Chapter 35: Female Bird
When Li Jiahong returned to the hospital, it was already past eight in the evening. Seeing that her husband’s return time was much later than agreed, and his expression seemed off, Jiang Gu inquired about the reason.
Li Jiahong did not hide anything and told Jiang Gu all about the unpleasant events that happened today.
Upon learning the process of the matter, Jiang Gu couldn’t help but embrace her husband, comforting him.
“Did I do something wrong?” Li Jiahong held his wife and asked with a complicated expression.
Jiang Gu coaxed him like a child in his dozens of years, softly saying: “You didn’t do anything wrong. It’s just that there are no perfect solutions in this world. Everything you’re doing now is supported by me and your parents, and it’s something you’re willing to do.”
“Then what Huang Qitao said isn’t right?” Li Jiahong couldn’t help but retort.
“He’s not wrong either. He just chose another path that gives him peace of mind.” Jiang Gu gently stroked her husband’s dry hair, where countless white hairs were mixed in the black strands. She could see her husband’s long and arduous journey over these fifteen years in every single white hair.
Li Jiahong understood. He said earnestly: “Then we’ll do our utmost to take back our child. If he’s really gone, we’ll live on together. I’ll use all my strength to make up for the happy times I owe you and your parents.”
Jiang Gu didn’t reply, just smiled and gave an almost imperceptible nod.
At night, the patients in the hospital inpatient department were all preparing to turn off the lights and rest. After watching his wife fall asleep, Li Jiahong went alone to the rooftop, took out the red business card Wei Jiang had given him, and dialed the string of numbers written on it with his mobile phone.
Less than two seconds after dialing the number, Li Jiahong heard the mobile phone ringtone of the D minor Requiem composed by Haimofen《D minor Requiem》.
Li Jiahong was stunned for a moment, hung up the call, redialed after the ringtone stopped, and suddenly felt a palpitation in his heart. He involuntarily put down his mobile phone and looked behind him.
After he dialed the number, besides the sound from his mobile phone, the phone number’s ringtone also rang simultaneously from the position behind him.
When he turned around, Li Jiahong saw a short-haired woman in formal attire walk out from behind the water tank on the rooftop.
Under the illumination of the bright moonlight, half of the woman’s side face was lit up. Her soft facial curves and exquisite features were unforgettable at first glance. When her pink thin lips curved up slightly, a magical charm rapidly unfolded on her, as if the not-so-beautiful night scene was enhanced by her presence.
“Nice to meet you, Mr. Li. My name is Yu Lianyun.” Yu Lianyun gently brushed aside the side hair scattered by the evening breeze and smiled.
“You… who are you?” Although Li Jiahong thought the mysterious lady in front of him was very beautiful, he didn’t let his guard down because he inexplicably sensed a dangerous feeling from her. When she took a step forward, he retreated one step.
Seeing the other party on high alert and about to back into the guardrail, Yu Lianyun had to stop. Feeling somewhat helpless, she continued her self-introduction: “I’m a Mystic Investigator from the Shenzhou Region’s special emergency event investigation, analysis, and rescue organization. The public calls our organization the Mysterious Group.”
“Mysterious Group?” Li Jiahong had heard of it. The will of the deceased escapee also mentioned this organization. He suddenly understood what Wei Jiang had said in the forest cabin. If the mysterious lady in front of him was really from that organization existing in urban legends, then she could indeed help him.
Li Jiahong hoped Yu Lianyun could first prove her identity. Yu Lianyun took out a work ID-like item from her chest pocket and tossed it to him, saying with some amusement: “Even if you see my work ID, you probably can’t tell if it’s real or fake.”
After getting the work ID, Li Jiahong didn’t speak but examined it carefully, as if he could really discern something. Suddenly, his tense shoulders relaxed, and he said: “I believe you now, Miss Yu.”
“What could you tell?” Yu Lianyun saw the other party finally walk toward her proactively and return the work ID. She couldn’t help but feel curious.
Li Jiahong shook his head: “I can only recognize that the anti-counterfeit printing on it was printed by a shadow printing machine not yet widely available on the market. This printing technology is mostly used in government and military sectors now. Because I used to work in a related industry, I’m somewhat familiar with it. From this alone, the chance you’re a fraud is low.”
