Thriller Night Talk

Chapter 132: The real “culprit”

Translator-Rhapsodite

Editor- Koneko, Proofreader-Ghostie

Hearing Bei Quan’s question, Qingzhu and A’Liu’s faces turned pale.

From their various educational backgrounds, and with their understanding of metaphysics and alchemy, even if they didn’t practice it themselves, they could more or less roughly piece together what the inheritance was about.

Although Zhu Hongtao’s clan used to be a prominent family, they were still just a common scholar family, and have never knowingly ever produced any famous or well-known alchemist.

The most important thing was that Zhu Hongtao’s techniques were too vicious and evil, far beyond the scope of knowledge that any generic folklorist might acquire; even the most influential family of magic could not conjure and master such evil, secret techniques.

“You suspect that there is someone else behind him?”

Qingzhu lowered his voice and expressed his speculation.

Bei Quan nodded very gently.

Qingzhu’s eyes became a little gloomy again, even A’Liu pursed her lips, seemingly lost in thought.

Bei Quan continued being silent,? only letting his gaze fall on the outside world through the car window.

There was actually another conjecture that Bei Quan did not resort to.

He always had a feeling, or should it be an intuition that– Zhu Hongtao’s identity was definitely not as simple as it appeared in his profile.

“……”

Bei Quan’s lips moved silently.

——Maybe, Zhu Hongtao was maybe… just like me.

—————————–

August 8, 12:25 am.

Wei Fuyuan was running on the uneven road of the mountain.

The mountain forest at night was dark, too dark. Wei Fuyuan was only here for the first time, and was not familiar with the road at all. If it were not for the black shadow in front of the path leading him on this chase, he would have become lost, unable to distinguish between east to west or north to south.

The black shadow– or rather, the spirit of the lynx, was leading Wei Fuyuan back to Cai Mingjian and Su Lan’s small house.

In the memories that the black shadow had shown Wei Fuyuan, its original body was that of a mountain cat, living in the mountain and forest of the Yue Ling Mountain, more than 700 years ago.

Later on, the mountain cat serendipitous gained sapience, and, after a century of cultivation, gradually gained some Taoist powers. However, at the critical moment when it was about to transform, it happened to meet a nobleman’s autumn hunting and was almost buried under an arrow.

The wounded mountain cat was chased by hounds and escaped into the backyard of a family who were living on the mountain.

The family was Su Lan’s ancestor. Thanks to their family’s shelter, the mountain cat escaped its death sentence.

This was just the beginning of the hundred-year-old relationship between the mountain cat and the family.

Some time passed, and the mountain cat’s cultivation became more profound, and finally managed to take on a human form.

This was when it encountered a major obstacle and trial that was bestowed to all beasts and spirits— the Lightning Tribulation. The mountain cat hid in its cave in an attempt to avoid this, but it couldn’t deceive the heavens forever.

The first lightning strike destroyed its dwelling, the second one charred its physical body, and just as the third streak was about to fall and split its three souls and seven bodies into dust, the Su family saved it for the second time.

A daughter-in-law who had recently married into the Su family carried her less than one year old son into the mountain to collect mushrooms. Due to the thunderstorm, she was forced into hiding. This hiding place happened to be next to the cave of the mountain cat spirit.

The two lightning strikes terrified the daughter-in-law and the baby. In a panic, the girl remembered a story she had heard from a storyteller, and pulled out a copper hairbrush from her bun, trying her best to throw it as far away as possible.

The third thunderclap, instead of hitting the mountain cat, landed directly on the girl’s hairbrush.

Her intention was to avoid the lightning, but she inadvertently saved the soul of the mountain cat.

Owing to the life-saving grace twice, this mountain cat had since become the “Guardian fairy” of the Su family, protecting the descendants of the Su family from generation to generation.

The body of the mountain cat was scorched, so it could only stay in the Goddess’s attendant statue which was displayed in the Moon Lady Goddess Temple; stealing some incense and offerings during the day, and absorbing the essence of the sun and moon at night; thus by the turn of fate, cultivated itself into being half immortal.

It was a pity that the mortal body of the lynx was destroyed by the heavenly thunder, and the female statue it was attached to, was just a fragile red mud embryo. Although its cultivation was not particularly weak, it could not congeal an actual, physical body.

Moreover, it was not easy to cultivate in the spiritual form. If someone did not want to pursue an evil path, and not possess another’s physical body to cultivate; then they could only maintain their true nature by accumulating virtue and doing good deeds. In this instance, any harm or damage, whether in action or thought, could not be done to anyone regardless of whatever breed they belonged to— a human, a ghost, a monster or a demon.

Such a lynx, with nothing but its cultivation base, had combat effectiveness so weak that whoever heard about it, was saddened to the point of shedding tears.

The reason why the mountain cat followed Su Lan was not because it wanted to kill her as Wei Fuyuan had guessed. It was, on the contrary, trying to protect her.

Wei Fuyuan saw the real “culprit” in the mountain cat’s memory– it turned out to be a gold bracelet laced with an auspicious cloud pattern and an eastern pearl, that Su Lan wore at the wedding.

The mountain cat couldn’t understand the situation, but Wei Fuyuan could.

Su Lan planned a traditional European wedding for herself because she liked the Western show “Friends”, so she had to have “something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue, and a silver sixpence in her shoe”.

She prepared herself a brand new snow-white wedding dress, with a pearl brooch that her grandmother had worn, a bouquet of flowers tied with blue ribbons, and a sixpence silver coin in one of her shoes.

Finally, when it came to the word “borrow”, Su Lan’s first thought was to ask her best friend with whom she had a good relationship with.

