Lie Huo Jiao Chou Volume 1 Chapter 4

____
        
  "It's an evil spirit."
____

　　The airway was quite rapidly and unusually flowing from the suburbs of Yong An City-Deviant Control Office to Chiyuan's vast valley. The flight time was about an hour and forty minutes. It was the first time for Xuan Ji to enjoy the benefit of special aircraft for a business trip and to feel what the novelty was. Thus after the smooth flight, he would temporarily throw the mission aside and stroll around everywhere in high spirits.

　　"Director Xuan," Sister Bi awfully started the conversation, being a talkative person, "I a.s.sume that you're just taking us along for a while, right ?"

　　Xuan Ji truly had that idea, but to avoid swaying the team spirit, he indirectly answered in a smooth and sly way: "These all must comply to the organizational arrangement. I haven't done this before and don't know this area, you …"

　　He had not courteously finished, yet as he turned around, he saw that big sister Bi was groping a roll of seaweed-colored knitting wool that came from who knows where, and while chatting with him, she had flipped it up and down and then knitted it. A sleeve was almost already formed and the surrounding atmosphere was particularly soft and fragrant.

　　Xuan Ji: "…Really skillful."

　　Bi Chun Sheng laughed with a soft s.h.i.+ver: "Would you like it? I bought a lot of this wool, there's just one more month to enter the winter. You can wait until I finish the sweater for my husband and the rest is enough to give you a hat — what kind of hat do you like?"

　　"No, no no, you don't need to, that's very kind of you…" Xuan Ji glanced with fright at the environmentally-friendly colored knitting wool, thinking it's better to quit the job before winter and hurriedly changed the subject. "Except for today, what else do we usually have? Are there always a lot of business trips?"

　　"Quite a lot of business trips and today's work seems serious, but in fact it's not difficult to handle. The most annoying thing is that some field work comrades do not pay attention to protect the surrounding, smas.h.i.+ng a big bridge without concern, blowing up a few household cars,  blowing up their whole b.u.t.ts then just leaving. Well, we still have to run around and provide the people renovation! We also have to discuss about the compensation plan and so on, oh dear, when it comes to money, the wrangling rises up endlessly." Bi Chun Sheng said, coming closer to Xuan Ji and speaking in a lower voice, "Our previous Director Gong went home before his retirement age, saying it was 'early retirement', in fact, it was because 'something happened'. I heard that the Bureau is now looking for him."

　　Xuan Ji: "……"

　　He had underestimated this old maidservant-like job position, unexpectedly, there also was integrity risk!

　　"Apart from the business trip, the internet is also under the control of our department," after knitting a loop, Bi Chun Sheng pulled out the wool again, skillfully entangling it around her thumb and then said, "There are a few strange forums, wechat and so on, and we all have to keep an eye on it, see the new hot topic. First thing to do is to find out which are the ordinary people idling and foolishly talking about nonsense, which may probably have a problem, sift through them completely, and then transfer the problem to the field work — this work belongs to Manager Old Luo."

　　"It's me, leader, I'm old Luo, Luo Cuicui." The man with the barcode on his head came over, a strong fragrance hitting their faces. Xuan Ji sniffed, smelling the scent of gra.s.s — this big brother Cuicui was a small fresh*.

*小清新, small fresh is a type of sub-culture in China that would refer to the people choosing to live in a 'fresh and natural' way, giving off a youthful aesthetic vibe, not to be confused with the western concept of 'hipster'

　　The small fresh big brother Cuicui said: "You must be careful, just in case there is nothing, you should still give a report that there is something and let someone else to go on the field for a wild goose chase. You don't find us troublesome, right? That was from all the predecessors, we can't help it."

　　Xuan Ji asked: "Then, if by any chance something was accidentally left out of the report, won't the problem be more serious?"

　　"That's unlikely to happen, also not as meddlesome like that. Most of the pictures in the internet is of this style," Old Luo handed over his phone and pointed to one of the forum's popular posts for him to see. "We truly need to start out on a field work, all are mainly turned over from the Public Security."

