Death Is No Less Bitter

"Heavens, my life is so bitter!"

Huai Shi threw back his head and howled. A mournful scream tore from his throat, and he burst into sobs, tears streaming uncontrollably... At the same time, two hoarse wails rang out, refusing to be outdone:

"Juan'er, Daddy has failed you!"

"Mother, your unfilial son can't see you off in your final days..."

Under this terrifying, tear-gas-like effect, the two burly men who had broken into the house cried until snot and tears nearly poured from their faces.

In the midst of their bitter weeping, the three looked at one another, as though they all felt that the world was so cruel and they were so alone. A sense of mutual sympathy rose in their hearts at that very moment... Yeah, right!

Even if their mothers had died, their daughters had been lost, and their lives had been miserable, they still had work to do, and things still left unfinished.

Wiping away tears and snot, the two sobbing brutes suddenly pounced. The three of them became entangled in a brawl. Like a flock of weak chickens pecking at each other, they cried as they yanked hair, slapped faces, kicked groins, and bent little fingers.

As he cried, Huai Shi started crying for real.

It fucking hurt too much.

"Damn it, go easy on me!"

Still bawling, he punched one man in the eye. The tear-streaked, scarred face raised itself, then viciously bit down on Huai Shi's arm. The other man seized Huai Shi's hair and, weeping all the while, pummeled him wildly.

"Lao Liu, kill him!" The man pinned beneath Huai Shi and getting beaten screamed between sobbing breaths. "Kill him!"

Lao Liu behind Huai Shi sobbed an acknowledgment, then threw a fierce punch into the back of Huai Shi's head. Huai Shi's vision went black, and he was knocked down.

Then, from the corner of his eye, Huai Shi saw Lao Liu pull out a short-barreled hunting rifle and aim it at his face.

With tears running down his face, Lao Liu took aim, flicked off the safety, and placed his finger on the trigger through his sniffles.

Huai Shi only heard a muffled bang.

Then he saw Lao Liu's head explode.

For a moment, hard and soft, red and white matter rained down across the floor. A few scattered drops even landed on Huai Shi's face, frightening him so badly that he could no longer cry.

As the headless corpse slowly collapsed, he finally saw the girl standing at the stairway entrance.

Ai Qing supported herself with one hand on a crutch, leaning diagonally against the wall. Dust from the handrail and wall had rubbed gray streaks onto her white dress.

In her other lowered hand, she held a gun.

Faint smoke rose from its muzzle.

"They took the bait quickly."

She looked at the man struggling desperately beneath Huai Shi, then stepped aside from the stairway entrance. "Leave him alive."

Behind her, Liu Dongli walked up from the stairs with a complicated expression. He gave Ai Qing a long look, and a chill ran through his molars.

He had never expected Ai Qing's confidence to rest on Huai Shi.

On the way here with Ai Qing, he had finally figured out what was going on: everyone believed that after attacking the police station, the criminals would disappear with the Border Relic and lie low for a while.

But Ai Qing had held a different opinion.

Her basis was the several newly discovered bodies from yesterday morning—though they had died just as horribly, they bore signs of torture and abuse.

They had suffered tremendous pain before death.

Amid so many gruesome deaths, most people had overlooked that clue.

But looking at the other corpses made it clear: although the killer's methods were cruel, they were clean and decisive. He never dragged things out or wasted effort on irrelevant matters.

Even if he had a powerful sadistic streak, he would not waste time on such things—Ascenders were not invincible, especially in a harsh sanctuary like the Present Realm. Even someone bearing high-level Stigmata could not act without restraint.

If they left clues and drew the Astronomical Society's pursuit, there would be no good ending for them.

But if they had already found what they wanted, why go to the trouble of torturing others?

Were there not enough corpses already?

An internal purge? Eliminating dissidents? Holding people accountable? Or were these simply two unrelated cases?

Then, among countless speculations, there might be one possibility close to the truth:

—They had not yet found what they wanted.

Besides the Border Relic contained in that box, they had lost something else as well. Therefore, even after recovering the box, they would never let the matter rest.

If that was the case, then one person might be among their next targets...

The person who had reported the case, the first person to discover the box.

Huai Shi...

With only such a useless card in hand, this woman had actually dared to play such a huge hand and go all-in before everyone. Even more terrifyingly, she had actually pulled it off.

Originally, Liu Dongli had thought Huai Shi had been let off lightly because Ai Qing had shown mercy for the sake of their childhood friendship. Now it seemed this woman truly did not have a shred of humanity...

And thinking that his weakness was in the hands of someone like her made Liu Dongli's heart turn even colder.

Now that Ai Qing had given the order, he did not dare make excuses or slack off. He could only sigh, sweep back his hair, raise his eyes, and look toward the two people on the corridor floor, still crying, wrestling, and tangled together.

"—Room inspection! Hand over your IDs!"

The moment Liu Dongli had started striking poses, Huai Shi had sensed something bad. Now that he was using the same trick again, how could Huai Shi possibly fall for it? He immediately turned his head away and squeezed his eyes as tightly shut as possible.

Even if he were beaten to death, he refused to embarrass himself like last time.

But the man, who knew nothing about this, raised his head in astonishment and looked over.

In the darkness behind his tightly shut eyelids, Huai Shi actually heard strange choking sounds. The force tugging at him abruptly loosened.

That man seemed to be rolling around on the floor.

Confused, Huai Shi cautiously opened his eyes a slit and looked at the man on the ground. He saw only that the man was staring blankly toward the stairway behind Huai Shi, clawing desperately at his own throat as though he could not breathe, his face turning blue-purple from suffocation.

