Chapter 105 The Face

Long ago, there was no distinction between "man" and "beast." The separation of humans from the animal kingdom wasn't due to learning to cook food, which stimulated brain development, but rather because humans, by sheer chance, learned to erect metaphorical archways of morality.

This archway acted as a beacon of civilization's splendor. Humans were essentially doing things no different from beasts, but under the archway's radiant glow, their actions appeared sacred and noble, ultimately forming two distinctly opposed groups.

Take Feng Si, for example.

Add some background music and a somber filter effect,

and he'd be a typical righteous figure from a Ming Dynasty drama, resisting the dark rule of the eunuchs.

Two patrol inspectors, barely worthy of the term "excellent," couldn't make a ripple in front of Feng Si. Back when Feng Si was still a patrol inspector, he possessed absolute dominance over that entire group. Now, having leveled up thrice and donned the yellow belt, he was on a completely different level.

The Late Night Bookstore's Boss Zhou, still dozing off against Yingying's shoulder in the afternoon sun, had no idea that

his road to promotion

had been stained with a layer of blood.

Of course, even if he knew, Boss Zhou would pretend he didn't. That much tacit understanding existed.

To put it bluntly, through the feedback from so many "positive figures," wasn't Boss Zhou clear about what kind of image Lawyer An and Feng Si had down in Hell?

But these two were indeed useful.

Feng Si was handling the bodies. This task was actually simple. While he didn't have Wei Xiaobao's signature dissolving powder from *The Deer and the Cauldron*, erasing all traces was indeed not difficult.

The only thing that required attention was clearing away any soul imprints to prevent the deceased from leaving behind any soul messages or secret marks before their death. However, Feng Si and Lawyer An were both experts in murder, theft, framing, and scapegoating. The cleanup work was naturally handled with experienced efficiency.

Lawyer An even deliberately released the demonic energy he inherited from the White Fox demon core, leaving his aura scattered haphazardly throughout the courtyard.

Feng Si then gathered materials and created a forensic report. The two patrol inspectors who had just been killed would soon be added to the Yin Division's list of those who died in the line of duty.

Job done, they brushed off their sleeves and left.

Lawyer An drove back to the bookstore alone.

Feng Si left separately. His time to return to Hell was approaching. Before that, he still needed to confirm and finalize his boss's promotion to Garrison Patrol Inspector of Tongcheng.

Their separation was anything but awkward.

Through the car window, each with a cigarette, they bid each other, "See you later."

One drove away, disappearing into the golden afternoon sunlight.

The other walked, stepping into the dark abyss of Hell.

When Lawyer An arrived at the bookstore and parked the car, he saw the old Taoist sitting in front of the bookstore, peeling garlic.

Lawyer An quickly got out of the car, hurried over, and said with concern and a hint of heartache,

"Your body has barely recovered, how can we let you be so busy? No, no, I'll do it, let me do it!"

The old Taoist was taken aback for a moment, then pushed the bag of garlic forward and said,

"Alright, I'll go inside and see if there's anything else I can help with."

"..." Lawyer An.

He just agreed like that?

I was just being polite to curry favor...

The old Taoist got up and entered the bookstore.

Lawyer An took a deep breath. There was no choice but to sit down and start peeling garlic.

These hands, this morning, had subdued many mountain gods and land deities, and had participated in the killing of two patrol inspectors,

and now,

they had to peel garlic.

Lawyer An wasn't repulsed by this feeling of being dragged into the rhythm of daily life at any moment.

It's just that his eyes were irritated by the fumes,

a little sore, and he felt like crying.

Half an hour later, the garlic was all peeled. Lawyer An picked up the plastic basin filled with fresh, cute, and tender garlic cloves, got up, entered the bookstore,

and shouted,

"Why are you peeling so much garlic?"

"For pickling."

Yingying walked over, wearing an apron, took the plastic basin from Lawyer An's hand, and couldn't help but mutter,

"Why did it take so long to peel? You're so slow."

"..." Lawyer An.

Poor Lawyer An, who lived the life of a wealthy young master in his previous life and mixed well in the underworld after death, had now fallen to the point where he had to peel garlic with his own hands and still be嫌弃 (xián qì, looked down upon).

"By the way, aren't zombies afraid of garlic?"

Lawyer An asked.

Yingying picked up a garlic clove, put it in her mouth, took a bite, it was very crisp, and slowly chewed it, saying,

"Who told you that?"

"That's how it's portrayed in zombie movies."

The old Taoist chuckled beside him, "In the past, many people thought that garlic could prevent SARS. I remember when SARS was at its worst, I even saw someone at the train station wearing a string of garlic around their neck while riding the train."

Hearing this, Lawyer An laughed and said, "Wouldn't the people next to him think he was a complete idiot?"

The old Taoist recalled for a moment and shook his head, "Not at all. The people around him were all asking him for some garlic to hold in their hands as a talisman."

"That's also possible."

"The situation was quite tense back then. People who were traveling outside experienced it the most."

