Chapter 58

It had already been half a month by the time Zhu Ming found out Wenren Tu had been transferred to the Internal Affairs Department.

The northern chill set in early, especially once the wind started blowing—it froze people to the bone, making them shiver uncontrollably.

Zhu Ming tried to coax Wenren Tu out for a chat over some hotpot, which would be wonderfully warm and comforting. However, Wenren Tu refused with a series of wails; the entire department was working overtime. Even though she had changed positions, she still couldn’t escape the 996 grind.

“So, how’s it been going lately?”

“Same old. It’s pretty safe here, honestly. I’m tired anyway, so a break is nice,” Wenren Tu grumbled. “The pay just isn’t as high as before. But it’s fine, I’m almost out of probation. Once I have some vacation time, I’ll come find you.”

After talking about herself, Wenren Tu asked Zhu Ming, “And what about you?”

Zhu Ming turned her head to glance at Tang Qiaoqi, who was currently cleaning, and said, “Same old. Business is slow, which is nice and quiet.”

Aside from occasionally forcing Tang Qiaoqi to take on jobs, Zhu Ming’s daily life was quite fulfilling.

“Oh, right, Zhu Ming. Since I’m in the Internal Affairs Department now, it’s pretty convenient. I looked into Bai Lianxue—and I actually found something!”

“Really?”

“Thank goodness her name was directly exposed during the last dungeon run,” Wenren Tu cautioned. “This woman is a dangerous figure among the Underground Awakened. Her ability is indeed Mind Control. She’s a Half-Demon, and has deep ties with a very famous Grand Witch in the Underground World.”

Many Awakened, for various reasons, are unwilling to obey the authorities. Most of them are incredibly dangerous, flouting laws and discipline, using their supernatural abilities for illicit gain. Such Awakened are known as Underground Awakened, and their world is the Underground World. They hide in the shadows and are a constant headache for the Management Bureau.

Although the Bureau has partial records, the lack of cooperation from the Underground Awakened means the files are incomplete. To avoid unnecessary conflict that might impact the lives of ordinary citizens, the Bureau usually turns a blind eye as long as this group doesn’t go too far.

But the Grand Witch was definitely an exception.

Wenren Bai officially joined the Bureau ten years ago. The very first case she handled involved the Grand Witch—a shockingly brutal familicide where one of the victims was also an Awakened.

From that point on, the two were at loggerheads. As the Grand Witch’s notoriety rose in the Underground World, Wenren Bai foiled her operations several times, gravely wounding her and nearly killing her. Yet the Grand Witch still managed to escape.

After that, the Grand Witch kept a very low profile for a long time, secretly cultivating a network of people willing to live and die for her cause. To this day, she remains the number one most wanted on the Anomaly Management Bureau’s list.

But she is as cunning as a fox, and incredibly difficult to catch.

And Bai Lianxue is her right-hand assistant. It’s said this girl is young, yet extremely mysterious—even more so than the Grand Witch herself. Hardly anyone in the Underground World knows what she looks like, let alone the Bureau.

Taking advantage of her easy access to information, Wenren Tu looked up quite a few people in one go, and unexpectedly fished out such a big lead.

“If you hadn’t told me, I might have let it go. But since you did, next time I meet her in a dungeon, should I just take her out?” Zhu Ming wasn’t afraid of her. She hadn’t personally experienced the power of Mind Control yet, but she believed no one was invincible.

Wenren Tu laughed at her. “With how random dungeon encounters are, who knows when you’ll run into her again? Just don’t go daydreaming about bounty money all the time.”

Zhu Ming chuckled twice, then asked, “If you could find Bai Lianxue, what about the others? Still no records on Yin Yu? And that Sister Qingjia—can you find anything by just searching her name?”

Wenren Tu said, “Let me try… damn, I actually found our Sister Jia!”

Zhu Ming was intensely curious. “Do tell.”

Wenren Tu looked at the data on her computer screen, licked her chapped lips, and said, “Interesting. Guess what her last name is?”

“What?”

