Chapter 253: If You Can't Get Married, Consider Him!

At the young age of thirteen, Jiangli came to know of something dreadful – gods do not exist, and by extension, they cannot answer her prayers.

The room was pitch black, and through the gaps of her closet door, she could see vague figure shuffling through her room and rummaging through it.

Their movements were gentle and their footfalls were soft, but at this daunting moment, any noise felt like the whisper of death to her.

Biting her lip, she hugged her petite body closer to the corner of the closet, covering her eyes with her hands. Occasionally, she would peek out the gaps of her fingers, and all kinds of thoughts began to plague her mind.

A-are they debt collectors? Are they looking for my f-father? Like the ones who came not long ago?

O-or thieves! They’ll leave if they can’t find anything expensive… right?

Or maybe… my room is big enough! Big enough so they won’t notice the closet by the door…

…

As her thoughts ran wild, her ears picked up hushed whispers in the darkness. The strange cultists were talking to each other.

“…did you find her? Did she run away?” a man with a hoarse voice croaked.

“No. She’s here – that is what the divination tells me. She must be hiding somewhere!” a voice spoke. It was impossible to discern their gender through their distant, wispy voice.

“Hiding, you say? Ooh! A fun game of hide-and-seek! Shouldn’t we give her a little surprise? Hehe…!”

Another man giggled in a shrill tone to himself, as if he has gone completely mad.

“Take it easy. She remains an important sacrifice to us in our ceremony. She must, at the very least, be breathing.”

…

T-they’re looking for me!

In an instant, her naïve thoughts of them being mere thieves shattered.

Their hushed discussions continued, but her ears no longer registered a single word of theirs. Instead, all she could hear was the harsh ringing that deafened her ears.

Her heart thumped wildly against her chest, and she soon found herself to be out of breath, as if she was being strangled by a large, invisible hand. She gasped silently for air, but she couldn’t seem to breathe any of it in.

Soon, however, the cultists seemed to have stopped and left the room, and their footsteps echoed down the mansion further and further away.

It was eerily silent, and Jiangli finally allowed herself to take a deep breath. Leaning against the closet’s door, she carefully pushed it open little by little, and peered outside.

A dark and empty room greeted her. There were no signs of the cultists around.

She opted to wait a little longer, but she couldn’t hear anything unusual. With trepidation, she fully opened the closet’s door and creeped forward.

As soon as her foot touched the floor, however, she felt something against her foot.

The strange thing was cool to the touch, slippery, and brittle – like some kind of glass insect. As soon as she stepped on it, its fragile body exploded with a loud pop, splashing its putrid mucus all across the floor.

The silent sound was loud enough to stir up what seemed to be a slumbering presence – immediately, rustling sounds that tickled her spine shuffled from every corner of the mansion, like countless insects crawling in the darkness.

Boom!

At this moment, lightning flashed outside the window, flooding the room with a brief flash of light.

“Ah-!”

Within that split second of her room being illuminated, her pupils shrank instantaneously, and she held her head and screamed in terror.

Cockroach-like insects of all sizes were crawling all over her room – they were on the floor, the walls, the ceiling, the closet, her calves…

They crawled around rapidly, like a living carpet made of brown velvet.

Shrill giggles boomed from within the Amber Mansion, and each thundering footstep rang like an upcoming death sentence.

“Hehe! I knew it! I knew that little girl was hiding in the closet! Oh, you must be frightened by my little pet, weren’t you? Did you guys hear that?! Did you all hear her cute little screams?”

Although she was still young, she knew that it wasn’t the time to be afraid anymore.

The footsteps thumped closer and closer down the corridor – suppressing the fear in her heart, and averting her eyes from the disgusting insects scattering all across the room, she turned her eyes towards her balcony.

You can do this, Jiangli. The bugs aren’t scary. My room on the third floor is not that high. There are bushes to cushion my fall. The nearest police station is less than a kilometer away.

Push the glass door open. Jump. Run to the police, and I’ll be safe!

Reciting her hastily made-up plan to herself, she stomped on all the strange insects on the ground with tears covering her bloodless face. Even then, she bit at her lips and refused to make a single noise.

