Chapter 7: Destination

After leaving the teahouse, both Luo Qi and Du Zhengyi were very silent. When he was at school, he felt that the investigation should be quite simple; perhaps it was just some careless or irresponsible Mage who had been witnessed by humans while using their abilities. They would only need to follow the standard procedure to understand the situation, record it in a detailed report, and submit it, and that would be the end of it.

But now it was different. Judging by what Guan Xinyue said, someone had crossed the line.

Sometimes, scum would appear among Mages, taking pleasure in teasing or even torturing humans. Luo Qi did not know how to describe them; a portion of them were likely equivalent to perverts among humans, while others had ulterior motives. And among those acts of torturing humans, nothing was more excessive than interfering with human minds. Humans had no ability to actively engage in Mind Fusion; they could see this world, yet at the same time, they were as blind as if they were sightless. They might be immersed in frustration and fear in extreme agony, yet they could not see where the source lay at all.

The mainstream of Mage society despised such behavior, and there were regulatory measures in place; the regulatory measures targeting Mages with the ability of Mind Control were even particularly severe. However, these problems, much like human crime, could never be completely eradicated.

Later, they asked Guan Xinyue for some fragmented details in detail. By the time they left the teahouse, it was already nearly nine o'clock in the evening. Although Luo Qi really wanted to go and see the old country house Guan Xinyue mentioned immediately, the time was truly too late, and Du Zhengyi also seemed a bit tired, his energy clearly lacking. As an assistant team member, he really did not dare to be too presumptuous in front of the main force. Besides, he was also starving.

They made do with a dinner at Burger King. Luo Qi felt that Du Zhengyi either had never eaten fast food or was not used to it, as he ate very slowly. Luo Qi had finished eating long ago and was staring at Du Zhengyi while biting on a straw, suddenly realizing that Du Zhengyi was eating slowly because his mental state was too poor.

He thought for a moment and asked hesitantly, "Are you running out of power?"

Du Zhengyi only raised his eyes to look at him, automatically ignoring his divine remark, and soon returned to standby mode.

Luo Qi carefully sized him up, ignoring the halos on Du Zhengyi, and only then thought that this person had once escaped death three years ago. Luo Qi remembered that day very clearly; his father's night shift had been dragged into a day shift, and he did not return home exhausted until the evening of the next day. Many of the injuries a Mage could suffer were irreversible. If a Mage had once been on the verge of death and it had taken such great effort from a Doctor to barely save him, it was almost impossible not to be left with terrible sequelae. He did not know what was wrong with Du Zhengyi's body; it would be good if Du Zhengyi could take the initiative to say so, that way he could pay attention. After all, looking at the current situation, the two of them would likely be tied together for a long time.

Sensing his gaze, Du Zhengyi raised his head again and looked at him inquiringly.

Luo Qi coughed awkwardly; he was embarrassed to ask directly about his body. Firstly, this was privacy after all, and his father had been ordered to keep it confidential regarding that incident back then—although his father was a thoroughly loose-lipped person and had talked about it at the dinner table as soon as he got home. Secondly, he also did not want to say that his father was his attending Doctor, as that would make it seem like he could bask in some reflected glory.

He thought for a moment and turned his attention back to the current matter. "Guan Xinyue said her Gufu had a lover; I think this is a key point. Murder is either a crime of passion or a vendetta. Since there was indeed a motive, her Gugu might not have died of a sudden illness. Besides, that experience Guan Xinyue had later, being able to make her see a scene that could not possibly exist—only a Mage could do that. Connecting the two events, no matter how I think about it, it feels like her Gufu was entangled with a Mage lover."

Du Zhengyi's expression looked a bit like he had a toothache. "It certainly doesn't sound like a warm love story."

"Why are you being so indifferent? You have no sympathy, boss," Luo Qi protested.

Du Zhengyi snorted. "I just hope it's not such a troublesome matter. Do you want to provoke a crazy old Mage woman?"

Luo Qi shivered and hurriedly shook his head.

Du Zhengyi put down the chicken strips in his hand and wiped his hands, frowning. "And it also doesn't quite make sense. If there really were such a crazy woman, it would indeed be very simple for her to deal with a heart patient; perhaps being slightly proficient in Mind Control would be enough. Then, after murdering her rival, she could live happily ever after with her lover. Why would the lover die in a fire a year later? What exactly was the change in between?"

