Guardian
/ Guardian Chapter 95-96
Guardian Chapter 95: The cashier projected his voice: “Aiyou! Everybody quickly come
look! Incredible, cats can even buy things now!”
The sky had just brightened and the little ghosts at No. 4 Bright Avenue had just gotten off work.
Da Qing wobbled his fat body and ran anxiously over to Zhao Yunlan’s house. He first jumped
onto the windowsill in the corridor and then, with a fierce lunge like a cat capturing food, flew
through the air and accurately shot towards Zhao Yunlan’s front door, his paw pressing the
doorbell.
Then he became a flat cat pancake and slid down from the doorbell.
The doorbell rang.
At times when Zhao Yunlan was cooped up at home, he would play his video games with his
earphones in. In order for him to not miss the doorbell when someone rang, his doorbell was
piercingly loud. Like awakening the dead, the sound of the bell could be heard even from
outside the door. When it’s pressed, an entirety of a national anthem could play.
However, it sang for awhile yet no one answered.
Da Qing wasn’t like Chu Shuzhi, nonstop calling Zhao Yunlan’s phone. He thought that Zhao
Yunlan wasn’t at home.
The black cat walked anxiously back and forth in front of the door. Subconsciously he started
chasing his own tail and very quickly became a whirl of black wind.
He didn’t give up and decided to try again. Just as he jumped in place and landed on the
corridor windowsill with two paws, his back leg struggling in the air towards the door, the door
opened with a quiet “click” sound from inside. The black cat was startled and his two paws
loosened, messily landing with his butt onto the ground.
He rolled on the ground and looked over with his wide round eyes. The paws that had just found
a foothold slipped on the slippery corridor and his thick chin shook three times.
Then, Da Qing retracted his claws with extreme reserve, sat up seriously, and quietly meowed:
“Your Honor” as he stuck out his chest and sucked in his stomach.
Shen Wei flicked a finger and Zhao Yunlan’s endlessly noisy doorbell immediately fell silent. Da
Qing instinctively stiffened his neck and made a difficult swallowing motion. At the same time,
his vision unconsciously landed on the clothes that Shen Wei was wearing—he could ascertain
that that shirt belonged to Zhao Yunlan! Zhao Yunlan, the freak, liked to roll up his sleeves.
Every time, he would ridiculously ask the dry cleaners to iron his shirts with the sleeves rolled up
so that they were folded neatly.
A series of images impulsively appeared in Da Qing’s head. For example, they took off their own
clothes and then…and then…
Da Qing lowered his round head and felt that he needed to adjust his mental state.
“What’s wrong?” Shen Wei asked.
“Oh…I just came to see if Chief Zhao came back or not. That day he suddenly jumped into
Huang Quan, we were all pretty worried.”
“He’s back but he’s resting right now. If you need anything you can leave a message. When he
wakes up I will pass it on to him.” Shen Wei said quietly.
Da Qing immediately saw the overall picture and made the right decision to back away quickly
with his short stubby legs: “Ah…ah then I won’t bother you anymore. It’s nothing important, just
reminding our leader to not forget to write new work arrangements for the new year’s in these
next two days and prepare a new year’s speech for our department. It’s nothing, it’s nothing.
You’re busy, I’ll leave first.”
“Ah, wait a moment,” Shen Wei smiled in embarrassment and politely said: “There’s something
that I might have to trouble you for…”
Da Qing immediately sensibly scuttled back. Lifting his head, he said: “Please speak.”
Ten minutes later, the unreasonably fat cat pushed open the door to the breakfast shop
downstairs with his head. His cat face was so round that his eyes were almost squeezed out by
his fat; it gave him a virtually malicious look. However, dumb humans didn’t know that what was
displayed was the black cat’s actual mood.
The waitress almost accidentally tripped over him and immediately called out: “Ai! How did a cat
get in here? Get it out, get it out quickly!”
The big black cat raised his head and glanced at her with contempt. Then, he jumped onto the
service desk and knocked the table with his front paw. Under the cashier’s stupefied gaze, he
spat out the paper he had in his mouth.
