Chapter 21
Chapter 21
A middle-aged man stood in the front yard, clad in a black raincoat.
Despite his age and his currently bedraggled state, he remained quite handsome. One look at his facial features made it clear he was a relative of Qin Ying.
Qin Ying leaned out of the second-floor window. “Uncle, what are you doing here?”
Qin Zhiguo, Qin Ying’s eldest uncle, stood in the rain. Seeing her lively and energetic, he let out a long sigh of relief. “Are you alright?”
Qin Zhiguo was with the Criminal Investigation Division, and he happened to be handling an extremely gruesome dismemberment case.
The day before yesterday, a morning runner at the wetland park had spotted an egret scratching at the mudflats.
The person had hurriedly pulled out their phone to record a video, but instead of the bird, they captured a pale, dead human head half-buried in the wet mud.
The police arrived at the scene and salvaged numerous hacked-up body parts from the wetland waters; all of them had been boiled before being dumped.
The police had been working hard for several days, but it seemed as if the body parts in the sludge would never end.
There might be more than one victim.
The case was so terrifying and bizarre that it had caused quite a stir.
Orders had come down from the top, and the Criminal Investigation Division was overwhelmed with work.
Just after a meeting today, Qin Zhiguo slapped his forehead, remembering that his eldest niece had returned to her hometown.
Logically, Qin Ying was an adult; a phone call should have been enough to check in on her.
However, Qin Zhiguo knew that the condition of Qin Ying’s eyes was very serious, and she was at risk of going blind at any moment.
If he just called, she would surely brush it off and say everything was fine just to appease him.
Fearing something might have happened to her, Qin Zhiguo had found a bicycle and pedaled his way over to her door.
“Stay right there!”
Qin Ying placed a glass jar upside down over the Fuzhu, pointing a warning finger at it before heading downstairs to open the door.
“Uncle, don’t you have a key? Come in, quick!”
Qin Zhiguo hadn’t slept in two days. His hair was matted with the smell of cigarettes and scalp oil, and now soaked by the rain, he looked quite a mess.
Qin Ying hurriedly ushered him inside. “Have you eaten? I… let me get you something to eat?”
There were a few bags of rice at home. If she waded through the water to buy some pickles and ham sausages, she could put together a simple meal.
While Qin Ying was calculating her options, Qin Zhiguo remained standing at the door without entering.
Instead, he knitted his thick brows. “Are you wearing contact lenses? Don’t you know your eyes are injured?”
He knew her eyes were hurt, so seeing her bridge bare, he assumed she was wearing contacts.
Qin Ying’s eyes couldn’t handle that kind of strain. Did she really want to go blind?
He didn’t voice those stinging words, only telling her, “Take them out immediately!”
Qin Ying couldn’t easily explain the World in the Box or the Strange Beast Danghu that was treating her eye condition.
After a brief freeze, she smiled. ” I just thought it would be more convenient for doing housework. I’ll take them out in a bit.”
Qin Zhiguo peered into the house and saw that it had already been cleaned thoroughly, which made him even angrier. “You should be resting and recovering.”
“Just call a cleaning service. I’ll reimburse you.”
Qin Ying made up an excuse. “I tried to book one earlier, but the rain is too heavy and they couldn’t make it.”
Her excuse was reasonable enough. Qin Zhiguo let the matter drop for now and turned back to his bicycle, retrieving two large bags of supplies.
“The Meteorological Bureau is messing around with that rain enhancement nonsense, flooding the whole city. I bought you some food.”
Qin Ying opened the bags to find vegetables, meat, chopped ribs, and plenty of snacks.
She thanked him first, then her eyes shifted slightly as she hesitated over whether to ask her uncle about the situation with that box.
As a veteran criminal investigator of many years, Qin Zhiguo instantly caught her subtle expression.
“Is something wrong?” Qin Zhiguo raised an eyebrow.
In the end, Qin Ying didn’t ask. She offered an innocent smile and replied, “Nothing.”
