The Keeper of Myths - Chapter 7

Cheng Hong was thrown out with her arms held by two men. She intended to leap up and curse them out, but the alcohol suddenly rushed to her head, nearly knocking her out on the spot.

“Back in the day, people used to bring me flowers and confess under my dorm! What are you so arrogant about? What makes you so great? Someone like you, I wouldn’t have even spared a glance before!” Cheng Hong shouted at the top of her lungs. Before anyone inside could respond, she was already clutching a streetlamp, vomiting.

She retched until there was nothing left in her stomach, almost throwing up her own guts. Only then did she feel a bit more sober and slowly started walking home.

“Mommy.” A crisp, childish voice sounded behind her.

Cheng Hong jumped in fright and turned around, only to see Xia Tong standing there in her nightgown. Her head was tilted, her smile innocent and pure. “You’re drunk.”

“Why did you come out? Did your dad bring you? Where is he? What if fans spot you?” Cheng Hong fired off questions at her, venting all the anger from being thrown out just now onto Xia Tong.

Fortunately, she still had a shred of rationality left, knowing she couldn’t be seen with Xia Tong in her current state. So she dragged Xia Tong into an alley. Cheng Hong looked at her daughter with disgust. If she hadn’t gotten pregnant, she would never have married Xia Jiang, and her life would never have turned out like this.

Xia Jiang was never good enough for her. Cheng Hong had always thought so.

“Are you mute? I asked you how you got out here!” Cheng Hong pinched Xia Tong’s little face and asked viciously.

“I’ve been following behind you all along!” Xia Tong’s laughter was clear and bright. “I saw you pressing up against that man, trying to touch his belt, then getting a face full of wine and being thrown out like a dirty rag. Don’t you find yourself disgusting?”

Cheng Hong’s mind, muddled by alcohol and rage, didn’t notice the biggest flaw in that sentence-Xia Tong was blind.

“Shut up, shut up!” Cheng Hong screamed hysterically, slapping Xia Tong across the face again and again. “If it weren’t for you, how would I have ended up like this? You ruined me, you ruined my whole life!”

Cheng Hong, beside herself with fury, gripped Xia Tong’s neck tightly, wishing she could snap that thin, fragile neck.

Minutes passed. The clouds parted, and the moon shone through.

Moonlight spilled into the alley with no streetlights, illuminating the woman inside, crazily strangling her own neck.

—

Xia Tong’s genetic sequencing showed that she was not congenitally blind. Her grayish pupils were simply the result of a rare genetic disorder causing abnormal iris coloration. Xia Jiang and his wife, in order to gain money, had blinded her with drugs to win the sympathy of netizens.

“Xia Tong said that because she had to film videos, her parents never hit her. But if she misbehaved, they’d feed her mangoes.” Si Nan slammed the case file onto the table, unable to contain his anger. “Are these people even human?”

Passing by, Pei Xueting glanced at him curiously. “Do you have some misunderstanding about what it means to be human?”

Si Nan was left speechless.

Xuanwu shot Pei Xueting a look and tapped the newly hung metal sign on the wall that read, “Strictly Prohibited: Unorganized and Undisciplined Individual Actions.” He said, “Department Head Pei, Lu Wu said if our Action Department keeps up this hero complex, he’ll dock all our field allowances for the next quarter.”

Pei Xueting, who still had a mortgage to pay, was hit right in her weak spot and nearly collapsed under Lu Wu’s tyranny. If she used her brother’s card again this month, he’d drive over and swipe her himself.

Pei Xueting said angrily, “Lu Wu is so shameless, easy for him to talk from his position. With a whole room of divine beasts, Evil Spirits run away the moment they catch a whiff of you guys from two miles away. Where am I supposed to catch them? You think I can teleport?”

“Calm down, boss. Didn’t we just get a pure-blooded human in our department?” Si Nan tried to comfort her.

Tan Zhen, who was sitting on the sofa, listening in all directions and watching everything, silently straightened his back.

“You’re right,” Pei Xueting exhaled. “Song Xiaoming, come with me.”

Tan Zhen watched helplessly as Pei Xueting dragged Song Xiaoming out the door, nearly grinding his teeth to dust.

Si Nan sidled up to Tan Zhen with a smug look and said slyly, “Our boss is super controlling, only likes newbies who are soft and easy to manage. Doesn’t matter if they’re useless, as long as they’re obedient.” He emphasized the word “likes” so much it was almost theatrical.

Tan Zhen gave him a light glance. “You’re a Qilin?”

Si Nan became alert. He had never revealed his true form in front of Tan Zhen. “How did you know?”

“Was it that hard to guess? Qilin Ward Off Evil and perform Exorcism-they’re auspicious beasts. Pei Xueting only brings you to open tombs because she’s using you as an air purifier.” Every upward curl of Tan Zhen’s eyelashes radiated disdain for Si Nan, his arrogance palpable.