Yet there was no despair on his face. Instead, it was filled with surprise and admiration...

Mother of God, what kind of divine technique was this?

Huai Shi's heart went completely cold. He dared not turn around and squeezed his eyes shut even tighter.

Not until the man hit the floor with a thud and fell unconscious, and Liu Dongli came over, hoisted him up, found a chair, and tied him up securely, did Huai Shi maintain his eyes-closed posture.

Only after confirming that he was safe did he finally let out a breath. Though these two had broken into his home uninvited just like those bandits, he still politely offered his thanks.

Finally, he looked at Ai Qing, who had just fearlessly shot and saved his miserable life, only to find that the way she looked at him was somewhat strange.

In his confusion, he heard Ai Qing sigh.

"Huai Shi, long time no see."

"...Uh."

Huai Shi froze for a long while, then could not help scratching his head as he awkwardly asked, "Sorry, who are you?"

"..."

After a long silence, Liu Dongli beside them could not hold it in any longer. He turned away and burst out laughing.

Ai Qing remained expressionless, merely pulling back the hammer of her pistol once more.

"Oh, long time no see!"

Under the terrifying pressure of Death Sense, Huai Shi hurriedly slapped his forehead and put on an enlightened expression. "Look at this memory of mine—I remember now!"

"Oh?" Ai Qing's brow lifted slightly, and the gun barrel rose an inch. "Then tell me. Who am I?"

"Aren't you that... that..."

Huai Shi was so frightened that his face turned pale, yet he racked his brains and still could not remember where he had met such a beautiful older sister with a crutch.

Apparently too lazy to deal with him, Ai Qing simply supported herself on her crutch and walked past him. She directed Liu Dongli to lift the guy from the chair, move him somewhere more spacious, then splashed a basin of water over him, jolting him awake from his faint.

My floor...

Looking at the large patch of floor soaked through with water, Huai Shi's eye twitched. Very wisely, he said nothing.

Forget it. Whatever kind of supernatural beings these two were, the sooner they finished, the sooner they could leave.

As long as they did not kill anyone else in his house.

And yet, at the very moment he needed her most, that damned Crow had vanished without a trace...

The moment the man opened his eyes, he saw Liu Dongli before him.

Liu Dongli had already swept back his hair. He leaned close, stared into the man's eyes, and activated his strange ability in an instant.

The man fell into a daze and kept making admiring noises at Liu Dongli, drool running down several feet.

But Liu Dongli's expression suddenly turned disappointed, as though he had discovered something.

"No. He has no Source Matter left."

He turned to Ai Qing and shook his head. "This man's brain was probably ruined long ago. He's completely hollowed out, a walking corpse. We won't get anything out of him."

Ai Qing's face darkened as well.

"Ask first—"

After a long while, she spoke. "We'll discuss it if he won't answer."

Liu Dongli nodded helplessly, turned back, and asked, "Name?"

"Zhao Baozhu."

The man grinned foolishly as he looked at Liu Dongli. "Young man, how come you're so handsome? So pleasing to look at. I really like you..."

As he spoke, white foam began bubbling from his mouth.

He trembled violently. The chair binding him let out sharp creaks, and the ropes looked as though they were about to snap.

Liu Dongli's expression changed.

Then everyone heard crisp sounds coming from inside his body—crack, crack, crack—like plucked strings snapping.

Yet Zhao Baozhu's expression grew increasingly fervent and joyful.

"Ah—I'm going to heaven!" He grinned and laughed loudly. "Heavenly Father has come for me... Seventy-two angels as beautiful as you, young man, have come... come to take me..."

Amid his hoarse cries, the man convulsed violently. Green smoke actually rose from his mouth and nose, followed by surging flames that rapidly burned through flesh and bone.

In an instant, they incinerated his entire body.

He became a pile of ash mixed with bone fragments, while the ropes binding him and the chair remained completely unharmed, save for a patch of black scorch marks.

"Hiss!"

Huai Shi instinctively stepped back, his scalp prickling at the sight.

Liu Dongli rubbed his face and could not help shaking his head with a sigh.

"The trail has gone cold again..."

But Ai Qing remained indifferent. After a long time, her voice emerged from the silence. "Not necessarily."

"Hm?" Liu Dongli did not understand, but then he saw Ai Qing looking at Huai Shi.

"He's still alive."

Ai Qing examined the stunned Huai Shi. "I don't know why those people wanted to kill him, but as long as this bait remains, I'll eventually catch some trace of them."

"You're trying to get me killed!"

At this point, how could Huai Shi not understand what she was plotting? He immediately flew into a rage. "There are only fifteen days left of summer vacation, and I'm still four thousand short on living expenses! If I'm going to die either way, I might as well die poor!"

"Is that so?"

Ai Qing cut him off, raising what she held to show him the dark barrel of her gun.

"Hah? This is your routine, huh?"

Though Huai Shi backed away desperately in fright, he still talked tough. "Even if I, Huai Shi, get shot dead by you today or jump down from here, I will never..."

Just as he was about to demonstrate that he could not be cowed by force, Ai Qing raised something else: her phone.

On its screen, his bank balance displayed a long string of zeros that Huai Shi could not even count.

"—All for one, and one for all!"

Huai Shi slapped his chest forcefully and said with solemn righteousness, "Cooperating with investigations by government agencies is the bounden duty of every East Xia citizen! Please do not spare me just because I am a delicate flower. Come on, comrade—what kind of game do you like?"

Ah, it hurts so much when I can't write anything...