Artifact Report

Chapter 103 Brianna Passing By
Rain is a very annoying thing, dripping without stopping, like clumps of long white grass, swaying in the gray sky and earth.

His long hair was scattered on his back, the ends of his hair were wet, and his head felt heavy; a layer of silver-white fur also seemed to be floating on his black coat.

"...Are you still waiting for me outside?" Brianna asked in a low voice.

“Yeah,” Morandau said, her voice a small, soft, nostalgic wisp of emotion trapped in Brianna’s headphones.

"When you saw me today, did you think I looked the same as before?" she asked deliberately.

Morandao was silent for a few seconds before he said, "...people always change."

Brianna laughed.

Like before, she always wanted to find a balance between "truth" and "comfort".

"Why did you come out?" Morandao seemed to want to change the subject and whispered into her ear, "It's not safe yet. The relief organization hired by the Kai family has just evacuated, and there might still be people nearby."

She would always change the subject to business—let's call it "business"—perhaps because business was all they had to talk about now.

Brianna raised her hand and gently tapped the corner of her eye, trying to calm her overactive tear glands.

Seeing that the tip of her finger was a little wet, she touched her eyelashes with another finger; at a glance, there was no mascara on her fingertip.

"You...eh, are you crying? It was just a failed attempt. You weren't caught, so you still have a chance. Don't be sad."

Morando sounded a little bewildered. "I just think it's better for you to hide for a while. Not only that relief organization, I'm also afraid that Chase Monroe will strike back. Based on my understanding of him, he won't be willing to leave with nothing..."

"Why should you care about me?"

She knew she shouldn't say this, but she couldn't help herself, feeling a mixture of self-torturing pain and subtle pleasure. "If I died, you'd be relieved, right? If Chase and his mercenaries had found me, you could have escaped this disgusting situation."

Brianna had long known that the attack she had arranged on the Kaironans had a time limit.

Chai Si would not be trapped in the Central Police Station forever. After he arrived, it was only a matter of time before he called for reinforcements to search the cemetery. She didn't know Chai Si, but she knew he was not a fool. As soon as he arrived, he would immediately find out that the person controlling the bullets was on the slope near the cemetery, and he would naturally order people to search.

The bullets could only cover the cemetery where Kyronan was located; so when Chase's men did not go to that cemetery but began searching around it, the attack arranged by Brianna had to end - even she herself had to hide.

She hid in the cemetery like this for several hours, waiting for the Kai family to give up the search and for the aftermath organization to deal with the scene... When she finally reappeared, the sky and the earth were already raining and it was almost dark.

"Don't say that. I certainly don't want anything to happen to you." Morandao said softly, "I understand that you're suffering more than anyone else...that's why I want to help you."

Brianna took a deep breath and said, "Um...I'm sorry."

The two of them were silent for a few seconds.

"You have to be careful," Morandao said softly, "The Kai couple have been sent to the hospital. Chai Si is likely to go back and wait for the opportunity."

"Haven't they already searched this cemetery several times?" Brianna said lazily. She opened her umbrella to shield herself from the rain, but didn't move out for a moment. "My people are dead, and they didn't find anything in the cemetery. Why would he come back?"

Brianna knew that if she couldn't kill Kaironan before Chase started searching, then today's attack would be a failure. However, she had already prepared for failure - and now it seemed that every preparation she had made in advance had come in handy perfectly.

For example, there are many ways to attack and kill with snipers in the world, so why do we need to use pseudo-images to control bullets?
On the surface, this method has two advantages: first, it can block the area, preventing Kaironan from escaping in the chaos; second, a small number of bullets can hide their tracks among the grass and leaves, causing a sudden assassination - in fact, when the Kai family thought they could finally evacuate safely, it was also the time when they suffered the most deaths, because no one thought of guarding against leaves, tombstones and grass.

Beyond these two points, there was a third; Brianna had never articulated it, and Morando had never asked about it.

...Of course she couldn't let the killers she hired fall into the hands of the Kai family.

Since the ambush on Kaironan failed today, there was no reason for those killers to walk down the cemetery hill alive; Brianna asked them to wear yellow raincoats, not only to distinguish between friend and foe during the attack, but also to make it easier to kill and silence them after the attack.

Everyone she hired who saw her face died on the hillside.

No matter how furious and anxious Chai Si was, or how much he refused to give up, in the end, he still didn't get any information about the person behind the scenes.

After all, Chai Si was just "responding" to the situation, but she was the "accident" itself.

"Don't underestimate him because he's good at using force to create fear, but that doesn't mean he's not thoughtful."

Morandao continued to persuade her, "Back in college, I was very close to him, and I saw firsthand how meticulous his thoughts could be. Since the cemetery is where the incident occurred, it's also the place most likely to have left any clues... Not to mention him, if it were me, I would come back to take a look too."

"That makes sense," Brianna sighed softly, her words bringing back memories. "I once visited you at school and met him, but we didn't really talk. He left a pretty deep impression on me."

