Chapter 39 The Sleeping Curse (3) The most urgent task is to find one...
After Xue Hong finished organizing the case files and handed them over to his colleagues, he left the police station and began his vacation.
He set off that evening, and in the afternoon he needed to buy some things, so he just wanted to grab a quick bite for lunch.
But he came out too late, and the nearby restaurants were all packed, so he decided to go to a fast food restaurant.
He used to not eat this kind of food. Older guys like him probably have a bit of a resistance to hamburgers and fried chicken, thinking they are junk food, a bit expensive, and that they are not used to them.
But Lu Jinzhao worked at a fast food restaurant and took him there a few times. He had to admit that there was a reason why young people loved to eat there, so he might eat there once or twice a month as a reward meal to maintain his youthful vitality as he entered old age.
At this time of day, the fast food restaurant was crowded. The floor-to-ceiling windows facing the street offered a clear view of the interior. A tall, thin boy wearing a hoodie sat by the window, facing the street, taking small bites of his chocolate sundae.
It was strange. The interior was brightly lit, decorated with cute dolls for the new event, and the walls by the window were covered with colorful and lively posters. The store was full of people having lunch, and the street outside was bustling with people. But the boy in the middle seemed to have been dug out of this liveliness, lonely and cold.
Xue Hong paused, changing his original plan to order takeout. He went into the fast food restaurant and sat down next to the boy.
"It's you, young student. How have you been lately?" Xue Hong said with a smile while ordering food. "Why did you come all this way to eat fast food here?"
Xie Tan pinched the silly-looking polar bear plush toy on the plate twice, and the toy's mouth opened and closed, making a "hello hello" sound.
"To buy a limited-edition silly toy for my troublesome neighbor."
Xue Hong, who was browsing the shopping page, raised an eyebrow and looked at his ice cream cup with the polar bear umbrella: "A kids' meal?"
Xie Tan took a bite of ice cream: "I paid him for running errands, but all he got was a doll."
As for why Lu Jinzhao didn't buy it himself, it's because it's the brand of the fast food restaurant where he used to work, which is considered a malicious competitor.
He's been going to the music theater with his club every night for the past few days and hasn't had time.
Xie Tan was also hoping to run into Xue Hong near Qilu Police Station, so he offered to buy it for him on his way.
After Xue Hong finished getting his meal, he smiled and said, "I haven't thanked you yet. Thanks to you, that case was solved early, and you even saved a few people before the murderer could get to it."
Xie Tan knew he was referring to the draft paper, which he had indeed deliberately left behind.
“Young people these days are really something. They’re not afraid of anything, even more so than my old buddies. If I had met you a few years earlier, I would have advised you to go to police academy.”
They sat side by side in front of the glass window, surrounded by tall buildings, people coming and going, seemingly different yet seemingly the same.
Xie Tan said, "Then your old colleagues are not suitable for Diqiu, this city... this world, there are many terrible things."
“The people of Diqiu are bold and have seen many strange and unusual things.” Xue Hong took out a small peach wood sword. “I didn’t believe in this stuff back then, but this little wooden sword a friend gave me has really come in handy. However, it hasn’t been as effective as it used to be in the last six months. Do these things have a lifespan? Should I get a new one?”
Instead of looking down on Xie Tan based on his age and position, turning the conversation into a boring exchange between an old policeman and a teenager, he assumed that Xie Tan must know things he didn't and asked Xie Tan for advice.
But Xie Tan didn't understand, and he couldn't just say anything. Who knew what trap Xue Hong was hiding in his words?
Xie Tan bluntly stated, "I don't understand these things."
Xue Hong never expected him to answer like that; he didn't seem like someone who knew nothing.
Xie Tan said lazily, "These all look like things for saving lives."
Xue Hong's heart sank. Didn't this mean that he wasn't interested in or understood anything about metaphysical matters related to saving people? Then what could he be interested in? Wasn't that obvious?
Xie Tan sensed his silence, then turned his head, his eyes under the hood glancing coldly at the old detective's left hand, making his probing clear: "One lesson is enough, why not enjoy your vacation?"
Xue Hong, who had seen many storms, was startled by this glance and felt a chill in his heart. How did he know?
His arm ached again, but he knew it was more of a psychological pain.
That was not his domain, a more chaotic and disorderly cruel world, where his experience was not very useful.
But he quickly adjusted his mindset: "Because this is my job, I get paid. As for vacations, what do you think of my taste?"
Xie Tan knew about his injury, his vacation, and must also know his destination. He cleverly made the probing overt, no longer beating around the bush.
Xie Tan gave a barely perceptible smile: "This is terrible."
Xue Hong smiled too. He knew he had chosen the right place, and their destination was the same: "Want a ride in my car?"
Xie Tan stared at him for a while, as if looking at a stubborn fool who insisted on courting death, but after just one glance, he calmly looked away.
He said, "Maybe we'll meet on the road."
"Are you going with your friends?" Xue Hong remembered that Lu Jinzhao and his friends also planned to go to the beach.
"It's a bit boring being alone," Xie Tan replied before leaving, pulling his hood up a little further.
If the speculations of the main characters on the forum are correct, the main characters will basically be present in this main storyline.
Xi Rui invited him to come along, but Xie Tan said he had already made plans. He didn't have classes and wasn't going to wait for the other members to finish their exams like Chang Mingai did; he would leave that night.
We'll meet eventually anyway.
He arrived a day or two early in order to try and obtain more clues.
But he didn't really have any hope. The Black Goat family had only shown a little trace, and they wouldn't be making a big show of themselves by standing all over the beach waiting for him to interact.
