Lantern: Reflection Of The Peach Blossoms Chapter 9

Volume 1: Incident of H City's Earth-born Fetus

Editors: Isalee

Chapter 9 – Captain, about that private collection of aphro-something-disiac of yours, didn't you say that those are for the burlies you meet on the road, so that you can give a shot to whoever refuses to submit…

Li Hu was deeply aware of Zhou Hui's strength. Besides, the three of them —— Zhang Shun, Chu He, and someone like herself whose level of cultivation was already at the peak among monsters —— combined were no more than a dish in the Demon Lord's eyes. However, the half-sealed Demon Lord was but another dish in front of Zhou Hui in his heydays.

At the very most, the dish called the Demon Lord might have bones that were more p.r.i.c.kly and harder to gnaw, but it wouldn't affect the overall power dynamics. That being said, from the highest of heavens to the deepest of h.e.l.l, save those genuine G.o.ds and Buddhas, who else could be Zhou Hui's match?

However, the look on Zhou Hui's face made Zhang Shun feel like the person had just been punched right in the face.

No, it was more like Zhou Hui randomly punched someone, and that seemingly fragile and meek person suddenly turned into an ultrUltraman and kicked him several hundred meters away —— that was how it felt.

Luckily, all traces of that sorry state, one not unlike that of having his advances rejected, vanished from Zhou Hui at once. He even started to laugh and said to Chu He, "Put the blade down. I won't come near… You put the blade down first. You'll drain your blood like this."

Li Hu saw his expression, and she knew immediately that something was taking a turn for the worse.

Zhou Hui was not really going to let it go this easily. There was clearly a deeper, gloomier, and even more shuddering cruelty hidden behind his eyes.

Chu He shook his head, his hand still grasping the blade. Without looking back, he said to the Demon Lord, "Don't worry about me. You go first."

Fanluo wasn't in any better state than Zhou Hui. He hesitated, "But you…"

"Zhou Hui is at his full strength right now, while half of you is still sealed in the Realm of h.e.l.l-Dwellers. Do you really think you have a chance against him? Hurry and leave!"

The Demon Lord squinted at Zhou Hui, who was glaring back at him coldly with the same expression. Standing in between them, Chu He could hardly keep himself from collapsing. He didn't even have the strength to breathe. His body temperature dropped rapidly due to the blood loss, and now he was having sudden blackouts.

His back was still perfectly straight, but everyone knew this would only last for a few more seconds.

"…Alright,” Fanluo said in the end, but Zhou Hui could easily tell his obvious reluctance.

"Don't forget what you've asked me for."

Behind the Demon Lord, the Gate to h.e.l.l flung wide open. Thousands of ghosts rushed out, and all the Maras were dancing in riotous revelry. The endless darkness immediately engulfed him. In the end, the Gate was closed, together with all the b.l.o.o.d.y smells and the ghostly howls as they all faded into the distance, disappearing completely into the boundless void as if they were never here.

On the empty ground, Chu He's figure shook slightly. The blade dropped and its tip clanged against the ground as his whole body fell straight down!

"Brother!" Zhang Shun got up and started running down at once. Zhou Hui looked up and gestured Li Hu with his eyes.

Without a word, Li Hu raised her hand and knocked second young master Zhang out with a crisp but heavy chop!

"That Buddha's Bone has been stuck in my throat for a long time," Zhou Hui got on one knee. Staring at Chu He's blank, wandering eyes, he slowly said, "I don't want people to ruin my mood even at a time like this…"

Chu He couldn't tell what Zhou Hui was saying. He was gasping slightly, looking into the s.p.a.ce above him with unfocused eyes.

His human body was still wearing that white nightgown they put him into when he was first hospitalized; it had already become quite mottled with blood by now. Since the blood vessel on his palm was almost cut off, the blood that poured out of it soon gathered into a small puddle under his body, forming a clear contrast to his pale face and making it appear even more heart-stirringly white.

He had always been a very calm, polite, and abstinent person, but at this very moment, he was like a white bud being forcibly stripped of its layers of wraps, helplessly revealing the innermost pistil which had never shown to anyone before.

