Volume 2, Chapter 44 (Chapter 82): The Legend of Du Sixian

Noon.

The brightest sunshine of the day beamed across the stone pavement of Peony Street; the air was crisp with each breath; the autumn leaves fell like beautiful strokes of paint upon the sky.

Holding her camera in both hands, Du Sixian briskly walked down the street, taking photos of the beautiful scenery from time to time.

Peony Street is beautiful, she thought. ‘Why haven’t I noticed it before?’

Besides, she was delightfully surprised to find that there were no weird shadows in her vision when walking on this street.

‘Perhaps I can hide from the shadows here.’

She didn’t know how long she had been walking, but soon she arrived at Lu Yibei’s supposed residence.

“It must be here.”

She took a step forward and held the doorknocker in her hands.

“Bang! Bang! Bang!”

No response.

Through the gaps in the doors, she could see somebody moving about inside.

“I can see you inside! I need to talk to you!” Sixian said.

“Excuse me?” A crisp voice sounded behind her. That crisp voice was gentle and soft, surely belonging to a young man who is also gentle and soft. “Who are you looking for?”

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to share an illness with someone beautiful?

Du Sixian turned around, only to be greeted by a man towering over her, and a strong sense of oppression forced her back onto the door.

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“I-I’m looking for Lu Yibei,” she stuttered.

Sumi narrowed his eyes and stared at her: “What do you want from him?”

She hesitated as if what she had to say was difficult.

“It’s hard to explain, but I need to find him now.”

Sumi frowned. ‘He must’ve gotten himself into trouble, and this debt collector wants her money back.’

‘Must be because of that stupid man hanging around his father.’

“Oh, I don’t know him.” Sumi shrugged. “Nobody lives here, by the way. It’s pointless to wait here.”

Sumi left her alone and turned back to his own store.

No matter what happens, Sumi will always cover for Lu Yibei.

Back in his embroidery shop, Sumi hurriedly shut the door behind him and retrieved his phone. He quickly opened the camera app, took a few photos of the girl lurking outside Lu Yibei’s residence, and sent them to him.

[Yibei! Somebody is here to collect your debts!]

Seeing Sumi leave, Du Sixian couldn’t help but sigh.

“Ah…”

She knew Sumi was hiding something from her.

However, she didn’t bother trying to ask. Sumi could easily lift her up with one hand and just throw her across the street.

Glancing at the door behind her, she decided to wait.

Clack, clack, clack.

The sound of high-heeled shoes clacked upon the bluestone floor, causing a crisp sound with each step the woman took.

A woman in a black professional suit came from the end of the street, her slightly curly, long black hair and a cape-like white coat swaying behind her. A cigarette dangled from her rosy lips, and a beer can hung loosely from the grip of her right hand.

If it weren’t for her professional-looking appearance, some might think that she’s just a greasy old man.

“Tsk, treating me like sh*t… They’d better watch out, or I’ll kill all of them on the spot.” An Qing complained to herself.

On these moonless nights, the work of the Night Division never ends.

As the only Operator in the Night Division specialising in the anatomy of urban legends, her work never ends.

Record the urban legend’s anatomy, hand it over to Jiangli, and then retrieve any useful materials from the urban legend’s body.

Separate the urban legend’s core from the body, hand it over to a witch, perform a ritual of transcendence to purify the core and other useful materials, and store the core and the remainder of the urban legend’s body in the warehouse for storage.

Monotonous, repetitive, and boring.

For that reason, she finds it appalling that she has to be on duty as well.

However, there are too few psychics in Huacheng. They had no choice but to dispatch her as well.

This is why both she and Jiangli are eager to have new members join them.

“Is it that hard to transfer a few people over to our branch?” I hate managers.”

She raised her hand and rubbed her sore temple.

It was necessary to use a few special powders and spices to deal with an urban legend’s body, and these spices would inevitably cause a few side effects.

Taking a sip of her beer, she saw a trail of spiritual fluctuations and frowned.

Following the trail, she found a young girl sitting by the corner of the street, looking like an abandoned kitten.

Looking at her, An Qing’s eyes glowed with anticipation, and she hurriedly scanned her for any psychic tendencies.

‘No traces of evil, no traces of blood. My god…’

‘Could it be? A natural psychic?’

An Qing smiled. Perhaps today isn’t so bad after all.

It was already past noon, and the beads of sweat on her forehead told Du Sixian that she had been sitting on the corner of the street for the past two hours.

‘Should I just look for an inn and come back tomorrow?’

She didn’t want to go back to school. Strangely enough, she felt safe here. No shadows were around to haunt her, unlike in school.

She was about to get up, but a confident woman with a somewhat unruly appearance sat down beside her.

“H-hi?” Sixian greeted.

An Qing smiled and said, “I think you are talented. Come with me, and you can become one of the many guardians of this city.”

…

(..•˘_˘•..)

Is this a new type of scam? Sixian thought. ‘Like hell, I’ll believe you!’

She silently fiddled with her phone and took a photo of An Qing.