The cashier opened the piece of paper with trembling hands only to see neatly written: “One jin
of soymilk (t/n 500 grams), one tray of buns, three sticks of youtiao. Please put them in a
sturdier bag. The money is around the cat’s neck, please take it yourself. If there’s change,
please put it back in there. Thank you.”
The cashier raised his head and tried to pinpoint where the cat’s neck was. The black cat rolled
his eyes and raised his head, revealing a collar under his double chin. Within the thick black fur,
the cashier found 30 yuan folded into it.
The cashier projected his voice: “Aiyou! Everybody quickly come look! Incredible, cats can even
buy things now!”
Da Qing, who was surrounded by a crowd of onlookers, was ashamed and resentful to
death—you bunch of stupid humans!
Zhao Yunlan was startled by the sound of the door opening and closing. He opened his eyes
briefly: “Who is it?”
“Your cat.” Shen Wei shut the door, “He came to see you. I entrusted him with buying breakfast.
Sleep a bit more.”
As he said this, he gently pressed Zhao Yunlan back into the blankets, stuffed his hand back
underneath, and then bent down to land a kiss on his forehead. A finger reached out to smooth
away Zhao Yunlan’s furrowed brows as a result of being abruptly awakened.
After he waited for Zhao Yunlan’s breathing to even out again, Shen Wei walked to the window
and looked down at the plant on the windowsill. It had withered from neglect. He reached out
and cupped the flower pot, a milky white light radiating from his palm. Like a good rain after a
long drought, the withered plant quickly became radiant again and straightened out its stalk. It
wasn’t long before it was standing upright.
Shen Wei quietly cleaned the spray bottle and then carefully sprinkled the water onto the
leaves.
At this time, most people had started their workday and the roads were already teeming with
cars. Shen Wei glanced outside through the cracks in the curtains. At the busy end of the world,
far away on the horizon, a trace of black gas rose from underground and flew towards the sky.
However, Shen Wei only glanced at it fleetingly. Then, as if turning a blind eye, he lowered his
gaze back to the task at hand. There was a strange sense of peace and tranquility in his heart
and laziness enveloped his whole being. He almost felt as if it would be of no consequence
even if he died in this moment.
It was almost noon by the time Zhao Yunlan was aroused by the delicious smell of the hot cup
of soymilk Shen Wei had set at the bedside table near the head of the bed.
He stared at the milky white soymilk for a long time, and then suddenly turned over and sat up:
“What did you say this morning? What did you have Da Qing do?”
Shen Wei was wearing glasses and reading a handwritten lesson plan. He calmly said: “Buy
breakfast.”
Zhao Yunlan sat for a moment, lost in thought and wearing an indescribable expression. Who
knew if he was making up a scene of “The Saga of the Fat Vagabond Cat” in his mind. He then
shook his head hard, propped his elbow on his knee, pressed his forehead, and laughed
abruptly.
Shen Wei: “What’s wrong?”
“I was just thinking I was a Cassanova for half of my life but was at last pressed down by you.
Comrade Shen Wei, you are too skilled.”
Zhao Yunlan’s tone in actuality contained sarcasm. It was unclear who he was trying to ridicule.
Either way, Shen Wei pretended that he didn’t hear it and only smiled at him with a face full of
virtue and chastity.
“Aiyou baby, I beg you, let’s stop pretending. Even if you pretend, don’t pretend to be this way. I
have a hard time bearing it in my heart.” Looking at his virtuous and chaste expression gave
Zhao Yunlan a toothache. Pressing his waist like an old ox pulling a cart, he went to the
bathroom to wash up, slamming the door behind him.
Just as Zhao Yunlan decided to eat his gloom away, he received a phone call from Zhu Hong.
“Hello, Chief Zhao? Da Qing said you came back. You alright?”
“En,” Zhao Yunlan had half a youtiao in his mouth and asked, “What’s going on?”
“I need to talk to you about something. The train ticket Lin Jing bought was to return to Dragon
City yesterday night. I wanted to call him in the early morning to confirm but he didn’t have
service. I had originally thought that it was because there were many mountain caves on his
route and he lost signal after passing through them, but he still hasn’t returned even now. I gave
him a call just now and it still came up as ‘out of network’.”
