Zyklon-Säbel

Kapitel 38

"How did you know I would come today?" I asked directly, skipping my apprentice's question.

"Because we're on the same wavelength!" Tian Niang sat down in front of me, and I immediately sat down without any hesitation.

"Fine!" I was defeated by her again, deciding to skip over the question of how she knew I would come to see her tonight, and went straight to the point: "Then do you know why I came?"

"Haha! I don't know about that, after all, I'm not a god!" Tian Niang said calmly. A trace of melancholy flashed in her eyes as she said this, but it was so fast that I thought I was seeing things.

Taking a deep breath, without wanting to lay any more groundwork, I slowly told her everything that had happened in the past few days, without hiding anything. As for why I trusted this strange person from the Ancient Tomb Sect so much? Don't ask me. It was all just following my deepest intuition. I don't know why, but I always had a strange trust and dependence on her. Maybe I really should become her apprentice!

After a moment of silence, Tian Niang glanced at my left eye and said with a smile, "If you become my apprentice, I'll take care of it for you!"

"No!" I immediately refused. Who knows what kind of generous treatment I would get as an apprentice of the Ancient Tomb Sect!

"Then I have no comment!" Tian Niang said indifferently.

"No way!" I pleaded almost desperately. "If you don't tell me, you don't mean I'll die before I even become your apprentice, do you?"

"If you become my apprentice, I guarantee you won't die!" Tian Niang still wore a harmless, animalistic smile.

"I need to think about it. You don't want me to report to the King of Hell before then, do you?" I decided to use delaying tactics.

Tian Niang looked at me meaningfully for a while, then sighed helplessly and asked me, "Do you know of a family of tomb raiders?"

I immediately shook my head.

“They all share the surname An!” said Tian Niang. “That’s all I know.”

"A family of tomb raiders surnamed An? Although An Ran also has the surname An, how can you be so sure that he is definitely from a family of tomb raiders? There are plenty of people with the surname An in this world." I said immediately.

"That's a woman's intuition, my lovely little apprentice." Tian Niang leaned towards me, and a unique fragrance of a mature woman wafted into my nose. I subconsciously leaned back.

"What is the connection between this family of tomb raiders and these two cases?" I persisted in asking.

"I don't know," Tian Niang replied simply.

Looking directly into Tian Niang's eyes, I could tell that although she was holding back, she probably wasn't directly involved in the two murders. Even though we only managed to get information from a family of tomb raiders surnamed An, it was still pretty good; at least we had a lead to follow. It's a pity that A Bao's computer wasn't fixed yet, otherwise the investigation would have been much faster.

I jumped up from my seat and said, "Thank you, I'm leaving now."

"How heartless! You want to run away after using me?" Tian Niang had the expression of an abandoned wife.

"Am I that bad?" I asked with a smile.

Tian Niang didn't say anything, but stood up and took out a jar of wine from the wine cabinet behind her. As soon as the seal was opened, the familiar aroma filled the entire room once again.

It's just another illusion, a figment of the mind!

Tian Niang walked to the light switch and snapped it off, plunging the entire room into darkness. In that misty darkness, only a dazzling, seven-colored light shone brightly.

In the darkness, I heard Tian Niang's footsteps approaching. A seven-colored halo spread across her beautiful face, creating an unreal and dreamlike feeling. The familiar yet unfamiliar aroma of wine made my eyes flicker, as if a blurry figure was both close at hand and far away.

"This is for you." Aunt Tian smiled and handed me the glass. As if hypnotized, I took it without hesitation and drank it all in one gulp. The wine slowly flowed down my esophagus, as if touching the deepest memories within me. I gently closed my eyes, and the graceful figure of a woman floated into my mind. So familiar, yet not one of the women I knew, not even Yin Xue! My heart, however, ached for no reason…

********

Whose figure is this? Why does it hurt me so much just to think about it? It's not just ordinary heartache, but a pain that comes from the depths of my soul, a pain that pierces my very bones.

Although I had already left the Black Forest Bar, the feeling of sadness still shocked me. When and where in my life had a woman left such a deep mark on me?

While I was thinking, I arrived home. I pushed open the door and found my older sister waiting for me. I almost thought it was going to rain blood or that the sun would rise in the west tomorrow.

"Why are you so late?" my older sister asked.

