Chapter 8 Are You Coming Back Soon?
After leaving the police station, Professor Ma drove Luxianbei home, repeatedly reminding him to familiarize himself with the cultural relics materials he had sent earlier.
Back at home, as soon as Luxianbei took out his keys and opened the door, he saw the coat figure standing on the coffee table, slightly leaning down and fiddling with something.
Upon closer inspection, he saw a lifeless eyeball surrounded by a group of small urban legends.
“Stinky… stinky woman, you finally… came back…”
Seeing this, the false teeth moved closer, rubbing against the eyeball, “Everyone has to d*e, and urban legends will d*e too. Eyeball brother, have a good journey.”
“Lady Witch, please save it!” Mafun said sorrowfully.
“Shut, shut up! I don’t need this stinky woman’s pity!” The eyeball shouted as if a light had returned to it, but then its pupils scattered, collapsing on the coffee table like a pool of mud.
Luxianbei frowned, pointing at the eyeball, “What happened to it?”
“Lady Witch, you may not know,” Mafun explained, “Not long after you left, it inexplicably encountered misfortune—hit by a car, electrocuted by faulty furniture, criticized by superiors for work errors, and when it frightened humans, it was caught by a brat as a toy and locked in a tin can of herring for a full three hours. Three hours! We didn’t know how it managed to survive…”
“Wait!” Luxianbei interrupted, “I know what happened.”
Earlier, it seemed to have swallowed a chip but couldn’t eliminate or digest it, right?
It might have been infected by the world’s malice.
Although it was just a chip with a face value of “1”, it still came from the Old Destroyer, the world’s malice torturing a D-Rank urban legend is a piece of cake, Luxianbei thought.
“Is there still hope for it?”
“There is hope,” Luxianbei nodded.
“Then please, Lady Witch…”
“But I can’t help with this,” Luxianbei shrugged and interrupted, “Just let it be!”
After saying this, he turned and walked upstairs. Halfway up the stairs, he paused and looked back at the coat figure.
“By the way, coat, I’ll be going on a trip tomorrow. Can you help me pack some things?”
Upon hearing this, the coat figure on the coffee table twisted its body, glancing at the eyeball and then at Luxianbei, looking a bit hesitant.
“Don’t worry, it won’t d*e. At most, it’ll just suffer. Letting it suffer a bit isn’t a bad thing; it’ll save it from being overly energetic,” Luxianbei reassured the coat figure.
“d*mn woman! How venomous you are, just watching it d*e! I… d*mn—!”
As soon as Luxianbei finished speaking, the eyeball jumped up as if resurrected.
However, before it could finish its words, its bouncy form suddenly stepped onto the coffee table, slipping on the water dripping from the sleep dress, and “whoosh” it flew out, crashing into the kitchen trash can.
The trash can tumbled forward, knocking over a broom leaning against the wall, which hit the cupboard, shaking the cutting board, and, with a sharp sound, the kitchen kn*fe flew into the air, “clang!” embedding itself right next to the eyeball.
At that moment, the blade was only 0.002 centimeters from its body.
All the small urban legends were silent.
“What did I say?” Luxianbei shrugged, unconcerned, “It won’t d*e.”
The existence of the world’s malice lies primarily in inflicting eternal pain on the target; wanting to d*e isn’t that easy.
———
In the morning, at the Huacheng Folk Culture Research Management Bureau.
In the V Office, it was eerily quiet, as if time had frozen there. Only the sunlight streaming through the wooden window illuminated the dust floating in the air, proving the passage of time.
Jiang Li arrived early at her office, sitting at her desk with a furrowed brow, staring at the computer.
The screen displayed the arrest list of the Siye Society from the intranet, with “Calamity” prominently listed in 92nd place, marked with an ↑7 symbol.
For some unknown reason, “Calamity,” which was originally at the bottom of the wanted list, had its threat level rise by seven places in just over a month.
Who was secretly investigating her and continuously relaying the findings to the Siye Society headquarters?
Jiang Li sighed silently, exited the intranet interface, and then began to sift through the documents one by one.
She had been away from Huacheng for nearly a month, and combined with the work style of a certain proxy agent who was a bit lazy, there was a mountain of accumulated tasks to handle.
After all, Luxianbei, as a proxy agent, did not have sufficient authority to fully take over Jiang Li’s work. Aside from some routine tasks, there was a large number of documents that required her personal attention.
Such as sorting out information on the movements of organizations like the Solar Eclipse Society, compiling data on the length of day and night in Huacheng, and gathering data on changes in spirit energy fluctuations around Huacheng…
Each main agent in the Huacheng Siye Society, apart from the weekly night duty tasks, almost always had their own separate tasks.