The cruel, sickly, and devilish feeling stirred up by the scene fueled the heat in Zhou Hui's eyes.

He closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, he grabbed one of Chu He's icy hands and held it close to his, their palms pressing against each other. Then, he suddenly gave the other person a hard pull and lifted him up in his arms.

"Boss Zhou!" Carrying the heavy second young master Zhang over her shoulder, Li Hu popped her head out of the crack between the broken floors and asked with a bitter smile, "What should we do now? Kill the j.a.panese and bring that Earth-born Fetus back to Beijing?"

Zhou Hui turned back and stared at her in silence. The moonlight happened to pa.s.s through the gaps between the dark clouds, spreading itself across only half of his face. Li Hu shivered almost instantly.

——His eyes were scarlet.

Just like the Demon Lord's.

"The Earth-born Fetus is not as simple to deal with as you think." Perhaps Zhou Hui did not notice the change that happened to him, or maybe he did but just didn't care. He only ordered coldly, "Restore the dimensional s.p.a.ce that was set up here and change it back to normal. I have some business to attend to."

Li Hu opened her mouth, but she failed make a sound.

Zhou Hui knew what the nine-tailed fox wanted to say, but he had no desire to respond to her. He turned around and walked straight into the depth of the night. As he gazed down at Chu He in his arms, Zhou Hui's lips slowly stretched into a cold smile.

"Now… it's time to deal with our business." Zhou Hui whispered. His voice sounded especially cruel in the dark. "Don't worry. You can't escape. We'll do it slowly."

***

Zhang Shun dreamed about many things in his slumber. In one of them, he went back in time to his early childhood, when he was only about seven or eight years old. He was lying on a bed, suffering from a high fever and feeling his whole body burning hot and his mind clouded. He even had a feeling that if he were to fall asleep, he would very likely never wake up again.

A person with very long black hair wearing a loose-sleeved white robe was sitting at his bedside. He gently laid Zhang Shun's head on his thigh and was slowly stroking his burning face. The coldness of his slender fingers made Zhang Shun feel quite comfortable. Although he couldn't get a clear view of the person's face, he could tell the person must be very beautiful, an indescribable kind of beauty which surpa.s.sed the limitation of genders, with a deposition so soft and tender like water flowing through people's hearts.

Who is he? Zhang Shun thought.

"I didn't think they could get you to come, Captain Feng Si." A deep voice sounded at the corner of the room. "I thought my men eating a few children's souls wouldn't be that big a deal as to alert someone like you…"

"I carried the Buddha's Bone with me for thousands of years. Do you really think I can't recognize it?" The person suddenly interjected, although his voice was extremely soft, "Fanluo, damaging the Buddha's Bone is a crime of the same level as hurting the Buddha's own body — You're very lucky that I'm the one who came today. If Zhou Hui were here, you wouldn't be able to leave even if you wanted to."

The Demon Lord was silent for a period of time before he asked, as if he suddenly found something very interesting, "I heard that thousands of years ago, Zhou Hui was no more than a demonic beast from the Blood Sea. He was brought up to the Thirty-Three Heavens to receive punishment for disrespecting the Buddha, but he was secretly released by Phoenix Vidyarāja out of mercy… It seems to me that you should have been a divine existence too superior and sublime for Zhou Hui to even catch a glimpse of no matter how hard he raised his head. Why did you end up coming down from the Thirty-Three Heavens then?"

Zhang Shun could feel the person's hand pausing slightly.

After a long while came a cold reply, "It's none of your business."

"——You may leave this time. But it's not going to be this easy if you dare touch the Buddha's Bone again."

***

Trapped in a dazed state, Zhang Shun couldn't even guess how long he had been sleeping. It was only when the sun was shining brightly outside did he finally wake with a start from the countless whirling nightmares.

"Ah!" All of a sudden, he turned to the side and sat up, only to find himself on a sickbed in a ward. Outside the window, the sun had already climbed quite high in the sky.

