Chapter Thirty-Two: First Encounter with the Mysterious Xia Zili

After hearing Chen Ziang’s account, Xia Zili came to herself as if awakening from a dream.

It was as though a mysterious and wondrous world were slowly unfolding before her eyes.

“So,” she murmured, seemingly realizing something. “My mother isn’t dead? Her spirit has returned from the Abyss to guide me into becoming a hero?”

“Er…” Chen Ziang had no idea where this apparition of her mother had come from, nor why Xia Zili had reached such a conclusion. Nevertheless, he patiently reassured her. “Perhaps she has. Perhaps she hasn’t.”

“But what matters is what lies within your heart, and what kind of person you want to become.”

Xia Zili fell into contemplation.

What truly lay within her heart?

Choosing the path of creating music had merely been a way to fulfill her sister’s expectations, to win greater recognition from her. That was not what she truly wanted.

If every external factor were stripped away, then I…

I want to help more people. I want to protect them. I want to become everyone’s hero.

Even if I accidentally take a life, it would be for the sake of saving someone else. I have not betrayed what lies within my heart, and therefore I have no regrets.

“I understand now.” Xia Zili smiled with immense relief. “Thank you, Chen Ziang. I’ll be able to sleep well tonight.”

“Go to bed, then,” Chen Ziang said gently.

After watching Xia Zili go upstairs and return to the guest room, Chen Ziang finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Whatever the case, as long as she had come to understand herself, that was enough.

Yet another thought soon surfaced in his mind:

Had she really come to understand herself?

——————

The next morning.

After washing up, Chen Ziang left his bedroom and woke his younger sister as well.

He then went to the guest room, only to find the door open. Inside, Xia Zili was still sleeping soundly, her distinctive golden hair spread across the pillow.

After a moment’s hesitation, Chen Ziang decided not to disturb her. Instead, he returned to the kitchen, prepared breakfast, fed his sister, and left a portion for Xia Zili.

He also wrote her a note, telling her to eat breakfast and then contact her agent at once, asking them to send a car to pick her up.

After taking the light rail to work, Chen Ziang arrived at the office and discovered that neither Tsukimiya Rina nor Xia Qingyu had come in.

Both neighboring offices were empty.

He had worked at his computer for only a short while when someone knocked on the outer door.

It was Rio Hokaze, chief of the Intelligence Division.

“The four thugs from yesterday have all undergone memory erasure.” She entered the office and placed a report on his desk.

“Thank you, Rio.” Chen Ziang nodded.

“We obtained some very interesting information,” Rio Hokaze continued. “First, these five men wanted to take advantage of last night’s chaos and loot the nearby shopping district. But when they passed your house, they changed their minds. They’re all narrow-minded nationalists, and they’ve spent a long time listening to the People’s First Party’s underground broadcasts, so they harbor a certain amount of hatred toward the Lu people.”

“I see.” Chen Ziang nodded. “It was just a coincidence.”

“Not entirely a coincidence, I’d say.” Rio Hokaze smiled. “I suggest removing the nameplate from the gate in your courtyard. ‘The Chen Residence’—anyone can tell from the surname that you’re Lu. Besides, even among Islanders, only the elderly still use nameplates. That makes it very easy for criminals involved in telecommunications scams to obtain information about you. It isn’t safe.”

“That was left behind by my father.” Chen Ziang sighed. “I’ll take it down. What else?”

“There’s also the aberration.” Rio Hokaze asked with keen interest, “Chen Ziang, how come I never knew you had such a formidable friend? Summoning an aberration capable of killing people with ease isn’t something an ordinary occultist can do.”

“Her situation is rather unusual. Until recently, she didn’t even know that the occult world existed.” Chen Ziang lowered his voice. “I can’t disclose her identity, but there are indeed some noteworthy aspects to her. Perhaps you could help me make sense of them, Rio… You won’t tell anyone about this, will you?”

“Of course not.” Rio Hokaze’s interest was piqued. “Go on.”

“She can see an apparition of her dead mother.” Chen Ziang’s expression grew solemn. “The apparition guides her to do certain things, such as saving people. Her summoning power was also given to her by the apparition.”

