Because Chi Yan was scared out of his mind, he didn’t think of anything and wore the pajamas set that Ye Yingzhi had passed to him. Now he felt embarrassed. Currently, he only had three choices: first was to put on the wet one he wore before; the other is to go to the wardrobe in the next room to pick up clothes that thing might have touched; and the third was to not wear anything.
Ye Yingzhi saw him standing on the floor in distress. He closed the “Theory of Justice” and asked him what was wrong. Then he put forward the fourth solution solemnly, “You can wear mine, I don’t mind.”
He thought about it and added, “But I don’t seem to have a new set of underwear for you to wear. But what you’re wearing clean… you wouldn’t mind, would you?”
Then he smiled and said soothingly, “Actually, I don’t mind if you just wear a clean set of my underwear.”
In fact, after washing, it could be dried quickly with a hair dryer, not to mention, he even had a clothes dryer at home. Ye Yingzhi silently put “Theory of Justice” on the bedside, pretending that he had forgotten about all the modern electrical appliances in his home.
The next day, the first thing Chi Yan did after waking up was to send a message to Old Yuan and ask him about the matters regarding his junior high school friend. These kinds of days were too stimulating and horrifying, and he could not always cling onto Ye Yingzhi, what should he do if he was alone?
He waited anxiously for news, only when he thought of how Old Yuan normally would not get up so early on Sunday could he barely held on to some more patience.
Unexpectedly, Old Yuan got up very early this time. After seeing his message, he called back directly.
“Ruler, are you alone now?” Old Yuan asked over the phone.
Chi Yan took a glance at Ye Yingzhi, who was busy making breakfast in the kitchen, and said, “No, I’m with my roommate.”
Old Yuan’s voice came through the electric wave, “Okay, I’ll tell you something, you shouldn’t be afraid. You’d better stand close to people.”
“You talk.”
“I remembered what you told me yesterday, afterwards I got a message saying that the police found two more bodies in the rental houses near our school, one without legs was hidden under the bed, and the other was skinned… hidden in the cupboard.”
“… The legless man is said to have been dead for almost a week. Doesn’t that match the one you said you saw? The skinless one just died yesterday, so I’m just saying if these incidents are related to your seeing ghost or something like that…”
Old Yuan’s voice were still echoing from the phone. Chi Yan was so scared that he couldn’t keep hold of it properly and the phone dropped on the dining table.
Ye Yingzhi heard the noise and turned to look at him. “What’s wrong? What did your classmate say to you?”
“No, it’s all right… I’ll talk to you later.” Chi Yan was trembling as he told Ye Yingzhi, even though he was saying that he’s all right, his eyes were clearly showing how scared he was.
Ye Yingzhi turned off the stove and sat beside him with two fried eggs, comforting him silently.
Chi Yan then gathered up the courage to pick up the phone again, hearing Old Yuan inquiring at the other end, “Hello, Ruler? What’s up? What happened just now?”
“Nothing, I was scared all of a sudden and dropped the phone.” Chi Yan tried to reply him as calmly as possible.
Old Yuan comforted him with a few words before saying again, “I asked my junior high school friend and simply told him about your situation. He had a trouble with something and said that he felt your situation was more complicated. He might not be able to solve it. However, he said that his Senior Sister has came to A City two days ago due to some matters. His Senior Sister was a specialist in this sort of situation and is much more skillful than him. I had asked him to make an appointment with her. You should be able to see her soon. Persevere for another two more days.”
After thanking Old Yuan and his friend, he hung up and looked at Ye Yingzhi, informing him the news he had just received from Old Yuan. He poked at the fried eggs on the plate, not feeling any appetite at all.
By now, he was certain that he had been hit by something evil, but he didn’t know who he had provoked at all.
It suddenly occurred to him that the murderer might have something to do with himself.
But how was it possible? He had a very narrow social network in A City. He only kept in contact with his uncle, teachers, and classmates. They didn’t not seem to be related with such brutal tragedies.
After learning about the news, Chi Yan dared not go back to his dormitory alone. Ye Yingzhi did not intend to go back to their dormitory. He went to school on Monday and returned to Ye Yingzhi’s place self-consciously after class. Because he was embarrassed to mooching off his food and drink every day, he went back to the supermarket and bought a lot of beverages and food to bring it their apartment.