“It’s just that I’m happy to see you still treating me like a kid and bringing me snacks!”
As she spoke, she waved the milk-tea-flavored lollipop in her hand.
At this point, Qin Zhiguo wasn’t about to interrogate his niece like a criminal over such a small matter.
After giving Qin Ying a long, hard look, he said, “I have things to do. Don’t spend all day glued to that damn phone.”
Qin Ying knew the nature of his work, so she didn’t bother with polite formalities like asking him to stay for dinner. Instead, she stood by the door to see him out.
Just as he was about to step out of the front courtyard gate, Qin Zhiguo suddenly turned around. “Right, remember to report to the Ancient Town Cultural Center tomorrow morning at ten.”
“I know you’re not desperate for the salary, but this job is low-stress and close to home. Maybe you…”
Qin Zhiguo hesitated, stopping himself before continuing, “Anyway, you’ll understand once you get there.”
“Qin Ying, I had to swallow my pride to fight for this opportunity. Listen to your uncle for once.”
With that, he didn’t even look back at Qin Ying as he rode away on his bicycle.
Watching his retreating figure, Qin Ying fell into deep thought.
The job Qin Zhiguo mentioned was a clerk position at the Cultural Protection Research Institute.
The monthly salary was barely more than what a beggar would make; it was essentially a do-nothing job for someone waiting to retire. The only advantage was that it was close to home-only an eight-minute walk to the Ancient Town Cultural Center.
But for just that one benefit, it didn’t seem like something Qin Zhiguo would need to swallow his pride to “fight for.”
“Fight for?”
Qin Ying turned the word over in her mind twice, her interest piqued.
After sorting the meat and vegetables Qin Zhiguo had brought and putting them in the refrigerator, Qin Ying carried the large bag of snacks back to her second-floor bedroom.
Inside the overturned glass jar on her desk, the Fuzhu had already finished its offerings.
Forget the three sacrificial animals and the wine; it had even chewed up the small mat woven from white cogon grass, leaving behind only a few miniature lacquer plates.
Having finished its meal, it was sprawled out on its back under the jar, grunting contentedly.
Seeing how well-behaved it was, Qin Ying gave it a word of praise.
To her surprise, the Fuzhu scrambled to its feet but didn’t let out its usual series of bleats.
After its total submission, the Fuzhu’s fear of Qin Ying hadn’t faded. Instead, while feasting on the offerings next to the Dragon Bone, that fear had sublimated into worship, which then transformed into a sense of self-importance.
Everything is subject to overthinking; to the Fuzhu, the Dragon Bone in the shoebox next to it was proof of Qin Ying’s immense power.
It could even find some profound meaning just by staring at the glowing light on the ceiling.
Now, seeing Qin Ying, it was incredibly submissive. Its short tail wagged like a windmill as it clumsily mimicked human speech, letting out a long string of flattering praise.
However, its efforts were destined to be in vain. Qin Ying didn’t understand a word of its sycophancy; she just thought the creature was being noisy.
“Stop!”
Qin Ying raised a finger, signaling it to be quiet.
The Fuzhu shut its mouth instantly.
Sensing that the Fuzhu truly harbored no ill intent, Qin Ying carefully moved the jar aside a little.
She reached in with an index finger and gently touched it.
Its snow-white fur, which looked sleek and glossy, wasn’t as slippery as Qin Ying had imagined. Instead, it felt slightly damp, as if the fur were misted with water.
The Fuzhu lowered its head, proactively offering its most precious antlers to Qin Ying’s finger.
The four-pronged antlers were like white jade, yet touching them left a layer of moist dew on her skin.
Qin Ying hadn’t decided how to handle this little thing yet.
She decided to find Han Lie first to gather more information about that world before deciding on her next move.
She opened the box. Inside the World in the Box, it was already night.
The entire city was silent, with light from fires visible only near the unnaturally high city walls.