——What time is it? He jerked his head back to look at the bedside clock, then found out that he had slept all the way till the afternoon of the next day without even knowing it.

For some reason, his head was aching so much as if someone was sawing his brain. He simply sat on his bed for a few minutes, not even remembering why he was in a hospital in the first place. Only when the first wave of dizziness pa.s.sed did all the memories finally rush back to him —— The strange hospital, the zombie familiars, the Demon Lord Fanluo, the nine-tailed fox covered in blood… Numerous bizarre fragments flooded his mind and knocked him out in just a second.

Was everything real? Or was it all an absurd dream?

Zhang Shun looked around. Everything in the hospital was fine. He could hear birds singing outside the window and smell the fragrance of flowers. The sun was shining brightly up in the sky. There was no sign of that collapsing building and those sunken floors from last night.

…So, th-that was really just a dream.

Zhang Shun got off the bed to wash his face. When he was scooping up water, he accidentally saw his hand and was immediately struck on the spot.

——The golden swastika was still printed on his palm, glowing dimly in the bathroom.

…What the f.u.c.k? It's real?!

Where's my brother? Where the f.u.c.k is my brother?!

As if his pants were on fire, Zhang Shun rushed to the door of his ward in no time. Just as he was about to run out to ask what was going on, the door was pushed open from the outside. Zhou Hui walked in and shot Zhang Shun a baffling glance, asking, "You're awake?"

"…" As if his brain was stuffed with paste and couldn't operate anymore, it took Zhang Shun a moment before he could finally construct a sentence, "Where's my brother?"

Zhou Hui threw him a faint smile and said, "If I were you, I would shut up right now and sit quietly over there. You still haven't learned to be afraid even after a life and death crisis like that, have you? Well, your brother sure has been protecting you very well."

Zhang Shun blurted, "So everything that happened last night was real? Who're you?"

For a moment, the expression on Zhou Hui's face looked a little strange, but he quickly resumed that usual languid and careless att.i.tude. "Brother-in-law, your big brother needs to take a shower and change his clothes first… Have you got any shirts? I'll borrow one for now."

Zhang Shun took a closer look and finally noticed Zhou Hui's completely crumpled shirt. There was even bloodstain on the collar and cuffs. From what he recalled, Zhou Hui wasn't injured last night, so he had no idea how in the world the person even got blood on his collar.

Zhang Shun didn't think too deeply about it. Based on his memories from last night, this psychic-ish person was at least a little more friendly than that Demon Lord. If his brother's life was really at risk, Zhou Hui would not be acting this way. Thus, he was slightly relieved, but after he followed Zhou Hui into the ward's private bathroom with his wary glares, he was surprised to discover that the latter even started humming while taking shower! And the most unbearable fact of all was that none of his notes were in tune!

After a while, Zhou Hui came out in Zhang Shun's clothes. It probably wasn't obvious with his jacket on, but he did have a firm set of muscles, the outline of which a single shirt layer definitely could not conceal. Especially with his wet hair sticking out unbridled in all directions, he was already giving off a strong, tiger-like fierceness just by standing there.

Zhang Shun suddenly felt a growing enmity in his heart —— at that time, he didn't know it was just the instinctive antipathy animals felt when they encountered older and stronger males. He asked, "Can you tell me now?"

Zhou Hui didn't answer. Just then, someone knocked on the door, "h.e.l.lo! Hotel delivery service."

Zhou Hui opened the door and handed out a few notes, then took the plastic bag of takeout boxes from the delivery man. After that, he slid out a chair, sat down, and started enjoying the meal himself.

Zhang Shun couldn't stand it anymore, "Hey! Are you going to tell me or not?!"

Zhou Hui looked up at him in surprise, "I never planned to tell you. Do you want to have some food? Come here, my brother-in-law, you can take it as a treat from your big brother."

"…" Zhang Shun pressed on helplessly. "You…you can at least tell my how my brother's doing right now, can't you? It's going to be f.u.c.king too much for me if I have to go through another round of what happened last night! Also, what's this on my hand? Why does everyone call me the 'Buddha's Bone'?"