　　Xuan Ji looked intently and saw that the topic of the post is: "Help: I think my son is not my son."

　　What the heck?

　　Old Luo said: "Our department is a place that does not seek merit, only a place that wish to avoid mistakes. When the former Director Gong was in office, everyday he would stress to us that we are responsible for the peacefulness, we absolutely must not pick a fight, and whatever it is that we will do, we all have to remember this principle."

　　Xuan Ji suddenly felt that he might not be quite qualified for the job — after all, he was a s.h.i.+t-stirrer that was hanging at the head office. Letting this s.h.i.+t-stirrer to make things smoother seemed like forcing him against his own nature.

　　Old Luo's voice changed, but chuckled and patted the map: "But, I feel that you won't be with us for a long time, Director Xuan, you are not an ordinary person, right?"

　　When these words came out, Xuan Ji swiftly restrained the smile on his face and looked up at old Luo.

　　He had an unusual pair of phoenix eyes, bending immediately as soon as he would laugh, and because this expression was too shrewd, he always seemed to be restraining himself, like a bowl of evil tricks. People often mistook it as smiling eyes. At this moment, with a not speaking, not smiling look, only then his real face was exposed. His eyelids were thin, a small faint mole was hanging from the corner of his slightly upturned eye. As his expression settled down, an unspeakable demonic layer also rose up.

　　A layer of chill sprang up on Old Luo's spine. Before he could react, he saw that Director Xuan was once again fooling around, looking up to wink at him. Only then did the sharp sword-like sinister appearance vanished, as if everything was his illusion.

　　Xuan Ji casually poked himself in the chest with his thumb: "Brother, do you think I'm not an ordinary person? Is it enough to be an idol?"

　　Old Luo : "……"

　　Although Luo Cuicui had not much hair, he still had a keen eye. Immediately sensing that he had asked what he should not have asked, he smartly escaped to urinate.

　　Xuan Ji took out his phone and connected to the plane's wifi and searched the post that Old Luo showed him a moment ago.

　　The post roughly explained, the original poster's family had a mindless good-for-nothing brat who previously smoked, skipped cla.s.ses and went to internet cafes, but recently started a new life unexpectedly with an unknown reason. Not only did he start to be well-behaved and went to school, but he also took the middle school monthly exam. It was extremely surprising and it was hard to believe for the mother, thereupon her imagination ran wild, having doubts that their son had been impersonated.

　　The response under the post was 'Get lost from here, scammer' and after one swipe, the post was gone, and it could be a.s.sumed that people had reported it.

　　He flipped through the other posts in the forum and it was just like what Old Luo said that these forums had nothing to do with them, and except for individual delusions and writing online novels, the rest of the hot thread were clickbait and sensational topics, and the basic things being chatted about in it were the same old three kinds — the daily life of a family, s.h.i.+tty talks, and celebrity gossips.

　　Xuan Ji flipped over for a while, did not see anything interesting, turned his head and glanced. The fat girl had already shrunk at the corner and was sleeping. Old Luo and Sister Bi were together and discussing about buying a house in Cambodia, no one paid attention to him.
   
　　So he took out a few coins from his pocket and made a simple divinatory diagram.
　　
　　Some of the old coins bounced on the small table, didn't settle down, then rolled down as the plane jolted. Xuan Ji grabbed them with his hand and caught them, then he opened his palm and frowned. The divinatory diagram still showed an unpredictable fortune.

　　Since the stone on his ring cracked, his divinatory diagrams had always been like this, no matter whether he probed big things or small feelings.

　　For this matter, Xuan Ji also deliberately ran to the altar of his clan. In the end, he didn't know whether his skill was not perfect or what, but the altar only gave him a vague direction and a word.
　　
　　The direction pointed to the headquarters of the Deviant Control Office, and the word was 'person'.

　　It so happened that newly appointed Director Huang of the Deviant Control Office had been wholeheartedly digging for him, so he bluntly made use of that advantage. As for the meaning of the word 'person', Xuan Ji had not figured it out yet, so when Director Huang asked him which department he wanted to go to, he chose a place to deal specifically with people.

