Chapter 370: with translation of chapter title

At eight in the morning, we were both woken by a sharp, high-pitched scream, and when we rubbed our sleepy eyes and got out of bed, we saw Chen Mo storming out of the room with a dark face.

"Good morning..." Pangzi had just stretched when I heard a bang, and then I saw Chen Mo kick Pangzi.

I hadn't even figured out what was happening when a figure flashed, the scene shifted instantly—first Pangzi was kicked onto the bed, then Chen Mo quickly scrambled onto the big bed, straddling Pangzi and raining pink fists down on him.

"You dead fatty, tell me, what did you do to me while I was unconscious last night?" Chen Mo shouted while punching, eyes blazing as she demanded of Pangzi: "Do you really think I'm easy to bully? First you stripped naked like a naked pig and hugged me, second you kissed me, third you even dared to bring me to a hotel to get a room."

Seeing Chen Mo's scolding grow fiercer and Pangzi's explanations falling on deaf ears, the two launched into a full-blown battle on the bed. I could only adopt an "out of sight, out of mind" attitude, rinsed my mouth, washed my face, and went downstairs to buy youtiao and soy milk.

As I was drinking soy milk and holding a youtiao, re-entering the hotel, the sight before me was so shocking that I spat out the soy milk I had just swallowed.

It was still that white Simmons big bed, the protagonists still a fatty and a policewoman, only the balance of power had reversed, with the fatty now in the dominant position.

Pangzi's 150‑pound weight pressed down on Chen Mo like a dead weight, his two big hands pinning each of her hands to one side of the headboard, matching his half‑crouched pose; Chen Mo's red‑eyed, wronged expression made it a living scene… a beauty defiled by a beast, unwilling to suffer humiliation.

"I can't take it, I can't take it, looks like I need to go wash my eyes." I covered my eyes, shook my head, and headed to the restroom. Actually, I'd eaten too much breakfast and needed to relieve myself.

But to Pangzi it sounded different—he thought I'd misunderstood him, his face flushed, and he hurriedly waved his hands, explaining to me: "Holy shit, Hai Sheng, it's absolutely not what you imagine."

At that moment, the disadvantaged Chen Mo seized the chance to counterattack, shoving the Pangzi who was on top back down and raining another heavy beating on him.

Next, I heard the crackling of their fight from the toilet; after a while, when I came out, I saw Pangzi sitting on the indoor sofa, his face bruised and swollen.

Chen Mo on the bed had lost her usual heroic aura, her eyes red, head bowed as she whispered sobs, looking more like a wronged girl next door.

To be honest, I couldn't make sense of what was going on—the side that got beaten black and blue didn't cry, while the unscathed victor burst into tears.

"Damn it, why are you crying? It's me who's hurting, not you," the swollen‑faced Pangzi slurred, unintentionally slipping into a Shanghainese accent.

But when Chen Mo heard Pangzi's words, she didn't stop her tears; instead, she cried even harder.

A stalwart heroine reduced to tears like pear blossoms in rain, I couldn't help but sit beside Pangzi, nudge him with my elbow, and whisper softly: "Hey, Pangzi, could it really be that you…"

"She she she, she's your sister, your lordship I didn't do anything!" Pangzi rubbed his sore face, glaring with copper-bell-sized bull eyes, full of killing intent, staring at me.

"I didn't do anything, it's just that she's slow-witted and thinks I did something to her yesterday, you know, I slept with you last night." Pangzi blinked innocently, then pleaded: "Hey, shouldn't you go help me explain?"

I rolled my eyes, you're the one who embraced her, you're the one who kissed her, it's none of my business; if anyone needs to explain, it's you yourself.

"Don't you want to know why she lost her soul last night? Don't you want to know how that female corpse died? Don't you want to figure out what's going on?" Pangzi looked up at the sky, with an attitude of "I don't care, neither do you."

"You damned fatty, you're ruthless..." I glared fiercely at this dead-pig-not-afraid-of-boiling-water fatty, then I also had to steel myself to go explain to Chen Mo.