Si Nan bristled. “What do you know? Princess and the Pea!”
Tan Zhen looked at him in confusion. “Which dynasty was the Princess and the Pea a princess from?”

Xuanwu burst into earth-shaking laughter.

—

As dusk fell, the aroma of food drifted through the hallway. The neighbor next door came out to throw away the trash, saw Pei Xueting tearing off the seal from the Xia family’s front door, and immediately slammed their own door shut with a “bang.” Song Xiaoming was so startled he shivered, the greeting he’d been holding back stuck in his throat.

“Don’t be so surprised,” Pei Xueting twisted open the door. “Anyone normal would be afraid to get involved in something like this, especially since Xia Tong was covered in blood when I carried her out. By now, they’ve probably imagined a full-blown social news story in their heads.”

Before pushing open the door, Pei Xueting suddenly spoke solemnly, “This is your first real field assignment. This time, Si Nan isn’t here to protect you. Just remember three principles: listen to me, don’t ask why, and execute my orders immediately.”

Song Xiaoming was so intimidated he could only nod repeatedly.

As the old security door swung open, the dim sunset gradually receded from the room like the tide. Pei Xueting suddenly remembered something, fished a business card for an air conditioner repairman from her wallet, and tucked it into Song Xiaoming’s chest before stepping inside.

Song Xiaoming smelled a strong stench of decay, his nerves taut. A half-transparent figure stood in the middle of the living room, remnants of makeup still on her face, a ring of torn flesh around her neck. Her head drooped, and her hollow eyes stared straight at the two of them.

“Sh-she, she, she…” Song Xiaoming nearly bit his own tongue.

“Exciting, isn’t it?” Pei Xueting explained to the inexperienced newcomer. “A newly dead soul will return to the place of their deepest obsession. For Cheng Hong, the most painful and most triumphant moments of her life were all here. Even after making money off her daughter, she kept living here to maintain her persona.”

Song Xiaoming swallowed hard, so nervous he didn’t know what to do with his hands and feet.

Pei Xueting comforted him, “Just treat it like a 3D movie.”

Song Xiaoming: …Does she have to be so casual about this!

Cheng Hong’s soul gave them a cold glance, then turned and passed through the master bedroom door. The master bedroom was actually locked, and Pei Xueting only had the key to the Xia family’s front door.

“Should I go find a locksmith?” Song Xiaoming suggested.

“Do you have a grudge against locksmiths?”

If the locksmith opened the door and saw the soul inside, he’d probably be sent straight to the hospital from fright. Pei Xueting, like Doraemon, pulled out a piece of wire, and under Song Xiaoming’s astonished gaze, twisted and poked it into the keyhole, unlocking it in just a few moves.

The bedside table faced the master bedroom door, and Cheng Hong stood dazedly in front of it, reaching for the drawer again and again but never able to touch it, spinning anxiously in place. Pei Xueting helpfully opened the drawer, finding three property deeds, a packet of gold bars, and six bank cards inside.

“Their family is actually this rich,” Song Xiaoming exclaimed.

“So, do you regret choosing the wrong profession?” Pei Xueting snorted as she rummaged through the pile. “If this were ancient times, people like us could at least be Celestial Masters. Nowadays, if you do business without official status, you’re just a charlatan and will be shut down by law, you know?”

Song Xiaoming muttered quietly, “I was supposed to be a programmer…”

Pei Xueting heard him and naturally picked up the conversation, “And now you feed fish in our department every day, and even get bullied by them. Only Si Nan is an honest kid-otherwise, he’d sell you off and count the money for them!”

She finished rummaging through the pile of things Cheng Hong was drooling over, but found no trace of Yin Energy, so under Cheng Hong’s resentful gaze, she slammed the drawer shut again.

The unpleasant stench grew stronger and stronger.

Pei Xueting suddenly looked up, meeting the gaze of the vanity in the room. The vanity was cluttered with cosmetics, and the mirror reflected the angry ghost, the awkward Song Xiaoming, and the thoughtful Pei Xueting.

“Song Xiaoming, look at that mirror.”

Song Xiaoming did as told. “What’s with the mirror?”

“How many people are in the mirror?”

“Two people, one ghost,” Song Xiaoming answered honestly.

Pei Xueting’s expression changed instantly. She shoved Song Xiaoming out of the master bedroom, drew her gun, and fired at the mirror. The White Phosphorus Bullet exploded in the swirling black mist before it even touched the mirror, flames scorching half the ceiling.

She was born with the Heavenly Eye; to her, the world had never had a boundary between yin and yang. But Song Xiaoming was a mere mortal, his thinking strictly materialist-he shouldn’t have been able to see Cheng Hong, who belonged to the underworld, in an ordinary mirror.

