Chapter 88

Chapter 88

A delivery truck and an ambulance had blocked the street so completely that neither could get around the other.

To let the ambulance through, the delivery driver had no choice but to move his truck out of the way.

Before he left, he told Qin Ying that the company would send someone else to handle the rest.

Once the two vehicles drove off, all that remained in Qin Ying’s front yard was a large pool of blood and two refrigerators that had never made it through the door.

The neighbors out front had long since been dying of curiosity and were about to come over to look at the blood.

Qin Ying stepped in front of the gate first. “The refrigerator deliveryman suddenly came down with something. Everyone, please don’t get close, in case it’s contagious.”

The moment they heard the word “contagious,” the idlers out front scattered at once.

Everything Lao Yu had vomited up was dead. Qin Ying did not touch any of it and simply waited patiently.

Before long, Old Miao, who had cut off his livestream, and Dean Tan arrived at the same time.

The two of them crouched beside the two worms Qin Ying had pulled out, grimacing as they looked them over.

Dean Tan complained, “Why do I keep running into this kind of excitement right before retirement?”

He had only just sent off someone who had fallen unconscious with something strange growing inside their body, and now here were bizarre worms with ears.

Dean Tan felt unbearably bitter. Somehow, he had a feeling his road to retirement was not going to be smooth. At the Ghost Festival, he would have to burn a few extra paper villas for his ancestors.

If this had been before, Old Miao would definitely have cracked a few jokes at that complaint. But now, his expression was grave.

Old Miao’s battered little van was parked right in front of Qin Ying’s house, and they had brought extremely professional equipment.

First, they placed the two largest worms that were still moving into a Box resembling an organ Transport Box.

Then they collected the bloodstains on the ground along with the worms inside them, picking them up one by one.

Even the two gloves Qin Ying had thrown on the ground were sealed in evidence bags and taken away.

Finally, Old Miao took out an unlabeled spray bottle and sprayed it over the pool of blood.

A strange scent spread through the air. It was not pungent; instead, it carried a faint smell of grass and trees.

Old Miao said to Qin Ying, “Come on. We should treat your house too.”

Qin Ying’s expression did not change. She reached out for it. “I’ll do it myself. I need to learn how to handle things like this sooner or later.”

Old Miao thought that made sense and handed over the spray bottle, which was about the size of a dish soap bottle. “This is issued by the bureau. It can eliminate toxic miasma, disease, and pestilence. Spray this, and even cockroaches will take a three-hundred-meter detour.”

Qin Ying took it. Hearing that, she deliberately said, “So it’s just disinfectant, bug-repellent edition?”

Old Miao shook his head and lowered his voice slightly. “This stuff is a thousand times more valuable than disinfectant. It’s extracted from Xuncao Flower.”

“Only the Headquarters Biological Research Department can manage to produce some each year.”

Hearing such an official department name come out of Old Miao’s mouth all of a sudden actually made Qin Ying pause.

She said bluntly, “There’s a research department too? I always had the feeling Headquarters was some kind of amateur outfit.”

Qin Ying’s words were not exactly out of line. From Li Wenbo to Zong Li and Zhang Lang, then to everyone at the Third Cultural Heritage Preservation Institute, every member of the Cultural Preservation Bureau she had met gave off an unreliable air of people just muddling through the day.

Old Miao felt his pride take a hit, but after thinking about it, he realized he could not refute her. He could only say, slightly annoyed, “You’ll understand in the future. We’re an elite spearhead unit.”

Qin Ying gave him a polite smile without responding to that. She only asked, “How are things on Zong Li and Zhang Lang’s side?”

Those two had gone after someone and still had not reported back. Qin Ying did not dare contact them rashly.

Old Miao said with composure, “As long as they catch up, with Zhang Lang there, the guy won’t get away.”

He sounded certain, so Qin Ying accepted it for the time being.

Holding the Xuncao Spray Old Miao had given her, she was just about to go back inside and spray the place down.
Suddenly, a thud came from the second floor of Qin Ying’s house.

Old Miao heard it too, and his expression changed.

Before he could ask, Qin Ying said, “My pet must have knocked something over again. I’ll go take a look.”

She looked so perfectly natural, as if this happened all the time, that Old Miao believed her and turned to help Dean Tan pack up his things.

Only after Qin Ying turned and went inside did her expression shift.

She hurried up to the second-floor bedroom in a few steps, shut the door, locked it tight, and looked around.

The first thing she saw was the wardrobe door, cracked open a sliver.

Qin Ying’s face changed dramatically.

Hidden inside the wardrobe were that Box and the Pressure Cooker containing Han Lie.

Had something happened to Han Lie? Or had something gone wrong inside the Box?

She carefully walked over and pulled open the wardrobe door.

At a glance, she saw the Box, still tightly covered.

The problem was the Pressure Cooker beside it.

The injured Han Lie had been inside the Pressure Cooker. At the time, Qin Ying had been afraid something might crawl in, but she was also afraid that putting the lid on would suffocate him, so she had covered the top with several thick books, leaving only a gap for air.

Now all those thick books were lying crookedly scattered to one side.

The sound just now had been a hardcover book falling to the floor and knocking the wardrobe door open.

Qin Ying picked it up and saw that one corner of the book had been gnawed into a ragged mess.

Looking closely, she could make out tiny bite marks.

Qin Ying took a deep breath and looked into the Pressure Cooker.

Sure enough, all she saw was an empty porcelain bowl. Han Lie was nowhere to be seen.

He… had run off.

Qin Ying’s first instinct was to check the soles of her shoes.

After confirming there were no suspicious bloodstains or bits of flesh stuck to them, she called softly, “Han Lie?”

For a long while, there was no answer.

Had Han Lie deliberately escaped? Or had he turned into some scaled, armored thing and fled after losing his humanity?

At his current size, he could hide almost anywhere, and Qin Ying would have a hard time finding him.

Just as Qin Ying was starting to feel troubled, she suddenly heard a very faint scratch, scratch sound.

It was coming from under Qin Ying’s bed.

Delighted, Qin Ying called Han Lie’s name and carefully approached.

In the end, her gaze landed on the shoebox containing the Dragon Bone.

A hole had been gnawed in one corner of the shoebox as well.

Qin Ying gently pulled the shoebox out. She knelt on the floor, opened it, and froze.

Something about the size of Qin Ying’s index finger was sitting with its back against the side of the shoebox, holding a piece of Dragon Bone as tall as itself and gnawing on it with loud cracks.

It was humanoid, with two tiny horns on its head and black scales covering its body, eating the Dragon Bone like a potato chip.

A tail similar to a lion’s, but with a brilliant blue mane, swished back and forth.

When it saw Qin Ying, the tiny strange creature lifted its head.

It paused. Then its tail began wagging faster at a visible speed, and it opened its mouth to hoarsely call out something.

The creature had snake scales along its cheeks and jaw as well. From the exposed brows and eyes, Qin Ying could clearly tell that its features were exactly the same as Han Lie’s. It was just that his burns had yet to heal, and the charred scars were still there.

“Han Lie?”

When it heard Qin Ying call, the creature in the shoebox looked reluctantly at the Dragon Bone in its hands, which it had already gnawed a few notches into, then looked at Qin Ying. In the end, it abandoned the Dragon Bone and ran over, wagging its tail like a happy puppy.

With an easy leap, its scale-clawed hands gripped the edge of the shoebox.

Its grayish teardrop-shaped pupils were like a deer’s eyes, watery as it looked up at Qin Ying.

Qin Ying couldn’t help raising a hand to cover her face.

Things seemed to be getting stranger and stranger!