The two were previously roommates for four years when in college, and were also bunkmates. After graduation, they both stayed in Fèng Xīngchéng City, and their companies were located not far from each other.

She asked her best friend whether she could borrow a piece of jewelry to wear at the wedding. The other party agreed to the request, and the next day, she personally sent a gold bracelet laced with an auspicious cloud pattern.

The body of the bracelet was made of pure gold, with the exquisite pattern embedded with an east pearl, the size of a fingernail, which at first glance, was a valuable antique.

Su Lan was startled when she first saw the bracelet.

She thought her best friend would give her a pair of earrings and perhaps some other small items, but she did not expect it to be such a valuable piece of jewellery.

Su Lan originally planned to refuse this piece, but her best friend said that she was happy and was willing to lend it to her.

So, on the wedding day, Su Lan did wear the golden bracelet.

But, she never thought that the bracelet would be the cause of her nightmare……

——So that’s it!

Wei Fuyuan ran, while his mind was busy as it quickly tried to sort out the information he had obtained from the mountain cat’s memory fragment.

——The mountain cat was not trying to hurt Su Lan!

——The mountain cat was trying to protect her from the “thing” attached to the bracelet!

Yes.

In the past month, the shadow Su Lan saw was indeed a lynx, but the shadow was not an evil entity, but the guardian of their family.

The attack on Su Lan, as well as several near-fatal accidents, were not caused by the lynx, but by this “thing” attached to the bracelet.

If it weren’t for the mountain cat’s help at the critical moments, Su Lan would have died a number of times before.

——As long as the bracelet was still in Su Lan’s hand, that “thing” will never stop!

Thinking of this, Wei Fuyuan became more anxious.

Now that the mountain cat’s spirit was not with Su Lan, it was? the best opportunity for the evil spirit to strike.

Fortunately, Jiang Nan’an didn’t follow him, so at least one person could stay by Su Lan’s side!

————————

Cai Mingjian and Su Lan’s third-floor apartment was a mess.

Things started to happen five minutes ago.

From the moment Wei Fuyuan suddenly jumped out of the window and gave chase all the way out of sight, the members who were left residing in the house, especially Jiang Nan’an who had accidentally lost his partner, all seemed anxious.

The three individuals did not retire to their rooms, but guarded the living room on the first floor, and were waiting for Wei Fuyuan to return.

This wait was a full two hours.

Wei Fuyuan was a real “rookie” who had not received any systematic “professional” training at all. He would directly fight entities with a strong Yin Qi and Jiang Nan’an was afraid that he would somehow suffer a loss.

The more he thought, the more worried he became. Several times, he tried to resist the urge to go out and look for his partner, but was bitterly persuaded by Cai Mingjian, and remained with the couple inside the living room.

Indeed, it was dark outside, the forest was deep, and the mountain road was rugged. Even if locals were to enter the mountain in the dark, it would be very easy to be led astray. He was an outsider who was unfamiliar with this environment. In a matter of minutes, he could venture out with the best of intentions, but may end up being lost himself– then, there would be two people missing, not just a single one.

An important piece of information to remember was that humans may get lost, but evil things would not.

Jiang Nan’an eventually calmed down and started pondering about what might happen– if the shadow turned back halfway, and neither himself nor Wei Fuyuan was by Su Lan’s side, then the problem would become even bigger.

Moreover, Wei Fuyuan was born with a body of merit and virtue, and ordinary evil spirits could not do anything with him– even if he couldn’t win, there would be no problem with his self-protection… Right?

While self-reassuring, Jiang Nan’an forcibly suppressed his anxiety and persuaded himself to stay in the house and wait.

The priest who came to perform the ritual the day before yesterday, completely changed the entire layout of the living room. He positioned the leather sofa by the window, then placed a screen between the entrance point and the liquor cabinet to act as a spiritual wall, forming a corner that could act as a demon barrier.

The three people in the living room sitting on the sofa, could not see the situation happening from the door.

Jiang Nan’an seemed to have a pin pressed against his backside. He stood up every three to five minutes, would walk out of the living room, pass through the dining room, and approach the entrance. He would then look out through the peephole, to see if Wei Fuyuan had returned back to the house.

Just as Comrade Xiao Jiang was clinging to the door to look out for the hundredth time, his cell phone finally rang.

The number showed that it was a call from Wei Fuyuan.

“Hello!?”

Jiang Nanan pressed the “connect button” in seconds.

“Xiao Wei?”

The sound of puffing and panting could be heard heavily from the other end of the phone, alongside Wei Fuyuan’s slightly urgent voice, “Hey, how’s it going over there?”

Hearing Wei Fuyuan’s voice, Comrade Jiang immediately let out a sigh of relief.

Jiang Nan’an glanced back.

Blocked by the wine cabinet, he could only see the northwest corner of the living room. There was a TV cabinet, with a 55-inch color TV, which was broadcasting a late-night movie. At the climax, the agents in suits were madly racing out of an explosion. Although no one was watching, it created some background noise to the quiet room.

“We’re okay here!”

Jiang Nan’an said briefly.

“You, are you okay!?”

Just as Jiang Nan’an was asking this, Cai Mingjian and Su Lan, who were sitting on the sofa, were listening to the movements at the door with their ears pricked.

They also heard the ringing of the mobile phone, and had turned back together, their arms resting on the back of the sofa. Even if they couldn’t see it, they subconsciously turned to the direction of the entrance.

The two judged from Jiang Nan’an’s words that the caller might be Wei Fuyuan, but the conversation was not very clear.

Su Lan stood up to retrieve the remote control that was placed on the coffee table, to turn down the volume that was coming from the television.

As soon as she turned around, a mug that was also sitting on the table suddenly moved from an angle that neither Cai Mingjian nor Su Lan could see directly.