Misfortunes Never Come Singly

In the silence, only the sound of falling rain remained. Ji Jue stared blankly at everything before slumping down onto the threshold. He was exhausted to the bone. "What the hell is even going on!" He pried open his stiff fingers and tossed the iron baluster he had been clutching tightly onto the ground, looking around. The bleak courtyard was as quiet as ever. Luckily, Ji Jue's home was fairly isolated, and the immediate neighbors on both sides had moved away long ago; otherwise, who knew how much panic this commotion would have stirred up. He gripped his phone. Several times he wanted to call the police, but the instant the number began dialing, he abruptly hung up. Call the police? How would he report it? What would he say? That an old man broke into my house, ate my sliced chicken, smashed my front door and the refrigerator doors, and tried to eat me alive? The corpse? Oh, it burned to ash—just look right there in the mud, Officer! I'm completely innocent, it was all self-defense! Would that do any good? For over a decade, Yacheng's public security budget had shrunk each year, public order had grown increasingly chaotic, and the police had become little more than caricatures of themselves. Rumor had it that even the new governor couldn't stand it and had planned to outsource the entire police department's duties right after taking office. Besides... it had all turned to ash. Ash. Ji Jue looked at the two tattered rags of clothing, letting out a helpless sigh. *What the fuck were you even after?* Fine, running him down with a tricycle yesterday was one thing, but today the guy had come straight here to chew on him... and in the end suddenly turned to ash and vanished! Why?! Just to drop in, tell him, "Bro, you smell so good," and leave an unlucky kid with permanent psychological trauma?! Was he out of his mind?! No, that creature certainly couldn't be called lucid. From start to finish, it had been sheer madness. And then there was that blood-colored spiritus, something no ordinary human possessed. It was like a living thing—no, like a parasite lurking inside his physical shell. What kind of monster was that? Amid his daze and panic, he felt his phone suddenly vibrate. The cracked screen lit up, displaying a familiar name that made him freeze for a moment before a wave of relief washed over him. Lu Feng! Brother Feng had served four years in the Mid-Continent, rolling through that mud pit as a paratrooper and returning in one piece. Even though he never talked about his past, judging from the dense tattoos covering his skin and the service medals he casually tossed to his younger siblings to play with as toys, he certainly had experience dealing with this kind of situation. "Hello? Brother Feng!" Ji Jue answered the call, gathering his courage. "Listen to me, I—" "Xiao Ji, are you free right now?" Lu Feng's voice over the phone sounded hoarse. "Come over to Mercy Hospital." He paused. "Something happened to Mom." Ji Jue shuddered, as if struck by lightning. *** Half an hour later, without even bothering to wash his face, Ji Jue threw on a change of clothes, hopped on his eighth-hand moped, and sped through the standing water all the way to the hospital. The hospital was packed to bursting, with temporary cots set up all along the corridors. The air hung thick with a stale, putrid odor; though the smell of mildew had been scrubbed repeatedly, it remained impossible to ignore. For common folk who couldn't afford private clinics—where a single registration and consultation bill could run into the thousands—the only things they could rely on, aside from the few public hospitals with queues backed up until the end of next year, were charity hospitals sponsored by the Church of Chongguang. Dodging nurses and doctors hurrying back and forth, Ji Jue finally stumbled across Mother Lu in the hallway outside a consultation room. "Oh, it's nothing serious at all. Just a little bump, nothing to worry about. That kid Puppy just loves making a fuss over nothing." With bandages wrapped around her face and more than half her short hair shaved off, Mother Lu waved her hand, forcing a carefree smile. "Don't worry, don't worry. This old lady is tough as nails." The third child and the youngest were nowhere to be seen; they were likely behaving themselves at home, doing homework. Lu Feng squatted silently near the doorway leading outside, smoking a cigarette while clutching a slip of paper as he waited for the lab results. "What happened?" Ji Jue stared dumbfounded at the bandages on her arm and the injuries on her face. Standing beside her, the second child, Lu Ling, had noticeably red rims around her eyes, blaming herself repeatedly. "I should've stayed to watch the shop with Mom last night. It's all my fault, all my fault." Mother Lu smacked the back of her head. "You? With you there, wouldn't you just be serving yourself up on a silver platter to the robbers? What if robbery turned into assault?" Last night, close to midnight, thieves had jimmied the door and slipped into the auto repair shop, ransacking drawers and shelves. Lu Feng had gone out drinking with his old squad mates and hadn't come home yet. Lu Ling had stayed at their apartment studying while looking after the two younger kids, leaving only Mother Lu to watch the shop. Jolted awake, Mother Lu had glared, roared, and brandished a pipe wrench longer than Ji Jue's arm, ready to fight the hoodlums to the bitter end. But two fists were no match for four hands. In the pitch black, she took a blow to the back of the head, was knocked out cold, and was nearly hauled away. If not for pure luck—the thieves had run into a late-night street vendor packing up her food cart, and the old woman wheeling the cart recognized Mother Lu—they might never have seen her again. God only knew where she would have been sold off to. Just thinking about the consequences made Ji Jue break out in a cold sweat of lingering dread. "Aiya, it's fine, small problem." Mother Lu patted her chest and swung an arm thicker than Ji Jue's thigh. "I've got an iron constitution! Look at me, aren't I still kicking?" "As long as you're all right. As long as you're all right..." Ji Jue didn't know what to say. He slumped down beside Mother Lu, several times starting to speak only to stop himself. He felt even more terrified and powerless than when he had narrowly escaped death himself. Over the years, surviving alone in Yacheng as a parentless orphan had been harder than words could describe. If not for Mother Lu