The Keeper of Myths - Chapter 6

The Action Department was being extravagantly wasteful today, ordering lunch from a hotel. When Song Xiaoming carried the takeout upstairs, he was met with a wave of death stares from his colleagues. Their eyes looked as if they wanted to devour Song Xiaoming and the takeout together, alive.

Song Xiaoming finally made it back to the office, only to be greeted by Tan Zhen’s icy expression.

“Where’s Pei Xueting?” Tan Zhen crossed his arms, clearly in a foul mood.

“Department Head Pei went out to investigate.” Song Xiaoming cautiously piled the takeout boxes onto the coffee table. “This is the lunch Department Head Pei ordered for you.”

So Pei Xueting had called someone to pick him up just to move him from home to the Special Investigation Bureau to eat takeout?

Si Nan crouched at his workstation, glaring at Tan Zhen like a predator. In his eyes now, Tan Zhen was a femme fatale, a blue-eyed calamity, the newly arrived Su Daji, or the soon-to-be melancholy Bao Si… and Pei Xueting was the unlucky foolish ruler.

Song Xiaoming’s impression of Tan Zhen was still stuck at “the thousand-year Sleeping Beauty in the Bronze Coffin.” He trusted Pei Xueting deeply and didn’t think Tan Zhen was dangerous at all. But due to his social anxiety, he still didn’t dare speak to people, awkwardly rooted to the spot.

Tan Zhen, full of resentment, snapped apart the disposable chopsticks, then suddenly looked up at Song Xiaoming and said gently, “Sit down and eat with me!”

“No, no, this is what Department Head Pei ordered for you, I’ve already eaten…” Song Xiaoming shook his head so hard it looked like an egg beater, unable even to form a proper sentence.

“Come on, eat with me. I’m not very familiar with modern food.” Tan Zhen smiled. “Department Head Pei-is that what you all call Pei Xueting? What kind of person do you think she is?”

—

The scorching sun hung high, and the car’s air conditioning was on full blast.

Pei Xueting let out a loud sneeze. In that moment, the long-stalled traffic loosened a little. A small Audi behind her slipped out of its lane like an eel, squeezing into the gap between Pei Xueting and the car ahead.

Pei Xueting: “…”

Very well, you’ve got guts.

The midday rush hour highway was like a nearly empty tube of toothpaste, and Pei Xueting was the last bit squeezed between two sheets of metal, inching forward with difficulty. A journey of just a few kilometers took dozens of minutes. By the time Pei Xueting got out of the car, she was seething with anger, rivaling the sun overhead.

Cheng Hong’s home was in an old residential complex. Air conditioning units hung outside the aging building, and every inch of available wall was covered in lush green ivy.

Following the registration information, Pei Xueting knocked on the door of Unit 101, Building 9. The door was opened by a young, refined-looking man with dark circles under his eyes, clearly in poor spirits.

Cheng Hong’s husband, Xia Jiang.

“Hello, I’m the officer in charge of investigating your wife’s case, Pei Xueting.” Pei Xueting showed her credentials. “May I come in and talk?”

Xia Jiang nodded and stepped aside to let her in.

Perhaps because it was on the ground floor, the house was filled with a damp, moldy smell. The living room was carelessly tidied. On the TV cabinet was a family photo, with their daughter Tongtong in the center, her grayish eyes facing the camera.

The living room was the most common backdrop in their video calls, followed by the piano in the corner.

But in Pei Xueting’s eyes, faint black energy drifted through every corner of the house, lingering especially around the piano.

She had awakened her Heavenly Eye at the age of seven; all filth and Evil Spirits were laid bare before her. When other kids couldn’t sleep, they counted sheep; when she couldn’t sleep, she counted the heads of ghosts.

However, this black energy only indicated that something unclean had once lingered here-the Evil Spirit itself was no longer present.

“My wife… why did she end up like that?” Xia Jiang was clearly haunted by the manner of Cheng Hong’s death, covering his face in a mix of pain and fear.

Pei Xueting’s gaze swept over the ceiling and the half-open bedroom door. She replied perfunctorily, “We’re not sure yet. It’s likely the effect of some new type of hallucinogen or drug. Have you noticed anything unusual about your wife recently? Anything at all.”

Xia Jiang’s chest heaved violently, as if he had made up his mind. He answered firmly, “No.”

Pei Xueting narrowed her eyes.

“My relationship with my wife has always been stable. I don’t know why this happened to her, but she hasn’t shown any abnormal behavior lately.”

“What about your home?” Pei Xueting pressed on.