Unless that wasn’t an ordinary mirror.

Why did Xia Tong feel she had a sister about her age? Why did Cheng Hong die silently in a bustling city-did she not struggle, or did she think the other party posed no threat? In her final moments, whose face did she see last?
In a flash of lightning, Pei Xueting threw out a talisman, piercing straight through the black mist and shattering the mirror. The makeup mirror exploded with a loud bang, and the glittering shards rained down like a storm, clinking as they scattered all over the floor.

Song Xiaoming hadn’t yet processed what had happened; he only saw Pei Xueting’s profile sliced open by a shard of glass.

“Call Si Nan. The perpetrator is an Evil Spirit residing in the mirror. Don’t let Xia Tong come into contact with anything that can reflect a human image.” Pei Xueting wiped the bleeding wound with the back of her hand, still clutching a wisp of black mist.

—

Hospital.

Si Nan woke up in a puddle of his own drool, groggily answering the phone.

“Hello?”

“Is Lu Wu paying you to sleep on the job?” Pei Xueting was furious.

“Boss!” Si Nan shot up instantly.

“Cover everything in Xia Tong’s room that can reflect light. There’s an Evil Spirit in their house, residing in the mirror-it might go after her.” Pei Xueting spoke in a rush, not giving him a chance to reply before hanging up immediately.

Muttering to himself, Si Nan pushed open the ward door. The night breeze swept in, making the long white curtains billow. Xia Tong sat on the hospital bed, looking up and calling out, “Si Nan gege.” Si Nan responded, walked over, closed the window, and drew the curtains.

Outside, it seemed like rain was coming; a damp scent drifted in.

He asked the head nurse for a few sheets and covered all the mirrors and glass in the ward. Suddenly, he realized something and froze.

He hadn’t said a word when he entered-how did Xia Tong know it was him?

“Si Nan gege, why aren’t you leaving yet?” Xia Tong’s tone carried a smile. “If you don’t go now, you won’t be able to leave at all.”

Si Nan whipped around, golden light swirling in his eyes, the Qilin’s visage faintly appearing on his young, innocent face.

But he grasped at nothing-the hospital bed was suddenly empty.

Ignoring everything else, Si Nan yanked open the ward door. All the patients, doctors, and nurses in the hospital had vanished; only the pale lights flickered in the corridor. The silence was so deep he could hear the wind moving. Si Nan ran while dialing his phone, wanting to tell Pei Xueting that Xia Tong had disappeared.

But all he heard was the endless ringing-Pei Xueting didn’t answer.

Just like that time she went into the tomb alone, no matter how many times he called, no one picked up. Si Nan grew increasingly anxious. He rushed to the empty hospital building’s entrance, when suddenly, two figures on the rooftop across caught his attention.

It was Pei Xueting and Xia Tong.

Despite the distance, Si Nan could see every twitch of muscle on their faces. Pei Xueting, expressionless, pulled the trigger at Xia Tong. Xia Tong’s body, pierced by the White Phosphorus Bullet, emitted wisps of white smoke before vanishing into the night.

Si Nan hadn’t even finished exhaling when Pei Xueting suddenly clutched her chest, staggered back two steps, and fell backward off the rooftop.

“Boss!”

Si Nan nearly reverted to his true form out of fright, recklessly charging toward the main entrance.

Suddenly, a hand grabbed the back of his collar, choking him so hard he almost couldn’t breathe. In that instant, Pei Xueting plummeted from the high building, her body reduced to a bloody mess. Everything before his eyes shattered along with her fall, and Si Nan’s vision gradually cleared.

He finally saw the scene before him and broke out in a cold sweat.

He wasn’t at the hospital entrance at all-he was standing on the rooftop, one foot already over the edge!

“People say you’re just a pretty but useless air purifier, and you still argue.” Tan Zhen, holding his collar, mocked him leisurely. “You let Pei Xueting do all the work, don’t you?”

Si Nan, weak in both hands and feet, climbed down from the rooftop railing. He’d almost flown off the roof in his true Qilin form! If someone had filmed that and posted it online, wouldn’t the Information Department come up here with weapons to settle the score?

Si Nan looked up at Tan Zhen. “Why are you here?”

“Pei Xueting said you answered the phone without speaking, so she asked me to check on you.” Tan Zhen met his incredulous gaze, almost amused. “What’s with that look-surprised? In the Celestial Master’s path, I’m the Grand Master.”

Si Nan ignored his boasting and looked down at the phone clutched in his palm-it was still showing an active call.

“Boss, wuwuwu-” Si Nan hugged his phone and burst into tears. “I saw you fall from the building, I was scared to death.”

Pei Xueting, who had been ready to scold him, was caught off guard. She was always tough on the outside but soft on the inside, and Si Nan’s whining instantly disarmed her.