taking him in and caring for him, Ji Jue would have turned into a dead corpse long ago. To say nothing of how she had taught him everything she knew about auto mechanics without holding back... Tianmen University was the premier institution in Haizhou and one of the Federation's Five-School Alliance. How hard was it to test in and change one's destiny? It was enough to suffocate almost any student. Had it not been for Mother Lu's relentless support, would Ji Jue have ever become a Tianmen student with a bright future ahead of him? Dream the hell on! He would've ended up slashing bags and pickpocketing down at South Station and the docks, boy! Seeing that Mother Lu was fine, he couldn't help letting out a breath of relief. Yet as he leaned against her, a notification that made his skin crawl suddenly surfaced before his eyes once more: [Aberrant spiritus detected. Extract?] The smile froze on Ji Jue's face. He turned his head stiffly, looked at Mother Lu's pale yet cheerfully forced expression, and swallowed hard. On Mother Lu's body... At this moment, as his spiritus activated the wristwatch, he could faintly make out specks of crimson light beneath the bandages, spreading like mold. "Mother Lu, looks like a bit of dirt got on your bandage," Ji Jue said, raising his hand and lightly brushing it over the cloth. "Let me brush it off for you." A pattern resembling a metallic matrix materialized in his palm. In that brief instant of contact, it brushed past, and all the crimson vanished completely before the matrix faded from view. "Ouch! You clumsy kid..." Mother Lu let out a small cry of pain, but soon beamed. "Hey, would you look at that? It actually feels a lot cooler now, and my chest doesn't feel stuffy anymore. When Puppy put the medicine on earlier, it felt like he was trying to murder his own mother! If you ask me, he still needs practice. What the heck did they even teach him in the army..." "Mom," Lu Ling nudged her, signaling her to drop it. Lu Feng, who had finished picking up the lab report, walked over. A faint smile surfaced on his somber face. "You're fine, Mom. The wound just had a minor infection. A couple of anti-inflammatory shots and a tetanus jab will do it." He handed over the report. "You do have a mild concussion, though. The doctor said you need to rest. For the next few days, stay home and take it easy. Xiao Ji and I will look after the shop." Naturally, Mother Lu refused; she was still itching to go back and clean up the repair shop. Lu Feng and Lu Ling had to plead with her at length, and after Ji Jue chimed in to coax her for quite a while, she finally relented. In truth, none of the four siblings—including Lu Feng—were Mother Lu's biological children. Mother Lu had suffered a severe illness in her younger years, and heavy hormone treatments had ruined her health, leaving her unmarried for life. All four kids at the shop, Lu Feng included, had been taken in off the streets by Mother Lu. Over the years, she had raised them through blood, sweat, and tears, forging a bond tighter than blood. Unfortunately, aside from the second child, who had just been admitted to university, none of them were good at studying... It was no wonder Mother Lu treasured Ji Jue, who worked at the shop. Ever since he arrived, her blood pressure had never spiked again over the youngest child's math and foreign language homework. After all these years, she had long considered him family, never treating him like an outsider. Now that Mother Lu had agreed to rest for a few days, Ji Jue felt a weight lift from his chest. With the persuading done, Lu Ling took the slips to fetch the medicine. Lu Feng shot Ji Jue a look, and using the excuse of having a smoke, the two walked outside to stand under the eaves, watching the pouring rain. Ji Jue touched neither cigarettes nor alcohol, while Lu Feng was a heavy smoker—a bad habit picked up from the military. "Thanks for making the trip," Lu Feng said. "I panicked this morning, running around like a headless chicken until now. My head's completely empty." "What the hell are you thanking me for?" Ji Jue glanced at him, then simply asked, "Do the police have any leads?" "None." Lu Feng shook his head. "Relying on those bums? Heh... They told us to go home and wait. The license plate was fake too. White cargo vans are all over Beishan District; there's no way to track it down." "Any surveillance footage?" "We have cameras in the shop, but they didn't catch any faces. As for the cameras outside... they've been useless props for years, almost all busted." "..." In the silence, Ji Jue glanced down at his wristwatch. After a long pause, he suddenly said, "I'll head back to the shop to look around. Maybe I can turn up some clues." "Clean up a bit while you're at it, or Mom won't be able to sit still. If something's broken and can be fixed, fix it; if it can't, don't tell her—just toss it quietly, or she'll feel bad about it." Lu Feng patted his shoulder, then gave it a firm squeeze. "Thanks for the trouble. I'll get you a new computer later." Ji Jue rolled his eyes, not buying the empty promise for a second. "You just want a new computer to play games on, don't you?" "Hahaha, you saw right through me." Lu Feng grinned, flicked away his cigarette butt, and tossed the car keys to Lu Ling. "Drive Mom home in a bit. The house is on you for the next couple of days." "Huh?" Lu Ling stared blankly, eyes wide. "What about you?" Lu Feng kept his head down, merely waving a hand. "I'm going out to ask a few friends to see if anything's stirring. Won't be back tonight." "...Xiao Feng!" Seeing him turn to leave, Mother Lu's voice suddenly rose. She started to say something, but when he turned around, her lips parted and closed, yet she couldn't find the words. Only this time, she didn't call him by his childhood nickname. Lu Feng smiled and gave a wave. "Don't worry, Mom. I'm just asking around." He turned and walked away, disappearing into the curtain of rain. Half an hour later, Ji Jue reached up and lifted the shutter door of the auto repair shop. What greeted him was complete devastation. From the counter to the shelves, everything had been overturned. It was nothing like the light scuffle Mother Lu had made it out to be. It had been an all-out, desperate fight for survival! Ji Jue pulled the shutter door back down behind him and walked toward the counter. The sinister old man, the bizarre crimson light, the unprovoked attack... There were too many things he couldn't make sense of. Surely, there had to be some clues left behind.