At that time, she and Morando had just started dating, and all the happiness and fear were still vivid and intense... Thinking about it now, it seemed like a story from the previous life, belonging to another person.

Molandao then remembered, and said, "Oh," as he suddenly realized, "Indeed, you met him once. But so many years have passed, and he may have forgotten that one encounter a long time ago."

Brianna looked back.

Morandao's fear that she might stumble into Chai Si's grasp and be captured wasn't entirely a figment of her imagination. Although she'd made ample preparations and wasn't afraid of encountering Chai Si, it would still be safer to wait a little longer, until darkness fell, before leaving.

"...No," Brianna said abruptly, "I don't want it." "What?"

Brianna really didn't want to look at the ornate, apartment-sized above-ground crypt anymore. She turned her head away and whispered, "Nothing. I don't want to hide anymore."

Morandao paused before saying, "...Are you scared?"

Scared?
of course not.

"Hiding in his grave makes me sick."

Brianna said as she straightened her coat to make sure there was no grass or dust on her body. If she did run into Chase on the road, she couldn't let him suspect that she had been in the cemetery.

"Who the hell is he? His wife built him this massive above-ground mausoleum, as if he had done something great to commemorate him. He was a greedy, shameless, arrogant, and closed-minded wretch his entire life. It's ridiculous that he only came to shelter me from the elements after his death."

Morandao didn't say anything, just listened quietly; her silence was like a kind of tolerance and indulgence.

Brianna told her everything - Morando knew her shame and disgrace, knew the fantasy of her plan, knew that her hope of success was slim; he also knew that at this moment, she was not kind or right at all, and that in order to achieve her goals, she would do anything and pave the way with human blood.

But she still just listened quietly and reached out to Brianna only when she needed her.

The more tolerant and supportive Morando was, the more tortured she felt.

"No, it wasn't this mausoleum that allowed me to escape the Kai family's search."

Brianna sneered and walked out along the path between the grass. She said, "The hunters of the Kai family were very meticulous. They even unlocked the door and went inside the mausoleum. If his wife hadn't left an empty grave for herself, I would have been caught long ago."

The black umbrella cast a shadow over her head, covering her face.

Brianna turned up the collar of her coat—it was mid-November, and the rain was even colder, so wearing a coat wasn't conspicuous—and covered her face as much as possible, and she felt at ease.

If you walk out from the above-ground mausoleum, you will inevitably pass the hillside where the Kelronans were attacked.

She listened to the click of her heels on the cobblestones as she walked out step by step; even though there was no one around, Brianna was still paying attention and didn't glance up at the hillside.

What a pity.

When she realized that Chase could not escape from the police station for the time being, and that the Kellonans happened to be in this cemetery, at that moment, every step of how to attack them appeared clearly in her mind...

She couldn't help but sigh.

Who would have thought that such a great opportunity would still fail in the end.

Speaking of which, if the target of this attack plan was another family, she might have succeeded long ago; perhaps she shouldn't have chosen the Kai family, because the Kai family has a Chai Si -

As if the thoughts in her mind would become reality, when Brianna raised her eyes, she found a tall figure walking on the road ahead. His dark clothes were still a little messy, and his shirt was soaked by the rain and stuck to his shoulders and arms.

...Molandao is such a bad mouth. Brianna almost wanted to laugh bitterly.

Chai Si didn't hold an umbrella, and his skin was whitened by the rain, but his black hair was still combed neatly back; when the two met on the road, his eyes were immediately fixed on her as if he had smelled the scent of prey, and he never looked away.

No, if you think about it, this is natural.

After all, if someone appeared at such a sensitive and suspicious time and place, even if it was a dog, he would definitely take a second look - but she had even prepared in advance for a head-on collision with Chai Si, so there was no need to panic; there were not many people coming to this cemetery, but there would always be some, and she was just an ordinary grave-sweeper.

She reminded herself secretly, still maintaining the same pace and posture, and walked towards the direction where Chai Si was coming.

As the two were about to pass each other, Brianna nodded slightly to Chase from under the umbrella.

She was shorter than him and had her head down, so she couldn't see his expression clearly.

Did he notice anything unusual? What did he look like?

Brianna had no idea what was happening, and couldn't even look up; she could only pretend to be calm and take the next step.

The moment her heels touched the ground, she was even worried that Chai Si would hear her sudden pause in breathing, turn around and grab her arm -

However, Chai Si did not reach out to grab her.

In his peripheral vision, he nodded slightly, said "Ma'am", and walked past Brianna.

　This chapter took too long to write... Speaking of which, there is a vestibule mausoleum in Western cemeteries. It is a structure like a house/temple built on the ground, and people can walk in. Brianna hid in this thing.

　　I call it a "thing" because there's no equivalent word for it in Chinese... I can only call it a mausoleum in the text... It makes it feel like I'm writing Tomb Raider...

　　
　
(End of this chapter)