Chapter 69
Chapter 69
Drizzle tapped against the window as Zong Li spoke in a quiet, steady voice.
“As soon as we received orders from Headquarters, we took a private plane to Yunlan City to coordinate with the police investigation.”
“We have our methods. We tracked the suspect all the way to the Old City, but then we lost his trail.”
Zong Li looked at Qin Ying.
He had seen her photo in the files. Even in a standard ID headshot, she was clearly beautiful. Seeing her in person, however, he realized she wasn’t photogenic at all-the picture didn’t capture even half of her actual beauty.
But… her presence was sharper in person. The way she scrutinized everything made him feel a bit uncomfortable.
He shifted his posture on the stool before continuing. “The Dream-Embracing Grass seed that Director Li sent back to Headquarters is the most active specimen we’ve seen in sixty years.”
“You know that Dream-Embracing Grass has a certain level of resonance.”
“The person carrying the Dream-Embracing Grass…”
Zong Li paused for a subtle moment. “The suspect carrying the Dream-Embracing Grass is highly likely to target an exceptional Host like you.”
Qin Ying sat at the dining table, resting her chin on her hand as if weary. She listened quietly until he finished before speaking. “Who exactly is this person?”
Zong Li shook his head. “I’m sorry, I don’t have the clearance to tell you.”
Qin Ying raised an eyebrow slightly. “Then, what is your next move?”
“Don’t tell me you just came here to give me a heads-up.”
Zong Li replied, “Of course not. From now on, Zhang Lang and I will be protecting you from the shadows.”
With that, he gestured toward the man in the black trench coat who had entered with him.
Qin Ying and Yin Minmin both looked at the man. Both women had enough tact and manners to refrain from making fun of his peculiar name.
Zhang Lang, who hadn’t said a word since entering the house, suddenly flinched, pulling his neck back as if startled.
He looked… a bit unreliable.
Zong Li’s expression shifted immediately, his brow furrowing into a knot. “Zhang Lang, what did you find?”
He reached out to grab Zhang Lang’s shoulder, but Zhang Lang shook his hand off as if he’d been hit by an electric shock.
Like a startled rabbit, he wrapped his arms around himself. “There’s something terrifying here.”
Zhang Lang stammered, “I can’t put my finger on what it is, but it’s terrifying.”
Qin Ying’s expression remained unchanged, but she had a pretty good guess-the small Dragon Bone under her bedroom bed.
A creak sounded, and Zong Li stood up abruptly, on high alert. One hand reached inside his black trench coat, searching for something.
Qin Ying spoke up at the right moment. “Actually, before you arrived, I noticed something strange in the backyard.”
“I was just about to call Old Miao when you showed up.”
Zong Li’s expression changed drastically. He turned to Qin Ying and Yin Minmin. “Stay inside and lock the door.”
With that, he pulled Zhang Lang up.
Zhang Lang was tall with long limbs, but he was very thin; his spindly legs seemed to rattle inside his trouser legs.
Qin Ying opened the back door and pointed toward the garden wall where she felt something was wrong.
Zong Li dragged Zhang Lang to the base of the wall and leaped up to the top. His movements were quite agile.
After walking a circuit along the top of the wall, he clearly discovered something.
He used a transparent evidence bag he carried to collect a small sample.
Standing in the drizzle, he looked back at Qin Ying, his face twisted as if he were constipated.
Inside the evidence bag was the gray powder of the Ghost-Shadow Vine.
These ghostly things wouldn’t be caught on surveillance cameras, making such spying behavior incredibly bold.
Zong Li tossed the evidence bag to Zhang Lang.
With trembling hands, Zhang Lang pressed the bag to his nose.
His eyes snapped shut and his nostrils flared as he sniffed the air in the drizzle like a bloodhound.
After a long while, he shook his head at Zong Li. “The scent is too chaotic. I can’t find him.”
Zong Li’s hand tapped restlessly twice before he turned to look at Qin Ying.
“He’s already been here. He came to see you.”
This Cultural Preservation Bureau Fugitive had no fixed residence and wandered everywhere. In the past, his targets had always been people on the fringes of society.
Vagrants, addicts, or town drunks-these were the kind of people whose disappearance wouldn’t be noticed immediately.