Yingying took the garlic into the kitchen and continued to busy herself. Ever since her boss woke up, Yingying had been going into the kitchen more and more often. After all, only when a woman truly cares about you and loves you will she use hands with exquisitely manicured nails to pick up the spatula for you.

The little boy walked down the stairs wearing a small suit. When Lawyer An saw him, his eyes turned red.

"Is the smell of garlic that strong?" the little boy asked curiously.

Lawyer An nodded with some difficulty.

At this moment, a logistics truck came outside. A worker wearing a hat got out of the truck. After pushing the door open, he asked,

"Excuse me, is this Mr. Xu's house?"

"You've got the wrong place, no... yes, what's the matter?"

Lawyer An immediately reacted.

"These are the furniture we're delivering."

Several workers opened the truck door and unloaded the goods, carrying in a large package that looked quite heavy.

"Where is Mr. Xu? We need him to sign here."

Zhou Ze had just gotten up and walked over, nodding to Lawyer An.

Lawyer An took the pen and signed on his behalf.

After they left,

except for Yingying and Old Xu, who were busy in the kitchen, everyone else gathered in front of the large package.

The recipient was actually written as Xu Le. That was interesting.

"Open it," Zhou Ze said.

The old Taoist and Lawyer An each untied the ropes and tape on one side. The package was quickly opened, revealing a safe.

The safe was dark green, giving people a very heavy and solid feeling.

Lawyer An tried to open it but failed. He turned to Zhou Ze and said,

"Boss, it's locked."

In fact, safes are indeed very useful for some companies and institutions, but for most ordinary families, their value is very limited.

Especially the safes bought online, can be basically smashed open with a hammer. If you're afraid of the noise being too loud, you can wrap it in a quilt before smashing it. It just gives the thief a chance to exercise and sweat.

However, Zhou Ze didn't need to find a hammer here. There were plenty of people in the bookstore whose fists were harder than hammers.

His nails had grown a little.

Zhou Ze directly used his nails to cut down along the gap of the safe,

as smoothly as if he were cutting tofu, giving people a strange sense of beauty from the contrast between strength and gentleness.

"Clang!"

The safe door fell off.

Inside was something wrapped in a black plastic bag.

Lawyer An wiped his hands. This kind of work was definitely his to do. He still had this much political acumen. Without being told, he directly took out the item and then carefully began to unpack it.

The black oil paper was wrapped layer upon layer. After untying most of it, Lawyer An's eyes slowly narrowed. From the tactile sensation in his fingertips and the shape that was now emerging, he could roughly guess what it was.

"Old Taoist, close the door."

Lawyer An reminded him.

"Okay."

The old Taoist immediately went to lock the bookstore door, turned on the lights, and closed the curtains on the glass windows.

Anyway, it didn't matter when the bookstore closed. In the past, he was still thinking about ghosts coming to the door at night, but recently the gates of Hell hadn't opened, and even the ghosts were gone.

He had been maintaining the habit of opening the door every day, simply because he subconsciously felt that opening a store that didn't make money and kept losing money was very stupid, and opening a store that didn't make money and didn't even open the door was even more stupid.

Finally, the last layer of black oil paper was torn open.

The true face of this thing was revealed.

The old Taoist blinked his eyes, and shrank his neck back in fear. Fortunately, this was in the bookstore and not somewhere else. He still felt very safe.

Lawyer An licked his lips.

The little boy's gaze was solemn.

Zhou Ze then stepped forward,

took the thing in his hands,

held it in front of him,

and gently turned it, slowly examining it.

This was... half a face.

It's just that because the consciousness of the half-face had already been absorbed by Zhou Ze, only the physical form remained.

Lawyer An looked at Zhou Ze and said, "I'll make a call to Rongcheng and ask if someone entered the sealed place and took it out."

Zhou Ze shook his head

and said,

"No need, the seal there hasn't been broken."

"Hmm?"

"What's sealed under Qingcheng Mountain in Rongcheng, if I remember correctly, should be the right half of the face. This is the left half of the face."

Back then, Half-Face betrayed Ying Gou and became independent. Ying Gou lost three thousand years of accumulation. Half-Face, as the hope and idol of Dog Village, embarked on the path of dominance,秒天秒地秒空气 (miǎo tiān miǎo dì miǎo kōng qì, destroying the heavens, the earth, and the air). Then he was broken down and suppressed by an unknown existence.

"Cough cough..."

Boss Zhou suddenly felt a little stuffy in his chest and coughed.

"Boss, what does this mean?" Lawyer An asked, "Is it a provocation, or a declaration of war?"

Zhou Ze shook his head.

His fingers gently caressed the back of the Half-Face skull. There were a few words on it, but Zhou Ze didn't want to read them out in public. This matter didn't have much to do with the bookstore.

Because those words were:

"You are so cruel."

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This chapter said it would recover on the 7th. I know everyone is uncomfortable, but in fact… Long is even more uncomfortable.