Chapter 25
Chapter 25
– Beauty, too, was ‘their’ weapon.
Xie Qingling carefully studied Shen Huaizhou’s face.
Cool, pale skin; thick black hair; foxlike eyes whose outer corners drooped ever so slightly, adding a touch of innocence to their allure, even as his gaze remained extraordinarily cold and proud. Then there was his build: broad shoulders and a narrow waist…
Whether it was the proportion of his head to his shoulders or his head to his body, everything fell within the realm of perfection.
He was so beautiful, so…
“You must be very strong,” Xie Qingling said.
Shen Huaizhou gave her another exceptionally surprised glance. An expression that said, You have pleased me, appeared on his face. He seemed quite satisfied by Xie Qingling’s praise, and the frost covering his features gradually receded.
This was the first time someone confronting Shen Huaizhou had said not “You’re so beautiful,” but “You must be very strong.”
Shen Huaizhou had long grown tired of their vulgar aesthetic sense. Being praised for his beauty still brought him pleasure, but he had heard it far too many times. By comparison, praise for his strength – an act of seeing through appearances to the essence beneath – was much more gratifying.
He had not expected the rookie to possess such excellent judgment. Shen Huaizhou immediately came to admire her greatly.
The three sat around the conference table and began attending to their own tasks.
Ling Fang might have said that the Department members needed to bond with Xie Qingling, but they were all adults. Their method of bonding amounted to little more than sitting in the same place while each remained busy with their own work.
Xie Qingling copied the workplace rules. Ling Fang tapped his earpiece from time to time, occasionally contacting the people on field duty to confirm their status. Shen Huaizhou stared at his computer screen, though no one knew what he was looking at.
Roughly five minutes later, Shen Huaizhou raised his head from the computer and glanced at Xie Qingling.
Shen Huaizhou had finished reading Dai Xingyu’s post-operation report, and his eyes lit up.
“Director, I’m taking her out on field duty,” Shen Huaizhou suddenly said. “Today.”
At this, the other two stopped what they were doing and looked at him in confusion.
Ling Fang frowned slightly. “She just arrived. She may – ”
“She’s strong.” Shen Huaizhou glanced at Xie Qingling, then said, “There’s no need to coddle a rookie.”
“If you want her to grow quickly, field duty is a better and faster method than remaining at the office.”
“Our Department is terribly understaffed, isn’t it?”
Ling Fang silently studied Xie Qingling for several moments, looking somewhat conflicted.
He did not feel comfortable sending Xie Qingling out on field duty alone.
But if she went with Shen Huaizhou, he should be capable enough to handle any emergencies.
What surprised Ling Fang was that Shen Huaizhou, aloof and haughty by nature, had volunteered to take the rookie into the field. Ling Fang’s greatest concern had originally been that Shen Huaizhou and the rookie would not get along, disrupting the team’s ability to work together.
And so, after considering the practical circumstances, Ling Fang made his decision.
He looked at Xie Qingling. “You decide for yourself.”
“I…” Xie Qingling hesitated. “I don’t know if I’m capable of it.”
This was only her second day at work. Her self-criticism was unfinished, and she had not completed her copies of the workplace rules.
“You are.” Shen Huaizhou spoke with absolute certainty, as if he understood Xie Qingling’s abilities better than she did. “Our Department doesn’t recruit trash.”
Xie Qingling: “…”
“Fine. I’ll go with you.” Gritting her teeth, Xie Qingling secured Bloodsworn in the clips on her back, then pulled on a short, cape-like coat. From the outside, her outfit looked perfectly ordinary, with no hint that she carried restricted blades.
“Let’s go.”
—
After leaving the office, Shen Huaizhou tossed Xie Qingling a helmet and told her to put it on.
He drove his own heavy motorcycle, carrying Xie Qingling away behind him.
These motorcycles were standard Department equipment, one issued to each person. Compared with other means of transportation, they were faster, more powerful, and more agile.
But Xie Qingling was a rookie and had no idea how to ride one, so Shen Huaizhou simply took her with him.
“Where are we going?” Xie Qingling shouted.
The wind roared around them. At the speed they were moving, Xie Qingling felt as though her voice might be blown away.
Shen Huaizhou answered, “A slaughterhouse.”
After spending considerable time learning the work procedures, Xie Qingling already knew what ordinary field duty involved.
Routine field duty was essentially patrol work.
Generally, patrols were assigned to a Groom. But Future City had only one Groom, Dai Xingyu, and they were clearly understaffed. Ling Fang therefore had no choice but to send other people to participate in this work.
Patrols involved checking locations previously marked as sites of supernatural incidents to prevent those incidents from recurring and causing casualties.
Alternatively, they inspected unmarked locations that had never experienced supernatural incidents but were statistically considered high-risk sites.
Ghosts and monsters consumed many different forms of sustenance, but most were connected to human desire, fear, death… and so on.
Once these characteristics were identified, it became much easier to pinpoint special locations. Those locations typically became places the Special Incident Response Department needed to patrol regularly.
More dangerous field assignments required leaving the city and traveling into the outskirts.
Villagers in rural settlements still preserved certain ancient customs. Some farming households even maintained shrines that honored particular entities.
If the entity they worshiped was something sinister, matters usually became quite troublesome.
Consequently, field assignments outside the city required putting their weapons to use and carried considerably greater danger.