Luo Qi had already thought of this point and opened his mouth to analyze it. "Guan Xinyue's grandfather has always insisted that his son-in-law killed his daughter; he definitely wanted to avenge her. Thinking it over from Guan Xinyue's words, it is not hard to see that the old man's suspicion of murdering his wife's ex-husband is quite high. Since he had the ability to kill, then finding a way to kill one more person wouldn't be difficult, right? He killed his wife's ex-husband and was still able to live safely with his wife's family for decades; his intelligence level must not be low, and his emotional intelligence is also quite high. So this time, he spent a year preparing and finally found an opportunity to kill his son-in-law. After he had his great revenge, looking back on his life, he had been moved by lust in his youth and harmed others, and in his old age, his family was broken and scattered, leaving him with nothing but a vast, white, clean expanse. In the end, he was depressed and died of alcoholism."

When he said this, his eyes were bright, his mind immersed in it, and he felt some emotion, deeply believing in his own speculation. "When the ex-son-in-law's mistress, that crazy witch, finally guessed that the old man had killed her lover, the old man was already dead. Her hatred was endless, and with no one to take revenge on, she had no choice but to torture the old man's granddaughter."

"But that granddaughter isn't even a real granddaughter," Du Zhengyi said. "You heard the subtext of that girl's words, right? She kept calling him Houye, which counts as acerbic; it shows there was no grandparent-grandchild affection between them. If that crazy woman wanted revenge, she should have taken it out on the old man's wife instead."

"A mistress is an outsider; how could she understand that clearly? Maybe she just reasoned according to common sense, thinking that grandchildren are the old man's lifeline." Luo Qi immediately thought of the answer.

Du Zhengyi, however, laughed upon hearing this, lazily sizing up Luo Qi. "You say, with this talent of yours, it would be a waste not to be a storyteller. If you were a county magistrate, your territory would definitely have no unsolved cases. Out of 120 cases a year, you could probably solve 129 based on your imagination. I'll just ask you one question: does a Mage who wants to harm someone need to wait until that person goes to a specific place to start? If Guan Xinyue didn't return to the old house for ten years, could she not take revenge on her for ten years?"

Luo Qi was stumped; he thought for a while but could not come up with a satisfactory answer. "Then what do you think?"

"Maybe Guan Xinyue's Gugu just died of illness, her Gufu just died in an accident, and her Houye didn't do anything, just drank himself to death," Du Zhengyi said, but his expression was very subtle, and Luo Qi could not grasp his meaning.

"Then how do you explain the scene Guan Xinyue saw in the old house?"

Du Zhengyi shrugged. "Just like you said, maybe it's the same situation your sister encountered—ran into a ghost."

"Damn!" Luo Qi said, only realizing he had said it out loud. He blinked slowly and pretended to be calm as he looked at Du Zhengyi. "Just now, a ghost seemed to want to express its opinion through my mouth."

"Ha-ha." Du Zhengyi laughed dryly. "Do you need me, your brother, to Summon Lightning and shock it out of you?"

Luo Qi laughed, suddenly having a thought. "Is Teacher Liu Li particularly good at Weather Control?"

"Yes." Although Du Zhengyi was surprised by the strangeness of his shifting imagination, he seemed used to him and had the patience to answer his completely irrelevant questions at any time.

Luo Qi nodded seriously and yawned half-heartedly. "Let's go, I'm sleepy."

Du Zhengyi sighed. "I really don't know if you're stupid or particularly good at changing the subject."

Luo Qi played dumb, standing up to walk out while asking him, "If there really is a Mage torturing that girl, will you be able to see the traces tomorrow?"

"Energy testing in an uncertain environment is not easy, especially after such a long time," Du Zhengyi said. "Let's see if we have any luck. Wait, aren't you my lucky charm? With you here, we'll definitely be able to detect energy residue tomorrow."

Luo Qi ignored his mockery. "If we really discover a Mage committing a crime, do we need to report it to the Supreme Committee? And then we just wait for them to send someone else to handle it?"

Du Zhengyi looked at him meaningfully. "Otherwise? Not report it? Wait for you to show off in front of the little beauty?"

Luo Qi's face felt a bit hot.

"That little sister's story of yours was told well. Are you particularly good at making up stories, or are you just particularly good at chatting when you see a beauty?" Du Zhengyi continued to tease him.

He said annoyedly, "Otherwise, you go next time."

"Don't," Du Zhengyi laughed. "I'm increasingly realizing your strengths; Teacher Liu Li has really shoved a master key into my hands."

Luo Qi was still a bit intimidated by him, so he didn't know how to retort for a moment. Actually, it was rare for him to do things seriously, and he had performed so well today; he was very satisfied with himself. However, he thought again that Du Zhengyi was an improper person by nature, so saying it like this was actually meant to praise him; he couldn't help but feel a little smug.

The two came to a hotel and opened a standard double room. After Du Zhengyi returned to the room to wash up, he closed his eyes to rest, and before long, he crawled into the quilt and fell asleep. Luo Qi couldn't sleep and was embarrassed to toss and turn too much, and it wasn't convenient to turn on the TV, so he took out his phone and randomly searched for the keywords he had obtained today. He searched and searched, only finding ghost stories, and in the end, between being scared and worried, his eyes were wide open in the middle of the night, feeling anxious for half the night.

