The sun shines through the nylon curtains, cutting stripes of light and dark on the mottled carpet. The air is filled with the smell of beer and pizza - this is a motel room.
There are seven or eight empty beer cans scattered on the table, and a half-eaten pepperoni pizza box is slightly sour. Next to it are several ancient books about demons and ghosts, with red annotations on the pages. Bai Haorui is sitting on the edge of the bed, carefully wiping his mahogany sword with a piece of shiny deerskin.
The blade of the sword glows with a warm wood-colored luster in the morning light, and the purple-gold True Gang slowly flows on the sword like a living thing, sometimes condensing into tiny lightning bolts, and sometimes turning into swirling mist. The pale pink Lotus Seal between his eyebrows is looming, flickering slightly with the movement of True Gang, like a slowly blooming lotus.
A burst of cell phone ringing broke the silence in the room.
Bai Haorui put down the deerskin and picked up the mobile phone on the bedside table. When he saw the words "Bobby" displayed on the screen, he frowned slightly. Bobby rarely called him at this time unless something happened.
"Bobby? What's wrong?" He answered the phone with a calm and steady voice.
Bobby's voice came from the other end of the phone. Bai Haorui's brows wrinkled tighter and tighter, and the fingers holding the phone were slightly harder. "Old Zhou is scared crazy?... Okay, I'll rush over right away."
He hung up the phone and stuffed the phone into his trouser pocket.
"Bobby? What happened?" Dean yawned and walked out of the bedroom, holding a blue toothbrush in his mouth. The white toothpaste foam flowed down his chin and dripped on his black T-shirt. He rubbed his sleepy eyes, and his hair was as messy as a chicken coop.
Bai Haorui stood up and put away the peach wood sword.
"It's Bobby, San Francisco's Chinatown has a case, it's very difficult." He said while packing his backpack, "It's Old Zhou. You also know that he is the most powerful hunter of Chinatown. He has been doing it for forty years. Now he is lying in a mental hospital and can't even remember who he is."
"What's going on?" Sam poked his head out of the bathroom, with drops of water on his face and a towel on his shoulders, "Do you want us to go too?"
Bai Haorui took out three neatly folded yellow talismans from his backpack and handed them to them. The talisman paper was made of fine cinnabar paper, with complex runes drawn on it with cinnabar, exuding a faint golden light and a refreshing sandalwood scent.
"No need for now, I'll go over and see if I can solve it. I'll call you if I need to." He put the talisman paper into the hands of the two of them. "This is the amulet I drew. I keep it close to my body. It's not peaceful recently. Lilith just ran away. I don't know what she will do. If you have anything to do, call me. I'll come back as soon as I finish handling it."
Dean took the charm and stuffed it into the innermost compartment of his wallet. He curled his lips and looked unhappy. "Really, every time you have something fun, Bobby takes it away from you. If you encounter something you can't handle, remember to call us. Sam and I will be on call."
"Don't worry." Bai Haorui smiled and showed his white teeth. He stretched out his hand and patted Dean and Sam on the shoulders respectively, "You should also be careful."
He put his black backpack on his back, turned around and walked out of the room. The door closed gently behind him.
Bai Haorui stood in the parking lot of the motel and looked up at the sky. The sky in the early morning was gray, as if covered with a layer of dust.
Old Zhou's ability is very clear to him. What on earth can scare such a veteran hunter like this?
He shook his head and didn't think much about it. He walked to a sturdy-looking black pickup truck in the corner of the parking lot and easily opened the door with a thin wire. Sitting in the driver's seat, he skillfully hotwired the car.
The engine made a low roar and then started running smoothly. Bai Haorui put it into gear, stepped on the accelerator, and the pickup truck's tires made a screeching sound as it sped away in the direction of San Francisco.
Twelve hours later.
In the motel room, Dean was lying on the sofa watching TV, holding a bottle of beer in his hand. A boring old movie was playing on the TV. Sam was sitting at the table, looking up information about various ghosts and monsters on the computer. His face was a little pale, and there was a trace of unnoticeable fatigue in his eyes.