The few seconds it took to cross the ocean of brown seemed like a century.

Clack!

The balcony door swung open as the cold wind and light drizzle invited themselves in. Standing at the edge of the balcony and looking down, she could feel herself flinching at the approximately eight-meter-drop from her balcony.

The footsteps outside were deafening, and they were about to enter the room.

Her limbs no longer listened to her brain, and she scrambled up the guard rail while calming herself down with a deep breath. She brought her arms up to her head to cushion her fall, and leapt outwards without much thought.

The moment she jumped, however, the disgusting insects seemed to sense this, and they immediately fluttered their wings in unison and flew after her. They smashed through the balcony door like a flood of brown, causing glass and wood to shatter out from above.

“She’s trying to run away! Hehe!”

“It’s all your fault for wanting to ‘have a little fun.’”

“Enough talking! Once we catch her, I swear I will torture her, and she will be awake throughout the entire process!”

…

The overgrown bushes have not been tended to for a long time, and have grown wildly during the rainy season.

Falling from above, Jiangli’s arms were heavily scratched from clinging onto the wall, while her clothes were torn apart by the tree branches. Upon landing, she fell onto a puddle of mud and leaves.

She endured the stinging pain resonating across her body and stood up, but just as she was about to stand up and run away, she found that her legs had seemingly gone numb as she fell face-forward once again. Looking back, she could see the horrid scene that has laid waste onto her leg as she held herself up with her arms. She could no longer hold the floodgates of her eyes back as she cried out in pain.

Her calf was violently pierced through by the tree branches while falling from her balcony, and the scarlet blood was washed away by the rain, mixing into the turbid mud below her.

Meanwhile, the insects that were hovering close by picked up on the scent of blood, and immediately, alongside a cacophony of buzzing, they swooped down from the sky and flew straight towards her bleeding calf.

As they collided into her, Jiangli’s vision immediately went dark, like a burnt-out light bulb.

Her body fell back onto the cold, muddy puddle – her breathing became rapid, and her lungs were like ice, stabbing into her chest, while her forehead became unbearably hot.

The darkness, fear, and pain loomed over her, like the maw of a beast chipping away at her consciousness piece by piece…

…

When she came to again, she found herself imprisoned in a dark dungeon located in one of the Eclipse Society’s strongholds.

The dungeon was about less than two square meters in size, and she only had sufficient space to curl up and sit in a corner against the wall every single day.

A palm-sized skylight was by the corners of the room, and only at noon did it allow pitiful amounts of light in.

It was silent down in the dungeon most of the time, and she was accompanied by the sound of spiders weaving webs, and the intermittent dripping of droplets that condensed on the roof of the dungeon.

Occasionally, something large would run past her. A mouse, she thinks. She would bring her legs up to dodge them, and its long tail would sweep across her feet or the backs of her hands.

The injury on her calf was haphazardly treated by the Eclipse Society, and it was obvious that they weren’t as careful with it as they were with the tattoo that resonated on her back. Even the gauze isn’t tied up properly.

Because of this, her wound continued to hurt for a week, until she could no longer feel any sensation below the knee.

Even then, her nerves still foolishly clung onto her dead leg, and she would obediently swallow the food that the Eclipse Society would bring her. She would count the moments the Sun shone through the skylight and would record the days she was in the cell.

When she counted to one hundred and twenty-seven days, the door to her cell was finally opened.

…

The person who opened the door had black hair and deep, wine eyes. He seemed to be in his late twenties, and he would be considered handsome, with slightly feminine features. Despite this, he couldn’t mask the arrogance that displayed itself on his brows.

As he was pushing a wheelchair into the cell, Jiangli could see that there was another robe-clad Eclipse Society member behind him.

At the handsome man’s gesture, the robed member picked up the barely lucid Jiangli and plopped her down onto the wheelchair. She was then pushed out of the cell as they travelled down the dark corridor.

“You know,” the man spoke. “You seem to be smart and strong for a kid like you. Plus, you’re extremely lucky to have all this psychic potential in you, and lucky kids become great psychics. That means you can be one of us.”

