Nachtgespräche in seltsamen Geschichten

Kapitel 7

21:45 At a construction site in the suburbs, someone exclaimed, "Really! Doing this kind of work so late!"

A construction worker grumbled as he hammered away at the broken asphalt. The road had been laid long ago, but due to the need to expand the city and its narrowness, the city's construction department planned to demolish it and repave it. In some areas, the narrowness made heavy machinery inconvenient, so manual construction was the only option.

"Forget it, third brother, the higher-ups will pay the processing fee. Once we've saved enough money, we can open a small shop and won't have to work so hard anymore..." another worker next to him said with a smile.

"Hmm, that's true..." Just then, the pickaxe vibrated as it went deep into the ground, as if it had hit something hard. The worker known as the third brother squatted down and used his hands to clear away the rubble and dirt. "Big brother! Look! What's this?"

"What's wrong? Why are you making such a fuss..." The eldest brother of the third brother muttered, but he also walked over curiously.

The third brother pulled a round object from the ground, covered in dirt, indicating it had been buried there for a long time. The two men scraped off the dirt and cleaned it, finally recognizing it as a man-made object. It appeared to be a shiny black pottery jar with strange characters inscribed on it.

The third brother looked at his eldest brother and said excitedly, "If this is a valuable antique, then we'll be rich!"

“This… even if it’s an antique, it won’t be worth much.” As he spoke, the eldest brother pointed to a spot on the round jar, “Look, you’ve broken it.”

Upon closer inspection, the third brother indeed noticed several small cracks on it.

"What a pity... huh?"

The third brother suddenly felt the round jar in his hand begin to shake violently, the cracks on it grew larger and larger, and it also made a strange "gurgling" sound.

"What...what's going on!?"

...

The next morning, "Phew, that was awful..."

Officer An looked at the remains of the two bodies on the ground and sighed. He had been a police officer for over ten years and had handled countless cases of all kinds, but he had never seen anything like this before.

There appeared to be two victims. Their bodies were scattered everywhere, broken bones protruding from the shredded flesh in a gruesome display. Not a single internal organ was intact. The air was thick with the pungent stench of blood, causing some of the newly recruited young police officers to vomit repeatedly. The heads, in particular, were severely damaged; half of each skull was smashed, and the brains were missing…

"Even the coroner is useless in this state. No human could possibly be this badly injured. It's as if he was killed by some ferocious wild beast..." Officer An was, after all, a seasoned police officer who had seen the world, and he could always maintain a clear mind.

“Officer An…” An investigator walked over, carrying a bag. “This was found at the scene; there should be some connection.”

Officer An put on gloves and took the evidence bag. Upon closer inspection, the fragments resembled pieces of some kind of container, entirely black, smooth and reflective, with unfamiliar writing inscribed on them…

"Excuse me, may I take a look at that?"

Looking up, Officer An saw a long-haired girl walking towards him. Her face was expressionless, even cold. Several men followed behind her.

Officer An didn't answer the girl's question. Instead, he frowned and said to a detective next to him, "Weren't you ordered to seal off the scene? How did you let unrelated people in?!"

Before the detective being questioned could speak, the girl's cold voice rang out again: "We're not unrelated people; we're here with permission from above to assist in the case..."

"Assist in the investigation?" Officer An was taken aback, but only believed it after receiving an affirmative reply from the detective. However, what kind of assistance could such a frail young girl offer...?

"Can I see what you have in your hand now?"

Only when the long-haired girl made the request again did Officer An reluctantly hand over the evidence bag.

After taking it, the girl glanced at it briefly and said to one of the men who had come with her, "This is indeed a fragment of some kind of sealed artifact. Judging from the demonic energy remaining on the fragment, it must be an unusual demon."

A seal? A demon? Officer An felt an urge to laugh, but thankfully he didn't. This little girl must be talking in her sleep in broad daylight.

"Then, Miss Qinglin, should we issue a warning to the other exorcists?"

Qing Lin Anxue pondered for a moment, then shook her head: "Let's investigate first..."

"Crazy! These people are all crazy!" Officer An thought bitterly.

---janeadam

Reply [21]: "Yuan Peilin, your grades are not ideal. Of course, you just transferred here and haven't had time to adapt to many things, but that can't be an excuse forever, and..."

Yuan Peilin was currently experiencing a severe headache. It was all because of his recent test scores that he couldn't go home after school and was now standing there like a fool listening to his eloquent homeroom teacher lecture him. This was practically forcing a woman to do something against her will! His lack of interest in studying was entirely due to his personality, not something that could be changed by a few words of reprimand. Besides, a teacher shouldn't be disturbing a student's rest for such a reason. Come to think of it, it seemed like he was resting all the time…

"Alright, you can go back now and think carefully about what I said..."

Hearing his homeroom teacher's words, Yuan Peilin felt a great weight lifted from his shoulders. He quickly nodded and bowed before leaving the office. Looking out the window in the corridor, he saw it was raining heavily, though not heavily, it wasn't negligible either. What a nuisance; he never carried an umbrella.

When I went into the classroom to get my books, I realized that one of my classmates hadn't gone home yet. It was Nan Ying, a pretty girl with short hair.

"What? Why are you so late too?" Yuan Peilin asked as he put the book into the book clip.

Nan Ying stood up from her seat and did the same: "Because I did a few questions, I forgot about the time..."

"Oh, such incomprehensible behavior..." Hara Pei-lin murmured, stroking his chin.

"What?"

"Oh, it's nothing."

The short-haired girl glanced at the transfer students in her class, then at the weather outside, and asked with a smile, "How are you getting home?"

"...Let's go swimming..."

"Hehe..." Nan Ying took out a red umbrella from her backpack and waved it. "Want to come along?"

...

The rain seemed to be getting heavier again; countless raindrops pounded on the umbrella, making a continuous "drip-drip" sound. A considerable amount of water had already accumulated on the ground, requiring frequent changes of direction to avoid getting shoes wet. Walking side-by-side with Yuan Peilin was the girl who had glared at him angrily when they first arrived. Judging from the current situation, the misunderstanding should have been resolved.

“Um, Yuan classmate…” Nan Ying’s energetic voice rang out amidst the sound of rain.

"Um?"

Why did you come to this city?

Yuan Peilin was taken aback for a moment, then looked up at the overcast sky: "My life in that city is over."