A familiar cell phone ringtone came from a small box.
That's John·Winchester's old mobile phone.
Dean and Sam were stunned at the same time and looked at each other.
Dean sat up straight and frowned. "That's not..."
Sam nodded, with a solemn expression. "It's dad's call."
Dean stood up, walked to the bedside table and opened the box. John's old mobile phone was lying inside, with the screen on and ringing constantly. Dean took a deep breath, picked up the phone, and answered the call.
"Hello?"
"Uh... is it John?" A young boy's voice came from the other end of the phone, a little nervous and hesitant.
"He can't answer the phone. Is there anything I can do for you?"
"No, no, no, I really... I need to talk to John. I am Adam·Milligan, he knows me."
Dean's brows furrowed even more tightly. Adam·Milligan? He had never heard of this name.
"I'm sorry to tell you this, friend, but John died over two years ago."
There was silence on the other end of the phone for a long time. Then, the boy's voice came with shock and disbelief. "What?"
"Who are you?" Dean asked.
There was another moment of silence. Then, the boy said slowly, "I am his son."
Chevrolet Impala stopped by the lake. The lake water was sparkling, the breeze was blowing, and there were layers of ripples.
Sam leaned on the car and brushed his teeth. Dean was sleeping in the car, then woke up and stumbled out of the car. He stretched and yawned widely.
"Hey."
"Hey. How did you sleep?" Sam spit out the toothpaste foam in his mouth and asked.
"What do you think?" Dean rubbed his eyes, "I'm starving. Let's go have breakfast."
"Where to go? We're two hours away from anywhere."
"But I'm hungry now." Dean opened the back seat door and wrinkled his nose, "Ah, it's tuna. It's been stored for three days."
He closed the back seat door and leaned against the car.
"What do you think of Haorui's situation there?" Sam asked, "He has been gone for twelve hours and there is not a single call."
"It should be fine." Dean picked up the beer and took a sip, "Don't you know what Haorui is capable of? What can hurt him? Besides, he and Bobby combined will definitely be fine."
Sam nodded and said no more. He took out his mobile phone and called Bai Haorui. However, a prompt tone came from the other end of the phone saying "The user you dialed is temporarily unavailable."
"Can't get through." Sam said.
"Don't worry." Dean patted his shoulder, "He must be somewhere with poor signal. He will call us back after he finishes handling the matter."
At this moment, Dean's cell phone rang. It was the information of Adam·Milligan that he had just checked.
Dean looked at the mobile phone screen, his face became increasingly ugly.
"How is it?" Sam asked.
"Adam·Milligan is real." Dean said, "Born on September 29, 1990, his mother is Kate·Milligan. There is no father's name on the birth certificate. He is an Eagle Scout, graduated from high school with honors, and is now studying preparatory biology at University of Wisconsin."
"This is a trap." Dean said firmly.
"Dean, listen, as far as I know, there's nothing wrong with this kid." Sam said, "He doesn't have any criminal record or any unusual activity."
"Great, so he is a real person on earth." Dean said, "It's a pity that he is possessed by a demon. Or a Shapeshifter. Lilith just ran away. This is definitely a trap set by her."
They drove to Cousin Oliver's Restaurant. Dean walked to the trunk, obviously very agitated. Sam followed him.
Dean took out a bunch of weapons from the trunk and put them in a black bag.
"No matter what he is, this thing will bleed." Dean said, "Using daddy as bait? This will be the last mistake in its short and sad life!"
They walked into the restaurant. Dean walked to a table for four and arranged the chairs so that he and Sam sat on one side and there was only one chair on the other side.
The waitress came over with a professional smile on her face, "Hi, welcome to Cousin Oliver's Restaurant."
"Thank you. We are still waiting for someone." Dean said.
The waitress put down the two menus dissatisfied and turned away.
Dean poured a glass of water into the plant behind him, then took out his own wine bottle and poured holy water into the glass.
"What if he's not possessed?" Sam asked.