“…”

Jiangli hadn’t spoken in a long time. When she opened her mouth, she found that she could barely make a sound, and she couldn’t muster up the strength to utter a single syllable. All she could do was glare at him as a reply.

“Do you hate me?” he smiled. “Doesn’t matter if you do. You’ll thank me later, in fact.”

It was silence all the way.

Ten minutes later, they finally exited the dark, claustrophobic corridor as the walls began to open up into a cave-like structure.

Several members of the Eclipse Society were donning red robes as they walked through the clearing in the cave, carefully using the blood of some unknown creature to outline complex incantations on the ground.

The corpse of a centaur could be seen in the very centre of the ritual, surrounded by candles that flickered with blue flames.

In the dark corners of the cave, a deformed monster about as twice as large as a normal adult bellowed with anger.

Jiangli would never forget what she witnessed that day. That very scene is what happens when a ritual fails, birthing an urban legend in the process.

The monster was vaguely humanoid, but its eyes were that of a beast. The guttural chokes of a beast could be heard rumbling deep within its throat, as if it was about to pounce and tear apart the Eclipse Society members surrounding it.

The monster’s skin was as fragile as wet paper. As it struggled against its bindings, wounds would open as blood would sputter out. However, its healing ability was too fast, and it seemed to be in a constant cycle of never-ending pain.

The Eclipse Society embedded iron hooks into its neck and shoulders, and began dragging it away. Jiangli, who was frightened out of her mind, didn’t even realize that she was being picked up and placed in the centre of the altar alongside the corpse in preparation for their ritual.

The strange man stepped forward and gently stroked her forehead, smiling, “I wish you good luck.”

Immediately, massive amounts of energy that was harnessed from Primordial Spirits manifested within his palm, and he activated the ritual on the altar.

Soon after joining the Night Division, Jiangli would come to realize that the amount of energy harnessed from Primordial Spirits is equivalent to about a hundred human sacrifices.

At the time, the techniques that oversaw the rituals of the Eclipse Society were not as sophisticated and complete as they are now. During then, potentially useful psychic materials were tossed inside during the ritual haphazardly.

It was a waste of precious resources, but they didn’t care. All they cared was pursuing evil rituals in hopes of spawning unspoken powers that could only exist in legends.

In the centre of the altar, darkness surrounded her. Her vision began conjuring vague outlines in the dark, and they seemingly began forming images outlined by streams of light.

Immediately, she saw deserts; she saw oasis; she saw abandoned islands; she saw cities billowing with smoke; she saw a burning colossus…

Countless images came and went, and everything returned to darkness.

Within that darkness, however, the neighing of a silver horse sounded from a distant plane. Its long mane manifested as it swayed in the wind like a victorious flag, merging into her body as one.

The Eclipse Society’s ritual was initially successful – using the corpse of a centaur, a girl with psychic potential, many Primordial Spirits, and all kinds of strange psychic materials, they were able to craft a trace of divinity in the form of runes belonging to a mythical legend.

However, they weren’t satisfied. They wanted to create a real mythical legend – one that would span across millennia in word.

Before they could repeat the ritual, however, something occurred.

A man in a red robe had slipped into their ranks as all the other members were focusing on the ritual.

Before the next ritual could occur, the man suddenly opened up his hood, pulled off his mask, and held up the silver badge of an owl in the air as a sword manifested in his hands, leaping over to Jiangli’s side immediately.

“Night Division Special Operations Team – you are hereby under arrest! Get down on your knees with your hands behind the back of your head!”

“Damn it, you-!”

“Are you resisting arrest? I’ll have you experiencing the wonderous light of justice!”

Boom!

At that moment, Jiangli had no idea what her life would become.

At that moment, she wouldn’t know why this specific Operator would use the terrifyingly destructive Spell Number 57 as a warning shot.

Neither would she have known how peculiar, yet amazing it is for the Operator to instantly cast the spell without even chanting it.

All that she knew was that she was being saved.

The man brought her out of the collapsing cave after destroying the Eclipse Society’s stronghold, and sat her down in a simple house away from the prying eyes of the public. He then told her that Hua would return as her maid to take care of her.

