Chapter 66: Sixty-four: Seeking Help (Two-in-One)

Sixty-four: Seeking Help (Two-in-One)

Zhang Xiaoxiao was like a lone boat sailing on a vast, black ocean; she did not know if the unknown shore ahead was a bottomless abyss or a desolate island of despair, nor could she see any light of hope.

She clutched her schoolbag, walking trembling through the surging crowd, yet she could not feel a shred of safety or warmth.

She had thought about looking for her college friends, but her friends were also locals of Cuizhu City; who could know if her friends might be hiding an unknown side of themselves? What if their ancestors were the people from that fishing village back then, and she was one of them too?

Thinking of this, Zhang Xiaoxiao stopped her overly malicious speculation; if they were all just ordinary people minding their own business, then she should even less tell them about this dangerous discovery—the more one knew about those things, the easier it was to step toward death.

"Who else can I turn to for help?" Zhang Xiaoxiao couldn't help but think. She dared not seek out the Enforcers, because the Enforcers were just like her; in front of those things, they were nothing more than a group of ordinary people.

Those people in black?

Zhang Xiaoxiao remembered the day she was brought into the Enforcer Security Bureau, those people in black who had suddenly taken over the Enforcers' interrogation work. Those people did not seem unfamiliar with Abnormal things; perhaps they could bring her some protection.

In a pitch-black, cold, desperate situation, even a dying spark was as warm as the sun.

"Yes, I should go find them. I'll go right now and find the Enforcer captain who interrogated me at that time; he will know how to contact those people." A desire to survive ignited in Zhang Xiaoxiao's heart, and she ran, chasing that faint spark that could be snuffed out by the night at any moment.

……

A sumptuous dinner: blanched fresh shrimp, spicy crab, seafood in sauce... everything was what Xin Junmao usually loved to eat most. To help her child regain his spirits, Mother Xin had specially prepared a feast for him.

After being busy all day, Father Xin returned home and moved his treasured Volcano Tonic Wine out from the depths of the home liquor cabinet, taking out three small white-liquor cups; the setup seemed to be intended for their family of three to drink together tonight.

Xin Junmao's pale face was topped with a pair of dark circles, his lips withered as if his body had been hollowed out. He looked at the table of food; although he clearly smelled the aroma of the dishes, his eyes were filled with nothing but rotting, festering food and biological viscera, and his stomach churned violently.

His kind-smiling mother peeled a whole large shrimp and handed it to him, but in his eyes, it was a purple-black, pulsating segment of biological intestine, with black, foul liquid continuously dripping from the cross-sections at both ends.

Xin Junmao's lips twitched, and he forcibly suppressed his retching. He accepted his mother's gesture, then closed his tear-filled eyes and stuffed that thing he couldn't bear to look at into his mouth.

It was clearly so delicious, but his brain made him imagine that active biological intestine writhing and being chewed in his mouth. In an instant, no matter how delicious the food was, it became tasteless, even a bit disgusting.

Just as he had said before, his current "eyes" were not his own eyes; the thing inside the Comb had replaced his eyes, letting him see things that did not exist in this dimension.

If there existed an alternative dimension where everything was the opposite of the current world environment—such as fresh and delicious corresponding to rotten and foul, wealth corresponding to poverty—then everything beautiful he possessed now was, in his eyes, despairingly ugly.

Xin Junmao felt he was going crazy. He thought to himself, if every time he realized a wish, one of his senses had to be replaced, then when all five senses were replaced, which side of the world would he actually be living on?

He felt a trace of regret for his rash actions, but his reason quickly told him that he hadn't actually done anything wrong.

If the existence inside that Comb could protect the safety of his family, then sacrificing his own eyes was not a particularly large price to pay.

Xin Junmao had already recalled everything that happened at the concert that night. He had been attracted by the special charm exuded by that woman in the qipao and had followed her underground, arriving in a magnificent underground kingdom.

He saw people living underground one by one, wearing uniform gray clothing, with pale, lifeless faces, like walking corpses. Only when they saw the woman in the qipao arrive would they suddenly glow with radiance, kneeling to her with flushed faces, while coldly staring at him as he followed behind her.

In Xin Junmao's memory, the face of the woman in the qipao was blurry, yet even so, he still felt that she was a stunningly beautiful woman.