"Then he is Shapeshifter." Dean said, "So I also prepared silverware."
He replaced the stainless steel cutlery on the table with the silver cutlery he brought.
"Listen, there is a record in Dad's diary from January 1990, saying that he was going to Minnesota to investigate a case." Sam said, "The next two pages were torn out."
"Coincidence." Dean scoffed.
"I mean, Dad would be away for weeks at a time, and he wasn't much of a monk." Sam said, "A hunter came to town, killed the monster, saved the girl... sometimes the girl is very grateful."
"Okay, now I'm thinking about dad's sex life." Dean said with a look of disgust, "Stop talking about it."
"Maybe he accidentally made a baby."
"Dude!"
At this moment, a young man walked into the restaurant. He was wearing a blue hoodie, jeans, and white sneakers. He looked about nineteen years old, and had the same chin and eyes as John·Winchester, even the way he frowned.
"Adam?" Sam stopped him.
The boy turned his head and saw them. He nodded. "Yes."
"I am Sam·Winchester. This is my brother Dean."
Adam came over and sat down opposite them. He rubbed his hands nervously, with a hint of uneasiness in his eyes.
"How do you know my dad?" he asked.
"We worked together." Sam said.
"How did he die?"
"While working."
"He's a mechanic, right?"
Dean said sharply, "A car hit him."
The waitress came over and asked, "Anything else?"
"I'll get this." Dean roughly grabbed the cup handed to Adam and took a sip of water, "I'm too thirsty."
"Adam, is it still the same?" the waitress asked.
"Yes, thank you, Denise." Adam said.
Denise nodded, turned around and left.
Adam took a sip of water. Dean stared at him nervously, but nothing happened.
"When was the last time you saw John?" Sam asked.
"I don't even remember." Adam said, "Probably a few years ago."
"Then why did you decide to call him now?" Dean asked, his eyes as sharp as knives.
"Because my mother is missing." Adam's voice was choked, "I have no one else to turn to. John is my only family."
Dean said sarcastically, "How sad."
Sam glared at Dean.
"How long has she been missing?" Sam asked.
"The neighbor saw her three days ago," Adam said. "Her supervisor at the hospital called the police because she didn't show up for work. I drove back from school as fast as I could. She wouldn't leave without telling anyone. It was like she disappeared from the face of the earth."
"Then why have we never heard of you?" Dean asked.
"We don't really know each other very well," Adam said, "I didn't meet him until a few years ago. My mother is a nurse and has never mentioned him to me. But I know that he was sent to the emergency room because of a hunting accident and was seriously injured. It wasn't until I was twelve years old that I found his phone number and begged my mother 24 hours a day to call him. When John heard he had a son, he dropped everything and drove all night to the town."
Dean said coldly, "It's so touching."
Denise brought Adam's food. Dean asked him to eat first, and at the same time, he slowly took out a gun under the table and loaded it.
"He taught me how to play poker and billiards." Adam said while eating. "He bought me my first beer when I was fifteen. He even taught me how to drive. He has a beautiful black Impala, 1967."
"What?!" Dean slammed the table and shouted, "You're lying!"
Everyone in the restaurant was startled by Dean's shout, and turned to look at them.
"I'm sorry, but why do you say I lied?" Adam said angrily.
"Because we are the sons of John·Winchester!" Dean shouted, "We are his sons! That car is mine! Dad never taught anyone else to drive it!"
Adam stared at them in shock, with his mouth wide open and speechless.
"Look, man, I don't know if you're a hunter or what, but I've had enough." Dean said, "Let's go, Sam."
"Wait!" Adam shouted, "I can prove it!"
Bai Haorui parked the car in the parking lot at the entrance of Chinatown, opened the door, and took a deep breath.
Colorful Chinese signs are lined up in rows, shining in the sun. "Tong Ren Tang" with gold letters on a red background, "Green Tea Restaurant" with white letters on a green background, and "Good Fortune Tea House" with red lanterns hanging. ", and there is a fish shop sign that says "Fresh Seafood". The streets are bustling with people, including old people carrying vegetable baskets and speaking Cantonese, Chinese students carrying schoolbags and chattering, and tourists holding cameras and speaking with various accents.
