Chapter 32: Dawn
"Hahaha, what a lovely day today, God is a girl, wherever you are."
Humming a song that mixed Chinese and English, Su Su returned home in high spirits.
It was almost eight in the evening, and the carefree girl seemed to have forgotten to eat again.
But when Su Su remembered this at her door, she paid it no mind. She went straight inside, planning to get by on her stockpile of food.
Honestly, a lot had happened that day, each incident more thrilling than the last. She was tired both mentally and physically and had no desire to go out again.
Once inside, she kicked and shook her shoes off without a shred of grace, hurried barefoot into her bedroom, stripped off her jacket, and flung herself onto her soft bed.
After she lay there for a while, excitement once again overcame her fatigue.
He added me on WeChat! When will he contact me?
Should I contact him first?
Did I pass the test earlier? No, wait, he never said he was testing me...
Maybe I should ask whether there are any requirements for joining them. Oh, but that would seem so presumptuous...
Alone on her bed, Su Su rolled back and forth with her phone clutched in her hands.
She kept opening and closing a certain profile on WeChat, never finding the courage to speak first.
Another girl would surely have complained at this point: why hadn't this guy contacted her first yet?
But all Su Su felt was anxious uncertainty. She couldn't muster any resentment.
This was an opportunity countless people would never encounter. Carefree as she was, she certainly wouldn't get petulant over something like this.
If I contact him first, will he think I'm impatient? It hasn't been that long, after all...
In her imagination, people with mysterious powers were bound to have an impressive air about them, and they were surely very patient too.
And judging by Doudou's words and Qin Xiaoxia's hair, they surely had far more time to spare than ordinary people.
Su Su! You can't be impatient. You can't be impatient! You need to change that temperament of yours. You might become a great witch someday!
Thump.
With a quick spring, Su Su jumped off the bed.
Something had suddenly occurred to her.
The brand she had seen on Qin Xiaoxia's palm earlier.
In the kitchen, she grabbed some jam, peanut butter, and sliced bread, along with a can of soda and some vacuum-packed braised chicken drumsticks.
Carrying these "supplies," Su Su returned to her bedroom and sat down at her computer desk.
One of her most notable strengths was her exceptional memory. Although she had only glanced at the design a few times, it remained perfectly clear in her mind, as though engraved there.
It's a little abstract, but I should be able to draw it.
Taking a notebook and a pencil, Su Su began sketching it from memory.
Since his palm hadn't been completely flat at the time, the actual design was bound to differ from what she had seen.
She drew the circle and lines, then added the details, but no matter how she drew it, something felt off.
It seemed too thin.
She repeatedly erased, redrew, and revised it. Only after changing the lines into double lines did it finally bear some resemblance.
She stared at the design on the paper.
Sure enough, no matter how she looked at it, it resembled a sun.
In the past, knowing what this design looked like would still have left her virtually clueless.
She would have had to rely on time and luck, or pore through the vast sea of books in a library. Whether she would find it, and when, would remain unknown.
But now, technology and online data could spare Su Su a great deal of trouble.
"Image search really is a wonderful invention."
With that exclamation, Su Su photographed her drawing with her phone and uploaded it for an image search.
After a wait of just a few seconds, a string of web pages appeared.
For now, only the first three results were genuinely relevant. Most of the others were unrelated images or vaguely similar ones.
The first result displayed two old paintings, clearly photographs of some historical artwork.
The first painting depicted the symbol Su Su cared about most.
Yes! I really found it!
This design was far more intricate than Su Su's drawing.
It was a sun surrounded by flames, with rays of light spreading from its center. Just looking at it gave her a sense of light and heat.
The second painting depicted a scene.
It showed two people entirely shrouded in black robes meeting with a nobleman.
Judging by the painting's style and its surroundings, it must have been inside a castle in medieval Europe.
One of the black-robed figures was extending a hand as he spoke, and a small design was visible on his open palm.
The artist was clearly highly skilled, or perhaps even a renowned master, for the design had been rendered in exquisite detail.