“I have a job!” I replied immediately.

"Liar!" my older sister said sternly, "Did you go to a bar to fool around?"

"You saw it?" It seemed I'd been caught red-handed, and I immediately asked guiltily.

"Go to places like that less often in the future!" It felt like my older sister was giving a lecture to her son.

"Go less? Why? You've been to that bar before, haven't you?" I retorted, unconvinced.

"It's best not to go anyway," my older sister said firmly.

Why? I looked at my older sister suspiciously. Did she also know about the Ancient Tomb Sect or Tian Niang? But that's impossible; she's just a horror novelist.

But wait a minute, something suddenly occurred to me. I looked at my older sister with a start, feeling a sudden sense of unease. She always claimed to be a horror novelist, but I had never seen any of her works published. So, how did she support herself? Thinking about this, I suddenly realized that I, in my obliviousness, had never even considered this question before.

"Okay, I was just making a suggestion. I don't want my little brother to go astray!" Perhaps noticing the surprise in my eyes, she immediately resumed her usual playful and teasing manner, and even affectionately patted my head.

I glanced at my older sister's face to the left unintentionally, and then my left eye started to throb again. The nerves around my temple were twitching, and a red mist of blood spread in front of my left eye.

Amidst the blush, my older sister's face was horribly pale, and a bright red tear of blood hung under her left eye, strikingly conspicuous.

"Who are you?" I took a step back and asked loudly.

The "older sister" in front of me gave me a sad smile and slowly lowered her head. When she raised her head again, it had become Yin Xue's face, still pale, with blood and tears that were terrifyingly conspicuous.

"Yin...Yin Xue?" I gasped for breath. My left eye hurt terribly, and my right hand twitched again, instantly reaching out to my left eye.

"It's your turn!" Yin Xue said to me in a low voice. Her face, which was originally pale but still normal, suddenly became withered and shriveled, turning into a dried-up mummy-like corpse in the blink of an eye, a deep brown color.

My heart pounded wildly, and my right hand reached out to my left eye without my control. My fingers touched my left eyeball, causing a sharp pain.

"What are you doing?" My older sister's voice rang in my ears again. When I came to my senses, I found that my right hand had been grabbed by my older sister.

There was no mummified corpse, no Yin Xue. My older sister was standing in front of me perfectly normal, looking at me with a mixture of fear and worry.

"What...what's wrong with me?" I asked, my voice hoarse, which startled even myself.

"What else do I want to ask you? I just asked you where you went and you just stood there without moving, and then you even tried to gouge out your own left eye!" My older sister said, almost trembling.

So? Was everything just a hallucination? Did my sister tell me not to go to bars? Or did she say something before I started hallucinating?

Why would my right hand gouge out my left eye? A jolt went through me as I remembered Hu Rui's right hand, covered in blood and lining tissue. And what about the eyeballs in his mouth and stomach? Did they really gouge out their own eyes and swallow them? The thought sent a jolt of pain through my stomach, and the urge to vomit made me pale and break out in a cold sweat. I stared at my right hand in horror and started to consider whether I should find some handcuffs to temporarily restrain it.

"Are you alright?" My older sister nudged me and asked with concern.

"I don't know either." With a helpless reply, I spun around in place, feeling a bit lost, before suddenly rushing to my room.

"What are you doing?" my older sister asked as she followed me in.

"I want to go online for a while," I said, turning on my computer as quickly as possible.

"Are you sure you're okay?" my older sister asked.

"Go to sleep, I'm fine." After comforting my sister, I sat down, opened my email, and my sister tactfully left.

The Devil's Left Eye! The name of an unread email, the sender field remains blank.

Click to view: Black background with red text:

I wonder what it would taste like to have a devil's eyeball in your mouth? Would you like to try it?

I practically collapsed into the chair, my whole body ice-cold, even my toes were numb with cold. A shiver ran through me, but it didn't stop me from continuing to read:

When the devil's left eye is firmly embedded in your body, will your right hand have the urge to gouge it out? I have. The thrill of gouging it out and devouring it sent shivers down my spine. You can try it too. Because the right hand is God's right hand, while our left side is the devil's masterpiece, it's said that humans are half angel and half devil—what a profound statement!

