Chapter 8: 8 Chapter 07

◎The Bodhisattva Shows Her Power, Carrying Out Heaven’s Will◎

By the time they left the conference room, the sky was almost light.

Du Chang yawned as he headed towards the parking lot, glancing at Xu Jinyao from time to time. Seeing her eyes still bright and alert, not a trace of fatigue in them, he couldn’t help but inwardly marvel again: She really isn’t an ordinary person.

“Captain Xu, just one last question, if I may,” Du Chang stopped, hesitating before he spoke. “Do you really not know Xia Xun?”

Xu Jinyao’s expression didn’t change. She didn’t even spare him a glance, answering without turning her head. “Should I?”

Du Chang shook his head. “It’s not that, it’s just…”

“Get to the point.”

Du Chang sighed. “I thought you let her go because you knew each other.”

Xu Jinyao’s steps halted. This time, she looked directly at him. The look in her eyes, however, was icy cold, enough to make one’s heart tremble.

“Deputy Captain Du, if I recall correctly, you’ve been a CID officer for nearly thirty years. Do you not even understand the most basic principle of confidentiality? You casually brought a private investigator to a crime scene and let her participate in the investigation. That is a serious breach of protocol. If it hadn’t been me tonight, but someone else, you’d be buried in disciplinary sanctions by now.”

She paused, her voice dropping even lower. “Do I need to be any clearer?”

Du Chang knew he was in the wrong and quickly waved his hands. “No, no, need. I understand perfectly. Thank you, Captain Xu. I’ll be sure to be more careful in the future!”

Xu Jinyao gave a slight nod. “Go home and rest.”

“I’ll give you a ride, Captain Xu.”

“No need. I’ll grab a cab.”

The bathroom was pitch black. The gurgling sounds grew more and more intense, as if someone was on the verge of suffocation.

It lasted a long time. As minutes ticked by, the bubbles on the water’s surface multiplied, the gurgling grew louder, and with the silhouette of a figure sitting up in the bathtub, the noise abruptly ceased, replaced by rapid, panting breaths.

Xia Xun shot up from the water, casually hitting the wall light switch. Soft light instantly spilled across the room. She looked down at her feet and finally breathed a sigh of relief.

It wasn’t blood.

It was clear water.

The cold water tightened her skin. The images that had flashed before her eyes moments ago still lingered in her mind, refusing to dissipate.

She stepped out of the bathtub, water dripping from her body, pushed aside the heavy curtain in front of her, and walked out the door.

The living room seemed to still hold Xu Jinyao’s scent—cold, clean, faintly there.

Suddenly, she felt freezing cold, an urgent need for warmth. She hurried back into the bedroom.

This place meant for sleeping was permeated with a faint smell of dust. She originally wanted to turn on the light but gave up at the last second. She closed her eyes in the darkness, carefully sensing the scents beyond the dust and mildew.

Xu Jinyao had been in here. Before leaving, she had secretly closed the door, trying to preserve the familiarity of her memory. But unfortunately, when Xia Xun took a deep breath, all she got was an intense tickle in her throat—she started coughing violently, as if she wanted to cough up a lung.

The day after seeing Xu Jinyao, Xia Xun fell ill.

She had never liked hospitals, so even with a high fever and a bad cough, she just took some medicine and curled up in the bathtub to sleep it off.

After two days of this hazy, feverish sleep, she was jolted awake by a knock on the door.

Normally, she’d just roll over and go back to sleep. But not today.

The instant she woke from her dream, she registered the insistent pounding at the door. Her heart immediately started racing. Almost subconsciously, she dashed out of the bathroom and went downstairs to open it.

However, the moment she saw the school-uniform-clad girl outside, the surprised delight in her eyes vanished completely. “It’s you.”

“Who did you think it was?” The girl smiled, stepping forward to press the back of her hand against Xia Xun’s forehead.

The next second, her hand was slapped away. “Why aren’t you at school? What are you doing here?”