Before leaving, he made her a meal – instant noodles.

Jiangli was very much accustomed to a life of luxury, eating delicacies that hailed from all over the world. However, at that moment, her brain seemed to tell her that the instant noodles that she was shoving into her mouth is the most delicious delicacy the world could offer, and tears began dropping from her eyes uncontrollably.

Faced with an awkward situation, the man was helpless as he looked around, attempting to comfort the girl. However, the more he spoke, the harder she cried.

“Hey, kid,” he scratched his head and muttered. “Are you worried that you won’t be able to walk for the rest of your life? And that you won’t be able to get married in the future? Why don’t you leave it to me?”

Suddenly, she stopped crying, and fear plastered itself within her heart. It was as if she had just left the tiger’s den to stumble upon a dragon’s lake, and the instant noodles were hovering over her mouth as she began to shake.

“Wait! Wait! Wait! Don’t get the wrong idea, kid!” he hurriedly explained. “I don’t mean it that way! What I’m saying is… I have a son about your age, so if you can’t get married in the future, why don’t you consider him? Make things a little easier for you?”

Jiangli eyed the man before her, and remembered that he saved her life.

Well, I guess he’s handsome, so his son shouldn’t be ugly as well. Maybe I don’t need to slave away in my next life. Maybe I can settle down forever.

Slurp.

She ate her noodles silently and nodded.

“E-excuse me? Mister? I don’t even know your name. How will I find you in the future?”

“Uh… if you’re interested in joining the Night Division when you’re older, come over to Huacheng branch and ask around for the ‘Daniel Wu of Peony Street’. The moment you mention that name, I’m telling you – they’ll know exactly who you’re talking about!”

…

However, half a year later, after Jiangli had successfully completed her training in the Night Division and was transferred over to the Huacheng branch, she couldn’t locate any ‘Daniel Wu’s of Peony Street’, and all she could find was Hell’s Reincarnation of Edison Chen.

…

As soon as Lu Yibei plopped down the second bowl of noodles in front of Jiangli, she recovered her thoughts and raised her head, looking directly into the Witch’s eyes, “Yibei, if I recall correctly, you live on Peony Street, correct? Did your father happen to have any nicknames that he used to be called when he was younger?”

Hearing this, the Witch’s hand began to tremble as she took the empty bowl, but her face remained stoic and calm, “Ah, here we go again with this ‘Lu Yibei’ thing – I told you back at the slaughterhouse! I don’t know who that man, sorry to that man! Stop asking me this, seriously, it’s like nobody wants to have a little fun and whimsy anymore.”

“I see, but you were the one who told me that this is the ‘Lu Family’s Secret Ramen Recipe’,” Jiangli smiled, pointing at the ramen before her.

“…!”

The Witch’s hand trembled as she accidentally spilled some of the soup on herself. She didn’t know if she should be frightened by her smile or her words.

Shit! Did I really say that?!

Damn it! Sucks to be proud of my own family, I guess! I accidentally let it slip out of my big mouth! Shit, there’s only one thing to do now…

“Aha, I did? I meant the “Lao Family’s Secret Ramen Recipe,” yup! I totally said that! You were injured and got cold in the rain, so your brain was probably affected a little! Well, you heard it wrong! ‘Lao Family’s Secret Ramen Recipe’ is what I said! Not ‘Lu!’”

No human witnesses or physical evidence. If I deny it to my death, nothing will happen.

“I see. Do you know of anyone who was called the ‘Daniel Wu of Peony Street’, then?”

…What the fuck?

Where did she get that information from?! That’s the nickname my neighbours gave me as a joke!

TRANSLATOR NOTES:

EDIT: Thank you catventurer4 for the edits again!

Apologies for the late update! That aside, I’m glad we got to read about Jiangli’s backstory! I can’t imagine having to experience all that torture as a child…

As always, if you want to support the translation, you can do so by clicking the button below ^.^ Thank you Imp and MosAnted for donating! I truly do appreciate your generosity <3  (∩^ω^)⊃━☆ﾟ.*