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墨書 Inktalez
Chapter 48: Fateful Path (Part Seven)
The Dark Power encountered the Six-Character Mantra, retreating at a whirlwind speed, and in an instant, everything around me fell silent. The door vanished into the darkness, and I suddenly woke up, opening my eyes to find everything still shrouded in black. My arms felt numb and sore. My lips were dry, and my throat burned painfully.
I thought to myself that I must have caught a cold.
Perhaps it was from dozing off on the way back or maybe it was that strange dream where the rain fell incessantly, accompanied by red rain.
Tossing and turning, my forehead burned with fever. In a desperate attempt, I grabbed the Calmness Mantra and placed my hand flat beside me. Then I drifted off again, realizing that reality and dreams are always two very different realms.
For the first time, I resisted entering a dream; I felt a strong aversion to it. The result of this aversion was unexpected—my mind went blank, and when I opened my eyes again, sleep eluded me.
There was still no basic narrative regarding Zhang Xian.
Unable to sleep and unwilling to return to dreaming, I decided to sit up and recite scriptures while practicing hand seals. This would help strengthen my abilities and prepare me mentally for the next event.
I sat cross-legged, reciting scriptures and forming hand seals until dawn. When I finally stood up, I felt groggy and still unsatisfied.
It seemed that sleep was essential for everyone, including me. I chuckled bitterly as I glanced at the time—it was still over two hours until eight o'clock. I murmured softly, "Lao Qin, just give me two hours," then lay back on the bed in a sprawled position, ready to catch up on sleep.
Just as my body barely touched the bed, Lao Qin's call came in rapid succession. He shouted on the phone, "Ma Qi, I'm going to prepare a summary report; you need to go to Fortune Coffee to meet someone."
"Who am I meeting?"
"Zhang Xian."
"Alright!" Sleep was now out of the question. Rubbing my eyes and pinching my nose bridge, I sat up and looked at my pants covered in mud and my dirty shoes, preparing to change them. As I changed clothes in front of the mirror, a sudden thought struck me—I had completely forgotten about Han Lan from Donglai Inn.
I couldn't bother with breakfast; instead, I hurriedly made my way to Donglai Inn. When I reached the entrance, the owner greeted me with a smile: "Hey, Master Ma! Good morning!"
"Good morning, did the girl I sent over last night wake up yet, Boss?"
"Is she the beauty named Han Lan?"
"Yeah, she should still be here!" I kept checking the time; logically, she wouldn't leave so early. After all, she hadn't even thanked me for saving her life yet, so how could she possibly leave?
"She left early; apparently, she had to go to her morning shift."
"Damn Girl... if she's going, then let her go!" Still, her words kept echoing in my mind about how Mi's death wasn't an accident. It seemed unrealistic to seek her out now since I was supposed to meet Zhang Xian. I had to dig deeper into that unfinished sentence from Girl.
Determined, I left Donglai Inn and headed to a cleaner breakfast shop.
Red bean buns and porridge were my usual breakfast. Although Boss always recommended his fresh meat buns and how delicious they were after going through meticulous preparation, those buns really didn't appeal to me.
I've seen too many dead bodies; well, not really—who would dare sell dead buns? Unless they wanted to endanger their lives. There wouldn't be any dead bodies in the buns; it was just that some unsanitary pork, like lymphatic disease-affected meat from pigs, was indeed a concern.
There was a time when I went with my grandfather to the market early to meet someone. Early in the morning at the market, people were arguing, and there was lymphatic meat scattered all over the ground—rotten and foul-smelling. One of the arguers was the bun shop Boss, and the other sold pig offal. The situation was probably like this: they were fighting over profits, slandering each other, mocking one another. Since then, I never touched meat buns again.
The red bean buns and porridge slid down my throat, and even my burp tasted of red beans.
The early bird catches the worm. Looking at the bustling crowd around me, everyone seemed in a hurry—some were delivering vegetables to the market while others rushed to buy groceries. Most had sacrificed their sweet morning sleep for money.