　　The unmistakable voice of Old Luo came through behind him: "Listen to me, the next high-speed development of air vent is definitely in Southeast Asia. You can't buy this house without suffering losses and you can't buy it without being fooled……"
　
　　Xuan Ji: "..."
　
　　Well, with regards to that 'person' , he might have still understood wrongly.

　　Xuan Ji put on headphones, s.h.i.+elding old Luo's 'macroeconomic tiny lecture hall' and closed his eyes. He didn't know whether the seat was too comfortable or what, but he actually fell asleep and even had a dream.
　　
　　It was a very familiar dream. In their clan, after the patriarchs took over the ring of the holy fire, they would often dream of this scene: a small antique building, a wooden structural beam, might be a place like a relay station, the room was not big, and one could vaguely hear the noisy voices from downstairs.

　　A man had his back to him, leaning against the window and looking out from it.
　　
　　For ten years, Xuan Ji had been facing this back and had never seen his face from the front. Once he tried to get closer, he would wake up immediately — but later he checked and found that he was not alone. The ancestors have never seen this person turning around. Thus he quickly settled his mind.

　　"Brother, the face of the ring is broken, do you know?" Xuan Ji said, "Does it affect you?"

　　The back was just like usual, motionless, like a still object.

　　In this dream, no matter what Xuan Ji said, it seemed that he was just talking to himself.

　　"Well, it shouldn't have an effect. I always thought that you might be the ring spirit, it seems..."

　　After saying this, he suddenly stopped talking — a sword was hanging by the waist of the person in front of the window. The sword hilt was engraved with a complex vein lines, and there was a pattern cl.u.s.tered in the middle, which was exactly the pattern of the linked positions of the eight mutant trees in the Red Lake!

　　No wonder he felt a familiarity the moment he saw the map!

　　What did this mean?

　　Just then, a little wind suddenly blew from the window. Xuan Ji's eyes widened, he had never seen this in the dream.

　　He saw the breeze from the window sweeping the man's clothes. The man who had been like a statue for ten years suddenly came alive and gave a soft sigh.

　　Then he unexpectedly moved, and slowly turned around —
　　
　　"Leader!"

　　Xuan Ji jolted awake intensely, and suddenly leaped up from the seat…then was startled by the s.h.i.+ning and s.h.i.+mmering lip balm on the lips of delicate big brother Old Luo and his head fell back.

　　Old Luo howled at his ears over the noise of the buzzing airplane: "Wake up, we are going to land soon!"

　　The Chiyuan Branch of the Deviant Control Office was busy at the moment because of the mutant trees. At the end of the day, there was no time to take care of them, and they only sent a young intern named Li to take them to the hospital.
　　
　　The hospital terrain was very high, far away, and the great valley of Chiyuan could be seen from it.

　　At this moment, the weather was gloomy, and the air was very wet and humid as if it seemed that the vapors would condense into rain in the next second. On the way over, although the car had a dehumidifier, their clothes were still damp and wetly stuck on the body. Qian Ru's hair had been blown up into a sea urchin, going all the way like a flower with thorns on the head.
　　
　　Xuan Ji sensitively smelled a faint scent of incense from the air, and it seemed to be a bit fishy. He glanced in the direction of Chiyuan and had some ominous premonition in his heart.
　　
　　The five met with the trapped tourists who were more or less looking miserable, each and everyone of them shamefully had their gazes lowered. Reportedly, they have been discharged from the hospital but still had to meet with the Public Security Bureau and give the penalty fine. Their IDs and the mobile phones on their bodies have been detained. They were properly handed over to Qian Ru for inspection, in case something was recorded that was not suitable for being publicized.

　　Bi Chun Sheng took the initiative to undertake the conversation. Xuan Ji stood and watched for a while and found that her method of handling was very interesting — she was like a friendly neighborhood sister, skillfully dragging the conversation for awhile, waiting for the other to relax. Then, she skillfully questioned them on how they went into the valley and what they saw.