Moreover, he is an outsider with no connection to the family. Let alone family secrets, if the news of the abandoned young master being killed by him has already reached the family's ears, the main family may not care, but the collateral branches may not. They would be lucky if they didn't seek revenge.
Let's take it one step at a time.
In the evening, Xie Tan placed the polar bear doll in the decorative mailbox in front of his neighbor's house, packed his things, boarded a tour bus, and headed to Art Harbor.
Most of the other passengers had a lot of luggage, and he was one of the very few who traveled light, carrying only a small sports bag.
As the bus drove onto the bridge, it grew darker. Because they were leaving early, the bus would arrive at the hotel at the edge of the sunset in the early morning. Xie Tan scrolled through his phone for a while, then fell asleep by the window.
The further south you go, the more remote it becomes. The forest grows denser and darker along the coastline, with many abandoned graves.
On this one-way street, between the last two scenic spots, there is a newly built grave in the woods.
At night, the wind rustles through the leaves, like a flute playing a tune that carries away the notes, creating a desolate yet eerie atmosphere.
Fresh offerings were placed in front of the grave, and incense was burning. The tombstone had space for a portrait, but it was too large, like a mirror reflecting one's face. It was made of obsidian and had no photograph on it.
The soil wasn't used to cover it; the coffin was covered.
Two tall oil lamps were placed on the left and right sides, with strange shapes, like ram's horns surrounding the flames.
Two men in black cloaks stood before the grave in silence for a long time. The man spoke in an unusually hoarse voice: "You raised a good son. You went to great lengths to send him away, hoping he wouldn't get involved in family affairs. Do you know how hard it is to fool those old fogies? Wouldn't it be better to live a life of luxury and be a rich second-generation heir? Why did he have to get involved in things he shouldn't have?"
He fell silent again after speaking, then spoke again, his voice choked with emotion: "I wanted to leave but couldn't, yet he was unwilling to be ignored and excluded by his family, truly believing these to be truth and glory! He ended up being devoured by vengeful ghosts, and prophecies that had been dormant for decades suddenly began to come true again. We couldn't even hold a funeral for him; we could only hastily cremate and bury him..."
The woman stood quietly to the side, like a statue devoid of joy, anger, sorrow, or happiness, and interrupted him: "No matter how much you say, he won't come back to life. Our reaction was quick enough, and the news was suppressed swiftly. The family doesn't know yet, and we can't let them know. Don't forget, you still have a child. You absolutely cannot get involved in these family matters again."
The man said, "It's easy for you to say. Don't you understand the meaning behind the family's message today? That prophecy, whether true or false, good or bad, points to a certain young member of the clan. This time, they say they're training the younger generation, but isn't it all to find this person? It's not about finding a little kid. The second son is only six years old. Even if I were heartless, and I really used him to fill a hole, the old folks wouldn't accept it!"
“So the most urgent thing is to find a substitute.” The woman looked at him sadly. “I’ve already lost one child, I can’t afford to lose another, so let someone else die.”
"Where are you going to find a substitute for you? Do you think the people in your family are fools..."
The woman took out a piece of hair braided into a Vajra knot from her bosom, and the man immediately stopped talking, as if afraid of disturbing something.
He remembered.
Each member of the tribe must make a knot with their own hair, which is then soaked in holy water by the family and worn on their body to receive divine protection.
But being blessed by the gods also carries their mark. Back then, he and his wife discussed replacing half of their eldest son's hair knot with a fake one and taking the opportunity to send the child away.
They didn't know if it would work, but they hoped to exchange half of their eldest son's life for the fate of the family, and to give him a way to survive.
Unexpectedly, this is the outcome.
The remaining half of their real hair remained in their hands.
The woman threw the hair knot into the oil lamp, placed the lamp inside the coffin, and the flickering firelight illuminated the cold, hard lower half of her face.
"With so many students visiting the Water Splashing Festival, there must be some who have a talent for this kind of thing. I remember that person was Di Da, wasn't he? He used the eldest brother's hair knot to cleanse his soul, and the substitute would have his memories and think that he was the young master of the collateral branch of the family. All we need to do is stall for a few days and send the second brother away safely."
After she finished speaking, she picked up the bouquet in front of the tombstone, pulled out a few strange, needle-like white flowers, and scattered them into the air.
The wind carried the petals deep into the woods, and also brought out a ghostly figure. From a distance, a strong, nauseating stench of decay could be smelled.
When the couple returned to the scenic area, they had vanished. The monster in human skin brushed past the empty graves and headed towards the deserted driveway.
A bus is approaching in the distance.
At night, there was only one tour bus on the coastal highway.
The dense, ghostly forest receded, waving in the wind as if trying to catch the car moving forward.
The headlights illuminated an area in front of the car, which remained empty.
The bus has already passed the shimmering scenic area, and in another ten minutes we will reach our destination, the End of the Afterglow.
A drop of water hit the car window, followed by more tiny droplets, and a light drizzle began.
The driver sped up a bit, hoping they would arrive before the rainstorm.
The windshield wipers swung, and the headlights swept across a patch of trees along the road, revealing a figure dragging something through the woods.
The driver thought he had misread it and didn't pay any attention.
However, after driving a short distance, he saw someone dragging something forward in the woods again.
The driver's initial fatigue vanished instantly, and he glanced at the rearview mirror.
The leaves rustled, the forest was silent, and there was no one in sight.
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Author's Note: Today is the author's (rusty-brained, babble-babbling) version.
The new story is a bit stuck, please allow me to write it slowly, bosses.
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