SES Chapter 126 Part 1

Chapter 126

If Xiang Silan often appeared at the Tengma Sculpture Platform late at night, her home couldn’t be far. She wouldn’t want anyone to discover her strange condition. It was very likely she lived alone.

Standing on the round platform, Luo Ren scanned the area. Though the surroundings were fairly open and sparsely populated, there were still a few homes scattered nearby.

Splitting up would be too risky, so the group decided to move together, starting with the closest house.

They knocked for a long time before a light came on inside. Luo Ren thought quickly about how to approach this — waking anyone in the middle of the night was sure to earn anger, not answers. Getting useful information would be difficult.

So, they decided to let Mu Dai handle it.

The door was opened by a burly man with a scowl, gripping a rolling pin in one hand. Beyond the wooden door was a barred security gate, which he didn’t bother to unlock. He stood behind it, suspicious eyes fixed on Mu Dai.

Seeing it was just a young woman seemed to ease him a little, though not enough to lower his guard.

“Sorry,” Mu Dai said politely. “I wanted to ask you about someone.”

The man’s face darkened in irritation. “Are you crazy? What kind of person knocks on doors in the middle of the night?”

He looked ready to slam the door shut.

In that instant, Luo Ren sprang from the shadows, reaching through the bars to grab the man’s shoulder and yank him forward against the gate. Mu Dai barely had time to gasp before the man let out a muffled grunt, his back slamming into the iron bars. Luo Ren twisted one of his arms behind him while pressing a hand under his jaw.

The man’s face contorted in pain. The rolling pin clattered to the floor, and with his jaw locked in place, he couldn’t even cry out.

“Listen,” Luo Ren said evenly. “We just need to ask you something. Answer honestly, and we’ll all have an easy night.”

Sweat broke out on the man’s forehead. Hearing ‘we won’t make trouble for you’ seemed to calm him a little. He nodded furiously to show he’d cooperate.

Mu Dai stepped back, both uneasy and resigned — being polite had gotten them nowhere, but Luo Ren’s rough method worked fast.

Luo Ren asked, “Around here, is there a woman over forty — keeps to herself, doesn’t talk much with the neighbors?”

The man trembled all over but nodded quickly after a moment.

Luo Ren released his grip on the man’s jaw.

“Yes,” the man said, gasping. “Lives alone, never married, I think. Don’t see her much… she doesn’t farm either. Works in town, doing odd jobs — sewing zippers, buttons, resizing clothes.”

Sounded like their person.

“Anything else distinctive about her?” Luo Ren pressed.

The man blinked, clearly unfamiliar with the word distinctive. He thought hard, then blurted out, “She dresses old-fashioned. No one ever visits her. Oh, right!”

He seemed to recall something suddenly. “A few years ago, her house got robbed.”

Luo Ren frowned. Getting robbed wasn’t exactly rare.

But the man rushed to explain. “There are plenty of thieves out here, especially in homes without men. Some houses get hit multiple times a year. But that one time, the thief ran out screaming in the middle of the night — woke up the whole neighborhood.”

A few steps back, Cao Yanhua whispered to Wan San, “That’s the first rule of stealing — stay quiet. What kind of idiot yells mid-job?”

Always had to show off his ‘professional expertise,’ even now.

“And then?” Luo Ren asked.

“The thief was a repeat offender — had been chased off before. Word is that night scared him half to death. Fell ill afterward and disappeared. Some say he left town.”

The man scratched his head. “I mean, it was just a woman. What was there to be so scared of?”

Luo Ren had already pieced things together.

“Where does she live?” he asked.

The man hesitated, then pointed past the rice field. “See that utility pole over there? The brick house below it — that’s hers.”

“Good.” Luo Ren released him, patted his shoulder through the bars. “Thanks. Go calm down and get some sleep.”

As they walked off, the man just stood there behind the gate, stunned.

Luo Ren turned back with a grin. “You’re not going to call the cops, are you?”

That smile sent a chill down the man’s spine. “No, no, absolutely not!”

At the far edge of the rice field stood the pole and the little brick house beneath it. A light glowed faintly inside. Through the window, a shadow flickered past.

“Tonight’s the night,” Luo Ren said. “Quick and clean. Don’t let her get away — if she does, we might not make it out of Nantan in one piece.”

“She’s fast,” Mu Dai reminded him.

Like that woman in the Four Villages Mountain case — the speed probably came from the cursed scroll’s power. Luo Ren thought of his uncle, Luo Wenmiao, and that night he’d lost track of him. Later, they found strange footprints climbing the courtyard wall.

Climbing walls — absurd. Luo Wenmiao was a mild-mannered professor, not a fighter. And yet, when they stopped him from killing, the scroll’s strength hadn’t made him invincible either.

Maybe the scroll’s power varied depending on who carried it.

They approached the house.

It was simple — red brick walls, roughly plastered, an electric tricycle parked out front for hauling sewing work to town. They circled the house. Two windows — one in front, one in back. Caution first: Cao Yanhua and Wan San took the front, Mu Dai the back.

Luo Ren went straight to the door and knocked.

The wooden panels echoed sharply in the night.

Mu Dai stood by the rear window, peeking inside. The curtain was slightly open — enough to reveal an old desktop computer sitting on a table. The kind you’d see in a run-down internet café years ago.

Her mother — the painted, impatient woman from her memories — now living in this shabby place, with a computer of all things. What for? Surfing the web? Chatting? Watching videos?

A sudden thought struck her.