s an underage girl. Shian’s brain would have to be broken before they would arrange for her to live with you. Besides, she’s not an official Black Seal and doesn’t require attendance speed, which means she’ll probably live in the staff dorms.”

Zhong Chengshuo suddenly realized this point. “Oh.”

Immediately afterwards, he frowned again and murmured. “My home? Our home?”

“Anyway, that’s all.” Lu Xiaohe clapped her hands. “She still needs to recover, so she’ll probably join next Monday.”

Yin Ren took a long look at the barbeque in front of him and touched his chin. “Then—”

“Then should we buy her a welcome gift… or something?” It was rare that Zhong Chengshuo interrupted him in advance.

“Yes, Zhong Ge. It wasn’t a complete loss that you read <The Art of Communication>.” Yin Ren comforted and patted Zhong Chengshuo on the back vigorously.

Zhong Chengshuo felt more encouraged, and his spirit was slightly refreshed. “For example, maybe gift her a full set of anatomical tools.”

Yin Ren: “……”

“Or a music box.” Zhong Chengshuo attempted to change his line of thought to that of his partner after noticing the atmosphere was off.

“…Or maybe a music player…” Seeing that no one was speaking, his voice became smaller.

“That’s good!” Yin Ren rushed to the rescue. “She just can’t understand people talking, not that she can’t hear sounds. A music player is a great idea.”

Zhong Chengshuo breathed a sigh of relief. He didn’t know if it was the cause of the barbeque heat, but his ears were slightly red.

“But a music player may be a bit mature, so children may not like it much.” Lu Xiaohe rubbed her lips. “How about… noise-canceling headphones? Buy her a good brand. It’s also convenient for her to listen to songs. For things like a tablet, Shian will give them to her in advance.”

“That’s also a good idea.”

“Agreed.”

“Then leave the headphones for Xiao Zhong to choose. I feel like he knows this kind of stuff best. When you pay, everyone in the group will AA*.” Lu Xiaohe stood up. “Let’s go, Xiao Yin, and get the pudding.”

*Slang for going Dutch. In this case, it basically means everyone in the group will split the cost of the headphones.

……

The night was a relaxing one.

Unlike in the past, Zhong Chengshuo didn’t go for his night run even though he had less work. As soon as he got home, he sat upright at the desk in the living room and concentrated on looking up information.

Yin Ren glanced at the screen. It seemed Zhong Chengshuo was searching for information about different brands of headphones and, from time to time, would lower his head to take notes.

He was a little puzzled—Zhong Chengshuo had always been serious about his work, so Yin Ren wasn’t surprised by this. What was surprising was that this person didn’t actually lock himself in the bedroom to do this.

Something was amiss.

Sure enough, after checking for more than ten minutes, Comrade Xiao Zhong slowly turned his head. “Yin Ren, help me take a look at this. I don’t know if it’s suitable for girls.”

“Well, this might be a bit too heavy.”

“Yin Ren, take a look at this for me. Is the color okay?”

“This pink is too bright. There’s no need to choose according to popular taste. Ge Tingting likes to wear cold-colored t-shirts.”

“Yin Ren…”

“I think you should be a little more confident,” Lord Ghost King said tactfully.

“I haven’t given anyone a gift before.” There was a sense of tension in Zhong Chengshuo’s tone, as if a war was about to begin.

“You can feel it in your heart. I don’t think Ge Tingting will be picky about the details… I gave you a cellphone chain before, and I didn’t know what you liked. Don’t you like it? It’s like that.”

Zhong Chengshuo was stunned. It took him a few seconds to react. He looked at the hamster ornament on his phone that was the same as Yin Ren. After a while, he stretched out his hand and stroked the hamster carefully.

Zhong Chengshuo really didn’t hate it. Although he didn’t deliberately use it, he kept it with him every day.

Could it be that Yin Ren cast a curse on him through this thing?

Next, Yin Ren watched as Zhong Chengshuo stood up and hurried back to his bedroom with the laptop in his arms. The speed was as fast as lightning, as if a fire came out of nowhere and lit that person’s ass.

Lord Ghost King crawled back to the sofa lazily. The keychain on his phone flickered with his movement.

Yin Ren looked at it for a moment.

He tapped on the phone with only 1% battery. “Hey, since you have been reacting to the evil qi, can you absorb it?”

“Woof woof!!!” The power of the spirit weapon phone instantly surged. It was sluggish just now. Its blood-red power instantly turned into full green.

“You’re too loud—” Yin Ren hurriedly gestured.

He then switched to typing on the notepad. [If I can share a little power, would you like to cooperate with me? Vibrate if you’re willing.]

The phone vibrated, looking inexplicably excited. As if afraid that the strength wasn’t enough, it also gave a whispered “woof”.

[Very good.]

Yin Ren closed his eyes and carefully recalled the evil qi on the keychain—its state was extremely stable, which really brought him a lot of inspiration.

He divided a fraction of his Evil Spirit power and condensed it on his fingertips, then gently tapped the screen.

Good. He didn’t feel dizzy this time.

The moment it came into contact with the Evil Spirit qi, the phone screen became pitch black. It wasn’t matte black, but more like a sudden opening to the abyss.

