Masterlist of posts and character list
Chapter Two (continued)
“Great demons of boundless power can take a myriad of forms. But what we find beautiful is a little different from yours. For example, to you, white hair makes a person appear old and frail, not beautiful. So married women often eat black sesame seeds and knotweed, seeking thick hair that’s black like ink. But in the eyes of we demons, a full head of white hair, so long that it trails the ground, is a symbol of a demon’s tremendous power. It’s extremely beautiful.”
“But don’t you also have black hair?” Bai Jiu interjected.
Zhao Yuanzhou turned away, pausing dramatically to give his words an entirely unnecessary air of mystery. “I’m afraid my real body would scare you.”
Then, he turned back around and abruptly lunged close to Bai Jiu, teeth bared as he let out a cry.
Bai Jiu jumped with a frightened shout and instinctively seized Zhuo Yichen’s hair. His shivering strength yanked Zhuo Yichen backward. Zhuo Yichen closed his eyes, bearing the pain. He thought to himself, it’s Zhao Yuanzhou’s fault.
Pei Sijing looked around, then her gaze settled in one direction. “I remember the notes in the file said the bride’s body was discovered in a lake nearby. Let’s go take a look.”
Behind a thicket of reeds, a misty fog covered the surface of a lake. The silt beneath the water made the lake a blackish, dirty color. It was smooth as glass, but gloomy, as if danger churned beneath its placid surface. So far, the murderer had killed seven times, seven new brides slain, and all of their bodies had been found here. They’d all been wearing red wedding clothes, red veils still covering their faces, when they were found floating on the water, a strange and unnerving sight.
Zhao Yuanzhou slightly narrowed his eyes as if peering through the lake, his expression equally dangerous yet placid. Kneeling, he curved his hand, fingers curling toward the water’s surface. Red threads of malicious energy swiftly poured from beneath the lake, sucked in through his fingertips. Zhao Yuanzhou wrinkled his brow as the freshly absorbed malicious energy made him a little queasy. As he stood, he grabbed his canteen and drank a mouthful to push down that uncomfortable feeling.
“This lake has countless corpses in its depths. Naturally, it should be dense with malicious energy, but now, there seems to be so little. All of it is barely enough to fill me up. The murderer must have absorbed it.”
“So this demon murders people specifically to take in the malicious energy and increase its demon powers?” Wen Xiao asked, uncertainly.
Zhao Yuanzhou gave no answer.
Pei Sijing shook her head. “But if the murders were only for malicious energy, why bring all the bodies here to dispose of them. Isn’t that strange?”
“The bodies brought here were all new brides,” Zhuo Yichen replied. “Those that accompanied the brides were left at where they fell. So, I think the brides were his goal. Not killing people, but killing brides.”
Zhao Yuanzhou deepened his voice, pretending to be experienced and wise, as he stroked his fingers over the space where a long beard wasn’t. “The boy is worth teaching.”
Zhuo Yichen shot him a murderous look and turned away.
Zhao Yuanzhou sucked his teeth, making a disappointed click. Zhuo Yichen was so dull, he thought; he couldn’t help teasing him. He had no sense of humor!
“So what on earth kind of demon was it?” Wen Xiao asked.
Zhao Yuanzhou shrugged his shoulders. “I really don’t know.”
Wen Xiao gave him a “you really are useless” expression and received Zhao Yuanzhou’s utterly aggrieved expression in response. “Demon beasts in the Wilderness number in the thousands,” he said. “How could I know this little nobody of a demon? To find out who did the killing, we just need to find the corpses kept in the mortuary. I can do an examination…”
Zhuo Yichen and the others turned in the direction of the mortuary.
Zhao Yuanzhou stood unmoving. “At the moment, there are some problems I need to resolve first… Go to the mortuary, wait for me there.”
Everyone conferred a moment, then split into three directions.
Pei Sijing, Bai Jiu, and Wen Xiao went to the mortuary.
Zhuo Yichen left for the home of the Qi family, who’d received the water ghost’s most recent wedding invitation.
Zhao Yuanzhou hurried off to handle his so-called “problems.”
Idioms that appear in this section:
白发苍苍 (báifà-cāngcāng) – old and gray-haired
意味深长 (yìwèi-shēncháng) – having deep meaning; pregnant with meaning; of profound significance
故弄玄虚 (gùnòng-xuánxū) – purposely make a mystery of simple things; be deliberately mystifying to complicate matters
环顾四周 (huángùsìzhōu) – look around; to look around
孺子可教 (rúzǐ-kějiào) – The boy is worth teaching; this young person is worth teaching