At six o'clock in the morning, Luo Qi got up and went to check on Du Zhengyi, who had no movement. At seven o'clock, Luo Qi decided to go eat breakfast, and at eight o'clock sharp, he returned to the room, but Du Zhengyi was still motionless, huddled in the quilt. Only then did Luo Qi think something was wrong.

His first thought was that Du Zhengyi was the apple of the eye of the two Great Mages, Liu Li and Pei Shu. Even if he didn't expect himself to be able to truly help this apple of their eye with anything, if something happened to the apple of their eye and he didn't discover it in time, it would be a wonder if those two Great Mages didn't hack him to death. After this thought flashed by, he thought he should hurry and check Du Zhengyi's pulse and breathing.

Luo Qi racked his brains to recall all the medical knowledge his father had taught him, anxiously pulled back Du Zhengyi's quilt, and reached out to probe the carotid artery on Du Zhengyi's neck. His fingertips not only felt Du Zhengyi's warm skin and pulsating pulse, but his eardrums also received a huge impact.

Du Zhengyi "fucked" at him right then and there. Afterwards, every time Luo Qi thought of Du Zhengyi's unbearable and helpless voice, he felt awkward, even though it was only three words: "Luo Qi, you..."

At the time, he even had the presence of mind to think that he had actually defeated the most outstanding Mage of his age group; Du Zhengyi clearly couldn't handle him anymore.

Of course, once the furious Du Zhengyi caught his breath, he scolded him to pieces, plus things like "I won't get up until eleven o'clock even if I die, get out," and so on, blah blah.

Luo Qi retreated to his own bed, completely wilted. The cleverness he had mustered over the past two days dissipated entirely. Who could have thought that Du Zhengyi was actually just sleepy? Looking at his serious and thoughtful appearance before, he had thought they would kill their way to the country house early in the morning—at the latest by six o'clock. Who the hell could have thought that such a legendary god like Du Zhengyi was no different from a foolish youth, capable of sleeping in even when his butt was on fire? The mental energy Luo Qi had rarely gathered receded like the tide, and he could no longer be energetic. Breaking the jar because it was already cracked, he hadn't slept well to begin with, and guarding a boss who wouldn't get out of bed, he was infected with sleepiness before long. By the time he woke up, it was already nearly twelve o'clock noon.

He had slept for too long and ended up with a headache. He climbed up with dull eyes, turned his head, and saw Du Zhengyi also wearing an expression of disgust from sleeping too much, sitting on the edge of his own bed to wake up.

Luo Qi no longer had any interest in rushing to do business. Books say that one drum of courage is followed by a second that is weaker, and a third that is exhausted; it was indeed so. The heroic complex ignited in Luo Qi by the girl in distress could no longer be formed after he had slept himself into a wreck. Dazed and confused, he followed Du Zhengyi. The two went out and found a nice restaurant to eat a meal first. By the time they finished eating, it was already past two o'clock. Du Zhengyi actually went to a bookstore and bought a pile of books, saying he wanted to understand human culture.

By this time, Luo Qi let him arrange things however he wanted. He flipped through books in the bookstore for a while, then suddenly remembered that Teacher Liu Li had left him a punishment assignment. When Du Zhengyi came to call him to leave, he dejectedly carried two books on the Analects and followed him.

This time they finally drove out of the city and, according to the address Guan Xinyue gave them, successfully found the village. It was called a country place, but it was actually not too far from the city; after leaving the city and going around a reservoir, they were almost there. It was evident that even if Guan Xinyue's Houye was attached to the leisurely lifestyle of the countryside, he still could not leave behind the various conveniences provided by the modern city.

It was exactly four-fifteen in the afternoon when they saw Qijia Youfang Village on a road sign. They drove into a village road lined with willow trees on both sides. It was not yet the season, so the willow branches were bare and leafless.

This day was considered a clear day, but the sky was gray and white, with not a hint of blue to be seen. Cold mist was vast and hazy, with old trees and bare branches reflecting the residual snow covered in coal ash. In the fields behind the trees, no crops could be seen, only yellow earth and residual snow.

This pastoral painting revealed an indescribable gloom and loneliness.

Luo Qi looked at the scenery before him, almost lacking the interest to even speak. He did not know how the old people in Guan Xinyue's family were willing to live in such a village. There was not even a ghost of a shadow on the country road. Du Zhengyi accelerated, and in the blink of an eye, they reached the end of the road. After a turn, the village appeared before their eyes. Dozens of bungalows and courtyards with almost identical layouts were arranged horizontally and vertically in a flat valley in front of the mountain forest. The height of all the houses was about the same, and the roofs were all flat, built for the convenience of drying crops. Looking out, among the dozens of flat roofs, only one roof had a bright red cross sticking out toward the sky.

