Artifact Report

Chapter 90 Jin Xueli: No Simple Stuff

She finally realized that Chai Si was a hound.

A hound has only goals and the pursuit of goals in his mind. The way you deal with ordinary people is like pouring water into a sewer, without any response.

If an ordinary person were in his position, they would release Jin Xueli from the cell for both moral and logical reasons; however, concepts such as "doing a favor" and "making up for the trouble caused to others" seem to not exist in Chai Si's dictionary at all.

But everything changed when he had a target in mind.

At first, Chai Si was unwilling to help. Jin Xueli thought that finding the cell key would be a huge hassle, and she was a little worried, fearing that the information she provided would make Chai Si feel it was not worth it later - but before she could even warm up the bed, he had already returned.

"Ah?" Jin Xueli asked blankly, "Did you forget something?"

The tall figure did not answer, but the crisp sound of keys colliding could be heard in his hands.

Got the key now?
Once he has a goal as motivation, his actions are extremely efficient, right?
Jin Xueli hurried to the door and watched him insert the key into the lock with the help of the light from his phone. She was both angry and amused at the same time: "Did you already know where the key was? You've only been gone for a while!"

"If you think it's too early, I can come back later."

Jin Xueli quickly grabbed the open iron door and said, "No, no—I'm just surprised. How did you find the key so quickly?"

She actually didn't think Chai Si would pay any attention to her; unexpectedly, he glanced at her and actually answered: "This is also a kind of hunting. The key is to find the right path."

...It is indeed a hunting dog.

Jin Xueli was about to go out the door, but she heard a heavy "bang" and Chai Si grabbed the railing on the other side, blocking the door with his arm.

"Now it's your turn," he said, looking down.

Jin Xueli only saw the man twice.

Even if she racked her brains to add more information to her description, all she could say was just a few sentences at most - it was impossible for her not to worry that Chai Si would get upset and lock her up in the cell again.

However, just as Chai Si needs a motive to help others, he does not seem to harm others for no reason without a purpose.

After Jin Xueli finished speaking, although he was not satisfied, he still stepped aside and snorted: "That's it?"

"I was being escorted away," she said, taking the opportunity to walk around him and up the stairs, with Chase following behind her. "Even if I asked who that person was, they wouldn't tell me."

"It's not worth it for me to find the key to let you out," said Chai Si.

"Speaking of this, let's get one thing straight. You still owe me a favor regarding the Vulture Residents..."

As Jin Xueli was talking, she went upstairs. She held up the light of her cell phone, looked up, and was stunned.

The lobby on the first floor of the Central Police Station, which she had walked through several times not long ago, was now completely unrecognizable to her: most of the tables were stacked high, some of the tables and chairs were pushed over and swept against the wall, and computers, telephones, filing cabinets and other miscellaneous items were piled on the floor like a mountain of garbage.

"Hey! Do you know what crime you've committed?" Someone shouted angrily from a cell under the floorboards at the other end of the hall. "Who are you to dare to attack the Central Police Station?"

Logically speaking, if they didn't have a cell phone with them, they wouldn't be able to hear the sounds in their surroundings; I don't know whether to say that the man was brave or paranoid, he seemed to be roaring into the silence.

"So there are still people who haven't been invaded?" Jin Xueli subconsciously stopped, unwilling to approach the area where the police were being held. "I thought—you weren't afraid of what they'd do later—eh, are you planning to…"

Several thoughts flashed through her mind in a few seconds, but Chai Si seemed not to hear any of them and walked past her.

"Hey, you're coming out?"

The woman with tattoos all over her neck poked her head out from the edge of the second-floor railing and greeted Jin Xueli with a smile, "Didn't you say you wanted to help find the director? Come up."

Looking up from the hall, there were several flashlight beams scanning back and forth on the second floor, and the sounds of rummaging through drawers and people coming in and out of the room were endless; there was no skylight starting from the third floor, so Jin Xueli could not see the third floor, but it was conceivable that there must be a lot of people searching.

If they were searching for someone—

Her momentary hesitation seemed to be clearly captured by the woman.

"Are you thinking of leaving?" the woman asked. "I don't blame you. This is definitely not a place to stay for long."

