Chapter Seventy-One: Hide and Seek

Han Lin’s heart gave a jolt. He stepped forward, shielding Shangguan Chuci unobtrusively behind him.

Shangguan Chuci was the focus of everyone’s gaze, yet her face displayed not the slightest hint of panic. Instead, she smiled faintly and asked, “Why do you all look at me so?”

With a gentle flick of the white jade folding fan in her hand, her gaze swept over them, calm and poised. Between every glance, there was a composure that could not be described.

“That Daoist Master Li has come here—surely the purpose of his visit is clearer to you than to me, an outsider.”

“As for the sacrificial calamity doll, whoever possesses it now, the true master of it would know best.”

Her words were ambiguous, neither admitting nor denying anything, deftly turning the conversation back around. Clearly, she intended to test the lantern-bearing girl’s abilities—to see just how much she could discern.

Seeing the gravity still lingering on everyone’s face, Shangguan Chuci gave another soft laugh and continued, “Surely you don’t suspect that I took it? Such filthy things are like scalding potatoes—if someone gave it to me for free, I’d still dislike getting my hands dirty.”

Ling Jue was unmoved; anyone able to cooperate with the Demon Suppression Bureau certainly wasn’t easy to deal with. She could not be judged by ordinary logic. He turned to look at Lin Jianyan, who had remained silent throughout, and asked, “Director, are you able to find the whereabouts of the doll?”

Once again, all eyes fell upon the lantern-bearing girl.

“Hm…”

Shangguan Chuci watched closely and saw Lin Jianyan tremble almost imperceptibly, a hint of timidity flickering in her doe-like eyes. Even the light flowing through the bones of her crystal palace lantern seemed to shrink, growing dimmer by degrees.

A thought struck Chuci as she remembered the girl eating a piece of sesame candy before her earlier investigation. “Could it be this little one is so timid that she eats sweets to bolster her courage?”

“Yes, her ability to investigate seems quite similar to my ‘Logic’s Flame’—both let her see what others cannot. But what she sees must be far stranger and more dangerous than what my heart-fire reveals; that’s why she’s so afraid.”

Lin Jianyan spoke timidly, “Just… wait a moment, I’ll try again.”

With that, she gently lifted her crystal palace lantern and, using the wide sleeve of her pale moon-colored robe, covered the lantern from top to bottom, sealing away all its light.

In an instant, the entire second floor seemed to darken.

…

Though the Demon Suppression Bureau’s questioning wasn’t loud, Lu Chenyuan’s senses were far keener than most, and he caught the gist of their conversation.

His heart began to pound as he thought, “That girl who calls herself the Investigator possesses such strange powers—she even knew about Qian Dahai’s demise. If she continues probing, will she discover something about me?”

With this thought, he instinctively glanced at the doll beside his bed, intending to hide it away.

Just then, a mischievous laugh echoed in his mind, utterly without warning.

“Heehee…”

The sound was clear and pleasant, but carried an indescribable chill that made his hair stand on end.

Lu Chenyuan’s heart suddenly sank. He concentrated, only to see the doll sitting quietly as before, its expression innocent, unchanged. It seemed the eerie laughter was merely an auditory hallucination born of his own anxiety.

…

Once Lin Jianyan shrouded the lantern with her sleeve, the world before her eyes transformed into a terrifying scene.

The once ordinary beams and walls seemed to come alive, writhing as flesh and sinew. Veins and vessels, like venomous snakes, coiled across the walls, each pulse pressing foul resentment into the air.

The floor beneath her feet became a sticky mire of blood and flesh, and countless snake heads with scarlet vertical pupils emerged from the walls, flicking their venomous tongues and occasionally darting before her eyes, startling her into sharp inhales.

Though she was known for her composure, her face was deathly pale now; if not for her colleagues’ presence, she might have screamed and fled.

Unable to do anything else, she forced herself to focus all her will on the pale flames burning in her eyes.

In that instant, her vision shifted, seeming to pierce through layers of flesh and labyrinth.

Suddenly, her sight cleared, revealing the inn’s backyard.

Moonlight like frost illuminated the scene, yet the light brought not a trace of coolness. Instead, it cast everything in a strange aura of death and abnormality.

The old crooked locust tree stood as always, but hanging from its branches were not fallen leaves or wilted flowers, but one blood-soaked heart after another!

Each heart beat with a persistent “thump-thump,” as if freshly torn from a living chest.

At that moment, a fragmented nursery rhyme drifted from the crack of the woodshed door.

“Moonlight shines upon the hall.”

“A doll sits, embroidering clothes.”

“Pull a strand of hair to make my red thread.”

“Borrow a pair of eyes to see your ghostly face.”

“Sew and mend, patch and fix.”

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“A smiling mouth, never speaks of sorrow.”

The voice was childish and innocent, but within a courtyard hung with hearts, it chilled the soul more than any wailing banshee.

Lin Jianyan’s skin prickled with goosebumps.

She knew she stood within a tiger’s den, yet duty left her no room to retreat.

She bit her lip, suppressing the terror rising from her heart, and steeled her mind.

The pale flames in her eyes flared brighter, her vision piercing through the battered wooden door into the dim interior of the woodshed.

Inside, darkness reigned, save for a single shaft of ghastly white light whose origin was unclear, falling directly upon a small wooden stool.

There sat a somber wooden doll, upright, holding an embroidery needle threaded with crimson silk like blood.

With its head bowed, it stitched each new split at the corner of its mouth, thread by thread.

Each time the needle pierced, a tooth-aching sound echoed, while its face remained frozen in an innocent smile.

Yet Lin Jianyan felt as though her own heart had been stabbed by that needle, an unendurable discomfort.

Suddenly, the doll seemed to sense her gaze.

With a bone-chilling crack, its carved wooden head slowly turned at an impossible angle, painted eyes fixing upon her.

Lin Jianyan’s pupils contracted. Instinctively, she wanted to scream.

“Hush…”

A shushing voice sounded abruptly.

Its mouth did not move, yet a layered, childlike, and unsettling girl’s voice echoed in her mind, as if reciting a nursery rhyme:

“Let’s play hide-and-seek.”

“I’ll search, you hide.”

“Are you hidden yet?”