For instance, Bai Kai was responsible for monitoring the movements of Huacheng’s spiritual ability users and urban legends, An Qing managed the remains of urban legends, and Mafun took care of the security at the Huacheng Siye Society headquarters…
Jiang Li also had her own work; she was responsible for information compilation and file management.
She would have to work overtime for a long while.
Before long, the office door opened.
Luxianbei walked in and saw Jiang Li busy at her desk. He opened his mouth slightly but then walked straight to the nearby sofa and sat down, quietly waiting while gazing affectionately at her staring off into space.
Immersed in her work, Jiang Li did not notice Luxianbei’s arrival until Ahua brought over a cup of brewed strong tea and softly reminded her.
“Sorry, I was careless before my vacation; there are a lot of things to handle.”
She calmly said, looking at Luxianbei, “What’s wrong?”
“Me? I’m fine.”
Jiang Li looked at Luxianbei, who appeared fatigued, and said lightly, “If you’re fine, why are you here? If you want to practice martial arts, you’ll probably have to wait until I finish these tasks, which will take at least three to five days.”
Luxianbei, “…”
Wow, this woman is so cold, huh?
Just yesterday, I was nestled in her arms, and today she acts like nothing ever happened.
Why do I feel like I’ve been played and dumped by a heartless woman?
Muttering to himself, Luxianbei scratched the back of his head, “Uh… Boss, I actually came here to cancel my leave. Didn’t I take a half-month’s leave? It should be time to cancel it, right?”
“Yeah.” Jiang Li nodded, “That is indeed necessary.”
As she spoke, she leaned down and rummaged in the desk drawer, producing a form, then took a pen from the pen holder, stood up, and handed it to Luxianbei.
“Here, and here, fill in your name in these two places, and I’ll take care of the rest.”
Luxianbei took the pen and form, quickly wrote his name on the coffee table, and returned the form to Jiang Li’s hands, “Boss, doesn’t this mean my leave has been successfully canceled?”
“Hmm.” Jiang Li nodded, “If there’s nothing else, you can leave.”
“Don’t be in such a hurry!” Luxianbei said, “Successfully canceling my leave means I can ask for leave again, right?”
Jiang Li looked at Luxianbei, her expression becoming somewhat complicated. After a long silence, she nodded, “In theory, yes…”
“Then I’ll take a leave!” Luxianbei blurted out.
Are you trying to cash in on your credit card here? Jiang Li thought, rubbing her forehead, and said lightly, “What bad thing are you planning to do?”
“Tsk! Boss, how could North North have any bad intentions?” Luxianbei said earnestly, “I’m going to deliver, no, protect human cultural treasures, safeguard the precious heritage of my ancestors, defend…”
“Speak normally.” Jiang Li interrupted.
Luxianbei shrugged, maintaining a deadpan expression, “Earlier, my course professor planned to take me to participate in a research project, right?”
“The project location had a tomb raiding incident, and the professor was invited to assist in retrieving cultural relics. I’d be helping out.”
Even if helping out, it’s still helping.
That’s right, Huacheng University, College of Arts and Literature, Red Flower Double Sticks, that’s me, Luxianbei thought.
“So, last night you were getting into the mindset of a tomb raider to understand their psychological activities in advance for the upcoming work?” Jiang Li teased, “Didn’t manage to dig anything, right?”
Luxianbei’s cheeks turned slightly red, “…” d*mn it, how did she know?
Seemingly seeing through Luxianbei’s psychological activities, Jiang Li took a sip of the strong tea and calmly said, “The stoneworker at Lions Mountain Cemetery is Qing Sister’s informant; she has already made fun of me here for half an hour before you arrived.”
“Uh…” Luxianbei was taken aback, trying to probe, “So, will you approve this leave?”
It would be best if you didn’t approve it, then I’ll have an excuse not to go with the professor.
“Of course, approved.” Jiang Li took a deep breath, her expression turning serious, “Go ahead, go ahead!”
“Really?”
Luxianbei looked sideways at Jiang Li, deep in thought.
Jiang Li easily agreed, which felt somewhat odd to him.
It felt like saying, “Go ahead, go ahead; if you dare to go, don’t come back!”
“Going to protect cultural relics is a good thing; why would I stop you?”
These are all positive acts; if your identity gets exposed in the future, it might help reduce your sentence, Jiang Li thought to herself.
“Then I’m really going!” Luxianbei tested.
I came straight from the police station early in the morning without even breakfast, and I rushed over to report to you without any symbolic attempt to keep me here!
Jiang Li nodded, “Go ahead.”
Luxianbei frowned at Jiang Li. After a long moment, he scratched his head, “But what will you do if I leave?”
Jiang Li was taken aback. After a long time, she closed her eyes and shook her head with a wry smile.
“What needs to be done will be done, just like the past nineteen years.”