My right hand, which was holding the mouse, twitched again, and I couldn't even hold the small mouse. I tightly gripped my right hand with my left hand, and my right hand fingers bent in the cramp, grabbing at the glass of the table, where my fingers were icy cold.

In a panic, a figure was standing behind him.

When I turned around, my older sister was staring at me blankly. When she saw me turn around, she was so scared that she fell down onto the bed behind me.

"Don't look at me so fiercely, okay?" My older sister patted her chest and said, "You turned around so suddenly, it was scary, you know? Also, your left eye is so red!"

"Do you know that standing silently behind someone can be terrifying?" I said irritably, and I breathed a sigh of relief as my right hand, which had stopped twitching.

"Ha! If I wasn't curious why you were staring at a blank screen without saying a word, why wouldn't you have said anything?" my older sister said, feeling wronged.

A blank screen? How could this be? I looked back at the computer screen in confusion, and it really was blank! I froze, the reflection from the screen shining on my increasingly reddened left eye, which was strangely glowing.

Volume Two: The Devil's Left Eye, Chapter Ten: The Masked Man

Volume Two: The Devil's Left Eye, Chapter Ten: The Masked Man

Early in the morning, when I rushed to the police station carrying a ball of glutinous rice and fried dough sticks in one hand and a bag of soy milk in the other, the clock had already mercilessly passed eight o'clock.

How awful! I thought to myself, feeling frustrated. If I hadn't been thinking about that mysterious email all night, I wouldn't have been unable to sleep, and I wouldn't have overslept this morning!

"Lin Xiao, you're still the same as ever!" Bai Yun's voice rang out from behind me. I turned around and saw her standing behind me, looking energetic.

"Good morning!" I greeted her as I took off my coat, and Li Yang walked in at that moment with a long face. His obvious dark circles under his eyes made him seem even closer to the national treasure.

"The same as always? What do you mean by 'the same as always'?" Li Yang asked Bai Yun listlessly.

"I always like to be late, and my breakfast is always a ball of glutinous rice and fried dough sticks and a packet of soy milk!" Baiyun replied with a smile.

"Really?" Li Yang gave me a knowing look and said, "It seems you know Lin Xiao quite well, Bai Yun!"

"Hahahaha!" A burst of exaggerated and arrogant laughter rang out as Baiyun said, "We're old friends!"

"Hehe." I chuckled weakly. I really didn't have the energy to flirt with this beautiful woman. My mind was still in the tense state from last night.

Perhaps noticing my fatigue, Li Yang asked, "What's wrong? I'm exhausted because Chen Kai made me work overtime all night. What did you do last night?"

"I went to find Aunt Tian." I rubbed my face; my eyes still felt sore from lack of sleep.

"Ahhh! You...you...you!" Li Yang immediately exclaimed in surprise, pointing at my nose with a look of deep disgust.

Seeing the strange expression on his face, I knew, of course, that this guy was starting to think about something dirty again. I sighed and said, "Don't get the wrong idea! I just want to ask her what she thinks about these two cases."

"Oh, really?" Li Yang still looked unconvinced, but I was too lazy to explain.

"By the way, have you ever heard of a family of tomb raiders surnamed An?" I suddenly thought that Li Yang, as a policeman, would probably know something about tomb raiding families.

"A family of tomb raiders surnamed An?" Li Yang tilted his head and thought for a moment, then said, "Never heard of them! Why are you asking this?"

"That's all Tian Niang told me last night, so I'm asking you!" I said. "Although An Ran also shares the surname An, there's still no evidence to suggest he's related to a family of tomb raiders. And right now, we don't even know if this family of tomb raiders even exists!"

“Yes!” Li Yang nodded in agreement and said, “But I will still look into it. How about this, I’ll ask some of my classmates. They all work in different places, maybe one of them will know!”

"This..." Bai Yun suddenly interrupted, blinking her big eyes a few times and smiling, "May I say something?"

"What?" I asked.

"I might know about that An family of tomb raiders!" Bai Yun said with a hint of smugness.

"What?!" Almost simultaneously, Li Yang and I exclaimed at her in perfect unison.

"Tell us quickly!" Li Yang and I immediately perked up and urged.

“It’s like this.” Bai Yun paused for a moment and said, “Before I came here, I heard about a case in my department. It was about a criminal gang that stole hanging coffins, and the mastermind even seemed to be surnamed An!”