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墨書 Inktalez
Zhong Kui's Diary
Kong Xuan's lips moved slightly as he tapped the shell on the Coffee Table. The shadow on the tip of his nose suddenly flew up, and I widened my eyes to look at the shell. After a while, I finally saw a shadow crawling in and out of the shell. About ten seconds later, that shadow flew into the air, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't see it anymore.
"Where did that mosquito go?" Fatty shouted. If Fatty couldn't see it, then I definitely wouldn't be able to.
"It went to find An Ran... uh, it went to find the Moon Demon Heir! Otherwise, why would I let it out?" Kong Xuan put away the wooden box and lay back on the sofa. "Alright, it's done. Time to sleep!"
"What is this mosquito anyway?" Fatty wasn't going to let Kong Xuan sleep so easily and insisted on getting an explanation.
"Phantom Mosquito, it tracks extraordinary artifacts. As long as it finds An Ran, it will bite her and inject my blood into her. Then I'll know where An Ran is." Kong Xuan proudly took out his Tablet, pulled up a map, and pointed to a white dot flashing and moving on it. "Look, that's the Phantom Mosquito. Don't ask me how this software works; I have no idea."
Fatty opened his mouth several times before finally asking, "If your blood gets injected into An Ran's body, you won't have any diseases, right?"
...
The three of us fell asleep in confusion until Kong Xuan woke me up when it was bright outside. I rubbed my eyes groggily and checked the time; it was nine-thirty in the morning. Fatty was also rubbing his eyes beside me.
"What’s going on?" Fatty mumbled.
"I found An Ran!" Kong Xuan zoomed in on the map on his Tablet.
Hearing this, I quickly leaned over to look, just as Fatty leaned over too. With a loud thud, our heads collided, and we both exclaimed in surprise while rubbing our foreheads and leaning in again.
After bumping heads, we were more awake and could remember that last night’s light was white, but this morning's light had turned into a red dot flashing at the Star City train station. Kong Xuan explained that the red dot indicated that the Phantom Mosquito had injected blood into An Ran's body.
"Why is she hiding at the train station?" I asked in surprise while rubbing my forehead.
Fatty replied dismissively, "The train station has huge crowds with all kinds of people; she's hiding there because she doesn't want us to find her!"
Kong Xuan frowned as he maximized the map. After thinking for a while, he suddenly slapped his thigh and exclaimed, "Damn it! She’s planning to take a train out of Star City!"
Fatty scoffed, "Her ID is in her bag; don’t you know about real-name ticketing? She can't even buy a ticket; where can she go?"
Kong Xuan disdainfully retorted, "What do you know? She can become invisible and get on without needing a ticket!"
With a single sentence, Fatty was left speechless. Before he could find a reason to counterattack, Kong Xuan pointed at the red dot and said, "Look, it's starting to move!"
Seeing the red dot begin to move along the railway, Fatty lost his desire to argue with Kong Xuan and shouted, "Hurry up and chase it!"
I smiled wryly and said, "Chase where? I need to wait for her to stop before I can know where she is."
After learning that An Ran had left Star City, we formed a team called 'Infiltrate Underground to Eliminate Moon Demon and Rescue An Ran to Retrieve Guo'er's Consciousness.' I was the captain, with Kong Xuan and Aijia Yu as vice-captains. Members? There were no members, just three leaders.
The personnel arrangement was well thought out. Aijia Yu had the strongest combat power, and with Xiao Qingcheng still injured, the only Taoist master available was Kong Xuan. As for me, I was the key figure—bait. What a powerful term that is; I might even have to sell my looks if necessary. Look at my aspirations.
The red dot indicating An Ran's location stopped in the capital city of Shanzuo Province, Mu City. The three of us immediately boarded a train to Mu City. About ten hours later, when we arrived in Mu City, we found that An Ran had already reached Mint County.
Shanzuo Province is a revolutionary old area that has produced countless heroes before liberation. Most of these heroes sacrificed themselves in the tumultuous wars of their time, while those who persevered until the end became founding contributors. Although these contributors have passed away over time, various counties and cities in Shanzuo Province have statues and monuments commemorating them.
Mint County is a typical hometown of heroes, located in mountainous terrain under Honghu City in Shanzuo Province. The town center of Mint County is Longping Town, which features an eight-meter tall statue of General Old Li.
Thanks to Old Li, what was once a poor area became prosperous during his lifetime due to significant funding for road construction. With roads established, Mint County gradually became affluent. Today, Mint County ranks among the top ten economically developed counties in Shanzuo Province, especially Longping Town, which has a thriving atmosphere akin to that of a prefecture-level city.
When Kong Xuan began discussing Longping Town with Aijia Yu and me, I was momentarily stunned: "Kong Xuan, how do you know about Longping? It's thousands of miles away from Star City."