The air is filled with all kinds of tempting food aromas - the aroma of freshly baked barbecued pork, the fresh aroma of steamed shrimp dumplings, the mellow aroma of old fire soup, and the burnt aroma of roasted suckling pig. Mixed with the smell of sandalwood, incense and sea water, it forms a unique atmosphere of Chinatown.
A long-lost smile appeared on Bai Haorui's face. He hadn't smelled such a familiar smell for a long time. In United States, most of the so-called Chinese food was improved and didn't taste like that at all.
At this moment, the Lotus Seal between his brows suddenly felt hot, and a biting chill crawled up his spine, making him shiver involuntarily. This chill was different from ordinary evil spirits. It carried a kind of despair and resentment that penetrated deep into the bone marrow, as if it could penetrate a person's soul and drag him into boundless darkness.
Bai Haorui looked up. The entire Chinatown was shrouded in a faint layer of black mist. This layer of mist was very light and could not be seen by ordinary people, but in Bai Haorui's eyes, it was like a huge net, covering the entire Chinatown, everywhere.
"You're here, Haorui."
A familiar voice came. Bobby walked out of "Good Fortune Tea House" next to him. He was wearing a plaid shirt and a worn-out baseball cap. His face was full of exhaustion and solemnity. His eyes were bloodshot, and it was obvious that he had not slept well for several days.
"If she had come a few days later, she would have ruined the entire Chinatown."
Bai Haorui walked up to Bobby and asked in a low voice, "What on earth is it?"
Bobby shook his head and said nothing. He took out a yellowed photo from his pocket and handed it to Bai Haorui. The photo showed a young woman wearing a blue floral shirt, with two long black braids, and holding a pair of red embroidered shoes that she was embroidering. She smiled softly, with her eyes bent into crescents, revealing two shallow dimples.
"Her name is A Xiu." Bobby's voice was low, with a hint of heaviness. "Starting three months ago, Chinatown will die every seven days. The death pattern is exactly the same - scared to death, eyes wide open, with an extremely frightened expression on his face, and he died of cardiac arrest. The forensic doctor could not find any external injuries and concluded that it was due to excessive shock."
"Let's go in and talk." Bobby patted Bai Haorui on the shoulder, "Let's talk while eating. You must be hungry after traveling for so long."
The two walked into Good Fortune Tea House side by side. The teahouse was bustling with people. A waiter wearing a red cheongsam pushed a dining cart between the tables. The dining cart was filled with a variety of morning tea snacks, steaming and fragrant.
They found a seat by the window and sat down.
"What do you two want?" the waiter asked with a smile.
"Two cages of shrimp dumplings, one cage of siomai, two cages of barbecued pork buns, two cages of chicken feet, and two bowls of rice rolls and two bowls of preserved egg and lean meat porridge." Bobby ordered the dishes skillfully, obviously he had not eaten less in the past few days.
Soon, the snacks were served.
The shrimp dumpling skin was as thin as paper and crystal clear, and you could clearly see the pink shrimp inside. Bai Haorui picked up one and took a bite. The chewy shrimp and the delicious soup exploded in his mouth, leaving a mouthful of fragrance. He narrowed his eyes with satisfaction.
The siomai is dotted with an orange-red crab roe. When you take a bite, the meat filling is tender and juicy, and the crab roe pops in your mouth. It has a rich taste and a moderate salty aroma.
The barbecued pork buns are soft and sweet, and when you break them gently, the barbecued pork filling inside flows out. The barbecued pork is fat but not greasy, sweet and salty, and has a rich sauce aroma.
The chicken feet are stewed until they are soft and tender, melting as soon as you take a sip. The sauce is rich and slightly spicy.
The rice rolls are tender and refreshing, and paired with the delicious soy sauce, they taste great.