Zhao Yunlan’s chewing slowed down: “Has Lin Jing reached out to the office?”
“No.”
“Hmm…” Zhao Yunlan furrowed his eyebrows.
The SID had a stipulation that no matter if it’s identifying the type of cases or actually starting to
handle them, there could be no less than two people on duty at a time. Of course, Da Qing
could also be counted.
If, on occasional special circumstances, a case required a person to act alone, they were still
required to call No. 4 Bright Avenue at least twice a day to inform others of their location,
progress, and to report on if there were dangers in their surroundings.
Lin Jing wasn’t reliable in following small matters but he seldom neglected the big ones. He
wouldn’t ignore this rule and go missing without a cause.
Zhao Yunlan hung up with Zhu Hong and tried to dial Lin Jing’s number. Sure enough, it came
up as not in a service area. He took out a Guardian Order from his pocket, dipped his
chopsticks in soymilk, and wrote Lin Jing’s name on it.
The Guardian Order was like a compass. First it shook to the left and right, then it gently turned
a direction. A fine red line rose from Lin Jing’s name, slowly stretching out. However, the more it
stretched the darker the color became. By the time it extended to underneath the table, the
string was almost gray.
Then it broke.
Guardian Chapter 96: Currently, it should still be ok. There are no traces of death or scent
of blood. He should still be alive.
Shen Wei, who was immersed in the lesson plan, lifted his head and met Zhao Yunlan’s gaze.
He then bent down and picked up the broken line. With a gentle touch of his fingers, it
disintegrated into powder and fell like burnt ashes.
Shen Wei withdrew his hand and sniffed his fingertips carefully. He said: “Currently, it should still
be ok. There are no traces of death or scent of blood. He should still be alive, just that we can’t
contact him. Don’t worry, rest assured for now.”
Zhao Yunlan didn’t make a sound. He stuffed the last bun into his mouth but had already lost his
appetite. He took out a stack of notepads from underneath the table. Surprisingly, this man who
lived his life incredibly sloppily was actually very precise in his time management. There were
three bookmark labels stuck to the top of his notepad. The one on the very top was labeled
“urgent”, the next one was “important”, and lastly was “completed”.
The last column was empty. Lately, he had been through a lot of hardships and there pretty
much hadn’t been anything that wasn’t important.
Through the incredibly messy handwriting, as if he were a surgeon writing on a shaky rocket
ship, Shen Wei read with difficulty that in the column labeled “urgent” there was only his name
and the sentence “think of a way to get rid of the broken bowl on Dad’s body.” In the “important”
column was a long list of items related to his work.
Zhao Yunlan lifted his pen and wrote a check mark after Shen Wei’s name. He then filled in a
third item under “urgent”: “Quickly find Lin Jing.”
Zhao Yunlan spoke as he wrote: “Lin Jing was actually born into a pure line of Dharma. To tell
you the truth, there is no one else under me who has such pure lineage. In addition, he doesn’t
look very attractive. Even his selfies can be used as talisman to wear off evil spirits. Also, this
scum is very good at pretending to be weak and would never purposefully stir up trouble. Not to
mention I only asked him to investigate a common lifeforce-stealing case that reoccurs the
seventh day of every moon cycle. If we’re talking about this, actually the person who I’m
normally least worried about is him…”
He drummed the tables once with his fingers: “I have to bring someone to go check it out, are
you coming?”
Just earlier, Shen Wei was brooding and did not have the mindset to care about what the bunch
of people in the Guardian Order were busying themselves with. When he heard this, he directed
his extremely gentle, almost watery, gaze up from where he was staring in the notepad: the
check mark next to his name. The corners of his lips contained a smile—it seemed like he didn’t
care that Zhao Yunlan wrote his name as abstractly as if it were dogs writing with their paws,
“Hm, stealing life force?”
Zhao Yunlan pulled out the message Wang Zheng had forwarded to him: “This one. The great
saint is asking us to take a look at it.”
Shen Wei, the old-fashioned man, had never used a smartphone before. He received the phone
from Zhao Yunlan and then wanted to look at the picture more clearly. However, the touch
screen was difficult to handle and he wasn’t able to enlarge the photo even after fiddling with it
for a long time.
