Lie Huo Jiao Chou Volume 1 Chapter 12

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Only the devil looked down, his face impa.s.sive, appearing like a respectful G.o.d on a famous painting

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　　The second group of field workers rushed to the scene after receiving the instructions from Xiao Zheng. But before they could stand firm, they was. .h.i.t head-on by such a drama, and the three spectators in a line broke up.

　　For a moment, all the people present were absolutely silent, shivering from the cold mist.

　　Only the devil looked down, his face impa.s.sive, appearing like a respectful G.o.d on a famous painting, showing no surprise in everything strange and unusual in this world.
　　
　　Xuan Ji had to keep an eye on Bi Chun Sheng,while also paying attention to the bomb-like dangerous person behind her. It may be the aftermath of his ring that had just broken for no reason, for when he would see Sheng Lingyuan, his heart felt like it was being stabbed with a sharp thorn, making him feel restlessly pained.

　　Taking everything into account, he had taken over this c.r.a.p job for less than 24 hours, the work permit had not even warmed up on his hand, and his heart had already dealt with so much vicissitudes* that he wanted to quit.

*沧桑, abbreviation of the idiom 沧海桑田 lit. from seas into mulberry fields. Used to describe the inexorable change in world events.

　　This son of a b.i.t.c.h Deviant Control Office, it didn't even have a rookie protection period!
　　
　　"Let's talk reasonably, Sister Bi," Xuan Ji sighed and focused his attention with difficulty on Bi Chun Sheng's words. "a.s.sume that there was such a major accident 30 years ago and in order to avoid the responsibility, the person in charge at that time, under-reported the number of deaths in the accident, stole the mirage eggs, and let the eggs parasitize into the corpse, then live with the original ident.i.ty of the deceased — How did you know this? Are you a witness? If not, who told you, do you have evidence?"

　　As he spoke, his eyes couldn't help but glance towards the great devil's head and saw that the great devil was listening to his entire own words, his elegant eyebrows were raised, revealing a look of "that explains it" — talking for a long time, just now, Bi Chun Sheng recited too much rules and regulations of the Bureau in literary language, and this person did not understand from the start.

　　Xuan Ji outrageosuly thought : "What the h.e.l.l, did he take me for a footnote?"

　　And there were more vicissitudes.

　　"How do I know that?" At this time, Bi Chunsheng glanced at him with a pitiful gaze, "Director Xuan, you don't think that this is an isolated case, do you?"

　　"How to spread the words on the internet? When you find the first c.o.c.kroach at home, then your home might have already one or two thousand of it**."  At the headquarters of the Deviant Control Office, in the isolated director's office, Director Huang's voice was just like the sound of the water droplets that could be heard when someone would wake up from a midnight dream, and for a moment, it could make a person tremble in fear. 

　　"If it is done for first time, who dares to put Mirage b.u.t.terfly Eggs in thousands of corpses at once? Little Xiao, you should be able to think about it, this is already a conventional matter - the field workers encountered a difficult incident, and once the casualties have went over the line, Gong Cheng Gong would go and 'think of a way'. In the end, the field workers would have had a daunting experience but weren't be hurt, the victim's family will be deeply grateful, and the Reparation Department would be concealed with a brocade quilt, and everyone is happy."
　　
　　Xiao Zheng had no idea which facial muscles to use, so he had to remain indifferent.
　　
　　"About the former head of the Reparations Department Gong Cheng Gong, I am aware that there's a lot of comrades talking about it. Some people said that he had vacated his position and the others said that he had been investigated in isolation."
　　
　　Xiao Zheng struggled to find his tongue. "So actually..."
　　
　　"Actually, he suddenly fell into a coma and according to what his family said, he laid down and slept well the night before and on the next day, he could no longer be awakened ...... just before we planned to investigate him in isolation. There was nothing wrong with the body. We had invited experts from both the medical and bureau to diagnose and the diagnosis is still inconclusive." Director Huang looked at Xiao Zheng, "Little Xiao, have you ever thought of it, why would I choose you to be the head dispatcher? "

　　The head dispatcher was directly accountable to the Director, and the size of the power depended on what kind of person the director was — With Director Huang, Xiao Zheng even overshadowed the head of the Ministry of Security. For some reason, this matter was not only talked about by the other people in the Head Office, even Xiao Zheng himself lacked in confidence. Because he neither had great qualifications nor he could dare say that their strength could crush other field workers, let alone behave as the saying "be exquisite on all sides", it would be nice for him not to offend people on all sides.