“Haven’t seen you open up in days. Wanted to make sure you weren’t dead inside. Just checking.” The girl adjusted her backpack straps, her probing gaze scanning up and down. When she saw Xia Xun was barefoot, she immediately frowned.

“Satisfied with your check?” Xia Xun took a step forward, propping a hand against the half-open rolling shutter. “Get out. I’m locking up.”

The girl was pushed out but hurriedly reached out to block the door, preventing it from closing. “Hey hey hey! I still have more to say!”

Xia Xun’s motion paused. “Speak.”

The girl didn’t speak right away. She suddenly smiled. “I want to come in and say it.”

Xia Xun moved to close the door again.

The girl cried out anxiously, “Okay, okay! I’ll say it!”

Xia Xun stood there impatiently. Her mind was still muddled from the long, feverish sleep, her consciousness drifting in and out of clarity. Just standing upright took considerable willpower. She really didn’t want to waste precious sleeping time on this kid. She checked her watch, then looked up. “You have thirty seconds.”

“My dad is dead.” The girl’s eyes sparkled as she said this.

Xia Xun was stunned. “How did he die?”

The girl smirked. “The Bodhisattva showed her power and carried out divine justice.”

Five years ago, Huo Zhu was in sixth grade.

It was a weekend. Her father had sent her out on an errand to buy cigarettes. A heavy rain fell on her way back, drenching her to the bone.

When she handed the cigarettes to her father, his hand touched hers. She felt disgusted, grabbed a nearby ashtray, and smashed it over his head.

Before she ran out of the house, she looked back, seeing her father, head bleeding, chasing after her like a vengeful ghost.

She was so terrified she didn’t even have time to put on shoes, turning tail and running.

She didn’t know why, it just happened so suddenly. She was disgusted by her father.

Seeing him drink water disgusted her. Him chewing food disgusted her. Him slouching on the sofa watching TV disgusted her. Even him clipping his nails over the trash can disgusted her. Basically, everything her father did disgusted her.

Her mother asked why, but she couldn’t explain it. She asked the other girls in her class if they felt the same way, and found out she was the only one.

A female classmate asked her when this feeling started. She thought about it, couldn’t pinpoint a specific time, and just said that’s how it was played out in the TV dramas.

When asked which drama, she said My Fair Princess.

The female classmate was surprised. “Why would My Fair Princess make you think your dad is disgusting?”

She answered, “Emperor Qianlong touched Ziwei’s hand, wanting to make her his consort. My dad also held my hand. Tell me, isn’t that disgusting?”

The female classmate was surprised again. “But Emperor Qianlong didn’t know Ziwei was his daughter back then!”

She replied, “But my dad knows I am.”

The female classmate found her logic sound, so she nodded in agreement. “My mom also said that dads are men, and girls should keep their distance from men. Now that you mention it, I kinda find my dad a bit disgusting too. After I bombed my final exams, my dad hit me. I was so mad I secretly used his toothbrush to clean the toilet. To this day, his breath smells like a toilet!”

Finding a kindred spirit, they spent the whole walk home that afternoon cataloging their fathers’ various disgusting behaviors, laughing and teasing until they reached their doors.

From then on, her tolerance for her father grew lower and lower. Throwing that ashtray at him today was truly because she couldn’t bear it anymore.

Huo Zhu used to only be on the receiving end of beatings. Today, she’d mustered some rare backbone. She flew through the pouring rain, her bare feet slapping the wet ground, even when sharp pebbles embedded in her soles, she didn’t stop, running without looking back.

She knew her old man’s character far too well. If she got caught tonight, a severe beating would be the least of it. She could resist for a moment, but not for a lifetime.

Just as the pouring rain threatened to extinguish her zeal for escape, she suddenly saw the neon sign of the building in the distance light up—that bookstore!