Finally, there is the preserved egg and lean meat porridge. The porridge is so thick that the rice grains are blooming. The fragrance of the preserved eggs and the umami flavor of the lean meat are perfectly blended. After one sip, a warm feeling spreads from the stomach to the whole body.
Bai Haorui ate with big mouthfuls, a satisfied smile on his face. It had been a long time since he had eaten such authentic Chinese food.
Bobby took a sip of Pu'er tea and looked at him helplessly. "Eat slowly, no one will fight with you. Only when you are full can you have the strength to investigate the case. Old Zhou was too impatient. He broke in without any preparation and ended up like this."
Bai Haorui nodded while eating the barbecued pork buns. He could feel that countless pairs of cold eyes were staring at him in the dark, just like countless venomous snakes spitting messages in the dark, ready to pounce on him and bite him at any time. These eyes came from all directions, from the walls, from the floor, from the ceiling, and from every dark corner.
A Xiu is here. She is looking at him.
The police station in San Francisco was full of people and noisy sounds. The police were walking around, holding documents in their hands and shouting something. The air was filled with the smell of coffee, cigarettes and sweat.
Bobby knows an old policeman here, named Tom. Tom is in his fifties, with gray hair and a face full of wrinkles. He has worked in the Chinatown area for thirty years and has seen all kinds of weird things.
Tom took them to the archives room, took out a thick stack of files, and placed them on the table.
"This is the file of all recorded deaths in the past three months, five people in total." Tom said, "They are all young white men, aged between 20 and 30 years old."
Bai Haorui opened the file and looked at it carefully.
The first deceased was named Mike, a 22-year-old student of San Francisco State University. He died in a remote alley in Chinatown. He was found by a cleaner who got up early to take out the garbage. He had an expression of extreme horror on his face and his eyes were wide open, as if he had seen the most terrifying thing in the world.
The second deceased was named Clay, a 25-year-old chef in a Chinese restaurant. He died in his rental house. When his roommate found him, he had been dead for more than ten hours. His fingers dug deeply into his own flesh, and he was obviously struggling in extreme fear.
The third deceased was named Jake, a 28-year-old homeless man. He died in the old site of Good Fortune Restaurant, which is now an abandoned building.
The fourth deceased was named David, a 23-year-old tourist from the United Kingdom, who died in the public toilet of Chinatown.
The fifth deceased was named Robert, a 27-year-old businessman. He died in his car. His car was parked in the parking lot of Chinatown.
"Do they have anything in common?" Bai Haorui asked, flipping through the file.
Tom shook his head. "There is nothing in common. They did not know each other, came from different places, and were engaged in different professions. The only thing in common is that they all died in Chinatown after midnight."
Bai Haorui pointed to a photo of the deceased. In the photo, the deceased's eyes were wide open, his mouth was open, and he had an expression of extreme horror on his face.
"What did they see before they died?"
Tom sighed and shook his head, "I don't know. No one knows. We asked all the witnesses, but no one saw anyone suspicious. All the surveillance cameras failed during the time of the crime, and nothing was captured. It's like... something blocked them all."
Bobby said, "Old Zhou got into trouble while investigating the case of Robert. He went to the place where Robert died and then went crazy. When we found him, he was huddled in a corner of the parking lot, muttering 'red shoes' non-stop."
"Red shoes?" Bai Haorui frowned.
"Yes, they are red shoes." Bobby said, "He kept saying these three words over and over again."
Bai Haorui closed the file with a solemn expression.
"Let's go to the mental hospital to see Old Zhou."
There was silence in the mental hospital. White walls, white sheets, white floors, everything was white, making people feel depressed and suffocating. The air was filled with the smell of disinfectant and medicine, which was pungent and unpleasant. Occasionally, patients' screams and cries were heard in the corridor, echoing in the empty corridor, making people's hair stand on end.
The nurse took them to Old Zhou's ward.
Old Zhou was tied to the hospital bed, wearing a blue and white striped hospital gown. His hair was messy, like a bird's nest, and his eyes were bloodshot and unfocused. He kept mumbling something in his mouth, and his voice was unclear.