Zhou Hui smiled.

Zhang Shun had always hated these kinds of expressions from Zhou Hui, but he never wondered why. After all, second young master Zhang wasn't the attentive and serious type who just had to get to the bottom of matters. However, as he was looking at this familiar smile, he suddenly realized the reason behind his reaction.

——There was pity in his smile.

Partly pitiful and partly helpless —— it was the kind of expression someone, after experiencing the many vicissitudes of life and holding a lot of secrets in their heart, would have when they faced the young and fearless.

It triggered second young master Zhang in no time.

Normally, he would dash forward at once and demonstrate what "b.l.o.o.d.y red" meant to the man. However, all the recent incidents had taught him something other than fists and wealth. He closed his eyes and quickly suppressed the impulse to flare up. By the time his eyes were open again, he was already back to normal, "It doesn't matter whether you want to tell me or not. I can always investigate it myself. But wouldn't you agree that I'm already involved in this? You know how little I know about everything. There's definitely going to be some recklessness on my side if I go search it out on my own. Putting my life aside, if there's a chance that one of my bold moves accidentally ruins some of your businesses during the process, you'd have to spend some effort to cover things up, right?"

"Or you can choose to selectively tell me part of the truth." As Zhang Shun's thoughts gradually cleared up, even his voice started to sound more convincing, "As for how much you'd like to reveal or through which means you'd wish to do so, it's totally up to you to make the call. You can always choose a way that's the most advantageous to you, and in exchange, I will promise not to involve myself in whichever part you don't wish for me to partic.i.p.ate in. How does that sound?"

The reason he gave was indeed sound and justified. It was a bit inexperienced still, but remarkable enough for someone at second young master Zhang's age.

Zhou Hui seemed to be amused. He lit up a cigarette with a big smile and took a few puffs before replying, "What do you want to know?"

Zhang Shun immediately asked, "Where's my brother now? How is he?"

"He's in a completely safe place. Well, he won't die is all I can say."

Zhang Shun frowned. He was obviously not satisfied with that answer. "Who are you? What's your relationship with my brother?"

"Oh, us." Zhou Hui explained calmly, "We currently represent the First and Sixth Team of the Special Force, under Unit 574 of the National Security Bureau, PRC…”

Bang! The door suddenly flung open. The two of them turned their heads around at the same time and saw Li Hu standing by it angrily, ready to bite off their noses. She spoke one word a time, "Zhou. Hui."

Zhou Hui asked in surprise, "What happened this time?"

"Situ Yingzhi just sent me screenshots of their video conference. Our Team One's captain, who's in charge of the capital, has been guarding the Qian-kun Array under the Great Hall all this time and hasn't set a toe outside of Beijing." Li Hu slapped her cellphone on the table. The screenshots were still on the screen as she asked in an icy tone, "Boss Zhou, are you hiding something from me?"

Staring at her, Zhou Hui slowly put away the smile on his face. After some time, he asked, "As if you and Feng Si aren't hiding anything from me, Hu Qing?"

Li Hu probably didn't expect Zhou Hui to strike back like this. Her face twitched almost instantly.

But before she was able to come up with something to snap back at Zhou Hui even harder, the phone on the bedside cabinet rang —— With a quick glance, Zhang Shun was surprised to discover that it was his brother's phone that had been ringing. It was a call from Mayor Huang.

"You…you two may continue fighting. There's no need to stop!" Zhang Shun walked over to answer the phone and turned to the corner to say h.e.l.lo, while keeping his ears p.r.i.c.ked for the argument between Zhou Hui and Li Hu.

However, Mayor Huang's loud voice instantly and unexpectedly sounded above all the rest in the room, "h.e.l.lo? Chairman Chu? Hurry up and come! We've got a big problem at the construction site!"

"h.e.l.lo? Uncle Huang, my brother is in the hospital right now, if there's anything——"

"I don't care what your brother is doing! Get him over here as long as he's still alive!" Mayor Huang's frightened pants were crystal clear across the line, "They've unearthed something big at the site. Only your brother can settle it. Tell him to come! Now!"