She seemed much more reasonable than Chai Si and seemed to have a good impression of herself; if she could make the decision alone, Jin Xueli would probably be able to escape from the police station early.

The only problem is... Jin Xueli couldn't help but glance at Chai Si's back.

"You can't get out." The woman on the second floor smiled almost gently. "Do you think you'll have a chance to escape once you leave the cell?"

Something in her tone startled Jin Xueli slightly, and she raised her eyes towards her.

"The 'Nest Communication Network' is like... well, have you read magic novels? It's like a 'barrier'. If I don't remove it, people inside can't leave, and people outside can't get in."

As the woman on the second floor spoke, she put the flashlight in her mouth, grabbed the railing with both hands, and with a quick and decisive flip, she jumped down from the second floor - she landed on her feet, rolled lightly, and stood firmly in front of Jin Xueli.

"My name is Mercury, what's yours?"

She took the flashlight out of her mouth, introduced herself, and happily put her arm around Jin Xueli's. "Let's go, let's go find someone together... By the way, you and Chai Si are not actually friends, nor are you familiar with each other, right?"

Jin Xueli stopped and pulled her wrist back with force as she took a step forward.

She had gone in and out of the lair alone so many times, and she was still alive today. It wasn't just because she was lucky - besides having a quick mind, she also had every bit of the intuition a hunter should have.

"I... I'll go find someone with Chai Si," she whispered, "I have something... something to discuss with him."

Mercury stood in the dim, cluttered hall, her flashlight hanging low, illuminating a patch of the floor. Her boots and trousers were stained with light, and the light crept up to her mid-body before gradually dimming and fading. Her face and neck, covered in writing, were both shrouded in darkness, indistinct.

After two seconds, she slowly laughed: "Are you afraid of me?"

……yes.

Jin Xueli didn't dare to say it out loud.

Just now in the cell, perhaps because of other circumstances, the feeling was not obvious; but now she felt that at this moment in the Central Police Station, the most dangerous person did not seem to be Chai Si, nor the invading residents.

"Really? I don't kill everyone I see." Mercury sighed in the darkness. "Or do you think I'm no match for Chai Si?"

"Don't worry about it," the tall figure in front paused, looking a little annoyed. "Take my name off your lips."

Jin Xueli seized this opportunity and quickly caught up with him, putting him between her and Mercury - if anything happened, it was always better to have a fellow Taoist die first.

"Well... I'll go with you to find someone." She spoke to Chai Si, but her eyes were always focused on Shuiyin. "Consider it my thanks to you." Shuiyin smiled, as if not taking it to heart, and turned away.

"You are bullying the weak and afraid of the strong,"

After the two of them walked up the stairs in silence, Chai Si said suddenly.

Jin Xueli wanted to dig her ears hard to pick out these words and return them to him.

"Bully the weak and fear the strong?" This was the first time she had ever seen such a person. "Who is soft? You? If you are soft, then the dead are the only ones in the world who are hard."

"Flattery doesn't work on me."

"I didn't praise you," Jin Xueli's voice rose a notch, "Haven't you ever been praised by anyone?"

"You have a pretty good intuition."

Chai Si seemed to have already decided that she was complimenting him, and his expression wasn't at all unpleasant. "She's a hunter who retired about seven or eight years ago. If you don't even know me, you certainly don't know her either."

"Oh?" Jin Xueli pricked up her ears and lowered her voice. "Who is she?"

"When the 'Nest Communication Network' is deployed, it won't just be people on calls who will be compromised," Chai Si said, motioning for her to continue up to the third floor. "Anyone using their phone, whether they're texting, browsing social media, or listening to music, will be caught in the act."

Jin Xueli couldn't help but gasp. "But modern people are glued to their phones all day long..."

"Yes," Shibashi smiled softly. "That's why a large number of residents are needed. The only ones who can invade are those who have signed a contract with Mercury. Do you know why she can sign a contract with the residents, but you can't?"

"why?"

"Because those residents are deeply afraid of her."

Jin Xueli suddenly remembered the dog whistle from before; the policewoman left obediently without saying a word.