A flash of fear crossed Xia Jiang’s eyes, but only for an instant. “No.”

“All right.” Pei Xueting casually put away her notebook, which she hadn’t written a single word in, and stood up to leave. “If there are any new leads, I’ll let you know. Your home is very tidy… Your daughter is so well-behaved. The kids in my neighborhood who are her age are always raising a ruckus, never a moment’s peace.”

Xia Jiang’s expression froze for a moment. “She’s napping.”

“Is that so?” Pei Xueting made no comment, pushing the door open to leave. “You have a very lovely daughter.”
—

The wind rustled the Boston ivy outside the building, sounding like the undulating waves of the sea. Xia Jiang stood within the billowing white curtains, watching as Pei Xueting drove away from the residential complex before turning back to the storage room. Inside the storage room was the entrance to a basement, which the previous owner had built as a darkroom for developing photographs.

Xia Jiang counted his own violent heartbeats, feeling as if his heart was about to burst through his ribs. He turned on the basement light. Scattered across the floor were a mess of Peach Wood Swords, cinnabar, yellow talisman papers, and even a basin of blood.

And a little girl, tightly bound.

The little girl heard footsteps and, terrified, lifted her head to “look” toward the basement entrance, her body shrinking further into the corner. Her hair was disheveled, and her white cotton dress was smeared with patches of blood. She was truly a beauty in the making, her face delicate and her eyelashes long, but those gray, clouded eyes drained some of the color from her features.

“It must be you…” Xia Jiang lunged at the girl, grabbing her slender neck, blood vessels bursting in his eyes. “It must be you!”

Pain struck from the back of his head. Xia Jiang’s vision went black, and he fainted.

“Truly insane!”

Pei Xueting exclaimed, squatting down to remove the rag stuffed in the girl’s mouth.

The little girl coughed and gasped violently, then burst into loud sobs. Pei Xueting had never comforted a child before, so she simply let the girl soak her in tears and carried her away.

—

The Special Investigation Bureau had caught ghosts, monsters, and even fraudulent shamans, but never a perfectly ordinary human being. Lu Wu sternly rejected Pei Xueting’s proposal to bring the child back, and instead packed all three of them off to the police station.

With the surveillance in the interrogation room turned off, Pei Xueting dragged a chair to sit facing Xia Jiang. Xuanwu sat beside her, holding a cup of tea and wearing a benevolent, Buddha-like smile.

“Care to explain all that stuff in your basement?” Pei Xueting tossed a stack of photos in front of him. “Peach Wood Swords, crucifixes, garlic, cinnabar, and even Black Dog Blood. Quite the blend of East and West. You weren’t planning to nail your daughter to a cross, were you?”

Xia Jiang lifted his bloodshot eyes, staring intently at Pei Xueting. “You shouldn’t have arrested me. The real culprit was just rescued by you.”

“You’re not trying to say your daughter killed your wife, are you?” Pei Xueting raised an eyebrow and asked.

“My daughter is no longer my daughter.”

Xia Jiang’s lips trembled as he spoke.

—

I met Cheng Hong in college. She was very beautiful, danced jazz in the troupe, and after every performance, many people would bring her flowers. I pursued her for a long time. We got married right after graduation, and later had Tongtong.

Tongtong was born in the hardest year of my life. At that time, I was framed by my boss, took the fall, and my reputation in the industry was ruined. Cheng Hong couldn’t find a satisfying job, and our family lost all sources of income. Tongtong was born blind, which only made things worse for us.

But we still loved her dearly, doing everything we could to provide her with the best medical care, even swallowing our pride to raise donations. Fortunately, she grew up slowly. Apart from her blindness, everything else was fine. She was very smart, learned things quickly, and the neighbors all liked her.

But perhaps because she couldn’t see, she became extremely sensitive, more so as she grew older.

Once, she broke her mother’s favorite vase. Her mother only scolded her a little, but she sulked with a dark face. The next day, when her mother was watering the flowers, a fallen clothes rod struck her on the head. When I looked at her, she was listening to her mother’s cries, smiling silently.

My scalp tingled. Things started to spiral out of control.

Whenever she was unhappy, strange things would happen at home.

She didn’t want to practice piano, and after her mother hit her palm, her mother slipped and fell down the stairs the next day. The kitten that played with her on the balcony, if it followed other cats, I would soon find its corpse in the trash.

The scariest time was when her mother bought her mangoes she didn’t like. She used a fruit knife to slash all the mangoes to pieces. I tried to teach her not to waste food, but she looked at me with a sinister gaze-definitely not the look a child should have!