Frowning, Zhang Shun glanced at Zhou Hui. Just as he was about to suggest that he would give it a try, Zhou Hui suddenly turned around. "What's the big deal that's causing so many problems?"

"Mayor Huang is asking for my brother, but my brother…"

Zhou Hui cut him off impatiently, "Just ask him this. How many coffins did they dig up today?"

***

Wrapped in his leather jacket, Zhou Hui sat in the back of the car, smoking, taking no notice of the closed s.p.a.ce. His long, firm legs were crossed before him, wagging every now and then. Zhang Shun could even see that considerably unbridled expression on his face in the rearview mirror.

Left with no place to sit, Li Hu barely managed to squeeze herself in with one side of her body pressed against the door. She turned her head to the window and rolled her eyes.

Unable to stand it any longer, Zhang Shun finally asked, "Can't you put the cigarette away? We've got a lady in here."

"Brother-in-law, for the sake of your brother, let me give you two pieces of advice." Zhou Hui said, "First of all, when a man smokes, it can only imply one of two things: he's either feeling very satisfied or he is very much unsatisfied. I'm feeling very unsatisfied right now, so you'd better not to set my temper off for real. Your brother is in a very piteous state already. Don't make it any worse for him. Secondly, where the h.e.l.l did you get the idea that he's a woman?"

Zhang Shun found himself lost in the clouds and mist as he listened, but he could sense the driver throwing glances at him with an expression that very much implied, "Please don't make him mad…"

The corner of Zhang Shun's mouth twitched.

"How is she not a woman? And how exactly is my brother doing?"

"Well, he's probably not very comfortable right now, but he's not going to die." Zhou Hui answered with a languish voice, "Death isn't easily accessible for those who fall into my hands."

Zhang Shun would have jumped off his feet and beat Zhou Hui up right there if Li Hu didn't put forth all her effort in stopping him. "That was a joke! He's just joking! I promise!"

They drove all the way to the suburban construction site before finally making a stop. Cordoned off by the layers of caution tape, the place was filled with police officers. Mayor Huang was squatting in the outermost part, smoking, his face as gloomy as the rain-clouds. Zhang Shun was the first to open the door and hop out of the car while Li Hu first stopped by the car trunk after getting off. She dug out a case and fumbled inside it for a while before she turned around and cursed, "Boss. You're f.u.c.king inhumane!"

Zhou Hui asked back in surprise, "But I'm not human in the first place?!"

Li Hu: "…"

"Relax. My temper has gotten much better since my younger years." Zhou Hui gave her a smile and pointed to his watch, "We'd better get going and finish the business here as quickly as possible, so I can go back sooner. Feng Si's really going to hate me otherwise… If he marinades for a little longer, he'll be more than just 'flavored' —— he'll probably break down all together."

***

All the people on the site tried their best to take shelter in the work station. In the center of the site was a big pit. Shovels, crowbars, and other tools of the sort were scattered around it. An excavator was parked not far from it, and its operator was hiding behind the vehicle, trembling. He had obviously wet himself.

Six coffins were arranged neatly in the center of the big pit.

Mayor Huang rolled up his pants and went down the pit himself. While pointing at the coffins, he cried with a gloomy face, "I've heard of stories where people dig up ancient coffins during construction, but these ones are f.u.c.king modern! Those heartless b.a.s.t.a.r.ds didn't even bother to carry the bodies to a crematory after the murder! Even flushing them down the toilet would be better than this! And they f.u.c.king even went through all the trouble of burying them in coffins! Are they nuts?!…"

Zhang Shun looked back and saw the city's criminal investigation detachment all standing by the pit. A few leader-like figures were pacing back and forth nervously as if they were facing a mortal enemy.

Li Hu asked, "I suppose no one's opened the coffins?"

