Translator: Dj22031
Editor: Dj22031
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The coffin was empty.
“That’s all the clues about the box.” Li Yuebai stared at the coffin, feeling his train of thought had reached a dead end and that he had to find another path. “Xu Lili’s diary just mentioned something about the necklace. Starting with the necklace, we might be able to connect the dots.”
“But we don’t know where the necklace is,” Ye Qing said.
They had already carefully examined the ordinary necklaces in Xu Lili’s jewelry box; none of them had any traps, and they weren’t the necklace mentioned in the diary.
“Bring up that photo and take a look at it again,” Li Yuebai said.
He had a vague feeling that when he had just looked at the photo, his attention had been drawn to the dormant vampire, and he had missed something very important.
The photo that had frightened Wu He so much and caused Ma Xiaoting to faint appeared on the computer screen again.
“Look,” Li Yuebai pointed to the screen, at Xu Lili’s neck.
There she was, wearing a thin silver necklace.
The necklace was simple and exquisite, with only a chain and no pendant. Upon closer comparison, it looked different from the other ordinary necklaces in the jewelry box.
“It’s very likely this is the necklace she mentioned in her diary,” Li Yuebai frowned. “I just don’t know where it went.”
The necklace Xu Lili had been wearing when she was photographed had mysteriously vanished after her death.
With so many questions, it was hard to know where to begin.
Suddenly, Li Yuebai’s phone rang.
“Hello, Officer Ye, hello. I’m Xiao Wan’s parent. I’m so sorry to call you so late at night.” A cheerful, assertive female voice came from the other end.
Officer Ye?
Li Yuebai glanced at Ye Qing, who was concentrating on examining the body.
“Thanks to you for helping to get Xiao Wan back home the other day. I haven’t had time to thank you properly yet!” the female parent continued enthusiastically.
It turned out to be the parents of the little girl he had rescued from the community parking lot a few days ago.
That time, Ye Qing had taken the little girl home, and the parent had asked for Ye Qing’s contact number, but the child had kept Li Yuebai’s.
“You’re welcome, it’s what we’re supposed to do.” With the tragedy unfolding nearby, Li Yuebai couldn’t bring himself to smile, only to offer a formulaic politeness: “Is the child okay?”
“But it’s about this, Officer Ye, could you give us some advice? Ever since Xiao Wan came back, she’s been crying all the time and afraid to see anyone. She’s so scared she hides when she sees an aunt in a red dress on the street. What should we do? It’ll affect her future schooling!” The parents were anxious and worried.
The little girl had encountered a female vampire claiming to be the Countess of Karnstein, and of course, she’d been terrified. Such trauma can only be healed slowly.
“It’s normal for a child to be so young to be afraid,” Li Yuebai recalled. The first time they met the little girl in the basement, her face was blank, she didn’t even know she was afraid. Compared to that time, now she was normal.
“Xiao Wan said the woman in the red dress can control her mind whenever she gets close.” The parent asked anxiously, “How is that possible? Officer Ye, when you brought Xiao Wan back, didn’t you say the bad guy had been arrested?”
The female vampire, Wan Fang, had already been reduced to ash, but of course, she couldn’t be told about this to her parents; they were simply told she’d been arrested.
“Yes, she’s been sentenced. Don’t worry, but don’t let your child go out alone.” Li Yuebai soothed, “Xiao Wan needs trust and consideration right now. Believe everything she says, and even if you don’t, pretend to.”
After much back-and-forth, the call was finally over.
Li Yuebai hung up and wrote down all his doubts and clues on a piece of paper.
1. Vampires possess some form of mind control.
2. Xu Lili’s journal mentions a box and a necklace.
3. The box is made of stone from an ancient castle.
4. The coffin in the box bears obvious strangulation marks.
5. Xu Lili once wore a mysterious necklace, but it’s now gone.
6. Xu Lili’s hands bear obvious strangulation and burn marks.
7. A silver ring has been left on the ground.
….
Li Yuebai laid all these out together three times and shuddered.
He leaped to his feet and retrieved the transparent evidence bag containing the silver ring.
“Xiao Ye, tell me, is this ring really a ring?” Li Yuebai waved the evidence bag before Ye Qing.
“It looks a lot like a ring,” Ye Qing said conservatively.
Wearing plastic gloves, Li Yuebai pulled the ring out, grasping each side with both hands and pulling. “Maybe…”
He exerted immense force, and the ring was deformed, stretching outward.
Simultaneously, a purple light flashed from the ring, followed by a crackling sound similar to an electric current. The entire ring then turned a fiery red.
Plastic gloves could block electricity, but not heat. Li Yuebai’s hand, scorched by the intense heat, immediately relaxed, letting the ring return to its original shape.
“It’s not a ring,” Li Yuebai said, ignoring his burned hand. “It’s a necklace.”
“What’s going on?”
“I can kind of guess the whole story,” Li Yuebai said, “but I still lack evidence, and…”
He glanced at the body on the ground and was startled again.
Originally, Xu Lili’s head was facing inward, toward the corner.
But now, someone had somehow turned it so that it was facing outward, revealing the distorted expression on her face.
Only one person could pull such a prank.
“Xiao Ye,” Li Yuebai said, his hand resting on the gun at his waist. “Watch out, that dormant vampire… is still in this room!”
No one had ever seen a dormant vampire before.
It was clearly visible in Xu Lili’s terrifying selfie.
This led to a brief misconception—they took it for granted that a dormant vampire was visible.