　　The only reason that made sense was his young age, good image, good temperament that could be taken out with dignity. Because of this, many people still suspected that the Huang Ju had some niche interests and hobbies.
　　
　　"Because I am young, I don't have that much experiences, my popularity isn't good, and no one is going to have fun with me." Xiao Zheng forced a smile, "Director Huang, can I ask, what is your plan to deal with this?"
　　
　　Director Huang was silent.

　　 Xiao Zheng understood something from his expression, slowly sat down and straightened up: "You're not...thinking of making big things small and small things even smaller, just charge Gong Chenggong with 'accepting bribes', then carelessly settle this matter?"

　　"Young man, this is not as simple as you think..." 

　　"But this is to desecrate the corpses, to desecrate the truth," Xiao Zheng couldn't help but interrupt him. "This is a crime, Director Huang! Don't tell me it can't be investigated just because the law cannot be enforced when everyone is an offender? Are you willing to take care of it or not?" 

　　Xiao Zheng was a firecracker, but Huang Ju was not angry. He said calmly: "Little Xiao, you know that the number of special field workers in the Ministry of Security has been reduced for three years in a row? Because the number of newcomers who come in every year are not equal to the casualties in the missions."
　　
　　The proportion of "Special Ability" in a crowd was very low, some of them have family background, having inheritance in the family. The earlier the ability awakens, the more they could know. Others were chance coincidence, inexplicably activating certain special abilities. These people would be then quickly trained by the Deviant Control Office according to a set of procedures. They would start out late and some even struggled to adapt to their new ident.i.ty.

　　In the past few decades, the market economy had been underdeveloped, and in the last ten or twenty years, everyone had found that there was no benefit in entering the Deviant Control Office. The various rules were thicker than the dictionaries and confidentiality regulations were intimately severe, as if it couldn't be exposed to light. Most times, it must even be concealed from one's own family. The income was not really low, but it was always a monthly death wage. Whoever had a bit of a skill could casually call themselves a "master" outside, and there would be a lot of wealthy people who were willing to lose some money to avoid disaster. The Deviant Control Office would ask them to help, and had to pay the "consultancy expenses" at the market price.

　　As a result, the field worker resources were greatly stretched out, the quality of the staff had become more and more uneven, and the daily dealings with a crime was a variety of unimaginable things. Sometimes, accidental casualties were totally beyond human control.
　　
　　"We have at least 5% to 10% of emergencies every year. What we would encounter is something we have never heard before and there is no precedent to follow. As long as you have worked long enough, you will always encounter it. When our people run into this matter, it is inevitable that we deal with it successfully at the risk our lives. If something goes wrong, it would ruin your future. Little Xiao, you think about it from another angle, what can you do if you get onto this kind of matter? Don't say anything else, how do you feel today? Was it smooth and easy to mobilize the local field workers?" 

　　Xiao Zheng was speechless.

　　Yes, he was here to speak about other people, and now the sacrifice of the gloomy sacrifice had succeeded. He had direct leadership responsibility and he did not know what was going on.　　

　　"A lot of things cannot be solved by right or wrong. You are in the prime of your youth. I am an ordinary person and I haven't worked on the front line for even a day, and we're both placed here easily, talking about dealing with whom and handling whom. How the front line brothers would think, what else the team would have to carry afterwards, have you thought about it? What do you think in your heart, how would you bring the team in the future, have you thought about it?" Director Huang waved his hand and sighed. "Anyway, it's too late to say anything, let's take one step at a time."
　　
　　Xiao Zheng had nothing to say, picked up the search warrant, got up and went away.
　　

　　"Bi Chun Sheng's whole family lived with her parents, and this year, her old father had just pa.s.sed away. Her husband is a middle school teacher, much older than her. He has now retired, and in order to save more money for the children, started a cram school outside. The son is unmarried and recently got a Ph.D., struggling to join the faculty after graduation...Director, we went to her house."
　　
　　Xiao Zheng made a "hmm" sound, then he paused and asked on the phone: "If a person is already dead, and the mirage b.u.t.terfly lived in the body, is there any way to examine it ?" 　　

　　"This......... Director, our apparatus can only detect parasitism before the infected person has a brain death. If the person already has brain death, the b.u.t.terfly will occupy the infected person's brain, and completely fuse together with him, unless..."

　　"What?"

　　"Ah... well, we have to open it up and have a look."
　
　　A person's nature, the three values, and the habits themselves were constantly changing with time. The three words "You have changed" were high-frequency words in various literary works, then later would be followed by a melodramatic plot rather than smashing open the brain and examining it.
　　
　　Xiao Zheng's heart thudded once, suddenly having an ominous premonition.
　　