Mayor Huang said, "It's too late now. The manager of the site called the police immediately, and the police opened the coffin as soon as they arrived… I would never let them touch those coffins if I'd known about it! Ah, those unlucky boys! What should we do now?!"

With a faint smile on her face, Li Hu turned to the captain and asked, "Which ones touched the coffins?"

The captain tremblingly pointed out the few young policemen behind him. "We-we all did…" He showed his hand — which had already turned blue, and pursed his lips as if he was going to burst into tears in the next moment, "What should we do now? Have we been poisoned? I still have an eighty-year-old mother and an eight-year-old son to take care of! What will my wife do if I meet my honorable end here…"

Li Hu almost laughed out loud, but she managed to hold her muscles back, leaving only a twitch at the corner of her mouth. She fished out an ID booklet and some official doc.u.ments from her pocket before she shoved all of them into Mayor Huang's bosom. "It's all because you were meddling with important exhibits without permission! In fact, Comrade Zhou and I are investigators specially sent by higher authorities to track down this great serial murder case. We've been searching for these coffins for the past few days! At first, we were going to head straight here right after hearing about the news. Who would've known that you, the local police force, would've ruined the integrity of the scene before we arrived! Now, why don't you tell me what should we do?!"

The captain's first reaction was to think to himself, 'Are you f.u.c.king trying to fool me? You think I'm a three-year-old!?' However, as soon as Mayor Huang flipped the ID booklet open, both of them froze to the ground.

"Nnational Security Bureau?!" Mayor Huang and the captain of the investigation detachment looked at each other in the eyes. They could see muscles twitching on each other's faces.

Although these two were quite popular in the small H City that they were a.s.signed to, they had never met principle staff members from direct units under the National Security Bureau. Mayor Huang studied Li Hu up and down a few times through brand new lens, then asked in a trembling voice, "So…so that Comrade Zhou over there is…"

"Comrade Zhou is our director, a division-head level official. He came with us to monitor our investigation this time. Run a search with his name on the intranet and you'll see." Li Hu said solemnly, "In fact, the reason why we pretended to be from the Provincial International Visitors' Office was to ensure the confidentiality of this operation. Yet only G.o.d knows why you would…Uh! Mayor Huang, I'm not going to elaborate more on this. You may tell the ones who touched the coffins to tidy themselves up and stand over there."

The captain of the investigation detachment was on the brink of tears, "We were just carrying out our duty by investigating the case! It's not a violation of discipline!"

Seeing how the young policemen behind him nodded in uniformity, Li Hu couldn't help but roll her eyes, "You think you're going to be punished? Nave! Do you know what's that on your hands? It's the original formula of a kind of hallucinogenic drug patch we've just discovered in our country! The moment your skin absorbs the drug, all of you will become drug addicts!"

What she said sounded like sheer nonsense. Not only Mayor Huang, but even Zhou Hui, who was squatting next to the coffin and smoking, lifted a brow.

"For…for real?!" the captain asked skeptically.

"Pull yourselves together and stand aside for now. Don't touch the others with the blue part of your skin, and don't touch your other body parts either! You guys are lucky. In order to fight against the criminals, we've brought state-of-the-art neurological antidotes with us. I'll give each of you a shot later. You'll be all right then."

This group of young policemen from an underdeveloped small city looked at each other. After only a few seconds, Li Hu had convinced them that she was supposedly the special investigator that the National Security Bureau had dispatched, and they backed up immediately to the edge of the pit. The few newbies hadn't even stopped shaking.

As a fox-spirit with thousands of years of cultivation, what she enjoyed doing the most in her life was scaring others with the nonsense she came up with, and the thing that she found most satisfaction in was other people really buying her words. With a motion of her hand, she called over the confidant driver whom she had brought with her all the from Yunnan and whispered to him, "Go get those reagents from the freezer in the back trunk and give each of them an injection… Right, the ones with my handprints on them."

The driver's voice was now shaking, "I don't think it's a good idea, Captain. Isn't that your private collection of aphro…aphro-something-disiacs? Last time, you said they were for the handsomes you might meet during the trip, that you'd give a shot to whoever refused to submit…"

"What do you know!" Li Hu replied resentfully, "Someone beat me to it and swapped all of them with f.u.c.king saline solution."