Field assignments outside the city were rare, however. Xie Qingling had found time yesterday to skim through the operation files in the first-floor lobby. Since the beginning of the year, Future City had required only two trips outside the city.
Perhaps, as Ye Anran had said, Future City truly experienced fewer supernatural incidents.
The slaughterhouse was inside the city, so Shen Huaizhou was taking her to a routine patrol location. Xie Qingling simply did not know whether a supernatural incident had occurred here before.
As her thoughts wandered, Shen Huaizhou stopped the motorcycle in front of a broad iron gate.
A row of words stood beside the gate: Ping’an Slaughterhouse.
They had arrived.
Xie Qingling climbed off the motorcycle with her Book of Observation in hand, Bloodsworn strapped to her back, and an earpiece hanging from one ear. She looked every inch as though she were on the job.
After removing his helmet, Shen Huaizhou told Xie Qingling, “Ping’an Slaughterhouse supplies most of Future City’s pork. More than ten thousand pigs are slaughtered here every day. Pigs may only be food, but they are still living beings. This slaughterhouse has operated for so long that the karma of slaughter and baleful energy have gradually accumulated, attracting blood-feeding and flesh-eating ghosts that consume them.”
“In other words, a supernatural incident occurred here before. This is a marked area,” Shen Huaizhou said.
Xie Qingling nodded to show that she understood.
When the slaughterhouse employees saw them, they let the pair inside without attempting to stop them. Shen Huaizhou and Xie Qingling passed through unimpeded.
Apart from the slaughter rooms currently in operation, which they were not allowed to enter, they could move freely everywhere else.
A strange, oppressive presence flowed through the air.
Xie Qingling smelled a powerful reek of blood. The odor of blood accumulated over countless years filled her nose, mingling with the smell of disinfectant. It was extremely unpleasant.
No wonder a supernatural incident had occurred here.
Even humans felt a little unnerved when they entered a place like this.
Ghosts and monsters that fed on this atmosphere would probably revel in it.
She wondered how long it had taken to clear such a vast slaughterhouse during the original incident.
Shen Huaizhou walked ahead of Xie Qingling, explaining as he went. “After clearing a location where a supernatural incident has occurred, we establish an ‘anchor’ to monitor the area for abnormalities.”
“Therefore, when conducting a patrol, the first step is to check the anchor for anything unusual. We use that to infer whether an abnormal situation has occurred. Ordinary Spirit Wielders cannot directly observe the traces of ghosts with the naked eye, after all.”
Shen Huaizhou led Xie Qingling to a remote corner of the slaughterhouse.
Several green vines hung down in the corner, half concealing a stone statue against the wall.
“This is the anchor we established back then,” Shen Huaizhou said.
Xie Qingling looked at it and found it somewhat familiar. “Is that Ksitigarbha?”
Shen Huaizhou nodded. “This bodhisattva once vowed not to attain Buddhahood until hell was empty, and they specialize in slaying evil ghosts. When we humans eliminate ghosts inside their Killing Field, we receive a slight enhancement. Their stone statue standing here also deters ghosts that intend to commit evil. More timid ghosts may not dare cause trouble at all.”
Shen Huaizhou placed a hand on the statue of Ksitigarbha and examined it, finding nothing unusual.
He said, “It seems no ghosts have caused trouble recently. Ksitigarbha hasn’t issued any warning. Today’s field assignment doesn’t require any additional action. Once we briefly inspect the rest of the area, we can conclude the patrol here.”
Xie Qingling looked at him, hesitated for a moment, then asked, “Is that enough? Why not deploy the Killing Field and take a look?”
Shen Huaizhou glanced at her, his gaze unusually serious. “You know that the Director made the Ksitigarbha Killing Field, don’t you?”
“I do.” Xie Qingling nodded.
“In reality, every Ksitigarbha Killing Field can only be used a limited number of times. Unless you’ve confirmed that something unusual has happened, I don’t recommend using one frequently.”
Shen Huaizhou stood. “In this world, every resource is both limited and precious. I hope you understand that. They are valuable beyond anything you can imagine.”
“Since the anchor shows no abnormalities, that means no ghost has harmed anyone. Every incident leaves some omen. If there isn’t one, there’s no need to force yourself to find something,” Shen Huaizhou explained.
Xie Qingling’s lips moved as she remembered that Ling Fang had once told her the same thing.
She understood the reasoning perfectly well.
Except…
“The anchor might not have reacted, but…” Xie Qingling said. “There’s a ghost lying right in front of us.”
“…”
Shen Huaizhou’s body stiffened.
He turned toward Xie Qingling. “What did you say?”
Did she possess the talent of a Groom?
Come to think of it, ever since this rookie appeared, she had encountered supernatural incidents with a frequency far beyond anyone else, second only to Dai Xingyu.
Xie Qingling confirmed it again. “There’s a Foodless Ghost in front of us.”
[Burned by hunger and thirst, it races in every direction. A Foodless Ghost wailing in sorrow has blocked your path. The Foodless Ghost, accompanied by the agony of starvation day after day, has never eaten and never known fullness since the moment of its birth. Fire scorches its tongue. Any water it sees dries up, and anything it eats bursts into flame.]
[It starves all year round, forever without food to eat. Helpless, the Foodless Ghost begs from you. Kind Spirit Wielder, please spare it something to eat.]