He then turned to Zhao Yunlan, who was currently gulping down the soymilk, and said: “Lower
your head for a moment, don’t look.”
In the next moment, Shen Wei hovered his hand over the top of the smartphone screen. As if he
was grabbing something from the air, the picture of the dead victim floated into the air like a 3D
projection. The visual effect was extremely shocking. Like this, it was almost as if the dead body,
with a face bloated like an eggplant, was lying flat on the dining table.
Out of curiosity, Zhao Yunlan lowered and then quickly raised his head. Expectedly, he reaped
what he sowed, the mouthful of soymilk caught in his throat and he almost spewed it all over the
“corpse’s” face.
…This was really a paragon of old-fashioned superstitions defeating modern technology
Shen Wei carefully examined the corpse’s complexion, and then used his fingers to “pinch” the
corpse’s eyes. It was like he turned the air into a 3D touch screen, even including the ability to
magnify and shrink!
“This man may not have died from taking someone else’s life force,” Shen Wei said as he
pointed to the eye of the corpse that was enlarged to the size of a palm, “Take a look at his
eyes.”
“I just finished eating dinner…” Zhao Yunlan covered his stomach in agony. He followed Shen
Wei’s finger to look over at the extremely enlarged eye, only to find that the pupil had already
been dilated. However, if he looked carefully, he could almost make out a human shape
reflected in the middle.
Zhao Yunlan was stupefied and held down Shen Wei’s hand: “Can you enlarge it a bit more?”
Shen Wei shook his head: “It’s only a picture. If I enlarge it any more it won’t be clear anymore.”
“Nn nn, it doesn’t matter.” Zhao Yunlan pulled out a piece of napkin from underneath the table,
wiped his mouth quickly, and then ripped out a piece of paper from the back of the notepad and
sketched out the general shape of the shadow, “It’s already much better than our shoddy
part-time technician.”
Shen Wei casually asked: “Who is the part-time technician?”
Zhao Yunlan: “Zhu Hong.”
The foot of the table made a tooth-grinding “crunch” sound as it grated against the floor.
Zhao Yunlan only felt a chilly gaze land on his bare nape. He pretended he didn’t know anything
and sprawled on the table, carefully using a ballpoint pen to draw out the thing inside the
corpse’s eye. With his back turned to Shen Wei, he secretly smiled in delight.
“In the past, there was a rumor in Jianghu that the eyes of the dead must be wrecked, otherwise
they will leave the shadow of the last person he saw, which could be checked by the police.”
Zhao Yunlan said as he drew, “But even Xi Yang Yang (t/n a cartoon sheep character) knows
that that’s impossible, otherwise the entire criminal police department would have nothing to do
all day long; all they’d have to do is study ophthalmology. But there’s no smoke without
fire…there’s always gotta be a bit of shadow in the origins of folklore, right? What’s the shadow
in the eyes of this corpse?”
Shen Wei was utterly silent.
Zhao Yunlan looked at him with his eyes curved into a smile: “Hm?”
Shen Wei’s gloomy expression made it clear that he was very dissatisfied with the topic of Zhu
Hong. Shen Wei was silent for a few seconds, and then with a little bit of chilliness, said: “It’s
capturing the soul. The eyes of the dead whose souls were taken by the reapers would be
clean, but if their time was cut short by other creatures of the underworld, or if the soul was
taken by other things, the dead’s eyes would leave a ghostly reflection.”
”Hm…then what do you think this is?” Zhao Yunlan asked.
Shen Wei lowered his eyes. With a repressed voice, he quietly said: “How do I know?”
“Ah, what is it? Are you unhappy? Jealous?” Zhao Yunlan said wantonly, “I like it when other
people are jealous. Quick, why don’t you be jealous again for This Lord?”
Shen Wei: “…”
“Before, you used to keep it in all day, like an otherworldly male god (t/n male god means
someone who is really handsome). I’m tired of seeing you pretending. Even looking at you
makes me feel exhausted for you.” Zhao Yunlan casually stuck the note paper behind a lesson
plan draft that Shen Wei had used and said, “Come, this male god, there is a scanner beside
the computer. Help me scan it into a picture and send it to the office so that they can find out as
much as they can before I go over there.”