Luo Qi, who had just gotten out of the car, opened his mouth in surprise. He looked at the scene before him, somewhat incredulous. "My god, is that... a Christian church? In the countryside? In the Chinese countryside?"

"Are you asking me?" Du Zhengyi had his hands in his trouser pockets, looking up in the same direction as him. "Then you might as well ask your own knees."

Luo Qi closed his mouth, remembering Du Zhengyi's lack of understanding of human life; there was really nothing to discuss with him in this regard. He looked again at that bright red cross, which was very eye-catching against the gray background of the winter countryside.

Du Zhengyi had already taken the lead in walking into the village, and Luo Qi hurriedly followed. Last night, Guan Xinyue had told them that her family's old house was very easy to find because the gates used by the people in the village were all green, four-paneled folding gates; when fully opened, they were wide enough for agricultural carts to pass through, while her family's gate was a two-paneled black wrought-iron gate, so one could distinguish it at a glance. There were not many households in the village, and it was not a difficult task to look at the gates of all the houses. The road in the village was very quiet, and no one bumped into the two outsiders, which saved them a lot of talk.

However, Luo Qi noticed that as soon as Du Zhengyi entered the village, he began walking north, as if he already knew the location of Guan Xinyue's old house. He asked Du Zhengyi out of curiosity, and the latter glanced at him sideways. "Guan Xinyue said it once; their house is on the north side of the village, near the woods. Do you only listen to the exciting parts when people talk?"

Luo Qi stuck out his tongue and looked up; the village church was right to the north.

Calling it a village church was actually a stretch; looking closely, he realized it was just a residential house. It seemed people were still living there normally; through the wide-open courtyard gate, one could see firewood stacked in the yard and a watchdog tied up. The red cross standing on the roof, when viewed up close, was actually a cheap plastic product, likely custom-ordered by the owner. Directly above the door, under the eaves, a large Chinese character was painted in red lacquer—"Love."

Luo Qi stood and watched for a long time, finding it amusing, and took out his phone to snap two photos. "This is interesting; a mix of local and foreign styles works wonders."

Du Zhengyi shook his head. "Even I can tell it's incongruous." After he finished speaking, he suddenly paused, raised his hand, and nudged Luo Qi. "Do you see a temple in front?"

Luo Qi turned back and sure enough saw that the eaves not far away were a bit strange; it wasn't a renovation of a typical residential house, but truly a small temple, with a string of colorful cloth strips hanging from the eaves inside, looking somewhat like prayer flags.

"This little village has quite an intense religious clash," Luo Qi said.

Du Zhengyi was also very interested in this, and the two quickened their pace and headed straight for the small temple. By this time, the daylight was already slightly dim, and the temple gate was tightly shut, with a small plaque hanging above it inscribed with the three characters "Jingtu Temple."

"Jingtu Temple," Du Zhengyi read aloud.

"Probably the Pure Land Sect; it's indeed very suitable for a countryside temple," Luo Qi said. Seeing that Du Zhengyi was interested, he felt like showing off and continued to explain to him. "The Pure Land Sect is a school of Buddhism in China. Once you enter the Pure Land Sect to practice, you don't need to understand Buddhist scriptures. If you want to achieve fruition, cross the sea of suffering, and ascend to the Western Paradise, you only need to chant the six characters 'Namo Amituofo' more often, and also practice releasing captive animals."

"That's a low threshold," Du Zhengyi commented after hearing this.

"Yeah," Luo Qi said, "that's why there are so many believers."

Du Zhengyi poked him.

"What?" Luo Qi said. "Think I'm making it up? I really like human culture."

"No, look at that."

Luo Qi turned around and saw at a glance the household sandwiched between the church and the temple, and he couldn't help but be stunned; those were clearly two black iron gates. When they had walked over just now, their attention had been entirely on the church and the temple, and they hadn't noticed the gate of this house in the middle at all, skipping right over it.

"Damn, there's a temple on the left and a church on the right; what kind of geomancy is this, for heaven's sake? When the Bodhisattva and Christ are bickering, isn't it happening right over their heads? It would be strange if it weren't haunted."

The two exchanged a look and walked back sheepishly.

An old-fashioned padlock hung on the iron gate. Du Zhengyi took the key Guan Xinyue had given him out of his pocket, tried it, and sure enough, the lock opened.

"This is really strange," Luo Qi muttered, unable to help but look left and right again in confusion. "This village only has one church and one temple. With such obvious landmarks, couldn't that girl have just said their house was between the church and the temple?"

Du Zhengyi did not speak; he also looked more or less perplexed, shook his head with an ambiguous expression, and reached out to tentatively push the pitch-black gate.