After a while, the screen lit up again. The phone automatically awakened the voice assistant, and a dark red blood mass appeared at the bottom of the interface. It floated gently, appearing and disappearing.

The phone vibrated slightly.

[Hello, this is Siren. Please press and hold the control button for dialogue.] It showed silently, still playing the “fake ghost act”.

…This thing’s IQ had improved by leaps and bounds. It actually learned how to write. Not to mention, Yin Ren silently thought, the label “dead person*” was quite apt.

*Clarity: The phone’s name is Siren (in English). However, [siren] (死人) in Chinese refers to a dead person/the dead, which is the joke here.

Yin Ren quickly confirmed his question. [What are you?]

[I don’t know.]

[Where are you from?]

[I don’t know.]

[What do you want to do?]

The blood mass froze for a while.

[Go home.] It answered.

Yin Ren frowned. [Can you detect the qi of Evil Spirits?]

[If you’re referring to the human definition of ‘Evil Spirits’, yes.]

[How?]

[I don’t know.]

Yin Ren: “…” This dog thing didn’t seem to be useful. If it weren’t for his Evil Spirit qi that he divided could be slowly recovered, he would have suffered a blood loss.

Well, he had to change the direction of his questions.

[Aside from the definition of humans, do you know what I am?]

[Know.]

Yin Ren was startled.

[According to your definition, what am I?]

The blood mass was silent again for a long time.

After nearly ten seconds, it carefully wrote out: [Weak.]

The author has something to say:

This arc is over~ Thank you for your support, you genuine little cuties!!!

Did you say upgrade flow*? Upgrade flow (?

*Jargon for literary circle where the protagonist starts as an ordinary person and begins to step up to the winner’s road in life little by little through challenges, tribulations, and desires.

Xiao Zhong: It’s more difficult to choose headphones than beating up Sunken Society…

Xiao Yin: It’s harder to fill in the gaps in your partner’s EQ than cosplaying the Dragon of Destruction……

Kinky Thoughts:

Silly Zhong Chengshuo, thinking that all this is a curse.

Arc summary:

After being officially admitted to Shian, the two started living together as per Shian’s requirements. Before they even had time to settle in, a new case had emerged that involved a corpse splitter. They were assigned to work with the police to investigate why a corpse had been split into perfectly sized cubes.

They initially thought it was a cult ritual, but it turned out to be powers granted by a video game character. Their investigation revealed that the victim was an assaulter, who planned to attack a young girl, Ge Tingting, who was deaf and mute, and out of self-defense, she activated her latent corpse servant ability and choked him with insect corpses. She was saved by a young child who had the ability to see “sin value” on people and split their corpses into cubes when he defeated them.

Things became clearer when they found the victim’s accomplice, whose facial features were distorted as if he were 2D. The accomplice could only repeat a single line, which they later found out was from the game <The Legend of Resurrection>, after their new team member, the rear science post, Lu Xiaohe, discovered it while playing it with her mother.

Things were finally revealed: this entire case was a conspiracy planned by Sunken Society. They recruited the kid, Feng Qi, and gave him a corrupted item that emitted evil qi that slowly corrupted him. Feng Qi, thinking that he had transmigrated over to <The Legend of Resurrection>, wanted to complete the main quest in order to get his wish granted—to resurrect his dead parents. Not knowing that he was still in the real world and that his cognition had changed, Feng Qi “defeated” two criminals. His last requirement was to obtain a “dragon scale”, which was actually a cursed weapon called “Good Boy”, from the drug lord Master Liu.

Sunken Society had worked out a deal with Master Liu, granting him “Good Boy” so he could rise in the underground world. After 10 years, it was time for him to return the spirit weapon. Reluctant to do so since he was also cursed by it, Sunken Society recruited Feng Qi (unknowingly) as a distraction for Shian and the police.

Amidst the confrontation between Shian, the police, the children, and Master Liu, Sunken Society would sneak in and steal the “Good Boy” back. However, things didn’t go as planned. Yin Ren interfered with their clean up and saved Ge Tingting and Feng Qi, while Zhong Chengshuo dealt with Master Liu and Sunken Society.

It is then revealed that Zhong Chengshuo is actually a top mercenary from Nightwalkers, another large organization, and possesses an extremely powerful cursed spirit weapon called “Evil Fruit”.

All in all, the bad guys are defeated, and Ge Tingting will now join them.

Side Characters:

Ge Tingting is a child from a mountain village. Her parents died protecting her during a car accident, which triggered her latent corpse servant ability. This made her unable to understand and communicate through talking with people. She was targeted by an assaulter and inadvertently activated her corpse servant ability, killing the guy in self-defense. She encounters her savior, Feng Qi, and becomes corrupted by evil qi. She then helps the kid finish his “quest” so she can “return” to her original world.

She was saved by Yin Ren during the confrontation with Master Liu and is now recovering. She is going to join Yin Ren and Zhong Chengshuo’s team.

Feng Qi is a child who was celebrating his birthday. On the day of, his parents went out to pick up his cake and died in a car accident. Exploiting this, Sunken Society approached him and gave him a keychain from his mom that was corrupted with evil qi. This activated his latent powers and warped his cognition. He then thought he had transmigrated into the game <The Legend of Resurrection> that his family would always play and hoped to complete the main quest in order to revive his parents.

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