Su Su enlarged the image and could make out fairly clearly that it was the same design as in the first painting.
Beneath the second painting was a written account.
Su Su instinctively read it aloud in a quiet voice.
"In AD 877, Count Thomas was tormented in his home by the spirit of his deceased wife. An association named 'Dawn' approached him of its own accord. These people, who called themselves wizards, offered to banish or destroy his wife's spirit for him."
At this, Su Su immediately grew excited.
The ninth century AD! Had they really existed that long ago?
"After demonstrating some of their abilities and gaining the count's trust, the two parties began discussing a solution. In the end, the count, who still loved his late wife, asked them neither to harm her nor banish her, but instead to find a way to let her rest in peace."
Su Su took a hefty bite of her peanut-butter-covered bread, experiencing the wondrous sensation of delving into history, especially history so closely connected to her.
"Since the count's request was more demanding, the wizards asked for a higher payment, which the count readily agreed to. The exorcism was scheduled for midnight that same day..."
Below that was even a small illustration, accompanied by a passage in Latin.
It depicted everyone in the castle, including the count and the castle guards, being asked by the wizards to leave temporarily.
"From the following day onward, his deceased wife never troubled the castle again!"
"Haha, that's amazing!"
Su Su couldn't help clasping her hands together.
But there was another passage below.
"However, according to the count's memoirs, it was not until three days after the incident that the captain of the castle guard discovered that the 'haunting by his deceased wife' had been the work of a bribed servant. The wizards had effectively swindled a considerable sum of gold coins out of the count for nothing.
"Count Thomas regarded this incident as the shame of his life and never spoke of it to outsiders... until his descendants in the Thomas Family discovered his memoirs in the twentieth century..."
Su Su was dumbstruck when she read this.
What was going on?
Frauds?
A bribed servant?
Swindling gold coins?
Her brain briefly froze.
No! Impossible!
What cemented that conviction was naturally Qin Xiaoxia and Doudou's behavior earlier that day, along with her own divination.
Then Su Su patiently continued searching for Duke Thomas.
I knew it! That bastard!
Count Thomas's memoirs were essentially nothing but complaints, with scarcely a kind word recorded anywhere. From royalty and nobles down to ordinary commoners, there was no one he didn't curse or criticize.
Next, Su Su clicked the second web link.
It was a repost of a blog entry originally written by a descendant of French nobility.
It had barely any views.
It stated that there seemed to have once been a mysterious organization called "Dawn," which had been relatively active during the Middle Ages before gradually disappearing during the Renaissance.
There were few historical records of it, and the limited private accounts offered mixed opinions.
Some called this organization a torch in the darkness, while others said it was nothing more than an organized alliance of swindlers whose members were branded on their palms to keep them in line.
Ultimately, few people had truly met them, and most of those who had remained silent about them, making "Dawn" all the more mysterious.
After reading this article, Su Su already leaned strongly toward one interpretation.
She clicked the third result, only to discover a low-effort post with a stolen image copied from who knew where. It had virtually nothing to do with "Dawn."
For today's highly developed internet, even accounting for the country's internet firewall, this was a pitifully small amount of information. Clearly, anything more detailed was beyond what image searches or web searches could reveal.
There was no denying that this was an extremely mysterious organization. They never explained anything to the outside world.
Remembering what had happened that day, Su Su clenched her fists.
But they truly were protectors hidden behind the scenes. Just as their name suggested, they were the dawn in the darkness!
From the distant past to the present, these people still existed, still protecting them!
Dawn! Sooner or later, I'll join you!
Su Su had worked herself into a state of passionate excitement!
Qin Xiaoxia as a child: "Grandpa, I can understand the people who never realized they'd been fooled, but why do so many people who know they were cheated keep quiet too?"
"Heh, child, people can be very complicated sometimes, but very simple at others. When gold coins are easier to come by than dignity, the choice is often easy to make."
A certain old man smiled enigmatically.
And thanks to my editor for looking after this book!