　　Xuan Ji looked at Bi Chunsheng. Suddenly, he found that the dense fog that was wrapped on the top of the building did not all come from the devil. A huge portion of the fog actually came out from Bi Chun Sheng's body!

　　At this moment, her silhouette was almost blurred in the fog, as if it was becoming one with it. The originally somewhat dull and yellowish skin color unknowingly became deathly pale, seeming like a candle wax.
　　
　　What exactly did it mean to be a human candle?

　　Also, the so-called "sacrifice of a thousand lives" - did she really kill a thousand people? How did she murder them? Who were those one thousand people?
　　
　　"Eight years ago, my field team was ordered to arrest a suspect who used sorcery. At that time, the suspect was hiding in a heavily populated neighborhood. Afraid that he would be driven to desperate action and harm the innocents, I made a careful plan with my partner to trap him, but when the suspect was almost already on the hook, a kid in our field team was too nervous, and unknowingly exposed the plan. The suspect ran into the neighborhood garden, found that he could not escape, dragged people as scapegoats, exploded himself, many people died. My partner was the person in charge, and I was the deputy, we both had to take responsibility and no one could run away. At that time, my mind was blank.... My partner told me not to be afraid, that he would find a way. "

　　"It was the first time I knew how they dealt with it. Because my partner 'comforted' me by saying that this situation was not uncommon, and that it's alright."

　　"Do you know how I felt at that time ? I did not rejoice for dodging the bullet, nor did I lay down unable to sleep because of my guilty conscience. I...I was afraid. If it's not uncommon...how many 'survivors' are no longer human? My whole family are all 'survivors', are they... are they real in the end or are they just the shadow of the Mirage b.u.t.terfly?"　　

　　"From that day on, I became like a crazy person. If my family casually said something to me, I would desperately try to think about it, is this what he was like before? My son returned to home from school and had a dish both I and his father don't like, I suffered from insomnia for half a month... from eight years ago up until now... until my father pa.s.sed away." Bi Chun Sheng's hollow eyes suddenly shedded two lines of blood and tears, and her flesh began to wither like a melting wax, "Eighty-seven, lived long, heart failure, didn't have even a bit of a sin at the time of death, friends and relatives are envious, saying it was a happy funeral*. I sent them away like a walking corpse, then ... and then slipped back and cut open my father's skull before the cremation, I... I saw..."

*喜丧, xǐ sāng, a Chinese custom on funerals for
somebody who lived to a ripe old age and lived a good life.
　　

　　The moment the old man's skull was opened, all her nightmares came true. 

　　It turned out that for the past thirty years, the family that lived with her all the time, was genuinely just puppets of a few b.u.t.terflies.
　　
　　"Shh-" Sheng Lingyuan leaned down, gently lifted up her face and wiped the blood from the corner of her eyes. "Pitiful."
　　
　　Then he suddenly changed his accent and whispered, "Human candle, a thing that can connect the heaven and the earth to the evil yin, must sacrifice oneself, give up one's humanity, break off all relations, and throw away everything. Little demon, do you know what 'everything' means?"
　　
　　Xuan Ji was staring blankly at first, and then he suddenly thought of something.
　　
　　At this moment, Luo Cuicui ran over and handed the mobile phone to Xuan Ji, and Xiao Zheng's voice came out from the other side. 

　　"We... just sent someone to search in Bi Chun Sheng's home." Xiao Zheng's voice sounded very distressed, "Found three corpses... Bi Chun Sheng's mother, husband, and son. The heads... the heads are all opened. " 　

　　Sheng Lingyuan looked at him from afar through the thick fog, and Xuan Ji's eyes and the devil's eyes made contact.

　　Those eyes that were cold as ice, were almost compa.s.sionate.
　　
　　"Can I ask a question ...," Xuan Ji held down the endless tingling in the chest, "Were all of her loved ones really parasitized by the mirage b.u.t.terfly?"
　　
　　Xiao Zheng was silent for quite a while: "No."

　　Xuan Ji I felt a cold stone sinking in his stomach.
　　
　　"We found traces of parasitic mirage b.u.t.terfly parasite in her husband's brain, but... not with her mother and her son. They were normal people, and they were real survivors in that year."
　　
　　"Kill them all," Bi Chun Sheng talked crazily, grabbing the corner of Sheng Lingyuan's robe, "I want you to kill them!"
　　　

The author has something to say:

**About c.o.c.kroaches, that is a rumor, the text is just an a.n.a.logy. There are no that much c.o.c.kroaches on the internet, and at most there are one or two families.