On Tuesday evening, Chi Yan received a message from Old Yuan, saying that he had managed to make an appointment with that Senior Sister, the location would be at the new hot pot shop outside the East Gate on Wednesday afternoon.
After hearing this, Ye Yingzhi said that it was also time for him to return to school on Wednesday, he could drive Chi Yan there.
Chi Yan and Ye Yingzhi slept very well last night. They both got up late in the morning. When Chi Yan opened his eyes, he only felt the bright daylight. He took the cell phone to see that it was already 10:15 am. He quickly sat up and hugged Ye Yingzhi’s arm to shake the other person. The two men hurried to wash up, they did not even had breakfast and by the time they went out of the house, it was already a quarter to eleven.
Fortunately, it couldn’t be considered to be congested on the way there, but when Chi Yan arrived at the agreed hot pot shop and hurried off, saying goodbye to Ye Yingzhi and went in, Old Yuan and Senior Sister had already arrived.
That Senior Sister said her surname was Hu, called Hu Xing. She had short black hair and looked very young and fashionable, like she was no more than 30 years old. She had quite a different image from the Emei Master imagined by Chi Yan.
Old Yuan introduced them to each other and asked everyone to eat first.
The hot pot restaurant outside East Gate was famous for its unique way of arranging dishes and meat, such as putting lamb slices on a half-meter-long board to satisfy people visually; for example, putting beef and mutton slices on Barbie dolls like they were clothes and then posing them, etc. After tasting them, Chi Yan felt that although it tasted good, it still fell short to what Ye Yingzhi cooked at home. As he had something loaded his heart, he did not have much appetite to eat more.
When the three person had eaten almost enough, Hu Xing began to talk about business. She looked at Chi Yan and said, “Xiao Chi, isn’t it? Can I call you that? I have listened to Yuan Bo about your situation and it is rather complicated. I’ll talk to you in detail later.”
Later, she turned to Old Yuan and said, “Xiao Yuan, this matter has nothing to do with you. If possible, you should not get involved in it. It’s better to stay unaware. You don’t have to worry about me. Go back to school first.”
Chi Yan could also hear the meaning of this Senior Sister Hu’s words and he nodded at Old Yuan, saying, “Old Yuan, you can rest assured. Go back first, what if something happened to you and both of us get dragged in? There won’t even be anyone who can call the police for us.”
Old Yuan muttered, “It can’t be that terrible.” But he obediently carried his bag and left.
Hu Xing then said to Chi Yan, “A majority of the reasons why I came to A City this time is because of the cases that happened in succession these days. I didn’t expect to hear from my Junior Brother about your affairs as soon as I arrived.”
“…I can almost conclude that this crime is not caused by a man at all, but a demon.”
Through the steam rising above the hot pot, Chi Yan noticed that the woman opposite had a pair of long, narrow and enchanting eyes, but the quiet statement of the other party shocked him.
“Demon?” He repeated it incredulously. Even though he had been confronted with unimaginable events in succession, he could not believe that there were so many demons and ghosts in the world.
Hu Xing continued, “Yes, but it may be different from the kind of demons and myths you imagine. Let me give you an example.”
“During the Republic of China, war broke out everywhere, and the world was not peaceful. Whether it was good or bad, all kinds of energy intertwined. There is a wild statue in the mountains of D province. No want knows when it was built and neither was it worshipped it during the turmoil. The temple gradually became decadent and abandoned. Later, when blood was shed in front of the statue, it received evil influence and an evil monster dependent on the statue was thus born.
“At that time, a group of passers-by who fled to the ruined temple after dark for lodging in the middle of the night saw the statue’s eyes bleeding, grinning with its opened mouth, inside that mouth was a long fang. One by one, the group was sucked and eaten by the statue. Only one escaped when he saw an opportunity and ran away quickly. After escaping, he told the people nearby about it. Afterward, several more incidents happened, and only when it got serious, was a Master invited to drive the evil monster away. Those murder case are similar to the nature of the statue I’ve told you about.”
“Now that four people are dead, I can probably guess what it wants to do from their death.