***

Acting as if he was completely unaware of the glances from those standing in the surrounding, Zhou Hui finished his cigarette, casually threw the b.u.t.t on the ground, and stamped on it with his foot to extinguish it. Then he took out a pair of black leather gloves from his pocket, put them on, and started lifting the coffin cover.

The cover weighed at least two hundred pounds and more. Zhang Shun wanted to help, but he was immediately stopped. "Don't touch it. It's really poisonous."

Zhang Shun asked curiously, "What about those policemen's hands…"

"Those're corpse curses. Li Hu will take care of it." Zhou Hui exerted his strength. His shoulder muscles bulged, and the coffin lid was flipped over completely with a loud rumble.

Zhang Shun was the closest and thus was the first to see what was inside the coffin. He almost threw up on the spot. A half-rotten corpse that had been stabbed at least ten times on its chest was lying on its back, its pale flesh crisscrossed with cuts and wounds and reeking of an indescribable stench. What was even more frightening was that this unfortunate bro's face showed no trace of pain. On the contrary, he was gazing straight into the sky, laughing. His mouth stretched from almost ear to ear in a queer and horrific arc.

The scene stirred up a commotion among the surrounding officers. Even the captain felt a few shivers running down his spine, "How, how is this possible?!"

Zhou Hui let out a sigh. He walked to the next coffin and repeated the same action until he uncovered all of the coffins. All the corpses had died horrible deaths. One person got his head chopped off, and another was drowned. But they all gazed straight into the sky with big, creepy smiles —— except for one of them, which had probably fallen off a very high place, for its skull was crushed so badly that it was practically impossible to make out the expression on that face.

Zhou Hui removed his black leather gloves and took out a little bronze wine cup from his pocket. The driver came trotting from the car carrying a leather case in his hand (Zhang Shun noticed that it was actually a Louis Vuitton). Then, he saw Zhou Hui take three joss sticks and a bottle of wine out from it before he bowed a few times to the six coffins.

"I know all of you were innocent. You got dragged into this and were killed by very unjust means. It would be difficult not to bear hatred. However, please rest a.s.sured. I promise I'll catch the culprit and send him down to the afterworld to accompany you. You can do whatever you want with him ——  you can steam him alive and snack on him while drinking wine if you'd like. If by any chance there's no wine down there, you can always go to No.9 in Trifork Alley, Yellow Springs Road. I left a few bottles of 15-year-old vintage Feitian Maotai there in the yard. Once you've had your fill, please rest your souls and go reincarnate into your next lives." Zhou Hui poured some wine into that little bronze wine cup as he talked, then offered the wine to the dead by pouring it on the ground.

Under everyone's blazing gazes, the creepy smiles disappeared from the corpses instantly.

Everyone stood there, their mouths agape.

Zhou Hui suddenly grabbed Zhang Shun's hand and caught him by surprise. He then took out a Swiss Army knife from his chain of keys and neatly p.r.i.c.ked Zhang Shun's middle finger with it.

"Ouch! What're you doing?!"

"I need some Virgin Blood to break the wicked spell." Zhou Hui was trying to squeeze his blood into the bronze wine cup, but Zhang Shun grimaced in pain and pulled his hand away at once. "Who told you I'm still a virgin?"

"…" For the first time, a shocked expression appeared on Zhou Hui's face. "Boy, how old are you? And you've lost your virginity already?!"

They stared at each other speechlessly. A gust of cold wind blew through, carrying a few leaves with it as a flock of ravens flew past with their loud caws. Li Hu, who was standing on the side, pressed a hand against her forehead. She was too ashamed to even look at the scene.

"Humans are indeed rotten to the core,"  said Zhou Hui, still in shock. "When I was your age, I only had the guts to give myself a handjob at most while clouding my mind with dirty thoughts about your brother, and I even f.u.c.king had to do it behind people's backs so I wouldn't get caught…"