Kong Xuan smiled bitterly and replied, "I've been here before; I almost became a son-in-law here..."
Aijia Yu and I looked at Kong Xuan in astonishment. I stammered, "So... Taoists can get married?"
Kong Xuan shook his head and sighed, "That's why it was almost! My master used to control me; I had no choice but to let go of that relationship. Now I can make my own decisions, but what does it matter? She probably has a child in middle school by now. That relationship can only be touched upon in midnight dreams."
Aijia Yu and I exchanged glances and saw faint smiles on each other's lips. I sighed inwardly, pondering the nature of love that leads one to yearn endlessly...
It was already dark; there were no more buses at this hour when a car slowly pulled up in front of us. It was a black cab. I leaned down to ask for the fare; the driver glanced at us three and said, "90 per person but we need one more person to make four. If you want to hire the whole car, it's 400!"
Nodding slightly, I noted that it was about 40 kilometers from here to Mint County; this price wasn't too high. After confirming our decision to hire the car, I called Kong Ai and the others over. Without hesitation, I took the passenger seat; after all, I'm nearly 1.8 meters tall while Kong Xuan is at most 1.76 meters tall—the passenger seat is meant for tall people like us!
Once in the car, Kong Xuan greeted the driver: "Brother, let's take the highway; I'll cover the tolls since we have urgent business."
The driver glanced at Kong Xuan through the rearview mirror, a faint smile appearing on his lips. "Brother, it's not about the money; it's that there's been a landslide on the highway to Mint. Only one lane is moving slowly, and taking the national road would be faster than the highway."
Kong Xuan responded with an "Oh," and said, "Alright, please hurry." He leaned back against the seat and closed his eyes to rest.
At first, I could chat casually with the driver, who introduced himself as Zeng Hao from Longping Town. He had been driving this unlicensed taxi for a year or two. After a while, feeling bored and seeing nothing but darkness outside, I leaned back in my seat and closed my eyes as well.
It was unlikely I would fall asleep; Zeng Hao was constantly on the phone, mentioning he wouldn't be home for dinner tonight and that we would arrive soon.
I don't know how much time passed when Zeng Hao called out to me. I opened my eyes in surprise and asked, "Are we there already?"
Hearing this, both Kong Xuan and Aijia Yu leaned forward to look.
Outside was a town brightly lit and bustling with activity. Various stalls lined the roadside... no, rather, they occupied the street itself, selling fruits and barbecued food. The originally four-lane road had been reduced to just two lanes, and in some places, only enough space for one car to barely squeeze through. The crowd on the street paid no attention to the passing vehicles, carelessly crossing the road, with children even playing in the middle of it.
Zeng Hao drove slowly through the crowd and said in a low voice, "Brother, keep an eye out on your side. If you see any obstacles ahead or anything on the ground, just let me know."
"Got it!" I replied eagerly and asked, "What's going on?"
"This is Bridge Town; the locals are extremely aggressive and unruly. If your car even brushes against something slightly, you won't get away without spending a thousand or eight hundred."
Before Zeng Hao finished speaking, the car suddenly jolted as if it had run over something. A loud shout came from outside, and soon about ten people surrounded us.
"Damn it, we've been caught! They're throwing things under the tires," Zeng Hao said helplessly as he stopped the car and turned off the engine. He warned us, "Don't get out to avoid trouble."
Then Zeng Hao opened the car door and stepped out. Through the window, I could see him arguing heatedly with someone outside. After a few exchanges that seemed unproductive, he was shoved by a Scarface figure and fell to the ground.
"Let's go check it out," I said to Kong Ai as we opened our doors and got out. We had no choice; we still needed Zeng Hao to take us to Longping.
I glanced under the car tire and saw a mountain bike that was in terrible condition. It wasn't damaged by our car; it was already in such bad shape before. Clearly, this bike was just a prop picked up from some Scrap Station specifically for scamming.
"Though it's old, it's still a mountain bike. Don't you know nostalgia? It's worth 1,000 bucks; even a penny less would be an insult to mountain bikes!" Scarface grabbed Zeng Hao by his collar and lifted him up menacingly.
"Big brother, I really don't have that much money!" Zeng Hao could only plead desperately.
"Out of money? Leave your car here and come back after you get it!" Scarface shouted.
"I can't leave my car here; how do I get back?" Zeng Hao said with a mournful expression.
At that moment, someone nearby suggested, pointing at the three of us, "You don't have any money; do they?"
Others began to chime in:
"Driving a black car, passing by us several times, and not even showing us some respect..."
"This time, consider it a good mood from the boss; you only need to pay 1,000 yuan for the mountain bike!"
"Those who took the black car are also responsible; everyone pays 500 yuan, and we'll settle this..."
"Yeah, it's late, and taking a black car probably means you have urgent matters. The sooner you pay, the sooner you can go home..."
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