“Hmm.” Rio Hokaze pondered. “First, we need to rule out the possibility that the apparition itself is an aberration. Your intuition didn’t detect anything wrong?”

“Nothing unusual at all,” Chen Ziang said firmly.

“Interesting. If it isn’t an aberration, and it isn’t a hallucination caused by mental contamination or the collapse of her sanity, then it must be some kind of separated spirit.”

“A separated spirit?” Chen Ziang asked, bewildered.

“You know about split personalities, don’t you?” Rio Hokaze said. “You can think of it as a divided personality, though the actual situation is far more complicated. But you mentioned the most crucial point: the apparition gave her supernatural power. Once you consider that, the answer is actually quite obvious.”

Chen Ziang stared at her tensely.

“What part don’t you understand?” Rio Hokaze asked with a frown.

“What is this supposedly obvious answer?” Chen Ziang frowned as well.

“What kind of being can grant someone supernatural power?” Rio Hokaze chuckled. “A deity, of course.”

“There are two possibilities. First, the being is some kind of deity or quasi-deity—a witch, a demon worshiper, or something similar. Naturally, it would have to possess extraordinarily powerful mystical sight and be so deeply lost in the Abyss that it had become entirely severed from the living world. Its separated spirit has attached itself to hers, deliberately disguised itself as her mother’s apparition, and granted her this power.”

“Second, the power was not granted to her at all, but came from within her. She possessed these abilities from the beginning, but had forgotten them for some reason. The apparition of her mother is merely a disguise assumed by her own separated spirit, guiding her to gradually reclaim what had always belonged to her.”

Chen Ziang remained silent for a long time before saying, “Either possibility… sounds terrifying.”

“There’s nothing related to the occult that isn’t terrifying,” Rio Hokaze replied. “Look on the bright side. At least her ‘mother’ merely gave her supernatural power instead of turning her into a lump of flesh or a monster, right?”

Only after Rio Hokaze said her farewells and left did Chen Ziang resume his contemplation.

So, had Xia Zili been targeted by some mysterious being? Or was she herself some kind of mysterious being?

He rose to get water from the dispenser outside and happened to see Xia Qingyu and Tsukimiya Rina returning together.

The former remained expressionless as always, while the latter wore a brilliant false smile. The moment Xia Qingyu returned to her office, Tsukimiya Rina rolled her eyes and displayed an expression of utter exasperation.

“What happened?” Chen Ziang asked, puzzled.

“The entire night!” Tsukimiya Rina ground out through clenched teeth. “My father made me work with her all night!”

“Doing what?”

Chen Ziang was even more confused.

“Reading documents, gathering intelligence, assessing intentions, writing reports.” Tsukimiya Rina gave a hollow laugh. “To sum it up: a waste of time.”

“All right, I won’t ask.” Chen Ziang waved a hand. “Actually, I have something even more troublesome to deal with, but considering how exhausted you are…”

“I’m not tired!” Tsukimiya Rina immediately changed her tune and said with a beaming smile, “What’s troubling you, Senior? Tell me, and I’ll help share the burden.”

“It’s about the matter last time, when Xia Qingyu dragged me into negotiating with Seiko Takano.” Chen Ziang sighed. “We promised her, didn’t we? We’d do our best to push things forward through the legislation and asked her not to take further action for the time being, so as not to affect the midterm elections.”

“Oh.” Tsukimiya Rina remembered. She shrugged indifferently. “Then tell her to go ahead and do whatever she wants. Let her investigate, interrogate, murder, or whatever else she feels like doing. No one cares anymore.”

“Is the situation really that bad?” Chen Ziang asked worriedly.

“There were more than two hundred thousand people involved last night.” Tsukimiya Rina sighed. “I get the feeling the National Heroes Party’s voter base is about to explode. No wonder Seikawa Iwata dared to outrage the entire nation by lighting this fuse.”

“If we’d known things would turn out this way, we might as well have let Seiko Takano—”

“Stop!” Chen Ziang hurriedly cut her off.

The End of the Chapter