Chapter 63: 61 Lost Soul

61 Lost Soul

Just as Xin Junmao was about to reach the Comb, Xin's mother walked into the room with tea and snacks, and Zhao Jing turned around subconsciously, causing Xin Junmao's outstretched hand to miss the opportunity.

"How is the talk going?" Xin's mother asked with a cheerful smile as she set the teacups and snacks down on the desk.

Zhao Jing smiled and said, "There are still some questions. I wonder if you could... hmm?"

Xin's mother understood and caught the hint, laughing dryly, "Alright, alright, then I'll head out first and won't disturb your conversation."

After speaking, Xin's mother gave her son, who had a sluggish expression, a look as if to signal, "Cooperate a little," then she smiled and retreated from the room, closing the door behind her. Before the door shut, her gaze swept over the Comb in Zhao Jing's hand.

"His state is not right." After Xin's mother left, She Zi'an gently locked the room, then said to Zhao Jing in a low voice, "This young man should be as the file described, marked by the Daughter of Gluttony. He is in a state similar to 'Lost Soul'; the majority of his spirit and consciousness are in another space similar to a dream, leaving only a tiny bit of instinctive, minimal consciousness to maintain the body's operation."

"What kind of state is this?" It was the first time Zhao Jing had heard of the "Lost Soul" state, so she asked curiously.

She Zi'an thought for a moment and explained, "Do you know the phenomenon of sleep paralysis? This situation is the opposite of sleep paralysis. Sleep paralysis is when the body is still in an unawakened state but the consciousness is awake; whereas 'Lost Soul' is when the body has awakened, but the consciousness has not fully awakened."

"How can this be resolved?" Zhao Jing opened her small mouth in surprise; this did not sound like a problem a normal person could solve.

"I don't know." She Zi'an gave a bitter smile. "In the memories I have from a rough browse of the Daughter of Gluttony's case file, I have never seen a precedent where someone could wake up after being marked by her."

"Then what happens to the person who is marked in the end?" Zhao Jing glanced at the blank-eyed Xin Junmao, feeling somewhat worried.

She Zi'an shook his head, sighed deeply, and said, "Only lives favored by the Daughter of Gluttony are marked by her. Calling it 'favored' is actually just like a sequence number for the order of eating. The Daughter of Gluttony just has targets waiting to be eaten, digested, and absorbed, so she postponed Xin Junmao."

"What a principled creature, truly." Zhao Jing clicked her tongue and secretly gritted her teeth. Facing a situation where others were in imminent danger but she was helpless made her feel an anger toward her own incompetence. Zhao Jing also had her own sense of duty and justice, which made her feel pained and sorrowful.

"Try asking a few more questions; I don't know if he can still answer them now," She Zi'an said to Zhao Jing.

Zhao Jing nodded silently, placed the Comb back on the desk, and joined She Zi'an in questioning the dazed Xin Junmao.

Ten-plus minutes later, She Zi'an and Zhao Jing left the Xin residence, got into their car, and headed straight for the current location of the Tiger Team to rendezvous with He Jia'an and the others.

"Captain, how did the questioning go?" In the car, one of She Zi'an's team members asked him.

She Zi'an said with a heavy expression, "It's a big deal. The Hell Concert incident may need to be investigated in conjunction with the Murder by Jumping onto Tracks incident. These two incidents have developed a vague connection because of Xin Junmao's existence." Afterward, he explained his and Zhao Jing's investigative findings to the team members and stated his own analysis and views.

This Abnormal incident actually involved two Alien Gods at once; the team members only felt a headache coming on.

"Don't panic." She Zi'an snorted through his nose and comforted the team members who had suddenly become gloomy, "The problem is huge, but panicking is useless..."

"Maomao, what did you talk about with those two Enforcers just now?" Xin's mother walked into Xin Junmao's room holding a spatula. She saw her son sitting silently in front of the windowsill with his back to her, and she couldn't help but sigh inwardly. She then glanced at the desk and noticed the Comb that had been held in Zhao Jing's hand.

Xin's mother picked up the Comb and looked at it curiously, thinking it was beautiful. She couldn't help but ask Xin Junmao again, "Maomao, where did you get this comb? It looks quite expensive."

Xin Junmao did not speak, and Xin's mother did not press him further. She looked at the comb in her hand and then at Xin Junmao, lost in thought.

Xin's mother put the comb down and quietly exited the room. Just as she was about to close the door, she heard Xin Junmao suddenly speak, saying, "Rented."

Xin's mother was stunned for a moment. Because Xin Junmao spoke too briefly, and she had never heard of rented combs, she didn't understand what he meant for a moment, thinking her son had said "going out," so she retreated from the room, feeling somewhat dejected.

After Xin's mother left, Xin Junmao slowly turned his head. His lifeless eyes looked at the Comb on the table that had been picked up and put down by many people today, and he slowly reached out his hand again, as if his body's survival instinct was driving him to touch that comb.

The moment he grasped the Comb in his hand, Xin Junmao felt as if he had been struck by lightning. His whole body shook, his vision went black, and he fainted completely onto the floor. But even though he had collapsed, his hand still did not forget to tightly grip the Comb, as if the comb were the life-saving rope for him to escape the abyss.

Color returned to Xin Junmao's face. In his unconsciousness, he gasped for air, his brows tightly locked, like an unfortunate person who had just escaped drowning. Cold sweat soaked his entire body, and the muscles in his limbs were tensed tightly, until a fair hand with a thumb ring of prayer beads was gently placed on Xin Junmao's hand, and only then did Xin Junmao's tense body and spirit relax.

That fair hand gently stroked Xin Junmao's face and his hair, which was sticking up from sleep, then took the Comb from Xin Junmao's hand and combed his hair gently and meticulously, slowly smoothing out every tangle...

He Jia'an and the other Tiger Team members personally saw off Li Jiahong and his daughter at the hotel entrance. Watching them board the bus and leave, they then received the news that the Snake Team had important intelligence to report and needed to meet and discuss.

Thus, the two groups met at the entrance of the Black Rose Hotel, and nine people squeezed into a van.

"What? The Hell Concert actually has a connection to the Daughter of Gluttony?" Upon hearing the news, the four members of the Tiger Team also let out a gasp of shock, as if the sky had fallen.

Hearing this, Bu Gaojun bit his nails anxiously and said, "If the Daughter of Gluttony was also at the scene, then where would she have been at that time?"

"If Xin Junmao, who snuck into the Citizen Sports Center last night, was still normal, then the Daughter of Gluttony appeared during the time Xin Junmao snuck into the Citizen Sports Center, and it was also at that time that she marked Xin Junmao." Li Yingqi glanced at him, suppressing her inner anxiety, and kept her analysis calm, "In other words, wherever Xin Junmao was hiding at that time, that is where the Daughter of Gluttony was."

"Do we have to go back and re-examine the concert scene?" Two members of the Snake Team patted their foreheads in frustration; this was not an easy task.

Just as everyone was looking troubled, a fair hand was raised weakly. Everyone's gaze subconsciously looked over, and they saw Yu Lianyun smile reluctantly and answer, "I think I might know where they were hiding last night."