"Wait, I heard before that if the victim is extremely afraid of you when you kill him, then when his body dissolves in the lair, the inhabitants that grow from his body will also be afraid of you - is that true?"

"Not at all."

Chai Si skipped through the second and third floors without searching, probably because there were already quite a few mercenaries there. "We have to personally force the newly emerged residents to remember their fear of the killer before we can successfully sign the contract."

Jin Xueli looked back almost nervously - Mercury was not following behind.

"I think the funny thing about this is that you didn't dare approach her, but you came to me instead," Chai Si said, pausing at the fourth-floor staircase. "Come to think of it, I'm certainly not as crazy and bloodthirsty as she is..."

He was holding a cell phone with the flashlight on; above the light, it was dark, and his deep eyes were almost invisible.

"Let me ask you a question."

Jin Xueli raised her head in a daze.

"What do you think will happen here after the 'Nest Communication Network' is removed?"

"I don't know either," she said honestly. "This is the first time I've seen this kind of artifact."

"That would be interesting."

Chai Si seemed to want to rest for a moment, leaning against the railing and stretching his legs. "You don't know what will happen after we leave, but you undoubtedly thought about slipping away early."

"Ah, so what?" Jin Xueli waved her hand, gesturing towards the Central Police Station. "You've turned this place into hell. It's only natural for me to want to run away."

“That’s not normal at all.”

As Chai Si was speaking, he suddenly turned his phone around and held it in front of Jin Xueli. Before she could react, he had turned the phone around again.

"Is that my phone?"

Jin Xueli took a step forward, but before she could raise her hand, Chai Si had already cast a glance at her - this glance made her suddenly come to her senses and stop abruptly.

"Give me back my phone," she said calmly, trying to remain calm. "It's useless for you to take it."

"Once you've answered my questions, I'll naturally return it to you. Don't worry, I have no interest in your privacy." Chai Si slowly cracked a smile and said, "It seems like something happened to you, so you're extremely reluctant to have your fingerprints taken, right? I've heard that several people held you down on the table and forced you to do it."

"…So what?"

"That's interesting."

The phone screen was unlocked, and Chai Si lowered his eyes, his slender fingers swiping across the screen. His hands were so huge that it seemed as if the phone would shatter in his palms if he closed them.

"Your name, ID, phone number, fingerprints, and even the photos you took have all been left at the police station, and any important information has been uploaded to the system. But after leaving the cell, you showed no signs of worry at all. You even wondered why I wasn't afraid of retaliation from the survivors at the Central Police Station... You didn't even know what their fate would be, yet you were obsessed with leaving."

Jin Xueli couldn't utter a word.

She wasn't stupid, she had seen where this conversation was going.

"What would happen if you left? All the information was left behind. Where could you run to? But you don't seem worried at all. It's like as long as you can get out, nothing will be a problem."

He is indeed a hunting dog... Even in a seemingly normal place, he can smell the scent of prey.

"That reminds me of what you told me about your encounter with the vulture."

As Chai Si spoke, the screen of his cell phone flickered on and off as his fingertips stroked it back and forth, making him look as if he was standing on the edge between reality and nightmare.

"In such a hopeless situation, you clearly believed that the Vulture would be eliminated in the end, and that you, the one left behind, would be the real Jin Xueli. Why? Was it because the other party was 'dead'?"

He emphasized the word "death", obviously not believing Jin Xueli's statement at all.

"There's a missing link, a link that could save your life and keep you from going crazy."

Chai Si's voice was soft, like a gentle gentleman, unwilling to raise his voice and startle Jin Xueli. "That part... is what you planned to repeat after you get out today, to save yourself again. Right?"

　I took several kinds of sleeping supplements yesterday, with the mentality of either sleeping or dying, and finally I had a long sleep... Maybe it was because I knew I could have a day off on the weekend, so I felt much more relaxed. I actually slept for ten hours. I felt different when I woke up today.

　　The author's status is reflected in the update, and it's really immediate. Look, he has written another 4 words!
　　To be honest, if you guys hadn't been encouraging and comforting me, I might not have dared to rest on Saturday or rest well. Now I really feel like you guys saved my life...

　　
　
(End of this chapter)