However, there was another possibility—a dormant vampire couldn’t be seen with the naked eye, only with electronic cameras.
If only there were a digital camera here, they could retrieve the video and take a look.
“Well, Master,” Ye Qing calmly tapped away, “I forgot to tell you, I brought a portable camera with me from the start, and I turned on automatic recording.”
“Quick, take a look!” Li Yuebai suppressed his nervous heartbeat and leaned over to the computer.
A new folder appeared on the computer, filled with the photos that had just been automatically captured.
Upon seeing these photos, Li Yuebai felt a genuine sense of nausea and vomiting.
In the first shot, Ye Qing and he were observing a corpse, while the dormant form floated in mid-air, hovering in front of his face, staring at him fiercely.
In the second shot, he was standing at a computer, cracking a code, while the dormant form floated behind him.
The third, fourth, fifth… and so on.
From beginning to end, it observed the entire process with smug complacency, completely invisible to Ye Qing and him.
Even though he knew the other party was not human, Li Yuebai still felt a surge of anger.
“I can’t deal with you!”
Li Yuebai held the gun in his right hand and took out his phone with his left. He pressed the side button, and the camera opened.
Since he couldn’t see it with his naked eyes, he would use the webcam to see.
He scanned the phone left and right, but there was no sign of the dormant form. Perhaps it had sensed something was wrong and had taken cover.
Li Yuebai frowned, holding his phone with a fierce look, searching everywhere. He felt like a Pokémon player, but he wasn’t looking for a Pokémon, but a demon.
Suddenly, a dark shadow flashed across the screen!
Li Yuebai jerked his left wrist, adjusting his angle and following closely… It was it, he saw it. It was floating and twisting in the air, a bit like a bat, a bit like a human, and a puff of smoke… He hoped the silver bullet would take it out.
Without hesitation, Li Yuebai raised his hand and fired. Unfortunately, he missed, only forcing it to dodge to the left.
After this dodge, Ye Qing’s gun went off.
Through his phone screen, Li Yuebai saw clearly that Ye Qing’s bullet pierced the dormant vampire’s left chest. The dormant form let out a silent scream before falling to the ground and dissolving into a puff of black smoke.
“Solved?” Li Yuebai was surprised by how smooth it was, a little unreal.
“Solved,” Ye Qing calmly retracted the gun.
The gun was silenced, but the sound was still there. Ma Xiaoting, who had been lying peacefully on the sofa, screamed and sat up, finally awake after a short period of unconsciousness.
“Officer, what’s wrong?” she asked, eyes wide with fear.
Li Yuebai didn’t know how to answer her for a moment, and finally said simply, “Move it out as soon as possible.”
Leaving Xu Lili’s body there wouldn’t be a good idea. Ye Qing called the police station and asked them to send someone to remove the body and perform an autopsy. Burial wouldn’t begin until the case was fully resolved.
“Don’t stay here tonight. We’ll take you to a hotel later, or you can take the train home.” Li Yuebai thought about getting Ma Xiaoting settled first; there couldn’t be any more trouble. “Eat some dinner, too. There’s cold noodles on the table.”
At the mention of cold noodles, Ma Xiaoting’s face paled again, tears streaming down her face. “I… I’d better not eat. Eating will remind me of Lili again…”
It was a torturous night for her. Terror and grief intertwined, and without family to lean on, she had no appetite, and sleep was out of the question.
“Officer, could you pass me a tissue?” Ma Xiaoting cried, tears streaming down her face, and the tissue was right there with Li Yuebai.
Li Yuebai narrowed his eyes, suddenly feeling the world was different.
His once clear surroundings blurred. The walls melted, the floor melted, the ceiling vanished… He was no longer in the living room of his rental house, but outside.
The sky was filled with leaden clouds, the air damp, and all around him lay a desolate wilderness.
The horizon was far away, the forest was also far away. A cold wind blew over him, chilling his entire body.
It felt as if he was alone in the world… No, there was someone else in front of him.
Li Yuebai clearly remembered the person in front of him as Ma Xiaoting, but now it had changed.
It was a teenager, very pretty and lovely, but with a gloomy expression. He extended a hand and said, “Brother, come here.”
For some reason, he couldn’t refuse such a request.
Li Yuebai took a step, step by step, towards the boy.
This feeling was all too familiar, as if he had been having this dream since before he traveled through time. It was always the same boy, the same request, the same irresistible one.
Before shaking the boy’s hand, Li Yuebai asked, “What’s your name?”
“…” The boy was speechless.
Suspicions suddenly clouded Li Yuebai’s mind.
In every dream, the boy had always accurately stated his name, but he always forgot it.
Li Yuebai asked again: “What’s my name?”
“Your name is… Mr. Police Officer?” the boy smiled mischievously.
No!
His pre-time travel self had nothing to do with the word “police officer.”
Li Yuebai slammed his eyes shut, struggling with all his willpower, trying to pull himself out of this horrific dream.
In the distance, he seemed to hear Ye Qing’s cries, growing clearer and clearer.
Finally, he opened his eyes, gasping for air, sweat dripping down his forehead—awake, finally awake. No more sky, clouds, or wilderness. He was back in his rental apartment!
And the situation before him had taken a sharp turn for the worse.
Ma Xiaoting’s soft body had clung to him, her lips pressed to his ear, a sweet laugh emanating.
This laugh was definitely not Ma Xiaoting’s.
“Mr. Police Officer.” Ma Xiaoting’s voice was cold and feminine. “Give me a little of your blood.”
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