Bai Yulao: The Night Watcher's Debt to the King of Hell

On the way back to Nandu City, the atmosphere in the car was so oppressive it was suffocating.

Lin Shoumo slumped in the passenger seat, his left arm now completely transformed into a grayish-white stone pillar, hanging heavily at his side, making the seat creak.

Su Wantang floored the accelerator. She didn't even dare to look at Lin Shoumo's deathly pale face!

To save her, this greedy, foul-mouthed man, who always seemed to be idle, paid the price of losing an arm!

It was already past midnight when we got back to the small bungalow where the barbecue stall was located.

It took Su Wantang a great deal of effort to drag this stiff "stone man," whose only hand could still move, onto the cot.

"Feed... medicine..." Lin Shoumo weakly opened his eyes and pointed to a broken bottle in the corner with a label that read "Power Pill".

Su Wantang quickly came over, poured out a dark pill, and stuffed it into his mouth.

That night, Su Wantang didn't sleep.

She moved a small stool to sit on the edge of the bed and stared blankly at Lin Shoumo's petrified arm.

Moonlight streamed in through the window, illuminating the grayish-white "stone" and giving it an eerie and cold beauty.

She picked up a damp towel and carefully wiped the cold sweat from Lin Shoumo's forehead.

This man usually seemed carefree and irresponsible, as if he had "I'm a liar" written all over his face, but at the crucial moment, he actually risked his life to block that bolt of lightning.

"Lin Shoumo..." Su Wantang murmured softly, her eyes reddening slightly, "I won't be so impulsive next time, please don't let anything happen to you!"

She looked at the stone arm and, as if possessed, reached out her hand, wanting to touch the cold stone.

The moment her fingertips touched the stone arm, she suddenly felt an extremely faint tremor.

It's like... there's a heart beating inside that stone.

dong... dong... dong...

In the early morning, sunlight streamed through the window.

Su Wantang was awakened by the sizzling sound of oil in a pan.

She woke up with a start and found herself wearing a military overcoat, lying face down next to a cot.

The bed was empty; Lin Shoumo's heavy "stone arm" was gone, and only a light layer of dust remained on the sheets.

"woke up?"

That familiar, somewhat unreliable voice came through!

Su Wantang suddenly turned her head.

Lin Shoumo was standing in front of the barbecue grill by the door, skillfully flipping several skewers of kidney with his left hand, while his right hand... that once petrified right hand was now deftly sprinkling cumin powder!

His face was rosy and he looked radiant; there was no trace of the ghostly state he had been in the face of death the night before.

Su Wantang was stunned.

She rubbed her eyes, then rubbed them again.

"You...your hand?" she stammered, pointing to the hand that was sprinkling scallions. "Wasn't it...petrified?"

Lin Shoumo glanced down at his right hand, casually moved his five fingers, and made a few crisp popping sounds.

"Oh, that?" He casually placed the grilled kidneys onto a plate. "Last night's 'Substitute Stone' was a side effect. It looked scary, but you just need a good night's sleep to metabolize the 'cause and effect.' Officer Su, you don't understand, it's called 'transformation of illusion and reality,' it's very profound!"

Su Wantang stared at him blankly.

Was it metabolized?

It metabolized a rock the size of an arm.

You're kidding me!

She clearly remembered how heavy that arm was last night, its icy texture, and the terrifying petrification process!

That's not just something that "looks scary," it's a real disability!

"You're lying to me!" Su Wantang stood up, her eyes filled with complex emotions. "How could something like last night be cured just from a good night's sleep? Did you use some kind of... forbidden technique?"

"What forbidden techniques? That's scientific health preservation." Lin Shoumo walked over with a plate, put it on the table, and plopped down on the cot, reverting to his shameless, nonchalant attitude.

"Officer Su, let's settle this score!"

He pulled out the crumpled little notebook and flipped through it with a rustling sound.