Worried that something might happen to her alone at home, we installed surveillance cameras early on, but she was so well-behaved that we rarely checked them. Her behavior grew stranger and stranger, and I couldn’t help but review the footage.

On the recordings, she often talked to empty corners, played frantic and wild tunes, or gave the cameras strange smiles.

So one night, I quietly crept to her bedroom door.

I heard her talking to someone else. She said, “I must kill them.”
I was terrified. The elders in my family said that when a person suddenly becomes very strange, it might be because they’ve come into contact with something unclean. I specifically consulted a master and bought those items to place in the basement.

When I was unpacking the delivery, I suddenly felt someone at the basement door. Tongtong was standing there, her fingernails scratching the door one by one, her expression cold and indifferent. Goosebumps rose all over my body, but after all, I was an adult and thought she couldn’t do anything to me.

But in the middle of the night, I suddenly received a call from the police. They said my wife was dead-she had strangled herself!

Shocked and terrified, I pushed open the door and saw Tongtong standing in the living room. I almost screamed.

She asked me obediently, just like usual, “Where did Mom go?”

—

“Your story is well made up.” Pei Xueting applauded sincerely. “It’s better than those idol dramas full of plot holes on my TV. But do you know? The rash on your daughter’s back from her mango allergy hasn’t even cleared up yet.”

A crack appeared in Xia Jiang’s expression of pain and fear.

“If you really loved your daughter as much as you say, why would you buy mangoes for the house? Aren’t you afraid your blind daughter might eat them by mistake?” Pei Xueting pressed her hands on the table, leaning forward slightly. “Or did you buy them for some other purpose?”

Xuanwu found it all extremely boring. If it weren’t for the police station’s insistence that at least two officers be present for evidence to count, he wouldn’t have bothered to show up. His gaze pierced through Xia Jiang’s flesh and bones, landing straight on that beating heart.

It was a heart stuffed full of greed and lies.

“Your family’s financial situation improved as your daughter grew up, relying on her appearance and disability to attract attention and sympathy, even accepting donations in the early days. I believe you really were scared-otherwise, you wouldn’t have so easily let go of this cash cow.”

Pei Xueting had dealt with monsters and demons for a long time, but this was the first time she’d met someone so disgusting. It was truly eye-opening. As she spoke, she felt the air itself was polluted by this person and stood up to leave.

Xia Jiang nearly sprang from his chair. “You’re slandering me! This is defamation!”

“You blinded your own daughter.”

When Xuanwu said this, it was as casual as saying “good morning.” Pei Xueting whipped her head around, catching all of Xia Jiang’s shock and panic.

“Looks like I guessed right.” Xuanwu lowered his eyes, picked up his thermos, and walked out.

—

The Black Dog Blood and dust on Xia Tong’s face had been washed clean. She sat quietly on the sofa, hugging the teddy bear the female officer on duty had bought for her niece.

Tan Zhen had never liked children, and now he liked them even less, so he kept his distance and left her alone. He could sense the faint, damp aura around Xia Tong, like moldy cotton in the rainy season.

Outside the duty room, two people were talking.

“Next time, can you not make me look into the hearts of people like that? It really kills my appetite,” Xuanwu complained in a low voice.

“Be content. Your salary is worth the appetite you lose,” Pei Xueting said as she flipped through some files, calm and methodical. “It looks like Xia Tong came into contact with something unclean. She’s young, blind, and rarely goes out, so whatever it is should still be in her home. Take two people and search…”

Her words caught in her throat as she was surprised to see Tan Zhen sitting in the duty room. He wore a light blue shirt and slacks, his waistline elegantly outlined, long hair tied back, looking more like an art student than anything else.

“Why are you here?” Pei Xueting asked casually.

Tan Zhen thought for a moment, realizing any answer would be awkward, so he simply gave her a pure smile. Fortunately, Pei Xueting didn’t care. She waved her hand in front of Xia Tong’s eyes, the movement of the air catching Xia Tong’s attention.

“Sister,” Xia Tong called out sweetly.

“Tongtong, we’re going to take you for a checkup. You might have to stay in the hospital for a while. Do you have any toys you like at home? We can bring them for you.”

Pei Xueting’s question was skillful. If there really was something hidden in the Xia household, Xia Tong might not understand its danger. Perhaps in her world, the thing that kept her company was far kinder than the parents who exploited her illness for money.

Xia Tong shook her head. “I don’t have any toys.”

Pei Xueting was a little disappointed. It seemed her wish for a lighter workload was dashed.

“But can you bring my sister? I’m scared to be alone.”