Fortunately, Chen Mo is not unreasonable. She didn't buy Pangzi's words, only because he was truly lewd. Older brother's character is still decent; under my patient explanation, Chen Mo finally understood what happened, patting her small chest and letting out a sigh of relief.

"Alright, can you tell me what you saw when you smelled that flower scent in the alley last night?" I began to ask Chen Mo about her experience when she fainted; in my view, what Chen Mo and I saw in the illusion must be different, otherwise she wouldn't have nearly lost her soul.

When an ordinary person encounters this situation, they are surely overwhelmed by immense fright, or rather, fear arises deep in the soul, causing body and soul to separate.

Sure enough, after I posed that question, Chen Mo let out a sharp scream, her face turning deathly pale with terror, shaking her head repeatedly, afraid to say anything.

Later, I handed her a cup of water, helped her calm her frightened heart, and then Chen Mo recounted last night's experience.

After smelling that floral scent, Chen Mo's consciousness entered an unprecedented environment; at first, what Chen Mo saw was exactly the same as what I saw: a green meadow filled with birdsong and floral fragrance, where a small golden-yellow flower bloomed.

As she slowly approached that golden-yellow flower, the scene before her eyes shifted like rippling water, and the yellow flower instantly turned into a head-with-two-legs monster that kept pulling her outward.

Ahead lay a small pool filled with blood, the blood boiling like hot water, rolling; the monster was dragging her toward that very pool. She wanted to struggle, to break free from the monster's grasp, but she found her limbs weak, her whole body powerless. The monster's hands were like two giant pincers, clamping down on her fiercely; no matter how hard she struggled, she couldn't break free even a bit.

At that moment, countless poisonous snakes and leeches surged up from the blood pool; the snakes coiled around Chen Mo's arms, straining with their long fangs to bite her arms viciously, while the leeches writhed, tearing open her blood vessels and greedily sucking her blood.

This scene made even me and Pangzi, the two onlookers, feel our scalps tingle and goosebumps rise all over; let alone Chen Mo, the protagonist tormented in the illusion—what kind of feeling must she have?

Afterwards, Chen Mo was frightened into fainting by that horrifying scene; upon waking, she found herself lying on a strange bed. Moreover, the bed had some men's underwear on it… and at the head of the bed was a photo of us, Wang Da Pang (Big Fat Wang), shirtless, showing off his little muscles.

I… no wonder Chen Mo would be so angry upon waking; if any woman woke up to find herself on a strange bed, reached out and touched a stranger's men's underwear, then turned her head in fright and saw a lewd stranger's big headshot, I think any woman would be unable to calm down and think clearly for a while.

As I said this, Chen Mo's pale face from recalling the memory flushed with a blush; when I turned my head and looked speechlessly at Pangzi, he quickly gave an embarrassed grin and explained: "Well, I've been exhausted these past few days, didn't have time to tidy up my clothes…"

"Cough cough, let's continue, stop dwelling on me, you guys keep discussing the case." Seeing the room's atmosphere turn odd, Pangzi hastily gave an embarrassed laugh and changed the subject.

I gave him a white-eyed look, stopped paying attention to him, lowered my head and sorted out this tangled context. Clearly, what Chen Mo experienced in the illusion is fundamentally different from what we encountered; of course, I was startled awake by Little Fat before I could even touch that golden-yellow flower.

Nevertheless, after some deliberation, I have already deduced how this serpent infant kills, and I also understand why that female corpse in the alley died so strangely—though dead, her body bears not a single wound.

This serpent infant first lures people into a beautiful illusion; then, when the victim is off guard, it manipulates the illusion to shift abruptly, turning paradise into hell, followed by various eerie torments that oppress the mind.

It is well known that when a person faces fear, and that fear exceeds their psychological tolerance, their body and mind become numb, because excessive fear causes the soul to separate from the body. However, adults and children differ: children's souls are still growing, mingling with the body, so children are prone to losing their souls from fright.