"Last night I responded to a call, a high-risk battle, which depleted my spiritual energy. Plus, there's the 'guarding the spirit' service fee for the night... I won't ask for more, let's round it up to two million!"

"Two million?!" Su Wantang's eyes widened. "Are you robbing me?! And what the hell is this 'vigilance'? I kept vigil for you all night, why do I have to pay you?"

"That's compensation for my emotional distress!" Lin Shoumo pointed to his face with a righteous indignation. "Don't you know how terrifying my dream was last night? I dreamt that you wouldn't leave my place and even drank all my beer. That caused me so much psychological trauma!"

Su Wantang laughed in exasperation.

Looking at the man before her, who had instantly regained his energy and started haggling over every little thing again, the heaviness and sadness in her heart suddenly dissipated like smoke.

She suddenly understood.

This guy had no intention of burdening her with the heavy weight of "saving a life." He was using this joking way to tell her: I'm alive and kicking, don't overthink it, just give me the money.

"Fine, two million!" Su Wantang gritted her teeth, grabbed a skewer of kidneys, and took a big bite. "But forget about the invoice; the reimbursement process will take three months!"

"Deal!" Lin Shoumo chuckled, picked up a can of beer, pulled the tab with a "bang," and handed it over. "Here, let's celebrate our first successful 'bullet-blocking'."

Su Wantang took the beer and clinked glasses with it.

The icy liquid flowed down my throat, dispelling the last trace of chill from last night.

Looking into Lin Shoumo's seemingly nonchalant eyes, she suddenly realized that beneath that thick layer of "charlatan" disguise, this man was hiding too many things she couldn't understand.

"Oh, right," Su Wantang suddenly remembered something, "that bald guy... ran away in the end. But I found the registration information for that logistics park. Although it's a shell company, the name of the legal representative is a bit strange."

"Who?"

"His name is... Shen Gongbao," Su Wantang said. "This name looks fake."

Lin Shoumo almost spat out the beer he was drinking.

"Shen Gongbao?" His eyes narrowed, and his playful expression vanished. "This name... it seems he doesn't have any taboos about what people say."

In ancient mythology, Shen Gongbao was a troublemaker who deliberately opposed Jiang Ziya and was also the leader of all demons.

In the present-day Southern Capital, this seems to mean that the organization called "Gui Xu" is no longer hiding its ambitions.

"It seems the waters of this Southern Capital are even more murky than I imagined..."

Lin Shoumo put down his beer and touched the small stone on his chest that had regained its warmth.

Last night's "petrification" was actually the result of him overdrawing his lifespan for the next five years.

But he would never tell Su Wantang.

For a charlatan, maintaining mystery and greed is the best form of protection.

"Officer Su," Lin Shoumo stood up, brushing the dust off his backside, "Now that the IOU is signed, we're in this together. Since that 'Shen Gongbao' dared to unleash such devastating attacks, we have to go and confiscate his 'Thunder Hammer'!"

"How do I pay?"

"Of course... we should investigate the case openly and honestly." Lin Shoumo blinked. "I'm the consultant, and you're the police officer. What we call this is—collusion between officials and criminals... oops, police-civilian cooperation."

……

Meanwhile, on the top floor of the tallest building in the southern capital city.

The bald puppet with the broken leg was thrown on the ground; it had been "recycled."

A man dressed in a Tang suit stood in front of a huge floor-to-ceiling window, toying with a broken piece of the instrument in his hand.

"Lin Shoumo..."

The man murmured the name, a playful smile playing on his lips.

"To withstand the projection of the divine seal with his physical body and still be able to move around so energetically, he seems to be no ordinary person!"

"Investigate!" The man tossed the compass fragments into the trash can. "Investigate his background, his lineage, and whether he's the 'Night Watchman' we're looking for!"

"in addition……"

He turned around and looked at a huge machine behind him!

"Since he likes to play, let's give him a big gift!"