He only felt that when he was being stared at fiercely by those believers of the woman in the qipao at the time, he was so proud and smug. Just like that, he followed the woman in the qipao all the way into a white stone gate over ten meters high, with several believers living underground pushing the door open to clear the path for them, arriving inside the woman's palace.

In that magnificent palace carved with strange runes and evil patterns, Xin Junmao saw several withered "corpses" crawling out from every corner of the palace. Some ran stumbling, some crawled forward on their knees, and some simply dragged their paralyzed bodies as they crawled toward them with difficulty.

When they got closer, Xin Junmao realized that these corpses were actually living people, only their bodies were tattered and incomplete; countless bite marks and gaps in their flesh covered their entire bodies, and parts of the organs and limbs that should have been on their bodies were missing in uneven sizes.

They were like food wasted by a picky child, with only the parts they liked or were interested in eaten and hollowed out, while the remaining parts were completely ignored.

Even though his mind had been bewitched by the magic of the woman in the qipao, the Xin Junmao of that time could still realize that the woman currently surrounded by a group of disabled freaks was that picky "child."

At the time, Xin Junmao thought of his own pathetic end. He realized that when he arrived at this palace, he would likely become the woman's meal, and after being picked over and having parts of his body eaten, he would also become one of these freaks, a fanatical, stupid dog longing for its master to eat it.

His heart at that time was filled with panic and excitement; the contradictory psychology of wanting to run away and having expectations made his reason nearly collapse.

Fortunately, the woman in the qipao seemed to have no intention of enjoying him for the time being. She just led Xin Junmao past those "beasts" with their exposed white flesh, and after passing through a peculiar, winding corridor, arrived at the cafeteria restaurant she was so proud of.

At a command from the woman in the qipao, one by one, eyeless humanoid creatures with bloody, flesh-mangled faces and exposed teeth pushed food carts in, uttering strange, incomprehensible whispers, their limbs moving in stiff and weird ways, their long, claw-like hands opening every delicacy hidden under the pot lids.

Watching those carefully trimmed corpses come into view, Xin Junmao did not understand why he had been so frantically excited at the time, even though now, just recalling a bit of that memory pushed him to the verge of collapse from fear.

Thinking of that woman in the qipao smiling at him with a blood-stained mouth while elegantly enjoying her dinner, he now felt he could no longer look directly at any fresh meat or bright red colors.

Xin Junmao's memories of that time were sometimes too blurry and fragmented, to the point that he couldn't even remember what the woman in the qipao had said to him. He only remembered the last sentence: "She will come to find him again." Afterward, she had those blood-covered people send him away from the palace, and in the blink of an eye, he returned to the human world on the surface, returning home in a state of Lost Soul.

Subsequently, a man and a woman of unknown origin came to his home, asking him questions about the woman in the qipao while he was in a state of Lost Soul. Unfortunately, his brain was too chaotic at the time, and that pair did not get much useful information from the "stupid him" before leaving in a hurry.

Although Xin Junmao did not know the identities of those two, he vaguely remembered them discussing the topic of the "Daughter of Gluttony" seriously, and even saying that because he had been lured by the "Daughter of Gluttony," he could not avoid the fate of becoming the "Daughter of Gluttony's" food. Only then did he know what kind of creature that woman, who treated corpses like fine dining like an elegant aristocrat, actually was.

The Daughter of Gluttony was too dangerous; Xin Junmao did not think he, an ordinary person, had the ability to resist. All he could think of was relying on the power of the Comb to protect himself and his family.

But this was far from enough; the power of the Comb was limited. If the Daughter of Gluttony refused to let him go, he would indeed be unable to escape death in the end, and it was very likely he would implicate his family.

Xin Junmao did not want to die, and he even less wanted his family to be hurt. He wanted to find the man and woman who had come to see him during the day; perhaps they were the Xuanmi Group from the Urban Legends of the Shenzhou Region, who specialized in solving such cases and possessed the method to save his life.

After eating the most difficult dinner of his life, Xin Junmao recovered a bit of energy, changed his clothes, and went out again. He was going to find that man and woman now; although he did not know where their temporary residence was, he knew the place they would definitely go.

As long as he waited for the rabbit, they would definitely appear!