　　If the other party said something that did not conform to common sense, for example, the female anchor with a broken leg recalled: "At the time, it seemed like a big python was chasing after us. It was very strange, it was earthy, just like that... that tree root scared me to death!"

　　Big sister Bi talked drivel to correct her, "It was an earthquake, and what you saw was the vine that was entangling around the big tree. The tree fell and the tree vine was thrown out. How come there would be a big python in the scenic spot?"

　　"No, it's definitely not the tree vine that got thrown out. I remember it was very fast, and..."
　　
　　Big sister Bi stared into her eyes and repeated calmly: "It's the tree vine."

　　Xuan Ji watched the female anchor's expression become more and more hesitant, her tone becoming more and more uncertain. After two or three times that they had repeated it back and forth, the female anchor naturally accepted the whole theory of Sister Bi, and when she asked again, she looked like she lost her memory, and didn't bring up 'tree roots' and 'pythons' anymore.
　　
　　Xuan Ji asked a somewhat unexpected question: "Big Sister Bi has a 'special ability'?"

　　"Yes," Old Luo said, "Our logistics department is basically ordinary people and the 'Special Abilities' are just the three of us. Leader, you pointed at us at random. Let's say you have foresight."
　　
　　"Then, I will buy a lottery ticket tomorrow." Xuan Ji said casually, "What is your special ability?"

　　"I'm not much, I am useless," Luo Cuicui firstly used a proud tone with a bit of false modesty, and then he said, "My hands and feet are different from an ordinary person, if I don't care about them, my fingers and toes will always be longer. Many pairs of shoes would be busted in a year!"
　　
　　 Xuan Ji: "......"

　　 Was this a 'special ability' or was it a disease?

　　What were you foolishly proud of?

　　Little Li, who was leading the way, couldn't hold back and let out a chuckle. He might have felt impolite, quickly coughing drily: "The sixth rescued person was not injured, so he was placed in the family lounge, just right ahead."

　　Xuan Ji who was following after him looked up from staring at his fingers, and somehow coincidentally, the lights in the corridor flashed then went out.

　　He stared blankly and lightly pinched his finger — the invisible ring on his index finger gave a slight warning-like coldness.
　　
　　"Gosh, why are the lights broken again," Little Li blindly walked forward in the darkness and unconsciously said, "This man... well...is  a little weird, you will see it later."
　　
　　The hospital had been isolated by the Deviant Control Office so there was only one person in the family lounge.
　　
　　That man was sitting on a plastic chair with his back to the half-open door, staring at the TV on the wall to watch the advertis.e.m.e.nt.

　　His back was upright but relaxed, and his sitting posture seemed as if it received a specialized posture training, and merely the view of his back already gave an unspeakable delightfulness.

　　The most eye-catching thing of all was his long hair. The long hair was over the waist, thick and full, and even at a place where it was very humid, it was neither ruined nor frizzy. If one wished to bind it with a rope by his nape, it would be as thick as a child's arm, perfectly resembling a wig.
　　
　　"This is the ID he handed in." Little Li pulled out an ID card from a file bag. "No mobile phone, he said he lost it."

　　Old Luo's eyes stayed on the man's hair for a moment, affectionately touching the 'barcode' on his head and muttered : "Nowadays, even a young man is starting to wear a wig, it must be because of air pollution."

　　Having said that, he intended to push the door in.
　　
　　Xuan Ji suddenly raised his hand and stopped him: "Stay away, stay a little bit farther."
　　
　　Old Luo looked distracted and heard little Li screaming in fear — the 'ID card' turned into a withered leaf in Xuan Ji's hand. Then it burned up and turned into ash in the blink of an eye.

　　"Fake ID?" Luo Cuicui was stunned, "Who is this man?"

　　Director Xuan, who usually bore a not serious face, stopped with a grim expression, slowly putting his hand into his coat pocket.

　　"Not a human." He kicked the half-open door, and a cold light flew out of his hand, pointing straight at the long-haired man's back.
　　
　　"It is an evil spirit."