Hearing Li Jiahong’s analysis, Yu Lianyun secretly admired that this seemingly rustic uncle was meticulous and knowledgeable. She then got straight to the point: “I’ve heard a bit about your situation from Wei Jiang. I only arrived in Shenzhou from elsewhere this afternoon and have been waiting for your call to see when you’d need my help.”
As she spoke, Yu Lianyun smiled somewhat awkwardly: “I just didn’t expect you’d call at this time. I forgot to silence my phone, and it startled me earlier.”
“…Sorry.” Li Jiahong gave a dry laugh, then seemed to suddenly realize something and said in surprise: “So that means you saw everything that happened in the restaurant this afternoon.”
“The commotion you and the other Mr. made in the restaurant was indeed quite big.” Yu Lianyun nodded, not denying that she had observed the entire scene of his social death.
Li Jiahong was slightly silent for a moment and said: “Then you should know a bit about my current situation.”
“To be safe and avoid mistakes, Mr. Li, please recount it to me again.” Yu Lianyun didn’t act superior or overconfident but directly asked Li Jiahong to retell his investigation experience and current results, then secretly compared them with the information she had collected.
So Li Jiahong recapped for Yu Lianyun. After several comparisons and confirmations, Yu Lianyun nodded and said: “Now I’ve fully understood your situation.”
“Then Miss Yu, can you help me find the child taken by Huo Gu?” Li Jiahong asked expectantly.
“I can’t completely guarantee it.” Yu Lianyun said very straightforwardly: “Human effort has limits, and too much time has passed. The seniors back then couldn’t solve it, and we might not be able to now…”
As she spoke, Yu Lianyun paused and asked Li Jiahong: “You went to Boss Lin’s shop. What did you rent?”
Li Jiahong was somewhat disappointed but still answered: “He gave me a feather and told me to give it to my wife, saying it could help me find the child.”
Hearing Li Jiahong’s words, Yu Lianyun was somewhat surprised. After thinking, she said: “If Boss Lin said that, then this feather should indeed be able to help you find the child.”
Then, Yu Lianyun didn’t forget to remind: “Did you ask about the method of using the feather and its taboos?”
Li Jiahong frowned and said: “He told me the feather is like an amulet. As long as my wife carries it with her, it’s fine. And the feather did have an immediate effect. My wife used to be influenced by Huo Gu in the previous days, feeling Huo Gu’s gaze watching her at night and falling into nightmares. But after wearing the feather, she said these past few days she hasn’t had that heart-pounding anxious feeling anymore and hasn’t sensed Huo Gu’s nighttime gaze.
As for the taboos of using the feather you mentioned, I recall Boss Lin telling me that if one day I see the feather become two, I must immediately return it, or there will be the consequence of wife and child scattered.”
At this point, Li Jiahong seemed to suddenly understand something and hurriedly asked Yu Lianyun: “Does that mean there’s something wrong with that feather?”
On this, Yu Lianyun didn’t say more, just breathed a sigh of relief, nodded, and said: “As long as you strictly follow what Boss Lin said, it’ll be fine. Just remember there’s no free lunch in this world. There’s gain and loss. If you don’t want the scenario Boss Lin mentioned to happen, I suggest you strictly follow Boss Lin’s instructions on how to use the feather.”
Seeing Yu Lianyun’s serious demeanor, Li Jiahong clenched his fist and nodded forcefully: “Okay, I understand.”
Even without Yu Lianyun’s reminder, Li Jiahong had actually been carefully observing the feather’s condition these past few days. So far, he hadn’t seen any anomalies, but her reminder made him pay extra attention to this matter.
“Regarding Huo Gu, although our Mysterious Group has many records of the Huo Gu Anomaly Event, we’ve never heard of Huo Gu Graveyard. Even the seniors who helped that escapee back then didn’t hear about Huo Gu Graveyard from the escapee. This needs some time to investigate.” Yu Lianyun explained their Mysterious Group’s situation to Li Jiahong and then asked: “Do you have any other leads to provide?”
Li Jiahong immediately pulled out his notebook and showed Yu Lianyun the doubts he had listed, saying: “There are two points I’m still unclear about now. The first is tracing back to the source. My wife’s university mysterious society can’t be found anymore, and almost all who participated in the ritual back then are dead, so there’s no one to ask. And according to my wife, not everyone in the society participated in the ritual at the time, but I can’t find out who those people were.