By the time their families realized they were gone, the perpetrator would have long since fled.
Qin Ying was the first clearly defined target.
She was the perfect bait.
Zong Li struggled with his conscience for a moment before asking Qin Ying, “Do you want to relocate immediately?”
Out of a sense of humanitarian concern, he left the decision to her. “Relocate with us to the Luojing Headquarters.”
Qin Ying didn’t need to think twice; she immediately shook her head. “I don’t want to leave my home.”
Things were at a critical juncture inside the box.
Hearing her answer, Zong Li felt a somewhat despicable sense of relief.
Qin Ying’s choice meant they could wait for the enemy to come to them.
Only Yin Minmin looked worried, grabbing Qin Ying’s arm.
Qin Ying reassured her, “It’s okay, I know what I’m doing.”
She wouldn’t just sit around waiting for death. There was no sense in trying to guard against a thief for a thousand days; eventually, the thief would find a way.
There was no avoiding this.
Seeing that she couldn’t be persuaded, Yin Minmin could only sigh helplessly.
As the night grew late, Qin Ying didn’t want to host outsiders any longer. Zong Li and his two companions were tactful enough to take their leave.
As for the protection Zong Li had promised, Qin Ying expressed that she would wait and see.
After they left, Qin Ying cleaned the footprints off the floor, locked the doors and windows, turned off the lights, and went upstairs.
She shut her bedroom door tight and pulled the curtains back just enough to see a sliver of the outside. She spotted figures standing by the streetlight downstairs.
Judging by their silhouettes, it was Zong Li and Zhang Lang.
Qin Ying closed the gap in the curtains, finally letting a look of annoyance flicker across her face.
Her bedroom was full of secrets, all laid out in the open with nowhere to hide. It made her feel incredibly insecure.
She sat down, clutching the blades of grass she had pulled from the backyard, and shifted her gaze to Fuzhu, who was sleeping sprawled out in the Fish Tank.
Qin Ying opened WeChat and contacted Ah Cai, the man who had helped her renovate the third floor.
[Qin Ying: Ah Cai, I want to install infrared light barriers and door/window sensors in my yard.]
[Qin Ying: And a high-voltage electric fence.]
Even though it was late, Ah Cai replied quickly.
[Ah Cai: Installing a private electric fence is illegal. Let’s not go full outlaw here.]
Qin Ying clicked her tongue and temporarily abandoned that idea.
However, she knew that finding something for self-defense was an urgent priority.
Qin Ying’s greatest hope naturally lay inside the box. She wanted to find some small, inconspicuous, controllable, yet lethal gadget.
With this intent in mind, she was about to open the lid to ask Han Lie if he could help her get something.
Just as her fingers touched the lid, golden patterns rippled across the box’s intricate carvings.
Accompanied by a faint mist, several small items appeared in front of the box.
Inside a wooden chest bearing the heavy style of the Sand People tribes, jewelry and gold ornaments were piled high.
There were also some vibrantly colored hand-woven carpets, rolled up so small they were only half the length of Qin Ying’s pinky finger.
These were offerings from the Sand People, who, after their conversion, were presenting sacrifices to their New God.
Qin Ying picked up the small wooden chest and opened it. She used two fingers to pinch a necklace with gemstones so tiny they were almost invisible, unable to help but chuckle.
She lifted the lid of the box and immediately saw a ritual taking place on the boundary between sunlight and shadow at Black Stone Mountain.
A Shaman, her body covered in burn scars, was leading the remaining members of the Tribe in a ceremony.
Wave after wave of prayers reached Qin Ying’s ears.
They were in a foreign tongue, yet she somehow understood them perfectly.
Qin Ying looked at the leading Shaman. She had intended to take out her phone to zoom in and get a better look at her injuries and appearance.
But before she could move, the World in the Box seemed to sense her thoughts.
The view suddenly zoomed in on a specific point, until Qin Ying’s vision hovered just a few yards above the Shaman’s head.
The Shaman, who was currently burning incense in a Three-legged Golden Bronze Cauldron, suddenly looked up toward the sky.
“Are You watching me?”
Her golden eyes stared at the clouds in the sky, her heart pounding wildly.
Intuition told her that at that very moment, God was watching her.