Shen Wei took it and walked in a stupor to stand in front of the computer. After he turned it on,
he started a staring contest with the assembly of electronics in front of him—the male god
actually only knew how to turn machines on and off and how to play PowerPoints that others
had already made for him. Everything else his teaching assistant basically did for him; he
couldn’t even distinguish between a printer and a scanner.
At this time, Zhao Yunlan suddenly came behind him, reached both arms around from behind,
and took Shen Wei’s hand to guide the piece of paper into the scanner. Step by step, he
operated it. Finally, within the noise of the machine, he purposefully blew a gust of air next to
Shen Wei’s ear: “Hm, you don’t know how to do it? If you don’t know how to do it why don’t you
ask your husband to teach you?”
Shen Wei: “…”
With a bad smile, Zhao Yunlan quickly touched Shen Wei’s butt. Before Shen Wei, with his face
and ears flushed red from shame, could reprimand him, he had already dodged far away to pick
up a calendar from the table. He knocked on the email account and password written on it: “You
at least know how to do this, right? Go into the contacts and find the one that says ‘colleagues’.
Then, send the scanned picture to them.”
With that, the smile on his face seemed to fade away at an incomparably rapid pace as he
dialed No. 4 Bright Avenue’s number: “Wang Zheng? You’re still awake? You’ve worked hard.
Close the curtains a bit tighter—yes, I know something happened to Lin Jing. I sent a picture to
you, let everyone in the office pass it around to take a look at it. If you can figure out what it is,
that’d be best. Let Old Li assist in preparing two cars. In half an hour we’ll set out to the scene of
the crime.”
At this moment, the hanging lamp in the room shook slightly. Dragon City experienced a vague
tremor. After this small, imperceptible earthquake passed, the sound of a notification for a new
email could be heard from both within and outside of the phone at the same time.
From within the phone, Wang Zheng said: “Wait, Chief Zhao. There’s an email from Lin Jing.”
From outside the phone, Shen Wei turned around: “The person you are looking for seemed to
have sent an email.”
Zhao Yunlan squinted and said to Wang Zheng: “Don’t hang up just yet.”
What Lin Jing had sent over was a video of himself that he had taken using his cellphone.
This selfie emperor, who was always preening and taking selfies, had superb camera skills.
Usually, no hand shaking could be detected and the pictures were always very stable. However,
the current video was continually shaking and Lin Jing’s breaths were coming out in pants. The
screen shook up and down forcefully; he was either walking quickly or running.
He was a little out of breath, but the sound of his gasping was pressed very low. Lin Jing’s hand
shook badly. The screen was directly aimed at his face yet when he opened and closed his
mouth, no sound came out. With furrowed eyebrows, Zhao Yunlan read his lips with difficulty:
“I…lost my voice…are…ear…I’m starting to lose hearing in my ear…budget…no…it’s my
fingers are stiffening and I have a foreboding feeling.”
(art by me, ineffablebfs)
Immediately following, Lin Jing’s hand shook and the camera moved away from his face to aim
directly at an extremely high-end resort—it was the rehabilitation resort where the life force
stealing case occurred.
On the surface, all the houses looked beautiful. However, Zhao Yunlan felt a sense of
discordance at first glance.
At this time, the sound of Lin Jing’s fingers tapping on the back cover of the mobile phone
emitted from the video. The sound was very loud and slightly grating to the ear. It were these
sounds that highlighted the deadly silence of the entire resort.
Lin Jing raised a finger and wrote out “empty, there’s nobody here” in front of the cell phone
camera. Zhao Yunlan noticed that the second joint on his finger was stiff, almost like a rock, and
could not bend at all. A strange gray color emitted from it.
Then, Lin Jing’s fingers paused. He aimed the camera at his face, pointed to his ears, and, with
a solemn expression, shook his head. Subconsciously, he took out a string of Buddha beads
and closed his eyes. His lips opened and closely slightly. Although he didn’t make any sound, it
seemed as though he was forcefully remaining calm by reciting sutras.
A moment later when he opened his eyes again, he seemed to be momentarily stunned before
suddenly squinting strenuously. Following, the camera shook violently for a while and the video
cut off.