Someone fortunate might be at ‘Brother Fortune Coffee.’ Is it appropriate to go there this early? Not really; I decided to wander elsewhere. My eyelids felt heavy and sore from lack of sleep; I needed a pair of sunglasses to cover my slightly puffy eyes and avoid any unnecessary awkwardness.
I entered an eyewear store where Boss greeted me with a smile, pulling out a mirror and asking which frame I wanted while checking my eye condition.
“Boss, I want a pair of brown sunglasses.”
“Oh, you’re buying sunglasses; I thought you came for prescription glasses.”
I didn't say anything else as I walked out, glancing at the other shops in the eyewear store with no interest. I paid for my sunglasses and left. It was still early! Why didn't I sleep a bit longer at home? I felt frustrated and couldn't help but blame Qin Jian for calling me so early in the morning.
But as I came to my senses, I realized I couldn't really blame Qin Jian; if anyone was to be blamed, it should be that damn girl, Han Lan.
While I was aimlessly wandering around, my phone rang unexpectedly. It was Fatty calling.
"Brother Qi, I've been really busy lately. Can you come back and lend a hand?"
"Forget it, I'm busy too."
Just as I was on the phone with Fatty, Qin Jian called. I hung up on Fatty and answered his call. He asked urgently through the receiver, "Lao Qi, where are you?"
"Outside." Another burp escaped me; I felt so uncomfortable. My nose was itchy, and I wanted to sneeze—let's not forget that I had a cold. Walking felt a bit unsteady, and after a night of tossing and turning, I truly felt awful. Wearing sunglasses didn’t help; my mind was foggy, and Qin Jian's voice sounded like it was coming from outer space.
On the phone, Qin Jian told me about a bizarre death incident on West Street: a hair washer had jumped from her apartment and died with her head smashed open.
These days, people just don’t know what they’re thinking when they decide to commit suicide.
If only they could take a trip to the Underworld, maybe they'd think twice before doing something so drastic. I cursed these people in my mind for causing trouble and hurried to meet up with Qin Jian. Soon, I arrived at the crime scene; the police tape was still up, and Qin Jian was there too. The body had already been taken away, leaving behind a chalk outline on the ground.
"Lao Qi, come here; I've got something for you."
I recognized most of the officers at the scene. Although some hadn’t greeted me upon arrival, we exchanged nods of acknowledgment before I reached Qin Jian.
He placed a hand on my left shoulder as if treating me like a child and said, "Aren't you supposed to have some sort of intuition? Shouldn't we go to the morgue to check out the deceased and see what happened before she chose to end her life?"
"Her job is washing hair; it can't be anything good. Either she was harassed by some scummy customer and couldn’t take it anymore or her boss took advantage of her and she just wanted to escape..."
As soon as those words slipped out of my mouth, hoping for a scolding, Qin Jian shot me a fierce glare and snapped, "You better not talk nonsense! We have enough information already. This case is too strange; if you don’t understand it, just keep quiet. I'm in charge here—let's head to the morgue right now."
"You are the one in charge, so why are you asking for my opinion?" I muttered irritably, swaying a bit, which startled Qin Jian.
"Hey, are you okay?"
"Do I look like someone who's okay..." Then everything went dark before my eyes, my legs gave way, and all I heard was Qin Jian shouting. There were sounds of someone running and the crunch of my sunglasses hitting the ground before everything faded away.
This time, I was truly in trouble.
A severe cold, combined with extreme fatigue—my body isn't a machine. After passing through Ten Li Slope and the Zhang Wang incident, along with a series of nightmares, I couldn't hold on any longer.
Even so, I didn't stop. When Qin Jian went to the funeral home, it felt like I really went there too, but I was alone. The cold, empty corridors were filled with chilling drafts that pierced my neck. I walked forward uncontrollably, faintly hearing what sounded like a woman's cries coming from somewhere.
Soon enough, I realized that the cries were coming from the Mortuary.
But there were only dead people in the Mortuary; how could anyone be crying? Did the dead come back to life and feel wronged enough to weep?
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