But adults… their bodies and souls have been tempered by time, their mental resilience far surpassing that of children. To frighten an adult into losing their soul, that fear truly isn't ordinary.

The context of the whole incident is now clear; the method of killing has been found, and through it we can easily infer what the serpent infant uses to kill. It bewilders ordinary people with illusions, then literally scares them to death; the corpse remains intact, but the soul's whereabouts are unknown. Evidently, it was taken away by the serpent infant.

But at this moment, I couldn't help but arise another doubt in my heart.

Why does it take the souls of the living, and what is its purpose in taking them? I must say, this is a question worth investigating deeply; perhaps once the answer surfaces, the truth will not be far off.

"The female corpse in the alley is already the tenth body our police have discovered in this period; the previous nine all died the same way—mysteriously, with not a trace of injury anywhere on their bodies."

"What are you saying? Even the nine corpses died the same way!" Chen Mo's words made me involuntarily exclaim.

Chen Mo nodded and said, "Indeed, before that female corpse in the alley, there were nine others who died the same way, their facial features all twisted from fright in unison, with no fatal wounds on their bodies. Moreover, after checking the records, we found that these ten people had no connections whatsoever, and each came from a different social stratum—there were high-ranking officials, gangster thugs, and even corporate clerks."

"No, they must be connected; you just haven't noticed." I firmly rejected Chen Mo's words, pondered for a moment, and asked her: "Could you pull out the files on these deceased? I want to take a look."

When I said that, I was actually just hoping for a try. After all, I'm not an insider in the police and have no authority to look through those files.

Who would have thought that upon hearing my words, Chen Mo would answer without hesitation, "Okay," she said, and immediately organized the victims' data and sent it over, doing it swiftly and without any delay.

"Damn it, you little girl, you agreed so readily—there can't be a conspiracy, right?" Pangzi rubbed his swollen cheek, watching Chen Mo warily.

Chen Mo puffed her cheeks, glared fiercely at Pangzi, then turned to explain to me, too lazy to bother with Pangzi.

"I just feel this case is beyond our police's capabilities, perhaps beyond what ordinary people can comprehend. Dragging it out like this is no good for us police, and it seriously endangers the personal and property safety of Aomen's citizens. Rather than that, we should bring it out and study it with you, hoping to solve the case together as soon as possible."

Speaking of this, Chen Mo seemed to recall something, hesitated for a long time before telling me: "I know you mainlanders also have some very special and secretive departments, filled with religious experts and specially trained professionals; we in Aomen have them too, but……"

"But what?" I and Pangzi asked in unison, eyes full of expectation as we looked at her.

"Just……" Chen Mo smiled charmingly and said: "I don't think that bunch who spend all day just chanting scriptures can get involved in this case."

Me: ……

After a brief rest, Chen Mo left; before leaving, she took advantage of Pangzi's inattention and kicked him hard. Pangzi jumped up, cursing: "Damn it, Hai Sheng already explained everything to you—I didn't do anything to you last night, why are you still beating me?"

Pangzi's words again provoked a fierce glare from Chen Mo.

"You think you can get away with taking advantage of me just like that?" Chen Mo gritted her teeth, enunciating each word: "I'm telling you, this isn't over." After saying that, she flicked her head and pushed the door open.

With a bang, the door was shut casually; inside the room, I and Pangzi looked at each other, both silent for a long while.

Seeing Pangzi's expression grow increasingly dejected, I couldn't help but pat his shoulder and comfort him: "Pang Ge, forget it; everyone says women are unreasonable, so for the sake of solving the case, just bear with it."

Pangzi lowered his head, let out a soft sigh, his expression dejected, and said: "I've suffered a loss, damn it, I've suffered a loss. If I had known, I would have done something yesterday. Now it's fine, even if I don't do anything, I'm being treated like a beast." Pangzi slammed his thigh hard, very unwilling, and said: "Damn this loss, damn it, I've suffered a loss."

Me: ……