My wife only participated in that one society activity, which was holding that eerie ritual. After seeing terrifying monstrosities during the ritual, she never contacted that cultish society again, so she’s not very familiar with the people in the society. So I think if we can track down other members of the society from back then who are still alive, it should help us.”
“That’s indeed possible. The ritual to summon Huo Gu and transact with it is a very ancient one for us humans. Our organization has conducted multiple crackdowns on Huo Gu’s believers, and the evil magic rituals hidden in their organization were also cleansed by us. After that, those degenerates vanished for years. We thought they’d lose their inheritance and give up soon, but now it seems that’s not the case.” Yu Lianyun pondered for a moment and deeply agreed.
Ah!
A sudden loud scream pierced the quiet night sky, scaring everyone who heard it into trembling with fear.
Li Jiahong and Yu Lianyun still didn’t know where the shriek came from when a rapid sound of wings flapping accompanied by loud “gugu” bird calls quickly approached nearby. The next moment, a huge swift black shadow swept over the guardrail in front of the rooftop and flew toward the night sky.
Because that giant unidentified bird was too fast, their mortal eyes only caught a fleeting glimpse of its appearance, but even that hasty glance was enough to ensure they had no good dreams tonight.
A giant bird covered in white feathers, yet with a head and torso close to a woman’s, disheveled hair, bare-chested and abdomen exposed. But its head was as large as a cow’s, with imbalanced facial proportions, a pair of oversized lifeless black eyes, and a protruding mouth almost fused with the nose. She looked like a strange bird draped in human skin.
Yu Lianyun was shocked at how such a ferocious and terrifying thing could exist, while Li Jiahong was dazed because this horrifying outsider strange bird had haunted his dreams for many days. Only this close-range encounter in reality allowed him to fully see the strange bird’s appearance and demeanor.
Facing this monster that suddenly appeared, Yu Lianyun snapped out of her brief daze and immediately pulled Li Jiahong to evacuate the rooftop because she glimpsed the strange bird’s brief glance back—those lifeless eyes seemed to have locked onto her and Li Jiahong on the rooftop.
That strange female bird banked its wings, its body circling half a turn in the night sky, and sure enough, the next moment it dove down at the two.
Yu Lianyun and Li Jiahong ran fast enough and timely turned back into the corridor. During the process of dashing down the corridor, the panicked pair both heard a huge impact sound from behind, but neither dared to look back even once, because they feared that turning around would reveal the steel door, which should have been five centimeters thick, easily torn apart by the strange female bird’s claws, and then seeing that hideous monster peering coldly through the crack at them fleeing in panic.
They didn’t see it, but they had already imagined that horrifying image in their minds.
During the frantic rush downstairs, Li Jiahong was extremely worried about his wife’s safety. He feared that strange female bird was the “child” sent by Huo Gu to attack his wife.
Rushing back to the hospital room with his heart chilled halfway, Li Jiahong saw his wife sitting fine on the hospital bed, just with an uneasy expression, and his suspended heart finally settled.
“Husband, where did you go? I was so scared.” Seeing her husband return, Jiang Gu threw herself into Li Jiahong’s arms like a frightened little bird.
Li Jiahong repeatedly apologized, tightly embracing his wife. The feeling of almost losing a loved one again nearly collapsed his heart. He didn’t know what to do and could only comfort the person in his arms with pale, powerless words.
Yu Lianyun watched all this from a corner in the corridor. While feeling the deep love between the couple like a mountain, she also sensed an anomaly that Li Jiahong, the person involved, had overlooked.
Jiang Gu’s action of running and throwing herself into Li Jiahong’s arms earlier looked no different from a normal person— in fact, her flying pounce motion and speed were healthier than a normal person’s. How could this be a woman whose limbs had degenerated and who had just awakened from fifteen years of deep coma.
Besides “warding off evil and avoiding taboos,” could the feather Li Jiahong rented from the forest cabin also have the efficacy of improving health?
Suddenly, Yu Lianyun felt a dark gaze lock onto her. The thing in the shadow under her feet also seemed to sense it and became restless. Following the sensed line of sight, she saw Jiang Gu, who was lying on Li Jiahong’s shoulder, staring straight at her. Those dark, lifeless eyes were just like the strange female bird she had seen earlier.
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