Huo Zhu had been there once before, thinking they had manga, but finding only a bunch of stuffy old books. She’d never come back. Tonight, in her desperate, blind flight, she’d somehow ended up here.

Perhaps it was fate, perhaps destiny. That night, the bookstore owner appeared in time to save her.

She gave her cotton slippers, a hot water bottle. She let her take a hot shower and change into clean, fleece pajamas. That was the first peaceful night’s sleep she ever had.

At home, she wasn’t allowed to lock her door. Even though she had her own room, she was always afraid someone might suddenly open it, discover she wasn’t asleep but secretly playing.

She loved coming here. She loved those old books whose smell made her sneeze. She loved the cracks in the floorboards. She loved the hanging lamp on the yellowed ceiling. But most of all, she loved the candy that the scruffy bookstore owner… would give her every time.

Five years had passed in the blink of an eye. She was about to graduate from high school. And her father, the one who always chased her out of the house, was dead.

From now on, it was just her and her mother at home. She wouldn’t have to come here in secret anymore. She could walk through that door openly, without worrying about bringing trouble to the bookstore owner.

Because the biggest trouble was gone.

“Don’t give me this Bodhisattva crap. I don’t believe in that stuff.” Xia Xun’s voice pulled her back from her thoughts.

Huo Zhu collected herself and said sweetly, “I know, just joking. Heard about the recent serial murder case, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Three days ago, in the early morning, my dad was killed by that serial killer. The police suspect my mom did it. They’re at her door every day, questioning her non-stop. From what my mom says, she’s been followed for the past two days.”

At this, Huo Zhu paused, raising an eyebrow. “How come you don’t seem surprised at all? You didn’t already know, did you?”

“Yeah.” Xia Xun had figured the police would suspect Huo Zhu’s mother the moment she’d said someone had hired her to investigate an affair.

“You came here just to say this?” Xia Xun turned and walked back into the shop, her steps slightly unsteady.

Huo Zhu seized the chance to slip inside, following behind her. “Yeah, also came by to check on you.”

“You haven’t opened your shop for days. I was worried about you.”

“Worried about what?” Xia Xun didn’t look back. “Whether I die is none of your business, you little brat. If you can just manage yourself, I’ll be thanking the heavens and earth.”

Huo Zhu rushed in front of her, blocking her path. “My homeroom teacher says with my current grades, I can pick any top university I want. If I don’t want to take the exams, I could even get a guaranteed spot. But none of that matters. To me, you’re way more important than university. I really was worried about you!”

Xia Xun closed her eyes, too tired to argue. “Fine. Thanks for your concern. Now you’ve seen me, I’m alive, so hurry back to school.”

“Do you hate me that much? Trying to get rid of me again.” Huo Zhu frowned.

Her high fever recurring, Xia Xun’s head was still spinning. All she could do was put her hands together in a pleading gesture. “Please, just get out of my hair, okay? Go now. Pull the door shut on your way out. I’m tired, going upstairs to sleep.”

Huo Zhu pouted but stepped aside. “You’re really okay?”

“Mm.”

“Alright then. I’ll go back to school.” She took a couple of steps, then turned back, yelling at the figure ascending the stairs, “If anything happens, remember to text me! I can take time off school!”

Xia Xun didn’t answer, disappearing at the top of the stairs.

Rattle—

Huo Zhu pulled the rolling shutter down, stomping her foot on the bottom edge to lock it before turning to leave.

She hadn’t gone far when she suddenly felt someone watching her from behind. But when she turned her head, the path behind her was empty.

She withdrew her gaze and quickened her pace.

Unbeknownst to her, the moment she walked out of the alley entrance, a figure emerged from the shadows of a distant wall corner.

The upper half of the figure was still hidden in the shadows, face invisible. The lower half was long, straight, and lean.

On their feet were a pair of dark brown combat boots, the leather gleaming, spotless. A small stretch of ankle exposed above the boot was flawlessly pale, almost blending into the sunlight.