Chapter 56: Gluttonous Daughter
Xin Junmao startled awake again, sitting up abruptly from the bed. When he saw the bright sun outside the window, he finally confirmed that he was truly awake this time.
He let out a long sigh of relief, thinking that he had encountered too many bad things recently, which had made him overly anxious and uneasy, leading to such an uncomfortably distressing dream within a dream.
Gradually recovering from the nightmare, his senses slowly regaining sharpness, Xin Junmao felt like he was holding something in his hand. He looked down and instantly broke out in cold sweat again, his face drained of color.
In his hand was a comb, not very large, without a handle, slightly shorter than a palm’s length, about three fingers wide, with dense teeth, entirely red but with uneven white spots and irregular brownish-black gradient lines, smooth like jade, cool to the touch.
“Bloodstone Comb…” Xin Junmao gritted his teeth, tremblingly raising the comb in his hand. He recognized the comb’s material not from his knowledge of jade, but from renting it in that mysterious small shop in his dream within a dream, where he had received an introduction to the comb from a shopkeeper who appeared honest and sincere.
Clearly, what he experienced last night was not a dream, or at least not an ordinary one.
At least, he had never remembered the details of his dreams before, yet now he could recall every scene detail he had seen in the small shop as if he had experienced it personally.
It was all real: that mysterious small shop collecting an entire room full of anomaly objects, the red-clothed shop assistant there, the small shop shopkeeper dressed like someone from the modern era… all those bizarre experiences, evidence of intimate contact with anomaly things beyond common sense, were condensed into this comb in his hand.
Xin Junmao looked at the comb in his hand, feeling an indescribable panic and excitement.
“Can this comb really fulfill my wish?” Xin Junmao recalled that when he stated his wish in the shop, the small shop shopkeeper immediately recommended this somewhat feminine comb, saying it could help him.
Thinking that even the comb could be brought out from the dream, that such an unscientific thing could come true, it didn’t seem impossible for the comb to have the power to realize his wish.
The thought that he, like Aladdin encountering the genie, had obtained a chance to ascend to the heavens in one step filled him with great happiness.
But at the same time, his fear came from this comb. He clearly remembered that when renting it, he received an admonition from the shopkeeper and shop assistant: “Once this comb is used on someone, it belongs to the first person who uses it to comb their hair. While combing your hair, think of your wish in your mind, and the comb will hear your wish and quietly help you realize it.
But remember, once you start making a wish, the wish cannot be changed, and before the wish is realized, you must not stop the daily combing behavior. Additionally, before the wish is realized, you cannot let a second person use the comb.
The rental period is for one wish realization period. When the first wish is successfully fulfilled, you must return the comb. If you insist on keeping it, we are powerless regarding any consequences that occur thereafter and will bear no responsibility.”
Thinking of these taboo precautions, Xin Junmao had found them strange at the time, but now he felt it best to follow the shop’s requirements.
Half-believing, half-doubting, he sat down at the desk, picked up the mirror on the desk, and while looking in the mirror, combed his hair, muttering: “Please let me succeed in my next job application.”
There was no particular feeling, but suddenly he sensed something gently stroking his hair, like a mother’s gentle touch.
“Can this really work?” Xin Junmao stared at the comb in his hand, lost in thought.
……
“This is the driver’s house from that last subway on October 17th. I… everything is up to you now.” Huang Cheng covered his mouth, speaking with a somewhat dazed expression. His apprentice was the same, both of them injured.
The two law enforcement officers who had been righteous and resolute in capturing the suspect the day before now looked dispirited and listless. After hurriedly explaining the situation to He Jia’an, Li Yingqi, and Yu Lianyun who had arrived, they left with bitter smiles on their faces.
After seeing off the two law enforcement officers, the gazes of He Jia’an and the other two shifted to the cluttered yet somewhat orderly internal environment of the room.
The scene was a mix of blue and red, with blue and vermilion ropes everywhere, winding throughout the house, weaving one deformed and bizarre irregular pattern after another, with something like a magic array arranged in the center of the room. The core rune of the magic array was an unknown creature resembling a maggot piled together with various cattle, horse, and sheep features.
“This pattern… no mistake about it, right.” Li Yingqi glanced at the magic array’s pattern as if she had the answer, looking toward her two teammates.
He Jia’an scratched his round head and said, “Indeed, it’s obvious. Truly headache-inducing.”
Compared to the experienced Li Yingqi and He Jia’an, Yu Lianyun, the newcomer who had been in the field for less than half a year, seemed hesitant. She guessed uncertainly: “This pattern, could it be Number Four abnormal god recorded in the organization archives, the Gluttonous Daughter?”
Soon, Yu Lianyun received affirmative nods from Li Yingqi and He Jia’an.
Having gotten the confirmed answer, Yu Lianyun showed no joy at being correct; instead, she revealed a heavy expression, like seeing an impending tsunami.
“Gluttonous Daughter, true appearance unknown. According to her fanatical adorers and believers, she is not only the King of Gluttony but also the Evolving Daughter, Mother Earth… She has the ability to devour all creatures and perfectly collect all genetic traits of that creature, capable of endless transformations, an abnormal god born from Earth’s primordial era.” Li Yingqi said, “It’s said that the Gluttonous Daughter usually does not appear in her true form but uses images her believers are willing to see. Her appearance is different in the eyes of different believers.
Only those believers who receive the Gluttonous Daughter’s ‘doting’ have the chance to glimpse this abnormal god’s appearance, then gain eternal life together with the abnormal god. The price is that from then on, those people’s lives will be symbiotic with the Gluttonous Daughter, becoming part of the Gluttonous Daughter’s true body.”
He Jia’an lit a cigarette and said: “If it’s really the Gluttonous Daughter, then everything makes sense. Seven missing mystic investigators, an enforcement investigation team, and two local law enforcement officers who were nearly counter-killed on the spot two-to-one by the last train’s driver—a fanatical adorer of the Gluttonous Daughter.”
It turned out that yesterday, after members of the Mysterious Group Branch Organization in Cuizhu City learned from Zhang Xiaoxiao and the law enforcement officers about the hidden subway line in Cuizhu City Underground, they set out immediately to investigate. Even fully armed, they still did not return from Cuizhu City Underground, and there was probably no survival probability.
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