“Yin. Her full name is Yin Qingjia!” Wenren Tu said. “But this file is really old, records from twenty years ago. I’ll read it to you: Yin Qingjia, born in 1977, from Peiyang. Both parents deceased, no other relatives. Abilities: Water-type, Poison Transformation. In 1993, used an evil formation in Peiyang to kill nine cows, then dropped out of school, vanished, and went underground. In 1994, appeared in the East Sea, attempting to obstruct the Devil Extermination Operation. In 1995, appeared in Fangshan, suspected connection to the East Mountain Village puppet case. In 1996, surfaced in the Flower Capital, objective unknown… no records after that. Looks like she kept a low profile for many years.”

Zhu Ming listened quietly, then raised her own question. “Her surname matches Yin Yu’s. Could they be mother and daughter? No, not only do they not look alike, their dynamic isn’t right either.”

What a headache.

Wenren Tu said, “Anyway, their relationship isn’t simple. Didn’t Yin Yu agree to come find you in the real world? When is she actually coming?”

If she’d just give a heads-up, Wenren Tu could bring people to surround her!

“She said she needs a couple of months. No more talking, I have to go to class.”

The mention of Yin Yu immediately soured Zhu Ming’s mood. It wasn’t just because she was dragging her feet, but also… Zhu Ming had a slightly embarrassing personal issue.

Lately, whenever Zhu Ming was alone in her room, she almost always caught the faint scent of pear blossoms that clung to Yin Yu. Her auditory hallucinations were still severe, so occasionally she even heard Yin Yu call her name.

And as the saying goes, what you think of during the day, you dream of at night. As it happened more often, Yin Yu actually started visiting her in her dreams!

She dreamed of how they used to interact, of Yin Yu gazing at her tenderly with that infuriatingly annoying smile, and even dreamed of Yin Yu holding her with honeyed tenderness…

Zhu Ming grew more and more terrified the more she dreamed. She pinched herself hard in horror, unable to understand why she would dream of her.

Impossible. She resolutely refused to admit she was thinking of Yin Yu.

Deeply frustrated, Zhu Ming took her anger out on her training. She hauled Tang Qiaoqi out of the studio and rode her little three-wheeler to class.

Tang Qiaoqi glared balefully at Zhu Ming’s retreating figure, then at the locked door of the studio, and couldn’t help pounding it with her fist.

This woman was too shrewd and cunning. Every time she went out, she would kick Tang Qiaoqi out, not giving her the slightest chance to search for records. And when Zhu Ming took a job, she would leave silently to handle it. By the time Tang Qiaoqi found out, Zhu Ming usually already had the money in hand.

After staking out the place for so long, Tang Qiaoqi had failed to find a single shred of useful evidence. It was utterly tragic.

…

Zhu Ming’s life was quite full. After archery class, she would return and train madly in her personal training room for two hours. When tired, she would study and read. She seemed idle, but was actually quite busy.

Busy until night, Zhu Ming washed off her sweat. Seeing the basket of dirty laundry she had accumulated, it was time to clean it.

But as she was tossing clothes into the washing machine, Zhu Ming discovered she had forgotten to throw away the clothes she’d taken from Sun Ningning.

Without thinking much, Zhu Ming grabbed them to toss in the trash. But wait… was she smelling that familiar scent again? Was it her imagination?

No, it wasn’t her imagination.

With a twitching cheek, Zhu Ming brought the garment’s buttons closer to her nose, confirming that amidst the odor of sweat, there was indeed a faint scent of pear blossoms.

In disbelief, she pried off the pinhole camera stuck behind the button. She was about to explode. When on earth did Yin Yu put this thing there?!

“Yin Yu.” Zhu Ming gritted her teeth, speaking into the camera, “Are you having fun? Do you like my clothes?!”

The camera couldn’t emit sound, so naturally, it didn’t answer.

Sticking this thing on was completely useless. Yin Yu had to know Zhu Ming would throw the clothes away. This was provocation, blatant provocation!

Of course, besides her anger, deep down, Zhu Ming also secretly breathed a sigh of relief. She knew she couldn’t possibly be thinking about Yin Yu; it was all her doing, a trick.