……

"You want to find Captain Huang Cheng?" At the entrance of the Enforcer Security Bureau, Zhang Xiaoxiao stopped a high-ranking Enforcer with a big face and stated her purpose. The big-faced Enforcer looked at her suspiciously and asked, "What business do you have with him?"

"I want to ask him a few very important questions, it's a very urgent matter!" Zhang Xiaoxiao said earnestly.

The big-faced Enforcer stared at Zhang Xiaoxiao with a frown. Because the female assassin jumping onto the tracks incident had caused such a stir, and Zhang Xiaoxiao had been brought to the Enforcer Security Bureau as a suspect at the time, not much time had passed, so he still had an impression of her. He shook his head and said, "If you are looking for Captain Huang, he is not here, because he was injured in a mission a few days ago and is now recuperating at home."

Zhang Xiaoxiao was shocked to hear that Huang Cheng was actually injured and on leave, and she pressed, "Then when will he be back? Will he be back today?"

The big-faced Enforcer was somewhat amused: "Girl, it takes a hundred days to recover from broken bones and tendons. When have you ever heard of an injured Enforcer on leave running back to work just a few days after starting their leave?"

After speaking, the big-faced Enforcer pondered for a moment and replied, "As for when he will be back, I don't know either. It is said that the higher-ups approved a very long paid leave for him; perhaps he will just give up his job, who knows..."

Before the big-faced Enforcer could finish, Zhang Xiaoxiao couldn't help but grab his arm and begged, "Please, tell me where he lives? I really have an urgent matter to find him."

"I can't give that out." Hearing this, the big-faced Enforcer refused with a firm attitude, but just as Zhang Xiaoxiao was about to get anxious, he changed his tone, "However, I can help you contact him."

"Then I'll leave it to you." Zhang Xiaoxiao wanted to kneel to him, but the big-faced Enforcer's expression changed instantly, and he hurriedly helped her up.

The big-faced Enforcer frowned tightly; he was now a bit curious about what kind of urgent matter Zhang Xiaoxiao had that she absolutely had to contact Captain Huang Cheng. He took out his phone and, before dialing, quietly turned on the phone's call recording function, and only then helped Zhang Xiaoxiao dial Huang Cheng's number.

Half a minute after the call was dialed, the other side answered, and a drunken voice asked: "Hello, Wei, what is it? Do you miss your daddy?"

"Dabaigui, aren't you afraid I'll kill you when you get back? You have no respect for your elders." Hearing this, the big-faced Enforcer immediately retorted fiercely to Huang Cheng, who was drowning his sorrows in alcohol. After hearing a burst of laughter from Huang Cheng, he said, "Do you remember the girl you interrogated that day? She says she has something to find you for. Tsk, you bastard, you didn't do anything, did you?"

"Get lost, you old fool, give the phone to that girl!" Huang Cheng cursed, and then Huang Cheng's nervous explanation came through the phone, seemingly apologizing to his wife who had heard the foul language.

The big-faced Enforcer chuckled, then lent his phone to Zhang Xiaoxiao, allowing her to go to a deserted corner he designated to talk to Huang Cheng as she pleased.

"Hello, is this Captain Huang?" Zhang Xiaoxiao arrived at the corridor on the west side of the Security Bureau building and asked only after confirming there was no one around.

"It's me." Hearing that it was indeed Zhang Xiaoxiao's voice, Huang Cheng also seemed to recall some terrifying matter, his drunkenness instantly fading by more than half, and much of his tipsiness vanished. "What do you want?"

Zhang Xiaoxiao took another look around to confirm, then asked in a low voice: "Captain Huang, do you have a means of communication to contact that group of men in black?"

Upon hearing this, Huang Cheng's voice became even more solemn and serious: "What do you want with them?"

"I suddenly remembered there was something I hadn't finished telling them, something very important!" Zhang Xiaoxiao said.

Huang Cheng's voice became even heavier: "What important matter?" He was still questioning, and had not given a direct answer the entire time.

Zhang Xiaoxiao gritted her teeth and said: "This matter is too serious, so serious that I dare not tell you over the phone; I must see those men in black before I dare to speak."

Huang Cheng pondered for a moment and said: "If you don't tell me the truth, I cannot judge whether I should introduce you to those men in black."

Driven to this point, Zhang Xiaoxiao could only bite the bullet and explain: "I have discovered documentary evidence regarding the forces behind the female assassin."