“At the end it may be that he realized he couldn’t see clearly anymore and so quickly sent the
video.” Zhao Yunlan determined: “Maybe it was because of his vision that he clicked the wrong
thing and sent a timed email, that’s why we only saw it now, or…”
“Or because, due to whatever reason, the email couldn’t be sent.” Shen Wei continued.
Zhao Yunlan turned his head and their gaze connected. A moment later, they both quietly said
at the same time: “The earthquake just now.”
Right as their voice fell, the faint tremors came again just like an ordinary aftershock. The sound
of footsteps and voices came from the corridor. Zhao Yunlan lived higher up. Perhaps because
the shaking was stronger on higher floors, people began to run out in a panic.
Zhao Yunlan was not someone who’d never experienced an earthquake before. He stood where
he was, unmoving: “Don’t you feel that this ‘earthquake’ is a bit strange? When the Earth’s crust
is moving, it seems to be more of a swaying motion…this seems to be shaking.”
Shen Wei lowered his eyes and carefully felt it for a moment: “It feels as though it’s the
movement of the underworld.”
“The underworld?”
Shen Wei’s expression was slightly grave. Zhao Yunlan thought for a bit, squatted down, and
stuffed the gun full of special bullets. He inserted a dagger engraved with incantations
underneath his pants legs. Then, he took all the money out from his wallet, crammed them into
his pocket carelessly, and, in the empty wallet, stuffed a thick pile of talismans.
Lastly, he took out a piece of wood from his drawer. That was the real “Guardian Order”, the real
bark that was cut from the trunk of the Da Shenmu. When the words “Guardian Order” touched
Zhao Yunlan’s fingers, they burst into a series of dazzling sparks.
“Let’s go.” He stuffed the Guardian Order into his pocket and said decisively.
Twenty minutes later, they arrived at No. 4 Bright Ave. After a while, two off-road vehicles drove
out from the yard at the same time, directly towards the location where Lin Jing had the
accident.
The distance between Dragon City and the scene of the crime was less than 300 kilometers.
With the highway, it took about four hours. The location had no local industry, but there were
mountains and hot springs; it was a typical little tourist town for recuperation. The natural
villages in the surrounding area had moved away for the sake of the beautiful environment. Only
purchasers and service personnel come and go from here every day.
The town was too quiet, virtually like a ghost town. There was a big caravan used for towing
goods parked improperly on the side of the road at the entrance, within which was a full load of
fresh vegetables. Not a single thing was missing, but the driver’s door was open and there was
no one inside.
“There must be a lot of service people coming here from the surrounding small towns and
villages every day.” Zhao Yunlan said, “Xiao Guo, get off and go drive the other car to the town
to find the local police station. Ask them if they had received any family reports about missing
people in these recent days.”
Guo Changcheng paused in a daze. He keenly felt the strangeness of this town. Even just
standing here, he legs were nonstop shaking. Zhao Yunlan had clearly asked him to leave,
obviously wanting to protect him. At first this let Guo Changcheng let out a breath of relief, but
then for some unknown reason he felt his heart go higher up in his throat.
“Let Zhu Hong go with you.” Zhao Yunlan said.
Zhu Hong wasn’t like Xiao Guo, who could be beaten at will. She immediately protested: “I won’t
go! I’m not going anywhere!”
Zhao Yunlan pulled out a cigarette and held it in his mouth. He didn’t spare her a glance: “What,
you didn’t officially resign yet and my words are already useless?”
Zhu Hong: “I…”
Zhao Yunlan was a man of his word. Allowing no explanation, he sat back onto the car and
closed the door: “Lao Chu, come sit over here.”
Zhu Hong stood rigidly in place, glaring angrily at Zhao Yunlan.
Before getting onto the car, Chu Shuzhi gently pushed her shoulder: “Hurry up and go, Chief
Zhao’s orders makes sense. Even if you’re here you wouldn’t be able to help much. Xiao Guo
over there might not be able to communicate properly, go help him a little.”
Zhu Hong didn’t even have time to reply before Zhao Yunlan, this bastard, had already stepped
down on the accelerator and driven away.
Chapter end
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