Just as Zhu Ming was about to crush the camera, a spark of inspiration flashed through her mind, giving her a great idea.

Immediately, her expression turned genial. “Yin Yu, you couldn’t possibly miss me, could you? Don’t worry, I’m so generous. Of course, I’ll fulfill your little wish. I’ll make sure you see me every single day.”

So she trotted down to the training room below her apartment and stuck the camera right in the bullseye of the archery target.

Smirking savagely, Zhu Ming nocked an arrow and drew her bow. “With your company, I won’t even feel tired!” It worked out well—she wasn’t that into archery anyway. Having Yin Yu ‘motivate’ her would be good.

Swish—the arrow hit the five-point ring. Too bad, she hadn’t managed to shoot that wretch dead.

But no matter. Zhu Ming believed that with persistence, she would eventually hit Yin Yu’s little face.

…

In this world, besides Zhu Ming, many others also wanted to see Yin Yu soon, such as the infamous Grand Witch of the Underground World.

“Are you sure she’ll come?”

In a lavishly opulent room, a woman sat in a chair, idly stroking a white fox.

Behind her, Bai Lianxue said softly, “Yes, she didn’t seem to be lying.”

“Didn’t seem?” The woman’s voice rose sharply. “This world is full of women who deceive. How can you guarantee she won’t!”

Bai Lianxue was silent.

The woman turned around impatiently. With that turn, her thick, wavy hair, like seaweed, fanned out. The entire room seemed to become even more resplendent and dazzling with her direct appearance.

She had a naturally stunning, glamorous face. Her features were lush and bewitchingly alluring, her lips crimson like blood. Simply sitting there languidly, she exuded ultimate sensuality and seductive charm.

She was a beautiful, deadly poppy, her very blood coursing with venom. Her beauty was sharp and imposing, inevitably demanding nourishment from human lives and adornment from fresh blood.

She was the Grand Witch, Wu Wang—infamous in the Underground World—and Bai Lianxue’s older half-sister, sharing the same mother but a different father.

At this moment, Wu Wang slightly lowered her eyes and said haughtily, “Since Yin Yu refuses to obey, contact Yin Qingjia. Tell her I have something she wants.”

Bai Lianxue asked, “Shouldn’t we wait a bit longer?”

The corner of Wu Wang’s lips curled. “No one makes me wait. Not even Yin Yu. My dear sister, I have you to thank for this. Without you telling me Yin Yu has an unusual concern for Zhu Ming, I wouldn’t have been able to connect all the dots.”

“Twenty-five years ago, the Devil Extermination Operation caused the Zhu Family, the number one family in the Spirit Realm, to decline to second place. It was said that the stunningly talented prodigy Zhu Fengyu should have perished then, because she used the Vermilion Bird blood, the Zhu Family’s legendary secret treasure, and the Sparrow-Slaying Bow. But she lived on until winter. It wasn’t until many years later, when Zhu Ming appeared, that I understood how Zhu Fengyu survived. It’s because the Vermilion Bird blood entered Zhu Ming’s body.”

“No matter how powerful Yin Yu is, she’s still a lone, wandering ghost. The Vermilion Bird blood is supremely Yang and fiercely potent—it’s her natural counter. Isn’t Yin Qingjia afraid of her? Tell her not to be. I now know how to counter Yin Yu. With this condition on the table, she should obediently fall in line for me.”

As for Yin Yu… Wu Wang was experienced and well-connected. She knew many secrets others didn’t.

From the intelligence gathered, she could gauge Yin Yu’s power. She had wanted to subdue her, but thinking it over, Yin Yu posed too much uncertainty and needed leverage to control her.

Yin Qingjia and Zhu Ming were the perfect choices. And by knowing about Yin Yu’s existence, Wu Wang could in turn manipulate Yin Qingjia.

Bai Lianxue nodded in acknowledgment, sighing softly. “Indeed, who could have imagined Zhu Ming harbors such a secret? And her good friend Wenren Tu… I really look forward to their expressions when they learn the truth.”