Love is important, but it has never been everything in life.
“Go, have a safe journey, and come back early.”
———
Shortly after Luxianbei left, Ahua came into Jiang Li’s office with breakfast, hesitating in front of her desk, wanting to say something but stopping.
Noticing Ahua’s unusual behavior, Jiang Li raised her head and asked, “Ahua, is something the matter?”
“Miss…” Ahua hesitated several times before finally speaking, “Do you really plan to do that? Isn’t it a bit too…”
Jiang Li grabbed a piece of the youtiao and brought it to her mouth, tearing off a piece, her face showing a playful smile as she said meaningfully, “What Miaomiao Sauce does has nothing to do with me, right?”
Upon hearing this, Ahua seemed to understand something, her eyes brightening, “Then, Miss, shall I go get it for you?”
“No hurry, let’s keep him waiting for a while; we can talk about it when we get back tonight,” Jiang Li replied lightly.
———
That night, at the Jingyi Apartment Complex, inside Luxianbei’s home, in a simple alchemy workshop.
After managing to fit “Miss Qiu” into eighteen different poses and finally stuffing her into a metal box, Luxianbei mixed the remaining malice with the alchemical remnants he bought from Fat Second Grandpa and the bl**d he “acquired” from the eyeball to create over twenty alchemical dirty bombs 3.0.
Although he didn’t know whether this method would inflict even a trace of the world’s malice on the target when detonating the alchemical dirty bomb, it was worth a try.
After packing his luggage, Luxianbei carried the metal box and went to the express station at the entrance of the complex to send an expedited package to the hotel where the professor had booked, estimating that it would arrive at the same time as him.
This time going to Tangcheng, there was a high probability of confrontation with spiritual ability users or urban legends.
In poor physical condition, he always felt uneasy without making some preparations.
However, those alchemical dirty bombs, filled with glowing viscous liquid, definitely wouldn’t pass through airport security. After thinking it over, Luxianbei decided that sending it via express was the only practical option.
Back home, with nothing else to do, Luxianbei finally had some free time and went to his desk to open the materials Professor Ma had sent on his laptop.
He didn’t know if it was just his feeling, but after Professor Ma compared those cultural relics to figurines, he felt that as long as he glanced at those pictures, he could remember them completely in his mind.
If things get tough, couldn’t he just ask Jumeng, the “Stinky Sister,” the relic maker, for help to look over them?
From the map, Tangcheng was quite close to Peach Source, only about seventy or eighty kilometers away.
Just as he thought of Jumeng, a familiar object suddenly flashed in front of his eyes. He paused, quickly scrolling with the mouse wheel to find the picture he had just viewed.
“This isn’t…”
Luxianbei was taken aback, carefully looking at the pattern on the bronze vessel, suddenly raising his hand to inspect the back of his hand and then looking again at the bronze vessel, finally letting out a straightforward exclamation, “d*mn!”
The pattern on this bronze vessel, isn’t it just like Jumeng’s mark?!
She didn’t get infected by some bad habits, leading Peach Source to go out of business and start selling off assets, did she?
If it’s Stinky Sister, this kind of thing is totally something she could do!
Thinking of this, Luxianbei picked up his phone and dialed the contact number Jumeng had left him—the landline phone of the forest guardian’s cabin at the back of Peach Source.
Just then, his phone suddenly vibrated twice, followed by notifications popping up from a certain social media app.
The sender’s ID was familiar, and the message contained a picture and a short text.
Miaomiao Sauce: [Image]
Miaomiao Sauce: “I heard you’re going on a trip soon? Here’s a protective talisman for you, wishing you a smooth journey.” [Heart emoji]
In the picture.
The off-shoulder dress resembling a pure white wedding gown was worn by Miaomiao Sauce, draped in thin gauze; underneath, the faint outlines of large white flowers could be seen.
The snow-white headdress wrapped her long golden hair, styled into a neat bun, and below the knee skirt revealed a pair of long legs encased in white stockings, with a pair of crystal shoes glimmering softly.
In her hand was a long weapon that resembled both a sword and a spear; its sharp edge emerged from a blooming giant snow lotus, radiating a cold light.
Luxianbei, “!!!”
This… this… this…
Is it a 【Disordered Flower of Parallel Dimension】 COS?!
d*mn it, has “Miaomiao Sauce” finally remembered her main job?
Wang Buliu: “Are you there? Come back soon!”
Miaomiao Sauce: “Nothing else, next time.” [Heart emoji]
(EMMM… Recently, there have been too many things during the day, so I can only write at night. I estimate that I won’t make the 5K update by midnight, so I’m updating a chapter of 4K for now and may update a short chapter later. For classmates who can’t wait, you can check it out early tomorrow morning.)
